In the upheaval of the times in the middle of the twentieth century, Shen Congwen bid farewell to literature bitterly and resolutely and devoted himself to the study of cultural relics. His literary works disappeared because they were "free" from the times. He himself has repeatedly stated that my work is outdated and not worth mentioning again. But the value of his work is still there, and some people still remember it, especially overseas, and it is still valued and studied.
Once, Huang Miaozi told him that a scholar who studied him abroad had obtained a doctorate. At this time," Mr. Shen smiled shyly, and his thumb pressed his little finger to reach out, and softly corrected: 'Three.' ’”
This extremely vivid detail is really the finishing touch. This small, soft-spoken, always smiling, low-key old man knew that his life was stuffed with goods—he chiseled dizzying staircases one by one in the rocks and ice to the top. Alas, the humility of genius equals pride!
"As for the work of Hugo, Molière, Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc., it is not too difficult to imitate"
In 1923, at the age of 21, Shen Congwen broke away from the old army in western Hunan and ran to Beijing in a daze, whimsically wanting to be a writer. Many years later, he wrote to his student Wang Zengqi: "Napoleon was a great man, but we cannot learn from envy." As for the work of Hugo, Molière, Tolstoy, Chekhov, etc., it is not too difficult to imitate. "What a breath! Unexpectedly, he added another sentence in the brackets: "When I first came to Beijing and didn't know punctuation, I thought it wasn't too difficult." "It's so "arrogant"!
In his later years, Shen Congwen
But then he moved, unbelievably. "In the freezing cold of minus twenty-eight degrees Celsius in Beijing, a torn jacket actually coped with two winters, his hands and feet were frozen and swollen, and it was common to have a meal without a meal", and he often had nosebleeds; he kept writing, writing, writing. Finally, "the spring clouds of this prologue gradually unfolded", articles were published, and books were published one by one. Although the royalties were pitifully low, he still worked solemnly and seriously. He felt, "I know a lot more than Chekhov," "I want to record chekhov"; "take my work into the world and compete with the world's first-class short story writers or the first short works in literary history." ”
Shen Congwen has the "wildness" of Miao ancestry, the keen talent and unique perspective of "life" and "human nature", and the extraordinary layout of words and sentences has won the recognition and appreciation of a group of "European and American" scholars; more importantly, he has readers.
But in the regular literary garden, an outlier is broken, and the criticism is endless: "prolific writers with magic" - "you just write a lot". The "forwarders" criticize it as "out of touch with the people." He was silent most of the time, and the silence was full of proud disdain. But in private, in the face of his dear ones, he was wanton, making an instinctive cry of life. In 1934, on the way back to his hometown to visit his mother, he wrote to Zhang Zhaohe:
To be fair, I am really superior to some of the so-called writers of the day. My job is set to rise above all else. My work will be more long and far-reaching than the works of these people. I have no way to refuse. I'm not proud...
What a "proud" "not proud"!
In 1930, Shen Congwen wrote to his eldest brother Shen Yunlu: "No one can defeat my article, and under any circumstances, it must be hoped that it will be worth mentioning." In 1942, he said: "If I always have a premonition that my work will not be ignored and forgotten by history at another time, my works will have an impact on the Chinese literary movement in a hundred years..."
Around 1947, he commented in the self-preservation of the Eight Juntu: "The issues, society, personnel affairs, and other aspects of this collection should be reviewed more than the achievements of The Scream." In fact, it is also true. This little book will live forever. ”
In the summer of 1948, Shen Congwen's family and friends were on vacation at the Summer Palace, and the youngest son, Shen Huyan, said to his father: You are not as good as Tolstoy. Shen Congwen said, "I'm discussing Mu Ma, I want to write something well." Write a book of one or twenty. The little tiger chick "because of the polite relationship", it is inconvenient to say "bragging", and he was surprised and said: "How, there are so many in one writing?" Shen Congwen saw that the little tiger was reading his "Xiangxing Scattered Records" and said, "Some of the articles in this book are very young, and when you become an adult, it will still look very young!" "Young", which means "eternal life.".
