"Talk about Music", "Bitter Bamboo" No. 1, November 1944, included in "Rumors".
Five years ago, I compiled "The Collection of Zhang Ailing·Rumors" (first edition published by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House in October 2006), and reviewed Zhang Ailing's first collection of essays "Rumors" (published by Shanghai Wuzhou Publishing House in December 1944). The source of the twenty-nine works included in the publication is "Talking about Painting" and "Under the Umbrella", one long and one short. It is unclear which journal was originally published. "Zhang Xue" has become so developed, but this regret continues to this day.
The question was finally partially answered a few days ago. Dr. Xiao Jin of Nanjing University found out that the original excellent "Talking about Painting" was first published in July 1944 in the July updated edition of "Huaihai Monthly". According to the copyright page of "Huaihai Monthly", the magazine is edited by the "Huaihai Compilation and Compilation Press" and distributed in the occupied areas of Xuzhou and Nanjing.
This July reformed edition of "Huaihai Monthly" is actually a special literary issue, that is, it is "renovated" into a literary magazine. In addition to Zhang Ailing's "Talk about Painting", it also published Hu Lancheng's essays "Remembering Nanjing" and "Ugly Words", Lewis's "Poetry in Three Chapters" ("Twelve Thirteen", "Nocturne" and "Visions of Dreams"). and Hearing"), Shen Qiwu's "Recording Poems - Fragments", Lin Weiyin's (misprinted as emblem) novel "Drunk", Fu Yanchang's prose "Talking about Cows, Sheep, Dogs and Cats", etc., they are all in A writer active in occupied areas. Therefore, the author suspects that this innovative edition was actually compiled by Hu, because only Hu can obtain Zhang Ailing's masterpiece. Otherwise, how could Zhang Ailing hand "Talk about Painting" to Huaihai, which is far away from Shanghai and has no influence in the literary world? Monthly" published?
Hu's "Record of Nanjing", if you don't blame others for others, to be honest, it is really good. However, this is not what this article intends to discuss. What this article wants to discuss and emphasize is that "Remembering Nanjing" quoted a collection of Zhang Ailing's foreign essays! In order to prove that although Nanjing has "small streets and alleys", it does not have the "alley houses" of Shanghai. The moods of the two cities are completely different. "The rain in Shanghai is the rain of the world, but the rain in Nanjing is primitive." Suddenly in "Remembering Nanjing" The following paragraph was inserted:
Zhang Ailing translated "Drizzle" into English and explained:
"I like "Drizzle" because its simple power is close to that of a folk song. But they are not folk songs - it is unnatural and wrong for people in modern cities to sing folk songs. The special atmosphere here is the love in the alleys: it is raining, the gray cemented alley houses, the small glass windows, and the slight smell. The girl tore strips of printed silk from her lapels to tie her hair instead of ribbons, and walked to the snack shop at the entrance of the alley to buy a popsicle to suck on... Added to all this gloomy and dirty, there was a kind of Traditional, delicate oriental beauty. If you look at it twice, you will feel that it is as complete as a piece of jade."
This paragraph was originally not divided into paragraphs. For the sake of clarity, the author put it in quotation marks. Zhang Ailing’s original words in it are listed in a separate paragraph. Among them, two are particularly noteworthy. First, Zhang Ailing translated the song "Drizzle" into English in 1944. Why did she translate "Drizzle" into English? Was the translation later published? Where is it published? A series of issues await further investigation.
The second is that when Zhang Ailing translated "Drizzle", she wrote an explanation for this song. The full text of this explanation should be quoted in "Remembering Nanjing". The text and artistic conception are all Zhang Ailing's style. Anyone who is familiar with Zhang Ailing's work style will not deny that the owner of this description is Zhang Ailing, right? This explanation should be regarded as Zhang Ailing's extra essay, and is tentatively titled "Speaking of "Drizzle"".
