Temple of Heaven Haruka-

Editor's note:

Tiantan Park is a recreational place frequented by Xiao Fosun, a famous writer. He often goes there for walking and painting, and is keen to talk with fellow travelers to learn about the changes of seasons and life patterns. This edition publishes a group of Haruka in the Temple of Heaven recently created by him for readers.

Early spring morning

As long as the epidemic situation eases slightly, there will be more and more people in the Temple of Heaven. From this perspective, people's mood, the Temple of Heaven, is no better than nucleic acid testing.

In early spring and February, the weather gets warmer. Although the flowers are not blooming and the leaves are not green, the earth and atmosphere are transpiration after all, especially in the morning, people who leave early enter the Temple of Heaven one after another.

There are many vines in the Temple of Heaven, which are brown and white. Under the vines, it is generally the world of Beijingers. There is a brown rattan frame on the west side of the playground. In front of the rattan frame is a large clearing with several chairs around it. As soon as forsythia suspensa and Jasminum nudiflora bloom, the leaves of shrubs turn green, and the vines are covered with purple doodles, which is an independent small garden.

I'm not late. There are already three people here. The largest number of people, in the open space in the south, are more than a dozen dancing aunts, dancing with the music played by the tape recorder, uniformly repeating it over and over again, and enjoying themselves tirelessly. They all wear sweaters on the top and skirts on the bottom. Sweater and skirt are not the same color, they are very bright. The chair next to me is full of backpacks, cups and coats. There are two clothes hangers next to the chair, and several faucet hooks extend out. The hook is covered with a coat and scarf. Those coats and scarves are also very bright, like flowers in spring. Looking around, it is gray and not pleasing to the eye, and it is painted with the color of spring in advance.

The second wave, inside and outside the vines in the north of the open stoping, is an old man and an old woman playing cards. According to local conditions, people sit in the chair under the rattan frame, and the cards are left in the middle of the chair with a piece of cloth; Outside, I brought a full set of guys. People sit on Mazar-e, have meetings head to head, and surround small folding tables like garlic cloves. Playing cards fly around in your hands, jumping on chairs or folding tables, falling like birds one after another, occasionally hearing one or two shouts, and soon becoming quiet. Compared with the dancing music over there, it is a static and dynamic contrast.

The third dial is at the west exit of the open stope, where there is a tunnel with some flowers and trees in front and Beitianmen in front. When the leaves are thick in spring and summer, you can't see Beitianmen from here. In the early spring, you can see clearly in the corner of the green-topped red wall of Xitianmen, and you can also see one and a half doors. Between the two doors, the golden Chinese knot hung during the Spring Festival is faintly visible.

Many people gathered there. I walked over and saw everyone watching a young girl painting oil paintings. Painting is the corner of Beitianmen in front of thinning branches. The easel is supported on the grass beside the aisle. The girl holds a brush in one hand and a simple tin box of paint in the other. The Beitianmen on the screen has been clearly formed, and the sky is particularly blue. Because of the bright colors of red walls, green roofs and Chinese knots, the dead branches are not so bleak, but a bit like many small hands touching the North Tianmen, filled with the breath of early spring. While polishing the details, the girl carefully outlined the cornices of Beitianmen and the gray walls and green tiles of the interior walls connected with the red walls. Everyone who saw it said it was really good and really liked it! People who don't talk, with sparkling eyebrows, express the same meaning.

I go in from Beitianmen, turn to Huajiamen, turn to Shuanghuan Pavilion, and turn along the inner wall. It's almost noon when I get back here. Both groups of people dancing and playing cards broke up. Only the girl is still standing in front of the easel, drawing her "North Tianmen". There are still a few young people watching and enjoying it.

A man came over and looked at his uniform. He works in Tiantan Park. He glanced at the painting and said to me, I haven't finished it yet! I said to him: how nice! He said: Yes! I came yesterday morning and painted all day!

The sunshine in early spring jumped on the picture, plating it with a faint golden color.

The carer pushes the wheelchair.

In the Temple of Heaven, there are more patients or elderly people in wheelchairs than in other parks. Probably the Temple of Heaven is in the city with convenient transportation. Besides the steps in the prayer hall, most of them are flat, and there are many tree-lined places to facilitate wheelchair movement, parking and rest.

