A day with Confucius

One aim of my trip to Shandong was to revisit Qifu and the Temple of Confucius and see the Kong family cemetery, which I had missed on my previous visit. So we set off one morning from Jinan for the 3 hour drive to Qifu. Once we were out of the Jinan clutter, we hit a highway as good as any in the USA. But, it turned out to be a depressing drive; for mile upon mile, we passed derelict houses in rows, with large, dusty front yards where nothing seemed to be growing, and, except for the occasional line of drying laundry, where few people were to be seen. On the previous visit, as we drove back to Jinan in the evening, I saw women lounging outside some houses and was told that they were hookers servicing truck drivers using the highway. This time, even the women were gone, although trucks were plentiful on the highway. In stretches, I did see fields of wheat, copses of trees, and rivers. So the journey wasn't that bad.

This is Joanna, Mao Dan, my "shadow". Each time I visit a Mainland university, a student is assigned to accompany me everywhere because I don't speak the language. Usually, my shadow is an undergraduate, but on this occasion, I was fortunate to have Joanna, an MA student in Translation and Interpretation. Fluent in English and oozing with good cheer and commonsense, Joanna took me to a Pizza Hut when I got tired of Chinese food. She took care of me in a gentle, motherly way, with a maturity far beyond her age. We also visited the cathedral and the Jinan lake together had many interesting conversations. I introduced her to my favorite movies such as "Cinema Paradiso" and "Dr. Zhivago", which she told me she enjoyed, too.

On my last visit to the Temple of Confucius, there were hardly 50 other visitors. But that had been a weekday and this was Sunday. Thousands of local visitors were thronging the site. There was no time to pause and contemplate the various buildings within the temple compound. The hundreds of pine trees are ancient, some as old as 2,500 years (that's how long ago Confucius lived) and they were being taken care of lovingly by the staff, although many visitors were blissfully ignoring warnings not to touch or rub these trees.

Confucius was not a rich man and, when not traveling, lived in a humble home. He did not benefit much during his lifetime but his descendants, the Kong clan, has been richly rewarded. Most of the magnificent buildings in the temple compound were built after Confucius' passing. In a small way, they reminded me of the buildings in the Forbidden City in Beijing.

This pillar had to be repaired after being damaged by rampaging Red Guards.

Where wishes could be hung after being written on red wooden slats. I wished for peace of mind. ("Dream on", you'd say.)

A mythical creature

After visiting the temple, we went to the cemetery, which I had not seen on my last visit. We had to walk from the entrance to the cemetery gate, and were besieged by tricycle and horse cart drivers. We finally settled on a peculiar contraption, a sort of a box attached to a motor scooter, barely enough for two people although four were expected to squeeze in.

I had expected a small, dusty, treeless cemetery but was pleasantly surprised by the 20o hectare grounds dotted with pines and cedars. The direct descendants of Confucius, usually named Kong, are eligible to be buries here and there are about 10,00 tombs, although not all are allowed tombstones. The cemetery is so large that we had to ride an electric car to tour it.

Like the grounds of the temple, the cemetery is beautifully maintained. These photos do little justice to these lovely grounds, forming the most serene I have seen anywhere. John Donne's sonnet "Death be not proud" kept coming to my mind as I gazed upon the shaded greenery. Surely, death could not be bad if one could lie beneath this turf? Perhaps I should change my last name to Kong and sneak in an application for a tomb.

Despite the tranquility, the cemetery too suffered at the hand of Red Guards. I was told that they dug up some new graves and hung the corpses from trees.

The tomb of Confucius. He is more quoted than read, but I am so glad I returned to Qifu to see this lovely cemetery. If I pay another visit, I'll spend an entire day walking thru the grounds instead of riding an electric car. There's no better way to savor the loveliness of this site.