Posts written by Bill M. Mak

In 1986 the Taiwanese published the 18th-century Chinese encyclopedia “Complete Library of the Four Treasuries,” the Siku quanshu 四庫全書, in a set of 1500 volumes, arguably the largest single collection of books in human history. After its completion, copies were distributed to the seven imperial libraries across China in 1725. Needless to say they were considered the greatest treasures of the Chinese civilisation. Sadly, throughout the 19th century, three copies were destroyed during invasion by the British, the Franco-British force, and the “Eight-nation alliance”; one copy was destroyed by the Taiping Rebellion, whose leader famously claimed to be a brother of Jesus Christ. After the founding of the Republic of China in 1911, the three remaining copies were briefly reunited in Peking and talks began to produce copies of the work. Eventually one copy fell into the hands of the Japanese invader in Manchuria, and the another captured by the Russian before the end of WWII. Imagine the anxiety of the Chinese people seeing their treasures being destroyed and pillaged one after another!

After the defeat of the nationalist one copy was brought to Taiwan and the other two eventually were returned to Peking. After overcoming many difficulties with smaller attempts for decades, the Commercial Press finally succeeded in publishing the 1500 volumes, considered a fixture of all the great libraries around the world for decades. That is of course digitalisation took over.

The digital version still has many problems and the printed version is still essential to serious researchers. No respectable libraries today would be without a set though I can certainly imagine library modernisers disagree. I am so happy to see here at the Needham Research Institute here in Cambridge, the K.P. Tin Hall has four walls completely filled with the “Four Treasuries,” along with the Buddhist and Daoist canons.

Last class of my “Introduction to Buddhism” course. It was a great opportunity for me personally to refresh my reading and understanding of the Great Buddhist texts in Chinese: Prajñāpāramitā 般若, Diamond Sutra 金剛, Lotus Sutra 法華, Vimalakīrtinirdeśa Sutra 維摩詰, and above all, Avataṃsaka Sutra 華嚴. The cosmography and cosmology of the last Mahāyāna text are absolutely fantastic. No wonder so many Chinese intellectuals were fascinated by this work throughout the past 1500 years. But what is truly beautiful about the text is not just the fantastic description of the different worlds or galaxies, numerous like sands of Ganges, with different lifeforms and sentient beings, but the teaching of unconditional empathy, altruism, and an equanimous form of wisdom – to understand that everyone is at their own stage of development and by helping and nurturing others in a skilful way, one grows also in true Buddhist wisdom.

Most people, even Buddhist scholars I know, have never read through these important sutras. They are laborious to go through. I think those who are fluent in classical Chinese have a distinct advantage. Most of the early Mahāyāna Buddhist texts survive in their entirety only in Chinese. Moreover. once this linguistic skill is developed, the students can absorb an exceptional large body of knowledge in relatively short time. Perhaps it’s useful to read also the Tibetan version. But the next thing I hope to do with the students is to read these sutras in Sanskrit with them.

劍橋河畔，風景甚美，周邊長著不少柳樹，白臉牛喜歡蔭下乘涼，有時單獨歇息，有時三兩成群，是當地頗有特色的景觀。疫情高峰過後，城市解封，每逢陽光普照的日子，不管週末還是平日，草坪上都擠滿年輕人，熱鬧喧嘩。河裡小舟穿梭，游客濺起水花，讓我想起李約瑟年輕時酷愛劍河裸泳的描述，聽友人說當地的裸泳協會尚在，就在Granchester果園附近，與當時李氏加入的Cambridge Gymnosophia Society是否同一組織則不得知曉。月前疫情嚴峻，季春乍暖還寒，遊人稀疏，跟現在的景象形成強烈的對比。昨天跟英國友人散步，聊的都是無聊雜事，但既有趣，亦長知識。

