Speak of Giving and Receiving - Chinese Culture and Life

Author: Jia Pingwa
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-03-01
Features: The world is composed of yin and yang, and living in it is a process of gaining and losing. A classic of brilliant essays written by a Chinese author. Shi Tiesheng is one of the most admirable writers in contemporary China. His writing is completely intertwined with his life. On his "writing nights," Shi Tiesheng, with his disabled body, expressed thoughts that were exceptionally complete and profound.
To keep a diary, just record dreams. When half awake at midnight, don’t open your eyes, slowly sit up, recall, and then quietly fall asleep again, letting the dream continue. Dreams are like past lives—sometimes doing good, sometimes committing crimes, sometimes enjoying pleasure, sometimes suffering pain. Record their traces and experience the emotions to observe reality. By observing through myself, I come to know myself. Self-awareness allows one to stand firm in the noisy and chaotic world.
Eat with familiar people and enjoy the meal. Eat more of what you love and less of what you don’t. You can burp, pass gas, or make jokes or curse. Can you do this with strangers? Can you do this with your superiors? People say what they say, and their spiritual world determines their literary language. Someone with a cruel heart writes cold and dark words. Someone in love writes bright and radiant words. Some people are talented, and their writing is bold like a vast mountain range. Others write earnestly. Those who (prioritize structure) write like small (miniature gardens), while the great river of life never follows rules.
The Western region is so beautiful, and Lin Daiyu is so virtuous—all born from illness, which gives rise to enlightenment. If you live without illness, you will be poor and lack feeling. Buddha is not in the West or in scriptures. Buddha is not in deep mountain temples but in the bustling crowds. As long as you are not dead, illness can make you a living Buddha.
Those who truly live, or those who achieve success, understand two words: (shědé—letting go and gaining). Not letting go means not gaining. Small letting go brings small gains, great letting go brings great gains. Letting go and gaining, gaining and letting go fill our daily lives, playing out stories of success and failure.
《Say Shědé》(《》) includes 68 essays by the author Jia Pingwa from 1981 to 2005, totaling 160,000 words. Over these 25 years, the world has changed, and the author’s thoughts have evolved, but the theme of humanizing nature and harmonizing humans with nature has always been the fundamental motif of his writing. As the author said, "Using traditional Chinese methods of artistic expression to genuinely convey the lives and emotions of modern Chinese people—that is what I pursue in my writing."
In this selection, the essays are largely kept in their original form, but the titles have been significantly adjusted. The order of the essays does not follow their original publication dates but is arranged according to the intrinsic connections of their themes. The purpose is simply to present the editor’s selections more clearly to the readers.