In 2021, it is advisable to face, reconcile, and say goodbye.
Saying goodbye is a difficult thing to do in the difficult year of the epidemic. But life has a fixed length, and we need to learn to say goodbye, with relatives and friends around us, with strangers from afar, and with the "gods" in books.
In the field of culture, there are also shining stars that will leave us in 2021: Li Zehou, a thinker who led young people into the "journey of beauty"; Xu Yuanchong, a translator who translated "Bright Moonlight before bed" into English; Shi Jingqian, a sinologist who pursued modern China in the West; Zagaevsky, a poet who told that "poetry is a joy that hides despair"; Joan Didion, a writer who wrote "You must go with change"...
This annual reading note, to them, the deceased. And "we don't stop reading, even if there's always a time when every book is finished, just as we don't stop living, even if death is bound to come." ”
Domestic chapter
·01·
"It is difficult to have it again in the world, so Mr. True"
Shen Changwen
1931.9.26-2021.1.10
Publisher, cultural scholar, former editor-in-chief of the well-known cultural magazine "Reading", known as "the model of Chinese editing".
In the attic, you can do big things, Chinese and foreign general practices. People in the attic of my generation must not complain about themselves, let alone be self-deprecating. Always think that there are so many eyes outside the attic looking at themselves, looking at each other, and their hearts are connected. For this reason, the chicken and dog fragments that I wrote in the future will be called: "The Language of the Attic Man".
——"The Language of the Attic"/Shen Changwen/Dolphin Press/2018
A lifetime of publishing, can be described as countless reading. But in the end, this reading is not the other reading. After reading for half a day, you are not yet a person in the literary field. How did it come to this? To put it bluntly, I've never read for utilitarian purposes for years. Although Zhen Ri did not release the scroll, it was not for interest, let alone seeking the truth, but only for the sake of breath.
—— "No Wind and Rain and No Sunshine" / Shen Changwen / Dolphin Press / 2014
·02·
A lifetime of "reading through a person, doing one thing well"
Su Guoxun
1942.2.4-2021.2.1
Sociologist, the first continental scholar to systematically study Weber. His representative works include "Rationalization and Its Limitations: An Introduction to Weber's Thought", translations of "Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism", "Existence and Nothingness" and so on.
Pursuing the coordinated development of nature, man and society through the path of adaptation and neutralization is the most distinctive essence of Chinese social thought, and it is also the key part where "sinification of sociology" can play a leading role in the outline as a whole, which is worthy of our serious consideration and in-depth study. Without the subtle essence of Chinese culture, it is difficult to get rid of the long-standing Western mindset, and sociology is difficult to sinicize.
——Social Theory and Contemporary Reality/ Su Guoxun/ Peking University Press/2005.08
As a liberal intellectual with a deep humanistic upbringing, he felt bitterly that he could no longer find a "scientific basis" for any of his ideals, and that, because of class limitations, he ruled out the possibility of arguing his theory in some other way. In short, Weber personified the crisis of Western European rationalism with his mental outlook.
——Rationalization and Its Limitations/Su Guoxun/The Commercial Press/2016.03
·03·
Record the train with a lens
The world and the memory of the times
Wang Fuchun
1943.11-2021.3.13
Photographer, known as the "photographer on the train". Representative works include the album "Chinese on the Train" and so on.
1991, Suifenhe - Harbin. Wang Fuchun/Photo
1996, Guangzhou- Chengdu. Wang Fuchun/Photo
——"Chinese on the train" / Wang Fuchun Photo / Beijing United Publishing Company Houlang / 2017
·04·
The eternal "silly child" of the literary world
Shu Yi
1935.6.2-2021.4.21
Former director of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature and son of modern writer Lao She. Representative works include the prose collection "Lao She Sanji", "My Kite" and so on.
What makes me regret for the rest of my life is that in my first memory, there was no image of a father. All I remember is the terrible old road and the big iron door.
- "Father-Son Love"/Shu Yi/1989
In 1945, my father wrote about an old man named Qi Tianyou in the novel "Four Worlds Together", whose method of death was surprisingly exactly the same as his father's own death, as if he had designed a model for his own death twenty years ago.
- "Daddy's Last Two Days" / Shu Yi / 1985
·05·
"Life,
Just write your name on the water. ”
He Zhaowu
1921.9.13-2021.5.28
Historian, historian of thought and culture, translator, professor at Tsinghua University. His representative works include oral history works "School History", translations of "Social Contract Theory" and "Collection of Critical Essays on Historical Rationality".
