Mr. Zhang
01
1920's Lantern Festival, Wang Zengqi was born in Gaoyou.
His grandfather was an official in the late Qing Dynasty, his father was a versatile and interesting person, good at painting, fond of playing the zither, fond of boxing, cooking, and healing...
Growing up in the influence of literature, Wang Zengqi learned ancient Chinese from a young age, was able to write poetry and paint, and his elementary school compositions were almost always“the best”.
Wang Zengqi learned to smoke and drink at a young age. When his father drank, he would also pour a cup for him, smoking two cigarettes at a time, one for him and one for his son.
Wang Zengqi had his first love at seventeen, and during the summer vacation he wrote love letters at home, while his father watched and gave him advice.
Under the influence of his father, Wang Zengqi developeda casual, optimistic, and indifferent personality.
1939Autumn, a thin boy, with a coarse blue bag slung over his shoulder, stepped into the Southwest Associated University. On the registration book, it read: Wang Zengqi, from Gaoyou, Department of Chinese.
This student of Mr. Shen Congwen's, however, is an atypical slacker.
“He lives a free and easy life at the United Nations, even being嬉嬉哈哈, attending classes when in a good mood, sleeping when not, and visiting tea houses or the library in the evening, treating the night as if it were day.”
It is said that in his sophomore year, Wang Zengqi had a breakup and did not get out of bed for two days and two nights. His friend Zhu Dexi was frightened and quickly brought a thick dictionary to the dormitory.
“Get up, let's go eat breakfast!” Seeing him sleeping like a log, Zhu Dehui shouted at the door. Thus, the two of them staggered out, sold a dictionary, and each ate a bowl of rice noodles for ten cents and thirteen cents——Everything is fine.
That was when Wang Zengqi's essence as a foodie began to show.
Justice Road's pot-fried chicken, Dongyuelou's black carp pot stickers, Ma's beef shop's green-sauced beef, Jiqingxiang's ham mooncake...
Wandering around the market, he lingered at the stall, eating white-cut chicken, and came up with a name, missing a good opportunity (missing a good chance); going to a restaurant, he chatted with the owner, listened to the interesting stories from various villages, and learned to cook in the back kitchen;
If he had no class, he would slip into some unknown tavern, order a plate of pork head, take a sip of green-glazed wine, enjoy the view of the lotus flowers outside the shop, and listen to the rain in Kunming on the eaves.
It was during those days that he leaned against the small table by the window, becoming interested in all kinds of people and various lives, . So he wrote about them at random, producing his first few stories.
1961Year, Wang Zengqi's family photo
Later, Wang Zengqi went to teach in the suburbs of Kunming and met Shi Songqing.
The year before, Shi Lady, with her cherry-red lips and fragrant teeth, still looked like a young girl. Because she often had a worried and tired expression, she was known as the Lin Daiyu of the Yenching University. She had heard of Wang Zengqi's reputation, but unfortunately, they never met.
Who would have thought, the two of them went to the same school after graduation. The sickly beauty and the lazy scholar, became a pair.
Not long. Wang Zengqi and Shi Songqing had a meal together, which was considered as a wedding.
03
Wang Zengqi, whether in favorable or adverse circumstances, always maintained a sincere and unrestrained attitude towards life.
38 years old, Wang Zengqi was sent to the township agricultural science institute for labor reform.
At first, he was sent to dig pig pens, collect pig manure, and carry grain, and then he was sent to the orchard for planting, and the most common job was to spray the fruit trees with fungicides.
The hands that he used to read, write and draw have turned into the hands that plow the fields, often so tired that he can't even say a sentence.
Looking around, everyone else was gloomy and lifeless. Despite this, Wang Zengqi remained blindly optimistic, always trying to find some joy in the difficult days.
He said:“I feel that the whole world is cold, but only a little bit of it is hot here.”
While working in the orchard, he marveled at the fungicide as“the beautiful sky blue”; one day he was overjoyed and happy just because he picked a big mushroom, which could be brought home to make a bowl of soup for the family.
Wang Zengqi felt that a person could not write from morning till night, that it would be like being a writing machine, and that one needed to find something to occupy oneself, or to have some hobby.
Wang Zengqi's hobbies are: writing, painting, and cooking.
Many people asked Wang Zengqi for paintings, but he felt that his paintings were not very impressive, and he jokingly said that they were just different because they were paintings by a painter.
He likes to paint Chinese paintings, because he can add poems to express his dissatisfaction. Once he painted a peony and added a poem that said:
There is a corner in the world, where we can place the flowers of the side branches.
Proud and self-satisfied, not sharing the red city of the morning glow.
Feng Youlan heard and said, there is poetry in painting, and there is a person in poetry.
So-called“Poetry contains a person”, refers to Wang Zengqi“gladly self-satisfied”style and character.
04
Wang Zengqi's“Happy and content”, and Tao Yuanming's“Like reading, not seeking a deep understanding”, are of the same“Happy and forgetful of food”order.
60 before, Wang Zengqi was almost“ unknown”, he regarded writing as“ self-entertaining”.
Until1980, his short story "The Cricket" was published in "Beijing Literature", and he became popular in the literary world.
He always wrote about small people, midwives, carriage makers, silversmiths, and even those who keep chickens and ducks, they are the true common people, yet they live their days with flavor in the trivial life.
Someone advised him to write some grand articles, Wang Zengqi thought about it and replied:“I have been struggling with myself for a long time, rather than be someone else.”
This“Nine” old man, not competing, not competing, not showing off, not being artificial, living a real, self.
