For long novels, I prefer to describe the kind of family history of a hundred years, which often span time and space, have many characters, are rich in content, and are magnificent, and the fate of their protagonists is often ups and downs, and the intestines are full of intestines, which is both lamentable and contemplative, and also brings people a huge aesthetic experience. For example, "One Hundred Years of Solitude", "White Deer Plain", "Dust Settled", "Ancient Ship", "Alive", and so on.
Ma Ping's "Sai Ying Ji" is also such a novel, the time span of up to a hundred years, from the protagonist Lei Gaohan 8 years old into Hongzhen Sai wrote, until his death at the age of 108, history and reality staggered, accounting for Lei Gaohan's suffering, tragic life, in the character's bumpy experience, enmity and hatred reflected major historical events, reflecting the vicissitudes of Chinese society in the past century.
In January 2021, "Sai Ying Ji" was published by China Writers magazine and published by Sichuan People's Publishing House in March, and as soon as it came out, it was highly concerned by the literary and critic circles and received high praise. Some commentators have compared "Sai Ying Ji" with Li Jieren's "Backwater Breeze", "Before the Storm", "Big Wave", Ba Jin's "Home", "Spring", "Autumn", and Chen Zhongzhong's "White Deer Plain", calling it an epic work that is in the same line and cannot be ignored.
one
Reading The Book of Sai Ying, the first thing I read was a quote from the famous Irish poet Yeats on the title page:
How love passes away / How to walk up the mountains / Hide your face among the stars
This is the last few sentences of Yeats's most famous poem "When You Are Old", which has at least 10 translations in China, and the translation sentences quoted in the novel are translated by Bing Xin, and they are also my favorite translations, concise, fluent, catchy, and profound.
In 1893, Yeats was not old when he wrote this poem, only 27 years old, his girlfriend Maud Gang was 26 years old, four years ago, the 23-year-old Yeats first met the 22-year-old Maud Gang, Yeats fell in love at first sight, but the noble and beautiful Maude Gang has always refused Yeats's pursuit. Disappointed and persistent, Yeats wrote many poems about this, and "When You Are Old" is one of them.
The poems quoted on the title page of "Sai Ying Ji" seem to be inadvertent, but in fact, they reveal the theme of the novel, that is, the persistence and tenacity of love, love and righteousness, no matter how the years change, fate is obedient.
Although The poetic meaning of Yeats and the quotation of "Sai Ying" have many similarities in essence, they are not the same. Yeats travels through the long tunnel of time, reveries the future, thinks of the twilight years of her lover, imagines her white hair and body, and confesses her true feelings to the passing years. For Yeats, love, though desperate, will never die. And Lei Gaohan in "Sai Ying" recalls the past in his retelling with visiting writers, reminiscing about the past, recalling his love affair with four women, namely Bao Songyue, Mei Yun'e, Ding Cuixiang, yu Wanfen, of course, Lei Gaohan also recalls his love with Lu Jinkui, Liu Mingfeng, Luo Hongyu and others.
Lei Gaohan had marriage contracts with four women in his lifetime, except for Bao Songyue, who had never met, the other three had the love of life and death. The first is the landlord's lady Bao Songyue, who is illiterate and literate, and commits suicide on the first night of their marriage; the second is the landlord's concubine Mei Yun'e, who accompanies Bao Songtang to the city to save the Sichuan opera actor Mei Yun'e, and gradually falls in love with her; and finally Mei Yun'e dies tragically due to a pregnancy; the third is the landlord's handmaiden Ding Cuixiang, their good days did not last long, and Ding Cuixiang, who was pregnant with his child, died of appendicitis; the fourth is Yu Wanfen, the wife of the landlord's son. They also lived together for only three years, and Yu Wanfen was pushed to death on a rock by the landlord's son Bao Zhizhuo in order to protect Lei Gaohan's secret.
