▲ The rose in front of and behind the Seagull Cottage in Chekhov Mellihovo's former home
The 44-year-old Russian writer Chekhov, who was born in 1860, once said that his works were popular for seven years at most, but why are hundreds of his short stories and six plays still praised more than a hundred years later?
Last weekend, in the online salon of the Wenhui Lecture Hall, with memories such as "The Man in the Set" and "Chameleon", under the guidance of Professor Gu Chunfang of the School of Arts of Peking University, the listener understood Chekhov's grandson as a serf, relying on self-control and faith in education and learning, how to overcome the negative impact of the growing environment and other triple spiritual transcendence, and also learned how Chekhov's status as a gardener in addition to doctors and writers helped him draw spiritual nutrients from the earth and nature; Professor Chen Jianhua, a senior Russian and Soviet literature expert at East China Normal University. Lead the listener into the talented gallery of 19th-century Russian literature and understand the significance of Chekhov's transformation into Russian theater to modernity. In the 150-minute salon, the contemporary listeners had a strong spiritual resonance with Chekhov and also experienced a different degree of self-purification.
▲ Professor Gu Chunfang, a scholar of theater and aesthetics, shared Chekhov as a gardener
Special perspective: Visit the former residence on the clouds, feel the soul in the rose
The biography "Chekhov's Rose", a new book by Professor Gu Chunfang, a scholar of drama and aesthetics research, published a book review in the Wen Wei Po Reading Edition, and the lecture channel of Wenhui APP also made a book excerpt, which also contributed to the salon exchange. Host Li Nian introduced that this is a unique perspective that is different from the previous seven or eight kinds of Chekhov biographies at home and abroad, and as Chekhov's gardener, he dominates his life, emotions and literary creations.
Gu Chunfang introduced from the writer Ehrenburg's "Rereading Chekhov" that Chekhov was a horticulturist who was obsessed with sowing flower seeds, transplanting flower seedlings, and grafting flowers and trees. In the memoirs of his sister Maria, curator of the Chekhov Memorial, it is mentioned that Chekhov left more than 100 roses in his beloved garden, whether in Melichovo, his first manor on the outskirts of Moscow, or the white villa of Yalta purchased later. To the surprise and touch of the listeners, gu Chunfang commissioned a Russian photographer to photograph two former residences and blooming roses on a rare open day after the epidemic hindered the field search plan.
▲ The roses blooming in Chekhov's former residence were transmitted from Russia to Gu Chunfang and Chinese readers
"In 2020, I made a list of all the plants that Chekhov had planted, and asked my friend and photographer Alexander in Russia to go to Melichov to assist in the shooting. In April and May, the epidemic in Russia was severe, and the former homes of celebrities were closed, and it was thought that the plan was going to fail, but in the season of roses in July, there was good news that the venue was reopened, and the shooting was unusually smooth. "Knowing that chekhov researchers from China were commissioned, the staff of the Melliehovo Memorial Museum also gave great support and cooperation. Three days later, photos were sent back to China from thousands of miles away.
In the lecture, Gu Chunfang showed the listeners the roses blooming in the summer; the blue seagull wooden house dedicated to writing, where the four-act play "The Seagull" was born; and the precious family photo on the porch when they first moved in in 1882 — six brothers and sisters and parents. "It is conceivable that this commoner writer, the grandson of a serf and the son of a small merchant, has owned his own land and house by his own efforts and struggles, and that the mood at this time must be unparalleled happiness as a young man settling down in a city where he is working today."
▲ A family portrait taken on the porch when he stayed at the Melliehovo Estate in 1882
Photographing Chekhov's second estate, the white villa in Yalta in the Crimea region purchased in 1899, was much more bumpy, and Gu Chunfang still mentioned that he was still very emotional. But fortunately, after many searches, I contacted Mr. Flamy Kiel, the director of the Yalta Museum, located next to Chekhov's house. Through him, photographs of the white villa were collected. The photo was sent back on July 15, the 160th anniversary of Chekhov's birth, and the statue of Chekhov on the Yalta Sea was filled with flowers and roses from the citizens. Yalta's former residence is very well preserved because of the lifelong care of Chekhov's sister Maria, who lived for more than 80 years, and mr. Barkin, a famous writer on the mainland, also visited the White Villa of Yalta and Maria.
