Zhu Ziqing's Short Classic Prose

Prose is a narrative literary genre, which expresses the author's true feelings and flexible writing style. The following is a short classic essay by Zhu Ziqing for your reference.

Like an interview.

My friend gave me a box of stationery, engraved with two ancient costume figures, bowing to each other, and engraved with the three characters "Rufang" on the side. Zhong Xing wrote these three words for the first time, which just illustrates the usefulness of writing letters. The letter was originally addressed to "you" or "a few of you"; It was a private conversation between "me" and "you" or "you guys", but it was just a written conversation. Although the people who talk to each other are not close, the conversation can't be like a speech, which is unbearable for obedient teachers. Writing a letter can't be like talking, which makes the reader unbearable. They must always think that the words in the letter are for themselves. It depends on various tones. Only when the tone is close can we "speak face to face". But writing letters is not an "interview"; It is not only different from the tone, expression and posture used in "interview", but also more difficult than "interview", because it is always a monologue of one person, without the convenience of interspersed and covered. Writing a letter "like face to face" requires more thinking and skills than "face to face", which is impossible with a pen.

However, in a language, this kind of thought and skill, after many generations and many people's use, has gradually become stylized. As long as you are familiar with those procedures and apply them, "face-to-face teaching" is not so difficult. Our classical Chinese letters have been stylized for a long time. By using these programs, the author can write letters in a more or less "face-to-face" way, and it is effortless. If they are taught to write in the vernacular, it is not easy to write such a letter as a letter.

"Two Kinds of Autumn Rain Essays" I remember a person writing a letter to a woman who wanted to write as she said. The man wrote for a long time, but he finally stopped writing. He can't write what she said as a letter. Classical Chinese letters have glances, while vernacular letters have no glances at all; That person may think that vernacular Chinese can't be used to write letters at all. Similarly, Mr. Juzi writes letters on behalf of illiterate people, without using vernacular Chinese; They prefer to use classical Chinese that they can't understand, such as "no difference in letters". Now we naturally believe that vernacular Chinese can be used to write letters, and sometimes we practice writing letters in vernacular Chinese. However, it seems that people who often write in vernacular Chinese, except Mr. Hu Shizhi, often write letters to friends in classical Chinese, and they will believe it as long as they look through modern books. The reason is one word "lazy". There are ready-made procedures for writing letters in classical Chinese, and every sentence is considered in vernacular Chinese, just like writing a composition. It's too difficult. Who always has so much time? Classical Chinese can also be lazy, and slowly find out some practical programs for vernacular Chinese. Classical Chinese is really "dead".

Mr. Lin Yutang said in On the Usage of Copying (the 26th chapter of The Analects of Confucius): When a person writes a book, he says "Your letter has been received" instead of "I am grateful" and "I am ashamed", which means that the article is not worthwhile. "Notice", "Sincerity" and "Apology" are all programs in classical Chinese, which is really economical and labor-saving. However, I'm afraid Mr. Lin's three sentences in vernacular Chinese are just literal translations of those three sentences in classical Chinese, which may not be true examples. We can say "I received your letter", "thank you", "I'm sorry" and "I'm really sorry", so we don't need to translate from classical Chinese. -if there is such a detour, it must be a new type of character tester! These vernacular words also look ready-made and economical. There are more words than classical Chinese, but a style has economic standards. The word organization of vernacular Chinese is different from that of classical Chinese. They are actually two languages. Turn complexity into brevity, based on your own organization, and should not be compared. Although the vernacular does not necessarily conform to the spoken language, the more the vernacular letter conforms to the spoken language, the more it can be "like an interview". These sentences are our common spoken language, at least they can be catchy and used to write vernacular letters. I think they are suitable. What is more troublesome is "sincerity", "specializing in this" and "please pay attention to safety". This is the shelf of a letter; It is like a letter, but it is not like a letter without it. "Respecter" is like the phrase "I tell you" that we use when talking to a person. "That's all" and "Please pay attention to safety" are equivalent to the sentence "Nothing, goodbye" we used at the end of the conversation. But "Interview" does not necessarily use this set of words. Often as long as you turn your face to that person, you will replace the first sentence, and when you nod, you will replace the second sentence. This is where writing letters is not "like face to face". Nowadays, writing vernacular letters often comes straight to the point, and there is no condom equivalent to "sincere people". But there is still more at the end, but only "to health!" ""I wish you progress! " "Good luck! "One kind, such as" specializing in this "and" please pay attention to safety ",is gone. The origin of "worshippers" is very long. At the beginning of Sima Qian's Letter to Ren Shaoqing, there is a sentence: "Taishi Gong Niu Ma left Sima Qian to pay homage, and Shao Qing stepped down." Farewell is an admirer of later generations. The first step of Youqing is under "Goodbye", which is different from the format of calling before "Dear Qi" now. Since the title is used at the beginning, "Dear Rev" may be omitted; It's still written. It's just a relic. People who write vernacular letters will naturally ignore this point. There is also a real ending called Quanxin, which can be used as a relic or omitted. But the "sleeve" almost stays in the form, and this "sleeve tail" still has certain significance. It is not without reason that it is preserved in vernacular letters.

