The only constant in this era is change.
Author: Insight ・ North Youjia
In the ancient snowy plateau of southwest China, there is a fool who does not even have a name, he is known as the Chinese version of Forrest Gump, the protagonist of the Tibetan writer Alai's novel "The Dust Has Settled".
"The Dust Settles" is Alai's first novel, which took 4 years to publish.
With this book, the 41-year-old Ah Lai also became the youngest winner in the history of the Mao Dun Literature Prize.
Before the success of "Dust Settled", Alai did not have a single work to come up with.
He seems to be a stubborn fool, who has been silently insisting, clearly knowing what he wants, waiting for the answer of the times.
He and his fools, though at odds with reality, live more clearly than anyone else.
Really smart people, all look silly.
In the vast Kangzang grassland, everyone knows that the second young master of the famous Khampa Tibetan Toastmaster Maiqi family is a fool.
He is a "mixed-race child" born to the second wife of the Han nationality after the old Mai Qi drank heavily, and he could not laugh for a month after birth.
Father ordered him to laugh, and he grinned, and a pool of saliva fell from the corner of his mouth.
When he grew up, he often lost himself when he first woke up in the morning, and if no one told him that he was the second young master of Mai Qi Toast, he would be demented and forget everything.
But when he was fourteen or fifteen years old, he knew that he was not stupid at all.
But he didn't care that everyone saw him as a fool, hiding in the shell of a "fool", which was of great benefit.
Because of his "stupidity", others let down their guard against him and could tell him the truth without any defense, and even the young master who had a dispute over the right to inherit with him was also very good to him.
Because of "stupidity", you can fight for the "fearless of the ignorant", say that others dare not tell the truth, and do things that others dare not challenge, and no one doubts him.
Because of "stupidity", that humble sincerity always makes people feel pity, and there are always loyal slaves who wishfully advise him.
Consciously carrying the "stupid" persona, the Second Young Master in the dark tide of the Toast Family, neither the anxiety of the cold in the heights, nor the trepidation of the gun shooting the head bird, Mingzhe to protect himself, easy to live.
Everyone in this world wants to be smart, but maintaining "smart" is a heart-wrenching thing, and it will also bring pressure and vigilance to others.
And the matter of "pretending to be stupid", if done well, is "great wisdom", which not only protects itself in the hidden strength, but also accumulates strength in Taoguang and obscurity.
Being a stupid person in the world is actually the smartest way for a person to live.
The so-called shortcuts are all traps.
In order to consolidate his power, Mai Qitusi sought out the Kuomintang Commissioner Huang for arms.
Unexpectedly, in addition to providing him with arms, Commissioner Huang also left a pile of poppy seeds and promised that as long as Mai Qi was willing to plant them, he would buy them at a high price.
McKi agreed to the deal and quickly made a fortune, so he decided to monopolize the seeds and not give anyone else.
And the fool questioned at the beginning: "Seeds are not silver, they grow in the field, and the wind will blow them over." ”
No one paid any attention to his "stupid words", because the huge profits brought by opium are far from being comparable to farming.
Other toasts were so red-eyed that they even sent dead soldiers to seize the seeds.
Within a few years, poppies bloomed on the land of Kangzang.
The fool saw that poppies were everywhere, and that food was the basis for survival, so he said loudly to his father, "You should grow grain!" grain! ”
This time, my father followed his advice and planted all the land of the Maiqi family with grain, so when other toasts experienced a sharp fall of opium and no harvest, only the barn of the Maiqi family was full.
The short and profitable growth period of the poppy seems to be a shortcut to success, but only a fool can see through the trap.
In real life, many people regard shortcuts as the fastest way to achieve success, but they do not know that all the roads in the world are prescribed for miles.
People who take shortcuts step into a trap with one foot, and often have no way out in the end.
And when they are like trapped beasts, the people who walk steadily have already left them behind.
Only by judging the hour and sizing up the situation can we move forward and retreat freely.
After the "Poppy War", Mai Qi's heart was vaguely sideways:
The wise eldest son is hungry for power but lacks sufficient judgment on big things.
And his foolish little son sometimes seemed smarter than anyone else.
So he asked the two brothers to go to the border of the Toast house to guard the granary to train them.
My brother came to the southern border to guard tightly, waiting for someone to pay 10 times the price before he was willing to sell the grain. This provoked the envy of southern toast.
The elder brother did not think so, and in accordance with the tradition of toutoshi to expand the territory, he used the granary as a fortress to launch a war.
His reputation for cruelty made his brother enemies everywhere, and as a result, he was not only robbed of food by other toastmasters, but also beaten badly.
The fool comes to the northern border but opens a warehouse to release grain, and in his view, violent conquest often sprinkles the seeds of hatred and cannot conquer people's hearts.
Conquering people's hearts and minds is not by force, but by profit.
The fool's good deeds were loved by the starving people of the north, and he took advantage of the victory to pursue, opened a market in the fortress of the enemy, and with common interests, the hostility of other toastmasters was also smoothed out, and he began a long-term business with him, and he also increased his own strength.
In the same environment, the brother and the fool actually have the same opportunities, but make different choices.
