Absurd Truth-Seeking, Persistent Beauty--Pu Songling's Life Struggle (IV)

I am Rousseau, sharing with you every day the splendid humanities and arts of life throughout the ages.

For the fame and fortune in reality, almost all people have the ambition to be fierce in the world and make contributions to the future when they are young and crazy. With the growth of age, the change of current events, the progress of the objective world is determined by the combination of talent, personality, later environment and the adjustment and adaptation of the day after tomorrow. Only those who are fortunate, all the personal factors coincide with the subjective values of the world at that time, can achieve the success of truth-seeking. It's just a pity that such people are rare in every era. The vast majority of them can only retreat to the second, like Pu Songling, forced to rationally choose inward, adhere to their natural character, adjust their direction of efforts, bypass the main value of the world at that time, and pursue the value of difference. To a certain extent, this is to shift from seeking truth to seeking beauty.

With the growth of age, the repeated failure of the township examination, the scientific expedition has obviously brought him pain and trouble. All normal people either face the pain head-on, break the boat, abandon all the interfering factors on the road of scientific expeditions, and devote themselves wholeheartedly. And at that time, he had this condition, not only had the foundation of scientific research but also had time. Or stay away from the scientific expedition, never touch it again, concentrate on running a side business, engaging in literary creation, and engaging in a few more liaozhai stories.

Unfortunately, he made a third choice. On the one hand, he is endlessly concerned about scientific research, but at the same time, he does not forget the literary and artistic creation. One heart is used for two places, and the latter is used as the main battlefield of life. In the past, his friend Zhang Duqing urged him to specialize in scientific research - "talk about fasting and Mo Jing talk about emptiness", but he just did not listen. It is the rational choice of a naïve artist, whose essence of simplicity and free romance, rather than exquisite utilitarian seekers, jumps out of the paper.

Because, in real life, he is not willing to use the pursuit of merit to interfere too much with his own free romantic pursuit. When the fish and the bear's paw cannot be combined, under the joint action of internal and external factors, they are forced to make a choice in accordance with the promotion of the overall situation, that is, in the whole process of life, they must first satisfy their own aesthetic pursuits, and they are forced to choose the pursuit of merit and fame only out of helplessness. What a naïve, stubborn, even brave man. He dared to risk testing his options with his whole life.

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October 17, 2021