▲ The statue of Chekhov and the rose in front of the statue handed back by the director of the Yalta Art Museum
Visiting the former residences of celebrities plays an indelible role in deepening the understanding of writers, and Chen Jianhua highly praised Gu Chunfang's cloud visiting practice and shared his experience of visiting the former residences of more than ten Russian writers such as Tolstoy many times. "If you don't go to Turgenev's former home, it's hard to understand why his landscape is so beautiful, so central Russia, where Turgenev lives, is such an ecological environment."
Living in the nourishment of one's own soul: triple transcendence
The evaluation of Chekhov, contemporaries and future generations left a lot, Gu Chunfang praised "Chekhov lives in the nourishment of his soul." This is reflected in Chekhov's threefold transcendence, "which constitutes a very important coordinate for our understanding and interpretation of Chekhov's art and life today: the transcendence of the life of suffering, the transcendence of thinking about the ultimate meaning of life, the transcendence of traditional literary and dramatic laws." ”
* Firmly believe that education can complete self-evolution and practice the transcendence of suffering
▲ Chekhov in Gu Chunfang's understanding
In contrast to many writers of aristocratic origin, Chekhov, as the son of a small merchant, experienced poverty, humiliation and injury in his childhood and upbringing. But these sufferings did not distort his heart, but he was freed from indifference, selfishness, insensitivity, and all worldly harm and the suffering of inner slavery. The reason for this, Gu Chunfang believes, "What kind of person eventually grows into, the biggest educator is himself, and Chekhov has never given up on self-education and self-evolution." ”
After graduating from secondary school at the age of 19, Chekhov took on the responsibility of supporting his family, relying on diligent and talented writing to support the livelihood of 8 people in the family, and at the same time completed the medical school of Moscow University in the next 5 years with strong perseverance, "Medicine is my legal wife, literature is my lover." Chekhov's lifelong practice of medicine changed the fate of his family. What impact has the profession of doctor had? Gu Chunfang believes that first, humanitarian compassion is clearly reflected in his works, he can better understand the pain of patients than ordinary people, and he is well versed in people's state of mind of seeking comfort in difficult situations. The second is that the medical knowledge he possesses requires him to look at complex things rationally and objectively, and he can always perceive in his works that "look at the world coldly and are enthusiastic about sentient beings." In novels and plays, there is also the awareness and transcendence of suffering, "which is an active transformation of one's own soul after self-awakening." ”
This transcendence of suffering obtained by relying on active soul transformation is also the driving force that attracts Gu Chunfang's perseverance in pursuing Sochikhov. After contracting tuberculosis at the age of 24 until his death at the age of 44, Chekhov had been fighting the disease with a high posture; in 1886, Chekhov came to Sakhalin Island in Siberia to investigate the hell on earth for prisoners, asked what literature was, and he confirmed that writers must have a sense of justice, and that people and even a society need a clear world view, otherwise there would be no conscious life.
* Pioneered the psychological realist drama, focusing on the self-struggle of ordinary people
▲ Special recording during the epidemic period, London's West End 2020 new re-typeset Chekhov masterpiece "Uncle Vanya"
The second transcendence is to be seen in the 19th-century writers. Gu Chunfang analyzed that Russian intellectuals at that time often wandered between theism and atheism. Born into a pious and traditional Orthodox family, Chekhov finally renounced religious beliefs in the process of contemplating the ultimate meaning; in the inquiry into the world of inherent suffering, he finally realized that the ultimate meaning was not on the other side, and thus completed his metaphysical transcendence. In contrast to religious belief, he chose to use conscience as the ultimate spiritual interpretation, saying: "Man should either have faith or explore faith, otherwise he is an empty man." There is a vast space between the existence of God and the absence of God, and the sincere wise man is also a difficult trek in between. ”
The third transcendence is embodied in art. Gu Chunfang believes that Chekhov created psychological realist drama, and this type of drama directly fed the modern Russian theater system, and thus influenced the Russian Stanislavsky's acting system, and occupies a very important and irreplaceable position in the history of world theater. Chekhov's revolutionary transformation of drama is reflected in his change in the definition of drama in Western theater, changing drama from fierce external contradictions to internal conflicts, thus completing a profound dramatic revolution from the inside out.
