Li Yousheng (2014)
Reading a good novel like “Dream of the Red Chamber” is like getting to know a person. You will remember it often, and it will occupy a special place in your mind. It can even influence your life path and benefit you for life because it represents a kind of humanistic spirit and temperament. Appreciating a painting, even if it is a huge masterpiece by a famous artist, can make your heart shake, but it seems to lack a similar effect. After reading Xu Kang’s book “Inquiry into the Realm” [1], I realized for the first time that a city can have a similar effect. A city can also be like a novel you have read or a person you have met. It has an environment, atmosphere, spirit of place, and is accompanied by characters, life experiences, and various life stories.
I lived in Beijing for seven years during my university years, a beautiful memory that will stay with me for life. No matter what unpleasant things happened during the day, when I sat on the sofa after dinner, thinking of the endless stream of bicycles on Beijing’s streets, the free-flowing conversations of Peking University students and faculty, I would recall Li Bai’s lines, “With soaring spirits and boundless thoughts,” and the poems written by my classmates at Peking Union Medical College Hospital: “Scholars spent their years together, discussing extraordinary men across the vast sea.” The troubles of the day would then seem so insignificant and retreat. In 2008, I stayed in Beijing for an extended period, hoping to revisit familiar places and relive old memories. Unexpectedly, the streets had changed beyond recognition; only the sun and moon, hidden behind endless dust, remained, representing a vibrant and beautiful period of human life that I had shared with them.
Mr. Xu Kang’s book, *Integrating Landscapes and Seeking the Way*, largely introduces Suzhou’s landscapes, squares, and courtyards from the perspective of urban communication studies, accompanied by artistic photographs. I visited Suzhou twice, in the early 1970s and late 1980s, and the Tiger Hill, Humble Administrator’s Garden, and Canglang Pavilion remain in my memory. Many of the historical records of the buildings and landscapes mentioned in Mr. Xu Kang’s book were new to me. The only thing I knew during my visit to Suzhou was Zhang Ji’s poem about Hanshan Temple: “The moon sets, crows cry, frost fills the sky; River boats and fishing lights reflect my sorrowful sleep; Outside Suzhou city, Hanshan Temple; At midnight, the bell tolls to the traveler’s boat.” Perhaps due to the power of the Cultural Revolution’s campaign against the “Four Olds” in the 1970s, I lingered for a long time inside and outside the temple, silently reciting Zhang Ji’s poem while looking around to find the meaning behind those four lines, only to end in disappointment, having searched high and low without finding it.
I was among the first batch of primary school students in the new schools established by the Communist Party in the northern countryside after liberation. Therefore, a classmate and I were fortunate enough to be among the first people from our area to study at Tsinghua and Peking Universities. He was at Tsinghua and often invited me to stroll and chat on campus. Once, we walked to the pond described in Zhu Ziqing’s famous essay “Lotus Pond by Moonlight”: the pond had lotus flowers and was surrounded by willow trees; standing there, there were no modern buildings in sight, perhaps because the school deliberately preserved its original appearance. Whether this was a form of self-deprecation by the Tsinghua host remains to be verified, but my classmate, while walking with me, kept mocking, “This shabby place is even worse and more boring than the pond in our hometown village…”
I didn’t reply, but I didn’t think so in my heart. Later, I found Zhu Ziqing’s “Lotus Pond by Moonlight,” read it repeatedly, and tried to understand its meaning. I went back to that pond many times by myself, silently reciting the original words as I strolled along the edge of the pond, experiencing its atmosphere among the lotus leaves, willow branches, and crows. Although there was no moonlight, one time it was after dusk, and there was no one around. I thought I finally understood Zhu Ziqing’s state of mind and artistic conception when he wrote this piece facing that pond of lotus leaves.
If I have the opportunity to visit Suzhou again in the future, I will bring Mr. Xu Kang’s book “Inquiring into the Realm of Suzhou” with me. I will read it repeatedly to truly appreciate the spirit and meaning of the various scenic spots in Suzhou as described by Mr. Xu Kang. Scholars who have lived in Suzhou for many years may immediately grasp the essence and meaning of Mr. Xu Kang’s book after reading it, but newcomers like us may not.
