A, "the moon is hazy, the birds are hazy, the curtain rolled begonias red"
This is a small banner more than a foot wide, Ma Meng Rongjun painted. In the upper left corner, there is a green* curtain, sparse and long; one-third of the paper is straight and two-thirds of the paper is horizontal. In the center of the curtain, there is a yellow-colored*, teapot-spout-like hook - is the so-called soft gold hook? "Hook bend" hanging double spikes, stone green *; silk strands slightly messy, if small trailing in the light wind. Paper right a full moon, light green light all over the paper; the moon's pure, soft and calm, such as a sleeping beauty's face. From the upper end of the curtain to the right diagonally down, is a branch of intertwined begonias. Flowers and leaves sparse, staggered up and down, **** there are five clusters; either scattered or dense, are exquisite. Leaves tender green *, as if pinched out of the water; in the moonlight reflected, slightly different light and dark. Flowers are in full bloom, red and want to flow; yellow-colored * stamens all the time, sparkling. Set in between the green bushes, especially feel enchanting. Branches interjections and move, such as a young girl's arm. On the branch rests a pair of black * pugs, back to the moonlight, toward the curtain. One rested higher, its tiny eyes half-open, half-closed, as if it still had something to hold on to before it went to sleep. The lower one turned its face away from this one, and has shrunk its neck to sleep. The curtain is empty, without some trace.
Imagine in the night of the full moon, the begonias are so charming and humorous; branches of the good bird why but the two perched and each dream? In the dead of night when, that perched on a pugilist, and why all the eyelids refused to go to sleep? What is he waiting for? Can't let go of the faint moon? Can't let go of the thin curtains? No, no, no, you have to look under the curtain, you have to look in the curtain - you should find the person who rolled the curtain? His feelings and style are such and such! The moon is not the only one that is hazy; is not the only one that is a bird? But how can I stand it when the world is so far away?
I am desperately trying to call out to you; can you come out?
The layout of this page is so economical, and the colors are so soft and lively, so it is brilliant enough to move people. Although the area is a footage, but the thick of the charm, has been enough to fall into the marrow and have more. I looked at the painting. I was astonished: I could not stop myself from feeling fond of it. Therefore, I wrote a detailed account of the impressions I felt, in order to commemorate this period of destiny. But I am a layman in both Chinese and Western painting, and what I say will be laughed at by the connoisseurs. --I'm not sure what I'm talking about, but I'm sure I'll be laughed out of the room.
February 1, 1924, Wenzhou.
The second time I visited Xianyan, I was amazed at the greenness of Meiyutan.
Meiyu Pool is a waterfall pool. There are three waterfalls in Xianyan, and Meiyu Falls is the lowest. Walking to the side of the mountain, you can hear the sound of clattering and clattering; raise your head, set in two wet black edges, a band of white and shiny water will be presented in front of you. We first to the Meiyu Pavilion. Plum Rain Pavilion is facing the waterfall; sitting in the pavilion, do not have to look up, you can see the whole of it. Below the pavilion is the Meiyu Pool. This pavilion is perched on a prominent corner of the rock, up and down are empty; as if an eagle with wings floating in the sky in general. Three sides are mountains, like half a ring embraced; people like in the bottom of the well. It was a thin - cloudy - day in the fall. Faint clouds were streaming over our tops; the rocky surface and the grass were all a little oily green from the wetting. And the waterfall seemed to be distinctly loud. The waterfall, rushing down from above, seemed to have been torn into locks of several sizes; it was no longer a neat and smooth cloth. There are many angles on the rock; when the waterfall passes by, it makes a sharp impact, and it splashes like a flower. The splash of water. Crystal and more awn; far away, like a small white plum. Micro rain like have fallen. It is said that this is the reason why the plum rain pool got its name. But I think like poplar flowers, extraordinarily accurate. When the wind is blowing lightly, a few dots are scattered with the wind, that is even more poplar flowers.
The glittering green of the Meiyu Lake* beckoned us; we began to catch her clutch of divine light. Grasping the grass, climbed the rocks, careful to explore down, and bowed through a stone dome door, then arrived at the pool of blue. The waterfall is between my sleeves; but there is no waterfall in my heart. My heart swayed with the green of the water. That intoxicating green! It was as if a huge, huge lotus leaf was spread out, full of strange green. I wanted to open my arms and embrace her; but what a delusion it was. --Standing at the water's edge, looking at that side, I actually feel a little far away! This flat, thick green is really lovely. She loosely wrinkled valance, like a young woman dragging the skirt; she gently fiddled, like the beating heart of the first love of a virgin; she is smooth and bright, like coated with "bright oil" in general, as soft as egg whites, so tender, one would like to think of having touched the most tender skin; she is not mixed with some of the dross, like a piece of warm jasper, only a clear! A color* - but you can not see through her! I have seen Beijing Shichahai brush the green willow, can not get rid of the goose yellow background, seems too light. I have also seen Hangzhou Hupang Temple near the high and deep "green wall", clustered with endless blue grass and green leaves, that also seems too thick. The rest, the West Lake wave is too bright, the Qinhuai River is also too dark. Lovely, what will I compare you to? How can I compare you? About the pool is very deep, so it can contain such a strange green; as if the blue sky melted a piece in it, which is so fresh and moist ah. --That intoxicating green ah! If I could cut thee for a belt, I would give it to the light dancer; she would be able to float in the wind. If I could give thee for an eye, I would give it to the blind girl who sings so well; she would have a good eye. I could not spare thee; how could I spare thee? I patted you with my hand and caressed you as a little girl of twelve or thirteen. And I took you into my mouth, and I kissed her. I give you a name, I will call you "daughter green", okay?