We can also think of "Sai Ying" as a memoir with the theme of finding love and family affection. In an interview with the reader's reporter, the author discussed the theme of the novel with the reporter, and among the three words of "seeking", "sticking" and "waiting", the author most agreed with "waiting". The author believes that these three words together reflect the theme of the novel. Lei Gaohan adhered to his own values all his life, had feelings and righteousness for people, first by Mei Yun'e's dying, to protect her child, when he learned that the child was his own child, he began to search unswervingly, the process of searching is also a process of waiting, after finding it, he cannot recognize each other, or can only wait. At the same time, after his biological daughter Jin Haitang learned of her origins, although she rejected it emotionally, she was actually looking for her biological father deep down. Although the novel is not explicitly written, it can be seen from the actions of her daughter Wu Hongmei and granddaughter Wen Hanlu that they are also looking. Wen Hanlu had already found his great-grandfather Lei Gaohan, but Wu Hongmei, who was really looking for Lei Gaohan on behalf of Jin Haitang, failed to do so, and Lei Gaohan closed his eyes without waiting to see Wu Hongmei.
Reading the end of the novel, seeing the sentence "the stars are dotted with burning flames", my heart trembled, and I suddenly thought of Yeats's poem "Hiding the face between the stars", is there a connection between the two stars? If so, what kind of connection? At this moment, the vast sky and the long river of time intertwined in my mind.
I think that's the value of fiction, that is, the profundity of ideas.
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Novels are storytellers, and "Sai Ying" is also telling stories, and it tells the story very well. There are thirteen chapters in "Sai Ying", and the title of each chapter, except for the last chapter" "Dark Red Leather Box", is an object, and the titles of the remaining twelve chapters are places, that is, the stage on which the story of the novel takes place.
Of these twelve locations, the most important, the most mysterious, and the most symbolic is the "Dark Passage" that appears in the second chapter. In the years of war and chaos, Bao Qihe needed to build an underground secret passage, as a safe passage to escape from disasters, the most important thing in the secret passage was to be private and not known to outsiders, and the abandoned child Lei Gaohan, who had no relatives and no reason, became the best candidate to build the secret passage and entered the Hongzhen Plug. After the construction of the secret passage was completed, it did not play the initial role of escaping from the Bao family, but became the private world of Lei Gaohan legendaryly, and became an important stage for the story of Lei Gaohan. Lei Gaohan saved Mei Yun'e and Mei Yun'e's daughter through the secret passage (he did not know that it was also his daughter at the time), and later he placed the souls of Mei Yun'e and Ding Cuixiang here. The dark passage is not only the lead for Lei Gaohan to enter Hongzhensai and become the protagonist of the story, but also the soul habitat of Lei Gaohan and his two important women, and the "darkness" here not only refers to the light and darkness of the light, but also refers to the secret of the story and the darkness of the soul.
Also with the secret passage has a special meaning is the stone. The novel repeatedly mentions the details of Lei Gaohan's inability to live with the stone, why when Lei Gaohan is lonely, he always thinks of the cold stone, or it may be that the stone is the same as his own personality, rough and simple, primitive and simple, and the cold appearance may hide a fiery heart. His fourth woman, Yu Wanfen, also died in a pile of stones, both to protect him and to martyr him.
Stories have both places and times. "Sai Ying Ji" has two times, one is the time narrated by the author, and the other is the time narrated by the protagonist of the novel, Lei Gaohan. The storyteller is the narrator, of course, there are two: one is the author; the other is Lei Gaohan. The two alternate with each other, and the two times switch between each other, which is the innovation of the novel's narrative, that is, the innovation of the novel's structure. Because of these almost montage narrative techniques, some commentators believe that "Sai Ying Ji" is particularly suitable for adaptation into a screenplay.
Of course, the first narrator of the novel is the protagonist Lei Gaohan, who narrates one tragic or touching story after another, and thus brings out the three generations of Hongzhensai. Bao Qihe and his aunt Zhuang Ruizhen are the first generation; Bao Qihe's two sons, Bao Songtang and Bao Songting, daughters Bao Songyue, and Bao Songtang's concubine Mei Yun'e, including Lei Gaohan and Lu Jinkui, are the second generation; the third generation is Bao Zhizhuo, Bao Zhimo and his wife Yu Wanfen. The author "I" is not only a listener to the story of Lei Gaohan, but also the narrator and fiction of Lei Gaohan's story, and the connector of the past time and the real time of the novel.
