Mosquitoes in summer sound like thunder, and I privately compare them to flocks of cranes flying in the sky. If you think so in your heart, then thousands or hundreds of mosquitoes will indeed become cranes. I looked up and my neck was stiff. I left the mosquito in the curtain, slowly sucked out the smoke, told the mosquito to fly at the smoke, and saw it as a white crane in Qingyun. Sure enough, like a crane barking on a cloud, people cheer for it.
(Me, too) I often squat down in places where the earth walls are uneven, or where there are flowers and plants, so that my body is as high as the flower bed. After careful observation, I take grass as a forest, insects and ants as wild animals, high places as hills, and low-lying places as gullies and enjoy it.
One day, I saw two bugs fighting in the grass. I was very happy to see them. Suddenly, a very big thing pushed the mountain and knocked down the tree. It turned out to be a toad. As soon as its tongue spit out, the two worms were swallowed by it. I am still young and lost in thought. Oh, my God, I'm scared. After a pause, I caught the toad, whipped it dozens of times with wicker and deported it to another yard.
Lin Yutang once praised Chen Yun as "the most lovely woman in China literature" (preface to Six Chapters of a Floating Life).
Preface to Six Chapters of a Floating Life
I think Yun is the most lovely woman in the history of China literature. She is not the most beautiful, because the author of this book, her husband, is not so admired; But who can deny that she is the cutest woman? She is just a charming beauty that we sometimes meet at a friend's house, because she loves her husband and wife deeply and makes people admire her. We only feel that it is gratifying to have such a woman in the world. We just want to recognize her as a friend's wife, and we can come in and out of her house uninvited and have lunch with her couple. Or when she talks to her husband about calligraphy, painting and literature, and you doze off, she can cover your feet and legs with blankets. Perhaps there have been such women throughout the ages, but on the cloud, we seem to see such a virtuous person, which is extremely complete and rare in life. Who do you think doesn't want to sneak to Taihu Lake with her husband and wife, carry Weng Gu behind her back, watch her enjoy the vast lake in Wang Yang, sigh the vastness of the world, or go to Wannian Bridge to enjoy the moon with her? And if she was born in England, who wouldn't want to accompany her to visit the London Museum and watch her cry and play with the medieval lottery manuscript?
So I said that she was the most lovely woman in China literature and China history (because there were real people), and I didn't say anything.
Her life can be quoted from Su Dongpo's poems as "a dream of spring", but for the accidental preservation of this book, we don't know that there is such a woman born in the world today. She has experienced the joy and ups and downs of the boudoir. I'm translating her story now because it wants the world to know. On the one hand, I spread her fame, on the other hand, I watched these two couples pursue beauty in a simple life, watching them down and out, tortured by unpleasant things and bullied by adulterers. At the same time, they just want to enjoy a leisurely life for half a day, but they are afraid of being jealous by the gods. In this story, I seem to see that the essence of China's philosophy of life lies in two people. Two ordinary and elegant people have made no special achievements in this world. They just love the beauty of the universe, the mountains and rivers, and live a quiet and comfortable life with a few intimate friends. They are frustrated and still don't change their fun. They are too meek to succeed. Because they are broad-minded, fame and fortune, and have no struggle with the world, it is not their fault that they were exiled by their parents, but they deserve our sympathy. This tragedy happened only because Yun knows how to read, and because she loves beauty too much, she doesn't know what's wrong with it. Because she is a educated daughter-in-law, she should write to her father-in-law who wants to marry a concubine for her mother-in-law. And when she met a geisha, she was so crazy that she secretly arranged for her husband to marry him as a concubine. Later, she was taken away by the strong and became seriously ill. In this place, we saw the conflict between her love of beauty and this reality-a basic, though naive conflict. This conflict can also be seen from her disguised as a man and going to a meeting to see the "flower photos" on God's birthday. Is it immoral for women to dress up as women or fall in love with geisha? If so, she doesn't know. She just wants to see, you know, the beautiful scenery in the world of life, the scenery that China's ancient ceremonial women have never seen before. It is precisely because she is innocent in art and guilty in morality that she wants to visit all the famous mountains in the world-those that young women can't go to, but she is willing to stay and visit during the "temple". But she didn't see these mountains, because she had already seen a romantic geisha, who was very rude. Her father-in-law thought this was an infatuated young woman and expelled her from her family. She has to spend the rest of her life in poverty. She has no leisure and money to enjoy traveling in the mountains.
Is her husband Shen Fu describing her too accurately? I don't think so. Readers will certainly agree with me after reading the book. He won't try to whitewash the clouds or his own shortcomings. We can see that the author of this book himself has also expressed the spirit of loving beauty and truth and the most distinctive essence of China culture, that is, contentment, contentment and adaptability. I can't help thinking, what kind of person is this ordinary poor man who can arouse his wife's pure love and live up to it, and write it as the most tender and delicate record of boudoir happiness in ancient and modern Chinese and foreign literature. Two whites, three whites, how is your soul? His ancestral grave is in Fushou Mountain on the outskirts of Suzhou. If we are lucky, we can still find it. If I can get what I want, I want to prepare some fragrant flowers and fresh fruits to worship and pray in front of these two clear souls, without sin. At their graves, I will whisper Maurice Ravel's "Pavant", mourn and return to Mei Jingxian. Or Massenet's "Mlelodie", full of resentment, tears and complaints, melodious but not turbulent; Because in front of them, our hearts are also modest; Not to great people, but to humble and weak people, with humility and respect. Because I believe that a simple, comfortable and free life (as the cloud says, "life with clothes and food and coke for life") is the most beautiful thing in the universe. When I read and reread this booklet, I often think of this happy problem unexpectedly. "Those who get happiness in the end can't get it, but those who get happiness don't know where happiness comes from." After reading Shen Fu's book, I feel the mystery of this happiness every time, which goes far beyond the oppression of secular customs and the pain of human body. This kind of happiness, I think, is very similar to the calm mind of an innocent prisoner, that is, the mind overcomes the body. Because of this, I think this is the most miserable, lively and happy life of the couple-the kind of lively and happy life that is good at suffering.
The original name of this book is Six Chapters of a Floating Life, but now there are only four. (Dian Li Bai, "If a floating life is a dream, what is the geometry for fun?" Its genre is special, with autobiographical stories, and it also talks about life art, leisure interest, landscape scenery, literary criticism and artistic evaluation. The four existing books were discovered by Yang Yinchuan in a cold stall and published around 1877. According to the records in the book, the author was born in 1763, and the writing of the fourth book must be after 1808. Wang Tao, Yang's younger brother, is quite famous. She read this book when she was a child, so it was very popular in Gusu 18 10 to 1830. From Guan Yi Calyx's poems and existing memories, we know that the fifth chapter is about his experience in Ryukyu, and the sixth chapter is the author's feelings about the way of keeping in good health. I'm guessing that there must be a complete copy in Suzhou's family collection or second-hand bookstore. If there is such a blessing, it may be found for us.