1980 My Entertainment Era

Chapter 2 What a handsome fool
Xia Guanglei is a retired military cadre who works as the Propaganda Section Chief at the Capital Steel Plant.

Han Luomei worked as a dancer in the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe, which was directly under the Ministry of Rites.

Both of them had good jobs and high monthly incomes, and they only had one child, so it could be said that they were quite well off in that era of material scarcity.

But in the past two years, the couple has been worried about something and has been looking worried.

This worry can be summed up with a statement from a neighbor: This child is so handsome, how can he be a fool? !
……

As the old saying goes: lift three times, turn four times, and sit up six times; roll seven times and crawl eight times before you can walk.

It means that a baby can lift his head at three months, roll over at four months, sit at six months, roll at seven months, crawl at eight months, and learn to walk at one year old.

But summer seems to be a little too "precocious".

He could lift his head at one month old, roll over at two months old, sit at three months old, stand at five months old, and walk at half a year old. And he has never cried!
From birth to one year old, he never cried or shed a single tear.

This child is worry-free~
At the beginning, Xia's father and mother were very happy.

But when summer came and he was one and a half years old, I started to worry.

Generally speaking, when a child is one year old, he or she can say simple words like "Mom" and "Dad". At least he or she should say it out loud, right?

But Xia Tian was one and a half years old and had not uttered a single word, not even a babbling sound.

At first, they could still use the excuse that "noble people speak slowly" to comfort themselves. But after a few months, Xia Tian still didn't speak, and the couple couldn't sit still anymore.

Finally, we found a famous old Chinese medicine doctor named Jiang Weihe nearby to see what was going on.
Do you wonder if Xia Tian is dumb?

You know what, this doctor Jiang is really not an ordinary person. Not only does he come from a family of traditional Chinese medicine that has been passed down for generations, but he also studied Western medicine when he was young, and even studied in Japan and exchanged ideas in Hong Kong. He can be said to be well-versed in both Chinese and Western medicine!
If Xia's father and mother asked someone else, they might not be able to figure out what Xia Tian was like.

But the well-informed Dr. Jiang finally confirmed, "This child has autism, also known as autism. It was named by a psychiatrist in the United States in 1943..."

It is just that it is difficult to respond to the outside world and live in my own world.

The common manifestations are: social difficulties, delayed speech development, stereotyped or ritualistic behaviors, etc.

According to Dr. Jiang Weihe, this child is very, very healthy, and his bones and muscles are very strong! But autism is not a physical disease, but a "heart disease"!
……

Autism is also known as autism, which is itself a concept in Western medicine.

As early as 1843, people in the United States had already noticed the existence of autistic people, and had made records and comments on them.

Autism, discovered and named by Kanner in 1943, is recognized as a special type of pervasive developmental disorder according to the World Health Organization's International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, 10th Edition, and the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Revised.

There is a general consensus that defects in social skills and language communication abilities, as well as repetitive, stereotyped behaviors, that are evident before the age of three are the defining characteristics of children with autism.

Later, celebrities such as Beethoven were considered to be autistic.

There is some overlap between autism and intellectual disability, but a clear distinction needs to be made.

The typical characteristics of autistic children are not general cognitive impairment, but abnormal mental and emotional operation patterns. There are serious defects in non-verbal and verbal communication.

Many people with autism have some amazing extraordinarily powerful abilities and their speech is clearly different from others.

People with autism always live in their own world, usually with low intelligence, some with normal intelligence, and a few with higher intelligence. In a certain field, such as mathematics, astronomy and physics, they have unparalleled concentration and expertise.

This is called high-functioning autism.

Isaac Newton, the famous British physicist, showed signs of bipolar disorder in his childhood.

He did not play games with other children. Instead, he liked to make small carts, small rolling mills and other objects by himself. He was a socially lonely child.

Newton's paranoia was not only manifested in science, but also in his fanaticism for alchemy and religion.

He paid more attention to these things than to his emotions. He never married.

Composer Beethoven also suffered from bipolar disorder. His father's abuse, his mother's early death, and deafness at a young age all exacerbated his symptoms. He had a bad temper and was unkempt. He was extremely energetic at work, and his inspiration was often accompanied by "mania".

Once his creative desire was aroused, Beethoven would devote himself to his work without paying attention to sleep or food, which he considered to be "pure joy."

However, according to Dr. Jiang's research, Chinese medicine has a history of thousands of years in treating autism, and there are many records about autism in children in the literature.

Although there is no clear record of the ancient name of autism in ancient books, the description of some symptoms is very similar to some symptoms of autism.

Many ancient books contain records about autism and prescriptions.

For example, the ancient book "Bian Zheng Lu" describes a kind of mental illness whose symptoms include being silent all day long and not knowing good from evil. It seems similar to some cases of autism.

