The Love Myth of the Materialization Era - Reading Xu Zechen's Novel Collection "Qingcheng" | Nie Zhangjun

"Running Through Zhongguancun"

《Qingcheng》

"If the Snow Closes the Door"

Author: Xu Zechen

New Classics produced

Publisher: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House

Publication date: October 2021

Synopsis

"Qingcheng" includes two novellas created by the writer Xu Zechen, "Western Xia" and "Juyan", and the short story of the same name, "Qingcheng". The three works are concise and profound, and the author uses ancient place names full of historical significance as the spiritual symbols of the characters, and explores the emotional and spiritual self-consistency of modern women. Three sad and clear love stories tell the emotional encounters of three women, telling their hardships, bitterness, confusion and perseverance, and also writing about their integrity, tenacity, kindness and love.

"Running Through Zhongguancun" selects three novellas with the theme of "Beijing" in Xu Zechen's works, namely "Ah, Beijing", "Running Through Zhongguancun" and "Heaven on Earth". All three works tell the story of the living conditions of small people who are wandering in Beijing and are at the bottom of society. Under the bustling scene of Beijing, the author shows the dark, turbulent, embarrassing and not without comedy of the low-level life of the special group of "North Drift". "Running", running for survival, has a goal, has speed, and has strength; with the exuberant and upward vitality of the little people, it reflects the reality that they are struggling and unwilling to sink.

"If the Snow Closes the Door" selects seventeen short stories by Xu Zechen, and the content also covers the two major veins of the author's creation- "Beijing" and "Flower Street". With strong literary and ideological nature, the work expresses the theme of young people's struggle that the author has always explored. Most of the protagonists are well-intentioned and have the wisdom to make fun of suffering, and the author writes about the uneasiness in their lives and the turmoil of their souls. The text of the whole book is solid, sweet and warm, and the still water is deep, and there is a sense of close artistry and a sense of depth in thinking about the world, from which you can get a glimpse of Xu Zechen's growth trajectory for more than ten years.

The love myth of the materialized era

——Reading Xu Zechen's novel collection "Qingcheng"

Nie Zhangjun

Xu Zechen's latest collection of novels, "Qingcheng", contains three works", "Xixia", "Juyan" and "Qingcheng", the common feature of which is that they are all named after the novels after the heroines, and they also constitute a certain correlation and commonality between them, about spirit, about happiness, about love. "Xixia" is the answer to the existence and understanding of life, "Juyan" shows the obsession and abandonment of love, and "Qingcheng" is to ask about the worldliness and detachment of life. Xu Zechen's three heroines experience and tell different words, and they respond to the eternal topic of love.

Happiness and absurdity

Mystery and the unknown are always shrouded in the novel collection "Qingcheng". Xixia came to Wang Yiding's side for no reason, as well as her unknown life and experience; why the lover That Juyan was searching for left her, and how it evaporated in the world; the relationship between Qingcheng and "I" and Lao Tie, and the frequent image of the eagle. In Kafka's Metamorphosis, Gregor's awakening to become a beetle is a popular stroke in literature. The absurdity of the surface reveals full expressiveness. Traditional realism emphasizes why people are like this, and expresses the whole picture of society with partial reality. After entering the modern society, the revelation of the human spiritual dilemma has also become an important part of the literary world.

The reason why so many mysterious elements exist in the stories of these three women is, in my opinion, to express the absurdity of modern life. In "Xixia", "I" and my friends around me want to know Xixia thoroughly, including Xixia himself, who once wanted to express; in "Juyan", everyone is looking for the missing lover. In life, we always have to ask about existence and meaning, but we are doomed to not get the answer we want, which is the root of absurdity, and absurdity has become an inevitable connection between people and the world. Xixia, Juyan and Qingcheng, the three heroines in the novel are always pursuing, pursuing love, pursuing happiness, and pursuing a certain consummation of life. They also truly experienced the absurdity of life. Fortunately, they have all found a way to face the absurdity of life.

