Biography of Hulan River can be said to be an autobiography, but it is not exactly like an autobiography. As Mao Dun said, it is more meaningful because it is not entirely an autobiography. When reading this book, you will find that it is not the novel plot that moves you, but something deeper. These things may be the local scenery of the small town of Hulan River, the life situation of the people of Hulan River, or the stories that make people sigh. Maybe I just entered Xiao Hong's childhood, traveled through time with her, and returned to the small town of Hulan River. Because of what I saw and heard, my inner feelings changed strangely, and my mood became more and more heavy later. The book Biography of Hulan River can be said to be both relaxed and depressed. From the beginning, it was attracted by the big environment created, and I couldn't help thinking: What a small town this is. Obviously, it's not busy, it's only a few streets, so some people live a monotonous life day after day, but they vaguely feel that there are many things happening in Hulan River every day, including livestock, people and crops ... Yes, this book is a lyric poem and a ballad, and only by chewing every word carefully can we really find it. Oh, Hulan River, that's it.

? Author's introduction

The author of Hulan River Biography is Xiao Hong. As for Xiao Hong, friends who like the literature of the Republic of China must know that Xiao Hong, Lv Bicheng, Zhang Ailing and Shi Pingmei are also called the four talented women of the Republic of China. However, many people know Xiao Hong because of her bumpy life experience. If we want to describe Xiao Hong's life in a few words, it is poverty, misery and misfortune. Xiao Hong's concept of home is nothing but her grandfather, so Xiao Hong left her hometown after her grandfather's death, and she has no nostalgia and affection for home since then. Xiao Hong was lonely since she was a child. She was trapped in a monotonous town. Everyone around her was ignorant and her feelings could not be vented. Xiao Hong is also independent and strong. She has been studying, living and writing on her own since she left home. Unfortunately, her life has experienced too many emotional entanglements. From her fiance Wang Enjia to her lover Xiao Jun, who later made her love and pain, and then to her husband Duanmu Hongliang, every man made her taste the sweetness and sorrow on the emotional road. Xiao Hong's ending is also extremely tragic. In the war-torn era, after participating in countless revolutions, life has just stabilized and the road to literary creation has reached its golden age, but she contracted tuberculosis and died at the age of 31, with no relatives or lovers around her.

I like Xiao Hong not because I sympathize with her unfortunate life, nor because I lament her legendary love story, but because of her deeply rooted words. Xiao Hong's writing is very distinctive, and there is no pretense. Every book makes people feel true and frank when they read it, and it resonates with people. Indeed, Xiao Hong's works, whether it is the biography of Hulan River that made her famous or the field of life and death in earlier years, make people feel that Xiao Hong is a strong, independent and idealistic woman who is unwilling to do her duty. Although life is difficult and the environment is difficult, her words are really created for human beings and literature, which has nothing to do with politics and interests. Those words that point directly at people's hearts have such powerful power. No matter what the later generations say about her, we can't deny that Xiao Hong is an excellent and unique female writer.

? Overview of the story

The Story of Hulan River has no grand historical background. Although the actual time of the story is a time of war in history, the small town of Hulan River seems to be isolated from the outside world. The author brought us into this small town bit by bit and immersed ourselves in the story of the small town. It seems that the outside world is beyond our awareness.

At the beginning of the story, there is a landscape painting, which shows the scenery of Hulan River City all the year round, the group portraits of Hulan River people, and the scenes of Crossroads, Dongerdao Street and Xierdao Street. Of course, there are also hawkers shouting in Hutongli, and people's love for all kinds of excitement. In the first half of the book, the style of writing is relatively relaxed, especially the grand event of the big mud pit on Dongerdao Street. Whenever someone or horses and chariots fall into the mud pit, people around them will have a lively look, which is already a great excitement for small town life. But beyond that, what we see is a monotonous life. Even birth, illness and death are just a seasoning in a single life, and they are soon forgotten, because there are too many unfortunate things and people in a small town like Hulan River, and people have no time to pity and care, or they have forgotten to pity and care at all. Everything is so calm and nothing seems to have changed. If you want to ask them what they live for, their answer is to eat and dress, yes, it's that simple. People in Hulan River live quite regularly. When winter comes, they wear cotton-padded clothes, and when summer comes, they wear single clothes. When the sun comes out, they get up and go to bed when the sun goes down. It is extremely extravagant to eat a piece of tofu. Sometimes there are cheap pork in the meat market, but people believe that it is a good pig that fell into a big mud pit and drowned. People are also very practical. They won't go to a foreign doctor to see a doctor. They can stick it for half a month by buying a plaster at the "Li Yongchun" drugstore. People, like wind, frost, rain and snow, are seeking natural results. Those who can resist will survive, and those who can't resist will just leave this world quietly.

The first few chapters of Biography of Hulan River introduce the trivial and ordinary group life of Hulan River, while the following chapters focus on the spiritual life of the people of Hulan River. The so-called spiritual life of Hulan River is only five or six kinds, such as dancing in the gods, singing yangko, setting off river lanterns, wild taizi opera and Niangniang Temple convention. These spiritual activities are very meaningful to the people of Hulan River, and they are very lively and exciting. It seems that only a few "spiritual baptisms" in a year are the important moments to truly break the dull life of Hulan River. The great god can cure diseases, but he tortured a young girl to death alive; On July 15th, the river lanterns were set off, and they came down from the upper stream. Only when the lights were dense, there were many people and the geometry of life could we see such a situation, but when they went down again, it was desolate and lonely, and the lights went out one by one and disappeared one by one. When the autumn harvest is good, we will sing a wild platform play. People call on relatives and friends to gather under the wild platform, but people don't come to see the play, but pick up girls and call their sons-in-law. There are also matchmakers who are casual, give gifts to each other, make friends and flirt, which is extremely lively. People say that it finally came from under the big table, not from anywhere else. The Niangniang Temple Convention is also called "visiting the temple", because the world of ghosts and gods is also patriarchal, so people have to go to the old temple first, and then go to Niangniang Temple to ask for children and grandchildren, and there is no respect for other things. Of course, there is yangko singing, which is for the living, especially on the fifteenth day of the first month during the slack season, and that day is also quite lively.