My second visit to Xianyan, I could not help but be amazed at the green of the Meiyu Lake.
February 8, Wenzhou made.
Three: Baishuiji River
A few friends accompanied me on a trip to Baishuiji River.
This is also a waterfall; but it is too thin and too fine. Sometimes there is some white light; when you look at it, there is none - just a piece of flying smoke. Once upon a time, there was a so-called "fog gauze", which is probably the case. So, all because of the rock in the middle of the sudden empty section; water to there, no basis, flying down the emptiness, they pulled thin and thin. When that empty space, the most miraculous. White light transmuted into flying smoke, is already a shadow, sometimes even the shadow is not seen. Sometimes the breeze over, with a delicate hand holding the shadow, it will curl into a soft arc; but her hand just loose, it is like a rubber band, immediately shrink back. I suspect, therefore, that another pair of unknowable hands is trying to weave these shadows into an illusory web.
The breeze tried to take it away from her, how could she?
There may be temptation in the web of illusion; my attachment is the oldest evidence of it.
March 16, Ningbo.
Four, "The Price of Life - 70 Cents"
Life should not have a price; but it does! Human traffickers, pimps, and even the recent kidnappers, all sell their possessions at varying prices; I think there may be an open market for human beings in the future! In all kinds of "human goods", the highest price, naturally, is the bandits of the ticket, less than a thousand, more than ten thousand; about the history of the "human goods" of the highest market. Next is the pimps all the prostitutes, from hundreds of dollars to thousands of dollars, is often heard. The cheapest is to be considered the goods of human traffickers! All they have is just some men, women and children, just some "raw goods", so they can not sell the price.
The traffickers are just "buyers" and they have to pay the "manufacturers", the people who sell the children. The price of the "manufacturers" is really the real thing! There is a record in the "Green Light" that said three dollars to buy a girl; that is to move over, but the price is low enough to be surprised! The price of the "factory" is even lower! Three hundred dollars, or five hundred dollars for a child, is no mean thing in a time of calamity! But I've never seen it. One of the cheapest lives I ever saw with my own eyes was bought for seventy cents! It was a five-year-old girl. A five-year-old "girl" selling for 70 cents may not be considered the cheapest; but look closely: put the freedom of a life and seven small silver dollars in one pan of the balance, and you will find that, just like nine cows and one cow's hair, the weight of the two pans is really too far apart!
I met this girl at the landlord's house. I was dining with the children at the time; and my wife came up to me and told me to look at a curious thing, a child bought for seventy cents! The child sat upright on the bench; face yellow and black *, but also rich; clothes and hats are still neat to see. I looked at her for a few moments, and saw no difference between her and our children; I could not see the mark of her lowly life-such as we are apt to see when we look at lowly goods*. I went back to my own table, and looked at Jiu and Nai, and always felt no different from that girl! But, after all, I had found the truth! Our children were noble because we had not betrayed them, and the girl was low because she had been betrayed; that was why she was worth only seventy cents! Yea, wise truth!
The wife told me that the child had no parents, and that her brother and sister-in-law had sold her to the fellow in the silversmith's store owned by the landlord's aunt, the man who had taken her to dinner. He doesn't seem to have a wife, he's in dire straits, and he likes to drink, he's a confused man! I think that if this child's parents were still alive, they might not be able to sell her, but at least they would have to sell her a few years later; for she is a poor, poor little lamb. In the hands of my brother and sister-in-law, the situation will be different! The family is always short of money, and it is obvious that one more mouth to feed and more cloth to make clothes. In the future, when they are big, it will be difficult for them to sell them; they may have to make up for it before they can give it away. This is so wrong! Why not take advantage of the small time, no one attention, do a favor, sent clean! You think, Wenzhou is not a very poor place, and did not happen to the Great Barren Year, why seven small coins, will willingly hold their little sister to others? Said waiting for money? I don't believe it! What's the big deal with 70 cents! Wenzhou is not no one to buy! About buyers and sellers originally know each other; that side just want a child naughty child, this side is also happy to get out, so half give half sell a vague fixed deal. I guess then fellows to the bag a touch a brain out, only seven lots of money! My brother originally did not expect this money, but also greatly accepted the end of the matter. The girl will be under the management of the fellow, so the money and goods are handed over to the two!
