Author: Li Shuoru
Reading Jiang Yang's "Under the Same Sky", in addition to the excitement, I always feel that my thoughts are long and I have something to say. Remember that psychologist Maslow once said that human needs are roughly divided into five levels, namely: from low-level food and clothing needs, security needs, to emotional and belonging needs, to the needs of respect and self-actualization of others. Later, he added the demand for knowledge and aesthetic needs to the highest needs of man. Marx also said: "The people of the future are all aesthetic people." Reading through the whole book, I thought that the author was a "beauty-seeking" and aesthetic person.
Jiang Yang is blessed, in the past few decades, she has traveled almost half the world, and everywhere she goes, either the long history of civilization gathers celebrity footprints, or the cultural relics are vague and difficult for ordinary people to reach, but no matter where they go, a pair of aesthetic eyes find that they have excavated so many beautiful views, "beauty", beautiful things and the meaning of beauty, and then they write a book to review and share with readers.
Take a look at the beauty she presents:
"There is a kind of scenery that stands quietly on the horizon, and that is the windmills. The moment the windmill turned, I saw you. You emerge from below sea level, with the domineering spirit of the former sea coachman", there are physical objects, there are pictures, we almost smell the salty smell of the Atlantic ocean, almost see the windmills that turn with the wind, and even the shots of Don Quixote fighting the windmills... Needless to say, this is the once-prominent maritime hegemony of Europe, the Netherlands, which relied on reclamation to create land. As the European tradition has passed down to this day, "God created man, and the Dutch windmill created the land". The windmill turns the dutch national culture, turns people's love for the sky, and turns the fairytale happiness. Reading such horizontal and vertical and solid and abstract descriptions, who does not think soaring to give birth to a beautiful imagination like poetry!
"Sri Lanka is like a crystal pearl, embedded in the vast indian ocean. Like the dew sprinkled by Shakyamuni, it soaked the land that was related to the Buddha. The cave is littered with erected statues, reclining Reclining Buddhas, and countless murals. Believers who come barefoot, holding flowers in their hands, quietly kneel or stand in front of a Buddha statue and chant prayers. "Pure as dew, holy as a Buddha, the author and people (worshippers of the Buddha) painted the scene, the Sri Lankan Buddhist world is depicted as a heavenly realm, we can almost see the incense burning in front of the Buddha, can hear the good men and women chanting sincerely, can't help but be, a religious beauty comes to life.
"More than 300 cloister reefs and swaying islands of coconut groves, scattered across the crossroads of the South Pacific. Fiji is the first place on Earth to see the sunrise. The 180-degree international date line runs through it, making it the easternmost and westernmost country in the world. "A rare regional beauty! Is it the end of the world? Is it the Cape? This dreamlike place is for anyone who doesn't want to see it! This is the uniqueness of the author's beautiful eyes, and finally she loses no time in seducing us: here "the light shines on the sea, the sea breeze rises, the waves jump, and a sea of broken gold is stirred up."
From only the above few descriptions, we cannot but admire Jiang Yang's beautiful eyes and write beautiful brushstrokes. However, travelogue, as a member of the literary family, the scenery is depicted no matter how beautiful it is difficult to paint, it is difficult to describe the profound history, feelings and philosophies, can not reach the aesthetic realm of a place and a domain, the author is well versed in its wonderful, her travelogues are often inseparable from the characters, stories up to the hearts of the people, a few strokes, that is, point out the "eyes" and background of the article.
Let's look at the following examples:
"In the spacious hall on the second floor, on the display table by the grand piano, there are sheet music scores by Chopin, Haydn, Weber and Mozart, which are All Tolstoy's favorites. That place was also the place where many famous musicians and composers such as Rimsky Korsakov, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and many other famous musicians and composers visited and played. It was a time of bright stars... Juan Xiu's manuscript, the pieces of paper have turned yellow. The rocking chair in the sun seemed to be waiting for Toon to lie down for a moment. "A static beauty, an atmospheric beauty, without description, we can already feel that Toon purified the soul and poured out his philosophical thoughts in the music of these musical masters, transformed into his religious concept transformation, and finally achieved the ancient masterpiece "Resurrection" that called for self-redemption.
