In July, 1934, Yu Dafu went to Beiping from Hangzhou via Qingdao, once again tasted the autumn flavor of the old capital, and wrote a beautiful essay-Autumn in the Old Capital. In the description of the color, taste, artistic conception and posture of autumn in Beiping, the author expresses his attachment to the natural scenery of the old capital and his persistent pursuit of beauty, revealing a calm and indifferent state of mind. The language is fresh and distant, which contains a sense of color and rhythmic beauty, and embodies the unique personality and aesthetic value of Yu Dafu's prose.

The first feature of Autumn in the Old Capital is the harmonious sense of color and the beauty of the picture formed by the unity of subjective feeling and objective description.

color, as an aesthetic concept, has two aspects: everything in nature has its own color, so we might as well call it objective color; The objective existence is reflected in people's thoughts, and its color is subjective, which we call subjective color. These two colors complement each other in Yu Dafu's works.

autumn, no matter where it is, is always good; However, the autumn in the north is especially clear, quiet and sad.

This "clearness", "quietness" and "sadness" is the general projection of autumn in the old capital Peiping on the writer's ideas, which constitutes the tone and background color of the article. The reader may ask this question: as far as the whole text is concerned, the author intends to praise autumn. Why did he paint a layer of sadness on the reader's feelings from the beginning? Is it against the logic of life? No, this kind of clearness, quietness and sadness is the characteristic of autumn in the old capital, and it is what the author focuses on, because this color itself is a manifestation of beauty. Liu Xie said in "Wen Xin Diao Long Looking for a Job": "In the Spring and Autumn Period, Yin and Yang were miserable, and the heart was shaken when looking for a job." It means that people's emotions change with the change of external things, spring scenery makes people feel comfortable, and autumn is sad. There are many emotional sentences in Autumn in the Old Capital:

After sweeping the street under the shadow of trees for a while, the silk lines of brooms left on the dusty soil look delicate, leisurely, subconsciously and a little lonely, and the ancient people's distant dream that the phoenix tree leaves one leaf and the world knows autumn is probably in these deep places.

Qiu Chan's weak residual sound is a specialty of the northland ...

If the description of "delicate" and "silk lines of broom" is barely objective, then "leisure" and "loneliness" are totally subjective and ideological. A wandering locust leaf can move feelings, and a few cries of autumn insects are more enough to touch the soul. This far-reaching worry and the feeling of being left out by the lonely are the mood of Yu Dafu at that time. Because of the writer's emotions in the description of objective things, it is natural to feel lonely and sad. Like the old capital Peiping, the author's feelings are also covered with a faint autumn.

When commenting on the ancient people's sadness about autumn, the article wrote:

It shows that animals with feelings and human beings with interests always have the same deep, distant, severe and bleak feelings about autumn.

Bring together the above subjective words: Qing and leisure-serenity and serenity, which is the "Qing" of autumn in the old capital; Delicate and remote-quiet and deep, which is the "deep" of autumn; Loneliness, weakness, depression-depression and desolation, this is the "sadness" of autumn. Yu Dafu painted a delicate and deep subjective picture with his emotion, which constitutes the skeleton of the article. Readers can feel the power of beauty in their works by appreciating autumn colors, autumn flavors, autumn artistic conception and autumn posture. Excellent prose writers often pay attention to creating poetic artistic conception, but most of them accomplish it in describing objective life, while Yu Dafu pays attention to showing the characteristics of Beiping autumn from subjective feelings, which is probably beyond the reach of ordinary people.

If the above subjective colors are called "rational thinking" and can only be completed with the help of readers' literary literacy and certain appreciation ability, then the description of objective colors in Autumn in the Old Capital can also be called "natural reproduction", which directly appeals to readers' senses. This essay, for the natural scenery, has neither heavy makeup nor deliberate carving of color levels. It just touches the negative film of life a little, and gives its readers all kinds of charm endowed by natural forces in autumn in Beiping, which not only reflects the background color of autumn, but also harmonizes the tone of the text. You see:

Even in the sea of people in the imperial city ... when you get up in the morning, make a bowl of strong tea and sit in the yard, you can also see the high green sky and hear the flying of pigeons in the blue world ... When it comes to morning glory, I think blue or white is the best, followed by purple and black, and reddish is the lowest.

this is a huge picture with a three-dimensional aesthetic feeling. The vast green sky is painted in the background; On the ground, colorful morning glory gathers into a colorful wild garden; Between heaven and earth, one or two white or tile-gray tame pigeons occasionally appear, dotted in the middle of a large blank, which is appropriate in density and shade, and can be comparable to Tiangong. People sitting in the yard, holding a tea bowl, looked up at the blue sky and leaned over to pick petunias. From time to time, there was the sound of pigeon training in their ears. The picture was static and vivid, and the beauty and interest of autumn were completely integrated into the blue sky and white flowers. This light mood with a little "game" reflects the simple beauty and primitive beauty of autumn in the old capital. On the surface, the author is just an embellishment, but in fact, the author's selection of colors is quite ingenious. Most of the "cool colors" are used in this picture, such as cyan, blue, gray, white and so on, to show the deep and indifferent characteristics. If we use red, yellow, orange and other "hot colors", it will destroy the coordination and unity of subjective colors and dilute the unique flavor and spirit of the old capital autumn. It is the reflection of the writer's aesthetic view in literary works.

