#好书奇遇季 #
The boy shoveled and shoveled into the pit, he saw the damp and fresh black soil covering his grandfather's gray hair, at this time he hesitated, he said, Grandpa, fill it again you will not breathe, he heard the grandfather's answer under the dirt, grandfather said, don't stop, another shovel of soil, tell them, I took the white crane to go.
This is the end of Su Tong's novel "Tell Them, I Went by White Crane", at the strong request of Grandpa, the ignorant grandson buries Grandpa alive in the soil with a small shovel.
Because he was afraid of being dragged to the crematorium of Xiguan and burned after death, his grandfather's later life was extremely sad. Only then did he make this decision, so that the little grandson sent himself on his last journey in the form of an ethically intolerable "killing the father".
Seeing this, you may have a lot of questions, why is Grandpa afraid of cremation? Why did Grandpa's last words say, "Tell them I went with the white crane"? Let me talk to you in detail!
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="01" Why is Grandpa afraid > of cremation? </h1>
It is better to die in the soil than to die in the fire, and grandpa who dies in the fire becomes a puff of smoke, and grandpa can still see the white crane when he dies in the soil, and grandpa wants the white crane to take away.
In the eyes of the elderly, burial means "burial in the ground".
Only when the perfect funeral is completed will the white crane lead him to the world of heaven. Moreover, the idea of being born attached to the land, growing up on the land, and returning to the embrace of the land after death is inherent in the myth of "the soul is immortal" in the simple beliefs of the past, but it is actually full of affection for the land. Therefore, the old man feels that burial is a romantic form that contains local feelings and can draw a very satisfactory end to life!
In contrast, the vigorous cremation turned him into a wisp of black smoke after his death. How does a single wisp of black smoke illustrate the traces of life and reach the ideal world after death?
Moreover, in the eyes of his old man, who is not highly educated and deeply influenced by traditional concepts, cremation also means "frustrated ashes" with a pejorative nature, which is a bad reputation.
So, he was even more afraid—
"I let them... Grow...... person...... They...... want...... Turn me into... smoke!
Apparently, he was blaming his children.
Traditional burial customs were adopted not only to satisfy his local feelings, but also to be used by future generations – this is true in the traditional Chinese principle of "filial piety". Naturally, whether he will cremate himself a hundred years later is also regarded by the old man as a measure of the character of his children. The old man is clearly asking for his children in the light of ancient values and examining the present times that are inappropriate for him.
Of course, this is a fictional novel, and cremation is an active choice in line with the existing form of land resources. Therefore, these actions themselves have a clear meaning. If cremation and burial are directly reduced to the conflict between tradition and modernity, you will find that the perspective of the elderly is actually full of rejection of modern civilization and nostalgia for the social order of traditional Chinese family affection in the past.
As a result, the crematorium in Xiguan over there rose from the ground, and everything was rushing forward. But he was unwilling to catch up with this era, so he guarded this acre and three points of land, telling his infinite affection for the land!
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="02" >Why only the elderly can see the white crane? </h1>
Since spring, the old man has been telling his children about the crane drinking water, but the children say that they are irrigating the land by the pond, and they have never seen any white cranes.
The image of the white crane is handsome and temperamental, and this image appears frequently in the novel because it is inseparable from China's concept of life and death.
In the past, people compared themselves to turtles, cranes, and other beings who symbolize longevity or infinity,[1] in order to reflect on the value of short lives, and these images were thus endowed with divinity. The "crane" of the Taoist symbol is a bridge between the immortal world and the human world, and the old man's death has the euphemism of "driving the crane to the west".
The old man longed for the white crane, just as he longed to be buried. The attachment to "life" can be transformed into a beautiful vision of the other shore and becoming an immortal. The White Crane was the messenger who extradited him.
But their children are different, they live in a new era of faith in science, and people grow up not to believe in myths! Intergenerational dissent indicates that once the foundation of the belief myth is cut off, the cultural symbol of this ancient mythic totem will also be annihilated. The morals, codes, and procedures of the past will no longer apply, and the white crane is a spiritual totem that belongs only to the elderly.
Therefore, after realizing that his time is short, the old man can always see the white crane. But this is something that children simply cannot see!
<h1 class="pgc-h-decimal" data-index="03" Why > story happened in the spring? </h1>
The spring afternoon sun shone on the three grandchildren, dragonflies flew on the surface of the pond, grain seeds took root and sprouted on the mud by the pond, dandelions bloomed yellow flowers on the side of the road, and young beings flew or grew around the seventy-three-year-old.
Spring, which means that spring returns to the earth and everything recovers, is the season full of hope.
In "Flocks of Wives and Concubines", Su Tong only uses summer to autumn and winter to write about the sadness of the fate of women under feudal etiquette, they have no spring, that is, no hope. But why did he generously "give" a spring to an old man who was dying? That's because he wanted to bring a little comfort to this lonely old man.
The tolerant and easy-going elderly, despite their growing differences with their children, can only do repeated snooping, tears, and despair. The dispute between the two sides over "cremation" and "burial" will never be reconciled, and his vision will be fundamentally unrealized because of policy. The warmer the spring, the more the old people are weak and helpless in the face of life and death choices and the death of native China.
On the contrary, the "buried alive" casually proposed by Sun Tzu as a compromise choice is the only way for the old man to redeem himself at present, so that the cruelty of The Reality of Spring Day breeds another cruel hope and fulfills the ideal world after the death of the old man.
At this point, life and death converge, life is death, death is life, and the old man retreats to fulfill his wish. So this is also the achievement of the "spring" that belongs to the elderly - "death" is a logical and emotional choice under tacit consent.
The life and death that the novel encapsulates in the spring points to the land of hope, where life and death are as common as the cycle of seasons.
And when "spring and autumn iterations, there must be the sadness of the past", the different burial choices pointed by "white crane" or "black smoke" to each other, between traditional local feelings and new modern civilization, although alienation occurs, the demise of tradition is irretrievable, but the tragedy is decayed. Those who write books also use sentimental and poetic words in vain to leave an infinite remembrance of the spiritual homeland.