Story of a Jade Freak

By Lin Qingxuan

A friend of mine was obsessed with antique Chinese jades. Anytime a premium-quality jade catches his fancy, he would do whatever it took to scoop it up. Unfortunately, not coming from a well-off family, he had to scrimp and save just to make those pricy purchases, causing endure about every miseries under the sun just to add another jade to “the collection,” so impacting his living standard.

One time, he caught sight of a white jade lion in an antique shop, which was reputedly, a fine Han Dynasty jade with intricate carvings and ornate detailing. It goes without saying that he burned with desire like an unquenchable fire and paid a visit to that shop every day just to gaze at it. His eyes blazed red at the sight of the jade lion, as if he was engulfed by a raging inferno. From then on, little attention was devoted to his job.

He was so eager to buy it, but the owner wouldn't let it go for a low price. He did however manage to procure it by selling his house, and he ended up living in a lowrent apartment.

The sight of the mint-condition white jade lion drove him into such a dither that he cuddled with it as he slept at night, fondled it constantly, gazed at it adoringly, carried it with him every time he went out, and brought it out to show off to his friends and acquaintances. Besides the jade lion, he carried several other of his precious jade objects on his person as well. A man with jade figurines popping out magically from his pockets, and jade ornaments adoring his wallet and belt must truly be a spectacular sight to behold.

As the master of jade, he was fully aware of the fact that a premium jade was a rarity indeed, and his infatuation was finely tuned to its preciousness and desirability. Eventually, he gave up his house and his car for the jades. If he weren't a bachelor he would pawn his own wife for jade. Eventually, he lost his house, car and job for his zest for jade. How so? All because he saw his job for nothing but a lowly and unworthy means to an end anyway.

He became as poor as a church mouse, with no company but the jades. Nevertheless, they were neither bread nor butter, so he was forced to sell the low-quality ones just to eke out a living. He told me that his asking price was many times lower than that of his paying price, but the buyers still found it much too expensive.我有一個朋友，愛玉成癡。

他不管在何時何地見到一塊好玉，總是想盡辦法要據為己有，偏偏他又不是很富有的人，因此在收藏玉的過程中，吃了許多苦頭，有時到了節衣縮食三餐不繼的地步。

有一回，他在一個古董商那里見到一個白玉獅子，據說是漢朝的，不論玉質、雕工全是第一流的。我的朋友愛不忍釋，工作也不太做了，每天都跑去看那塊玉，看到眼睛都發出紅火，人被一團火炙熱地燃燒。

他要買那塊玉，古董店的老板卻不賣，幾經折騰，最后，我的朋友犧牲了他所居住的房子，才買下了那個白玉獅子，自己卻租住在一個廉價的住宅區內。

他天天抱著白玉獅子睡覺，出門時也攜帶著，一遇到人就拿出來欣賞，一個人的時候，也常常撫摸那座潔白無瑕的獅子發呆。除了這座獅子，他身上總隨時帶著他最心愛的幾件收藏。有時候，感覺到一個男子從口袋里、腰帶間、皮包內隨時掏出幾塊玉來，真是不可思議的事。

他玩玉到了瘋狂的地步，由于愈玩愈精，就更發現好玉之難求。因為好玉難求，所以投入了全部的家當，幸好他是個單身漢，否則連老婆也會被他當了。到最后，他房子也賣了，車子也沒了，工作也丟了。為什么丟掉工作呢？說來簡單：“我要工作三年，才能買一件上好的玉，這樣的工作不做也罷了。”

朋友成為家徒四壁的人，每天陪伴他的只有玉了。后來不成了，因為玉不能吃，不能穿，只好把他最心愛的玉里等級比較差的賣給別人，每賣一件就落一次淚，說：“我買的時候是幾倍的價錢，現在這么便宜讓給別人，別人還嫌貴。”

Once, when it was time to pay the rent he was running dangerously short on funds. The landlord demanded that the rent should be paid immediately and flat-out, and refused to offer even a single day's extension, so he had no choice but to sacrifice his precious white jade lion. He said to the landlord, “I will give you this precious jade in good faith, but I want it back when I have the money.”

