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A special chapter is devoted to magnanimityin the book, one important for the development of the spirit of Chinese people, A Contemporary Record of Anecdotes of Prodigies, among whom is the followingcase: Ji Kang was sentenced and to be executed todeath, for which he didn’t make any change on his expression but asked for aQin to play the tune of Guangling Melody. When he completed the tune, he gave asigh and said: “Yuan Xiaoni once begged me to teach him how to play the tunebut I was stubborn and refused. Now it’s the end of Guangling Melody.” Before hisdeath, three thousand of imperial students had submitted a written requirement tobe Ji Kang’s disciples but were refused. Sima Zhao in no time felt regretfulfor that.( 嵇中散临刑东市，神气不变，索琴弹之，奏《广陵散》。曲终，曰：“袁孝尼尝请学此散，吾靳固不与，《广陵散》于今绝矣！”太学生三千人上书，请以为师，不许。文王亦寻悔焉。) When a man sighed for the loss of art works rather than the loss of his life, he was magnanimous, too magnanimous to be credible. But it’s the historical truth. The later generation learned much from his case and the elements in it has been melted into the veins of the Chinese people, producing so many celebrities without official posts in the Chinese history: They love art much better than life. Or rather, they would choose to preserve art works rather than their lives when in dilemma. This is becauset thy cherish spiritual life better than physical life. And art work is the symbolizationof the spiritual life. it’s ontology of Chinese art philosophy. So magnanimity echoes in the long history of Chinese art and real life, especially for the intellectuals. Then what does magnanimity mean in the context of the history? It’s, in fact, concerned with the means to dispose of troubles including birth and death. In English dictionary, the word is explained in the following way: loftiness of spirit enabling one to bear trouble calmly. The loss of one’ s life is a philosophical problem, an important philosophical issue and a perpetual topic for philosophy and literature. Birth means where you are from and death means where you are going. Ji Kang’s answer to it is philosophical when he was to be executed to death. He put his art higher than his physical life as he regarded his Guangling Melody as the loftiest and noblest realization of his spiritual life. This answer would resound through the world. The reason for that is quite simple: all men are mortal. In my point of view, it’s so big a regret that Ji Kang didn’t make the ultimate answer to it since he couldn’t know where he was from before he made the answer to where he was going. But the magnanimity in his death will make every reader of the book reflect and find his own answer. God bless you! |
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