Empty Valley Orchid: Seeking Contemporary Chinese Hermits

Author: Bill Porter (USA)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Throughout Chinese history, there have always been people willing to spend their lives in the mountains: eating little, wearing ragged clothes, sleeping in thatched huts, tilling the highlands, speaking little, and leaving behind even fewer writings—only a few poems, one or two immortal formulas, and the like. The Chinese have long revered recluses, and no one has ever explained why, nor has anyone demanded an explanation. Recluses simply existed: outside the city walls, in the mountains, with a few lonely cooking smoke wisps drifting after snowfall. China has had recluses since the dawn of its written records. They are disconnected from the times but not from the seasons; they abandon the plains for the mist and clouds of the high mountains; they have a long history yet remain obscure; they have nurtured the roots of spiritual life and are the most respected people in one of the world's oldest societies. The Solitary Orchid is a "journey of seeking recluses" written by the American sinologist Bill Porter about China. Through his personal visits to modern Chinese recluses living in places like Mount Zhongnanshan in the 1980s and 1990s, he explores the origins and development of Chinese reclusional culture and tradition, contrasting it with the present state of his interviews. The book expresses his profound admiration and longing for traditional Chinese culture, as well as his nostalgia, and writes about the hope he sees for China's future development. Although it is a "journey of seeking recluses," the style of the book is not somber. Even when describing a withered old tree, Bill ensures the reader also sees the tender buds on its gnarled branches. The language of the book is as elegant as white writing, full of vitality and, and interspersed with American-style humor that often makes readers smile. Therefore, to be precise, this is a "journey of hope" for the revival of traditional Chinese culture. Among the dozens of illustrations in the book, the landscapes are exceptionally beautiful, leaving one in awe. Some were shot by the renowned American photographer Stephen R. Johnson at great personal risk.