Do you... have that kind of unease of the times?

In 1942, Stephen Zweig committed suicide.

He said in the preface to "Yesterday's World", "For our generation, there is no escape, it is impossible to stay on the outside like our ancestors; because of the new mechanism of simultaneity, we are always in solidarity with the times. related."

It is closely related to the times and was born in the 1860s. Londoners in the first wave of globalization sipped morning tea in bed, ordered goods from all over the world on the phone, and traveled wherever they wanted without passports and foreign currency purchases. People have enjoyed peace for decades, never thinking about disaster and war.

Until Zweig's most unforgettable summer.

In the summer of 1914, "it was so beautiful, so lush with flowers and trees". An old grape farmer told Zweig that if the weather continues like this, this year's grape harvest will be better than ever. "People will still think about this summer in the future!"

His words were more accurate than the prophets. For more than 100 years, people will keep thinking about this summer, but it has nothing to do with the weather.

Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated, and the First World War broke out. The men marched to the place of burial, cheering drunkenly, with garlands and oak leaves on their helmets, and the streets were full of people and bright lights.

As an Austrian, Jew, writer, humanitarian, and pacifist, Zweig traveled where "the earthquake was most violent". The Austro-Hungarian Empire, where he was born in 1881, has disappeared from the map. His hometown Vienna, a city with a history of more than 2,000 years, was a provincial capital in Germany at the time of his death. He supported Germany in World War I and against Germany in World War II. Several horses from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Bible—symbolizing plagues, wars, famine, and death—have all intruded into his life.

The first golden age of globalization disappeared over the Somme. People in later generations often find it unbelievable. How could anyone not be aware of the upcoming war? Those Londoners who wake up for coffee, can't see the rise of Germany, the complex alliance of great powers, and the "fuse" of the assassination in Sarajevo?

how is this possible?

In the final years of the second decade of the 21st century, most of us were no different from Londoners of the early 20th century. Place an order on a shopping site and Amazon will deliver it to your door. Shop the latest phones and game consoles from every generation. Invest in stocks and funds, buy bitcoin, use Zoom to chat with friends on the other side of the world, and find soulmates on Tinder.

Until more and more references to the "Thucydides Trap" in the war on Sino-US trade; Covid-19 reopened and segmented "safety" and health by country; crashed airliner destroyed more than a hundred living lives and family; Starlink and hypersonic missiles were put into the battlefield for the first time; the flames did not completely burn the bodies of the civilians in Bucha, their hands were tied and they were shot in the head; the global supply chain was disconnected several times, and famine broke out first in West Asia and North Africa; a In a metropolis with a century-old international reputation, calls for help have been heard one after another; the risk of economic downturn continues to rise, and the number of people who inquire about "discontinued housing loans" is increasing.

how is this possible?

Many, like me, do not want to hide the tears shed this spring. We have experienced the second golden age of globalization. The rhetoric of "spring" has grown along with it, but now it seems that we are only stunned by the black swans or the "horses" that come in droves? Or, with some expertise in psychology and physiology, we can wipe away our tears and return to "yesterday's world"?

The unease of the times

In the face of the escalating virus, "hiding in a small building" may be passive or active; but it is difficult to "unify" - a bad psychological state is common.

Recently, DT Finance and Economics released a survey questionnaire on "What Has the Epidemic Control Changed?", and received a total of 2,079 valid responses (more than 80% of the respondents had their lives restricted due to the epidemic). With a full score of 10, people rate life satisfaction. The average score is 7.7 before the epidemic/lockdown, and 3.7 after the lockdown. It slides from feeling good to failing.

During the long-term lockdown, the top four are negative emotions: anxiety (43.7%) is the most important emotion, followed by burnout (31.3%), disappointment (29.9%) and depression (28.5%).

"Political depression" has also been mentioned many times: always caring about the dynamics and figures, caring about the suffering people in public events, and at the same time, because of my insignificance and powerlessness, I have a huge sense of emptiness, lost a sense of security, and lost my sense of destiny. sense of control.

One cannot be trapped in negative emotions all the time. At present, there are three kinds of "emotional self-help" methods. One is to seek professional psychological counseling services. The Baidu index shows that since March this year, Shanghai residents' searches for "psychological consultation" have surged. In the past month, the popularity of "psychological consultation" has increased by about 250% year-on-year.

The psychologist Freud began to study the tension between "affirmation and destruction" and "life and death" after the end of World War I in 1919. Psychoanalytic theory starts from a detached and incalculable heart of pain, Freud wrote in a letter, "When everyone around you is dying like flying insects, how do you understand the truth beyond death? ?"

One is to exercise more and exercise more. Because physical activity promotes various changes in the brain, including nerve growth, reducing inflammation; it also releases endorphins, which make you feel refreshed and feel good; it can also distract from stress and shift the cycle of negative emotions. The home fitness video of artist Liu Genghong, who is quarantined at home in Shanghai, became popular, with more than 10 million followers in the past 7 days, and the cumulative number of viewers exceeded 50 million. The main reason is that the demand for exercise caused by home quarantine has skyrocketed.

One is to rely on the comfort of religion. The Liurong Temple in Guangzhou has a history of more than 1,400 years. A few days ago, it posted a tweet on its official account, in the form of a question and answer between laymen and monks, emphasizing righteous thoughts and upholding, peace of mind and confidence. Among them, the questions of the layman are very representative. For example, one said, "‍‍How should we view the epidemic prevention and control correctly?‍‍How should we take care of our own hearts?" Another said, "I know that some people in the lockdown area may encounter some difficulties in their lives. Confused, in embarrassment, we are swayed by this emotion, maybe for a moment or for a period of time, we are deeply shrouded in these sorrows and sorrows, and sometimes we may lose righteous thoughts. Is this an unwholesome dharma? "

Historically, the introduction of Buddhism in the late Eastern Han Dynasty and the prosperity of folk religions in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties were all related to the background of the times.

