Another Season Envy

Trekking

□ Liu Guoliang

In Linqing Wanyuan, I saw a large stone engraved with Ji Xianlin's inscription "Heaven and Earth in the Pot, Winding Paths and Paths", which did not mark the date and month, but it was almost certain that it was written by Ji Lao in his later years, because the words were not "Wind and Trees Array Horse, Calm and Painful", but presented a face without fire, without edges and corners, peaceful and simple. Companion said that this word can not see how good, I said appreciate the calligraphy, but do not be intimidated by the kind of dragon flying phoenix dance, open teeth dancing claws of the word, people and books are often not seen in the technique, it seems bland, but it is not light and tasteless, its mellow like the old cellar.

The word is like a person, seeing this word, Ji Lao's voice and smile appeared in front of his eyes. I had met Ji Lao, and it was in the early autumn of 1996, when I attended a seminar held by the College of Letters of Peking University and had the privilege of listening to him talk about prose creation in a small conference room at Peking University. That year, Ji Lao was more than eighty years old, with bald tops, thin sideburns, and a little puffy eyes, but his spirit was strong. At that time, Ji Lao did not use many new terms popular in the literary world, and his voice was not so sonorous and powerful, nor did he fake exaggerated gestures, just like with his old friends, he told us for more than an hour. Nowadays, most of the content of the class has been forgotten, and only one point he repeatedly emphasized: "Sincerity is the soul of prose, the life of prose." After speaking, he shook hands with each student cordially, and his eyes were full of expectation. We reluctantly left, and he stood downstairs watching us walk out of the way.

Back at school, I went to the reading room and "searched" for Ji Xianlin's prose from the magazine, and read several articles in one go. I liked his prose very much, with a sense of truth, simple and natural, never pretentious, and even less tense, which was not "trendy" at the time, when a mysterious and flashy style was being sought after by readers. I also once suspected that there was something wrong with my aesthetic appreciation value orientation, and I read two sentences that Mr. Zhong Jingwen said in celebration of Ji Xianlin's eighty-eight-year-old mishou: "The highest state of literature is simplicity, and Mr. Ji's works have reached this realm." He was simple because he was sincere", and only then did I get out of the confusion, and I ran to the bookstore again and bought two newly published collections of essays by Ji Xianlin.

After that, when I never saw Ji Lao again, I paid attention to his pictures, which were often found in newspapers and magazines. There is a frame in which he is dressed in a blue Zhongshan suit, with a crutch handle in both hands, sitting on a chair, looking so serene; there is a frame in pajamas, holding a magnifying glass, looking down at something from the cracks of the words, concentrating; and another frame, he bends down to comb the shiny back hair of a cat, which is snow-white and very cute, and very obediently lies on Ji Lao's leg and lets him stroke it. Ji Lao named the cat "Tiger Zi" and regarded it as a "family member". In the more than ten years of losing his old partner, it was the cats who accompanied him through a miserable day. Ji Lao's cats were all sent by my hometown Linqing, and I was lonely and unheard of, and when I came to Linqing, I learned that there was a world-famous lion cat here. Historically, when the canal was opened, the Persians came to the Qing dynasty to preach, and also brought their cats, persian cats and Rusi tanuki cats bred a yellow-eyed and blue-eyed "Mandarin Duck Eye" Linqing lion cat, which was very valuable. Linqing lion cat is not only beautiful in appearance, but also lively, docile and humane. Tired of writing, Ji Lao played with the cats for a while, indulging in the thought of his hometown, what kind of comfort is this for him?

In the two days of Linqing, we looked at the Yuan Canal, saw the canal banknote pass, AotouJi and several mosques, and of course had to visit the Ji Xianlin Memorial Hall. The memorial hall is a bronze statue of Ji Xianlin, or the image of the simple, kind, and easy old man. He was always smiling like this, as if to welcome everyone. However, as soon as the hall was completed, two pictures of Ji Xianlin's youth hung on the right wall, which instantly subverted the impression I had formed over the years. In the photo, when the young Ji Xianlin was dressed, his hair was exquisite, his posture was straight, his eyes were sharp, and he had a forced heroism, and even a little pride. Ji Xianlin was born in a poor peasant family, the family was too poor to afford to buy extracurricular books, when he was six years old, his uncle took him to Jinan to study, but he was talented, studied hard, successfully admitted to Shandong Provincial Jinan High School, graduated from high school and successfully admitted to Tsinghua University and Peking University, and then went abroad to study, and obtained a doctorate in philosophy. There was also a beautiful and heart-wrenching experience during his study in Germany: the graduation thesis needed to be cleared for the professor to read, but he did not have a typewriter, nor could he type, and Miss Imgard, who lived on the same street, was willing to help him. After several exchanges, the beautiful Imgard was deeply attracted by Ji Xianlin's handsomeness and outstanding talent, and Ji Xianlin was also touched by Imgard's enthusiasm and sincerity. For the next four or five years, they happily traveled to every corner of Göttingen. But Ji Xianlin knew that the motherland needed him, and after a long period of internal contradictions and torture, he finally made up his mind: return to China and never contact Imgard again. After Ji Xianlin left, Imgard chose not to marry for life. In 1980, Ji Xianlin led a Chinese social science delegation to visit Germany, and after finishing his official duties, he ran to Imgard's residence without a moment's delay, and his rapid footsteps made the stairs rattling. How familiar, the furnishings remained the same, the plain tablecloth, the silver-gray old-fashioned typewriter, the square stools and dark blue sofa chairs arranged side by side, but there was no imgard figure. He hurried downstairs to ask the neighbor, who had just moved in, and said that he did not know Imgard. Ji Xianlin returned home sadly, not knowing that at this time Imgard was upstairs in the original room, a person silently thinking about him. In 1991, Ji Xianlin revealed this cherished feeling in his long memoir "Ten Years in Germany", and after ten years of tossing and turning, Imgard saw the book, and on the eve of Ji Xianlin's ninetieth birthday, she tearfully sent a photo of herself with silver hair and dignified tranquility...

Time will fade the color and light of a person, will engrave wrinkles on a person's forehead, will stoop his back, and will grind the childishness into old spicy, but it is not omnipotent. After returning from Linqing, I picked up Ji Xianlin's collection of essays again and read the article "Ninety Narratives". I hadn't read this essay in the past, and when I read it, I was ashamed that I didn't really know Ji Lao. The article said that due to the interference of various political movements and the occupation of too much energy by various social activities, the real sprint of his academic research began at the age of eighty, and from the age of eighty to the age of ninety, he wrote the longest book of his life, "The History of Sugar", which was 800,000 words, and completed the monograph "The Script of Maitreya's Meeting" that studied the Tocharian A dialect. In those years, he "rose at dawn" every day, went to the big library every day, checked materials, and wrote cards, he never felt tired, but felt that he was "walking in the magnificent scenery". At the same time, he also worked in the literary garden and created a large number of prose works. It is the high hurdle of standing on the back of the year, he is still ambitious, wearing a strong and sharp, like the "passer-by" written by Mr. Lu Xun, the task is to move forward, to move forward! I realized that for some people, the years can only change their appearance, but they cannot change their spirit...