On January 22, 1942, Xiao Hong, the "literary Roselle", died of illness in Hong Kong.
At that time, Xiao Hong was misdiagnosed by quacks and cut her throat, resulting in her inability to speak and eat.
When she was dying, she could only drag her sick body and write two lines with a pen and paper:
I will live forever with the blue sky and clear water, and leave that half of the Red Mansion for others to write. Half of his life was treated coldly, and he died first, unwilling and unwilling.
The half of the Red Mansion in her mouth is her last work, the autobiographical novel "The Biography of the Hulan River".
In the book, Xiao Hong depicts the ignorant and numb beings in the small town of Hulan River from the perspective of a seemingly innocent child:
endless gossip, countless cold bystanders, and unstoppable bottom-level mutual harm...... The human tragedy is shocking.
The people of the Hulan River blindly tortured each other, drawing the ground as a prison in a daze, and they could not get out of the swamp of poverty.
Even if the suffering of the outside world is overcome, their own ignorance will accompany them for life, leading them step by step to the bottom of the catastrophe.
After reading the story of the Hulan River, I couldn't help but sigh with emotion:
How ignorant can people be, and how can their lives be ruined by this dullness?
Suffering only traps people for a while, but ignorance traps people for a lifetime
In Xiao Hong's memory, Hulan River was a small gray city, remote and cold.
Most of the people there are struggling to dig from the ground, and they are so poor that they can't even afford to eat a piece of tofu.
But as soon as they heard that someone's house was in trouble, their faces wrinkled by the wind and frost would immediately stretch out.
The king's widow's son drowned, the apprentices of the dye vat fought for women, and the newborn bastard was starved to death......
They can always chew their own satisfaction from the misfortunes of others, so as to paralyze the misery of life.
There is a mud puddle nearly two meters deep in the middle of the street, which overflows like a small river when it rains.
Poultry, cattle, sheep, pigs and dogs have all drowned, and passers-by can only walk along the edge of the pit with their legs shaking.
Those who are lucky can barely pass with mud covered in mud, and those who are unlucky can only desperately ask for help if they fall into it without paying attention.
Rao is so, and no one has thought of filling the hole.
Think about it, carrying horses to save people all day long, drowning chickens and ducks, how much excitement and pastime can this pit bring to the Hulan River?
What's more, the existence of this big mud pit also provides them with invisible "benefits":
When cheap plague pork is sold on the street, they can buy it as if it had drowned in a mud pit and go home with peace of mind.
When someone gets sick after eating pork, they also have the confidence to comfort themselves: "The pork in the mud pit can't eat the dead." ”
If someone really drowns and dies, they also have another set of arguments: "You must have offended the dragon lord of the sky, and you deserve retribution." ”
They are numb to the point of coldness, indifferent to others, and indifferent to themselves.
Even if death befell their own family, they would just go to dig a grave outside the city and weep with the current.
When they returned home, they went about their lives as they could, working in the fields, washing and sewing, and they did not see any sadness.
If someone asked them what life was for, they would answer bluntly, "To eat and sleep." ”
For the people of Hulanhe, there is no life, only life, and there is no independent consciousness, only eating and waiting for death.
Before they could resist, they decided that suffering was insurmountable, that life was meaningless, and that the only option was to go along with it.
And around us, there are too many people like the people of Hulanhe, who either trample on each other numbly, or resign themselves to fate in a daze.
They don't make efforts themselves, and they also question the success of others, thinking that they can succeed without their ability, but on their background and connections;
They have never seen the world themselves, but they deny more possibilities, thinking that this is the end of their lives, and no matter how hard it is, they can only hold on.
But in fact, material barrenness is not terrible, and cognitive lack is the purgatory that is difficult to escape.
Once people's minds are empty, their bodies and minds will become weak and weak, and they will retreat again and again when they hit the wall, and raise their hands in surrender when they suffer a little.
The only way to break the ice is to awaken your sleeping self and take a sober look at life.
If you don't sink in the sea of suffering, you will be able to crush your self-bound chains and successfully cross yourself ashore.
Even more terrible than impermanence is the tragedy of ignorance
Camus once said that the evil of the world is almost always caused by ignorance.
Ignorant people are not necessarily bad people, but they often act in self-righteousness and make great mistakes.
The people of Hulanhe, who live in isolation, follow a lot of old and decadent ignorant customs.
They believe in ghosts and gods, and they don't see a doctor when they are sick, and they "cure diseases" by jumping gods and seeking home remedies.
Xiao Hong's neighbor's little reunion daughter-in-law was deeply tormented by this kind of feudal concept.
When the little reunion daughter-in-law first married in Hulan River, she was only 12 years old.
But her mother-in-law thinks she is too generous, not like a daughter-in-law, and must set up a horse for her.
On several occasions, her parents-in-law hung her from a beam and whipped her until she fainted.
When she woke up, she was so frightened that she couldn't stop shivering, crying and shouting to go back to her home.
When the mother-in-law heard this, she became even more angry, and burned the soles of her feet with a fiery red iron, and twisted and pinched her in different ways.
After more than a month of continuous fighting, the little reunion daughter-in-law's body collapsed, and she was bedridden all day long, and she didn't think about tea and dinner.
Even the children in the yard knew that she was sick because of the inflammation of the wound after the beating.
