Recently, "Freedom on Earth", which has just landed in the Chinese book market, is a collection of 43 essay masterpieces by Wang Zengqi. Through Wang Zengqi's simple and elegant writing, while appreciating his philosophy of life, it is very easy to evoke many memories of himself. Combining his words with his own past life can get a sense of satisfaction from enjoying a dull life.
Wang Zengqi wrote "Freedom in the World"
Although I am not sure, I feel that the first time I read Wang Zengqi's text was in Reader magazine when I was a student. After all, I was a big fan of The Reader and had ordered the journal at the post office all year round. Later, because I found that the date of the newsstand was released a day or two earlier than the order delivery home, I changed to buying each issue at the newsstand. Many of the writers I like today, I initially approached and learned about them through The Reader. Therefore, when I saw the little green bee of the Reader's Press under the side of the waist cover of "Freedom on Earth", I naturally developed a familiar intimacy with it. In fact, this book is not the first work of Wang Zengqi that I have.
Regarding Wang Zengqi, my previous impression of him was that he was a literati gourmet with a good mentality, erudite and interest. His life experience is quite bumpy, but it is very rare and valuable to be able to maintain such a peaceful attitude, and it really makes me admire! Whether it is the elegant cover design, the way of lock line binding, or even the waist seal of the old newspaper style, this book is very close to his writing style, revealing a restrained and elegant cultural temperament. The specific text part of "Freedom in the World" is mainly divided into four chapters: "Youth Joy", "Beauty, at least a little accident", "Nothing to do here meditation" and "Lovely in the World". Some of them are nostalgic for his friends and family, some are reminiscing about his upbringing, and some are describing the world he has been exposed to in his daily life.
Wang Zengqi's painting "Human Freedom" is accompanied by pictures
In the "Youth Joy" section, Wang Zengqi first describes his hometown of Gaoyou. As he said in this passage, the first thing that comes to mind when I mention Gaoyou, like many people, is salted duck eggs. It is really including several names mentioned by Wang Zengqi, which look very strange. In particular, the title of Qin Shaoyou can't remind me of Qin Guan at all, just like when Du Zimei is mentioned, ordinary people may not remember that they are talking about Du Fu. I also deliberately checked, among the celebrities born in Gaoyou, in addition to Qin Guan and Wang Zengqi, there is another person I know, that is, Wu Sangui, but who will take him as the glory of his hometown? Compared with those celebrities, but Gaoyou's salted duck eggs I have eaten, but also left a good impression, I am afraid that many people will feel the same way, right?
Although there is no separate chapter on food-related content in this book, Wang Zengqi always mentions food between the lines and highlights his literati diners. After all, Wang Zengqi is known as "a gourmet in the literary world", no matter what kind of "literati diners list" has his place, even Jin Yong regards him as one of the writers who are full of Chinese flavor. For example, when mentioning that Gaoyou is a very rich aquatic product in the water town, Wang Zengqi not only listed several kinds of fish and shrimp from Gaoyou, but also clearly pointed out that green shrimp should be fried shrimp, and white shrimp should be used for choking shrimp. This fully proves that he really knows more about food culture than ordinary people.
Also in the text describing Gao You, Wang Zengqi vividly reproduced the scene of the osprey catching fish, which made me feel very pictured when reading it. I have the impression that I have not seen an osprey fishing in real life, but after reading Wang Zengqi's text, I have an illusion. It was as if I had seen the fishing man retrieve the mandarin fish from the osprey's mouth, reward it with a small fish, and then the osprey would jump contentedly into the water and work. At the same time, that passage also made me feel a sense of emotion, isn't every worker who works hard in his post like that osprey?
In the "Reading Cheap Books" section of the "Youth Joy" section of "Freedom on Earth", Wang Zengqi said that he likes books that have no comments, comments, and examinations, and only print white copies. He thinks differently than I do. The more ancient poems, texts, or foreign literature, the more I like to look at the translations of different translators, compare them in various versions, and completely blacklist those who are not good. The introduction and comments of some experts and scholars on authors or works make me feel that I can deepen my understanding of authors and their works from different angles.
For the matter of reading cheap books, I am not quite the same as Wang Zengqi. The point is not in reading, but in the matter of buying cheap books, which I have been on several occasions. Therefore, I would rather read the electronic version in various reading software than buy cheap paper books. I remember when I was a student, I once bought a set of award-winning novels by a domestic writer describing a red-top merchant in the Qing Dynasty at a preferential price at a book market in a famous park. It is said that in the kind of large book market that is held every year, pirated books should not be sold. But there were many typos in that set of books, and my mother was holding a pencil and reading the whole book while circled the wrong place. The whole reading process made her find a feeling that the primary school teacher was grading students' essays.
