Zhong Shuhe's essay "The Firefly Reflects the Snow"

The firefly in the bag reflects the snow

"The firefly in the bag reflects the snow" is an allusion to describe two models of reading in ancient times. The protagonist of "Nang Ying" is Che Yin 1,600 years ago. "Book of Jin·Che Yin's Biography" says about him:

A poor family does not often get oil, but Xia Yue practices Nang Sheng for dozens of years. The fireflies illuminate the book and keep up the day and night. ... He is well-known for his humble erudition.

The protagonist of "Yingxue" is Sun Kang, seventeen hundred years ago. "Shangyoulu" said:

He was young and eager to learn, and his family was poor and had no oil. Taste reading in Yingxue... After becoming a royal official, he became a censor.

Books say this, and scholars have said this for more than a thousand years, but can the firefly Yingxue really replace the oil lamp and illuminate the book in the dark for people to read?

According to Fabre, who wrote "Insects": "Although the light of a firefly is bright, its illumination power is quite weak. If you take a firefly and move it over a line of text, you can see it in the dark. Each letter, or the whole word, if it is not too long, but nothing can be seen outside this small space. Such lighting will make readers lose their patience. "Zhou Zuoren in the article "Fireflies". Quoting Fabre's words and comparing it with "The Biography of Che Yin", the conclusion is:

This Nang Yingzhao has become a beautiful story among scholars. It has been spread far and wide. It has been passed down probably since the Tang Dynasty, but it has nothing to do with it. Comparatively speaking, the words of "Insects" above are quite ridiculous. It is said that there are dozens of fireflies, how many fluorescent lights can there be, even if they are available, if you spend time catching them during the day, then try hard at night, it is not in vain, and there are always wind and rain, it is impossible.

The cowhide is considered to be exposed.

I have not tried "Nang Ying", but I have tried "Yingxue" naively. It was during the Fourth Battle of Northern Hunan. I was in the second grade of junior high school, and I fled to the mountains with my school. We had an oil lamp for each of us to study at night. Once I got a copy of "The Scholars" and wanted to finish it in a hurry, so I put on a scarf and stood under the moonlight on the snow. Although there was a "bright moon shining on the snow", the words in the novel could only be read no matter how hard I tried. I vaguely recognized a few simple strokes, but finally couldn't finish reading, so I could only go back to my room and get into the cold bed to be a good student.

However, such "big talk" that beautifies "model figures" is used by fathers and teachers to teach their children, but they have been taught consistently for hundreds of thousands of years, and no one has ever exposed it. It wasn't until the end of the Ming Dynasty that there was a "Foolish Master". In the joke book he wrote, he made a joke with these two idols. What he said was:

In the summer, Sun Kang went to see Che Yin, but Che Yin was not there. Reading at home. When asked where he had gone, his relatives replied: "I went to catch fireflies in the wild." In winter, Che Yin went back and forth to see Sun Kang. From afar, he saw Sun standing outside the door, looking up at the sky for a long time. He walked over and asked, "Why don't you study?" The answer was, "Today, it doesn't look like it's going to snow."

It makes people laugh.

Having accumulated thousands of years of experience, I know that it is futile to destroy idols enshrined on the shrine, and it may be dangerous, so I can only imitate the "foolish master" and talk about it. It's a joke, it's harmless, and it can somewhat vent the anger that's been brewing in my heart.

(February 2005)