But Beihai Park is also in the city, and the traffic is very convenient. Most of them are flat. Why do you see fewer wheelchairs than the Temple of Heaven? On second thought, the Temple of Heaven is surrounded by residential areas, which are tightly wrapped around the Temple of Heaven like a thousand layers of cakes. It is very convenient for people nearby to go to the Temple of Heaven, even just across the road, so they regard the Temple of Heaven as their back garden. It is the best choice for the elderly or patients in wheelchairs to come to the Temple of Heaven to bask in the sun and breathe fresh air.

I found this phenomenon when I went to the Temple of Heaven. Whenever I see a wheelchair passing by, I will pay special attention to it. I can't help but feel that living at the foot of the son of heaven is a blessing.

One afternoon, on the south side of the tunnel from Xitianmen to Danbi Bridge, I saw many wheelchairs gathered here one after another as agreed. The warm sun in spring is particularly warm, hitting them and wheelchairs and drawing bright light and shadow outlines.

Few people came in wheelchairs by themselves, most of them were pushed by people, some were family members, and some were hired nannies. They all know each other very well. They greeted each other with a smile, and their parents had a brief chat. Obviously, they often come here. The Temple of Heaven became their public living room.

A young man leaned over and said a word to the old man in the wheelchair. When he saw that the chair was empty, he came to sit down beside me. I looked at him. He is in his thirties. He is not tall, but he has beautiful eyes. I asked him: Are you an old man? ...

The young man said: I am his care worker.

I'm a little strange. When you go out for a walk in a wheelchair like this, you usually need a nanny. I haven't heard that you need a nurse. Nannies are paid by the month, and nursing workers are paid by the day, which is much more expensive.

The young man saw my doubts and said to me: The old man had a major operation in the hospital. You know, because of the epidemic, the patient was hospitalized and had to hire a nurse. The hospital arranged for me to be a care worker for the elderly. I stayed in the hospital for more than half a month. The old man saw that I cared about him. Let me follow him home and continue to be a nurse when I leave the hospital.

I said: how much does the old man have to spend according to the number of days!

The young man said: the old man is not short of money. He has two sons, one is abroad and the other is in Beijing. They all run their own companies and are very rich.

I asked him: what is the price of nursing workers now?

He told me: we are all under the control of the company now. The hospital is in contact with our company. If you need a nurse, you can call the company. The company will send someone. Company expense per person per day: 260 yuan, give us care workers 190 yuan.

The company deducted 70 yuan, equivalent to more than a quarter of the salary.

It is not bad to find this job in Beijing. Also manage to eat and control, well done, the patient is satisfied, and the patient's family can also give some money privately.

The young man showed a very satisfied expression on his face and said to me, it's not bad to come to the old man's house. Every day, he has a guarantee. After leaving the hospital, he recovered well. He cooks at home and his wife does. I just take care of the old man's daily life, take him to the hospital for reexamination regularly, and push him here for a walk every day. This job is not tiring. In the company, if there is no work to do, there is no salary.

The young man told the truth, and I said to him: You are lucky to find a family like the old man!

The young man nodded again and again and said, yes! Yes! The old man is a kind person and is very kind to me. When I was in hospital, he asked me how much I earned, just like you. He knows that the company has not insured us against three risks, and if I have to spend some money myself, I will definitely insure myself against three risks. I didn't understand either, so he told me why I had to take three insurances and how to take three insurances, which was quite concerned.

The old man over there is chatting with people, and the more I talk to the young people, the more I talk. I know, the old man lives near the East Gate of the Temple of Heaven. When the weather is fine, he pushes the old man to the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon, and it is better to get together and chat with everyone than to be depressed at home.

Old men and women who come to the Temple of Heaven are grouped. The young man told me about his discovery of pushing the old man to the Temple of Heaven.

I said to him: Really? Tell me!

Exercise is a wave, usually gathered in the east gate of the sports ground; Dancing is a wave, usually gathered under the poplar trees in the north gate; Ring-throwing is generally under the tree on the west side of the promenade; Playing the piano is a wave, usually in the shade of cypress; People who occasionally get together to eat, drink and take pictures are usually in the Shuanghuan Pavilion ... People in wheelchairs usually come here to get together at this time of the afternoon.

