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Background information on Yang Jiang's "Old King"

In the absurd and turbulent era of the "Cultural Revolution", the author and his wife, as academic authorities, were regarded as "reactionary academic authorities" and were knocked to the ground and trampled under their feet by the rebels. However, any evil wind had no effect on Lao Wang. He still respected the author and his wife. He recognized that they were good people and would repay their kindness, and even before his death he wanted to thank the kind people. Although the Lao Wang described by the author is poor and humble, his spirit has not been polluted in any way. He has a moral conscience and is an extremely simple and good person.

1. Why do the author's family care and love so much for unfortunate people like Lao Wang? People with superior social status and living conditions often look down on the humble. What spirit does it take to respect, understand, and care for people like the author?

From the article, the most important thing is the concept of equality. In the author's view, people are born equal, and everyone's circumstances are different, even very different. The difference is just a matter of luck or misfortune. The so-called luck and misfortune include natural conditions, growth conditions, and physiological conditions. The lucky ones only have the responsibility to care for the unfortunate and have no reason to discriminate against the unfortunate. Only when you have a sense of equality can you talk to others on an equal footing, and only then can you feel sorry for someone who came to your door and "didn't invite him to sit down and have a sip of tea."

Then the humanitarian spirit. This spirit requires society to care about and sympathize with individuals, respect individuals' contributions to society, respect personality, safeguard the basic rights of social members, and promote the all-round development of all workers. The author's family has this spirit towards Lao Wang. Knowing that Lao Wang had night blindness, he gave him a large bottle of cod liver oil. They always take care of Lao Wang's business, ride in his car, and let him earn some money. Lao Wang is always polite when collecting money, and they always pay the original price. I don’t dare to sit on the tricycle anymore, but I still care about whether Lao Wang can maintain his life. In short, only by having a love for the unfortunate can we care and love others so much.

In the last days of his life, Lao Wang was stiff and frightened. The author only felt sympathy and sadness. It has been several years since Lao Wang died, and the author still feels guilty for this unfortunate person every time he thinks about it. He always feels that he did not care enough for him during his lifetime. All of these are the spirit of socialist humanitarianism and are exactly what the construction of citizen morality advocates.

2. This prose about people's events has trivial materials, but after the author's organization, it becomes an organic whole. How is the author organized?

To study this issue, you can first make an outline and then explore why it is arranged this way. It can be seen that the author uses both logical order and chronological order to arrange it. In the first four paragraphs, I will first write about Lao Wang’s three basic situations. These three points are arranged in a logical sequence. The first is occupation, which is Lao Wang’s means of livelihood, the second is physical defects, which is the difficulty for Lao Wang to make a living, and the third is living conditions, which is the result of the first two points. With low income, of course life is hard. The following three paragraphs, in chronological order, recall Lao Wang's work and life. Two fragments describe his kindness, and one fragment describes how his livelihood became increasingly difficult during the "Cultural Revolution". The last fragment is about what happened the day before Lao Wang's death, which best shows Lao Wang's kindness.

In addition to the orderly arrangement of paragraphs, you should also explore the clues that run throughout the text. It can be seen that the author took the interaction with Lao Wang as a clue. Sitting on Lao Wang's three-wheeler, chatting along the way, the author is approachable, and Lao Wang is also willing to tell his life experience. He wrote about Lao Wang's eye disease and mentioned that his daughter gave him a large bottle of cod liver oil, which shows that the family takes good care of Lao Wang. Lao Wang is also kind to the Qian family, and both parties are always very polite when it comes to service fees. The three-wheeler was changed to a flat-bed three-wheeler, and I couldn't sit anymore. The author still cared about Lao Wang and was good to Lao Wang, so Lao Wang always felt that he owed a favor, and he wanted to express his gratitude in the last days of his life. Taking mutual interactions as clues, the whole text is connected with each other and becomes an organic whole.

Time Background

First of all, is Lao Wang’s kindness the only description in the article? I don't think so. The article begins with: "After Beijing was liberated, tricycle riders were all organized. At that time, he was 'too slow' and didn't get around. He was a step too late and couldn't get in." He lamented to himself "I am old and useless." Lao Wang often has the fear of falling out of the crowd, because he is a single farmer and the only thing he relies on for survival is a dilapidated tricycle. "Is this just about Lao Wang's honesty and kindness? In fact, this is not only about Lao Wang’s honesty and kindness, but also a satire and accusation of that era when black and white were reversed. Therefore, the author writes about Lao Wang's kindness in a larger context - it was a dark and evil era.

