Still time, stoic brushstrokes, kind humanity

Still time

Stoic brushstrokes

Kind human nature

——Re-reading Mr. Shen Congwen's "Border City"

| Li Dongxiao

"Border City" is Mr. Shen Congwen's masterpiece, which was selected as one of the top 100 Chinese novels in the 20th century, ranking second, second only to Mr. Lu Xun's "Scream".

Set in the 1930s border town of Cha Tong, it tells the story of the water boatman Cuicui and his grandfather, who meet and meet later, the two brothers, and finally wait alone. Due to its unique aesthetic art, this novel has an important place in the history of modern Chinese literature.

Nearly ninety years have passed since the author completed this novel, and have those breathtakingly beautiful images inadvertently brought you to tears? Reading Mr. Wang's pinnacle works again, the still time, the stoic brushstrokes, and the kind humanity in the book are becoming more and more precious, read it once, and remember it for a lifetime.

01

Beautiful picture scrolls, still time

"From Sichuan to Hunan, there is an official road to the east. When this official road approached the border of western Hunan province to a small mountain town called 'Cha Tong', there was a small stream with a small white tower by the stream, and a single family lived under the tower. There was only an old man, a girl, and a yellow dog. ”

The yellowed cover of the novel had been shelved in a bookcase for years, and had been turned over again—a tower, a river, a ferry, and a lonely old house. There is simplicity mixed with the cold, and there is a slight tragedy in the tranquility. It was a border town with a group of good people.

Xiangxi has never lacked vibrant scenery, with light winds, light clouds, clear water, and the border city is quiet and lively. "The stream flows down, around the mountain, and about three miles joins the great river of Cha Tong... The creek is about twenty meters wide, and the riverbed is made of large stones. The quiet water may be so deep that it cannot fall to the bottom, but it is still clear and transparent, and the fish in the middle of the river can be counted. In just a few words, the author takes us into a beautiful paradise.

Wooden stilt houses, red lanterns fluttering in the wind, bluestone slabs that glow on the foot, smoke over the old village, birds and finches chirping... The green mountains and green waters themselves are poetic; isolated from the world, it adds a bit of mystery. Shen Congwen himself said, "I am ready to create a little pure poetry." There is no war, no noise of cars and horses, mountain roads are winding, and water is babbling. Reading "Border City", we seem to be admiring the amazing Chinese ink paintings, and the beautiful world in Shen Congwen's mind is perfectly displayed. In that particular era, the border town was so peaceful.

The heroine Cuicui is as gentle and clear as the water of Xiangxi, which makes people hate that they can't hold it in their hands forever and protect them, avoiding the muddy things in this world. Grandpa is kind and generous, the people in the town are romantic and bold, and even the helplessness of the people's lives at the bottom is poetic in this place, beautiful and unbearable to blaspheme. This allows us to see the helplessness and sorrow of the Xiangxi people in the face of fate, and also makes us believe in a beautiful humanity.

Here, in the midst of the world, time seems to stand still. Of course, even if it is an unforgettable Chinese painting, the author's intention is not only to write scenes.

02

The art of forbearance, the art of blank space

It was a war-torn era, as the author put it: "This year, the painful struggles of my past, the repressed and unorganized countrymen's longing for love, were excreted and compensated for in this unfortunate story." ”

Perhaps, it is the purity of this place that makes the war turn a corner outside Wuling Mountain and Xuefeng Mountain, and the metropolitan disease has not been transmitted to the small city of Chatong, where love and humanity are completely different from the outside world according to the two, and it is still as holy as ever. However, in the gray social environment at that time, the author was still stoic and introverted, boldly leaving blank, and perhaps because of this, it was more able to stir the cleanest heartstrings in people's hearts.

Everyone in "Border City" has their own way of life, and has an unspeakable simplicity and piety for everything. In the work, Cuicui's memory of the second lady, the brothers' love for Cuicui, and the grandfather's unforgettable memory of Cuicui's mother all have a sense of human beauty and poetry. Even the courtship in it is the same, the love in "Border City" does not have the lingering pity of the world, where the love is "affectionate, stop ceremonial", holy, forbearing, mountain song-

Cuicui, who was twenty-eight years old, "felt as if something was missing in a mature life... Wanting to climb on a new personnel"; longing for a new life, "as if life were too ordinary to bear." So I thought about it: go down to Taoyuan County and cross Dongting Lake. And this is a vivid portrayal of the psychology of a young girl who has just opened her heart, full of subtle tenderness and sweetness.

She seemed to be a little lonely at times, staring at the sky with a cloud and a star. Grandfather asked... She was a little shy and said softly: 'Watching the water fight'. The simple innocence and shyness of the mountain girl were fully revealed, which made her feel like a fawn in her heart, and she was ashamed to say it to anyone, even the closest grandfather. This kind of inner fluctuation of the young girl who wants to say that Hugh is really moving.

Talking about love, the author did not make too much of a fuss, write psychological understatement, and talk about feelings abruptly. The pen end flows with the aria of "love" and "beauty", leaving the reader with a space for imagination that is constantly cut and sorted out. The language of the novel is not sharp and flamboyant, and it is rarely "horizontal eyebrows and cold fingers", and in such a turbulent era, it is not easy to maintain inner peace.

After the story is told, there are no earth-shattering deeds, and even love has only just sprouted, leading but not hair, point to the end, this is the master's superb art of controlling words. The taste of this, the reader himself is deeply experienced. That's enough!

03

Kind humanity, full of emotion

In this novel, even the border city soldiers and others in the old society are so kind and simple, just like the spotless landscapes and rivers of Xiangxi.

The old boatman can go to the city to catch the market without a penny, and he can bring home the wine and fat meat. The love of the big guy for Cuicui is pure and flawless, and the grandfather's love for his granddaughter is dead...

"Border City" is used to interpret love - the love of human society. Whether it is Grandpa, Cuicui, Or the shipmaster, soldier, sailor, or past merchants, although their identities are different, their simple, innocent, and kind characters are the same. And it is this beauty, under the oppressive social atmosphere at that time, often becomes poignant. The town was so beautiful that it didn't seem to exist in that world at the time.

Perhaps, Shen Congwen's border city is his inner world. What Shen Congwen did not write is the part of the world that Lu Xun wrote, where there is cold and vulgar, and civilization is lost. The way of life of the Xiangxi people that the author admires is to hope to rebuild the character and personality of the nation through the spotless Xiangxi.

All the chapters and sentences in the novel are so concise and simple, just like they were thrown at random by the river in the small town of Chatong, but they can make dazzling waves everywhere. As the writer Wang Zengqi said: "The language of "Border City" is the language of Shen Congwen Shengnian, the best language. It is neither sweeping and unrestrained as in the early days; nor is it as sculpted and obscure as in the later period. The language of this period, every sentence is 'drumming' full, full of moisture, sweet and sour, like a basket of freshly picked Yantai agate cherries. ”

The best part of the story is that the author designed an ending without an ending. There was no crying, no tearing of the heart, only silent sorrow— like the rain on a spring night, the moisturizer was silent.

The night is quiet and the moon is very clean. An old man, a girl, a yellow dog... The border city is gradually drifting away in the torrent of the times, and Mr. Shen Congwen's "Border City" will always remain in the hearts of millions of readers.

Source: Liuyang Daily

Editor-in-charge: Zhou Chan

Review: Gao Yu Song Pan