"Written to the groups of children who wander the streets alone in the deepest and deepest darkness, with no place to go."
--Bai Xianyong
Author: Liu Jun, excerpt from the small quotation of "The Tree Is Still Like This"
Known as a novelist, Bai Xianyong's "Taipei People" has become a classic in twentieth-century Chinese literature.
Because of Bai Xianyong's great achievements in novel creation, people often focus on his novel world and relatively ignore his achievements in other genres.
In fact, in addition to novels, Bai Xianyong has also achieved extraordinary achievements in the field of prose creation, with a unique style and outstanding family.
▲Bai Xianyong
So far, Bai Xianyong's collection of essays has included "Star Cafe", "Looking Back", "The Sixth Finger", "The Tree Is Like This", "Once Upon a Time", etc.
Bai Xianyong's prose, or talk about literature and art, or nostalgia for the past, or self-narration of the past, or lyrical nostalgia, a wide range of themes, a variety of themes, and formed their own unique style.
As early as the early 1920s, Zhou Zuoren put forward the idea of "Meiwen" in his article "Meiwen", and in a sense, Bai Xianyong's prose creation is a contemporary continuation of the "Meiwen" tradition of "narrative" and "artistry" advocated by Zhou Zuoren.
Most of the articles collected in this collection of essays on "Trees As It Are" were published at the turn of the century (as early as 1993, as late as 2001, mostly from 1996 to 2001, and several were interviews or accounts of others), reflecting the main characteristics of Bai Xianyong's prose creation in that period: writing "people" and also writing "love".
Although this feature does not necessarily belong only to Bai Xianyong's prose creation in this period, it should be said quite appropriate to use it to summarize the overall characteristics of this collection of essays on "Trees Like This".
The name of Bai Xianyong's "Tree As It Is" essay collection comes from one of his essays of the same name, "Tree As It Is — In Memory of the Dead Friend Kingdom Xiangjun".
In this essay, Bai Xianyong reviews the thirty-eight years of acquaintance and friendship between him and his close friend Wang Guoxiang, and recalls Wang Guoxiang's personality and life.
The core of the article is Wang Guoxiang's two illnesses (once in the university era and once before his death), Wang Guoxiang's stoic tenacity and tenacity when fighting the disease, and the suffering and truth that Bai Xianyong and Wang Guoxiang supported each other in the process of Wang Guoxiang's treatment.
Wang Guoxiang's illness is a lingering presence in the world of Bai Xianyong and Wang Guoxiang, and it is also the touchstone of their friendship.
When Wang Guoxiang first suffered from "aplastic anemia", both of them were still young college students.
That illness, Wang Guoxiang's "stubborn willpower" and Bai Xianyong's spiritual support of "cheering up", as well as the miraculous effect of Chinese medicine, finally made Wang Guoxiang turn the crisis into safety and be cured.
At that time, Bai Xianyongzheng and his classmates founded the magazine "Modern Literature", and its busyness can be imagined, but he often "rode a bicycle from Taiwan University to visit Chaozhou Street" After class, Wang Guoxiang.
After Wang Guoxiang's illness was cured, Bai Xianyong also loved Wu and Wu for the one medicine that was indispensable in curing Wang Guoxiang's disease, rhino horn, and many years later, when he saw the rhinoceros, he "had an unspeakable good feeling."
The deep affection between Bai Xianyong and Wang Guoxiang can be seen from this.
▲ In 1958, Bai Xianyong took a photo with his best friend Wang Guoxiang in middle school. Both of them were transferred to the second year of National Taiwan University as they wished.
After middle age, Wang Guoxiang's illness recurred.
In this fight against the disease, Wang Guoxiang failed to defeat the disease as he did last time - and the fierceness of the struggle with the disease this time was more tragic than before, during which the feelings of Bai Xianyong and Wang Guoxiang were once again fully reflected.
Wang Guoxiang was ill, and Bai Xianyong naturally took on the heavy responsibility of taking care of him, not only did he often rush from another place to Los Angeles to drive Wang Guoxiang for blood transfusion, but also accompanied him during the blood transfusion.
"Guoxiang's condition is often dangerous, so that it is a few surprises overnight", once in order to send Wang Guoxiang to the hospital for emergency treatment, Bai Xianyong, who was "not skilled in driving", sped away, "Usually more than forty minutes away, half of the time arrived."
In addition to taking care of Wang Guoxiang, Bai Xianyong also "inquired everywhere about the treatment of 'aplastic anemia,'" and he not only corresponded with relevant experts in Taiwan to discuss and visited his door for advice, but also went to the mainland to find information about the treatment of "aplastic anemia" in mainland medical magazines, and also personally went to the mainland to look for hope.
Although the final result was not ideal, Bai Xianyong's dedication, dedication and effort to make Wang Guoxiang recovery were undoubtedly moving.
