However, most of the China literati have an enlightened view of life and death, so it is difficult to help them with what they call "people are not afraid of death". Ge Hong of the Eastern Jin Dynasty knew that "where there is a beginning, there must be a pawn, and where there is a survival, there must be a death", and that "the dead, the Chang Ran of human reason, will eventually end" (3), which is similar to Yang Xiong of the Han Dynasty. Where there is a beginning, there is an end. Although Mencius put forward that "life is what I want and death is what I hate", he refused to live and die, and he was able to sacrifice his life for justice without losing his sincerity. Furthermore, as Zhuangzi said, "There is a day and a night for life and death", which is regarded as an instant handover. "Life is also He Huan, why bother to die?" It is possible to deal with death in one thought, and the principle of survival should be philosophical.
Life is vague, and death is boundless, unpredictable and unpredictable. It is precisely because of this inexplicable hazy scene that scholars at all times and all over the world have the desire to keep exploring. Therefore, Shi Tiesheng picked up a pen again, telling his true feelings about life and philosophical thinking about life and death between the lines. Therefore, I and Ditan, which is regarded as one of the top ten classic works in the 1990s, came into being.
Ditan is the place where the emperors of Ming and Qing dynasties offered sacrifices to the "Emperor God". In the past, every summer solstice was her boiling period. However, times have changed, and the lively scene of that year has vanished. The once holy land has become "an abandoned ancient garden", so that it is as desolate as a wilderness, enduring loneliness and loneliness after being forgotten. Perhaps it can be said that Ditan also experienced the cycle of life and death, and finally it was fully realized. She listened to the declaration of death as a still life and entered endless nirvana as a thinker. She didn't publicize the prosperity she had, and let people wash away those images that seemed redundant today from her memory.
However, the garden is barren but not decaying. Although she let the wind and rain take away the grandiose colored glasses and strip off the gorgeous scarlet, she still left a simple hall, quiet cypress and empty weeds for people to mourn and feel. But to be exact, the reason why Ditan is like this should be to let the human body realize the Tao and the way of life and death. Everything in her body, birds and flowers, are silent philosophers, bathing people who come to realize the Tao with showers, alleviating their trauma and pain and promoting their spiritual baptism.
Shi Tiesheng, whose legs are disabled, is one of the enlighteners of Ditan. Moving several times is getting closer and closer to the altar. It is not so much that he came to Ditan on his own initiative as that Ditan called him. Ditan waited for 400 years, waiting to teach his thoughts to Shi Tiesheng, who also fell in love with the scenery of Ditan. In this way, two philosophers, who are not philosophers, happened to coincide in the later circulation time, and the sparks of thinking collided. When he set foot on this quiet land in a wheelchair, Ditan tried its best to provide a quiet place for the young man. She is above life and death, and the rustling of flowers and trees makes Shi Tiesheng feel the rhythm of life in despair. We know that if a person is accompanied by peace and thinking, then he will always have someone to talk to. This object is just his own heart and soul. Shi Tiesheng has been talking to the soul for many years, and he has learned a lot. So he is no longer depressed and depressed, and he can relax and be happy. This is a gift from Ditan, so "I am often grateful for my fate because of this garden."
Ditan, an ancient garden, is solemn and profound, like an old man who has experienced vicissitudes. She turned everything in her body into philosophy and answered the meaning of life and death for Shi Tiesheng. The young man also accepted this seemingly fateful arrangement with superb wisdom. He also understood that although life is chaotic, death is not endless, and people will die when they are born. "Death is something that can't be missed no matter how delayed." Just like a festival, it will definitely come. Indeed, death never stopped spying on people, but before that, he never took people's lives. Since he is so fair, why not live and try? There are few people who are detached from things, but there are many gentlemen with peace of mind. Why not do it and not fight with death? Why not face the changes of the world frankly and sincerely and accompany the vicissitudes calmly?
Shi Tiesheng said that three problems have been bothering him. The first two are all about life and death. One is "Do you want to die?" This is exactly the same as Shakespeare's "To be or not to be, that is the question". But he has already answered, "it's a broken hat, but he is full of enthusiasm for it." No matter how painful it is to live, he will live in the end, and he will not choose to give himself up to death early. The second is "why live", which has been lingering in his mind like a vine. He once mentioned in Writing: "If survival is the instinct of all living things, including people, then people have one more instinct than other living things, that is, not only to live, but also to live clearly." Therefore, in order to live clearly, he must know the purpose of life. Yu Hua said that "man lives for himself", but what about him? He only knows that he lives not to write, but to write to live. Although in 2002, the China Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Literature and Media commented on Shi Tiesheng in this way: "His writing is completely isomorphic with his life." But this does not mean that writing is the purpose of Shi Tiesheng's life. In the end, he didn't even know the result. He insisted that "the problem of being alive can't be finished before he dies." He doesn't know if this is prevaricating himself, but there is no other way.
But how should people live? This problem seems to be more intractable and difficult to explain than the two problems that have long plagued Shi Tiesheng. Confucius once said that "if you don't know life, how can you know death", but he didn't tell future generations how to "know life". Shi Tiesheng also knows that it is difficult to talk. "You have to think about it when you are alive." So he went to Ditan, hoping that this quiet and profound old man could give him some advice and finally enlighten him. However, at this point, Ditan did not give a clear answer. Cooper in the garden is still standing quietly in the same place, and the four seasons in the garden are still walking leisurely along their own tracks. They seem to be indifferent to everything, but it's a bit like "another village with a bright future, whether it's peach floating or Li Fei".
