沐浴

Although it might have been somewhat impulsive to plan the assassination of the Qin Emperor, we should not be too critical with Zhang Liang (張良).

For those who have little idea about Chinese philosophy or astrology, the life cycle of everything – from each individual living organism to an organization as a whole – consists of twelve stages, which form a circle of reincarnation. The first few stages are: growth (長生), bath (沐浴), mature (冠帶), honor (臨官), and climax (帝旺).

And, what is bath (沐浴)? It is a stage between growth and becoming mature – a period full of uncertainty and rebellion.  For bath is not bath; in ancient Chinese, it means the steam and vapor that just come out of the water and has not yet become the cloud. It has the potential of rising to a high level, but it is also fragile and unstable. A little hiccough may bring it back to where it originates from.

A necessary stage before one could go far.

PS. The subsequent stages are decline (衰), sickness (病), death (死), tomb (墓), extinction (絕), embryo (胎), and culture (養). Ironically, the extinction of a matter is, by definition, the growth of its mother (or, actually, the predecessor). This is the original meaning of seeing life at extinction (絕處逢生).