Chapter 354: 447 sections, listening to the beautiful low chant

447 sections, listening to the beautiful low chant.

447 sections, listening to the beautiful low chant.

―――――A red apricot branch extending beyond the wall (twenty)

(1), hearing the beautiful sound.

This is a summer night; not a single star can be seen in the sky.

Wu Yun is thick, the sky is pitch black, the night is Stillness Stillness.

Stillness Stillness summer night, in the grass, there are various small insects, chirping softly.

Nobody will know the content of those small insects' low chant. In this Stillness Stillness summer night, nobody will hear their low chant sound. Being able to hear this small insect's sound, besides me, who else! Who am I? I am――――

Sir, I do not know where he comes from, nor do I know his surname and given name; there are no willow trees by his residence, therefore he has no nickname.

These summer insects are the most humble creatures in the world.

These small insects are so humble that people in this world do not know their names; so humble that people in this world cannot hear their voices, cannot see their forms, their humility is like the punctuation marks in the Classic of Documents that cannot be read. Although they have no content, yet that article cannot be separated from them, just as the night sky cannot be separated from stars…….

Perhaps people are unwilling to know their names, unwilling to hear their voices, unwilling to see their forms. Yet they truly exist……

Although they are humble, you must never overlook their existence!

In this world, the smaller something is, the more you cannot overlook it. For example, stars in the dark night; for example, punctuation marks in the Classic of Documents; for example, stars in the night sky……

The small insects that chirp in the summer night, these small creatures. I might have used the wrong word. I should not have used the word 'small creature' for these insects that chirp in the summer night. But for a moment I cannot find the proper word to express.

These small insects in the summer night are very cute. I praise their cuteness because in the dark, damp corners, unwilling to be lonely. With their own song, a tiny, life-filled song, they express their love for the world.

Although no one can understand their song, the less people understand it, the more they want to listen. If they could understand it, they would rather not listen. Just like distant scenery that cannot be seen, the less it is seen, the more one longs to go far away. Applying the common saying: 'Distance creates beauty!'

Who said it: beauty exists as long as people perceive it; if not perceived, it does not exist. Now I feel the small insects calling, and their sound seems very beautiful. Thus, according to that, those small insects exist tonight; otherwise they do not. The same thing, for example, this small insect: some think it is very beautiful; others think it is not beautiful; even loathsome, lowly, and even more severely: base!

People often say: beauty is everywhere, for example, the chirping small insects of summer night. For our eyes, it is not lacking beauty, but lacking manifestation. I am not manifesting beauty, but hearing beauty. Hearing the beautiful sound is the low chant of the summer night's small insects…….

The West (seems to be the West) has a celebrity saying: people love to hear melodic sounds, love to see vivid colors, love to change their environment to be better and more beautiful……

But I do not understand, nor do I grasp the meaning of this Westerner's words. Some environments can be changed, while some I am utterly powerless to change……….

Never mind his business, let him talk, go your own way…….

Traveler, must you walk?

Yes, I have chosen my own path.

I must go.

Small insect, must you sing?

Yes, I must sing,

In this Stillness Stillness summer night

The summer night is Stillness Stillness.

Darkness dozes on the treetops.

And many small insects are

using life to sing

using song to express

praise for the summer night

memory of fresh flowers

love for green leaves

the time that left you

Has it already returned?

The sleepless person of summer night

The singing spirit of summer night?

The spirit of the singing night

Who do you want to call?

Is it me?

Hearing you, you should call

I have thrown away all my dreams

Come to meet your call

I want to be with you

This summer night's singing

In the Stillness Stillnessly summer night

I, you, and also that

In the article, the lonely 'small punctuation'

Singing together……………………………………………………………..

(2), this world is truly wonderful……

This world is truly wonderful. Various life phenomena fill this world to the brim; this world is truly as Shakespeare said: I see: humanity increases like plants.

……………………………………………………….

This Shaweng, perhaps has become senile: how can humanity be compared to plants. Although plants and humanity have some connection, they still lack a common attribute. What attribute is lacking, I am extremely inarticulate, truly cannot find the proper words to accurately describe between plants and humanity, what attribute is lacking.

Summer night, various small insects call chirpily under the grass blades. That faint sound, toward the world Zhang Xian has many faint lives existing.

The world does not know the meaning of their existence; only they themselves know the meaning of their existence.

In their low chant, I recall a few lines of Zhuangzi (I won't say the original words, saying them is annoying.)

Zhuangzi's words mean――――――

These summer tiny insects each have a very short life—some only a few days, the longest only a few months. They cannot see the spring flowers vying in beauty, nor the autumn fruits abundant. They can only see this beautiful summer scenery.

In the eyes of these summer tiny insects, this summer is the most beautiful season; the other seasons are void, nonexistent. Void within void, everything is void. These summer tiny insects, how narrow their vision, how narrow their minds. Actually, I don't know either whether their vision is narrow and their minds narrow; I am just making a judgment.

I am judging the insects, not people. People cannot be judged. For although my vision is shallow and my mind narrow, I still know: "Do not judge others, or you will be judged. For as you judge others, you will be judged in the same way. With whatever measure you use to measure others, it will be used to measure you. Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but not notice the plank in your own? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." The meaning of this passage.

(3), I am familiar with them, just as I am familiar with myself.

As dawn breaks, the tiny insects that chirped at night have all vanished. I think these tiny things, though small, are still sensible. Knowing their smallness, they can only chirp in the dark. When it grows light, who would have leisure to listen to the insects' chirping?

This world has all kinds of melodious songs, so many that people can't hear them all; how could it accommodate the tiny insects' chirps?

