Exploring Confucianism With Di and Sei

Day 1

The first day of my journey dawns cold and bitter. I wrap some cloth around myself and get onto my mule. She will carry my supplies. I start up the path and the wind becomes worse. My eyes begin to water, and I squint against the cold. This is how most days are during winter in this region. I expect they will be worse in the mountains. No matter, I have brought lots of cloth with me. I think I will be fine.

Around midday, I arrive at a small hut. I decide to ask if I can stay a while; I am very hungry and cold. When I knock on the door, it creaks. These people must be even poorer than I. I begin to feel kind of embarrassed that I would ask them for help. They obviously would not help me. Just as I begin to walk away, the door opens. An old man answers.

“Hello?” he says.

“Hello,” I answer, “I am looking for a place to warm myself.”

“Come in, come in, my friend,” he says with a smile.

I step into the house and immediately smell incense. It’s rather comforting, even though I’m not religious. The old man, named Di, introduces me to his wife, Sei. They tell me they are Taoist and explain to me that they burn incense as an offering. The couple do a good job of making their small house seem cosy. We sit down to a lovely lunch of dumplings (made by them), meat, and rice (made by me). When I am done, I thank them, but tell them I need to go on my way. They smile and tell me they hope they will see me again. I doubt it, but I tell them I hope I will too. I swing my legs over my mule and I am off. The sun shines, watery through the clouds, warming me up a little bit at least, but only enough to take my outermost layer of shawls off. By sunset, I have to put them on again, but at least I am in sight of a monastery where I might have dinner.

The monks are friendly and also are Taoist. They nod and smile at me as I share some of my rice with them. After dinner, I participate in a meaningful prayer session by candlelight. The monks bow their heads and chant to a strange and beautiful rhythm, the perfect lullaby.