Chen Zishan is the leading figure in China engaged in the study of modern Chinese literary history, he is a bookworm and cat idiot, and he is a fun person.
Chen Zishan is one of the leading figures in China engaged in the study of the history of modern Chinese literature, and many of our students respectfully call him Master Chen. Chen Shi has two idiots, one is a book idiot, the family has tens of thousands of books, countless rare books; the second is a cat idiot, who has been raising cats for more than 30 years, and the Weibo WeChat avatar is the cat Qianying at home, greeting fans and friends with cat pictures "Cat Ning" every morning.
For the reading circle, Master Chen led the "Rough Edge Party", we were all "guards with knives", and "Fengzhi" held a small paper cutting knife and read a page of raw edges under the green lamp of the ancient Buddha. For the public, Chen Shi can be said to be a cat circle red man, you see, he is sitting on the sofa, the body is comfortably sunken down, looking over the top of the lens to see the mobile phone display in the palm of his hand, and then with his hand, excitedly writing the love and hate of his cats.
A cat is a world
Master Chen is a "senior cat slave", and his "pet" for cats has been continuous for more than thirty years. At most, there were three cats named "Chen Pi, Chen Di, and Chen Duo" in the family, and their popularity has become the focus of many Online fans in the Weibo era.
"Why do I like cats? Because cats are fun. "However, When Master Chen first started raising cats, he was passive, not active." Once upon a time, one of my neighbors had two small children, and the neighbor bought cats for the children to play with. Children like to play with cats, but cats don't want to play with children. The neighbor's nanny was old and sometimes forgot to feed, so the cat came to my door and barked. As soon as I opened the door, the cat came in, and I had to entertain him. Since then the cat has come every day. As a result, the owner does not have a cat, and the neighbor has a cat. But as I kept it, I started to think the cat was cute. That cat is called Ami, Chen Shi confessed, soon after moving, but unfortunately he only has part of the property rights for Ami, can only endure the pain of separation, fortunately his students sent Pippi to solve the teacher's pain of thinking about the cat.
Pippi is a male cat with the big name Chen Pi, whose surname follows Master Chen. Chen Shi once deliberately set up a biography for him in the newspaper, calling him an "otaku". Since having Pippi, the Chen family has "flourished in cats", adding "younger brother", "duoduo" and "strong" in the order of first come, first served. Master Chen said that the biggest pain of raising cats is to watch the cat die, but people have no way. Pippi was once critically ill, and after being rescued by surgery, for ten days after the operation, Master Chen's whole family took turns on duty to accompany him. Master Chen said: "At that time, Pippi was very angry, and didn't understand why we put him in such a noisy place, probably thinking that we didn't want him anymore. He doesn't eat or drink, and every time we send him food that he loves, he turns his back on us, ignores us, and sustens at us. When Pippi finally survived to the day of discharge, we were all happy about it, Pippi won a new life, pippi saw his familiar nostalgic home again. "This operation extended Pippi's life by more than six years. To this end, the Chen family is very grateful to the doctor, and specially sent a large pennant with a letter: "Cure the disease and save the cat, and the magic hand will rejuvenate."
At this point, the reader may ask, what is the precious breed of Chen Shijia's cat? Chen Shi replied unusually seriously: "Some people say that the breed of cat is very important. I resent this, it's like giving people a variety. Chen Shi said that his cat was a "grass cat", but he didn't care about this, only asked the doctor if he could save it. As long as it can be saved, the money is worth it.
Unfortunately, the cat will eventually die. The "younger brother" died of a sudden heart attack. At about 7:30 a.m. on October 5, 2018, the flame of life of Pippi, who was sixteen years and seven months old, was also extinguished. Master Chen wrote: "Before Pippi passed away, he dragged his rickety and emaciated sick body to one room after another for a while, and even climbed on a small stool that I estimated he would not be able to climb again, as if to say goodbye to the familiar place where he had lived for so many years. ”
Master Chen said that a cat is a world.
Those cats themselves do not know things
The deeper reason why Chen Shi raised cats and introspected himself may be related to his research work on modern Chinese literature.
