"Slow Life" and "Soft Time" - Reading "Flowing Years of Deep Love"

I. "Natural Literature" on both sides of the Yushui River

Shallow Dai's "Flowing Years of Love" collection of essays, the heart is flowing for years, and the dream has a literary rhyme. Swing a leaf "slow life" to the other shore, cross a piece of "soft time" to the distance.

In the article "Herbal Fragrance in the Years", the author prefers the taste of Chinese herbs, "often leaning on the door, obsessively watching her boil medicine... Always remember those moments and the wisps of medicine. "Modern scientific research, Chinese medicine contains many active ingredients, the smell of herbs in the air, often smelling, can prevent disease, this is like a vinegar courtyard, in the vinegar workshop staff is not easy to catch a cold." Today's herbs, mostly herbal granules or boiled soups, are encapsulated in transparent bags. The delicate time that was once wrapped in old straw paper or hemp paper has long been lost. "Yes, liquids in plastic bags and plastic bottles, there are toxins, and the "microplastics" that spread out are invisible to the naked eye. Wrapping in old straw paper or hemp paper is not only Chinese herbal medicine, but also a simple and healthy traditional life.

The article "Hometown Tea Chrysanthemum" describes in detail the blooming tea chrysanthemum, as well as the process of picking chrysanthemums, sunning chrysanthemums, and tasting chrysanthemums. The author has a calm heart and a gentle style; Mu breaks the sun of dawn, tastes the charm of hometown. Love is the most beautiful encounter in the world, using words to find the same soul in the red dust. Write in writing about the "natural literature" on both sides of the water.

I think that natural literature will be an important part of future literary innovation, and I will repeat a few paragraphs here. The ancient Classic of Mountains and Seas has a natural geography. Xu Xiake has visited countless mountains and rivers with 40 years of his own strength, and "Travels on Tiantai Mountain" is the beginning of "Xu Xiake's Travels", written more than 400 years ago on May 19, this day has become the current "China Tourism Day".

Xu Gang is a representative writer of Chinese natural literature, he bought a farmhouse in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou, Beijing, outside the courtyard is a canal, frogs and birds, accompanied by him, wrote "Watching the Homeland". When I was a teenager, I read Xu Gang's early collection of essays "After the Rain", which was fresh and natural, and understood Xiao chang's style, which influenced my later series of environmental protection works. The poet Haizi faces the sea, spring blossoms, and before his death, his bag contained Thoreau's Walden Lake.

In recent years, representative writers of ecological literature include Li Qingsong and others. A few years ago, Mr. Leng Bin, the veteran editor of Green Leaf Magazine, invited me to write a book review entitled "From Conquering Nature to Learning Nature: Commenting on the Works of Ecological Literature Writer Li Qingsong (Notes on All Things)" (published in Green Leaf, No. 7, 2018). Those who are interested can read Notes on All Things (China Youth Publishing House, December 2017 edition).

In addition to the works mentioned above, there are also foreign natural literature. The ecological crisis of more than two hundred years has created a number of literary cries that reveal the root causes of the ecological crisis, and 10 ecological literary works have attracted attention: Frankenstein (1818), a novel by Mary Shelley, the wife of the English poet Shelley. Walden (1854), Thoreau's masterpiece. The Sand Country Annals (1949), Leopold's Nature Essays. The Deer People (1952), a long documentary by Farley Moart of Canada. Roots of Heaven (1956) is an ecological novel by French writer Roman Gary. Silent Spring (1962), controversial work by biologist Rachel Carson. The Desert Solitary (1968), a collection of essays by Edward Abby. "Intentional Destruction Gang" (1975), 13 years after the completion of the Gran Canyon Dam that led to the ecological disaster, the novel launches a critique of "ecological intentional destruction" to the conquest of nature represented by the construction of giant dams, which violates the laws of nature. Environmental organization "Earth First!" It was established under the direct influence of this novel. The Death Penalty Table (1986), a novel by the Russian ecological writer Aitmatov, criticizes human atrocities without ecological ethics. "Antelope" and "Buzzard" (2003), an ecological early warning novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood. It is about the sudden and deadly spread of cancer cells in the future, and the development of technological deformities has brought great disasters. Tell humanity, "For the sake of all of us, we must change the modern way of life." "Back to the point, take a look at the natural way of life of "Flowing Years".

