Zhong Shuhe's essay "Still Smelling Blue Lights"

A few years ago, I wrote a short essay "Blue Lantern" and copied a Dongpo book at the beginning, of course, according to my own "reading" method. There are less than 600 words in the article with "copywriting", but it has been revised several times, and the more it is changed, the worse it is, so it is still the first draft:

"At the end of the year, the weather is getting colder and colder, windy and rainy, and I can't go out. Even if there is nothing particularly unpleasant, I will inevitably feel sad for no reason. Only in the dead of night, light an oil lamp under the paper window of the bamboo building, let the green light illuminate the opened pages, and read a few lines of your favorite words at will, and your mood will gradually get better. Gradually, I will feel that I have my own interests in living alone, but unfortunately no one can enjoy it with * * *, and I can only enjoy it alone. -If you know, you will also smile at me. "

The above is Dongpo's inscription "Exhibition with Mao Wei" (as I see it).

It is admirable for a scholar to write about his own reading life, such as Song Lian's self-narration and hard study, and Gu's ostentation and erudition, but it is not easy for people to feel cordial. "Pure literature" works, such as Green Grass at the Window, are not as melodramatic as Dongpo's few words, and can break the silence by writing at night.

Dongpo said "the light is green", and later a poem in Lu Fangweng said "the green light smells like childhood". It's hard to imagine such a state under the electric light now. During the eight years of Anti-Japanese War, I have been living in Pingjiang countryside, and reading at night depends entirely on oil lamps. If you use clear oil (tea seed oil or rapeseed oil), the outer flame will appear blue-green, just like when the temperature is perfect. The brightness of three wicks is slightly equal to that of ten candles, and it is just right to read woodcut seals. Unfortunately, at that time, I was not qualified to read the complete works of Dongpo. I've only read a few of his "ancient prose" in Wen Chun in Tang and Song Dynasties, and I'm not as impressed as my essays. Shi Yinben's old novels fell under the lamp with glossy paper and stole a lot. The fine print of ox hair, which is thinner than seven characters, hurt a pair of eyes, which made him have to wear a pair of nearsighted glasses when he went to high school in the city after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War.

The last sentence of "The Green Light: Smelling Childhood" is "White hair mercilessly invades the old year", which is a couplet in Weng Fang's poem "Reading two drums in autumn night for the festival". This poem describes an old man's deep memory. He thinks everything in his childhood is delicious, even at night. In fact, what the ancients wanted to see when they were young may not be lighted, and the evening self-study classes that parents and teachers have to attend may not be interesting. In another poem, Weng Fang himself admitted that "when I was young, I turned the volume to sleep"?

There are two sentences in the eighth continuation of Zhou Zuoren's Kucha Temple doggerel: "It may not be more expensive than black rice, but it still smells like the Green Lantern." Later, it was extended in Reading under the Lamp: "I once said reading instead of smoking ... Now books are expensive, but they are definitely much cheaper than floor stickers." The so-called "earth paste" is opium smoke, that is, "black rice" in the sentence, and it is also a helpless pastime. Zhou went on to say that "reading is the most suitable pastime", but reading "has neither any benefit nor much happiness, and only a little knowledge is obtained, and knowledge is bitter, at least knowledge is always a little bitter", but "in any case, loneliness is always inevitable, and only those who can stand loneliness can learn from it".

I like The Blue Lantern because it reflects loneliness. Of course, the best description of this is Dongpo's original text, "The year has passed, the wind and rain are bleak, the paper windows and bamboo buildings are bright, and it is less interesting to have you." After reading it under the light, it said, "This scene is really interesting. Generally this kind of lamp is a desk lamp. It is filled with clear oil, and the wick is used as a wick. The light is very cold and has the meaning of green fluorescence, which is suitable for reading and entertainment. " It's really profound. You always have to go through the hardships of life to realize this situation and find a good interest from loneliness, but loneliness is still lonely, because only you can enjoy this good interest.

Now even kerosene lamps have become collectibles, and ancient oil lamps have long since disappeared. Glass windows in cement buildings have replaced bamboo houses with paper windows. Living in it is almost completely isolated from nature, and you can't feel a little sad beauty when it is windy and rainy. Green light can only exist in your memory.

However, blue light is not only the light with the meaning of "green fluorescence". As I said in Blu-ray, it's real, and I've seen it before. During the eight-year Anti-Japanese War, I lived in the mountains in the north of Hunan, where there was no electric light, and the foreign oil used by the squire was also cut off at this time. The villagers are still lighting with "fir trees" (pine fragments full of rosin), and school self-study and night reading at home rely on an oil lamp. If you use abundant local tea seed oil, light two or three white wicks and cut them off at any time after the snuff is knotted, the upper part of the flickering lamp flame in Ran Ran will show a blue-green brilliance. Usually, we use charcoal to keep warm in a dark room. When the combustion is extremely vigorous, the blue-green color of the flame will be extremely bright. This "perfect" color is the color of the blue lantern.

Two students near the desks in the school have a lamp. The lamp holder is made of bamboo and there is an oil storage tile lamp on it. A dozen or twenty lights in each class are hung in a row on the wall opposite the blackboard. At the beginning of evening self-study, pick them up and light them, and put them between two desks. The light is low and bright, the one sitting on the right side of the light is better, and the one sitting on the left side is more bitter. Jealousy often happens among students.

The tea oil stored in the earthen lamp should have been pure, but the general affairs director was afraid that the students would pour it into the fried cold rice and ask people to mix tung oil or even the "oil foot" of tung oil, so the smoke was rolling, the lights were dim, it was no longer green, and it gave off an unpleasant smell. There is no "good taste" at this time. In addition, instructors patrol from time to time and are not allowed to read idle books outside their homework. In particular, it is even more difficult to be forced to recite nonsense such as "knowing shame and then being brave", and the self-taught * * * is slow to ring.

When I was only fourteen years old, I dropped out of school because of the third battle in northern Hunan. At this time, I can understand a little classical Chinese. I accidentally found a pile of towel boxes and notebook novels upstairs in the old house and read them under my oil lamp every night. The fine print of the book is also small. When you are tired, your eyes will naturally turn to the light in front of you, only to see a beautiful blue-green flame beating constantly, like a living thing. Looking at it, you will be lost in thought unconsciously, your heart will wander above, and he will look for green void and yellow spring below, especially after reading the beautiful stories of Ying Ning and Huang Ying. Until the wind messed up the bamboo and wood in front of the door, or it was raining and snowing, or someone was walking outside the window, a rustling sound called me back to the book. The roaming there stopped and the story here was connected again.

Some stories in note novels make people nervous and even feel horrible. At this time, blue light will add strange colors. If a breeze blows into the room, the huge figure on the wall behind him will shake and become a foreign body described in the book, his hair will stand on end and his heart will beat faster. But most stories always give me a sense of freshness and happiness, as well as the natural reverie when I first met people. It should be said that my psychological and physical enlightenment and awakening began under the blue light of my hometown, although at that time I was far from reaching the realm of reading at night and could not understand the bitterness in the book.

In a word, the blue light gives me a feeling, although it is a little chilly, but it is still mild most of the time. Let me begin to realize the "good taste" of reading and accept the light and heat of life. Although more than 60 years have passed, life under the blue light still has a taste. In my heart, this lamp will never go out.

(August 2006)