Cat Country (20 page)

‘You see, trying to adopt another country’s institutions and learning wholesale is about as naïve as trying to graft another man’s flesh onto your own without first preparing your own body to receive the transplant; you can slap a new piece of flesh on your own arm, but unless you’ve made some provision for nourishing it, it’s idle to expect it to grow. Similarly, when you grab hold of a whole pile of new knowledge, yet lack the inquiring spirit needed to nurture it, the inevitable result is cyclical education. You learn “A” and teach “A”, but never add to it. And thus it was that we corrupted the new learning.

‘During the initial period of borrowing, our people entertained an idle hope. Although they became aware of the folly of thinking that a piece of new flesh cut from another man’s body would assure one of eternal life, they still clung to another superstition. For somehow or other, they always felt that as soon as new knowledge arrived – no matter how little – they would immediately become as vigorous and prosperous as the foreigners. In retrospect, I think that we can forgive them this arrogant pipe dream, for at least they still hoped to do something with the new learning. But today people are aware of schools only as places where people compete for principalships, where instructors are beaten, and where student movements occur. They take all of these things and lump them together with the new learning, and then stand around and curse the whole witches’ brew. By now they think that the new learning is not only incapable of strengthening the state, but is also enough to destroy the people. And so we have now advanced from corrupting the new learning to damning it outright. The heads of some families dismiss all the new learning and hire tutors to teach their children the traditional stone classics. Consequently the cost of our old stone books has gone up ten times, much to the satisfaction of my grandfather, who sees this as the victory of our national heritage over foreign learning.

‘My father was very pleased too. He immediately sent his sons abroad to study, for he felt that now they would be the only ones capable of understanding everything on the basis of foreign learning. He expected that when they came back home they’d really be able to fleece our native ignoramuses brought up on the stone classics. However, he has never felt that the new learning should be widespread, but rather that it is enough for a few people to pick up enough of the foreigners’ tricks to make us strong. But in fact, most people are closer to grandfather’s position than they are to father’s. Like him, they see the new learning as a combination of magic and witchcraft capable only of confusing the mind and blurring the vision so that sons begin to beat their fathers, girls begin to curse their mothers, and students begin killing their teachers; in sum, they see it as utterly useless. But somehow or other, I have always felt that the more we vilify the new learning, the closer we are to the end of Cat Country.

‘You will ask the reasons for the collapse of the new education. That’s something that I don’t know myself, but I have a feeling that it’s due to a certain lack of integrity. Think about it for a minute. When the new educational system first arrived, why was it that people wanted it in the first place? It wasn’t that they hoped that students would broaden their understanding, but rather that they thought they could use it to get rich. Nor was it out of any desire to let people understand new truths; it was rather out of the wish that we’d be able to make new and better consumer goods. In other words, they wanted all that education could provide, except the most important part – that concerned with inculcating integrity and stimulating a love of learning. By the time the new schools were established, there were many bodies physically present in the schools, but few men of integrity. The principals were there to make money; the faculty was there to make money; and the students were there preparing themselves to make money.

‘People looked upon the schools as they would a new-style restaurant, but no one paid any attention to the question of what the food was like. Of course, the schools also had the problem of being in a weak state built upon a decadent society led by an emperor and politicians without integrity, hoodwinking a populace that was even more lacking in integrity. Of course, it’s true that in an impoverished state like ours there are quite a few people whose personal integrity has been worn away by hunger and poverty. I won’t deny that, but I will deny that it provides adequate grounds on which to defend the individuals in charge of our educational system. Why did we promote education in the first place? To save the nation. And how were we to save it? Through the promotion of learning and the perfection of individual character. Our educators ought to be held responsible for not acting in such a way as to achieve those twin goals, and for not being willing to sacrifice a bit of personal advantage in fulfilling the functions of principals and teachers.

‘Perhaps I expect too much from the teaching profession. People are people, and a teacher fears hunger just as much as a prostitute does. Hence, one might object that it’s not fair to put so much of the blame on the teachers. I don’t like laying it all on their shoulders either; but when you think of it, there are some women who will not lower themselves to become prostitutes even when they are dying of hunger. Shouldn’t teachers also have enough backbone to grit their teeth and show an equal amount of integrity?

‘One might argue that since the government delights in taking advantage of honest men, it would be foolish for teachers to be too upright, for the more upright they were, the more the government would take advantage of them. But no matter how bad the government may be, one would think that the educators might at least have considered using the weight of public opinion as a counterbalance to the government. For if our educators had integrity themselves, then they could turn out students with a sense of personal integrity; and it is unlikely that the society at large would be so insensitive as to be unaware of the high quality of students produced. And if the people at large saw our educators as wise and loving fathers, and if the students that those educators produced were able to achieve things in society, then it would be doubtful that the government could afford to treat education lightly or could go on refusing to provide funds for it. I think that ten years of an educational system that turned out students of integrity would change the entire face of Cat Country. However, our new system of education has already been in operation for two centuries and you have seen the results.

‘If even our old system of education was able to foster honesty, a love of parents and an obedience to rules, how is it that the new and improved system has failed to make a comparable showing? Everybody says – especially the educators themselves – that it is because of the dark evils of society. But whose responsibility is it to get rid of those evils? The educators only know how to blame social conditions, but have entirely forgotten that their responsibility lies precisely in making society a better place to live in. To be sure, society is black, but they have forgotten that their own personal integrity should serve as a bright star in the night sky. And since they have forgotten even that, what hope is there? I know that I am too extreme and perhaps somewhat idealistic, but shouldn’t our educators also have at least some modicum of idealism? I also realise that neither the government nor society gives our educators sufficient support. But who can expect anyone to want to help a group that is itself as evil as the society or the government?

