Literary Master 1983

Chapter 164 Yu Family Forum (Large)

Yu Qie got ready and asked the children to come closer to him. As a result, more and more children came. In addition to the children, more and more local people came to watch the fun.

It doesn't matter what I do, isn't it the same thing?
He held up the chapter "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" in the Selected Chinese Poems and said, "The Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng is an article written by Wang Bo, a writer in the Tang Dynasty of China, about 1,300 years ago!"

"What does a thousand years mean? You may not understand. In the country where the British queen you sang about lives, the earliest famous poet was a man named Geoffrey Chaucer, who lived in the Middle Ages and is considered the father of British literature. He was born six or seven hundred years later than Wang Bo. These six or seven hundred years are not short. The place under your feet is only one tenth of that!"

Yu Qie said, "Let me read you a few lines from Geoffrey Chaucer's most famous verse novel. I only remember these few lines, from The Canterbury Tales."

Verse novels, similar to the English version of "parallel prose", are written in prose, but also focus on parallelism and rhythm.

He said loudly: "If friends want to maintain a lasting friendship, they must be considerate and tolerant of each other. Love cannot stand being suppressed; when pressure comes, the god of love will fly away and never come back!"

Then he repeated it in English. The children followed him and thought it was a good poem.

However, Yu Qie said: "Compared with Wang Bo's parallel prose, this Englishman's poem is not worth mentioning."

What a loud tone!
Sirindhorn is proficient in both English and Chinese, and this is also true in her opinion. When English poetry developed to the Renaissance, the verses written by Shakespeare, the peak of English poets, were just a kind of "sonnet with parallelism", which the Chinese had already played with two thousand years ago.

What is even more incomprehensible is that, because the English language has changed beyond recognition in the past few hundred years, the British today can no longer directly understand the masterpieces of their country's great writers, and have to translate them from English to English in order to understand them.

But this is not the case with Chinese articles. As long as you learn a little cultural knowledge, you can roughly understand the famous Chinese works from a thousand years ago. It can even be used to popularize science to foreigners who have studied Chinese for a few years.

Foreigners often name themselves "Li Bai" or "Cao Cao"... Obviously, foreigners have to understand the poem first, and then learn to take the names of Chinese literary masters.

Yu Qi excitedly held Wang Bo's "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng". His heart was filled with excitement when he thought about what he was going to do.

More than a thousand years ago, Comrade Wang Bo was invited to attend a poetry meeting. At the meeting, the host asked everyone to write a parallel prose to compete with each other. Generally speaking, people like Wang Bo who attended the meeting by chance would just be there to join in the competition. However, Wang Bo wrote down this "the best parallel prose in the world" in one go.

Yu Qie got into the state, he recited: "Yuzhang old county, Hongdu new capital. The stars are divided into Yi and Zhen, and the land is connected to Heng and Lu..."

The first part introduces the magnificent terrain, the outstanding people and the beautiful scenery of the place, and some business compliments, and the rest is quickly skipped.

When he came to the second and third paragraphs, "The muddy water has dried up and the cold pond has become clear, the smoke has condensed and the evening mountains are purple. I ride on my horse on the road to visit the scenery in the mountains..." He read with ups and downs, passion surging, and a smile on his face. The pride in his heart can be seen by anyone.

As he read, he explained, "This is the part describing the autumn scenery of Tengwang Pavilion. He wrote it very well, taking into account the rhythm, parallelism, and the light and shadow colors of the picture! Let's look at the following part, overlooking the Changzhou of the Emperor's son and the old mansion of the gods. The mountains are towering and green, reaching up to the sky; the flying pavilions are flowing red, and there is no land below!"

Yu Qie said excitedly: "The overlapping peaks are lush and green, reaching up to the sky; the pavilions built in the air are painted with bright red oil paint, and looking down from the pavilions, it seems that the ground does not exist!"

"When I read these words, even if you don't understand them, you can feel the neatness of the parallelism. When you learn some cultural courses, you will be able to experience the beauty of the article. It turns out that he already had ideas about the picture, distance and space."

"British poetic writing is still at the level of 'Man is born good', which is used to teach children, while Chinese poetic writing has already been developed in many ways!"

The most famous line in the article "Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng" is undoubtedly "The setting sun and the solitary wild goose fly together, and the autumn water and the sky are the same color." It is called "the masterpiece of all ages" with vivid pictures and rich imagery.

When Yu Qie read this sentence, he took a deep breath, looked towards the north, and read it out slowly with full strength. He commented: "Let's listen, isn't this sentence beautiful? A thousand years ago, the Japanese envoys to China did not hesitate to print this article on paper. They experienced disasters such as blindness and the loss of their ships. It took them decades to bring the article back to Japan for dissemination!"

