Fusheng Liuji, a small book, the autobiographical prose of the Qing Dynasty scholar Shen Fu, because of a sentence in the Republic of China period Lin Yutang's evaluation of the characters in the book, "The most lovely woman in the history of Chinese literature", has been rumored for a while, and its influence has been until now. The book consists of six chapters, one chapter at a time, each independent. It is said that the last two chapters of the book have been lost, and the existing ones have been added and completed by later generations. However, the essence of the original book is also in the first three chapters, and what really touches people's hearts is a "love" word that runs through it.
Among them, there is not only the author's wife "Yunniang", unpretentious, the "true feelings" of the innocent pursuit of beautiful romance, there is also the "love" of Yunniang to her husband, no matter how poor, and there is also the author Shen Fu himself, the "deep affection" for his wife Yunniang between the lines. However, as the saying goes, "Tragedy is to tear up valuable and beautiful things to show you", as a reader, it is difficult not to sigh deeply when you see the young couple in the book like a fairy couple, step by step, until they are sick and bedridden, and there is no money to wait for death.
Reading the book, when the husband and wife hold hands in front of the sickbed and leave forever, as if "the next life", "when it is, a lone lamp, no relatives, empty hands, and broken hearts", it is difficult for people who want to be strong to hide their tears. Since ancient times, there is a saying, "the love is not eternal", even the Northern Song Dynasty literary hero Su Shi, the depth of love, "the night comes to the dream of returning to the hometown, the small Xuan window, is dressing up", it is difficult to escape, "it is expected that the intestines will be broken every year, the night of the bright moon, the short Songgang". It's just that in this floating six notes, the gap between before and after is really difficult to accept, no wonder many people who have read this book say that it is difficult to settle down and disappear through Japan.
So, how did Shen Fu and Yunniang, the couple, irrevocably enter this ending with their romantic love?
Shen Fu, Yunniang, the love of husband and wife, the reason why it touches people's hearts is that the two know each other, respect each other and tolerate each other, and have been consistent in twenty-three years of turbulent life. Shen Fu is unruly, and it is inevitable that sometimes jokes will not be important. Yunniang's temperament is relatively peaceful and stable, Shen Fu then also curbed her temperament, and the mantra of the dialogue between husband and wife is "how dare you, offend", thinking that it is normal. However, after a long time, Yunniang was inevitably taken away by Shen Fu.
When she first married into the Shen family, Yunniang "respected things in matters, made peace in things, and did not lose a little in a good order", for fear of being gossiped about. Home daily, ushered in, the two people met on the road, always have to hold hands and ask, "Where to go?" ”。 The two people are in favor of each other, the peers hold hands, sit together when they sit down, and at the beginning they avoid people in front of them, they feel embarrassed, and after a long time, they are natural and do not shy away from it.
Such a state of life in which true feelings naturally flow is revealed, if it is today, it is really enviable, but in terms of the life of the scholar family at the end of the Qianlong Period of the Qing Dynasty, I am afraid it is difficult not to make people look sideways. To put it simply, living in such a large family of officials and gentry, there is not much room for husband and wife to express their true feelings.
Shen Fu and Yunniang's undisguised and contrived true feelings are revealed, and they are accustomed to it, and the impression left on all kinds of people in this big family is probably the starting point and background of many later events. This true feeling is the most touching place in the whole book, but it is also from this that it has become the starting point of the tragedy. And this, at least from the perspective of the whole book, the couple did not understand until their deaths.
Shen Fu, Yunniang, also from a family of readers, but the family situation is very different. The Shen family has real estate in many places, and at home banquets in Suzhou, they invited the song and dance team to help, and the opposite door is suzhou scenic spots, "Canglang Pavilion", the family situation can be seen, at that time, the proper middle class. Yunniang lost her father at an early age, all thanks to her growing up slightly, learning to knit embroidery, and serving her mother and raising her brother. No matter how hard she has worked since then, how careful she has been, how much she has heard about her childhood, how many courtesies she has for extended family life, "unspoken rules", and the measure of human relations, it is difficult to be perfect without flaws.
Her husband, Shen Fu, is also a free-spirited, informal person, and there is very little that can help her in this regard. If it's just like that, then it's enough, at most let the elders in the family laugh and turn around and slowly explain to her that it is not a big deal. However, first, because of the daily true feelings of the above two people, "not solemn", and second, Shen Fu's "celebrity" nature is reflected in his out-of-town job search process, which can be imagined to be unsmooth, so that it causes his father, and the family is dissatisfied with him and is angry with Yunniang.
Objectively speaking, in the various mistakes of Yunniang later, Shen Fu was responsible, and it was his various informalities that caused Yunniang to twist and turn, and finally offended her father-in-law and mother-in-law together.
Shen Fu has a good family since childhood, a good life, and a self-proclaimed generalist in poetry and painting, and he can't hold back in his temperament, and he spends money, which is without wrinkles in his brows. Although Yunniang's family was poor since childhood, compared to her husband, she knew some hardships, but originally in her nature, there was a yearning for freedom and freedom, which can be known from the couple's later evaluation of Li Bai and Du Fu's poems. Yunniang has never complained about Shen Fu's poetry and wine, and here there are both her personal likes and "pets" for her husband' love, even to the extent of "pulling out the wine".
