Letters, originally romantic in the old days, belong to Su Zhenshu’s unique feelings today. During the thirteen years, she read, bought and wrote books, and wandered in the sea of books and mountains and rivers, which was also the sincere thinking of intellectual women.
The recently published collection of epistolary prose "Thinking about Peace" is a collection of letters from Su Zhenshu to his friend Jia Lujun, which is followed by "Meeting in Kyoto" and "Asking about Kyoto". Through forty-four letters, she showed her love for life and her yearning for her hometown friends. This book is arranged in chronological order, beginning with the end of the year and ending with the Spring Festival. Readers can follow the author’s records to experience the change of cold and heat, and feel the weight and temperature of time in the seasonal changes.
Trivia at the end of the year
Jia Lu Jun:
See you. Good.
Last night, I attended the annual meeting in the research room and went out for a drink with my teacher. Yumiko, the teacher elder sister, is so frank that she drinks sake from beer and sweet potato soju. The small bottle of shochu is very cute, depicting the ancient game map. She handed me her cup and urged me to have a taste. Always keep a clear head outside, so you usually drink plum wine with water. I hesitated, but I took the cup and took two sips, softer than I thought, and blurted out, "It’s delicious." Elder martial sister Yumiko was very happy, so she called Yihe for me alone. "He" is a commonly used unit of measurement for Japanese wine. One "He" is 180 ml, which is scalded once in a wok, put in a "Deli" and served with a small small wine cup. Deli Japanese hip flask, big belly and small mouth. The matching small handleless wine cup is called "Pig’s Mouth", and there are often ripples of blue patterns at the bottom to identify the purity of the wine. Just drink one cup at a time and slowly.
▲ Photo by Su Zhenshu (the same below)
After the banquet, I saw the bright stars in the sky in the silent narrow lane. The wind is very cold. Kyoto is surrounded by mountains on three sides. It is said that it was a big lake in ancient times. Although it is not as hot as Chongqing in summer, the wet cooling in winter is even worse than Chongqing. Japanese historian Moriya Chensaburo once said that Kyoto people enjoy the beauty of spring and autumn, so they need to explore the ruthlessness of summer and winter. I always take this sentence to comfort myself to accept the two difficult seasons in the ancient capital.
It’s cooled down these days and snowed in many places on the island. Kyoto is also extremely cold, and there are a few mornings with a little broken snow. According to the predecessors, every snowy day in Kyoto, local TV stations will definitely send helicopters to shoot the snow scene of the ancient capital, among which there will inevitably be the Golden Pavilion Temple covered with snow. Locals always have to see this snow scene before they feel relieved, as if winter had not been let down. There are many tourists all the year round, and after the snow, it is full of photographers. I am afraid of crowding, so I haven’t been there yet. Chimonanthus praecox and narcissus have blossomed, and there are also bright red fruits of Cornus officinalis, Pyracantha fortunei and Nandina domestica. Birds are scrambling to peck and eat roundly. There are many Chinese tallow trees by the river, and their white fruits are like plum blossoms. I remember walking with you on the outskirts of Nantong a few years ago. You pointed to a large area of Chinese tallow tree and said, "Zhang Jian vigorously promoted the planting of this tree in those years, because he could make cocoa butter from Chinese tallow and make something similar to chocolate, but it was not as delicious as chocolate. It was just a lie."
Japanese people must send postcards to each other in the New Year, which are called "New Year greetings". On New Year’s Day last year, I participated in the activities of printing and sending New Year cards to friends in Shiga. First, a list of gifts was made, with about 100 people. Later, postcards were designed, printed with photos of a family of three and their dog Judy, and then printed one by one. Writing a message is also a huge project. For ordinary friends or customers, it is good to print a few words of blessing directly, and for intimate objects, it is usually handwritten. It was early in the morning when all this was done, and it was snowing heavily outside. The bell of the temple except Eritrea came from far away, and my friend took me out to send postcards. I carried a small oil lamp and stepped on a foot-thick snow in the mountain to find a mailbox. The red mailbox was covered with white snow. Before putting the postcard into the mailbox, the friend put his hands together and said, "Happy New Year!" "
But I am too lazy to write new year cards, and there are not so many people to send them to. As a matter of fact, Japanese families also feel that it is a big burden to write and send new year card. If you only give it to relatives and friends, it’s okay, but you still need to consider some people who have a weak relationship but have to send it, such as teachers and bosses. The other party may not think it’s important, but it’s rude if you don’t send it. Such troubled feelings really hurt the meaning of the New Year card itself. Some school sisters also hesitated whether to send cards to their teachers during the Spring Festival. Ask her if she really wants to send it. Answer: I just saw that all the teachers and sisters sent it, so I had to send it myself. I said, if you have the idea of "having to send it", you might as well not send it. Just think that we foreigners are ignorant and don’t understand local customs. Why take blessings as a burden? For example, at home in previous years, every New Year’s Eve, parents often worry about how to reply to a large number of New Year’s messages. When I said to help them solve the problem, I actually just edited a few concise blessings and sent them to several close relatives and friends, ignoring the rest.
