"The Landscape of Solitude" is a collection of articles written by the famous scholar Wang Yonghao in the past ten years, divided into four parts: essays, commentaries, prefaces, and interviews, discussing traditional literature and history and Chinese and foreign art, among which the commentaries on various civilizations and cultures preserved in genealogies, utensils and even plants are not only insightful and clear-cut, but also very pure interest of the boya people. The author believes that this kind of discussion and commentary is not only related to values, but also highlights subjectivity, and requires people who know how to be alone to gather past experience and make independent judgments.
This article is a dialogue between the author Wang Yonghao and the writer Pan Xiangli, further elaborating on the significance of solitude.
"The Landscape of Solitude"
Wang Yonghao
The Commercial Press
The strength flowing at the bottom of the pen has not diminished
Wang Yonghao: Thank you very much for your attention. This is my third collection of decades, and I came out with "The Study of Criticism" between the ages of 30 and 40 and "The Position of Speech" at the age of 40 and 50. In the past two decades, perhaps because of age, I have felt that I have something to say about many things, and I am not unhappy. Looking at it now, some words can not be said, and some words may not be correct, or we should observe and think more. However, readers ultimately rely on words to survive, so they choose the words written between the ages of 50 and 60, and not long ago, this new book "The Landscape of Solitude" was produced. However, based on the above cognition, it has retreated from the chaotic things around it, paying more attention to famous objects, archaeology and poetry, paintings, etc., in the hope of returning to the light and looking inside more.
Scholar Wang Yonghao
I've been told that these seemingly niche topics have long since become popular. But in my personal opinion, perhaps the niche that the public likes are too romantic and untrue, and I reserve my own judgment on this. These judgments, though outdated, reassure me. I admire two kinds of people: one who walks ahead of the times and dares to brave the wind and cold, they are prophets, they are remarkable; the other is a kind of martyrdom for the times after hiding people, and it is not easy. I couldn't do either, but I was often alone and cared about the past, so I gave the book such an title. Of course, this does not mean that my outlook on life is negative. The truth is, being alone has far more benefits for me than being gregarious. And this is what I especially want to share with you today.
What is solitude? Why people should be alone, how to experience and grasp solitude is conducive to relaxing the body and mind, and finding themselves, every article in my book is answering this question. Some do not seem to answer directly, but the experience comes from solitude. Before we get to the point of being alone, let's listen to Xiang Li's opinion. The reason why Xiang Li was invited was based on knowing her for many years. She's not boastful, she has a saying, so I value her evaluation.
Pan Xiangli: It is a pleasure to have such a gathering. My intersection with Brother Yong Hao is a bit special, although it is a friend of many years, but first of all his readers. He specializes in classical literature and is good at reason, but at this moment he opens another door and stands in front of us in a different guise. Looking at his heart through the words he wrote in solitude, I felt very new when I wrote the novel. And one of the most interesting is that time is like water, and each decade changes too much. Is Brother Yonghao's heart really quiet now? Does the flow rate under the calm water surface become sluggish? I think that after many people become peaceful, the inner flow will slow down, and the passion and philosophy will be consumed for a normal life. But after reading the book, I felt he didn't. His heart is at peace, but the strength flowing at the bottom of the pen has not diminished. In this regard, we would like to pay tribute to him.
Writer Pan Xiangli
Face your true and imperfect self
Wang Yonghao: Thank you Xiang Li! In fact, for everyone, the flow of passion slows down over time, which is one of the reasons why individuals like to be alone more and more. But if it's just because of that, what good is it to be alone? Therefore, I would like to expand a little on this topic that seems to have a clear meaning and actually needs to be extra bits.
