-Talking about his prose.

198 1 year, Hunan People's Publishing House published Selected Prose of Mr. Shen. All the articles included in the anthology were written in the 1930s, except one "The Skill of a Legend" and one "Twenty Minutes in Zhangbazhai". Mr. Shen was only in his thirties when he wrote these articles, and it has been half a century now. I said these words just to point out the time, and I didn't feel much. Forty years ago, Mr. Shen and I went to a library and stood in front of one book after another. Mr. Shen said: "Seeing so many people writing so many books, I really don't want to write anything!" Throughout the ages, so many people have written so many books, and how much truth can be said about the fate of books, their ups and downs, and their ups and downs. However, a person has been forgotten for many years, and now his book suddenly comes out, which always reminds people of some problems. What is the historical and practical significance of this? Does this have any effect on the moral education, aesthetic education and language education of today's readers, mainly young readers? What's the effect? ……

These questions should be answered by critics and literary historians. I don't want to answer, and I can't answer. I am a student of Mr. Shen, but I am not his researcher (several of his researchers have written excellent papers). I can only say what I feel after reading his prose. Of course it is very shallow.

Writing is like a man. There are several articles about Mr. Shen that relate his personality to his works. This is the case with Mr. Zhu Guangqian's essay published in Flower City. This is a good article. Among them, Mr. Shen is lonely and knows what to say. This is the only way I can do now. Mr. Shen wrote all his life with the pen in his hand, and also wrote himself with this pen. He himself is like a work, a work written by himself.

I think Mr. Shen is a passionate patriot, an immortal lyric poet and a persevering and tireless master of language and writing.

This is really a rare person who loves his hometown and the land. He often travels to and from his hometown, speaking his hometown dialect and talking about people and things in his hometown. He talked to me about the ferry on the cotton slope more than once; Speaking of Feng 'ao, in autumn, maple leaves are flying all over the city. 198 1 year He went back to Phoenix once and took his wife and friends to see the scenery written in his novels. They all saw it, and the waterwheel and stone mill finally saw it. What they didn't see was a large oil mill. A 79-year-old man talks about this like a child. It is rare that he remembers so much, knows so much, thinks so much and writes so much. He himself said that his most satisfying novel was a story about people and things on the Yuan River, which stretches for thousands of miles. The selected essays are all about Xiangxi. This is not much among China writers, nor is it much among foreign writers. These works are all for something.

Mr. Shen is very good at writing about scenery. He writes about scenery with a purpose. As he himself said:

A poem or just 28 words, a picture is only one square foot in size, leaving an impression on future generations, but it is always fresh and magnificent, which increases people's feelings for the great rivers and mountains of the motherland. ("Twenty Minutes in Zhangbazhai")

Different scenery, time flows. Mr. Shen is always at the water's edge, and the deceased is like this. One term he often mentions is "history". He is thinking about this land, the past and future of this nation. His prose is not a landscape poem of Jin people, not to knock people down, but to inspire people to cheer up and forge ahead.

Reading Mr. Shen's works often reminds people of Lu Xun's works, hometown and social drama (Mr. Shen first picked up a pen, influenced by Lu Xun's novels, with rural memories, and his thoughts are bound to be influenced by it). They wrote about a poor and weak rural area. The place is beautiful, the people are hardworking and simple, and their hearts are so noble and beautiful, but they live hard and numbly under hopeless circumstances. Lu Xun is sad in his heart. His novels are a mixture of beauty and sadness. Xiangxi is remote and ruled by a more ignorant force in a more barbaric way. Life there is "terrible" and what happens there is simply bizarre. A young man who came out of this kind of life ran to a big city, accepted the democratic thought since the May 4th Movement, and turned his head to look at the life there, and could not help but feel pain. This kind of pain is manifested in both New and Old and Vegetable Garden. This kind of pain is also shown in Husband and Your Life. His prose also reveals this kind of pain everywhere. Indigenous warlords kill people at will, and one kill is two or three thousand. The famous punishment master casually drew a sum of money in red strokes, and then rushed to Gaopo with a gown and a white copper hookah to enjoy this unsightly game. The Zhou brothers and sisters selling vegetables were robbed by a colonel. "Little bitch" married an old smoker. A miner's daughter, thirteen years old, was attracted by the garrison platoon leader and lured her to death with two dollars. Finally, she swallowed San Qian's ointment and died. ..... Speaking of which, can it be painless? Whose responsibility is this? "The local butchers in Pushi are so thin. Whose responsibility is it? " -this question seems ridiculous, but it is actually sad. It is this humorous tone that comes from a helpless and painful mentality. This is an indictment. In the novel, because we want to "include truth in the phenomenon", the accusation is silent. Sometimes it's clear in prose. "Scholar's sympathy, expert investigation, what's the use for this kind of person? If there is no "way" other than investigation and sympathy, such people will always live in the same situation with blood and tears. Hell seems designed for them. Their life just shows the inevitable diversity of' life' surrounded by ignorance and poverty. " Mr. Shen is not used to shouting, but such accusations can't be said to be "gentle and sincere". I don't know why few people pay attention to his words.