Say something happy. Last week, I went to a friend’s house and bought a box of pomelo cakes from Tsuruya Jixin. Tsuruya Jixin is a famous shop of Jingguo, with a history of more than 200 years. This family’s pomelo cake is the most famous. Tomioka Tessai, a famous local painter, ate happily and wrote a plaque with the word "pomelo cake", which is still hanging high in the shop. The fruit called grapefruit in Japan is not the kind of Wendan we eat, but the fragrant arhat orange, which is planted by many people and also found in the wild. In winter, it is full of bright lanterns, and kiosks like to use them as containers or seasoning. Take a grapefruit bath on the winter solstice, and there is a haiku saying, "Pomelo is fragrant, so take a bath in the morning on the winter solstice." Pomelo cakes do have a citrus aroma, which is a bit like orange cakes, glutinous rice flour and mint that I used to eat when I was a child. It melts on the tip of my tongue and feels a little cool. My grandmother likes to eat orange cake very much. When I was a child, there was a sugar jar at home, which always contained a little orange cake, inch gold candy, hemp balls, fried peanuts and dates, with a hint of rust. I don’t like eating so much, I just remember and cherish all this. There are many trivial matters at the end of the year, so I’ll stop here today and talk to you later.
Songru
The fourth day of the twelfth lunar month
Kobe book market
Jia Lu Jun:
I returned to Beijing during spring break and spent three weeks happily, spending every day with my cat. A row of poplars downstairs, rustling like rain every night when you go back in summer, is moving. In March, a tree full of poplars has just blossomed, and it falls down in a hairy section and looks like a caterpillar from a distance. People often sing Bangzi opera in the park near the community, and Hu Qin plays very well. There is a woman dressed in ordinary clothes, her clothes are dusty, but her mouth is clear and moving. I didn’t listen to Bangzi very much before, thinking that the operas were vulgar and noisy, and now I like them very much. In particular, the blowpipe in Kunqu Opera "Strange Double Meeting" makes me want to stop. Just like living outside for a long time, there is less and less picky about diet. Spring comes overnight, the peach blossoms are earth-shattering, and the hairy buds of Magnolia are about to open. The most precious spring in Beijing, but I’m leaving. When I returned to Kyoto on the night of 28th, nothing happened to the cherry blossoms. I can’t see the poplar trees, and there is no strong wind wrapped in sand. The air is clear, the clouds float across the blue sky, and the shadows cast on the mountains move slowly. Even if it is such a good scenery, it is inevitable to be disappointed.
▲ Posters of some book fairs.
Yesterday I went to the annual spring book fair in Kobe (March 15th to May 15th). Books here are extremely cheap, with a single book of 300 yen and a library book of 100 yen, and international students get half price. I have to take the Hankyu Express Line to change trains twice. This is my first time in Kobe. Kobe faces the sea with mountains on its back, and the mountain roads are undulating, and the scenery along the way is quite different from that of Kyoto. I heard from local people that Kobe University is often haunted by wild boar, and I have seen a big wild boar lead a group of cubs to cross the road at a red light.
The book fair is small, and there is only one room in an activity center. Books are piled up, and the classification is confusing. At first glance, it is very confusing. Japan’s publishing industry is developed and there are many kinds of books. The habit of buying books in recent years is: when there is no clear goal, look at the publishing house first. Yanbo Library, Chinese official document library, elementary school library, Central Public Comment Society, Jigu Academy, Shanchuan Publishing House, Tokyo Chuangyuan Society, Hong Wen Hall, Pingfan Society and Kakukawa Library are all worthy of trust. I used to go to the nearby Feige Pavilion a million times. This publishing house specializes in publishing legal books.
Look at the author’s resume again. Japanese books are usually accompanied by the author’s resume on the back cover, indicating the place of birth, school origin, research direction and work achievements. After two initial screenings, you will probably find something. Of course, there are many Japanese publishing houses, and there are also some very minority publishing houses, but the books they make are very good. As for the author’s resume, it is only an additional reference and cannot be completely trusted.
Select from the library first. The usual "library books" refer to Japanese books of sixty-four, as opposed to singles. In modern times, in order to encourage people to read, the price is low. Later, various publishing houses also launched a "new book", the format of which is slightly larger than that of the library, and the content is social science academic and all-encompassing. The library is more specialized in literature and art. I like Yanbo’s new book, which is portable and rich in content. It has a large circulation and a friendly price.
Future Society has published a set of Japanese People’s Dialect, a total of 26 volumes, edited by region, and the content is very interesting. I really wanted to buy all of them, but it was too difficult to consider shipping them back to Kyoto, so I chose the three volumes that I was most interested in. By the way, I bought a set of 16 volumes of World History by the Central Public Comment Society. In the past, Japanese publishing houses liked to compile such books on education and popularization, and invited famous people in related fields to write them. Similar to our "Little Books for Everyone", the circulation was also great, and it was often seen in old bookstores and book markets.
It took a lot of effort to visit the book market. In the afternoon, I repeatedly selected and packed two boxes. There was a small storm when a friend came to pick it up: two boxes of books left in the cloakroom were accidentally split into warehouses by the staff. The other party apologized and led me to the warehouse to unpack and rummage. Seven or eight boxes were torn down, and finally the previous two boxes were found back. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and I was very happy to get it back, so I chose two books I liked from the pile of books.
Returning to Kyoto in the evening, the new moon is bright on the way. The cherry blossoms are blooming next door, the flowers are brushing the wall, and the cat is lying still, so it doesn’t shy away from people. It’s easier to buy books than to study, so you should work harder this spring.
In a hurry, that is, this is a ode.
Zhuan
Songru
March 12th, two days before Tomb-Sweeping Day.
select
self
Miss peace
Su Zhenshu/author
hunan literature and art publishing house
New Media Editor: Zheng Zhouming
Photo: Su Zhenshu Photography
Original title: "Flowers grow short, so we should work harder this spring | Read and listen at night"
Read the original text