Loneliness is a common problem of modern people. There is a sentence in the British writer Ryan's "Lonely City" that impressed me, "I want to be seen, to be tolerated, to be accepted, but at the same time afraid of being exposed to the public eye." You all have the feeling of not wanting to be lonely but afraid of being in the group, and sometimes the loneliness in the crowd is more unbearable than the loneliness brought about by being alone. I would say that at this point, if you are serious enough, you will find a place to quiet yourself and think about how to withdraw from reality and find a way to resist loneliness. Solitude and loneliness are therefore not the same thing. I even think that judging whether a person has a self or not, whether he can find himself, in a sense, depends on whether he can be alone. My conclusion is simple: a life without interaction is hard to call perfect, but a life without solitude is even less worth living.
There are three kinds of solitude, one is passive solitude, it is not voluntary, only because of people's poor independence, poor adaptation to the environment, so there is a fear of communication, over time, can only return to the small world of the individual. This kind of negative experience of solitude is the reason why people often equate it with loneliness, and it is urgent to overcome it with a positive and courageous attitude. One is false solitude, that is, not thinking that being alone can make people grow, but only because of this world, there are too many people who cannot bring themselves real benefits, and too few people who can bring benefits to themselves, so it seems to be high and arrogant, but in fact, they are good at calculation. In Li Zhen's words, it is "time hidden" but not "hidden", and in the words of Bai Juyi, who is more familiar to everyone, it is "middle hidden" instead of "big hidden". "The big hidden market" is too noisy; "the small hidden into the hill fan" is too cold, so he will think that "the middle hidden" is the best, "no effort and strength, but also free from hunger and cold." There is no business in the end of life, and there is money with the month." This kind of deliberate solitude is common in life.
What the individual thinks is worth practicing is the third type of active solitude. It is based on people's active choice, the purpose is not to be lonely and self-congratulatory, but to remove the personality mask, let go of psychological guard, face the real and imperfect self, in order to obtain accurate self-perception, and develop a good environmental adaptability. The master of psychoanalysis Winnicott believes that having this ability is an important sign of a person's emotional maturity. Maslow's "hierarchy of needs theory" is familiar to everyone, and he also believes that "active solitude is the main characteristic of self-actualizers.". Note that solitude here is not only spatial, but rather more psychological.
Calvino's novel "The Baron in the Tree" is written by a boy named Cosimo, who opposes the mutilation of animals, and is reprimanded by his father for refusing to eat the snails made by his sister, and climbs up the tree in a fit of anger and never comes down. This plot is, of course, a metaphor for man's defection to civilized society, to his return to primitive wildness. Cosimo finally fully integrated into the forest, and because he drew wisdom from nature, he finally opened up a republic of his own. The novel tells people that in order to see the loss of self, the loss of a sense of completeness and the anxiety of survival in modern society, we should keep a distance from the ground and be good at being alone, so as to find another value space. I would like to ask, do you have this kind of self-loss, the disappearance of a sense of completeness and the anxiety of survival? For example, in the face of bad marriages, outdated relationships, and annoying people who appear from time to time in your life, don't you feel that you are not free? If so, have you ever tried to fight it with solitude?
The Baron in the Tree
Reading should meet the life of the book
Pan Xiangli: Brother Yong Hao is very insightful about the separation of solitude. It reminds me of a time when I went to Nanjing, saw the autumn scenery of the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, and blurted out the situation of "falling leaves full of empty mountains, where to find traces". The author, Wei Yingwu, misses his friends who practice in the mountains and wants to give wine for comfort. Both of them seem to be very lonely, but they are clearly not lonely, because they have a complete world inside them, but there is no one around. Their needs are spiritual, which is called loneliness and not loneliness.
I further thought that as long as the number of people in life exceeds a certain scale, everyone's meeting with others will become ineffective, because at this time, the social laws formulated for the crowd will work, such as you have to greet people, say something that is not careful, and the result is that most people cannot get anything from this kind of gathering. In this sense, solitude is necessary, and it can give people a feeling of breaking the shell. Everyone walking in society, they inevitably bring a shell to protect themselves, everyone has a fragile side, but alone can unload the shell and face themselves calmly. If people are always polite and thoughtful, always have to cooperate with the environment, after a long time, they will hate themselves, even if they read books, they will not be able to read. Because you are reading with a shell, while reading and thinking, this point of view will certainly not be agreed by a big academic figure, and that expression seems to be alluding to someone. Thinking like this, have you become a pure reader? Are you really reading alone? Although one person is in the study, full of other people, and there are countless people standing around, this is not a good way to read.
