Chapter 12 feel

I lived in Japan for eighteen months. When I was about to leave, a friend asked me what impressed you most about Japan. I said: it was the hands of the Japanese. During the eighteen months, I went to flower shops, porcelain shops, and vegetable markets... In all the places I have been, I can always see those hands, working non-stop, with quick movements, proper weight, and an excellent sense of proportion .I often feel that they are very similar to a kind of flexible and delicate fish in the clear water of the pond in my hometown: they move up and down, east and west, and swim flexibly. The shock of a fallen leaf flashes for a while, revealing a piece of silver scale, and disappears in an instant, but you are wondering and empty, but they gently swim to the surface of the water from another place.There is a small porcelain shop in Kichijoji, Tokyo, and I often go there to look at it.Just such a room, but there are countless ceramic products.I really admire those sales ladies and gentlemen. Their hands are constantly arranging the items on the shelves, or removing a few cups, or adding a few new plates. In an instant.If a customer wants to buy a cup, they can reach out and take it out from the cups next to each other easily, and when the customer doesn't want to buy it after looking at it, they can reach out and take it out firmly. Put it back to its original position.Ceramic products are very delicate and easily broken, and the goods are placed so densely, which always makes people a little worried.But I never saw a cup or a plate fall to the ground and break because of their mishandling.The Japanese who are looking for goods in a small space seem to have a good body and hand feeling.I have been to countless china shops like this countless times, and I have never seen a scene where someone knocked down an item.

These hands keep flashing in front of your eyes, wrapping things in the way they should be wrapped, arranging things in the way they should be, making things in the way they should be made, accurate, in place, clean and neat, never slow And sloppy.When you see these hands, your heart will beat brightly - word: feel. If you look at and taste those real objects, such as furniture, stationery, snacks, and various handicrafts, you can see through the appearance of these things—hands that feel good in your hands. They will also deliberately try to transmit their hand feeling to your hand, so that you feel that the thing held by your hand feels good.They bring comfort and comfort to your hands, even pleasure, so that you will indulge in this pleasure.I use an OLYMPUS camera in my hand. When I hold it in my hand, the comfortable feeling can directly infiltrate my heart.Those few well-placed dents avoided all the rigidity and stiffness of those flat, brick-like shells.A few fingers fit right into these indentations.At this time, those fingers are like a lazy person seeing a springy bed and a soft and warm quilt.Your fingers will be like a few birds buried in their nests in spring and do not want to come out.

