"Xiao Xiao" is a short story written by Shen Congwen in 1929, which is still familiar with the Shen style, beautiful and natural countryside, with backward ethics and morality.
[Xiao Xiao] tells the story of Xiao Xiao, a rural girl who married her 3-year-old husband at the age of 12, and was later lured by hooligans to steal the forbidden fruit, facing the daughter-in-law's cheating, Xiao Xiao's in-laws did not know whether to sink her or resell her.
Shen Congwen used beautiful writing to accuse feudal ethics of persecution of rural women at that time, Xiao Xiao did not die, but some people were actually alive and dead.
How has Xiao Xiao's fate always been swayed by others?
Many brides cry, especially when they think they are about to sleep in a bed with a strange man and do what they should do for the sake of inheritance, it is difficult for brides not to cry. In the face of arranged marriages, in the face of unknown objects, their hearts are afraid and afraid.
12-year-old Xiao Xiao did not cry on the wedding day, she could not cry. Xiao Xiao is an orphan who was fostered in uncle Da's house. For her, getting married is just a transfer from one strange home to another, not to mention, she is too young, she still likes to dream of the age, and she does not know what marriage means.
Xiao Xiao's husband was only three years old. In the 1920s and 1930s, many rural families liked to find older marriage partners for their sons. For practical reasons, an older daughter-in-law can share a lot of labor for the family, and can also help take care of the little husband, and when the little husband grows up, she can become a wife. In any way, finding an older daughter-in-law really can't fault anything.
Xiao Xiao became a child bride in such a background of the times, she called her little husband a younger brother, and what Xiao Xiao needed to do was to hold her brother and play around every day, and also share some housework within her ability.
The ignorance and backwardness of the countryside did not prevent Xiao Xiao from growing into a physically and mentally healthy girl, and without education, only by relying on the hazy awakening of consciousness, Xiao Xiao's yearning for freedom and the independence of thought in her heart were constantly germinating.
When the grandfather was talking about the antics of the female students in the city who were "unconventional", such as taking classes with boys, free love, free marriage, not doing housework, etc., Xiao Xiao was eager in his heart, eager to be such a badly female student.
Xiao Xiao has not read books, does not know how to think independently, and Xiao Xiao's judgment of the behavior of female students comes from the subconscious good and bad. Her grandfather told her that female students were all improper people, but Xiao Xiao often dreamed of walking and chatting with female students in her dreams.
Xiao Xiao's individual consciousness has begun to slowly awaken, and his judgment of a thing has begun to have his own view that he is not disturbed by others.
Xiao Xiao, 12 years old, often dreams of becoming a fish when sleeping, swimming in the water, or flying to the sky and flying freely. Xiao Xiao's dreams are longing for freedom.
As Xiao Xiao grew older, not only did she begin to faintly desire freedom in her heart, but her sexual consciousness was gradually sprouting.
It is mentioned in the book that Xiao Xiao is like a castor that grows in the corner of the garden and is not noticed, with large leaves and large branches, and it is increasingly luxuriant. This little woman simply did not think of her husband at all, and grew up day by day.
Xiao Xiao gradually grew into a young girl, but her husband grew from three to five years old.
It is not that Xiao Xiao does not think about her husband, but the little husband does not think about Xiao Xiao.
For love, for sex, Xiao Xiao is ignorant, but for the body of the opposite sex, Xiao Xiao unconsciously began to pay attention, which is also the gradual germination of sexual consciousness. In the face of the family's long-term worker flower dog, Xiao Xiao said: "The flower dog is big, your arms are really big", Xiao Xiao noticed the difference between the bodies of men and women, and also began to understand the beauty of the opposite sex.
Xiao Xiao was taken advantage of by the flower dog in such a state of ignorance and ignorance.
The flower dog coveted Xiao Xiao's youth, he kept singing love songs to stir Xiao Xiao, Xiao Xiao could not understand the specific meaning of the lyrics, but she understood that this kind of song should not be sung by the flower dog to her.
Xiao Xiao began to deliberately not meet with the flower dog, but he still could not escape the flower dog's close support.
On that day, Xiao Xiao took her little husband to the mountains to hunt pig grass. The flower dog deliberately drove Xiao Xiao's little husband to a distance to find something, and he repeated the same trick, teasing with words, cheating with oaths, and flirting with love songs, and finally turned Xiao Xiao into his own woman.
Afterwards, Xiao Xiao "seemed to understand that she had done something stupid" after her little husband returned. Without knowing anything about sex, Xiao Xiao was induced to have sex.
The price of stealing the forbidden fruit was tragic, and after 2 months, Xiao Xiao found out that she was pregnant, and the flower dog who knew about it finally did not say goodbye.
In order to kill this child, Xiao Xiao tried various methods, eating the incense ashes of the temple and drinking the cold water in the river, but her stomach grew bigger and bigger every day.
Panicked, Xiao Xiao packed his bags and prepared to escape, but was discovered by his in-laws that his plan was discovered. Knowing that Xiao Xiao's belly was already pregnant with other men's species, the in-laws were angry, this belly was originally reserved for the child of her little husband many years later, but now it was taken for herself by others.
The in-laws seriously discussed how to solve this matter, and discussed 2 methods, 1 is Shentan, one is resale, as for what method to take, it depends on Xiao Xiao's only relative, Uncle. They invited Uncle Xiao Xiao to come, and the kind uncle could not bear to watch Xiao Xiao die, so he chose to sell it.
As an independent individual, Xiao Xiao did not have the right to decide his own life and death. In the backward countryside, there is no law that can restrain everyone's behavior, the fate of the daughter-in-law can be decided by the in-laws, the woman is cheating, and the in-laws can sink or sell it.
In a patriarchal society, women who depend on men for survival are more like an object that can be resold at will than a person. Women lose their voice.
The third aunt in "A Flock of Wives and Concubines" was thrown into the well by her husband because of cheating, and 15-year-old Xiao Xiao was sold by her in-laws for stealing forbidden fruits.
Women have to pay a heavy price for their mistakes, while men can have an unlimited number of opportunities to make mistakes. The inequality of the status of men and women led to a lot of depression in that era.
Xiao Xiao in the state of sale has not been bought, no one wants to buy a woman with a big belly, just like this, day after day, Xiao Xiao finally gave birth to a big fat boy in her in-laws' house, named Niu'er.
The in-laws gave up finding a buyer for Xiao Xiao and accepted the cow.
Ten years later, Xiao Xiao and her husband round house gave birth to a second son, Mao Mao.
When Niu Er was 12 years old, he married an 18-year-old daughter-in-law, and marrying a daughter-in-law was to marry an older woman and work well, which became the default rule of the locals.
On the day of Niu'er's wedding, Xiao Xiao stood at the door holding Mao Mao to watch the liveliness, and saw herself in a trance.
Xiao Xiao had longed for freedom, longed for independence, and that little hazy awakening of consciousness was finally cut off by the unforgiving reality, and she became a victim of feudal thought.
Xiao Xiao, 28, became someone else's mother-in-law, and her daughter-in-law would repeat her fate.
Tragedies have been staged again and again, but no one has stopped, which is the saddest thing.