Under the Radar
When foreigners make their lists of what to see and do in China, it’s a tough call. With historical overload rife in the middle kingdom, ancient sites and treasures are virtually a dime a dozen. And then there is Xi’an.
Possessing a historical pedigree that defies description, there is much underfoot in Xi’an. Standing high up in the massive downtown Bell Tower trying to make sense of it all on a dusty evening, I tried to imagine the city in its former incarnations, a city that once competed with ancient Rome and Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire as the world’s supreme metropolis.
Providing a backdrop to my musings was an over-enthusiastic tourist who pounded away on the large bell on the tower’s top floor, exhorting the gods to shower him with good fortune. Stretching out from each major point of the compass, a main road disappeared into the horizon. Four arterial routes, one tower hub – what could be more logical than creating easy access on an axis.
For all the places those four roads take visitors and the subsidiary reasons people visit Xi’an: the finger of Sakyamuni, the city wall, and the foot of Lishan Mountain, we’re all really here to see one thing and one thing only. Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s (First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty, who lived from 259 B.C. to 210 B.C.) preparation for his journey into the next world.
They stand in honor of their departed emperor, now more than 2,000 years after his death, brick red guardians, each unique, each silent. The Terracotta Army has changed Xi’an irreversibly. Discovered by farmers in 1974, the cavernous main vault is home to more than 6,000 life-size pottery warriors, chariots and horses arranged as the main force in battle formation.
Another two vast vaults make up the flank force and military headquarters. It’s impressive. UNESCO thought so too, naming it a World Heritage Site in 1987. Today, it has spawned an industry like no other and put Xi’an firmly on every travelers map. As I walked over the sizable grounds around the vaults - I tried to block out the incessant blare of tour guide bull horns and the jostle of endless crowds - and thought about what must still lie below my feet.
My tour guide had told me that while thousands of historical sites and tombs have been excavated around Xi’an, many more remain unearthed. Cities built upon cities for over 3,000 years and through 13 dynasties meant what we are seeing here is in all probability just a sample of a much bigger picture.
When I look at Chinese culture, I find a similar situation, where individuals are given to keep a low profile, and we only get glimpses of the whole. The notion of staying among the crowd and doing nothing to be noticed goes back millennia and in a sense cleverly buries much in both the process of communication and in conveying any sign of success.
Taoist founder and influential thinker LaoTzu advocated the early retirement of people once they had achieved success, marking a smooth transition from fame to obscurity. As he writes in Tao Te Ching, or Classic of the Way and Virtue, “The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.” Understanding this, the insight of experiences cannot always be expressed. Much goes left unsaid. It’s a concept that gives way, in a philosophical sense, to a kind of vagueness that characterizes much of Chinese culture and is epitomized by a well-known local proverb that says, “The big tree is more easily blown down by the wind.”
Going about one’s daily affairs quietly and not attracting too much attention is probably a good way to ensure self-preservation, for whatever reason, and there are no doubt many. And it is for this reason one gets the impression that so much of Chinese culture lives under the radar.
What we see is a tip of the cultural iceberg, where things are implied but never directly stated and a smile or a “maybe” is often the answer to a question. The subtleties of flowing with this way of thinking takes some time to get used to as a foreigner, where so much of our thinking is based on “yes” or “no” answers.
There will always be mystery in what we cannot see and whether it’s yet to be discovered treasures or unfathomable cultural intricacies, in China there is much that remains below the surface.
** The writer is a South African working in Beijing
** Comments to [email protected]
Taoist founder and influential thinker Lao-Tzu advocated the early retirement of people once they had achieved success, marking a smooth transition from fame to obscurity.