part
Is there anyone in this land who doesn't know you?
-I know Cheng and comment on his literary tendency and value.
February 4th, 65438+ is the birthday of two men whom I am very honored to know. One is my son Deng Fei, who is 28 years old and still eats books in the ivory tower. The other is my friend Lin Bao, who has been dating for more than 20 years. On this day this year, he turned 50. But I didn't notice his birthday until this year, which made me deeply ashamed of a friend for more than 20 years. Now, Pauline lives across the ocean in California, USA. In the meantime, he is on a business trip in Utah, USA, to celebrate his 50th birthday. This is the biggest turning point in his life. Although I extend my greetings to Yi Meier, I always feel that it is not enough to express my brotherhood. Think about it, or write something about knowing Pauline. It seems that this is a memorable gift that I can give Pauline at the moment for her 50th birthday. Although I feel that my level is limited, my writing ability is not up to standard.
one
I came into contact with Lin Bao in the early 1990s, when I was in charge of Jingmen Population Daily. At that time, Lin Bao enjoyed a high reputation throughout the country. First, when he was in college, he published his first book of poetry, Rainy Season, which was a pioneering work in the national publishing industry, poetry clubs and university campuses, and caused a sensation throughout the country. Later, I came into contact with young literary and art workers from all over the country. They used to love writing poems in college. Every time they talk about the poetry movement, although it has been more than ten years, they are still full of passion and admiration, praising Lin Bao's original influence on their generation. Secondly, Lin Bao's poems are unique among college students' poems, fresh and simple, with broad humanistic feelings and profound philosophical and intellectual implications, and become a typical representative of college poetry. Therefore, his poetic achievements are as famous as Haizi and Luo Yihe. Nowadays, when people search for the poetic achievements and representative figures in the 1980s, Cheng's name naturally stands out. However, these achievements and fame are not what impressed me the most. The reason why he and I have maintained communication and friendship for more than 20 years from acquaintance to acquaintance is that we have the same cultural background and fundamental life.
When I met Pauline, literature, especially poets, was at its peak. Some people, just because they can write a few poems, have eyes to their foreheads, and the whole world can't see anyone, except me, who thinks he is the savior of the literary world or poetry; Another kind of person, who thinks himself a writer and poet, is a degenerate person, either untidy or untidy, with a strange style of writing and strange words and deeds, and does not know the practical role and significance of literature and poetry to life. However, Lin Bao, who is famous for his poetry, gives people a different impression. He is so plain, dressed casually, and speaks peacefully, just like ordinary people, just like a brother next door, and like a farmer who came to the field to chat with you with his trouser legs bent for a cigarette, without any pretense or condescension. He gets along with people without affectation, affectation, boasting or slander. He is friendly and practical. In particular, his attitude towards life is very admirable.
I remember one summer, Pauline returned to Jingmen from Chengdu, and a group of literary friends got together at Maple Leaf Tavern. During the dinner, someone wanted to make wine. Pauline said: people, it is not easy to survive, why do you have to make eating such a relaxed and happy thing so uncomfortable! In eating and drinking, he thinks it is an extremely happy thing, which should not be swallowed, but should be tasted slowly. This shows Lin Bao's understanding and cherish of life. Soon after, I received a collection of poems from Chengdu, "The Last Song of Success".
Although my writing started with writing poetry, I don't know poetry after all, let alone writing poetry. Maybe it's because I love my dog. I was very excited when I received the poem from Pauline. My family read until dinner from noon. So crazy reading, so far, this is the only time in my life. People say that writing is like a man, but I think poetry is like a man. Lin Bao's poems are not obscure, lofty or mysterious, but seemingly ordinary, just like the tendons that most people like to eat. Although it is an ordinary dish, the more you chew it, the more delicious it becomes. For example, when it comes to fatherly love, the poet looks at the scene of a child swimming in the crowd on a stroller, and he is very worried. Then the poet fantasizes that he is the father of all children in the world and has the responsibility and obligation to supervise their feelings. For example, when it comes to love, the poet does not express it with roses, honeyed words and vows of eternal love, but with "rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea" and "watching each other grow old quietly and happily". For example, when it comes to holiness, the poet said that two naked men and women, lying in a bed, can be bound by their hearts. Emphasize the sanctity of the soul and abandon people's secular prejudice against sex. I can't remember the original sentences of those poems clearly, but their poetic themes, like the handwriting once written on the blackboard, have been looming in my heart.