If the course of human history also follows a natural and inevitable law, then this question can be answered and foreseen. If the course of human history is chosen and determined by man himself, that is, man is the master of his own history, then this question cannot be answered or foreseen.
——Necessity and Chance/He Zhaowu/Xuelin Publishing House/2020
I think there are two conditions for happiness. One is that you have to feel that your future is bright and beautiful, but it's very vague, very hazy, and you don't necessarily have any clear goals. On the other hand, the prospects of the whole society must also be better and better every day, and if the society as a whole continues to be corrupt, the individual cannot be truly happy.
——"Going to School" / He Zhaowu Oral Narrative Wen Jing Written by Wen Jing / People's Literature Publishing House / 2016
·06·
"Teaching and educating people, writing and plowing,
Academic career"
Zhang Kaiyuan
1926.7.8-2021.5.28
Historian, educator and former president of Central China Normal University. Representative works include "History of the Xinhai Revolution" and "Xinhai Revolution and Modern Society".
Only by having the courage to maintain a rational distance from the mainstream can we think independently, not be kitsch, and seek true knowledge. I have always admired the following famous words of dai zhen, the great Confucian of the Qing Dynasty, and taken it as my motto: "Governing learning is not a flattering language, and it is only a matter of seeking true knowledge to enlighten future generations."
——"Zhang Kaiyuan Oral Autobiography" / Zhang Kaiyuan Oral Narration Peng Jian Collation / Beijing Normal University Press / 2015
We first need to participate in history, that is, to walk into history, to understand history, and to dedicate to humanity the true history that we have re-experienced and brought to life.
——Out of Modern Chinese History/ Zhang Kaiyuan/Beijing Publishing House/2020
·07·
"He defended love and beauty all his life and spread eternal poetry"
Xu Yuanchong
1921.4.18-2021.6.17
Translator, professor at Peking University. His chinese, English and French translations at home and abroad include the Book of Poetry, the Tale of the West Chamber, the Red and the Black, and Madame Bovary.
There are two roads at the gate of the United Nations General Assembly: one is a road; one is not a road, because there are more people walking, and it has slowly become a road. Now there are more people taking that short path, but I don't like to take the path that everyone takes. I only like to walk my own path alone: in Nanchang, in Yongtai, at dusk, in the moon and night, I have the path I love to walk.
——" Xu Yuanchong: The Eternal Southwest United Congress / By Xu Yuanchong / Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House / 2021
The bright moonlight in front of the bed is suspected to be frost on the ground. Look up at the bright moon and look down at your hometown.
Thoughts on a Silent Night
Before my bed a pool of light—Is it hoarfrost upon the ground? Eyes raised,
I see the moonso bright; Head bent, in homesickness I'm drowned.
—— Selected Poems of Xu Yuanchong's Translation of Li Bai / Xu Yuanchong's Translation / Chinese Translation Publishing House / 2021
·08·
"In the era when there was no Hu Shizhi,
At least we can still read Yu Yingshi. ”
Yu Yingshi
1930.1.22-2021.8.1
Historians and sinologists are revered by Western academic circles as the "titans of Chinese historiography" in the 21st century. Representative works include "Scholars and Chinese Culture" and "Zhu Xi's Historical World".
According to the general understanding of Western academics, the so-called "intellectuals", in addition to dedicating themselves to professional work, must also be deeply concerned with all matters related to public interests in the country, society and even the world, and this concern must be beyond the selfish interests of individuals (including small groups to which individuals belong). Therefore, it has been pointed out that "intellectuals" actually have a spirit of religious commitment.
——"Scholars and Chinese Culture" / By Yu Yingshi / Shanghai People's Publishing House / 2013
The irrational force of tradition to engage in modern change can only lead to the distance between tradition and modernity.
——"Chinese Ideological Tradition and Its Modern Changes" / by Yu Yingshi / Guangxi Normal University Press / 2004
·09·
"A name that should not be forgotten by the Portuguese-speaking community"
Hu Xudong
1974.10.30-2021.8.22
Poet, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Chinese, Peking University. He is the author of the poetry collection "Waterside Book", "Milk of the Wind", "Floating Nonsense" and so on.
The habit of kissing is probably one of the main reasons why Brazil always gives the impression of enthusiasm. Kissing is a routine part of daily life in Brazil, like eating and sleeping, and if a person doesn't kiss or isn't kissed for a few days, it only means that the person has a serious crisis in social relations, he is in a terrible loneliness, or he is simply a prisoner in a single cell.
