Shake hands and ask for style: Lin Qingxia and "Ji Xianlin's Hand"

"Talking about the Heart- Eighteen Years with Lin Qingxia" "Ji Lao's Hand"

Text/Jin Shenghua

On October 9, 2007, beijing autumn was high, the afternoon sun was shining warmly, and our group, Qingxia, me and Alan, and former president of Yilin, Li Jingduan, happily got into the car and set off.

The destination of the trip was 301 Hospital, of course, not to see a doctor, but to visit Professor Ji Xianlin, who is now a leader in the academic field who is recuperating in the hospital. In the car, Qingxia looked particularly excited like a martial arts fan going to the Shaolin Temple to worship a teacher. She wore a green dress and a black dress, plain like a student, and was very different from the gorgeous dress she had worn in mink at the grand theater reception the night before. Look again, that green blouse, green and blue, this bright color she has never worn through the upper body! Maybe seeing me looking at her, she leaned over and whispered in her ear, "This dress, I just bought it!" "It turned out that Qingxia had seen this green shirt of dozens of dollars on the streets of Beijing before, and felt that the color was quite pleasing, and it was suitable to see the old man's home, anyway, the bag was either black or gray, so she hurriedly bought it and quickly put it on.

When I arrived at the hospital, the access control was strict, if it were not for The presence of Li Jingduan, everything would be done in advance, and then I would use the phone to confirm with the secretary of the old ji after arriving, and we would not be allowed to enter it.

Recall that in the winter of 2002, the University of Chinese of Hong Kong decided to award an honorary doctorate in literature to Professor Ji Xianlin, and in October of that year, I was ordered to go to Beijing to interview Professor Ji in preparation for writing a praise speech. At that time, Ji Lao's mansion was located in the Langrun Garden of Peking University. Walking into the gate, I saw that Ji Lao was full of spirits, walking steadily, the room was warm as spring, there were eye-catching "Shou" characters hanging on the wall, and the whole house was full of ornaments, including portraits, potted plants, lanterns, gourds, Buddha beads, Guanyin statues, ivory Fulu Shou, busts of the three Ji Laos, and line-bound books full of cabinets. The windows are lined with weeping willows and the rhododendrons in the windows are in full bloom. That time, we had a good chat, beforehand, I borrowed Ji Lao's works in the university library, read fifty or sixty books, or it was difficult to peek at the whole leopard, the interview that day, listening to Jun's words, answered many questions, and filled a lot of gaps in the understanding of the master. Of course, Ji Lao knew that he was too extensive and knowledgeable, and it was difficult to write anything for him, so afterwards he read the praise and said a heart-warming sentence: "It is difficult for her"!

With gratitude, I went into the hospital ward and visited Ji Lao, who had been away for five years. Looking up, Elder Ji was already sitting on a wooden chair in front of the small table waiting, and he seemed to be in good spirits. Li Jingduan is an old friend, and as soon as he entered the door, he pointed at Qingxia and quipped to Ji Lao: "Do you know who she is?" Old Man Ji raised his eyebrows, "The whole world knows!"! Speaking so neatly, with a little arrogance, with a little playfulness, it made everyone laugh at once. Where does Jing Rui know that on the eve of the old August birthday that year, we had already bought a birthday card, signed it together, and sent blessings from Hong Kong. Then, I offered my own work "Knowing the True Face of Translation", and Qingxia brought a gift, a beige Kaismi scarf, and a disc of "Undefeated in the East" starring her, which read: "You are the undefeated East of the world." Ji Lao smiled and touched the scarf, felt its warmth, let Qingxia personally wrap it for him, and then asked his assistant Yang Rui to take out the gift he had prepared in the morning, a large stack of autographed books, and gave them to several of us.

That large stack of books includes "Miscellaneous Notes on sick beds", "Ji Xianlin Says Himself", "Ji Xianlin Talks about Life", "Phase With Tea - Ji Xianlin's Prose Collection", and "Ji Xianlin On Translation", all of which are recent works published in 2006 or 2007. After the old man was hospitalized, how spacious the ward was, compared to Langrun Garden, after all, the area was small, the furnishings were less, but the room Ya He had to be big, he was proud of the world, the ward could not trap his brilliant thinking and creativity like a fountain, perhaps, the couplet hanging on the wall behind him could best show the current situation of his exuberant creation at that time: "The second degree of flower armor added thirty years, and the half-day scene added a wonderful article."