In October 1976, Chen Shi participated in the annotation of the Complete Works of Lu Xun. At that time, the Gang of Four had just collapsed, and many of the older generation of writers, critics, translators, and cultural people who had survived the turbulent years were more or less related to Lu Xun. Because of the needs of his work, Chen Shi should ask them for advice and understand their interaction with Lu Xun. In the meantime, Master Chen met Xia Yan. Lu Xun cooperated with a group of revolutionary writers at that time to form the Chinese Left-Wing Writers' Union, of which Xia Yan was an important figure. In the turbulent years, Xia Yan was greatly affected, isolated and censored, and an old yellow cat he raised did not know where to go. Later, when Xia Yan "liberated" and returned home, this old cat suddenly appeared, like a rhinoceros in his heart, and did not know where to come from. At this time the cat is very old. Xia Yan held it, and the old cat was relatively speechless with its owner. The next day the old yellow cat died. The old man in the ice heart also likes to keep cats. Feng Zikai also likes cats and has written several articles about cats. Xia Yan, Bing Xin, Feng Zikai, these three high mountains and rivers in the literary and art circles, they all like cats. This had a great impact on Master Chen.
Chen Shi did not simply keep cats, because his job was to study modern Chinese literature, and the collection habit and the habit of examination made Chen Shi start to compile books for cats. A copy of "Cats, Cats", published by Shandong Pictorial Publishing House in 2004, was reprinted many times. In 2012, Chen Shi compiled a volume of "Cats" under the pseudonym "Single Smell", which was published by the People's Publishing House. Master Chen gathered together the famous cat texts. Some people commented that this is an alternative history of Chinese prose in the 20th century, and it can glimpse the great changes in Chinese society in the 20th century. Chen Shi said that it was a bit of a taste of "not doing the right thing", but after it was compiled, he was quite proud and paid special attention to it.
Chen Shi concluded that, in other words, cats are also involved in the construction of modern Chinese literature to a certain extent, although cats large and small do not know it themselves.
Those friendships that grow because of cats
Chen Shi's cat fate is flooded, he loves houses and Wu, and has searched for Cat-themed Chinese paintings, oil paintings, prints, sculptures, book stamps, postcards, annual calendars, photo albums, etc., and Chinese and foreign literary works with cats as the theme are even more exhaustive.
Because of the cat's association, there is also Chen Shi's circle of friends. Chen Shi said that his acquaintance with Mo Yan was also a cat. Chen Shi and Mo Yan went to a meeting at the City University of Hong Kong, when he had not yet won the Nobel Prize, but was already a heavyweight writer. Master Chen went to the bookstore to buy a copy of his book and asked him to sign it. Mo Yan was surprised to read the book, saying that the book was the most unnoticed after it was published. Chen Shi said that because there is a "Cat Affair Collection" in it. Later, Chen Shi edited "Cats" and included this article by Mo Yan.
Seven or eight years ago, the famous editor Lu Haolu Gongzi gave Chen Shi a cat commemorative card folded in half. The front of the commemorative card, a beautiful tabby cat sleeping comfortably on the ancient bookshelf of Spanish, surrounded by leather ancient books, antique, full of books, the whole picture is warm and interesting. Books and cats are Master Chen's favorites. Unexpectedly, Master Chen opened the commemorative card and made new discoveries. Inside there is a black water pen inscription:
Mr. ChangWen:
Thank for everything！
Sun Kangyi 2000.8.16
This commemorative card was originally given to Mr. Shen Gongchangwen, the former editor-in-chief of the recently deceased "Reading" magazine, professor Sun Kangyi of Yale University. Professor Sun Kangyi belongs to the cat-loving family, and Master Chen has also seen her cute black cat in her house. Chen Shi turned to the last side of the commemorative card and found that there was also a small note posted, and on the note was Shen Gong's handwritten instructions (see the picture below):
Postcards are for Brother Lu's backup. It is best to have an article about cats, and this picture can be used as a cover.
Changwen 2000.8.27
There is no doubt that Shen Gong approved Lu Gongzi after receiving Professor Kang Yi's commemorative card. Shen Gong believes that this cat painting is very distinctive, can be used as a cover painting of the magazine, and it is best that the magazine also has an article about the cat, in order to cooperate with each other and complement each other. Unfortunately, this painting has not been published, and Lu Gongzi transferred this commemorative card to Master Chen. Master Chen said that this cat fate condenses the friendship of friends, and he should treasure it.
After talking so much, what kind of person is Master Chen in the minds of his friends and students? His good friend Professor Zhu Guohua, head of the department of Chinese of China Normal University, summed it up well: "If I say that Chen Zishan is a kind person, a person who is like a spring breeze, a person who treats others as equal and respectful, these statements are all true, but they are not the most fundamental things." The most fundamental thing, Zi Shan is first of all a playful person, a person who may not get rid of low-level tastes, but certainly has high-level tastes; a person who is full of interest, a person who is full of curiosity and playfulness; a person who never gives up but does not show a tragic posture. In him, I saw a silhouette of the man of temperament. (Shen Qihua)