—"Go to His Brazil" / Hu Xudong / China Friendship Publishing House / 2007
A man who was hanging out with seabirds, just now
Wake up from a nap that's rising from the waves, just
Came to the empty beach, along
Unhurried coastline at three o'clock in the afternoon
All the way to visit him those beautiful enough to make him
Friends who are ashamed of others: birds,
Between the singular he and the singular sea
Reverently shaking the plural form of heaven
bird.
——" White Cat Detachment and Loss" / Hu Xudong / Shandong Literature and Art Publishing House / 2016
·10·
The first person to translate Kafka in the Chinese academic circles,
"Literature should help others to know themselves"
Ye Tingfang
1936.11.23-2021.9.27
Translator, Kafka research expert. Representative works include "Explorer of Modern Art" and "Kafka, Father of Modern Literature".
The magnificent palaces, mausoleums, temples, walls, ancient bridges, ancient towers, etc. created in those distant times contain the extraordinary wisdom and great hard work of the predecessors, whether it was destroyed by wars or natural disasters, it will cause people to lament, caress the body to think about the whole, and produce the shock and resonance of the soul, and this shock and resonance is an aesthetic process.
——The Beauty of Ruins / Ye Tingfang / Haitian Publishing House / 2017
People like Nietzsche and Kafka, who are high-minded and aesthetically advanced, have a hard time finding homology for a while, and loneliness becomes their destiny. Nietzsche, on the one hand, believed that "loneliness is terrible", and on the other hand, he was content with loneliness, and even pursued loneliness, so he was called "the lone wolf".
——"Searching for the Muse"/Ye Tingfang/The Commercial Press/2004
·11·
The aesthetic sky shines with his light
Li Zehou
1930.6.13-2021.11.3
Contemporary Chinese thinker and philosopher. In the philosophical speculation of the 1950s, it was on the cusp. His representative works include "The Course of Beauty" and "Criticism of Critical Philosophy".
You cannot despise the stiff silhouette of the image that has become obsolete, you must not think that it is just an absurd myth, you must not underestimate the yin and yang gossip that seems to be very calm. At that time, they were all part of the fiery devout sorcery ritual or symbolic markers.
——"The Course of Beauty" / Li Zehou / Life, Reading, Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore / 2009
Lu Xun said that reading Chinese books often calms people down. I think that the aesthetics of the highest state of life, including the above-mentioned traditional Chinese thought, also have serious flaws in this regard. It lacks enough conflict, ferocity and sublime, and everything is dissolved in the transcendence of contemplation and tranquility.
——"On the History of Ancient Chinese Thought" / Li Zehou / Life, Reading, and Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore / 2008
International chapter
Generations of people are constantly writing new books
Always pay attention to the reality of literature
J. Hillis Miller
J.Hillis Miller
1928.3.5-2021.2.7
American literary critic, distinguished scholar of European and American literature and comparative literature. Representative works include "The Burning of the Community", "Is Literature Dead", "Novels and Repetitions" and so on.
"Literature is coming to an end. The end of literature is coming. It's time. Different media have led the way. Literature, though the end is coming, is eternal and universal. It can withstand all historical and technological changes. Literature is characteristic of all human cultures at all times and in all places—and all serious reflections on "literature" today are premised on these two contradictory assertions. ”
—"Is Literature Dead" / J. Hillis Miller / Translated by Qin Liyan / Guangxi Normal University Press, Republic of China / 2007
The legend behind the "Beat Faction"
Ignite the city light with a bookstore
Lawrence Fellingetti
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
1919.3.24-2021.2.24
Founder of the independent bookstore "City Lights", publisher of the famous "City Lights Books Company", and poet of the "Beat School". His masterpiece is "The Kony Island of the Mind".
Like I once said
Love is more difficult for older people
Because they're on the same old railroad tracks
It's been too long to run
So when the cunning turnout came
They missed the turn
Drive at high speed onto the wrong tracks
And the happy guard car flew up
The driver of the steam locomotive was unrecognizable
Those new electronic whistles
So the older ones suddenly broke away from the rusty forks
It ends here
There was a pile of dry grass there
Rusty tin cans and bed springs and old razors
Blade and moldy
mattress
The rails broke on the spot
Over there
Although the sleepers are still maintained for a while
And those who are older
Say it to yourself
seemingly
This must be us
It's time to lie down
——"The Coney Island of the Mind" | "Images of a Vanishing World" / Lawrence Fellingetti / Huang Canran Translation / Shanghai Translation Publishing House / 2017
"His poetry, from the bottom of his heart, from silence,
Speak from your own words."
