Photo by Dominika Roseclay
The second chapter of the Han-era text called the “Yellow Emperor’s Simple Questions” discusses how one should live in the different seasons. The advice for Summer has a section that says,
“Go to rest late at night, and rise early. Never get enough of the sun. Let the mind have no anger. Stimulate beauty, and have your elegance perfected.”
It’s the last sentence that I want to focus on in this article.
Ancient and medieval commentators on this passage offer some insight into what it could mean to “stimulate beauty, and have your elegance perfected.” Several point out that the Chinese characters used in this passage can also denote the idea of blossoming and abundance.
There is an ancient Chinese Naturalist idea that we are microcosms of the Universe (I’m currently working on an article about this), and therefore the Seasons are merely one way of organizing the observable Universe – and our role during that time. For example, here in the Northern Hemisphere July and August is when much of our produce harvesting takes place – hence the “abundance.” The ancient Naturalists would then say since we are microcosms of the Universe – or reflections of the natural world – it is also a time for us to harvest ourselves. What does that mean?
Just as the passage says that our beauty/elegance should be perfected (i.e. blossomed and [hopefully] abundant) using terms that refer to character AND literal produce harvest–this is hinting that we should have had some character growth over the year thus far, and now it is time to take inventory. The goals, ideas, dreams that we sowed in Spring, are now matured and we need to reflect on what we learned, how far we’ve come, and how we grew (if at all).
My hope is that we each take the time to take stock of the past year thus far since Spring, and dig deep into the soil of our souls to see what’s there for us to harvest. Whether it was a character flaw we wanted to work on, a change in our social network, or a new job or chapter in life. Find something to point to, and say, “Yes–here is my abundant harvest!”