The Wang family's分配 house was narrow and small, and when a famous writer visited, he was so moved by seeing such a famous writer living in such a house that he almost shed tears.
His family asked him to write a report on his housing application, and he sat there for half a day, unable to come up with a single word, and in the end, he said helplessly:
“I can't write! I don't mind being crammed, I'm willing to make do!”
Talking about his father, his daughter Wang Chao said with a smile,“He has no status in our family. We, his children, bully him, and our mother doesn't take him seriously at all. But he enjoys it.”
Wang Lao has also learned to be wiser after being squeezed too much.
In his daily life, he gets drunk and boasts: "Hey, be nice to me, I'm going to be in literary history someday." The Wang family rolls their eyes at him, pretending to be bored: "Old man, stop being so conceited!"
05
Not reading Wang Zengqi is not enough to talk about life, but it's best not to read when you're hungry.
Because he is“the most foodie among writers and the most literary among chefs”, watching the food in his writing is like watching "A Bite of China".
A foodie who is not a philosopher of life is not a good writer, how"delicious"is Wang Zengqi's writing?
In the middle school Chinese textbook, Wang Zengqi once "praised"the high邮 duck eggs: once seen the sea, it is difficult to be satisfied with other waters; outside the hometown, I really can't stand the salted duck eggs.
No matter where he goes, Wang Zengqi always misses the local food the most. Because he has eaten all over the world and is good at observing, a不起眼 ingredient is often written by him in such a way that makes people drool.
In his later years, Wang Zengqi was a lovely "old child": fond of play, fond of food, fond of drink, and fond of the sour, sweet, bitter, and salty flavors of the world.
There was a year when he was hospitalized for gallbladder inflammation.
Daughter wants her father to quit smoking and drinking, so she asks the doctor:“Are there any restrictions on cigarettes and alcohol in the future?”
The doctor shook his head:“No, this disease has nothing to do with smoking and drinking.”
The old man burst into a whispering laugh.
Wang Zengqi is a man who really understands life, and is a old man who can live a plain day with flavor.
He can not only write and draw, love to play and eat, but also love to make delicious food.
Cooking, he must buy the ingredients himself, and every time he goes somewhere, he doesn't like to wander around the department store, but likes to wander around the wet market, because the wet market is more life-like, and the process of buying vegetables is also his process of conceiving and matching.
How delicious is the chef Wang Zengqi's cooking? For example:
The writer Nie Hualing visited from the United States, and the Chinese Writers' Association arranged for Wang Zengqi to make a few dishes at home to entertain.
Wang Zengqi made a special dish of braised dry noodles for Nie Hualing, who enjoyed it so much that she even drank the last bit of soup.
Jiuding is a kind of Jiangsu cuisine, a childhood memory of Nie Hualing, but it can't be eaten in the United States later.
Not how rare this dish is, but that Wang Zengqi deliberately made a""emotional dish".
Wang Zengqi likes to innovate in the kitchen, and is good at making different flavors from common ingredients, some dishes are even his original creation.
For example, a dish of stuffed and fried dough sticks, those who have eaten it evaluate“chewy and crispy, it can move people within ten miles”, how delicious it must be.
Wang Zengqi once said that a person's taste should be broad and varied, trying the sweetness of the south, the saltiness of the north, the spiciness of the east, and the sourness of the west. If this is true for food, it should also be true for culture.
The Beijing writer Aotu also said,“I love to read Wang Zengqi to such an extent: when the superior does not like me, reading two pages of Wang Zengqi makes me feel that it is useless whether people like or not; when the spicy wife deceives me, reading two pages of Wang Zengqi makes me feel relieved and let go of my will.”
Wang Zengqi has such a charm.
Everything is spiritual and beautiful, a pair of eyes to discover beauty, can make life full of warmth everywhere:
If you visit me and I am not there, please sit with the flowers outside my door. They are very warm and I have been looking at them for many days.
——Human Earth
Life is very fun, and people are alive, they have to have a little interest:
We've had our traumas, but we should be happy today.
——Life is very fun
The most charming scenery in life is not the ups and downs of fate, but the calm and composed heart.
I hope to achieve a unique blend of the ordinary and the extraordinary, to incorporate the foreign into the traditional, to be neither modern nor ancient, neither Chinese nor Western.
——Wen and Painting
Even if it's plain and simple, even without flowers and applause, live a splendid life alone:
These white tea flowers sometimes go all day without a single person coming to see them, just blooming quietly and contentedly.
——The Heart and Shadow of Cuihu Lake
Life is your own, how you live it is your own business, others can't interfere.
Gardenia is thick and fragrant, so it is not favored by the elegant people, who think it has a low character.
Gardenia said, go to hell, I just want to be so fragrant, fragrant to the fullest, can you motherf**ing control it!
——The Old Flavor
Life is short, better to be content and live it to the fullest.
Life is very fun.
Essays of Wang Zengqi's essence. Divided into three volumes: Delicious, Plants, and Spring and Autumn, it shows Wang Zengqi's life interest and attitude towards life from three parts: food, plants, and old stories. Wang Zengqi is a lover of life. Writing, painting, cooking, these are the most ordinary daily life, but he deeply understands the joy in them. A common scene, through Wang Zengqi's perspective, is beautiful and innocent.
Follow Mr. Wang to appreciate beautiful writing
Appreciate the beautiful scenery with old Wang.
Follow old Wang to taste the delicacies
Wangaddict, Wang fan……Who is the closest, who is the hottest, it's up to you:“Centennial Wang Lao”The internet celebrity Weibo selection activity has sounded the gong and opened the curtain!(For details, please click to read)
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