The way to overcome the absurdity of life is to acknowledge the truth of life, accept everything in life, and get up and embrace life. In "Juyan", Juyan, who Chinese New Year's Eve night, is alone in a foreign land. "The world is filled with the sound of firecrackers, as if there were piles of explosives lurking in every corner. Fireworks illuminate the window panes over and over again, and the room is full of flowers. There were small children outside shouting. She was the only one left in the noisy city of Beijing. However, in the face of life's dilemma, Juyan's answer is life. Even if you are alone, you must stubbornly live a good year. The same was true of the girl named Qingcheng. She came to the plateau to see the eagles as she wished, and from the moment she saw the first eagle, she began to scream until her throat was hoarse. In the difficulties of life, Qingcheng is always looking for hope. The three girls in the novel are all pursuing the happiness of life and the meaning of life, and in the process of pursuing, they witness the disappearance of meaning, but this does not stop them from pursuing happiness. Thus, XiXia and Wang Yiding finally gave up seeking medical treatment; Ju Yan finally met the person who was struggling to find it but regarded him as a passerby; Qingcheng retained the artistic sense of life in copying Zhao Characters.

Love is a persistent construction, an adventure that persists to the end

The three stories of "Xixia", "Juyan" and "Qingcheng" all explain such a truth about love: love is the beginning of chance, and the extension of time is the test of love. Love is an event full of accidents, and the trajectories of two people's lives suddenly intersect and relate at some point in their lives, producing a certain common meaning. The three stories in the "Qingcheng" novel collection all show this contingency of love. Wang Yiding took in Xixia because of an inexplicable note; Tang Tuo accidentally saw the search notice posted by Ju Yan and became acquainted with the latter; Qingcheng was very confused about his future after graduation and wanted to hear The opinion of Teacher Tie. This deliberate emphasis on the accidentality and drama also makes the love story of several people full of suspense and unknown.

The beginning of love is accidental, but it is by no means the whole of love. The perseverance of love lies precisely in taming this contingency, which is another key word in love: time. Wang Yiding and Xixia, Tang Tuo and Ju Yan, "I" and Qingcheng, Lao Tie and Qingcheng, the love stories of these protagonists start by chance, and it is in the continuation of time that they gradually realize the true meaning of love. Wang Yiding was no longer obsessed with the past of Western Xia, but looked at the future of the two; Ju Yan let go of that unsuccessful cause and began to regard the place where he and Tang Duo were together as home; Qingcheng suddenly woke up in his hazy love with "I", returned to Lao Tie's side, and pinned his desire for life in art. They approach the occasional beginning of love in different ways, and they also move toward the continuation of time and love with their own attitudes.

Xixia, Juyan, Qingcheng, these three women have one thing in common, they all boldly and persistently pursue love. In love, they are the active party. Xu Zechen rarely writes about sex in these three novels, and even if he occasionally talks about it, it is hazy and brushed over. Here, the relationship between men and women is equal, desire is only a part of love, and its direction is the construction and maintenance of love. As Alain Badio famously said in "The Multiple Sonatas of Love": Love is a persistent construction, an adventure to persevere to the end.

The second half of love, or the myth of love

The interpretation of love in the three works of "Western Xia", "Juyan" and "Qingcheng" also has different interpretations. The stories of "Western Xia" and "Juyan" have a certain fairy tale nature, while "Qingcheng" is slightly cold. Combined with the order in which the three works were written ("Qingcheng" was written more than ten years after "Western Xia" and "Juyan"), this may also reflect the change in the writer's own concept of love.

The "eagle" is an important image in "Qingcheng", representing freedom and distance. Chasing the eagle's wings has also been Qingcheng's long-cherished wish. However, Qingcheng voluntarily gave up the distance and decisively left the man who watched the eagle with her. From "Running Through Zhongguancun" and "Night Train", to "Jerusalem" and "Going North", "going to the far side" has always been the consistent theme of Xu Zechen's novel creation. In "Qingcheng", there is another trade-off between the far side and the foot in love.

When it comes to love, we have to mention money. In fact, love and materiality have always been an important part of the three novels. Xu Zechen, who is good at writing about the life of North Drift and has also experienced North Drift, has a special sensitivity to the details of money in his works. Xixia, whose origin is unknown and penniless, was falsely accused of taking the landlord's money and was once driven away; in Juyan and Qingcheng, the author repeatedly wrote about the plight of the two about money. The myth of love always seems to return to material and reality.

The three works all leave suspense in the ending, the past of Xixia, the person juyan meets at the end, and where the love between Qingcheng and Lao Tie will go. The truth doesn't really matter, just as the myth about love is true or not. Love can be the myth of the fall of the country, the mountain calling the tsunami; it can also be the daily life of chai rice oil and salt, and the waves are not alarming. Qingcheng accepted the reality that "eagles don't cough", and "a little wild" she practiced the restrained and strict Zhao characters. The coexistence of romanticism and realism is the true meaning of love, or life.

Editor: Liu Ya

Second instance: Wang Yang

Third instance: Chen Tao