On Chekhov's desk are photographs of Tchaikovsky's signature
In Chekhov's plays, drama does not exist only in those surprising, rare, exaggerated fierce conflicts, but in plays such as "The Seagull", "Uncle Vanya", and "The Three Sisters", it is the pain and struggle of ordinary people who are hidden in daily life, hidden in those seemingly insignificant trifles. It is impossible for most people to experience a life of ups and downs like a hero, so Gorky summed up Chekhov's drama as "the tragedy of everyday life".
Understand nationality from the gallery of 19th-century Russian literature
As a senior leader in the study of Russian and Soviet literature, Chen Jianhua, who has passed the age of antiquity, draws his perspective to the entire corridor of Russian literature and thought in the 19th century, and Chekhov was the last writer of the "golden age" of Russian literature in the 19th century. Chen Jianhua combed, after two hundred years of cultural faults caused by the Mongol occupation, starting from the comprehensive Westernization of Peter the Great, Russian literature gradually revived, and in the 19th century, many great literary heroes emerged like stars, following Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Chekhov became a part of the transformation of Russian literature to modernity, through Chekhov, successfully opened a new era of modern drama.
Chen Jianhua, a senior Russian and Soviet literature expert at East China Normal University, will look to the far-reaching background of the times
At the ideological level, the Russian generation of intellectuals has also experienced a long game of "pro-European" and "Slavic". Chen Jianhua analyzed that from a geopolitical point of view, Russia's territory spans Europe and Asia, so there has always been two different cultural conflicts. In the late 18th century, Peter the Great launched reforms, which completely westernized a large number of elites, but a large number of serfs existed in society, still living a submissive and servile life in a closed environment, which caused a certain social fragmentation. But the positive significance lies in the fact that Russia has won several wars abroad, so that the sense of the strong in the country and the spirit of salvation can be displayed, which is embodied in the patriotic spirit and exploration spirit of the elite nobles, and both the state and individuals are actively looking for a way out.
The Easter eggs prepared by the lecture hall for the listeners, the construction process of the Winter Palace and the significance of the interior construction of the Jordanian Staircase, peter the Great Hall, and the Great Patriotic War Hall, also deepened the listeners' understanding of how to achieve a balance between Russia's long journey of integration into Western modernization and the maintenance of nationality. The friendship and different artistic views between Chekhov and Tolstoy, added by the host Li Nian, also add a rich side.
▲ Chekhov's transcendent spirit deeply infected the listener
The original 100-minute salon was unconsciously extended to 150 minutes, and another 40 minutes of WeChat voice explanation were added. What is the significance of re-reading Chekhov today, what is the inspiration of his advanced ecological aesthetics to today's people, how to self-transcend and tolerate others in adversity, whether literature and national fortunes are related, many questions and answers haunt the minds of listeners, in the next day's WeChat group in the listening friends' feelings and sharing, Chekhov's positive energy has also formed a strong aura - learning how to get along with the unstable external environment, insisting on self-education, and finding a place of peace of mind in the body and nature; how to find a place of peace of mind in the great changes and ups and downs of the times, With the thickness and broad vision of history, we will examine today's world and life.
Gu Chunfang's comments on Gorky also remained in the hearts of the listeners: unlike Pushkin's surging with aristocratic style, different from the lofty charm of Tolstoy's high mountains, if Dostoevsky is like a rushing torrent, Chekhov is more like a calm and open river, and his spiritual world is like a river reflecting the sky, reflecting the calm flow on both sides of the river: humble and gentle and compassionate and a sense of justice. He also flashed the classical temperament of self-denial, simplicity and self-esteem possessed by the ancient Greek Stoics.
Author: Mao Ying Li Nian
Photo: Screenshot from Salon, The Rose of Chekhov
Editor: Jin Jiuchao Li Nian
Editor-in-Charge: Li Nian
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.