The succession of events tugged at our emotions, dimming the upcoming holidays and the spring light outside the door.
At times like these, a feeble and simple wish is that we can all find our own hiding places.
Today's article, introducing an autobiographical novel, Kato Monday's "Song of the Sheep", tells the story of an outsider in a big era. Compared to other Japanese masterpieces, this book seems to be less famous, but it is very suitable for reading recently.
"He sailed through the storms of the times, once sandwiched between the outsider of literature and art and the sense of social responsibility, and did not know what to do, but in the end he came ashore safely and spent a full life."
Tell the | Duan Zhiqiang
Source | Happy Book List: Infinite Life Book List Season 3
01.
A minority like sheep
Born Monday in 1919, Kato studied at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Tokyo during World War II, graduated in 1943 and entered a tokyo health clinic, where he began writing literary reviews and novels in 1946. He studied in France and continued to be active in the cultural world after returning to China until his death in 2008.
Kato, who on Monday has maintained an opposing and critical attitude toward Japan's expansionist and war policies, shows his position in 2004 when he launched the "Nine-Article Society" to defend Article 9 of Japan's peace constitution, namely, the renunciation of waging war and not preserving the army, navy, air force, and other war forces.
The subtitle of "Song of the Sheep" is called "My Recollection", which is considered an autobiography, but later everyone found that there are some fictions and some concealments in the book, so it may be more appropriate to call it autobiographical literature or autobiographical novel.
"The Song of the Sheep: My Recollection" by Kato Monday
But then again, when people recall their lives, they must think of them in a literary way, that is, in a selective, focused, romantic way, rather than in a historical way, that is, in an objective, calm, and precise way, so it is worth saying that all autobiographies are autobiographical novels.
The source of the title of the book, Kato said on Monday, is that he belongs to the sheep, and the second is because he has a lot in common with the docile character of the sheep. The sheep is just a head, and the sheep-like personality is probably the focus.
His self-evaluation is the average State of the Japanese, and the afterword says that such Japanese people are "neither fat nor thin; neither rich nor poor." Linguistically and intellectually, half Japanese, mixed with half Western; religiously, neither God nor Buddha; for the affairs of the world, there is no Qingyunzhi for self-questioning; for moral values, there has always been only a theory of relativity."
However, the average is not equal to the majority, and considering the era he experienced, there are probably not many people like him. When the social atmosphere tends to be extreme, the average state often means minority.
Being like a sheep also means being more like a woman than a man.
The author said that he "gave up from the beginning the so-called arrogant and arrogant habit of using strength and power to oppress and restrain others with strength", which are "things with masculine characteristics", compared to all things that are "feminine".
This book is said to be a memoir, but it is actually written in the author's life - in the middle, not the end. "Song of the Sheep" was first published in 1968, and began serializing in Asahi Magazine two years ago in 1966, when the author was in his forties.
More than fifty years later, Song of the Sheep has been one of Japan's best-selling books. Some critics say that this book is "the most beautiful prose written in Japanese", whether it is the most beautiful or not we have no right to judge, but the Chinese translation published by Beijing Publishing House is indeed very good, and Chinese can feel the beauty of language.
For example, there is a chapter called "Highland Pastoral", in which it is written that the Ozaki Yuki family, who live in seclusion in the forest, play tennis with the author's sister:
On a summer afternoon, in the twinkling sun, the Ozaki family's daughter's skirt fluttered, my sister laughed loudly, and the sound of hitting the ball was incessant. ...... Sometimes I even have the illusion that the Ozaki family lives only for this moment: a leisurely afternoon, an elf-like daughter, a father who is left alone, a son who is preoccupied with running with the ball... This moment is probably the best time of their lives. It was at this moment that I met them; at this very moment, the westerly wind was blowing in the shade of the trees, sweating but feeling refreshed; at this moment, the clouds on The Asama Mountain were steaming and rising into the vast sky; and at this moment, the mountain rain was coming, but we were enjoying a moment of peace in this forgotten mountain village.
Why a moment of peace? Because it was the end of the 1930s, Japan's war of aggression against China had begun.
However, just as playing tennis with a neighbor's house is only a temporary peace in a chaotic world, such beautiful words are only a breathing place for readers in "Song of the Sheep", as a sheep, living in twentieth-century Japan is destined to be very depressing.
In "The Song of the Sheep," Kato writes on Monday about his father, who reads the newspaper carefully every morning and often makes some remarks about politics at home, unaware that what he sees in the newspaper is censored and selected, or that the opinions he expresses may conflict with each other.
Kato said, "In his world, there is no relationship between all the events and the previous events, they are all unavoidable and sudden, there are many villains in that world, and the decent are pitifully few, and the two sides are fiercely fighting, but the villains come and go without a trace, and there is no way to speculate on when and where they will do something bad."
