Moment in Peking

"Moment in Peking" was the novel Lin Yutang most proud of himself. Frankly speaking, that was also the original reason I decided to take it down from the shelf of the library and had a read on it, although it was a very heavy English novel, and I had never before read such long a novel in English. This proved to be a right decision, when I was reading it, I kept thinking of writing something for it, not to prove my reading of a long novel, but to record down some wisdom in it.

This is a book about thoughts of the Chinese people, mostly the upper class of the Chinese people, in the period of Resistance against the invaders. It began with the Boxer Rebellion in 1901 and ended with the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War. As it was said by Time magazine, it “may well become the classic background novel of modern China”. Here is what L.Y.T said on the preface: “This novel is neither an apology for contemporary Chinese life nor an expose of it. It is neither a glorification of the old way of life nor a defense of the new. It is merely a story of how men and women in the contemporary era grow up and learn to live with one another, how they love and hate and quarrel and forgive and suffer and enjoy, how certain habits of living and ways of thinking are formed, and how, above all, they adjust themselves to the circumstances in this earthly life where men strive but gods rule.”

The story takes place mostly within three families: The Yao family, which has a master of Taoist, is relatively free to accept new thoughts of the contemporary China; the Tseng family is an official family for many generations; then the New family, which is very wealthy, they earn their positions in the government by great money. There are complicated relationships between these three families, with sons and daughters marrying into each family, however, they share different beliefs.

Several times I was deeply impressed by the wisdom of some characters. Among them one is the earthly wisdom of Mochow. Redjade, one of Mochow’s cousin sisters, is a very talented and beautiful girl. However, mostly as a result of her sentimentality, she easily gets ill and has to lie in bed for most of her time. In one conversation, Mochow tries to comfort and persuade her, here is how she says: “Better than all medicine is the ability to take things lightly. Generally the more intelligent a man is, the more impatient he becomes. I am not flattering you, and I am fair in saying that your talent ranks above us sisters. But for that reason you ought to be careful of yourself. You have read so many stories of talented girls and beauties; how many of them ended happily? The ancient said, “Red cheek, harsh fate”, but I say it was not the red cheeks but the clever heads that ruined women. When posterity comes to reckon accounts, it is difficult to say who was clever and who was stupid. In this life, it is better to take things lightly as they come along and not contrive too much.” This talk really struck me. What is clever yet what is stupid? Sometimes contrive too much really, really sadden one’s life. It is wiser to take things lightly.

Mulan, Mochow’s elder sister, Mr. Yao’s favorite daughter I dare to say, is possessed with different kinds of wisdom. All her life she fights for freedom, liberation of herself. She is brave, open, and strong minded. On one trip to the South Heaven Gate, she and Lifu come to the Emperor Chin’s Inscription without Words, they have a talk. “Do you remember”, said Lifu, “how the Chin Emperor was afraid of death and sent five hundred virgin boys to the Eastern Sea to seek the Pill of Immorality? And now the rock survives him.” “The rock survives because it has no mortal passion,” said Mulan enigmatically.

I would like to quote the following up paragraph:

“Darkness was quickly enveloping them. What had been a sea of golden fleece was now only a sandy gray surface blanketing the earth; and wandering clouds tired of their day’s journey, came into the valleys before them and settled for the night, leaving the higher peaks like little gray islands in the sea of night. So does Nature herself labor by day and rest by night. It was peace with a terror in it.

Five minutes ago Mulan’s heart was excited. Now she was calm and strangely sad, the outward excitement having descended into rumbling depths in her belly, hardly perceptible by her head. Dragging her tired legs up the steps, she thought of life and death, of the life of passion and the life of the rocks without passion. She realized that this was but a passing moment in the eternity of time, but to her it was a memorable moment – a complete philosophy in itself, or rather a complete vision of the past and the present and the future, of the self and the non-self. That vision, too, was wordless.”

Mr. Old Yao is a Taoist, he appreciates mostly the wisdom of Chuang Tzu, and I think that he is a wise man. When discussing about the modern reform of thoughts, Lifu and Old Yao have a conversation. “Do you believe in all the childish things they are advocating?” said Lifu. “They are striking even at ancestor worship. They want to sweep aside everything old. Why, they even denounce “good mothers and helpful wives” as a degrading ideal hampering the woman’s own development as an individual!”

“Let them do it,” said Old Yao. “If they are right, they will do some good, and if they are wrong, they cannot do the Truth (Tao) any harm. As a matter of fact, they are often wrong, as in this individualism. Don’t worry. Let them fight it out. When a thing is wrong, the will get tired of it themselves after a while. Have you forgotten Chuangtse? Nobody is right and nobody is wrong. Only one thing is right, and that is the truth, but nobody knows what it is. It is a thing that changes all the time, and then comes back to the same thing.”

“You take this literary revolution, for instance,” Old Yao continued. “Many people think it is right. Why? Because there is something right in it. Any movement grows only when the time is ripe and it says something which many feel. Many feel that this Old China must be swept aside, or we shall never make any progress. People are wanting to change. You cannot help that, and you cannot stop them. There are excesses, but people cannot say what is wrong and maintain it for long. A falsehood is not argued out of court; it just rubs off, like bad paint, by itself.”

This reminds me of the words of Oliver Wendell Holmes, “Noxious ideas are like champagne; expose them to the air and they fall flat.” Who can be certain of what is the truth unless all views are heard?

I'm really sad to find out that I forgot most of the words. I should have taken the note. Any way, this is really a book worth recommending.

At last, I think of Sophy and Albert in "Sophy's world", after escaping from the book, they become fairies living in another world of eternity. And I think that world exists in every reader's heart, whether it is conscious or not.