Wake up（258）

 

258

 

Qin Xiling and Lin Beixue invited Hong Wenxuan, Professor Shen Zhirui and alumnus Wanru to dine at Staunton's. The owner of Staunton's is the father of a friend of Lin Beixue.

At this time, the father of Lin Beixue's friend came. Lin Beixue introduced to everyone: This is Mr. Cheng Jinghan I just mentioned. He joined the team, and after returning to the city, he went to study in England. Now one of the head chefs at Staunton's.

Lin Beixue introduced the guests she had invited to Mr. Cheng Jinghan.

Professor Hong Wenxuan enthusiastically said to Mr. Cheng Jinghan: "Sit, sit, please sit. Just now Lin Beixue said that you also joined the queue and later went to study in England. I don't know where you jumped in the queue?"

Mr. Cheng Jinghan said with a smile: "Yan'an. Have you heard of Liangjiahe? The place where I jumped in line is a short distance from Liangjiahe, but it is very close to Yan'an City."

Professor Shen Zhirui asked: "Why did you choose to join the team in Yan'an?"

Cheng Jinghan smiled wryly: There is no choice. I was sent there by force. My father worked as an interpreter in Yan'an, but was persecuted during the rectification movement. After liberation, he was rehabilitated, but in 1962, he was implicated in the "Liu Zhidan novel case" and was imprisoned again. During the Cultural Revolution, we puppies were all driven to Yan'an to join the team, the reason was to go to the Holy Land to atone for our sins. After the Cultural Revolution, my father was released, and with the help of friends in Yan'an, he became an English teacher in a middle school. I also returned to the city, to my parents. I couldn't find a job at the time, so my father forced me to learn English. When the college entrance examination resumed, I became a student of workers, peasants and soldiers. In the end, I successfully went to study in the UK.

Professor Shen Zhirui asked again: You are a British student, why did you become a chef in Hong Kong?

Cheng Jinghan said: I returned to Hong Kong after graduation, and my father had already settled in Hong Kong at that time. Soon, Hong Kong returned to China. Facing the crazy patriotic wave, my father said that once Hong Kong is ruled by the CCP, Hong Kong will definitely be involved in the political whirlpool, and you must not repeat my painful experience. There is an old Chinese saying, "Governing a big country is like cooking small fish." "Small fish" are small fish. Governing a big country is like cooking small fish. The oil, salt, sauce and vinegar must be just right, neither too much nor too little. In fact, governing a large country should be as difficult as cooking, and it should be as meticulous as cooking. In both, you must master the heat and pay attention to the seasoning. If you have political ambitions, I cannot advise you to give up, but I suggest that you first learn to "cook small fish", and then consider your ambition of "governing a big country".

Cheng Jinghan said with a smile: I followed my father's advice and became a chef. Unexpectedly, just like this, my hobby of "cooking small fresh food" made me inseparable from oil, salt, sauce and vinegar for the rest of my life.

Everyone laughed. But Cheng Jinghan couldn't laugh. He said: After my father left, I really understood the real reason why my father persuaded me to become a chef. My mother once told me that people in the Qing Dynasty probably had the most common misunderstanding of "governing a big country is like cooking a small fish", which has affected the understanding of modern people. The ancients only washed the small fish when frying, without removing the intestines or scales, for fear of breaking the small fish. So my father further extended this: Cooking small delicacies should not be disturbed, and governing a big country should not be disturbed. Annoyance leads to labor, disturbance leads to fish crash. Later, I read some works about Lao Tzu left by my father, combined with Lao Tzu's thought of governing by doing nothing, I got a new understanding of the phrase "governing a big country is like cooking a small fish". The way of governing the country that Lao Tzu wants to express is It is very clear, that is, governing a big country should not be tossed and turned, and it should not disturb the people at will, let alone toss around. At the same time, I also understood my father's original intention. In a country that is tossing around, don't blindly follow the trend, you have to master the fire.

What Cheng Jinghan said surprised the two professors.