The joint efforts of Bai Xianyong and Wang Guoxiang ultimately failed to save Wang Guoxiang's life, and the confidant who "knew each other for decades, watched over each other and helped each other, and shared hardships and hardships" finally "divided heaven and man, and life and death are broad"
Wang Guoxiang's death was "a heavenly rift that could not be repaired by the nuwa refining stone" for Bai Xianyong, and the trees and flowers in the garden behind Bai Xianyong's residence also seemed to have sensed it, and after Wang Guoxiang's death, they were all "eclipsed" - "the tree is like this, how can people be embarrassed"?
"The Tree Is Still Like This" can be said to be a peak of Bai Xianyong's prose, after the article was published, it first attracted wide attention and great repercussions in the Taiwanese literary circles, and then affected the entire Chinese literary world.
Bai Xianyong wrote "love" at the same time as writing "people" (reminiscences) in the prose collection "Trees Like This"!
What should be emphasized here is Bai Xianyong's reference to "love" in these essays, which is not "love" in the narrow sense of the usual sense, but a broad sense of "great love".
This "great love" can be embodied in "love" for relatives and friends, and can also be embodied in "love" for the land where life has lived; it can be embodied in "love" for literature and art, and can also be reflected as "love" for vulnerable groups!
If in "The Tree Is As It Is", the articles about "people" (nostalgia) and reminiscences highlight the first two kinds of "love", then in other chapters, we see his deep affection for literature and art, as well as his concern for the spread of AIDS and his love for the vulnerable group of AIDS patients!
In "The Tree Is Like This", Bai Xianyong writes about everyone — whether it's his deceased friend Wang Guoxiang, or his literary confidants Yao Yiwei, Gao Keyi, Ye Peixia, and Hermit; whether it's his friend Gu Fusheng or his apprentice Wang Zhenhe; whether it's his neighbor Zhu Lili (Thorn) or "Son of the Mountain" Han Sen—his pen is full of affection and full of deep love for them!
In the article "Literature Does Not Die - Feeling For Mr. Yao Yiwei", Bai Xianyong expressed his admiration and appreciation for Yao Yiwei's religious devotion to literature, and wrote that Yao Yiwei's love for literature was actually Bai Xianyong's master.
From this, the love of literature has become the spiritual resonance and spiritual tacit understanding between Yao Yiwei and Bai Xianyong, and writing Yao Yiwei's love for literature is also to express Bai Xianyong's own love for literature!
The emergence of AIDS is a major catastrophe for mankind in the twentieth century, and Bai Xianyong is worried about the major harm that AIDS has caused and may cause to mankind, especially in Asia, and has repeatedly written articles calling on people to pay attention to the understanding, prevention and treatment of AIDS
Another important "topic" in "The Tree Is Like This".
In the article "The Biggest Challenge at the End of the Century - AIDS Attack on Mankind", Bai Xianyong introduced the ins and outs of AIDS, the basic model, the difference between HIV and AIDS, and put forward his own views, appeals and suggestions on the potential AIDS crisis facing Taiwan and how to deal with it.
In the dialogue of "Prevention and Treatment of AIDS - Medical Treatment vs Humanistic Care", Bai Xianyong took the lead in proposing humanistic care for AIDS patients, showing his deep spirit and spiritual care for vulnerable groups!
For Han Sen, who is an AIDS-infected person but fights against the disease with tenacious perseverance, Bai Xianyong specially wrote an article "Son of the Mountain - The Mental Journey of an AIDS Infected Person From Death to Life", which depicts Han Sen's mental pain and inner struggle after being infected with AIDS, fully affirms the acceptance, care and support given to Han Sen by his relatives, and applauds Han Sen's righteous deeds of helping other AIDS patients as an AIDS volunteer.
From Han Sen's body, Bai Xianyong saw the self-esteem and self-reliance of AIDS patients, and also saw the increasing understanding, sympathy and help of society for AIDS patients - and all these AIDS writings by Bai Xianyong reflect his compassion and compassion for mankind!
In fact, whether Bai Xianyong writes "people" or "love" in prose, "people" and "love" are inseparable, and by writing "people" to show "love" and portray "people" by writing "love", it constitutes the basic characteristics of "people" and "love" in Bai Xianyong's prose works.
In this regard, Bai Xianyong wrote about "people" in the collection of essays "Trees Like This", which is actually to write about his "love" for human beings (literature and culture)!
"The Tree Is Like This"
Author: Bai Xianyong
In the face of many tragedies and joys in the world, life and death are impermanent, Bai Xianyong sighed: "What you have is always a fluke, impermanence is the normal state of life, and all maturity begins with loss." "I have always believed that man will triumph over heaven and often go against the numbers, but after all, manpower is invincible to the mandate of heaven... We gave our all, but we still failed. ”
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