Chapter 19 eighteen old people and sticks

... Who knows that life can be difficult? You see, the flowing water can still reach the west, Hugh will sing the yellow chicken with white hair! ——Su Shi's "Huanxi Sand" Mr. Wang Hongjun wrote an article "How to make the youth take up the stick" in the seventh issue of "Free Youth" in the twenty-five volumes. Mr. Li Qitai, the director of the Department of Foreign Affairs of National Political University of China, was very moved after reading this article, so he specially cut it out and sent it to I also attached a letter recommending this article to his teacher, Mr. Yao Congwu.Sitting in the research room, Mr. Yao showed me the letter with a smile, asking for advice from a student who was forty-three years younger than him. I read them quickly, then raised my head, and looked at Mr. Yao With thinning white hair, he answered him sincerely:

Mr. Wang made it very clear in the article. He said, "First of all, it is not necessary to talk about how to make the young people take up the stick, but to see how to make the old people hand over the stick."From the standpoint of a young person, what I am concerned about is: First, from the point of view of feeling, will the elderly be willing to hand over this stick?Second, speaking from the technical point of view, will the elderly hand over this stick?Third, in terms of the stick itself, what kind of stick did the old man hand over?What worries me is that not only will the old people refuse to hand over the stick, but they may hit the young people with a stick on the head!

Mr. Yao couldn't help laughing when he heard my words, and I also felt very funny, but behind the smiling faces of the two of us, I seemed to see Gogol's sentence, and I felt that the smiles of both of us should be "with tears in our eyes." "!" "How to make the youth catch up with this stick"?This is an old question.At the end of the Tiandao chapter, it records a few words that the old wheel maker said to Duke Huan, which is really interesting: If the chopping wheel is slow, it will be sweet but not solid; if it is sick, it will be bitter but not enter.It is not slow or sick, it is in the hand but it is in the heart, the mouth cannot speak, and the number is stored in it, the minister cannot use it as a metaphor for the son of the minister, and the son of the minister cannot receive it from the minister, so it is seventy years old and old. wheel……

This is really the tragedy of the elderly!But is it not the sorrow of young people?On the one hand, the old people feel "indescribable" to the young people, and on the other hand, the young people feel "unbearable" to the old people. They look forward to the old people "turning seventy", but they are still lonely. Walking the endless old road, they have blood, they can't help but be sad! The eighty-six-year-old American poet Robert Frost wrote in his Life Goes On: Just a little while back, at my farm near Ripton, Vermont, I planted a few more trees, You wonder why? Well, Im like the Chinese of ninety who did the same thing. When they asked him why, he said that the world wasn't a desert when he came into it and wouldn't be when he departed. Those trees will keep on growing after Im gone and after you are Gone.

Not long ago, on my farm near Repton in the Valmont, I planted some trees.Guess what?Well, I'm like that ninety-year-old Chinese man who did the same thing.When someone asked him what he was doing, he said that the world wasn't a desert when he came, and he didn't want it to be when he left.These trees will continue to thrive after I'm gone and you are gone. This shady view of life, which represents the great heart of a great mind, we see in the slave comedian Statius Caecilius' Synephebi You can also see the old farmer who planted a tree for future generations to enjoy. He is convinced that God does not want him to accept the inheritance of his ancestors, but also wants him to pass on the inheritance to the next generation.

Among the living, there is no one who is more suitable for the work of inheriting the past than the old. The old people took this stick from the dead, and because of their different backgrounds, the sticks they received were also different: The first kind of old people are holding a "unnecessary stick". They have never received this stick at all, and maybe lost it after receiving it. Except for the skills of mahjong tiles, they probably have nothing to hand over. Their biggest characteristic is pretending to be old and confused (I haven't seen a really confused old person), their outlook on life is "I hope to be empty, be careful not to have nothing", they will never degenerate, because fundamental There is no evolution. They have been like a day for decades. On that day, they go to bed early and get up early and eat three meals a day.