Such a narrative angle makes "Sai Ying Ji" have two clues: one is "I" and Lei Gaohan and related characters get to know and talk; the other is Lei Gaohan's historical story about Hongzhen Sai. The setting of these two threads increases the authenticity of the novel. In fact, the prototype of Hongzhen Sai comes from a writer's field collection in Baozhensai, Wusheng County, Sichuan Province. At the same time, this setting is not only to show authenticity, but also to achieve the aesthetic effect of intersecting reality and fiction, history and reality.
three
"Sai Ying Ji" is also good at setting up suspense, some elements of detective fiction. The author sets the puzzle, the reader guesses the puzzle, the author solves the puzzle, one link buckles and one link, and the serial narrative greatly enhances the readability of the novel.
The mystery that first attracted the attention of readers in "Sai Ying" was: Who is Mei Yun'e's daughter with? After knowing the answer, a bigger mystery followed, that is, where was the daughter of Lei Gaohan and Mei Yun'e? Can their father and daughter meet each other?
The key to solving the first mystery is an inscription poem that Mei Yun'e gave to Lei Gaohan before her death. The inscription poem itself contains multiple puzzles, who wrote the poem on the inscription poem? What exactly is written on it? How could the illiterate Lei Gaohan recognize the words on the shipa and understand its meaning? There are mysteries within puzzles, and puzzles on top of puzzles, and it is in the solution of these puzzles that the novel advances fascinatingly. As an insider, Yu Wanfen knew Lei Gaohan's mind as soon as she saw That Gaohan recognizing words, and she tried her best to help Lei Gaohan recognize words, and Lei Gaohan actually learned and recognized the words on the ship with incredible perseverance and opportunity. "Daughter of the Hanzi", the four words in this poem tell him unmistakably that the baby girl he saved was his own and Mei Yun'e's biological daughter.
Although Lei Gaohan knew the answer to the first puzzle, that is, the baby girl was his own daughter and Mei Yun'e, but the bigger mystery came again: was she still there, and if so, where was she? Therefore, Lei Gaohan recognized and undertook his mission, and began to look for the "great conclusion", and the plot of the novel was further developed.
Lei Gaohan's search seems to be in vain, all are disappointed, often at the time when it seems to be a willow and a dark flower, but it is the result of a lot of mountains and rivers. He went to Hongshigou Village to ask the insiders of the year, and instead of looking for him, he was caught and tied to a tree by the local militia; Liu Mingfeng helped him go to the Jin family to inquire, but Jin Qingzhen deliberately said a wrong name called Gao Yuhe; he went to the Jin family compound to meet Jin Qingyu's beautiful daughter Jin Haitang, and felt that she was not similar to the Jin family's parents, looking like Mei Yun'e, but did not think that she was his daughter; he went to Santangwan Village to find Gao Yuhe, there was no such person in the whole village, only a hunchback Gao Yushan, and Gao Yushan had no daughter. In the end, it was Liu Mingfeng who helped him find out that the golden begonia of the Jin family was his daughter.
Although the daughter is looking for it, Lei Gaohan's life journey is not over, and the author or fate arranges for Lei Gaohan is a bitter fate. Lei Gaohan was afraid that his status as a rich peasant would bring harm to his daughter, so he would never dare to admit it; when Lei Gaohan took off his kulak hat and recognized his daughter, his daughter did not recognize him, because in her heart, it was Lei Gaohan who abandoned her and abandoned his own flesh and bones. When Wu Hongmei, the daughter of Jin Haitang, came to recognize her on behalf of her mother, Lei Gaohan closed his eyes forever.
We can also say that this "search" or "acquaintance" has actually been completed, and Wu Hongmei's daughter Wen Hanlu can be understood as representing her grandmother Jin Haitang to accompany Lei Gaohan and also to recognize Lei Gaohan. Only in this way can "Sai Ying Ji" have a depth and charm that moves readers and travels through history.