Philippe Jacobite
Philippe Jaccottet
1925.6.30-2021.2.24
Swiss poet and translator. His poetry collections Chinese translations include "In the Winter Light" and "The Message of the Night".
The Tree
If the eye slips from one holly mistletoe to another
It will be controlled by a trembling labyrinth
Will be controlled by the light and shadow of the film
Towards a cave that happens to be deeper
Perhaps, there are no more stone tablets there, no more absences and no forgetting
——"In the Winter Light" [French] by Philippe Jacobi / Yushu Translation / People's Literature Publishing House / 2019-9
"Try to praise this ruined world"
Adam Zagaevsky
Adam Zagajewski
1945.6.21-2021.3.21
Polish poet, novelist, essayist, representative of "New Wave" poetry. The main representative works are "Endless", "Another Beauty", "Asymmetry" and so on.
When we parted briefly
Or say goodbye to what we love forever,
We're suddenly speechless,
Now we must speak for ourselves,
There is no one to speak for us
— because the great poet has gone.
— When the Great Poet Leaves / Adam Zagaevsky
"His death marks an activity in the 20th century
The withering of the great masters of anthropology"
Marshall Sallins
Marshall Sahlins
1930.12.27-2021.4.5
anthropologist. Representative works include "The Island of History" and "The Western Illusion of Human Nature".
Western philosophers, inspired by the idea that society is what controls the individual, have repeatedly confused the origin of society with the origin of the state. From an ethnographic point of view, this argument is undoubtedly absurd. Most of the societies that anthropology has explored, including those with a long history of prehistoric ones, have survived to this day without the help of the state.
——"The Western Illusion of Human Nature" / by Marshall Salins / Zhao Bingxiang et al. Translation / Life , Reading , Xinzhi Triptych Bookstore / 2019
"I only exist in my body"
Jean-Luc Nancy
Jean-Luc Nancy
1940.7.26-2021.8.23
French philosopher, studied under the phenomenologist Paul Lyco. Representative works include "Useless Common", "The Pleasure of Sketching", "I Like You A Little" and so on.
"The sketch calls a person to reproduce an innate tendency, a spontaneous taste and pleasure, a desire to grasp the mind and guide the hands."
—"I Like You A Little" / by Jean-Luc Nancy / Translated by Jane Yankuan / Nova Press, Sanhui Books / 2013
"She's from Sweden,
But I only prefer Chinese characters and guqin."
Lin Xili
Cecilia Lindqvist
1932.6.4-2021.9.26
Swedish sinologist. Representative works include "The Kingdom of Chinese Characters", "Guqin", "Another World - Chinese Memory 1961-1962" and so on.
The word "fire" is easily reminiscent of the word "mountain" in its original form. People may be a little disbelieving at first glance. But when people sit in front of the fire and watch the flames illuminate the darkness, they feel that this image is correct. Mountains and fire. Mountains are extinguished flames in the universe, and fire is mountains that burn in rocks.
——"Kingdom of Chinese Characters" / Lin Xili author / Li Zhiyi Translation / Life, Reading , Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore / 2017
"She will live a dull life
Written as a wonderful story"
Mountain article
Yamato Fumio
1962.11.13-2021.10.13
Japanese novelist. Representative works include "Miss Du who rotates when spinning", "Blue Another Kind of Blue", "Everything, Leave it to Time".
Nasty things cannot be said to be annoying, and things that are liked cannot be said to be liked, so that if you live and live, people will not understand the real things. Need to quietly and firmly remind yourself somewhere that "this is not how I really feel." This may be a means of self-defense, in order to protect the unspeakable "true self."
——"Everything, leave it to time"/Shan Benwenxu/Translated by Wang Yunjie/China Friendship Publishing House/2019
"For decades, American politics and culture
The sharpest and most respected observer. ”
Joan Didion
Joan Didion
1934.12.05-2021.12.23
American women writers and journalists have made great achievements in novels, essays and screenwriting, and have a pivotal position in the field of contemporary American literature. Representative works include "Blue Night", "Trek to Bethlehem", "Year of Whimsy" and so on.