Taizu nagging said... The old man is not at the end of his life, so it is so difficult, only the decay is entrusted to him from beginning to end.In fact, it is not her "decadence" that is "entrusted to the end" but the four little white faces and the one hundred and thirty-two mahjong generals! On the other hand, they belong to the long-lived group. They don't need the "Fountain of Youth" that Ponce De Leon pursued. Their "retired years" are hard to come to an end. Confucius called them "old but not dead." On the surface, they dared not object to the sage's words, but in their hearts they wondered why Confucius himself was over seventy years old. Still alive? It’s not like they don’t want to give something to young people, but on the one hand, they don’t have the mind to “avoid this person and get ahead”, on the other hand, they have more than enough energy, and they have nothing to do with others, and they have nothing to do with others. What's the use?

The second type of old people is a "outdated stick".Generally speaking.What the old people can talk about is not being backward, but being backward but not admitting that they are backward. It is natural to be backward, but not admitting it is stubborn. In "Zuo Zhuan", it is recorded that Shi Que admitted: "The old man is old! I can't do anything!" But deep down in his heart, I am afraid that there is still a bit of acid reaction, especially for those who have had earth-shattering careers in their youth, when they are old " The official Pao is old Feng Tang", and the sourness is even greater.When Kang Youwei first came out of the mountain, Ye Dehui and Wang Yiwu insisted that he

He wrote "Yijiao Congbian" to scold him, but twenty years later, Kang Youwei, who was ahead of the times, was swept behind by the trend; an old revolutionary party from the Tongmenghui era I knew was domineering After sixty years, he has become an old man who eats vegetarian food, recites Buddha, and writes calligraphy all day long.It seems that the more people advance in youth, the more stubborn they are in old age.In October of the seventh year of the Republic of China, Liang Juchuan drowned himself in the Qing Dynasty at the age of 60. Hu Shi, who was 26 years old at the time, wrote an article "Not Old" to comment on this incident.

Young people should ask themselves: "When we reach the age of 60 or 70, can we still retain the spirit of creation and be a new figure in that era?" This question is not the fundamental question.We should go a step further and ask ourselves: "What method should we use to make our spirit grow old or to be actively created? How should we prepare to be a new person with a white head?" In fact, it is not easy to be a new person with a white head!Among people nearby, Liang Qichaoshu, who was scolded by Leng Hongsheng as "love the world" and Zhang Huhu as "beautiful Xiaosheng", is almost the same, and other famous people are rare.Aged people do not want to improve. From Nathaniel Hawthone's "Dr. Heideggers Experiment" (Dr. Heideggers Experiment), we see that the three old men and an old woman drank the "rejuvenating water" The yell:

