Hollow Valley Orchid: A Visit to Contemporary Chinese Hermits (Part 7)

 Every year on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, Chinese people still row dragon boats to retrieve Qu Yuan. They throw zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) into the water to confuse the fish and dragons, buying time for the dragon boats to catch up with Qu Yuan. However, no matter how hard people try, the poet continues to sink into the water year after year—only the rivers and lakes of China suffer, becoming increasingly turbid. 
 The contradiction between morality and politics is the core of the hermit tradition. If Qu Yuan found it difficult to resolve the conflict between the two as he wished, it should be said that he was not the only one with this feeling. 800 years before Qu Yuan threw himself into the river, a pair of brothers faced the same problem. Their names were Bo Yi and Shu Qi. When Bo Yi and Shu Qi heard that the founders of the newly established Zhou Dynasty not only rebelled against their own monarch but also launched a distant military expedition without properly burying their father according to ritual propriety, they disgustedly turned away and moved to Mount Shouyang. This was how they adhered to their principles. 

 Mount Shouyang is on the north bank of the Yellow River, opposite the eastern end of the Zhongnan Mountains, not far from the place where Shun (the successor chosen by Yao to inherit the throne) lived in seclusion before ascending the throne. Shun was famous for his loyalty and filial piety, two qualities respected by Bo Yi and Shu Qi. But unlike Shun, these two brothers did not encounter a wise ruler who appreciated their qualities. During their period of seclusion, they stopped eating grain from the Zhou Dynasty and survived by drinking deer milk and eating ferns, a practice that left critics with nothing to say. Finally, they starved to death. Sima Qian mentioned in their biography that, to ward off hunger and distract themselves, they often sang the following song: 

 Climbing that western mountain, 

 I gather the wild ferns, 

 Replacing violence with violence, 

 Unaware of its wrongness. 

 Shennong, Yu, and Xia have suddenly vanished, 

 Where shall I return to? 

 Alas, I depart, 

 My fate has declined! 

 In the Analects, Confucius commented: "Duke Jing of Qi had a thousand teams of horses, but on the day of his death, the people had no virtue to praise him. Bo Yi and Shu Qi starved at the foot of Mount Shouyang, yet people still praise them today." (Book 16). Mencius (c. 371–289 BC) called Bo Yi "the purest of the sages." However, while praising these two brothers, Confucius and Mencius told their disciples that such behavior was too rigid and not worth imitating. Undoubtedly, Confucius and Mencius would have served the Zhou Dynasty. 

 However, not all seekers of the Way draw such a clear line between holding office and living in seclusion. Zhang Liang and Zhuge Liang are two such people. 

 Zhang Liang's ancestors served as ministers of the State of Han (present-day Henan Province) for generations. In 230 BC, as part of the Qin Dynasty's process of unifying all of China, the State of Han was annexed. As a filial son and loyal minister, Zhang Liang swore to avenge the honor of his family and country. But to ensure he lived long enough to achieve this ambition, he initially retreated into the mountains. During his seclusion, he met an old man who tested his humble qualities. This old man appeared to be a Daoist immortal and rewarded Zhang Liang with a lost scroll of Jiang Ziya's (Lü Shang's) "Art of War for Grand Tutor." It proved that Zhang Liang was indeed a clever student—after leaving his life of seclusion, he helped Liu Bang overthrow the Qin Dynasty and establish the Han Dynasty. 

 To express his gratitude to Zhang Liang, the new emperor was willing to grant him any fiefdom he desired, so Zhang Liang chose Liuba on the southern slope of the Zhongnan Mountains. Then Zhang Liang announced his intention: he would withdraw from worldly affairs. Afterward, he began practicing Bigu (grain avoidance) and breathing exercises, hoping to make himself light enough to ascend to heaven. In 187 BC, he finally did so. 

 Before this, when Zhang Liang was still in seclusion studying Jiang Ziya's Art of War, the newly established Qin Dynasty began recruiting scholars from across the country. However, the Qin Dynasty was known for its cruelty, so four friends refused the summons: Dongyuan Gong, Mr. Luli, Qili Ji, and Xiahuang Gong (the Four Whiteheads of Shang Mountain). The Four Whiteheads of Shang Mountain were very famous; refusing to abandon their principles, they secluded themselves in Shang Mountain, south of the Zhongnan Mountains. There, they survived by gathering herbs. According to the Book of Han, they often sang this song to amuse themselves: 

 Dark and high mountains, 

 Deep valleys winding far. 

 Bright purple mushrooms, 

 Can cure hunger. 

 The eras of Tang and Yu are long gone, 

 Where shall I return? 

 Four horses with high canopies, 

 Their worries are very great. 

 The fear of the wealthy and noble, 

 Is not as good as the freedom of the poor and lowly. 

 Although they lived in seclusion, their fame spread far. Qin Shi Huang tried to lure them out of the mountains, as did Liu Bang, but both failed. Later, when Liu Bang was about to depose the crown prince in favor of the son of his favored concubine, Empress Lü sought help from Zhang Liang. Following Zhang Liang's advice, she persuaded the Four Whiteheads of Shang Mountain to believe that the crown prince valued wisdom and humility more than wealth and power. The Four Whiteheads came to the capital and accompanied the crown prince into the palace. When Gaozu saw that the crown prince had successfully won the respect of these men, he changed his mind about deposing the crown prince and instructed the Four Whiteheads to properly assist his son. 

 Another more famous example is the hermit Zhuge Liang. He ended his life of seclusion to serve a wise ruler. Zhuge Liang was born in 181 AD, a time when war raged across the country. When young, Zhuge Liang moved to a small village outside Jingzhou (present-day Hubei Province) to escape the turmoil. There, he lived in seclusion for ten years and studied under another famous hermit, Sima Hui. 

 During this chaotic period, the Han rulers lost central authority, and great power fell into the hands of a group of generals led by Cao Cao, while local warlords also established their own regimes. At that time, there was such a separatist regime centered in Jingzhou (the place where Qu Yuan had served before his exile). In 201 AD, Liu Bei fled there to escape Cao Cao. Liu Bei was a distant relative of the Han imperial family and had already recruited a group of men with the aim of restoring Han rule. However, he still lacked a far-sighted military strategist.