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words
cultural evolution
mid-autumn moon festival
The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is one of the major holidays in China. Similar to America's Thanksgiving, it occurs in Fall on the night in October when the moon is at her fullest. It is a time for people to look up at the moon and remember friends and family far away. Perhaps they are looking up at the moon at the same time.
The following two pieces are about this festival.
Thinking of You - a poem by the famous Chinese poet, Su Dong Po (aka Su Shi) written on the night of The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in 1076.
See Yue* on the Dark Side of the Moon - a piece written by me on the night of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in 1998.
Thinking of You
by Su Dong Po
Su Dong Po (Su Shi) is considered to be one of the greatest Chinese poets and probably the foremost all-around genius of the "later" imperial ages. His given name was Su Dong Po and he lived from 1037-1101 during the Song Dynasty. He was a master of prose, poetry, and calligraphy and was a connoisseur of art, cooking, and wines. And as if that
wasn't enough, he was an engineer who supervised the water projects of Hangzhou and West Lake (which many consider to be among the most beautiful places in all of China). He wrote this poem sitting by West Lake on the night of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in 1076 A.D.
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"Thinking of You"
When will the moon be clear and bright?
With a cup of wine in my hand, I ask the blue sky
I don't know what season it would be
In the heavens on this night
I'd like to ride the wind to fly home
Yet I fear the crystal and jade mansions are
Much too high and cold for me
Dancing with my moon-lit shadow
It does not seem like the human world
The moon rounds the red mansion
Stoops to silk-pad doors
Shines upon the sleepless
Bearing no grudge
Why does the moon tend to be full when people are apart?
People may have sorrow or joy, be near or far apart
The moon may be dim or bright, wax or wane
This has been going on since the beginning of time
May we all be blessed with longevity
Though far apart, we are still able to
share the beauty
of the moon together.
On the Mid Autumn Moon Festival of the year 1076,
I drank happily till dawn
and wrote this in my cups
while thinking of my brother Ziyou.
- Su Shi (Su Dong Po) 1076 A.D.
(Translation by Li Shun-Yi in 1998) |
See Yue* on the Dark Side of the Moon
by chuck@china
*Yue is the Chinese word for moon
Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in 1998. My first year in China; far from home. Typical of Chinese scheduling and administration, nobody bothered to inform me that the day was a holiday until an hour before my evening class. So I was told to expect a class of "no-shows" that evening - this after already having prepared my lesson plan. T.I.C. - This is
China.
But, despite the holiday, 20 of my 24 students showed up for class. So I decided to chuck (pun intended) the lesson plan and hold the class outside, under the moon. My students thought I was crazy, of course. But what followed was the best class I have ever conducted anywhere. After class, I returned to my apartment, wrote the following, and
e-mailed to my friends around the world.
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"Someone explain to me the significance of the Mid-Autumn Festival," I asked.
Thus began one of the best classes I have had in China. On the evening of October 5 this year, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, I sat with my class in the dark under a long trellis thick with grape-vines and ivy. Over head, here and there, the harvest moon shone through,
I learned about the ancient legend of Ho Yi who lived when, legend has it, there 10 moons in the sky and they caused the earth to be void of water and much too hot and so, with bow and arrow he shot down 9 of the moons and the gods, in honor of his efforts, gave him a bottle of herbs which would make him live forever. But his wife, wanting immortality herself,
snuck in and drank the potion which jettisoned her to the sole remaining moon where she lives today in immortality. Tonight's moon, being the fullest and brightest of the year, is the night when old Ho goes out in the field and looks to the moon so he can see his immortal, but far distant loved one.
And I learned how, somewhat like our original Thanksgiving, this is an agricultural celebration - the night when the peasant (farming) families gather to take a break from the Autumn harvest - the halfway point. It was interesting that one of the students mentioned this because the previous day I had traveled to Bijia Shan passing the same fields I had been by
three weeks earlier on another visit to Xingcheng. At that time, I was awed by how much corn I had seen (corn's the major crop up in this part of China - rice in the south). As far as I (eye?) could see and seemingly every square metre of land was covered with corn and yesterday as I went to Bijia Shan, almost all had been harvested during the last three weeks,
It was gone-off to market. And here I was being told that this was the day of rest. I remarked that, indeed, based on what I had seen three weeks ago in the countryside and what I had seen yesterday, the peasants did indeed deserve this holiday rest.
But it was the third student who bought the whole meaning home. "Like old Ho, this is the night when families and friends everywhere go outside and look up at the moon. You know China is a large country," she said, "but everywhere in China tonight, everyone will look up at the moon and think about their families and their loved ones. And if their loved ones are
far away ... well, at least they know that they too are looking up at that same moon and that perhaps at that very moment two family members or friends or loved ones who are far away will have eyes focused on the same place at the same time."
"And that," she said, "is the real meaning of the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival."
"And we hope," another student spoke up, "Maybe someone in America is doing the same thing at this very moment, Teacher Chuck!" I didn't have the heart to tell her the moon was dark in Cleveland right then, it was 8:00 a.m. in Cleveland and no one knew a thing about these holidays. I just nodded thanks, went on with class and came home and wrote this
to tell you all I looked up at the moon and thought of you all on this special Chinese holiday. I saw you all on the dark side of the moon. And those of you on this side, too.
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Chuck (in China) 5 October 1998
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