The landlord, knowing nothing about the value of jade, replied angrily, “What good is a lousy hunk of rock anyway? If it got broken accidentally who would care? Bring me the rent tomorrow, or you will sleep in the streets!”

For a jade collector, the white jade lion was priceless, and any valuable possessions would pale in comparison. But for those ignorant of its true value, this jade lion was nothing but a worthless piece of stone. My friend got all choked up, and tears rolled down his face as he related the story.

It reminded me of my visit to the jade exhibition in Taipei's National Palace Museum. There I came across a tour group from the countryside and found that several of them were staring at the renowned Jadeite Cabbage admiringly, discussing its price.

“Oh, it looks exactly like a real cabbage! Look, there's a cricket on top!” One woman shouted excitedly.

“It must worth thousands, it looks so real.” the other added.

“Thousands,” the one who seems to know what's what said scornfully, “Shows what you know, you dilettante, it's worth tens of thousands!”

When I recounted this funny experience to my friend, his tears dried up and burst into hearty laughter. Then I said to him earnestly, “There are millions upon millions of fine jades in the National Palace Museum, and undoubtedly, unbelievable effort has been put upon those small but rare curios by countless jade lovers. But a jade passes through the hands of numerous owners since no matter how much you love it, you can't take it with you to the other side. To a certain extent, when you can fully appreciate its beauty and value, it's like you owned it for a time, and it's not necessary to actually possess it. A line from theDiamond Sutrasays that a wise man treats the gold and the stone equally, which sums up the true philosophy of collecting jades.”

有一次，他租房子的房東逼著要房租，逼得急了，他一時也找不到錢，就把白玉獅子拿了出來，說：“這塊玉非常的名貴，先押在你這里，等我籌足了房錢，再把它贖回來。”

可惜他的房東是個老粗，對他說：“俺要你這臭石頭干什么，萬一不小心打破了還嫌煩呢。你明天找房錢來，不然我把你丟出去。”

朋友對我講這個故事的時候，泣不成聲。在癡愛者眼中的白玉獅子是無可比擬的，可以用房子去換取，然而在平常百姓的眼中，它再名貴，也只是一塊石頭。

有一次我在臺北故宮博物院看玉展，遇到了鄉下一個旅行團，幾個鄉下的歐巴桑看玉看得饒有興味，我湊過去，發現她們正圍著那個最有名的至寶“翠玉白菜”觀看，以下是她們對話的傳真：

“哇，真巧，雕得和真的白菜一模一樣，上面還有一只肚猴呢。”

“這個刻得那么像，一個大概值好幾千塊吧。”

一位看起來是權威人士的歐巴桑說：“你嘛好了，不識字又兼不衛生，什么好幾千，這一個一定要好幾萬才買得到。”

我把這個故事說給朋友聽，他因此破涕為笑，我說：“你看故宮博物院的好玉何止千萬塊，尤其是小品珍玩的部分，看起來就知道曾有一位愛玉的人在上面花下無數心血，可是他死的時候不能帶走一塊玉，我們現在看那些玉也不知道它曾經有過多少主人，對于玉，能夠欣賞的人就算擁有了，何必一定要抱在手里呢？佛經里說‘智者金石同一觀’，就是這個道理。

“愛玉固然是最清雅的嗜好，但一個人愛玉成癡，和玩股票不能自拔，和沉迷于逸樂又有什么不同呢？”

朋友后來徹底覺悟，雖然仍然喜歡玉，卻不再被玉所困，只是有時他拿出隨身的幾塊玉還會感慨起來。

物固然是足以困人，情更比物要厲害百倍。對于情的執迷，為情所困，就叫“癡”，癡是人世間的三毒之一（另外兩毒是貪與嗔），情困到了深處，則三毒俱現，先是癡迷，而后貪愛，最后是嗔恨以終。則情困是一切煩惱的根源，沒有比這個更厲害的了。

為情愛所系縛，為情愛所繭結，為情愛所迷惑、執染，幾乎是人間不可避免的，但當情愛已經消失的時候，自己還系縛繭結自己，自己還迷惑執著自己，這就是真正的情困。

“Collecting jades is an elegant hobby for sure. But when you're totally obsessed with it, then what's the difference between collecting jades, buying stocks, tossing it into a slot machine and overindulging in beer and skittles?”