Professor Shen Zhirui said:

What Mr. Cheng said makes sense. Like you, I was also an educated youth sent to the countryside. We have given our sincerity when we went to the mountains and the countryside, and we have brought urban civilization to the countryside more or less. We have taught the children in rural areas to learn culture, and we used our meager knowledge and tenacious self-study to provide medical care to farmers who are in short supply... However, we have not also brought class struggle to the farming society that emphasizes family and affection. Do we vent our dissatisfaction with society on the farmers we compete with but accept us with immoral sneaking? Our limited contribution cannot compare with the harm brought by the movement to the countryside, not to mention the difference between this way of spreading urban civilization and the historic changes brought about by the reform and opening up.

It is true that we did have revolutionary ideals when we went to the countryside, but the so-called ideals at that time were nothing but unrealistic fantasies; if we still use that illusory "ideal" to defend ourselves today, then facing the society When there is injustice, we will still seek ideological resources from the negative assets of the Cultural Revolution, and repeat the same mistakes with authoritarian thinking and rebellious methods.

Since we have personally experienced the urban and the rural, the upper class and the lower classes, those who oppose revisionism and prevent revisionism and those who put order out of chaos, those who closed the country and those who reformed and opened up, those who destroyed and those who built, those who were civilized and those who opposed civilization, and even those who hoped and despaired Now that we have emancipated our minds, connected with the world, broadened our horizons, contrasted and referred to us, and have a relatively independent personality; then today, when we look back on our trip to the mountains and the countryside, we have completely different experiences. , Are we really "youth without regrets"?

Professor Hong Wenxuan said to Mr. Cheng Jinghan:

After World War II, many Westerners could not forgive themselves and spent the rest of their lives repenting and atoning for their sins. Nobel Prize winner Juntegrass said: "I have been included in a system, and this system planned, organized, and carried out the massacre of tens of millions of people. Even if I can justify myself by not doing bad things, I still stay A little bit of what the world is used to calling "joint responsibility" is still lingering, and it must be hard to get rid of it in my lifetime." Faced with such a noble moral conscience and moral courage, should we also reflect on our "Relationship"? Since we consider ourselves to be lofty idealists and are still proud of it, and since we claim to be a generation with a sense of sacred mission and sense of responsibility, shouldn't we also "leave a little bit of what the world is accustomed to call 'joint responsibility'? thing"?

However, with regard to the Cultural Revolution, the Movement to the Mountains and the Countryside, and history, our generation of educated youths has not come up with any decent "jointly responsible" things, but likes to hold together in the name of educated youths to keep warm, too keen on all kinds of simple nostalgia, lack of reflection , and even educated youth activities under the banner of red. Our way of life used to be like an ant colony, without individual consciousness of independence and power, and everyone was just a member of the group completely attached to it, so we always admired and relied on the group of educated youth without self. We have been unconsciously trapped in the unconsciousness of the educated youth group. This inferiority is one of the outstanding characteristics of the old educated youth, and it still exists widely among us.

Mr. Cheng Jinghan said: The most typical example is that "the educated youths in the world belong to one family". When it comes to educated youth, some old educated youth may have a certain kind of intimacy beyond gender, age, region, and occupation, but it is difficult for these people to break through the differences in origin and social status to identify with each other. In fact, due to the vastly different backgrounds, experiences, and political views in the past, present, and future, the educated youths in the world are not a family at all. This society is as complicated as it is, and there are as many conflicts of interest in this society as there are internal conflicts of interest. . In my opinion, the ignorant educated youth group is a follower who is accustomed to messing around.

Professor Hong Wenxuan sighed:

The generation of educated youth has been deeply educated in collectivism that eliminates individual consciousness, and their individual rights are always replaced by overall interests. The fear of being isolated and abandoned gives them a strong sense of belonging to the collective. Many educated youths still yearn to find support in the educated youth group even in old age, and still try to find comfort by singing "idealism" and insisting on "youth without regrets". Once an individual integrates into the group, his individuality will be obliterated, and the thinking of the group will occupy an absolute dominant position. At the same time, the behavior of the group will also show characteristics such as rejection of dissent, extremes, emotions, and low IQ. . This in turn has a destructive impact on society. In the face of the big right and wrong about the evaluation of the educated youth going to the mountains and going to the countryside, shouldn't the old educated youth go further to find themselves and re-examine their youth? What is the basis for "Youth without Regrets"?

This dinner brings diners back to that hateful era.