"Gives more of this wondrous water!" cried they eagerly. "We are younger—brt we are still too old! Quick give us more!" "Give us some more of this strange water!" They cried anxiously, "We are younger—but we are still too old! Hurry up—competent, but we must send Tang Seng with high blood pressure, The muddle-headed Roumantou is the protagonist, and he also brings along two slanderous young lackeys, Monk Zhu Bajiesha. Tang Seng is no better than Sun Yukong at all, he just pretends to be more mature and serious, and has a long history. He is Hu Jizang's old man Disciple, who is an old classmate with Yao Silian, naturally enjoys it in front of the Bodhisattva. The magic spell is Tang Seng's abstract stick. Stick, but under the logic of Manchao's spirit over matter, he had to be stuck by Tang Sanzang. Another reason for the elderly to hold on to the stick is their longevity psychology. The ancients said "those who are alive will not hide their death". In fact, the word "taboo" should be changed to the word "knowledge". I have a good dream of "Lao Peng", calm and unhurried, never knowing that death is approaching. It is said that Yu Shun only "zen" the throne at the age of ninety-five. One can imagine his tireless old age.Judging from Mr. Yu's size, it is not too late to start life at the age of seventy.Many elderly people have big visions and big plans for long-term development, but these visions and plans are not commensurate with their slow pace. The verse expresses the joy in their hearts, that is: I think I will still be alive next year, In the east chamber, Qian Jinzai is more sought after. Baishou's exhausted ambition is touching, but it's a pity it's just getting in the way!Schopenhauer is the most successful of these people, he said: "They think I'm going to die of old age, see, when they are all dead, I'm still alive." He is the first in this respect, but his Selfishness and miserliness are also tested first. Metabolism (metabolism) is a very common natural phenomenon, and its result naturally produces a lot of "waste matter", such as calcium oxalate (calcium oxalate), this dissimilation is the starting point of all biological activities, not Worthy of surprise and love stack.In the sixth century B.C., when the great sportsman Milo was old, one day he saw young athletes on the playground showing their skills. He couldn't help looking at himself Crying, he lamented, he was not convinced, he finally overwhelmed himself and died by splitting the oak, which caused a lot of ridicule by Marcus Tullius Cicero in Desenectute. Some old people are afraid that the young people will reject them. Nikolai Petrovitch, Turgenev's scribe, said when he brought his son back: "Now we must get close to each other and try to understand each other thoroughly. (Chapter 3) But his older brother lamented first: "You try not to forget what you've learned, but—in a blink of an eye—they prove that it's rubbish, and tell you that spiritually informed people I’ve stopped doing these things for a long time, and if you don’t think it’s too bad, you’re an outdated old corrupt man! What’s the best way to do this? Young people are naturally smarter than us!” (Chapter 6) Later, the younger brother finally realized Arrived, he said: "So you and I are out of date, our time is past, alas, alas, maybe Bazarov is right, but I tell you frankly, One thing troubled me, just at this moment, how I wished I could be closer to (son) Arkady, but in the end, I was left behind, he had moved on, and we Can't get to know each other." "I used to think I was doing everything with the times... I read, I studied, I tried to be up to the times in every way - and yet they said my days were over and, brother, I began to think the same way." "Brother, do you know what I think of now? Once I quarreled with our poor mother, and she was so angry that she would not listen to me, and at last I said to her: 'Of course, you can't understand me, we belong to two different generations!' She was me I was very angry, but at the time I thought: 'What can I do?It is a bitter medicine, but it must be swallowed. 'Look, now it's our turn, our descendants can also say to us: 'You are not of our generation, go take your pill! '"Yes, brother, it seems the time has come for us to order a coffin and put our arms across our chest." (Chapter Ten) At least I personally think that an old man like Nikolai Petrovich can be respected. Although he has reached the old age, although he only accounts for six of the eight sufferings in the "Nirvana Sutra", but he I still want to be an "old boy" (that is, Amarantus tricolor), he is full of normal love for licking the calf, and humbly learns from the little hairy heads of another generation, maybe "an old dog can't learn new tricks", But he will never start "relying on the art of selling" on this point. "Northern History" Mu Chongchuan: The old man has been serving the middle school for twenty years, and he is urgently connected with Qing Xianjun to serve, and even though Qing is backward, why should he fight against it? This is selling old! Some radical young people really can't stand it. They find it intolerable that the "old man is lying on the road" and they might not want to find another stick by themselves. , and blocked his view, so the young man thought it was better to grab the stick, but here is the strange thing, nine times out of ten, what he met was a general who had a belly full of rice and meat, or a cunning general The incomparably obstinate old man, in addition to being full of old punches, also lost his eligibility for the baton reserve team.It is said in the scriptures that "the old man does not respect the strength of his muscles", but when they fight someone, they will have strength! Wang Yangming said: "If there