為什麼牛可以隨便放在公眾地方裡？原來英國城鄉各有不同規例，自古以來養牛人可以在公地放牧，而公地的定義則各處不同。偏遠的地方到處都是公地，牛隻走到公路邊吃草，不造成滋擾也就無人理會。李所藏書中有一部介紹劍橋郡風俗的著作，裡面提到不少有關牛的趣事。至於劍橋的牛，看似很隨便，其實規條眾多。像Lammas Land過去就是容許放牧的公地，現在不少分割開來的地都屬於私有，但法例規定擁有者不可以把地完全封起來，如1965年的Commons Registration Act，基本上在過去公用土地的傳統原則上發展。有些容許放牧，有些不容許。所以從一塊地往另一塊地走，不少欄閘，有金屬的，也有木製的，沒有規範。有些地主喜歡讓牛進來吃草，省了除草的活。牛不怕人，人也不怕牛。不過還是遠看為妙，近看會發現白臉牛滿臉唾液和蒼蠅。偶爾看見一男子彎著柳枝，讓牛吃柳葉。

原來柳樹品種繁多，有些對牛好些，有些不好。大概牛本身對某些品種特別喜愛。偶爾樹林傳來雜響，咔的一聲柳枝亂散，頗為驚人。一些品種五月開始長柳絮，就像劉義慶在《世說新語》所說「白雪紛紛何所似」一樣。不過「未若柳絮因風起」對很多當地人來說並不是詩情畫意的景象。其實這種景象在國內一些地方也會碰見，不過第一次碰見還是頗為震撼。據說滿天的棉絮不一定來自柳樹，但是我看見的柳樹確實長著棉絮。友人提醒我花序英語為catkin，字典說來自中古荷蘭語kattekan，意為「小貓」，大概因為形像小貓毛茸茸的尾巴。不過不是所有花序都帶毛，像牛吃的柳樹就應該是沒毛的品種。

騎自行車，碰到滿臉白毛，想起該戴口罩。說到口罩，在英國是件傷心事。新聞報導英國自武漢疫情爆發，年初以來排華事件飆升，幾乎每天就有兩三宗案件，是過去的一倍。其中不少涉及到口罩。曾經跟友人談論這個事情，最終感覺大家不能容納對方觀點，還是不談為妙，免傷感情。問題是什麼呢？華人戴口罩遭到街頭唾罵甚至虐打的情況已經不屬於個別事件。曾經觀看日語媒體，日本專家給英國人留學的日本學生建議，叫他們千萬不要戴口罩，以免遭受人身攻擊。中文媒體倒沒用聽過這種言論。三月在劍橋大學一學院參加會議，坐在後方的日本年輕學者，不斷咳嗽又不帶口罩，讓我坐立不安。詭異之處就是日本人在日本的話，這種情況實在難以想像。封城前一天我去了倫敦，列車上見一白領族，很明顯大感冒了。我坐在對面，於是馬上移走。遠看他不斷咳嗽和打噴嚏，不戴口罩就不容說了，就連噴鼻時也不轉臉，但卻不斷揉手塗擦消毒液。當時英國疫情尚未爆發，但我心想不妙，這回英國就像香港十多年前一樣，要接受一場痛苦的教訓了。英國面對疫情過分自信，首相連環宣布各種科學對策，智囊意見零散不一，理論和執行上存在大量漏洞，最後首相連自己也感染了，而英國亦成為歐洲重災區。而口罩這事情，英政府一直搖擺不定，官民雙方甚至出現不少反對使用口罩的言論。現在這些言論大部分消失了，大概一些人不用官方或主流媒體灌輸也自己醒覺起來。不過，總的來說，大家對華人一般配戴的醫學口罩還是比較抗拒，原因是認為醫學口罩供應有限，該供醫護人員專用。現在呼籲全民保護NHS，戴上醫學口罩就有壟斷醫療物資之嫌。前週一公車路過，看見司機戴上「毒氣面具」。早上碰到一緩步客，頭蓋滑雪用臉罩，只露眼睛，像個恐怖份子，相當嚇人。儘管是罕見個例，但說明了大眾對口罩的迷思。至於我呢，戶外可以不戴，但戶內還是戴著。本地人忘了，外地人在英國沒有免費醫保。萬一得病，非同小可。遭歧視與否，已經不再是考慮因素。

回到牛和柳，想到漢語裡「牛柳」這個古怪詞。「牛柳」故名思議是柳條狀的牛肉，是牛的里脊，即英語tenderloin，而非把牛肉切成柳條。「牛柳」一詞何時出現，不得知曉。為什麼說起牛柳呢？友人告之，可愛的白臉牛偶爾也在當地餐廳的菜排出現。茹素的我，覺得牛在柳下乘涼挺好的。牛也可以吃柳，但我不吃牛柳！