‘You saw teachers being butchered, but it ought not to surprise you, for it is only the inevitable consequence of an educational system that has no notion of the importance of character and decency. Since the teachers are totally devoid of integrity, can one expect the students who follow in their footsteps to be any different? This general lack of character, both inside and outside of the educational institutions, has a still worse consequence: it prods our people into taking a backward leap of tens of thousands of years, back to the cannibalism of antiquity. The progress of our species is exceedingly slow, but our retrogression is lightning fast; for as soon as people lose their self-respect, they will revert to barbarism with amazing rapidity. Moreover, we’ve been at this regressive kind of education for over two hundred years now!

‘Every day of the last two centuries has seen the heads of our schools fighting each other. The teachers have constantly been at each other’s throats. And the students have either been fighting among themselves or against their teachers and principals. Fighting has brutalised them, and every fight that they have engaged in has added just that much more to the barbarity that they have been cultivating within themselves. And thus, now it is a very common occurrence to see students butchering teachers, professors, chancellors and principals. However, it would be foolish of you to entertain feelings of compassion for our principals and teachers. You see, our education moves in cycles. The students whom you saw will one day themselves become teachers and principals and then it will be their turn to be victims. Luckily the addition to the educational system of a few more potential victims doesn’t make any difference to society anyway, for no one pays any attention to who’s killing who inside the schools in the first place.

‘In a society as dark as ours it seems that people, like little animals, instinctively start sniffing to the right and clawing to the left as soon as they are born in the hopes of finding something to eat. Even as children, they’ll put forth every last ounce of energy to grab the tiniest advantage or profit. And then comes the day when they’re old enough to attend school where, as luck would have it, they come into contact with teachers and principals like the ones that you’ve seen. It’s very much like a pack of cubs encountering another pack of old and hungry wolves. They’re bound to try out their claws and teeth. The possibility of obtaining the most minute personal advantage is enough to fire up that residue of barbarity in them inherited from their most primitive ancestors. Thus a single book or reverie leaf is enough to result in corpses being strewn all over the countryside.

‘Engaging in student movements is a natural manifestation of the ardour of youth and can certainly be forgiven; but our student movements cannot be explained as simply as all that. Our young hopefuls usually find some pretext for starting a riot, and then they pull down houses and destroy everything in sight. When it’s all over, they take the bricks and the choicest of the debris back to their own homes, brimming over with satisfaction at having got a little something for nothing. And their parents are usually as pleased as they are. Since the family property has been augmented by a few bricks and sticks, they consider that their children’s participation in the student movement was not in vain. Thus the students go looking for opportunities to destroy things so that they can cart the more worthwhile debris back home. Nor are their principals and teachers any better: they’ll steal anything they have a chance to.

‘Chancellors of universities, principals, faculty members and students – from top to bottom, they all deserve to die. The fact that the students murder their principals and teachers is a kind of divine retribution; and the fact that the students will someday be murdered once they have become principals and teachers themselves is another manifestation of poetic justice. This then is our system of education. You must admit that an educational system capable of turning people into animals certainly cannot be counted as totally devoid of all accomplishment!’

Young Scorpion laughed.

OF SCHOLARS OLD AND NEW

S
INCE YOUNG
Scorpion was a pessimist anyway, I had to take much of what he said with a grain of salt. And yet, with my own eyes I had seen teachers and principals being butchered, and students being graduated on their first day at school. Therefore, no matter how much I might suspect the validity of what he said, I had no real basis upon which to challenge his statements. The only thing I could do was gather more evidence from still another direction.

‘Aren’t there any scholars in Cat Country, then?’ I asked.

‘You bet your sweet life there are! Truckloads!’ I could tell that Young Scorpion was getting ready to have some more fun. As I had expected, he continued his speech without allowing me time to ask my next question.

‘From one point of view, an abundance of scholars is a mark of cultural distinction; and yet, if you look at it another way, it’s also a symptom of cultural decline. It all depends upon how you define “scholar”. But rather than having
me
define “scholar” for you, perhaps it will be better if I tempt some of them in so that you can get a good look at them.’

‘You mean invite a few of them in, don’t you?’ I corrected the verb.

‘I mean just what I said. I’ll
tempt
some of them in; if I invited them, they wouldn’t come. You’re not familiar with the personality traits of Cat Country scholars yet, but stick around a while and you’ll see what I mean. Revery, go and call a few of them in. You can tell them that I’ll pass out reverie leaves when they get here. Why don’t you have Star, Blossom, and some of the other girls go with you. Then you can split up and each of you can go and catch a few.’

Revery went out tittering.

There didn’t seem to be anything worth asking about in the interim, and I settled back to wait for the arrival of the scholars. Young Scorpion brought out some reverie leaves and we had a leisurely chew. Out of the corner of my eye, I detected just the trace of a devilish smile of anticipation on Young Scorpion’s face.

Having delivered the ‘invitations’ to the scholars, Revery, Star, Blossom and the other girls came back to announce that the scholars would soon be along. The girls then sat down, making a circle of which I was the centre. They stared at me as if they wanted to speak, but didn’t quite dare.

‘Be careful,’ Young Scorpion said with a smile, ‘you are about to be cross-examined.’

‘We would like to ask about a few things, if you wouldn’t mind,’ one of the girls said.