The original text and appreciation of classics, fables, carpenters and painters

The original text and appreciation of classics, fables, carpenters and painters

There used to be a wooden teacher in Tianzhu, North China. She is a wooden girl, upright and incomparable, and her clothes are strictly decorated, just like other women. Come and go, you can also drink and watch the guests, but you can't talk. At that time, there was a painter in Tianzhu who was also good at painting. The woodcutter heard this, prepared a sumptuous meal and invited a painter. When the painter arrived, he made the shepherdess eat and drink from morning till night. The painter doesn't know, so he is a real woman, and he is eager to remember. Over time, the woodcutter stayed in the hut, and the painter ordered him to stop so that the woodcutter could stand on his side. A casual guest said, "Therefore, I can be with this woman." The master has entered, and the shepherd girl stands beside the lamp and calls, but the woman can't come. The guest said that the woman was shy and didn't come, so she took it with her hand and knew it was wood. He said shamefully, "My master scolded me, and I should repay him." So it is convenient for the painter to reproduce, that is, to draw his own image on the wall, and the clothes he wrote looked like hanging with a rope, just like his body, and also drew flies and birds pecking at his mouth. Do it yourself, close the door and get under the bed. At dawn, the host went out and saw that the door was not open. He just looked in the middle and saw only the guests hanging on the wall. When the master is afraid, it is called true death, that is, breaking the door and breaking the rope with a knife. Then, the painter came out from under the bed, and Teacher Mu was ashamed. The painter immediately said, "If you can tell me, I can tell you that the host and the guest are in love." -The two said: "The chaos in the world is endless!"

This article is selected from Miscellaneous Analects.

Miscellaneous Comments on the Analects of Confucius, also known as Miscellaneous Comments on Various Classics, was translated by Kumarajiva, a famous translator at the end of Qin Dynasty. The old topic "A Brief Collection of the Path of Monks". Because it is the same collection of classics and Miscellaneous Notes on the Analects of Confucius, it is also called Miscellaneous Notes on the Analects of Confucius by various classics, which is different from the two volumes of Miscellaneous Notes on the Analects translated by Anonymous and the one volume of Miscellaneous Notes on the Analects translated into Chinese later. Like other fables, this is also an anthology of fables (including fables) compiled from various Buddhist scriptures.

Woodworkers and Painters is a vivid and humorous fable. Two talented artists, the woodcutter and the painter, deceived each other and reached the point where the fake was confused with the real.

The carpenter made a beautiful and incomparable wooden girl, and after dressing her up, she was "no different from the world"; Besides being unable to speak, they can also perform other simple actions, especially the robots nowadays. From this aspect, we can see that the ancient Indian people were extremely intelligent. Unfortunately, this skillful craftsman tried to deceive people with this work of art. When he heard that there was a famous painter in South India, he wanted to see the painter's jokes. He invited the painter to drink and eat, and let the shepherd girl accompany him. This "honest and unparalleled" wooden girl, which is no different from a "world girl", makes the painter very eager. This is the purpose of carpenters. At the latest, the owner, who knew the painter's scheming, left the guests around Mu Girl, so he made a joke. Although the painter was ashamed, he was not convinced, so he also designed it to repay his master. He painted himself as a foodie on the wall, so lifelike that when the master saw this painting in the morning, he thought that the painter was really dead. "Breaking the door, breaking the rope with a knife", the painter got out from under the bed and realized that he was cheated. At this point, both of them have achieved their goals. In the words of the painter, "the host respects the guest by cheating, and the guest retaliates by cheating, even to each other, and no one owes anyone."

The theme of this article is reflected in the final "conformity, which is different from this". This sentence has two meanings: first, the secular world is full of intrigue and people cheat each other. Secondly, the means of deceiving each other between people is extremely clever, just like these two carpenters and painters.

Buddhism believes that the world is full of painful deception between people; Snakes, insects, birds and beasts eat the jungle; An ugly old man; A tossing and turning patient; Relatives and friends cried for the dead at the funeral. At that time, Prince Siddhartha, the Sudoku king, had the idea of becoming a monk just because he witnessed the paintings of these lives fighting and killing each other, and finally gave up the throne and became a monk. After years of hard work, I finally achieved a positive result and became a Buddha. He is the founder of Buddhism-Sakyamuni Buddha.

The mission of Buddha is to help all sentient beings. He wants to extradite all the suffering beings in this world to the pure land of western bliss. There are countless merits and solemn deeds, countless bodhisattvas, lecture halls, elegant houses, palaces, buildings, precious trees and pools in the country, all of which are solemn and have seven treasures, subtle and rigorous, and all kinds of geisha music perform naturally, all of which are French sounds. The people there are smart and rigorous in appearance. However, all kinds of happiness, without pain, can lead to the right path of Buddhism. How can there be "confusion"?

This article cleverly satirizes the hypocritical real world through the narrative of mutual deception between carpenters and painters.

Of course, this theme has a certain religious content. But if we remove the color of this layer of religious propaganda, we will find that both the content and the art form are desirable.

First of all, this wonderful fable of deception between people is actually a profound revelation of the social phenomenon existing in the slave society of ancient India at that time, and it also has certain educational significance in real life. Secondly, in terms of artistic form, it is very successful in characterization. The excellent artistic skills and clever deception of the two artists are vividly and meticulously described and vividly displayed to the readers. Mr Ji Xianlin once said, "The Indian people are very imaginative. Since ancient times, they have created many absurd and educational myths, fables and fairy tales. In terms of myth creation, they are no less than the ancient Greeks, but in terms of fable and fairy tale creation, they are above the Greeks. " (See the preface to the five-volume Chinese translation) Woodworkers and painters can illustrate this point well. Through this fable, we can not only learn something about ancient Indian society, but also learn many useful lessons from it, and understand the superb artistic skills of the Indian people in creating myths, fables and fairy tales.