wind: what is it? You don’t see it but you hear it, and you feel its force. It brings the rains, the drought, the cold, the heat, the locusts, the dust; it drives them away. It bangs the shutters, rustles the branches, flattens the house, spreads fire; it pushes the boats along or makes the waves that sink them. Its breezes in spring inspire affection, its howling in winter dread.

In China, the calendar was circular and divided into eight periods of forty-five days, each ruled by a wind coming from one of the eight directions, and each determining the rituals of government, the foods to be eaten, the robes worn, the punishment and pardon of criminals, the hours to wake or go to sleep, the times and places to take a walk, the gifts the Emperor should send.

There were “proper” winds and “evil” or “empty” winds: winds that blew from the right direction at the right time, and those that did not, causing sickness or chaos, for, it was said, the hundred diseases arose from the wind, and entered the 84,000 holes of the body, the acupuncture points, just as it blew through the hollows of the earth.

There were “proper” winds and “evil” or “empty” winds: winds that blew from the right direction at the right time, and those that did not, causing sickness or chaos, for, it was said, the hundred diseases arose from the wind, and entered the 84,000 holes of the body, the acupuncture points, just as it blew through the hollows of the earth.

Everything is fine, says Chuang Tzu, when the world is still. “But when the wind blows, the ten thousand holes cry and moan. Haven’t you heard them wailing on and on? In the awesome beauty of mountain forests, it’s all huge trees a hundred feet around, and they’re full of wailing hollows…When the wind’s light, the harmony’s gentle; but when the storm wails, it’s a mighty chorus. And then, once the fierce wind has passed through, the holes are all empty again.”

Wind was the vengeance of unhappy ancestors. Wind came from the mouths of snakes, and shamans wore snakes to blow them to the other world; in China or in Mexico, the shaman was portrayed in its gaping jaws. wind, the character, was constructed from the pictograph of a sail and the pictograph of a snake. wind plus sickness meant “insane.” wind purity was sexual longing; horse wind was a horse in heat; male wind was sodomy. An anonymous woman in the 5th century sings:

Spring flowers so delightful,
Spring birdsongs so moving,
Spring wind so passionate,
It blows open my silk skirt.

And wind (feng) also meant “song.” Song was how the government found out what the people were thinking, and the word came to mean “mood” or even “customs.” The first Chinese anthology, the Shi Ching, the Book of Odes or Songs, opens with a section called Kuo Feng—state wind—the songs, the moods, from the provincial states. The Great Preface to the Shi Ching, says: “By wind superiors transform their inferiors, and by wind inferiors satirize their superiors.” It was said: “Hear the wind [the songs from a certain state] and you will know the wind [the mood of the people].”

wind scene, a landscape. wind land, wind and land, the local conditions. wind water, wind and water, fengshui, the way one found one’s place in the world. wind rain, wind and rain, hardship. wind waves, wind and waves, the changes in affairs. wind tide, wind and tide, political unrest; the wind group, the opportunists.

The bird of paradise was the wind bird; a wind expression an aristocratic demeanor; wind glory, wind and glory, elegance and talent. wind moon, wind and moon, gaiety and a woman’s seductive arts. wind dust, wind and dust, the difficulties of travel, military chaos, and the life of a prostitute.

A wind man was a poet. wind flow meant distinguished, sophisticated, talented in literature, and dissolute. wind delight was merely humor, but wind sorrow meant excellence in literature.

Hear the wind and you will know the wind. Wind blows, and the generations are its leaves. There was no higher praise than what was said of Confucius: He knows where the wind comes from.