Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Spiritual Beliefs and Universal Wisdom. Adeline Mah Yen

alt=""/>: bai means ‘to worship or do obeisance’; nian means ‘year’.

      These rites and rituals reinforced the concept of filial piety so effectively that I don’t remember any of us uttering a single disrespectful remark to our parents’ face. Instead, we were fearful and obedient and our lives were focused on pleasing our unloving parents. We never dared complain, even when unjustly punished. We also accepted blindly what our parents decided for us.

      Filial piety dictated that my oldest sister Lydia should remain silent when our parents ordered her to leave school and enter an arranged marriage at the age of seventeen. After graduating from Cambridge University, my brother James was ordered back to Hong Kong to work at Father’s side and did so for a meagre salary even though he was inundated with offers from other firms. Louise Lam was introduced to him by our stepmother as his prospective bride and he dutifully married her. I myself turned down a job as assistant lecturer in the department of medicine at Hong Kong University Medical School to be an intern at a government hospital in order to please my parents.

      Confucius thought that religion should exist for the purpose of education and moral cultivation. He did not believe in divination, fortune-telling, or conjectures concerning Heaven and Hell; his approach was much more pragmatic and rational. To him, the tao or Heaven stood for a positive, just force in the universe. It was the source of truth, goodness and moral law. Good and evil deeds would bring their own consequences.

      He advised men to direct their own destiny, rather than resorting to a fatalistic reliance on spirits. He promoted ceremonies and rites to worship Heaven, honour the ancestors and commemorate great men. Expressions of respect towards ancestors and great men should not end with their death: ancestor-worship was merely the continuation of a human relationship. Immortality was to be obtained through an individual’s own endeavours, through virtue and wisdom.

      In Confucian (as well as Chinese) though, the word tian

, translated as ‘Heaven’, means much more than the sky above. Because the word God does not exist in the Chinese language, the term tian encompasses all the following concepts relating to God: supreme being; prime mover; divine light; the tao; ultimate reality and many other synonyms. As with other expressions concerning religion, tian’s interpretation depends on one’s personal convictions. The exact definition of the Chinese word tian became the focal point of the Rites controversy, a bitter quarrel between the Jesuits and other orders of the Catholic Church that began in seventeenth-century China and lasted for nearly two hundred years. It was a metaphysical dispute involving the didactic question of whether the concept of God and Heaven should conform only to that taught by the Catholic Church. Were Chinese rituals of ancestor-worship and the cult of Confucius idolatrous practices or were they social occasions to pay respect to one’s elders? Was the Chinese idea of Heaven (tian) spiritual or material? Did the term tian mean ‘dweller of Heaven’ as well as ‘Heaven’?

      My grandfather was very open-minded about religion. He professed himself a Buddhist but often read my father’s copy of the Bible in Chinese. Once he told me there was no contradiction between Confucianism, Buddhism and Christianity. All three preached similar concepts.

      ‘It’s all a question of viewpoint,’ he said. ‘The Christians believe in Jesus whereas Confucius believed in jun zi (the ideal man). The priests talk of rewards in Heaven after death. Confucius taught us to concentrate on being a good person on earth. Why can’t a person be a Confucian, a Buddhist, a Catholic and a Protestant at the same time? Why does one belief have to exclude another? After all, they all teach the same principles.’

      Further comparing the teachings of Jesus to that of Confucius, he continued, ‘The Christian idea of charity is the same as our Confucian concept of jen

(benevolent concern for one’s fellow men). Christian charity means love and justice. This is exactly what Confucius meant when he said, “Virtue is to love man and wisdom is to understand man.” Both taught the principle of reciprocity: “Ji suo bu yu, wu shi yu ren” (Do not do to others what you do not wish others to do to you). Both condemned force as a way of life and frowned upon profit or advantage as the only standards of value.

      ‘Instead of the Ten Commandments, we Chinese try to live by the ethical code contained in the tao and attempt to become an ideal person of noble character with honour and integrity.

      ‘The Christians believe in life after death, whereas we Chinese Buddhists believe in reincarnation. The main difference seems to be our concept of xiao (filial piety) and our belief that our ancestors’ spirits remain active and exert beneficial influences on our behalf

      Confucian beliefs were revolutionary when they were first propounded because jun zi originally meant a member of the social elite – someone who had been born into the aristocracy. But according to Confucius, any man whose conduct and character warranted it might become a jun zi regardless of his ancestry. He emphasised the obligations rather than the rights of individuals. The adoption of the teachings of Confucius during the Han dynasty (202 BC–AD 221) led to the eventual downfall of feudalism in China and the emergence of a more classless society. Every man was given the opportunity to rise in the world through education. Titles and ranks were now determined by ability and not by heredity. Confucius emphasised individual worth; he thought that anyone should be able to become a sage. Nobility was based on merit, not birth. ‘In learning,’ said Confucius, ‘there should be no class distinction.’

      He advised kings to hand authority over to their ministers: ‘Kings should reign but not rule.’ The government should be administered by the most talented and capable men in the nation, carefully chosen for their character, education and ability. Ministers should be sincere, incorruptible and rule by moral example. A good government should aim to bring about the well-being and happiness of the people because all men desire happiness. Humanity could only find happiness if the nation existed as a cooperative community of free men.

      Confucius believed that force must be made subordinate to the power of justice and used only as a last resort. Soldiers could only fight effectively if they were convinced of the justice of the cause they were fighting for. A soldier’s morale depended on his moral conviction and Confucius advised his students to become not men of the sword but men of moral nobility; not fighters but scholar gentlemen. This is in striking contrast to the Japanese ideal of bushido or the Way of the Warrior, and the samurai notions of fighting to the death, along with a fanatical loyalty to the emperor.

      Matteo Ricci, the Italian Jesuit priest who was a missionary in China for twenty years and died in 1610 in Beijing, was awestruck by the ‘scholar-philosophers’ who held power in the China of the Ming dynasty.

      The entire kingdom is administered by the Order of the Learned, commonly known as the Philosophers. The responsibility for orderly management of the entire realm is wholly and completely committed to their care. The army, both officers and soldiers, hold them in high respect and show them the promptest obedience and deference, and not infrequently the military are disciplined by them as a schoolboy might be punished by his master … The Philosophers far excel military leaders in the good will and respect of the people and in opportunities of acquiring wealth. What is still more surprising to strangers is that these same Philosophers, as they are called, with respect to nobility of sentiment and in contempt of danger and death, where fidelity to King and country is concerned, surpass even those whose particular profession is the defence of the fatherland.

      Besides cultivating the intellect and imparting knowledge, the purpose of education was also to discipline a student’s morals and emotions, as well as to train his character and develop leadership potential. Confucius pointed out the way and asked questions, expecting his disciples to find their own answers. He taught with tireless zeal (

hui ren bu juan) and dreamt of an enlightened citizenry and universal education based on intellectual democracy.

      He had a strong sense of history and looked