My brother wanted to recreate the successful experience of toast in the past, but he didn't know that the current environment had changed.
Fools always do not follow the stereotypes, so when the time comes, they do what they should do most at the moment, and dare to be the first person to eat crabs.
Truly far-sighted people do not get caught up in past experiences and repeat the path of others, but make the most opportunistic judgment.
If the time is right, it will prosper, and if it is against the time, it will die.
The world is not static, and only by moving with the times can we grasp the present.
Don't want to win everything, in order to win more.
Although the Second Young Master was regarded as a "fool" since childhood, he had the blood of toast on his body and a natural desire for power in his heart.
But he knew how to control his desires, and he knew that it was difficult for him to compete with the mighty and intelligent young master in the crowd, so he kept his posture very low.
But after several successes, his strength was jealous of his brother.
When the fool returned to the dynasty, old Mai Qi decided to pass the position of toast to the eldest son.
Old Mai Qi knew that if he did not pass the throne to his eldest son, he would definitely start a war with his violent character.
Many people are upset with the fool, thinking that he has proved his cleverness with his actions.
Only the fool himself does not say a word, does not argue, does not get angry, does not argue.
He understood his father, and he saw that the enemies of the McChi family were sneaking into the cottage, so he planned to wait and see what happened.
Finally, the enemy spared his elderly and sick father, and also spared the fool who had been declared to have no inheritance rights, and plunged the dagger into the heart of the new toast.
In order to be a toastmaster, my brother desperately wanted to compete with everything, but in the end he lost his life.
The fool was "clumsy" from the beginning, never showed the heart of competition, did not care about the temporary loss or loss, so he escaped the disaster and finally became the only heir.
The Tao Te Ching says, "There is no quarrel between husbands and wives, so the world cannot argue with them." ”
Not to argue is not to be enterprising, but a kind of wisdom to judge the hour and size up the situation.
Those who become big things need to be calm, not to focus their time and energy on competing and competitive, and to encounter open guns and dark arrows in order to advance and retreat freely.
After his brother's death, the Fool became the only heir.
But old Mai Qi did not trust the fool to be the new toast, and drove him back to the border.
He came into contact with many modern things outside the Kangzang steppe on the border, and heard many news, one of which was:
"The War of Resistance is about to be won, and the country will become unified and strong."
Prior to this, the "toast" had been appointed and divided by the emperor, and in the years without the emperor, these toasts had no place to rely on and did not know the way forward.
And in correspondence with my uncle, a Tibetan patriot in Chongqing, the uncle told the fool that the government is also our government.
Finally, when old Macky summoned the fool to come back and inherit the toast, the fool hesitated.
He said to his father, "Before long, the toast will be gone!" ”
He had already seen the end in his father's old and tired face, the future of the toast system.
Before the fool, no toast seriously wanted to know what a country was and what a nation was.
The fool "knows that he can't do it and is at peace", and with the pace of the times, he is not willing to do toast anymore.
He has long known that everywhere he decays, something new grows, and he is just the dust of the times, so instead of being eliminated by the times in the future, it is better for him to choose to conform to the times.
The rolling wheels of history, everyone is as small as a grain of dust.
Don't complain about the changing times, because it never stays for anyone.
Life is rarely confused, and it is even more difficult to be sober.
Throughout the life of a fool, born in a filthy environment of desire and barbarism, but living in this game of power.
Everyone thinks that he is "a fool with a stupid fortune", but in fact he is the smartest person.
This cleverness does not come from talent, but from sobriety.
In his teenage years, every day he woke up and asked himself, "Who am I?" Where am I? What am I going to do? ”
In the eyes of most people, these questions do not need to be answered, but isn't this the answer we have been seeking all our lives?
The fool lives purely in a complex world, with a lucidity that is difficult for ordinary people to understand:
"I've been a fool all my life, and now I know that I'm not a fool or a smart person, but just a walk to this strange land when the toast system is about to end."
Yes, God has made me see, for me to hear, to put me in it, and to be detached.
It was for this purpose that Heaven made me look like a fool. ”
Finally, with the sound of the fierce explosion of the shells, the huge stone building of the Maiqi TusiguanZhai finally collapsed.
The fool witnessed all this and calmly died under the knife of his enemy.
The ending of the story seems sad, but the fool has no complaints and no regrets.
Because he has long understood that his death can dissolve many things, such as hatred, such as resentment, such as betrayal...
The so-called "I am helpless to this world, and the world is helpless to me", he has only completed his mission.
A clear mind allows us to know the value of our own life, so we can coldly watch the evaluation of the outside world and be a pure person beyond the prosperity of the floating world.
Only those who live soberly can dominate their own lives.
▽
Some people say that "The Dust Settles" is a black humor, and the book is full of irony that "smart people often make stupid decisions, and stupid people can always see through the essence of things at a glance".
This is often the case in reality.
Smart and stupid seem to be polarized, but smart can also be "mistaken by smart", and stupid can also be "wise as foolish".
The key is whether you feel the world with your heart and whether you can always identify yourself in an uncertain world.
Even if you struggle in the dust, you must become a free life.
This is what a fool has taught us with his whole life.