Reading a novel evokes different impressions in different readers; the same applies to the same person, who may elicit different evaluations from different people. People also have varying understandings of the spiritual connotations of Suzhou’s various landscapes. However, I firmly believe that Mr. Xu, as a long-time resident of Suzhou, who has traveled to many cities both domestically and internationally, possesses a professional foundation in urban communication studies, and has a spirit of inquiry that blends diverse experiences with a deeper understanding, has captured the essence and core of Suzhou’s landscapes and architectural spirit. Like the renowned scholar of *Dream of the Red Chamber*’s summary, even though it is only one perspective, it delves deeper into the essence of things, a feat beyond the reach of most authors.
When I was studying at Peking Union Medical College, which was very close to Tiananmen Square, one National Day night we were assigned to sit in the square, spending the entire night as bored so-called spectators, despite the gymnastics performances around us. I remember one of our clever ways to pass the time was to wait for a fireworks display to unfold in the sky, and then everyone would shout out a word, preferably an idiom, to summarize the overall impression of the fireworks. We would then collectively vote on the best one, which would be recorded as the final name of the fireworks display. In most cases, we all wholeheartedly agreed that the idiom or phrase chosen by the winner best represented that fireworks display.
Different people may not have the same overall impression of Suzhou’s various landscapes as Mr. Xu Kang, but if we spend enough time exploring Suzhou and hear enough evaluations and summaries, we will be more likely to agree with the written summary provided by Mr. Xu in this book, and better understand the breadth and depth of his perspective. If we use the term “bird’s-eye view” to represent such a profound and far-sighted summary, Mr. Xu stands higher and sees farther than we, as non-professional visitors.
After all this rambling, I must admit that I am a complete novice when it comes to Mr. Xu Kang’s “Communication and Reflection on Place, Space, and City,” to the point that I’ve never even heard of the concept of urban communication studies before. Therefore, I have learned quite a bit from this book, although I have later browsed some related articles online, my understanding is still not necessarily accurate. For example, the harmonious blend of strength and gentleness at Xuanmiao Temple, the cultural integration and innovative spirit of Tiger Hill, the secluded charm of Suzhou courtyards, and the harmonious integration of gardens at Times Square—all these require me to read and appreciate them repeatedly, like I would with Zhu Ziqing’s “Lotus Pond by Moonlight,” before I can truly grasp the profound meaning behind the words.
I have previously proposed the concept of a natural, primordial society and a man-made secondary society. The former exists only in one form, remaining at the aesthetic level and not expressed in written form. Secondary societies, however, are countless in variety and level, their linguistic expression infinite. The feelings we, as 21st-century readers, experience when reading *Dream of the Red Chamber* are unlikely to have been anticipated by Cao Xueqin when he wrote it. Similarly, the spirit of place created by architects may not be recognized by visitors, because visitors come from different secondary societies and cultural backgrounds, bringing different understandings and perspectives to cities and places. Just as *Dream of the Red Chamber* has become an immortal work, a city and all the places constructed with the architect’s dedication will also be immortalized, if they survive future urban redevelopment. Like *Dream of the Red Chamber*, they will evoke different emotions, leave different impressions, and even lead to different descriptions and summaries by professionals centuries later. This is determined by the endless diversity of secondary societies. However, if we can return to prehistoric societies, if we can return to our deepest subconscious levels today, those different emotions and impressions, those different descriptions and generalizations, all point to the same place, the same level, in both prehistoric societies and deep subconscious levels. But here we are referring to descriptions and generalizations that professionals have deeply understood, or the overall direction of descriptions and generalizations by the general public, not just a few words from a specific person.
The opinions of professional scholars of *Dream of the Red Chamber* can be fundamentally different from those of ordinary readers. An ordinary reader might say that *Dream of the Red Chamber* is about a grandmother spoiling her grandson, and that Grandmother Jia spoiled Baoyu into a spendthrift. Such a statement misses the point and fails to grasp Cao Xueqin’s writing intention. Our occasional visitor to Suzhou, compared to Mr. Xu Kang, also reveals the difference between an ordinary reader and a professional critic. Whether my statements above have made the same mistake as that ordinary reader’s summary of *Dream of the Red Chamber* is a question I await clarification from Mr. Xu Kang and other experts and scholars.
literature:
[1] Xu Kang (2012): Inquiry into the Realm of Integration. Suzhou University Press.
Keywords: Integration with Nature, Memoir, Chinese Gardens, Urban Design, Urban Communication, Spirit of Place
author By Dr. You-Sheng Li
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