by Tam King-fai
expressions in quotation marks, probably because they were considered to be
newfangled terms at the time. There is no indication that he was quoting from
any particular source, or that he meant them in an ironic way.
2
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Ye Shengtao
69
also gained some insight into education on my own, all of which I put
into practice. Besides, a few colleagues were old friends. At that time, I
looked with disdain upon other teachers who were merely serving time,
and assumed they must have moral blemishes on their characters. If
only we could erase those blemishes, I thought, it would be a glorious
LIaNWZPMÅMTLWN ML]KIQWV
After summer vacation in 1921, I began teaching high school. The
reason I was invited to do so was a laughable one: I had written some
short stories, which were published in magazines. Many people believe
that those who can write stories can write well, and that those who can
write well can of course teach language. Thus, it seemed appropriate
for me to teach Chinese. Even now, this sort of arrangement is still very
much the norm. People who have written stories are often appointed as
Chinese teachers, and the differences between writers and teachers are
seldom noted. As for why I gave up teaching in a primary school for a
high school, the reasons are self-evident.
Up to this year, I have taught in five high schools and three
universities. In all of these places, I have taught Chinese, and most of
these appointments have been part-time. My primary occupation for
the last seven years has been as an editor in a publishing house. I often
lack the courage to teach at universities: I know how ignorant I am,
and how a university teacher should teach. The truth is that I dare
not presume when I compare myself with the ideal university teacher.
*] XMWXTM MTT UM ¹=VQ^MZ[QQM[ VW_ILIa[ IZM WVTa ]VQ^MZ[QQM[ QV
VIUM ?Pa [PW]TL aW] NMMT JW]VL Ja []KP ZQ^QIT KWVKMZV['º
WN KW]Z[M [W 1 PQVS J] QN ¹PM ^IT]M WN IVa IKQWV Q[ QV JMQVO Z]M
W WVM¼[ PMIZº 1 KIVVW ^MZa _MTT ITTW_ Ua[MTN W JM I ]VQ^MZ[Qa
teacher only in name simply because universities nowadays are not true
universities. Regrettably, there have been times when I, out of weakness,
have failed to abide by my beliefs, and have ended up violating my
own principles for the sake of friendship. For example, I was teaching
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year. On the day after International Labor Day,3 I received a letter of
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3
Although it originated in Chicago, International Labor Day is not to be
confused with the Labor Day observed in the United States of America.
International Labor Day is on May 1, and is celebrated in many countries
throughout the world.
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70
A Garden of One’s Own
writings I was teaching only served to abet reactionary forces and did
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save myself embarrassment. This note made me quite angry. If the
charge had been that I was not knowledgeable enough to teach at the
university, I would have admitted it. But this letter was attacking me
for promoting reactionary forces, my hatred of which I suspect was
actually more genuine than Mr. L’s. If, on the other hand, it was his
belief that the mere act of teaching ancient literature was proof enough
of my sympathy with these elements, there being no need to inquire
into the ideology of individual pieces of literature, then he should have
demanded that the university change the syllabus, and should not have
come to criticize me. I found out only later that this incident was a spin-
off of some political turmoil at the university. Other faculty members
in the same department also received letters of warning from Mr. L., in
much harsher terms than those he threw my way. Only then did I laugh,
just as people do when they see the ugly face of a clown. I thereby
resigned from my post and hoped that I could remain faithful to my
XZQVKQXTM[¹NWZM^MZINMZº
Given all that I know and my playful, active, youthful frame of
mind, I believe it is not inappropriate for me to be a primary school or
high school teacher. By saying this, I naturally have not reached the root
of the matter. If we want to get to do this, we must ask: What is the
true meaning of—as opposed to popularly held beliefs about—education
to society? What basic scientific knowledge is relevant to the goals
of education? On the technical side, what are the areas that require
training to become an educator? Like many teachers, I know only too
little about these questions.
IV
My marriage to my wife was arranged. Before our wedding, we had
neither met nor written to each other. But after we were married, we
found we were quite compatible. At the time, we were both teachers,
but taught in two different places. As our letters went back and forth
between us, they would cross each other on their way, and sending and
receiving mail became two important things in our minds. Forty years
have gone by, and we are still very fond of each other. We would be
hard pressed to put in words what is so good about the other person.
