As the principal of CaoYang Xincun No. 6 Primary School in Putuo District, Shanghai and a senior mathematics teacher, Wang Wei likes to read prose in his spare time, especially the works of Mr. Wang Zengqi. A book of "Grass and Trees on Earth", he read it repeatedly, read out the warmth, read the wind bone.
Wang Wei, principal of Caoyang Xincun No. 6 Primary School and senior teacher of mathematics
"Life is like a dream, but what I put in is true feelings." The world loved me first, and I couldn't help but love it. Mr. Wang Zengqi wrote in "Grass and Trees on Earth". In my eyes, Wang Lao is a free and lovely writer. He is not arrogant, nor is he tainted with earthly filth, like a dandelion that travels the world, dancing with the wind. Reading "Grass and Trees on Earth" made me thoroughly understand his freedom and find the true meaning of life.
When I was a child, I read Mr. Wang's articles, such as "Duck Eggs of the Dragon Boat Festival". At that time, I was just salivating over Gaoyou's duck eggs, but I didn't know much about Wang Lao, but I also knew that he was a Jiangsu Gaoyou person. Through the reading of "Grass and Trees on Earth", I got close to Elder Wang again. Wang Zengqi is known as "the lyrical humanitarian, the last pure literati in China, the last scholar in China", he is not only quite successful in the creation of novels, especially short stories, but also has an in-depth study of drama and folk art. In his works "Ordination", "Supper Flower Collection", "Passing Water", "Evening Cuiwen Talk", etc., you can see an amiable old man standing behind the text, but it is difficult to think of his fate and experienced many tribulations. However, after experiencing hardships, it is more comfortable to be dashing. "Bamboo sticks and shoes are lighter than horses, who is afraid?" A plume of smoke and rain is the epitome of him; "picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the South Mountain" is his life; "wide and charitable, not against things, going in and out, self-satisfied", is his personality.
Gaoyou salted eggs are characterized by their fine quality and oily quality
"Grass and Trees on Earth" is one of Wang Zengqi's essay collections, prefaced by his son Wang Lang. The book is divided into five parts, namely the grass and trees of the world, the customs and objects of the world, the walkers have no boundaries, the taste of memory, and the stars and their texts. There are no flowery words or grand narratives in the book, only warm and diluted words, recording flowers and trees, birds, insects, fish and animals, and the delicacies of the world and the fireworks of the world. He wrote about grapes: "Some people say that grapes don't blossom, how can they?" It's just that the grape blossoms are very small, the color is pale yellow and green, and it is impossible to see without drilling into the grape rack, and it has a short flowering period, very quickly, and it produces grape grains the size of green beans. He wrote of bayberry: "The fruit of the rainy season is the bayberry." The sellers of bayberry are all Miao girls, wearing a small flower hat, wearing embroidered shoes with a wrench, sitting in the corner of the steps of the people, from time to time shouting, 'selling bayberry ———', the voice is delicate. Their voices made the air in Kunming softer. He wrote about the purple locust: "I know the purple locust, the branches and leaves are similar to the locust tree, the strips are very long, the purple flowers bloom in early summer, the flowers resemble purple locust and the color is darker than the wisteria, the flower spikes are smaller, and the petals are slightly smaller." The wind shakes the purple spike, and Shanshan is cute. He wrote of goji berries: "On the way from Diaoyutai to Ganjiakou Mall, Luxi, there was a big bush of goji berries planted on the door of one family... It was red and red, like a flower, hanging down like a fountain, and a canopy made of coral beads was very beautiful. This clump of goji berries can be taken to the flower fair to exhibit. How did this family think of planting a clump of goji berries on the doorstep? "One grass and one tree, because of Wang Lao's "gaze", has been endowed with emotion and injected with beauty.
For the hometown cuisine, Wang Lao does not need to praise too much, but invokes the taste in memory to express his true feelings: "The characteristics of Gaoyou salted eggs are fine and oily. The egg is tender, not like the hair dry and powdered elsewhere, and the mouth is like chewing lime. The oil is especially unattainable anywhere else... The yolk of Gaoyou salted egg is red. There is a famous dish in northern Jiangsu called 'cinnabar tofu', which is tofu fried with Gaoyou duck egg yolk. The salted duck egg I ate in Beijing, the yolk is light yellow, what is this salted duck egg! Even if it is only homemade pickles, in Wang Lao's pen, it is different from other families," pickles are pickled with greens... In autumn, pickles, at this time the greens are fat. Buy the greens in a carton, wash them, let them dry, and get out of the tank. One layer of vegetables, one layer of salt, yard solid, that is. Eat as you go, and you can eat until the following spring. The new pickles that have been pickled for four or five days are delicious, not salty, fine, tender, crisp, sweet, and incomparable."
Light the incense and sit by the window, outside which is a light rain. Reading this book, I often encounter words that make my heart move: "The lone goose comes with frost on its head", "The fierce and funny are often similar", "Beauty, more or less contain a little chance"... That moment was my most comfortable moment. Not only that, but reading this book also helped me improve my writing level. Reading the two articles of Beijinger Walking Birds and Hong Kong People Walking Birds, I don't feel like shooting: the same bird walking, Wang Lao can write so differently, but they are all interesting. When such words were placed in front of me, I understood that the article was not a text, but a true feeling. The chapter "Xingdou Qiwen And His People" vividly describes Wang Lao's experience of studying at Southwest United University. In such a chaotic world of wars and rising prices, that group of intellectuals still maintained a sincere love for knowledge and truth. Because of the old Wang's writings, we can "see" that era today.
Study Room Yu Zhai / Photography
Tie Ning said of Elder Wang, "He brought warmth, happiness and extraordinary fun to the literary world"; Jia Pingwa ridiculed, "Wang is a fox, cultivating old to become a master." For Elder Wang, a grass is a thing of the past; a flower is a deep affection. He said, "We must love something, just like the love of grass and trees for time" and "Tenderly love color in black and white, and pilgrimage to black and white in color." "Knowing that Qiankun is big, and the grass and trees are green" is undoubtedly the most appropriate evaluation of Wang Lao.
When people are alive, they must live to meet the ten thousand arrows with their chests and backs, and they can still raise their heads and smile at the heavens. Some people struggle desperately and end up being meaningless; some people let it drift and eventually become fearless. In the face of gain and loss, a person's temperament can be most seen. Read more of Wang Lao's words, but you can slowly understand that gaining and losing the original is the most common thing in the world. "If you visit me and I'm not there, please sit with the flowers outside my door for a while, they're warm and I've watched them many, many times." Only by loving life can we discover the true meaning of life. Isn't that also true of education? Where there is love, there is joy.
"Grass and Trees on Earth"
Wang Zengqi sighed
People's Literature Publishing House