Introduction to the author of Andersen's Fairy Tales - The Wise Man's Gem
Andersen was born in a shoemaker family in Denmark in 1805. When he was young, he worked as an apprentice, learned to be a tailor, and also attended a poor school. He passed school and entered the University of Copenhagen in 1828.
Andersen has written novels, plays, travel notes, and poems, but his greatest talent is in the creation of fairy tales. His first collection of fairy tales, "Stories for Children," was published in 1835. Generation after generation of people around the world spend their time reading classic fairy tales such as "The Daughter of the Sea", "The Little Match Girl", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "Snow White", "The Ugly Duckling" and "The Princess and the Pea" by Andersen. A wonderful childhood.
Andersen wrote more than 160 fairy tales throughout his life, and his works have been translated into more than 80 languages. His works use wonderful fantasy, profound wisdom, and humorous satire to reflect the miserable lives of the poor, satirize the mediocrity and sycophancy of rulers and their subordinates, mock the ignorance and cowardice of the rich, and praise the ideals and beliefs of truth, goodness, and beauty. His works have been used for more than a hundred years. It has always been loved by children and adults all over the world.
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tale - The Story of the Wise Man's Gem
Of course you know the story "Holger the Dansk". I will not tell you this story again, but I want to ask you, do you remember what it said: "After Holger obtained the vast land of India, he kept walking eastward to the end of the world, and even walked Come to the sun-tree." - These are the words of Christian Bederson. Do you know Bederson? It doesn't matter if you don't know him. Holger the Dane gave all power over India to the Reverend John. Do you know Pastor John? If you don't know him, it doesn't matter, because he has absolutely nothing to do with this story. You will hear a story about the Sun Tree. This tree is "in the east of India, the end of the world." People say this because they didn't study geography like we did. But that doesn't matter at the moment!
The Sun Tree is a magnificent tree; we have never seen it and probably never will. The branches and leaves on the top of the tree stretch out for miles around. It is truly a forest in itself, for each of its smallest branches is a tree. Here grow palms, beech, pine, and plane trees, and many other kinds of trees—trees from all over the world, in fact. They emerge as twigs from the big branches, and these big branches are knotted in the east and bent in the west, like valleys and hills-covered with velvety grass and countless flowers. Each branch is like a vast lawn full of flowers, or like the most beautiful garden. The sun shines warm light on it because it is a sun tree.
Birds from all corners of the world fly to it: some come from the primeval forests of America, some from the rose gardens of Damascus, and some from the deserts of Africa - the vast majority of this area. The elephant and the lion think they are the only rulers. Birds from the Antarctic and Arctic also flew in; of course, storks and swallows were never absent. But birds are not the only creatures that come here; stags, squirrels, antelopes, and hundreds of other cute, jumping animals also take up residence here.
The top of the tree itself is a vast, fragrant garden. Many huge branches spread out around it like green hills. Among these hills is a Crystal Palace, overlooking all the countries of the world. Each of its towers looks like a lily; one can climb up in the stems, because there are spiral staircases in them; so you will understand now that one can go up to the leaves, because the leaves are balconies. . There is a beautiful and brilliant rotunda in Huazao. Its ceiling is the blue sky with the sun and stars embedded in it.
In the palace below, the vast halls are equally splendid, although they are expressed in different ways. The whole world is reflected just in those walls. People can see everything going on in the world. Therefore, there is no need for people to read newspapers. In fact, there are no newspapers here. People can see everything through moving pictures - that is, what you can see, or are willing to see, because everything has a limit, even smart people are no exception, but here live A wise man.
This person’s name is difficult to pronounce. You can’t pronounce it either, so there’s no need to mention it. He knew everything that people knew, or that people could know in this world. He knew every invention that had been completed or was about to be completed. But he doesn't know anything else, because everything has a limit after all. King Solomon, who was famous for his intelligence, was only half as clever as he was. But this monarch is also a very smart person. He rules over all the powers of nature and rules over all the ferocious spirits. Indeed, even the God of Death had to give him a list of those who were going to die that day every morning. Yet Solomon himself had to die. The powerful master who lived in the palace on the Sun Tree - the explorer - often thought about this problem.
No matter how much more intelligent he is than humans, he will one day die. He knew that his descendants would die, just as the leaves in the woods withered and turned to dust. He could see that human beings would wither like leaves on a tree so that a new generation could take their place. But once a leaf falls, it never comes back to life; it just turns to dust or becomes part of another plant.
①Solomon was the king of Israel in the tenth century BC. He was said to have extraordinary wisdom.
When death comes, what result will people get? What exactly is death? The body is destroyed, but what will happen to the soul? What will it become? Where will it go? What? "To eternal life," this is the comforting word of religion. But how to change the past? Where do people live, and how do they live at the same time? "Living in heaven," the devout people say, "we are going to heaven!"
"To heaven?" This The wise man repeated these words, gazing toward the sun and stars.
“Go to the sky!” From the perspective of this round earth, the sky and the earth are one and the same thing. It all depends on the angle from which one looks at the rotating sphere. If he climbed to the highest peak of the tallest mountain on earth, he would see that what we call clear and transparent below - "the sky" - is nothing but darkness. It covers everything like a cloth, and the sun in this case is just a non-luminous fireball, and what is floating on the earth is just a layer of orange smoke. How limited the physical eye is! How little the soul's eye can see! Even the wisest saint can only see a tiny bit of the things that are most relevant to us.
Hidden in one of the most secret rooms of this palace is one of the greatest treasures in the world: the "Book of Truth." The saint read page after page. Anyone can read this book, but only a few fragments. In the eyes of many people, the letters on this book seemed to be trembling, and people could not spell them into complete sentences. The writing on some pages is very faint and blurred, and they look like empty pages with nothing left. The more intelligent a person is, the more he can understand, so a person with great intelligence can understand the most. It is for this reason that wise men know how to combine the light of the sun and the stars with the light of reason and the potentiality of the soul. In this mixed light, what was written on the page appeared very clear to him. But there is a chapter called "Life after Death", and not a single word in it can be read clearly. This made him feel very sad. Couldn't he find a ray of light in this world that would enable him to see clearly everything written in the Book of Truth?
Like the wise King Solomon, he understood the language of animals. He could explain the songs they sang and the words they spoke. But he didn't become any wiser for it. He discovered the power of plants and metals—the power to cure disease and delay death. But he could not find a way to stop death. He looked for a revelation that could make life eternal among all the created things he could come into contact with, but he could not find it. The Book of Truth was before him, but the page was a blank sheet of paper. Christianity gave him a promise of eternal life in the Bible. But he wished to read it in his own book, and of course he could not read it in this book.
He had five children, four of whom were boys; they all received the education that a wisest father could provide them. The other was a girl; she was beautiful, gentle, and smart, but she was blind. However this cannot be considered a shortcoming. Her father and brothers are her eyes, and her keen sense can also see Dongyou.
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