On the other side of the sigh, I can't help but think about China—— When you look at Chinese utensils, you can't deny a strong impression: rough manufacturing.Those jobs are always done crudely and crudely.Those who do work neither seek fineness nor beauty.It seems that as long as there is such a thing, it is the purpose and end of manufacturing.More than 20 years ago, when I was studying at Peking University, I lived on the fourth floor of the thirty-second floor.When turning on the water, go to the twenty-eighth floor.There are four kettles in the dormitory, two of which are brand-name kettles made in Beijing (I’m ashamed to name the brand). The handle of the kettle is simply made of a thin piece of iron. Sharp blades.When I brought four jugs of water from the twenty-eighth floor to the fourth floor of the thirty-second floor, I couldn't wait to kick the door open, put down the jug immediately, and then kept shaking my hand that was bitten by the handle of the jug so painfully.After shaking it for a while, I went to look at the bite mark that was about to bleed, and kept caring with my mouth.Sadly, to this day, the handle of the kettle remains unchanged, as sharp as a knife.Did the men who made the kettle lose their sense of hand?Don't you even have the slightest touch?After I moved from Zhongguan Garden to Yanbei Garden, I wanted to add some tableware. I went to several porcelain shops, but I couldn't find a few bowls that I was slightly satisfied with.Not to mention that the patterns have been so monotonous for decades, the size of the bowls alone is very unequal and not very round. When ten bowls are stacked together, they always shake so worryingly.The bottom of the bowl was rough and rough, and I didn't care about it at first, but I pushed it back and forth on a dining table I just bought, and plowed out marks on the brand-new tabletop, which made people feel distressed.I had to take them out and polish them one by one on the concrete floor in the corridor.Some jobs are supposed to be full of flexibility, but those people just don't care about the severity, just take-throw, knock-smash, it will make you feel terrified.In the summer of 1992, the crown of one of my plum watches broke.I went to several watch repair shops, but none of them could find a suitable replacement.I had to go to the free market to find a watch repair stall.I asked a watch repairer from Zhejiang if he had a plum-blossom watch for replacement. He didn't even look at what kind of watch it was, but just opened his mouth and said, "Yes." Open the drawer, take out the pile of masks and try them one by one.The biaomeng were all confused one by one, making people suspect that they were made by burning the plastic he picked up by himself.Tried a dozen or twenty, but couldn't find a suitable one.When there was no hope, he said: "This one is fine." Then he poured out a metal ring in the watch like cinders, and before I could react, he used a pair of rusty pliers, like Like pinching an iron bar, the metal ring was cut off.I was very angry: "How can you be so reckless?" It was also very reasonable: "If you don't cut off a part of it, how can the Mengzi be installed?"But I don't want to wear that watch anymore, because it's hard to believe it's disabled.I was very angry for a few days, but then I thought this way: Isn't this kind of thing happening every day?Don't all those so-called craftsmen do it like this?When it is long, cut it with a scissors, and if it is short, put it on an anvil and hit it with a hammer repeatedly to lengthen it a little bit, and finally it can make do with the pestle.When repairing necklaces, he dared to use pliers to pull out iron nails; when repairing glasses, he dared to use a heavy sledgehammer.He dared to repair those fragile and delicate things like dismantling a tractor.If you think about it this way, you won’t be angry anymore.Mr. Long Yingtai from Taiwan asked: Chinese, why are you not angry?However, I want to ask: Chinese, can you be angry? ——You are all angry, are you still angry?

I don't know when the gap in feel between the Chinese and the Japanese was formed.I only know that in the past, the Chinese people's hand feeling was by no means so bad, on the contrary, it was very good, so good that the world looked up to it.There are so many ancient buildings and utensils standing there, which clearly and forcefully show the world the ability, beauty and extraordinaryness of Chinese hands in the past.Look at the articles of the former literati—whether in the Tang and Song Dynasties or the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, you can know that the Chinese in the past were very particular about craftsmanship and the subtlety of the methods, and there was a large group of people who could make extremely delicate and profound appreciation.In Chinese culture, there is a line that takes great pleasure in talking about crafts and appreciates the beauty of crafts to reach the realm of Zen, which is a very high realm that other countries can't match.Without going too far, you can get this impression by reading the articles of those literati (such as Zhou Zuoren, Lin Yutang, Feng Boqi, Liang Shiqiu, etc.) in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.

I really don't understand how the "big hands of the working people" that were extolled and romanticized became so rough, dull, and cumbersome later on? Many of our literary works are written by hand (the hand that turned the world around, the hand that toppled the three mountains, the hand that rearranged the rivers and mountains for another day, the hand that described the beautiful rivers and mountains of the motherland...).There have been many compliments written about hands.I was thinking: After these hands have done so many earth-shattering events, they should be more practical, making the houses, large and small objects and utensils finer, more authentic, more beautiful, and a little more realistic. ?

I don't think I understand, but I've been asking the reason for this weakness: May be system related.This kind of system without a competitive mechanism can easily make people degenerate and lazy.Lost the stimulation of hard thinking and hard work, lost the survival "fighting" of "if you don't make things better than mine, you have to drink the northwest wind", so that both hands are idle, and over time, spirituality is lost . Years of social turmoil and capriciousness have made people distracted and dishonest, making people passive and cynical.Losing the solemnity and seriousness of life naturally also loses the solemnity and seriousness of doing work.

An overly intense and absolute life with political overtones vetoes an emotional life.Life no longer has aesthetic value, but only practical value.Facing a piece of utensil, people only think about whether it can be used for holding water or cooking, and can no longer strip these practicality, and temporarily isolate it as an aesthetic thing.As a result, all utensils are becoming more and more purely practical.So there is no need for dexterity and delicacy of the hand. The perverted abandonment and destruction of tradition has caused the Chinese people to lose the concept of "Chinese culture".There is no one in the past, no one to rely on, no roots, and stand alone. The living realm created by the ancestors for thousands of years is destroyed-once, and the aesthetic taste created by the ancestors for thousands of years is abandoned in the wilderness. The wisdom of the hand, the dexterity of the hand, and the infinite beauty of the hand have been erased in the memory without leaving a trace.The hand loses the ability to inherit, and is pale and lifeless.

