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Raphael in the Details
Appreciation of the "School of Athens"
In April 1980, Paul and I walked into the writers' ballroom in Beijing and saw a glowing face, smiling at us. I immediately knew that it was Shen Congwen, and ran over and kept shouting: Mr. Shen, Mr. Shen, I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it! He held my hand and still smiled faintly. (Beijing, April 1980) (Courtesy of Nie Hualing)
In April 1980, Paul and I went to Beijing, and at a dinner party for Chinese writers, we suddenly returned to our youth.
Back to Bian Zhilin's "Broken Chapter": "You stand on the bridge and look at the scenery, and the people who watch the scenery look at you upstairs." The bright moon decorates your window, you decorate other people's dreams. ”
Also back to Feng Zhi's "Southern Nights": "... The swallow said that there was a rare flower in the south, which bloomed only once after twenty years of loneliness—and then I suddenly felt in my chest that there was a hidden flower, and that it was going to bloom like a fire in this quiet night. ”
He also returned to Shen Congwen's "The CountryMan": "These people seem to have merged with nature in their lives, and they are very calmly doing their best in life there." ”
That time was a long, long time ago.
Now, as soon as Paul and I walked into the hall, Bian Zhilin, Feng Zhi, and Shen Congwen were right in front of us. I was in a trance, only to see a glowing face, smiling at us.
I immediately knew who it was, ran over and kept shouting: Mr. Shen, Mr. Shen, I didn't expect it, I didn't expect it!
He held my hand and was still smiling.
I turned to pull Paul over to greet him: Guess who this is?
Paul stared at him with two eyes.
It was the little boy who saw many heads and strings of ears on the door of the gate and on the ladder! I say.
Shen Congwen! Shen Congwen! Paul yelled in surprise. He held Mr. Shen's hand in both hands and said: In Hua Ling's "Shen Congwen Commentary", I read that when you were a child, you went to see the scene of killing your head.
Whenever he spoke of the situation of the Chinese, he would speak of the string of ears that the little boy had seen. I told Mr. Shen.
He was still smiling faintly.
That day, I toasted and drank a few glasses in a row. Paul looked at me in surprise and said to the people in the room: Hualing has never drunk like this.
The two tables were drunk and hot-spoken, chatting and laughing, as if each had something to celebrate. Only Mr. Shen didn't speak or eat anything, just sat there smiling. His face was particularly bright.
Mr. Shen, why don't you eat it? I sat right next to him and picked out a piece of Peking duck for him.
I only eat noodles and eat a lot of sugar.
Why? It's not good to eat sugar.
I used to fall in love with a sugar mill girl, but I didn't succeed, and I have loved sugar ever since.
The table was full of laughter.
Paul listened to my translation and laughed and said: This is Shen Congwen!
I said: The novelist is making up stories again. Mr. Shen, many people overseas like your works. I have your "Xiangxing Sanji" in Taiwan, a good friend gave it to me with pain and love, the cover is very cute, there is a small tiger garden, and a few children's drawings of trees, huts...
Little Tiger is my son. He smiled happily.
The book went around, the pages were scattered, some of them shattered when they touched, and I put them in the file folder. When I left Taiwan, I only took that book with me.
My books are outdated.
Outdated?
Mr. Shen did not respond.
Shen Congwen's novels were only carefully read by me after I moved from Taiwan to the United States in the 1960s. In Taiwan in the 1950s, "Xiangxing Sanji" and "Autobiography of Congwen" were privately circulated among friends, and Shen Congwen's books could no longer be found, and the works of all writers who remained in Chinese mainland were banned books...
In 1964, after I went to the United States, I searched through Shen Congwen's books. Leaning against the head of the bed, reading the novels of the countrymen, sniffing melon seeds, the shells of melon seeds were scattered on the ground, and they returned to the land of their hometown. Shen Congwen wrote in the article "Exercises":
I'm really a countryman. I have no pride in saying that I am a countryman, nor am I demeaning myself. As usual, countrymen have a deep-rooted temperament that is always a countryman, and love, hatred and mourning have their own unique styles, which are very different from those in the city! He was conservative, stubborn, land-loving, and alert, but he didn't know much about deceit. He was as usual very serious about everything, and seemed to be too serious, and this seriousness inevitably became a "fool's head" at some point.
