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The path of life, why is it getting narrower and narrower? “This is the sentiment of a confused young man published in a long letter in” Chinese Youth “43 years ago in 1980.
Nowadays, there may not be many people reading magazines. Back then, the magazine “China Youth” had a great influence. On October 20, 1923, the official publication “China Youth” founded by the Chinese Socialist Youth League was founded in Shanghai. Communist Party members Yun Daiying, Xiao Chunu, Lin Yunan, Ren Bishi, Deng Zhongxia, Zhang Tailei, Li Qiushi, and others successively served as editors in chief. In April 1949, after the establishment of the New Democracy Youth League of China, it has always been the official journal of the Central Committee of the Youth League. Discontinued publication in August 1966. It resumed publication in September 1978.
In 1980, facing a rapidly changing world and a constantly changing society, many people from all walks of life, especially young people, fell into deep confusion. Therefore, the magazine “China Youth” plans to hold a discussion on the philosophy of life, “What is the meaning of life.
The experience of one of the street workers named “Huang Xiaoju” is deeply touched and has become the focus of attention for editors.
The editor combined Huang Xiaoju’s experience with the words of another college student, Pan Yi, and published a long article titled “The Road of Life, Why It’s Narrow and Narrow…” under the pen name “Pan Xiao” in “Chinese Youth” in 1980, which sparked more than 60000 people’s letters to participate in the discussion at that time. Basically, it is equivalent to reading a single article at the level of over ten million.
And this letter from “Pan Xiao” also sparked a great discussion among young people in the 1980s about their outlook on life. Why is this article so influential and what did “Pan Xiao” say?
Today we will talk about:
How can the path of life become narrower and narrower?
In the article, “Pan Xiao” tells the story of her upbringing.
When Pan Xiao was young, he was filled with beautiful hopes and fantasies in life. When he grew up, he saw the chaos and complexity of society and felt confused inside. There was originally a safe haven for her family, but after graduating from junior high school, due to the death of her grandfather, there were also financial problems at home, and she fell out with her mother and also fell ill
After recovering from the illness, I didn’t go to school anymore and with the help of people around me, I went to work in a small factory on the street. Once again, he encountered problems, gave advice to leaders, was marginalized, roast to colleagues, and was told by colleagues that he wanted to trust the future to love, and was abandoned by “Chen Shimei”. At this moment, she felt that life was ugly and ferocious.
She read and studied, but was not relieved. She felt that she had seen through the world and didn’t know how to deal with it. On the one hand, she condemned vulgarity, and on the other hand, she was concerned about bonuses. She said that she became smooth, hypocritical, and sometimes painful inside.
In summary, she felt that the path of life was getting narrower and narrower
01
To be honest, I did ‘know’ about this article before and have generally read it, but I did not study it very seriously. Taking the opportunity to write this article today, I carefully studied it again and also gained an understanding of the relevant background and character prototypes.
Indeed, the “Pan Xiao” in the text is quite awkward, as various contradictions in life blend together, giving people a feeling of falling deeper and deeper. Sad for the prototype of “Pan Xiao”, “Huang Xiaoju” wrote in the final book when submitting to “Chinese Youth”:
Some people say that the times are advancing, but I cannot touch their powerful arms; others say that there is a broad and great cause in the world, but I don’t know where it is. The path of life is getting narrower and narrower, but I am already very tired, as if just letting go of a breath means complete destruction. Indeed, I secretly went to see the Catholic Church’s services, and I once had the idea of cutting my hair to become a nun, and even Until death… my heart is really chaotic and conflicted
02
Although I sympathize with Pan Xiao’s experience and deeply understand her feelings, after carefully reading it, I have a few feelings to share with my friends.
1? Regardless of the era, the problems faced by young people may seem different in form, but in reality, there is no fundamental difference.
2? Regardless of the era, the problems faced by young people are fundamentally rooted in human nature, and ultimately need to be solved from a human perspective.