Look at the description of jujube tree again:

It is the heyday of autumn when the light green and yellowish color appears in the middle of the small oval leaves, and it is a good day for clear autumn in the north when the leaves of jujube tree fall and the dates are red.

This section describes the seasonal characteristics with the change of jujube color, and depicts the color from a passive perspective. Readers can rely on the subtle changes of colors in the text to expand their imagination and thus understand things. Obviously, the front picture is composed of several color points in space. Jujube from light green to yellowish and then to red is undoubtedly a color on a line, just like a physical spectrogram, and slight differences can be distinguished. If you don't observe things carefully and feel them in detail, it is difficult to show them so accurately.

Autumn in the Old Capital is like a piece of crystal clear glass, but it also transmits some colors that have never been colored. Please see:

Get up in the morning and make a bowl of strong tea ...

Count a little bit of leaked sunlight from the bottom of Sophora japonica leaves to the east ...

Best of all, at the bottom of the morning glory, there are several sparse, slender and long autumn grasses. Convenience in the North is a dusty world ...

There are no words that directly express color in the above sentences, but because the author shows some characteristic things with a certain color to readers, readers can "complement" things with its color (objective or subjective) according to the artistic realm of the works and their own observation experience of life. Isn't it? Through the above description, people will present the images of golden sunshine and yellow grass in their minds; Seeing the dust and dust flying, readers will, like the author, feel desolate and desolate. The content of the article is also constantly expanding to the inside, gradually showing its depth. Another example is "the bright moon on the 24 th Bridge", "the cool fog on Mount Putuo" and "the residual lotus in Litchi Bay", which also has this feature.

The sense of rhythm and the beauty of music are more intense in Autumn in the Old Capital. Rhythm is a special term of poetry, so here we can reveal the poetic beauty of this essay.

about the natural rhythm of prose, Yu Dafu made a clear exposition in the Introduction to China New Literature Series, Prose II. He said: "In prose, the verve that Wang Yuyang said, if it is not in terms of the death law of melody, refers to the natural rhythm in a broad sense ... but it can also exist; Because of the return of the four seasons, the coordination of Yin and Yang ... all of them are against the rhythm of nature. " That is to say, the movement of all things in nature is consciously or unconsciously following a certain law and rhythm, which is a kind of natural rhythm. As a prose describing natural scenery, it can naturally have this aesthetic feature. When Yu Dafu wrote Autumn in the Old Capital, it was the eve of compiling two sets of essays for the book company "Liangyou", so this work better embodies this artistic proposition.

Look at the description of autumn rain in the works first:

Under the gloomy sky, a cool breeze suddenly came, and it began to rain. After a layer of rain, the clouds gradually rolled to the west, and it was sunny again, and the sun appeared again ...

Look at the description of Sophora japonica:

The kind of falling buds that look like flowers instead of flowers will spread all over the floor in the morning. When you step on it, there is no sound or smell, and you can only feel a little tiny and soft touch.

after reading these two paragraphs, who doesn't think the author is writing a poem? In the narration, he created infinite poetry. First of all, the things the author chooses are poetic, including moving (cool breeze, falling rain, clouds passing away) and static (gray sky, silent falling flowers), and also emotional scenery. The writing is like a gently floating white cloud and a tinkling mountain spring. The natural rhythm and the rhythm of music melt in a calm and delicate description. Wang Yuyang's "verve" is also subtly embedded in the autumn rain, in the "delicate and soft" falling core, with sound or silence, or with objects or feelings, which secretly permeates the meaning and mood of autumn between the lines. This is the most beautiful rhythm in nature.