The future of this transaction, naturally, is in the hands of fate; the daughter's family name "touch", by her to touch just! But, as we all know, fate will never favor her! The first act of the play has been revealed to us! According to his wife, the fellow will not have the patience to bring her up as a man! He will keep her like a piglet, and when it is quite fat, sell it to the butcher to be slaughtered; and in the meantime he will make a profit, and rightly so! But who is the butcher? When she was sold as a maid, she was the master! The "merciful" master only slaughters her for a fair amount of labor, as he shears the wool of a sheep when he raises it. And when she was of age, he gave her away. In this way, she is fortunate in her misfortune, even though she has been snapped up in a maiden's stall. But in this world of money, such a generous person is rare; we have seen, six or seven out of ten are mean people! If she were sold into such hands, they would squeeze too much labor out of her. When the demand exceeds the supply, they will scold and beat her! When she matures, she will be sold to someone else as a concubine; and if they don't squeeze her enough, they will find another one to make up for it! The child's appearance is not good; the entrance can not win the husband's favor, easy to be abused by the eldest woman, and is obvious! Her life will be wasted in tears! There are also some masters who take their own maidservants as concubines; but the red face and gray hair, but also only empty life! Compared with the former cases, it is only fifty paces or a hundred paces. --And what is more dangerous, if she is sold by that fellow in the brothel, the pimp is really a butcher who makes one's flesh tremble! We can think: how she forced her to learn to play and sing, how she drove her to do menial labor! How she beat her with rattan bands and stabbed her with needles! And how she was urged to be a laughing stock! How she ate the food that was left to her! How she was tortured and deprived of sleep! And how she was covered with poisonous sores at last! Her looks made her a lowly whore; her degradation was lifelong! Her tragedy is lifelong! --Alas! Seventy cents for your whole life - your flesh and blood is worth seven little silver dollars! Life is cheap! Life is cheap!
So when I think of my own child's fate, I feel a little chilly! The existence of a market for life in the money world is a danger to our children! It's an insult to our children! You have children ah, think about it, this is whose crime? Whose responsibility is this?
April 9, Ningbo
Background and comments:
In February 1923, 26-year-old Zhu Ziqing was introduced by a classmate at Peking University, and took his family to the 10th Middle School of Zhejiang Province in Wenzhou as a teacher of Chinese literature. During the winter vacation of the following year, he wrote four essays, "The Moon is Hazy and the Birds are Hazy," "Green," "White Water (白水穄)," and "The Price of Life--Seventy Cents" (which is not included in this book), which were collected as "Traces of Wenzhou," and were published in "Our July," an occasional literary and art publication that he co-edited with Yu Pingbo.
The three essays included in the book, with their charming words, are one of the author's early masterpieces, and are more affectionate and colorful than the landscapes he wrote after his middle age, making it easy for teenage readers to imitate them with fascination. But sometimes the author is too attached to the details, and the complexity of the words and imagery seems to be more than the charm of the object itself, which seems to be not refined and subtle, but this is the characteristic of the juvenile state of mind.
The most famous of these is Green. Meiyu Lake is located in Rui'an territory of Yandang Mountain, there are often readers of "green" to go, the pool side of the "Pavilion of self-clearing", engraved with the full text of "green" on the stone tablet.
The Green wrote the young poet's gentle discovery, attachment and praise for nature and landscape, and passed this warm gaze to countless readers, who can now also gaze at nature and life with this gaze.
"The Moon is Hazy, the Birds are Hazy" writes about a friend's painting of birds and flowers, the begonias under the moonlight, perched on a pachyderm as if waiting for the person who rolls up the curtains, and in the interpretation of the painting, the author pins down the soft sentiment. In these two articles, the author's well-intentioned concern exudes, such as "That intoxicating green! If I could cut thee for a belt, I would give it to the light dancer; she would be able to float in the wind. If I can dip you for the eyes, I will give to that good song of the blind sister; she will be able to bright-eyed good favor"; there are heartfelt exchanges, such as "lovely, what will I compare you to? How can I compare it?", "I spell a thousand calls; can you come out? ...... stayed in the mood, can not help themselves"; attention also attracted the beauty of the association, intoxicating green as the lotus leaves, the rain like splashing water like crystal white plums.
And "white water" in the "white water" to "a piece of flying smoke" "fog frightened" "flying down the emptiness" "delicate hand holding the shadow of the " "Phantom net" to write a waterfall like yarn like smoke, with a classical poetic.