23 April, World Book Day.
At a time when the content and form of the text have changed, what does the book mean to us? In the Internet age, is there anything that is enough to search, and is it necessary to read? While feeling anxious and worried about life, is reading useful?
Liang Xiaosheng, winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, once said, "The purpose of reading is not to achieve much, but to give you an inner strength when you are beaten back to your original form by life and plunged into a quagmire."
We found 4 friends and recorded 4 stories of them and the book.
Re-read "Lovely China"
I had new feelings
Narrator: Writer Shen Jiake
I am a book author, and the book "Lovely China" is a selection of the last works of martyr Fang Zhimin, including poems and letters. In fact, I learned it when I was a child, but the understanding at that time was superficial and superficial. We were born in the era of peace, and these revolutionary martyrs and benevolent people always felt that they were too far away from me. Without real experience, there are no deep feelings.
Until I grew up and experienced the epidemic in Wuhan. Suddenly, I found that there were so many "heroes" in this world, and I was so close to them...
"Lovely China"
By Fang Zhimin
In 2020, I interviewed a lot of people who are contributing to the prevention and control of the epidemic, and they are not necessarily the people we traditionally think are successful and outstanding. They are very ordinary people around us, courier brothers who send us parcels every day, online ride-hailing drivers, aunts of neighborhood committees...
My own novel "Life Ferryman" is the story of Wang Yong, a courier brother, and no one asked him to do anything, but he stood up on his own and went to pick up doctors and nurses. I asked him, so terrible virus, aren't you afraid? He said he was afraid, but if Wuhan couldn't keep it, then my own little family would definitely not be able to keep it... When I really met these simple and ordinary people, I realized that this was the feeling of home and country.
Recently, when I looked back at "Lovely China", I was very emotional, our country, no matter what era there are heroes. Fang Zhimin lived in that era, turbulent, chaotic, the people of the country were humiliated, the country was invaded, such a dark moment, he actually wrote "Lovely China", he firmly believed that the cause of the revolution will be victorious, and called on other revolutionary companions and fighters to fight together to save China. In the article "Lovely China", he criticized those who wanted to surrender in exchange for a night of tranquility, saying that they could not give in, and once they gave in, it would be an abyss of eternal disaster, and he insisted on resisting the war and standing up. 90 years later, looking back at China now, you will find that he is right.
Later, I went to consult Fang Zhimin's other materials, I read a lot of his essays, essays, poems, and found that he was an authentic literary youth, he began to write novels, write poetry, and engage in translation when he was a student, he loved literature and art very much, but when he found that literature and art could not directly save a country, he threw himself into the proletarian revolution without hesitation.
After learning all this, I suddenly felt that he had become vivid and lovely, no longer so far away, no longer a symbol, no longer an abstract person. When I read "Lovely China" again, I could truly feel his sincere emotions and his rich inner world.
Especially in the last chapter, the paragraph "I will shout for China one day to survive." If I can't survive - dead, where I bleed, maybe a lovely flower will grow, and this flower, you can regard it as my sincere sustenance! In the breeze, if the flower nods up and down, it can be regarded as a revolutionary salute to the patriots who are struggling for the liberation of the Chinese nation! If the flower swayed from side to side, it would be as if I was singing a revolutionary song and encouraging the fighters to move forward! He wrote his revolutionary ideals in a literary manner.
In the past, I always felt that there was a certain distance between me and the red literature and the revolutionary martyrs, and I did not have a deep thinking about their life deeds. When I look at it now, I sincerely sigh that there are indeed people in the world who are like the "backbone" that Lu Xun said, who choose to sacrifice themselves, save a country, and do something. Among them are those who have experienced hardships and are determined to strengthen their faith, as well as those who have a simple sense of home and country, believing that the country is in difficulty and that they have responsibilities. Once there is a major disaster, or when the water is deep and hot, life and death, there will definitely be people who stand up, just like Lin Zexu said, "If the country lives and dies by profit, it is better to avoid it because of misfortune." This was true 100 years ago, and it is true today.
This book saved my life
Narrator: Netizen Shrimp
I am a depressed person who has been ill for almost four years. Family changes and personal bad experiences have often led me to despair, and I have thought about giving up my life many times. I have asked God over and over again: Why me? Why are all these bad things happening to me? Anyway, my life is not good, do I still need to continue to live painfully?
By chance, I read Ted Chiang's "The Story of Your Life", and the choice of the heroine of the novel who knew the ending but still decided to go on deeply shocked me. If life knows the end and can't change it, do we still have to experience this fate? The author's answer is: it is necessary, and it is also a freedom to complete one's own destiny.
The Story of Your Life
by Ted Ginger
I also came to understand that there are many things in life that cannot be changed, like my family, my bad experiences, and the end of my life is death. What I want to do is not to pursue meaning, but to go with the flow, to spend the time between the present and death, to complete my destiny.
Since then, I have stopped digging into the bull's horns and complaining about the unfairness of fate, and I have begun to accept my fate and live day after day with peace of mind. My depression also eased, and I never thought of giving up my life again.
I would also like to share with you a quote from the book: "I began to know that every event has its inevitability, and I fully integrated and understood these inevitabilitys." They must be like this. If I don't know the inevitable, then my whole life will be shallow, follow the big and small events, and be coerced by these events. ”
At the right time, come across a pair of books
Narrator: Bookstore owner Cheng Lei
I am a small bookstore owner who runs a small bookstore of sixty square meters, and readers and friends like to call me "Little Stone".
Personally, I have a slight preference for biographies and Dunhuang works. In 2019, when I was buying and buying goods, I found this book, "My Heart Is Dunhuang: Fan Jinshi's Self-Description", which is a biographical work published in 2020, and it is no longer a very newly published book. When I met this book, my personal state of mind had a different experience, and when I mentioned this book, my thoughts couldn't help but pull back to that year.
