Wei bi is a rural photographer in Hubei province. He has held a photo exhibition named after his hometown "Mengxi". His work was invited to be included in the French National Library, but he refused. He is still in his hometown, shooting his works.

He usually takes pictures of home scenery, people, some farm tools and real scenes in life. I am used to writing with a brush, and I combine my photography with the calligraphy written on rice paper to form a perfect combination.

"Never Have You" is a book in which Qingshan interviewed four people. Told four stories. This is the second story. Below are excerpts from my reading notes. But because it is an interview, the subject is generally the protagonist Wei Bi.

The rice thresher is used for threshing. In the past, rice was threshed by manpower to make it turn, which made it whirring. Generally, the rice thresher is used by two people at the same time. After a long time, the battens on the grates are all sunken. When I was a teenager, I did a lot of work. Every autumn harvest with two guns, three brothers and sisters can't escape.

what I am trying to find may be a clear and sincere self-expression.

sometimes it's not so much a choice as the heart that drives and leads the track. People will naturally know where to go.

This is a man who is tightly wrapped by family ties. Behind what you get, there must be practical efforts and support.

Nowadays, people are cautious in buying books and reading, and they can't buy two books a year. If you feel that time is limited, just read a really meaningful book and learn something. Very few classics can be read. Sometimes you can read a few words, which is enough for a lifetime.

it's quiet here. I don't even want to go to the county now. As soon as I arrived in the city, I felt uncomfortable all over.

I don't need much communication with the outside world, and I'm tired of so-called elegant entertainment. In the end, the heart should echo nature, from which you can get everything you want.

there should be some trees with fallen leaves in front of and behind the house. So that we can see the four seasons. Otherwise it's boring.

Kiyama asked, what kind of change did this incident (referring to the fact that Wei Bi's shooting works caused him to go to prison due to some force majeure factors) make your concept, and did you have a retreat?

a, it woke me up to one thing. People's lives are short and precious, and they only belong to themselves. Don't waste on situations, people and things that have nothing to do with yourself. That's what you said, retreat, live myself, be immune to it, and stay away from pollution as much as possible.

In recent years, I have basically understood that this is the case in the city and how everyone lives. This is a living method that I hate.

I'm tired of cities. Not only is life stressful, but I still feel that living is meaningless. It's like being caught in a torrent and living without self. This kind of sacrifice, if it can be called dedication, is actually a mutual consumption.

I can't waste my limited life on these things. Make a choice and leave. Those dozens of square meters in the city are not home, and there is no place for the soul. Escape or retreat, it's all other people's sayings. You know where you are most comfortable.

I'm glad I still have a place to retreat. Glad to know the way you want to live. Although life has not reached the real ideal goal now, at least it is moving in that direction. Going back to the countryside is not my own idea, but it may represent the tendency of a large number of people of our age who have certain consciousness. It's just that some people are homeless, powerless, have no sense of belonging and have no home.

Writing is not for being a calligrapher, nor for showing to others. Through it, you can repair your heart and open another door.

I am willing to write to my friends. If you send a letter with a brush, others may feel affected. In fact, everyone doesn't have to pretend to be serious, even if they use pens and pencils. You can see the friendship 21 years ago through letters, text messages and emails, and you can't touch them.

the sense of caution in photos is very important. Nowadays, the popularity of digital cameras has upset people's hearts. Make people look bad, all kinds of abandoned expressions and postures. That's because the person being photographed is not ready, and the person being photographed is too rude and hasty. Our true sense of one thing was robbed.

Qingshan said that the times have eliminated many things, and people sometimes can't resist it, and there is no way to resist it.

He said, you don't have to worry about what is eliminated, just live in your own way.

The French National Library wanted to collect his Mengxi, but he refused. "Intermediary work is not standardized, and many leading institutions will feel that collecting works is to honor the author, so as to raise their own worth. I don't like this. Respect for labor is the minimum. "

He wrote the words Mengxi 2 in small letters. Narrating calmly, not letting words interfere with the picture, is just the foil of the photo. The works reflect well, but most of them are insiders. He thinks that this group of films has no dazzling skills, and it is not a picture that makes people feel sensual stimulation. The waterwheel, his mother's old mirror, his parents' old bed when they got married, and his mother's cotton shoes ... < P > For the expression of these things, what he pursues is plain and plain. Those things have brilliance, so they don't need to be decorated. Sometimes modification is a kind of weakening.

living in my hometown is like living in my mother's womb. He felt comfortable and knew that he was a part of this land. I hope this expression of my hometown will never stop. However, we have to look at ourselves. With the improvement of the realm, we can see different things and levels, and we can see the vastness from a more microscopic perspective.

