Fu Lei’s family letter

Parents love their children and have far-reaching plans

Nowadays, our fathers communicate with us through phone calls and WeChat. They will not be like the father in "Fu Lei's Family Letter". Communicate through letters. There is a sentence in Mr. Mu Xin's modern poem "Slow in the Past": "The sun has become slower in the past. Cars, horses, and mails are all slow. There is only enough time to love one person in a lifetime." From the letter written at Fu Lei's home, I can deeply feel the father's deep love for his son. love.

Fu Lei’s family letter is a letter written by Fu Lei to his son Fu Cong. It comprehensively displays Fu Lei’s artistic thoughts, life wisdom and educational concepts, and also vividly reflects Fu Lei’s sincerity and integrity.

Fu Lei’s Family Letter was written from 1954 to 1966, which has been decades ago. The social environment and ideological state have changed a lot, so some specific views in the book It is not completely in line with the times. Fu Lei also has some reflections on his more traditional and strict education methods. When I read this book, I mainly realized the inspiration brought to me by the author's outlook on life and art, and the sincere thoughts and feelings in the book are still timeless.

How to behave? How to be an artist? How to treat life? What I consider to be the three themes of these correspondences.

How to "be a human being" is something Fu Lei mentioned repeatedly in his letters. What Fu Lei calls "being a human being" is not "being a good person and treating others" in the traditional sense, but rather private and public ethics, with the goal of developing an outstanding personality. He always hoped that his son Fu Cong would become an artist with both ability and political integrity and outstanding personality, so he always emphasized that he should be a person first and an artist second. Regarding how to be a human being, Fu Lei put forward two key points, one is how to broaden the pattern and realm of life, and the other is how to deal with the setbacks and anguish of life.

Fu Lei believes that many performers can only play the works of certain composers, and they can only be called performers, not artists. What's the reason? It is because their minds are not broad enough, they cannot understand a broader artistic realm, and they cannot integrate changes in art, so their artistic expression will be limited. Therefore, only by first developing your personality and mind as much as possible and opening up your own spiritual garden can you understand any art form and become an artist who truly contributes to mankind.

So, how can we have a broad pattern? Fu Lei believes that the most important thing is sincerity. As a saying goes, no road can lead to sincerity, because sincerity is the road to everything. Fu Lei also said that sincerity is the first key to art. Most people who engage in art lack sincerity. This kind of sincerity is not something you talk about, but something you really feel. You must be able to put down your vanity and face yourself and understand others.

Fu Lei calls his sincerity to art and truth the "innocent heart". There is a famous saying in Fu Lei's family letter: "A naive child does not know loneliness. When a naive child is lonely, he will create a world." Only by always keeping the heart of a child and having a pure heart can you appreciate the souls of the predecessors and have moving artistic expressions. "A child who is alone will create a world." This sentence has become the most widely circulated famous saying in Fu Lei's family books.

How to deal with the setbacks and anguish in life? Fu Lei believes that the ups and downs of life are the norm. Everyone's life has ups and downs. Only mediocre people will have no waves and live like stagnant water. As long as you are not too excited at the peak and not too decadent at the trough, and pursue a relative balance, you will be in a better state.

Frustration and depression are something everyone will encounter. Fu Lei believes that it is necessary to distinguish between the depression of the "small self" and the depression of the "big self". Generally speaking, the depression of the ego is narrow-minded, harmful to oneself, and cannot be easily relieved. And the anguish of the greater self can be beneficial. What is the depression of the ego? It’s the anguish that stems from selfishness. This kind of depression is the most hurtful, such as longing for fame and fortune but not getting it, having the ambition to succeed but not being able to realize it, comparing yourself to others and being jealous and hating others. This kind of depression harms others and yourself. So what is the suffering of the greater self? It is the depression that arises from society and human welfare, such as the depression of worrying about the country and the people, because its starting point is justice and kindness, so even if it is depressed, it will not be harmful, but may inspire oneself to do some real things. contribution.

To treat depression correctly, you should transform your own personal depression into a lively and positive force, think more about life and macro issues, and see yourself as smaller, so that you can transcend the individual. Gains and losses, reduce worries about gains and losses, and keep yourself in a positive and happy state.

How to become an artist? Fu Lei provided an important formula: artistic accomplishment = artistic appreciation + artistic expression. A real artist must first have good art appreciation ability and be able to understand different artistic realms, and then have good artistic expression.

Art appreciation solves the problem of "comprehension". Fu Lei believes that the most important thing in art appreciation is "common knowledge". If you are clear-minded and not limited or pedantic, you can cultivate your pattern, vision and mind.

When Fu Lei discusses Western art with Fu Cong, he will also experience it from the perspective of the integration of Eastern and Western cultures. Some ideas in Eastern culture can sometimes make unique contributions to artistic understanding. Fu Lei believes that the best works of art often embody the idea of ??moderation. Romantic works can be gentle and charming, but not overly sweet, and should not give rise to evil thoughts or selfish desires; correspondingly, tragic works can be sentimental, but not overly weeping, and have a classical beauty. This kind of artistic conception is like our evaluation of "The Book of Songs". It is joyful but not obscene, sad but not sad. It is a kind of relaxed and appropriate beauty. You can also understand Western music from the artistic conception of Chinese classical literature. Fu Lei and Fu Cong, father and son, believe that Chopin's music style is both elegant and calm, similar to Li Bai's poems. It is a poetic realm. Although it has a transcendent atmosphere, it is not mysterious at all. Appreciating works similar to this across cultures and art forms is a kind of universal expression. This universal way can expand the understanding of works of art and allow people to try not to be pedantic or limited when appreciating works of art.