Secondly, Lao Wang is a very kind person. So, what about Yang Jiang’s family? The article has written many times about how Yang Jiang's family treated Lao Wang. We can see the kindness of Yang Jiang's family, which has continued to their daughter. In other words, this article is not just about one person's kindness, but about the memory of an extremely kind person for another extremely kind person, and about the mutual warmth of kind people in an era of evil.

Finally, the most core sentence in the article is: "A few years have passed, and I gradually understand that it is the shame of a lucky person for an unfortunate person." This sentence has always been understood:< /p>

1. Why is Lao Wang said to be an "unfortunate person"

The Lao Wang in the article is an ordinary worker living at the bottom of society. His source of livelihood is "just an old tricycle"; he lives in a "deserted alley", "a dilapidated compound" and "several dilapidated huts"; he also "lost one of his eyes" Eye". In addition, he "works alone" and is "lost from the community"; he has almost no relatives, "his brother is dead and he has two nephews who are 'promising'", and he is an "old bachelor". Whether it is materially, physically, or mentally, Lao Wang is a complete "unlucky person".

There is no doubt about this. But such an "unfortunate person" met Yang Jiang in a historical period.

Their acquaintance was unequal from the beginning. "He pedaled" and "I sat", and the communication between them was limited to "chatting", but Lao Wang still cherished this very much. An acquaintance. He conveyed this kind of "treasure" in his own way: "Every morning, Lao Wang carried the ice up to the third floor and put it in the refrigerator for us. The ice he sent was twice as big as that sent by his predecessor, and the ice price was the same. "; During the Cultural Revolution, Yang Jiang's husband, Mr. Qian, "couldn't walk on one of his legs." Lao Wang sent Mr. Qian to the hospital and "resolutely refused to take money." He said, "I sent Mr. Qian to the hospital for free." A very important reason why Lao Wang is like this is that in his interactions with Yang Jiang's family, he felt a kind of warmth and closeness that he had never experienced before: Yang Jiang regarded him as an "acquaintance" and was willing to listen to his "gossip" "; Yang Jiang's daughter also "gave him a large bottle of cod liver oil", which improved his eye disease; after he worked hard for Yang Jiang's family, he always received some money as compensation. Although sometimes "taking money" was not his intention, such warmth and closeness gave Lao Wang a kind of comfort in his lonely soul. It is this kind of warmth that enables Lao Wang to gain a kind of spiritual sustenance consciously or unconsciously. Lao Wang is a real humble man who makes a living by working hard. His authentic and simple nature makes him always have a different kind of admiration for knowledgeable people. This kind of admiration has no utilitarian color. , it comes completely from the bottom of my heart. So, when Lao Wang was about to die, he gave Yang Jiang the eggs and sesame oil that he was reluctant to eat. When Lao Wang came this time, he should have known that he would die soon. The reason why he dragged his "stiff and stiff" body to Yang Jiang's house for the last time was obviously due to his inner considerations; however, his painstaking efforts were ultimately regrettable. The land was misunderstood by Yang Jiang (the reason for this misunderstanding will be stated later), making it a simple exchange of money and things. "He walked straight down the stairs step by step," and the sound of the "footsteps" was Lao Wang's "misfortune" in another sense. If Lao Wang's previous "misfortunes" were explicit, then the "misfortune" that Lao Wang encountered this time was implicit. The key point is that Lao Wang used his simple way of thinking to misinterpret Yang Jiang's family's sympathy for him as family affection. He sincerely did everything he thought he should do, but he did not really realize that he and Yang Jiang's family came from different classes after all, and the distance between them was obvious. Although the sudden encounter gave him the opportunity to communicate with Yang Jiang "up close", such communication could only remain on the surface of the exchange of goods and money, far from the communication of the heart. The distance between hearts cannot be shortened no matter what efforts he makes.

2. Why is Yang Jiang a "lucky person"?

Yang Jiang’s “luck” does not only refer to the material disparity between her and Lao Wang. Yang Jiang’s “luck” should first of all come when their family encounters “misfortune”. I met the "most honest" person like Lao Wang. Lao Wang's help to her family can be said to be his best effort.

