"The Legend of Hulan River" is the last novel written by Xiao Hong in her short life, which records Xiao Hong's childhood and the small city where she grew up.
Saying that "The Legend of Hulan River" is a novel is a bit underwhelmed, and this novel really does not look like a novel. It has no narrative threads throughout the book, no main characters, no major events, and some are just trivial. But none of this prevents it from becoming a good novel, and the seemingly trivial fragments become pearls. The "Big Mud Pit" is one of the pearls scattered in the book.
Still
Speaking of the big mud pit in "The Legend of Hulan River", anyone who has read this book will have a deep impression.
And there is a large mud pit on The East Erdao Street, five or six feet deep. It doesn't rain that the mud is like porridge, when it rains, this mud pit becomes a river, and people in the neighborhood will eat its bitter head, wash away people's homes full of mud, and when the pit water falls, the day is sunny, it is sunburned, and many mosquitoes fly to the nearby people's homes. At the same time, the mud pit became more and more pure, as if it was refining something, as if it wanted to extract something from the mud pit. If it doesn't rain for more than a month, the quality of the big mud pit is more pure, the moisture is completely evaporated, and the mud there is sticky and black, more sticky than the porridge pot and the paste. It was like a cauldron of refining glue, black and mushy, shiny and shiny, even if the flies and mosquitoes flew from there.
The big mud pit is very powerful, sticking to mosquitoes, flies, almost sticking to small swallows, trapping in big horses, trapping fat pigs, it is simply a nightmare in the small town of HulanHe, adults and children are very afraid from there:
The time of the water not only hindered the carriages and horses, but also hindered pedestrians, the old man walked on the edge of the mud pit, his legs trembling, and the child was scared to the wolf on the edge of the mud pit.
Passers-by, as soon as they come here, it is like encountering a blow on the road of life, they have to struggle, roll up their sleeves, clench their teeth, concentrate their whole body energy, grasp the wall of people's boards with their hands, and their hearts flutter and jump
Such a terrible mud pit is simply a public nuisance in the small town of HulanHe, why don't you think of solving it? In fact, the big mud pit is not only an objective existence, it has its own characteristics, let's analyze it in detail.
First of all, the big mud pit is fickle and uncertain.
It is like a small river after the rain, it is boundless; when there is no rain, it is like a sticky porridge, drying day by day. This gives the illusion that it will always get better on its own.
Secondly, the big mud pit has brought "benefits" to the locals.
Suddenly, cheap meat was sold on the street, and the neighbors who were reluctant to eat meat on weekdays went to buy it. Where would pork come from so cheaply? The big mud pit drowned the pigs. Later, a child broke the window paper, it was a plague pig, and the child was later beaten. The adult world is very hypocritical, want to eat cheap meat, and are embarrassed to buy sick pork openly, and the big mud pit is just used to cover shame. Of course, sick and dead pork can not be eaten, drowning is no problem, and no one will laugh when it is bought.
Since the big mud pit is not difficult to walk every day, and it can also cover up for everyone's welfare, why solve it? Moreover, when the big mud pit is trapped in the carriage, it can also add fun to the boring town life. You see whenever the big mud pit is trapped in the car and horse, how many idle people are watching and shouting?
Xiao Hong writes about the big mud pit, on the one hand, this is an objective existence that is deeply impressed in her childhood life; on the other hand, she is actually borrowing the big mud pit to write about people.
Xiao Hong is a follower of Mr. Lu Xun, and although her works are not as profound as Mr. Lu Xun's, she also tries her best to analyze the spiritual world of the people, trying to find ways to save the country and the ignorant people.
Xiao Hong's big mud pit can actually be seen as the scum of the feudal tradition deposited for thousands of years, the root of cultural inferiority, people have lost the main spirit, pioneering spirit, and innovative spirit in front of the big mud pit, they just want to be at ease in the world, and unconsciously become accomplices in the big mud pit to kill life.
The people of the small city of Hulanhe are numb, ignorant, and secretive, hurt by unreasonable feudal ethics and morality, but unconsciously defend this deformed morality that should have been broken. The small town of Hulanhe was actually the epitome of the entire traditional Chinese society at that time, and the society was sick and cured, which was the meaning that Xiao Hong wanted to express through the big mud pit.