Xiao Xiao is a masterpiece published by Shen Congwen in 1929 to reveal the unhappiness of women's marriages in the old days under the confinement of feudal traditions. In the 1980s, director Xie Fei put this novel on the screen under the name of "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao". In the idyllic rural scenery of western Hunan Province, the film tells the tragic conflict between a tradition and human desire through the tragedy of the life of xiao Xiao, a child daughter-in-law, like a circular song of human nature.
In the subtitle at the beginning of "Xiangnu Xiaoxiao", there is such a sentence: I only build a small Greek temple, which is dedicated to human nature. This is also the creative concept that Shen Congwen has always adhered to. In his temple of human nature, there is the eternal truth, goodness and beauty of human nature, and there is also the paleness and evil in human nature, just like the spiritual gods and Buddhas in the temple, there are also vicious faces, seemingly sacred blessing ceremonies, often mixed with bloody offerings.
In the original "Xiao Xiao", Shen Congwen leads us to spy on the squeezing and deformation of human nature under the shackles of tradition through the love-hate life of xiao Xiao, a child adopted daughter-in-law. Shen Congwen's Xiao Xiao is a traditional woman with a lot of fate. She became a child bride at the age of 12, married to her husband who had not yet been weaned, and in the 15-year-old flower season, she was seduced by the long-term workers of the family, and faced the fate of being "sunk" or "betrayed"... Although Xiao Xiao later gave birth to a baby boy, her child daughter-in-law's life was continued. However, is this a blessing or another misfortune?
Shen Congwen's Xiao Xiao is a woman who grew up in the countryside that has not been immersed in urban civilization, innocent and pure, with the spiritual beauty of nature's talent. The long-standing village retains the ancient way of life of "working at sunrise and resting at sunset", which also gives birth to Xiao Xiao's diligence and tameness.
Xiao Xiao's life has an innate tragic color, she lost her mother at an early age, sent people to the fence, and her personality has a little bit of strength and tenacity. Therefore, when 12-year-old Xiao Xiao was arranged to marry her 3-year-old husband as a child bridesmaid, she did not cry. In the ignorant age, Xiao Xiao was still in an unconscious state of such a fatalistic arrangement.
After Xiao Xiao passed the door, he and her little husband were commensurate with their sister and brother, and played the role of a "mother and sister" in front of him, and tirelessly working and taking care of her brother became the focus of Xiao Xiao's life. Regarding Xiao Xiao's life as a child bride, Shen Congwen only wrote in a faint tone:
Although the mother-in-law was born like a scissor, cutting off all the opportunities for Xiao Xiao to grow violently, the sun and the air in the countryside help people grow up, but it is not torture that can be stopped.
It can be seen that although Xiao Xiao's life as a child bride is not easy, she has an irresistible tenacious vitality, and the book mentions that Xiao Xiao is like a castor that grows in the corner of the garden and is not noticed, with large leaves and branches, and is increasingly lush. This little woman simply did not think of her husband at all, and grew up day by day.
These two descriptions of Xiao Xiao's growth in the novel actually reflect the healthy vitality of Xiao Xiao's body that is integrated with nature. And this kind of health, in addition to being reflected in Xiao Xiao's growth and development, is also reflected in Xiao Xiao's personality awareness.
At the beginning of the novel, Shen Congwen made a close-up of Xiao Xiao's dream. After a busy day of life, Xiao Xiao at night will always have some dreams that people in the world have. Xiao Xiao often dreamed of picking up a large amount of copper coins in the back door corner or somewhere else, eating good things, climbing trees, turning himself into a fish and slipping in the water, or for a moment as if he was very small and light, and his body flew into the stars in the sky.
A series of dreams about picking up money, climbing trees, and becoming fish are actually the externalization of Xiao Xiao's subconscious free consciousness. In her life as a child bride, Xiao Xiao lost her freedom as a person, but when she was young, she had a hazy layer of yearning for freedom in her heart. Therefore, when the grandfathers and people were deeply funny about the unrestrained lifestyle of the city's female students, Xiao Xiao felt "extremely interesting" in his heart, and after that, he often dreamed of female students and dreamed of walking side by side with these people.
In fact, these dreams are all a vague desire for freedom in the depths of Xiao Xiao's human nature, but it is difficult for her uneducated to understand her inner feelings through thinking.
In an ancient village that "stuck to the old rules", xiao Xiao's vague sense of freedom seemed to have become a factor of instability, ready to go. Until the age of 15, the family's workers, Hua Dog, sang love songs to her and enlightened Xiao Xiao's lust.
Xiao Xiao, who was not familiar with love affairs, once said to the flower dog: "The flower dog is big, and your arms are really big." In fact, this concern about the physical differences of the opposite sex is also the embodiment of the gradual awakening of Xiao Xiao's sexual consciousness. In a state of semi-ignorance, the flower dog quickly opened Xiao Xiao's heart with love songs.
