Ancient Chinese Poetry and Chinese Calligraphy in Combatting COVID-19

Abstract

In the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, countries, regions and international organizations dispatched personal protective equipment (PPE) to frontline workers and afflicted people. Lines of ancient Chinese poetry were printed on the side of boxes dispatched by the People’s Republic of China both nationally and globally, as well as some sent from Japan to China. Many of these lines invoked shared histories and the long tradition of crosscultural communication and international friendship between China and other countries. But the printing of poetry was also motivated by a desire to remove people – albeit temporarily – from the context of COVID-19 suffering, to lead them to a more peaceful and harmonious world. The good will and friendship among people, as well as the common destiny of all humanity, is a recurrent theme. On the boxes of PPE sent to Wuhan, initially the most affected city, by the Chinese language academy (HSK) in Japan, eight Chinese characters read, ‘Mountain, River, Different, Areas / Wind, Moon, Same, Sky’ (Figure 1). The elemental and ethereal images, wind, moon and sky emblematize a lofty, magnanimous, and capacious mind, able to accommodate ‘ten thousand things’. These words were first embroidered on a thousand cassocks – on the orders of Japan’s Emperor Tenmu’s grandson Prince Nagaya (circa. 684–729) – and were sent to the Tang Dynasty court about 1300 years ago. After receiving them, the high monk Ganjin (Jianzhen 688–763), inspired by the gift, sailed to Japan to propagate Buddhism there. Invoking and rekindling this ancient memory of Japan reaching out – reiterating the gift – the HSK affirmed the long history of solidarity between the two nations. As the pandemic unfolded, China reciprocated the gift by sending PPE to Japan. China’s poem to Japan also affirmed their common heritage despite the distance separating them. The Tiantai Sect was founded during the Tang Dynasty and Japanese monks traveled to Tiantai to study, which led to them establishing the Tiantai Sect in Japan and instigating ongoing exchange. The Buddhist scholar Juzan’s lines allude to this history by using the metaphor of a tree’s blossom spreading its fragrance to two places (Figure 3). In the lines by Southern Song Dynasty poet, Zhang Xiaoxiang (Figure 7), printed on the PPE