The young man is very proud of his statement. Indeed, the Temple of Heaven is a big place. Let's find our own Le Er. I think, in addition to hobbies, such a wave naturally arises, mainly because of age and health, especially the old people in wheelchairs who come here are all in the same boat, and have no established or deliberate factors such as status and reputation in other places. The disease eliminated these things. Except the color and price of wheelchairs are different, wheelchairs have become a symbol of equality. Especially those old people who came back from the line of life and death suddenly saw that the end of life was just around the corner. The feeling of sitting in a wheelchair is very different from that of sitting on a sofa before. Wheelchairs can also help you reduce the weight of money desire, eliminate identity anxiety, and even lower the expectations of children who are far from thirsty. Sitting in a wheelchair, everyone looks generally tall, and the splendid blue tile roof of the Hall of Prayer for the New Year is out of sight in the distance. I can't see it. It's nothing. When we talk together, we can have happiness that can't be found elsewhere and appreciate each other in illness and aging.

Young people often push old people to the Temple of Heaven. The old man is happy and can see the scenery. If he hadn't been a care worker for the elderly, he wouldn't have been to the Temple of Heaven and didn't want to visit it.

The young man told me that he is 46 years old this year. I didn't expect this. I was surprised and said, where did you get so old? I thought you were over 30!

He said to me: I have two children, the eldest is 20 and the second is 13.

The young man is from Zhumadian, Henan. He worked as a nurse in Beijing for seven years and hasn't been home for more than a year. I want to go home, but I'm afraid I can't come back. Anyway, working as a care worker in Beijing makes more money than in my hometown, and the whole family depends on him to make money.

He said these words to me and sighed softly.

He waved to greet him. He stood up and walked to the old man, and the sun shone on him through the sparse branches. In the backlight, long shadows were left on the ground, interwoven with mottled tree shadows.

A professor basking in the sun

At noon, the kiosks on both sides are the most popular. After beginning of spring, the weather is getting warmer and warmer, the sunshine is warm, and the vision is wide. Many old people sit in long chairs in pavilions and corridors, just like old cats, lazily basking in the sun, eating and taking a nap, or squinting at the past, secretly cursing those wicked people who hate their teeth.

At noon that day, I was sitting in the Shuanghuan Pavilion painting when I suddenly heard a song, which was "Three Cars". The voice is rich and Russian, so I can't help looking back. The singer sitting in the corridor actually knows him, surrounded by people, applauding him. I went over, greeted him and shook hands with him. The Temple of Heaven is a big place with many people. It is not very likely that people who meet by chance will meet for the second time in the Temple of Heaven.

A few days ago at noon, I also painted in Shuanghuan Pavilion and met him. At that time, I was talking to another strange man He bent down to look at my paintings and praised me again and again: I knew at a glance that you drew well and practiced sketching ... Before that, I could modestly say that I had never practiced sketching at all, and he couldn't say anything, then he said to me: I like this, too, but it's not painting, it's calligraphy!

I quickly praised him: then you are too powerful!

While talking, a tall man came down from the corridor. He pointed to the tall man and said, "I'm a professor!"

Chatting together, knowing that they often come here to bask in the sun, we gradually got to know each other. His family lives in Shazikou, and the professor lives in Songjiazhuang, not far from the Temple of Heaven. He bent down and said with a smile, basking in the sun here is better than anywhere else! Then he asked me how old I was. I asked him to guess, and he said, not as big as me anyway. I asked him how old he was, and he said he was 67. The professor has been listening to us, when he interrupted me and said, you see, you are not as big as me. I asked him how old he was. He said that he was born in 50 years. I said, my 47 years. ...

We three little old men are older than anyone in this warm winter sun, just like people who peed far in a game when they were young, full of childhood innocence.

When the 67-year-old man left, the professor suddenly asked me sharply: Are you studying liberal arts?

I nodded.

He went on to say: My major is engineering and forging. Then he asked me: which university did you graduate from?

I told him it was the Central Academy of Drama. Without waiting for me to speak again, he went on to talk about himself, as if he had no chance to say it just now, so that he could think about it quickly: I graduated from Jilin University and taught at Shijiazhuang University of Technology. This allows me to ask him: Did you go to Shijiazhuang after graduation? He waved his hand: no, I'll go to the third-line factory to do the design first ...

At this point, he suddenly paused, and then changed the subject: professor, that is to say, it is useless to have a good reputation. Dude, you can't keep changing jobs. It's good to work in one place for a long time. Like a classmate of mine, I have been designing in Shanghai, and now my annual salary is 300 thousand. My other classmate, like me, retired, still engaged in design in the original unit, and he can earn 15 thousand a month without retirement salary.

I advised him: Don't say that, being in a good mood is as useful as making money!

He said: that is! When I started talking in class, I forgot my age and everything, and I was in a particularly good mood.