At that time, the situation was turbulent; in Hong Kong, the siege of Shen Congwen by Guo Moruo and others had begun. But as a writer, Shen Congwen is not dazed about the past and the future, has not wavered, is still firm, and is still "proud and proud".
"I don't know how to write novels, I don't know much about novels"
He devoted himself to the study of cultural relics, was no longer a writer, his works were burned, and even if he mentioned it occasionally in the history of literature, it was only a few ugly words. But his once brilliant literary creations still haunt him, and he often can't help but sigh, praise himself, provoke horns, and groan incessantly—in the recklessness of the sky, he "understands" and thus exalts.
In 1953, the Enlightened Bookstore destroyed Shen Congwen's printed and unprinted manuscripts and paper types. He was very miserable, "listening to the sad lines in bed", and wrote to the eldest brother: "It is a pity that it is very good, so good energy, so love of life, so much of a pen to use, in the unimaginable end." ”
On December 10, 1956, Shen Congwen was on a business trip to Changsha and wrote to Zhang Zhaohe: "In addition to reading "Three Mile Bay" every night, I also read "Xiangxing Sanji", and I think that the author of "Xiangxing Sanji" is still an author who can write articles. Such a good pen, listening to his anonymity, is really not a way... Pity pity! "Three Mile Bay" was a popular novel written about rural co-operatives at that time, and Shen Congwen "spent six cents and three to buy a copy"; but when he looked at it, he could only sigh continuously.
In 1969, Shen Congwen was sent to the Wuqi Cadre School in Xianning, Hubei Province, as an old and weak person; he migrated six times and was tortured to the end, with three diseases of hypertension, heart disease, and kidney stones, almost "finished". After repeated requests, in February 1972, he was finally allowed to return to Beijing for medical treatment, and he devoted himself to the study of cultural relics. On July 22 of that year, I wrote to my younger son about the various situations of life and work, and suddenly turned my pen sharply and proudly said: I have "worked hard for ten years, and as a result, I have left a large group of 'writers' who are good at interpreting illusions far behind."
On December 7, 1977, he wrote to his younger son: "Occasionally looking through my forty-year-old works, just like looking at the works of Chekhov and Maupassant, I did not expect that I had written them one by one, and had printed them one by one, which had dominated the trend in China at a certain time." ”
Wang Zengqi and Shen Congwen took a group photo
Shen Congwen also paid attention to the development of new literature and often issued sharp criticisms. On March 12, 1959, he wrote to his eldest brother: "Some writers write almost the same, always writing, never writing the slightest wonderful thing, just as the Sichuan people said, 'I don't know how to do it!'" ’。 ”
At the beginning of 1961, he was living in Fuwai Hospital, and after watching some works intensively, he commented greatly: "Looking at many recent operas, dramas, and novels that are close to the formula, the writing of local tycoons, inferior gentry, military officers, and other evil people is not deep enough, and the writing of good people is not very solid, especially the organizational stories are very ordinary, not kind, not vivid..." "It is not good to see a few short stories." Can't write, can't arrange stories, can't talk, can't write people. There is no way to look at it. ”
At that time, the popular "Lin Hai Snow Field", he euphemistically criticized: it was just "thrilling" and "it was the habit of "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness". The revolutionary memoir "Red Flag Fluttering" has a variety of stories, "but many of them are not written movingly, and many are the same." "As for the poems... I don't understand, I don't know, I don't know what to say. He also criticized literary criticism, film, and television, and concluded: "I think the impact of all this synthesis is not very good." ”
On October 24, 1974, I wrote to my younger son that "in the past forty years, a person can use ten years of hard work to dominate the feelings and beliefs of millions of readers, and now with the efforts of famous writers in the country, plus the highest praise, it still cannot play its due role in the face of tens of millions of readers."
