Essays ⁽³⁴⁹⁾

The Bletilla (Baiji) I planted on the balcony of my study has flowered. What I grow is a white-flowered variant given to me by a friend; its blossoms are pure white and elegant, resembling daffodils, and have become a sight in my study—a welcome surprise.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. But I'm not so sure about the universe. ——Einstein This morning, the sky over Beijing was earth-yellow. Since the Spring Festival, Beijing has basically been in a smog state, but today should be the worst day.

March 13, the first day of the second lunar month: the willow tips are already a tender green, the early cherry has opened, and the wild grass on the ground has begun to sprout. Spring has come; it is time to clear the land and…

On the Lantern Festival of the Year of the Ox, I bought a singing bowl and was very pleased with it. The bowl is about the size of a rice bowl, just right for collecting alms. A Buddhist monk who has left the household life…

The most beautiful thing I can imagine is, on a starry night, by the bright moonlight, holding the hand of the one I love and strolling along a quiet, warm country path, with a serenade of frogs and insects ringing in my ears. As we…

On the eighth day of the Lunar New Year, I received a box of Bletilla (Baiji) seedlings sent by a friend. I had nowhere to plant them, but a dermatology chief physician I have known for years, Dr. Li, had—after seeing me lease land for…

Mr. Wang Xiaobo said that when people reach middle age, the theme of life is work. This is indeed true: the forties and fifties are the golden age of life, full of energy, with rich work experience and social experience; if not cherished, the years…

February 11, 2021 in the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve in the Lunar calendar. I got up very early in the morning. After the three of us happily finished breakfast, I, as usual, picked up my laptop and went to my study to handle the…

After the Beginning of Spring, the weather gets warmer day by day; during the daytime over the last two days, the temperature in Beijing has actually reached over ten degrees Celsius. Although it is not yet the season of "apricot rain that wets the clothes…

On the nineteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, under a bright sun, I walked the streets of Beijing thinking of a mountain hollow back in my hometown. In that hollow sits a Medicine King temple that few people now visit. The Medicine King temple…