Gnawing Pure Critique by the Side of Weiming Lake
Gu Chi posted on 2007-04-22 19:18:50
April 14, 11:30 a.m., Langrun Garden 
April 15, 1:18 p.m., Langrun Garden 
April 15, 11:40 a.m., Langrun Garden (a cat was wandering around me; just as I was about to take its picture, it ran off) 
April 17, 2:47 p.m., Langrun Garden 
April 17, 3:56 p.m., Langrun Garden (that water-spraying thing has been on the whole time, sigh…) 
April 18, 12:15 p.m., Langrun Garden (willow catkins were flying all over the sky; I sat for a while and then left) 
April 18, 12:24 p.m., Weiming Lake (after leaving Langrun Garden, I wandered over here instead, but there were no trees overhead, and it was too hot; I sat for a while and left again 
April 18, 12:40 p.m., Langrun Garden (I went around and around, only to circle back to Langrun Garden) 
April 19, 11:38 a.m., Weiming Lake (I’d landed myself a feng shui treasure spot) 
April 19, 11:38 a.m., Weiming Lake (looking to the right) 
April 19, 11:38 a.m., Weiming Lake (looking to the left) 
April 19, 11:38 a.m., Weiming Lake (looking downward) 
April 19, 11:38 a.m., Weiming Lake (looking behind me) 
April 21, 4:10 p.m., Weiming Lake (just passing by; didn’t read today) 
April 22, 2:36 p.m., Langrun Garden 
April 22, 2:56 p.m., Langrun Garden (lie down for a while) 
April 22, 3:50 p.m., Langrun Garden (a bit of a breeze was starting up) 
April 23, 11:36 a.m., Langrun Garden 
A volume of Pure Critique for company… isn’t that a little mood-killing?
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unic2007-04-22 22:11:57 anonymous 220.171.181.244 [reply]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~jealous~~gnawing Pure Critique~~~~~~~~~~~~
As for why I’m a bit prone to getting lost in thought—it may be because, besides philosophy, I also have poetry~~~~~~~~ as a reason^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Who knows.
I didn’t make that clear in that piece either; it’s only a tiny bit of the iceberg, but anyway, it should still come out soon. -
2007-04-22 23:11:41 http://epr.ycool.com/ [reply]
I have always liked sentimental people; especially for women or poets, sentimentality is an alluring temperament. To be able to sink into it and pull back out again is best of all. Being easily lost in thought may not be a bad thing either; the key is not to care too much. Whether you sink into it or leap back out, just let it follow its natural course.
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2007-04-23 18:34:18 [reply]
Sweat—–uh……so……so……so sentimental……you’re the first person ever to describe me like that……maybe that’s a bit of “I’m undeservedly flattered”……sigh, I may have seemed like a tomboy to my classmates from childhood to adulthood……
If I say this has slightly touched on my sixth question, you won’t break out in a sweat, will you? I’ll save the question for later.
This word really makes it hard for me to be sure, because if judged by the popular view, maybe people like Lin Daiyu are the true, unquestionable example…… What are they sorrowful over? “buried flowers,” “things remaining, people no more,” and the like. As for me, let me give an example. A few days ago the plum blossoms in our courtyard also bloomed (just like the one in your picture above), and I specially took a detour to admire them. I saw fallen petals all over the ground, but what was in my mind was this: fallen petals are also probabilistic events; you cannot predict which one will fall. Human life is the same—accidental events cannot be predicted either. But fallen petals have no awareness, whereas human beings do have awareness of their own destiny and can feel sorrow. That is the difference between humans and flowers. (A bit like what Pascal said) Could there be a deity in heaven, determining such a tragic destiny for us humans?……
Perhaps I am simply more sensitive than others to certain things in life; that may be because I care about different content, or look from a different angle, but does that count as being sentimental?
Most people, especially girls, probably neither can nor want to think like this…… Every time I start talking about such things, my friends show rather little enthusiasm…… as if they had come across food they don’t like to eat.
Sometimes I often wonder: if their minds are not thinking about problems, then what on earth are they doing? What do they use to fill their heads, what do they use to fill their idle leisure time?
I’ve updated again—these are some of the pieces of writing I wrote a little while ago. -
2007-04-23 19:05:39 http://epr.ycool.com/ [reply]
Of course I’m not using the word in the sense of the dictionary. In my usage, sentimentality has a special meaning; it does not refer to being sullenly unhappy or depressed and miserable. “Sorrow” does not mean grief or resentment, but concern; “sentient” does not mean sensitive, but moved. Sentimentality is a kind of attitude toward the world. “Sorrow” is a certain philosophical preoccupation, while “sentient” is a poetic stirring. Since you are in pain from being caught up in thought, that is “much sorrow”; and since you also have poetic feeling, that is “good sentience.”
I approached philosophy not because I was full of sorrow, but because I was full from eating at the common canteen; I entered it with a pure spirit of play and curiosity, whereas you seem different—you fell into it from a certain pain of thought. Isn’t that “sorrowful”? As for whether you are sentient or not, I’m not too clear on that. I just feel that if someone is not sentient, then they cannot write poetry well.
The outward impression people give in life and the self that appears in writing are different; I personally have deep experience of this, which is why I always emphasize that what appears on the blog is only half of me.
Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.
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