Chapter 42 Autumn sound

People who live in cities are increasingly ignorant of the seasons. We can't smell the news of spring breeze when we see wild flowers blooming all over the ground like in the countryside when we were children; we can't feel the fun of summer night when we see old people waving fans to enjoy the shade in the courtyard at night; let alone when the northeast monsoon comes Before, make one last voyage to fish, knowing that autumn is drawing to a close. The city is like this, when we sit in an air-conditioned house on a summer night, looking at the stars outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, we almost doubt it is autumn; when it is cold in winter, we walk through the crowded flower market, thinking that spring is in full bloom.Then we gradually became confused and lost, and the seasons have lost their meaning to us, because there is no season in the work in the city.

A few days ago, a friend came to visit and told me excitedly: "Autumn is here, do you know?" His sudden question surprised me. After inquiring clearly, I realized that his autumn message came from the market. When I went to the market to buy vegetables, I saw that the crabs in the market were all yellow, and I realized that autumn had arrived. I couldn't help laughing; , I am afraid I have to laugh too. How did the ancients know autumn? I remember Jiang Jie, a poet in the Song Dynasty, wrote a poem called "Sound of Autumn": Huang Hua Shen Lane, safflower low window,

A desolate sound of autumn, The bean rain is coming, There is wind in the middle. It's twenty-five o'clock, Li Qiao kept the door unlocked. far away, Ask who shakes the jade pendant, Cornice bells. The sound of trumpets falls with the moon, Gradually the battalion moves, There were four eggplant sounds. flashing neighbor lights, There is still the sound of anvils in front of the lamp. Knowing that he complained until dawn, How many egg sounds! unfinished, Divide half with the sound of wild goose. This poem is very short, but it uses ten "sound" characters, which is rare among poets from the Song Dynasty; , Goose sound to describe the arrival of autumn, it really makes people feel a rhythmic autumn.There is a very strong sense of seasons in Chinese literary works in the past, but it is a pity that this sense of seasons has been gradually lost.Some people say that our sense of the seasons is lost because Taiwan is a place like spring all year round. I disagree with this point; even in the hottest south, farmers who work with their hands are always sensitive to changes in time and climate. This sensitivity is like being able to predict when a flower bud will open when you see it.

In an era of rapid industrial development, new discoveries are constantly being made in our lives.Our ancestors only knew the substance of things, the changes of seasons, and the growth of flowers and trees. Later people gradually penetrated the substance of things to find the finer substances. The older generation only knew that the smallest unit of matter is the molecule. Later, we learned that there are atoms under the molecules, and now we know that there are nucleons, intermediates, and particles in the atoms. In the future, we may find finer components in the neutron particles.It is a pity that we have lost the visible entity of things instead, which is exactly in response to an old Chinese saying "only see the autumn, but not the public".

To this day, we are not even as sensitive to nature as a tree.A tree knows when to bud, bloom, bear fruit, drop leaves, etc., and record its life experience in rings of loose or tight annual rings, but what about us?There are many young children who don't even know when roses and rhododendrons bloom.Not to mention feeling the coming of autumn from the sound. Since we can control the indoor temperature, the feeling of the seasons has become an abandoned child, although it cries violently in winter, not many people can hear it.Once when I was in New York, it was snowing heavily outside the window. Due to the strong indoor heating, we only wore unlined clothing at a friend’s house. The friend took out ice cream from the refrigerator to entertain us. I took the ice cream and saw the heavy snow outside the window. "Small red clay stove, can drink a cup without" such a winter life.At that time, the child of the season was peeping out the window, and I seemed to see it tiptoeing into the distant woods.

Because people change nature indoors, it is not easy for us to understand how lovely the sunshine in the winter afternoon is, and it is not easy for us to appreciate the joy of listening to the crickets singing and letting the cool phoenix blow in the courtyard in summer night.Because of greenhouse cultivation, we have roses in all seasons, but we can't know how beautiful spring roses are; we have rhododendrons to enjoy in four seasons, so we don't know how moving the blood-like flowers of rhododendrons are. Legend has it that Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty ordered the peonies to be roasted with fire because she thought the peonies bloomed too late.When I read this legend, I was still an inexperienced teenager, and I couldn’t help but sigh; aren’t the flowers in our greenhouses the elves that roast all kinds of flowers with fire?What kind of fun can people have by making peonies bloom outdoors in winter when there is still heavy snowfall?I do not understand.

The budding spring, the green summer, the withered autumn, and the dead family are gradually lost in the evolution of human science.We know that autumn is coming, but it is no longer the fallen leaves all over the ground, but the crab roe in the market, it is the advertisements of heating and felt on TV and newspapers, which makes me feel sad when I look north from the window in autumn. clear heart. I am afraid that our next generation of children will never know this kind of mood! — November 24, 1982