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Finally, let's talk about the language of the novel. Ma Ping is not a poet, nor is Sai Ying Ji a poem, but its language is poetic.
As mentioned earlier, the title page of the novel quotes Yeats's poem. On April 24, at the launch of the new book "Sai Ying Ji", writer Jiang Lan believed that Ma Ping was a very good "poet novelist", because all the poetic sentences that appeared in the novel were not only poetic in language, rhythm, and depicting fierce scenes. Ma Ping was more in agreement with this, he said: "Today poetry has finally been summarized by Mr. Jiang Lan, and my writing, to be honest, I have been looking forward to it for many years, just like Lei Gaohan has been waiting for the word 'poetic' for many years. He said that when writing novels, he was most proud of those sentences, "for example, I wrote lei gaohan and Mei Yun'e finally had a good time." On the last page there is a sentence 'It is still midnight on the feet, and it is already dawn overhead'. ”
Such sentences abound in fiction. For example, "After vanilla changes its name, its figure becomes taller." For example, "The watchtower does not know how many stars are blocked, making the sky chaotic." For example, "a handkerchief lies on your knee, like a baby that falls asleep at birth." For example, "her tugging made me understand that the Queqiao Bridge was being erected, or had already been erected." For example, "Lei Gaohan leaned on the cypress tree and closed his eyes." He paused his breathing with Cypress. For example, "the front should be a beautiful face, but the back is like green silk, which has been combed into white hair by the fingers of time." And so on.
Being poetic is not only a sentence, but many of the plots of the novel are also particularly poetic. For example, Lei Gaohan's clue to find his own daughter is a poem on the handkerchief, and Lei Gaohan realized that the meaning of the handkerchief poem is also through the traditional Chinese Tibetan head poem. For example, the plot of Lei Gaohan relocating the bones of Mei Yun'e and Ding Cuixiang at night because the cemetery will be destroyed is also quite poetic. Against the dark background, the bones emit a sprinkle of phosphorus fire, which is both creepy and poetic. Lei Gaohan walked through the phosphorus fire, one will be called Mei Yun'e, one will be called Cuixiang, the phosphorus fire will disappear with the sound, this is the dance of the ghost, the dance of the sound, but also the dance of poetry, the dance of love.
Also embodying the poetry of the novel is the use of Sichuan opera. Ma Ping's wife was born in a Sichuan opera family, near the water tower, and his novels have more or less "drama" parts. From time to time, the lines of Sichuan opera are interspersed in "Sai Ying", and many of the lines of the drama are themselves poems. For example, Mei Yun'e taught Yu Wanfen's singing in Hongzhensai, and later Yu Wanfen sang the singing section of "Picking Red Plums" to Lei Gaohan, and so on.
At the same time, Sichuan opera is also an important clue to promote the plot of the novel. "Sai Ying Ji" has a special drama chapter "Drama Stage", as well as several real drama performances such as "Cui Xiang Ji" and "Picking Red Plums". Inside and outside the play, it is difficult to distinguish between true and false, and in the dream outside the dream, there is no distinction between the virtual and the real.
Obviously, Sichuan opera is not only the need of the plot, but also greatly enhances the poetry of the novel.
Wang Xiaoyang, male, from Chongqing. Senior reporter, editor-in-chief of Mianyang Daily, vice president of Sichuan Provincial Newspaper Supplement Research Association, vice chairman of Mianyang Federation of Social Sciences, visiting professor of Mianyang Normal University. He is the first top ten journalists of Mianyang City, the top talents of mianyang science and technology, and the member of Sichuan Provincial Writers Association. He has published more than 3,100 news and literary works of more than 2.6 million words in national, provincial and municipal newspapers and new media, and published 3 monographs such as "If It is My Text". There are 110 news works that have won national, provincial and municipal journalism awards, of which 16 have won the first prize at or above the provincial level. He has been commended by the municipal party committee, the municipal government, the provincial party committee and the provincial government eight times, and has been awarded the honorary certificate and badge by the All-China Journalists Association.