张中行先生笔有汪娘,乡进京就给一富贵人人,日夜操劳,其乐。文革暴风一刮,主人怀璧其罪,难逃调查审问霉运。汪娘既是人,理应满阶级仇恨,真是最理的证人。岂料娘阶级斗争的理论,又不识务,有碗说碗,有碟说碟,毫不醒目。人问:“你伺候他,总吃了不少苦吧?”答曰:“一点不苦。我老爷太太待我很。他是人。连孩子不坏,他不敢厨房淘气。”问者哭笑不,放走了。张老说,汪娘年及古稀,竟连故宫,“我吃了比读几本书的亏,听件,反有些轻微的黍离、麦秀思,秀才人情,叨念一句:‘汪娘不识字,有福了!’”
“黍离”典《诗·王风》,说西周亡,周夫故宗庙宫室,尽禾黍,彷徨不忍;“麦秀”是指箕子朝周,故废墟,感宫室毁坏,生禾黍,伤,《麦秀》诗歌;两者感慨亡国触景生情词。张老借了淒的意念点破读书人伤春悲秋的怀抱,反不汪娘灵平静。是实话。经了十年革命的风风雨雨逃生的知识分子,谁沉痛体识字是苦难浩劫的祸根,同却又加倍尊重知识的尊严,珍惜语文的功,宝爱文化的价值。我有亲身经历一场血泪写的十年历史,重生的知识分子笔的一字一句,纵是淡淡的笔墨流露的宽容,我不禁悲从中,一位年轻俯在胡风耳边说的那句话:“老人,你替我受苦了!”
知识是非常难求的宝藏。写是非常艰辛的工。我常常Geissing《四季零墨》的一段话:“今男女,煮字疗飢者不胜数,实则靠此维生者万中无一。此辈中人或因别无他技舞文弄墨,或因惯见文人一行立门户、风光无穷效颦操觚,不惜乞哀告怜,举债渡日,终致进退维谷,悔晚矣,不知何是?区区一生命途舛,回首前尘,深感鼓励晚辈文谋生,简直罪。”(“Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least ce of finding in such work a perma livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary callied them by its independend its dazzling prices. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing, until it is too late for them to do anything else - and what then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me, I say that he who ences any young man or woman to look for his living to ''literature'', its han a crime.”)