There recently was a film that starred Jim Carrey that dealt with the almost mystical qualities of the number “23.” It was a thriller that led you down many paths that would eventually converge in a surprise ending. People the world over have always been fascinated by the number “13,” for example, it holds superstitious fascination to many people in the Western world. Other numbers have importance to people in the far East. The number “Eight” is one of those numbers. And so when the 29th Olympiad is scheduled to begin on the 8th day of the 8th month of the 8th year in the new century, there is no such thing as coincidence.
In Cantonese the number “Eight” sounds like “prosperity.” “Four” is not such a lucky number you wouldn’t want to see all “4’s” on the slip inside a fortune cookie. It’s no wonder then that the number “8″ appeared in that number sequence that kept haunting Hurley in the ABC series Lost.
This is an excerpt from the 1989 edition The Friendship Book of Francis Gay, published by D.C. Thompson and Company LTD. “The multi-petalled Chrysanthemum with its bright colors and evocative Autumn scent did not appear in Europe until the 18th Century, although it was known in China from the 5th Century B.C. There’s a nice story about its origin. A young Chinese girl was about to be married and she asked a wise man how long her marriage would last. He told her it would be as long as the number of petals on the flower she wore on her wedding day. Well, the girl searched everywhere, but she could not find flowers with more than five petals. Then, at last, she found one with 17, and with her hairpin she carefully divided each petal into two and then into two again. This became the first Chrysanthemum whose meaning in flower language is ‘long life and purity.’ The Chinese girl and her husband lived together happily for 68 years, the exact number of the Chrysanthemum petals.” My wife tells me our Chrysanthemums will be bountiful this years. It may have to do with all this rain we’ve been having.
I conclude my program tonight with this. It has been circulating in E-mail form for the past few weeks. My wife received it as well as pictures of the couple in her E-mail. Apparently it’s a true story, and one that has garnered a lot of attention while the world is focused on the Olympics. The story is a few years old and was one of the top ten love stories from China collected by China Women Weekly..
“An incredible love story of a man and an older woman has come out of China recently, and managed to touch the world. It is a story of a man and an older woman who ran off to live with each other and to love each other in peace for over half a century.
“The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand carved over 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife, passed away in the cave which had been the couple’s home for the last 50 years. Over 50 years ago, a 19-year-old boy fell in love with a 29-year-old widowed mother.. in a twist worthy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticised the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that she already had children. At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman. To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, they decided to elope and lived in a cave in a southern municipality. In the beginning, life was harsh as they had nothing-no electricity or even food. They had to eat grass and roots they found on the mountain, and had a kerosene lamp that they used for light. She felt that she had tied him down and repeatedly asked him, ‘Are you regretful?’ He always replied, ‘As long as we are industrious, life will improve.’
“In the second year of living on the mountain, he began to hand-carve the steps so that his wife could get down the mountain easily..this labour of love would continue for fifty years..
“Half a century later, in 2001, a group of adventurers were exploring the forest and were surprised to find the elderly couple and the over 6,000 hand-carved steps. One of their seven children said, ‘My parents loved each other so much, they lived in seclusion for over fifty years and were never apart a single day. He hand carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother’s convenience, although she doesn’t go down the mountain that much.’ The couple had lived in peace until the week before this story appeared. At the time he was 72-years old. He returned from his daily farm work -and collapsed. She sat and prayed with her husband as he passed away in her arms. So in love was he that no one was able to release the grip he had on his wife’s hand-even after he had passed away. ‘You promised me you’ll always take care of me, you’ll always be with me until the day I died; now, you left before me; how am I going to live without you?’ She spent days softly repeating this sentence, touching her husband’s black coffin, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“In 2006, their story became one of the top ten love stories from China, collected by The Chinese Women Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladder and the place they lived, as a museum, so this love story can live forever.”
I should have reconsidered my title of this blog. I should have named it “6,000-and Fifty.”
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Don Jackson
