Thammasat University students interested in China, art, history, folklore, sociology, soft power, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 9 May Zoom webinar on China’s Heritage through History: The Orchid Pavilion Gathering and Calligraphy.

The event, on Thursday, 9 May 2024 at 1pm Bangkok time, is presented by the Australian National University, Canberra.

The TU Library collection includes research about Chinese calligraphy.

Chinese calligraphy, the stylized artistic writing of Chinese characters, unites the languages spoken in China.

Because calligraphy is considered supreme among the visual arts in China, it sets the standard by which Chinese painting is judged.

As explained on the event website,

The art of collecting, reproducing, and reinterpreting the past has been an enduring force shaping cultural identity and political legitimacy in China. But who have been the key players in these ongoing processes of reconfigured pasts? What methods have they employed? And how have these practices shaped society at large? This talk, as part of my forthcoming book China’s Heritage through History, tackles these questions through the example of the Orchid Pavilion gathering in Shaoxing and its calligraphy art as one of the most renowned works in Chinese history. From Imperial to contemporary China, the talk explores the role of cultural reproductions of material past in shaping knowledge transmission and social transformation. These reproductions include the imitation of calligraphy, the construction and restoration of the physical site where the gathering first occurred, and the continuation of the cultural practice of literary gatherings. Together, these reproductions revive the ambience of the ancient literary and cultural world, preserving its physical presence and cultural imagination through historical re-enactment and cultural consumption. While once reserved for elites, these practices have become accessible to the broader public through modern approaches to digitisation, calligraphy festivals, public exhibitions, and the burgeoning heritage tourism industry.

The speaker will be Associate Professor Yujie Zhu of the Centre for Heritage and Museum Studies at the ANU.

His books, Heritage Tourism (2021) and Heritage Politics in China (2020), are available to TU students through the TU Library Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Service.

The Orchid Pavilion Gathering of 353 CE, also known as the Lanting Gathering, was a cultural and poetic event during the Jin dynasty (266–420) of the Six Dynasties era, in China.

This event was influential the development of landscape poetry.

The gathering at the Orchid Pavilion is also famous for the artistry of calligraphy that was inspired by it.

During the proceedings, Chinese poets participated in a drinking contest known as floating goblets.

Cups of rice wine cups were floated down a creek, with the poets seated along the banks of the creek.

Whenever a cup stopped, the poet seated closest to the cup was required to drink the wine and write a poem.

During this activity, twenty-six participants created thirty-seven poems.

The noted calligrapher Wang Xizhi wrote about the festivities:

Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion

by Wang Xizhi

It is the ninth year of Emperor Mu of Jin’s Yonghe era (20 Feb 353 – 8 Feb 354),

The year of the Yin Water Ox,

At the beginning of the third lunar month (after April 20, 353),

We are all gathered at the orchid pavilion in Shanyin County, Guiji Commandery,

For the Spring Purification Festival.

All of the prominent people have arrived,

From old to young.

This is an area of high mountains and lofty peaks,

With an exuberant growth of trees and bamboos,

It also has clear rushing water,

Reflecting the sunlight as it flows past either side of the pavilion.

The guests are seated side by side to play the drinking game where a wine cup is floated down the stream and the first person sitting in front of the cup when it stops must drink.

Although we lack the boisterousness of a live orchestra,

With a cup of wine here and a reciting of poetry there, it is sufficient to allow for a pleasant exchange of cordial conversations.

Today, the sky is bright and the air is clear,

With a gentle breeze that is blowing freely. When looking up, one can see the vastness of the heavens,

And when looking down, one can observe the abundance of things. The contentment of allowing one’s eyes to wander,

Is enough to reach the heights of delight for the sight and sound. What a joy.

Now all people live in this world together,

Some will take all of their aspirations, and share them in private with a friend;

Still others will abandon themselves to reckless pursuits.

Even though everyone makes different choices in life, some thoughtful and some rash,

When a person meets with delight, he will temporarily be pleased,

And will feel content, but he is not mindful that old age will soon overtake him.

Wait until that person becomes weary, or has a change of heart about something,

And will thus be filled with regrets.

The happiness of the past, in the blink of an eye,

Will have already become a distant memory, and this cannot but cause one to sigh;

In any case, the length of a man’s life is determined by the Creator, and we will all turn to dust in the end.

The ancients have said, “Birth and Death are both momentous occasions.”

Isn’t that sad!

Every time I consider the reasons for why the people of old had regrets,

I am always moved to sadness by their writings

And I can not explain why I am saddened.

I most certainly know that it is false and absurd to treat life and death as one and the same,

And it is equally absurd to think of dying at an old age as being the same as dying at a young age.

When future generations look back to my time, it will probably be similar to how I now think of the past.

What a shame! Therefore, when I list out the people that were here,

And record their musings, even though times and circumstances will change,

As for the things that we regret, they are the same.

For the people who read this in future generations, perhaps you will likewise be moved by these words.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)