🌄《Su Shu Lou Blessing》Qian Mu's Former Residence respectfully wishes all my dear friends a Happy New Year, 1915!
When Mr. Qian Mu was young, he always had a regret: during his childhood studies at a private school, he hadn't even finished half of the *Mencius* before the school closed. That unfinished copy of the *Mencius* remained in his heart. One Spring Festival, he made a resolution: while everyone else was celebrating, he locked himself in an empty room and resolved to finish reading one chapter a day. He started with the first part of *King Hui of Liang*, reading until he could recite it word for word before opening the door for lunch. He repeated this process in the afternoon, reading the next chapter and memorizing it before having dinner. By the evening of the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, as he prepared to eat, he had finally fulfilled his wish.
Years later, he said, "This happened more than 20 years ago. But every New Year, I often recall those seven days. Even on the Gregorian New Year, I often think of this matter. This year, I still thought of it as usual. It's just that what I used to be able to recite from memory has now been completely forgotten. I only remember that it happened for a while, and I often recall fragments of words from the seven chapters."
That year, he recalled a passage from Mencius: "For a seven-year illness, one seeks three-year-old mugwort. If one does not cultivate it, one will never obtain it in one's lifetime." The gentleman pondered: for someone suffering for seven years, the only cure was mugwort that needed to be aged for three years. What should one do if one hadn't stored it beforehand? There were probably only three options. One was to try one's luck and buy it from someone at a high price, but even that was uncertain; the second was to wholeheartedly begin storing it now, risking death at any moment during those three years; the third was to simply give up and try other treatments, but that was even less certain. Most people would choose the third option, trying various medicines, but very few would choose the second. Knowing that three-year-old mugwort could definitely cure the illness, why not choose it? He thought that forcing someone who had already suffered for seven years to endure another three years of this mental anguish would be more unbearable than the illness itself.
Upon thinking of this, the gentleman sighed, "However, Mencius firmly said, 'If one does not keep it, one will never obtain it in one's lifetime.' His meaning seems to be advising people not to worry about life or death within three years, but to hide it and see what happens. I cannot help but admire Mencius's firmness."
Friends, as the new year begins, have you all made your own "New Year's wishes"? On this joyous New Year's Day, I wish we could all have Mencius's foolish persistence of "keeping quiet until we can talk about it later," so that our hopes, like aged artemisia, may become more fragrant over time, bringing healing and harvest.
Qian Mu's Former Residence wishes all our dear friends a Happy New Year 2015 and success every day!
[Qian Mu, “Illness and Moxa,” Kunming Today Review (January 1939), collected in Culture and Education, Kyushu Edition, pp. 169-171]
[Photo: In 1966, Mr. Qian Mu and his wife climbed a mountain in Malaysia, marking their 60th anniversary today.]
# Qian Mu's Former Residence # Happy New Year
# Mr. Qian Mu # Mencius # Three Years of Artemisia
# Culture and Education # New Year's Day # New Year, New Hope
🌄《Su Shu Lou Blessing》Qian Mu's Former Residence respectfully wishes all my dear friends a Happy New Year, 1915!
