Phoenix Reading Plan
Classic literature, you can't just pass by
Wang Xiaobo (1952-1997) was a contemporary Chinese scholar and writer.
When a person reaches a cornered situation, he is most susceptible to the influence of superstition, and the things of feudal superstition have not stopped since ancient times. In the 21st century, there are still people who struggle with life, encounter some unexplainable theories in extremely difficult situations, and some people regard it as a savior.
I have all kinds of books in my house, including reference books, science books, and literature books, as well as books such as Dianetics and Qigong, and the information contained in these books has its own source. I wouldn't like to point out the title, but with all due respect, there is one category of books that are pure rubbish. This kind of book is written with all kinds of strange and abnormal things, and the author still insists that they are all true, which is said to be called the specific function of the human body.
There are all kinds of things in people's minds, there is reliable knowledge, there are unreliable guesses, and there are still some things that are purely imaginary. These things have their own usefulness, and I believe that these uses are as follows: a reasonable man always regards reliable knowledge as the foundation; he often thinks of those speculations, and if the speculations can be verified, he expands the field of knowledge; and finally, occasionally he also allows himself to think of right and wrong, and from the grotesque imagination, man can also get some enlightenment. Of course, man has the ability to separate what is credible from what is not credible, and not to take grotesque imaginations seriously – but there are exceptions.
When I was in the countryside, I saw a woman in the village who was hysterical and claimed to be possessed by a fox fairy, which was an exception to this. To this day, I can't prove that fox fairy ghosts don't exist, I only know that they are unlikely to exist, so fox fairy possession cannot be considered false, but can only be said to be very untrustworthy. Suppose I believe that a fox fairy has attached to my body, then I believe in something that is not credible, so it is called hysteria. Of course, there are other explanations, saying that the woman has a "supernatural human phenomenon", or has a special function (since the fox fairy possessed, the sister-in-law is really different from ordinary people, mainly manifested in her daring to speak female yellow), she will not explain, attributed to the fox fairy, but I think this is not true. In the era of learning Dazhai, rural life was both hard and boring, and women's lives were even more difficult than men's. If you decide that you are not a woman, but a fox, you may be more pleasant. I have sympathy for women with hysteria, but that doesn't mean I want to be a fox myself. Because anyway, it's a pathology.
I also know of an example where the father of one of my classmates had cancer, which was in an advanced stage, unable to eat and drink, and his veins were all pricked. Just as he was dying, suddenly the old man pointed to the ceiling and said that there was a secret recipe passed down by Zhang Zu, which could cure his illness. If he finds the formula and cures his illness, it can naturally be said that the pain of dying has stimulated the special function of the old man, so that he can see the ancestral secret recipe through the ceiling paper. Unfortunately, the roof was torn down and not found. Later, the old man finally died in pain. When my classmate told me about it, I tearfully explained to him that my uncle, in the pain of his deathbed, began to think about right and wrong, and believed it to be true.
I thought that a person's blurring of the boundaries between credible and untrustworthy in his chest was mostly due to the enormous pressures of life. Desperate people are prone to superstition and believe in everything (malinovsky explains witchcraft in this way). While the causes are sympathetic, abandoning reason is always a weak act. I also think that the specific function of the human body is an unbelievable thing, and if I want to believe it, I have to give me some pressure, don't call me "standing and talking without waist pain." Let's say, if I get cancer, then someone says that if he can save me with a little breath, I will believe; let's say, let me be a Jew, imprisoned in Auschwitz, and then someone says that he can use his mind to make Hitler change his mind and let us all go, then I will not only believe, but will give him all the money and things (if I have one), and ask him to move. I am now in my prime, in a good situation, and naturally want to follow the right path of science and art, thinking and working hard to achieve success. In another case, there will be a change. In old age, sickness, or poverty, I may also believe that there are some wonderful ways in the world that can call the wind and rain and bring the dead back to life. So I always have a tolerant attitude towards superstitions that have causes. Unfortunately, there is a situation that people cannot tolerate.
In the countryside, you can also see another kind of fox fairy possessed person, that is, the witch god Han. I thought they were not hysterical, but pretending to be ghosts and cheating people and money. As mentioned earlier, people are superstitious when they encounter misfortune, so they are also villains who take advantage of the fire. In general, I only know one word that can refer to such people, and that is "scum". The authors of all kinds of evil books should be better than the scum, but in good conscience, I really don't know where the good is.
I believe that the moral code of intellectuals should be based on integrity. If intellectuals also deceive people, let everyone believe in whom? However, there are also people among intellectuals who believe in evil and crooked things, which makes people confused. Science intellectuals never dare to mess around in their own fields, so they have a good record of integrity. Even literary and historical scholars do not dare to fabricate historical materials and forge documents. But scientific skills do not necessarily have scientific qualities; scientific qualities do not necessarily have scientific qualities. Scientists are also confused. Of course, I believe they were deceived. Old age, disease and poverty can also plague scientists, in addition, scientists only know what is true, do not know what is false, and do not know the way to deceive, so it is easy to be deceived.
A novelist is a very special example, whose main business is to make up stories; he knows both what is true and what is false. I myself am a novelist, and you made me swear that what I write is true, and I would never dare, but I don't think I can lie to people everywhere. The stories I make up, and the readers know that they are made up. I always thought that writing novels was a kind of career, a kind of decent labor, different from cheating. If you say that you take advantage of the weaknesses of others to commit fraud and do all kinds of despicable deeds, but just because he is a novelist, he is a good person, and I will not believe it to death. This is because fictional literature, along with Homer to the present day, has a good reputation.
I also thought that intellectuals should have self-respect and dedication. We are some noble men who are engaged in noble causes. All intellectuals see themselves and their careers in this way, and novelists should not be an exception. There are books on the market now that make me suspect that someone thinks this way: I am a despicable little person who is engaged in dirty business. If there is such a thing, I can only say: it is not good to think like this.
Recently, a group of natural scientists signed a petition to be wary of all kinds of pseudoscience, a move that came very timely. The "Travels of the Old Remnant" said that China had two major scourges of "Northern Fist and Southern Revolution". Of course, the term "Southern Revolution" is a slander against revolutionaries, but the "Northern Fist" is indeed a major hidden danger in China. Chinese, especially the lower strata of society, have a tradition of superstition, and in times of social turmoil and stress, life is simply a desire for superstition. At this time, when someone comes to pretend to be a ghost, it will rise up and cause a big disaster. This popular superstition is frightening because it makes the masses incomprehensible. This is the deepest hidden danger in the Chinese cultural tradition. Propagating science and advocating reason can restrain this hidden danger; propagating all kinds of untrustworthy things triggers this hidden danger. Writers should have a sense of social responsibility, and should not come to the world for a little remuneration.
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