According to the famous writer Lin Jinlan, around the early 1960s, he and Wang Zengqi saw that Shen Congwen was too lonely, so they pulled him to participate in some activities of the Beijing Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature. Once a young writer went to the countryside to talk about his experience after going to the factory, and finally the host politely asked Shen Congwen to speak, and he just said: "I can't write novels, I don't know much about novels." He knows that words are not speculative, or it is better not to say - shen Congwen even though he feels the bitterness of the end of the world in his heart, and the "cautionary grand theory" rolls in his mind, but he is still like an old hater, there is no dynamic - the persistence and arrogance in it, of course, others understand.
On the same occasion in 1961, when he was staying in Fuwai Hospital, Shen Congwen asked Zhang Zhaohe: "The new literature has nothing to do with this majority of life at all. Professor Zhang Xinxin pointed out: "This question is actually close to a fundamental question. In 1974, Shen Congwen repeated this meaning in a letter to his younger son: "Most people engaged in literature only pay attention to the above opinions, but they do not pay much attention to the emotions and demands of readers. Shen Congwen is old and spicy after all, what kind of person is he! With a gentle touch, the pen fell into a storm, and the poem became a weeping ghost god.
"I should still try to use the pen, that's the truth"
Shen Congwen once said childishly, "Because there are too many critics and the requirements are too narrow," the novel "has to be done." But the state of the literary world disappointed him, like a tiger in the mountains seeing a monkey claiming the king, and his hands itched again. In 1961, he couldn't help but say to Zhang Zhaohe: "I should still try to use the pen, that's the truth." ”
Giving up literature has always been a wound that Shen Congwen can't heal, a fiery red knife. The charm of literature has not dissipated, it has always been stirred. Shen Congwen believes that although the leaves have fallen, the wind will send them to the sky and fly high...
In October 1951, Shen Congwen went to Sichuan to participate in land reform. He left the center of the storm, excited to be able to participate in the course of history and breathe fresh air; especially the rivers, mountains, ravines, and secluded lands that he had loved and sung, and the breath, the sounds, the blowing winds, made him excited again.
When the ship arrived in Hankou, Shen Congwen wrote a letter to his two sons: "You all like Zhao Shuli, see if your father writes more Li Youcai for you." ”
At Wushan Wharf, facing the Xiongqi landscape, Shen Congwen told Zhang Zhaohe that he wanted to live in small villages and towns along the river for "one or two months each, which is extremely useful for me to use a pen... will be completely successful", will "become a kind of history".
Shen Congwen and Zhang Zhaohe
Arriving at the Martyrs' Township in the fourth district of Neijiang County, the rolling hills, the terraces that return to the light, the smoke from the cooking, the brown land, the pale green sugarcane forest, the transparent moist air, as well as the old woman, the child, the "white cloth baotou blue long shirt", "everything is like a fairy tale scene." Shen Congwen wrote excitedly that some characters "have lived in my life and still live in words"; "I may be a fairly good worker." ”
On November 20, 1957, Shen Congwen wrote to his eldest brother: "In my own way", "I can still write big works." ”
After entering the autumn of 1963, Shen Congwen had a trip to the south and remembered two ancient people two thousand years ago in Changsha:
In the same gloomy weather, Jia Yi, in his prime of the 30th year, as the master of changsha, wandered among the abandoned ancestral halls and temples in the suburban Chu state, whispering Chu Ci, listening to Xiao Xiao's wind, and blowing the local people to hold sacrifices, songs and dances that were far away from the gods... Think again about Qu Yuan... In the midst of this fog and rain, in the autumn and winter, he was finally banished from the country, packed up his luggage, took a leaf boat, put it straight into Changde, and went to the Yuanshui River. Maybe sitting like the little "Taoyuan stroke" that I went up thirty years ago.
