Chapter 56 Life begins at eighty years old①

Dear children: I lie on the sickbed every day, facing a very beautiful painting.This is a child with a smile on his face, wearing a red belly, and carrying a pair of big red peaches on his back. The words "Respectfully wish Comrade Bing Xin's 80th birthday" are written next to it, and the inscription at the bottom is "Respect for "Children's Literature" in October 1980." wish". Waking up every morning and looking at it in the bright sunshine makes me happy and inspires me, but the word "eighty" can never convince me that I am already eighty years old!

After I was ill, many old friends wrote to me, comforting and blaming me, saying: "You must never refuse to accept your old age in the future!" So, I said in a letter to a friend: "Confucius said that he often felt 'I don't know that old age is coming'. I am 'ignorant' to the point where I don't know that old age is coming!" This ignorance is due to my thousands of little readers!Since I started writing "Send to Young Readers" at the age of 23, I have been writing on and off for nearly sixty years.It is the letters from many young readers after reading "Send to Little Readers", the enthusiastic response makes me feel young forever!

①This article is the preface to the book "Three Letters to Young Readers". When I was ill, I not only received flowers from the editorial department of "China Youth Daily" and took pictures of me, but also received many condolence letters, because the blessings of these letters made me believe that I would recover soon.My illness was caused by a "cerebral thrombosis" and I broke my right hip bone.Therefore, it is very difficult to move and write.It took almost half an hour to write these hundreds of words, but I hope that after I fully recover in 1981, I will try to write something for children again.There is a Western proverb that says "Life begins at the age of forty".I want to start from 1981 and practice writing and walking well after I recover from my illness. "Life begins at the age of eighty", strive to move forward with the children!I wish you health and happiness. Your warm friend Bing Xin was in Beijing Hospital on October 29, 1980.