is no old man, how can the country be able to do it?" He said: "Although there are no old men, there are still models." Some ancient "old and virtuous people" have indeed given us many models. In ancient Greece In the old days, Pisistratus, the potential master, asked the wise man Solon angrily: "What do you rely on to resist me so bravely?" Solon answered him calmly: "Old age." The high spirits of the bones really make us fall!A person has reached the age of "what can a seventy-year-old man ask for", in his capacity.How shameful, cowardly, and unforgivable it is to "use the benefits of delay to rot the bones of those who want to conquer" for status and security! So when we think of Plato dying with a pen at the age of eighty-one, Hoover at the age of eighty-six working eighty-four hours a week, and Isocrates at the age of ninety-four dying on hunger strike, Looking back at our tradition of playing cards all night, "I'm old, it's up to you", our mediocre deeds and words, and our tradition of "sticking to the court" with sticks, we can Are the laughing foreign devils fools? Mr. Wang Hongjun said in the article: I have no intention of criticizing young people.Honestly, it's not fair to criticize them without analyzing their environment and understanding their education. From the standpoint of a middle-aged man, Mr. Wang can certainly forgive young people, but if young people stand on the standpoint of loving the truth more than loving teachers, he has to say a few words to the old gentleman who is full of care in Shakespeare's writings, "I don't know." taboo", as Mr. Wang said: These words seem to be complaints, but they are also complaints that have to be made.Because the problem already exists, it is better to expose it than to confuse it.Only after we expose it can we understand its seriousness, think about it, and solve it. In the current general situation, it seems that only old age provides arrangements and lessons for young people.Without the voice of the youth himself (the real self, not the "model youth" who is a "representative"), there is also an article "A Petition for the Youth" written by Zeng Yuenong at the same time as Mr. Wang's article. His old man has special eyes, I feel that "what the young people hope for is nothing more than the five ends", among which "strict training", "life counseling", "youth legislation", etc., "are all out of the inner requirements of ordinary young people and have not been publicly expressed", at least I Personally, I think Mr. Zeng's "push" method is terrible. The old people compete to "push" the young people like this, and "declare" for the young people in this way. Ken went to the middle school to visit the centralized and uniform level-headed education, inspect the training office that resembles a police station, look at the "student information bags", and then look out at the number of Dabao students, probably he will re-read his Grandpa's "original talent"). I found that in addition to Mr. Zeng's "five ends", there is also an "outer end", which is exactly what "young people hope for", that is, the elderly want us to be obedient, and hope that the elderly will also "listen" to our voice.Although Francis Bacon has long said that we are not suitable for judging, we are people in a nest after all. After all, we are participating in this relay race together. Don’t always think that you can see us so accurately. You should always think about it. Think about what color eyes we are looking at you with, at least you should think about it once. In the first part of his "Walden" (Walden), Henrv David Thoreau has several passages fiercely criticizing the elderly, whose charm and momentum will be destroyed by translation: what old people say you cannot do you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Age is no better, hadlly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young. their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which be lies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. Old men say you can't do this or that, but try it and you'll find that you can.The old ones should only be suitable for old guys, and the new ones should have new ones. A lot of age is difficult to constitute a good condition for young teachers, because it is not worth the gain, and the merit does not make up for the trouble. Practically speaking, old people have no very important advice to young people. Their own experience is so fragmented and their lives have failed so badly. They must know that these are their own faults. Consistent self-confidence, but they are not young enough. He denies the elderly even more vehemently: I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earned advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably, cannot tell me anything, to the purpose. Here is life , an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about. I've lived on this planet for thirty years and I haven't heard the first syllable of valuable or warm advice from my old predecessors who told me nothing and probably couldn't What can I say.This is life, an experience that most of them have not experienced by me. Although they have experienced it, it is useless to me.If I have gained any experience that I think is valuable, I must think: This experience, my "mentor" has never mentioned it at all. These words were enough to make the older generation call him ungrateful, but he then went on to cast a stick on the old man: You may say the wisest thing you can, old man－ You who have lived seventy years, not without honor of akind,--I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels. You can say the wisest things, old chap—you've lived seventy years and lived richly—and I hear an unstoppable cry begging me not to listen to you.This