WORLD BOOK & COPYRIGHT DAY
"Life has some thoughts: Essay Readings for Teenagers" is a collection of essays carefully selected by Professor Zhang Li of the College of Literature of Beijing Normal University, specially for teenagers, including excellent prose works from Famous Writers such as Lu Xun, Zhu Ziqing, Bingxin, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Xiao Hong to Wang Zengqi, Sun Li, Tie Ning, Wang Anyi, Shi Tiesheng, Li Jingze, Ge Fei, Bi Feiyu, Chi Zijian, Liu Liangcheng, Zhou Xiaofeng, Li Xiuwen, Li Juan and so on.
The article shared today is a guide to "Life Has Some Thoughts: Essay Readers for Teenagers", originally titled "The Beauty of Prose, the Light of Everyday Life". In this article, Zhang Li explains the reasons for compiling the anthologies, and also allows us to see the moving features of these essays.
The beauty of prose, the light of everyday life
Text/Zhang Li
"Life has some thoughts" is a collection of essays for young people, including excellent prose works from Lu Xun, Zhu Ziqing, Bingxin, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Xiao Hong to Wang Zengqi, Sun Li, Tie Ning, Shi Tiesheng, Li Jingze, Bi Feiyu, Liu Liangcheng, Zhou Xiaofeng, Li Xiuwen, Li Juan and others, many of which have been selected into middle school language textbooks or supplementary reading textbooks. The reason for this compilation plan is that I am concerned about the composition of the college entrance examination in a certain year - instead of participating in the discussion of "whether it should be full scored", it is better to build a good understanding and perception of prose, because it affects the literary aesthetic vision of generations of young people.
This selection is characterized by the noise of the crowd, rich and diverse, the prose collected is funny, vivid, vivid, and the language is elegant and refined, which is conducive to cultivating the sense of language of the young generation. I hope that young people can realize through reading these works that good prose is by no means the same and one-size-fits-all; good prose has its temperature and richness, and good prose has its sharpness and sharpness. I am very much looking forward to it, and more readers will realize from this book that good prose is originally like this, and prose can also be written like this.
"Life has some thoughts" is actually taken
01
When we talk about prose in middle school, we usually talk about narrative essays, lyric essays, and argumentative essays, which are the most basic and simple classifications. Whether it is narrative, lyricism or discussion, in the final analysis, it is also related to "me", and the prose is written about what "I" see, "I" feel and what "I" think. The judgment of whether an essay is good or not depends on whether the writer can truly turn what "I" see, "I" feel, and "I" think into what "we" see, "we" feel, and "we" think. In other words, the beauty of good prose is that it resonates with us for a long time.
For the convenience of reading, I divide these essays into three parts: "there is something", "there is feeling", and "there is thought". As you can see, all three topics emphasize "yes". "Being" is the opposite of "nothing" - whether we are writing about a person, a thing, or a truth, it must start from "being", and this "being" can sometimes be a thing, sometimes it can be a person, sometimes it can be a scene, in short, "being" is "reality" rather than "emptiness".
Who can forget "From the Herb Garden to the Sanwei Book House"? This is one of Lu Xun's "Picking Up Flowers and Nights", and it is also a famous piece of modern prose, and to this day, almost every one of us will memorize the classic passages in it: "It is not necessary to say that the turquoise vegetable beds, the smooth stone well bars, the tall soap pod trees, and the purple mulberry; it is not necessary to say that the cicadas grow in the leaves, the fat wasps lie on the cauliflower, and the lightly called Tianzi (skylark) suddenly scurry from the grass to the clouds." Just the short mud wall roots around it, there is infinite interest..." In each sentence there are animals or plants, which are things we usually see, and it is precisely the careful observation and description of them that constitute the fun of the Hundred Grass Garden. In "Winter in Jinan", Lao She expresses that warmth in an anthropomorphic way: "This circle of hills is particularly cute in winter, as if to put Jinan in a small cradle, and they quietly whisper: 'Rest assured, here is warm.'" The metaphor of the "little cradle" corresponds to the geographical location of Jinan, writing not only the characteristics of winter in Jinan, but also the reason why the winter here does not freeze.
