14. Teaching in China
After the Mayor’s party I returned to the school and picked up a present for the Cools and went to their restaurant to say Merry Christmas. The following week was very full but here are some highlights.
Flora lives in the old part of the city, on the other side of the river, so I went to meet her at a place we both knew, McDonalds. We had a snack and I suggested we look for somewhere quieter to talk. We found a tea house in an old building and talked there for an hour or two. There is no pressure in Chinese eating places for the customer to leave when they have finished their meal, something I have found particularly obnoxious in many Western establishments.
Until then I thought Flora was an interpreter for the French for she arrived at the party with them and was looking after them. She does assist them in that way but when I discovered she is a doctor I decided I should ask for her help in finding a supplier for my medicines in
China. She said she would try to find them and wants me to ring her if I have any medical problems. Flora also wants me to teach her English and will try to find more paying students for me. We left the tea house and walked down the old street to the riverbank so that she could show me the old wall lit up at night. I didn’t have my tripod but tried to take some photos. I got a couple of nice photos of Flora at the tea house. Flora has a baby daughter.
On Sunday the Cools took me in their car to Long Zhong, a site covering several acres and a memorial to Xiangfan’s greatest citizen Zhuge Liang. There was a period in Chinese history called the Three Kingdoms Period because three rulers fought for supremacy, not unlike the Tokugawa Period in
Japan except that after seventy years of war the victor became Emperor and not Shogun. Bob and others had told me a little about Zhuge Liang and I followed this up a little on the internet. I discovered he was a noted intellectual who was approached three times by one of the warring rulers and eventually granted an audience. Zhuge Liang agreed to help the ruler, Liu Bei, and became a general and official. On my visit I soon found I knew only a little of the story.
We went into a complex of old buildings which was the great man’s school. We passed through a gift shop and temple where his assistance can be sought. Then there were rooms containing large figures of Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei and the two generals who accompanied Liu Bei when he visited Zhuge Liang. Then we came to a room where many scenes of Zhuge Liang’s life had been reconstructed in glass fronted recesses, dioramas. Harry translated the descriptions very capably and I began to realize this man means far more to the Chinese than I knew. I saw him writing poems which are still prized, negotiating alliances, winning battles with little bloodshed through cleverness, changing the direction of the wind through prayer to win a battle fought on land and water, giving wise advice to the ruler he chose to serve, inventing a sort of wheelbarrow for carrying weapons, telling the future from the stars and becoming a regent who never sought power for himself. A Renaissance Man long before the Renaissance; a Moses, a Leonardo, and a Nostradamus in one body. Now I have read the book, ‘The Three Kingdoms’, which is a history more sophisticated than most Western works of the time, and am amazed at the figure of Zhuge Liang portrayed there.
When we returned I went to my apartment for an hour or two then went back to the restaurant where I ate with the family and some of their friends (a travel agent, a union official and an uncle). We ate a variety of wonderful dishes including some filled bready things which were made especially for me. They have excellent cooks.
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