"At 14:16 on April 21, 2021, Comrade Shu Yi, son of Mr. Lao She, died in Beijing at the age of 86 due to ineffective medical treatment."
After this obituary came out, all of his homepages across the platform became black and white.
As the son of Lao She, Shu Yi always makes people feel a little strange, and one of the strange things is that he calls his mother Hu Xiaoqing a "mother" and "mother", but he always calls his father "Mr. Lao She".
The first time I saw Shu Yi address his father in 1994 was in the article "Lao She's Dan Persimmon Courtyard" that he wrote. Dan Persimmon Courtyard is an alias for Lao She's former residence, so this article is actually "Lao She's Home". At the beginning of the article, Shu Yi wrote:
"Home, for Mr. Lao She, is a particularly sacred word, meaning down-to-earth, warm, and comfortable, only because he has been displaced for most of his life and has no home of his own."
In this article, whenever the father Lao She is mentioned, he uses "Mr. Lao She" or "he" instead of "father" or "father".
Lao She family portrait (the back right is Shu Yi)
Shu Yi's such a name for his father will naturally arouse the curiosity of the world. His abnormality also aroused the doubts of Wang Shuo and others, and Wang Shuo even handed over a flying knife and said, "If you don't call him father, are you ashamed of his death?" ”
Because of Wang Shuo's doubts, Shu Yi was later considered to be "indirectly related to his father's death."
In the face of this kind, Shu Yi had to stand up and personally explain the reason behind calling his father "Mr. Lao She". He said:
"Since I started writing in 1984, I have looked at my father as a researcher, calling him a gentleman instead of a father, in order to pull my father away and study him objectively. In addition, 'Sir' is the people's honorific title for Lao She, and he also conforms to the crowd. ”
In fact, the deep reason why Shu Yi does not call Lao She "father" and "father" is that between him and his father, there is always no ordinary father and son, and there seems to always be an unspeakable small estrangement.
The first reason for the estrangement between Shu Yi and his father was that when he was a child, his father spent too little time with him.
Lao She is a man of literary love, he likes to be quiet, quiet is conducive to creation, naturally, he often avoids his noisy children quiet creation.
Shu Yi once said in his recollection: "Mr. Lao She is usually serious and silent at home, because he is not writing or thinking about how to write every day, there is no holiday, Chinese New Year's Eve is still writing." ”
Only by loving literature as life can we devote all our thoughts to writing, and even ignore "years". Even if you don't even care about "years", it is naturally easy to ignore children, not to mention, Lao She still has four children.
Lao She family portrait
Lao She's naming of his son seems quite arbitrary, "B" is a stroke, so later people said: "Lao She named his son, a stroke to get it done."
Of course, Shu Yi didn't care about the small matter of naming, and he still felt that the name was somewhat interesting.
Another small gap between Shu Yi and his father is related to his father's death.
Lao She committed suicide by throwing himself into the lake in 1966 because of grievances, and Shu Yi was 31 years old that year. Probably because he felt that he had become an adult, Lao She did not tell his son when he left home to throw himself into the lake. Shu Yi remembered that on the day his father left home, he only said: "He (Lao She) only said a solemn goodbye to his three-year-old granddaughter and said goodbye to his grandfather - see ——! ”
Because his father didn't say anything to him when he left, Shu Yi always felt that his heart couldn't get by.
On the day he saw his father's corpse in the park, Shu Yi felt great pain. Later, recalling this passage, he wrote:
"That night, I don't know how long I sat in the chair, it was already dark, and it was pitch black all around. There are no street lights in the park, no moon or stars in the sky. In the whole park, there are probably only two of us father and son, one dead and one alive.
It was raining, it was drizzling, and I didn't move. For a long time, the rain flowing down my face, the tears, I couldn't tell the difference. I love this rain, and it makes me have to hide my tears. I love this rain, it can accompany me to cry..."
From the words, it can be seen that Shu Yi felt the pain of tearing his heart and lungs at that time, and he almost wanted to die with his father. People said that "a hundred people died", and at that moment, Shu Yi really understood this sentence. When you die, there is no pain, and what is painful is the living.
Lao She
That day, Shu Yi knew how much he loved this father who did not accompany him much, he touched his father's face, took his hand, and his tears spilled on his father's scarred body. His tears were the last heat that his father felt in the human world. He had always felt that the little heat was his return for his father's love.
It was also on that day that Shu Yi remembered all the past events between himself and his father, and he even remembered the first impression his father gave him.
