The world of Tzu Chi (Vol.107)

56 2019 • 02 Serene Reflection Between Master Cheng Yen and Mr Bo Yang & Mr Tong Tekong on Love as Clear as Water March 26, 1990 Mr Bo Yang: I have been looking forward to meeting you, Master. I admire you greatly. On the way here, a gentleman sitting beside me on the train, Mr Hsiao, asked me why I travelled such a long way to visit Tzu Chi. I replied, “It is not far for me. There are others who have travelled from farther away: Professor Tang came from NewYork, Dr Lee came from Brazil, Mr Lin came from Canada…” Your town, Hualien, radiates light and warmth, which has spread to Taipei, then to the entire island of Taiwan, and now even to the whole world. We had always hoped that people like you, and feats like yours, would appear in our society. Master Cheng Yen: Actually, I am just an ordinary person doing my share. Everything that Tzu Chi has done is the combined effort and dedication of many people. It is not just my doing. Mr Bo Yang: I am very sorry for coming here so late. It may seem like this late visit is superfluous, but in fact we simply found out about Tzu Chi just recently. Thanks to Mr Kao, we are able to be here. Although late, we are earnest and sincere. Master, you consider yourself ordinary, but I think what the world needs most is ordinary people like you. I ammuch older than you, Master, and have seen many big Question & Answer Mr Bo Yang, whose given name is Guo Yidong, also uses the pen name, Deng Kebao. He graduated from Northeast University in China. In his early years, he founded the Dadong Daily News in the city of Shenyang and was an assistant professor at Liaodong College of Humanities and Law. After he came to Taiwan, he taught at the National Cheng Kung University and National Taiwan University of the Arts, among others. Mr Bo Yang started his career writing novels and essays. His recent work on Chinese history is especially unique and distinguished. He has authored more than 40 books, including “A Foreign Place”, “A History of the Chinese People”, and “The Golden Triangle, Border Region, the Abandoned Region”. He also translated the classical book “Zizhi Tongjian” into modern-day language and released it as monthly booklets. Titled “Zizhi Tongjian, the Bo Yang Edition”, it attracted much attention after it was published in book form. Professor Tong graduated from China’s National Central University and holds a Doctoral Degree in History from Columbia University. He authored “A Study of Verbal Chinese History” while at Columbia University, and is presently the Dean of the Department of Asian Studies at City University of New York. His published books include “A Memoir of Hu Shih”, which was about the famous Chinese scholar, “A Dictated Autobiography of Hu Shih”, and “Dust at the End of the 1950s”, among other subjects. Professor Tong is widely known both in Taiwan and abroad; he is also an authority on modern Chinese history, as well as the classic Chinese novel “Dream of the Red Chamber”.