We just feel that we are very suitable for each other, and cannot imagine
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Ye Shengtao
71
anyone more suitable. That’s all.
To be married in this fashion—like playing the lottery—is of course
very dangerous. That my wife and I have ended up loving each other is
a matter of chance. To put it in superstitious terms, one can say that we
have had the blessings of the old man who used to sit under the moon
in the White Cloud Temple by West Lake.4 Yet, there seemed to be an
extra advantage for me in having my marriage arranged. I have never
languished in my sleep or had my peace of mind disturbed on account
of the search for a mate. Nor have I ever been mired in thoughts of
love, or been assaulted in turn by various feelings of hope, despair, envy
IVLJQ\MZVM[[7N KW]Z[MQQ[LQNÅK]T\W[Ia_PMPMZQQ[_WZPPMZQ[S
of playing the marriage lottery in order to enjoy this extra advantage,
but at least I have directed to other matters the amount of energy and
time usually devoted to love.
It is obvious that many people would rather not risk treating
marriage as a lottery, and going through courtship before getting
married has become an article of common faith. I do not belittle this
NIQP# PMZM IZM I[ PMa [Ia ¹QVM^QIJTMº ZMI[WV[ _Pa Q PI[ JMKWUM [W
popular
. People who have elevated love to such a supreme position can
think only of baring their hearts to each other when they are in love,
writing letters, composing poetry, watching movies, and touring famous
sights together. When they are out of love, they can only think of crying,
writing poetry (with lots of exclamation points), claiming to be the
only unfortunate souls in the world, or even going to such extremes as
contemplating throwing themselves in the Huangpu River. I only wish to
say that to give up one’s life for love like this is something that should be
questioned. Such love is affordable only to the young capitalist masters
IVL PM aW]VO UQ[ZM[[M[ WN ¹MUQVMV NIUQTQM[º _PW PI^M I PMQZ
disposal the wealth that their fathers and grandfathers have amassed
through exploitation. Their status in society has long been decided
before they even enter their mothers’ wombs, and the world to them is
a peaceful, problem-free place. They have so much free time on their
PIVL[ PI PMa ÅVL Q PIZL W ISM IVL MVL ]X ]ZVQVO W PM UI\MZ
of love, from which they manufacture a few scenes of happiness and
4
A story in Xu you guai lu ( More Tales of the Mysterious and the Strange) tells of a deity appearing as an old man who is in charge of marriage in the human world. He
has a bag of red strings, which he uses to tie together the ankles of those who are destined to be husband and wife.
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72
A Garden of One’s Own
sorrow. This gives them a few lines to write into their empty book of life.
For young people who lack such leisure and entertain some thought of
improving themselves, to love like this would only deplete their energy
and create obstacles on their way up.
As long as the human race continues to exist, love will persist. But
love can appear in different shapes and forms. The game of love played
by the young masters and mistresses—let it fade away!
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Ye Shengtao
73
Moon-watching (1933)
8MWXTM_PWTQ^MQV[WKITTML¹ITTMa_IaPW][M[ºIZMVWU]KPKWVKMZVML
with the waxing and waning and coming and going of the moon. Their
[WKITTML¹KW]ZaIZLº Q[ VW JQOOMZPIVWVM[Y]IZM zhang, 5 and at night, it is always lit up by a lightbulb of some sixteen candela. Circumstances
do not allow them the convenience of noticing the moon. When one is
out on the street, a whole string of street lamps comes on even before
it gets dark, and having the moon in the sky is merely like having an
extra street lamp. When there is no moon, it’s as if one of the street
lamps is broken and hence has failed to light up. Who would notice the
difference?
I said last summer that I rarely heard the sound of cicadas anymore.
Now as I talk about the moon, I feel as if I have not seen it for some
time. I only recall that on one occasion when I woke up in the middle
of the night, I found that the radio in the room across the window from
ours had been turned down, and the mah-jongg game next door had
also ended. The lamps in the neighborhood had all been turned off. A
beam of white, tooth-colored light came in through the south window,
casting a shadow of lattice on my bedding. I was slightly astounded by
the sight, but realized immediately that it was moonlight. My curiosity
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moment, it was obscured by clouds.