generation throwing away the great achievements of the previous generation is like throwing away a stranded wreck. I don't think we have to criticize the elderly too harshly, and I don't think we have to give up hope in them like a wreck. Still willing to be a stickler.Anyone who has read the re-biography of Yan Dun in "History of the Song Dynasty" will see the following paragraph: [At the time of the peace talks, the envoy of Qin] Hinoki told Dunfu personally: "Gong Neng Qu Cong. The two places can arrive sooner or later." Dunfu said: "I will never harm the country for my own sake. Besides, my nature of Jianggui will heal when I grow old. Spicy, don't say it." The juniper can't bend. This is a good mirror. In the era of "deep water and wide waves", we just need some old peppers with the "nature of ginger and osmanthus" to "train" us, "coach" us, "set up" to teach us and "law" for us , they want us to work hard, at least he himself is not lying on the sofa to be a scholar; fisherman. Some old people teach young people to read the scriptures. He should have read the words "good singers make others follow their voices, and good teachers make people follow their aspirations". Even if his singing voice is moving and ambitious, he should ask young people In the opinion of Ca le Young Rice in "The young to the old", he tells the old: You who are old, And have fought the fighi, And have won or lost or left the fight, Weight us not down, With fears of the world, as we run! You are old. Having fought this battle, Won, lost, and lost the battle. when we are running, your fear of the world, We cannot be intimidated. However, question marks follow us, and we can't help asking: How many elderly people are willing to listen to us?How many elderly people can listen to us?How many elderly people are willing to talk about the issue of taking over the baton? From Lu Ji's old poems, we seem to see batches of young people from Ge Shilin who are heroic and candid, all of them have grown from white hair to gray hair. They are still smart people. They can barely maintain the last line of defense, and they are not willing to do anything reckless. Their "old spirit" is no longer the status of the so-called "horizontal Kyushu" by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.We don’t need to talk about the generation of old men who have sold themselves to seek refuge, but we can take the most enlightened generation of old gentlemen, from Hu Shizhi when he wrote “Human Rights and the Law of Contract” to Hu Shizhi when he wrote “Tolerance and Freedom”; From Liang Shiqiu in the era of "Far Eastern English-Chinese Dictionary" to Liang Shiqiu in the era of "Far Eastern English-Chinese Dictionary", we can see the traces of their transformation. In his song "Precution", Frost said that he did not dare to be a radical when he was young. Because I am afraid that he will become a conservative when he is old. I am not saying that Hu Shizhi and Liang Shiqiu have become conservatives. What I mean is that their "steadiness" today is not commensurate with the vigorous and energetic spirit of those days. of! Gong Ziping is upright all his life. Who can lose the original intention in the late festival?The poems of the dead philosophers have pointed out a crisis for those hard-working people who are tireless in learning and keep the scriptures. We don’t regret Qian Qianyi and Zhang Shizhao’s old self-love, but we only regret Huang Lizhou and Jiang Kanghu’s late festivals. !The Roman historian Livy once criticized Scipio Africanus: Ultima Primis cedebant． (His old age is not as good as his early years.) Looking around the middle school, how many lovely old people can resist this kind of judgment? The illness is pointed out, but there is no prescription. The answer is not that there is no, but that there is no need for a young man to provide it. At least as far as I am concerned, I do not think I am qualified to be a reviewer.I don't want to say anything to those old men who are old and ignorant, and I don't want to say anything to those old cunning people who are old-fashioned and repeat their old tunes. Gentlemen, I cannot resist telling you: we will not take your stick, we will not beat the drum against the stick of our saints We don't care too much for a stick that has decayed on the inside and has a fresh coat of paint on the outside.We have already stretched out our hands, through the dull air, waiting for you to hand us a really brand new stick! July 15, 1961 at Bitan Mountain Tower Appendix (omitted - editor) [Postscript] This "Old Man and the Stick", originally published in "Wenxing" No. 49 (published in Taipei on November 1, 1961), is the first article I wrote to "Wenxing". articles. I am now transcribing two passages from my diary at that time: April 8: "Yao (Mr. Congwu) showed me Wang Hongjun's essay, and I immediately wanted to write an essay to express my feelings." April 14th: "Writing "The Old Man and the Stick" until 3 o'clock in the night, I was full of ideas. If this article is sold, it will definitely be a sensation." Looking back at these two paragraphs of diary now, it somewhat makes me feel a little bit of vicissitudes.Because since the publication of this article, there have been many "literary fates" and "literary disasters" one after another.In "Wenxing", "Literary Forum", "News World", "Freedom Youth", "Democratic Review", and "Zili Evening News", there are texts discussing issues related to this "Old People and Sticks".In March of this year, students from National Chengchi University even got into trouble with the Discipline Office for the second issue of "Young People and Sticks" in the "National Political University Overseas Chinese Students" innovation issue; It's a "battle of sticks"! (September 12, 1963)