01
"The Two of Us" is the work of Qian Zhongshu's wife Yang Dai, published in 2003, and still sells well today.
The version I have in my hand was printed in June 2016, and the copyright page shows that the number of copies has exceeded 2.5 million copies, which shows the popularity of this book.
The book is not a tome, it is only more than 90,000 words.
But to be honest, there are some parts of this book that I don't understand, so I have read it several times in many places.
To this end, a considerable amount of information has also been consulted.
Let me briefly talk about my understanding and feelings about this book and discuss it with you.
02
The book is divided into three parts.
The third part, "I Miss Us Alone", is a real memoir, from the beginning of Qian Zhongshu and Yang Dai's study in the UK to the death of Qian Zhongshu and Qian Yi.
Of course, this part can be understood, but the first two are difficult to understand.
The first part, "The Two of Us Are Old", is very short, only a little more than one page, and writes that Yang Dai had a dream:
She dreamed of walking with Qian Zhongshu, and when she got to somewhere, suddenly Qian Zhongshu disappeared, leaving only herself, especially helpless and miserable. After waking up, Yang Dai complained that Qian Zhongshu did not wait for him. Qian replied that it was the old man's dream, and he often did it.
I wasn't old enough to have had a similar dream. But I understand such dreams very well, people are old, subconsciously always worry that the day does not know when it will come, do not know how they will face it when the time comes, so these fragments of thinking into dreams, which is normal.
The content of this part should be half real and half virtual, Yang Dai may really often have similar dreams, from the perspective of writing techniques, she used the form of dreams to lead to the following - Qian Zhongshu made her have a dream that lasted for thousands of miles.
03
This "dream that lasts for thousands of miles" is not to be born and die, but to die.
So the second part is "We are separated."
This one is also not very long, but it is the most difficult to understand.
The first chapter, "Walking on the Ancient Yi Road", writes that a family of three is playing and enjoying the joy of the world, suddenly came a headless and brainless phone call, let Qian Zhongshu go to a meeting the next day, "no bag, no notebook, tomorrow morning there is a car to pick up", no leave, let alone others are allowed to do it.
As soon as Qian Zhongshu left, he did not come back, but just grabbed the time to call home and tell his family that he was in the "Ancient YiDao" and that only his closest relatives were allowed to go there to go through the formalities.
Yang Dai and Qian Zhen went through the formalities, learned the number of Qian Zhongshu, and stayed in an inn with many strange rules.
The second chapter is "Meeting on the Ancient Stagecoach Road", and in the river next to the Ancient Stagecoach Road, they find Qian Zhongshu's small boat marked with the number "311".
There, the family of three got together again.
Yang Dai obeyed the rule of "the sun sets in the front cabin and immediately returns to the inn", coming to the ship every day to read the money clock book during the day and returning to the inn at night.
Because there are classes in the school, Qian Yu can only come on Sundays.
At night, Yang Dai would become a dream, floating between her home, the boat, and Qian Yao's in-laws.
Because the boats in the river change their position every day, Yang Dai also changes to a new inn every day.
The third chapter, "Lost on the Ancient Stagecoach Road", writes that Qian Yao is also sick and hospitalized, the author is still going to the boat during the day, and at night he becomes a dream, and the dream is as far as the dream can see, in addition to his own home, the boat, Qian Yao's in-laws' family, and more than Qian Yi's hospital at the foot of the West Mountain.
This part should be a fiction, using multiple images such as ancient post roads, boats, rivers, inns, dreams, homes, etc., without writing a dead word, but it is clear and clear to let the reader know that qian yi and Qian Zhongshu have died successively.
04
If you want to read the second part, you should first understand Qian Zhongshu and Qian Zhen's illness.
In March 1993, Qian Zhongshu underwent a major operation to remove the tumor in the ureter and cut off a kidney.
In July 1994, he was hospitalized with a high fever and was diagnosed with bladder cancer.
The next month the surgery was successful, but the kidney function was acutely failed, and since then the condition has been repeated and has been hospitalized.
