Chapter 30 new lighting

I took advantage of the Christmas and New Year holidays to review a new anthology that I had compiled not long ago, and I was going to send it to Taipei Publishing House for printing.There are more than 100,000 words in the 70 articles in the anthology, most of which are the editorial articles I write for "Mingyue" every month; rereading this time, in addition to feeling that six years have passed so quickly, I also think of the cross-strait and Hong Kong in the new year Taking into account my personal editing work and the way forward in my writing and reading life. My new book is titled A Thing of This Generation: that was the title of an article I published in the October issue of my monthly magazine last year.I really liked that article, and I really liked the title.I remember finishing the section "The Cold Rain Outside the Study Window" in the middle of the night that day. I felt as if I had returned to my father's study before his death. Now, I have been happy for a long time; when I wrote "a gift to Lenin", the chill of the early autumn afternoon in the UK suddenly floated in the study room, and I vaguely returned to the tavern of the college in London, where my teachers and friends were talking again Politics; when I wrote about Hong Kong before I finished writing, I couldn’t help thinking about the future of me and my family, and I was so ashamed that I couldn’t express it in words; Major General.These are all things of my generation: the political walls cut off the shadows of history, and the knowledge boat cannot carry too much ethical burden.Under such strict conditions, value judgments seem to have little meaning.

I have worked in several media organizations and publishing units for half my life, and I have described how many light rains and storms in Chinese and foreign political circles under my pen.However, once a person engaged in editorial work and living a life of writing and reading has no ideals and confidence, it is impossible for him to summon up the courage to sit down at his desk to face a new day.More than two hundred years ago, Jinnong, one of the Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou, saw through the society of urban foxes and rats, so he could "carry a lamp and draw bamboo until dawn". Preserved the perfect image of traditional scholars.Today, more than two hundred years later, the rhythm of the whole world does not allow a person to live alone in the mountains and forests: the trend of social division of labor is getting further and further away, and the challenges of survival faced by mental workers are also increasing. It can be used as spiritual comfort when life is frustrated, but it is not helpful to the operation process of real affairs.Even so, the poem "Planting Bamboo" written by Mr. Jiang Zhaoshen still hangs in my editorial room for many years, giving me a spiritual retreat with a green shadow shining through the window at any time.Modern people still have the right to cherish this little taste.

January 1986