Yu Qiujiu · Life Philosophy

Author: Yu Qiuyu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-08-01
Features: Yu Qiuyu, who has "stopped writing" three times, recently released a new work—Yu Qiuyu's Life Philosophy! What is noteworthy is that nearly a quarter of the book consists of texts Yu Qiuyu wrote after his third "stop writing" to make the book more complete. In this book, Yu Qiuyu no longer remains silent about the phenomena he despises but instead delivers fierce criticism in a rather intense tone. Yu Qiuyu's Life Philosophy took two years from planning to publication, with Yu Qiuyu personally selecting the essence of his works and adding nearly a quarter of new content. The entire book revolves around the theme of "life," showcasing Yu Qiuyu's insights and reflections on life from different perspectives.
In the winter season, when all trees wither and the mountains lose their color, only the leaves between the pages retain some memory. Even outside winter, many people in the world have neither the time nor the energy to roam the mountains. Then, a few leaves can still be considered an extraordinary gift. If different leaves can even form several magical patterns when pieced together, it becomes even more interesting.
The book before you is like the leaves I picked from the trees in the mountains. They have detached from the branches that once nourished them but have now pieced together to form a pattern called "life." If you lean close and sniff, you might still catch a faint scent of the mountains.
One day, I was utterly captivated by the poplar forests on the western side of the Mongolian grasslands. The twilight hues illuminated the clusters of amber-like, translucent leaves in infinite layers, yet they remained so simple. The mist then diffused softly. Just then, the figure of a white horse approached from a distance, the rider dressed in wine-red clothing, slim and young, exuding a heroic aura. But beneath the poplar forest, he became only a small silhouette, breaking the tranquility. The horse stopped beside me because there was a pond behind me where it could drink.
The young rider greeted me kindly and asked where I was going. He smiled shyly and said, "No particular reason." "Why are you riding so fast if there's nothing particular to do?" I asked. He hesitated and replied, "We were playing cards in the tent, but we're missing a few cards. I'm going to the town to buy a new deck." It was indeed no big deal. But then he added that this time, he would ride eighty kilometers.
He mounted his horse and rode off, his figure blending into the night as it passed through the poplar forest, like smoke and illusion. I squinted at the distance and thought: He doesn’t know how beautiful the path he has traveled is; he doesn’t even know that because of him and his horse, the path has become even more beautiful.
Eighty kilometers of unparalleled beauty—how does it compare to his goal—the deck of cards? The difference in how people answer this question distinguishes a cultural figure from an ordinary person. I will use this scene to compare life. The process of life is often far more important than its purpose. But the world is indifferent to a white horse passing through the amber-like, translucent poplar forests in the mist, only fixated on the deck of cards.
Some say that every process exists for the sake of the purpose. I disagree. Can the breathtaking beauty of a path that has dazzled for millions of years have been born solely because of a deck of cards? Don’t overvalue the gamble between the starting and ending points of the horse.
Outside the window of the gamble, autumn has deepened. Every morning, the flocks of geese take off. Crossing the morning glow, piercing the clouds, surging through the wind, diving into the dusk, and finally settling in the reed marshes of the night. Can we say that they take darkness as their home every day?
Indeed, the morning glow, the clouds, the wind, and the dusk all come and go in haste—they cannot be a home. But is darkness eternal? For the geese, what motivates them to act is everything that stands in contrast to darkness. Action is more important than destination; destination is merely for tomorrow’s action.
Don’t set too many destination-oriented goals in life. All goals are dark, at least vague, while only action accompanies the light. Our scholars only bend their heads to search for the nests of geese in each reed marsh, never looking up to see the true living space of the geese.
They say, "Wings are no longer visible in the sky, only feathers have fallen in the nests." They say, "The endless sky is too empty, only the muddy feet can be considered knowledge."
P3-4