Painful feelings about the plague are not just physical. The persistence of the epidemic, along with other "breaks" of the times, has caused prolonged periods of fear, panic and anxiety. People inevitably wonder about the world they are helping to build: Is there another way to organize human society? Can we find a way for future development in the midst of a catastrophe? Is what we believe enough?

landscape carrying road

Since unease is always epochal, then in the history of human civilization, there will certainly not be only one era of unease.

In those turbulent times, the way ancient Chinese literati dealt with negative emotions seemed surprisingly effective.

Landscape poetry is its unique "solution". Poets are generally in times of turmoil and famine. Even in times of peace, they have never been successful. Pain and depression are quite common "feelings", but no matter how heavy the suffering, the landscape poems they write always reflect a broad-minded "healing" ".

When Tao Yuanming wrote "Drinking", he was gratified that he "picked chrysanthemums under the eastern hedge and leisurely saw Nanshan". Confined to poverty all his life, he held some low-level official positions in his early years. At the age of forty-one, he resigned from the post of Peng Zeling and returned to the fields, and has been in seclusion ever since. Liu Yu asked him to be an official, but he stayed behind closed doors. The only thing he was worried about was in the Yi Dynasty.

He is often hungry, and there are many poems in which "hungry drives me away, I don't know what it is", "the weak and the family are poor, and the old is even more hungry"; Regret for the unrealized ideal. But "being in a cage for a long time and returning to nature" is so simple and joyful, a calm state of mind that cannot be concealed by endless hardships and hardships.

Du Fu wrote "Walking in the Night, Shuhuai", which has the magnificence of "the stars hang on the plains and the fields are wide, and the moon flows on the rivers". When writing this poem, Du Fu's friend Yan Wu, who served as a military and political officer in Chengdu, died. In his later years, Du Fu lost his life support and left Shu with his family. He wanted to go to Luoyang, but because of lung disease and diabetes threatening his health, he stayed in Kuizhou. Due to the war, he moved to Hunan again, and he passed away five years later without being able to return to his hometown.

Du Fu did not have a good life in his life. During the Tianbao period, there was "no sage in the wild". He lived in Chang'an for more than ten years without any official position, and his son died of starvation. After the An-Shi Rebellion, he began a hard life journey of "disconnecting from the wind and dust in the northeast and wandering in the heaven and earth in the southwest". "Ling Ye Shuhuai" was written on his way from Yuzhou to Zhongzhou from Shu. The starry sky and the earth are vast and boundless, the moon and the river flow with time. , the poet is lonely and small like a gull, but he doesn't feel remorse for it, it is his spiritual portrayal of independence between heaven and earth.

The landscape and the poet's mood are not isolated from each other. The poet perceives the integration of life and the natural landscape through his experience and stillness. Just as Chang Jian wrote "A clear shadow in the four suburbs, a thousand miles returns to an inch of heart", all kinds of scenery in the suburbs, within a thousand miles, are all clear shadows into the heart of every square inch; in turn, all the scenery can only come from the poet's heart. The mind is no longer a mirror, but nature itself, what Wang Yangming said, "the one who integrates the heaven, the earth, and the myriad things".

Moreover, while being approachable, landscapes have transcendence - they can be enjoyed, but also exist for a long time and cannot be possessed. Therefore, Shanshui is an image of "Tao", its scale symbolizes the infinity and immortality of heaven and earth, and people can measure the historical Tao and their spiritual position by this.

Shanshui poetry has flourished since the Wei and Jin turbulent times, which is probably why: since then, with Shanshui, poets can transcend the disturbing sense of history, pursue a pure sense of time, and find credible experience and constant value.

Last resort, what the hell

The two rap songs "Shanghai April" and "Diao Na Xing", which were "swiped" on the same April 22, had completely different fates. The former was quickly deleted for satire and exposé, while the latter made the best publicity for "victory" in the fight against the epidemic in Cantonese.

Their encounters have actually hinted at a "deep crisis" of language and reality. A series of public health crises extended by the epidemic have triggered a series of new crises—geopolitical crises, social relations crises, and economic crises that have spread to the world. Regardless of the "success" or "failure" of "anti-epidemic" at a certain time and place, a global crisis and local protection are always a pair of contradictions, and this is true for any country.

Zweig said, "Despite his best efforts, the common fate entangled him irresistibly." After September 1939, he realized "the end of the era of making and educating us sixty-year-olds." For him, the world of yesterday is completely gone.

For us, the "world of yesterday" was not a golden age without flaws. The process of deindustrialization in developed countries has led to a massive weakening of the power of the working class. Finance and technology drive industrial restructuring, and Wall Street and Silicon Valley players shake up labor relations with clear accountability. The sharp concentration of wealth, the large-scale outbreak of social injustice, accompanied by the large-scale outbreak of ecological crisis.

We are living in "the unease of the times", but we don't need to grieve that "yesterday's world" is gone.

However, the solution is to show affection for "landscape", is it too cynical?

Until I saw Kuang Zhouyi of the Qing Dynasty said: "I listen to the wind and rain, I look at the mountains and rivers, and I often feel that there is a last resort outside the wind and rain. The last resort is the heart of the word."