A fourfold interpretation of the times and portraits

Times and Portraits is a collection of essays by Wang Yao. In modern times, outstanding intellectuals have the good habit of writing about their personal growth and study, and carrying forward the family style and study style. Not only are many well-known liberal arts scholars, but there are also many people in the field of natural sciences, such as the essays and reminiscences of Ding Wenjiang, Li Siguang, Zhu Kezhen and others, Yang Zhenning's "Shuguang Collection", Yau Chengtong's "My Geometric Life" and so on. Excellent intellectuals are the models of a generation, condensing the essence of an era, which can inspire and inspire people. In this regard, "Times and Portraits" continues this humanistic tradition, and more intensively writes about the author's study experience in his youth, as well as the intellectuals who were displaced in the countryside and certain characteristics of them, and of course, the tutoring and affection that the author deeply benefited from.

If it is just a traditional prose work that continues to recall the past, "Times and Portraits" should perhaps use another name, the phrase "times and portraits" today more reflects Wang Yao's thinking and writing as an essayist, and the author hopes to write a special and soon-to-be-gone era, in which there are many unique portraits (distant first love, melodious piano sound, cousin, grandmother and her small town, Mr. Li who writes literature, uncle who practices qigong, Grandpa Tian who speaks of the Three Kingdoms, etc.). Portraits are part of the times, even the most impressive part of time, so it can also be said that it is a group of portraits that shape the times, and an era does have its own special portraits. Whether this portrait is "him", or "them", "me" or "we", is a more question worthy of further investigation.

Here, Wang Yao abandons the identity of a scholar and the form of memoirs, and more uses prose to carry out "past events and caprice". On the one hand, he inevitably writes about his own observations and memories, but more eyes and brushstrokes are turned to others, these people are the people who were within the reach of the year, their things are still tenacious under the torrent of the times and touch the heartstrings, as essayists, it is the responsibility to reproduce these people and things related to themselves or not, they are both the past and the history. Thus, there is a double interpretation of "Time and Portrait".

At the same time, the main length of the book is presented in the form of a column of "Rain and Flower" magazine, which will be launched at the same time as the digital version, and will be published after the completion of the main body. This is also a characteristic of the times, only a few years ago, magazine articles and network articles belonged to two types of articles, and readers were two types of people. With the rapid development of network application, everything is networked and digitized. It is this technical background that When Wang Yao wrote "Times and Portraits", he had a kind of interaction that was unimaginable in the past, that is, posting the old one in the chat group of classmates and old friends and families, bringing a sense of collective memory, and also bringing more materials and details, and even bringing doubts and corrections, all of which will be more or less reflected in the next writing. Article after article not only constitutes a book, but also constitutes a field of memories, which itself echoes the time and space when things happened, and perhaps also the long years and extraordinary experiences that have come all the way from that year to the present. As for the reader who is not directly related to the things in the book, perhaps he can also flood his own centered memories when reading, and gradually ripple out, becoming another "Times and Portraits". That is to say, with the help of the links of the crowd under the technical support, Wang Yao's "Times and Portraits" has produced a role in building a community of memories in the writing process. It is the many common memories that have led to friendship and affection, as well as spiritual temperament and the style of the times. From this point of view, "Time and Portrait" is an intellectual who continues to intervene in public life with his own writing, and even to construct public life.

The above is a triple interpretation of "Times and Portraits", but they are all objective effects, that is, the inevitable result of the author Wang Yao's dual identity as a professor and a writer, and perhaps more. Regarding the original idea of this "Time and Portrait", it still depends on what the author says. Wang Yao said: "I want to write my own "Chao Hua Xi Shi". ”

This is a kind of writing that integrates academic, creative and personal pursuits, a kind of writing that integrates the history of ideas and the history of literature, and also a writing that integrates the continuation of the "May Fourth" tradition with its own encounters and times. This idea has a long history, and has gone through a long period of brewing and trade-offs, and has experienced countless times of heartbeat or self-talk. It is a process of constantly searching for a voice and sense of speech that truly belongs to oneself, and it is also a process of finding a necessity and legitimacy. Wang Yao wrote: "In today's various discourses, we in the countryside have been squeezed to the margins, or even completely ignored. I am among 'us'. For more than two decades, I've focused on 'them' rather than 'us'. The narration of memory has long been divided into grades in Chinese writing. In the texts I have read, the experience and memory of our generation born in the sixties is compressed into the smallest space, while the experience and memory of the rural youth are almost marginalized. Among the public experiences, the experiences of rural adolescents are lost. I was restless about it, especially as my memories of the countryside grew blurrer, my impression of the university worse and worse, and the friction about the city deepened. This passage is from the article "Return and Escape", as the name suggests, the author returned to his hometown after living in the city for many years, but had to flee quickly because of the fact that things are not human. The biggest reason for this is not the estrangement or even opposition between them, but the above-mentioned experience and memory of rural teenagers are almost marginalized, and the countryside has become vague, plausible and confusing because of the lack of real words. Feeling this, Wang Yao began a writing journey to reproduce that year, and he also knew that the times and portraits could only be reproduced on paper, and we had gradually drifted away.

As he himself said: "I later understood more and more that no matter how I lingered in the memory of the countryside, it had nothing to do with the countryside now." I know that my remembrance is really just expressing myself, and I also think bluntly that those who pour out their love for the countryside in an unreachable place should be aware of their exaggeration and even hypocrisy. Of course, I have no doubt expected readers to be wary of my rural narrative. Thus, "Times and Portraits", as well as "Times and Portraits"-style writing, is indeed a personal "Chao Hua Xi Shi", and is a typical and universal "Chao Hua Xi Shi" style of writing. This is the fourth way of interpreting Time and Portrait. Perhaps there are many more, after all, a person is like a planet, and when he begins to recall and write, a vortex of time and life is formed and rotated.