Chapter 30 Self-admiration

"Look at the shadow and feel sorry for yourself" is a common idiom. Although it has the meaning of looking at yourself in the mirror, people still use it to describe the lonely and frustrated self-pity on most occasions.Here we do not talk about self-pity but self-admiration, in order to highlight the feeling of self-affirmation in front of the mirror.Looking in the mirror has been a frequent occurrence in people's lives since ancient times.There is a line in the poem "Habayashi Lang" written by Xin Yannian in the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Give me a bronze mirror, and tie me a red train." At that time, when men pursued women, giving bronze mirrors was an important means, similar to today's Valentine's Day. roses.The beauty described by Xin Yannian rejects the suitor, but once she accepts it, she will be like the woman described by Wei Guoxu Gan during the Three Kingdoms period: "Since the king has come out, the bright mirror is dark." In the turbulent life of the war years, the ordinary

People are not interested in looking in the mirror, but if they are victorious in expelling bandits and are in peace, they will "look at the window to manage the clouds and temples, and put yellow flowers in front of the mirror".In front of the mirror, people not only look at their own appearance, but also look at the years, the future, the destiny, and the heart. "Looking at the front and back mirrors of the flower, the flower surface complements each other", which is fancy, but relatively superficial, close to "smug beauty".When Lu You was old in the Song Dynasty, he wrote the poem "Morning Rising": "The tooth gap cannot be repaired, and the hair loss has no reason to grow; in the mirror in the morning, the old look comes." This is according to the years.The bride in Tang Zhu Qingyu's works: "After putting on makeup, I asked my husband in a low voice, whether the thrush is fashionable or not?" In fact, it is a self-metaphor, reflecting the future of the official career.I was so poor that no real mirror could be used, so I had to "take my thin shadow from the spring water, you need me and I pity you", this is a sad fate.Mirrors are not only frequently included in poems, but also common props in novels.There is a scene in which the old man Mo Jing deceives sympathy, and even Pan Jinlian, who is always cunning, is fooled.Jia Baoyu used glass mirrors in Jia's mansion. Once, Jia Baoyu gave the big girl Sheyue grate, and was ridiculed by Qingwen. The two looked at each other with smiles in the mirror.In the history of Chinese and foreign art, there are countless works with mirrors.In the last century, when photography, film, and television came into existence, mirrors from different eras were often indispensable, and these things themselves are the magnification and expansion of the mirror's function.

Although there are almost no modern people who have never looked in the mirror, some people look in the mirror simply for Solve some practical problems, such as washing face in the mirror, shaving, drawing eyebrows, checking acne and so on. Other than that, they don't care much about the mirror. They can be classified as "don't like to look in the mirror".Some people are more sensitive and even attached to the mirror.In a book, Shao Yanxiang described in detail how he was put into a separate volume in 1958. In one section, he wrote that he sat at a soft chair opposite the full-length mirror and looked into the mirror when he was tired of writing and checking. Not my own self: "This is my face, I can't tell whether it is tired or refreshed, but it is not old, and my hair is black and unkempt. I look in the mirror and want to smile, even if it is a wry smile, but I smile Can’t come out, the facial muscles slow down. However, the brain nerves didn’t slow down. At this time, I don’t know which groove is transmitting an ancient signal: ‘A good head, who should cut it off!’” When writing these words, I was already working 23 years later, the sulcus in his brain is apparently still healthy and undamaged.

When I was young, although I actively fought for it, I was unable to join the Communist Youth League. It was because I was pointed out that I had "individualistic thinking". I agree with this, but I feel sorry for another classmate. It is pointed out that the most serious shortcoming is "love to look in the mirror"!Not only did I feel dissatisfied, but I also said that if I am not fair, I will cry out. In the activity of the "Tuan Le Study Group", I said: There is a folk song "Looking in the Mirror" in Romania, which was broadcast on the radio.As I said that, I hummed a few words: "Mom, she went to the forest, and I was so bored at home; please come down from the mirror on the wall, and take a good look at me..." Several classmates laughed and presided over the activity. However, the reporter announced sharply: "This is a pornographic song! People who love to look in the mirror are extreme individualists!" As a result, they were criticized as

The female classmate who "loves to look in the mirror" burst into tears.Oh, what a disservice I have done her! According to a sample survey conducted by an American sociologist, more than 60% of the passers-by in front of the large mirror at the entrance of a large department store will take a self-conscious look in the mirror. Slowly walking) more than those who stopped, and among those who stopped to look in the mirror, there were more men than women, and about one-third more!Those who stop and look at the mirror usually stay in front of the mirror for a very short time, an average of three seconds, but during those three seconds, there will be very subtle body language, or slightly changing the angle of the face and shoulders, or grazing. A stroke of hair, or flicking the collar of a suit, or picking a flying hair off the clothes... Although most of the people looking at the mirror are not handsome men, and most of them are middle-aged men who have begun to gain weight, but the moment they look in the mirror Here, it reflects unabashed self-appreciation, which is the externalization of their basic satisfaction with life and themselves.From this point of view, it is one of the signs of a peaceful and prosperous age that ordinary people in the world can admire their own shadows.Shao Yanxiang’s feeling of looking in the mirror in the dormitory in 1958, as well as all kinds of things that were criticized and rejected for “love looking in the mirror”, should not be reproduced in an increasingly normal and healthy world of peace.

In the context of Chinese, looking in the mirror is still a no-nonsense metaphor, that is, "learning from".I am not going to expand the topic to that category here.Shao Yanxiang who loves to look in the mirror—this is not an unreasonable posthumous title for him. I published it in detail in my article "Shao Yanxiang Before the Mirror" in 1997, so I won't repeat it here—it was well said in the preface to the collection of essays published in 1995 : "Some texts are written for others to read, and some are written for myself. The latter is either a conversation with myself, or just recorded as a memo." It is a kind of looking in the mirror, but this should be different from looking through old photos. What you see should be yourself who has survived from the past to this moment. Facing the image in the mirror, you can see the past and imagine the future.But at this moment, I should be the one who has the most reason to survive. The greatest meaning of self-admiration is to be basically satisfied with myself during the journey of life, so as to encourage myself to continue with dignity on the rest of the journey. , labor, mourning, and clarity, leaving a solid footprint.