Shen Congwen said that he could have fifty associations in one thing, which was probably not an exaggeration. His works are more than forty on a wide range of subjects, including a wide variety of characters: petty clerks, university professors, young students, downtrodden literati, warlords, bureaucrats, politicians, local tycoons, aunts, prostitutes, prostitutes, prostitutes, pheasants, officers, bosses, hunters, smugglers, executioners, bandits, soldiers, small traders, farmers, boatmen, and workers. The upper, middle and lower nine streams of characters all appear in his works.
He wrote best about the countrymen, the people on the land and on the water.
Shen Congwen's text seems to be flat and direct, but it is a text that is organized with specific imagery after the artist chooses to arrange it—the text of the poem, the visual, the touch, the sense of smell, the sense of taste, so that people can use the five senses to appreciate it. Shen Congwen said: "Words can only be bright and colorful in an organization. He called his essay "The Gymnastics of Emotions." He also said, "An author who is accustomed to emotional gymnastics must find it easier to serve the written word than to serve the maid." ”
Commentary on Shen Congwen
Excerpt from Shen Congwen, a Countryman, 1984
[United States] by Nie Hualing
Translated by Liu Yujie
Beijing United Publishing Company Phoenix One Force
Shen Congwen celebrated the 120th anniversary of his birth
The English edition was first published 50 years later
Chinese edition was first published
Phoenix One Force exclusive release
Shen Congwen: A writer who transcends human suffering and moves towards basic humanity
Nie Hualing: Founder of the International Writing Project/Nobel Peace Prize Candidate/Works Listed in the "Top 100 Novels of the twentieth century Chinese"
★ An introduction to Shen Congwen's life and his time
★ Comment on Shen Congwen's writing style
★ Interpret the noble feelings of "countrymen"
★ Discusses Shen Congwen's unique contribution to Chinese literature
About the Author
Nie Hualing, born in Wuhan in 1925, is a Chinese-American writer. He graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages of National Central University (the predecessor of Nanjing University) in 1948 and went to Taiwan with his family in 1949. In 1964, he went to the United States to teach at the University of Iowa, engaged in writing and painting at the same time, and received an honorary doctorate from three institutions, including the University of Colorado. In 1967, Nie Hualing and his wife co-founded the "International Writing Project", in which more than 1,000 writers and poets from more than 100 countries and regions participated. In 1976, Nie Hualing and his wife were nominated as candidates for the Nobel Peace Prize. Nie Hualing's works include novels, essays, reviews and biographies, some of which have been published in China, the United States and Italy, among which the novel "Mulberry Green and Peach Red" is listed as one of the "Top 100 Novels of the twentieth century Chinese".
Translator Profile
Liu Yujie was born in 1989 in Hui County, Henan Province. Doctor of Literature from Wuhan University, he is currently working at the College of Literature of Minnan Normal University. Mainly engaged in overseas Chinese literature, Chinese and foreign comparative literature research, his academic papers, translations published in Chinese Literature, Drama Literature and other journals, among which, the paper "Local and Non-local in Globalization" won the first prize of the "Second Master's and Doctoral Forum of the Chinese Literary Geography Society" organized by the Chinese Literary Geography Society.
Synopsis
The first edition of the English edition of Shen Congwen's Commentary was published in 1972 by the New York Biography Publishing House. The author, Nie Hualing, is a well-known female writer of Chinese descent who has an influence in the world of Chinese literature that cannot be ignored. In "Shen Congwen Commentary", the author not only introduces shen Congwen's life and the era in which he lived, tells the life course of Shen Congwen from a soldier to a writer and art historian, but also discusses the unique contribution of Shen Congwen and his works to Chinese literature from the perspective of aesthetics and artistry, and comments and analyzes the modern themes, styles and imagery of Shen Congwen's works, aiming to help readers understand this literary master who has a far-reaching influence in the history of modern Chinese literature and is still highly respected to this day.
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