Whether it is childhood or season, it is actually a very broad, "virtual" concept, and writers have chosen a "grasp" and a "reliance". Because it is based on "reality", it is not boring to read. Tie Ning's "A Thousand Pieces of Sugar Paper" is about cheating, about how to treat children, she starts with the story. The cousin thought that the children talked too much, so she casually made a promise: if the children could collect a thousand pieces of sugar paper, they could exchange it for an electric dog. But when the children did collect a thousand pieces of sugar paper, the cousin did not keep her promise, and she admitted that she had tricked them. Deception and trust, sophistication and innocence, are all embodied in stories about sugar paper. When we think of the thousand pieces of sugar paper, we think of the preciousness of the promise.
How difficult it was to express sound, Alai chose a very specific way. Early in the morning, "the sound came": the sound of the old horse, the voice of the mayor, the sound of the old leather shoes, the sound of the sheep calling, the sound of many doors opening. More sounds came over, more and more chaotic, the laughter of men and women, the music of the radio, the chirping of livestock, the sounds of fishmongers, the voices of vegetable vendors, and so on. With the coming of these voices, we know that the writer was stranded in a town because of illness for three days, and for three days the writer became familiar with the town on the prairie through these sounds, and every time he passed through a similar town thereafter, the voices would sound, and the sounds would become his deep memory.
Li Jingze's "Pot Crushing, A Yixing Story" about the twists and turns of The Yixing pot. The pot that was bought witnessed the scenery of man and the decline of man, although the person who hid the pot had a grievance, but everything was a floating cloud for the pot maker. In Master Gu Jingzhou's place, the pot is just the pot itself, and his calm face makes people feel thousands of emotions in their hearts. In Bi Feiyu's "Broad Beans", the fava beans with hot air warm the heart of a teenager, and all the emotions are implemented in that common thing, and the grandmother who fried the fava beans is how nostalgic. Zhou Xiaofeng's "After the Rain" is written in the general sense of the landscape after the rain, the rain ignites the writer's touch, thinking, emotion and her understanding of the world, so we see many "landscapes" after heavy rain.
Those unnoticed everyday things become brilliant in the writer's pen. Those fragments of life are like nails on the wall of memory... Through the writer's suspension, it will forever hang in the depths of our memory. How can things be just things, representing what we see, think, and think, red beans are not just red beans, the bright moon is not just the bright moon, and cooking smoke is not just cooking smoke... They are themselves but not just themselves, and through the writing of writers, they have become our common memory.
"Life has some thoughts" is actually taken
02
We live in the age of new media. New media make our lives fast and convenient, but sometimes they can also erode our sensitivity. How obsessed we are today with online communication. We would rather talk to people on our phones and make love than give the people around us a real hug.
In a sense, our subtle sensitivity to the things around us is being kidnapped by our phones. Yes, in an era where machines, intelligent robots, and big data are so important, people seem so clumsy. However, the reason why a person is a person is that he/she has thoughts and emotions, that he/she is fragile, painful, shy and not indestructible- today, whether it is a writer or not, it is necessary to maintain sensitivity and pain to the external world, and the reason why a person is human is to feel the clumsiness, shyness, uneasiness and pain that belong to man.
In the "Sentient" section, I chose Zhu Ziqing's "Back Shadow". This is a work written in 1925, the son always thought that his father was not smart enough, but people did not find their own stupidity until middle age. The work is simple, plain and washed away. Zhu Ziqing made the "back shadow" the most charming and appreciable image in Chinese. "Good Times Slip Away" was written in the 1990s, and Chi Zijian also wrote about his father. Unlike Zhu Ziqing, Chi Zijian's words about his father's memories include gardens, flowers, vegetable fields, lush plants on the mountains and lively and cute animals, and of course, fathers and mothers who are in their prime. The child grew up, but the father passed away," I looked at my mother in the rain, and suddenly felt that time was so terrible, time brought my father to a place where he could never come back, and time threw my mother alone to the shore. At that moment I thought: Life will never be complete. But having had consummation, having had, isn't that enough? Chi Zijian inscribed the memory of his parents who were always strong and warm in words.
