Bearing a Heart to Save the World, Yet Lacking the Skill to Heal the Nation

The endless plum rains have turned the country south and north into a vast land of water. Waking early, I watched videos shared by relatives and friends back home showing my native place submerged, and my heart was sore. I wrote a "Lament for the Year Gengzi" to give vent to the deep pain in my heart:

"Lament for the Year Gengzi" The plum rains unceasing, rivers and mountains rage; when will the floods end? I grieve my homeland turned to a waterland; our elders and kin turn white-haired in haste. Half the year fighting the plague, half the year flooded; next year we'll grieve the drought again. The people's suffering cannot be spoken; one loud cry and someone is arrested. The prefect is shameless, currying favor above, singing only praises and hiding the woes. Hundreds of millions of men fall silent; court and country alike play the fool. Tottering and perilous as piled eggs; even the singsong girls rise to dance. Would I could see heaven and earth made anew, and upright qi fill all the nine provinces.

On February 5 this year, I wrote an article making two predictions: first, that COVID-19 could not be contained and a single spark would start a prairie fire; second, that there would be exceptionally great floods this year. Unfortunately both came true. But in February, tens of thousands of people besieged me, calling me a rumormonger who was deluding people and simply crying wolf to scare everyone. My official account was also banned several times. This shows that most people have no rationality to speak of.

I like reading Mr. Jin Yong's novels, especially his The Smiling, Proud Wanderer (Xiao Ao Jianghu). In the postscript to that book, Mr. Jin Yong openly says that The Smiling, Proud Wanderer is about politics, and he identifies one by one the real-world figures corresponding to its various characters.

I consider myself to belong to the type of Linghu Chong and Ren Yingying in Mr. Jin Yong's writing. Mr. Jin Yong defines this type as recluses who neither wallow in the mire with the corrupt nor wish to enter politics, and who spend their lives pursuing personal freedom and the unfolding of individuality.

With my temperament, I could achieve personal freedom and the unfolding of individuality in any age, and no hardship could break my spirit. I can, like Su Dongpo, be open-minded and optimistic whether in favorable or adverse circumstances. But I do not consider myself indifferent to the people's suffering; when the people of the world suffer, I can hardly look away. It is just that before such natural and man-made disasters, individual ability is truly limited, and all that remains is regret.

I was born by the Yangtze River and have experienced far too many floods, large and small. As a child I often, together with my parents, rushed to harvest grain in the fields before the floods came; the major floods alone include the 1998 flood and this year's. I know deeply how tiny the power of the self is before nature.

I believe the great majority of people are kind by nature and have a heart to save the world; it is just that they lack the skill to heal the nation. So there are many people in this world of the Linghu Chong type, who only seek to keep themselves pure and strive not to wallow in the mire.

This character of the Chinese can also be said to be a product of our special national conditions. Many may criticize us for being this way, but it is an extremely helpless thing. Perhaps one day we will be able to speak freely without fearing for our safety; by then there may not be so many Chinese recluses.