A Thousand Trees Burst Green Before the Sick Tree—Once Recovered, a Depressed Person Becomes Strong

Depression is becoming more common and younger in onset; many of my readers, or their family members, are depressed. They are anxious, believing the disease cannot be cured—though this very belief is itself typical depressive thinking, and depressed people are very pessimistic.

In fact, this illness not only can be cured, but once cured, the patient's inner strength becomes far greater than that of ordinary people. I give two examples of famous people once tormented by depression.

One is the scholar Zhou Youguang, whom I have mentioned several times, who lived to 112 (1906–2017). Known as the father of Hanyu Pinyin, he was an encyclopedic scholar. His lifelong achievements are hard to match: he worked in education in early years, became an economist, turned linguist in mid-life, and in later years studied the humanities and became a thinker. He published more than 30 monographs and 300-plus papers; he dared to speak truth and was respected by academia. He was also the longest-lived scholar in Chinese academia, outliving the second, Professor Zheng Ji (1900–2010), by a year.

Zhou Youguang was very open-minded, but in his youth he struggled with depression for a long time. In his book Years Pass Like Water—Zhou Youguang's Century-Long Oral Autobiography, he mentions this period. How did he finally emerge? He himself could not say. But from his articles I gather that he gradually escaped depression through falling in love with his later wife, Zhang Yunhe (then his girlfriend), and through working with friends in "popular education," a cause valued by Chinese intellectuals at the time.

Depression was not only torment for Zhou Youguang; it also helped him greatly. Precisely because he suffered, he had the motivation to read and resolve doubts, which led him to read widely and lay the foundation of his lifelong learning. I have met many depressed people; they are mostly bright, kind and eager to learn. They read more than average, because they are troubled and seek a way out of their troubles through reading.

That youthful bout of depression gave Zhou Youguang wisdom that ordinary people would not exert themselves to gain, and it helped him greatly later in life. Though he suffered many blows afterward, he never broke down. Once a person recovers from an illness, they gain immunity to it; this is medical common sense, and it applies to depression. This is why a recovered depressed person becomes inwardly strong.

The other famous person who once had depression was the British philosopher, mathematician, logician, historian and man of letters Bertrand Arthur William Russell (1872–1970), founder of analytic philosophy, awarded the 1950 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was also a prominent activist during World War II, devoting his life to world peace and was widely respected.

Some may not know Russell's influence, but everyone knows Einstein. Russell and Einstein were close friends; Einstein even regarded Russell as his spiritual mentor and openly said Russell's works were his favorite. During the Cold War, they jointly issued the "Russell–Einstein Manifesto," expressing deep concern about the threat of nuclear weapons to humanity and calling on world leaders to resolve international conflicts peacefully. Many famous Chinese writers openly acknowledge Russell's influence; for instance, the widely read Wang Xiaobo was a devoted reader and fan.

Russell also had depression when young; he felt life was meaningless and had suicidal thoughts. Until one day he fell in love with mathematics and immersed himself, and only then did he escape depression. Readers know Russell's masterpieces A History of Western Philosophy, The Conquest of Happiness, and The Road to Freedom remain enduring classics.

In my youth I too suffered from depression and anxiety; when I read Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness" (translated by Fu Lei), I felt I had found it too late. Recently a middle-school teacher asked me for an extracurricular reading list for students; the first two books that came to mind were Russell's "The Conquest of Happiness" and Liu Shahe's "Zhuangzi in Modern Edition" (written by Liu Shahe after the Cultural Revolution, humorous and fusing the lifelong wisdom of Zhuangzi and Liu Shahe).

Both Zhou Youguang and Russell not only escaped depression but lived long. Zhou reached 112; Russell was no slouch at 99, one year short of 100. Both also wrote in a fresh, natural and humorous style.

From these two centenarians' experiences of contracting and overcoming depression, two points emerge: first, depression can be conquered; as far as I know, neither man received formal treatment—through reading and introspection they changed their cognition and defeated it. Second, depression is not wholly harmful; it can also be an opportunity for growth. Zhou Youguang and Russell, spurred by depression, thought deeply about life and society, ultimately not only conquering depression but increasing their learning, becoming learned, open-minded, prolific and respected scholars, immune to worry for life.

So I urge depressed patients and their families not to despair that depression will torment a person for life, nor to think it has nothing to offer. As the proverb says, before the sick tree a thousand trees burst green; just as Buddhism says "affliction itself is bodhi," depressive mood is one of the best helpers in growing wisdom.