Renowned calligrapher from Shandong, China, held workshop in Museum of World Calligraphy

January 23, 2020

Mr. Kong Lingmin, a calligrapher from Qufu, the Vice President of the Global Confucius Association, a member of Beijing Academy of Contemporary Calligraphy and Arts, and the 76th generation descendant of Confucius, held a workshop in the Museum of World Calligraphy on January 18, 2020 to mark the coming St. Valentine’s Day. At the event, the renowned calligrapher wrote a name of a poem by Wang Wei, a great poet of Tang dynasty – “The Red Beans, or a Reminiscence of the Beloved” (“We Long for Each Other”).

A. Gitovich’s translated it as follows:

“The red beans

In the valleys of south

Have grown more branchy

Over the spring.

Break some more of them

For a friend –

And console me

As I grieve.”

The poem is based on an ancient Chinese legend, which tells about a woman who prayed day and night near a tree high in the mountains for her husband to return from a war. She cried so much, and when her tears had dried up, the drops of blood poured down her cheeks. After a while an acacia with scarlet fruits akin to red beans grew where the drops hit the ground.

Thanks to Wang Wei’s poem, red beans grew incredibly popular in China and turned into the symbol of love and true friendship. Today, it is still customary to present decorations or dishes made of red beans to friends and family to ease the grief of absence, and bring the joyful meeting forward.