Writing is the primal voice of heaven and earth, and the vehicle through which the sages convey the Way. Each character embodies four aspects: its form gives it shape, its sound carries its voice, its meaning conveys reason, and its spirit runs through the soul. When all four are present, writing comes into being; when they disperse, writing perishes.
Allusions are the crystallization of a text's spirit. A single event can carry a truth through the ages, and a single sentence can conceal the emotions of generations. So long as its meaning does not perish, its spirit will not disperse; the more people remember and recite it, the stronger its power becomes. Classical Chinese is the backbone of the Way of Writing. It casts off the superficial looseness of vernacular speech and carries the highest truths of heaven and earth. Spoken aloud, it summons the spirit of writing; set down on paper, it determines the fate of all under heaven.
The flourishing or decline of what people remember and recite in the present determines whether the Way of Writing survives or perishes. If people forget classical Chinese, scorn allusions, destroy historical records, and erase moral principles, then the spirit of writing will dissipate and the Way of Writing will collapse. The spiritual roots of heaven and earth will be cut off, all the world will sink into a state of mindless ignorance, and heaven and earth will return to nothingness.