Shen Congwen is not a pessimist. Personal gains and losses are small, and the country's future is great. He once made it clear: "The rise and fall of a nation depends entirely on people's efforts." Even when he was so dark and decadent (in his words, "decadent"), he did not lose heart. He always wants to inspire young people's self-esteem and self-confidence. "There is self-reliance in career and academic self-reliance." He is most opposed to Kunming's cynicism and cynicism. He told me, "Never be cold-faced." 1946, I went to Shanghai and lost my job. I thought about suicide. He wrote a long letter, cursing me and saying that I was worthless. In the letter, he also mentioned "Don't be cold-faced." In his inscription, he said: "Many things in front of us are painful, but there is no need to be pessimistic. The society is still changing, and sudden ups and downs may sweep away many people's noble ideals without leaving a trace. However, a person's enthusiasm for the future of mankind and his pious attitude towards work should always exist and will certainly give great encouragement to the latecomers! " Strangely, what Mr. Shen said in 1942 sounded as if it was aimed at the Cultural Revolution. We have all lived a life of "fearing others" for ten years, and the country still has many difficulties and problems to solve for the time being. Some young people, including some young writers, can't help feeling cynical, feeling that nothing is desirable and nothing can be done. Can you hear what an old writer said forty years ago?

What I said seems a little beside the point. But that's not the point, Wan Li. My purpose is just to talk about Mr. Shen's patriotic enthusiasm for the rise and fall of the nation.

Mr. Shen cares about people, their changes and their future. He mentioned several times that the moral quality of hometown people was distorted and crushed by a kind of "power". "I have been in my hometown for eighteen years. When I entered the Chenhe Valley, everything was different. On the surface, everything has naturally made great progress. If you try to pay close attention, you will see the changing trend of degradation. The most obvious thing is that the simple and honest beauty of human nature in rural society is almost disappearing, but it is replaced by a vulgar outlook on life that is only practical and profitable and has been successfully cultivated in the actual society in the past twenty years. Although the superstition of respecting ghosts and gods and fearing life has been destroyed by common sense, the distinction between right and wrong has disappeared. " (《lt； He doesn't want to go back in time and return to the feudal patriarchal society and simplicity. He knew it was impossible. He just hopes that under the new conditions, the national enthusiasm, moral character and simple beauty of human nature can be further developed. After recalling the beautiful scene of dragon boat rowing, he thought, "What methods can we use to make these people have a' fear' of tomorrow, give up their peaceful attitude towards nature in the past and try to live with the spirit of dragon boat rowing again?" These people's enthusiasm for entertainment proves that this enthusiasm can change a direction, so that they can still occupy a piece of land in the world and live a happier and longer life. However, there is no way to turn these people's fanaticism into a new aspect of competition, which is a question of thinking. "(Box Rock)" I hope there are a group of lean and strong young people in this land to control steel and conquer nature. Who should be responsible for this? " -"naturally, you won't get any conclusions for a while." He hopes that young people can live a "solemn and reasonable life", which is of course only an "almost absurd ideal". But he always hoped.

