The story background of this book began before the 1920s. It runs through the decades of turmoil in old China and the stages of land reform, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution after the founding of New China. It mainly tells the story of how Yuan Qiu's family went with the flow and struggled to survive like driftwood in the water, and also describes the life and death of those rural people in the hinterland of central and southern China.
When it comes to the protagonist Yuan Qiu, her life is extremely bumpy-a teenager lost his father, a middle-aged widow, and a child in his later years. All three tragedies in life have affected her.
She once thought about hanging herself, but finally chose to endure the pain and survive, and continue to face the hardships of life for her family.
This may be similar to "living", but it is different.
In To Be Alive, Fu Gui also suffered a lot of pain and loneliness, but he still chose to be alive. It seems that "living" has become a belief and spirit that has nothing to do with foreign things.
But in the autumn garden, this kind of "living" makes me feel more sensible. It is not so ethereal spirit, but real strength-for the family I love.
It is also for this reason that I think Autumn Garden looks more flesh-and-blood than Fu Gui, rather than a symbol.
People who are exiled to the lowest level of society like Yuan Qiu seem so small and powerless in the face of fate, but for various reasons, they still choose to shoulder the burden of life, like bamboo shoots from Shan Ye and underground, stubbornly breaking a corner of their lives, stubbornly living and writing their own lives.
In addition to the character Yuan Qiu, this book also touches me on two other points, one is the influence of the times on people, and the other is the character Renshou (her husband).
First of all, about the influence of the times on people.
What impressed me most was the description of hunger and poverty in the original book. Perhaps the author carved this memory into his bones and described hunger in detail. From the second chapter, Yuan Qiu began to face the embarrassment brought by poverty. Later, the word poverty gradually became a problem of "hunger".
When you are not full, there are various ways to get food, either stealing or hiding (the way of stealing and hiding is also "skilled"); Food is also strange, even the thick juice cooked several times with straw can be regarded as "rice"; The sequelae caused by not having enough to eat and not eating well are also "eye-opening". For example, if people are extremely hungry, they will become bloated and look like "rich people".
The detailed description of hunger and poverty in the original book gave me a more intuitive understanding of the lives of my parents and grandparents, and also changed my prejudice against them to some extent and became more tolerant. I heard from my dad that they were poor when they were young, and it was often difficult to empathize with them, and I didn't understand why he kept repeating them frequently. However, in this book, I gradually understand why my father is hard to forget.
The times have left a mark on everyone. Even if that time seems to have passed, the people who left the mark will unconsciously reproduce the mark of that time.
Apart from my father's nagging about his former life, I am puzzled by my mother's behavior-that is, she can throw away the leftovers, but if there is meat in them, she will deliberately pick it out, even though it has been put in several times and nobody has taken care of it for several days.
At that time, I couldn't agree with why she could pour vegetables but not meat (I tend to pour both vegetables and meat and pick out one that tastes bad), but after reading this book, I finally understand how the older generation struggled to eat enough and how precious the meat is (it takes many days to grease a pot with pieces of fat as big as tofu), and now I finally understand why my mother is so persistent. Times have indeed changed, but the brand of the times still affects people from time to time. And this book is to help me understand people of different times and their "brands".
I quite agree with the evaluation of a book club:
"Every miniature schnauzer is a picture of history. Most of the history we have studied is imperial history, thinking it is history. In fact, books like Autumn Garden are the flesh and blood in the historical skeleton.
"……
"The mother in the book" Autumn Garden "has a bumpy life and a sad reminder ... It can be said:' I have tasted the ups and downs of life, and this is the final ending'. Savor carefully, is it just her sad reminder? People who have experienced those years in history are similar! "
Secondly, it is about Renshou. The role of Renshou impressed me deeply because he was controversial. When I read this book on WeChat, I saw many netizens accusing the character Renshou of love rat's behavior. There are also many people who accuse him of incompetence. If Yuan Qiu didn't marry him, he might have a good life.
In fact, I don't quite agree with the latter, because at that time, maybe Yuan Qiu didn't marry Renshou, or he couldn't escape the trick of history marrying others. Personally, I think this is biased, so I won't elaborate here. What I want to say is the kindness of Renshou.
I can't say how much I feel bad or good about Renshou. In my eyes, he is more of an ordinary person. He is not a god, not so perfect, but because of this, he is not so miserable. Let me make it simple. He is just an ordinary person. Don't expect too much. Ask him by God's standards. Just as many people may seek a kind balance, such as subsidies and helping others, on the premise of not going hungry (or not going hungry in the future), which not only takes into account family responsibilities, but also realizes their own value pursuit, but I don't think we can have both at any time, especially in that era of material shortage.
There is no doubt that Renshou is a kind person. He is enthusiastic about helping the poor. During his tenure as township head, even though his family situation may be a little embarrassed, he will subsidize other poor people who have nothing to do with him with his own things. Perhaps for his family, this behavior is selfish, which is why many people criticize Ren Shou, thinking that he is irresponsible to his family and that he should help others within his own ability. That's true. But it is very likely that under the circumstances at that time, if Renshou wanted to protect his family, he might just watch others have no choice. In fact, this can be abstractly regarded as an ideal and realistic choice, or a moral and survival choice. When people are about to face the dilemma of survival, do people choose to abandon their conscience and work responsibilities (Renshou was a township head at that time).
Ren was chosen to stick to his kindness (even though his kindness is a bit ivory tower), but fortunately he still has a wife who is willing to support him (for example, Ren received a dowry to subsidize the poor, and there is nothing he can do if he disagrees), so that his kindness will not be so isolated. Sometimes kindness cannot be sustained without support.
My family suffered a little more, but it brought a light to the desperate people. This used to be praised, but now it has been spit out. The reason is that the "kindness" I endure seems to be beyond my capacity. People don't admire this kind of behavior, and even criticize this mentality for being too selfish. For family members, this kind of behavior is indeed "selfish", but blindly criticizing the kindness of benevolence, paying too much attention to the trouble caused by benevolence, and ignoring the hope that benevolence brings to others and the evil of Manmao and others will make kind people feel a little chilling.
Because of kindness, it is inevitable to sacrifice something in many cases. Like many conscientious public officials, in fact, to some extent, they are also benevolent. Sacrifice the happiness of your family for the happiness of more people. Don't they want to have it both ways? No, they want to, but they can't have both.
I don't want to praise this behavior of sacrificing myself to help others (because it is likely to lead to moral kidnapping), but I also think this kind of goodwill should not be criticized too much. I am grateful to those who face the world with kindness and even help others when they are in trouble, such as Renshou and Yuan Qiu.
Of course, it makes sense not to help, especially when you are in trouble.
Kindness is contagious. When Yuan Qiu's family fell into the Jedi, the good causes planted in front of them produced good results, and many people who were helped by Renshou's family (Renshou's kindness was silently supported by the family, but the act of doing good seemed to be dominated by Renshou) helped them in turn.
Perhaps this is why ordinary people should stick to their kindness, at least for me, hoping to convey goodwill with goodwill.
We can't just rely on goodwill, but also need someone to express goodwill voluntarily and freely, otherwise goodwill can't begin. If I can't take the initiative to convey goodwill, then at least I don't want to blame people who have "excessive" goodwill.
I may be more inclined to affirm their goodwill, and then gently suggest that we can properly combine our abilities.
In other words, similar actions support the transmission of goodwill in return.