Chapter 55 another mood

I found Xiao Qian's "Life Interview". Found it in the same place; in SOAS Library, University of London. There is a passage on page 197 of the book: I sit in an oriental book full of books of sages and rites of former kings Museum, lightly flick with your fingernails (The Biography of Mustard Seed Chinese Paintings, Learning from the Inscriptions of Ancient Halls), blue cloth The accumulated dust on the cover is worth comparing the years of wooden board characters... That article was called "Three Diaries of London", it was written on October 29, 1940, and it was collected in the "Yin" section of "Life Interview": "England (Autumn 1939 to 1940 year)".

Up to now, it is thirty-four years. This book was published in April of the 36th year of the Republic of China. On the cover of the blue bronzing letters, "dust of accumulated years" was also sealed; on the title page, I saw four lines of English words written by Xiao Qian himself, to the effect that says: Sent to the 1940 delegates for official review of some of the manuscripts in this book Arthur.Sincerely.Dry. The English characters are written very fluently and gracefully. That night, a friend enjoyed a drink and met a professor of the Chinese Department of the University of London during the dinner, so they talked about this "Life Interview" and the few lines of English words written by Xiao Qian...

The so-called "Arthur" should be Arthur Waley who wrote a lot about China.During World War II, Arthur Waley was a civil servant of the British government, responsible for checking all Chinese letter manuscripts sent from the UK.At that time, since Xiao Qian was a special correspondent, Arthur Waley had to have a look at his manuscripts in England before they were mailed back to China.In the "British" part of this "Life Interview", the articles were all written between 1939 and 1940. After Arthur reviewed the manuscripts for him, the two may have become friends in this way.Later, when Xiao Qian published this booklet, he gave the well-known sinologist a hardcover copy and signed his name at the same time.

I heard that part of Arthur Waley's collection was donated to the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University, and "Life Interview" is one of them. That day, in addition to lending out "Life Interview", I also lent Yiguo's "The First Collection of Shizhuzhai Jianpu" and Wang Yeqiu's "Historical Tales of Liulichang". That day, on the train home, I hurriedly finished reading the "British" part of "Life Interview". In the suburbs of London, the trees are dancing and the lights are flickering.

This is no longer the London described by Xiao Qian.The old London is no longer "hitler's bomb"; the "air-raid shelter" is gone; chestnuts and sweet potatoes are not luxury goods. However, the time bombs of the Irish Republican Army occasionally "explode without a source".The economy is bad and inflation is high. There are still many people who "a long loaf of French bread and an apple can solve a breakfast".There was a shortage of white sugar in the market. An old lady rushed to the supermarket early in the morning to buy white sugar. Hundreds of housewives squeezed her and fell down. She died soon after.Before the Minister of Finance's budget, thousands of people queued up in front of various wine shops to buy a few bottles of wine. I am afraid that the Labor government will increase the tax on alcohol.Gasoline prices increased, and a cartoon appeared in the newspaper, which showed the driver of Treasury Secretary Healy tied the minister's waist with a rope, and he was leading the minister to walk in front. The title of the painting was "Fortunately he hasn't fired the driver yet."

However, as Xiao Qian said, the weather in ancient London is still "long autumn", and this year's winter seems to have come very early.When winter came, the miners were going to protest again, and the staff of the railway station and railway bureau were going to go on strike again. Wilson had to spend all his energy to entertain the big bosses of the trade union.Foreign Minister Callaghan also has to work hard. Should he stay in the "community" or withdraw from the "community"? Of course, "Bloomsbury of Writers' Hedgehogs", there are no writers' collections anymore.The writers of the previous generation are old and dead; the writers of the younger generation have not yet made it to the top.Xiao Qian said, "On the night of France's surrender, on June 23, the terrible news was broadcast on the radio, and the writer J. Priestley made a commentary." For his birthday, besides the fragrance of clothes and temples, the old man said some wise words as usual, that's all.

Priestley is indeed old, like the British Empire; it is too rare to say a few wisecracks and wise words now and then... However, sometimes, old people are as intriguing as antiques, antiques and paintings.After a busy day, listening to the rain by the stove at night, and flipping through the book "The First Collection of Shizhuzhai Jianpu", the whole thought and mood will indeed have a clean and quiet feeling. This thread-bound book is quite large, and it is printed in color on white Yi paper.The second leaf has three lines of official script: "Ming Haiyang Hu Yue Congbian. Shizhuzhai Jianpu. One of the series of prints." On the back leaf is Huixing characters, which read:

In December of the 23rd year of the Republic of China, the series of prints was held in the collection of Mr. Wang Xiaoci, Tongxian County. Reprinted, edited by Lu Xun, Xidi, painted by Wang Ronglin, carved by Zuo Wanchuan, printed by Cui Yusheng, manager of Yue Haiting, responsible by Beiping Rongbaozhai, also well-printed on paper and ink Seiko has rarely been seen by those who know it. Next is "Jianpu Xiaoyin", with five lines of big characters on each leaf, and each character is written with all its muscles and bones. The last line is: "Chongzhen Jiashen Xinqiu Jiulong Li Yujian".

