I would like to recommend you an article called "Winter at White Horse Lake" by Xia Beizun, which is selected from his collection of essays "Essays on a Flat House". It is a lyrical prose about the scenery.
In my career of more than 40 years, the most profound taste of winter occurred when I moved to Baima Lake ten years ago. In the past ten years, Baima Lake has become a small village. When I moved there, it was still a wilderness. The new building of Chunhui Middle School stands majestically on that side of the lake. At the foot of the mountain on this side of the lake are several small new bungalows, where Liu Junxinru and I live. Besides, there is no human habitation within two or three miles. —The family moved from lively Hangzhou to this desolate mountain wilderness in late November of the lunar calendar, as if they had plunged into the extreme zone.
The wind there is almost there every day, whistling like a tiger roaring. Although the house was newly built, its structure was extremely rough. The wind came through the cracks in the doors and windows, which were extremely sharp. Even though the cracks in the doors and windows were thickly papered, they still penetrated through the cracks. When the wind blows badly, the door is closed before midnight. After dinner, the whole family falls asleep under the quilt and listens to the howling of the cold wind and the surging of the lake. The small rear pavilion at the back of the mountain can be regarded as my study. It is the least windy room in the whole house. I often pull my borscht hat low on my head and work under the foreign lamp until late at night. The pines are roaring, the frosty moon is in the window, and the hungry rats are scurrying on the dust. At such times, I feel deeply bleak and poetic. I often scratch the ashes alone and refuse to go to sleep. I imagine myself as a figure in a landscape painting and have all kinds of ethereal reveries. Now there are trees everywhere in Baima Lake. At that time, not a single tree was planted. The moon and the sun are both whole, shining from the time you go up the mountain to the time you go down the mountain. When the sun is nice and the wind isn't blowing, it's really not as warm as winter. The whole family sat in the courtyard to enjoy the sun, and even had lunch outside. Like a summer dinner. Wherever the sun shines, they move their chairs and stools. Suddenly a cold wind comes, so they have to flee into the room with their chairs and stools, and close the door in a hurry. On a normal day, the wind comes probably in the late afternoon and then stops in the middle of the night. As for the strong wind and cold, it roared all day and night and took two or three days to stop. During the coldest days, the muddy ground looked as pale as cement, the mountains turned purple and dull due to the cold, and the lake waves turned dark blue.
I don’t hate snowy plains. On snowy days, the indoors are extremely bright, and there is almost no need to light a lamp at night. The snow in the distant mountains is enough for viewing for half a month, and you can see it from the window if you raise your head. But after all, in the south, it only snows once or twice every winter. Almost all the winter flavor I experience there comes from the wind. It can be said that the reason why Baima Lake is windy is geographical. The lake is surrounded by mountains, but at the north end there is a gap half a mile wide, as if the mouth of the bag was deliberately opened to welcome the wind. The landscape of Baima Lake is not far from that of ordinary scenery, but the wind is different from other places. Everyone who has been there knows how windy and strong it is. Wind has played an important role in the feeling of winter since ancient times. The wind in Baima Lake is particularly special.
Now, the family has been living in Shanghai for many days. Occasionally, when they hear the wind in the dead of night, everyone will mention Baima Lake and say, "I don’t know how bad the wind will blow at Baima Lake tonight!"
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Feng Zikai is a representative prose writer in the 1930s
The content of his prose is daily life and expresses his unique outlook on life. He is praised by international friends as "the artist most like an artist in modern China", and some people say that he is "China's Tao Yuanming of the 21st century".
His works are mainly divided into five categories. Some describe children's interests, nostalgia for childhood, and praise innocence; some explore the mysteries of life and nature, explore the universe, and sing about life; some criticize current ills, sympathize with the people, and reflect on reality. Exposing various pathological and ugly phenomena in society; remembering people and events, remembering teachers; savoring life, chanting things and expressing feelings.
If you are looking for lyrical scene descriptions, you can check out his masterpieces "Willow" and "Shelter in the Mountains."
"Willow":
Because there are many willows in my paintings, some people say that I like willows; because some people say that I like willows, I seem to feel that I am really destined to willows. But I have also asked my heart, why do I like willow? What is the deep connection with the willow tree? The answer is hard to come by. It turned out that this was completely accidental: when I lived on Baima Lake in the past, I saw people planting willows by the lake. I asked them for a small plant and planted it in the corner of my apartment. Therefore, the house was named "Little Willow House" and the common willows were often used as painting materials. Therefore, some people said that I like willows, so I seem to have a connection with willows. If people were planting thorns by the lake at that time, maybe I would have named the house "Little Thorn House" and specialized in painting thorns. I don't know if I became associated with thorns. This is often the case in the world.