He wrote to Zhang Zhaohe: "I will definitely write two very outstanding new stories of Qu Jia. "I know how to be touching!" In three or five thousand words to create a kind of personnel picture ... Flesh and blood souls are readily available! ”
Even in the harsh environment of the Hubei Cadre School, he felt that "life is available for limited", and wrote to his young friend Xu Chengbei: "I also want to compete for time", "Write twenty-thirty new short stories, try to see if you can break through your past limitations, and do it will exceed the original external requirements." ”
He also had some creative plans, wanting to write a novel by Zhang Zhaohe's cousin Zhang Ding and the martyr (which had been brewing for more than ten years), and finishing the incomplete long story "Long River"; he also wanted to write a second autobiographical novel and memoir, etc., but he was "afraid of problems" and was difficult to write. The only novella that reflected the land reform, "Song Renrui and His Son", was not taken out because some passages deviated from the wind of the times and recreated the style of the past; it was not until after his death that the family did not find out. Zhang Zhaohe said with great excitement: "I don't know if there is this thing..."
He wrote to Zhang Zhaohe with many creative talks. On September 10, 1970, at the Hubei Cadre School, he suddenly realized that these casually written impressions, fragmentary fragments of words, "because many of them are obtained from personal long-term practice" and "even if they are not in perfect harmony, they can also have a style", which is valuable. Therefore, zhang Zhaohe was instructed not to destroy these letters.
Shen Congwen opened his mouth and called himself a "countryman." In 1933, he took the initiative to write a preface to Xiao Qian's novel collection, which wrote: "I hope that he will always be a countryman, do not believe in genius, arrogant and pretentious, and eager to see himself." Patience to bear failure should be cultivated, and in patience produces his more complete work. Oh, to paint a portrait of a "countryman", to inadvertently put on a laurel crown for himself.
My "personal purpose is far away"
In the second half of Shen Congwen's life, a peak in the field of cultural relics research, the volcano erupted from a new place - he is a writer of sensibility, and he can perfectly combine lyrical temperament, poetry and scientific organization, creating a rich and brilliant creation. Wang Zengqi once worried about him, "Later it was found that he 'had another merit'. Shen Congwen was also proud.
When he bid farewell to literature and resolutely went to the history museum, which was a "cold" place, he said " as if he had entered a coffin " — he had just recovered from a mental breakdown, and could not help but appear inferior and cautious. But there was no sorrow in his heart, he was still strong, and it was still a hot land full of vitality. He believes that the study of cultural relics "is a new road." Well done... It has academic revolutionary significance". He said he would "turn the rest of his life into research reports" and leave it to the next generation to "make a gift."
The long days began. He "went out before dawn, bought a roasted white potato cook at Beixinqiao, took the tram to Tiananmen, the door was not open, that is, sat down to look at the sky and the moon, opened the door and then went in." Coming home at night, sometimes when it rains, i.e., i.e. put on a broken sack"; "at least twelve hours must be outside". In the "gray fluttering" storeroom at noon, he "sometimes tied his eyes under his eyes with a handkerchief" and "resembled Jesse the Great Thief." In winter, the storeroom cannot be roasted, "the wind blows through the hall", and the cold is so cold that "the black rag freezes into an ice lump". Shen Congwen often forgot to eat and was locked inside. In this way, he rubbed countless "flowers and flowers, tin cans and jars" and looked at "over 100,000 satins".
He also walked out of the office and took the initiative to work as an "illustrator" in the showroom for a total of ten years. A famous writer and university professor, doing what a young man does, acquaintances can't help but be "miserable" when they see it, and can only sneak away. An old friend in the southwest came to see him and saw that he was "bending over and his voice was hoarse" and explaining, "and his eyes were red"; Shen Congwen in turn comforted him for a long time. After eight or nine hours of work, sending off the audience, Shen Congwen was so tired that "his chest and waist were extremely tightly bound, and he just wanted to sit down on any level of brick road and stop for a while." However, Shen Congwen did not think that he was bitter, but "enjoyed himself" and "simply got what he wanted" (Wang Zengqi).
In this way, he learned knowledge that could not be learned in books from the physical objects and explanations of ancient culture, received new enlightenment, and opened up a new road for the study of cultural relics.