Times are changing so fast that there are no cows in the whole village now. All cows are kept for people to eat. Comprehensive mechanization is the only way out for rural development, which is generally publicized in this way. In the future, children in rural areas don't even know what a plow is or the relationship between a plow and a cow. I don't know why there is a cow under the plow. Our generation has sent away the farming civilization and the handicraft era, perhaps doing something unique.

He said, farming civilization is very good, and that is sustainable and absolutely low-carbon.

How does family life affect an artist?

women are people who drag men to the world. There are two sides to a man's beast, one is divine, the other is animal. He will look up at his career. The cause is sacred, not just a mixed bowl of food, so I am willing to sacrifice all my things for this. But if you choose a family, you should take it as a man.

the most luxurious thing to live here is to eat your own vegetables. Seasonal dishes will be eaten every day, which is really called rough tea and light rice.

If I have a little leisure, I will think about what to do, and feel that life is a little too dull, or too light. But sometimes I think it's good. In the city, everyone thinks he is very important and has a strong sense of existence.

Qingshan asked Wei Bi's wife Nana if living here for two years would change.

a, it has changed in less than two years. Nature and the sky are particularly easy to influence people. Nature is quiet, but it gives people a lot of inspiration. Many things will be considered from a natural point of view. The feeling in the city is really limited, not so much.

His wife Nana talks about Wei Bi:

He is in poor health. When you are sick, you are pessimistic and think about the negative side. As soon as I get well, I will act like nothing happened. I tried to help him control it together. There is not much hope, and good health is the most important thing.

after marriage, I feel that the relationship between two people needs to be managed. It's easy to tolerate each other at first, but after living for a long time, each other should provide energy for each other.

I used to be self-centered, uncompromising and stubborn. He changed me a lot. I am willing to change.

He is very real. At the beginning, he just thought that every word he said could be believed. The previous love, it seems that my heart has not sunk to the end. With him, you don't need to think about anything else.

this is such a trust.

The old secretary gave me two complete ones when digging lotus roots on his lips. In fact, one is enough, buried in the mud, and it grew all over the lotus pond that year, which is very magical. Squatting there, you will smell the fragrance when you see the lotus leaf much higher than yourself.

I said, you can cook lotus leaf porridge for your child and drink it cool in summer. There is also a usage in Six Chapters of a Floating Life, in which lotus petals open and close at dusk. Put the tea in at dusk, wrap the tea with petals at night, and take it out the next morning. The tea has soaked the rich fragrance of the lotus. This is a beautiful detail.

He said that there are two kinds of children in rural areas. One is that if you go out, you must return to your hometown, otherwise you will not go home for several years. One is to get rid of the peasant status completely and become a city dweller. Few people want to come back as badly as he does.

"My brother doesn't like it here, because his childhood is almost a painful memory. He is now a successful person in a small place and has always been pessimistic about my behavior. I think that I am too shabby, and I can't go on like this all my life. I am anxious for me. "

"so does my mother. I hope I can at least live in the county, buy a big house, drive a slightly better car and let my children go to the best school. They represent the universal values of this era. I don't know that my life is in the countryside, and I am miserable in the city, although that kind of life can also numb me. I am different from them. My rural memory is not bitter, but all beautiful. Therefore, I strongly want to return to the land that is related to myself. "

sometimes he feels that some of his soul is still floating after he comes back. Not completely integrated. It's kind of like going home.

He said that when he first went to Shenzhen, he just came out of the countryside and earned two or three hundred dollars before he was twenty. It's cool, like a rich man. When printing, the income is more objective, and you can squander thousands of dollars a day. I don't know what it is called money. At that time, in Lixian county, you could probably buy a house for 11 thousand yuan.

"I'm so proud that I forget my shape. I just drink and play all day, and I can't find the north." Waste one's youth Now I think this extravagance is not necessarily a bad thing, because I have seen everything I should see and my desire has been released. Huangshan returns without looking at Yue. "

after fully experiencing and releasing desires, won't those things be done again?

Everyone has different IQ and different chances. There may be some smart people who don't need this stage and can see clearly long ago.

is it possible to bypass it without experiencing it?

I think there must be someone with this ability. It's not necessarily possible to go around. He took a road and it was really high, so he went on correctly.

can a person choose a bright road in his twenties?

yes. I have found wisdom from books since I was a child, and I have no distractions, and I am moving towards the light of wisdom. Of course, this does not mean that they can not experience pain.

even so, can you know what is the best thing without personal experiments?

there must be, but there are fewer such people.

