Only courtesy can be used to meet each other in the world - reading "Thousands of Rivers with Water and Thousands of Moons over the Rivers"

There is still half a year left in 2017, but I am almost certain that "Thousands of Rivers with Water and Thousands of Rivers with Moons" is my favorite book that I have read this year.

This is an autobiographical novel written in Tainan dialect, but most people do not regard it as a novel. It just borrows the shell of the novel to write about the rural life of the small fishing village of Budai Town. Folk Ecology is more like a folklore book. If the author wrote it in prose style, it would be shockingly beautiful.

Speaking of dialects, I think of "Flowers" (uncle! I can't help but curse the last sentence when I think of it). They are both dialect works, one uses Shanghainese and the other uses Minnan. In terms of language, "Flowers" made me angry and embarrassed, but "Thousands of Rivers with Water and Moons over Thousands of Rivers" made me unable to put it down.

When Zhenguan, the heroine in the book, first fell in love, she asked her grandmother what she looked like when she was a child. Was she good-looking or bad-looking? Grandma first told her, "What parents are born to do, how can they be evil? Every child is a flower!" Then she said, "Smart girls are born by fate but not by appearance." Zhenguan is the well-liked daughter of a big family who is loved by everyone. She is connected with the land, house and relatives where she was born. The word "Yuan" fully demonstrates the wisdom of Chinese. Yuan is omnipresent but elusive. Between people, between people and things, and between things, we all pay attention to the method of fate. The reason why this book is popular in a certain area is because it was born with a "destiny". Its skills are not very superb, and the story is not very exciting, but people who like it love it very much.

Due to language and food barriers, I have never been to Fujian, let alone Taiwan. Apart from being able to see the sea, I have no longing for southern Fujian. When I saw the first two pages of this book, I was still a little hesitant, "Hey, it's a book in Hokkien? Do you want to read on?" However, I was immediately attracted by the life of a big rural family. Even though there is a mountain of barriers between language and food, the village tradition is like an unbroken bloodline. What is even stranger is that even though it is Hokkien, I tried to pronounce it in my hometown dialect, and the pauses, rhymes, and accents of the sentences seemed to be the same. .

The beginning of the novel is a scene of everyone teasing children together, which is exactly the scene I lived in my hometown when I was a child. Immediately afterwards, the author listed a long list of relatives and a long list of children of the same generation. The only children would probably faint when they saw this, but I felt particularly kind because this is the situation in our family. My grandfather had seven brothers, and I grew up with dozens of brothers and sisters of the same generation. I am most familiar with the dense relationships in large families that live in groups.

I decided to read this book because I read "Parking Time" the day before. Many people compared the two books, and also mentioned the inheritance of "A Dream of Red Mansions". I finished reading "Parking Time". "Excuse me" When I watched "A Thousand Rivers Have Water, A Thousand Rivers and Moon" again, I couldn't help but exclaim, this is "A Dream of Red Mansions"! Not to mention the group portraits of big family life, just the etiquette of interactions between people is exactly the same as in "A Dream of Red Mansions".

There is a scene in the book about Zhenguan's cousins ????waiting for her grandmother when she gets up early: "The wives of Yinshan and Yinchuan, holding towels and basins, stood waiting for the old man to wash his face. After that, the two sisters-in-law Ruo carried a basin of water and went out, only to see Yincheng's wife coming in closely. Zhen looked at the small porcelain bowl in her hand and knew in her heart: She was here to express milk and eat it with grandma. "Although there is no one for Jia Mu to use!" The luxurious utensils, the pomp and the rules, how could it be worse than Jia's house?

The difference from "A Dream of Red Mansions" is that Cao Xueqin writes about all things in the world, including bright places and dirty things, while Xiao Lihong is dedicated to describing the peach blossom garden of her youth. There is no one in this book. There is no evil thing among evil people. The woman next door came to tell Yin Yue that someone had stolen their melons. Yincheng was furious when he heard this. The person who was angry was not the person who stole the melons, but the woman next door who came to tell them. He sternly warned the sisters "bad melons" There are many seeds, and bad people have many words; don’t listen to others and imitate others—" The family tradition is not to do evil things, speak evil words, or listen to evil voices. Even if you accidentally learn of any evil deeds, you will never tell others about them. The principle is to "avoid evil as enmity." As the saying goes, "If you starve to death, don't become a thief, and if you die without complaining," what should you do if you are stolen by a thief? The thief will naturally have his own difficulties. Why should anyone who is reduced to stealing food need to pursue him?

The world is unkind, only silence, patience and obedience can prevail.

The men and women of this family have never argued. The clan members who have been separated for many years come back to ask for land. The husband misunderstands that the wife did not change the child's diaper in time and blames her. Yinchan roasted oranges in the middle of the night to cure her grandmother's cough and was misunderstood by Zhenguan. Everyone did not join in. Breaking it down, there is not a single word of quarrel in the entire book, whether it is about a dead person or a thief. In the first chapter, Zhenguan's little cousin Yinxiang hid in the coffin of the coffin shop while playing hide-and-seek with his friends, and unfortunately suffocated to death. I thought at the time, this is serious, the deceased's family will definitely have to deal with the coffin shop. The people were in trouble, but they didn't. But when everyone was busy going to the clinic, the eldest aunt who was unique in Zhenguan stopped and did not go. She cried and asked her son to kneel down and beat him severely. If you take a few out, you have to bring a few back, you know! Without one Yinxiang, how can you see grandpa, grandma, fourth uncle, and fourth aunt?"