With artistic understanding as a prerequisite, artistic expression is a matter of course. Fu Lei and Fu Cong put forward a point of view when discussing artistic expression. There are two ways of artistic expression, horizontal communication and vertical communication. Horizontal communication is a penetrating method that flows into people's hearts unconsciously and subtly. Vertical communication is similar to a method of indoctrination, with the feeling of forcing others to accept it. In the form of penetration, the power is often large and lasting. This is what the Chinese call transformation. Transformation does not mean the absence of struggle, but rather the avoidance of violent struggles on the surface and the adoption of long-term, relatively gentle struggles.

Fu Lei believes that the best art is one that can not only make people feel strong emotions, but also make people experience rational restraint. The reason why the balance between emotion and reason is beautiful is because it is the best philosophy of life and the most exquisite art of life. Therefore, artists with excessive emotions must consciously control themselves and be able to control their emotions freely, rather than being controlled by their emotions in turn.

Many of the contents in Fu Lei’s family letters are common words spoken by his father to his son. These common words reflect Fu Lei’s life education for Fu Cong and also reveal his deep fatherly love. As the head of an artistic family, Fu Lei does not despise daily life. On the contrary, he attaches great importance to the art of life. Fu Lei said that most artists throughout the ages did not know how to live. This is not their glory, but their failure. Don't look down on the trivialities of life. The trivial content of life is the entire content of the art of living.

Regarding how to treat life, it mainly involves three topics, how to treat love and marriage, how to balance work and rest, and how to manage finances.

Fu Lei mentioned his views on love many times in his letters. He taught his son not to uphold the concept of love first, and never forget to be loyal to knowledge, art, and truth no matter how passionate the love is, as these always come before love. Both parties in love or marriage should not regard each other as their own world, but should realize the independence of personality, expand the world view, and try to focus on career, knowledge, and art, so that they can find each other's passion. Only by having the same fun can we maintain a longer-lasting and stable emotional relationship.

When it comes to marriage and love, one of the first problems we face is how to choose a partner. Fu Lei believes that the requirements for a lifelong partner, like all requirements in life, should not be too harsh. Everything has two sides. For example, a gentle person may sometimes appear cowardly, and a strong person may appear strong. Too many ideas can easily lead to unrealism, and the pragmatic housekeeper wife thinks they are too vulgar.

There are no advantages that are not accompanied by disadvantages. When asking for a partner, you still need to think carefully about which details can be ignored and which essential issues cannot be compromised. So, what are the essential issues that cannot be compromised? Fu Lei proposed that the most important things to consider in a lifelong partner are three things: one is intrinsic kindness, the other is gentleness of nature, and the third is open-mindedness. With these three, other aspects can be cultivated slowly.

Fu Lei believes that the most important thing in getting along with each other in marriage is to have the same ideals and views, face the shortcomings of oneself and the other party, and be tolerant and tolerant to each other. For example, are you and the other party basically consistent or not far apart in terms of thoughts and persistence in truth? This is the first thing to analyze clearly. The common ideals and enthusiasm of two people cannot be supported by a few empty words, but require long-term continuous irrigation and cultivation. Two people need continuous communication and dialogue in daily life, in which they implement each other's way of life, in order to reach an agreement and make progress together. At the same time, only by being fully tolerant, understanding, and often tolerant can two people withstand all storms in life and grow old together. Fu Lei said that the passion when love first comes is beautiful, but it never lasts. There are very few passionate lovers in the world who grow old together. People often say that the friendship between gentlemen is as light as water. It is also said that couples treat each other with respect like guests. This shows that only gentle and calm feelings can last. In the end, the relationship between partners should be a close friend, which is the so-called "life partner".

Fu Lei talks about the balance between work and rest, which is different from the perspective we usually talk about. He particularly emphasized that relying solely on music to cultivate music will not work. If you focus too much on the music itself to understand music, over time it will reduce the freshness of art, become abstract, closed, and lack the vitality of life. Therefore, he suggested that Fu Cong should go to parks, museums and art galleries more often in addition to his hard piano training, and relax his mind through plastic arts and nature. Fu Lei believes that the most important thing about reasonable arrangements for work and rest is to maintain psychological balance and health. Only by integrating into nature and often jumping out of your own cage can you breathe fresh air, find new feelings and perspectives, and inspire your understanding and feelings about art. In the same way, regularly appreciating plastic arts can adjust your own state and make musical expression richer and more vital.

Regarding financial management, Fu Lei said that artists often despise money, and Fu Cong is no exception. Fu Lei said to Fu Cong, of course we should not be misers, misers, pursue material things excessively, and be enslaved by money, but if an artist does not know how to treat money well, it is not something to be proud of. Because if an artist wants to maintain personal independence, it is only possible to establish practical financial security, so Fu Lei is particularly concerned about Fu Cong's material life. Fu Lei believes that looking down on money will not solve the problem. On the contrary, it will cause people to lose money and become a slave to material things because they do not pay attention to money. The material side of life is no less boring than the spiritual side. Paying attention to financial management, making plans, and summarizing a set of budget and final settlement methods are not the same thing as paying attention to material things. This is a preventive measure taken to avoid material losses, just like we maintain a regular routine in our daily lives, not to live a rigid and boring life, but to save more time and do more useful things. In the final analysis, handling the details of life is all about enjoying life more perfectly.