I like his poems because of people, and I like people because of poems. This admiration for each other's relationship and function is one of the main reasons why I care about Lin Bao and like to associate with it.
two
During the period of 1994, my life and Pauline's changed greatly. First, in February, he went to work in Guangdong's "Great Huizhou" magazine from Jingmen Daily in Hubei. By the end of the year, Pauline flew from Sichuan as a visiting scholar to the United States on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, exchanging poems and giving lectures. Before that, Pauline had written to me many times and told me his ideal in life: going abroad, introducing China's poems to the world, introducing the world's poems to China, writing in bilingual, and becoming an international cultural person. Of course, hoping to win the Nobel Prize, the highest prize in world literature, is definitely his goal and one of the sources of his unremitting struggle. This mentality can be seen from his naming his baby son "Beno".
Before going abroad, Pauline had made great achievements in prose creation, became the representative of a new generation of prose in the 1990s, and published a collection of essays, Candlelight Prayer. Before I arrived in Guangdong, I received this new book from Lin Bao. On the title page, Lin Bao wrote: "Mei Zhusong, a three-year-old friend in the cold, is a three-gentleman in the literary world" (referring to another literary friend from Lin Bao, the Three Armies and Jingmen who went to Huizhou). Lin Bao's handwriting, like his people's, seems clumsy, but full of spirituality, with an atmosphere and sophistication, and is extremely resistant to reading. I came to Guangdong from Hubei with this book by Lin Bao and my unpublished sample book "Seeking Dreams" (later renamed "Ferry", published by Huacheng Publishing House), which became the most important spiritual source to encourage, spur and push me forward in the most difficult days in Guangdong.
Pauline and I are getting farther and farther apart, but our feelings are getting closer and closer, and our friendship is getting closer and closer. At first, we used traditional paper and pen to communicate. He often sends some photos, newspaper clippings and magazines. Lin Bao let us see the sky in the United States, which is too blue to be true, which makes me love and yearn for the pure world in the noisy environment day and night. Suddenly one day, Pauline asked me to open a mailbox. When I received his first email, I thought it was great. Modern internet technology has greatly crossed the distance between time and space: people are at the end of the world and their hearts are at hand. Yi Meier has turned the exchange of ideas into something that can be realized through time and space at any time in our lives, and I have always been the biggest guide and beneficiary of this exchange-whether in thought, knowledge, mind or vision.
After Pauline went to America for a long time, in addition to studying for a master's degree in literature at school, he also wrote. During this period, I think his greatest achievement in literary creation is his breakthrough in prose. Looking back at China from an international perspective, a series of articles written during this period concerning farmers, countryside and agriculture in China were included in the collection Records of a Farmer's Son's Village and Vast Land, which became his unique style and landmark in leading China's prose in highland. His essays on the "9. 1 1" incident and the Wenchuan earthquake, with international vision, feelings and concepts, fully expressed the broad feelings of a world citizen who has a distinct view of right and wrong and values, respects life and pities life. What can't be ignored is his comprehensive practical contribution to the creation and application of China's writing art in terms of language, artistic conception and inspiration. I can say without exaggeration that his achievements in this respect are far greater than Mo Yan's. His knowledge, aura and creative ability can only be appreciated in his works such as Abandoned Garden, Looking at Shu and Beauty of Tofu.
What is worth mentioning is the love between tofu beauty and me. 1999, because of my position, I quit my public office and started a food company, mainly to provide healthy bean products, including tofu products. When Pauline heard about it, he recalled his hometown tofu and hometown water and soil people. Soon he sent this article. Although my adventure ended in failure and I lost millions of dollars, I gained life experience and lessons, more friendship and this wonderful American article "The Beauty of Tofu". Undeniably, this has also honed my courage and tenacity, and made my future life more relaxed.
three
On June 20 12 12, Lin Bao came to our home in Huizhou. After several days of contact and conversation, I found that Lin Bao was far more than just a scholar who once wrote for the sake of writing. His moral cultivation, ideological depth and feelings for home and country are lacking by many domestic poets, writers, experts and scholars. During this meeting, he gave me two books, China's Heresy and Cheng's Poems, which showed me the spiritual palace.
After reading China's Heresy, I found that Pauline had made great achievements in the field of thought, which made me pay attention to Pauline's blog and read almost all his blog posts. In fact, before this, Pauline also sent me the electronic version of his ideological prose "Washing White". In these articles, Pauline exposed and refuted China's chaos with a critical eye, a rigorous attitude and a high sense of responsibility. As a China native and a descendant of a farmer, his vision is no longer focused on the peasant countryside, but more about the political system and democratic system of the peasant countryside and even the progress of the whole Chinese nation. This is the concrete embodiment of his ideological height different from that of ordinary literati.
