要知恩图报

编者按：以故事的形式娓娓道出做人的最基本道理：要知恩图报！ 　　今天是腊月二十三，中国人的传统节日——小年儿，家家户户祭奠灶王爷的日子。现在很少有人在这一天上供 烧香，但是这个节日习俗还一直流传着。
　　记得小时候家家户户都供奉灶王爷。那时的灶王爷很少有现在这印刷精美的挂画儿，人家灶台前灯窝儿旁边便 是灶王爷的牌位儿，一张黄纸贴在墙上，中间写着“灶王爷之位”几个大字；两边是一幅对联儿，“上天言好事， 下界保平安”；上边是横批，“一家之主”,moncler homme，也因此在民间产生了一句歇后语，叫做“灶王爷的横批——一家之主”。在那张纸做的牌位儿下边钉两根小木橛 儿托起一块一尺来长儿半尺来宽儿的小木板儿，那是给灶王爷摆放上香炉和糖果用的。
　　传说在这一天，家家户户供奉的灶王爷都要回到天上去，向玉皇大帝汇报他在凡间一年的工作，同时还要把人 们的要求和良好愿望反映给玉皇大帝。因此，人们在这一天的早上，都要点上一炷香，三拜九叩首，在心里默默地 向灶王爷祈祷，委托灶王爷把自己的愿望带给玉皇大帝，希望自己的愿望能够实现。
　　小时候父亲曾经给我们讲过一个故事，说的就是灶王爷满足人们愿望的事儿。
　　故事说的是，很久以前，有个老员外，雇了一个小长工儿，这个小长工儿一晃已经十八岁了。老员外有一个儿 子，和这个小长工同庚，不同的是老员外的儿子不但不需要下田劳作，还老早儿的娶了妻，生了子，小长工觉得很 不公平。
　　这一年的腊月二十三，小长工领了一年的工钱，回家和唯一的亲人老父亲过年。话说小长工的父亲就在这一天 的早上给自家的灶王爷供了糖果，上了香，然后三扣九拜之后在心里默默祈祷：“大慈大悲的灶王老爷，行行好吧 ，让我的儿子早点娶上媳妇……”
　　就在这一天的夜里，小长工做了一个梦，梦见了灶王爷，灶王爷告诉他说：“明天你到集市上买一张画有美丽 姑娘的年画，贴在你家炕稍墙上，你老父亲的愿望就能实现。”小长工虽然不知道父亲的心愿是什么，但还是照着 做了。
　　大年三十儿晚上，子夜到了，小长工烧开了煮饺子水，和老父亲到院子里放爆竹。放完爆竹，爷俩欢天喜地地 回屋煮饺子，一开门，见一个美丽端庄，衣着艳丽的姑娘正在灶台前忙着煮饺子呢。抬头看看灶王爷，灶王爷仿佛 在看着他们笑；再进里屋一看，墙上的年画变成了一张白纸，老父亲心里一下子明白了，那煮饺子的姑娘就是灶王 爷求玉皇大帝赐给他的儿媳妇。
　　转眼之间又到了年底，小长工已经有了一个白白胖胖的儿子，可是他仍然长年累月给老员外扛活，日子过得比 先前更紧了，小长工觉得很不公平。小年儿又到了，小长工早上起来第一件事就是给灶王爷上香祈祷，祈求能赐给 他富贵。夜里，灶王爷又来了，见面第一句话就说：“小伙子啊，你不知足哇。有了媳妇和儿子又想要富贵，天下 哪有那么多好事？”
　　小长工问灶王爷：“我为什么就不能像老员外的儿子那样？”
　　灶王爷说：“他能和你比吗？他只有二十三岁的寿命，你有七十三岁的寿命啊！”
　　小长工说：“我就是活到一百零三岁不也是受穷吗？我宁肯和他一样活到二十三岁，也不愿意永 远受穷。”
　　灶王爷想了想，对他说：“那好吧，明天你到集市上捡带有金元宝的年画买一张，贴在炕稍墙上 就行了。”
　　第二天，小长工照样儿做了,abercrombie and fitch france。
　　大年三十晚上，小长工放完爆竹回屋里一看，惊呆了，炕上摆满了黄澄澄的金元宝。
　　有了钱，小长工不用再给人家扛活了，家里买了很多土地，盖了四合大院儿，雇了好几个长工，从此，小长工 当上了远近闻名的大员外。他老父亲为了能多抱几个孙子，又为儿子娶了好几房儿媳妇，没过几年，老人家就孙子 孙女成帮了，日子过得其乐融融。
　　小长工时刻都没有忘记灶王老爷的大恩大德，但是不知道怎么报答。经过多日的冥思苦想之后，决定在自家为 灶王老爷修建一座祠堂，于是请了泥瓦匠，盖起了一座富丽堂皇的祠堂，为灶王老爷雕铸了一樽镀金 的泥像。
　　是年小年儿的夜里，灶王爷又来到了他的梦里，告诉他年三十儿半夜十二年点他就到寿命了，让 他有个准备。
　　第二天，他告诉他的子女们说：“年三十儿我就要走啦，你们无论何时何地，都不要忘了灶王老爷的大恩大德 ，特别是腊月二十三，千万不要忘了给灶王老爷上供烧香。”
　　年三十儿，他早早地来到灶王老爷的祠堂里，坐在灶王老爷的对面，摆上了丰盛的酒菜，自己吃一口菜，给灶 王老爷喂一口菜；自己喝一口酒，给灶王老爷喝一口酒。就这样，一口菜,moncler pas cher，一口酒，一边吃，一边喝，一边唠着感恩的话，弄得灶王老爷满脸满身都是酒菜，都是油腻。子夜到了，阎王派 两个钦差来接他，一看他正在和灶王爷面对面的喝酒，没敢惊动，忙跑回去向阎王报告说：“那小子正在和灶王爷 喝酒呢，有说有笑的，我们俩没敢惊动。”
　　阎王不信，亲自和两个钦差去接，到那一看果然不假，于是火冒三丈，就去找玉皇大帝说理。玉皇大帝听了之 后说：“不对呀，老张现在正在和各路神仙一起吃庆功酒呢？”两人一边说一边来到了宴会大厅找灶 王爷,moncler。灶王爷说：“那那儿是我呀，那是他为了感激我，为我塑的镀金泥像。”
　　玉帝和阎王一听世上还有这样知恩图报之人，感动之余，就免去了小长工一死，允许他能活多久 就活多久,doudoune。
　　小长工陪着灶王老爷的雕像喝到天亮竟然还活着，而老员外的儿子，在那个年三十儿的子夜时分 如期归西了。
　　末了的结论是，做人，要知道知恩图报。相关的主题文章：