The adults around her just said that there was nothing wrong with her, but she was "evil".
Her mother-in-law didn't take her to seek medical advice, and covered her with a quilt on a hot day, and forbade her to come into contact with people, saying that it was to ward off evil spirits.
Under the influence of the people, the mother-in-law also spent money to invite "immortals" to dance gods, draw stickers, and burn "stand-ins" for the little reunion daughter-in-law.
During one of the big dances, everyone stripped the little reunion daughter-in-law naked and threw her into a bathtub filled with boiling water.
She was so hot that she screamed, but they pressed her head into the water as if they couldn't hear her.
After a night of tossing, the little reunion daughter-in-law fell asleep and never opened her eyes again.
Before she died, her mother-in-law secretly cut off her long braids in order to prove her evil spirit, and lied that the braids fell off by herself.
Everyone is convinced that she is a "little monster", and it is not a pity to die.
But in fact, the loss of this fresh life is completely the result of the torture of the mother-in-law and the ignorance of the residents.
The poet Robert Browning said: Ignorance is not innocence, but sin.
Ignorant people are often not good at thinking, unable to distinguish between right and wrong, and unable to distinguish between good and evil.
They are stubborn and believe that what they do is right and that what they say is the truth.
In the name of doing good for others, they inflict brutality with impunity, and forcibly interfere in the lives of others through groundless false reasoning.
An ignorant and unaware person is like an out-of-control car on the highway, and everywhere he goes, there are immeasurable disasters.
No matter what happens in the future, don't be in a hurry to follow the crowd and spread false rumors, so as not to hurt others and yourself.
Stay sober and alert, and not be carried away by the torrent of information and emotions, and the absurd will eventually break itself.
A truly sober person never lives in someone else's mouth
The gossip among the population of the Hulan River has destroyed the already shaky fate of many people.
Some people have lost hope of living and are counted as days by day, and some people have lost what little goodness they have left and become hateful.
Only the poor and ugly Feng crooked mouth has never been crushed by rumors.
Feng Weizui was a tenant of Xiao Hong's grandfather's family, living in an ice cellar-like mill and struggling to survive by selling rice cakes.
Seeing that he has nothing and can't please his wife, everyone likes to make fun of him and tease him when he has nothing to do.
But one day, he married the diligent and capable girl Wang freely, and soon gave birth to a big fat boy.
After everyone learned about it, they discussed: Why did such a good girl follow him Feng crookedly?
As a result, this group of residents, who couldn't see the good of others, began to reverse black and white and orchestrate various scandals of Miss Wang.
Spread rumors that she had a big temper and loved to beat people, ridiculed her for being too tall and too big in eyes, and insulted her for being an indecent wild girl.
What's more, he lies outside the window of Feng Crooked Mouth every day to eavesdrop and peek.
didn't hear the cry of the child in Feng's crooked mouth, so he cursed and said, "The child is frozen to death";
Seeing a rope on his kang, it was rumored that "Feng was going to hang his crooked mouth......
A series of vicious criticisms spread, but Feng's crooked mouth was not affected in the slightest.
He still pulled the cart to sell rice cakes, and boasted about the virtue of the eldest girl Wang when he met people.
As soon as he had money in his hand, he went to buy eggs to replenish her body for Miss Wang.
When he went out to eat, he also thought about his wife and children, and brought home his share of steamed buns and meatballs.
Who knows, there are unforeseen circumstances, and Miss Wang unfortunately died of illness after giving birth to her second child.
The Hulan River suddenly became lively again, and everyone was waiting to see Feng's crooked jokes, saying that he "must be finished this time".
But instead of giving up on himself, Feng did his best to support the family.
He lived as calmly as before, carrying water when it was time to carry it, and pulling and grinding when it was time to grind.
He also fulfilled his duty as a father, feeding the little one and carrying the big one, and pulling two young children alone.
He was overjoyed to see that the eldest son would pull the donkey to drink, and that the younger son would clap his hands and laugh.
No matter what the outside world says, Feng Crooked Mouth always feels that the days are getting more and more rushed.
Writer Shui Muran once said: The reason why people are suffering is because people are always in trouble with each other.
Although this experience in the next world is bumpy, most of the misfortunes are not predestined, but man-made.
In the crowd, no one can escape unwarranted criticism and misunderstanding, and cannot escape malicious suppression and difficulty.
But really sober people understand: life is not for people to say, but for themselves.
It is better to ignore inconsequential advice, and to listen to malicious ridicule and forget it.
You just have to keep your heart, live at your own pace, and all the hustle and bustle will make way for you.
"The Biography of the Hulan River" is Xiao Hong's childhood memoir, and it is also an apocalypse that writes about the darkness of human nature.
The people of Hulanhe, who have been trapped in a small city all their lives, have been corrupted by ignorance and their kindness and reason, and have become prisoners of life.
As a human being, only by stepping out of the limitations of thinking and looking at everything from a broader perspective can we not live a muddy life.
Always stay awake, understand the laws of the world, learn to distinguish between right and wrong, get rid of the shackles of external voices, and keep the purity of the heart.
When a person transcends narrow-mindedness and ignorance, he will break the invisible shackles on his body and move briskly towards a better future.
Encourage your friends.