He pinned his hopes on several gentle, innocent and pure children. About Cui Cui, about the three sisters in the long river, and "an affectionate sailor and an affectionate woman". -This is a well-written article. The love between Niu Bao and a woman who doesn't know her name is an abnormal love (they should not be responsible for it), but it is a very simple, sincere and beautiful love. This kind of love shines with the light of a long national character. In the inscription of Long River, Mr. Shen said: "In the inscription of Border Town, a question is raised, that is, comparing the past and present, where the so-called disappearance and reconstruction of national morality may begin." Although the integrity and enthusiasm of the characters in Border Town have become a thing of the past, we should still keep some essence in the blood or dreams of young people and rekindle their self-esteem and self-confidence in a suitable environment. "When it comes to Border Town and many other works of Mr. Shen, people are often willing to think of the word' pastoral'. This is half a misunderstanding. Mr. Shen's article has an idyllic style. Most of what I write involves natural beauty and love, which is a bit like pastoral. But in essence, it's not quite the same as medieval pastoral poetry, and it's not so quietism. Some people say that "Border Town" is a paradise, but it is actually a misunderstanding (in "Taoyuan and Yuanzhou", Mr. Shen severely ridiculed those "elegant" people who came to Taoyuan County to visit you and explore the victory). Border Town (and other works of Shen) is not an elegy, but a song of hope. Will national morality come back?

"This person may never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow!" Come back! Look at that boatwoman in Zhangbazhai!

"What makes me nervous is not the shaking of the ferry, but the boatwoman who stood at the bow and told me not to panic, but was in no hurry to be the master there. We seem to know each other. We are strangers. There are such coincidences in the world. It turns out that she is more beautiful than the person in a novel I wrote in 24 years. Although she was born in her teens late, her present environment seems to be the same. She is also ferrying in such green mountains and green waters, and her youthful life is slowly growing. The difference is that the society has changed greatly and has seen the world. Although indifferent to people, but full of confidence in their own survival. A self-confidence of' getting happiness from labor, increasing happiness and success'. This is also a common feature of new rural girls. At present, one is a bit different, only in the background environment. "

I don't know why Mr. Shen's idea of recreating national morality has not been understood for many years. "My work can be popular in the market, in fact, it is close to buying one get one free pearl. You can appreciate the freshness of my story, but as usual, the enthusiasm behind that work is ignored. You can appreciate the simplicity of my writing. As usual, the sadness behind that work has been ignored. " Mr. Shen can't help feeling lonely. It is no accident that Qu Yuan is repeatedly mentioned in his prose.

Loneliness is not a bad thing. In a sense, loneliness made Shen Congwen. Loneliness helps to think deeply and imagine. "I have my own life and thoughts, which can be said to be all from loneliness. My education also comes from loneliness. " His forty novels were written in solitude. The readers he hopes for are also "people who bow their heads in various undertakings and are lonely in the great cause of national rejuvenation." (《lt； It is a virtue to be content with loneliness. Lonely people are full.

Loneliness is a realm, a beautiful realm. Xiangxi written by Mr. Shen is always so quiet. Border towns are like this, long rivers are like this, and so are Ya 'an Wai and Yangjiaxiao. There is movement in silence, and there is someone in silence. Mr. Shen is good at describing this quiet poetic scene with some colors and sounds. In this respect, he can be called a saint among modern prose writers. When the night occupies the whole river, you can still see the fire on the raft, the light in the window of the diaojiao building, and the red light of the torch moving when disembarking from the river bank. At this time, someone was talking on the shore and on the boat, and a woman was singing a ditty in the dim light on the diaojiao building. Every time a little song is finished, people laugh and shout. There is a lamb barking under someone's diaojiao building. The stubborn and soft voice makes people feel melancholy.