What kind of song is "Drizzle"? Hasn't it been long criticized as a masterpiece of the "extreme music" of the 1930s? First, record the lyrics of "Drizzle" as follows:
The drizzle keeps falling; the breeze blows non-stop; the breeze drizzles and the willows are green, ouch, the willows are green. Little dear, I don’t want your gold; little dear, I don’t want your silver; Nunu, I just want your heart, alas, your heart.
Don't make it difficult when it's drizzling; don't make it difficult when there's a slight breeze; don't make it difficult when the rain blows and the wind blows, oh, oh, it's difficult when you're on the road. Young man, the sun has just risen; young sister, the lotus has just unfolded its petals; don't wait for the flowers to fade away and the sun sets over the mountain. Oops, the sun sets over the mountain.
The drizzle wets the dust; the gentle breeze chills the feelings; when the rain stops and the wind stops, you will come, ouch, you will come. I can't bear to wait and it won't come, I can't bear to wait and it won't come; I can't bear to complain about my love, oh my love.
The drizzle made me burst into tears; the gentle breeze made me dare not raise my head; how to arrange the violent storm, ouch, how to arrange it, could it be illness or disaster? He raised his head sharply and walked into my good man. Ouch, here comes my good man.
This is clearly a love song, a warm, touching and sincere love song, with a dark ending that is heart-wrenching. The lyrics are simple, smooth and catchy, and indeed have a strong folk song flavor.
"Drizzle" was written by the famous modern musician Li Jinhui (1891-1967), and is generally believed to have been created in 1927. However, according to the report "Listening to Music" (written by a wall artist) published in Shenbao on July 16, 1927, "It was night, Ms. Li Ying sang new songs, and *** sang three songs, namely "Drizzle" and "Han Yiqu" ", "Poor Qiuxiang". The song is melodious and melodious." It can be concluded that Li Jinhui completed "Drizzle" at the latest in early July 1927. In January of the following year, EMI and Greater China Records recorded "Drizzle" sung by Li Jinhui's daughter, Liming Hui, and the song has become popular ever since.
Li Jinhui is a child of the May 4th New Culture Movement. His achievements in unifying the Chinese language, writing new Chinese textbooks, editing China's first children's magazine "Children" and promoting unified national education standards are all remarkable. Li Jinhui's greater contribution is the promotion of modern Chinese music, which can be roughly divided into four aspects: 1. Founding China's first school for cultivating singing and dancing talents, the China Vocational School of Song and Dance, and later founding the Mingyue Music and Dance Drama Society; 2. Creation "The Sparrow and the Child", "The Grape Fairy", "The Little Painter" and other children's musicals have vigorously promoted children's music education; 3. Composed a large number of beautiful interludes with lyrics and music for early Chinese films; 4. "Drizzle" ,"younger sister! I love you! " and "Peach Blossom River" as representatives, becoming the first person to create modern urban pop songs in China. As American scholar Andrew Jones pointed out: "Li Jinhui is a master figure in the history of modern Chinese pop music." He "created Develop a new musical vocabulary that is both modern and purely Chinese."
However, Li Jinhui's contribution to modern Chinese pop music has long been greatly underestimated. Not only was he severely criticized by the left-wing music industry at the time, but he was also not highly praised by music historians later. "Drizzle" was even criticized. Synonymous with "yellow songs". Of course, there are also those who value "Drizzle", such as "Little dear, I don't want your gold; Little dear, I don't want your silver; Nunu, I only want your heart." This song was praised by the educator Tao Xingzhi Selected into the "A Thousand-Character Lesson for Old and Young" written by him.
It should be pointed out that Lu Xun also had reservations about "Drizzle", but he did not completely deny it. When he wrote a letter to the young poet Dou Yinfu on November 1, 1934, saying that new Chinese poetry "has no rhythm and rhyme, it cannot be sung", he changed his pen and said, "Many people also sing "Drizzle", but this is Because Li Jinhui sang it, everyone is singing what Li Jinhui sang, not the new poem itself." It can be seen that on the one hand, Lu Xun recognized the popularity and singability of the lyrics of "Drizzle", but on the other hand, he pointed out that the popularity of "Drizzle" was not the victory of new poetry, but only Li Jinhui's personal success. A year later, Lu Xun, in the famous "A Jin", compared the singing of "Drizzle" to "like hanging a cat", which shows the degree of disgust, but this was in response to some performers' cooing and artificial singing. The criticism is not inconsistent with the above comments.
