Listen to life with your ears

Author: Xia Zhongyi / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-06-01
Features: What you are about to read is a book that adults won’t find shallow, and the young won’t find profound. Following the author’s heart laid bare at the age of forty, we step into a river of life—it is a story, prose, poetry, a dialogue, an inquiry into and an exposure of life. With brilliant writing and interesting illustrations, this is a gift for young friends. Seek the vicissitudes of your parents’ hearts, contemplate life, and grasp a wise path in life.
The circle is the most beautiful linear design in the universe. Because the circle is an absolute perfect linear abstraction, it only exists in the ideal sky, a place you can yearn for but never reach. Is the Earth round? When you enjoy the sunshine and coconut groves on one side, you must also endure the high winds and dark nights, with shadows looming on the other. Are raindrops round? When you step into a gentle breeze and light rain, with swallows tilting and fish surfacing, mist shrouding willow shadows, you can hardly refuse the languid rainy season, where even your soul turns a mossy green with dampness. Is marriage round? When you drink deeply from the river of love under flowers and moonlight, lost in bliss, the next moment you find yourself in a cradle with diapers and cards, facing a dilemma of advancement or retreat.
There is no true circle in the world. In philosophy, this is quite like Kant’s "thing-in-itself"—it tantalizes the mind but cannot be grasped or exhausted. Thus, we think of arcs. An arc is a fragment of a circle, though lacking its fullness, it possesses its richness; though lacking its elegance, it has its charm. The circle is too "highbrow." The arc is "populist." The dream of the circle is perhaps only approached through the relentless kissing of small arcs. Therefore, the arc is more realistic than the circle, like an arch-shaped rainbow after rain, which wins more applause from the world than the full moon of the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The circle is dreamy, the arc is substantial; the circle is romantic, the arc is practical; the circle is ethereal, the arc is grounded; the circle is a flower that bears no fruit, the arc is a fruit that does not bloom. Some people are obsessed with the circle for their entire lives. The circle is a deep-seated obsession they buried in their youth. Its meaning of existence is to draw a perfect life circle, a love circle, for themselves in their lifetime. Without the circle, why use the arc? Better to die. This is a modern version of "Kua Fu chasing the sun": while it is tragic enough to move one to tears, it also makes you pity a certain part of their heart that never fully grows.
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