"Although we are temporarily behind others in modern technology, they are not qualified to compare with us in literature!"

As soon as Yu Qie said this, he immediately aroused thunderous applause from the audience.

As he recited, more people at the scene had become young and middle-aged people.

"This mainlander is a nationalist! Interesting."

However, nationalism was an ideological trend that emerged in Hong Kong at this time, although it was still limited by geographical location.

During the negotiations between the two countries, the people of Hong Kong were in a panic, not knowing whether there would be consequences of war in the future. However, with the rapid development of Hong Kong's economy, the people of Hong Kong have gradually regained their love and confidence in their traditional culture.

They call the British "guilao", and realize the privileged position that the British occupy in all aspects of society. "Project A" shot by Big Nose Dragon reflects the greed of the British, and such a movie can earn tens of millions of box office in Hong Kong.

Yu Qie tried to guide these people to imagine the beautiful mountains and rivers in the article: "Hengshan and Lushan are connected by Tengwang Pavilion, the position in the sky belongs to the division of Yi and Zhen constellations, the three rivers are the lapels, and the five lakes are the belts... The area of ​​the entire Hong Kong is only more than 1,000 square kilometers, the area of ​​the entire British mainland is only more than 200,000 square kilometers, while the mainland is 9.6 million square kilometers!"

"The passenger planes flying over us go to many places around the world every day. I noticed that there was a plane flying north today. There are 59 flights to the mainland every week. I don't know how many people saw it. They may land in big cities on the mainland such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai. They may also go to historical places such as Dunhuang and Beimo. No matter where you go, the world is so beautiful. It is more beautiful than the small Kowloon Walled City and Victoria Harbour."

……

The "Yu Family Forum" held on the rooftop of Kowloon Walled City lasted for about an hour and eventually attracted hundreds of bored residents of the Walled City to watch, which far exceeded the number of children.

The triad took the initiative to send several people to maintain order, and explained their identities: a mainland writer and a Thai princess. Some people should not do sneaky things to avoid embarrassing everyone.

However, after hearing what happened later, even people on the street couldn't help but listen to what Yu Qie was talking about literature.

He said that technological development is only a part of civilization, and that human society also has many artistic civilizations, and that the Chinese have created these brilliant cultural treasures together. He highly praised the status of Hong Kong people and the status of learning Chinese.

"The most terrifying thing for us is not singing the British national anthem, but not understanding Chinese art and not speaking Chinese, because neither the king nor violence can change people's pursuit of beauty. Only people themselves can do that."

When translating to the end, in order not to affect Yu Che's emotions in reciting, Sirindhorn took the initiative to help Yu Che translate. Seeing that a Thai princess could be so "smart", the people in Hong Kong were greatly shocked.

The residents of the Walled City remained calm in the face of the big iron balls of the demolition machines, just to protect the traditions of Kowloon Walled City. Therefore, the cultural logic behind these traditions must not be abandoned.

The poetry books in the children's bookstore became popular books. When leaving Kowloon Walled City, Yu Qie and others were escorted out of the country by the Triads. Behind them were pairs of eyes looking at them.

Yu Qie said, "I might come again. Kowloon Walled City is more complicated than I thought. Now, compared with the chaos and disorder, I see more of their persistence in their original culture and lifestyle. This is a kind of strength. It is with this strength that the Chinese can avoid being assimilated by other ethnic groups." The man on the street replied, "Mr. Yu, what kind of novel do you write? I am somewhat interested in mainland novels."

"You'll see it in the harbor soon."

The people on the road nodded and were very polite to him.

Whether it is the predecessor of the Triads or the Hongmen before them, they all have great respect for the "military advisors" who are responsible for shaping the ideology of the society and providing suggestions on the direction of development. Because the bond they use to deceive the low-level mules is the useful part of traditional culture such as "righteousness", "brotherhood" and "unity".

Ni Yongxiao was a filial son. He killed several big bosses and made many stupid moves for his brother Chen Yongren, but he lost everything in the end.

Hey, this is like giving a speech to a club.

It is said that the great writer Lu Xun joined the Restoration Society, which had close ties with the Hongmen, and was involved in the political arena of the Republic of China for a period of time, contributing his heart and soul to the development of the Restoration Society. Unfortunately, Xun was later assigned an "assassination" mission and was sent to die.

Xun Ge'er ran away immediately, but he kept in touch afterwards. This contact saved his life several times in that era.

