Have you ever thought about what we live for? For the dignitaries, for a better life for yourself and your family, or just to pass on the lineage? We are always busy with life, and the older we grow, the harder we work. What is the meaning of such a life? You may think that talking about this issue is a bit false, but in fact, this is exactly what we must think about in order to live a good life.
In the second sermon in the Buddhist classic "Diamond Sutra", the elder Subhuti asked Shakyamuni Buddha, saying what can be done to calm the mind and enter the Buddhist path in this life.
This "question" tells us that if we want to live a thorough life, we must first think about what we are living for in this life and how we should live. Only by figuring out such a thorough and ultimate problem can we live a comfortable life.
A movie I watched recently, "Alive" directed by Zhang Yimou , discussed this issue. It made me think differently about life, and I believe it will also bring you different thinking.
1. A story about "alive"
The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Yu Hua. The plots of movies and novels are different in some places. Here we will talk about the plot of the movie.
The story of Fugui is the story of a bottom-level peasant who suffered endless hardships in his life. Fugui was originally a landlord and young master. He was addicted to gambling and was cheated. He lost his family. Become a pauper with nothing left.
Later, when Jiazhen came back with a pair of children, Fugui reluctantly supported his family by traveling around and performing shadow puppets. Starting from losing all his family property, in the next 40 years, Fugui lost his parents, wife, children one after another...
2. Fugui's life is just to "live"
You will find that Fugui is annoying at first, but later on, he becomes a pitiful character. Having lost his material wealth, he cherished the only home he had and wanted to live in peace. After losing all his fortune, he changed his ways and begged for food, and begged for a shadow puppet property from the landlord Long Er who took away his property, and supported his family by singing.
Later, with Chunsheng in the shadow puppet troupe, he was arrested by the national army as a strong man. When he saw the mountains of dead people, he immediately thought of his wife and daughter, and said to Chunsheng, "We can't die here" , so they raised their hands and charged forward. The People's Liberation Army sang opera.
During the land reform period, the new landlord Long Er, who took his property, was shot. He was so scared that he wet his pants. If he hadn't lost the property at that time, the gun would have hit him. He was busy asking Jiazhen, "What is the composition of our family?" He was relieved when he heard that it was the common people.
His son Youqing took revenge on the child who bullied his sister in the public cafeteria. In order not to be regarded as a saboteur, Fugui had to beat his son Youqing in public. In a sensitive age, Fugui burned the shadow puppet guy who had been with him for most of his life-to survive; the mayor and Chunsheng were criticized in various ways. Although Fugui's words to persuade Chunsheng were dry, they were all about himself: " You have to endure, you have to live."
It can be seen that Fugui is a shrewd person who knows what to do at a certain time. His shrewdness has preserved the family, but he has also indirectly harmed his son and daughter— the matter of fate is sometimes unclear.
He insisted on asking his son to go to school to flatter the county magistrate, but his son was accidentally killed by the county magistrate, who was his comrade-in-arms Chunsheng many years ago! He thought about giving Professor Wang more steamed buns to save his daughter who had a dystocia, but Professor Wang choked, and her daughter was not able to get timely rescue...
3. To live is to live for the sake of living
Even though his fate was difficult, Fugui never gave up hope of life. He wanted to live and live well in this chaotic age. But living, in those days, was difficult.
We see that Fugui has been constantly losing in his life. When watching movies, he is always afraid of the next scene. What will happen to Fugui's family - but these hardships are only what we have seen.
To outsiders, Fugui's life was miserable; but from Fugui's own standpoint, his life was not without life.
In his life, although there is no glory and wealth, and although he is constantly losing important things, it is not only suffering. He will see what he has instead of focusing on what is lost. Some things that may be trivial in our eyes, in his eyes, are the beliefs of living - wives and daughters reuniting, singing the beloved shadow play, returning from the battlefield alive, carrying his son to school, watching his daughter get married, Until the end, watching my grandson raise chickens...
Indeed, whether a person lives well or not is not defined by others, but by oneself. We haven't seen Fugui giving up on himself and desperate, so how can we say that his life is only suffering and not happy at all?
Writing this, I finally know that what moved me to Fugui is a belief in life - if belief does not die, people will not die.
At the end of the original work, the old man Fugui sang: "Young people go wandering, middle-aged people want to hide, and old-age monks" .
The phrase "become a monk in old age" explains the gist of the story "Alive": people are born to live for the sake of living itself, not for other things. "Alive" here means survival. As long as you are still alive, there is no despair. As long as you are still alive and endure hardships, you will find that many past experiences have turned into clouds.
"Being a monk in old age" means returning to the source of life after a lifetime of hardships, letting go of gains and losses, and feeling every breath of the moment with ease.
This is a very high state, and we may not be able to experience it until we reach a certain age. Although we are no longer living in an era of lack of food and clothing, and there will be no wars and famines, we still live impetuously and miserably - there are "nets suppressing clouds" everywhere; people are always jumping down from high-rise buildings.
All suffering is due to dissatisfaction with desire. If you don't do subtraction for your life, your heart will always be cloudy.
To live, to live for the sake of living itself, you have already done a great thing while you are alive.
4. The belief of living is conveying
In the story of "Alive", you will see: not only Fugui, but his wife Jiazhen is also working hard to live. Jiazhen is not a snobby woman, she is hard-working, forbearing and honest. Fugui also said that being able to marry her was a blessing from being a cow and being Matthew in his previous life. Together, they convey the belief of "alive" in and out of the play.
Fugui and his wife once wanted to name their son "No Gambling", because gambling made life difficult for their family. Later, when their grandson was born, they jokingly said that they should be called "No Gambling", and later they gave their grandson the nickname "Steamed Bread". "If you don't take the person's name, Yan Wangye, you won't recognize it, presumably this is also thinking of her son Youqing- calling "No Gambling" is to live a good life, and calling it "Bantou" is also to live a good life.
"When a chicken grows up, it becomes a goose. When a goose grows up, it becomes a sheep. When a sheep grows up, it becomes a cow. When a cow grows up, it becomes..." Fugui said to Youqing. , at the end also said to grandson steamed bread. This is a yearning for a better life, and Fugui wants to pass on this vision.
There is also a shadow puppet box that supports Fugui's family all the way. In the final shot, Mantou keeps chickens in it. Come to think of it, these new lives also have the hope of living!
Of course, this "alive" belief is not only passed on in the play, but also outside the play, passed on to us.
The plot of the movie will be softer and more hopeful than the original. However, all changes remain the same. I think what the story of "Alive" wants to tell us is not a pure tragedy, nor the old truth that man can conquer the sky, but the power of living——
Let us learn to be strong in the midst of suffering, and let us know that it is good to live.
Text / Xiaofu Guier
Figure / "Alive" movie stills
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