However, the wind and snow moon can not be used to live a life after all, when the husband and wife of the frank and true feelings, again and again, again and again encountered "careless dating", "family property crisis", all kinds of embarrassment, misfortune will follow. Compared with the younger brother, the sister-in-law's calculations for the family property are secretly slandered, and the husband and wife are like naïve children, without any defense, repeatedly hurt and robbed.
The ability to earn money oneself is not great, but spending money is like flowing water, and they are trapped by the name of "righteousness", and they do not care to fight for "profit", but with the "righteousness" and "backbone" of this body, how can they support their families? All of the above, if it is in a good era, in a family with a sufficiently prosperous family to read, it is not a matter. Big family, how big is it to raise a "celebrity" who has completely left work?
So, what kind of era did Shen Fu and Yunniang live in, and what was their family's family situation? Shen Fu said to himself, "The rest of his life was qianlong in the late winter...", which was for 1763. It is inferred from this that the era in which Shen Fu and Yunniang lived was mainly from the end of Qianlong to the early years of Jiaqing.
From the entry of the Qing Dynasty to the Kangxi Period, the population was about 70 million. As social order gradually returned to normal, the planting techniques of high-yield crops introduced during the Ming Dynasty, such as corn, sweet potatoes, potatoes, peanuts, etc., also began to mature and be promoted. After that, a relatively stable life of about 100 years, by the middle of the Qianlong Dynasty, the population of the Qing Dynasty soared to 400 million. The rapid growth of the population diluted the distribution of total social resources, and by the end of the Qianlong Dynasty, the people's livelihood was withering and riddled withers, and the name of "prosperous world" was actually difficult to match.
Specific to the way out and livelihood of the readers, it is becoming increasingly difficult under the rapid expansion of this population. The reason is very simple, the number of people who read books is increasing, but the number of people who have been admitted to the university has not changed, and the vast majority of people, who have not been famous in their lives, have become the norm. Therefore, at this time, the main way out for the readers, especially Shen Fu, who was in the rich Jiangnan region, changed from the imperial examination to the "wandering curtain", that is, at the side of officials large and small in various parts of the country, they served as "staff members" and were responsible for handling the daily work of official documents and so on.
Later, the well-known "Shaoxing Master" is one of them. Compared with the opening of the "academy", the income of the staff is still quite good, in the economically acceptable state and county, the annual income is 4 to 500 taels, but it is ordinary, capable, and communicative, and can reach an annual income of more than 2,000 taels. From the book, the "tour curtain" is mostly in "Jiangning", "Haining" and other rich states and counties, Shen Fu's father, personal ability is quite good, which also achieved Shen Fu's excellent life since childhood.
However, it is precisely because of many years of being in the official arena, the entire social and economic downturn, the fierce competition for the work of the staff, and the state of mutual inversion, Shen Fu's father knows well and knows the crisis. Due to Shen Fu's understanding and talent in poetry since he was a child, Shen Fu's father's expectations for his profession must also have held extremely high expectations, which can be seen from the fact that he personally selected famous teachers for Shen Fu several times.
However, Shen Fu's uninhibited personality, repeated willfulness and frustration on the road to job hunting, and making his father resentful, it is difficult not to be angry at his daughter-in-law Yunniang's "blind connivance" and not to persuade him because of the above "small things". As mentioned above, in that era, the way out for readers was extremely limited, in addition to the "academy", "tour screen", and a relatively many, that is, "business", which is also the reason for a lot of "Confucian businessmen" in that period.
However, whether it is "touring the curtain" or "business", it is necessary to have interpersonal blessings, and it is inevitable to come into contact with "the despicable state in the lively field is unbearable", which conflicts with Shen Fu's temperament, and the only time he is "successful" in business is actually that people take him out of the far door. If it is in the present, Shen Fu and his wife can be "a skill", do not ask about the world, maintain their personality, and be a pair of immortal couples in ordinary fireworks.
However, in that era, whether in the family or in society, the space left for "individuality" was too small. Since until the end, Shen Fu and Yunniang insisted on their personalities and refused to waver, then under the pressure of the entire era, their tragic fate was doomed.
Shen Fu, Yunniang, twenty-three years of husband and wife daily life, from the initial infinite beauty, to every step into the abyss, we as readers, we will inevitably think, "if..." There is no if, the reason why the beauty is dazzling is precisely because of its extraordinary fragility, the tragedy shakes people's hearts, because under the hard everyday, the beauty is too vulnerable.
Just think, if Shen Fu, Yunniang and his wife compromised and wavered, would there still be this "Six Notes of Floating Life" that brought us a beautiful yearning and an impact on our hearts? Furthermore, will there be Lin Yutang's mouth, "the most lovely woman in the history of Chinese literature", Yunniang?
Summary: Shen Fu, Yunniang, a pair of personality defects, imperfect two, with their own imperfect love ending, in that imperfect era, but presented us with a period, in the daily fireworks of the world, rising, not earth-shattering, but straight to the heart, the perfect love story. Love and truth, righteousness and profit, in each era, there will be different interpretations, and there will always be eternal things, which exist in between.
Shen Fu, Yunniang made their choice, and did not regret it until death. As readers, how do you think, how do you think, and make your own choices in this era?