As soon as the windows of these families face the river, they can call out the people on board from the windows. When all the people on the boat are addicted, enough nonsense, get off the boat, or have something to entrust, or for other reasons, one shakes a torch and stops between rocks, and the other stands by the window, "Remember, old man, the boat will come again when it goes down!" "Ok, I'm coming, I remember." "When you see Shun Shun, you say,' Yes, it's over; Where is Daniel? His ankle and knee have healed. Three catties of fine powder, three catties of rock sugar or tablet sugar. ""I remember, I remember, don't worry, aunt. When I met Shunshun, I said,' Yes, it's over. Where is Daniel? All right. Three pounds of fine powder, three pounds of rock sugar. ""Yang, Yang, a total of four hanging seven, don't be wrong! " "Yes, rest assured, you said four hanging seven hanging seven, more don't want you on New Year's Eve! Just remember it yourself. "I can hear all this and all that, and I can also hear the bleating of sheep somewhere in the dark. (The above is quoted from Night Around the Duck Nest.)

It's really like hearing it. I seem to hear this conversation shouting under the river somewhere else. These are trivial words, but this is the life of the world. The stubborn and gentle cry of the lamb made Mr. Shen unforgettable and unforgettable for many years, and as Mr. Shen often said, it was "very soft" to think of it.

"It didn't take long for many rafts to go offshore, and many sailboats pulled anchors, pushed open tents and set out to paddle. When I was lying in the cabin, I only heard the voices of people on the water, the sound of paddles, and the squeak when the paddles themselves were pulled. The woman on the diaojiao building by the river bank shouted loudly in the misty air, just like the sheng tube in music, surpassing the crowd. The synthesis of river sounds is intertwined with solemnity and flow, and everything is really a sacred place. "

"There are two women by the dead tree in front of the diaojiao building on the shore, dressed in wool and blue cloth. I don't know what to discuss, and I can't speak clearly. It seldom snows here, the hills are bare and dark brown, and the mountains in the distance are dark purple. This place is very quiet. There is no boat by the river, no one, only a pile of firewood. I just didn't know that someone was beating clothes behind a big stone by the river. Someone is talking to the river, but I can't see where the person is. " The above quotation comes from an affectionate sailor and an affectionate woman. )

"There seems to be no one on the empty mountain, but I think I heard a voice" and "The bamboo washerwoman goes home, and the lotus leaf gives in before the fishing boat" are the long traditions of China literature. But there is only one way to get rid of the interference of the floating world, and those who are used to loneliness can get it in silence. Qi Baishi wrote a painting saying: "The old man Baishi has a light heart when he is free." Loneliness and quietness are the essential qualities of artistic creation. A person who is keen on wealth and impetuous cannot get close to nature or life. Mr. Shen's "quiet" method is writing. In Kunming, for a time, he often wrote two poems on bamboo paper with a brush: "The green trees in the village are dark, and the yellow flowers in the dream are rare." It is from these two poems (of course, more than these two sentences) that I realized how to describe a quiet, lively and energetic "humanistic environment" with a small amount of words.

I just don't want to know the truth, but I'm always fascinated by phenomena. I look at everything, but I don't add that social value and evaluate my love and hate. I don't want to ask how much it costs to criticize everything, but I am willing to test his official weight of making me happy and unhappy. I will never get tired of seeing everything. I can grasp the most beautiful and harmonious demeanor of the universe in action, in stillness and in impression, but my hobby is obviously not as good as the general purpose. When everything is connected with human life, I don't understand the beauty and evil. In other words, I don't know much about the beauty of ethics. When approaching life, I will always feel like an artist, not a so-called moral gentleman. (Autobiography, Women's Dilemma)

Mr. Shen's "self-evaluation" fifty years ago was quite accurate. His poetic temperament has existed since childhood and has never failed.

