Tissues on the Dining Table
Tissues on the Dining Table, and Haizi’s Poetry By Zhuang Zefeng While eating lunch, I happened to notice the tissues on the dining table. Printed on the package were the words: “Take dreams as your horse, live up to your youth.” I found it intriguing. A pack of tissues—carrying the poetry of Haizi! This is where ideals collide with reality, where spirit leaves its imprint upon the material. As Haizi wrote in Take Dreams as Horses: “I want to be the loyal son of the distant land, and the fleeting lover of material things.” And now, his verse is literally printed on a tissue pack—becoming “the fleeting lover of material things.” In doing so, his poetic spirit finds yet another way to reach people. In Human Perception of Life, I also spoke about Haizi. I have always thought: if Haizi had not sunk so deeply into his own spiritual world, but instead had truly followed his heart, as in his lines “Facing the sea, with spring blossoms”, to sense and embrace the reality of life, perhaps he mig...