嵐山

I went to Japan largely to help my wife to move to Tokyo. Before we leave Osaka, Vivian had a half-day off; we decided to pay a visit to Arashiyama (嵐山).

This was not the first time we came to this lovely town outside Kyoto, and we knew a bit the whereabouts. For that reason we deliberately avoided those well-known sight-seeing spots. After getting off the Hankyu Train (阪急電鉄) and passing the Cross Moon Bridge (渡月橋), we had a long walk to admire the red leaves.

After half an hour or so, we stopped at the Cool Temple (清凉寺) - Vivian was too excited to tell the story about the place with the same name in our own country, with a playful description in the all-time classic of Jin Yong (金庸) - The Deer and The Cauldron (鹿鼎記).

We found another small place nearby: the Garden of Two Buddhas (二尊院). There was, at the time, a small exhibition of some antiques, and we naturally took the advantage. Amongst all artistic work of Buddhism displayed, a piece of calligraphy caught my attention - it was not Japanese kanji (漢字), but genuine Chinese.

Vivian tried and read it, but was soon at a lost: like all traditional Chinese writings, there was no punctuation.

But I could understand it all right. The last sentence was all that attracted me. It said: 能言不能行,國之師也。

What a humorous twist of the traditional teaching by Xun Zi (荀子).

PS. The original saying was:
口能言之，身能行之，國寶也。
口不能言，身能行之，國器也。
口能言之，身不能行，國用也。
口言善，身行惡，國妖也。