His father, Lao She, first gave him the impression when he was two years old, when his mother took him to pee. Because he couldn't get out of the urine, his mother actually called his father to give him a "demonstration." After the father came to demonstrate, the mother said: "Little B, pee bubbles, dad also pee bubbles, you see, you two are the same!" ”
This time "demonstration", Shu Yi saw his father for the first time, and also understood that "his father is the same as him".
But no matter how deepLy Shu Yi's love and understanding of his father, Lao She's departure inevitably destroyed their home and destroyed their lives. Therefore, at the end of the 1994 article "The Dan Persimmon Courtyard of Lao She", Shu Yi wrote at the end of the article with mixed feelings:
"For a person with a clear view of life and death, the transition between life and death is so rapid and so barrier-free that all good people shudder... In this way, his cute and interesting family business was destroyed! ”
Reporter Li Man in the Dan Persimmon Courtyard
From this sentence, it can be seen that Shu Yi, as a son, is somewhat unacceptable to his father's non-farewell. Perhaps, Shu Yi will feel in the depths of his heart: You should at least give some explanation to your family, even if it is only a few words. But Lao She, there is none.
The author believes that Shu Yi insists on calling his father "Mr. Lao She" in both his articles and in his life, which has always been the result of the combined effect of these deeper reasons. In this sentence "Mr. Lao She", there is the son's respect for his father, but there is also the son's estrangement from his father.
Before his father's death, Shu Yi worked in the Nanjing Institute of Forest Products Chemical Industry of the Academy of Forest Sciences, and most of his work was scientific research. Such a person, however, mistakenly because of his father's death, later "began to follow the text through the study of his father."
In 1978, Shu Yi, with countless unsolved doubts, began to collect information, providing the most direct and true historical data for the study of Lao She. His first work, "Lao She's Childhood," was later serialized in People's Daily.
Shu Yi also embarked on the road of Congwen.
Shu Yi and his father
In the process of creating "Lao She's Childhood", Shu Yi investigated and interviewed more than 100 people, and the amount of time and energy consumed can be imagined.
In 1986, at the age of 51, Shu Yi published his first collection of essays, and later, he successively created monographs such as "My Kite", "Lao She", and "Treasures of Modern Literature".
Not satisfied with the textbook's simple introduction to Lao She's childhood, Shu Yi began to make an almanac for his father. He also wrote about his father's painful childhood, the tortuous path of study, and his lover's family into the "Writer Lao She". This biography has also become Lao She's only biography.
Later, Shu Yi also wrote a book dedicated to Lao She's life's hobbies, the title of which was "Lifelong Hobbies are Natural".
Perhaps because he had studied his father for a long time, or perhaps because of her genetics, Shu Yi was as bold as his father. On weekdays, as long as it is something he thinks is just, he will jump out and insist. Even if this persistence will cost him dearly.
In 2000, in the face of the rapid demise of the hutongs and courtyards in Beijing's old city, Shu Yi and Liang Sicheng's sons Liang Congjie, Mi Songyi, And Li Yan jointly put forward "Ten Urgent Suggestions for Protecting Beijing's Famous Historical and Cultural Cities."
The proposal of these ten suggestions is tantamount to confrontation with the government at that time, but in order to protect cultural relics and protect old Beijing, Shu Yi and others did not hesitate at all.
The suggestions of Shu Yi and others aroused strong repercussions in the local area, but most people at that time gave strong opposition. Because of this, Shu Yi also received the nickname of "Patriot Missile (Trick-or-Treater)".
Even so, Shu Yi insisted on speaking out his thoughts, he said: Say it is not in vain.
Because of Shu Yi's bitter mouth, the person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Government finally issued relevant documents to plan the style of the ancient capital. Later, these plans took all their advice. After learning the news, Shu Yi excitedly said to the mayors in person, "I'm going to 'kowtow'!" ”
Later, Shu Yi also for the protection of urban cultural relics and cultural heritage, he also participated in the field investigation and consulted a large number of materials after writing "Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Broken Splendor", "Sui and Tang Grand Canal, Underground Splendor" and "Jiangnan Canal, The Splendor of Water Town" three inspection records, and actively called for the protection of the Grand Canal.
Shu Yi
Fatally, after turning from scientific research to literature, Shu Yi fell in love with painting again. And he took the paintbrush and was also related to his wife, who always held the paintbrush when he learned to paint, and Shu Yi, who had not learned to paint, saw it and said: "This will not happen, I will come!" ”
Since then, Shu Yi, who picked up the paintbrush, has never put down the brush again. Falling in love with painting this year, Shu Yinian has been more than 60 years old. Later, he became a well-known painter.
