★ Phoenix One Force | creator ★ of the ultimate reading experience
Da Vinci in The Details
Appreciation of the work "Ginevela Banchi"
However, such ambition did not arouse Shen Congwen's interest. He was more interested in following the leadership of a cousin who, instead of following books or military discipline, took on the responsibility of educating Shen Congwen in more vivid adventure scenes. There is nothing sweeter than the freedom of adolescence and the art of making up lies. Soon, Shen Congwen became a master of lying. A nearby river was so tempting that he and his friends often soaked in the river for half a day, and the teacher couldn't do anything with them. Swimming is no longer a sport, but an obsession. Based on this early experience, Shen Congwen later wrote: "My feelings flow without solidification, and the influence of a faction of Qingbo on me is really not small. Most of the more beautiful life I had as a child was inseparable from water. My school can be said to be at the water's edge. I know beauty, I learn to think, and water has a great relationship with me..." [Shen Congwen: Autobiography of Congwen, Hong Kong: Wenli Publishing House, 1960, pp. 11-12]
Elementary school did not change Xiao Congwen's attitude in the slightest. Instead of going to school, he wandered outside the city and went up the mountain to play. At school, he was taught to honor textbooks and teachers' teachings written on blackboards, but what kind of bleak text could be compared to a rhythmic, diverse streetscape? As he wandered around the city, he was fascinated by the variety of faces and trades. People twisted ropes, woven bamboo mounds, and made incense in temples. Elsewhere, they do more humble work with more humble hopes: they nag, they quarrel, they laugh, they sing. Unconsciously, Shen Congwen slowly and painstakingly began his apprenticeship as a writer from truancy.
Of course, self-indulgence comes at a cost. In school, the truant had to prostrate himself in front of Confucius's tablet and was flogged until he expressed remorse. The solemn old Chinese man seemed to be watching all this sadly. The punishments varied, and sometimes Shen Congwen was punished to kneel until the time of a scorching incense. As Xiao Congwen endured the anger that seemed to have accumulated for hundreds of years and the stiffness of his own body, he imagined the pond he had swam in, the fruit of the trees he had not yet climbed, and the peaks he longed to climb. At home, he had to meekly endure the consequences of anger from his parents.
The parents believe that their son's truancy is largely due to the teacher's excessive discipline, so they decide to send Shen Congwen to a new school farther away from home. Unfortunately, this only aggravated Shen Congwen's habit of wandering around. On the way to the new school, he again diverted his attention from a few interesting places: in the needle shop, an old man wore great glasses and bowed his head to grind the needle; an umbrella shop with an open door, revealing to pedestrians the figure of several apprentices bending down to work; a leather boot shop, a big fat cobbler with a round, furry belly and plywood shoes; a shaving shop, at any time there was always a customer holding a small wooden plate in his hand, sitting stupidly shaving his head; and he could see a dyeing workshop with strong and powerful Miao people. Kick on top of the concave stone mill, stand tall, and sway to the left and right. There were three more Hmong workshops where the Miao people beat tofu, and the thin-waisted Miao women with their heads wrapped in flower paws tied their children behind their backs like Indians, or sang softly to them, or teased them with a glowing copper spoon. There is also a bean flour* workshop where mules are constantly being pulled and milled. On the roof of the shack, white vermicelli is dried in the sun; a butcher's meat case contains some fresh pork that is still trembling; a shop that sells both hades and rental palanquins, and there are various styles of paper products such as blue-faced devils, fish dragons, and golden maidens. Every day, there are fewer and fewer palanquins, and more and more paper offerings. Despite the prosperity of the business, the shopkeepers, as if unaffected by money, continued to work indifferently as usual, adding gold, powder, and coloring to the goods.
*Shen Congwen's bean flour is starch, which Nie Hualing translates as cornstarch, which is not only accurate, but also takes care of the knowledge structure and living habits of Western readers preset by this book.
Excerpt from "Shen Congwen Commentary"
[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.
| all rights reserved, please do not reprint | without authorization
| if you have copyright related questions, you can contact the background to deal with |