And the lack of "tool awareness" is a big reason I identified. The reason why the Japanese do their jobs so well is that they care so much about tools.They always use the most reasonable, precise and powerful tools to do their work.From heart to hand, from hand to tool, they perfectly externalize their will, spirit, and aesthetic taste on those objects.This small island country is a big tool country.When I went to the store, I always went to the tool shop. As soon as I got there, I was very happy when I saw the various tools, and I had a strong desire to buy them (when I came back from Japan, most of the gifts I gave my friends were some tool).I usually take a walk, and I see that those who work always come in a tool cart. When the door is opened, you can see that it is full of tools in an orderly manner.At that time, you will feel that this job cannot be done well.And thought: When the man operates, there is a satisfactory tool in his hand, and the labor must be full of pleasure.However, Chinese people are not very particular about tools when they work, and they often have insufficient tools, or even no tools at all.I asked Hubei carpenters to seal the balcony, but they only had one chisel.I thought that a slightly better carpenter should have several chisels.Three-point, five-point, seven-point, flat, oblique, and round mouths are indispensable.They had no choice but to make do with it, which was time-consuming and laborious, and the holes were very ugly.After installing the glass to wipe the mud, there was no tool to wipe the mud, so I used my fingers to wipe it, but it was scratched by the edge of the glass, and it was bloody.I didn't bandage it even though I was numb, and continued to wipe the blood mixed with mud. There were bloody fingerprints on the glass, which made people think that there had been a murder here.

But the reason I identified the most - I think this is the most fundamental reason: the lack of cultural upbringing.I remember all the passages of Engel's words, which are very thorough. It probably means that those poor people have blunted their feelings due to the lack of culture.The sharpness of people's spiritual sense and physical sense is not a matter in the pure sense, but in the final analysis is a matter of cultural upbringing.Why do those low-end restaurants, hair salons, and small shops always make the stereos so hoarse and deafening that people have to cover their ears?Apart from the reason that modern people seek excitement, it is that these people who lack a certain cultural education have blunted senses.You feel irritable, but others don't.Can you find that a person who really understands music, a person in a very high cultural mood, also turns on the stereo to listen to music? When a countryman speaks, he has to raise his voice so high, which is also due to passivation.You might as well pay attention to this: if an uneducated countryman knocks on your door, will the severity of knocking on your door be the same as that of a female college student knocking on your door?The countryman's knock might not be a knock, but a knock.The relaxation or even lack of cultural education for a long period of time has made Chinese illiterates everywhere, which has caused their insensitivity to be blunted.If China wants to restore the glory of its ancestors, apart from paying attention to the above reasons, it probably has to work hard on culture and education.Those rare folk skillful hands can never prove that the lack, thinness or even emptiness of cultural upbringing does not affect the feeling of a country, a nation's hands and even its heart.

In May 1995, I returned to Beijing from Tokyo. A week later, I went to the Gongzhufen Urban and Rural Trade Center to buy a desk lamp. After I selected it, I asked the lady who sold the lamp to try it. After the trial, she could no longer put the desk lamp back into the box smoothly.So she resorted to brute force (which I would have put up with if it were a boy, but now it's a girl, and she looks like a good-looking girl).She wanted to put the lamp back in like a gunner reloads a cannonball.I hurriedly stopped her: "I'll just hug and walk like this, I'll just hug and walk like this." - On the way, I always have those chubby, fleshy hands in front of my eyes: the cuffs hang down on them , the hands are not very clean, but the nails are painted blood red and shiny...

In the evening, I decided to write down the above text indiscriminately while I just came back and I didn’t feel numb and sluggish yet.I am afraid that these words will be dismissed by those "patriots" as words that "don't love my country, don't love my family".I hope my heart will not be distorted by the "defenders". May 4, 1997 Yanbei College of Peking University