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An interesting small book, aptly reflected a Qing’s intellectual’s attitude towards life. It is a book only one who really has plenty of leisure time can afford to write, for it is a book about how to live a leisure life. Li Yu, the author, is endowed with a genius capacity to appreciate every fun and interest in mundane life. He is good story teller and owns a wonderful flair for self-revelation.
When sharing with the readers his philosophy and lifestyle, he wrote in a tone of humor, and made the reader smile from time to time. For example, when talking about meat, he compared several types of animals and then gave his recipe, some of which was claimed to be “released for the first time with the author’s regret”. Li’s attitude towards these animal species is a utilitarian one. To eat or not to eat totally depends on utility of the animal. He didn’t eat beef or dog’s meat, for these two animals worked loyally for mankind and he sees it as very cruel to eat them. Compared to ox and dog, it is more illegitimate to eat roosters, for though they herald the break of the day, the dawn will come even if they don’t crow. And this utilitarian argument goes, compared to ducks, eating roosters would be less justifiable for the ducks do nothing for their hosts. Humorous as it is, I still find this argument is grounded on unpersuasive evidence. For me, every life accounts regardless of their utility.
This book also unveiled Li’s aesthetic philosophy. For Li Yu, the criteria of beauty are simple, elegant and natural. These criteria dominate his critiques throughout the book, remarking on a vast scope of things in daily life, ranging from girls’ beauty, women’s gowns, food, rock garden to opera. Yet his criteria is not rigid and dogmatic, with variations to adapt to different cases. The criteria acts like a suggestion given in a certain tempo-spatial circumstance rather than a fixed stereotype, as illustrated in the many instances he provided.
For example, Li advised, though in most cases girls should not wear too much jewelries, but a newly-wed bride should wear plenty of gold, silver or jade jewelry in fine decorations for the first month since her wedding day, in an attempt to fulfill the good wishes of her parents, her mother-in-law and father-in-law (why not for herself or her husband? Come on, don’t forget this is not in the twenty first century, it is difficult, if not impossible, to judge people in Qing Dynasty by our own modern criteria). Her parents’ “good wishes” were not clearly stated, but I think seeing her well dress-up, her parents would feel assured for it shows her husband’s family’s emphasis on and the acknowledgement of her status in the new family. Except for this one month, a girl is advised by Li Yu to wear one or two pieces of jewelry every day, for too much jewelry will attract the attention of others which should have been focuses on the natural beauty of her face.
I think what makes this book distinct to others is for the most part, the author’s ingenuousness. He loves flowers and said he had four lives in seasons – narcissus and orchid in spring, lotus in summer, crabapple in autumn and plum flowers in winter. He recorded that one year he was impoverished and all his clothes were pawned. In spite of the poverty, he insisted on purchasing narcissus, as in the previous years. His family members plead him not to do so. He answered: “Do you want to take my life? In spite of the heavy snow, I come back home from a long distance to see narcissus. If there is no narcissus, why should I come back?” Then he pawned earrings (most probably his wife’s, I guess) to purchase narcissus. He seems quite stubborn and obstinate in this case. Maybe in the eyes of many others, this is odd. Does it matter if he doesn’t see the narcissus for a year, if the whole family were starving? Yet, maybe this is where Li Yu distances himself from others and other critics. His life is not just for appreciation of beauty, but he tries to make his life beauty itself, thought this beauty in many cases this beauty means sorrow for others. He is committed to his philosophy, and continued to live a leisure life even when he is penniless. This commitment demands s an ingenuous dedication to one’s belief, rather than courage. In short, his lifestyle of leisure is impossible to imitate and hence amazing and unique.
来自: 豆瓣 |
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发表于 2013-4-17 09:17:19
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