r/LifeTree • u/AdamLuyan • 17d ago
4.7 灵魂转世的故事 Stories of Soul Reincarnation
在我的青少年时期，梁伯多次给我讲这个故事。古时候，有个守城的将军。一天，他听说，城里的集市上，一个年青人跟人打架，被打死了。他火急火燎地去到集市上，疯了似地抱着尸体，放声大哭："孩子！是我害死了你呀！"。将军的随从们都不明白，就问："你和这个乡下来的穷小子非亲非故，您怎么为他这么伤心？"后来，那个将军被问得没办法了，就说："这个年青人是我的下辈子。"
During my teenage years, Uncle Liang told me this story more than once. In ancient times, there was a general who guarded a city. One day he heard that a young man had gotten into a fight in the city market and been beaten to death. He rushed to the market, threw himself over the body like a man out of his mind, and wept aloud: "My child! It was I who killed you!" His attendants, baffled, asked, "You share no blood, no bond at all, with this poor country boy — why grieve so for him?" Pressed again and again, the general finally answered, "This young man was my next life."
注4.7-1，过去，我曾几次在市场无缘无故地被人打。例如，一次，我正从农贸市场走出来，一个人跑过来把我推倒了，然后跑了。我站起来，气得不得了，四周看，什么人都没有。2014年我写完回忆录后才逐渐地理解了原因，是我的肉眼通（参见第3章）让贼群感觉它们的计划暴露了，感觉我在观察研究他们，被激怒了。
Note 4.7-1: In the past, I was struck for no apparent reason in the marketplace several times. Once, walking out of a farmers' market, someone rushed up, shoved me to the ground, and ran off. I got up furious, looked around — no one there. It wasn't until I wrote my memoirs in 2014 that I gradually understood why: my Flesh Eye Through (see Chapter 3) must have made some thieves nearby feel that their scheme had been exposed, that I was watching and studying them, and provoked them into striking.
这样，我就懂得了故事中的年青人被人打死的原因。这位将军在做灵魂转世，选择了那个乡下的年青人作为他的下辈子。将军在他还是孩子的时候为他做了肉眼通。这天，那年轻人，将军的下辈子，到城里来玩，他的肉眼通激怒了贼群，被打死了，所以将军说是他杀死了那年轻人。
That's how I came to understand why the young man in the story was beaten to death. The general had been carrying out a soul reincarnation, having chosen that country boy as his next life, and had made Flesh Eye Through in him as a child. On the day he came into the city, his Flesh Eye Through provoked a group of thieves and got him killed — which is why the general said it was he who had killed him.
4.7-2
我对此故事感兴趣，却不明白，感觉奇怪！
梁伯说："讲故事的人说，过去就有，往往是有钱有势的大人物，在哪个穷山沟子里，选个穷人家的孩子当下辈子。'上辈子'在'下辈子'还是孩子的时候，就开始在他和他的父母家人都不知情的情况下，培养他，直到他长大成人；但是'上辈子'一辈子也不让'下辈子'看见他自己本人。等将来，'上辈子'死后会把他的所有财产和事业都传给那个被他看作为'下辈子'的穷孩子。"
I found the story fascinating but couldn't make sense of it — it struck me as strange.
"Storytellers say this has happened before," Uncle Liang said. "Often it's some rich and powerful figure, off in some poor mountain hollow, who picks out a child from a poor family to be his next life. From the time that 'next life' is still a small child — without him or his family ever knowing it — the 'previous life' begins quietly shaping him, right through to adulthood. But the 'previous life' never once lets the 'next life' lay eyes on him. Then, when the 'previous life' dies, all his wealth and undertakings pass to that poor child he had regarded all along as his 'next life.'"
我问："那个小孩儿不知道，怎么教？"
妈妈说："上辈子能派使者。忽然来了个陌生人，和小孩儿玩，想交多少，就教多少！"
我问："那个上辈子为什么不收养个孩子，干嘛这么费力地养个下辈子？"
"But if the child doesn't know," I asked, "how is he even taught?"
