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On "Crossing the River by Feeling the Stones"

2007/10/28 11:46:06

"Crossing the river by feeling for stones" has already become the catchphrase of some bored people, and even an excuse for the inane behavior caused by their own ignorance. But this saying has never been a universal truth applicable everywhere — and for the present, it's particularly harmful.

First, those who need to cross the river by feeling for stones are invariably the following types: 1. The barefoot — those without shoes. 2. Those being chased from behind with hackers after them, debtors, or those about to be captured by bandits as trophy consorts. 3. Male ape-men who lack bridge-building technology. 4. The blind — who need to grope around regardless of whether they're crossing a river or not, whether there are stones or not. 5. Those who've done something shameful and got thrown into the river by others. 6. Confucius-type males with one-track minds who, upon seeing a river, insist on groping and crossing regardless of whether there are stones. 7. Perverts with wandering hands who attempt to grope any stone-shaped object they encounter, regardless of whether it's in a river. 8. There are 3,680 more types — readers may continue listing.

Second, a river that can be crossed by feeling for stones is certainly not a great river. Don't believe it? Go try feeling around at Hukou Falls — there are certainly plenty of stones there. Furthermore, there must actually be stones in this river. If the river is all sand, or even if there are stones but they've all been flung to the banks or buried in sand, then even if there are stones, they can't be felt, or if you must feel them, you can only feel around on the bank — in any case, it has very little to do with actually crossing the river.

In a word, no god has ever decreed that crossing a river must involve feeling for stones. Sun Wukong can do a somersault and be across; Tu Xingsun can tunnel through the ground and be across; Moses can part the waters and walk across. And of course, someone could take a magical giant bun, throw it in the water, and have it instantly absorb all the water in the river, turning the bun into a magical giant cake, singing "Happy Birthday" all the way across.

Similarly, not all rivers in the world are for you to cross by feeling for stones. Some rivers — you can cross them any way you like, just not by feeling for stones.

Furthermore, it's not at all times and in all situations that one needs to cross the river by feeling for stones. If the ones crossing number 1.3 billion, why on earth should they feel for stones? Does crossing by feeling for stones come at no cost?

More importantly, not all rivers need to be crossed. Nobody is God. Whether there are stones in the river is one question, but the key is: on what grounds do you make others pay the cost of feeling for stones to cross the river? And who can guarantee that the other side of the river is a brave new world? Who can guarantee this won't happen: the oranges you're carrying will never be oranges again once they reach the other bank — you'll be eating bitter, astringent trifoliate oranges instead.

Anyone who promotes crossing the river by feeling for stones must first draw a pie — painting the world on the other bank in lotus-tongued beautiful terms. But a river that can be crossed by groping is certainly not a great river — it might even be just a stinky ditch. What kind of beauty is on the other side? Don't you have eyes to see? Could it be that precisely because you have no eyes, you need to grope?

Those without eyes are the ones who need to grope. Regarding groping, one of the most important expressions is "the blind men feeling the elephant."

Groping — sure, groping a few stones is fine. But what sees through the entire world is the eyes and the mind.

Groping corresponds to merely one of humanity's lower functions. Those who can only grope aren't human — at most they qualify as ape-men.

We don't need to cross any river by feeling for any stones. We can cross any river in the world — on the condition that our eyes tell us the other side truly is a brave new world. If eyes aren't enough, we still have telescopes; not enough — we can even use astronomical ones that see clear through the Milky Way.

We long ago stopped being barefoot. We're dressed to the nines. Even if we cross a river, we'll ride in luxury carriages and on fine horses across the rainbow over the river. Whoever wants to grope stones can go grope them. A mighty China must have mighty bearing. We are already a rising great power — what we need is a strategy that sees through everything. What we need is to use our own strategy to create a new world.

The world is ours to create — wherever we need the river, we'll redirect it there. The world is beneath our feet — the world is beneath the feet of mighty China.