Opening Declaration of the Field Bookhouse: Putting My Dream into Your Hands

Over the past ten years, through mountain climbing, I have walked into nature, encountering the great beauty of heaven and earth and also witnessing nature's severity; through growing herbs I began to study gardening, and in the process of building a garden with my own hands I continuously cultivated a natural heart; and then, because I lived in the countryside and began a farming life, I felt firsthand the warmth of the land. Because of these real contacts with the wild and these farming and gardening actions, my whole body and mind underwent a comprehensive training and a baptism of the spirit.

To this day, although the mountain garden has returned to wilderness because I left it; mountain hiking has nearly come to a halt because of a knee injury; and as for farming in the fields, although I have planted wheat and harvested wheat, planted rice seedlings and harvested rice, the actual harvests have been pitifully small. Some of the vegetables in the vegetable plot were picked and eaten, but most were left for insects and birds to share, and only some trees scattered around the edges of the farmland, with little care, still grew strong on their own.

Something slightly more fortunate is that in the horticulture courses carried out at school, the organic vegetable harvests were all quite good, and children from some kindergartens, junior high school clubs, special education or high-care groups all happily went through the processes of turning soil, sowing seeds, pulling weeds, harvesting and cooking, time after time.

Among these, the cooperative/self-built house that began more than three years ago (2008) has finally now taken a "passable" preliminary shape and is preparing to open.

The dream in the depths of my heart - "a secondhand bookstore located in the fields, open to the public, and able to practice farming and gardening discussion, teaching and hands-on work, called the 'Field Bookhouse'" - has already slowly been woven into being.

But let me tell you quietly, I cannot weave this dream very well. Of the entire roughly 1500ping site, the field below the bookhouse that was cleared by an excavator and fully planted with rice is now once again full of grass. The triangular plot at the very top of the grounds used for the ecological ponds, with five connected ecological ponds, has reached a certain degree of balance, but regular routine maintenance is not done enough.

Next, in the field below the ecological ponds used specifically for planting trees (because I hope to have a miniature forest, because trees can care for the land, soothe my heart and many other small lives), some trees have grown too large and too wild, and some overly crowded trees need pruning. In other places there are still many clumps of silvergrass to remove, and a convenient red-brick walking path needs to be laid. The irrigation channels connecting each field likewise need weeding and renewed maintenance.

In addition, in the garden areas in front of and behind the bookhouse, although the planted trees and bamboo grow very well, there are still some red-brick paths and paving, a rain-sheltering corridor, lawn, and some decorative climbing plants, flowers and grasses that must be built and planted.

The wheel of time, never interrupted and never resting, keeps turning and turning. Right now it is the Beginning of Spring solar term, and spring plowing in the north has already begun. The vegetable plot below the garden in front of the bookhouse needs weeding and plowing, and the rice to be planted will soon begin to be raised as seedlings. Some small places inside and outside the bookhouse that still need repair and decoration also need to be dealt with.

Next, for the preparations for the bookhouse opening, the work plans that need to be carried out also include: a two-level brick-built Pizza oven work holiday, rice-transplanting experience, field reading club, family woodworking course, making a solar cooker and rocket stove, a field-life work-exchange learning plan… and so on. All of these are to be held this year, but I have only one pair of hands.

Looking back over the past ten years, I have learned many things, so now that I have the Field Bookhouse, besides hope, I can already truly "teach" everyone many things, whether photography, writing, making compost, baking bread in an oven, or planting flowers, planting trees and building houses.

However, the contact with and learning in nature over ten years, plus four years of experience promoting horticulture for different age groups from young children to the elderly, these experiences constantly remind me of one fact: "Teaching is one thing, and learning is another."

Whether at school, in life, or in the whole of life, we truly need good teachers, and good teachers can truly help students learn. But what a teacher can provide is ultimately only knowledge and skills, personal experience, and even precious teaching by example, yet all this ultimately cannot accomplish or reach the truest and most important purpose of teaching - "To transform a student's life, spark change and enable them to take good action." What a teacher truly achieves is only influence to a certain degree, but every change in concept, action, and even life can only happen within the student personally; this is like how no one can live (or die) on behalf of another person. Every individual life's problems, turning points, cultivation and growth can only be received and acted upon by oneself.

Because I recognize that "teaching" and "learning" are like this, in the process of building the Field Bookhouse I have always held to one principle - "I do not need to make it perfect" - and have only worked hard on observing the land, planning, clearing and cultivating the soil, and some basic construction. Now the Field Bookhouse has water, electricity, a kitchen, a loft where one can stay overnight, an ecological toilet and bathroom, and also some secondhand books, utensils for making tea and coffee, pots and pans, several handmade lamps, and tables, chairs and beds for dining and resting.

So whether it is field management, the design, planning and execution of the garden, the repair and renovation of the bookhouse building, the planting of vegetables, fruits, trees, flowers, grasses, rice and miscellaneous grains… these many gaps left behind - are my invitation to you - I invite you to come and do real labor, to let your whole body and mind take part in it, and then every thing you experience here will naturally be inscribed on your hands and in your heart. My "teaching" will only be assistance, and will only be a side branch in your life. All the joy and sorrow of learning require you to actively devote yourself and to "do" and "receive" for yourself.

Therefore, if you are interested in the space, courses, activities or anything I know about that I will provide, I am very willing to "teach," and you can also sign up to learn; however, beyond "teaching and learning," what I sincerely hope is to "hand" my dream to you, because with this building and grounds, the Field Bookhouse, you can come here to live, work and experience for any length of time. As long as you are willing to try, as long as you love nature, or perhaps you already have an idea in your heart of being a farmer or living in the countryside but have not yet realized it, I sincerely invite you to come here to "live simply, work truly, earnestly empty your mind, and even space out," and let me hand my dream over to you.

If you are an art worker, you can come here and treat this place as your creative space. If you are full of longing for a simple life, then you are very suited to come here and experience the cooperative self-built house and the rhythm of growing and eating your own food. Of course, if you are a person who looks at agriculture pragmatically yet is also full of imagination about it, you are even more welcome to come here, so that we may exchange ideas and spark better concepts and action plans together.

Because I deeply believe that the brilliance of life exists only in "practice," and the Field Bookhouse is precisely a field of practice prepared for "people who dream of letting their own lives shine."

Please come here, and let me hand my dream over to you.