It's hard to admit that. We have been indoctrinated with this mindset as we grow up: others, anyone, all of us must be more interesting than ourselves; we are taught to be humble and discreet and not to be in the limelight. Only naïve children and elderly people would talk about their dreams at the breakfast table, immersed in their own world, reminiscing without hesitation about a picnic by the beach, the beloved dress worn on the lawn at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, and the rainbow trout in a creek near The City of Coquan.
——Trek to Bethlehem / by Joan Didion / Translated by He Yujia / CITIC Publishing Group Beijing Times Mandarin / 2021.6
"He wrote about China in the West"
Shi Jingqian
(a.k.a. Jonathan Spencer)
Jonathan D. Spence
1936.8.11-2021.12.26
Historians, together with Kong Feili and Wei Feide, are known as the three masters of American sinology after Fairbank. His representative works include "In Search of Modern China: 1600-1949", "The Death of Wang: The Fate of the Little People Behind the Great History", "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" and so on.
I deliberately tried to preserve the rural flavor and local color of this story, because the descriptions of the Chinese countryside before modern times in the past were not based on specific places, but searched for evidence over a vast geographical area and over a very long period of time, a process that almost inevitably lost its personal identity.
——The Death of Wang Shi / Shi Jingqian / Translated by Li Xiaokai / Guangxi Normal University Press / 2011.09
Forever in the depths of our memories
And them
Zhang Chuanxi
1927.2-2021.2.27
Historian and professor at the Department of History, Peking University. His representative works include "Research on the Qin and Han Issues" and "Outline of Ancient Chinese History".
Wang Lianggui
1972-2021.4.6
Writer, poet. Published the novel "Characters on the Place", the poetry collection "Darkness and Compassion", and "Bones of Fire".
Zhang Peiji
1921-2021.6.27
translator. His translations of "Back Shadow", "Falling Peanuts", "Poplar Praise" and so on have been widely disseminated in the English-speaking world, and his representative work is "Selected Essays on English Translation of Modern Chinese Prose".
Albino
1930.8.27-2021.7.6
Dunhuang scholar. Representative monographs include "Introduction to the Catalogue of Dunhuang Cultural Relics" and "Refraction of Buddha's Light".
Qu Guangci
1969-2021.7.31
Sculptural artist. He has held solo exhibitions such as "Paradise Game" and "The Power".
Liu Xu
1949.3-2021.9.26
Archaeologist, Professor of School of Archaeology, Peking University. His representative work is "Jin Culture".
Liu Tuo
1990.2-2021.10
Young archaeologist. He fell off a cliff and died during the inspection of the cave murals, and published the archaeological collection "Afghanistan Visiting ancient travels".
Donald Stone
Donald David Stone
1942.1.17-2021.1.21
He is a researcher of English literature and has made representative works such as "Romantic Feelings in Victorian Novels" and "Matthew Arnold in Dialogue: Communication with the Future".
Paul Labino
Paul Rabinow
1944-2021.4.6
Anthropologist and one of the leading introducers of Foucault's ideas in the United States. He has published "Foucault Reader" and "Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco".
Ery Carr
Eric Carle
1929.6.25-2021.5.23
American children's literature master, illustrator. His most famous work is The Hungry Caterpillar.
Christian Botansky
Christian Boltanski
1944-2021.7.14
French artist. In 2018, he held his first solo exhibition "Reminiscence" in China, representing the artwork "Dead Swiss".
Richard Rogers
Richard George Rogers
1933.7.23-2021.12.18
British architect whose most recognizable works include the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Edward Wilson
Edward O．Wilson
1929.6.10-2021.12.26
American biologist and naturalist, popularizing the term "biodiversity" to the public, representative works such as "Sociobiology" and "The Society of Insects".
Special tribute
"Pour out a city of flowers, just for one person"
Yuan Longping
1930.09.07-2021.05.22
Agricultural scientist, "Father of hybrid rice", recipient of the Order of the Republic.
We are intellectuals who study agriculture, especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China, we are cultivated by the state and want to contribute to the country and society. In the face of the large-scale reduction of grain production in the country and the situation that almost everyone is not enough to eat, as an agricultural science and technology worker, I am very remorseful. Originally, I had the ambition to transform the countryside, but then I made up my mind even more that I must solve the problem of increasing grain production and not let the people starve!
——"Yuan Longping Oral Autobiography" / Yuan Longping Oral Narration Xin Yeyun Interview Collation / Hunan Education Publishing House / 2010