Life and death are always the best test of human nature. Recently, all kinds of news have both the meaning of home and country and the ugliness of reality. The mask of WeChat merchants is hard to distinguish between true and false. Looking at the increase and decrease of numbers all day, I am really anxious. This is indeed a time to test your determination, enrich your life and pay less attention to what you can't change. This is also a choice.
Some people around me, just because they can't stand this loneliness, try their best to add ugly secularity to the news all day. I saw selfishness and really understood the difficulties of the country. People are really difficult to manage. Whether a country is good or not can't be seen only by a few people, but from a big perspective.
In this way, I think it is only a matter of time before the virus breaks out in our country. Many years ago, in the political class that touched me, I still remember what the superiority of socialism was. However, seeing the superiority of socialism in society is still the most touching thing for me. I am lucky and proud that I am from China.
Of course, if we think like this every day, it won't have much influence on our mood. Food, clothing, housing and transportation are short-lived and trivial with parents, and will not disappear because of the strength of the country. What our life is like depends on the world outlook we have established.
When I was in college, I was complacent about reading a little, but I never thought that as a China person, reading should be my daily life. In addition, the more books you read, the less you feel.
Lu Xun and Lao She were my favorite in college. I collected all the books I could find that I thought were worth reading and forgot to eat or sleep. I think I understand them, but I always feel that this understanding is separated by a thick barrier. Finally, one day, I realized what this obstacle was, that is, I was too lacking in the infiltration of China traditional culture.
During the epidemic, I was impetuous because I couldn't go out for a while. There is no library at home, and all the books are at work. Bored, I picked up my college textbook and reread it. Suddenly, I discovered a new world.
It turns out that those fundamental things hinder our understanding. In the words of modern people, it is these precious "bottom thinking" that determines whether we can deeply understand a thing.
As China people, there are always some things that we have never mentioned, but we can recall together. This is our traditional culture in China.
How to improve one's traditional culture?
In the past many years, I have made a lot of efforts here, and the textbooks have not been opened twice at a time, but I have not completely settled down to study. At that time, I thought this was what an old pedant should do. It's too complicated and confusing for me, and I have no energy to go on doing it.
However, this time I tried a new method and really gained a lot.
First of all, my goal is simple, that is, to recite those classic words according to the history of China literature.
Of course, this yardstick to measure whether to recite is not simply based on its importance in teaching materials. The reason why I have learned a lot of classic ancient prose for many years, but I still can't understand it deeply, is probably because I can't "know people and discuss the world."
It is very important to know people and discuss things. Only by knowing what this person has experienced and what era he is in can he really understand the ideas contained in his works. As Wang Xizhi said in Preface to the Lanting Pavilion, every reason why people are interested in the past, if they are United, is less than caring. Because I don't know the background of the article, I can't understand it.
If the foundation of classical Chinese is not particularly good, you can start by combing poetry. That's what I did.
From pre-Qin, Qin and Han Dynasties, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties (later, later), each part has its own characteristics.
The pre-Qin poems are mainly The Book of Songs and Li Sao. The Book of Songs is China's first collection of poems, which was compiled by Confucius. The Book of Songs is important because the poems of later generations are based on the poems of predecessors. If we want to understand later poems, we should know something about The Book of Songs. Of course, this does not mean that we must recite the Book of Songs. Without a certain foundation, it is also very difficult to read the Book of Songs. Li Sao is even more complicated. However, we can choose our favorite fragments and recite one or two paragraphs.
The Analects of Confucius, Mencius and later Historical Records are all materials that we should read. Of course, it doesn't matter if you don't look. Many people haven't read it completely, so it's okay for us to put it on hold for a while and read it carefully when we can. Just get a general idea of the contents of these books.
In addition to the Book of Songs, I think there is another source of poetry, that is, Nineteen Ancient Poems. This 19 poem is not difficult to recite, but it is very substantial. This is also the first time that I can recite all the poems. These nineteen poems contain many poetic themes. No matter how future generations write, there is a shadow of predecessors, which is also the value of Nineteen Ancient Poems.
Just like the first sentence in Song Yu's "Nine Arguments", I am sad for autumn and angry, and the vegetation is bleak. This sentence is really touching. I remembered it deeply when I first heard it. Later, in that sad autumn, everyone was overshadowed by this poem.
We have learned a lot about the poems of Tao Yuanming, a poet in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, but I don't know why I didn't like this man very much when I was at school.
Maybe he is too cold-tempered. Moreover, those truths seem to be sour grapes. What's so difficult about seclusion? There are many poets who later lived in seclusion, many of whom wrote more fluently than him.
