Zhu Guangqian: Every perfect life is a manifestation of personality

Life is a multifaceted but harmonious whole, and when we analyze it, we say that a certain part is a practical activity, a certain part is a scientific activity, and a certain part is a beautiful activity, and for the sake of correcting the name and analyzing the reasoning, there should be this distinction; but we must not forget that the perfect life is seen in the average development of these three activities, and although they are separate, they are not in conflict with each other.

"Actual life" is narrower than the meaning of the whole life. The mistake of ordinary people is to think of them as equal, thinking that art is separated from "actual life" by one layer, and that it has no value in the whole life. In order to maintain the status of art, some people want to force it into the small scope of "actual life". Such people not only misunderstand art, but also do not know life.

We see real life as a fragment of the whole life, so when we affirm the distance between art and actual life, we do not affirm the gap between art and the whole life. Strictly speaking, there is no art without life, because art is the expression of interest, and the root of interest is in life; conversely, without art, there is no such thing as life, because all creation and appreciation are artistic activities, and life without creation and appreciation is a self-contradictory term.

Life is inherently an art in a broader sense. The history of each person's life is his own work. This kind of work can be artistic or not artistic, just like the same kind of stubborn stone, this person can carve it into a great statue, while another person cannot make it "into an instrument", which is all in sexual division and cultivation. The person who knows life is the artist, and his life is the work of art. Living a life is like doing an essay. A perfect life has the beauty that a good article should have.

First of all, a good article must be a complete organism, in which all and part are closely related, and cannot be moved or added or subtracted slightly. Every word can be seen in the spirit of the whole text. For example, Tao Yuanming's poem "Drinking" was originally "Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the South Mountain", and later generations mistakenly printed the word "see" as the word "hope", and the look of nature and things in the original text was completely lost. This artistic integrity is called "personality" in life. Every perfect life is a manifestation of personality. Big and backward, small and smiling, none of them conflict with the whole personality. Refusing to bend down to the township children for five buckets of rice is a passage that Should be in Tao Yuanming's life history, and if he misses this section, he will lose tao Yuanming. Refusing to escape from prison and instructing his neighbor to repay the debt of a chicken at the time of execution is a passage in Socrates' life history, otherwise he will lose himself as Socrates. This kind of life history can make people praise it as a picture, it is a masterpiece of art.

Secondly, "rhetoric is sincere" is the key to the article, and a poem or a beautiful article must be an expression of deep affection, stored in the middle and then outside, and there is no room for any pretense. Eroticism is originally the result of the sympathetic resonance of things and me. The scenery does not change, and the interest is also self-generating. I have my personality, and things have the personality of things, and this personality changes and grows and develops over time. The scenes that each person will see at a certain time and the interest caused by each scene at a certain time have their own particularities, and they must not be exactly the same as the scenes that another person will see at another time and the interests caused by another scene at another time. The difference is the slightest difference, and the subtlety lies. In this ever-changing taste we can see the creation of life. To reveal this life in words and words is a good article; to reveal it to words and deeds is to have a happy life history.

Articles are taboo, and life is also taboo. Vulgarity is the fact that you have no true colors and follow the old rules of others. Xi Shi suffers from heart disease, and often raises his eyebrows, which is a natural outpouring, so it is more and more beautiful. Dong Shi has no heart disease, and the posture of strong learning to hold his heart and eyebrows can only cause people to dislike. In Xi Shi is creation, in Dong Shi is a cliché. The overtonement begins with the dryness of life, which is also the manifestation of hypocrisy. "Hypocritical performance" is "ugly," Croce has already said.

"Wind on the water, natural patterns", the beauty of the article is so, so is the wonder of life. In what position, what kind of person, how to feel how to be interested, how to show the style of words and deeds, so that people can feel its harmony and integrity at first sight, this is the life of art.

As the saying goes, "Only a great hero can be true". The so-called artistic life is the life of the true color. There are two kinds of people in the world whose lives are the least artistic, one is the layman and the other is the hypocrite. The "layman" simply lacks the true color, and the "hypocrite" tries to cover up the true color. Zhu Han'an has a poem that says: "Half an acre of square pond is opened, and the sky and clouds and shadows linger together." Where is the canal as clear as promised? For there is a source of living water to come. ”

The life of art is a life with "living water at the source". The layman is fascinated by fame and fortune, floating with the world, and there is no "sky light and cloud shadow" in their hearts, just because there is no source of living water. Their great sickness is the dryness of life. The "hypocrite" is added to this "layman" qualification, and the trick of "mu monkey and crown" is added. Their characteristics are not only seen in moral hypocrisy, but also in their words and smiles, and in every move, they make people feel unbeautiful. Who knew that there were a few more walking dead hidden in the shelves of the merry masters? Whether they are "laymen" or "hypocrites", they are all "recalcitrants" in life, and they all lack the conscience that artists should have when creating. As Bergson put it, they are all "mechanized of life" and can only be characters in comedy. Most people whose lives fall into comedy are unartic. There must be appreciation in the creation of art, and so must life. Ordinary people often rejoice in a kind of words and deeds to say that it is "good-looking" and "not good-looking", which is already a bit of a standard of art appreciation to evaluate it. However, most of the average person can not be thorough, can not take a word and a smile, every move in the entire history of life to see, their "personality" concept is too weak, the so-called "good-looking" and "not good-looking" is often just "perfunctory face". Those who are good at life are thoroughly serious and do not let the dust and mustard hinder the harmony of the whole life. Most people often think that artists are the most casual people in the class, but in fact, within the scope of art, artists are the most serious. In the exercise of the work is often disgusting, one stroke and one painting is not willing to be tolerated.

