Some people say that modern society only looks at the results, and no one pays attention to what you go through in the process. Indeed, whether it is a test or a task at work, even if you try your best and think that you have gained a lot, if the final result is not good, it can only be futile, and even lose the only chance to change your life. In this way, you begin to "do whatever it takes" to achieve your ends, and you begin to stop paying attention to the nature of things and seek only utilitarian results. Will this work? Or can such success be sustained?
I recently reread White Deer Plain, and I found the answer here.
In 1986, Chen Zhongzhong, who was already 44 years old, suddenly felt that he had written novels for more than ten years, but he had not made a strong big work, and he was very unwilling. Perhaps when people reach middle age, when the rough life has smoothed out the edges and corners of the past, many people can no longer be like teenagers, with a lonely courage to break through. Even some people, who have a long way ahead, have already chosen to eat and wait for death in comfort. I don't know whether it was infected by the thick history of the white deer plains under his feet, or the natural stubborn and indomitable temperament of the Kanto people. This old man in Guanzhong, who was close to knowing his destiny, must use the fierceness of desperate Sanlang to make a desperate bet and fight with all his might to write a "secret history of the nation."
"White Deer Plain" and Chen Zhongzhong
There is no winning at the starting line, only hard work to change fate.
In 1942, on a day in June, Chen Zhongzhong was born in Baling Township, Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, a small village of Xijiang, south of Bailuyuan, north of the Bashui River, with only 30 or 40 families. His father, Chen Guanglu, was also an authentic farmer. He didn't ask much of his son, he just hoped to recognize a few words, count them, and not let people cheat. Later, in the village, I will spend my life harvesting and asking for a full bowl of rice.
As a child, Chen Zhongzhong's family was particularly poor. In the face of the days when he had eaten the last meal and did not eat the next meal, my father often issued a few helpless sighs.
So he secretly decided that he would live a new look to show people. Without a good origin, if you want to jump out of the dragon gate and make a difference, you can only study hard.
Fate, however, is best at teasing people.
In 1962, the 20-year-old Chen Zhongzhong failed the college entrance examination. He has always been in the top three of the class, and his name is Sun Shan. The god of luck, passing him by; the doors of the university, closed tightly for him. The creation of people, the college entrance examination fell, and his hopes full of expectations were disappointed one after another. This heavy blow caused him to fall under the bed more than once in the middle of the night screaming.
Helpless chen Zhongzhong, after experiencing the most painful and gray youth, had to become a private teacher.
Countless times, he stood on the top of the White Deer Plain and looked around. Is that his life like this?
When the way out was blocked, he realized a truth - not asking about the harvest, but asking about the cultivation.
In "White Deer Plain", there is a passage written like this: "Live well!" To be alive is to remember that the most painful and desperate moment of life is the most difficult moment, but it is not the last moment of life; Surviving the past and earning the past will begin an important turn to start a new glorious process; If you can't survive it, you will die, and when you die, everything will be over. Live well, live there is hope. ”
With "the hope of living", Chen Zhongzhong immersed his efforts in every minute and second, and regarded his favorite writing as a lifelong career. Don't seek much results, just grasp the moment.
So, during the day, he gave lessons to the children; at night, under the dim kerosene lamp, he began to read and write intoxicatedly.
In this way, more than twenty years have passed, and the hardships and hardships day after day have not made Chen Zhongzhong's literary dream in his heart die, but he has become more and more frustrated and courageous.
Finally, on the evening of the 25th day of the 1991 month, when the people who had worked hard for a day fell asleep early, when the ancient mound returned to its former silence. Chen Zhongzhong marked the last punctuation mark for his 500,000-word long family novel "White Deer Plain"
"Bai Jiaxuan later became proud of marrying seven women in his lifetime." The thunderous beginning unfolded the smoke cloud of the history of this ancient area for more than half a century...
This heavy novel, once published, swept across the country with the momentum of sparks. Critics cheered, the press marveled, readers rushed to buy it...
The famous scholar Fan once called this work "a generation of strange books, Fang Zhi Ousi, although Balzac and Standal, did not give it lightly."
