Three Merits of Military Training

A little essay from my first year of high school that I unexpectedly dug up, filed here for the record. In my youth I was fond of clever parallelism, half-vernacular and half-classical, ornate but hollow. Though the words merely get the meaning across, the brilliance of those youthful days feels like yesterday, and it makes me nostalgic — so here it is, filed for the record.

The soldier steadies the heart and calms the breath, and with a stern martial air stands tall and gallant. The common heart, compared with the soldier’s heart, is far inferior. Our school uses military training to cultivate people and foster virtue, to practice breadth and completion, and to drill the three merits of military discipline. Given time, we shall surely become great vessels!

The First Merit: Still as Water

The sun’s blaze had not dimmed, and the great wind held its troops in check. Ten thousand miles of sky were all clear, and rivers of sour sweat ran into the fields. The uniform on my body had long been soaked and softened. My hands, my back, my chin… all tingled numbly from the wandering sweat, yet I could not reach to wipe it away.

Bitterly I waited, joints numb, drenched in sweat. Then a wisp of breeze brushed my face, and the world grew easy. It was only a wisp of wind, yet it nourished my parched soul at that moment. I felt the breeze against my cheek, lifting my hair, and finally gathering in the dark bamboo grove behind the rostrum.

My gaze was like clear water; the breeze lifted my sleeve, and I stood unmoved, while my heart had long since grown still as still water, flowing toward the distance…

The Second Merit: The Merit of Alignment

Marching depends on spirit, and rests on the neatness of the ranks.

When steps are in unison and voices resonate, that mountain-toppling momentum gushes forth. The trouble was that our row was half boys and half girls, yet we had to be split apart and woven into two great columns.

“Look left! Keep the line! How many times do I have to say it — mind the line!” The instructor and teachers shouted themselves hoarse, to little effect. Only by doing it again! We kept marching, learning from each mistake, lining up the ranks with the corner of our eyes. Now lifting our feet high, now lowering our steps, finding the rhythm… At last the playground resounded with the uniform beat of marching steps, one step after another, long and lingering…

The Third Merit: The Long March

Two hours had passed since we set out; the laughter and chatter of the start seemed to have vanished into the mountain mist, hazy and distant.

Numb after many turns, seeing the column stretching farther and farther ahead, I could only grit my teeth and press on. Just like that — repeated endurance, changing scenery, no surging resolve and no stirring ups and downs. Only one step and the next, walking out of × Middle School and back to × Middle School, everything natural yet somehow unfinished.

The road is always measured by our own feet.

Seven days of military training, all for three merits, tempered day and night — surely never to be forgotten or let go for a lifetime.

Learn three merits, savor three virtues: still as water — finding stillness in hardship; the merit of alignment — seeing the worthy and striving to match them; the long march past — measuring oneself.

Ah! The subtle delight I take from military training lies in these three!