Lin Yutang: Lai bed

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"Cosmic Wind" is written for adult readers; if it is read for primary school students, this kind of topic is nothing more than "get up early and go to bed early, so that the body can be healthy" is enough, and there is no discussion in bed. In fact, lying in bed is one of the parts of life, and life is seventy years old, lying in bed for thirty-five, it has to be talked about, and there is even something to talk about, can not be "get up early and go to bed early" four words, if you go through time in bed, it is not enough to talk about it.

We always like to deceive children into sinning by "sleeping in the day". In fact, the doctors, bankers, and principals I have talked to most of them think that sleeping for half an hour every afternoon is very hygienic, and they are full of spirit when they sleep, and their work performance is double that of those who do not sleep during the day. However, if we say this to the young people, we still think that it is incompatible, because the Chinese ministers, presidents, and principals all practice daytime sleep, and everyone wears the mask of not sleeping by day, even if close friends gossip can admit it, but the article is not allowed, so the article is forever separated from life, and the effect of transforming life makes the mind and life reconcile.

Lying in bed in the world's culture is a great achievement, and the world does not notice. In my private opinion, ninety-five percent of the world's most important scientific inventions could not have been made in bedridden beds; nor could the philosophical ideas that alarmed the age of world division come out of the embryo of the philosopher's mind in the middle of the night, lying on the bed with a cigarette in his hand. From the point of view, the art of lying on the bed is still outstanding.

What is the so-called person lying in bed? There are no more than two meanings, one physical and one spiritual.

1 | Physically

Lying on the bed is a position where we abandon our external objects and retreat into the room, taking the most thoughtful posture. If you want to think well, this posture must be exquisite.

Confucius is a person who knows the "art of life" very well, that is, the artist of life - there must be a nightgown long and a half, in case the feet are cold, which is disdained by later Generations of Confucians, although in Confucius, this has become a "must have" condition. So, it's just a matter of being comfortable. Confucius's posture is good, right, because he is lying on his side. The so-called "sleeping without a corpse" means not to force the originally tortuous spine into a straight line, so that the muscles and muscles often hold a tense attitude, which is "in line with the invention of modern science."

In my opinion, there are not many things that are truly blessed in life, and there are one of them lying on the bed on their knees. Lying straight is tasteless. The position of the arm must also be exquisite. Reading less about the music of Confucius's so-called "curved humerus and pillow", I feel that it is difficult to understand, and now I know the fun of qu humerus, if the cushion is cushioned with a large soft pillow. I think the best posture is to bend one leg or two legs, put one or both hands behind the head, and cushion the pillow so that the body is at a thirty-odd angle to the bed. Under this posture, the poet naturally gets good sentences, scientists naturally invent new theories, and philosophers can naturally come up with earth-shattering ideas.

People in the world are usually busy. One day I don't know what I am busy with, I get up in the morning and sleep at night, I scribble in the past, and I do less work as the so-called three provinces of Zengzi and the work of gentleman's careful thinking. The art of bed rest does not refer to physical rest alone. Naturally, lying in bed, resting your body, advising your brothers and sisters during the day, rude strangers on the phone, visiting you and all those who have exhausted you, are now in the bed, and you are free and liberated.

2 | Spiritual significance

Assuming that you lie down well, the time in this bed is the precious time for you to personally check and think about the past. Many people in business, every time they are proud of their busy careers, they have three telephones on the case, which is called success. As everyone knows, if they are willing to get up late every day and lie down for an extra hour, they can think of those who are far away, and their profits can be doubled. What's the harm in lying down until eight or nine o'clock?

Before he got up, his mind was clear, he was lying in the bed, a box of cigarettes next to the bed, no dog collar on his neck, no belt on his waist, no leather shoes on his feet, and his toes were still free and open, and he could calculate, remember the achievements and mistakes of the previous day's work, and pick up the main points of today's work, remove its cumbersomeness, take its essence -- so that he could slowly get up and rinse his mouth, go to the office at ten o'clock, and be confident, compared to those who are busy, the danger is precarious at nine o'clock or eight o'clock, and the next to the office to call out to the next generation, supervise the staff, is not it high? Merchants often scold literati for "fantasizing about fantasies", but in fact, far-sighted businessmen need to fantasize. To learn fantasy, you have to lie in bed for a while.