We have been sitting on the bench in the corridor, talking face to face. He speaks fast and jumps. He has experienced the ups and downs of his life. In his mind, he suddenly felt a little sorry for his life.

Suddenly, he said he studied Russian and asked me what I studied. I told him that he studied English. The words sound just fell and he suddenly stood up like a whirlwind. Heita stood in front of me, blurted out at once, and read a long Russian aloud. The voice was loud and powerful, rich and loud, like thunder on the ground, which scared me. He doesn't look at me, no matter whether I understand or not, his eyes are fixed on the front, and a forest outside the promenade is gloomy. He was full of passion, and the echo echoed in the quiet corridor in the afternoon.

At the end of the recitation, he told me that Gorky's Hai Yan was recited. Then, he emphatically added: Macsimovici Gorky.

Paper-cut girl

On March 8, the highest temperature rose to 17 degrees, and there were many people in Tiantan Park. Think about it, the epidemic lasted for another year. A few days ago, before and after the Spring Festival, outbreaks occurred repeatedly in several communities in Beijing, and few people went out. Now that spring has finally come, I have to relax my pent-up mood. Only in the Temple of Heaven can I see so many women, even though some of them are not young, dressed up beautifully, holding flower scarves and thongs and posing for photos everywhere.

When I walked to the dressing table of Danbiqiao, I saw a group of young women standing opposite, all dressed in bright and beautiful clothes, each with a paper clip in his hand. Only one man, like Hong Changqing in women soldiers, stood in front of them, waving his arms and saying something loudly.

I'm a little curious. There are many people in the Temple of Heaven today, all in groups of three or five, or walking alone. I have never seen so many people get together. It seems to be a group activity to celebrate their festival today. I don't know what the activity is, the clip in everyone's hand, like the flower in everyone's hand in group gymnastics, or the fan in everyone's hand in fan dance? After a while, I saw them suddenly open the clip and reveal the treasure inside. Do you want to have any wonderful performances?

I walked over and heard the man tell them to go to the front, probably to the Hall of Prayer for the New Year. Several women told him there was someone else! Wait a minute. Sure enough, several women came running from the steps of the single bridge. They were all beautifully dressed and holding a paper clip in their hands.

I asked a curious woman: What's in it?

She opened the clip and there was a paper-cut in it. The floral pattern, cut from red paper, stuck in the clip, not glued firmly, and the wind blew the paper-cut fluttering, like a red bird scrambling to fly out. She quickly closed the clip.

How well you cut it! I praised her and asked her: Did you cut it yourself?

She nodded yes, then shook her head and said, I carved it with a knife. This is my first paper-cut, and I didn't do it well. They did better than me! She pointed to the woman next to her.

Are all paper-cuts made by yourself? I'm a little surprised.

Several women beside me proudly said to me: Yes!

One of the young girls, wearing a light camel windbreaker, opened her clip and showed it to me. Her clip is bigger, and there are three paper cuts stuck side by side in it. On the left is a picture of two children dancing under a red lantern, on the right is a picture of two young pioneers paying tribute to the team under a red flag, and in the middle is the Hall of Prayer for the New Year set off by Ruiyun. Because the whole picture is hollowed out, the hall for praying for the New Year is surrounded by red paper, which is particularly bright red and dazzling.

I asked her: it's really beautiful. Did you carve them all?

She pointed to the one on the right and said, she carved it. It's about an older woman standing in front of her. The woman looked a little embarrassed and leaned forward to squeeze into the front.

I carved the middle one. She said to me.

How beautifully you carved this new year's prayer hall! It's amazing!

Hearing the praise, she pursed her lips and smiled.

I asked her: There are so many of you today, and everyone has paper cutting. Are you going to take part in any activities?

She said: Yes, today is Women's Day. Later, we will take a photo with paper-cutting!

Everyone raised their paper-cuts and took photos with the Hall of Prayer for the New Year. This is really a good holiday celebration, and it is very creative!

I gave another heartfelt admiration, and then pointed to the paper-cut and said to her, May I take a picture?

She held out her hands to raise the clip and tilted her head to one side, without blocking three paper-cuts. She is really an understanding girl. In the lens, I saw the girl's delicate face smiling slightly at the paper-cut, and her slender fingers caught the edge of the clip, exposing the paper-cut completely. I saw the lace of the white shirt on the cuff of the windbreaker, and the long hair of the shawl fluttered gently in the spring breeze in March.

Beijing, March 2022 10

Painting/Xiao Fuxing