In short, the general environment is that the country slides towards the abyss of war day by day, and the small environment, the people around it, are in this situation, and How should Kato, a literary and artistic sheep, survive?
02.
The world is not sheep's
During the February 26 Incident (a coup d'état staged by a group of soldiers on February 26, 1936, a landmark event for Japan's transition to fascism), Kato attended the First High School. This kind of elite high school, the campus atmosphere is certainly full of superiority, excitement, and collective strength, but what about Kato? The book reads:
I sincerely admired this way of life in Komaba (where Ichigao is located), and at the same time Fought back, both proud of it and laughed at its stupidity. Life in Komaba made me realize for the first time that all collective life can require abandonment, compromise, and confusion. In group life I learned how to protect myself, but I never learned how to dedicate myself to the group. Refusing to dedicate myself to the collective – justifying this idea is what I am dedicated to.
This passage very much reflects the temperament of "Song of the Sheep". Kato remained distant from the frenetic, lively outside world on Monday.
On the day of pearl harbor and the outbreak of the Pacific War, Kato had already bought tickets for Bunraku (a kind of Japanese puppet show), and although history had reached a point of disagreement, and although the light control began that night, Kato went to see the theater.
When I arrived at the theater, although the black lights were blind because of the light control, the entrance door was actually open. "Checked the tickets, walked into the theater and looked at it, I was the only one in the audience on the second floor... Looking down, there were four or five men sitting in the front pool seat", he also wondered if there would be a manager who would come out to apologize and refund the tickets, as a result, the actors came directly up, the curtain opened, and the puppets started.
According to the book, the actor "faced the theater without an audience, traveled to the distant Edo period, and transformed into a woman of the merchant family... There has long been no war, no light control, no Cabinet Intelligence Agency, but another world, a world that is hard to shake and impregnable."
What kind of world is this? The world of art, the world of literature and art, the world of sheep, not the world of wolves. But the sheep are just curled up in a corner, and the whole world is not a sheep's.
Kato, who experienced the 226 incident on Monday and heard the evolution of the incident with his own ears, said that when the mutiny was launched, the slogan was for the emperor, but in the end he was denounced by the emperor as a national thief; at the beginning of the mutiny, the leaders of the army praised them as endeavors, but finally beat them into rebels.
"I don't sympathize with the rebel general, I just see through the almost absurd cruelty of political power in the betrayal of the rebel general," Kato said, so he concludes that "stay away from politics, where sincerity is betrayed, idealism is exploited, and once it loses value, yesterday's loyalty immediately becomes today's rebellion."
For literary and artistic people, politics is too complicated, too weird, too cruel, they have neither the ability nor the desire to participate in politics, but the sense of responsibility for political speech will not disappear, more importantly, politics will not let them go, so the entanglement with politics often runs through the life of the sheep, especially when the times are changing dramatically.
Just after the 226 incident, Professor Tadao Yanuchihara once gave a lecture at Ichigo to discuss the Japanese political system with his students.
Professor Yanuchihara said that because the cabinet's military ministers had to be active military personnel, the army could use this system to paralyze the cabinet. Students say, doesn't the cabinet also have to be approved by parliament, and if the parliament does not compromise, the army cannot form a cabinet? Is it possible to continue to struggle without a cabinet? The book says:
"Mr. Yanuchihara kept his head down and stared at the table and listened quietly to his classmates' questions, when he suddenly raised his head and replied in a calm but firm voice, 'If that were the case, you know, the Army would set up machine guns to surround the council?'" The classroom was suddenly silent, and we saw a road to a desolate future of military dictatorship. At that time, it was clear to us that what we are hearing now is the last words of the last liberal in Japan. The significance of the 226 incident has been clearly understood, and at the same time I have clearly realized what spiritual courage and nobility are. ”
After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine, Kato was not drafted into the army for medical reasons. During this time, Kato still often went to the theater on Mondays, mainly to see Noh at Noh Hall.
He watched Meromansaburo's performance and said, "His voice immediately brought me into another world, a world without conscription orders, without food rations, and without national uniforms." There is no Bushido, no Leaf Hidden (a book about the spirit of Bushido, the title of which means to be loyal even where the monarch can't see), not even the three strings and elopement scenes, but instead stories of men and women, or killing people, or lovers, or a person suffering alone in hell. ”
Here, Kato said, he discovered not Noh, but the ultimate meaning of the word "drama." My understanding is that the world of drama, that is, the world of literature and art that he said earlier, the world of sheep.
As a Chinese, reading this is actually very complicated. Could it be that "literature and art", or "sheep", are also useless aliases? Of course, it is not wrong to be alone, but being born in such an era would not be a kind of self-forgiveness?
03.
Being a sheep does not mean having no attitude
The feeling of "outsider" has been throughout the author's life, at least in "The Song of the Sheep" is an image that is repeatedly mentioned.