I have lived in the world of insects since childhood. Although I have deep feelings for them, I do not know how to praise them. Although I am very familiar with their lives, just as I am familiar with myself, I still do not know how to describe them.

I heard that in a foreign country there was an old man named Fabre. Fabre loved these tiny insects from childhood. This foreign old man, like me, was born in the countryside. It is said that the small village where Fabre was born had a very beautiful environment. In the village where he lived, streams crisscrossed, flowers and grasses grew abundantly, and in the nearby woods birds nested and insects dwelled....

Such a place is suitable for the survival of various small animals. There is water, and it is stream water; there are trees, and they are forests. By the clear streamside, various cute small animals run to and fro; in the tranquil woods, various birds sing.

I am also very familiar with this environment; it is too beautiful, almost like a utopia...

(4), By that clear streamside...

Yet regarding those inconspicuous tiny insects by the streamside, I do not know how to love them, how to attend to them; I also do not know how to observe them. It is like when we read an article: we only know to read, to remember some beautiful phrases. But we often overlook that between sentence and sentence there are still some important existences: punctuation marks.

Yes, if there were no punctuation to separate sentence from sentence, would not the article become like grabbing a beard's eyebrows all at once, falling into chaos?

The punctuation in an article is a tiny existence, but you must by no means ignore this tiny existence.

I also want to emphasize: the tinier something is in this world, the less you can ignore it. For example, insects, small grass, punctuation marks....

That foreign old man knew that Fabre had understood from childhood the principle of 'not neglecting the tiny.' Therefore, he observes and studies nothing in this world, loving only those tiny insects. You say people are strange, aren't they?

When Fabre was young, his family called him to the pond to release ducks; he drove the ducks into the pond, then often went to the water's edge to catch insects, catch butterflies; or he would squat down and quietly observe the wonderful underwater world: beautiful shells, fish swimming back and forth, colorful worms....

(5) This is an obsession, a kind of love....

This is an obsession, a kind of love. Remember Mengzi said, there are the affairs of gentlemen and the affairs of petty people. The words of the old master Meng, I understand a little: gentlemen do gentlemanly affairs, petty people do petty affairs. What gentlemen do, petty people may not understand; conversely, what gentlemen do, petty people may not understand either.

Just as you may love something, I may not necessarily love it. For example, Lu Xun, from childhood, did not like flying kites; not only did he not like it, he loathed it. Lu Xun thought that flying kites was children's business. That is the petty‑person's affairs spoken of by Master Meng (of course, the 'petty person' that Master Meng spoke of has another layer of meaning, which I will not mention now). Adults' attitudes toward what children do are often incomprehension. Even Lu Xun sometimes misunderstands children, let alone us.

When Lu Xun saw his brother flying a kite, he became very angry. He thought, 'This is the toy of an unambitious child.' His brother, however, liked playing with such unambitious things. Just like that foreign old man Fabre, who loved insects from childhood. Once, when he was observing small creatures in the grass by the stream, suddenly a shiny metallic little beetle passed from in front of Africa. Seeing only that shiny metallic little beetle, he was overjoyed and could not help exclaiming, 'Ah, how beautiful!'

Look, a tiny beetle—what's beautiful or not about it? Normally we simply do not notice their existence. The reason is simple: they are too tiny.

But that little Fabre is different from us. So, people of action are different from us ordinary people. The difference lies in their ability to take the ordinary things that ordinary people take for granted and make them special.

When Fabre saw that tiny beetle, he shouted and rushed over, swiftly catching it. In little Fabre's eyes, the beetle he caught was bluer than the sky, more precious than gold. When he brought home those tiny beetles, little grub worms, etc., from the stream bank, he was rebuked by his parents: 'I told you to release the ducks, but you just played, picking up these useless things. Quickly throw them away!'

One's pursuit brings only parental rebuke, which is the most painful. It is also one of the most agonizing things in life: no one understands one's pursuit.

Little Fabre was extremely sad; facing his parents' reproach, his tears streamed down.

(6) Let me calm my heart a bit and then write…

But the parents' blame did not in the slightest stop Fabre's fascination with insects. This perhaps is what people often call heavenly mandate——

"Heavenly mandate is called nature; following nature is called the Dao. Cultivating the Dao is called teaching. The Dao is something one cannot be without for even a moment; if one can be without it, it is not the Dao. Therefore, the gentleman guards against what he does not see, fears what he does not hear. Nothing is more hidden than the hidden, nothing more manifest than the minute; therefore the gentleman is careful in his solitude."

These few sentences suddenly popped up from my memory; I also don't know how they came up. These few sentences seem to be related to the several old capitals I have written about——

That is to say, some things seem fated: in this life you are meant to eat that kind of meal, so you eat that kind of meal. This cannot be changed. If you are meant to eat that kind of meal, you must constantly devote yourself to doing that work well, and do it excellently. True feelings show in the minutiae; greatness is seen in the minutiae. Perhaps I have misinterpreted the meaning of these sentences. Who could explain their true meaning to me?

This train of thought is a bit chaotic. The article has too many threads. There is Daiyu writing poetry, there is the Hai Tang Poetry Society in Daguanyuan, there is Xiangling learning poetry, there are the chirping tiny insects in summer night, there is Lu Xun not understanding his brother, there is the foreign old man Fabre's, there is punctuation's, and so on……

I know, friend, you have long been impatient, and I have also written in confusion. Let me calm my heart a bit and then write……….

(Heart with the disaster area, emotion with the disaster area: may peace, courage, confidence, strength be with the people of the disaster area, accompany them!)