After reading yesterday's "Taibai Jinxing is a bit annoying" post-reading thoughts, I also read Prince Ma's "Lychee in Chang'an". The version I bought was from Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House. The cover uses a sentence from the protagonist in the text, Li Shande, in a dilemma: Even if I fail, I want to know how far I am from the finish line, which deeply touched me.
This book, like "Taibai Jinxing is a bit annoying", belongs to the genre of ancient costume workplace novels that fictionalize a certain story/history, using the past to reflect the present, especially for office workers, it is easy to empathize with.
Li Shande worked in Chang'an for eighteen years before taking out a loan to buy a house. When buying a house, he, as a working person, was manipulated by the leader after having a mortgage. The leader used means to assign impossible tasks to him, which were transferred to their department multiple times. Unable to complete the task, someone had to take the blame, so Li Shande became the scapegoat. "Lychee fried" and "Lychee fresh" differ by only one word, but the difference is huge. He prepared for the worst, divorce, letting his wife and daughter avoid debt. Du Fu encouraged him to make a desperate attempt, to risk everything for his family, he mustered the courage to try to complete the task.
However, in the total journey of transporting fresh lychees from Lingnan to Chang'an, which is five thousand four hundred and forty-seven miles, sincerity is the killer skill. After enduring countless hardships, it can be considered a way to complete the task, but who knows, in the face of eternal difficulties, only by doing things, success comes at a cost. I thought of the phrase "Riding through the red dust, the concubine smiles, no one knows it's the lychee coming".
Behind the transportation of fresh lychees, there are internal conflicts at the top level, a game of interests, "the superior gives orders, the subordinates run themselves ragged", which is fully displayed here. Therefore, there is also emotional intelligence in the workplace, the way of being an official, sharing both glory and hardship, everyone carries the sedan chair, we also see, as Yang Guozhong said, "Processes are rules that only the weak need to follow", we are also moved by "Even if I fail, I want to know how far I am from the finish line". And the sentence that struck me at the end: "I married him, not Chang'an"
While reading, reading about Li Shande, we are also reading about office workers, everywhere reminding us of our own workplace life.
Most of us are just ordinary Li Shande, may you and I both become masters of life!
Excerpts from the original text#
- The way to be an official is actually just three sentences: share both glory and hardship, reap benefits together, everyone carries the sedan chair. A person eating alone cannot last long.
- This vast imperial city, with many yamen, is more complex than the dense forests of Qinling, and its operation is more mysterious than the Dao. Those unfamiliar who enter rashly are like falling into the turbulent rapids under the Hukou Waterfall, smashing their heads and bleeding.
- Sir, remember. The key to dancing the Hu Xuan dance is not to follow the music band, but to find your own rhythm.
- Do not compete with things with a mindless heart, do not suspect each other like hawks and falcons.
- When faced with a desperate situation, with no retreat, why not fight to the end, maybe you can still gain a glimmer of hope.
- The closer you get to success, the fewer friends you have and the more guilty they feel.
- He has done everything he can do, all that's left is to wait for the outcome.