Ditan is actually a metaphor for everything with a calm mind. She arranged for many people to appear in Shi Tiesheng's life at that time. Although they are all passers-by, they suggest the answer to the question. A middle-aged couple who entered the old age after fifteen years, they spent their whole lives together; A young man who loves singing, I don't know if he will be lucky later; An old man who drinks alcohol has a bold and unrestrained attitude; A bird catcher is waiting for a bird that may never be caught again; There are simple and elegant female engineers, buried long-distance runners, mentally retarded girls and her brother. These people's lives are either happy or sad, or calm or ups and downs, or wonderful experiences, or regrets, but they all take it easy, laugh off the past, enjoy a quiet time in the Ditan, and finally disappear like a snow goose, which only adds a feast of memories to Shi Tiesheng.
Although they have disappeared in the endless wilderness of time, they still live in this world after all. Everyone has his own way of living, and everyone has his own taste. As Shi Tiesheng himself said, "People have another problem as human beings. Besides living, we should also know what we are living for" (5). At least they have tasted "strength". So what is "strength"? Wisdom and understanding enabled him to find the way to redemption, which was the answer to "how to live" that Shi Tiesheng learned at least fifteen years ago: "Every boring actor always thinks that this drama has nothing to do with himself. Every unlucky audience is because he always sits too close to the stage. " Yes, living consciously has nothing to do with yourself, and of course you can't enter life; However, if you are too involved in life, you will find it difficult to escape from the obstacles in your heart, just as the Buddhist said, "live by color and live by heart." Keeping a certain distance from life is "your sin and happiness".
Keep a distance from life, and also keep a distance from the suffering of life. Schopenhauer once said that "life itself is an ocean full of reefs and eddies". Then we will wander along the coast, not only won't encounter huge waves at sea, but also pick up bright shells, won't we? Of course, this does not mean that people can't escape suffering. Just a helpless move to solve the suffering. Because the suffering in the world will last forever, and the world without suffering is not for the world. As soon as suffering disappears, the drama on earth will be over. Shi Tiesheng suffered endless pain. At the age of 20, his legs were amputated due to illness and he was stunned by fate. Later, he lost his mother.
When talking about his mother, Shi Tiesheng wrote his mother's love for him incisively and vividly in clear and delicate words, which made people very moved. In his view, what he suffered was nothing more than what his mother suffered. "My son's misfortune always doubles with his mother." The mother silently helped her son to sit in a wheelchair and watched him go away, because she often went to the garden to look for him because she was not at ease, but she finally left this world at the age of 49. The past is vivid. When Shi Tiesheng understands a problem he and his mother once had, he can only sort out his guilt and regret on foggy mornings or sunny days. "The son wants to be filial", and the mother is the bearer of suffering, but she failed to enjoy the joy of her son's success. Shi Tiesheng "learn from a painful experience, what is pain?"
In fact, his mother's indomitable will and flamboyant love are enlightenment to Shi Tiesheng's fate and what kind of choice he should make in the face of suffering. Now that his mother is gone, he can only rely on him, but he has learned how to treat the cruelty of life and how to deal with the gap in life-"as far as fate is concerned, don't talk about justice." Laozi once pointed out that "all beauty in the world is beauty and evil; Everyone knows that what is good is good, and it is not good for them. Nietzsche just said that "evil is also good". In this world, superficiality and beauty coexist, nobility and ugliness coexist. This is life, and people must accept it without reservation.
Ditan and Me was transformed into a universal philosophy in Shi Tiesheng's thoughtful mind with pen and ink full of suffering. The implication is profound and meaningful. Listening to less music is like reading the spring breeze, which makes people deeply moved and benefited a lot. This is of course related to Shi Tiesheng's thinking. Some people say that he loves enlightenment, metaphysics and is good at it. What is metaphysics? When I say "the mystery is the Xuan door", he certainly means the "Tao" he is striving for. Qingcheng Mountain has a couplet that reads: "One life is two, two lives are three, and three lives are all things; Earth is the law of heaven, heaven is the law of Tao, and Tao is nature. " So what does Shi Tiesheng think of Tao? Is everything all right? Is it natural? Zhuangzi put forward that "heaven and earth are one finger, and everything is a horse" ⑦, which means that everything in heaven and earth has essential similarity. What are these similarities? I find it difficult to get rid of a view of life and death. Shi Tiesheng, who was in a wheelchair, experienced the pain of life and the tempering of death, and finally thought of what people should do in the face of fragile life. With clear thinking, profound understanding, clear vision and wise words, he will surely make this work "revolve around the past, the present, the future and forever."
note:
(1) Rousseau's "Daydream of the Lonely Traveler".
(2) Norman brown "the confrontation between life and death"
(3) Ge Hong's Bao Puzi. Inside. On immortals
(4) Yang Xiong "watchful eye" volume 12 "gentleman"
(5) Shi Tiesheng's Answering Your Questions
Schopenhauer's world as will and representation.
⑦ Zhuangzi's Homogeneity Theory