His ideological essays are all about a specific event, analyzing the defects of human nature and system from the outside to the inside, so as to publicize the rule of law and democratic thoughts to the Chinese people. In particular, he lashed out at the ultra-left line during the Cultural Revolution in China, in order to warn those in power in China not to go back to the old ways, gild the lily and fish the people. Pauline declared war on the old system not only with words but also with actions, and made a complete break. At home, he is the editor and reporter of the Party newspaper. In China, with a population of 65.438+0.3 billion, he should have a high position, a good salary and a good life, but he resolutely abandoned it to open up a new world of searching for poetry and literary ideals. When he entered a brand-new democratic society and looked back at the China phenomenon with the eyes of the world, the previously constructed value system almost completely collapsed. Right and wrong, right and wrong, good and evil, good and bad, ugly and beautiful, seem to be completely misplaced in the country where they once grew up and lived. This makes him more worried about the future of the Chinese nation, and a sense of responsibility and urgency arises spontaneously. Because in that land, there are his beloved brothers and sisters, classmates and relatives and friends in the village. He regards it as his mission and responsibility to civilize the people's wisdom, advocate democracy and lead the people to simplify the complex.
According to China's system, a celebrity whose works are of equal status, like Pauline, must be a well-paid official, or a first-class writer, or a senior editor-reporter, or a bureau-level leader. However, Pauline has nothing to do with this in the United States, because there is no rentier class in the United States. He is just a Chinese teacher in a college of the Ministry of National Defense and a pure scholar. He needs to rely on his own teaching to get everything he needs to settle down. No red envelopes, no bribes, no gray income, and every penny is clean and clean. He cherishes all life and things in the world, even a grass, a flower, a tree, electricity, a grain of rice and a drop of water. Lin Bao, the champion of the college entrance examination, studied at Renmin University of China and was regarded as a training official in China. After arriving in the United States, he continued to study for a master's degree, but he was willing to be an ordinary worker who exchanged wisdom and labor for pay. How heroic this nirvana is and how thorough this cicada has become. This is quite different from China's traditional values of "learning to be an excellent official". Pauline, on the other hand, thinks that this is the values and world outlook of a healthy society and healthy people. Therefore, he feels particularly practical and happy! He deeply criticized China culture with his own practice. The challenge to the traditional values of China literati is absolute; The declaration of war on inequality, hegemony and human rights violations is fierce.
Reading Lin Bao's ideological essays, I seem to think that his writing style has changed. There is no flowery rhetoric or deliberate rhetoric, only solid and textured words reveal and point to the core of events or problems. When I read such a passage in the postscript of On Cheng's Poems, I just reached the height of literary trend of thought and realm: "If my writing in the 1980s was mainly out of vanity, then my writing after the 1990s was a little upgraded, and it became a writing driven by a sense of accomplishment ... +0. Thus, he came to a conclusion for himself:" I know that if my works can't depict that land, "Soul writing is the highest state of writing, which is Pauline's life course for himself.
Lin Bao has always wanted to be a bilingual writer like Lin Yutang. Judging from his current literary achievements, I think he has done it. Lin Bao wrote more than 20 works in his life, including poems, essays, novels and ideological essays. Except that his novels are not as good as Lin Yutang's (I think Lin Bao is a non-story writer), his other literary achievements can be said to be important writers worthy of study in the modern literary world of China, and no other writers and works can replace his position and role.
Nowadays, China is backward in everything except social science. It is precisely the strange phenomenon of social science that makes us lose face and feel embarrassed and ashamed in the forest of the world. Besides literature, Pauline's contribution in this respect can not be ignored. In particular, his essays on current affairs and thoughts set foot in the field of social sciences in the form of literature, lashed out at evil deeds, helped the world and guided all living beings, and made great contributions. I believe that a conscientious China will always remember his name, because he worked so hard in a foreign country for the progress of the motherland and the happiness of the people, providing wisdom and advice and making a sound. Mr Gong Mingde said, China, you should be kind to this man. I said, China, you must write a biography of this man.
In the 18 years since Pauline came to America, we met three times. Once in June 1996, he and his wife Xiao Min (Er Ya) came to Huizhou, again in February 2005, we met at Haida University, and the third time in June1/kloc-0, Pauline gave a lecture in Okinawa, Japan, and came to Huizhou to pick up his parents for the United States before returning home. Every time we met, Pauline's appearance didn't change much, but the rings of years left a remarkable mark on him, but his thoughts were obviously sublimated every time, and his influence on me was also increasing and deepening every time. Writing this passage can also be regarded as the touch of one soul to another, on such a special anniversary as Pauline's fiftieth birthday.
On this topic, I borrowed a sentence from a poem by Gao Shi, a poet in the Tang Dynasty, and wrote it to a friend. Don't make a big move. Gao Shi encouraged his friend Dongda to say: You are so talented, are you afraid of people you don't know when you travel around the world? /kloc-Today, more than 0/000 years later, I want to rewrite the definition of this poem. I was envious and said to Pauline, Brother, you have achieved so much and have both ability and political integrity. How can anyone in the world not know you?
Deng Sanjun died in the early morning of February 20th, 65438, 20 12.
I hope it helps you.