Li Jinhui has responded to various criticisms. He did not admit that "Drizzle" and other songs were "yellow songs". On the contrary, he believed that he was trying to replace the "pink ditties" in urban teahouses and restaurants at that time with popular love songs, and then he engaged in the creation of popular love songs.
He recalled in "Me and Mingyue Society" written in August 1965:
(1927) I began to remove the excessively obscene rhetoric from some folk songs, folk arts and operas in popular music, and used The meaning of the words of foreign love songs and ancient love poems have led to more subtle love songs, such as "Drizzle" written in the old music form, and "Sister I Love You", "Falling Flowers and Flowing Water", "Human Love" written in the new music form. Noodles and Peach Blossoms" are things that are suitable for the tastes of ordinary people. At that time, there was no such thing as "yellow songs" and they were classified as pop songs. Although these things were not published at the time, the students at the "Song College" were already familiar with them.
Li Jinhui’s self-defense is noteworthy. What is gratifying is that "Drizzle" has been re-evaluated in recent years. "Chronology of the Music History of the Republic of China (1912-1949)" states that in 1927, "Li Jinhui composed family songs "Drizzle" and "Sister I Love You" that catered to the tastes of the public. "and became popular", which is more objective and fair.
Although Zhang Ailing said "I don't like music very much. I don't know why, colors and smells often make me happy, but all music is sad", she still wrote "Talking about Music" Quite an interesting article. The end of this article specifically mentions "Chinese pop songs". Zhang Ailing believes that for popular songs before the 1940s, “because everyone was crazy about ‘little sisters’, the singers forced their throats to be sharp and flat, and the radio loudspeaker played “Peach Blossom River” (this song is the work of Li Jinhui—— Author's note) It just sounds like 'price, price, price, price, price, price, price...' Foreigners often ask in surprise why Chinese women's voices are like this." Her criticism of the singing style of popular songs at that time somewhat coincided with Lu Xun's views. Zhang Ailing admitted that this situation is "much better now", but still reminded that "Chinese pop songs still have no foundation after all. It seems that they decided that there should be new songs in the new era and were forced to cobble them together."
However, "Drizzle" is obviously not an example of this. Because Zhang Ailing translated "Drizzle" into English, because she made it clear that "I like "Drizzle"." In this article "Speaking of "Drizzle"", Zhang Ailing did not discuss how to sing "Drizzle". She made it very clear that the reason why she likes "Drizzle" is that it is fresh and natural, and that "its simple power is close to a folk song, but it is not a folk song." In other words, "Drizzle" was composed by musicians like Li Jinhui who absorbed, refined, adapted and then created it from "folk songs". It is a "new song" that is truly suitable for the taste of modern urban citizens and is not a forced piece. came out. Zhang Ailing also used the theme to cleverly connect "Drizzle" with the alley culture unique to Shanghai. In just a few words, she presented a melancholy rain scene in Shanghai alleys, exaggerating the "love in the alleys" and rising To the height of "traditional, twisty oriental beauty". People who have never lived in the alleys of Shanghai may have difficulty understanding this maritime sentiment and unique artistic conception.
Zhang Ailing has always admired all kinds of folk art works, whether they are homespun cloth with bright colors or vigorous New Year pictures, etc., there is no exception. Zhang Ailing mentioned the word "folk art" more than once in her article, and she has a unique understanding of folk art. Her affirmation of the song "Drizzle" should be further understood and discussed from this perspective.
From the confirmation of the original source of "Talking about Painting" to the discovery of "Shuo "Drizzle"", the emergence of "Huaihai Monthly" is of great significance to Zhang Ailing's research on philology. However, the origin of "Under the Umbrella", which is only about 150 words long, is still unknown. We look forward to the day when the truth will be revealed.