"Calligraphy requires balance, and strength should be collected and released. Once collected and released, it means yin and yang. There are many ways, such as not putting away, not picking up the pen alone, etc. The road to simplicity, the truth of being a man is also unified. Calligraphy will make the heart quieter. If you are quiet about everything, you don't have to worry about doing bad art skills. "

He thinks that the traditional culture of China is well-connected, which is a great point. If a person who practices calligraphy wants to learn Chinese medicine, he must learn better than a person who doesn't practice it. They are in the same vein and tell the same thing. After studying Chinese medicine, you don't have to worry about not knowing calligraphy. If you know Beijing opera, you don't have to worry about not knowing martial arts. This is the beauty of China culture, which often speaks to the truth. Any channel leads to the avenue, and daily life can also be the avenue.

"feeling is more important than saying it. What modern people lack is to calm down and look inside and sit with the ancients. "

He said that he likes writing, and he would feel guilty if he didn't write. Or in the morning, or at night, sometimes I remember something. Generally, I write something when I think of it. One's fingers itch, I want to write and draw everything when I see it, on different materials.

I made a new pole some time ago. There is a film inside the bamboo, and the touch of the brush is excellent. What he wrote on the pole is: Finally, I have a pole of my own, and I can help my mother pick up the excrement.

"After I finish writing, after I die, maybe future generations will accidentally see it when cleaning up the house. The meaning of the writing pole is completely different, and maybe it will have some positive effects. Some details have an impact on children that you can't imagine. "

When I get up in the morning, the plants in the fog are hung with dew, and the birds are chirping overhead to welcome the new day. In the distance, it is hazy and picturesque. I pause and wonder if I am living in reality, and so on, is it too happy? Not far from the south, there was a slow sadness and joy. I knew that another old man had passed away, and his life was over.

"In the past, food was basically unpacked. Look now, two biscuits are packed in a plastic bag. Sin. "

In winter in Hunan, the fog is always like day after day. Fog, erasing the earthly concreteness, presents poetry. A good photo is to think with God. At that moment, you were gone.

"For me, if I have peace of mind, I can live a lifetime by guarding a few trees. When they can become permanent. The mountains are so beautiful that you won't get tired of watching them all day. The pleasure is far better than earning 11 million to drive a Mercedes-Benz or BMW. Money, technology and material things can't solve people's emptiness. This is not the spirit of Ah Q. 91% happiness has nothing to do with these. These thoughts may be a little wisdom given to me by God, plus my childhood experience and later consciousness. "

Many people will not be happy from the inside out, or God has not given them this blessing. They enjoy a heated swimming pool, an expensive Porsche and live in the eyes of others.

I said that material consumption is excessive in the present era, but people can't get real comfort in their desires. For example, mobile phones are constantly improving technology and upgrading, resulting in many people's mobile phones not being worn out at all, but willing to follow the trend and consume money. Having something newer, more advanced, more luxurious and more fun seems to bring pleasure and success, even if it is fleeting.

as you said, everyone's life can be nourished by natural interaction, but many people lack this ability, so they can only try to satisfy themselves through other channels and the realization of various desires. People's minds are sometimes so restless that they can't live without external scenes and objects, and they need all kinds of news, entertainment, information and debauchery, and are controlled by them.

He said that people's hearts are empty and they have no ability to interact with nature. But material desires can never satisfy the soul. Buddhists have a saying, if you want more, you will suffer. Endless eating and drinking, luxury cars, and colorful goods are all short-term anesthesia.

"Sometimes I wonder why thousands of years of civilization have been abandoned so thoroughly in our generation? Why can't people just hold themselves now? Is it really lost or a short-term loss? "

"I am what I am today, thanks to my parents' simple words and deeds and the nourishment of the fields. Fortunately, I didn't go astray. It is good for people to have a little wildness. This era may just need this primitive wildness, which will be more precious. Therefore, I especially hope that children can have more contact with the land. "

He made a summary himself, and 81% or 91% of his successful friends are from the countryside. Children in rural areas will have a lower starting point and may begin to understand later, but it doesn't matter. They are naturally in contact with their disciples, and they have a good will. What they can smell, see and touch is nature. There is enough perception, enough energy saved, and naturally there will be outbreaks. This kind of reserve is very important, which is what children in the city lack. So he can't let his children spend their childhood in the exhaust of the city.