Taste and read | hometown is a strong wine fermented by the human heart - read "All the Way Back home"

Text/Wang Lixin

Hometown is a natural landscape, if there is no good at understanding the soul, we are equivalent to losing our hometown. Recently, the famous Huxiang writer Professor Huang Yaohong's new book "All the Way Back to Hometown" was published by Lijiang Publishing House, and this collection of essays is a deliberate work based on the theme of the landscape and humanities of his hometown.

Over the years, Huang Yaohong has been immersed in the cooperative collection of the landscape life and cultural heritage of his hometown, one place at a time, little by little, like a woodcutter chopping firewood, and like a Shennong tasting grass, the scenery and wind objects that are full of life feelings and historical and cultural depths are packed in the heart of the "Rizhilu" for the "hometown". Over time, it will be like a hill like a mountain, full of dazzling, bright as a pearl.

I don't have to make an exhibition-style display of his "collection" in this short emotional text, but I just want to say a little about the feelings about life that are induced by this.

In fact, no matter what you do in life, as long as you are attentive and lasting, you can always weave a fruitful self-consolation.

Having a heart is the premise of the heart, and the heart is the basis and process of cultivating the heart. The heart is deep and shallow, the heart is careful and coarse, let alone, as long as it is used, the heart will slowly grow out of the cavity; if the heart is not used, it will be dimmed after a long time, and even lost after getting used to it; if there is a heart and can be used, the heart will change from small to large, from narrow to wide, from shallow to deep, from rough to fine. In the process of being attentive, people will tolerate the environment, experience life, feel the changes, and perceive themselves. The mind, which can be both small and boundless, and large and boundless, is an instinct given to it by the nature of heaven and earth. Grow this heart, know its wonderful use, keep using it, and keep playing with it in use, and the heart will become brighter and clearer. Yao Hong is a person with a heart, and he gave me such an impression when we first met; Yao Hong is also a person who is good at heart, and after a period of friendship, I found this "secret".

It is really not an exaggeration, and being able to use heart and good intentions is indeed the most precious life qualification of a person. Yao Hong's intentions are very careful, which can be seen from the text:

"Looking up from the door of the old house, I saw the tall white fruit tree, the white fruit tree that held up a corner of the clouds. No one could tell the age of the old tree, not even the oldest man in the village. "The lyrics of the spotted dove are always so simple, simple, and classic. It has been sung from the time of the Book of Verses to today, to the morning when it was wet with rustle and drizzle. Years later, reunited with Shiso in the city. At the time, they lay listless between chives and leeks in the wet market, like a bunch of wanderers who had fallen to the end of the world. Even more pitiful, they are no longer the caste of the past. Those perilla stems are very strong, the leaves are large, they look hollow, and although the color is purple, the soul is no longer the original. ”

Yao Hong writes about such pure natural things as his hometown, and also writes about the history and humanities that are integrated in the landscape and water of his hometown.

"Last spring, by chance, I walked into the birthplace of Zhang Baixi. Jinping Town Jinxia Village. Jin Xia is not so much a place name as an image. I wonder if the inspiration for the naming came from the dawns and slanted rays behind the roof ridges? "Songpo's rise in Yunnan made a person restless, and this person was Yuan Shikai." "Shen Congwen, a 'man' who went from a border city to the world, is not a beautiful phoenix." "'I felt that the business in front of me was full, and the east wind was blowing green and uneven.'" This is Mr. Wu's classroom. He was never taught to 'draw the ground as a prison', let alone 'stand still' in his own opinion; what he valued was always every living life in equal dialogue; he embraced the simple concept of 'someone in sight', and consciously shifted the focus of language classes from 'teaching' to 'learning'. ”

The book is full of such words, expressing emotions and reasoning in light words that are not heavy, so that people are not tired of reading, and even reduce fatigue. However, after less moving, I feel that behind each piece of relaxed text, there is some solemnity that cannot be put down. Although the form is light, it is essentially light and heavy.

Let's talk about the title of the book, "All the Way Home", although it seems light, but it makes people unable to really be relieved.

Everyone has a realistic hometown, but everyone's spirit actually has no return. Although it is not difficult to return to the hometown in reality, the destination of the spirit is always unknown. As Li Baizi wrote:

The plain forest is full of desert smoke, and the cold mountain area is sad and blue. Twilight into the tall buildings, some people upstairs worried. The jade steps stand empty, and the birds return to the flying fast. Where is the return journey, the long pavilion is shorter.

You can step on the land of your hometown under your feet, but your spirit does not know "where is the way home". Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? Why are we going there? If you think about these problems, life is like wadeting with a rock on your back, and whether you can walk on the other side is completely unpredictable. No matter how old you live, the other shore is just as far away. The goal is difficult, but we can't slacken off, when we slack off, when we sink. So, where exactly is the goal? This kind of question should not be endlessly entangled, just like Wu Song met a tiger on Jingyang Gang, "Just fight!" "I can't think of a routine at all, and the moves of practicing martial arts on a daily basis are useless at such a time, and what is useful is only the awareness that cannot be eaten."

In this way, don't care about "where I came from" or "where am I going?", just walk tenaciously with your back to the stone. Although it is very tiring to carry a stone, but do not want to put it down, this is no way, this stone has been glued to our backs when it comes, and the fluke of unloading is not there. Just like Wu Song "just cares about fighting", just care about leaving. As you walk, you will find that the original "return journey" is at your feet, insisting on walking, no matter how dangerous and vicious the mountains and rivers are, no matter how many long pavilions and short pavilions there are. Go to a short pavilion to drink a sip of water, and go through a long pavilion to sing a song. Even if it sinks in the water that has not reached the other side, it can still leave a song all the way, floating in the air behind you.

Although the road cannot be completed, the song cannot be stopped. This is literature, this is also philosophy, and perhaps it is also the heart of Professor Yao Hong's "All the Way Homecoming".

【About the Author】

Wang Lixin is a scholar of intellectual history, a professor at Shenzhen University, and a doctoral supervisor. He has lectured on Chinese culture hundreds of times in the media and venues such as Phoenix Network, CCTV Baijia Forum, Hunan Education Television, Hunan People's Radio, Hengyang Shigu Academy Grand Forum, Peking University Boya Forum and other media and venues.