On the next leaf is an article "Shizhuzhai Notes Yixu", written in regular script and written in nine leaves, "Chongzhen Jiashen Xia Shangyuan Li Kegong's book".Then there is the catalog, which lists eight types of "clear offerings": eight types of "Hua Shi"; eight types of "Bo Gu"; eight types of "painting poems"; . _ Those "Qinggong" vases and pots are embossed and very delicate. The few stones in the "Huashi" part do not seem clumsy or ancient enough. The copper censers in "Bogu" are loosely colored, but the patterns are neatly drawn, and the cilia are fully visible.The following "painting poems" are line-by-line sketches, and they are all inscribed with poems: "Flowers are far away and trees are heavy. Clouds are light and mountains are everywhere"; ".Yade is in a mess, but it looks terribly cool. It can be seen that my mood is "old" after all. I have been in Yangbang for a long time, and I am fascinated when I see this kind of thing by chance.

The ten kinds of "strange stones" are certainly impressive, but the mixed flowers and grasses on the left and right of the stones, the emerald jade, the dark green, and the apricot red are more attractive.As for the characters in the ten types of "recluse", the most vivid ones are "Huang Shi Gong", "Lu Yu", and "Pi Qiu Gong". The inscription of Huangshi Gong is: "Huangshi has been passed down for thousands of years, and its name is hidden."Beside Lu Yu, there is inevitably a cattail leaf fan with a charcoal stove, teapot, and the poem said: "How about the taste of water, the meaning of living in the dust is different", after a long time, it seems to smell the fragrance of tea...

"Pi Qiu Gong" is in ragged clothes, carrying a bunch of firewood on his back, and there is an ingot on the ground, "I am an old man who pays a salary every day, and I would rather be a gold collector", his feelings are pitiful. The last ten kinds of "sketches" have a strong taste of woodcut, and one of them, Narcissus, is the most free and easy.The lotus on the back leaf is actually cute and clumsy. All of these can be called "Yipin";However, this so-called "aspiration" doesn't make much sense in the first place. If you want to "express your aspirations", it often appears that the "turban air" is too strong, and the whole mouth is full.Very unflattering.Besides, it is also a kind of "aspiration" for a person to express his love for mountains and rivers and keep his name incognito.This is actually similar to the mood of waving the flag and shouting for fame and fame. It is of course unnecessary to insist on being indifferent to the world.Honestly going out to find food, planting flowers behind closed doors, reading books, writing, admiring things like "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" can at best dilute a person's "smell of gunpowder". It may not be easy for him to engage in "revolution" again, but to say that he will destroy the revolutionary cause seems to be exalting him too highly. Tang Tao has a collection called "Yan Chu Ji", which was published by Writers Publishing House in 1962.Regardless of the content of this book, the "preface" alone is very well written. When you read it carefully, there is a feeling of sadness.He wrote very modestly, and of course he wanted to show that he was in this new great society. "The theoretical level is not high, and the knowledge is very superficial. Just like a baby swallow, it is still in the stage of being fed." Hope to actually grow feathers, and even flap wings”; his last words are quite tactful; The ancients said that the old man was poor, and for those whose purpose was not to test for the number one scholar, I can only understand their feelings. "The purpose is not to test the champion", this sentence is remarkable.Don't say anything else. The copyright page in "Shizhuzhai Jianpu" mentions that the editor is Lu Xun Xidi.In Zheng Zhenduo's "Secretary in the Tribulation", I also saw how he got this set of "Shizhu Zhai Jian Pu" records.Now that I don't have this book in hand, it is impossible to talk about how he got it in detail. In short, Zheng Zhenduo's notes on "deserving books" were all written before 1949, all in classical Chinese, but because of trivial writing, they are not close to words.It turned out that I always thought that Xidi and his articles were not very pleasing, but after reading "Secretary in the Tribulation", I suddenly felt that he was extremely cute. This is of course prejudice. I like books, and seeing his stupidity in buying and reading books, I can't help but feel a sense of intimacy.I often feel that if a person does not read for three days, his dignity is indeed a bit disgusting; "Human taste".Mao Runzhi is a bit admirable, because he still writes lyrics and poems after all. There are no jade photos of Marxism and Leninism in his study, only piles of books, thread-bound books. This is too important. It is really lovely for a person to be able to "be an official for more than 20 years, and people with money can buy books as much as possible". "Trying to pass through Ciren Temple in winter, I saw Kong Anguo's "Shangshu Dazhuan", Zhuzi's "Three Rites Classics, Tongjie", Xun Yue and Yuan Hong's "Han Ji", and I want to buy them. It is already owned by others .The melancholy after returning home is unexplainable, and the illness has been lying for ten days since. "This is Wang Yuyang.This kind of "book obscenity" and "book addiction" is also very cute. The country is lovely, and there are so many romantic figures in each generation, whether it is "each suffering for decades" or "each leading the coquettish for five hundred years", this is enough.Generally speaking, it must be more interesting to have more people who love books, people who really read, and people whose purpose is not to be the number one scholar. Wang Yeqiu's "Historical Tales of Liulichang", with sixty-four leaves, talks about bookstores, which is very interesting. Volume 12 of "Qing Fen Tang Ji" contains a poem "Liu Li Chang" written by Pan Jiyun: Drizzle and dust-free driving a small car, walking slowly on the east side of the factory bridge at night. Xi Tong said privately to his husband: Mo Dian Chunyi bought books again. What a lovely weakness! Xiao Qian "flicked the mustard seeds with his fingernails and learned from the ancient hall" in the Oriental Library in London. It must be a kind of comfort in his loneliness. I can only understand his mood... Morning of November 18, 1974, England