The White Family and the Deer Family
"White Deer Plain" takes Bai Jiaxuan as the core of the narrative, and the contradictions and entanglements between the two families of Bailu carry out the plot to reflect the patriarchal family system and Confucian ethics and morality represented by Bai Jiaxuan, and the persistence and decadence in the change of times and political movements as the narrative clues, telling the story between the two major families in Bailuyuan Village, the Bai family and the Lu family.
The Lu family is represented by Lu Zilin, and his typical characteristics are: competitive, unprincipled, and unscrupulous for the purpose. Lu Zilin's goal in life from the beginning was to overpower Bai Jiaxuan, and he never felt in his heart that Bai Jiaxuan was superior to himself.
However, society did not give him the spiritual rewards and satisfaction he deserved. The public opinion on the White Deer Plain gave him a sense of loss, making his opponents increasingly above him. So he gradually became eager to make quick gains and unscrupulous means.
The final outcome was also tragic.
Unlike Lu Zilin, Bai Jiaxuan has no official addiction, no such crazy attachment to fame and fortune, and he has always adhered to the principles of traditional feudal etiquette and strict action. As the head of the family, Bai Jiaxuan has the unshirkable responsibility of passing on the generations, revitalizing the family business, and educating his children. Every day, he weighed the size of the clan and the family. He has always adhered to the ancestral precept of "cultivating and reading to govern the family", and strives to govern the White Deer Village into his ideal "Benevolent White Deer Village". The most successful thing he did in his life was the patriarch, and his son Bai Xiaowen later sat firmly in the position of county magistrate, which was inseparable from his education and persistence.
In the work, the image of Bai Jiaxuan is not thin but three-dimensional In the work, the image of Bai Jiaxuan is not thin but three-dimensional. Even though Bai Jiaxuan had the dregs of feudal etiquette left on his body and led to the tragedy of Heiwa and Tian Xiao'e, it could not be denied that under that small peasant economic order, his life was devoted to governing the family industry and revitalizing the family business, such a heavy responsibility made his life live in the hardships of running, but he did not give up his perseverance, like a tree after experiencing the baptism of the storm, still swaying all over the body.
Don't ask about the harvest, but ask about the cultivation
Man's true perfection is not in what he has, but in what he is. It is precisely because Chen Zhongzhong can withstand the long process that he is entitled to enjoy the brilliant results. It is also Bai Jiaxuan who bears heavy responsibilities and perseverance, and his life is not in vain.
Hugo said in "Ninety-Three Years": We cannot fish in the long river of time, but we can turn the interrogation of suffering into the power of crossing.
In the face of a cruel life, what we need is not the mentality of rushing to achieve quick success and accepting defeat, but the state of mind of enjoying the process and indifferent to fame and fortune, the more frustrated and courageous, the fiercer the struggle! It is undeniable that if you understand "White Deer Plain", you will also understand life. Some say this book is the pinnacle of Chinese realist fiction, while others say it is the greatest novel of our time!
At that time, Mo Yan, who was far away in Shandong, was brewing a work that ran through the changes of his home country, when he read this novel, he suddenly froze, saying that after reading "White Deer Plain", his confidence was half extinguished.
"White Deer Plain" condenses the deep connotation of national history, interpreting the historical changes of the 1970s and 1980s, which lasted for more than half a century, with a shocking sense of reality and a thick epic style.
This 500,000-word work writes the ambiguity and entanglement in the Chinese-style kinship relationship, writes all the complex human nature and unspeakable feelings and desires, and writes the thick secrets and hidden pains of our nation!
As long as you read carefully, you will find that you will be completely immersed in the situation, the characters in the book become extremely vivid one by one, and even you can see their figures walking around, hear the sounds of their various dialogues, and the distance between you and them seems to be so close that you can smell them.
Now, the uncut version of "White Deer Plain" has also officially come out; only in this way can the complete "White Deer Plain" let people experience the original love and hate of human nature, noble and humble, self-destruction and struggle rebirth, which are completely the finishing touches of the work.
If you are also confused and disappointed in your current state of life, you feel inconsistent about the concept of success.
If you also want to appreciate the majestic excitement of the Weihe River Plain, you want to walk into that exciting history. Read this epic masterpiece comparable to "One Hundred Years of Solitude" - "White Deer Plain". See what kind of inspiration this book that condenses Chen Zhongzhong's decades of hard work and even "can be placed in a coffin to cushion the head as a pillow" will bring us.