The author crosses the "watery sea" and runs to Santa Clara, known as the city of Che Guevara, "passing through one town and village after another, and the most common appearances are Che Guevara's iconic heads, on the walls, on the flags, and on people's coats and hats." Cuba uses images to tell the admiration and remembrance of Che Guevara". A figurative beauty of remembrance and admiration. Guevara, a medical student born in a wealthy argentine family, in order to save the poor people, first volunteered to participate in the liberation war in Cuba, and after the success of the revolution, he did not have the slightest nostalgia, only left a farewell letter to Castro, and then put it back on, and ran to Kinshasa in the east of the Congo and the Bolivian jungle in South America to carry out the revolutionary war of "guerrilla center", and finally fell in a pool of blood in the Yuro Gorge... As the author lamented, "A man dies, a myth is born". A short travelogue writes about an era, a faith, and a heroic poetic and magnificent life!
"Gray two-story building, no walls, no iron doors, only three or five meters away from the roadside. He has lived here for nearly 60 years without changing places, and compared with the villas of his neighbors, he does not show any luxury. "This compound in Omaha, where the original Indians lived, is the residence of buffett, the world-famous rich man and stock god. Rich but not luxurious, expensive and not arrogant, without a trace of local arrogance, a pure frugal beauty. His philosophy is more simple: "Success is very simple, and the people you love after you are old still love you." "At least, the wealth ethics and wealth morality of this stock god have been spoken in one word.
Poetry is everywhere in the eyes of the poet, and prey is everywhere in the eyes of the devil. A person must be able to find the beauty of the world and reach the aesthetic realm, one must have a true and good heart, the other must go a long enough road, and the third must have read enough books, which can cultivate the soil of compassion and give birth to the feelings of humanistic heart, which is why Maslow wants to list aesthetic needs as the highest needs of human beings. Jiang Yang understands this, no matter when and where she writes, the length of the article, most of them use poetic simplicity to point out the local region, history, climate, scenery and humanistic customs, which makes the article have an eye, a soul, and a unique style. See, after writing about Hawaii's beautiful heavens and seas and marvelous volcanoes, she still put her emphasis on the seafaring explorer Captain Cook: In November 1778, Captain Cook's fleet mistakenly discovered and landed on the Hawaiian Islands, and when they first arrived, the indigenous people there treated them as gods. But when Cook returned from the Bering Strait with his fleet, the natives discovered that they were not gods, and the blind faith of the past turned into a wordless resentment, and in the melee between the two sides, "a generation of great explorers Cook was stoned in the back of the head, fell on the seashore and groaned, and the blood stained the sea around him... When he died, his face was facing down, clinging to the large stone that was constantly washed by the waves..." The 18th-century boy born in a village in northern England made three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean and three times into the Antarctic Circle, "footprints all over the unknown Island of Tabu, Australia, New Zealand, the Marksas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island and Prince William's Bay... Added more than 5,000 miles of coastline to the world map." There are not many words, but it renders an aesthetic picture with mixed feelings: a thousand sails racing, the worship of the gods, foolish fighting, heroes burying the sea... Reverence? Lament? Sigh? Mournfully? Who can say for sure? This is the value and power of aesthetics.
Tourism has become a daily life of modern life, writing travel notes, reading travel notes is not a new thing, with what kind of eyes to travel, how to write travel literature? I thought "Under the Same Sky" was a beautiful reference.
Jiang Yang and I have known each other for many years, and unfortunately we have never talked deeply about it. Thank you for letting her work broaden my horizons, appreciate so many beautiful views, get to know so many ancient and modern sages, and let me know her people, her literature and her aesthetics. (Li Shuoru)
Source: Literature and Art Daily