But if I deliberately want to get married with Yangliu, I won’t say the above words, but can add various reasons. Maybe I love its light yellow and tender green color, or I love its intoxicating dancing style, or I love it like Xiaoman’s waist, or I love it because it was grown by Tao Yuanming’s house, or maybe I can also quote " The poem "The guest house is green", the words "The tree is like this", as well as various classics such as "Wang Gong's appearance", "Zhang Xu's spirit", etc., are the reasons for my love for willows. Even if you have to find three hundred high-sounding, elegant and profound reasons, it is very easy. This is often the case in the world.
Maybe I once said to someone, "I love willows." But this is also random. It's like I accidentally bought a pair of black socks and put them on my feet. When someone asked me "Why do I wear black socks?", I would tell them "I like wearing black socks."
In fact, I have never been interested in flowers and trees; even if I have them, I have no attachment to them. This is because I grew up in a poor country, where I only saw mulberry, millet, tobacco, cotton, wheat, and soybeans, but I had never been close to a garden with thousands of flowers. I have only seen beautiful names such as "crape myrtle", "red apricot", "peony" and "peony" in a few old books, but it is rare to get close to the owner of such names. It’s not that I’ve never seen them before, it’s just that they often disappoint me when I see them. I don’t believe that these are the crape myrtle flowers that once admired the crape myrtle, the red apricots that once made the minister famous, the peonies that once made drunken ladies beside them, or the peonies that symbolize wealth. . I think they are just a few types of plants, but they are rare and valuable. There is nothing particularly cute about them. They seem not worthy of being praised in poetry, let alone occupying such a noble position among flowers and trees. Therefore, I seem to feel that the famous flower praised in the poem is another kind, not the plant I see now. I have occasionally visited gorgeous gardens, but I have never seen a scene that is fully worthy of the title of "thousands of flowers like embroidery".
If I want to praise a plant now, I still want to praise willow. But this has nothing to do with the previous situation, it’s just what I’ve been feeling these past few days. If I talk about it casually on a whim, I won’t believe in it like a religion or cultism and devote myself to it for the rest of my life. Because the weather was nice yesterday, I kept busy writing until evening, so I couldn't help but sit on a bench by the West Lake for a while. . I saw tens of thousands of strings of green beads hanging on the willow trees on the lakeshore, floating here and there in the warm spring breeze, with many slightly curved lines floating out. I thought this plant was really beautiful and lovely, and I highly praised it. No.
I heard people say that this plant is the meanest. Cut a branch and stick it in the ground, and it will come to life and eventually turn into a big willow tree. It does not need noble fertilizers or deep cultivation. As long as there is sunshine, soil and water, it will live and grow very strong and beautiful. Peonies eat pig intestines, grape vines eat broth, and many flowers and trees eat bean cakes; but willow trees don't eat other people's food, so people say it is "cheap". Probably "expensive" means you have to eat it. The more you want to eat, the more you want to eat well, the more "expensive" it becomes. It seems more expensive to eat a lot and have no use, just for viewing. For example, peonies are more expensive than grapes because peonies eat pig intestines only for viewing, while grapes eat the broth and produce results. Willows do not want to eat people's food, and they have wood for people to use, so they are regarded as "cheap" by others.
I praise the beauty of willows, but their beauty is different from peonies and from all other flowers and trees. The chief beauty of the willow is its drooping. Most of the flowers and trees grow upward. Red apricots can grow to "out of the wall" and ancient trees can grow to "towering into the sky". It is good to move upward, but I often see branches, leaves, flowers and fruits flourishing, and I seem to have forgotten the roots below, and feel that they look disgusting. You are dependent on them for sustenance, so why do you just stay on top and ignore them? Your life construction On top of it, how can you just covet your own glory and never look back at the roots of being in the soil? Most flowers and trees are like this. Even though the roots below have been chopped off, the flowers and leaves above are still flourishing. It's really hateful and pitiful to be there for the last moment of blessing! Willows don't have such a hateful and pitiful look: it's not that they can't grow upward. It grows quickly and is very tall; but the taller it grows, the lower it hangs. Thousands of thin willows on the streets, all of them do not forget the roots. They often look down below, borrowing the power of the spring breeze from time to time to dance to the roots in the soil, or kiss it. It's like a group of lively children playing around their loving mother, but they always lean towards the loving mother's side, or throw themselves into the loving mother's arms, which makes people feel very cute. There are also willow trees that are higher than the top of the wall, but I don’t mind them being tall. I can stand down just because they are tall, and I can’t forget my roots just because they are tall.
Since ancient times, willows have often been used as a main theme of spring in poems and essays. When writing about spring scenery, it is called "ten thousand trees weeping willows", when writing about spring scenery, it is called "willows on the streets", or even spring is called "wicker spring". I don’t think this is just because the willows are being cut in spring, but because the trees have a special posture that is very harmonious with the peaceful and beautiful spring scenery. The characteristic of this posture is "drooping". Otherwise, there are so many trees that sprout in spring, why would they only let wicker be the master of spring? It’s just that other trees have relied on Dongjun’s power to strive for the top, blindly seeking heights, forgetting their own roots, and their greed. It is inconsistent with the spirit of spring. The only thing that best symbolizes the divine will of spring is the weeping poplar.
