what do people live on

When buying books, in addition to talking about "destiny", you should also talk about "love". Why do I say this, I will say it at the end.

I have introduced Leo Tolstoy's works "Ivan the Fool" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", this time it is a collection of short stories from his later years: "On What Man Lives: Short Stories by Tolstoy" Philosophical Stories.

The editor has this introduction at the beginning of the book:

Tolstoy seems to have experienced a major spiritual turning point around 1880. After that, what he emphasized in his works was no longer the abstract values of humanitarianism, but was born out of the Christian "love" and "love". Forgiveness" and other doctrines. … (p. 13)

This book contains short stories from Tolstoy's later years, many of which have religious overtones. For example, "What do people live by? > This one tells the story of a couple, Simon and Mahona, who sew leather shoes. One day Simon brought a stranger home, and Maona was very dissatisfied at first, because the family was poor and the most expensive cotton jacket in the family, Simon gave it to this stranger. Later, Simon described the process of meeting the stranger. After hearing this, Maona felt pity and agreed with her husband to help him in this way, and the two even kept the stranger at home. This stranger stayed here, not for free. He and Simon learned to sew leather shoes, and the stranger's craftsmanship made their lives better. Two things happened after that, and the stranger learned something.

It turned out that this stranger was an angel who was punished by God for disobeying God's command. God requires him to understand three truths: what is hidden in man's heart, what man does not have, and what man depends on to live. When he can understand these things, he can go back to heaven. His answer is: what people hide in their hearts is love; what people don't have is the ability to understand what they need. As for the third answer, he responded this way:

"I was able to survive when I came to the world, not because I took care of myself, but because of the care of the people along the way, because he and his wife took pity on me and cared for me. The orphans survived not because of the care of their mothers. , but because the woman next door has love in her heart. She was originally a stranger, but she gave them sympathy and care. Therefore, all human beings survived not only because of their own interests, but because of love in their hearts.”
"I used to think that God gave people life and wanted them to live well, but now I know more."
"I used to think that God didn't want people to be separated, so He wouldn't reveal to people what each one needs; now I understand that precisely because He wants all to live together, He will reveal to each one what everyone needs. what."
"I understand now that although people seem to take care of themselves, in fact, people live by love. Those who know how to love live in the arms of God, and God also manifests his divinity in him, because God is love ”… (p. 21)

Reading this, I remembered that Camus had this sentence in his sticky notes:

The misery and greatness of this world: give us no truth, but much love. Absurdity reigns, love saves it.
The misery and greatness of this world: it offers no truths, but only objects for love. Absurdity is king, but love saves us from it.

After the absurdity and defiance of Camus' plan, the third volume is about love. But he died in a car accident, unable to explain his thoughts to the world.

Returning to the content of this book, in addition to the chapters introduced above, in addition to the previously introduced "Ivan the Fool", there are other works with religious implications, "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" >. This is a work from 1886.

The story is about a man named Paho who kept buying land to get rich, but he was not satisfied. One day he wanted to buy land from the chief, and the chief suggested that only the land he walked through in one day would belong to him, and he only needed to pay one thousand rubles. Of course, Paho walked hard, from morning to night, and finally reached a large piece of land. only:

... Paho remembered that dream again, he let out a low cry, his legs could no longer support him, his body fell forward, and his hands just touched the hat.
"Ah, what a wonderful man!" cried the chief. "What a piece of land he has!"
Paho's servant ran forward and tried to help him up, but saw blood gurgling from the master's mouth. Paho is dead!
The Bashkirs tutted and expressed their pity.
Paho's servant picked up the shovel and dug a hole long enough to bury him there—exactly six feet from the top of his head to his feet. That's all he really needs. (page 201)

Friends who are familiar with the Bible will remember the story of the ignorant rich man after reading this short story. The rich man dismantled all the barns and built bigger ones in order to store all the food and goods, and he died that night. What Paho and the rich man yearned for, they ended up fighting in vain, and there was nothing they could take away.

Another fable is "The Story of King Esarhaddon of Assyria". The story is about Esarhaddon defeating another king, Riley. Like any conqueror, he killed all the captives, while King Riley was kept in a cage. One day, an old man appeared in Esarhaddon's bedroom and said that he was actually King Riley. Esarhaddon did not believe it at first, but later Esarhaddon immersed himself in the water and found that he was indeed as the old man said. It's King Riley. As King Riley, he went through the war with Esarhaddon and saw "Esarhaddon" humiliating "him" until he woke up. Then the old man said to him:

"Do you understand?" the old man continued, "did you know that Riley was you, and the sergeants you put to death were you? Not just those sergeants, but the animals you hunted and feasted upon when you hunted, It's all you, you think life is only in you, but I will lift the veil of falsehood for you, so that you can see that doing unrighteous things to others is equal to doing unrighteous things to yourself. Life is manifested through all living beings, but life is only One, your life is but a small part of the common life. All you can control is this small part, you can make life better, you can make it worse, you can make it better or less. If you want to make your life better, the only way is to eliminate the barriers with others, treat others as yourself, and love them well. If you do this, you will increase the thickness of your life. On the contrary, if you think that you are Your life is the only life in heaven and earth. To increase your own well-being at the cost of others' lives is only hurting yourself. If you do this, you are cutting your own life. You have no right to destroy other beings, you The life you kill looks like it's gone from your eyes, but it's not. You want to prolong your own life and detract from the life of others, but you can't. Life has no beginning, no end, no end; A life is equal to a thousand lives: your life is equal to all the visible and invisible life in the universe. Life cannot be destroyed or changed, because life is the only thing that exists. Everything else is only It's an illusion." (pp. 228, 229)

Treat people how you treat people. It is also a story with a strong religious allegory.

The stories included in this book are short stories that are easy to read even for middle school students.

Back to why I bought this book. Have you noticed that there is one more "thing" on the cover? Yes, that's coffee stains. A certain store manager complained to me that a reader spilled the coffee because he put the coffee cup on the book. Books just can't be sold.

And I, seeing this coffee stain printed on the book, didn't feel inconsistent, so I decided to buy it. That's my relationship with this book.

It's just that the cover of the book does not need "extras", so I hope everyone will cherish the book.

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"What Man Lives By: Tolstoy's Short Philosophical Stories" (from blog)—
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010910322