And his old colleagues, "are all very active, flying around abroad as a guest." Shen Congwen knew that they were closely following the wind and were finished; defending themselves was also finished. If, as in the past, "the delusion that we can create classics with words" is "really more foundationless."
"From the surface of life, I can say,' he said, 'Completely finished, broken.'" In fact, "I live with my feet on the ground"—he works silently, his heart overflows, and his head is still high.
The more severe test is the tension in the personnel relations of the history museum. He was seen as "uneasy about work." Playing with flowers and flowers all day long is just a personal hobby, and I don't know what to do in a day"; not only is it not taken seriously, but it is also suppressed, snubbed, insulted, intimidated, "abused", and even reprimanded.
In 1957, Shen Congwen complained in a report to the Writers' Association: "The conditions for 'research' are also very poor, which is like a research method", "There is not even a fixed table, books cannot be used, and the information that should be at hand cannot be at hand." ”
In the 1950s, the museum also carefully arranged an internal "anti-waste exhibition", exhibiting eight or nine "waste products" bought by Shen Congwen, including thirty yuan of Ming Dynasty white cotton paper hand-copied two major letters about "military studies"; the four yuan bought on the head of the machine woven with "Made in Hejian Province" Song script whole dark flower Ayako. What is even more unexpected is that the leader also asked him to accompany his colleagues from other provinces to visit. Shen Congwen cried and laughed, but he was also "extra happy" - lamenting the "pranks" of his colleagues and their shallow academic vision. This story, Shen Congwen is difficult to forget, has been mentioned many times, in 1974 wrote to Zhang Zhaohe said: My "work is being realized, and I can use the 'waste products' I bought." I don't feel bad about some people by using small tricks to frame them– he arrogantly says: "My personal purpose is very far away"!
At the History Museum, he made "more than sixty reviews, large and small." For a photo, Han Shouxuan, an old friend and current curator for many years, told him that this was a loss of national cultural relics and was unconstitutional! Shen Congwen was forced to write a review, admitting that "he did not care for the cultural relics and caused a lot of losses." Occasionally, Shen Congwen went to the Cultural Relics Bureau to see the newly acquired cultural relics, and was suspected of "making a small report", and some people threatened through the wall: "Talking to the bureau about the affairs in the museum is 'super'." Shen Congwen did not dare to go again. He "worked and sometimes wept at the same time". In the spring of 1975, Shen Congwen complained to a friend that some people in the unit were only willing to away.
Professor Zhang Xinxin was very emotional about this, he said: "The environment and conditions are extremely harsh." Shen Congwen himself said that this was "a more arduous and very difficult battle" and "it is a kind of war!" I was stuck in "such a lonely environment and a job with a hopeless future." Later, he said, "I'm a stupid baby picking beans — I've identified this treasure of feng shui." ”
—— The environment is so "low pressure", Shen Congwen will of course have an inner "storm", there will be obscurity, fragility and confusion; but the call of the horn, he has been listening, so there will always be the warmest heartbeat, always able to trek high, "a hundred years of diligence".
What a powerful, tragic "precipitating force" and "exclusion force" that he overcame himself, triumphed over himself—the flag from above was still flying.
In 1974, Shen Congwen was 72 years old. He approached the curator, wept, hoping for final help, and wrote another long letter, in which he roughly listed the work done over twenty-five years:
The study of Chinese costumes in previous dynasties; the history of silk and satin; the history of furniture development; the history of landscape painting in the early period; the history of ceramic processing art; the history of the application of fans and lamps; the history of the art of gold and stone processing; the history of the application and equipment progress of horses in the past three thousand years; the development history of music and dance tricks and performances.
Until his death, he also achieved specialized research results in the fields of lacquerware and luodian craftsmanship, lion art, Tang and Song bronze mirrors, "Dream of the Red Chamber" clothing, and dragon and phoenix art. However, he experienced seventeen years and pushed forward for about thirty years, and the process was tortuous and bizarre, and he was able to systematically complete the groundbreaking masterpiece ,"Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes", which was included in the "Chinese Modern Academic Masterpieces Series" edited and published by the Commercial Press in 2011.