Because of the germination of lust, Xiao Xiao soon became his wife under the temptation of the flower dog. However, at this time, Xiao Xiao was still psychologically ignorant, believing that as long as the flower dog gambling curse was not said, everything would be fine, and only when the little husband returned to her side, Xiao Xiao "seemed to understand that she had done something stupid."
When the physiology matures one step ahead of the psychology, Xiao Xiao pays the price for this instinctive lustful desire. In the 6 months when the plums were ripe, she noticed something strange in her body. After becoming pregnant, Xiao Xiao realized the seriousness of the consequences, and she begged the flower dog to take her to flee to the city. However, the flower dog did not leave a single word, and hurried away the next day, abandoning Xiao Xiao.
Overwhelmed, Xiao Xiao was terrified to the extreme, desperately drinking cold water and swallowing incense ashes, using all kinds of foolish means to try to make this unborn child leave his body. She even followed in the footsteps of the flower dog and prepared to flee to the city. However, in the end, the paper wrapped around the fire, Xiao Xiao's scandal was exposed. In order not to shame the family, the grandfather proposed to "sink" or "sell" Xiao Xiao.
It can be seen that the rural society where "Xiao Xiao" is located is still a closed society that adheres to the feudal tradition. Under the backward tradition of "three from four virtues" and "husband as wife", women have become the "second sex" that is oppressed and ruled by male power.
In marriage, Xiao Xiao has no autonomy, in order to eat a full meal, at the age of 12, she became a child bride and became a labor force for her in-laws' family as cattle and horses; in the face of the feelings of men and women, Xiao Xiao did not have the initiative, even if she wanted to follow the flower dog and become a dependent product of men, but also depended on the other party's meaning; when the private affair was exposed, Xiao Xiao wanted to escape, but the clan rules under the etiquette system deprived her of her personal freedom.
Compared with cities at the forefront of reform, the backwardness and ignorance of the countryside are shocking. In such a semi-open era, women can still be bought and sold and sent down like objects, and they have almost no self-awareness in it, even if there is a slight sign of awakening, it will be quickly snuffed out, just like Xiao Xiao.
At the end of the novel, Xiao Xiao was not sunk or betrayed because she was pregnant, and after giving birth to a boy cow, Xiao Xiao was finally accepted by her in-laws again. In the eyes of many people, Xiao Xiao's accidental fate is a happy ending, however, from the perspective of the whole era and macro women, Xiao Xiao's ending is full of sad meaning. The novel ends with the following:
Niu Er also received relatives when she was twelve, and her daughter-in-law was six years older... On this day, Xiao Xiao hugged her newborn moon hair, but she watched the liveliness in the elm wax hedge in front of the house, and at the same time hugged her husband a year ago.
From the lack of self-awareness to the escape from the anti-tradition, to the attempt to flee, to stay in the countryside, to accept the tradition, Xiao Xiao's life has formed a tragic closed loop, and behind the tragedy, what is hidden is the collective unconscious for thousands of years. This collective unconscious stems from stubborn confidence in the old culture and from the sadness of women being excluded from education.
The novel "Xiao Xiao" tells a story with no specific background. But through the female students who are constantly mentioned in the novel, it is not difficult to know that the story in the novel takes place at a new turning point in the era.
Whether in the mouth of his grandfather or in Xiao Xiao's dreams, there are the shadows of a group of modern female students, who are all new female models under the fission of the times. However, in the ancient and isolated countryside, the villagers still live only in the "peach blossom garden" they have constructed, using barren imagination to exclude all foreign new cultures.
When the villagers gathered to discuss the female students, everyone had the impression of leaving a quail tail, like a nun, but not exactly. Wear clothes like foreigners, not foreigners. Eat, use... All in all, it's ridiculous to think about!
The image of the female student that Xiao Xiao learned from her grandfather was:
They dress regardless of whether the weather is cold or warm, they eat without asking if they are hungry or hungry, they sleep when they have children at night, they do not do anything serious during the day, they only know how to sing and play ball, and read foreign books. The money they use a year can buy sixteen buffaloes... They were at school, where men and women attended classes together, and when they were acquainted, they slept with the man at will, and they did not want matchmakers, nor did they want financial gifts, which was called "freedom."
Shen Congwen examined the "ridiculous" urban civilization in their eyes through the eyes of the countrymen. Through the mockery of female students by the countrymen, it is not difficult to see the collective ignorance in them, and this ignorance comes from the lack of education and the lack of rationality brought about by the long-term isolation of urban civilization. Because of this, this oppression of the collective environment can limit the awakening of consciousness from generation to generation.
The novel "Xiao Xiao" is ostensibly about the tragic life of a child bride, but in fact it is about the confrontation between natural human nature and barbaric customs. Through the analysis of the culture of "child brides", Shen Congwen expressed his affirmation of healthy humanity and natural desire. At the same time, the author also uses this to criticize the ignorant feudal tradition and express compassion for women being objectified and enslaved in a specific era.
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