Status Updates From The Great Road: The Life an...

‘“Heroism is an ancient concept—In the past, individual heroes arose above the masses, often had contempt for the masses, & sometimes tried to enslave the masses. We create mass heroes—who have no self-interest, who reject all temptations—we will have to break our own paths. We must cross torrential rivers—construct our own bridges.” He thought the worst mountain—was Kuchow—forests so dense—they shut out all light.’

‘—70 percent of the land—estates, temple and ancestral lands—was owned or controlled by landlords who constituted 1 to 2 percent of the population. Women became the most militant advocates of equality—adopted their own methods of dealing with such of their menfolk as proved recalcitrant. Salt, in particular—was scarce & expensive—books came in from Shanghai—read and reread any book—on the Kwangsi border—mountains—’

‘In western & southern Fukien, & in south Kiangsi—people continued to struggle, there now came hard days. There was nothing to distinguish any other commander from the rank & file. Poor men should not fight poor men. When Chu resumed the story of his life, he spoke of song and battle; for he was a man to whom singing was a part of life. "Until we came," he began, "the people seldom sang". He grieved as he marched.’

‘—vast numbers—for decades—forced to seek a living by emigrating to Nanyang, South Seas—through mountains along the borders of Fukien, Kiangsi, & Kwangtung provinces. Through—pouring autumn rains—at night & slept in the forests during the day. We did the rounds—confiscated rice & money from the rich—gave what we did not need to the poor. Landlordism breeds poverty & ignorance—April 12th, anniversary of the Shanghai—’

‘Banditry, after all, is a class concept. First, he would enter the French Hospital in Shanghai to cure himself—the insomnia that had tormented him since he gave up opium smoking. Each night & morning he began brewing the Kwangtung herb—It was the hardest battle he had ever fought—it was against himself. Next, he transferred his life savings to his wife. From Shanghai his pilgrimage took him to—the ports of Nanyang—’

‘The cultural renaissance swept the country like a forest fire—It was confusing because writers who preached Marxism were intellectuals—not workers. How had Russian revolutionaries been able to defeat such powerful armies of the Western world—whereas the Chinese had failed? There was something fundamentally wrong, we argued—foreign powers could not have corrupted any Chinese had Chinese refused to sell themselves.’

‘Before—Chengdu, Chu & his friends—took a pledge that none of them would ever seek or accept an official position, nor marry, until China was liberated from foreign rule. Railways would be good for the country—but not on the terms set by—foreign moneylenders. Even at fifty, his first impulse was to believe in the inherent goodness of human beings, of youth in particular—as if he were thinking of something far away.’

‘Blessed rain fell & famine ended. By then many landowning peasants had sold everything—sunk into the ranks of tenants. Tenants had become coolies/soldiers/labourers—all were in debt—Their sons & sons' sons would inherit those debts. The missionaries turned them into political & cultural eunuchs who despised their own history & culture. Chu had reached an age to fully comprehend—China's problems. The Boxer Rebellion’

‘Hakka came from—descendants of immigrants—north China thousands of years before. They—have a distinctive dialect & customs of their own—feet of their women have never been bound—Chu was to hear told & retold through all the years of his life—poems were impressed on the memory of his own—a reflection of—Hakka origin—allowed widows to remarry—gave women rights—lit flames of hope—never extinguished—in hearts of masses’

‘As the third son—in the middle, of a large family—I've heard—as I was ready to be born my mother was cooking—Before—rice was done I was born. Then she—resumed cooking—always pregnant, cooking, washing, sewing, cleaning—in the fields, working like a man. Love played no role. She could not remarry. For such were the ancient feudal concepts laid down by Confucius. Elder uncle—an unusual man—he never mistreated women.’

'—commonplace—hard-working—without any interest in making himself a hero—not a rich landlord by origin but from a poor peasant family of Sichuan—I had never known any human being w/ such a tenacious lust for life—There seemed no aspect of human existence that he did not long to understand—he would—talk with me & others—drink tea in the sunny courtyard—eat peanuts, tell tales, sing songs—He danced—played basketball—’

Dit was blijkbaar het einde de rest waren voetnoten