Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits PDF
Preview Road to Heaven: Encounters with Chinese Hermits
ROAD TO HEAVEN ENCOUNTERS WlTH CHlNESE HERMlTS BlLL PORTER Photographs by Steven R. Johnson and the author ·~ .~ Mercury House San Francisco Copyright © 1993 by Bill Porter Published in the United States by Mercury House San Francisco, California All rights reserved, including, without limitation, the right of the publisher to sell directly to end users of this and other Mercury House books. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including infor- mation storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the pub- lisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. United States Constitution, First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Mercury House and colophon are registered trademarks of Mercury House, Incorporated Frontispiece: Bill Porter (second from left) and Steven R. Johnson (third from left) search for hermits in the Chungnan Mountains with a local guide (left) and Buddhist monk K'uan-ming (right). Front cover photo and photos on pages 38, 81, 93. 110, 161, 171, 185, and 209 by the author. Photos on pages 22, 30, and 203 from the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. All other photos by Steven R. Johnson. Printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Porter, Bill, 1943- Road to heaven : encounters with Chinese hermits I by Bill Porter : photographs by Steven R. Johnson and the author. p. em. ISBN 1-56279-041-2 1. Recluses- China. 2. Priests, Buddhist-China. 3. Taoists-China. I. Johnson, Steven R. CT9990.P67 1993 299' .51'0922-dc20 5 4 3 2 II. Title. 92-42339 CIP for those who walk the path of solitude Contents Chinese Dynasties and Republics lX Map of the Sian Area and Chungnan Mountains X One Hermit Heaven 1 Two Mountains of the Moon 16 Three If the World Is Muddy 24 Four On ihe Trail of the Tao 35 Five Sound of the Crane 60 Six Road to Heaven 87 Seven Cloud People 120 Eight The Bird That Is a Mountain 149 Nine Crossing Heartbreak Bridge 174 viii o Contents Ten Home of the Evening Star Eleven Visiting Wang Wei, Finding Him Gone Twelve When the Tao Comes to Town Note on the Spelling of Chinese Names Acknowledgments 189 200 208 223 224 Chinese Dynasties and Republics H#a 2205-1766 B.C. Shang 1766-1122 B.C. Chou 1122-221 B.c. Ch'in 221-206 B.C. Han 206 B.C.-A.D. 221 THREE KINGDOMS PERIOD 221-265 Chin 265-420 NORTH-SOUTH DYNASTIES 420-589 Sui 589-618 T'ang 618-907 FIVE DYNASTIES 907-960 Sung 960-1278 Yuan 1278-1368 Aiing 1368-1644 Ch'ing 1644-1911 Republic of China 1911-present (since 1949 limited to Taiwan) People's Republic of China 1949-present • towns i' aplllll dry .a. tempi Mdhslcn • mountain peaks 9 lp 2p 39km Sian area and Chungnan Mountains. cnu G A (CHINLI G ,-A Untung • ~ 'dOUNT.Al rtOU T.Al l.lOO den Chapter One Hermit Heaven Throughout Chinese history, there have always been people who pre- ferred to spend their lives in the mountains, getting by on less, sleep- ing under thatch, wearing old clothes, working the higher slopes, not talking much, writing even less-maybe a few poems, a recipe or two. Out of touch with the times but not with the seasons, they cultivated roots of the spirit, trading flatland dust for mountain mist. Distant and insignificant, they were the most respected men and women in the world's oldest society. No explanation has ever been offered or demanded for the admira- tion the Chinese have had for hermits. Hermits were simply there: be- yond city walls, in the mountains, lone columns of smoke after a snowfall. As far back as records go, there were always hermits in China. The Chinese say their history goes back five thousand years, back to the time ofHuang-ti, the Yellow Emperor. Huang-ti was the earli- est known leader of the confederation of tribes that established them- selves along the Yellow River and that later called themselves Chinese. But it was from two hermits that Huang-ti learned how to conquer his enemies and how to prolong his life. And he reigned for a hundred 1 2 o Road to Heaven years, from 2700 to 2600 B.C., about the same time the first pyramids were being built in Egypt. After Huang-ti rode off on a dragon to join his fellow immortals, leadership of China's nascent civilization