The rhyme and rhythm of poetry strengthen the musical beauty of Autumn in the Old Capital. "Jiangnan, autumn is of course there; But the vegetation/withers slowly, the air/comes/moistens, and the color of the sky/appears pale ... "The above three sentences have the same structure, and the verb is followed by the structural auxiliary word" de ",which is uniform in form and has an overall aesthetic feeling. Adjectives as predicates, such as "slow", "moist" and "light", all express plain and delicate meanings. They are all loud syllables. The tones of "slow" (màn), "moist" (rê n) and "light" (dàn) are the same, and the two words before and after are Ye Yun, so it sounds sonorous and has a strong sense of music. Tolstoy once said: "When a modifier is used forcefully, the result is not only the modified word, but also the verb and even the parenthesis." (On Creation) Because many words in Autumn in the Old Capital have this feature (such as "embellishment" and "lightness" above), it is very rhythmic to read. Look at the following: "Every autumn in the south, I always think of the/reed flowers in Taoranting, the/willow shadows in Diaoyutai, the/insect singing in Xishan, the/bells in Yuquan/jathyapple and Tanzhe Temple." The author arranges these places of interest neatly with one radical phrase, circling back and forth, like a string of pearls, with bright and light rhythm and rhythm.

all scenery words are sentimental words. The perfect blend and unity between "things" and "I" in this essay shows the writer's outstanding artistic talent. It is not only an objective description of Beiping's autumn, but also a reflection of the author's mood at that time. It is a very distinctive article in Yu Dafu's large number of lyric prose about scenery.

Original

Autumn in the old capital

Autumn is always good wherever it is; However, the autumn in the north is especially clear, quiet and sad. My reason for traveling thousands of miles to catch up with Qingdao from Hangzhou, and even more to catch up with Peiping from Qingdao, is just to enjoy this "autumn", the autumn flavor of this old capital.

Jiangnan, autumn is certainly there; But the grass is carved slowly, the air is moist, the color of the sky is pale, and it is often rainy and windy; A person sandwiched between Suzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou, or Xiamen, Hong Kong, and Guangzhou can only feel a little cool and refreshing. The taste, color, artistic conception and posture of autumn are always not enough, not enough to taste, and not enough to enjoy. Autumn is not a famous flower, nor is it a fine wine. It is not appropriate to enjoy autumn in a state of half-opening and half-drunkenness.

it has been nearly ten years since the autumn in the north. Every autumn in the south, I always think of the reed flowers in Taoranting, the willow shadows in Diaoyutai, the insect singing in Xishan, the jathyapple in Yuquan and the bells in Tanzhe Temple. Even if you don't go out in Beiping, you can rent a dilapidated house to live in the sea of people in the imperial city. When you get up in the morning, make a bowl of strong tea and sit in the yard, you can see the high green sky and hear the flying of pigeons in the blue sky. From the bottom of Sophora japonica leaves, counting a trace of leaked sunlight to the east, or in the broken waist, facing the blue flower of morning glory like a trumpet, you can naturally feel very autumn. When it comes to morning glory, I think blue or white is the best, followed by purple and black, and pink is the lowest. It is best to have a few sparse, slender and long autumn grasses at the bottom of the morning glory as a foil.

The locust tree in the northland is also an ornament that reminds people of Qiu Lai. Like a flower, but not a flower, when you get up in the morning, it will spread all over the floor. When you step on it, there is no sound or smell, and you can only feel a little tiny and soft touch. After sweeping the street under the shadow of a tree, the silk lines of brooms left on the dusty soil look delicate and leisurely, and subconsciously feel a little lonely. The ancient dream that the phoenix tree leaves one leaf and the world knows autumn is about in these deep places.

Qiu Chan's weak residual sound is a specialty of the North. Because there are trees everywhere in Beiping and the houses are low, you can hear them singing everywhere. In the south, you have to go to the suburbs or mountains to hear it Qiu Chan's bray is like a cricket and a mouse in Peiping, and it's like a houseworm that every family keeps at home.

There is autumn rain. It seems that the autumn rain in the north is more strange, delicious and decent than that in the south.

under the gloomy sky, a cool breeze suddenly came, and it began to rain. After a layer of rain, the clouds gradually rolled to the west, the sky turned blue again, and the sun appeared again; Idle people in cities with thick green cloth jackets or jackets bite their pipes and stand under the trees at the bridge head in the shadow of the oblique bridge after the rain. When they meet acquaintances, they will use a slow and leisurely tone and say to each other with a slight sigh:

"Alas, it's really cold-"(This word is pronounced very high and dragged on for a long time. )

"Isn't it? A layer of autumn rain is cold! "

Northerners always read array characters in a layered way, which is flat and even. This mispronounced rhyme is just right.

Fruit trees in the north are also a wonder when they come to Qiu Lai. The first is the jujube tree, the corner, the wall, the edge of the toilet and the door of the kitchen, which will grow up one by one. It is the heyday of autumn when the jujube, like an olive and like a pigeon egg, shows a light green and yellowish color among the small oval leaves; When the leaves of jujube trees fall and the dates are red, the northwest wind will rise. The convenience in the north is a dusty world. Only these dates, persimmons and grapes are ripe at the turn of July and August, which is a good day for clear autumn in the north, and it is the best in a year.