"My Heart Returns to Dunhuang: Fan Jinshi's Self-Description"
Fan Jinshi Oral / Gu Chunfang Written
2019 was a very volatile year for bookstores. Teacher Fan's self-description seemed to be specially designed for me to solve my puzzles at that time. From the dictations of Fan Jinshi and the writings written by Gu Chunfang, I really felt a kind of strength, a kind of strength to overcome difficulties, and a kind of power that also had confusion, entanglement, and trade-offs.
Reading this, I felt very touched, so I copied it down by hand. Writing and writing, I can't help but shed tears from the mainstream. At that time, it was as if I was standing in front of the ninth floor, feeling Mr. Fan's feelings and listening to the sound of Lingduo. When I first stood on the ninth floor many years ago, I did not experience this inner peace except to lament the greatness of the monument.
The year turned to 2020. The bookstore, which is open all day, has the only holiday of the year: the Spring Festival. After cleaning up the bookstore, I took this copy of "My Heart Is Dunhuang: Fan Jinshi's Self-Description" home for the New Year. A few days later, Wuhan closed the passage from Han to Hubei...
This is a special time that many people in Wuhan may not want to talk about again. During that time, it was really a mixture of five tastes: life and death, food and clothing, work, life... All kinds of anxiety, all kinds of confusion. I was no exception, even though I knew in my heart that I couldn't get caught up in such emotions.
The book on the coffee table flashed into my eyes. Flip it open again, hoping to divert a little of your attention.
Reading and reading, that sense of tranquility returned, and that magical power reappeared. Didn't Mr. Fan and generations of Dunhuang people also adhere to their beliefs and adhere to the cause of Dunhuang's protection in a very difficult and uncertain environment? Although the background of the times is different, I think this spiritual core can be carried forward and passed on. On that day, I wrote a passage in the bookstore public: If after experiencing this epidemic, people can be more afraid of nature, fear of life, fear of reality, fear of science, and fear of rules, I think this may be the greatest comfort for all those who are born into death, including medical workers, to ensure the safety of people's lives.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has lasted for more than two years, has not yet receded, and this global public health event has profoundly changed the concept of human behavior. The bookstore is also in the wind and rain, struggling to walk. In this lifetime, people will always encounter unpleasant things, and they must always have some inner spirit. Although books do not necessarily solve every specific problem, they can invisibly show us direction and add strength. On the road to growth, we must continue to learn and read more good books.
It is a great blessing to meet the right book at the right time, and thanks to this book, I can find a steaming soul in this stumbling life.
A book that inspired me to move forward with the light
Narrator: Assistant For The Disabled, Du Chengcheng
I am a 36-year-old disabled assistant (community officer) in Jiangjiadun Community in Qingshan District, Wuhan City, with a high leg amputation on my left leg, and have been with a wheelchair and crutches for 13 years. On the day of my 30th birthday, the new book "Toward the Bright Side" signed by my favorite writer Liu Tong was finally mailed to my home, and after eating the sweet birthday cake, I began to taste the book, and on that day, I happily sent a WeChat circle of friends.
"Toward the Light"
Liu Tong
It took me 3 days to read this book, and the content of the book resonated strongly with my life experience, "Complaining about being in the dark, it is better to carry a lamp forward, may you be a light in your own place, illuminating a corner of the world." 」 "I burst into tears as I read it.
Looking back, when I was 11 years old, I had a lump in my left leg, the doctor diagnosed it as a neurofibroma, and I felt like the sky was going to fall. When I was 20 years old, I couldn't walk, I was forced to take a break from college, and I was deeply desperate and lost the direction of my life. When I was 23 years old, my leg was so painful that I wanted to amputate my leg to relieve the pain and let my life play more value, thanks to Dr. Fan Li of Wuhan University People's Hospital for helping me. Every day after that, I cherished and tried to do everything I wanted to do well, but inevitably, I encountered all kinds of difficulties and setbacks. I am always looking for upward strength, looking for the glimmer of my life.
In 2010, the Wuhan Disabled Persons' Federation opened a "Blind Cinema" in Qingshan District, and I signed up for the volunteer team in Qingshan District and began to volunteer to explain movies to blind people. For more than 10 years, I have helped blind friends "watch" movies with the help of sound and words, and in my opinion, sound is the light that can be seen, and I want to use this light to illuminate the world of blind friends. Explaining each movie, I have to carefully prepare for a long time, and the blind friends who "watched" the movie smiled and said to me: "Thank you so much!" You are our eyes! "Hearing these words, even if it is hard, I feel that it is worth it.
"He is positive when a man needs light; he is fearless when a man finds light; he is honorable when a man chases after light; he is warm when a man gives light to others." I especially like this passage, I know that when we encounter lows and setbacks in life, we need that kind of light and warmth, which will give us the courage to move forward.
Over the years, when I explain movies to blind friends, I encounter the right movie theme, I will share this passage with blind friends before the opening of the movie, hoping to bring them warmth and take them to the bright place through my explanation and companionship.
Whenever I encounter difficulties in my work and life, I will open it and read it carefully, and it has become my closest partner. From this book, I have drawn time and time again the strength to bravely move forward towards the glimmer of difficulties without fear. There is love in the heart, there is light in the eyes, difficulties and setbacks, not the burden of life, bravely moving towards the light, what greets us is the precious wealth of life.
· END ·
Planning 丨 Liu Fang
Reporter丨Li ShuangQiu Jingchun Wang Yu Cheng Yichang
Editor 丨Li Shuang
Audit 丨 Li Junzhen
Today's topic
Tell us about the book that has benefited you the most