passed through several hands and, around 2300 B.C., into those ofYao. Two thousand years later, Confucius praised Y ao as the wisest of men because he passed over members of his own family and chose a hermit as his successor. Huang-fu Mi's third-century work, the Kaoshihchuan (Records of High-Minded Men), recreates the occasion: Yao asked Hsu-yu to take over the kingdom. But Hsu-yu answered, "When the sun or moon is shining, what use is lighting a torch? When the rain is falling, what use is watering crops? You, sir, already rule the kingdom. Were I to replace you, it would be in name only. Name is the guest of reality, and I have no desire to be a guest. Even in a deep forest, the wren uses only one branch for its nest. Even beside a river, the tapir drinks only enough to fill its stomach. Go back, my lord. I have no need for a kingdom. If the cook fails to keep order in his kitchen, the shaman doesn't stop the ritual to take his place." Instead of accepting Yao's offer, Hsu-yu washed out his ears in a stream to rid them of any residue such talk might leave behind. But Y ao was determined to find a man of virtue and approached another recluse, named Shun~ Shun accepted Yao's offer, and eventually he too looked for a hermit to succeed him. Again, the Kaoshihchuan records the event: Shun tried to give the kingdom to a hermit named Shan-chuan. But Shan-chuan protested, "In former times, when Yao ruled the realm, people followed him without being told and praised him without being ~ewarded. The kingdom was at peace, and people were content. They didn't know hate or desire. Now you wear colored robes and confuse their eyes. You mix the five tones and confuse their ears. You play the music of Shao and stupefy their minds. This can only result in disorder, with which I want nothing to do. I have my place in the world. In win- ter, I wear skins. In summer, I wear hemp. In spring, I plough and plant and have enough to do. In fall, I harvest and gather and have Hermit Heaven 0 3 enough to eat. When the sun rises, I get up. When it sets, I rest. I'm free to do what I want in this world, and with this I'm content. What do I want with a kingdom? I'm afraid you've misjudged me." Shan- chuan disappeared into the mountains and was never heard from again. Huang-fu Mi's versions of these stories are culled from the Chuang- tzu and other texts dating back to the fourth century B.C. or earlier. It seems that as soon as the Chinese began recording stories about their civilization's earliest leaders, they wrote stories about hermits. And for the past two thousand years they have repeated these hermit-ruler sto- ries as ideals worth keeping in mind, if not emulating. Of course, crowded mountains won't do. But such stories weren't intended to cre- ate a society of hermits, assuming that were possible. They were aimed at those who exercised power. And their message was that transmis- sion of power should be based on virtue and wisdom, not kinship. These stories constitute China's earliest political criticism. But they aren't simply stories: there really were people who preferred the wilderness to civilization. This is the basis of the hermit tradition wherever it's found. But what distinguishes this tradition in China is the high status hermits have enjoyed in the society they supposedly left behind. My own acquaintance with China's hermit tradition began in 1972, when I left the United States and moved to China's island-province of Taiwan, south of Shanghai, north of Hong Kong, off the coast of Fukien. Several days after I arrived, I began life in a Buddhist monas- tery: up before dawn to chant sutras, song of the bell at night, three vegetarian meals a day, a room, a bed, a mosquito net, no bill. When my legs got too sore or my mind too restless for the meditation cush- ion, I read. In addition to Buddhist sutras, I read Confucian and Taoist texts that included dozens of stories about hermits in the hills of ancient China. They were my favorite stories. I could understand someone wanting nothing more than to live a simpler life: inside a cloud, under a pine tree, somewhere out of town, surviving on moonlight, taro, and hemp. Other than a mountain, they didn't need much: a little mud,
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