Qian Zhongshu said that "bian" | Hu Xiaoming

At the end of the past year, I met with friends who braved the cold to attend the new Shanghai Writing Society's general meeting and came up with this topic.

"Edge" is a very beautiful concept, it is the "edge" of the edge, and it is also the "side" of the side. In the life of contemporary people, writing is becoming more and more important, not only not on the side, but also become the daily chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea outside the flesh just needed, then why say "edge"? When I talk about "edge" here, I do not want to lean over, but to soberly see that there is a big trend in this world now, and what we call an "uncertain world" is coming. There are many things that are changing, the daily network world, WeChat circle of friends is also very lively, and the text state of human survival is entering the center of the metaverse. However, I often want to turn off my phone. It's too time-consuming. We are not too much advocating too eager to squeeze into a hot issue to speak and write, so "side" is a gesture, a strategy.

Mr. Jin Kemu has long had a very famous article called "Saying "Edge"" "". Professor Chen Pingyuan recently gave me a book about the attitude of "edge" and writing and research of a modern intellectual, which is about "edge", which is generally summed up, mainly referring to a calm, cold-eyed mentality, not being in the center, not being alarmed, taking a step back, and a kind of thinking wisdom.

As early as the 1940s, Mu Dan's poetic theory said that "staying on the edge and quietly exerting force" was a kind of poetic wisdom. Not vigorously, but quietly. Qian Zhongshu has a collection of essays called "Written on the Side of Life". Therefore, the "edge" is a kind of gap, the gap is a pry point, the pry point of thought and knowledge, facing the gap of the system, prying the thinking of reading, to find the crack of the problem and the blank point of the system.

"Edge" in turn can also become a positive enterprising, a witty and open way of thinking, a very literary defamiliarization strategy that escapes clichés, standardizes style, and standard routines.

I quite agree with this attitude of Professor Jin Kemu and Professor Chen Pingyuan. They are more from the perspective of literary studies; I would like to add a statement by Mr. Qian Zhongshu on "the side", which they have not mentioned.

Mr. Qian said "edge" and "outside", and sometimes "edge" is "outside". For example, "things are at the table, money is next to the side", the side is the side, but the meaning is "outside", money and things are on the "outside" side of the person; but sometimes the "side" and the "outside" are not the same, for example, "things are at the table, money is around", this money and things, not outside, but on the table and on people. For example, "children are around", that is, children are very close to or even close to themselves. "Money at the table" and "money at hand" are not the same, this side is neither belonging to itself, but also close to itself, this tongue twister like language discernment, indicating an attitude of not leaving, although outside and inside, as if far and near. (Pipe Cone Edition, vol. 3, p. 866, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1979)

From here, the duality of the "side" is extremely revealing. On the one hand, writers should realize that you seem to be "touched" by everything, but in fact, you are still outside, so be vigilant against yourself, holding a pen does not indicate that you have true insight, especially in this era, "folk science" is full of sky, paragraph hands are everywhere, blind people touch elephants, randomly buckle the candle, everyone can become an expert. At this time, "on the edge", it is not necessary to try to make a sound in everything, to fill the insider. On the other hand, the writer must also understand that the "side" is a special kind of "presence", a flexible entry, and is by no means completely out of the matter, and does not care about oneself and hangs high. Therefore, the discernment mentioned above is not only a gesture of writing, but also a self-positioning of the writer in this era. It can be said that every serious and responsible writer is fighting a kind of "limited battle of writing" today. Temperate, calm, rational, but after all, it is cold-eyed and hot-hearted.

Further inside, on the one hand, you have your identity, professional duties, life experience and normative requirements, which must have boundaries; on the other hand, because of your identity, profession, experience and other opportunities, other concerns, other horizons, there is a special junction, like a garden path that crosses paths, which has its own advantages that can be used.

I think I am a person who likes to touch the edge, go out, make a mistake and even expand the edge. In addition to teaching, I prefer to write essay notes, which is "out of the side". Treating the classical, but also visiting the door to the modern, this is the "criminal side". He wrote old poems with one hand and commented on new poems on the other (he was the final judge of three global college student short poetry competitions); he did literary research, but he also taught at the China Academy of Art, and published a book called "Notes on the Aesthetics of Paris", which is even more "edge-catching". Touching the edge is a kind of knowledge integration and the sharing of ideas; out of the side, is to change the way of thinking, not to stick to their own acres and three points of land, but to come out of their own professional field to see outside, to stand around to see their own problems, to have outgoing thinking, to have a mobile guerrilla tactics. I remember that Mr. Liang Shuming told a story in "ChaoYu", saying that there was a monkey who wanted to take out a piece of medicine from a glass bottle without a lid, and he insisted on the pill he saw in his eyes, which was at the bottom of the bottle, so he desperately cut at the bottom of the bottle, and never thought that he should turn the bottle upside down.

To expand the border is to open up one's own territory. In fact Chinese is very beautiful and flexible, can not be seen too small, too stiff and rigid. "Edge" is a very rich idea about writing, in addition to what is written above, it makes us think about the side of elegance and custom, the side of academy and the public, the side of literature and history, the side of authors and readers, and even the side of system and folk... Not centered on a particular position, but as a fixed perspective and ready-made thinking. We must make Chinese bigger and do work, but we must also be in Chinese ourselves, refined, thorough. Chinese is our mother tongue, "children are around", and this "side" means very close. We are by Chinese's side, not outside of us. This is the meaning of "edge" that Mr. Qian Zhongshu talked about.

Author: Hu Xiaoming

Editor: Wu Dongkun

Editor-in-Charge: Shu Ming

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.