follow one orange

It is said that a bookstore will open in the first quarter of 2022, and it will become a topic of conversation, and it will be even more "red" with the blessing of the goddess of the car. It is the Boundary Bookstore. The manager of Boundary Bookstore Mi was one of the managers of Qifenyi Bookstore@Southeast Building before opening the store. The shop is called "Follow the House", which means "follow, why don't you try to bury the book?". For example: If you are interested in reading "Disqualification in the World" by Osamu Dazai, you might as well read "Before I Die, I Want to Hear the Voice of a Cat". She looks forward to using classic literature and modern literature to communicate.

Then this time, I will try the "spirit" of "following" and introduce the following three works.

In fact, all three are classics. First, I will introduce two Chinese representatives that everyone is familiar with: Lu Xun's "A Small Thing" and Zhu Ziqing's "Back View".

<A Little Thing> I believe everyone is familiar with it, but I would like to introduce it to give you a general overview: Mr. Lu Xun was on his way in a certain cold weather and finally found a rickshaw. Mr. Lu Xun felt dissatisfied with why the old man appeared at this time. Seeing that the mother-in-law was fine, he asked the driver to continue pulling the car. How could the driver ignore her completely, but instead helped her up and took her to the police station. When the coachman helped his mother-in-law to walk to the police station, Mr. Lu Xun suddenly felt that the coachman's back was huge, but he was very small.

Lu Xun said in the text:

Even now, I still remember it from time to time. Because of this, I also endured pain from time to time, trying to think of myself. In the past few years, the Wenzhiwu force is like the "Zi Yue Shi Yun" I read when I was a child, and I can't recite half a sentence. This little thing is unique, but it always floats in front of my eyes, and sometimes it is more obvious, teaching me shame, urging me to reform, and increasing my courage and hope.

This article was written in July 1920. Two years ago, he published his short story "Diary of a Madman". [Note 1]

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"Back View" is another very familiar article. It is Zhu Ziqing's excerpt when he returned to Xuzhou for a funeral and then returned to Beijing from Nanjing after the incident. Originally, his father was busy and didn't plan to send Zhu Ziqing, but in the end, he sent him to the station. At the station, my father saw someone selling oranges and immediately went to buy them. Zhu Ziqing looked at his father's fat body:

......Wearing a large black jacket and a dark blue cotton robe, staggering to the railroad, and slowly leaning down, it was not too difficult. But it was not easy for him to cross the railway and climb up to the platform over there. He clings to it with both hands, his feet tucked up again; his fat body leans slightly to the left, showing effort. Then I saw his back, my tears flowed down quickly. I quickly wiped away my tears, for fear that he would see it and that others would see it. When I looked out again, he had already walked back with the scarlet orange in his arms. When crossing the railway, he first scattered the oranges on the ground, slowly climbed down by himself, then picked up the oranges and walked away...

After Zhu Ziqing received the oranges, he watched his father, "My tears are coming again."

This article was written in October 1925. His famous essay "The Qinhuai River in the Sound of Paddles and Lights" was published in 1923. Lu Xun's younger brother, Zhou Zuoren, praised him as "a model of vernacular fine arts"[2].

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Now for the third chapter, Akutagawa Ryunosuke's "Smikan".

You may ask, what is the relationship between the "sweet oranges" and the above two articles?

Do you remember a song called "PPAP"? The lyrics begin like this:

I have a pen
I have an apple
pineapple pen

"Mikan" is exactly the "citrus" version of "A Little Thing".

Off topic, how exactly are oranges, tangerines, and tangerines [Note 3]? I don't really understand, because I don't eat these three kinds of fruits, I only eat oranges.

Let's get to the point! It's all right, let's get to the point.

The story is about Akutagawa taking a train, and he was sitting in a second-class car. When the train started, a thirteen or four-year-old girl came in and sat across from him. The author didn't like this girl very much, even to the point of disgust, because she was holding a third-class ticket and couldn't tell the difference.

While the train was moving, the author was reading the newspaper. The news in the newspapers is all negative and boring. At this moment, the girl suddenly came to his side and opened the closed car window, which made him even more disgusted, because black smoke entered the car.

The train left the tunnel and came to a desolate mountain. He saw three children in the distance. They were screaming desperately, while the girl threw a few tangerines out of the car. At this moment, the author understands what is going on.

The author finally described:

The suburban level crossing shrouded in twilight, the three children with their hooves chirping like birds, and the bright tangerine color scattered over their heads—all this was outside the train window, fleeting in the blink of an eye. However, this scene, so clear that it almost made me sad, was deeply imprinted on my heart. At the same time, I also felt that there was an indescribable feeling of enlightenment coming from the place that was imprinted in my heart. I raised my head proudly, looking at the little girl as if I was looking at another person. She didn't know when she had returned to the seat opposite me, still burying her wrinkled face in the yellow-green woolen scarf, holding the hand of the big scarf, and clenching the third-class ticket...
From this moment on, I can finally forget a little, my indescribable fatigue and burnout; and this unreasonable, inferior and boring life. (pages 38-42)

This article was written in April 1919.

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Comparing the three articles, we will find that Lu Xun has been righteous, looking for various reasons to ask the driver to take him to the destination first, and finally felt that he was too selfish; Zhu Ziqing only talked about his father's relationship lightly from the beginning to the end, but the readers did not You know, the relationship between their father and son was at a freezing point at that time. [Note 4]

Akutagawa, on the other hand, unreservedly writes about his discrimination against little girls, he is not interested in the world, and life is boring. It wasn't until the little girl threw Mikan out of the car that the scene of this scene not only made him feel sad, but also felt that kind of warmth, which made him temporarily forget the tasteless life he talked about.

In fact, these three content, the story told is very common. But when written through the pen of a writer, it becomes a timeless article that affects generations of readers.

Stories don't have to be big rivers and seas, with twists and turns, and even surprises. An ordinary thing, a little bit of life, can also inspire readers.

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Extended information:

[Note 1] Lu Xun (Wiki)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu Xun

[Note 2] Zhu Ziqing (Wiki)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhu Ziqing

[Note 3] Tangerine, citrus and orange, I finally figure out who is who
https://kknews.cc/zh-hk/health/gmmqkl.html

[Note 4] Zhu Ziqing actually hates his father! Taking care of my aunt, losing my family in debt, making my grandmother angry overnight... Revealing the truth about "Back" that was not mentioned in the Chinese language class (Feng Media)
https://www.storm.mg/lifestyle/2636190?page=1

"A Little Thing" (full text)
https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh-hant/ a little thing

"Back" (full text)
https://zh.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Back

"Sorrel" (original)
https://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000879/files/98_15272.html

<Mixan> DSE 2021｜Chinese Reading Volume Akutagawa Ryunosuke "Orange" (HK01)
https://www.hk01.com/Arts/618581/dse-2021-Chinese reading volume Akutagawa Ryunosuke-Orange-Full text with author's biography

Otome's Honten ~ Mikan (from blog)
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0010830231