Rabindranath Tagore in China-Peking (contd-7)

Baron Stael Holstein was a Professor of Sanskrit in Peking University. He was the class-mate of Kshitimohan of the teacher of Gangadhar Sashtri of Banaras. Rabindranath visited his library with collection of pictures anf sculptures. Kshitimohan wrote to his wife, " Rabindranath too went there.. They were invited in a tea party in the house of English teacher Johnston of the king of China. He also saw many pictures, books and sculpture here. Kalidsa Nag wrote in his diary;
" In the afternoon we went to see a modern art exhibition where Rabindranath said a few words - they wanted to present some pictures - it was assumed."
It was eleven days more left for delivery of the lecture by Rabindranath arranged by  Peking Lecture Association. He passed this period in a beautiful guest house of Tsing Hua College situated on the bank of a nice lake at a distance of 10 miles from the city. The associates of Rabindranath went to visit some Institutions and some old museum.
On 29th April, Rabindranath was greeted in Tsin Hua College in a homely atmosphere.his lecture was published as a seventh lecture in Talks in China under the title " To Students at Tsing- Hua College, Peking". Addressing the students he said;
" I bless all of you being a senior persong than you.But he is envious upon them. In his childhood, he did not know the crossroad of thime when he was born. Now it is known to everybody. My question to you is this that how you will welcome this era.He has heard that they are materialists. They will not send their desire to any dreamland. If it be true, we must accept this fact and not try to fight against it. We must realize that this gift has been given to you and that out of it you can make your own contribution."
He can't imagine that a nation can prosper only with the help of materialist idea. Only to become materialist Sanghai or Tsing wil also be shaped in a odd manne as New York, London, Calcutta, Singapore, Hong kong  did. But every where in China there is no such scenery. A small shop at this place is looking beautiful
 with the touch of love in it. " Love gives beauty to everything it touches. Not greed and utility; they produce offices, but not dwelling houses.
But this emotional lecture was not appreciated by the Communist students. They also distributed some leaflets among the audience
In the Bauxer war some American property were damaged. These were again constructed with the chinese money. The syllabus of this university follows American way. The students here knows English better.
Rabindranath visited some damaged temple and delivered some lecture spontaneously. The students too had homely interaction with Rabindranath.
On 3rd May, in the evening the students of Tsing Hua College greeted Rabindranath.
    

Rabindranath Tagore in China - Peking (contd-6)

During the following years, Baron de Stael traveled widely and studied with the best oriental scholars in Germany, England and India.

He started his academic career in 1909 when he was appointed assistant professor of Sanskrit in the University of St. Petersburg and the member of the Russian Committee for the Exploration of Central and Eastern Asia. In 1912, he visited the US and lived in Harvard for some time to study Sanskrit.

He was in China when the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia broke out. The government of the new Estonian Republic, established in 1918 after the Versailles treaty, left him only a small part of his inherited estate. He then accepted an Estonian citizenship but remained in Beijing. With the recommendation of his friend Charles Eliot, the then principal of the University of Hong Kong, he was invited by Hu Shi to teach Sanskrit, Tibetan and History of Indian Religion in the Beijing University, as lecturer from 1918 to 1921 and as professor from 1922 to 1929. He helped set up the Sino-Indian Institute in Beijing in 1927. In 1928 he was a visiting scholar in Harvard, helping the Harvard-Yenching Institute to collect books. In 1932, he was selected an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of History and Philology (歷史語言研究所),

Rabindranath Tagore in China - Peking (contd-5)-1924

(The Temple of the Earth  in Beijing, China, is located in the northern part of central Beijing, around the Andingmen area and just outside of Beijing's second ring road. It is also located just a few hundred yards north of Yonghe Temple. At 42.7 hectares, it is the second largest of the four Temples of Beijing behind only the Temple of Heaven.It was built in 1530 during the Ming dynasty. Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasty dynasties would attend the annual summer solstice ritual of offerings to the heaven.Directly opposite it, at the other side of the city, is the Temple of Heaven in Chongwenmen, southern urban Beijing)
On April 28, in the afternoon at 3 PM, Rabindranath addressed 5 to 10 thousands people, most of them being students, from the dais 5ft high made by the King of China, named Temple of Earth. This was published in Talks of China [1924] - 6th lecture - titled To Scholars at the Temple of the Earth, Peking.
Here Rabindranath declared himself as a representative of Asia and urged emphatically, Once Asia liberated the people of the whole earth from its uncivilized state. Then came over a Dark Age, but nobody knows how it came. When the knocking of the door was started, we were not ready to welcome incoming Europe.They came not to exchange any wealth or property, they came to snatch away our wealth. We too could not face them as their match and approached them as a beggar at their doors.We are to get ourselves free from these weaknesses. Some persons think that we should imitate West, but he is not of the same opinion.Because it is not easy for the east to follow the temperament of the west.
" The West is becoming demoralized through being the exploiter, through tasting of the fruits of exploitation  - Physical power is not the strongest in the end. That power destroys itself . Machine guns and bomb dropping aeroplanes crush living men under them, and the west is sinking to its dust." We should not participate this competition of selfishness, or barbarism. 
When Rabindranath was delivering his lecture a group of young men was seen to distribute pamphlets among the audience. The same thing also happened in Nanking. On 24th April, Elmhirst wrote to Rathindranath, " There was an organised opposition at Nanking which produced pamphlets criticising Gurudev's attitude on pacifism, to militarism, industrialism and and the spiritual life."  

