Wen | Jin Shan Yue
Source 丨 Ten Point Reading (ID:duhaoshu)
In 1992, just after the Spring Festival, in an eight-square-meter cottage in Beijing, 32-year-old Yu Hua began writing a novel "Alive".
He was inspired by an American ballad, "The Old Black Slave."
The old black slave in the song has a miserable life, and his family has gone before him, but he never complains about fate and never bows to life.
Yu Hua was deeply moved by this song and decided to write a story that celebrates the life force of ordinary people.
This story is the novel "Alive".
In the book, Yu Hua tells us about Fugui's bumpy life in the tone of an old farmer.
Fugui is like an old black slave, life is difficult and bumpy, but they all work hard.
For thirty years, Fugui has led his old cattle into the hearts of countless readers and turned into a spiritual force.
After reading "Alive", you will understand:
There is never the word "easy" in the world, but you can choose not to live "hard" from life.
It's hard to live, and life has never spared anyone
Xu Fugui was originally a young master born with a golden spoon.
As an adult, he married Jia Zhen, the daughter of the owner of the rice shop, which can be described as rich and expensive.
Supposedly, life should be easier for rich people, but in reality it is not.
When he was young, Fugui did not know how to cherish blessings, and he did evil all day long, making the family restless.
When he went to a private school, he used the hired man as a donkey on the way back and forth; in class, he often spoke wildly, and the old man was so angry that he scolded him as a beast.
Later, Fugui simply stopped studying, ran to the brothel in the city for three days, and became obsessed with gambling.
The most absurd thing was that he rode a prostitute to the old man's rice shop and asked for peace loudly, which made everyone laugh.
The old man has a grudge in his heart;
His mother and Jia Zhen were so angry that they wept secretly;
His father tried to persuade him, but he knocked him to the ground;
Even Fugui himself grew mad in the midst of the condemnation of the crowd.
At that time, Fugui and Jiazhen already had a daughter Fengxia, and Jiazhen was pregnant with Liujia.
The family that should be happy, but because of Fugui's "work", one by one lived a miserable life.
As the saying goes: a family is like a needle picking soil, and a loser is like water pushing sand.
On this day, Fugui gambled in the casino and lost the Xu family's century-old foundation overnight.
However, bad luck has only just begun.
A month later, the family's employees ran away, his father was killed alive, and the old man took a group of people to snatch Jiazhen back home.
Fugui hates heaven and earth, but what he hates most is himself.
He couldn't sleep for days, his head hurt so much that he was about to explode, and he cried so hard that he couldn't stand up straight.
Fate will not let go because you know that you are wrong, and life forces him to dry his tears and work in the field.
Fugui rented 5 acres of good land from the landlord and began to cultivate. Having been pampered for many years, he felt that he was exhausted every day.
He was no longer a young master dressed in fine clothes, but a mud-legged man who could scold a few words.
Fugui felt that it was really difficult for people to live, it was difficult when they had money, and it was even more difficult when they didn't have money.
As Lu Yao said in "Ordinary World":
"Every ordinary and ordinary person will always feel overwhelmed by the waves of life."
Whether it is living in a tall building or a rusty body, no one will be easily let go by life.
Some people carry a few months older children on their backs to move bricks at the construction site in order to fill their stomachs;
Some people endure the injustice and repression of the workplace for many years for the livelihood of the whole family;
Someone cried outside the ICU, and didn't borrow a penny after calling...
In the great waves of fate, everyone has a time to overturn the ship.
When you have survived in the whirlpool of suffering for a long time, you will finally understand that life is not easy, and hardship is the norm of life.
It is difficult to live, and it is difficult not to overthrow those who have light in their hearts
Liang Qichao once said: "Hardships and hardships are the highest schools for tempering personality." ”
The great changes in life have made Fugui suffer a lot, but they have also made him reborn.
The soil is the most nurturing, and the day-to-day labor strengthens Fugui's physique, and the days of relying on the old woman and daughter have taught him how to cherish.
Half a year later, Jia Zhen ran back with her newborn son in her arms. Looking at the neat and tidy family, Fugui had unspeakable joy in his heart.
Unfortunately, just a year after the stable days, Fugui was captured by the Kuomintang artillery.
He didn't even have a chance to go home, so he was pointed at by the barrel of a gun and went north, and this walk was more than a month.
After crossing the Yangtze River, the heel was not yet stable, and the entire artillery team was surrounded by the People's Liberation Army.
The artillery quickly ran out of ammunition, and occasionally planes dropped grain, and Fugui mixed with hundreds of people and pounced on the ground.
Often the pie did not flutter, but he was hit by a blue nose and swollen face.
Sleeping at night, bullets flew back and forth on the tunnel, and many people were frozen alive in the snow.
