情醉潇湘梦52 ‍—— 欧阳辉纯‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍Intoxicated by the Dream of Hunan

躍龍

第八章 柳暗花明

Chapter 8 A ray of hope

发财梦一次次破碎，让龙国祯心寒，也让他体会到了钱来之不易，现在他非常能够理解父亲的难处，更能理解父亲为何当初不支持他读大学了。自己这么长时间连续两次投资失败，尽管亏损的数额尚少，但是毕竟也是亏损了，往后三年的大学学费和生活费，加起来要几万元，这要如何应对。大学学费和生活费像巨石一样压在他的心中，使得他喘不过气来。但是，有压力就有动力。龙国祯在不断寻找改变自己经济状况的商机。

The dream of getting rich was shattered again and again, which made Long Guozhen feel heartbroken and made him realize that money is not easy to come by. Now he can understand his father's difficulties and why he did not support him to go to college. He has failed in two consecutive investments for such a long time. Although the amount of loss is still small, it is still a loss after all. The tuition and living expenses for the next three years will add up to tens of thousands of yuan. How to deal with this? The tuition and living expenses for college are like a huge rock pressing on his heart, making him breathless. However, pressure is motivation. Long Guozhen is constantly looking for business opportunities to change his financial situation.

有一次，从图书馆看书回来，王子涵问龙国祯：“兄弟，听说你做生意失败了好几次？”

Once, after returning from reading in the library, Wang Zihan asked Long Guozhen: "Brother, I heard that you have failed in business several times?"

龙国祯郁闷地说：“不只是失败，简直是血本无归。原来我认为在省城，满地都飘着钞票，只要你愿意动手去捡，钱就会像黄河之水，滚滚而来的。现在发现不是滚滚而来，而是一去不复返。”

Long Guozhen said depressedly: "Not only failed, but lost all my money. I used to think that in the provincial capital, there were banknotes floating all over the ground. As long as you were willing to pick them up, the money would come like the water of the Yellow River. Now I find that it is not rolling in, but it is gone forever."

“嗨，不要急嘛！凡事有个过程的。俗话说，万事开头难。说不定过了这个难关，一切就顺利了呢。所谓，山重水复疑无路，柳暗花明又一村。说的大概就是你这种情况。我们这学期的专业课《中国文学史》，就讲了很多前半生受苦，后半生享福的文人墨客。”

"Hey, don't be impatient! Everything has a process. As the saying goes, the beginning is always the hardest. Maybe after this difficult hurdle, everything will go smoothly. As the saying goes, when you are surrounded by mountains and rivers, you may think there is no way out, but when you turn around, you will find another village. This is probably what it means in your situation. Our professional course "History of Chinese Literature" this semester talks about many literati and poets who suffered in the first half of their lives and enjoyed happiness in the second half."

“天，要前半生受苦，后半生才享福，那我们就惨了。我们还没满二十岁，活九十岁去见马克思的话，那吃苦到四十五岁，那真的是惨死了。那社会主义制度的优越性体现在哪里呢？邓小平说，社会主义的本质就是解放和发展生产力，消灭剥削，消除贫穷，最终达到共同富裕。贫穷不是社会主义，我们可不能做知识的受害者，我们一定要改变生存环境，而金钱是改变这种生存环境的最好方式。”

"God, if we have to suffer in the first half of our lives and enjoy happiness in the second half, then we are miserable. If we live to be 90 and meet Marx before we are 20, then suffering until we are 45 is really miserable. Where is the superiority of the socialist system? Deng Xiaoping said that the essence of socialism is to liberate and develop productivity, eliminate exploitation, eliminate poverty, and ultimately achieve common prosperity. Poverty is not socialism. We cannot be victims of knowledge. We must change our living environment, and money is the best way to change this living environment."

“我看你是掉进钱窝窝里去了。”王子涵说。

"I think you have fallen into the nest of money." Wang Zihan said.

“你是不当家，不知柴米油盐贵啊。”龙国祯说。

"You don't run the family, so you don't know how expensive firewood, rice, oil and salt are." Long Guozhen said.

看你说的，跟个怨妇似的。天天喊缺钱。”王子涵瞟了他一眼，“你看你还像不像潇湘师范大学的学生。孔子说，君子喻于义，小人喻于利。董仲舒也说，正其义不谋其利，明其道不计其功。讲义就是讲利。义者，利也。这些我们上周选修《中国儒学文化讲座》课的时候，老师不是说过？你忘了？”

You sound like a nagging woman. You keep complaining about lack of money. Wang Zihan glanced at him and said, "Do you look like a student of Xiaoxiang Normal University? Confucius said that a gentleman is concerned with righteousness, while a villain is concerned with profit. Dong Zhongshu also said that one should correct righteousness without seeking profit, and clarify the way without counting achievements. Talking about righteousness is talking about profit. Righteousness is profit. Didn't the teacher say this when we took the elective course "Chinese Confucian Culture Lecture" last week? Have you forgotten it?"

