Break out of Material MarshlandBy Xia Wei-dong Wei Hui's Shanghai Darling and Zhang Kang-kang's Gallery of Love represent two generations of authors who are devoted to human desires with ultimate explicitness. Money is undoubtedly important. This is especially true in this age where everything is a commodity. It is justifiable for a person to work hard to overcome poverty and provide a good life for himself and his family. The wise King Solomon said: "Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth." (Prov. 10:4) So diligence is a virtue. It is also a way to prosperity. Some wise men discount money to show off their unworldliness and elegance. But if Tao Yuan-ming could not afford to buy his drinks, then you would not expect him to enjoy the nature leisurely. A person living in poverty can never be leisurely. Bacon was very pragmatic about wealth. He said: "One should not show contempt to wealth as if he did not belong to this world." This is a healthy attitude. As I get to know the life of those who struggle below the poverty line, I feel disgusted at those wise men who talk more than they do. For those who have experienced poverty, money means more than survival. It also means respect. Reading Yan Lian-ke's Time, I wanted to cry but I ran out of tears. In that poor village, people worked extremely hard just to secure their next meal. Some even put their thigh skin for sale. Some good-for-nothing people may say: "Oh, how pitiful! They live like dogs!" Imagine they live in that kind of environment and see how poetic they will still become! No wonder when Mencius was discussing politics with a king, he skipped all theories and got right to addressing the problems of clothing and food for all the citizens. Now comes the problem after the problems of clothing and food have been addressed. As we all know, the Mainland China has experienced a rapid economic growth in the past decade, during which a large number of people have become rich. Guan's theory says that abundance encourages morality. So one would expect an improvement in social morality. The reality is quite the opposite. I went back to China twice recently. I was surprised at its material abundance, but I was more surprised at its spiritual poverty. There was a clear contrast between spiritual poverty and material abundance. The old saying Better live in immorality than in poverty vividly depicted the society. I even heard of such folk song: Out of the billion people, nine tenths run their own
business; It is not hard to find out why the society acts like this: money flames up desires. Even intellectuals have to find their way to adapt to the modern trend. With a quick look at the list of best-selling books, you will know what they are up to: Wei Hui's Shanghai Darling, Mian-mian's Candy, Tie-ning's Bathing Girl, Zhang Kang-kang's Gallery of Love. These two generations of authors devoted to human desires with ultimate explicitness. Liu Xing-long's novel Sharing the Difficulties received very positive comments. It was labeled as the masterpiece of neo-realism. What kind of realism is it though? The novel told the story of the head of a small town Kong Tai-ping, whose niece was raped by Hong Ta-shan, the richest man in town. In order to minimize economic impact to the town, Kong persuaded himself, his niece and his niece's family to give up legal charges against the wicked Hong. After I read the novel, I was greatly puzzled. Who was sharing difficulties with whom? I saw honesty and wickedness mingled in the material marshland. Bei Dao had a famous saying: Wickedness is the passport for the wicked and honesty is the epitaph of the honest. Now some changed it to: Honesty is the passport for the wicked and wickedness is the epitaph of the honest. No wonder a famous writer said he would rather live in poverty. The desire to blindly pursue money is both scary and pitiable. We are supposed to make money in order to live. But now we live in order to make money. Such a switch between cause and effect results in a serious drama of survival and comedy of madness. While government officials live in corruption, ordinary people fight for their survival in an adventurous path betting on their bodies and life. From both cases come wickedness. Wickedness demonstrates itself in various ways, but all fall into wickedness because of a common goal: money. Collusion between a government official and a businessman becomes common. Worse is the collusion between the police and the thief. Ceaseless desire to pursue money is directly caused by spiritual poverty. Fifty years ago, the Chinese people were proud of standing up and they participated in China's construction with great enthusiasm. That was a golden age of idealism. Forty years ago, the Chinese people found themselves busy building up a god and constructing a heaven on earth and a hell on earth. That was an age of madness. Thirty years ago, the Chinese people anticipated pain relief medicine after great pains. That was an age of broken idealism. Then what happened to the people in the last twenty years? Through the opened window, they see the rapid development of material civilization of the West. So the whole country is now busy in economic reforms and every individual is busy making money. This is an age of lost idealism. Serve the people becomes serve the money. After all, there is a difference between men and animals in that men need to believe in something. In a nation where spiritual belief is lacking and idealism consistently goes nowhere, people will surely search for a replacement for idealism, be it consciously or subconsciously. In the past twenty years, the unpredictable fate of Qi Gong serves as a metaphor for the state of spiritual vacuum. He Zuo-xiu, a senior scientist, believed Qi Gong was caused by people's lack of scientific knowledge. So he called for strengthening science education. I believe his reasoning was insufficient. In the past twenty years, education and knowledge have unprecedentedly been spread out and yet Qi Gong has spread also at about the same time. In addition, many of the Qi Gong believers are the ones who have received higher education in science and technology. One believer of Falun Gong had a Ph.D. in physics, but he gave very irrational comments trying to support Li Hong-zhi's ridiculous theory of light year as a time unit. The reality is that all those leaders of false religion were quickly perceived as liars. For those who claim they are saviors of the world, the Bible says they are thieves and robbers. So once again human belief is destroyed. The repeated experience of being cheated is not only awful, but it is a feeling of numbness caused by pain and yet it is far stronger than pain. To borrow Lu Xun's phrase, it is a feeling of death in heart. The only thing that does not lie is money. Money is a symbol of wealth. Even more so, money is a symbol of power, fame and capability. In the past, the Chinese people were told to learn from Lei Feng. Now their role model becomes Bill Gates. I have already talked about the importance of money. It is important, but it does not mean everything. Ancient people in Rome called wealth impedimenta, meaning burden or luggage. Luggage is very important to a traveler, but it is heavy and it often becomes a burden for him. If a traveler does not want to carry a burden and at the same time he does not want to give up his luggage, then he will have to give up his traveling. Then he is not going to be a traveler any more, but a miser. Solomon painted a good picture of the fate of such a miser: "He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand." (Eccl. 5:15) I believe we all know that we do not carry money with us when we are born, nor do we carry money with us when we die. However, those who are busy making money are not willing to deal with this issue, just like they are unwilling to think about religious belief. But what is it that we can possess forever? All materialistic stuff will eventually go to dust, including our bodies. But human beings have souls. They have spirits, which distinguish them from animals. This is also why we have this inner urge to subconsciously search for something to believe in. We have witnessed the collapse of our political beliefs; we have experienced the extinction of idealism; we have encountered all the false religions; now is the time for us to return to our eternal home and source of life. Two thousand years ago, that great Son of Man shouted in the dark history of mankind: "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12) His resurrection proves that He is the eternal light that transcends life and death. This holy light makes it possible for us to break out of the material marshland. The author came from Anhui. Now he lives in New Jersey and works in statistics area. He writes in his spare time. |