Wang Zengqi's "Xingdou Qiwen, Naked Son and His People" is written by his teacher, Mr. Shen Congwen, who wrote about Shen Congwen's life: his favorite word is "patience", he does not use manuscript paper to write, he likes to collect utensils, especially those that have been discarded, such as "lacquer boxes". He is not particular about dressing, and likes to eat "Cigu" and "pork head meat"... Wang Zengqi wrote down Shen Congwen's daily life like a heavenly conversation, the image is vivid and vivid, he also wrote about Shen Congwen's funeral, "I approached him, looked at him, and could not leave for a long time. Such a person, just like that, went. I looked at him and looked at him again, and I cried. The brushstrokes are restrained and subtle, and the ending is particularly memorable: "Mr. Shen's family has a pot of tiger ear grass, planted in a small oval kiln pot. Many people don't know this grass. This is the kind of grass that Cuicui picked in his dreams in "Border City", the grass that Mr. Shen likes."
Wang Anyi's "Living Next to Each Other" is about neighbors. Her understanding of the life of her neighbors comes from the tastes — the smell of peppercorns in green onion oil, the smell of herbs, the spicy aroma of leeks in chicken soup and mutton soup, the taste of coffee, the smoke of wormwood... Writers perceive the daily life of their neighbors from taste, and that is not only the taste of their lives, but also ours. Li Xiuwen's "Chang'an Strange Infinite Tree" writes about the separation of two people who meet in Pingshui, life and death are in the square inch space of the hospital ward, the leukemia child who cannot recite the poem, the teacher who is not far from the limit period, in the verses that are constantly recited, we see the intimate friendship between people for thousands of years.
This is a sentient text written by a sentient person. Write down the life of the people around you and the daily life of the people around you, write down the simplicity and nature of people themselves, and also write about the fun and fireworks of people themselves. Because they come from the heart, because they come from understanding, and because they are sincere, these works have long aroused empathy once they are published.
If this person makes you obsessed, why not write it down? If you are completely indifferent to this person and this thing, completely unemotional, why write it? Only people who have affection for others can really remember the bits and pieces of their interactions. For the writer, when he writes about someone or something, he is also delivering his emotions to the reader. Truly good prose is a magical connection that ultimately enables us and our loved ones, the people we meet in Pingshui, to form a solid emotional community.
"Life has some thoughts" is actually taken
03
This is the era of big data. If we search for "teeth" on our computer, for a few days, our computer will automatically send countless advertisements about teeth and cosmetic teeth. Big data is finding ways to make us live comfortably, without us having to choose and think. Whether we like it or not, in fact, each of us has become a target group for accurate feeding. In the university classroom, the question I often discuss with the younger generation is that it is said that "Shuangwen" is the most popular, so is "Shuang" the most important feeling in life, and is "Shuang" the ultimate pursuit of a person living in the world? And if "cool" is not our ultimate pursuit, and we don't want to be a crowd that is accurately fed, how can we break free?
Choosing to use Lu Xun's "Scream" Self-Introduction as the first part of the "Yousi" part, of course, first of all because Lu Xun is the most representative essayist in the history of new literature, but also because of the depth and breadth of thinking of this "Scream" Self-Introduction. The teenager who went in and out of the shop and the pharmacy longed for "people who went a different way, fled another place, and sought something else." In the slides of the Japanese class, he saw the crowd of onlookers and realized the importance of literature, "So our first priority is to change their spirit, and what is good at changing the spirit is that I thought that of course I wanted to promote literature and art, so I wanted to promote the literary and art movement." Lu Xun's thinking is painful and sober, which makes people think of the popular TV series "The Age of Awakening" at the beginning of this year. It was from a hundred years ago that a people issued the most powerful "cry".
Mao Dun's "On the Moon" was written after the mid-autumn of 1934, and the writer as a revolutionary thought about the tenderness that people thought the moon brought about: "Perhaps the moon 'culture' played by our ancient Chinese literati is not completely subjective; the moon is indeed such a charming and anesthetizing guy." In "The Gilded Doctrine," Xiao Hong wrote about her uncle, and in her childhood, "he spoke in a loud voice, and when he spoke was always about righteousness, at least at that time I felt that his words were serious, methodical, and true." "But the more I grew up, the more I doubted my uncle's words, because when it came to 'me' going to school," my uncle smiled: 'No need to go to school, it is enough for an old gentleman to study at home!' The female students in Harbin are ridiculous. The uncle gradually became a "cold stone" and was ruthless even for the women with whom he had fallen in love... What is the "gilded doctrine" is not explicitly stated in the work, but it can be perceived, and the "gilded doctrine" is an old idea, but also a thought without sympathy and empathy.
