Can you imagine living with a slow pace of life enjoying tea and books in your forties, a period thought to be full of struggle and endeavor?

 

With a cup of hot tea, he sits in the first ray of sunshine in the morning and starts his day with books, surrounded by several potted greeneries, while most people of his age might be rushing on their way to the company for work. After reading out loud for hours, he enjoys exercising for some time and then spends the rest of his day in Dong Fang Academy, a place for people interested in the traditional culture, especially the Yangming Philosophy, to study together for free. This is a normal day of Shi Dongxing, the founder of Dong Fang Academy.

 

He looks like a normal person. However, there is a great soul living inside of him. “Everyone is born with his or her own mission,” said Mr. Shi. He established Dong Fang Academy with his mission and belief of spreading the traditional philosophy and contributing to the great rejuvenation of Chinese culture. “My mind just went blank when I asked some people about what traditional philosophy left them deep impression but nearly none of them could answer in detail. How could it be? Isn’t it lamentable for Chinese with such a great cultural treasure?” said Mr. Shi.

 

Dong Fang Academy contains online learning and conducts offline activities, encouraging people to dig deeper into the traditional philosophy, mainly focus on the Yangming Philosophy, series of theories put up by the famous philosopher Wang Yangming advocating people to follow the pure heart and abandon the private desire. Mr. Shi was so proud that the academy has influenced thousands of people to join in appreciating the traditional culture. He has kept putting effort into the academy for two years. Some of his routines are tightly related to the members, such as calling the members to see how they feel about the learning in the academy, preparing for his own experience sharing at the reading party and organizing seasonal field trips to the original place of the philosophy to get participants practically exposed to how it developed.

 

During the recent field trip to Longchang, the origin of the Yangming Philosophy, Mr. Shi was motivated to keep doing what he does now to let more and more people be in traditional philosophy and improve their thoughts. A member, 78, burst into tears several times when visiting the relics and later emotionally told Mr. Shi that he was seldomly touched to cry for years. This reminded Mr. Shi of his first time get access to the Yangming Philosophy. At that time, he even laughed at the old saying, which goes that filling with tears and being happy to dance are the two appearances showing that one was touchingly inspired. He regarded those behaviors as crazy ones until one day he kicked up his heels when he suddenly understood a theory of Wang Yangming resonating with his own experience, he actually found that it was true.

 

While Mr. Shi was talking with me, all staffs being at the academy that day gathered to us eagerly to listen to his sharing. Some took seats quietly, some nodded head time to time, and some even took down notes frequently. After the interview with Mr. Shi, the secretary of Dong Fang Academy, Zhao Mingxia, showed me a video of Mr. Shi giving a speech on the reading party. Facing more than 150 people, he stood confidently but spoke humbly. “He is such a perfect person. You can tell from his behaviors that he has already abandoned his private desire but serving others. It is motivating to work with him,” said Mrs. Zhao. The staff there are all sparing their free time to work for the academy without being paid and all they wish to do is serving people fascinated by the Yangming Philosophy to learn together.

 

“The most terrible thing is being unaware of your ignorance,” said Mr. Shi.

 

When asked to choose a cultural celebrity and spend a day with him or her, Mr. Shi said Wang Yangming without any hesitation. “I want him to criticize on me as sternly as he did to his student. There must be some subtle private desire hiding deeply inside of me, but I haven’t realized,” said Mr. Shi. He said that the key of all is the pure heart, this is why sages could become saint. “If I have another chance,” thought of something, Mr. Shi continued sheepishly, “can I ask Chairman Mao to teach me how to serve the people?” Serving is the core principle of Dong Fang Academy.

 

Responding to the cultural revival appeal of Xi Jinping and the announcement of building a powerfully cultural country, a lot of activities are carried out while Mr. Shi and his Dong Fang Academy is a tiny but shining star among them. More and more people get involved in learning Chinese philosophy and many Confucius Institutes are founded. The increasing trend of learning traditional culture appears obviously.