Poem: Star Rising Over Wide Fields

The imagination of humans while watching the night sky triggers many associations with the stars. Far away from cities and other human clusters, whose earthly lights take away the panoramic view of the night sky, the magic unveils.

From the paddy fields of the hinterland in China, the night sky is clear. One can see the Heavens — the Supreme Force that determines the destinies of humans, often inscribed in signs from the stars. The expectations from humans about their future paths and destinies are tied to their stars — after all, if somebody’s star is rising, it is a good omen, right?

If Heaven was the Master of time, then those who lived in the past — our ancestors are considered to be part of Heaven, considering that the ancestors of ancestors, eventually lead to the Supreme Ancestor — the primordial divine from the Heavens. The vault of stars represents the ancestors and deities, making up the Celestial Bureaucracy, and they appear in the night sky to look after us.

Our ancestors are our creators. While the Creator (Tian) is universal, in the act of creation itself, the creature is involved, say, in progeny, hence the creature, in some sense, is a creator. The act of creation ( or evolution) involves the alignment of the stars, the earthly phenomena, and the acts of human beings.

To conduct government by virtue may be compared to the North Star: it occupied its place, while the myriad stars revolved around it.— Confucius, Analects 2:1

If Heaven ‘Tian’ is the Supreme Being, the earthly supreme is ‘Di or Shangdi’ ( that includes all earthly things.) Now, comes our earthly interpretation of this title ‘Star Rising Over Wide Fields’.

Star Rising Over Wide Fields:

The Farmer is a creator, for he creates food for his consumption. But he is not alone, he has to look to the earth and the skies for the food to be created. The soil, the sunlight, the rains — all become co-creators, and therefore ancestors, who create the food for the creatures ( humans and other beings). The stars point the directions to ships that sail, and the weather to the farmer in the wide fields.

The wide fields are the vastness of creation, while the star is the heavenly progenitor that starts the process of creation. The farmer is the descendant of the star and is the creator as well.

[embed]Star Rising Over Wide Fields

Poem: Star Rising Over Wide Fields

Tian, Di and Farmer — Ancestry of Evolution

Oh, Dear Rising Star!

Invisible and lost in the human cluster Drowned in the earthly lights Humans awake in the unearthly hour

Darkness scatters in its true form Far away from the human congregations You appear in true delight

Creatures in the heavenly realm Far away into the recesses of the past Ancestral overseeing my being

We walk your path, looking up for signs Premonition of our destinies Lighthouses for our struggling ships

Signs from the Tian (Heavenly Ancestry) Masters of the time gone by The elements of the Earth (Di) follow

Creation culminates thus The creature becomes the creator Progenitor for the future

Wide fields ready as wombs Absorb the heavenly seeds Sunshine and rains as catalysts

A future blessed by Tian ( heavens) Nurtured motherly by Di (Earth) The farmer reaps the harvest.

Strings of the Guqin vibrate Hoping that you will listen The ode to our ancestors

Their oversight of the past Presents a promising future As the human (farmer) looks up to you

Oh, dear Rising Star!

~Ashok Subramanian © 2024