8MWXTMNZWU*MQXQVOWNMV_WVLMZPW_IVaWVMKIV¹PIVOWVºQVI
place like Shanghai: Everything is so tense here; the air is so dirty; and
when you go out, there’s hardly a tree to be seen. Apart from these,
they’re able to come up with a host of other such reasons. I think the
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_Pa ;PIVOPIQ Q[ VW I OWWL XTIKM NWZ ¹PIVOQVO WVº 1N QVLMML PQ[ Q[
regarded as one of the reasons, I cannot agree. There is no reason
to regard the need for moon-viewing as one of the many conditions
of living, and a broad mind and lofty imagination are not necessarily
nurtured by looking at the moon. If we can withdraw our up-turned
eyes and redirect them to the ground, we can reap the same or perhaps
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But I do not object to viewing the moon. All I am saying is that it does
not matter if we don’t get to look at it.
5
A measurement of length, slightly more than ten feet.
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74
A Garden of One’s Own
Once I saw an ideal view of the moon. I was in the rural area of
Fuzhou at the time, at the corner where the Min River curves around.
One night, I was looking out by the banister of a building, and saw the
waves coming in on the river. Under the moonlight, they became like
a torrent of mercury. The mountains on the shore were lightly covered
with mist, and looked different from the way they appeared at other
times. The moon was high in the sky, motionless and self-contented.
Stretching all the way from the shore to the building where I was staying
was a wide expanse of sandy beach, white with a slightly blue tint in
the moonlight. The fragrance of white lilies came from somewhere—
perhaps that is the fragrance of the moon, I thought to myself. No
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minutes before turning around. I saw my shadow cast on the oyster-
powdered wall,6 and once again, I became conscious of myself.
It would of course be an enjoyable thing to be able to appreciate
such a view of the moon a few more times in one’s life, although, as I
said earlier, it doesn’t really matter if one doesn’t get the chance to see
it.
6
In the coastal areas, people scrape off a substance secreted by oysters from
rocks on the beaches and use it for whitewashing walls.
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qr
Lin Yutang
Lin Yutang (1895–1976) was born to a Christian family in Fujian and
received his education in Shanghai, the United States, and Germany.
In addition to writing, he was also a scholar of Chinese linguistics, and
as such, devised a method of romanizing and categorizing Chinese
characters, invented a Chinese typewriter, and compiled a Chinese
dictionary.
Lin is one of the few Chinese writers who successfully published in
both Chinese and English. In the West, he is perhaps best known as the
author of such books as The Importance of Living, The Wisdom of Laotse,
and The Gay Genius, in which he interpreted classical Chinese literature and the Chinese approach to living for Western readers. Many of these
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<
br /> and they continue to command a solid secondary reading public
audience among Chinese readers.
From 1932 to 1934, Lin launched three magazines, Lunyu, Renjianshi, and Yuzhou feng, all of which were devoted to essay writing. In these publications, he tirelessly promoted his idea of humor, for which he
coined the term youmo in order to capture the sound and sense of the
English word. He glossed you I[ ¹PQLLMVº IVL mo I[ ¹[QTMVº P][
distinguishing humor from the kind of crude and uncharitable laughter
of some Chinese jokes. In the rancorous literary debates that marked
the 1930s, however, Lin’s brand of humor was sometimes misunderstood
as frivolous, supercilious, and, worse, lacking social consciousness.
this subtlety of youmo very well. The gentle laughter comes not so much from the inherent nature of the events narrated, but from Lin’s rendition
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foibles.
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76
A Garden of One’s Own
Ah Fang (1932)
I have a boy servant at home, whom I’ll call Ah Fang for now, though
that isn’t his real name. He is an extremely clever child. When I hired
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He is about seventeen or eighteen now, and his voice is beginning to
change, sometimes sounding like the crowing of a young rooster. But
he is still a small child inside, and this, combined with his extreme
cleverness, both make him impervious to our efforts to impose some
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house rules have fallen by the wayside, and it is no longer easy for me to
maintain the respect due to me as the master of the house.
Ah Fang’s intelligence is indeed superior to that of ordinary people:
He can do what others cannot, and indeed there are many things we
cannot do without him. But he discharges his duties much like a poet
relying on inspiration. In confusion, haste, forgetfulness, and general
topsy-turviness, he is without peer in this world. The number of cups
and plates he breaks in a week roughly equals those broken by the rest
of the servants in half a year. But he has a sunny disposition, and when
you reproach him for anything, he simply hangs his head and thinks