When Wang Jinggong composed a poem "Spring Breeze and the South Bank of the Green River", the original "green" word was the word "to", and later changed from the word "to" to the word "over", from the word "pass" to the word "into", from the word "into" to the word "full", and after more than a dozen times it was changed to the word "green". That is, at this end, we can imagine the seriousness of the artist. People who are good at life are also so serious about life. When Zeng Zi was dying, he remembered that the mat on the bed was Ji Lu's, and he must have asked the doorman to change it before he could see it. Wu Jizha had secretly promised to give the sword to Xu Jun in his heart, and xu Jun had died without practicing it, so he solemnly hung the sword on the tree next to Xu Jun's tomb to see the wind friendship of "the center fits the life and death". Words and deeds like this one seem to be like small sections, but those who are good at life will not let go easily, just as poets are not willing to let go of every word easily. This is true of small sections, and it is even more important to say large sections. Dong Hu would rather cut off his head than cover up the historical facts, and Yi Qi starved to death rather than lower the Zhou, this demeanor is moral and artistic. When we advocate the artistry of life, we advocate seriousness about life.

The artist's assessment of the value of things is based on whether it can be incorporated into a harmonious whole, often out of the ordinary unexpected. He can value what ordinary people despise, and he can also look down on what ordinary people value. He knows attachment when he values something; he knows detachment when he looks down on something. The power of art is not only seen in what is known, but especially in what is known.

Su Dongpo's thesis is like water traveling in the valley, doing what it has to do, and stopping at what it has to do. This is the right trade-off, and so is the artistic life. Those who are good at living in the world also judge it by the taste of art for everything in the world, and those who are in line with the taste of art can become Taishan, and those who do not conform to the taste of art can also become hair. He can not only be serious, but he can get rid of it. See his seriousness when you are serious, and see his open-mindedness when you get rid of him.

Meng Min fell into oblivion and went away, and Guo Linzong thought it strange when he saw it. He said, "The koshiki has been shattered, so what good is it to take care of it?" The philosopher Spinoza preferred to live by grinding mirrors than to be a university professor for fear of hindering his freedom. Wang Huizhi lived in Shanyin, one night when the snow was first snowing and the moon was clear, he suddenly remembered his friend Dai Kui, so he took a boat to The Creek to visit him, and as soon as he arrived at the door, he rowed the boat back. He said, "Come with pleasure, come back with all the excitement." "These things are very far from each other, but they can all see the artist's open-mindedness." A great life and a great art must be both serious and open-minded at the same time. Most of the Qingliu of the Jin Dynasty only knew open-mindedness but did not know seriousness, and most of the Song Dynasty theory only knew seriousness and did not know open-mindedness. Tao Yuanming and Du Zimeishu were just right.

A life history is a work, and from an ethical point of view, it has a distinction between good and evil; from an artistic point of view, it has a distinction between beauty and ugliness. What is the relationship between good and evil and beauty and ugliness? In a narrow sense, the value of ethics is practical, the value of beauty is super-practical; ethical activities are all doing something, and aesthetic activities are doing nothing. For example, benevolence, righteousness, faithfulness, etc. are all good, and when we ask them why they are good, we cannot but focus on the happiness of the crowd. Beauty is beautiful because it is all about the image of beauty itself, not in its utility to the crowd (this is not to say that it has no effect on the crowd). If there is only one person in the world, he cannot have moral activity, because there is a father and a son who have compassion and filial piety, and a friend who has faith and righteousness. But this imaginary solitary man can also have artistic activities, he can also appreciate the world in which he lives, and he can also create works. The value of goodness is "external" and the value of beauty is "internal". However, this distinction is narrow. Broadly speaking, good is a kind of beauty, and evil is a kind of ugliness. Because ethical activities can also cause aesthetic appreciation and disgust.

Art is a fun activity, and the life of art is also a life rich in fun. People can be divided into two kinds, one is rich in fun, finds interesting for many things, and seeks to enjoy this fun everywhere. The other is dry, feeling uninteresting for many things, and not seeking fun, only desperately fighting with maggots all day long. The latter is the layman, the former is the artist. The richer the interest, the happier the life, the so-called artistic life is the eroticization of life. "Feeling interesting" is appreciating. Whether you know life or not depends on whether you can appreciate many things. Appreciation is also "playing with nothing". In admiration, man is as free and blessed as a god.

There is a large car road in the Alpine valley, lined with beautiful scenery, and a placard inserted in the road advises tourists: "Go slowly, appreciate!" "Many people live in this world of flowing water and horses, just like a car in the Alpine valley, hurrying through, not having time to look back and linger, so that this rich and gorgeous world becomes a lifeless prison. What a pity!

Friend, before saying goodbye, I adopt the slogan on the Alpine Road and add three words under the Chinese farewell idioms:

"Take your time and enjoy it!"