The new book | author Jiang Yang's travel essay collection "Under the Same Sky" was published

Under the Same Sky is a collection of essays by Hong Kong writer and chief reporter of Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po, Jiang Yang, in recent years, published by Flower City Publishing House in January 2022. The content of the book is the author's walking in the world, such as Omaha, the hometown of Buffett, the American oil king's Rockefeller estate, and Tolstoy's humanitarianism. The author's delicate thoughts, broad vision and open-minded attitude towards life arouse people's confidence in the current life and a beautiful imagination of the future.

The following is the preface written for this book by Li Shuoru, a member of the Chinese Writers Association.

The Eye of Beauty Aesthetic Man - I Read Under the Same Sky

Text/Li Shuoru

Reading Jiang Yang's "Under the Same Sky", in addition to the excitement, there is something to say. (For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pie pai.ycwb.com)

Remember that psychologist Maslow once said that human needs are roughly divided into five levels, namely: from low-level food and clothing needs, security needs, to emotional and belonging needs, to the needs of respect and self-actualization of others. Later, he added the demand for knowledge and aesthetic needs to the highest needs of man. Marx also said: "The people of the future are all aesthetic people." Reading through the whole book, I thought that the author was a "beauty-seeking" and aesthetic person.

A pair of beauty-seeking eyes to unearth the beauty of the world

Jiang Yang is blessed, in the past few decades, she has traveled almost half the world, and everywhere she goes, either the long history of civilization gathers celebrity footprints, or the cultural relics are vague and difficult for ordinary people to reach, but no matter where they go, a pair of aesthetic eyes find that they have excavated so many beautiful views, "beauty", beautiful things and the meaning of beauty, and then they write a book to review and share with readers.

"There is a kind of scenery that stands quietly on the horizon, and that is the windmills. The moment the windmill turned, I saw you. You emerge from below sea level, with the domineering spirit of the coachman of the sea of yesteryear"—there are physical objects, there are pictures, we almost smell the salty smell of the Atlantic ocean, we almost see the windmills that spin with the wind, and even the footage of Don Quixote fighting the windmills...

As the European tradition goes to this day, "God created man, and the Dutch windmill created land." "The windmill, turning the dutch national culture, turning people's love for the sky, turning fairy tale happiness." Reading such a horizontal and vertical and solid and abstract description, who does not think and soars to give birth to a beautiful imagination like poetry!

"More than 300 cloister reefs and swaying islands of coconut groves, scattered across the crossroads of the South Pacific. Fiji is the first place on Earth to see the sunrise. The 180-degree international date line runs through it, making it the easternmost and westernmost country in the world. "——A rare regional beauty! Is it the end of the world? Is it the Cape? This dreamlike place is for anyone who doesn't want to see it!

Write the beauty of humanity with poetic simplicity

From only the above few descriptions, we cannot but admire Jiang Yang's beautiful eyes and write beautiful brushstrokes. However, travelogue, as a member of the literary family, the scenery is difficult to paint no matter how beautiful it is, it is difficult to describe the profound history, feelings and philosophies, and it is not up to the aesthetic realm of one place and one domain, the author knows the magic, her travelogues are often inseparable from the characters, stories up to the hearts of the people, talk about a few strokes, but also point out the eyes and background of the article.

The book presents a static beauty, an atmospheric beauty.

"Gray two-story building, no walls, no iron doors, only three or five meters away from the roadside. He has lived here for nearly sixty years without changing places, and does not show any luxury compared to the villas of his neighbors. ＂

Located in the original Indian settlement of Omaha, this compound is the residence of buffett, the world-famous rich man and stock god. Rich but not luxurious, expensive and not arrogant, without a trace of local arrogance, a pure frugal beauty. His philosophy is more simple: "Success is very simple, and the people you love after you are old still love you." "At least, the wealth ethics and wealth morality of this stock god have been spoken in one word.

Poetry is everywhere in the eyes of the poet, and prey is everywhere in the eyes of the devil. A person must be able to find the beauty of the world and reach the aesthetic realm, one must have a true and good heart, the other must go a long enough road, and the third must have read enough books, which can cultivate the soil of compassion and give birth to the feelings of humanistic heart, which is why Maslow wants to list aesthetic needs as the highest needs of human beings.

Jiang Yang understands this, no matter when and where she writes, the length of the article, most of them use poetic simplicity to point out the local region, history, climate, scenery and humanistic figures, which makes the article have an eye, a soul, and a unique style.

After writing about Hawaii's beautiful heavens and seas and marvelous volcanoes, she still put her ink on the seafaring explorer Captain Cook, a 18th-century child born in a village in northern England who made three expeditions to the Pacific Ocean and three times into the Antarctic Circle, "footprints all over the unknown Tarbe Island, Australia, New Zealand, the Marksas Islands, Hawaii, Easter Island and Prince William's Bay... Added more than 5,000 miles of coastline to the world map. ＂

There are not many words, but it renders an aesthetic picture with mixed feelings: a thousand sails racing, the worship of the gods, foolish fighting, heroes burying the sea... reverence? lament? Sigh? Mournfully? Who can say for sure? This is the value and power of aesthetics.

Tourism has become a daily life of modern life, writing travelogues, reading travelogues is not a new thing, with what kind of eyes to travel, how to write travel literature? I thought "Under the Same Sky" was a good reference.

Jiang Yang and I have known each other for many years, and unfortunately we have never talked deeply about it. Thank you for taking me to broaden my horizons, appreciate so many beautiful scenery, meet so many ancient and modern sages, and let me know her people, literature and aesthetics with her works.

Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie

Editor-in-charge | Sun Lei