My uncle left his country for 30 years, left his wife and children at home, married a Japanese woman, and brought him back to his hometown. His first wife's aunt treated her step-wife as a benefactor (because she saved her husband when he was in trouble) , let the husband live with his second wife, and he still lives alone in the countryside, serving his mother-in-law until he is old, and then he sacrifices himself to become a monk to fulfill his vow.

This kind of generous and humble folk custom can generally be regarded as a virtue, but some parts can also be regarded as dross, such as the superiority of men to women and blind filial piety, which are all summarized in this book as the affection between relatives. Zhenguan thought of the hard work of A-Jin and her cousins-in-law, "They can cook three meals for one person and one family for a whole life, every meal, for a month, for ten years, without complaining. It turns out that they have so much affection in their hearts; Because of the affection, I didn’t have to say anything, and I didn’t refuse at all costs! "Under the overall view of the family’s harmony, we will never support the assertion of personal interests. Zhenguan hated his cousin Hui'an because he left his widowed mother to study in the United States alone. He did not accept him again until his cousin took his second aunt to the United States for retirement. This kind of interpersonal relationship that does not distinguish between you and me can sometimes be confusing, and sometimes it can also be touching. As soon as Zhenguan's father passed away, the second aunt, who had been widowed for many years, quietly moved in to keep company with Zhenguan's mother, because she had been there. When Zhenguan's uncle Yi Jin returned home and everyone was happy, only the second aunt accompanied Zhenguan's mother and cried bitterly in the back room. Zhenguan fell in love and fell ill. Yin Chan was heartbroken and burst into tears. Zhenguan decided to resign and return to her hometown. She went to buy a ticket without saying a word. In short, the two sisters could not be separated. If we didn't have such dear brothers and sisters, how could we survive the many pains in life.

Another flaw in the book is love. The recommendation for this book is "a classic of contemporary love literature that has been popular in Taiwan for 25 years", so it has attracted some unjust negative reviews. First of all, the proportion of love in the book is too small. Secondly, the love story in this book is indeed not well written, especially the ending is handled very poorly. This whole relationship is like the appendix of this book, which can be completely removed. However, since it is an autobiographical novel, of course, this first love is an inseparable part of the author's life, and she obviously wants to use this emotional story to strengthen the logic of life in Budai Town - Daxin because of Zhenguan He informed his family about his illness in the army, which made his family worried, so they broke up resolutely. Maybe this is a reason for breaking up that is unbelievable to people today, but in the logic of Budai Town, it is established. , is established throughout this book.

Although the male protagonist Daxin was born in Taipei, he yearns for the classical beauty contained in the traditional culture of the fishing village of Budai Town. He was in love with Zhenguan, but he never talked about love. He only talked about the feelings of family and country by quoting scriptures, and his exports were "Book of Rites" and "Zhuangzi". When I read the author's description of Daxin as "exactly the gentleman in ancient records, he is a simple, capable, smart, and honest man", I thought of a friend who calls himself an old-school literary and artistic young man. He looks like someone in a Japanese drama. Naoki Hansawa loves his wife, tolerates his friends, cherishes his career, forgives his opponents, and would rather hurt himself than hurt others. It's a pity that there are fewer and fewer such classic men.

What I like about this book is not how advanced its technology and values ??are, but how accurately it restores the rural life of observing rituals and ancient times. The language in the book is simple and unpretentious, without the craftsmanship of "Parking and Borrowing Questions". Some people joked that Hu Lancheng would be like this if he wrote novels. It's really interesting. "Stop and Ask" inherits Zhang Ailing's legacy, while "A Thousand Rivers Have Water and A Thousand Rivers Moon" is similar to Hu Lancheng.

I like this work very much, but I also understand other people’s dislike. Just like "Flowers", which I hate, it actually has countless fans.

Literary works with this kind of atmosphere are destined to be blocked by experience, because the accumulated life experiences handed down from generation to generation under different life modes are quite different. Don’t be afraid of everyone’s jokes. When I first left my hometown to live in the city, I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t spit anywhere, step on the lawn, or climb trees... The relationship between urban residents was cold and restrained, but in the countryside, clans Kinship brings people together. No matter what era it is, the cooperation and mutual assistance of urban residents is reflected in social welfare undertakings. In rural areas, people work with nature, relying on the mountains and the sea. The only people they can rely on are each other, whether they are farmers or farmers. It is impossible for fishermen to fight alone. In our hometown, several families raise a farm cow together, and we work together on festivals and weddings. Although it is not as beautiful as the village in the book, some etiquette is similar. For example, when Zhenguan sends food to the neighbors, the plate will never come back empty. When I was a child, whenever meat dishes were cooked at home, they must be divided. Give a bowl to the neighbor Grandma Six, who will also give some food in return. In short, don't leave the plate empty.

There are fewer and fewer villages like this, and it is increasingly rare to see such people. I will never be able to write such a beautiful work, but it is a blessing to be able to read it. It's a beautiful thing for you to see. The people in the book, the people who write the books, the people who read the books, the people who write the book reviews, the people who read the books and review the books, are also like the water of a thousand rivers reflecting the moon of a thousand rivers. Thinking of that friend like Daxin, I really hope he is happy. I only hope that generations of people here will be endless, and the moon and river will look the same every year.