Shu Yi did not learn any techniques from his teacher or from the painter's mother, and his paintings were quite combined with literature. He paints, always from the feelings, from the life, he can always use his own methods to paint, and because of this, his painting style is always very peculiar. "A bay of clear water, a yellow leaf, a touch of sorrow, a deep affection", these are the typical artistic conceptions created when painting.
Shu Yi felt that his achievement in painting did not come from the painter's mother, but from his father Lao She.
It turned out that Lao She's level of appreciation was excellent, and he was very good at judging paintings, and when he was at home, he often commented on a calligraphy and painting. After a long time, Shu Yi learned the standard of art from his father's "criticism".
As he grew older, Shu Yi's feelings for his father slowly changed. If, before his father's death, he was still estranged from his father, then later, over time, he has fully understood his father.
In his later years, Shu Yi wrote an article called "Father-Son Love". In this article, he fondly recalled his father Lao She's concern and teaching for him, and he also specifically mentioned the plaque given to them by his father when he got married, "Diligence and thrift, health is a blessing".
In this article, Shu Yi finally stopped calling his father "Mr. Lao She" and called him "my father". In the article, referring to his evaluation of his father, he writes:
"My father, Lao She, is neither a typical loving father, nor the kind of person who is so strict that children are afraid to see him, so he is a complicated father."
In 2013, Shu Yi was diagnosed with kidney cancer, and at this time, he had a premonition that his time was short, and the first thing he thought of was not himself, but the cultural relics left to them by his father. These cultural relics include 20 fine calligraphy and paintings such as Qi Baishi's "Frog Sound Ten Miles Out of the Mountain Spring", Fu Baoshi's "Tong Yin Tu", and Lin Fengmian's "Chuanjiang Tu".
After deliberation, Shu Yi decided to donate these precious cultural relics to the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. When donating, he said: "When we are old, we have to consider the ownership of this batch of paintings. ”
Previously, the precious manuscript of Lao She's "Four Generations Together" donated by Shu Yi free of charge has become the treasure of the Town Hall of Literature.
Manuscript of The Four Generations Together
Shu Yi always felt that the country is the ultimate destination of these precious cultural relics, which must also be the meaning of his father. He said: "My father's pen name is giving, which is the meaning of giving, giving, and then saying, 'Donate, show, this is the tutor that my parents gave us.'" ”
It is worth mentioning that it was shortly after the donation of these cultural relics, when Shu Yi was 79 years old, that his kidney cancer was cured without medicine. In this regard, he once sighed: "I am 79.4 years old, I found kidney cancer but it is still intact, I am lucky."
Regarding the fact that Shu Yi got cancer but suddenly recovered, there are different opinions from all walks of life, some people think that he is likely to be misdiagnosed, and some people think that he extended his life because of donating cultural relics, but the author believes that his "recovery" is related to his positive, optimistic and idyllic mentality.
At this point, Shu Yi is undoubtedly in the same line as his father Lao She. When Mr. Lao She was alive, he also always had an optimistic attitude towards life and a serious and new creative outlook, and he was also very idyllic like his father in dealing with fame and fortune.
Although he began to study literature in 1984, he never advertised himself as Lao She's son in the cultural circles, let alone rely on his father for food. Every time someone introduced him and said, "This is Lao She's son," he always said:
"It doesn't matter whose son it is. If a person eats the food of his father's generation, it is impossible for him to gain a foothold in society. Mr. Lao She is a great writer, and being his son is a kind of pressure, but at the same time a good motivation. I often remind myself to try harder and to 'be a man with my tail between my legs'. ”
Shu Yi's "being a man with his tail between his legs" here actually means that he must have dignity in being a man, and not looking at people's faces is to give themselves face.
In a public speech, Shu Yi was full of affection when talking about his father, he said: "I am grateful that I was born in such a family, thank my father for his influence on me, he is a person of integrity, loves life, loves friends and the people around him, especially sympathizes with others, especially willing to help others." ”
Shu Yi may not have thought that "integrity, love of life, love of friends, sympathy for others, willingness to help others" and other father's virtues, later became his characteristics.
Such a Shu Yi deserves to be "Mr. Lao She's only son".
Finally, I would like to use this document to Mr. Shu Yi, who has just passed away, and wish him a good old man: all the way!