In some traditional medical books, autism is generally described and understood as: "comatose", "slow speech", "crazy", "lack of wisdom", "emotionless vision", "emotionless eyes", etc., which are very similar to some symptoms of modern autism.

Yan Xiaozhong's "Yan's Pediatric Prescriptions" proposed: Insufficient heart qi, children aged five or six cannot speak. On the basis of tonifying the kidney, add Acorus calamus pills to treat both the heart and kidney.

The Song Dynasty's "Taiping Shenghui Fang" proposed: Treating children with insufficient heart qi, weak tongue base, and delayed speech, use the peony prescription. The Qing Dynasty's "Yi Zong Jin Jian" proposed: Five delays in children are mostly due to parents' weak qi and blood, congenital kidney deficiency, so that the children are born with weak muscles and bones, have difficulty walking, have disconnected teeth, cannot sit steadily, etc., too numerous to mention.

It can be seen that there were also patients with autism in ancient China.

When it comes to who in ancient history is autistic, most of the information comes from the speculation of contemporary netizens.

In discussions initiated on some forums, many netizens believed that people like Zhuge Liang, Emperor Shenzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yijun, and King Wei of Qi were likely to be autistic, including Tao Yuanming, who liked to live in seclusion.

These people are either "eccentric and withdrawn" in character, or they like to "live in seclusion". In addition, they are very talented and may have some tendencies towards high-functioning autism.

For example, Wen Zhengming, one of the four great talents of Jiangnan in the Ming Dynasty, could not speak at the age of two, could not walk at the age of six, and still had slurred speech at the age of eight or nine. In the end, he became a talented scholar with the four wonders - the so-called "four wonders" refers to his excellence in poetry, prose, calligraphy and painting.

In the end, he lived to be ninety years old and was the one who had the last laugh among the four great talented men.

……

Doctor Jiang also found out in several examinations that Xia Tian's athletic ability was exceptionally good! It was so good that it was a little scary!

Whether viewed from the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine or Western medicine, this child is simply a born athletic saint!
Let me put it this way, to draw blood from him, you have to struggle to insert the needle.

The skin is much thicker than that of ordinary people, just like the calluses on the hands.

Doctor Jiang Weihe felt that Xia Tian was not an ordinary autistic patient, but probably had some kind of high-functioning autism.

However, he had no idea how to treat it.

I also tried traditional Chinese medicine recipes, but they didn't work.

Western medicine has not yet found any direct treatment for this disease.

Doctor Jiang pondered for several years, but in the end he had no idea: "...There is no good treatment right now. All you can do is spend more time with your children, take them for walks more often, and have them participate in more group activities..."

However, later on, Xia's parents discovered that Xia Tian had reactions when listening to music, watching movies, and painting.

So Dad Xia shamelessly went to his old leader to ask for a record player and bought some films so that he could listen to music; he also found as many books as possible for him and took him to the library and the Children's Palace during holidays.

Dad Xia was doing publicity work at Shougang, which included showing movies - Shougang was a large factory with many supporting factories under it, and showing open-air movies for each factory and even in surrounding villages and towns was also part of the publicity work.

So, I often take him to watch movies.

Xia's mother took Xia Tian to the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe to listen to music and watch dance.

Because she is cute and has a nice fragrance, all the older sisters and aunts like to hug Xia Tian.

As for reading, yes, Xia Tian can read.

Although he had never written a single word, how could he read a book if he couldn't read?

But the strange thing is that no one taught him to read.

There was no such thing as learning words by looking at pictures these days, so apart from work, his parents spent more time playing with him and trying to find ways to cure his illness.

So when they found Xia Tian reading a book, they were quite surprised.

Therefore, Xia's father and mother have always held on to a glimmer of hope, that Xia Tian's intelligence is normal, he just hasn't opened the door to walk out of his own world.

There are very few only children these days. Because of Xia Tian's special situation, the couple decided not to have any more children and focus on taking care of Xia Tian.

……

Nanluoguxiang, a small courtyard with its own entrance.

Through the open window, you can see young Xia Tian listening to the music on the record player.

Xia Tian's eyes were fixed on one place, as if he was staring at a fly on the wall, or as if he was looking at the scenery far away behind the wall. In short, he was revealing a clear stupidity.
In fact, summer is not completely unresponsive to the outside world. If that were the case, wouldn’t we starve to death?

He just has few moments of clarity, and most of the time his energy is consumed in recalling past memories.

It felt like a nightmare or sleep paralysis. The mind and body couldn't be unified.

But as I get older, the time I spend awake is increasing.

For example, in the summer, when a child is conscious, he will turn over more often - be careful not to flatten his head when sleeping ~
He also realized that something was wrong with this world and that it must be a parallel world.

After all, whose capital is called Yanjing? !

Xia Tian: Come on, I will definitely be able to become a mentally sane fool!
Ps: Subtitle: "One step ahead!"

(End of this chapter)