The meaning of perseverance
——Reading Mao Ge's novel "Snow Burial" has a feeling
Zhang Xiaoli
On the National Day of 2019, I received the book "Snow Burial" given by Mao ge veterans, and I couldn't help but look at it several times curiously, but I never found the right time to read it carefully. Tibet and the military service are sacred to me, so every time I read a book on Tibetan military service, my requirements are very high: physically stay away from the city, and mentally completely relaxed. Only in this way can I fully feel the magnificence of Tibet that the author has vigorously depicted, and only in this way can I truly relive every bit of monotony and purity of military life.
Graduation season, entry transition period, the best time for spiritual rest; rainy season, quiet southern town, the ideal reading space. One rainy weekend, carefully taking out this copy of "Snow Burial" from the etiquette box, the blood-red cover conveyed full of tragedy and loyalty, and I knew that my heart, which had been society for a long time, was about to usher in a sacred baptism. Despite the preparations, "Snow Burial" still brings me endless sighs, sadness and hidden pain.
"Snow Burial" tells the story of what happened at the Devil's Peak Outpost (also called the 521 O Outpost, which means "I want to love you") in Tibet, and the two protagonists with distinctive personalities, Zhong Xiaoxin and Jin Zhu, made me think of Xu Sanduo and Chengcai in "Soldier Assault". The novel mainly tells us the story of Devil's Peak from the perspective of these two characters. Just like only people at the Devil's Peak Outpost can understand the poem "The Boy on the Devil's Peak", I have worn a military uniform, gone to the plateau, and there is a dog named "Little Black" in the recruit company, and I have the same pronunciation as the name of One of the characters in the text, Xiao Li (Xiao Xin's girlfriend). It quickly moved into the storyline.
Out of instinctive concern for my comrades-in-arms, I expected everyone in the novel to have a happy ending from the beginning, but the scary name "Devil's Peak" may have already paved the way for the ending. Harsh and changeable natural environment (lack of oxygen and water in the plateau, dense lightning and hail in summer, snow and mountains for half a year...) Like the devil, it took the health and lives of the garrison officers and men (and their loved ones); the life of the dry post even made people suffer from aphasia, the simple and rough "Roar mountain" could become a training course for the post, "watching" the steel man pulling his throat like several lone wolves "whoosh--whoo--hoo-hoo Lonely, tragic, heartbreaking, heartbreaking. Aphasia, they forgot how to communicate with people, but they knew how to communicate with the snowy mountains. Writing this, I am reminded of a poem written by the idol brother when he inspected the "Cloud Outpost" before unloading his armor: "A thousand mountains and a thousand valleys are tied, and nine curves and hundreds of twists and turns into the clouds." The world is still less happy, and the sentinel is dry and silent. When I read the last two sentences of the poem, my heart was full of mixed feelings. Just like jin zhu's affectionate expression in the novel when "coming" (note: the saying that the nosebleed at Devil's Peak is coming), "Let the nosebleed flow on the land of the Devil's Peak outpost, I really have nothing precious to offer you", perhaps, for the idol brother, this poem is his most sincere emotion and most affectionate confession to the outpost and the border guards.
The storyline of the novel is very fascinating, and I can't wait to know the ending of the story, even if there are many places that are deeply touched, it is a quick release of emotions, and then move on to the next chapter. Looking back, the description of the "outpost star" in the text actually entered my heart the most. "Outpost Star" is the name of a star cast by Gold on the Devil's Peak Post, and it is also the source of his literary creation. "Sitting at an altitude of 5120 meters into the night, the world is so quiet that only I am left, only the outpost stars above me are flashing at me. At this time, I told him, it told me, and poem after poem kept brewing in my chest. At first, I thought that the "outpost star" was the source of inspiration for the gold casting, but later I felt that this understanding was not completely accurate, it was a mysterious existence that triggered the inspiration. The "Outpost Star" seems to hang high above the Devil's Peak Outpost, as if it can only be seen when you are in the outpost, but in fact, it is the inadvertent or even unconscious true feelings of the characters, it is the true emotional connection between the sentry and the outpost, it is another realm that the love of the heart has entered after accumulating to a certain extent...
I believe that each of us has such a "sentinel star" of our own, which truly records and reflects our uncomplaining and clear love. After leaving Devil's Peak, the outpost poet Jin Zhu never wrote a decent work again; Mao Ge veteran said, "After leaving Tibet, it seems that naturally, I rarely write poetry, and I am too lazy to take photos"; the idol brother who loves literature rarely mentions his pen except for occasionally sharing poems that record interesting things in life; and I, in the past ten years, have had nothing else to do except for a reminiscence article titled "Ten Years of Good Dreams in the Snowy Land, A Few Strange Adventures of Veterans". Mao ge veteran said that it is not because we are lazy - because of Tibet! How brilliant! What a hit! And it is precisely because of Tibet that we, the souls who are wandering in the world, will eventually have a destination to aspire to; it is precisely because of Tibet that I know that there is still such a holy land in this world that can accept me.
The days of being a soldier seem to be only two years, five years, eight years... But how many people who stayed inside and then left have actually left? In the text, three generations of Qin Sentinel's ancestors (his grandfather and father) have all been stationed at Devil's Peak, and there are countless examples of this sacrifice of youth and descendants in the Snowy Plateau; Zhong Xiaoxin, like Xu Sanduo, along with countless warriors whose names we don't know, was buried forever by the storm and blizzard, and they merged with the Snow Mountain and continued to hold on; Jin Zhu, although his body escaped from the devil's peak with bad conditions, has been living in nightmares and uneasiness, leaving the frank soul to live forever at Devil's Peak; Chen Yao's old sentinel's lover Swallow, Like many military dependents who went to Tibet to visit relatives, because of altitude diseases such as pulmonary edema or harsh climatic conditions, the young life was left in Tibet forever; the old sentinel commander Chen Yao himself, because he stayed too long at the high altitude Devil's Peak, after returning to the interior, his body could no longer adapt to the low altitude, so he endured pain and stayed away from his family for a lifetime in the Tibetan town closest to the outpost and his lover...
But it is such a devil's place, why do generations of border guards have to be stationed? This is also a question that the characters in the novel ask repeatedly. I thought the author would give a thousand reasons, but the veteran said:
"The meaning of our stubbornness does not need to be explained
If one day, we fall on Devil's Peak
Please bury us with snow."
No, that's not enough!!!
Whether in times of peace or war, we need an answer, a clear answer.
I would like to borrow a previous comment about the sacrifice of officers and soldiers of the People's Liberation Army in the Sino-Indian border struggle, and give myself and the characters of the novel an answer.
"Dusk fell, and I ate white rice and drank happy water,
I couldn't figure out why these strong soldiers died
I woke up in the middle of the night and suddenly remembered
They died for me! ”
About the Author:
Zhang Xiaoli, a native of Xianyang, Shaanxi, enlisted as a college student in 2008, a female soldier in Tibetan communications, retired in 2010, Ph.D. Now a university teacher! Approaching because of love for the barracks, and more and more deeply loved by being closer.
Author: Zhang Xiaoli