Second, the "fashion simplicity" on both sides of the water

"Summer is the best place to stay in your hometown. Sip tea in the grassy courtyard, the sky is blue and clouds drift overhead. Or throw yourself into a lonely old rattan chair and spend an early morning or afternoon gracefully in a smoky yellow old book. Or just sit quietly, listening to the birds singing about farming, watching the sunset sink into the mountains, and the cooking smoke gradually dispersing among the gray corrugated. It would be even better to meet someone who is similar to his own personality and cultivate and discuss the wind and waves in the warm sunshine." ——Excerpt from: Asami Dai's article "Fragrant Years".

This brings me to the writer Milan Kundera's question: "How did slow fun get lost?" He sighed, "Where are the idle people in ancient times?" Where are the idle heroes in the folk song tune, the homeless people who roam the mills everywhere and spend the night in the open air? Have they disappeared along with country lanes, grasslands, woodland clearings, and nature? Looking at today's society, the more in the big city, the more "fast" is an inescapable torrent - eating "fast food", entertainment "fast food", and even feelings have become "flash marriage". The "fast-food" life is a sad life, a mutated "hollow man".

"Slow life" does not have much to do with the amount of personal assets, and there is no need to worry about fueling your laziness, because slow is a healthy state of mind, a high degree of confidence in life, and a highly intelligent, casual, meticulous, and calm way to cope with the world, so that you are more elegant and closer to pleasure. At present, most Chinese people do not yet have the conditions of "slow life", but also to fight for survival and food, but the concept of "slow life" can be implemented into life, in leisure you can achieve slow pace, slow eating, slow mentality...

"Slow life home" Carl Hornor points out that "slow life" is not to support laziness, and slowing down is not to delay time, but to let people find balance in life. "Of course, work is important, but you can't lose your leisure."

Slow life is a kind of "happy life", a kind of self-confidence. No matter how busy you are, you live to the end for happiness, not because of work. Only when it slows down, the beautiful scenery of this world will slowly open like a curtain, and only when it slows down will the restless heart calm down. "Slow" is a mood, a mood that returns to nature, ease and harmony...

Say goodbye to complexity, cling to a nostalgia; return to simplicity, and see the fragrance of the years. It's time to stop and savor life slowly. Through their own fashion simplicity, enjoy family, love, friendship; enjoy trees, flowers, clouds, streams; enjoy music, painting, calligraphy, reading, traveling... Integrate your body and mind into natural life. As Qian Dai said: "Come to think of it, if you are at peace and simple, even if Wa ke leaks the moon and the door does not close the wind, the days can be incomparably vivid." Joy or displeasure, the flow of years and the events of the world will come and will eventually go. It is better to hold on to a nostalgia, smile and watch the flowers fly and snow, and watch the years and incense. ”

III. "Seeing simplicity" on both sides of the yushui River

For the sake of the daily loss of the road, see Su Baopu. See: Present, Present, Launch. Raw silk without staining. A parable of the pure and noble man. Park: There are no processed logs. The metaphorical law of society conforms to the laws of nature. The Tao Te Ching ,"Seeing simplicity, never learning worry-free, and having less selfish desires" can be regarded as a modern version of "maintaining a pure and simple nature, reducing selfish desires and distractions, and abandoning the floating text of the Holy Wisdom Ritual Law, so as to be free from trouble."

Asami loves the early spring of her hometown, where the fields smell of dirt and grass. Let time flow, it is still that kind of familiarity and warmth. He especially enjoys breathing and walking in the fields. Watch the grass break through the ground, see the figure in the green vegetable field and the donkey cart slowly moving forward on the mountain road. Listen to the whip of the whip bearer, and above the whip is the slightly green mountain. Because of its brown color, the mountain has a bit of emptiness and elegance. Standing in the beauty and silence for a long time, that feeling made Asami feel at ease. In the article "Written at the End of the Year", the author understands "seeing the plain and embracing the simplicity" in this way -

