A Christmas Day without any celebration.
Freezing cold weather has just begun to dominate our region and will last up to New Year’s Day. The daily temperature will drop to twenty-odd degrees below zero centigrade in this period.
Came back at noon with an empty stomach because no lunch was offered to us by the school. The first thing to do was shaving my head and chin in the shining daylight at the south balcony.
Mr W’s bad breath and the smell of alcohol from Mr B became aggressive in the narrow room of the car we took.
To my satisfaction, someone left some pieces of foam board and a wooden frame for packing at my wheelbarrow.

Wu, a surviving official of the Ming
Dynasty, with the sobriquet Plum Village, is well known for his talent and
righteousness shown in the Song of Yuanyuan.

朙末遺老號梅村，吴宫一曲才義聞。Except Sima Qian, his match has never been seen
up to now in condemning the contemporary bigwigs fearlessly.

不畏權贵當世斥，敢比史公更無倫！

I’ve been absent here for a whole fortnight without writing diaries
since mother came down with lumbago. She can’t take care of herself any more. I
have to look after her all day long. Last week I took a leave from work to care
for my sick mother. I think I should work this week with mother entrusted to
brother and sister. I got the permission to come late and leave early premised
on conducting my classes in time.

Internal Classic
of Huangdi 《黄帝内經》On the naivety in remote ages上古天真論Yellow Emperor was
born divine;昔在黄帝，生而神靈，he had been eloquent
since his early childhood;弱而能言，he had enjoyed
particular powers of understanding when he was young;幼而徇齊，he had become
honest and hardworking after growing up;長而敦敏，he
ascended the throne as he was fully adult.成而登天。

The descendant of the hare’s eighth
generation inhabited at Zhongshan during the Yin dynasty. Having mastered the
witchcraft of the god, it could make itself invisible and have things done as
it pleased. It rode the three-legged toad to the moon and had a
secret love affair with the goddess there. Then its posterity retired from
society and never took up any official post.

朙眎八世孫䨲，世傳當殷時居中山，得神仙之術，能匿光使物，竊姮娥、騎蟾蜍入月，其後代遂隱不仕云。

A college in Sichuan has given its faculty and
student body a six-day
spring holiday for enjoying flowers and finding love. According to Wei Quanbin,
person in charge of the Southwest Aviation Vocational College of Sichuan, the
young and energetic students should be given enough leisure to feel the
exuberance of nature demonstrating only in this particular season and
experience the rising force of the new life. This activity can do them great
good both physically and psychologically. While they go sight-seeing, they should be aware of the preciousness
of springtime. And their youth is just as precious and transient as
spring, they must prize it, otherwise they’ll regret their negligence afterwards.

Master Xuanzang began to travel around the country for studying the Buddhist scriptures of Great Vehicle and Little Vehicle after becoming a monk. Because of the incomplete introductions of the scriptures, different masters offered different explanations. He was too perplexed to know which was true. In order to comprehend the scriptures correctly, he determined to head west for the birthplace of Buddhism for the original. Without being permitted by Emperor Taizong of the Tang dynasty, he stole across the national border seeking the truth abroad. The journey was long, difficult and dangerous, especially through the lifeless 800-mile across desert. Thanks to his profound belief in Buddhism, he spent four years reaching his destination.

The golden leaves are really poetic and lovely, both the fallen on the roadsides and those remaining on the poplars. When I passed, I would gaze at them with great pleasure. It’s the most fascinating scene in autumn I believe. Similarly the newly sprouted leaves in spring are also one of the favorite attractions for their fresh and pleasing color. Soon they are out of favor with passers-by when they grow up with their color turning deep. Just like the rising sun and the setting one praised and appreciated by poets and ordinary people, so are the leaves and other valuable things, first prized shortly, then ignored for quite long, finally parted with grudgingly.

The night rain resulted in the cold early
morning. I immediately felt my dress too little for the weather.

夜雨晨生寒，衣冠忽覺單。The wind howled around my ears. The clouds spread
to the horizon.

風嘯縈耳畔，雲張漫天邊。

The moon in the cloudless night sky is very bright and perhaps the brightest in the whole year. It is just like a natural lamp illuminating the world below. Tonight it can replace the road lamps to light the streets. Moreover, this night is beautiful and poetic. It has been written into numerous poems in different dynasties. It is endowed with life and passion by the poets. It can be taken as a companion accompanying the solitary poet. And it acts as the intermediary agent for two or more close friends or relatives separated. Then I decide not to draw the curtain over the bedroom window this night so that we can gaze at each other.