Rabindtranath Tagore in China- Peking (contd-4)

On 27th April, Rabindranath with his party started for the Forbidden City to the dethroned king of China. In 1911 when China became Repubilic the six year old King Puyee of Manchu dynasty was removed from the power and kept under confinement.  An English  home tutor named Rejinald Jonston was appointed for him. He gave him the name Henry.For that he was known as ex-king Henry Puyee.  This learned man took the initiative of inviting Rabindranath and his party.
It was about one mile from gate to the palace. They had arranged two well decorated sedan-chair, one for Rabindranath and the other for his twocompanion Grechen Green and Miss Phyllis Lin. The rest of his company went by foot. Rabindranath offered his two female accompaniment lucky conchs as amemento. The rest too offered the king different gifts. The also offered Rabindranatha costly Budhists Statue and a trapistry.
In the evening the intellectuals of Peking offered a dinner to Rabindranath and his party in Navy Club. The learned persons like Liang Chi chao, Lin Chang Min and Fun Yuan Lian, Dr Hu Shi were present on the occasionMr. Lin in his Welcoming address said that they were not welcoming Rabindranath as a sageor Reformer. They took him as a great revolutionary poet. It is their bad luck that they could not come across his original works, still his poetry played an effective role to reconstruct the structure of their verses. " We cannot tell him how moved and touched we are by his presence.His appearance , his eyes, his deportment, his beard, his clothes - everything about him is poetic.He is in fact poetry itself . We hope our poet will give us strength, courage, and audacity. We hope that he will reveal to us the reality of truth, the beauty of moral courage and sacrifice. "
In reply to this welcoming address Rabindranath said;
" We try to find our own country even going to a foreign one and we see it in the surplus of the emotions of  the people of that country. Lin said that the Chinese literature is tied in old coverage - similarly, the literature of his country was bound by the classical Sanskrit literature  and was only approachable to a few learned persons.At the same time a folk literature for the illiterate villagers was circulated parallel amongst the local people. The writer of the classical literature usually collected their ingredients and inspiration from those literature. Those local languages was gradually changing without keeping any sample of it.
But some local dialect  gradually changed to  a higher level to give rise to literature.Here is Mr Kshitomohan Sen who always practiced   medievel period Indian Literature and capable of informing you about the omprovement of liture from the 13th to 16th century. He has come to know that literature with his help. and " I was amazed to discover how modern thy wer, how full of genuine and earnest feelimg of life and beauty. All true things are ever modern and can never become obsolete."
In this long speech he described nicely the nature and sources of his literature. He pointed out something new which he did not mention anywhere earlier.His attempt to read Dante, to translate Hyne from its original writings by knowing German language, the failure of reading Foust of Gette etc were only expressed in this lecture.His role in writing songs and literature were marked as revolutionary. Lastly he said with pride;
" Please donot think I am vain. I can judge myself  objectively and can openly express admiration for my own work, because I am modest. I donot hesitate to say that my songs have found their place in the heart of my land, along with her flowers that are never exhausted, and that the folk of the future, in days of joy or sorrow or festival, will have to sing them. This too is the work of a revolutionist."   

Rabindranath Tagore in China-Peking (contd-3)-1924

About thousand students of the National University, Normal University, and of different Govt.Colleges assembled in the auditorium of the National University to listen the lecture delivered by Rabindranath on 26th April in the afternoon Rabindranath came one  hour late because he went to attend a ceremony in Budhist temple. Liang Chi Chao ( Liang Qichao was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher, and reformist during the late Qing Dynasty and early Chinese Republic who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements) read the essay narrated by Rabindranath on the last day. Rabindranath emphatically said that a good number persons were against his visit to China 'because it might check your special modern enthusiasm for western progress and force. But he remarked with caution  that those who wanted to build their nation on the basis of material strength, they do not know the history of human civilization. The strength based only on materialism and those who  depended on that strength, they had  either been destroyed or remained in the dark. On the other hand, those who have mixed up their intellect with their physical strength and acquired the mechanical strength, they have understood that it is necessary to develop spiritual power simultaneously with the development of scientific discoveries. Otherwise, the material strength will reign over the human beings.Many have pointed out mentioning their weaknesses that they have to develop their mechanical strength to protect themselves.Rabindranath cited an example enunciating a translated version in English of a sloka from Manusangita."
 In many meetings of Rabindranath Tagore, the  Chinese youths mentioned him as a representative of a defeated country and cried shame on him.In this meeting, Rabindranath, admitting  this statement said;
" I am ready to accept weakness and insult and oppression of the body, but I will never acknowledge the defeat, the last insult, the utter ruin, of my spirit being conquered, so that I am made to lose my faith and purpose. My enemies may dominate and slay my body, but they cannot make me adopt their methods , or hate them.. The devil helps in the sphere in which he is master, but we must reject such aid to save our life from utter destruction . Seek righteousness even though success be lost."
This lecture delivered by Rabindranath had positive effect on the youths of the China. Elmhirst wrote;
" The scholars and literary men of the Renaissance Movement in Peking were a little sceptical about the poet's philosophy and were not quite sure whether in his enthusiasm for old China he would not be somewhat of a reactionary. His first talk to them has completely won their hearts and minds. They found that he had all the time been as  much of a reactionary in the field of letters , as any of them."
The lecture of Rabindranath was printed in Talks in China [1924] .                    