"I love such a time, plain heart, a tea and a book. Do not love the worldly prosperity, do not write red dust disturbances, only like in the shallow text, the mood of one side. Or listen to the mountain breeze in the poetic countryside, or watch the idle flowers bloom on the moonlit night when the breeze comes from. A wisp of ancient wind between the Qin bricks and Han tiles, and the slanting sun and autumn water in the Tang poems and Song poems, can make me warm and rest. And the words on the fingertips, but a period of time that is not short or long, or with a smile in the eyebrows, or a faint pain, have passed through my life, witnessed my low hanging and blooming, and I have no reason not to be grateful and unhappy. ”

The embodiment of "su" in behavior is "slow life", but we are too busy, sometimes too busy to have time to rest, no time to be happy. Today, with "numbers" and "speed" as the measurement indicators, many Chinese people take "time is life, time is money" as the creed. The word "busy" is the heart on the left and death on the right. People are too busy, and the heart dies. The pace of life is too fast, and there is the "unbearable speed of life" – many people are in a sub-healthy state because they are busy. As John Lennon said, "When we are struggling with our lives, life is gone." Yes, if you want to be fast, you can't reach it. When overwork and depression envelop modern society, when anxiety gradually becomes a "buzzword", people have to reflect: slow down! Quick, it makes me feel tired. Learn to slow down and not work too hard so that you can find a fulcrum of balance between work and life.

Sometimes, it doesn't take much time to slow down, but when you really slow down, you can taste the beauty of life. The difference between a bowl of hot tea, 5 minutes to drink and 15 minutes to drink is: taste. You give your taste buds time, and the taste buds will give you the real taste. Similarly, you give life some time, and life will give you health back.

Slow life is not snailizing everything, but it should be fast and fast, and slow and slow. Slow life is not loose and lazy, but natural and calm. Slow life is relative to the current social rush of the fast pace of "seeing the simple and simple". The "slowness" here is not an absolute slowness in speed, but an artistic conception, a kind of "less selfishness", a natural life.

Shallow Dai Su likes to be simple and quiet, and is sparse, never asking for noise, nor disturbing others. Most of them keep their own sun and moon and rest in peace, which is not only an awakening, but also a commendable way of survival for modern citizens.

The quiet life lies in saying goodbye to complexity and returning to simplicity. Life is not to go to the busy and tedious, but to reach the simplicity after reading the vicissitudes. Many people can't see through life, for the sake of immediate interests, painstakingly lonely, tormented body and mind, running east and west, tired of running for their lives, smart but mistaken by smart, just like Wang Xifeng in "Dream of the Red Chamber", "The organs are too clever, and they calculate Qingqing's life... Suddenly the horn is like a building falling, and the darkness is as if the lights are about to run out, ah! A joy and sorrow. Sigh the world, it will be difficult to determine." When people are born, they come in red stripes; when people die, they go alone and take nothing with them! In fact, when you learn to put it down, when you learn to "hang out", and after you learn to live a "slow life", you will find that the kind of exhausting work is not the need of life. In fact, what life really needs are simple things, such as sunlight, air, health and deep sleep. For example, find a quiet place to read a collection of essays by Shallow Dai's "Flowing Years of Deep Love".

The book "Flowing Years" is both natural literature and ecological literature. In fact, there is no strict distinction between natural literature and ecological literature, but ecological literature pays more attention to the current environment. What is natural literature? Writing about the great truth, great goodness and great beauty of nature, writing about the wildness and tenacity of nature, writing about the mystery and legend of nature, and taking nature as the object of writing are all natural literature. "Flowing year" is full of pen and ink, and the atmosphere is moist and the wind and bones. The scenery inside and outside the Great Wall can be seen through, and the light and dark incense accompany the years. Makeup is light and elegant, more natural landscapes, look forward to!

"The willow ribbon is shallow with smoke, and the peach blossom is like a dream to send a horizontal wave" ("White Rain Zhai Words"). Shallow and "deep" opposite, the author's real name is Zhao Guilan, writing "Flowing Years of Deep Love", shallow just right! I hope that the author will continue to model the mountains and waters, hold on to the nostalgia, and continue to write the sequel to the scattered and condensed "Flowing Years of Love" - do not stop writing!

Note: Shallow Dai. Author of "Flowing Years of Deep Feelings", in: Qiao Yu, editor-in-chief of "The Collected Works of Yu Chuan", Beijing Publishing House, January 2022 edition.

On April 16, 2022, Shi Zhongyuan was in Qingnian Lake, Dongcheng, Beijing.