Chapter 16 Sleep

"Jue" is pronounced qo in Maqiao, which means smart, and it is synonymous with "awake", such as "awakening".In fact, another connotation of "jue" is precisely unintelligence, which refers to a state of stupor, confusion, and confusion, such as "sleeping". "Wake up" and "jue" are a pair of antonyms.Contrary to the general understanding of Mandarin thinking, the pair of antonyms switched positions when the meaning was extended: in the eyes of Maqiao people, waking up is stupid, but sleeping is smart.When outsiders first arrived, they always felt a little uncomfortable with this kind of position.

We have to admit that the judgment of smartness and stupidity will have different corners and scales in different people.We also seem to have to allow that Maqiao people have every right to start from their own experience and uniquely use the metaphors of waking up and sleeping in their language.Take Ma Ming for example, people can sigh for his poverty and lowliness, and laugh at him for being smelly, hard, stupid, and finally living like a dog.But what about looking at it from another angle?From Ma Ming's point of view?He may live without lack of happiness, freedom and chic, and he can often compare himself to a god.Especially after the hard-working farce in the world: the Great Leap Forward, the Anti-Rightist Movement, the Cultural Revolution... People's too much wisdom has become absurd, too much diligence has become a fault, too much enthusiasm Became a sin, Ma Ming, a bystander from a distance, at least has a clean body, at least there is no blood on his hands.He eats the wind and sleeps the dew, and even lives a healthier life than most people.

So is he stupid or smart? Is he "awake" or "awake"? In fact, every synonymous word is the aggregation of different understandings, the intersection of different life practice routes, leading to the poles of paradox.Such intersections are hidden in the dense language, which adds some hesitation to people traveling far from time to time.