A Nun of Taishan (A Novelette) and Other Translations by Lin Yutang (1936).pdf

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A NUN OF TAIS IAN
(A NOVELETTE)
AND OTHER TRANSLATIONS
TRANSLATED
BY
UN YUTANG
80693342
tfffi COMMERCIAL PRESS, LIMITED
SHANGHAI. CHINA
1936
PREFACE TO “A NUN OF TAISHAN”
Yiyiin, the nun and heroine of the story,
represents a different ideal of living from Shen
Po’s wife, Yiinniang, the heroine of “Six
Chapters of a Floating Life.” Yunniang sym¬
bolizes the wife, while Yiyiin symbolizes the
recluse, and in each case the ideal is embodied
by a woman. She represents for me a typically
carefree' soul, with a carefree quality which
comes, not from irresponsibility, nor from gay
abandon, but from a great understanding back¬
ed by the entire Buddhistic and Taoistic wis¬
dom, and she is on that account kindlier to¬
wards her fellow-men than many austere souls
so anxious to rescue young girls and save the
world. I don’t think Yiyiin would ever enlist
in a Salvation Army and rescue young girls
unless young girls are ready themselves to be
rescued by her. She would probably survey
her victim, as she did Huants’ui in this story,
take a good look at her, and only when finding
grace and delicacy in her eyes, would she decide
to take her as her disciple. No, a Taoist makes
a bad evangelist. She knows nature too well
to try to interfere’*and she has too much under¬
standing to think that only in the holy way
’Hes man’s salvation. Her advice to Mrs. Teh
was definitely just to stick to her husband.
'•4'his is
broad view bom of Taoist tolerance
IV
PREFACE
and Buddhist subtlety. It is this carefree
wisdom, attained by great understanding which
made her so happy, and it is her carefree hap¬
piness which made her so attractive. Mrs. Teh
said she would make a good housewife in the
daytime and a good conversationalist under the
lamp-light at night, and who can disagree with
her?
The story contains a complete autobiographi¬
cal account of a nun’s experience of love, which
is of course no different from any girl’s experi¬
ence of love, except under what western read¬
ers may regard as unholy surroundings. A
certain nalveti makes up for a certain sordidness
in the business of selling love. It should be
understood by western readers unfamiliar with
Chinese customs that there is a certain ceremony
and importance attached to the occasion when
a sing-song girl receives a man for the first
time in her life. Monetary arrangements are
officially entered into by her guardian with the
man, when the girl is about to become a woman,
the same monetary arrangements as seen in
alimony that are made to compensate for a
woman’s loss of chastity in western countries.
Such arrangements were the natural thing in
Yiyiin’s society and do not reflect on her
character. After all, Yiyiin has not lost her
chastity although she talks like a hard-boiled'
virgin. The love story, in sections three and
four, happening under warped circumstances,'
PREFACE
V
is a story of conquest of the spirit over the
flesh, and leads to story of her spiritual develop¬
ment in the last two sections, five and six, where
she emerges as a kindly and dignified young
teacher of the truth. Interesting as her love
story is to many readers, it is in the last sections
of the novelette that her character is rounded
off and the story reaches true depth.
She then stands there as the author’s ideal
of an emancipated person. She was happy, she
was carefree, she was independent, she could
wander about in this world where she liked, and
she could be at home anywhere. Her happiness
was decidedly attractive, and how did she do
it? By what Taoist magic- formula? First by
a vigorous training of her body, and secondly
by attaining a view of life which set her at ease
wherever she went and in whatever company
die found herself. Those are the two essential
elements in a Taoist training, for I regard her
more as a Taoist than as a Buddhist. In her
opinion, Huants’ui could not be spiritually
Saved
until she had unbound her feet
and learned
to run about the mountains like on level ground.
Without such a body, no soul could be happy,
and after all the only test of a soul’s salvation
is its inward hajTpiness. But see how Yiyiin
runs up and down Taishan, and how she can go
without an evening meal find sleep without a
blanket'at night. She has attained that stage
qf physical fitness and independence very much
vi
PREFACE
desired by the modem boy scouts and girl
guides. It is in this sense that she made a
bargain with Huants’iji: if the latter wanted to
be her disciple, she was to wander about every
day on foot on the mountain. “When you have
learnt to rim up and down the steep mountain
paths like on level ground, then you will have
laid a sound foundation for understanding
Buddhism.” As for the seoond element, that
of true understanding and learning to adjust
oneself to whatever surrounding, she says:
“Recently I have decided to divide my
personality into two beings, the first one
called ‘Yiyiin of the world.’ As Yiyiin of
the world, and as a nun in this Toumukung,
I will do whatever I ought to do and talk with
whoever wants to talk with me. If he wants
me to drink with him at dinner, then I drink
with him, and if he wants to hug or embrace
me, I will let him hug or embrace me, no
matter who he is—except in the matter of
sleeping with a man, where I draw the line.
The other self is called ‘Yiyiin the recluse,’
who likes to spend her leisure hours associ¬
ating or playing with the great founders of
Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, or feels
contented and happy watching the changing
drama enacted by the sun and the moon and
the forces of the universe.”
It is not possible to think of such a sreature
as being unhappy, and it is her happiness which

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