In January 1996, Qian Yu was hospitalized with spinal cancer and died in March 1997.
After learning of Qian's death, qian Zhongshu was hit hard, and in December 1998, Qian Zhongshu died.
The second part of "The Two of Us" is about the process of Qian Zhongshu's father and daughter from illness to death.
I think that the description of Qian Zhongshu and his daughter fighting at the beginning was not the scene that was happening at that time.
This is a microcosm of the happy life of a family of three for decades, summarizing the simple and warm daily life of a family and a lifetime, just like a movie lens.
As a result, a sudden phone call interrupted this fond memory.
According to the popular explanation, the "meeting" mentioned on the phone refers to Qian Zhongshu's hospitalization.
The hospitalization was in July 1994, and it had just undergone major surgery in 1993, so Yang Dai said that Qian Zhongshu was still ill and wanted to take leave.
Of course, if you are sick and hospitalized, you don't need to take a notebook, you are not allowed to take leave, and others can't replace it.
The so-called ancient post road is the road of parting, the road from birth to death.
The boat refers to Qian Zhongshu's ward, 311 is the room number, and the ship drifts every day, referring to Qian Zhongshu's day by day towards the end of life.
Therefore, the boat is also qian Zhongshu's boat of life, that ship "has no rudder, no oar", because people in the river of time, can not control the course and speed.
The inn refers to the real home, which Yang Dai clearly states at the end of the second part: "The home of Sanlihe is no longer home, just my inn." ”
At the end of the third part, the author also writes: I am soberly aware that the apartment that was once regarded as "our home" is only an inn on the journey.
From July 1994, when Qian Zhongshu was hospitalized again until Qian Zhongshu died at the end of 1998, Yang Dai went to visit every day, in the morning, and returned in the afternoon (when the sun was shining in the front cabin).
After Qian Yu fell ill, Yang Dai would talk to her on the phone every night and visit her every week.
For Qian Zhen's illness, Yang Dai knows some real information, but not all of it, because Qian Zhen himself is not aware of his illness, and the feedback to Yang Dai will certainly not be accurate, in addition, others have also hidden something from Yang Dai.
As a mother, it is inevitable that there will be various imaginations about her daughter's illness.
All of this will turn into a dream.
Dreams, on the other hand, are illogical, and the stories in dreams are not all reality in themselves, and it is difficult for us to correspond one by one.
05
Imagine the grief of an eighty-year-old man witnessing himself and the only two closest people in the world leaving him little by little.
It is hard to imagine that Yang Dai sat alone in the home that was once full of the laughter and laughter of the three people, quietly recalling the state of mind when the three people had been together for sixty years.
No matter how deeply they love each other, no matter how harmonious their families are, no matter how healthy and long they live, they will eventually lose time.
Each of us is a traveler on the ancient post road, walking tightly or slowly, running back to that end.
When we are a little older and have experienced the permanent parting of life, we will really feel what life is like a dream.
Every family under the heavens will eventually become a haunting and lingering "The Two of Us".
Two days ago, when he had dinner with friends and chatted together, he suddenly said that he didn't know why, and he would still dream about his deceased father until now.
I didn't speak, I just nodded, because, too, I was.
After the death of a loved one, we subconsciously do not want to admit that it is a fact, and they will also appear in their own dreams.
And we ourselves, too, want to be able to turn into dreams, unwilling to wake up.
Sometimes, I really hope that everything in the past is just a dream, and when I wake up, my relatives are there, and I am still very young.
But life is not a dream after all, and all happy or painful pasts have really happened. And, never come again.
The author's hundred-year life, learning from Both Chinese and Western, famous all over the world, in the end the most precious, the most memorable, is nothing more than two words: family affection.
And we ordinary readers, in addition to whining, can realize nothing more than one thing: cherish the present.
Pearl Whisper, from the dual perspective of teachers and parents to look at education, to answer the educational confusion of adolescents and parents.