I was born into circumstances that would have been a poor peasant for the rest of my life. But the child of creation wanted to sow me and make me an intellectual. Since I was a child, intellectuals have sown me into a middle-aged intellectual; And the middle-aged intellectuals sowed me into an old intellectual. Now I have reached the age of Wangjiu, although my ears are not very deaf, although my eyes are not very clear, but after all, I am still "rare and confused", I can still write and read, burn the ointment of the sundial, and live in poverty, as if there is some power behind the spur of myself, and I can't stop. Sometimes the shadow of a long queue flashes in front of me, which is lined up by Peking University professors in order of age. I'm not at the front yet, there are nearly two dozen people in front of me. The long line slowly moved forward, and the destination was Babao Mountain. From time to time, some people "take the lead", and it is not Mount Tai that climbs, but this Babao Mountain. I secretly made up my mind: I will never rush to the plug, I will rush forward. When the fish comes in front of me, I will smile and wave my hand and say "bye-bye" to the world.
It is not easy to be an intellectual. In the past seventy or eighty years, I have experienced enough ups and downs, and I have experienced enough joys and sorrows. I walked through Yangguan Avenue and walked across the single-plank bridge. Sometimes, the light is windy, and sometimes, the sky is cloudy. Sometimes, the peaks and loops turn, and sometimes, the willows are bright. There was also a title on the gold list, and the spring breeze was also proud, saying that it was a lie to say that he was unhappy. However, in a blink of an eye, the canopy was handed over, and the walls were hit everywhere, and it was like burning within five days. Why? The ancients said: "Life literacy begins with troubles." "That's really the way to go." literacy", of course, is intellectuals. As soon as you put on this hat, "sorrow" begins to come to you. Is it Du Fu's poem: "Confucian crowns are more misguided"? "Confucianism", of course, is an intellectual, and as soon as he wears the Confucian crown, he will be unlucky. I will cite only these two small examples to know that the intellectuals of ancient China have long been tired of their profession. "Poetry must be poor and then work", and even poetry must be "poor" first. "Poor" does not necessarily mean that there is no money, but mainly refers to bad luck. If you are not unlucky, you can't write good poems, and if you don't have personal experience and macro observation, can you say such things? Sima Qian's "Taishi Gong's Self-Introduction" said: "In the Xi Xibo Detention Room, he played "Zhou Yi"; Confucius Erchen Cai, "Spring and Autumn"; Qu Yuan was exiled, and wrote "Lisao"; Zuo Gong is blind and has "Chinese"; Sun Tzu is barefoot, and on the art of war; Buwei Qianshu Shibiography "Lu Lan"; Han Fei imprisoned Qin, "Difficult to Say", "Lonely Anger"; The 300 poems are probably what the sages did when they were angry. Sima Qian made a clear calculation.
There should be intellectuals in all countries in the world. However, based on my observations and reflections over the past 70 or 80 years, I feel that since we are both intellectuals, we must have something in common, and we must have knowledge and bear the heavy responsibility of perpetuating the culture of our respective countries, at least these two points must be the same. But the differences are many and striking. Let's not talk about other countries, let me first talk about the intellectuals of the past dynasties in China, China has a cultural history of five or six thousand years or more, and there are also intellectuals of five or six thousand years. My general impression is that Chinese intellectuals are a very strange group, a kind of "rare animal" created by the children of creation. Although during the ten years of catastrophe, they were criticized as "revisionists" who "only read the books of the sages". This is actually unjust. Such people cannot be said to be none, but the mainstream is the opposite. Thousands of years of history can prove that Chinese intellectuals are most concerned about current affairs, politics, and patriotism. This last point is caused by China's historical environment. There is not a single day in China's history that has not been eyed by a foreign enemy who is waiting for an opportunity to invade. Many famous emperors in history have been bullied by foreign enemies. Not to mention the common people. The consciousness that existence determines is reflected in the minds of intellectuals, and a deep-rooted patriotic heart is formed. "The rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the husband", no matter what the original form of this sentence is, anyway, it vividly expresses the voice of Chinese intellectuals. This is not the case in other countries.