Sirindhorn thought: This Yu Che is very good at "deceiving people". If he becomes a politician, he will probably have a chance. Rama IX is a king with a good reputation, but his son is a weirdo who wears miniskirts and bikinis. He doesn't look like a monarch.

Otherwise, it would not be Sirindhorn, a woman, who would become the crown princess.

It would be great if this brother could learn a little bit about cotangent.

------

Everyone returned to the hotel and shared their travel experiences.

Comrades who went to Victoria Harbour were amazed and exclaimed: "Capitalism is indeed worth learning. Most of the local Chinese businessmen believe in Buddhism, Christianity, and Confucianism. When they learned that we were scholars from the mainland, they invited us to meet on their yachts. Some of our researchers drank 1982 red wine while we were at it..."

Someone recalled: "Lafite!"

"Yes, Rafi!"

"Some of us are not monks, but we drink wine while explaining the Diamond Sutra."

"All appearances are false. If you see that all appearances are not appearances, you will see the Tathagata. All appearances are illusory, created by our minds. So as long as you worship Buddha in your heart, there is no need to be fussy about details. Of course, this is an alternative statement for wealthy donors."

"Yu Qie, what about you? How is Kowloon Walled City?"

Yu Qie borrowed a line: "When the ice covered the North Sea, I saw plum blossoms in full bloom!"

"What do you mean?"

"Although Kowloon Walled City is a crime-ridden place and a lawless area, it has maintained the learning of Chinese and formed a spontaneous social collective. In the long run, there is still hope for the children. But it is also very serious. Children cannot be taught in the opposite direction, otherwise there will be endless troubles."

Ji Xianlin, as the head of the delegation, counted the number of people. The deputy head was a Buddhist scholar named Zhao Puchu, who was the head of the Chinese Buddhist Association at the time. He was very interested in Yu Qie's experience in Kowloon Walled City.

This old man in his seventies is a true Buddhist apprentice. He goes to Thailand and Southeast Asia several times a year to use Buddhist theories to build a united front. There is a Panchen Lama system in Tibet, and Zhao Puchu was the Panchen Lama's teacher. His theory is that one must love the country and the nation before loving Buddhism.

He can be said to be a Buddhist who keeps pace with the times.

Zhao Puchu and Ji Xianlin chatted for dozens of minutes in Yu Qie's room. When Sirindhorn learned that the three were there, she also joined the discussion.

Unfortunately, Yu Qie was not very interested in these things. When asked about his views on Buddhism, he avoided the topic.

Sirindhorn ordered some Hong Kong supper for the group, and the situation turned into Yu Qie eating voraciously while the other three chatted about their views on Confucian classics.

Ji Xianlin boasted: "Yu Qie, you are very smart, why don't you take a look at the scriptures in this area? We are all experts in Sanskrit and Buddhism, and we represent several different schools of thought, such as Hinayana, Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhism. There are few people in the world who understand it better than us."

Yu Qie said: "Have you read Journey to the West? In it, Tang Monk is the reincarnation of Jin Chanzi. Jin Chanzi was originally arrogant and powerful. His reincarnation should be holding the demon pestle and shouting, 'Wukong, don't leave anyone alive', 'Wukong, retreat behind me and let your master help you kill the monster', 'Monsters are monsters and they will be monsters all their lives'..."

"However, Tang Seng is actually not a human being, with a cowardly and compassionate character. I don't like this development, so I can't comprehend those Buddhist principles."

The three of them laughed.

What Yu Qie meant was to euphemistically express that he was "Golden Cicada" and did not want to learn these things that would affect his youthful vigor.

The next day, Yu Qie’s speech in Kowloon Walled City was reported in local news and was given a page in Ming Pao.

Coincidentally, Ming Pao was the newspaper founded by the martial arts novelist Cha Liangyong. This newspaper was originally a purely popular reading material, but later became a current affairs newspaper with a serious nature because it often paid attention to news from the mainland.

At present, this newspaper is still paying close attention to important news from the mainland.

It reads: "It is a joy for mainland authors to impart literary knowledge, a joy for both places, but it is inevitable that there is some agitation and exploitation of human nature. I don't know if this is a characteristic of mainland writers or if young people are still inexperienced."

"Today it's 'Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng', and tomorrow it's 'Book of the Boxer Rebellion'? Too hasty, too urgent."

"Literary talent does not equal the depth of thought. I hope he can experience more things and then understand the difficulties of the world."

It was several days after Yu Qie arrived in Bangkok that he saw the comments in this newspaper from the Thai Chinese newspapers.

(End of this chapter)