Reading should meet the life of the book. Agree to agree, follow it down, disagree with it, stop and think about it, and go your own way. In short, it is a relationship that is both follower and antagonistic. Only then, you have to be alone. So I think there's another point of being alone, which is that it gives you really effective communication. What is the relationship between a writer and a writer? It is through words. This sounds bland, but I think it's very advanced. Usually people only see each other in the skin bag, but when we read, for example, I read the book of Brother Yong Hao, or he reads my book, we get rid of the skin bag and stand at the peak of the soul to meet. So writing always has meaning to me, and it gives a special meaning to being alone. We may be lonely on the surface, but in fact we are not lonely at all, we are very free and happy.
Wang Yonghao: Xiang Li said it very well, and the life scenes she gave, such as gatherings and reading books, were enough to enrich my expression. It is true that there are people in life who love to be lively, and it is worse to ask him to be alone than to be tortured, so he will find people to chat and party all day long. Some are because of personality, which is understandable, but some people are afraid to meet their true selves, and over time, the real self will disappear. Schopenhauer once denounced the socialization of high society as mediocre and self-destructive because it abhorred conversations full of intellectual insight. He even argues that the degree of human enthusiasm for socializing is inversely proportional to the value of his spiritual thoughts. Absolutely, but worth pondering. Moreover, if a person is keen to warm up through a group, through the feedback of others to feel that he exists, such a person, as Nietzsche said, will follow the judgment of others or the social laws of TheOry, and cannot obey his own orders, and eventually lose himself is inevitable. So Sartre said, "If you feel lonely when you're alone, it means you haven't become good friends with yourself yet." ”
As for the freedom that can bring people alone, it is even more deeply rooted in my heart. In this regard, the ancient Chinese people have discussed that Zhuangzi's so-called "independence and the spirit of heaven and earth", this "independence" can be understood as solitude. It tells people that in a state of solitude, they can have the world, communicate with the heavens and the earth, and reach the state of Mencius's "all things are prepared for me." Sometimes the carnival at the party symbolizes a person's loneliness, and being alone is the real carnival that is happening in the depths of the person's heart. In this self-enjoyment, the heavens have given man the principle of all things, and the human nature thus has everything that can be continuously explored, and can experience great happiness by reaching the realm of sincerity with heaven. Because such a person has a lot of himself, others have less to give him, and others have nothing to give him, which means that he cannot be arbitrarily supported, and he does not have to follow the will of others, break free of the reins of fame and gain full freedom. Thinking about this truth, is it of enlightening significance to crack the utilitarianism of modern people? It is in this sense that Schopenhauer will say, "Whoever does not love solitude does not love freedom."
Therefore, the so-called solitude does not mean that a person's heart is like a dry well, and his face is like dead ashes, but that he has introspection, is good and cautious, can constantly learn, think quietly, and then add thinking to another reflection, which is the so-called reflection. In this way, you will naturally enjoy spiritual freedom and feel great happiness. Cicero, who was at the same time as Meng and Zhuang and a little later, said: "A man who is completely dependent on himself, and everything that can be called his own, cannot be unhappy." "Why? Because he does not pretend to beg, he is self-sufficient. Schopenhauer also said, "What I have is in me," which he believes is the most important component of happiness. What a rare happiness it is for a man to be able to attain what he has received, and what his attainment coincides with his ideals! Earlier, Xiang Li said that being alone makes people feel very free and happy, and I think that when she says happy, she should refer to this happiness.