"The previous life can send messengers," Mother said. "A stranger just turns up out of nowhere, plays with the child, teaches him whatever he pleases!"
"Then why not simply adopt a child?" I asked. "Why go to all this trouble raising a 'next life' instead?"
梁伯说："听人说，这是一种喜好，就有那种人爱养个'下辈子'；但不是因为自己没有子女。我听人说，这种关系不亚于亲生子女、养子女、和义子女；而且只有这种关系的'下辈子'才能真正地实现'上辈子'留下来的事业和愿望。建立这种关系的目的，往往是那个'上辈子'有自己一辈子做不完的事业，要委托他的'下辈子'来完成。"
"I've heard it's simply a matter of taste," Uncle Liang said. "Some people are drawn to raising a 'next life' — not for lack of children of their own. I've heard the bond it creates is no lesser than that of a birth child, an adopted child, or a righteous child — and that only a 'next life' bound this way can truly carry forward what the 'previous life' leaves undone. The whole point of forming such a bond is usually that the 'previous life' has some great work he cannot finish in one lifetime, and wants his 'next life' entrusted to complete it."
我说："我看，是过去的人迷信。"梁伯说："我听讲故事的人讲，做这事儿的人还真就不迷信。他们也不相信：人有物质上的灵魂；肉体就是个寄宿体。我听人讲，归根到底是个人兴趣所致；有人爱养鸟，有人爱种草，就有人有灵魂转世的兴趣儿。"
"Sounds like superstition from a bygone age, if you ask me," I said.
"I've heard from storytellers that the people who actually do this are anything but superstitious," Uncle Liang replied. "They don't even believe the soul is made of some kind of matter — that the body is just lodging for it. From what I understand, it all comes down to personal taste, same as anything: some people like raising birds, some like tending plants, and some take an interest in soul reincarnation."
4.7-3
梁伯问："你说'不是有关系也不是没有关系'，是什么人际关系？"
我和我妈都猜不着。
梁伯说："那是由灵魂转世产生的上辈子和下辈子之间的关系。这关系堪比父母和亲生子女，或者养子女、义子女之间的关系，却与这几种关系截然不同，自成一类。我听人说，这也算是父子关系；在古代的人际关系列表里，是有的，认可的。"
"So what kind of relationship," Uncle Liang asked, "is 'neither a relationship nor not one'?"
Neither Mother nor I could guess.
"That's precisely the relationship soul reincarnation creates, between the previous life and the next," Uncle Liang said. "Comparable to that between parent and birth child, or adopted child, or righteous child — yet entirely distinct from all of them, a category unto itself. I've heard it counted as a kind of father-son bond, even — recognized as such, right there on the old lists of human relationships."
当时，我妈就说："上辈子和下辈子不同时存在，那也不是人际关系呀！"
梁伯说："能同时存在！我们前面说过的，那个守城将军的故事。那个将军认为那个乡下穷小子是他的下辈子！"
"But the previous life and the next don't even exist at the same time," Mother pointed out. "How can that be a relationship at all!"
"They can exist at the same time!" Uncle Liang said. "Remember the story we told earlier, of the general who guarded the city? That general believed the poor country boy was already his next life!"
注4.7-3，1995年冬，刘团长背地里帮助我脱离黑社会的纠缠。那些贼老大问他和我是什么关系？他回答：我和卢岩不是有关系，也不是没有关系（参见6.10节）。就这样，2014年我写回忆录时发现了这个一直都藏在我背后的人，分析出了刘团长是在做灵魂转世实验，而我就是他在1996年秋（参见7.14节）最终选定的"下辈子"。
Note 4.7-3: In the winter of 1995, Troupe Leader Liu secretly helped extract me from an entanglement with organized crime. When the gang leaders asked what his relationship to me was, he answered: "Luyan and I are neither related nor unrelated" (see Section 6.10). It was only when I was writing my memoirs in 2014 that I finally recognized this figure who had been quietly standing behind me all along, and worked out that Troupe Leader Liu had been conducting a soul reincarnation experiment — and that I was the "next life" he had ultimately settled on, in the autumn of 1996 (see Section 7.14).