My friend finally had an epiphany. Though still being a crazy jade freak, he made up his mind to never be trapped in the web of the jade again, even if waves of conflicting emotions welled up in his heart at the very site of them.

Certainly, any mere mortal can get caught up in collecting worldly possessions that bring them endless pleasure, but when the love for them becomes a ball and chain, that is when it borders on overwhelming, since the power of love has a much greater gravity than simple physical objects. “Delusion,” which refers to those who indulge in love and then are bound by it, is one of the three poisons in the mortal world (the other two are “greed” and “hatred”). If a person is trapped in love for a long time, the fatal poison of “delusion” will go straight to the heart. Initially, the individual becomes obsessed by the delusive love, and then he or she will desire to possess that love. But when the pursuit of love is in vain, he or she will die with anger and hatred. The tragedy happens when a person gets ensnared in the web of love, which would ferociously devour any ordinary man.

Granted, everyone has been bound by love at one time or another, but when stubbornly trying to recover lost love, one will ultimately be imprisoned in its web.

It was then that a question occurred to me, what qualities does a wise man have? Being of noble spiritual refinement, a wise man tends to appreciate the beauty of the clouds floating in the sky without trying to possess it. He is fully cognizant of the fact that the mortal world is fleeting, and one can count on nothing when growing old, as everything in this life, including romantic love and worldly objects are as empty as bubbles, they are nothing but a fantasy and an illusion.

A wise man is like fragrant flower, whose fragrance wafts leisurely along the warm spring breeze. When tracing the source, the pleasant aroma originates not from pedals, stems, stamens, roots, or leaves, but from the flower in its entirety. Those who are entangled by worldly possessions are intoxicated only by part of the flower of life. They do not cherish the flower in its entirety. He who fails to discover his true identity and consequently loses himself in the razzle-dazzle of the kaleidoscopic world is unable to see the forest for the trees and cannot claim to be a wise man.

For a wise man, it is meaningless to be concerned about how many worldly possessions or how much romantic love come their way. For them, the key is to gain new insights and wisdom from old things and past love, and to pass freely through the tunnel that connects the past and the future, the old and the new.

So, if caught in the web of love or worldly possessions, you should say to yourself: if I were an insect, the spiderweb would spell certain doom for me, even if it were made of gold thread. Sadly, the luster of the golden web traps up most all of us, and we seldom dare to break the web to discover our new and true self, and fly freely and carelessly under the blue and boundless sky.

(FromPurple Bodhi, China International Culture Press. Translation: Huang Mengyuan)

什么是第一流人物呢？古人說：“山中何所有？嶺上多白云。只可自怡悅，不堪持贈君。”倘能如此，自是第一流人物。

第一流的人物看白云雖是至美，卻不想擁有，只想心領神會，這是多么高的境界。當我們知道其實在今生今世，情如白駒過隙，物則是夢幻泡影，那么還有什么可以抱老以終的呢？

第一流人物猶如一株香花，我們不能說這株花是花瓣香，也不能說是花莖香；我們不能說是花蕊香，也不能說是花粉香；當然不能說是花根香，也不能說是花葉香……因為花是一個整體，當我們說花香時，是整株花的香。困于情物的人，往往只見到了自己那一株花里一小部分的香，忘失了那株花，到后來失去了自己，因此，這樣的人不能說是第一流人物。

第一流人物，不在于擁有多少物、多少情，而在于能不能在舊物里找到新的啟示，能不能在舊情里找到新的智慧，進出無礙。萬一不幸我們正在困局里，那么想一想：如果我是一只蛹，即使我的繭是由黃金打造的，又有什么用呢？如果我是一只蝶，身上色彩繽紛，可以自在地飛翔，則即使在野地的花間，也能夠快樂地生活，又哪里在乎小小的繭呢？

可嘆的是，大多數人舍不得咬破那個繭，所以永遠見不到真正的自我、真正的天空。

（摘自《紫色菩提》國際文化出版社）