As for the literati, inventors, thinkers, not to mention the importance of lying in bed. Literati lie in bed quietly for an hour in the morning to get fantastic ideas, compared to the morning and evening hard ass, sitting on the cold bench, deliberating on words, bitterly dry intestines, its merits are dozens of times? When he was in bed on a whim, lying quietly thinking about everything in life, his fantasy power was extremely strong, and the human world he observed seemed to shed layers of fur and reveal the truth, as the Chinese painter said, in addition to the shape of things, explore their righteousness, and then add the meaning in the writer's chest, and the landscape figures painted by nature are different from the nature seen in the daytime and more natural.

So this is because when we lie on the bed, all the limbs and flesh are resting, the blood veins and breathing are also stable, the five senses and nerves are still, and by the silence of the body, the mind can concentrate more and not be disturbed by external objects, so whether it is thoughts or official consciousness, they are particularly sensitive than during the day. Even in terms of ear officials, it is also the most intelligent at this time. All good music should be in a lying position, close your eyes and enjoy it in detail. Li Kasa-wong has already said in the article on "Willow" that it is advisable to smell birds in the early morning when lying quietly. If we can use the early morning to listen to the music in the sky, the blessing is really not small!

3 | The sound of nature

The sound of birds on the outskirts of Shanghai is rarely heard, and perhaps few people go to appreciate it. This morning, I woke up at half past five, lying in bed and hearing the most pleasing aerial music. At first, I woke up when I heard the whistles of each factory, and the sound of the whistles varied in height and length. (The phrase "I immediately think of the suffering of the factory workers and the oppression of capitalism" should be added here as the proper meaning of the text.) After a while, the sound of horses' hooves on Yuyuan Road came from afar, about the time the foreign cavalry had passed by.

In the quiet of the morning light, listening to the horseshoe drip tuk is more delicious than listening to any musical ensemble. After a while, there were three or five birds singing. Unfortunately, I have never studied the sound of birds, and I can't tell what a bird is, but I still don't lose the joy of birds.

This spring, my greatest pleasure is hearing a bird sound, similar to what I heard in the southern mountains when I was a child, the local name is Kachui, probably a dove. His vocals have four tones —do, mi, re-ti, the first two beats in one beat, the third note two and a half beats long, and in the middle of the half beat it turns into a short, low-order ti (fourth note)—the fourth note is the best of short pauses. In this way, the continuous singing of four tones becomes a very beautiful tone, and it is slept on a tall tree and makes a unique sound in the air, which is particularly moving.

The most wonderful thing is that a dove in the near earth calls three or five times, and a hundred steps away from the tree branches to hear the echo of another dove, which is naturally the singing of male and female, the primordial of all poetry. After singing and harmonizing for a while, there is discord over there, this side is anxious in the heart, the tune changes, the beat is accelerated, and the tail note is omitted, only into do, mi, re three tones, until the final boredom, only to return to still, after a while again.

The oratorio of this dove bird is the most beautiful among the various birds and has left the deepest impression on me. In addition, there are many, such as magpie birds, such as yellow orioles, such as woodpeckers, the sound is close to peeling the rough, and the whining of the pigeons next door is particularly gentle, representing the joy of the boudoir, belonging to the Zhounan faction. The sound of the birds came later because they woke up later, and the reason was nothing more than as Kasa won pointed out. Other birds are most afraid of people, and when we most hateful human beings wake up, they are either gunshots or stones, and they cannot be quiet for a day, so they can't even sing calmly and do their best. Therefore, it is sung during the day, and its singing is not good. For this reason, it is better to get up early and sing a cappella. Only the finches are not afraid of people, and they have no trouble calmly sleeping for a while.

In addition to natural birds, there are other sounds. At half past five, there was the sound of the neighbor's west cub knocking on the back door, probably after a night of sleep. There is the sound of scavengers sweeping rustling with bamboo brooms in the alley. Suddenly, two "gong-dang" sounds in the sky came from the air. At six o'clock and twenty-five, there was the rumbling sound of the machine from the Shanghai-Hangzhou-Ningbo train to the West Railway Station in the distance, plus one or two whistles. There was also a noise in the children's room next door.

At this time, the families returned from their dreams one after another, the silence of the night slowly faded, and the mixed sounds of various human movements outside the day slowly increased and slowly became louder. The maid downstairs also got up. There are open windows, hooks and hooks, coughs or two, slight footsteps, and cups and plates. Suddenly, the child in the cubicle called out, "Mommy!" This is the music I listen to in the morning.

END