However, Chinese intellectuals are also extremely difficult to deal with. Their feelings are particularly delicate, acute, fragile, and obscure. They are rich and rich, and they have a lot of ideas. Some may sometimes be arrogant and think that "Lao Tzu is the best in the world"; Some or sometimes suffer from Freud (?) The "inferiority complex" he talked about. On the one hand, they boast that they want to "go through the changes of the past and the present, and study the time of heaven and man", and their spirit runs through Changhong and fills the universe with great energy. Sometimes they sigh for a small thing as big as a sesame mung bean, and even commit suicide, "cutting themselves off from the people". The key issue, in my opinion, is China's unique "quintessence" - the issue of face. The word "face" cannot be translated into foreign languages, which shows that it is unique to China. There are many words in the saying that are related to this, such as "shame", "shameless", "face", and so on. The "face" is also the face. Chinese intellectuals are the main defenders of the "face" of China's national quintessence.
Although it was extremely difficult to deal with, the successive rulers of China had to deal with each other. An ancient emperor said: "You can win the world immediately, but you can't rule it immediately!" "It hit the nail on the head. The emperor who started a business will never be an intellectual, only such illiterate people as Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang, who do not care about their lives, who are "thick" and "black", and who have the greatest courage, can become the "heroes" of the founding of the country. Otherwise, they are all kowtowing brothers, why only push him to be the leader? However, once the business is successful and sits in the Jinluan Treasure Palace, intellectuals are needed to help them govern the country. Needless to say, for major national events, even for small matters like Ding Chaoyi, Liu Bang had to turn to the intellectuals Shusun Tong for help. The court must be in order, the court is in order, and the group of iron buddies who revolted together are all obedient and bowing down like a ritual, so that Liu Bang "Dragon's Heart is happy" and really tastes the taste of being an emperor.
Another problem related to the superficial irrelevance of face is the problem of the life of Chinese intellectuals, that is, the problem of seclusion or renunciation. Many Chinese intellectuals claim that they have no intention of becoming officials, but in fact the opposite is true. One of the most typical and well-known examples is Zhuge Liang, who is "famous in the universe". He seems to be in seclusion, but in fact, he is most concerned about the world's major affairs, and his "information sources" seem to be very numerous. Otherwise, when there were no telephones and telegrams, and it was very difficult to even write letters, how could he have a good understanding of the general situation in the world, so he wrote the famous "Longzhong Pair"? His heart of the world is clear to people's ears and eyes, but he just let Liu Xianzhu look at the thatched house three times before he went out of the mountain to "do his best". What is this not face?
I would also like to go further on a very peculiar, difficult to understand, and seemingly easy to understand feature of Chinese intellectuals. Ancient Chinese intellectuals were much poorer and more destitute. There is a poem as proof: "The article hates life." "If the article is well written, the fate will not be prosperous; If you have a prosperous fate, you can't write well. Those who rely on the top prize in the article and become prime ministers are, after all, a very small minority. Moreover, in the history of Chinese literature, there is no great writer who has ever won the title. "The Outer History of Confucianism" is a novel dedicated to intellectuals. Wu Jingzi really brought to life the poor intellectuals. There is no image of Zhou Jin and Fan Jin before the lift, which is really intriguing, and it is still vivid. A group of impoverished intellectuals in Chinese history will never have a rich man with dough and no place to stand. There are many words in Chinese poetry and ordinary people to describe poor and thin people, what is "skinny", what is "skinny", what is "skinny", and what is "skinny and boneless", and so on, all of which are related to bones. This group of people has nothing, and the only remaining "property" of the most valuable is their skinny bones. This is the last bit of "bet" in their lives, and they can't easily bet on it, and if they lose it, they will be "nirvana". However, they like to work hard, and they like to fight for this thin old bone. They call this "backbone". Like "face", the word "backbone" cannot be translated into foreign languages, and it is the quintessence of China. If you want to give practical examples, you can go on and on. You Heng in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is such a person, but he was cut off by Cao Cao's fake hand Huang Zu. In modern times, there is a Zhang Taiyan, wearing a big medal on his chest, standing barefoot outside the Xinhua Gate and scolding Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai did not dare to touch a single hair of him, so he had to give him the good name "Zhang Maniac" and chat to save a little face.
