Scene Preface.
This is the statue at Tsinghua University, honouring the late Poet & Scholar Wen Yiduo or more correctly named Wen Jia Ye ( 1899 - 1946 )
He wrote a poem in around 1927, titled " Prayer."
The opening stanza, fittingly depicts the garden's preface....
" Please tell me, who are the Chinese?
Show me how to cherish memory.
Please tell me of this people's greatness.
Softly tell me; don't shout it out."
The full poem in Chinese characters, follows:
请告诉我谁是中国人，
启示我，如何把记忆抱紧；
・・请告诉我这民族的伟大，
轻轻的告诉我，不要喧哗！
请告诉我谁是中国人，
谁的心里有尧舜的心，
谁的血是荆轲聂政的血，
谁是神农黄帝的遗孽。
告诉我那智慧来得离奇，
说是河马献来的馈礼；
还告诉我这歌声的节奏，
原是九苞凤凰的传授。
・・请告诉我戈壁的沉默，
和五岳的庄严？又告诉我
泰山的石溜还滴着忍耐，
大江黄河又流着和谐？
再告诉我，那一滴清泪
是孔子吊唁死麟的伤悲？
那狂笑也得告诉我才好，
庄周淳于髡东方朔的笑。
请告诉我谁是中国人，
启示我，如何把记忆抱紧；
・・请告诉我这民族的伟大，
轻轻的告诉我，不要喧哗！
"....and those making use of the world as those not using it to the full;
for the scene of the world is changing."
or translated another way....
".......and they that use this world as not abusing it;
for the fashion of this world passeth away."
How true also, these words scribed in the 1st Century Common Era.