The Night Tiger

by Yangsze Choo

It was the character for zhi, or knowledge, one of the five Confucian Virtues. The others were benevolence, righteousness, order, and integrity.

Many years ago as an undergraduate, I took a class in Confucianism. Little did I know how useful and interesting it would be later! At the time, I had some vague idea of finding out more about this mysterious Confucius, whom everyone seemed to quote without particularly understanding. We were lucky enough to have as our professor Tu Weiming, one of the foremost scholars of neo-Confucianism, and in addition to the main lecture, he personally led a small tutorial conducted in Chinese for those of us who could read Chinese. Sitting in that small tutorial room with Professor Tu and a few other students, a fascinating world view unfolded: one in which your own personal morality (and responsibility for it) reflected outwards and even shaped society, including the balanced relationships between people. I’ve never forgotten that class, and years later when it came to naming the characters in THE NIGHT TIGER, I quickly wrote down the five Confucian virtues. I wasn’t really sure where it was going but I was excited that I finally got to use some of that classroom knowledge! Then I came back a few days later and thought about it some more. I didn’t have any particular plans in mind, just that these five people might be connected in some way, and that together they could either be better or worse. Also, that five was a very satisfying number for some reason. Of course, there is far more to Confucianism than just this aspect, and if it happens to intrigue you, I encourage you to read more about it.