Tomorrow is the winter solstice, I have to visit my parents’ graves, and now I feel very sad. Recalling the time when my mother passed away before she was seventy years old, my heart ached and I could not recover for half a year. Sitting in a corner of the office, crying silently all day long, asking questions in class, calling students, and forgetting what to ask.
I recently read a story, which actually healed me a little bit. The story goes like this -
There was an old scholar named Lu who had accomplished nothing in his fifties. I heard that a master training center was opened in Fujian. I thought it would be good to train people to serve as staff for officials, so I went to Fujian. When we walked to the county boundary of 江山, it started to rain heavily. It was too late to rush to the hotel. Not far ahead, we saw a few tile-roofed houses vaguely exposed among the thick trees. I immediately ran over and knocked on the door.
The door opened, and a man with simple clothes and elegant appearance came out.
Lu Xiucai was soaked in the rain. He raised his sleeves and wiped the rain off his face, and said, "It's dark and rainy, and I can't make it to the store. Can I stay overnight in your house?"
The owner said, "My family doesn't have any extra room, so you'd better stay somewhere else. Come on!"
"I see that you are also a scholar, why not let me stay here for a night? "
Lu Xiucai repeatedly asked, and the master had no choice but to let him in, saying that his surname was Shen and he was a scholar from Jiangshan County. Then he pointed to an east wing room and said, "You can sleep here for the night." He took a lamp and sent him inside.
Lu Xiucai stepped in and saw a coffin parked on the left side of the ground. It was dark and dark. He was disgusted and scared. He wanted to leave but had nowhere to go. Relying on his usual boldness, he thanked Shen Xiucai and laid the ceremony. Shen Xiucai went out. Lu Xiucai looked at the coffin and panicked. He put down the curtain and took out a book "The Book of Changes" to read.
It was late at night, and the scholar yawned repeatedly. He didn't dare to turn on the light to sleep, so he put down his books and clothes and lay down.
After a while, he heard a rustling sound in the coffin. The scholar's hair stood on end in shock. He held his breath and looked intently. He saw the coffin lid slowly opened, and an old man with a white beard sat up leisurely and walked out of the coffin. He wore a pair of scarlet boots and looked like an ordinary person. Lu Xiucai was so frightened that he clung to the curtain tightly and peeped through the cracks. The old man walked up to Lu Xiucai, picked up the "Book of Changes" and read it, then took out the cigarette pouch from his sleeve, lit it with a candle and started smoking. Lu Xiucai almost dropped his jaw in shock. This ghost was not afraid of the "Book of Changes" and could even smoke. It was so evil. The scholar was afraid that he would come to his bed, and he would tremble all over. The curtains would tremble with him, and the bed would tremble as well. The old man with a white beard looked at the rustling bed, smiled slightly, returned to the coffin, put the tobacco pouch into his sleeves, lay down and closed the coffin lid himself.
Lu Xiucai clutched the curtain tightly and stayed awake all night.
After finally staying up until dawn, Lu Xiucai immediately came out of the "haunted house".
The owner asked him: "How did you sleep last night?"
The scholar looked ugly and said reluctantly: "It's okay, but I don't know who is in the coffin in the house?"
The owner said: "It's my father."
"Since he is your father, why not bury him? He has passed away, so he should be buried in peace."
The owner smiled and said, "My father is alive and in good health."
"Why do living people sleep in coffins?" Lu Xiucai was shocked.
"My father is optimistic about things. He has taken a dim view of worldly affairs and believes that people are mortal, so why not practice it first. So after his seventieth birthday, he made a birthday coffin, put a bedding in it, and slept in it every night."
Only then did Lu Xiucai understand that what he saw last night was a living person, not a ghost. With that said, Shen Xiucai pulled Lu Xiucai to the coffin, called his father up, and exchanged the guest and host ceremonies. Lu Xiucai saw that it was indeed the old man he had seen under the lamp last night.Father Shen laughed loudly and said to Lu Xiucai: "You were frightened last night!" ( No! Thanks to Lu Xiucai's boldness, the timid one would have been turned into a ghost. )
The three of them clapped their hands and laughed. Look at the coffin, surrounded by fir wood, and the coffin lid is made of black cotton yarn, which is light and breathable.
Oh, what a very special place to rest! Most people are taboo about death, especially when they are old, they have to choose auspicious words, but Father Shen is so open-minded and open-minded.
Do you still remember " Huang Sheng borrowed a book and talked about " in junior high school Chinese? It was written by Yuan Mei in the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Mei also wrote a book called "Zi Buyu ". This story comes from "Zi Buyu".
Yuan Mei was awarded Jinshi at the age of twenty-four and ranked fifth. He served as county magistrate for seven years. After Suiyuan was built, he studied in it and wrote "Suiyuan Ji", including three, four, five, six, postscript, and trivial notes; he cooked delicious food and wrote "Suiyuan Food List "; he traveled and made friends, and wrote twenty-six volumes of "Suiyuan Poems". The books were sold one by one, money flowed in, and Yuan Caizi lived a life of ease and ease.
He saw through the changes in the officialdom, so he resigned; he saw through the impermanence of life and death, so he was free and easy. He used such stories to express his open-minded view of life and death.
Yes! When people come to this world, everyone is happy and when they leave, they are empty-handed. The only thing that belongs to us is every moment of life.