Later, in Mexico City, Kato was caught by a friend on Monday to attend a party, saying that he was "implicated" by a friend, and he was reluctant to do so. The scene of the banquet, the book reads:
People ate and drank happily, danced wildly, laughed and shouted, and they were excited by their excitement. As the saying goes, when I went into the countryside, I also began to chat while drinking, gaging, and saying some scenes in four Chinese.
Suddenly, without any motive, without any reason, an undeniable, peculiar and clear idea appeared in my mind—everything here was meaningless.
All the people in the room, their excited expressions, their words, receded like a tide, retreated to the other side of the boundless, and became nothing to do with me. I immediately left the crowd and walked alone to the dark courtyard, the cool breeze of the night blowing on my slightly drunken cheeks with the fragrance of flowers, and there was an indescribable comfort in my heart... I realized that "going back to myself" — for me it was pulling out of "myself" — because at all the banquets, I considered myself always an outsider.
"The joys and sorrows of human beings are not the same, I just think they are noisy." Even, I feel that "myself" is noisy and want to withdraw from "myself". The outsider of "Song of the Sheep" can be described as thorough. But, can you really stay out of the world? The world of the world.
"Song of the Sheep" actually consists of two parts, the first is called "The Song of the Sheep", which is written until the end of World War II and the surrender of Japan, and the last chapter is called "August 15th"; the latter "Song of the Sheep" is written about post-war life, from the occupation of the US army to the sixties.
During this time, the author first engaged in the study of hematology, and later abandoned the medical profession, according to Kato himself, he "did not change from an expert in hematology to an expert in literature", he "did not change his field of expertise, but abolished specialization", and he was determined to become a "non-professional expert". Opposing specialization is actually a characteristic of literary and artistic people.
The penultimate chapter of "The Song of the Continuing Sheep", "Farewell", writes about the touching of the author by the death of a friend.
When he returned from the hospital and walked to the gate of the University of Tokyo, he happened to encounter a group of students who came out to march, carrying placards that read "Against Security," a well-known "security struggle" against the signing of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty, which is still important today.
Kato wrote, "I looked at the students who came out of the main entrance, and they couldn't move their feet, and some of them could be killed by the police and never come back." But I could neither join their ranks nor prevent their sacrifice, how helpless and how sad it was. All I could do was speak quietly, just as I felt powerless in the face of cancer, and I felt the same powerlessness in power. ”
Then he said, "I raised myself to be a bystander, but at that point, a doubt arose in my dim heart: Will I always be a bystander?" ”
Sheep are not wolves, but sheep are definitely not pigs. The fact that sheep cannot or dare not charge does not mean that there is no attitude and no action.
In fact, Kato Monday was not just a bystander, he did not take to the streets, he was also involved in social movements. What's more, when an atmosphere is in full swing, you are a bystander, an outsider, which is an action in itself.
Soon, Kato was involved in the abrogating the security treaty on Monday, attending various seminars, giving opinions, discussing with Maruyama and others, and so on, and the articles were published in newspapers and magazines. He talked to foreign countries at the time and expressed his views on television.
Although the security treaty was eventually adopted, Kato felt that these discussions sent a clear signal to both Inside and Outside Japan, so it was not in vain.
But he said, "The security revision brought me several friends and took away several friends from me... I've had easier conversations with certain groups of people than I used to, but conversations with others have become harder."
- Reading this, we probably won't be too surprised! If there is an accident, it is that now we argue that there are more cases of taking away friends and less of bringing new friends. Why? I don't know.
"Song of the Sheep" is rich in content, both these contents that are closely related to current affairs and many things that really belong to the world of sheep.
"The Song of the Continuing Sheep" tells about his travels in Europe, about Western music, sculpture, literature, and Kato Monday is not only a worried intellectual, he is also a tasteful and thoughtful cultural person. The book also wrote his love history, which made me confused and did not know who was true and who was fake, which was also funny.
All in all, Kato was over on Monday. The meaning of the person who came over is not that he has talked about love several times, but that he has sailed through the storms of the times, once sandwiched between the outsiders of literature and art and the sense of social responsibility, and does not know what to do, but finally went ashore safely and spent a full life.
I know that today is back in the era of high winds and waves, and many literary and artistic youth, middle-aged people, and the elderly have struggles, not only between words and actions, but also between words and no words.
It doesn't matter, read "The Song of the Sheep", imagine yourself as a sheep, do not do goats to be sheep, do not do sheep to be lambs, take it easy, being a sheep itself is a contribution to the world.
*This article is compiled from the 5th lecture of "Happy Book List: Infinite Life Book List Season 3", the main speaker Duan Zhiqiang, slightly deleted. For the original content, please move to the ideal App to listen.