Politics at the Pagoda

On Saturday, we went to the Big Goose Pagoda, which is one of the main tourist attractions in downtown Xi’an. Like the Great Mosque, it was built during the Tang dynasty. In 1556 there was an earthquake that damaged it, but seven floors are still surviving, and we climbed all the way to the top!  Why, you may ask, is it called the Big Goose Pagoda? As the story goes, there was a Buddhist monk in India who was starving one day and prayed to the Bodhisattva. Immediately a goose fell from the sky in front of him. The monk took this to be a sign that he should not worry about temporal needs, but spirituality. He built a pagoda over the spot where the goose landed. So the original Goose Pagoda was in ancient India. When the famous Chinese monk Xuanzang made a pilgrimage to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures (described in the Ming dynasty novel Journey to the West), he visited the Goose Pagoda. Xuanzang brought Buddhism back to China, and in his honor they built the Big Goose Pagoda in Xi’an.

Appropriately, next to the Pagoda is a Buddhist temple, the Da Ci’En temple. It was beautiful.

We stopped to rest on a bench in the garden outside the temple, and one of the monks, dressed in the typical golden garb, struck up a conversation with  me. Somehow, our conversation turned to international politics. The Chinese people, he told me, are always scolding Americans for bullying other countries. Like Iraq, he suggested. The Chinese were unhappy when the Americans hanged him.

“But he was a bad man!” I protested. “He killed so many people!”

“But that’s their own national business,” he said. “America shouldn’t worry about other countries.”

“We need to help other people, though! Iraqis are people, too!” I said.

“We think that you are not really worried about helping Iraq, but that you have selfish motives.”

“Some people do just want to make money, but some people really do want to help!” I insisted.

“Well, we think you are not helping. We Chinese are always scolding America for bullying other countries.”

The conversation wandered from politics to me teaching English lessons, and then eventually we went our separate ways. I couldn’t stop thinking about our conversation, though. Everything he told me was exactly what the Chinese government has been saying for years. And everything I told him was exactly what the American government has been saying for years. Was my argument really superior? What do I really believe? Do I really think that I have a responsibility to help someone half-way across the world? Obviously, yes. That’s why I came to China.

And I don’t think this idea of altruism is purely a byproduct of my  Western heritage. Take the famous Chinese philosopher, Mozi (fifth century BC), for example. He was a big proponent of “universal love.” He believed that if everyone treated everyone with equal love, everyone would benefit. Addressing the traditional virtue of filial piety (loyalty to one’s parents), he asked, “Now if I am a filial son, how do I go about accomplishing this? Do I first make it a point to love and benefit other men’s parents, so that they in return will love and benefit my parents? Or do I first make it a point to hate and injure other men’s parents so that they in return will hate and injure my parents?” Mozi’s philosophy of universal love eventually surrendered to Confucianism, which emphasizes love and loyalty only within properly established, hierarchal relationships. I think that Confucius’ emphasis on family relationships is wonderful, but I also think that his theory is utterly useless for those who have no family, or who fall outside of the five basic relationships. I think it is vital that we love our family members, but equally vital that we love enemies and strangers. Easier said than done, I know.

So what am I arguing here? I’m not sure. I’m NOT suggesting that America invades third-world countries and “fixes” all their problems with our “superior” culture and technology and democracy. Maybe it really is none of America’s business what happens in Iraq. But it definitely is MY business to love all God’s children.

On an entirely separate note, Happy Belated Mothers’ Day!! Working with these adorable orphans has taught me how important it is for children to be born into families. Families are a great design—children are born with at least two people who are (or at least should be) permanently, emotionally invested in their well-being. I think every kid deserves that. So thanks for keeping our family healthy and happy, Mom!