In classical Chinese letters, there are many changes in this set, indicating the identity of the writer and the recipient. If you write to your parents, you must use "Dear", "Sincere" and "Please pay attention to safety". When writing to seniors, be sure to use "Dear" and "Please say goodbye". If you write to your younger generation, you must use "sponsor", "special" and "shun Jin Wen Jia". Just use the wrong one.

At the end of the vernacular letter, although we haven't paid attention to these, there are also many changes; These changes are only rhetorical changes and do not indicate identity.

Because it is a rhetorical change, we might as well put down the pen and do something new to arouse the reader's interest, but we should always pay attention to the reader himself. For example, "I wish you victory in the war of resistance against Japan", although everyone has the same intention, but the personal letter "such as interview" is actually more superficial. Another example is "Salute to National Liberation", unless the writer and the recipient are both revolutionary comrades, it is inevitable that they will be unkind.

speak

Some people like talking, others don't. The mute didn't say anything, but there was Yiyi's voice, gesticulating. Talking is not an easy task. Talking every day does not necessarily mean talking; Many people have talked all their lives and never said a few words. The so-called "debater's tongue" and "three-inch golden tongue" are evidence that things are rare; Scholars pay attention to "spit genus", so it is. We don't want to be debaters, lobbyists and literati, but life is nothing more than words, except words. The so-called worldly wisdom, half is talking.

It is said in the ancient prose "Shangshu" that "only words are good, and soldiers are encouraged." The influence of a sentence is sometimes unexpected, and there are a lot of examples in history and novels. Speaking is never easier than writing, if not more difficult.

Some people will say that they can't write, and some people will write and can't say.

Words are like running water, you can't weigh them word by word. Therefore, there are inevitably omissions and sloppy places, and it is better to be careful in composition. But those flowing nature are by no means ordinary articles and. -the article can reach such a state, it is simply empty talk theory, no longer an article. But what an elusive realm it is! Although there is a standard of "taking pen as tongue" in our articles and philosophy, how many people can really "take pen as tongue" in ancient and modern times? But the article is not very natural, but it can also become a skill, and it is impossible to speak; If you have skills in speaking, you think it's really worth seeing! I can't say how many words there are. It is slightly different: speaking to everyone, explaining and even telling books is one kind, holding meetings is one kind, public-private negotiations are one kind, court trials are one kind, and talking to reporters is one kind; -these can be called formal. Small talk between friends is also an informal conversation. You don't have to lengthen your face formally, but there are many times when you lengthen it.

Such words are fragmented and sometimes prepared in advance. Only by chatting, you can go up and down from ancient times to the present and mix a meal; It is said to be mixed, natural and fragmented, except for fragments. Small talk is not preparation, it is full of conversation and improvisation. Wouldn't it be a big joke if we were going to talk later? This kind of conversation has some formulas, even small talk-"weather" is often the beginning of small talk, for example. But the formula is dead, it is not enough, and you still care about people. What you can say will make you happy, and what you can't say will make you confused, even if it is the same meaning or even the same sentence.

People in China have been paying attention to their words for a long time. Zuo Zhuan, Guo Ce and Shi Shuo are our three classic stories. One is diplomatic rhetoric, the other is national talk, and the other is public talk. Look how tactfully they speak, and every word hits people's hearts. There is also a dream of red mansions, in which the dialogue is relaxed and beautiful. In addition, the name of Jia Junfang in the Han Dynasty is "the quip of the world", but unfortunately only this praise is left to us. Liu Jingting's storytelling in Ming Dynasty is very famous, but unfortunately we can't appreciate it either. In recent years, the new literature has Europeanized the vernacular, borrowed many vivid and delicate expressions from foreign languages, and hinted that we will chew some old expressions again. This gives our language a new flavor and new strength.

Combined with the difficulties in speaking these years, ordinary newspapers have become smart and know how to express themselves in a sideways, negative and crevice way. This is an inevitable good training for readers; They are more and more sensitive, and only sensitive people can appreciate the subtle taste of chewing. The art of speaking has indeed made great progress in this period.

On the writing of speaking art, it seems that only Han Fei's "Speaking South" is famous in the past, which is a carefully analyzed writing. However, now we have many clever police works, such as Lu Xun's Debate. This can prove that what I said is quite progressive.

China people's highest attitude towards speaking is forgetting words, but if Zen "teaches" people to "hang their mouths on the wall", speaking is inevitable. Secondly, be cautious, taciturn and speak slowly. There is a difference between these three: being careful in speaking means being careful in speaking, and naturally speaking less and making fewer mistakes.

Silence means talking less, which is a deep or quiet character or moral character. Speaking too slowly is unable to speak, which is a vigorous and upright character or moral character.

These two kinds are mostly generated. The third is rhetoric or rhetoric. A sincere gentleman, the power of personality penetrates all the haze, needless to say, and speaks without modification.

Only pay attention to decoration, full of hype, and the spear and halberd in the belly are looming, which is the so-called villain; He is too good at dressing up, which is unbelievable.

His trick will be exposed one day.

We are ordinary people in between. Without that great courage, we won't forget ourselves. We just can't ignore the world. We look at time, place and people, and modify our words with courtesy and interest. There is no strength here, only wit; Real power can't be gained by decoration. All we can hope is: talk less and talk more.