Lao Wang didn’t understand what “bullying” was. “He probably didn’t even think of it.” There was no word “bullying” in Lao Wang’s life dictionary. Lao Wang only knows how to be a responsible person and do things honestly. Although life is unfair to him, he still remains content and sticks to his moral conscience as always.

Although Yang Jiang also had "misfortune": she was attacked during the Cultural Revolution and she was sent to the cadre school; her husband couldn't walk, so he had to ask Lao Wang to help him to the hospital. But these are only briefly mentioned in the article. Because Yang Jiang’s real intention in writing this article is to convey her unique understanding of life by analyzing every bit of her acquaintance with Lao Wang, so it is impossible to describe everything else in detail in such a short article. Expression. Yang Jiang sympathized with Lao Wang's "misfortune" and did her best to help Lao Wang financially. In her opinion, Lao Wang was already pitiful enough, and she could not take advantage of Lao Wang at all. The "nobility" deep in the heart of an intellectual makes her adhere to a principle when dealing with people and things, that is, she will never owe others any favors. In her mind, Lao Wang is the same as "others". Therefore, her contribution to Lao Wang was always expressed as money in return: Lao Wang sent ice to her home. Although Lao Wang said that "the fare was halved", she insisted on not reducing it; Lao Wang sent Mr. Qian to the hospital. , "resolutely refused to take money", but she "must give money"; even when Lao Wang gave her eggs and sesame oil at the end of his life, she still "used money to insult him". Please note that Yang Jiang used a particularly eye-catching word here: "insult." It makes people feel more about the old man's different state of mind when he wrote this article, and it has far-reaching implications. Let's read these two paragraphs in the article again: I thanked him for the good sesame oil, thanked him for the big eggs, and then turned around and went into the house. He quickly stopped me and said: "I'm not asking for money." I also quickly explained: "I know, I know - but since you are here, you don't have to ask someone to take you with you." The two "hurries" here are intriguing, Lao Wang's "hurrying" was because she knew what Yang Jiang's action of "turning around and entering the house" would mean, which was what Lao Wang was least willing to accept; and Yang Jiang's "hurrying" was because she failed to understand Lao Wang's thoughts . In fact, at that time, she had no time to understand, because what Yang Jiang saw at that time was: "stiffly embedded in the door frame", "just like someone poured out of a coffin", "zombie", "on the skull" There is a layer of dry yellow skin that will fall apart into a pile of white bones when hit with a stick." Out of an instinct, she was "confused with fear" and all she could think of was to send Lao Wang away quickly. And the best way to send Lao Wang away is money. I don’t think anyone has any reason to criticize Yang Jiang’s behavior at such a specific time. The result of the matter was that Lao Wang reluctantly accepted the "money" he was least willing to accept. From this detail, it is not difficult for us to see the deep inner gap between Yang Jiang and Lao Wang at that time. This kind of estrangement is still there in the article, that is, "more than ten days" after Lao Wang went to Yang Jiang's house for the last time, Yang Jiang had a conversation with Lao Li, who was in the same hospital as Lao Wang: "How is Lao Wang? Not much better." ?" "He was buried long ago." "Ah, when did he..." "The day after he came to your place." From this text, it is not difficult to see that there is a gap between him and Lao Wang. It’s not just Yang Jiang. Even Lao Li, who is in the same class as Lao Wang, has a gap with Lao Wang, although the meaning of the two types of estrangement may be different.

However, Yang Jiang is a senior intellectual with social conscience after all. The death of Lao Wang prompted her to "repeatedly recall" the "words" left by Lao Wang during his lifetime and "wonder whether he knew" her Yang Jiang's "thank you" was "uneasy". This kind of "uneasiness" kept interrogating her soul, making her suddenly realize: every bit of her past relationship with Lao Wang was so unfair; her return to Lao Wang's "money" was not the same as Lao Wang's. Compared with the dedication to one's own "heart", it is so insignificant. This is undoubtedly a heart-wrenching pain for her. This is also a kind of spiritual introspection when Yang Jiang reflects on life after "several years have passed." Isn't the spiritual introspection of intellectuals "lucky" in another sense?

In fact, the "lucky people" in Yang Jiang's article were originally "people who eat more and occupy more". The author made such a change because of her deep considerations. I think this is probably the real reason why Yang Jiang said "a lucky person feels ashamed for an unfortunate person".

One more point to add: An ordinary person like Lao Wang finally made Yang Jiang deeply aware of the "guilt" in life, and she plainly revealed all this to future generations. That should be the "great luck" for future generations.