waveheatin at Bulleting Board China Daily online
2003-11-09 00:01
naar overzicht artikels van Internet
reposted from another thread.
By ‘superstition’ I mean how we Chinese fear that our world and life are somehow dominated by devils or spirits. To understand my experience, please read the story of how my mom reacted to the death of my brother in the thread entitled "Where food is dear life is cheap" at http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=17987 [hernomen in Where food is dear life is cheap (1)].
To listen to another story, please let's sit down to hear the story of my father.
He is now 75 years old. A few years ago, nearing his own time to go, he felt that he needed to pay a tribute to his own father, who died in the busy years of revolution, of both illness and starvation ( As a little school master in that poor village, he was locked up by the villagers.) while my father was fighting the war against the Americans in Korea (He was a Chinese instructor to army officers and never got the chance to kill anyone). Feeling so guilty he believed the only way to make up for his dad was to build him a respectable tomb with more than just a pile of yellow dirt.
Thus he made his first trip back to his home town village to conduct some preparation work, but his work was abruptly interrupted for he got a cold and a local doctor almost killed him with wrong medication.
Two years later, he recovered, and commissioned a set of tomb stones; he rented a truck and hired its driver to transport the 20 some pieces of stones (rather cheap in GuiZhou province where there is nothing but rocks, but the moving costs more) over one thousand kilometers of hilly road. A “FengShui” master was hired to select a date but not a single good date was found within months. Another master was hired for better luck, but again no good dates were found. My father had to retreat back one thousand kilometers, waiting for a better time.
A year later, a good date was found. Dragging his tired, old body, he traveled that hilly road, once more. Cheerfully they built the tomb for my grandfather, whom I never met for he passed away before I arrived.
But recently, my mother told me over the phone with her crying voice, “They destroyed your grandpa’s tomb!”.
“Who? ”
“Your uncles”.
In the past year, my father’s elder sister passed away, who had been sick for decades at the age of 81,
In that same year, my father’s elder brother passed away at the age of 78,
In that same year, a cousin of mine died in a car accident.
In this same year, the clan of my father’s family destroyed my grandpa’s tomb. They feared that his tomb sat at the wrong location, or faced the wrong direction, or was built at the wrong time, and for whatever unknown reasons was bringing bad luck to the entire clan. As such it must be destroyed, and so was my father’s dream and dying wish to pay a respectable tribute to his own father.
Their destruction of my grandpa's tomb is more violent than the behaviour of my mom, who felt the 'iron gate' that brought death to my little brother must be abandoned (again, please refer to the thread of “Where food is dear life is cheap” at http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/forumpost.shtml?toppid=17987 [hernomen in Where food is dear life is cheap (1)].)
Stories of such superstition are abundant in many small towns or villages where 80% of Chinese population reside. In the last few decades, most of Chinese traditions have been erased (for better or worse) in the larger cities. To find the traditional ways of Chinese life you have to go to those small towns and to our parents or grand parents who are now in their 60-80’s.
Please share with us your true feeling and stories.
Thanks for reading.
wave