The Goodness of the Human Heart

By Zeng Yin

My maternal grandfather was a blacksmith. He was a pure-hearted and hard-working man who did many good deeds throughout his life. My grandma told me that the first good thing he did was to install a large tea kettle in his little workshop. Every morning, he got up early to fire up the kettle and boil some water to make a batch of local aromatic tea plucked from the neighboring Red and White Mountain in Shifang County. Then he prepared some clean ceramic bowls so that the vegetable growers and porters could enjoy tea free of charge.

Actually it was a bit of an imposition to an impoverished laborer like my grandpa, but you may find his reasons for doing this surprising.

At the age of 20, my grandpa was sent down to the countryside to sell ironware door to door. Just imagine how a young twentysomething suffered in the burning heat, schlepping a heavy load on his back through the vast countryside; dying of thirst the whole way. Along the path he spotted a small compound and hurried there to beg for a cup of boiled water from the proprietor who just shook his head and replied there was none to give. My grandfather implored him indicating that any water would do, and that he desperately needed something to drink. An expression of disdain came over the man who replied in a curt tone, “Cold water needs to be carried and warm water needs to be boiled.No one is here to do either of those for you.”

我的外公是個鐵匠，一生勤勞、善良。外公一生做過很多好事。據外婆講，外公做的第一件好事，就是在他的小鐵匠鋪里安上一個茶桶，每天第一件事就是燒上大桶開水，泡上什邡紅白山上獨有的山茶，然后放幾個洗得干干凈凈的土碗，任那些趕集的菜農和挑夫們自取自飲。

這是一個貧窮的體力勞動者每天額外給自己增添的事。說起這件事的緣起，更是讓人震撼。

外公20多歲時下鄉去賣鐵器，挑著一擔沉重的鐵家伙走鄉串戶，天氣又熱，擔子又重，一時間口渴難忍。見前方路邊有一小院，于是上前求主人給他一碗開水。主人搖頭說沒有。他又求說，冷水也行。主人陰陽怪氣地說：“冷水要人挑，熱水要人燒，都沒有。”

這句話像釘子一樣釘進外公的心，讓他記了一輩子。贈人一杯茶水，不過是舉手之勞。但這家主人，卻連這舉手的善意，都不愿施予別人，還口出譏諷之語，可謂刻薄之極。

That remark pierced my grandfather straight to the heart, and he never forgot the incident. Giving a stranger a cup of tea takes almost no effort, yet this man, this, “lord of the manor,” couldn’t even be bothered to lift a finger to help;and to add insult to injury, his mocking and insulting tone made his words all the more cutting. It showed how cold and callous a person he truly was.

Different people react differently when suffering insult and indignity. There are two most typical responses:one is to become sullen and resentful, and to spit bitter vitriol back at the world to answer its injustices in kind,and the other is to understand what it means to go through trials and tribulations and to be unwilling to let others suffer the same hardships.My grandfather was scoffed at, rebuked and ill-treated for merely having the nerve to ask for water, he knows all too well what it feels like to be dying of thirst , so he is more than willing to set up the tea-stall out in front of his smithy.

As my grandfather got on in years he once quipped, “They say that people’s morals are going to hell in a hand basket,but I think that this world takes all kinds. There are those like the one I met in the countryside that day who couldn’t be bothered to spare even a cup of water, and there are those like me who give tea freely. When you meet someone like him,you might feel that the world is cruel, that society has gone to the dogs, and that there is no kindness left out there. But when you meet me, you will feel the goodness of humanity and will truly understand that the human heart can be saved.”◆

(From Life is an Individual Journey, Zhejiang University Press. Translation: Chase Coulson)

在經受了刻薄與磨難之后，人們有多種反應，最典型的有兩類：其一是變得陰暗，變本加厲地將這份磨難還給世界；另一類，則是知道磨難的可恨，不愿別人再體驗和感受那份苦。我的外公，因為討水而遭人冷眼和譏諷之后，體味到渴者的心情，決定在小小鐵匠鋪門口擺上一個免費茶攤。

外公晚年說過一句話：人們常說人心不古，其實每個人都是人心。當年那個吝茶者是，我這個施茶者也是。當遇到他時，你就會感到人心不古、世風日下，心生無限悲涼；而當遇到我時，你就會感到世風尚好，人心有救。◆