At this point in this book, it is basically a group image of the small town of Hulan River and people's life in the city, and it is a single material or spiritual life that people are similar year after year. Next is the real story about me and Hulan River.

"My grandfather lived in the small town of Hulanhe." "When I was born, my grandfather was over 6 years old. When I was four or five years old, my grandfather was almost seventy." The tone of writing seems so plain that it doesn't have a trace of emotion, but actually it reads out the emotion that "I" has been suppressed and restrained, as if an carelessness would gush out like a slurry. There is a big garden behind my home. For me as a child, this big garden is the whole world. In my cognition, there are dragonflies, butterflies, grasshoppers and all kinds of flowers and vegetables in the big garden. My favorite thing to do is to play with my grandfather in the garden. My grandfather plants flowers and plants flowers, and my grandfather pulls weeds. Although I am naughty, my grandfather never blames me, and he often smiles at me like a child. At home, only my grandfather understands me, and only "I" understands my grandfather. It seems that there are only "I" and my grandfather and the big garden in my childhood. There were many people in my family when my grandmother died, but for me, the more people, the more lonely I felt. Later, I finally left the yard, only to find that the world was so big.

The "I" in the book and my grandfather have deep feelings, not only because my grandfather cares about "I", "loves" me and teaches "I" to read poetry, but more importantly, these two people are isolated from the small world of Hulan River, and they always stay awake in a group of ignorant Hulan River people. In my opinion, the yard of my house is desolate. Although there are many families living in it, some are pigs, some are leaking powder, and there is a mill in the pig room, who plays bangzi all night every day, as well as those who like to sing Shaanxi opera, pull the huqin and sing "Sighing the Five Rings", all this is hopeless, and everything they do is just resignation. Grandpa, on the other hand, likes to tease children, knows what to do and what not to do, distinguishes right from wrong, and has a heart of compassion.

here are two short stories that are worth pondering, and they are also places that make people particularly emotional or need to think deeply. One is about the driver's Lao Hu family jumping into the gods. Their family especially likes to dance with the great god. When the old people at home are sick, they should invite the great god to do it. The old people have to show off, and the neighbors have to come to watch the fun. Later, the second granddaughter's wife fell ill (actually, it was beaten by the second wife's mother-in-law, because everyone said that this daughter-in-law was really not as tall as a reunion daughter-in-law, and she was not shy at all, so it was too generous). Her mother-in-law beat her every now and then in order to give her daughter-in-law a run. In my opinion, this reunion daughter-in-law was quite good, because my grandfather also thought she was quite good. My grandfather also went to Khufu's house to persuade her several times. However, the second mother-in-law of the Lao Hu family did the same, and later spent a lot of money to ask the Great God to do it, so that the reunion daughter-in-law jumped out of trouble. I used all kinds of prescriptions, scented incense and smoked stickers, and even let the reunion daughter-in-law bathe in a vat in public, but the reunion daughter-in-law still didn't get better and eventually died.

Another short story is about Feng's crooked mouth in the mill. He banged all night and sometimes talked to "me" or grandpa who stayed in the yard, but he talked so much that people outside the window didn't know. At this time, grandpa and I would laugh. Feng crooked mouth also sells yellow rice sticky cakes, which are often given to me to eat. Later, Feng crooked mouth suddenly became a family, and there was a newborn child. Everyone else in the yard called them wild wives and bastards, and they thought that the child would die, and Feng crooked mouth would hang himself. But Feng crooked mouth didn't hang himself or commit suicide, but he was still alive and the child grew up. Feng crooked mouth is not annoyed by the ridicule of everyone, but still takes care of his wife and children in a down-to-earth manner and lives in peace. Even after the woman died, he was not as desperate as people thought, and still lived as usual.

In fact, there are other characters in the book, such as Uncle Er, my old cook, my mother, Grandma Wednesday and others. Like most people in Hulan River, these people are ignorant, indifferent, like watching the excitement, like swarming, and like to deceive themselves. And "I" is more sympathetic to these characters than sarcasm. Because they are full of memories of my childhood, I can't forget them.

The city of Hulan River is lonely, the people of Hulan River are lonely, and the author Xiao Hong's life is even more lonely. At the end of the book, Xiao Hong said: In this small town of Hulanhe, my grandfather used to live, and now my grandfather is buried. Yes, Hulan River, a small and peaceful city, inside which people can't see the outside world, and people's spirit is numb and pedantic. Fortunately, "I" still has my grandfather and a big garden that accompanied "I" to grow up. It's just that my grandfather is gone, and there is no place to stay, but these childhood memories are unforgettable. No matter where "I" go, there is always the shadow of childhood surging. In fact, for us, how can those memories of childhood be forgotten? No matter whether our childhood is cheerful or lonely, all the people and things that have existed have a subtle influence on us, but as long as we have the ability to distinguish right from wrong and can look at problems coldly and soberly in a dirty environment, our attitude will still become positive. It's just that the most terrible thing in this world is loneliness and loneliness in people's hearts. I think this is also the reason why Xiao Hong's youth passed away.