Ever since the dawning of the history of mankind, there have been myriads of diversifed inventions, discoveries, and even explorations of the mysteries of the universe. In fact, the human beings are so intelligent that we have solved almost all kinds of problems we have confronted with .
However, nobody has ever made out what the word “love” really connotes, not even the most famous people such as great politicians, saints and philosophers can clarify the meaning of “love”, neither can they deal with the various affairs concerning love. Love is like a huge boundless net that shrouds us all in. We can neither break away from it nor escape from it. Like it or not, we are always entangled in it. It is an invisible net without any form, that shrouds in different people from different angels; It is a merciless net that upsets us or even tortures us to death. It is also a supreme net which almost no human can surpass. Even if they are heroes, emperors, wise men or saints, they can do nothing but show their helplessness in its face. Those who can breathe through the holes of the net should be regarded beyond commonness and vulgarity. Love can bring us temporary comfort and happiness, but mostly they bring about annoyance and sufferings. Maybe this is the reason why many people have seen through the illusions of the mortal world. However it is not so easy to break away from this boundless, ever-existing and indifferent net of love.
Love is varied and changeable, but roughly it can be divided into three categories: family love, fraternal love and amatory love. Not like Monkey King who jumped out of the rocks, we were all born after mother's pregnancy of about nine months, hence we have countless relatives without any choice: parents, grand-parents, and grand-parents-in-law, uncles and aunties, brothers and sisters, etc. and once looking at the genealogical tree, we'll see no end. Family love is what everyone longs for, but the warmth and support from our beloved ones are what everyone yearns for the most. But how many of us are determined to contribute to our beloved one? And how many don't expect repayment and relaxed. conscience even if they have the desire and preparation to contribute to their beloved. The distance between relatives is different and so are their expectations. But since it's very difficult to know how much we should expect, a lot of worries and distresses emerge.
Parents always expect their children to show their filial obedience, or at least pay them frequent visits after they have got married. If the children fail to do this, they feel hurt and upset, and they'll even complain about their children, because they just can't understand why their children don't care about them after what they have done for the children for so many years to bring them up. Nevertheless, one's experience determines his ideology. Young children are naturally attached to their parents, but when they grow up, specially when they have made their own friends, and got married, what they need most is independence and freedom, and parents sometimes might become their burden. Once there is generation gap, it becomes more difficult to communicate and this keeps them away from their parents. Objectively speaking, they need more independence in order to achieve success. In the present society, what the children want to have most is the economic support from their parents, not their moral support or guidance. They would complain if your economic support is not up to their expectations. The love from uncles and aunties would naturally dwindle after they have had their own children. Only the love from grand-parents and grand parents-in-law is pure and demands no repayment, and they are also too old to wait for any repayment. As for the distant relatives, their love depends on their needs, just as the old saying goes “The poor have no friends even if they live in downtown while the rich have distant relatives even if they live in deep mountains”. Granny Liu, a distant kinsfolk, in A Dream of the Red Mansions , claims kinship with the wealthy Jia family, thinking that she may benefit from it in some ways. Liu might have run away without any traces if the Jia family had been a poor one. Another saying goes “Close neighbors are better than distant relatives.” The most difficult is to manage the relatives when doing business together, just as what the TV series program Liu Laogen discloses. It is all right to stay poor together, but as soon as the business grows prosperous, the group will become estranged and even dissolve because of the unfair distribution. Family love is like a maze which we shouldn't go too far into it, otherwise, we'll surely get lost. Love is a bilateral matter and unilateral love can only lead you to nowhere in spite of your good intentions. Family love is, sometimes, like an arranged marriage, leaving no choices to you. Due to the different experiences and tastes, staying together temporarily can be entertaining, while living together for a long time can only be boring due to the lack of common interest and understanding. How can we communicate with each other without understanding? Parents have the duty to support the children who are not yet economically independent, and children have the responsibility to provide for the elderly parents who are lack of economic abilities to support themselves. Except these two kinds of duties which we must fulfill, other kinds of love become conventional formalities such as paying visit to the sick or the dead and giving presents to the newly-born etc..
No love among relatives has become a normal phenomenon which needn't to be fussed about. What's worse is when love is contaminated by money. Sooner or later we will get hurt. The sooner we get out of this net of love, the more we can preserve beautiful memories.
We are not living in vacuum, and the society is formed of various kinds of people. As long as we want to live, study, or work, we have to contact, communicate and cooperate with others. Those who enjoy common interests, mutual understanding, common undertakings and common benefits become friends.
Some friends are called fair-weather friends, because they are together just for entertaining themselves by eating, drinking, and gossiping. Once there's nothing to eat and drink, their friendship is finished. Some are spiritual friends who share common ambitions, pursuits and education. “They enjoy talking and laughing with the great talents and never make friends with the good-for-nothings”. The best examples would be Yu Boya and Zhong ziqi of the ancient times who are famous not only for their lofty music but mainly for their lofty characters and mutual understanding and appreciation. They cared very little about material wealth, so their friendship is known as “gentlemen's friendship as pure as water”. The third type of friendship belong to those who show their utter devotion to each other. They are ready not only to share weal and woe but also to die for each other, like the three brothers Liu, Guan and Zhang in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. . We all wish to have this kind of friendship, but it's of great difficulty for the ordinary people to be as devoted as they were.