These Chinese intellectuals often have great tempers. They relied on the magic weapon of "backbone" and dared to speak out. As soon as I saw something unpleasant, I posted it as an article, calling the heavens and the earth, crying bitterly, shouting what "people's hearts are not ancient, and the world is not good", and what is "the yellow bell is destroyed, and the clay kettle is thundering". This kind of example is just a few examples. They don't save any face for the supreme ruler in power, and sometimes they don't even let them go. It is important to know that face is the lifeblood of the supreme rulers and emperors in ancient times, and it is the highest guarantee of their rule and dignity. Therefore, I came up with a bold "theory": a history of ancient Chinese politics, at least in part, is that the supreme ruler, the emperor, and intellectuals of all sizes, used and fought against each other, dealt with each other, and sometimes had a history of sticks and carrots, and sometimes even a history of peeling and belating.
Among foreign intellectuals, only India's are comparable to China's. There are four major castes in India, led by the Brahmins. In ancient India, cultural knowledge was in their hands, and this supreme caste was actually self-appointed by them. They are authentic intellectuals who are universally respected in society. However, there was a big strange thing, which was really unexpected. In society, especially in classical Indian drama, a small number of Brahmins are subjected to extreme ridicule and slander and are arranged as harlequin in the play. In classical Indian drama, language is hierarchical. Sanskrit only allowed kings, emperors (all Brahmins, of course) and other high-ranking men to speak, and low-ranking people such as women could only speak colloquial words. However, the harlequin who is indispensable in every play is also Brahmins, who are gags and foreigners, and they are only allowed to speak colloquialisms, not Sanskrit. There is also a lot of ridicule of Brahmins in other ways. This is a bit like the ancient Chinese practice of ridiculing "rotten Confucianism". There is no shortage of places in "The Outer History of Confucianism" to ridicule "rotten Confucianism", that is, down-and-out intellectuals. Lu Xun's Kong Yiji is also this kind of character. Why is this phenomenon occurring in both China and India? This is really an interesting research topic.
I wrote above my opinion on intellectuals in Chinese history. The main purpose of this article is to write history, and I don't even have the idea of learning from the past and knowing the present. What if someone were to ask, "What now?" "Because it has not yet become history, and it is not within the scope of my writing, I will not reply, and if anyone is willing to deduce, it is their business, and it has nothing to do with me.
In conclusion, I would like to solemnly emphasize that Chinese intellectuals have a long-standing tradition of patriotism, which no other country in the world can match. Although there seems to be a slight tendency to deviate from this tradition at the moment, the example is that they want to go abroad in every possible way, and some even become naturalized as "foreigners" and never return. My own view on this issue is that this can only be a temporary phenomenon, and it will change over time. Even those who stay in foreign countries, even those who have been naturalized, they are still "in Cao Ying's heart in Han", they still want to find their roots, and they still love their motherland. Moreover, the number of people who went out and came back gradually increased. We must not "look the other way" at this kind of person, and of course we don't have to be "impressed". As long as the affairs of our country are handled well, the situation will change greatly. As for the intellectuals who did not go abroad and did not want to go abroad, they accounted for the absolute majority. To say that they are happy with everything in front of them is not true. But patriotism has taken root in the depths of their hearts, and no force can pull it out. Even if Mount Tai collapses and Chi thunder shakes to the top, they will still love our great motherland. I can guarantee that. It is enough to cite just one well-known example. If you don't love your motherland, why did Ba Lao write "Caprice" with the body of an old Mai Long Zhong? For the vast number of old, middle-aged, and young Chinese intellectuals, I would like to borrow a once popular phrase that I don't seem to understand but also seem to understand: patriotism is not negotiable.
I don't have many merits in my life, but I don't dare to be patriotic anymore, even if I am burned to ashes, every grain of ash is still patriotic. But I'm really a bit of a distorted person about being an intellectual. I've never believed in reincarnation. Now, if I am asked to believe it once, I will sincerely pray to the children of creation, and in the next life, no matter what, they will not fool me again, and never make me an intellectual again.