THE LAND OF PEACH BLOOM 



CHARLES KLIENE, f.k.g.s. 



Introduction. — The story itself is told in true Confucian 

 style, and the ''Land of Peach Bloom" is just such a land 

 as the Confucian poets and scholars would make it. The 

 scenes follow in easy succession and the contrasts are very 

 striking. But the land as a place, like the fabulous island of 

 Utopia described by Sir Thomas More, is only to be found in 

 dreams. Taking the story as an allegory, pointing to a 

 condition of society in which men can dwell in peace and 

 concord by co-operating with each other for the common 

 weal, and upholding the principles of liberty, equality and 

 fraternity, it presents an ideal perfectly legitimate to aspire 

 to; at the same time it teaches some important lessons. In 

 the "Land of Peach Bloom," however, we are told there are 

 no evil-doers, and unrighteousness has no place. That is a 

 state of perfection which mortals can never hope to attain to. 

 To exclude evil altogether from our midst is more than we 

 can do; and since perfection is beyond the limit of the round 

 of mortal things, the utmost we can strive for is to* reach the 

 stage of the least imperfect. A Chinese thinker with a 

 metaphysical mind once said to me "we are here not so 

 much to suppress that which is evil as to practice that which 

 is good; let us not concern ourselves with the evil, for if all 

 be good there can be no evil." That seems to me to be only 

 suggesting another road to the "Land of Peach Bloom." 



Chinese ontology is founded on the philosophy of the 

 Yin and Yang, or the Dual Principles of Nature; the same 

 inevitable dualism which Emerson says "bisects" nature, 

 and which is very tersely illustrated by the Chinese proverb 

 which asserts that every stick has two ends. Good and evil 

 are like the opposite ends of the stick ; with our limited vision 

 it is impossible for us to see how the one shall be cut off while 

 the other alone shall remain. 



In the end the fisherman loses his abode of perfection, 

 his paradise nevermore to be regained. This shows how vain 



Mlead before the Society, 17th January, 1919. 