Some people began to flee, but they were killed before they could run far; others could not bear the crime and broke their own heads with guns.
In the state of death, Fugui was gritting his teeth and insisting, because he had a fire in his heart, and this fire was his home.
Home was his belief in survival and gave him great strength.
Soon after, the Plath Army defeated the artillery and helped Fugui and the remnants return home.
On the first night of home, Fugui couldn't sleep.
He huddled together with Jiazhen and his two children, and his heart was steady and warm, saying to himself over and over again: Go home.
I like a quote from the writer Liu Tong:
"In the endless time, may we follow the light all the way, be a person with light and energy in our hearts, and then we can give light and temperature to others."
Wherever this light source comes from, it will illuminate the way forward in the darkness.
Have you ever seen a seafood market at three o'clock in the morning? While most of the people were asleep, someone was already standing in the cold wind to pick up and unload the goods.
What he thinks may be his daughter's birthday gift, it may be a good bottle of wine from his father, or it may be a difficult thing for his brother;
Have you ever met someone who fought the disease to the end? When fate is no longer at stake, they still struggle to extend their lifeline.
They may have infinite love for the world in their hearts, or they may simply not accept defeat.
Life has been rushed for decades, and there are always some days that are bleak and even extremely painful.
But as long as you have light in your heart, life has momentum; as long as your heart is still there, it is not difficult to live.
It's hard to live, but it's worth it on earth
The Lotus Sutra says, "All actions are impermanent, and everything is suffering." ”
Using this sentence to describe Fugui's life is most appropriate.
A few years after Fugui returned home, there was a famine in the village.
When there is no rice, the family will dig up the roots of the trees and nibble on the bark; when they are hungry, they will lie down on the edge of the pond and drink a stomach of water.
When someone in the village starved to death, Jia Zhen asked her father in the city for 40 pounds of millet. Thanks to these grains, the Fugui family survived the difficulties.
However, Fugui escaped natural disasters, but did not escape man-made disasters.
A few years later, Youqing was sucked to death by the hospital of the black heart because of unpaid blood donation; Fengxia died after marrying someone because of the difficult birth of a child; three months later, Jiazhen was seriously ill and also followed the two children.
The suffering is far from over.
Four years later, her son-in-law Erxi died unexpectedly; three years later, her grandson Bitterroot was swollen to death because of a bad stomach.
In the past, the family was lively and lively, and in the end, only Fugui lived alone.
He seemed to be getting old very quickly, and within a few years his hair had turned all white. He did not bury his painful past deep in his heart, but loved to tell his story to outsiders.
He often talked about his wife's kindness to himself, his children's understanding, and his grandson's naughtiness and cuteness.
He remembers that Jiazhen's greatest wish is to make shoes for himself for a lifetime;
He remembered that Xiao Fengxia accompanied him to the ground and picked yellow flowers for himself to smell;
He remembers the way Youqing ran home barefoot in order to save shoes;
He still remembers bitter root falling asleep and shouting in his dreams: "Fugui! Fugui! ”
……
These people have left forever, but they never seem to have left.
The love and care they left in Fugui's heart made him want to live well even after suffering.
The world is uncertain, there are unexpected accidents in life, and there will be unexpected warmth.
No matter how difficult it is to live, no matter how hard the days are, there will always be someone who silently accompanies you and secretly loves you.
Maupassant has this sentence in "A Lifetime":
"Life can't be as good as you think, but it can't be as bad as you think."
In the life of wind and rain, there is always a roof that allows you to hide from the rain; among the floating people, there is always someone who makes you feel the truth.
It's hard to live, but it's worth it on earth.
Fugui was old, and he bought an old cow and accompanied him to work in the fields.
People often hear him shouting at the cattle: "Erxi, Youqing, don't be lazy, Jiazhen and Fengxia cultivate well, and the bitter root can also be done." ”
Fugui lives with his old cow and the people in his memory, and has always lived in the hearts of our readers.
Yu Hua once commented on his book:
Fugui in "Alive" has experienced more suffering than ordinary people, and from the perspective of a bystander, his life has nothing but suffering; but when you start from Fugui's point of view, you will find that his suffering is full of happiness and happiness.
When you understand Fugui, you will understand that suffering is a file that allows us to accelerate our understanding of the nature of life in pain.
The essence of life may be that suffering and beauty coexist, despair and hope coexist.
It's hard to be alive, but living always has a meaning to be alive.
As Nietzsche said:
"People are doomed to die, so life is a tragedy, but even so, we still have to play it happily." 」
Encourage your friends.
Author: Jin Shanyue, should have nothing to live in, but give birth to his heart. Source: Ten O'Clock Reading (ID: duhaoshu), late at night ten o'clock, accompany you to read, a good life. Good book/story/american text/radio/aesthetics. Reading has a way to publish articles with authorization.
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