Autobiography of Congwen is a strange book. This book can be viewed from different angles. You can look at the horrible life in a corner of western Hunan from the Revolution of 1911 to the May 4th Movement and learn a little about the history of China. It can be seen that a person "lives in complete despair, but still has the courage and confidence to stick to his work." Where is his motivation? ",thus increasing his courage and confidence in life. Mr. Shen himself said that this is an "autobiography of an urchin". I am particularly interested in this book, because it is a textbook for cultivating writers, and it tells me how people become poets. Whether a person can become a writer depends on his childhood. First of all, you should be interested in life, full of curiosity and want to see everything. Looking everywhere, listening everywhere and smelling everywhere, a heart "always beats for a fresh color, fresh sound and fresh smell" and "eats" various impressions with its senses. You should see, look carefully, see clearly, and grasp the "most beautiful demeanor" in life; You have to review after reading it. Remember, it's clear in retrospect, and you can easily move it to paper when you need it. Looking at everything, we can see its beauty, poetry, Asian cruelty and ignorance in ordinary life. For example, molten iron, what is there to see? However, Mr. Shen wrote this process for a long time, so vividly! A bean curd maker, who was about to be beheaded because of an absurd love, smiled weakly before his execution. "I remember this smile, which has been very clear in my impression for more than ten years." Mr. Shen's autobiography records many deep impressions and experiences of the beauty he gained from his life. A person's artistic feeling is exercised in this way since childhood. There is a book called Education of Love. Teacher Shen's book can really be called Education of Beauty. I just learned a lot from this thin little book, which is more useful than reading dozens of literary theory books.

Mr. Shen is an emotional person, very emotional and easily moved (an artist can't do it unless he is more sensitive than ordinary people). He is full of affection for life, the people, the mountains and rivers of the motherland, and he loves everything with the love of a benevolent person.

A touch of faint afternoon sunshine on the top of the mountain touched me, and so did stones with round colors like chess pieces at the bottom of the water. There seems to be no dross in my heart, and the transparent candle shines on me. I love everything, and the tugboat and the boat love each other so much, which is very warm! ("January 18th, 1934")

It is this emotion that makes Notes on a Journey to Hunan and Xiangxi full of moving brilliance. Some chapters here can be said to be travel notes or reportage, but they are different from ordinary travel notes or reportage and are not so calm and objective. Some articles, such as the ship in Changde, the people in Yuanling, especially the coal in Chenxi, are really boring. However, if you read them, you will find that they are not boring at all! It is different from many reportages because the author was born and raised in Sri Lanka and lives here (and lives like that). It is written by the author's own life experience and first-hand materials. It is not based on interviews and investigation materials. Here is the author's sadness, compassion and hope. The author is related to this land and has deep and sincere feelings for these people, unlike many reportages, which are empty and shallow. -Although many emotional words are embellished, because the author is familiar with life and affectionate, he writes very freely, without reluctance, and sometimes takes pains to make readers take pains; Sometimes a few strokes make readers feel carefree and fascinated.

Associated with the temperament of a lyric poet, Mr. Shen is also very humorous. Friends who love noses are a very interesting and wonderful article. Every time I see it, it's "Yin is a football fan. He is willing to accompany anyone who invites him to play football. No matter how far the ball is from him, he must get there to play football. Every Sunday, when someone in the military camp plays ball in the big playground of the coach camp in the lower four miles, this person will also take part in the excitement. There is a lot of cow dung on the big playground. Once I was fighting for the ball with someone, and I saw cow dung kicking hard, kicking another person all over. " I burst out laughing inevitably. This person is probably the seal mentioned far away in the autobiography. I seem to have seen this man. Dark, thin, like to lean forward when talking. And I feel that his instep must be very high for no reason. Come to think of it, I may not have met him. It is unlikely that I have met him. Because Mr. Shen wrote him so vividly, he came to life in my impression. Quewu in Yuanling is always a good person, very interesting! Mr. Shen's humor is very implicit. He didn't mean to joke, but he was full of interest in life. He thinks many people and things are interesting. Only a kind-hearted and indifferent person can have such a transparent sense of humor. He smiles at the world, often smiles gently, and seldom gets angry and anxious. -Of course there is.

