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He wanted to sing and dance. Robert was going to Canton and to war. He was going to be in the thick of it.
Thinking that death might be waiting for him in Canton, pushed Ward’s threat from his mind. He also believed that Ward was too busy fighting battles with the Taiping rebels to remember Ayaou. Besides, Canton was a thousand miles south of Ningpo and Shanghai.
This all came about in March 1858, when he was assigned from Ningpo to Canton. He had been advanced in rank to become a second assistant there. His annual pay was increased to five hundred pounds.
There was another reason he was happy. Transferring to Canton meant an end to his business relationship with Captain Patridge. It felt good knowing he would no longer help Patridge cheat the Chinese while smuggling opium into China. Now, all he had to do was stay alive.
* * * *
“Robert,” Master Ping said during their last lesson, “to truly understand China, you must know that China is not one culture but many.”
Robert was going to miss his language teacher. They had become friends. During the winter, the lessons had moved to the kitchen table, closer to the tiger stove. The parlor was deserted. Since Shao-mei’s shrine was in there, he didn’t miss that room.
He brewed the chrysanthemum tea Guan-jiah had given him. He wanted this last lesson with Master Ping to be like two friends saying goodbye.
“To understand what I’m talking about,” Master Ping said, “I recommend that you study poems written during the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries during the time northern China fell under the control of the invading Tartars. Southern China stayed under Chinese rule as a separate nation. The poetry of the south focused on love, while the poetry of the north focused on the spear or the sword.”
“It’s too bad that the Cantonese aren’t writing about love today,” Robert said. He took the kettle and poured hot water over the flowers, spices and berries in each cup. When the cups were full, he capped them to steep. He then placed the cups on a tray and carried them to the kitchen table. There was a bowl of dried red dates on the tray too.
Master Ping took his cup, lifted the lid and inhaled. His frog like features relaxed. His eyelids closed halfway. Then he said, “The focus of these poems demonstrates why China has never been ruled by a southerner and that most if not all of the generals of China’s armies have always been from the north where life is harder.”
Focusing wasn’t easy. Robert’s mind kept drifting. What was Canton going to be like? Since Qin-shi-huang-di, the First Emperor, had unified China two hundred years before Christ, the Cantonese had wanted to be a nation again, separate from the rest.
“The invading Tartars came from the north and so did the Mongols. The Manchu dynasty that rules China today also came from beyond the wall.” Ping took his cup, lifted the lid and made loud sucking sounds as he sipped the tea.
Since the Arrow Incident near Canton in 1856, the British and French had been at war with the Ch’ing Dynasty. The Dynasty was being forced to fight two wars. The first was with the Taipings and the other with the British and French. The British and French were also fighting the Taipings. That made the British and French allies with the Dynasty. It was confusing.
He didn’t want to think about the danger he was going to find in the south. He said, “Master Ping, I doubt if I will find another teacher as sensitive to my needs as you have been. I’ve learned much under your guidance. I honestly don’t know what I will do without you.”
The British were demanding that China be opened to British merchants. They wanted the opium trade legalized and foreign imports to be exempt from internal transit duties. There were more demands, but the one about opium bothered Robert the most. There were times he was embarrassed to be working for the British.
Ping put his cup down, folded his hands together, and kowtowed. “I thank you for the praise,” he said. “However, you no longer need a teacher. You are now skilled enough in both the written and the spoken language of China to learn on your own. The only thing left is to see that China is not one culture and one nation but many. Since you are going to Canton, you will see this firsthand. People in the south are not like those from the north. You will experience what I mean by living with them.”
“I don’t understand,” Robert said. “What is it that I have to look for?” He wondered if he had the time—if it would be safe to try.
Master Ping took a handful of the dried dates and started eating them. At first, he was careful to make sure there were no pits. Then he started to crunch them with enthusiasm.
“How has China survived being conquered so many times and stayed one nation?” Robert asked. “When barbarians conquered the Roman Empire, everything fell apart in Europe. It took centuries to rebuild and instead of one empire, many nations argue and fight each other. War follows war.”
“Maybe that explains why China is so weak,” Master Ping replied. “For a long time, no nation could threaten China. We were too powerful. The answer to your question may be in the power of piety. In Europe and Britain, individuality is the focus of your culture. In China, the family is the focus. I believe that is the reason China survived. The family unit has always been too strong to allow a collapse like what happened to your Roman Empire.” He sipped tea and ate more dates. “Emperors and dynasties come and go but piety remains as the anchor that keeps China from sinking.
“China is like a house, and the family instead of the individual is the foundation. One wall may be built of stone, another of wood and a third of hay. The front of the house may be glass. Because of the family foundation, the house stays together and refuses to collapse. Every family member does his duty and keeps his wall standing.”
Robert thought of Guan-jiah and his family. Once, they had land and prospered in the silk trade. Due to the Taiping rebellion, they had lost it all and fled to the safety of Ningpo to start over. His servant made a great sacrifice when he castrated himself and applied for a job inside the Forbidden City to help his family. He didn’t think anyone in the West would have suffered like that. He knew he would not have gone that far to help his family.
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Links to Reviews for "Our Hart"
Honorable Mention in General Fiction