"March 8th Festival has a feeling" is Ding Ling's famous essay about how women live independently and how to improve themselves. First of all, she doesn't see women as "great women who will always lead us up," but as people: "They won't be out of date, they won't be ideals, they're not ironclad." They cannot resist all the temptations of society, and the silent oppression, and each of them has a history of blood and tears, and has had lofty feelings..." Therefore, women must first strengthen themselves: "Don't let yourself be sick" and "Make yourself happy." Only when there is happiness in it can there be youth, only then can there be vitality, only then can we feel that we can bear all the hardships, only then can we have a future, and only then can we enjoy it. "Use your brain. It is best to develop a habit. Correct the problem of not thinking about it and going with the flow. "Fourth, make up your mind to endure hardships and persevere to the end." Born as a modern enlightened woman, she must have the gentle dream of sacrificing all roses. "Whether it is Mao Dun, Xiao Hong or Ding Ling, what they write down is their own unique understanding of life.
Jia Pingwa's "Reading to Show little sister's eighteenth birthday book" is a letter to his eighteen-year-old sister, who has a deep insight into reading and being a person: "Reading 'Journey to the West' at night, I realized that 'taking the scriptures is sincere, and I am afraid of strength', I don't feel much gratitude, and I sigh in the wind. How touching is the writer's understanding of reading: "Any one of you, you can only inherit, you can not repeat, you have to read his work, pull him to your feet to read." 」 This is not arrogance, this is precisely knowing its strengths, knowing its weaknesses, and abandoning the fur of the spirit of the teacher. "Shi Tiesheng's "Me and the Temple of Earth" is a reflection on the Temple of Earth. The mother quietly followed her sick and paralyzed son in the temple of earth, longing for him to slowly cheer up, and then the mother died of illness. ——" I and the Temple of Earth" writes about a person's understanding of life, about living and dying, about meeting and parting. Eventually, his son in a wheelchair grew up in a garden, which was small and large, and he gradually received many secrets of this world: "I sat in this garden, and the god of the garden said to me for many years: Child, this is nothing else, this is your sins and blessings. ”
The writers' thinking is sharp and sharp, and it is very inspiring. Of course, no matter how enlightening the view is, it comes from the writer's rediscovery and important understanding of everyday life. In other words, the "thoughts" here come from life itself. Everything depends on the independent thinking of "me". Everything starts from "me", "I" is the container, "I" is the perception, "I" is the perspective, "I" is the method, only in this way can we do what Mr. Lu Xun said, "not in line with the crowd, unique to my own view."
"Life has some thoughts" is actually taken
04
The reason why the prose in "Thinking about Life" is divided into three parts is for the convenience of reading and discussion, but the classification is only expedient. In each work, in fact, we will see the reality of life, the sincerity of emotions, and the writer's unique understanding of the world. - Good prose intrinsically combines "things", "feelings", and "thoughts". The language of the writers, although different in style, has also got rid of the old clichés, plain, simple, fresh and moving.
Yes, get rid of clichés. The vernacular movement emphasizes that "I write my mouth by hand, and I write my heart by hand", hoping that everyone can freely express their true joys and sorrows, while opposing the closure of feelings in the same language style of the same set, in a pattern. In the past composition tutoring classes, students were often asked to memorize composition templates and recite good words and sentences, thinking that it was a shortcut to writing essays, which was obviously misleading, and those templates were applying other people's words and other people's experiences instead of our own. The so-called rhetorical sincerity refers to the writer's expression of the most sincere understanding of the world without borrowing the filter of pretentiousness.
Suddenly I thought of dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. Many of the statues and murals in the cave are stunning, and the Buddha statues and murals that have passed through the ages come to life. I especially remember Cave 159, which was a work of the Middle Tang Dynasty, and there was a beautiful sense of holiness on the face of the bodhisattva. Even if it is old, you can still feel that these are two "living images" with vitality.
I also think of the painters behind it. Thinking of the piety and sincerity of their paintings of these Buddha statues, and that stroke and painting did not come from empty imagination, but from the observation, observation and expression of the joys and sorrows of ordinary people's emotions in life, it was everything that came from daily life that there were two living images that traveled through time and had great vitality.
The principles of artistic creation are the same. The most fascinating writing never comes from "far away" and "high", but only from "close" and "realization". Truly good prose can write both the texture of everyday life and the subtleties of everyday life. It is in this sense that the beauty of the most fascinating prose lies in writing out our everyday light.