In 1934, Shen Congwen, who had been away from his hometown for eighteen years, returned to Fenghuang in western Hunan Province. He was surprised and disappointed to find that his hometown was no longer the hometown of memory.
In a letter to his wife, Zhang Zhaohe, he wrote:
Everything here makes me sigh, everything has changed, everything is different, it is really a very sad thing for people who have been out of the house for too long.
What makes Shen Congwen sad is that some of the peasants who have struggled in the long war turmoil have abandoned their simple and peaceful nature like the land, and then replaced them with a realistic and profit-oriented outlook on life that pursues success.
It is an undeniable fact that the superstitious idea of worshipping ghosts and gods and fearing the Mandate of Heaven has been broken, and everything has progressed. Shen Congwen sensed the trend of degeneration in this progress, and the integrity and simplicity of the father and elder in his hometown were almost gone.
So Shen Congwen, who returned to Beiping from his hometown, wrote "Border City", about a stream, a dog, and a girl. In the kingdom of words, he created an eternal ideal hometown, which is the hometown he remembers that cannot be returned.
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The girl Cuicui and her grandfather live by a stream in a small mountain town in Chatong, and the log cabin under the white tower by the creek is the home of the two grandchildren.
Cuicui's father is a tun defense soldier, and her mother is the only daughter of the old man on the ferry, and the two secretly have an ambiguous relationship. The elopement did not succeed, the father committed suicide by taking poison because of the dignity of a soldier, and Cuicui's mother also disappeared after giving birth to her.
Since then, orphans and old people have been dependent on each other for their lives, one old and one young with a dog, making a living on a ferry, and it has been 15 years in the blink of an eye.
The 15-year-old Cuicui is very iconic in this paradise surrounded by mountains and rivers, and is as lively as a small beast in the mountains. But what girl is not pregnant with spring?
As it is written in the book,
Fire is everywhere that can be burned, water is everywhere, and love that can be illuminated everywhere is everywhere
Cuicui met the two sons of the boat boss in the Dragon Boat Race, the older brother Tianbao and the younger brother WuShou. Both brothers are very fond of Cuicui. And Cuicui has a secret affection for The Sender, but the young girl who has just opened her love is too shy to express her heart.
The two brothers were supposed to have a blood contest according to custom, but the upright two made a gentleman's agreement. Sing mountain songs at night, and if Cuicui responds to anyone's song, whoever marries Cuicui will marry cuicui.
The younger brother's good voice deterred the brother, and the brother's previous proposals had not been answered. The distraught brother Tenbo got off the boat and went out, but unfortunately fell into the water on the way, and the body was not found.
Because of the misfortune of Cuicui's mother, coupled with his old age, Grandpa Cuicui was afraid that he would not be able to accompany his granddaughter for long, and he was anxious to entrust Cuicui to The Messenger.
At this time, because of his brother's death, he felt guilty, and the old man's eagerness to achieve made him bored, and he quarreled with the family who did not approve of marrying Cuicui, although he liked Cuicui, he still left the town.
After all, the old man quietly passed away after a rainstorm at night, leaving Cuicui alone with a yellow dog waiting for Him to return.
However, the white pagoda that collapsed in the rainstorm was rebuilt, and The delivery still did not return. This person may never come back, maybe tomorrow.
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Admittedly, this is a poignant and mournful love story. At the end of the story, a beautiful and mournful little girl in a mountain village guards the grave of her dependent grandfather, waiting for her sweetheart who does not know the return date to return.
In vain, the man that mountain and the dog.
In my opinion, the most moving thing about the border city lies in this, this small city is picturesque, she is like Tao Yuanming's paradise, she is calm and peaceful, and the disputes outside cannot disturb her.
But she is vivid and flexible, she has human fireworks, she has a tough sailor who makes a living in the water, he has a stilt house prostitute who makes a living from sailors or merchants, and she has a sad girl who is as smart and beautiful as she is.
This border city is an imperfect wonderland on earth, and it is precisely because of this imperfection that it appears real, helpless, and pitiful.
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Bian Cheng, like a bystander, has seen a lot of love and hatred, like Cuicui's parents who are unswerving to death, as affectionate as water-like loyalty as a prostitute in the stilt building, and as insistent as Cuicui waiting silently.
This landscape gave birth to her simple and loyal children and daughters. The old man on the ferry who guarded the poor and did not collect money for the boat had spent a lifetime, the brothers who dared to pursue true love but did not compete for the wind and jealousy, the naïve and shy but sad flower girl.
This is the hometown that cannot be returned, and this is also the eternal hometown.
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