My five-character insights into life
Author: Le Daiyun
I feel that my life embodies the five words mentioned in the Buddhist scriptures and can be used be expressed. Buddhist scriptures believe that there are five words running through a person's life.
The first word is "fate". You must appoint it. For example, you cannot choose which family you are born into or what you look like. There is definitely a difference between being born into a poor peasant family and being born into a wealthy family. This is fate and you cannot choose it.
As for the second word, I think it is "luck". The "luck" of "time comes and turns". If "fate" is destined and immovable, "luck" is dynamic. I often feel like I have a lot of good luck and a lot of bad luck. Many times, you feel that you didn't do anything, but some kind of "luck" happened. For example, we had just graduated from college and launched a magazine "Contemporary Heroes". For this reason, even though the anti-rightist movement in 1958 was almost over, I was still included and classified as an extreme rightist. As a result, I left academia for more than twenty years. Later, I engaged in comparative literature, and luck really came my way. That was 1981, and I was already 50 years old. It was also very accidental. I don’t know how I was selected to go to Harvard. Moreover, not only was he a visiting student at Harvard for a year, but someone from Berkeley University came to Harvard for a meeting. When he saw me, he invited me to be his special researcher for two years. I didn't expect that at all! Berkeley and Harvard are both great schools. Later, I believed in this "luck". It’s useless to force things when “luck” doesn’t come. When you have bad luck, don't be anxious; when you have good luck, don't feel that you are anything special.
The third word is "virtue", which is the "virtue" of morality. Morality must be "cultivated" at any time. Confucius said, "If you don't cultivate virtue, you won't learn it if you don't learn it." I am worried that I cannot move after hearing the righteousness, and I cannot change my bad deeds. "If you don't talk about "morality" and "learning", then you will be in great trouble. No matter in what sense, I always feel that I have to be a good person. I think this is a very important aspect in traditional Chinese culture. Factors, ordinary people do not necessarily want their children to become successful, but they hope that their children will be good people. When I was in the most difficult, most aggrieved and most confused time, I think there are two sentences that are the pillars of my life, that is, “If you are successful, you can help the world; if you are poor, you can only take care of yourself. "Although all rights have been deprived of me, I can still be a good person. When I was under labor supervision in the countryside, it was the era of great hunger. The leader asked me to create a miracle, to make four little pigs live without food. Under the conditions, I fattened up the pigs for the Chinese New Year. I was very anxious about this task and let the pigs eat in the fields every day, and I fed them with pig grass everywhere. I was fat, but everyone had a good time during the Chinese New Year, and I felt good about it, so no matter what, I had to stay on my own and do my best to be a good person, so even in a very difficult environment, my fellow villagers liked me very much. The old man of the family where I lived was a sheep herder. When he went to herd sheep, he picked up a walnut, half a peanut, etc., and brought them back to me to eat. The lady raised chickens, and in addition to handing over a quota of eggs, she always had enough. There are only a few left. The three of us would have an "egg feast" almost every few months, and we would eat 8 eggs! The law continues.
The fourth word is "knowledge", the "knowledge" of knowledge. "Knowledge" is what you seek, which means that you must have knowledge and wisdom. I feel that I have never given up. Even when I was tending pigs, I was reading English words and stuff without losing all my English skills. I originally liked foreign literature, especially Russian novels by Turgenev and other writers. The revolutionary women they wrote have a great influence on me. In addition, I also like ancient Chinese poetry. I am very strange. On the one hand, I appreciate the particularly progressive things, such as the Russian literature I like. I have to do something for the public; but on the other hand, Chinese poetry, especially the more negative things in Yuan opera, also have a great influence on me. This "knowledge" is very important for me to embark on the path of comparative literature. , because I know a little about the West and a little about China, and then by luck, I went to Harvard University and came into contact with the subject of comparative literature. Therefore, this "knowledge" is very important to people, and sometimes it will determine a person's life. In the field of knowledge, if you have not read relevant books and are not exposed to them at all, it will be impossible to develop in a certain direction. You will be very blocked and there will be fewer paths for you to choose from.
The fifth word is "go". Everything mentioned above must be implemented in the end. This "go" is actually a choice, that is, when you face a hurdle, the choice you face is often very difficult. Even if you did well in the first four words, when you took the last step, you got sidetracked and went to another road; or you took this step slowly. No matter how fast you go, you still won’t get good results. I think I encountered many such hurdles. For example, when I went to the Soviet Union for a meeting, the leaders there persuaded me to stay and told me that I could study abroad at Moscow State University. , and I also worked as a foreign student, but I still decided to return to Peking University.
Later, when Mr. Ji Xianlin wrote the preface to my book, he said that Le Daiyun’s choice was the right one. Maybe China lost a female diplomat, but China gained a very talented pioneer of comparative literature. This means that choice is very important. In a person's life, sometimes the choice is right and sometimes the choice is wrong. If you make the right choice, it doesn't matter if you don't get lucky. I remember that when I graduated from college, Mayor Peng Zhen assigned me to be a secretary. I chose not to go, but it was not up to me! Unexpectedly, after going back and forth, I actually lost my file. I didn't want to look for it, so I let it go. In this way, I will stay at Peking University. This is where choice and destiny come together.
In short, these five words: fate, luck, virtue, knowledge, and behavior, dominate my life.
http://www.neworiental.org/publish/portal0/tab465/info330243.htm