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By Dr Wong Wee Nam
“Those who are wise do not dispense political decrees (to the people)” 知者不言 Laozi
On 12th of May 2008, a terrible earthquake hit the Sichuan Province of China. About 70,000 were killed.
This earthquake was so great it devastated not just small towns and cities, but shook places as far as Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi and Bangkok.
Even as the buildings were still collapsing, the then Prime Minister of China, Wen Jiabao, was already in the disaster area, comforting the survivors and directing operations in the midst of after-shocks.
There was really no urgent need for Mr Wen to risk his life and limbs by visiting the disaster area so early after the event. He had no re-election to seek and no political mileage to gain. There was no way anyone could guarantee his safety. Yet he was there, at the centre of action.
The television footages captured his emotions vividly – a compassionate face expressing genuine concern. We could see an inspiring personality displaying the highest quality of leadership at the gravest moment of crisis, calming his people and exhorting them to be brave.
His is a leadership by example. This is a leader who shows that the people come first and his safety is of secondary importance. He is certainly not expecting monetary reward for his courage. Indeed, a truly Confucian leader: 民为贵 (The people are the most important in a country: Mencius)
“Your pain is our pain.” He declared to the victims.
Putting people first has been a recognized quality in leadership thousands of years ago. Chanakya or Kautilya, the famous strategic thinker from ancient India, wrote about servant leadership in his 4th century B.C. book Arthashastra:
“The king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]”
Similarly, Jesus taught his disciples that:
“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:42-45)
Confucius also taught servant leadership. He held up as his models two legendary Kings, Yao and Shun. These two kings were public-spirited and unselfish. The people came first. They believed that rulers exist to benefit people and to end misery in their subjects. This is why they believed rulers must be benevolent towards the people.
Throughout Chinese history, upright officials always used Yao and Shun as examples to advise an emperor on the right way to rule a country. One such official is Qu Yuan.
On 12th of June this year, we will be eating dumplings and celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival in honour of Qu Yuan. After more than 2000 years of eating dumplings and watching dragon boat races, many of us today have overlooked the reason why we are commemorating the death this great poet, thinker and politician.
Duan Wu Jie or the Dragon Boat Festival is not celebrated for over two thousand years just because some cranky poet had drowned himself in the Miluo River. It is to honour a leader who was upright, honest and always thinking about the sufferings of the people.
Qu Yuan’s life and beliefs show us the ideal qualities that a good leader should possess.
Thus, in his most famous poem, “Li Sao” (离骚), he wrote:
亦余心之所善兮，虽九死其犹未悔
Translated it means “I’ll stick to whatever I think is good and right and never repent even if I die for it many times”.
In spite of his own sufferings, he never lost his feeling for the common people. In the same poem, he wrote:
长太息以掩涕兮，哀民生之多艰
This means “I heave a deep sigh and shed tears, because I feel compassion for the miserable life the people are living”.
Reputation and Infamy
There is an old Chinese saying that goes like this: “When a leopard dies, it leaves behind the skin, but when a person dies, he or she leaves behind a name.”
In the novel The Romance of The Three Kingdoms, Wang Yun told Li Bu, ‘If you, the general, can help the Han Dynasty, you are a loyal minister and will leave a good name in history and in posterity (流芳百世).” To do otherwise (and support the tyrant Dong Zhuo), Wang Yun said, “You bequeath your stench that will last for tens of thousands of years.” (遗臭万年)
The idiom 流芳百世 (liu fang bai shi) means“leaving a good reputation for a hundred generations”. 遗臭万年 (yi chou wan nian) means “leaving a bad name for thousands of years”.
Everyone wants to leave behind a good name. This perhaps explains why some people, in the twilight of their lives, like to write biographies.
Unfortunately, writing biographies alone will not help burnish flaws.
Shakespeare has this to say: “The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones.”
Good people are revered because of who they were and what they did and not what they wrote about themselves.
Qu Yuan, the poet, and Yao and Shun, the two legendary emperors, left behind good reputations because they were benevolent and concerned for the welfare of the people. They believed in the democratic rights of the common folk or what was then known as “the will of the people”. There good names live till today.
On the other hand, the names of tyrants, despots and traitors continue to stink.
The best example of a stinker is Qin Hui. Qin Hui was a Prime Minister in the Southern Song Dynasty. When General Yue Fei was winning battles against the Jin invaders and became a hero, Qin Hui, the mean fellow, resorted to false accusations and frame-ups to jail Yue Fei and finally got him executed.
When Emperor Xiao Zong later succeeded to the throne, he cleared Yue Fei of all the charges. A Tomb was built by the side of West Lake in Hangzhou to bury him and a Memorial Temple was erected for posterity to pay homage to this patriotic hero. In front of the tomb are four cast-iron figures, kneeling and bowing forever to Yue Fei. The figures represent Qin Hui, his wife and two subordinates.
Qin Hui and his wife are good examples of the “stench that will last for thousands of years”. Up to recent times, people still spat on the statues to vent their hatred and disgust for the couple. The bad smells and the ugly sights are so disgusting that the authorities have to put up a notice to ask visitors not to spit on them.
Following Yue Fei’s execution, a pastry vendor kneaded some dough into two human shapes, one representing Qin Hui and the other his wife, twisted them together and fried them. This symbolic food became a instant hit and even today, when we are eating the youtiao (油炸鬼-devil fried in oil) or the Chinese cruller, we do not realise we are chewing up Qin Hui and his wife.
Qu Yuan is, therefore, revered for being an upright politician with strong moral principles and an excellent poet and leader who loved both his country and his people dearly. It is not surprising that he is remembered to this day. In 1953, on the 2230th anniversary of his death, the World Peace Congress named him as one of the four famous cultural figures of the year.
Thus, while munching on our dumplings, we should reflect on this. Remember also that evil stinks forever when we eat Yew Char Kway.