I am writing to express my gratitude that you invited me and other fellows
to visit your loving tranquil home.
The moment I met my wife after leaving your home, I shared what I had seen
and enjoyed in your home to my wife. I believe that your house is an ideal one
for many of Chinese. It is place of calm and tranquility which brought me inner
peace; it is place of love and care which reminded me of my family’s bungalows
in my hometown and it is a place of culture and art which represent the your
scholarship. I equally believe that one’s home embodies his/her own distinctive
tastes, characteristics and values. In my mind, an intellectual’s home is just
like yours. “East or west, home is the best” and the best home brings us the
most beautiful things in the world – love, happiness and hope. On my way back
to Liverpool, it occurred to me a passage of a famous ancient Chinese essay
written by Liu Yuxi, a Chinese poet, philosopher, and essayist of Tang Dynasty.
The author used understatement to describe his house and his values. I would
like to share with you as follows:
山不在高，有仙则名。水不在深，有龙则灵。斯是陋室，惟吾德馨。苔痕上阶绿，草色入帘青。谈笑有鸿儒，往来无白丁。可以调素琴，阅金经。无丝竹之乱耳，无案牍之劳形。
A mount needs not be high; it becomes noted when on it fairies dwell. A
body of water needs not be deep; it would be ensouled, if a dragon makes it its
resting whereabouts. This hut of mine is a humble one, but I make it virtuously
fragrant in repute. The green moss creeping on the stepping stones and the
verdure in the courtyard peeing through the screen do tell the presence of
spring. Here could be heard the table-talks and laughters of renowned scholars,
but the rough and gross come not hither their wares to sell. Here plain
table-heptachord could be plucked and golden classics read the worldly cares to
quell. But there are without riotous strings and pipes to confuse the ears, and
tedious official documents to ring quietude’s knell.
The visit to your home is one of highlights of my stay in the UK and it
has influenced me on how to decorate my humble flat in Chengdu.
Meanwhile, I am writing to explain the meaning of Chinese calligraphy
works that we gave you yesterday. The four characters “上善若水” originatesfromTao Te Ching, now it has become a set phrase, which wastranslated by some scholars into “the highest good is like that of water”.I’vefound the English translation of the original sentence that the phrase comesfrom, which is as follows:
The highest good is like that of water. The goodness of water is that it
benefits the ten thousand creatures; yet itself does not scramble, but is
content with the places that all men disdain. 上善若水，水善利万物而不争。
I have attachedtwo files. One is a web page of one of the English versions ofTao Te
Ching, and the other one is group photo of us.
I really
appreciate what you have done for us and what you have taught to us. They have
become the beautiful memory at the bottom of heart, inspiring me on my new
journey.