Then, this time, I read Tao Yuanming, and I really understood him and his preciousness. What is valuable about him is not that he lives in seclusion in the mountains, but that he really survived. He really likes his rural life, not running away. He can feel calm in rural labor, which is a very rare mentality.
People who have been seeing each other off have all gone home, and relatives or sadness have also sung. What's the way to die? It is the same as good and evil. (Quasi-Elegy)
Tao Yuanming saw through life and death, without entanglement. He really looks like a man of god.
Quasi-elegy is Tao Yuanming's last words.
Where there is life, there is death, and sooner or later there is no fate. If you don't know the gains and losses, you can feel right and wrong. Life is long, who knows the honor and disgrace?
Grandpa just died. Because of COVID-19, many people's lives have ended. How people will face death when they are dying is really a difficult problem in life.
I really appreciate Tao Yuanming's open-minded attitude. Cherish it when you are alive, and don't expect to be remembered by thousands of people after death. Only family members can think of it from time to time, but we still have to live as usual. How sad can others be? We have only a little influence on the world. There is only one Tao Yuanming in the world, but we are too ordinary.
There are many poets, only a few of whom are angry with us. You understand them, you understand life, you want to understand others, you understand yourself. This is very important.
I still think it is necessary to write a suicide note every year. Only by facing death well can we live a good life, and only by not escaping can we know what is most important.
Ruan Ji, Zuo Si, Bao Zhao, Xie Tiao, He Xun, Yin Keng and Yu Xin, poets who are not Chinese majors and do not read the history of China literature, may not be familiar with them.
Poets we are familiar with, such as Du Fu, Li Bai and Su Shi, are deeply influenced by it.
What they express can have such a great influence on future generations, which is very worthy of our exploration. So I combined the history of China literature, collected all their representative works into a folder, and extracted what I liked and found catchy.
Finishing is only the first step, because there are different versions of poetry. I will copy the original poem and print it according to the name of the dynasty, but it is not as difficult as I thought.
When printing, I will leave a large blank to write my gaze and mark important content. Just like we used to learn ancient Chinese. Once we understand it, it is not difficult to remember it. Because there are my own notes on it, I feel very kind every time I read it. Moreover, with the accumulation of recitation, the thickness of the recitation manual is also increasing, which unconsciously makes our accumulation visible and tangible and stimulates people's motivation to work hard.
If you find it difficult to recite a poem, you can take out a pen and write the first word of the poem on the draft paper. This method is very effective, so don't be confused.
Reading poetry is a pleasure and reciting poetry is a good habit. The more you use your brain, the more flexible you are, and so is your memory. As for what the future looks like, I don't insist, but I hope I can gain something at this moment.
We have experienced a lot of joys and sorrows, and from the personal small world, they have a great influence on me. However, from a larger perspective, from a historical perspective, these things we have experienced are really nothing. Poetry is the essence of words. While we understand poetry, we also understand the lives of many people.
The wave of consumerism has been quietly eroding us. How many years ago, simple people can't avoid customs now, and they need some materials to package themselves, but our inner cultural support is getting thinner and thinner.
My mind is full of poems and books, so reading is like putting on a gorgeous coat for myself, and others can't take it away. Elegance in speech, indifference in doing things and open-mindedness in mind are great wisdom in life.
I didn't write too many articles about the epidemic at home, but I was not impetuous. The so-called self-media, first of all, must be sincere to yourself, followed by sincerity to others. Recently, I especially like Qi Tang's "A Letter on the Pillow of Sansheng III". Especially infatuated with the emperor. Although there are many criticisms in this novel, it is enough for me to realize that despite all my efforts, I will never become a writer.
Of course, I also understand that many self-media people don't take becoming a writer as their goal now, but if a self-media person can't strictly demand himself by the standards of a writer, he will only become a carrier in the end, and it is difficult to think and create. And if the producers of content take usefulness as the standard, then it is only a commercial product. After all, it is still far from literature, perhaps literature is too wonderful to touch.
At the age of 30, I have experienced some things. I no longer regard the judgment of others as the only criterion for my success, but begin to really think about what I really want. I will always study, but only for myself. Reading poems by heart and reciting them by heart, and combing them several times according to the history of China literature, are beneficial to life.
The goal of reading 200 books a year will probably not appear in my life plan in the future. Read the book thoroughly, it doesn't matter if you read less. What matters is reading thoroughly, and living clearly is not the chic on paper.
If you want to live a quiet and beautiful life, at the age of 30, you might as well start reading poetry. You will read a lot about life that you never understood before.