Since ancient times the Chinese have had a strong relationship with the moon. The regular cycles have always been used as the basis for a calendar. The Chinese use the lunar calendar, called 陰曆Yīnlì that is based on the moon’s movement around the Earth. Each cycle takes about 29~30 days, so 12 months of the lunar calendar are 354 days of the year. The word for moon is月亮Yuèliàng, a lunar cycle is 一個月 Yī gè yuè “monthly.” In every-day language, many words are made up with the character月yuè:
- 月 票 Yuèpiào monthly bus or train ticket...
- 月 薪 Yuèxīn monthly wage
- 月 曆Yuèlì the calendar
The moon is the first celestial body we
encounter after leaving the Earth. It is the closest to us but it is still
“alien”. The light of the moon is inspiration to poets, 千江有水千江月 Qiānjiāng yǒu shuǐ qiānjiāng yuè "The water of a thousand rivers reflect just
as thousand moons ". This is a proverb, which refers to the fact that a
clear mind can be as brilliant as the light of the moon.
The mind can be misled. It can become
blind and deaf if it does not see or hear through the heart. Only the heart is
capable of loving and protecting. The mind can make us suffer without us
realising if it is not connected to the heart. If it is in a state of
unconsciousness, the mind can “lie” to us. If however the mind is clear, we are
able to see past our misconceptions and prejudices, or even past our limits.
This leads to a deep understanding of
ourselves and a deeper “consciousness” and we perceive the beautiful moon in
our hearts, that each of us, in our own small, can reflect just as thousand
moons on the waters.
©兒童手搏文創Kids Shou Bo
Arte Cultura & Saggezza Cinese
Elaborated by M°Dante Basili /M°Stefano Danesi Translated by Neil Berry
Arte Cultura & Saggezza Cinese
Elaborated by M°Dante Basili /M°Stefano Danesi Translated by Neil Berry
Pictographic style seals in bronze: beautiful and achingly ancient! From
the top and from right to left we see: top right 千 Thousand, below
this 江 River, at the bottom 有to Have; top centre, larger than the others to stress the nature and the
importance 水 Water, centre, once again 千 Thousand and below once again 江 River; the
whole left side is taken up with 月, a beautiful
moon. — Minhua Lin
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