True solitude is not arrogance and indifference
Pan Xiangli: I would like to add that if I hadn't been thrown into the crowd, but met in a teahouse or bookstore, I could still have a good chat with my friends, and I could even hear very interesting words, and this kind of interaction is meaningful to life. On the contrary, on many occasions when there are many people, everyone must abide by the rules of social interaction, so I can't pull someone aside for a small meeting and ignore others, which not only ignores the master, but also snubs and even offends others. Therefore, I usually treat socialization in the general sense with caution, but since I have gone, I will obey the general social rules, smile and nod with everyone who passes by, and touch the cup when it is time to touch the cup. In contrast, of course I prefer small gatherings or being alone.
Wang Yonghao: I think this supplement is very good. I don't think you'll misunderstand what I mean. A person who really understands solitude is not arrogant, indifferent, autistic, because through the study and reflection when alone, he is particularly tolerant, especially empathetic, and has a strong ability to empathize. Returning to the "Baron in the Tree" just mentioned, you can see that Cosimo always pays attention to everything on the ground, rather than abandoning and despising the ground when he lives in the tree. On the contrary, he not only did not give up studying, but also occasionally fell in love. Think of Cosimo so soberly choosing life in a tree while we are still on the ground looking for our lost selves. We don't seem to understand where the true "survival of the soul" should begin. This is my deepest experience of reading this novel. As a physical being, although everyone has their own way of subsistence, the survival of the soul should begin with solitude, and must and must begin with solitude.
Having done that, I would say that even when he is in the crowd, he can still be alone, even if he is still alone. Because he has never been lost, he can always talk to his soul and have the ability to empathize with others. He is not eating human fireworks, but he is free from mediocrity and vulgarity. Also, he doesn't think that people can only achieve perfect harmony with themselves, and they can't reach a partner with friends or even partners, which is not a positive solitude that I aspire to and practice. Truly positive solitude is not in appearance in the spirit. It is strictly divided, but also has great respect for others and great goodwill for the world. This is the high state of being alone.
Finally, talk about how to be alone. The first is reading, which is the best way to be alone, low cost, high benefit, and non-interference reading is especially progressive. A few years ago, the American journalist Nicholas Carr wrote a book called "How the Internet Poisoned Our Brains", and lamented that people reading in the hustle and bustle would only glide on the word list, thinking that "War and Peace" was too long, and "Remembrance of the Watery Years" was too obscure. He reminded me to emphasize that reading in solitude should first of all be "quality reading" that does not seek speed, is not greedy, and does not read popular books, and secondly, it should be "free reading" that does not have any utilitarian purposes. Sometimes the encounter between man and the book is really miraculous, and once it is opened, it feels that this life belongs to it. If such a thing has happened in your life, then congratulations, you must be able to endure loneliness more, or you may not feel lonely at all.
Study Room Yu Zhai / Photography
The second is the occult. To empty yourself, let the soul escape from the extreme imagination, to constantly explore the boundaries that the mind can reach, to do Tao Yuanming in the morning, to incarnate as Spinoza in the afternoon, so that it is possible to understand the vastness of the world and the richness of life. Moreover, you can't always think about the joy of life, but also explore death. Death is the other side of life, it is turned back on us, and it requires man to play a mysterious role in order to meet it, to realize that the only thing that can be obtained at the cost of eliminating it is a closed life. Then they will not arrange themselves according to the general concept of time, and they will suffer from gains and losses. And you will feel that it is like turning a page is a hundred years, there is a new scale to teach yourself to go beyond the daily chicken and dog fragments, to think about the spiritual way out of human beings as a whole. In this way, your life will get another yardstick, and your life will become very large, because the scale is different.
The third is travel, preferably alone, because it is best for strangers to give birth to novel ideas, and magnificent landscapes to create humble life. The great heavens and the earth make you really feel the smallness of the individual, so that you can constantly adjust your position in this world, and integrate the view of others with the judgment of yourself. As a result, the farther you go, the closer you get to yourself, until one day you heartily discover that any of your travels are meant to return to yourself.
Finally, I would like to quote Pascal: "Almost all of our suffering comes from our inability to be alone. "I hope that you can experience the profound meaning of this sentence with me and make yourself better and stronger."