Rabindranath Tagore in China - Peking (contd -2)-1924

About fifty specially learned and dignified renowned persons greeted Rabindranath in Throne hall on 25th April,1924 and met with him in a tea party.Once in this Hall the King of China met the foreign ambassador in this hall. The President of Peking Lecturer Associaion Liang Qichaoin a long speech describing the old relations between the two countries India and China, he said; " The coming of Rabindranath Tagore will, I hope, mark the beginning of an important period of History.If  we can avail of this occasion to renew the intimate relationship which we had with India  and to establish a really constructive scheme of cooperation, then our welcome to Rabindranath Tagore will have real significance."

(Liang Qichao was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher, and reformist during the late Qing Dynasty and early Chinese Republic who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements.)
His speech was written earlier and was added as an introduction to
 " Talks In China"
In reply to the welcome address Rabindranath said, " For many centuries many scholarly persons from  our country me to China. But he has come here as a representative of the culture of the past and present of his country. In this changing situation the intermixing of the  cultures of two countries." Kalidas Nag wrote, " In reply to the welcome address Rabindranath replied with proper politeness, "I have come here to bind ties of the two countries with love - let the two oldest countries unite in spiritual bondness. I have come here  as a representative of our country to invite you - now my dream has been fulfilled."
On 26th April, Rabindranath was greeted in the flower gardenof Lailak of a old Budhist temple. He addressed the young Budhist here. This was described by Kalidas Nag in an essay titled " Rabindranath Tagore's Viswabharati Mission;
"The poet and his party were welcomed by the priests of Fa-yuan-ssu, one of thge oldest temples of Peking. Here under the little trees tagore addressed the priests and the members of the youngbMen's Budhist Association. The temple bell sounded its rich music and the poet also in his wonderfully musical voice expatiated on the deathless doctrine of"   maitri - universal love , like a budhist saint of yore. "
The lecture was printed in " Talks in China [1924] under the title At a Budhist Temple , Peking."
While attending the lunch offered by Anglo-American Association, he said mentioning the name of a person present in the lunch;
" Whenheheard me talk of the mission of co-operationand conciliation which I had in my heart, this man said that China was the one place where I would find good soil for the seed of ideals I had come to sow."          

Rabindranath Tagore in China - Peking (contd - 1)

After coming to Peking Rabindranath and his party get their accommodation in the Grand Hotel of Peking. Kshitimohan wrote his wife Kiranbala ;
" We have come to Peking on 23rd April and got our accommodation in the biggest hotel. we stayed there from 23rd to 25th April and on 26th April myself, Nanda Babu and Kalidas Babu left the Peking Hotel. Now we three are staying the house of a business man of Ceylon, Mr. Lethumal.Gurudev and Elmhirst left the hotel on 28th April and took rent of some rooms in a peaceful hotel. Fresh Euopean meals were available there. "
Rabindranath was taking rest in the hotel. Excepting some interview he had no work.
On 25th April, Rabindranath offered a lunch by Anglo-American Association in Grand Hotel des agons Lits at 12.30 PM. Rabindranath delivered his first lecture here addressing the public. The meeting was presided by the President of the Association, Sir Francis Aglen but he had given the responsibility of introducing Rabindranath to his previously known Dr. Jacob Gould Schurman. In reply to the introduction given by Dr. Jacob Rabindranath narrated his experience as a founder of an Institution and as a trans later of his poems and lyrics in English. He said  when he had gone to England he had in contact with some greatman of England and got their friendship.and " when I dropped in Japan on the way to America in 1916, I realized for the first time...the terrible suffering with which the whole world was afflicted . I saw in Japan the war trophies taken from China publicly exhibited ...I felt humiliatied in my own mind at this primitive and brutal perpetuation of the defeat of an enemy... Nationalism, therefore, seemed to me to be pure barbarism, based on pride, greed and lust for power, with wealth dominating the disease, and I shuddered when I saw the result." Having gone to Europe he received enough greetings after the WWI and he felt, " the nations of the West were looking for for some new ideal from the east which would reconstruct their civilisation on a better basis."  He created Viswabharati University with this ideal.