Lin Huiyin
Letter from Shanxi
When you cannot make yourself set out, remember what it is like once you are out
Lin Huiyin, Letter from Shanxi (1934)
Something you have wanted for years, and you still cannot take the first step. What did Lin Huiyin find on the road in Shanxi?
What actually happened?
In 1934 Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng went to Shanxi to survey old buildings, and she wrote a letter on the way. She had never travelled, she said; it was hard to set out, and once out she did not know how to stop. They read steles in the grass and found a Buddha's hands and smile in rubble. Shown a stele from 552, an old villager proudly asked if it was old. Almost fourteen hundred years, they said, and everyone was proud together.
The hardest part is the moment before
She said she had never travelled and found it hard to move before setting out; once out, she did not know how to stop. The hard part is the first step. After that the road carries you.
You have put off an evening class for six months. Go to one trial session and decide afterwards.
Leave a little time that is not for results
By day they measured plans and took rubbings. At night she watched smiths around a red furnace, and walked by faint moonlight to a ruined shrine to strike a match at a Guanyin's face. None of it went into the drawings; all of it fed the next day's work.
On a work trip, keep one evening hour to walk the streets instead of filling it with meetings.
What you study is someone else's treasure
Villagers crowded round as they photographed and measured; a schoolteacher helped with the rubbings. Told the stele was fourteen hundred years old, the old man smiled with pride and they shared it. The thing was the village's; those who studied it and those who kept it stood together.
Doing fieldwork in a neighbourhood, tell the residents what you found; they will tell you more.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: something you have wanted for a long time, a trip, a move, a new piece of work, and you cannot take the first step.
Ask first: am I afraid of the thing itself, or only of the moment before? What do I want to see once I am out?
Where it goes wrong: remembering only the romance of the road and forgetting it was work. Her letter reads like a poem, and by day she still measured and took rubbings.
Lines to keep
The scenery is so beautiful it makes the heart race and ache.
Hard to set out; once out, I did not know how to stop.
Same situation, other people are asking
I understand it completely and still don't move.I keep preparing instead of starting.I know what to do. I'm not doing it.I'm still getting everything ready and the window is closing.I keep not starting · all 9 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.