With a bamboo pole balanced on his shoulder from which was suspended two large baskets filled to the brim with fresh eggs, a man was trudging along an ascending slope paved with cobblestones, humming a tune to himself every now and then.

Suddenly dozens of eggs fell from the basket and smashed into a puddle of yolks and whites as he shifted the pole from one shoulder to the other.

Someone shouted to him to stop and take care of his goods. Strange to say, however, not even bothering to look back and glance at the pile of eggshells and their contents, he went on his way as happy as ever.

It was a scene described to me by a friend of mine, who was on a package tour in Hangzhou of neighbouring Zhejiang Province.

The egg seller must be a man of wisdom, my friend sighed, who was able to show such detachment coupled with pragmatism as none of us could hope for. The man seemed to have grasped the essence of standing aloof from worldly anxieties and vexations. In truth, what benefit can we gain from lamenting over a loss that has already befallen us? In addition, being overly saddened by a misfortune can only exacerbate our state of mind, subject ourselves to health hazards, and, last but not least, help shroud the world in a mist of gloom and doom, which is otherwise bubbling with vigour and vitality.

In this regard, the late famous writer Shen Congwen set us a good example. During the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), he fared no better than the doormat, on which everyone was entitled to scrape their shoes. Besides being assigned the job of cleaning the women's loos, he had to put up with the endless shouts of derision, scathing criticism, biased cross-examinations, vicious cursing and, last of all, physical assaults. But he turned out to be a person too far gone in his love for beauty to be dampened in spirit by the Red Guards' intention to humiliate and mistreat him.

His unflappable temperament empowered him to endure all the tortures with a serenity and calmness that would have been inconceivable to an ordinary human being.

As it was, the beauty of nature around him never lost its grip on him even for moment. Though washed out at the end of the day, he would gaze at the setting sun or the flowers in full bloom, completely lost to the outside world.

In a letter to his friend, he unreservedly praised the beauty of the lotus in a pond near his living quarters, never mentioning any of the inhuman treatment he was receiving.

What an enlightened, all-encompassing mind he possessed that, even when plunged into an abyss of pain and torture, he didn't care two hoots what people did to him, but instead saw a fairy land in a pond where some lotus flowers were blossoming.

In the world, everything is multi-faceted. Our world outlook depends in good measure on what facet of things we are focused on. Things hardly change whether we are focused on this or that facet of life, but the impact generated by a specific facet on our feelings and the way we conduct ourselves varies significantly.

Detachment, to my mind, does not equate with evasion of reality but rather, it enables us to see things from a higher perspective, unconstrained by conventional thinking and worldly views.

It is a key to better understanding ourselves and the world, a key to enjoying life to the full.

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