Using Literature as a Mirror to Reflect Life—— Reading "Chen Yipeng's Collected Writings"

Take the text as a mirror to reflect life

——Read the Collected Works of Chen Yipeng

Wang Jie

In 2013, Chen Yipeng published the poetry collection "Passionate Years" and the novel "Suddenly Like a Dream". Prior to this, he also published the poetry collection "On the Side of the Mountain" and the poetry collection "Looking South to the Hometown". As an amateur writer, it is rare for an author like him to dabble in and master a variety of genres of literature at the same time.

The sentence I heard the most from Chen Yipeng's mouth was: "I am almost 60 years old, I will retire in a few years, and I will have more time to create in the future." The words were full of confidence and expectation. Words are like the blood flowing on Chen Yipeng's body, which has long become an indispensable part of his life. I am nearly 20 years old with Chen Yipeng, which can be called a year-old friend. Even so, I prefer to call him by his first name, and I always feel that it is kind, and he has never complained about it. I like to call him by his first name, not only because of his young looks, but more importantly, literature carries the friendship between me and him, immersed in the same emotional world, in addition to making people forget time, but also forget age.

Three months ago, the three-volume "Collected Works of Chen Yipeng" was quietly born. The three-volume edition contains poetry, prose, and miscellaneous commentaries on other writers and works. In contrast, I prefer to read his collection of essays, "Distant Mountains and Feelings", and a few of them are particularly impressive, and it will make people shudder when they savor them.

"Visiting My Mother, I Used Two Pairs of Eyes" – attracted by the title, I read it with my heart. "My eldest brother, my mother's other son, is gone and has gone somewhere he shouldn't have been." This sentence made me understand the meaning of the title. When my mother was eighty years old, it should have been a happy event worth celebrating, but because of the sudden death of my eldest brother, I could only sincerely fear and carefully serve my mother's side, afraid that one accidentally would arouse the pain in her mother's heart. This is the author doing his duty as a son for himself and for his brother who has passed away unexpectedly. Through these delicate and plain languages, the author's troubled and unusually sensitive heart can be reached, both the debt and pity for the mother, and the deep affection and reluctance for the younger brother. The moment I read this text, I will also have a feeling of depression and pain in my chest, and I hope that all this is just a fictional plot by the author. "Thinking that after a few years, our mother and son can no longer be so intimate and intimately dependent on each other in this world, tears can't help but flow down." This is a passage written by the author before the end of the article, and I am already in tears before I finish reading it.

I read several other articles: "The Year is Getting Closer", "Holiday Gifts for YiYong", "Picking Up Those Happy Days Shared with Yiyong", and "Three Relics of Yiyong". After I finished reading it, I learned that Yi Yong was the author's deceased brother. Two years ago, Yi Yong died of a sudden heart attack, and in addition to the fact that his whole family could not bear such a heavy blow, the students he taught before his death also wept for this. Shortly after Yi Yong's death, his students and some colleagues wrote a number of poems (the first) to remember and praise him. The author compiled it into a book and named it "Teacher Yiyong, His Bright Feathers" in honor of the good teacher in their hearts. Following the author's joys and sorrows, reading the article in such a heavy way is the first time for me. While lamenting for Yi Yong's short but radiant life, I was also touched by the deep brotherhood between their brothers.

Another essay, titled "Searching, The Lost Soul of the Tang Dynasty", tells the life story of Shangguan Wan'er, a talented woman of the Tang Dynasty, which also touched me deeply. Compared to other articles, this is a completely different style, but it is still delicate and attractive. "Across the grass and the loess, I seem to see Wan'er's tearful and sad eyes." At that moment, no matter how unwilling and unwilling she was, she was powerless to return to heaven. A stream of blood, with the falling blade splashing, stained half of the sky of Datang red. "Through poignant words and the expression of mournful emotions, the desolate picture seems to be right in front of my eyes, which makes people can't help but have the illusion of being in a trance." Through these words, I once again deeply felt a Chen Yipeng who was completely different from my cognition.

The words "literature is like its person" are often hung up on people's lips, and the artistic image of literature reflects the author's own character image to a certain extent. Due to the need for emotional expression, people tend to show their inner self and emotional world in literary form, and will pin or seek an expression of emotion and thought from literary works. While feeling the tender side of Chen Yipeng's iron blood, I more clearly felt the undetected fortitude hidden in his heart, as well as the deep cry of affection that burst out from the depths of his heart.

In life, one person can serve as a mirror for another, and so can the article. Nowadays, there are very few good-looking and enduring articles, and the reason is precisely because there are articles without flesh and blood that fill the entire literary market. Chen Yipeng's article is like a mirror, reflecting the weakness of some articles.