33 Happy Moments

Jin Shengtan's list of 33 happy moments, compiled at the very end of the Ming Dynasty, about 400 years ago. Shengtan, a critic, commentator and editor, was stuck in a temple with a friend for 10 days because of rain. He took advantage of the time to think about all the times he'd been happiest.

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Ma Yuan, "Walking on a Mountain Path in Spring", 12th or 13th century

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33.

To read the Story of Curly-Beard (who gave up his house to a pair of eloping lovers, then disappeared).

Ah, is this not happiness?

Note: As well as the longer version at the above link, there's a brief summary of the Story of Curly-Beard, "a gigantic, fierce, red-bearded rogue," in Charles Hucker's China's Imperial Past.

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"Cai Shen, god of prosperity", provenance unknown

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32.

To have just finished repaying all one’s debts.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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Chen Rong, Two dragons from "Nine Dragons Scroll", 1244

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31.

To see a wild prairie fire.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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Dragon kite, Weifang, Shandong province, contemporary.

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30.

To see someone’s kite-line broken.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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"Madman" Liang Kai, "Li Bai Strolling and Singing", 12th or 13th century.

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29.

A magistrate orders the beating of the drum and calls it a day.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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Qian Xuan, "Early Autumn", 13th century

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28.

To open the window and let a wasp out from the room.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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Zhao Zhiqian, "Seven-character couplet," 1800s Note: Big-character posters have been a form of political protest poetry in China for hundreds if not thousands of years, and are still used today.

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27.

To watch someone writing big characters a foot high.

Ah, is this not happiness?

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Dai Jin, "Anchorite Beside Brook", 1400s

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26.

I am not a saint, and am therefore not without sin. In the night I did something wrong and I get up in the morning and feel extremely ill at ease about it. Suddenly I remember what is taught by Buddhism, that not to cover one’s sins is the same as repentance.

So then I begin to tell my sin to the entire company around, whether they are strangers or my old friends.

Ah, is this not happiness?

[oldbookillustrations]

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"Center of a plate and various diapers...", from Examples of Chinese ornament, by Owen Jones, London, 1867.

[via oldbookillustrations, from archive.org.]