“没忘记，但是也没怎么吃透其内涵。义者，利也。那是不是，利者，义也呢？”龙国祯问王子涵。

"I haven't forgotten it, but I haven't really understood its connotation. Righteousness is profit. So is it true that profit is righteousness?" Long Guozhen asked Wang Zihan.

“这里的‘义者，利也’中的‘利’是指大利，肯定不是你龙国祯整天想到你自家的一亩三分田。我记得，法国著名伦理学家居友曾经说过，人常常需要超出自己走向他人，一个正常的成熟的人都有着多于自己的痛苦所需要的眼泪，也都有着多于自己的幸福所证实的更多的欢乐。人不能过于悲观也不能过于乐观，因为过分的悲观可能是一种为生活的不幸所严重伤害了的道德情感的不健康的过度刺激的症候；相反，盲目的乐观却常常表明对一切道德情感的一种无动于衷和麻木不仁。所以，我们应该有更高的精神追求，而不是仅仅停留在个人得失的层面。”

"The 'benefit' in 'righteousness means benefit' here refers to great benefit, and it certainly does not mean that you, Long Guozhen, think about your own small piece of land all day long. I remember that the famous French ethicist Ju You once said that people often need to go beyond themselves to others. A normal and mature person has more tears than his own pain needs, and more joy than his own happiness proves. People should not be too pessimistic or too optimistic, because excessive pessimism may be a symptom of unhealthy overstimulation of moral emotions that are seriously hurt by the misfortunes of life; on the contrary, blind optimism often indicates a kind of indifference and numbness to all moral emotions. Therefore, we should have higher spiritual pursuits, rather than just staying at the level of personal gains and losses."

龙国祯听到王子涵滔滔不绝地讲，妙语连珠，大惊：“你小子，士别三日当刮目相看。看来，你们汉语言文学专业的课程开得比较全面深刻，对你启发很大。我得好好向你们学习，有空的话好好去你们学院听听课。”

Long Guozhen was shocked when he heard Wang Zihan's endless and witty remarks: "You kid, you should be re-examined after three days of absence. It seems that your Chinese language and literature courses are more comprehensive and profound, which is very inspiring to you. I have to learn from you. If I have time, I will go to your college to listen to the classes."

“我们老师说，现在的大学生，整天想到的就是赚钱，其实又没能赚到钱，把大好的青春时光搭进去了，书却没看。不能从道德境界层面上提高自己，这样以后是要吃亏的。”

"Our teacher said that college students nowadays think about making money all day long, but they don't make money. They spend their best youth time without reading books. If they can't improve themselves from the moral level, they will suffer in the future."

听王子涵这样一说，龙国祯惊得满头大汗。

After hearing Wang Zihan's words, Long Guozhen was so shocked that he was sweating.

“你老师说得有道理。看来‘博学之，审问之，慎思之，明辨之，笃行之’才是大学最实在的方法。”

"Your teacher makes sense. It seems that 'learning extensively, questioning, thinking carefully, distinguishing clearly, and practicing diligently' is the most practical method of college."

这次谈话，对龙国祯的启发很大。但是，不知不觉，他开始对外国语学院开的那些课程不满了。这学期，龙国祯他们英语专业的学生，除了《马克思主义哲学》《邓小平理论概论》等这样公共课，就是比较浅的专业课，如《大学英语精读》（第一册）《大学英语口语》《大学英语听力》《大学英语阅读与实践》《大学英语泛读》等之类的，就没有开设《中国传统伦理思想史》《中国哲学史》《西方哲学史》《中国儒学史》等之类的启发人的课程。这些也是他后来在潇湘师范大学哲学院旁听哲学本科和哲学硕士课程才知道的。

This conversation was very inspiring to Long Guozhen. However, he began to be dissatisfied with the courses offered by the School of Foreign Languages without realizing it. This semester, Long Guozhen and his English major students, in addition to public courses such as "Marxist Philosophy" and "Introduction to Deng Xiaoping Theory", are relatively shallow professional courses such as "College English Intensive Reading" (Volume 1), "College English Speaking", "College English Listening", "College English Reading and Practice", "College English Extensive Reading", etc., and there are no inspiring courses such as "History of Traditional Chinese Ethical Thought", "History of Chinese Philosophy", "History of Western Philosophy", "History of Chinese Confucianism", etc. He only learned about these when he later attended undergraduate and master's courses in philosophy at the School of Philosophy of Xiaoxiang Normal University.