The series of books presents the academic masterpieces of Chinese and overseas Chinese from the late Qing Dynasty to the 1980s, and is a majestic academic review of the Chinese nation. Shen Congwen should be relieved and proud. In fact, his study of his own cultural relics has shown self-confidence and downward -- "pride" in all kinds of texts.
"This one's on your side. I'll receive my full collection in the future."
Shen Congwen firmly believed that he would produce the whole collection.
After 1947, on the cover of Border City, published by the Life Bookstore in 1934, he left the following handwriting: "The first edition is left with samples, and when the whole collection is printed, it is advisable to use an enlightened print." (No punctuation in the original text)
On August 15, 1949, Shen Congwen wrote "Confessions of a Man", which began by saying that he was a masterpiece left in the "struggle to survive and the despair of suicide"; "writing this little thing", "In the future, if I am placed in the same place as all my works, I can see the origin of a 'person'." "With all my works", this is the "complete collection". But when was that!
Shen Congwen and Wang
On August 15, 1975, Shen Congwen, who had been immersed in the study of cultural relics all day, found the first page of "Confessions of a Man" from the surviving and unstructed manuscripts, and solemnly entrusted it to Wang, saying: "This is placed in your place." I'll receive my full collection in the future. The tone was natural, calm, calm and natural, without the slightest sense of negotiation—in the midst of the vicissitudes of the ten thousand horses, the mist, and the order of the world, he was sure of eternity. At this time, there was still a "catastrophe"; the king, fearing that something would happen to him, made a splint in his suitcase and hid this page of manuscript inside.
——Wang understands Shen Congwen. This volunteer soldier whom Shen Congwen met in the Noonday Gate Showroom in 1953 later became Shen Congwen's closest assistant and most trusted close friend. Low-key, wise, diligent, loyal, and grown into an accomplished archaeologist who should "live forever" with Shen Congwen.
Shen Congwen's confident foresaw was realized five years after his death. On November 7, 1993, the 83-year-old Zhang Zhaohe signed a contract with beiyue Literature and Art Publishing House for the publication of The Complete Works of Shen Congwen, the first set of literary and scholarly masters officially signed in accordance with the Copyright Law in mainland China. Through the hard work of Zhang Zhao, his family, and several assistants of Shen Congwen, the complete collection of 32 volumes was successfully published in 2002.
"Mei Lanfang still has only one"
On January 5, 1962, Shen Congwen wrote to Zhang Zhaohe that there is a kind of talent that "cannot be obtained from human processing." Just like Mei Lanfang, the new method may be able to educate many different successors, but Mei Lanfang still has only one" - this is "speaking of oneself with others", it is the master's own way; it is Shen Congwen's important self-evaluation, extremely proud life confession.
We can understand it this way: in literature, Shen Congwen has a unique and extremely sensitive talent for the world, a unique regional cultural imprint, and a unique complex experience. Ma Yueran, a lifetime judge of the Swedish Nobel Prize in Literature, believes that his literary achievements surpass Lu Xun.'s He wept bitterly when he heard the news of Shen Congwen's death, and also unusually revealed: "If he had not died in 1988, then I am sure he would have won the Nobel Prize in Literature that year." (Ma Yueran: "Another Kind of Nostalgia") Shen Congwen "only one." He stood at the high end of world literature.
In the field of cultural relics research, a world-wide writer has indulged in nearly forty years in "flowers and flowers, tin cans and cans", writing his experience with a unique perspective and understanding, and a charming and winning text, which is an extremely rare historical accident, Wang Zengqi said that "there seems to be no precedent in the history of world literature." - He also "has only one". Shen Congwen also ascended to the high end of material culture research.
Source: Magazine of All Walks of Life, Issue 1, 2022
Author: Chen Xin