This is my impulsive thought after seeing the willows beside the West Lake yesterday. But it’s not just the willows on the West Lake that I praise. Under the spring sunshine these days, willows everywhere in the countryside have such admirable postures. West Lake seems too noble, but not suitable for planting such "cheap" weeping poplars.
"Shelter from the Rain in the Mountains"
The day before yesterday, I went to the West Lake Mountains with my two children to play, and it suddenly started to rain. We ran in a hurry and saw a small temple in front of us. There were three villages in front of the temple. One of them opened a small tea shop and sold cigarettes. We rushed towards it. Although the tea shop is small, tea costs ten cents a pot. But at this time, even two cents a pot is not too expensive for us.
The tea becomes diluted and the rain becomes heavier. At first, I was disappointed because it rained during my trip to the mountains. Then, the lonely and deep feeling of the rain in the mountains attracted my interest, and I felt that it was more fun than touring the mountains on a sunny day. As the saying goes, "The mountains are so beautiful when they are empty and covered with rain." I realized the benefits of this state of mind here. However, the two girls did not understand this kind of fun. They sat in this small tea shop to hide from the rain, just complaining about everything, and feeling bored.
I can't explain to them the state of my experience, and I don't want to make them "adult" and experience the fun that I feel. Dr. Cha was sitting at the door playing the piano. Apart from the sound of rain, this was the only sound we heard at that time. He was playing "Three Plum Blossoms". Although the sound was not quite correct, the time was still good. It seems that because there are few customers, he sat at the door and played this huqin instead of radio to advertise. Unfortunately, he stopped playing for a while, so all we heard was the noisy and lengthy sound of rain. In order to comfort the two girls, I went to borrow the huqin from the tea doctor soldiers. "Can you lend me your Huqin?" He handed the Huqin to me politely. I borrowed the Huqin and went back to the tea shop. The two girls were very happy. "You know how to pull? You know how to pull?" You know how to pull? "I played it for them to see. Although my technique was raw, I could still touch the scales accurately. Because when I was a child, I asked A Qing, the owner of firewood near my home, to teach "Three Lanes of Plum Blossoms", and also asked a big man, a tailor's assistant in the opposite lane, to teach me. A Qinggong's teaching method is very special. He only plays "Three Plum Blossoms" to you, but does not teach you the music score of Gongchi. He is very familiar with Gongchi. His playing was disappointing and I could never learn from him. Later I found out that Han was literate, so I asked him to teach me. He wrote down the scales of Xiao Gong Tune and Zheng Gong Tune on a piece of paper and gave it to me, and I started playing the Hu Qin from there. The reason why I am able to figure out Xia Tian's correct scales is partly due to my previous experience with ①violin, and partly based on the teachings of Dahan. I played the Huqin calmly (because it was fast) under the rainy window in a small tea shop in the mountains. The two girls sang in harmony, and she seemed to be a singer on the West Lake. People from three villages came to watch. One girl sang "Yuguang Song" and asked me to play the Huqin. I played with her, and the young people from the three villages also sang together, which made the Ruoyu Barren Mountain very warm for a while. I had been a music teacher in 1978, and I used to accompany the four-part chorus with ②piano. I played ③Beethoven's ④sonata. But I have never tasted the fun of music like today. Two empty rickshaws came by and we hired them. I paid for the tea, returned the huqin, and said goodbye to the young people in Sanjia Village. I got in the car. The tarpaulin covered my face and I couldn't see the rain. I thought about the experience just now and felt that the piano was as heavy as a coffin. It cost tens of hundreds of dollars to make. How many people in the world could do it? How about enjoying it? The huqin only costs two or three cents. Although the sound range is not as beautiful as the violin, if it is properly assembled, the sound is still audible. This instrument is very popular among Chinese people. It can be found in barber shops, tailor shops, and boats in Jiangbei. Yes, there are them in Sanjia Village. If more simple and noble Huqin music can be made popular among the people like "Yu Guang Song", the artistic cultivation effect will be much greater than that of music classes in schools. When I left Sanjia Village, the young people in the village walked me into the car and expressed their farewell. I also felt a little reluctant (I once said to them, "Come back next week!" In fact, I am afraid that I will never go to Sanjia Village again in this life. Went to have tea and play the huqin.) If there was no connection with the huqin, how would the young people in Sanjia Village feel about me, and how would I rely on these people who meet by chance? . "I have been a music teacher for seven or eight years and have never verified this statement. Unexpectedly, it was proved today in this deserted village.
(Note: ①violin, ②piano, ③Beethoven, ④sonata)