离开的背影

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生活就是笑着去喝敌敌畏


Having worked overseas nearly 30 years, Chinese-born painter Jia Lu has made unique contributions in helping Western audiences understand more about the East through her canvases.
She was recently short-listed in the “Ten Most-focused Chinese in the World" by none other than the Global Times. The reason? “Her paintings fuse Chinese and Western elements, showing a modern China with beautiful colors," according to the panel.
“I have a deep sense that my mission to help the rest of the world understand China is not only an artistic goal but a personal responsibility," Lu says, when asked how she felt. “This award reminds me of the importance of that obligation."
Her father, Lu Enyi, was a famous painter who taught her to paint when she was very young. Like many painters of the time, she learned Chinese ink painting first, and was taught by master painter Fan Zeng.
But like many artists who traveled abroad in the 1980s, Lu felt lost in the collision of cultures, and turned to different ways of appreciating art.
When she left China for Canada in 1983, she quickly discovered that, for her new friends, without an understanding of Chinese culture and history, her art was “simply too alien to understand."
“In Chinese painting, we value the traditions passed from one generation to the next; for Westerners, true art is about originality and individual expression," Lu told the Global Times. “Ink painting explores the expressiveness of black ink and the bamboo brush; but to a Westerner, who has never held a brush before and is used to the color and richness of oil painting, my art seemed dull and lifeless."
Although her paintings sold well in the overseas Chinese community, to reach a larger audience, communicating essential concepts of traditional Asian culture to a Western audience was key.
Her solution? Borrow the techniques and expressive power of oil painting, with its illusionistic perspective and realism, and substitute Asian content. The method is known as “Jiechuan Chuhai", or “Crossing the sea in a borrowed boat."
“We have a unique, complex and rich culture. But we share [that] among ourselves, using a difficult written and spoken language, raising a high wall that excludes the rest of the world." Lu says. “By borrowing Western art history to communicate Eastern ideas, I have been able to tear down a small section of that wall."
Having grown up in a Confucian society that emphasized personal sacrifice, selflessness and hard work, Lu discovered her Western friends appreciated these values much more than their wealth and luxury.
Her painting was infused with Buddhism, an Eastern spirituality cherished by many Westerners.
Having first visited Dunhuang in 1980, spending several weeks copying its Buddhist art – some of the rarest early examples of Chinese figurative art – directly from the cave walls, Lu studied figure painting.
But it was not until she worked in Japan in the early 1990s that she began to explore their significance, finding their ideas represented what was most enduring and special about Chinese culture: compassion, mindfulness, a deep respect for learning and wisdom and a belief in the perfectibility of the human state.
Lu began to show her works in China: at the Shanghai International Art Fair, Art Beijing and CIGE expos, and found how “vibrant the Chinese art market had become in the so-many-years I’d been away, and how open it was to new ideas."
“I am both humbled and inspired that my work has been recognized in this way by the Global Times. It is an honor to be included among the other outstanding artists whom I have admired for so long," says Lu.
“But in the end, I think it is not important if I live or work in China or in the West, The important thing is to continue to paint for a global audience, to improve my own art as far as I am able, and to strive to be a better person."