Eric's Beijing Diary

Beautiful day today. It was a perfect day for riding my bike down to Houhai Park. Instead, I took the subway to Dongzhimen, because I wanted to go to the Bookworm and pick up a book that is not available in China. Seems like a lot of trouble to go all the way across town to get one book, but I have heard a lot about it, and it's a pain to try to order it from the States. It's called Mr. China, and concerns the efforts of an Englishman, a Chinese businessman, and a Wall Street banker to finance businesses in China. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Abraham Lincoln said, "My best friend is the man who can find me a book I ain't read." I understand how he feels. I have always liked to read. This past summer, I have mainly been reading two books. The first is called Battle Hymn of China, by Agnes Smedley. I won't say anything about that one, because I have already written a book review for Amazon. The other one is War and Peace by Tolstoy. I have been reading War and Peace for almost a year. And I must have mentioned something about it when I first started, because there's this one guy at the English Corner who is always asking me how it's going.

Well, it's not going very quickly. I have so much other stuff to read. But it's just one of those things I have wanted to do for sometime, and I don't really need to be in a hurry. Besides, I feel a little undernourished if I stay away from Russian literature for too long. I am, of course, very interested in history, but I am not usually a reader of novels. I don't like novels, because I find myself constantly second-guessing the author. But Tolstoy is an exception. The historical novels of Tolstoy give you a feel for the tenor of the period like nothing else can. And his characterization is incomparable. Shakespeare characters are bold and intense, but the players on Tolstoy's stage possess a depth and richness of character that is unmatched by any other fiction writer. Consider a brief example:

She roused herself, and felt appalled at what she had been thinking, and before going down she went into the room where the icons hung, and, her eyes fixed on the dark face of a large icon of the Saviour lit up by a lamp, she stood before it with folded hands for a few moments. A painful doubt filled her soul. Could the joy of love, of earthly love for a man, be for her? In her thoughts of marriage Princess Mary dreamed of happiness and of children, but her strongest most deeply-hidden longing was for earthly love. The more she tried to hide this feeling from others and even from herself, the stronger it grew. 'O God,' she said, 'how am I to stifle in my heart these temptations of the devil? How am I to renounce for ever these vile fancies, so as peacefully to fulfill Thy will? And scarely had she put that question than God gave her the answer in her own heart. 'Desire nothing for thyself, seek nothing, be not anxious or envious. Man's future and thy own fate must remain hidden from thee but live so that thou mayest be ready for anything. If it be God's will to prove thee in the duties of marriage, be ready to fulfill His will.' With this consoling thought (but yet with a hope for the fulfillment of her forbidden earthly longings) Princess Mary sighed, and having crossed herself went down, thinking neither of her gown and coiffure nor of how she would go in nor of what she would say. What could all that matter in comparison with the will of God, without Whose care not a hair of man's head can fall?

Putting them it together, though, is a daunting task. This book has roughly 500 characters. I had hoped to finish it in a year, but the year is almost up, and I'm not even a fourth of the way through.

Speaking of books, a new book started today on Christian Classics. It is the story of Eric Liddel, who was the child of missionary parents in China, and became a missionary to China himself. In his youth, he was an Olympic runner, and gained some notoriety because of his refusal to compete on Sunday. I think it's going to be good.