Another time was a few years ago, when my mother was shopping on a business trip, she found that there were many bookstores there, and the books there were sold by the pound, and the average novel was only 6.8 yuan per pound. However, the books of one of japan's prolific best-selling authors that I like are 20 yuan per pound, and the books of the other two Taiwanese authors that I like are not there. But some of the books of the "best-seller" are hardcover books, so the weight is a bit heavy, if you buy it at 20 yuan per kilogram, I estimate that it may not be much cheaper than the original price. It is not a rare strange book, if the big old man let my mother back from the field, I think it is not worth it! It is better to buy more preferentially and conveniently online, and it is not necessary for my mother to carry those books that are as heavy as bricks. I don't know if I would have actually bought it on impulse if I had seen the books sold by the pounds myself.
Once in the last two years, I saw a publisher's official online bookstore with books marked with discounts due to wear and tear on their sales pages. But when I found that the sales page of a Taiwanese writer I was interested in did not have wear and tear on the sales page, and the discount was also very large, I decided to place an order with a fluke mentality. As a result, I received a book that was not only worn, but also muddy, dirty and broken. I bought books because of the value of the collection, and I don't want to buy books that I don't feel sorry for when I read them and lose them. Second-hand books or defective products I don't want, it is basically to occupy both land and add to my own blockage. However, if you are a person who often has to move and change houses, you may have to throw away a bunch of books every time, then there is no need to pay so much attention to the appearance of the book, anyway, the content inside is the same.
In addition, in the "Opening The Benefits" section of the "Meditation without Doing Anything" section of "Freedom on Earth", Wang Zengqi said, "Some writers' books, you can read them as soon as you look at them, then read them; some writers' books, if you can't read them, don't read them!" "I deeply agree with this! Sometimes it is inevitable to be impressed by book marketing copywriting or recommendation from friends, but when you really get your favorite book to read, some of them are not the same as what you expect. Sometimes it is not that the author is not good at writing, nor is the story unattractive, there are always some small problems of one kind or another that do not meet their own preferences, and they read it hard, and the more they look at it, the more sleepy they are. I am not in a hurry to read it, and I want to use the contents of the book to deal with the exam, so why bother myself?
At the end of the section "Opening the book is beneficial", Wang Zengqi also said that the ancient saying that "opening the book is beneficial", and also mentioned that some people opposed this statement, believing that reading books should be selective. And he felt that as long as it was a book, it was beneficial to open it and read it, even if it was a yellow calendar for the elderly. In this regard, although I also agree with the saying that "opening the book is beneficial", I even think that even watching film and television works can also learn something from it. However, I also think that sometimes there is still a choice, after all, all kinds of inferior novels on the Internet are everywhere today, and only those works that have stood the test of time are more worth reading. Otherwise, if you waste your time on a pile of crap, you will inevitably regret not spending that time reading a famous book to draw more nutrition from the book.
In the section "Beauty, at least a little accident", "Beauty is reflected by the crowd - old learning idle copy" section, Wang Zengqi pointed out that using words to paint portraits of people is a thankless thing. One way is to write about his expression. Another way is not to write about the person directly, but to write the reflection of others after seeing it, so that the viewer has boundless imagination. For how to describe Wang Zengqi's prose, I think the same principle can be used, rather than I rack my brains to search for vocabulary, it is better to see how experts and scholars comment. For example, the scholar Liu Zhenkai once said, "The temperament of prose is the temperament of essayists." The essayist should be the interpreter and interrogator of existence. Prose creation not only tests the essayist's writing skills, but also verifies his sentimental behavior. In Liu Zhenkai's view, Wang Zengqi's prose, "has both the idyllic simplicity of Tao Yuanming's article and the inner wind and bone of Wei Jin's article, showing a kind of tranquil depth." ”
In short, I think that the content included in the collection of essays "Freedom in the World", although it is only a small part of Wang Zengqi's lifelong prose, is full of his personal characteristics. Some writers' prose reads to give people a strong sense of oppression, while Wang Zengqi's prose is not of the didactic type. His prose is all eloquent, bringing a sense of tranquility and humor to the harmony and beauty, which makes people enjoy reading time. (Author: Li Shuyuan)