3? No matter which era, the problems faced by young people may not know what choices are right, but they must know what choices are wrong.
So, after reading this article 43 years ago, ‘The Road of Life, Why Is It Narrow and Narrow…’, from the protagonist’s experience, one can actually see how a person gradually falls into misfortune. And what can our young people today learn from her?
03
From the experience of “Pan Xiao”, five methods have been roughly figured out. As long as we follow them, we can narrow the path of life.
1? Physical condition must not improve
As long as a person has good health, the pain in life is generally reduced by half. So if you want to have a narrow path in life, you cannot first have a good body.
Climbing up in any industry, the road becomes wider and faster, and the ultimate goal is to fight for the “body”. If you are in good health, especially in good condition and energetic, most of the difficulties you encounter are relatively easy to handle. Moreover, physical condition often affects the body, as can be understood from the story of Lin Daiyu.
It is also easy for ordinary people to damage their bodies, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, and staying up late. That is to say, ‘Use wine as the slurry, extravagance as the constant, drunkenness as the entry into the room, desire to exhaust its essence, to dissipate its essence, not knowing how to hold it full, constantly controlling the gods, ensuring to be quick in one’s heart, rebelling against life and happiness, and living without restraint’.
2? Family relationships must be very poor
As long as a person has a stable family relationship, their life problems may be reduced by half. However, it seems that most people cannot do it. Most people actually fall into the problem of ‘native families’.
So if you want to narrow your path in life, you just need to push all the problems onto the “original family” and blame the hardships on your parents and family. You just need to avoid them and not face them.
In fact, if childhood is’ helplessness’, then it is mostly ‘ignorance’ or ‘incompetence’ that cannot be properly handled in adulthood. As long as you don’t change, family relationships can continue to wear you down, even for the rest of your life.
3? Full of fantasies about love
If a person can handle emotional relationships well, then life should be much less troublesome. Although love is a necessary experience for every young person, most of the gains are due to pain, because most people are full of fantasies about love and ultimately disappointed, causing them to fall into pain.
So if you want the path of life to become narrower and narrower, you need to be full of fantasies about love, and place all the hopes, efforts, and possibilities of life on illusory love.
4? Be sure to learn to complain about life
There is a law of attraction in the world, which is what you think, what you get. If a person never complains, they may encounter fewer problems, but most people are “accustomed to complaining”. Complaining about work, complaining about leadership, complaining about life, complaining about friends.
So if you want the path of life to become narrower and narrower, you must learn to complain, otherwise there won’t be so many problems finding you, and life won’t have the opportunity to encounter so much negative energy.
5? Never improve your core abilities
Some people say that even if you know many great truths, you still can’t live a good life. Firstly, the probability is that I don’t understand. Secondly, I understand, but I don’t use it at all, don’t practice, don’t grow, what’s the use?
A person can read many books and understand many philosophical principles, but they do not know what their “core abilities” are or their value to society. As long as you don’t “grow”, the path of life is likely to become narrower and narrower.
So, are these problems with “Pan Xiao” a problem of the times? It’s not that every generation faces the same challenges, but some have overcome them, some have laid themselves flat, and some have avoided them.
Many young people say that they cannot find the direction of struggle and see the changes in the future clearly. Actually, it’s not necessary, if you really can’t see a lot of things clearly.
It’s better to allocate time to exercise, improve family relationships, spend more time with others, maintain an optimistic mood, and enhance core abilities
Physical health, family harmony, emotional happiness, optimistic mindset, and continuous growth.
Being able to achieve these five points, the path of life becomes narrower and narrower, which is actually quite difficult
Listen to the Party and follow it
Learning time
Struggle and dedication are the life goals of serving the country and fulfilling their duties. They are not afraid of difficulties and dangers, dare to sacrifice, work hard and persevere, and fully demonstrate the selfless and fearless spirit of dedication and perseverance of Communist Party members.
——On June 29, 2021, the awarding ceremony of the “July 1st Medal” to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC