1In the summer of 936, Lao She resigned from the faculty of Shandong University and worked as a professional writer in the apartment at No.6, Huangxian Road, Qingdao, until 1937 when the July 7th Incident broke out. According to Mr. Hu Jieqing's memory, this year was the calmest and most tense year in his first half of life. Quietly means that he has no other positions and titles in this year and writes behind closed doors. I am nervous because he has published so many works this year. (Note: See Hu Jieqing: Revisiting the Former Residence of Shandong Laoshe, No.4 of Literature, History and Philosophy, 198 1. It was in this year that Lao She finished the writing of Camel Xiangzi.
Regarding the specific process of the book Camel Xiangzi, Mr. Hu Jieqing said: ... This house (referring to Huangxian Road No.6 apartment-introducer) has an unusual significance in Lao She's creative career. ..... His Camel Xiangzi was written here from beginning to end. Specifically, the initial creative impulse appeared in the chat in that living room. I remember that the so-called living room was very simple: there were some flowers and plants under the south window, some calligraphy and painting were hung on the west wall, and there were several rattan chairs and one or two coffee tables outside. There are not many things, but the windows are bright and clean. Friends often come here to chat. 1936 In the spring, a professor from Shanda came to our house to chat about a foreign coachman in Beiping who wanted to pull a rickshaw for life. He has three ups and downs, and he is still poor in the end. Also talked about what coachman was caught by "Qiu Ba" and stole three camels as a result, and so on. Lao She smiled and said, "This can be used to write novels." I thought it was an impromptu joke at that time, but he really started to work. It took more than half a year to collect materials in ecstasy and make preparations before creation. All the writing of Camel Xiangzi was done under the east window of his study. (Note: "Revisiting the Old Residence of Shandong Laoshe". )
Mr. Hu Jieqing said Lao She's "ecstatic collection of materials", including that Lao She once wrote to Mr. Qi Tiehen asking about the life habits of camels. Because Mr. Qi Tiehen grew up in the western hills of Beiping, there are many farmers raising camels at the foot of the mountain. He wants to write The Story of Camel Xiangzi with coachman and Camel as the core. ), it is difficult to write without understanding the habits of camels. He received a reply from Mr. Qi Tiehen and found that if the novel he wrote was mainly about camels, some materials he got were insufficient. In order to make up for this, I'm afraid he must go "outside his mouth" to see the grasslands and camels. This was impossible at that time. So he decided to give priority to the coachman, so that he could observe at any time and place without saying anything.
It should be said that Lao She began to observe the "anytime, anywhere" of foreign rickshaws (including the working people at the bottom of the city) very early; Moreover, this "observation" is extremely profound. With the attitude of "empathy", he understood their "mentality" in his cordial contact with these suffering people. He said: I was born in poverty, so I have deep sympathy for the suffering people. Although my career keeps me in the circle of intellectuals, not all my friends are professors and scholars. Boxers, singers and rickshaws are also my friends. When dealing with the bitter people, I didn't just sit in a teahouse with them and secretly write down their actions and conversations in a small notebook. I've never done anything like that. When I associate with them, I don't have the idea of "deliberately" observing anything, just to make friends. They help me and I help them; They came to celebrate my birthday, and I went to congratulate them. At that time, they had children or were going to marry a wife. In this way, I paid attention to their mentality, not just to understand their living conditions. I'm not writing about any of them, but something new or a new person I got from them through my imagination and organization. (Note: Selected Works of Lao She? Preface )
In his three years of writing, he said: "It took me more than ten years to observe the life of foreign drivers before writing Camel Xiangzi-and it was so humble and shabby!" The latter sentence makes us feel his serious style of self-criticism, and the former sentence tells the hardships of his creation. He devoted all his energy to creation.
As we know, in the process of Lao She's creation, he began to contact the theme of rickshaw pullers' life very early. In Liu Jia Courtyard, he shows the inhuman living environment of foreign drivers. In the Triangle, he described the miserable situation of poor and sick foreign drivers. In "Aiqi", he wrote about the growth of foreign drivers' resistance consciousness. Their joys and sorrows, their birth and death, their joys and sorrows, and their fate of being squeezed forever have excited Lao She's thoughts for a long time. The reason why his Camel Xiangzi is full of such deep feelings and strong descriptions is also related to his repeated contact with this theme in his creation.
If the images of these rickshaws are only silhouettes in the above short stories, Camel Xiangzi is a comprehensive description of the ups and downs of a rickshaw driver's life. Not only that, Lao She thinks that he "should observe not only the little things that emerge from the driver's clothes, but also the words and gestures, but what it is like from the driver's inner state. Everything on the driver's appearance must have a basis in life, a basis in life. I must find this root to write a hard-working society. " (Note: How do I write camel Xiangzi? It was a grand creative intention at that time to write about a hardworking society from the experience of a coachman.
After Lao She resigned from the faculty of "Shanda", he began to write his own appearance on paper in the summer of 1936. He writes very well. Cosmic wind was serialized from the 25th issue in September of 1936 to the 48th issue in October of 1937/kloc-0. Lao She said to the editor of Cosmic Wind at that time: "This is my most satisfactory work."
The creation of Camel Xiangzi is not only a problem worthy of special attention on Lao She's creative road, but also a major breakthrough in the history of new literature. In the mid-1930s, the proletarian literary movement developed greatly. In the severe struggle to break the "encirclement and suppression" of the Kuomintang reactionaries' counter-revolutionary culture, they not only exercised the literary and art team, but also produced a considerable number of excellent works. Mao Dun's Midnight, Ye's Ni Huanzhi, Cao Yu's Thunderstorm and Ba Jin's Home are all representative works. Lao She's Camel Xiangzi, with its detailed description of Beijing citizens' life, opened up a new field for new literature to express the life of urban working people. A critic once correctly pointed out: "The world of the urban underclass, which people are not very familiar with, and the fate of the urban poor, which people often ignore, have been introduced into the art field and achieved success. In this respect, Lao She's role in the history of modern literature in China is somewhat similar to Dickens' English literature in the middle of19th century and Dostoevsky's Russian literature in the same period, although their achievements are different, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. " (Noe: Fan Jun: "On the Realism of Camel Appearance-Commemorating Mr. Lao She's 80th Birthday", Literary ReviewNo. 1979,No. 1 period. )