In 2007, Lin Qingxia visited Mr. Ji Xianlin in Beijing

During the conversation, I found that although Qingxia and Ji Lao met for the first time, they were particularly committed. The old man said that he did not like the false title the most, and he had to take off three hats: "academic titan, master of traditional Chinese studies, and national treasure"; Qingxia never thought that she was a "great beauty, a big star, and an acting genius".

Ji Lao said that people are self-aware, and he mentioned the oracle of Socrates. The old man wrote in the "Miscellaneous Notes on the Sickbed": "Everyone has a self, and the self is of course the closest to himself, and should be the easiest to know." It turns out that, on the contrary, the self is the least likely to be recognized. That's why the ancient Greeks uttered the exclamation of Know thyself. "Qingxia is one of the people I know who most often reflects on herself, always feels that she is insufficient here and there, has acted in a hundred movies, and does not think that there is a masterpiece." Ever since she was told that the oracle Socrates had gone to the temple to get was "Know thyself", she had always memorized this sentence, and when I heard this famous saying again in the mouth of the master that day, I felt almost very close!

The old man has been diligent all his life, and in his old age, fame and fortune are complete, he said: "It can be said that in both aspects of fame and fortune, I have enough, and no more, but it has become a burden." "Then why did he continue to work hard?" If one day I fail to read and write an article, I think to myself at night, I feel guilty and think that I have wasted my day. I don't know how many times, I have heard Qingxia reflect on herself, thinking that life also has an end, can not waste her life every day in playing cards, shopping, shopping, drinking tea, this is the reason why she has not sought fame or profit over the years, purely for the sake of writing and tireless.

Even if Ji Lao is in the hospital room, he is also a room of books, and he describes the study he once had: "My collection of books is like my friend, and it is a close friend... Every time I entered my study, the books immediately came alive, and I seemed to hear their greetings to me, and I seemed to be able to see them waving at me. Years later, Lin Qingxia, buried in the pile of books, said to me: "I am very happy when I go home recently, because every time I walk into the study, there is Zhang Ailing waiting for me, There is Dazaiji waiting for me, and Milan Kundera... It is surprising how an old man and a young man who met in Beijing in 2007 are so similar to books when they coexist with Tao Ran. Not only that, Ji Lao talked about writing, but also in a sentence, "Whether I write a text or a vernacular text, I pay great attention to the structure of the article,...... Pay more attention to the beginning and end of the text. If the beginning can be out of the air, it is a good composition... The trick at the end is that the words are endless and the meaning is endless, such as eating olives, and the aftertaste is more beautiful" ("Miscellaneous Notes on the Sick Bed"), is this not the trick that Qingxia has pursued unremittingly for many years in literary creation?

On that day, we were in the hospital room for a long time, and before leaving, Qingxia suddenly proposed that she wanted to shake Ji Lao's hand and beg for literature. It turned out that as soon as she entered the door, she noticed Ji Lao's hands resting on the table, thinking that these hands were white and meticulous, had written tens of millions of good articles, and experienced ten years of catastrophe, but actually did not leave any traces, neither scars nor old spots. The old man readily agreed, so she shook his hand, and the two looked at each other and smiled, leaving a warm and touching picture. At that time, we didn't know that this pair of seasons of old hands had gone through vicissitudes! It was these hands, which had suffered from eczema, filled with water and pus, and repeatedly ineffective, so that he did not dare to reach out and shake hands with people, nor did he dare to take photos with people, "Therefore, as soon as I heard the photo, I was uneasy, and I quickly hid my hands behind my back, and I had to reluctantly 'smile'." Fortunately, the doctors of 301 prescribed the right medicine, cured the stubborn disease, and finally recovered the old man." I stretched out my hands, and I saw the fine luster, and my heart was like a drink" ("Miscellaneous Notes on the Sick Bed"). This is the story behind that day when Qingxia shook Elder Ji's hand to beg for literature, and Elder Ji smiled with great relief.

Because of that experience, Qingxia wrote the article "Perfect Hand", which was full of emotions and emotions, which made her writing career take another step. (The author is Jin Shenghua, a Hong Kong scholar who was the president of the Hong Kong Translation Society, etc.)