MCLC: Zhao Defa book on monks

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Zhao Defa book on monks
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Source: China Daily (10/8/13):
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/culture/2013-10/08/content_17013725.htm

Chance leads to a divine new path
By Han Bingbin (China Daily)

Suffering hardships while growing up in rural Shandong province in the
1950s and 60s, writer Zhao Defa rose to fame because of his self-inspired
and thought-provoking countryside trilogy that forcefully delves into the
intertwining relations of land, rural ethics and politics.

But as a professional writer, for a long time he embarrassedly found
himself unable to find a new field of writing that's out of his
experiences yet inspires equally profound thinking.

One day in 2003 he was approached by the abbot of a local temple to give a
cultural talk. While the humble writer prepared himself by glancing over a
few books on Buddhism, it soon occurred to him religion is exactly the
topic that arouses both his curiosity and intellectual hunger.

He immediately pinned down his next book, a non-fictional exploration into
the survival of Chinese Buddhism in modern-day society, to be wrapped up
in a fictional storyline.

What followed his first attempt at non-fiction was a brand-new way of
working. He had to first of all read dozens of Buddhism classics, while
taking copious notes.

In the following four years, he lived in nearly all of China's major
Buddhist temples.

While closely observing the lives of various monks, he bore his questions
in mind: How do these monks fight against their own worldly desires? How
has constant social transformation impacted Buddhism?

In his book Shuangshou Heshi (Praying Hands), readers will find their own
answers to these questions by following the life of Huiyu, a fictional
protagonist who went through many struggles against obstacles from both
within himself and the outside world to finally be enlightened to create
his own way of practicing Zen.

"How to face the suffering? How to use Buddhism doctrine to instruct life
and purify the heart? That's what some responsible monks have been doing
these days," the author says.

"In my book, there are also portraits of those who try to make a fortune
using Buddhism, a sign of how social transformation has caused disturbance
within religion. The meaning of life is being questioned in both the
monks' and the laymen's world."

Literature critic He Shaojun says the book, even though with a new theme,
has actually carried on Zhao's constant reflections on moral principles in
social changes by exploring how Buddhist culture interacts with modern
ethics.

Beijing Normal University's Chinese literature professor Zhang Qinghua
says just like how Zhao acutely detected the disappearing of land and
rural civilization during industrialization, the author has again
demonstrated his admirable sensitivity to social and cultural changes.

Zhao says there's part of himself in Huiyu: brought up under Confucius
principles, being through a lot of suffering but still unwilling to
associate himself with undesirable social trends.

His childhood and teenage years were constantly haunted by poverty, hunger
and disease. He says he now still remembers which tree leaves and grass
tasted better as they used to be his staple food.

The decades of pain from skin allergy was unbearable, only relieved when
the poor little music fan practiced fingering on a fake flute made of
willow branch.

As the oldest son, he started to shoulder the family burden by working in
the fields at age 14.

But unlike Huiyu, who as Zhao wrote, followed the Buddhism doctrines to
let go of his desires and miseries, the way Zhao dealt with his own
challenges was an aggressive one.

"I can't go back. I must run forward. I want to leave the countryside and
get away from poverty," he recalls.

While working as a private school teacher at 15, he started preparing
himself for a better future by reading extensively.

At 23, he embraced a key change in his life after passing an examination
to become a State-sponsored public school teacher, shortly before he was
promoted to be a local official.

Since then, he has enjoyed speedy promotion in his official career. By 30,
he was already the deputy director at a county-level organization.
But he was brave enough to give up what he had, driven by what he calls
his "ghostly obsession with writing".

Ranking No 2 at the entrance examination, he successfully enrolled in the
writer's workshop at Shandong University, only to find his dream an
impractical one as his contributions to various publications were all
returned in the first year.

Once again he indulged himself in extensive reading and more importantly,
his memories of countryside life where he found the theme for his first
novelette, about the wives of northern communist officials who remarried
after they were encouraged to go to the south in the late 1940s.

The story won him a national literature award and launched a successful
writing career.

Given what he has achieved today, the interesting question people often
throw at Zhao is this: If he had met Buddhism much earlier in his life
when he still suffered enormously, would he have converted?

"It's hard to say. Even after learning so much about Buddhism, I'm not
converted. I understand some of the teachings. But for some others I don't
fully understand and accept. I studied it as a cultural phenomenon," he
says.

"Huiyu is of course an ideal character. I am still very much a secular
person in real life.

"My wife used to wonder why I wrote something like this without even
having talked to any monk before. I said perhaps I was a monk in my
previous life."

Contact the writer at hanbingbin at chinadaily.com.cn.