Benevolent people live long. Because of this lyrical temperament, he never cares too much about personal gains and losses, but Mr. Shen can withstand all kinds of blows and hardships and still live well. Eighty years old, still full of energy and high spirits. Later, he "changed his profession" to study cultural relics and enjoyed it. He sits for more than ten hours every day, which is also related to the poet's temperament. What he is engaged in, such as ceramics, lacquerware, silk and clothing, are all "things", but what he sees is people, their intelligence, their creation, their artistic love for beauty and their unremitting labor. He was so excited and amazed when he talked about this, and he looked really naive. I really want to give his cultural relics work a name, called "lyric archaeology". Mr. Shen's language and writing skills are universally recognized. So there is such a skill, on the one hand, because of reading more. I'm happy to read anything from Songs of the South, Historical Records, Poems by Cao Zhi to Guizhi Er. Personally, I feel that Mr. Shen's language is greatly influenced by Wei and Jin articles. Try it: "Looking at the mountain city on the north bank from the south bank of Yuanling, the houses are connected with rafters, and the ridge is exposed in a higher place, surrounded by mountains and dotted with trees. The scenery is not tacky. Looking from the north bank to the south, there are bamboo gardens, trees, temples, towers and residents in the small hills by the river, as if they were all in the most suitable places. Behind the mountain, the peaks are listed in the distance, such as screens and smoke clouds, and the colors are blue and blue. In the morning and at night, people imagine that there must be a god named Adiz, riding a clam, riding a clam. Around the long river of the city, after the spring water comes out in March and April every year, Hongjiang oil tanker is brightly colored and sails in one breath. Rectangular raft, dozens of lean men, each according to the upper corner of the raft, lift the radial water, downstream. What moved me most was that the boat was halfway through, and my eyes were full. It seems that there are mountains all around, and the mountains are heavy outside, and everything is picturesque. The depth of the water and the speed of the water, the boat girl, strong waist and strong legs, are bold and calm, endangering the bow, as if nothing had happened. "(Yuanling middleman) This doesn't remind people of Li Daoyuan's Notes on Water Classics? I think Mr. Shen writes better than Li Daoyuan, because his notes have no such flavor of life, and he writes more about scenery and less about it. On the other hand, we must learn from life and the masses. " If there is anything worthy of attention in my writing, it is only because I have memorized too much house boat's words. "(The relationship between my writing and water) Many words used by Mr. Shen come directly from life, but not in the book. For example, the words "I sit alone in a cabin full of air conditioning" (box rock), "I take off my shoes before going to bed, so I put it next to the sailors to watch the cards" (Duck Night). This is the same as the word "sauce" in Lu Xun's "Gao", which means "we should not let people sauce together", and it is used accurately. Such words are used by the public in life, but they have disappeared in the mouth of intellectuals and in the writings of many writers. We should look for this word more often in our life. On the other hand, it is constant practice.

Mr. Shen said, "I haven't learned to use a pen for ten years. Holding a pen in my hand, I can only say that I am gradually maturing, slowly getting rid of reserve, exaggeration, stubbornness and affectation, and getting closer to nature. " Mr. Shen has been writing for thirty years. The first decade is the experimental stage, the stage of learning to use words. The middle decade is maturity. These articles were written at maturity. The sign of maturity is to get rid of "reserve, exaggeration, stubbornness and affectation"

Mr. Shen said that his works are "exercises" and he will try to organize them in different ways. None of the narrative methods used in these dozens of essays are the same!

"All works need individuality and must be saturated with the author's personality and feelings. To achieve this goal, you should do whatever you want when you write, completely whatever you want! Although literature is inevitably regarded as one of the commodities in this era, it is both a commodity and a fine product, and even on the same item, the producers can be ingenious and stick to the rules, and the popular styles and styles in society can be ignored. (Selected Novels of Shen Congwen) "This is a kind of advice for many young writers today. A writer should have his own style, stand the test of time, endure loneliness, not follow the fashion, and not pursue "box office value".

"Even so, I will continue my work. I will never let go of my arrogant imagination, thinking that in another era, a few of you will cross the deep ditch that separates urban and rural areas and find the burning feeling from the labor of a farmer, the eternal dedication to human wisdom and beauty, the praise of health and honesty, and the feeling of extreme hatred for stupidity and selfishness. This feeling can actually stimulate you, causing you to look forward to life and doubt everything at present. Sir, is this plan close to that of a countryman at present? However, at another time, I believe there is such a thing. " (Selected Novels by Shen Congwen) Has this "another moment" arrived?

1982 1 1 completed on the morning of March 3rd.