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Buddhist, Confucian ideas evident in daily life and work in Taiwan
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“WHOM do you want to thank most today?” a young teacher asked her pupils — around 30 of whom I happened to meet on October 30 at Fo Guangshan in Kaohsiung, the best-known Buddhist site in Taiwan.
“Our bus driver,” one pupil answered. “We wouldn’t have come here without him.”
“Great,” said the teacher, encouragingly. “But wouldn’t you thank me as well?” she asked, smiling, with a strong hint.
“Thank you, teacher!” The pupils heaped praise on their teacher, who led them in learning how to be a san hao sheng — “three-good person” who says good words, does good deeds and has a good heart.
“Ah, I’m so glad to hear that. Thank you for allowing me to use my ‘privilege’ as your teacher (in asking for your praise),” the teacher said in a happy and humorous tone.
As I elbowed into the crowd of squatting pupils, I saw in their eyes a ray of innocence and gratitude as they listened attentively to their teacher, who seemed to be in her late 20s.
I saw the same ray of innocence and thankfulness in another group of Taiwanese pupils in New Taipei City on October 25, when I visited a ceramics museum. They were also led by a young female teacher on their way to the museum. As my friends and I stooped down to hug some of them and take pictures with them, their teacher asked them to say hello and to thank us — which they did.
In my limited life experience, I have seldom seen mainland minors learning to be such a san hao sheng. We do have our own version of san hao sheng on the mainland, which is a different story.
Our san hao sheng on the mainland mainly asks a student to be patriotic and altruistic, excellent in academic study, and physically healthy.
While these are desirable qualities, they lack the element of gratitude, which is the gist of the Taiwanese version of san hao sheng.
Educated to be thankful
In fact, given proper education, all children — be they on the mainland or in Taiwan — are likely to be thankful. No one is born to be unpleasant.
In a sense, Taiwan has done a far better job than the mainland in preserving Buddhist education, which in many ways meshes with traditional Confucian ideas of benevolence and thoughtfulness.
One easily feels the spread of Buddhist and Confucian ideas of thankfulness, thoughtfulness and benevolence in daily work and life in Taiwan.
When I visited the Palace Museum in Taipei City on October 23, I came across a special hall dedicated to children’s education in traditional Chinese culture.
There I also saw a guqin (a typical, plucked Confucian musical instrument with seven strings) and quietly asked the staff if I could go inside for a tour and play the instrument.
The two staff members, possibly in their late 50s, surprised me with a hearty welcome: “There are only two minutes to go before we close, but please do come in and enjoy!”
So my wife and I and our friend from Beijing sat down and played the guqin, facing a wall painting of an ancient Chinese playing the same instrument.
At the end of our brief recital and tour, we took a group picture with the staff. When I showed them the picture in our mobile phone, one lady exclaimed in joy: “Wow, you make me look so young!” By now, we had stayed in the hall well over two minutes.
If we visited a similar place on the mainland and there were two minutes to go before closing time, chances are we would be rejected, if not pushed away.
Confucianism is increasingly popular on China’s mainland and it’s heartening to see Confucius Institutes opening across the globe.
In daily life, though, we may have a lot to learn from our brothers and sisters across the Taiwan Strait.
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