Richard Wilhelm (卫礼贤) went to the prestigious school Tubinger Slift and was ordained as a protestant minister. In 1899, the Allgemein Protestantischer Missionsverein sent 26 years old Wilhelm to China as a missionary in Qingdao, as Tsingtao, a then German colonial city.

He has never baptized a single Chinese. Instead he learned to speak and read Chinese, studied in Chinese universities in Tsingtao and Peking, encountered and befriended many cultural leaders. In the meanwhile China underwent great changes including the Boxer Rebellion, the Hsinhai Revolution and the New Culture Movement. When he left China for Germany after 21 years in the middle kingdom, China had already turned to the Republic of China and Tsingtao was a Japanese territory based on Treaty of Versailles. Wilhelm himself had been transformed to be probably the most important bridge between Chinese spirituality and German and the Western culture.

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Once a Mr. Zhang went to see Su Dongpo for a recipe of long life. Su Dongpo said: ‘I heard about a formula in Strategies of the Warring States, which has been effective for me, maybe you can try. The recipe contains only four ingredients,

1. Having leisure equals having power,
2. Going to bed early equals having wealth,
3. A leisurely stroll is as enjoyable as a drive,
4. Eating late is as good as eating meat. Read the rest of this entry »

Continuing my excursion of Chuang Tzu through Thomas MERTON’s meditation. Incidentally at the last chapter, about his own funeral, Chuang Tzu conveniently uses the heaven and earth for his philosophical teaching, in the same fashion as Liu Ling did more than 600 years after when despising people’s ridicule.

《庄子·杂篇·列御寇第三十二》

庄子将死，弟子欲厚葬之。庄子曰：“吾以天地为棺椁，以日月为连璧，星辰为珠玑，万物为赍送。吾葬具岂不备邪？何以加此！”弟子曰：“吾恐乌鸢之食夫子也。”庄子曰：“在上为乌鸢食，在下为蝼蚁食，夺彼与此，何其偏也。”

When Chuang Tzu was about to die, his disciples began planning a splendid funeral. Read the rest of this entry »