"Sandalwood Punishment": a work that best reflects the characteristics of Mo Yan's creation

"Sandalwood Punishment" is a novel created by contemporary Chinese writer Mo Yan, first published in March 2001, which has aroused heated discussion in the literary circles.

Set against the historical background of the Construction of the Jiaoji Railway in Shandong by the Germans in 1900, Yuan Shikai's suppression of the Shandong Boxer Rebellion, the eight-nation alliance's capture of Beijing, and Cixi's hasty escape, "Sandalwood Punishment" tells a story of a chaotic movement, a horrific torture, and a thrilling story that took place in the "Northeast Township of Gaomi".

"Sandalwood Punishment" is a novel of divine character, with the Germans building the Jiaoji Railway in Shandong in 1900, Yuan Shikai suppressing the Shandong Boxer Rebellion, the Eight-Power Alliance's capture of Beijing, and Cixi's hasty escape as the historical background. The whole text is based on the enmity and hatred between the heroine Mei Niang and her father-in-law, dry father, and father-in-law, and the contest of life and death. The main characters of the novel are: old Zhao Jia who kills people without blinking, Zhao Xiaojia, a crazy and crazy fool, Qian Dingqian, a parent official who asks for the people's life, Sun Meiniang, a prodigal filial piety woman with a variety of styles, and a hardcore hero, The True Han Sun Zi Bing. Their five main characters are interwoven and interspersed throughout the text, making the full text full and vivid, so that the entire folk figures of the high-density northeast township jump on the paper, showing the reader the real scene of the real tragic and bloody horror of China's occupation by the great powers in the early 20th century.

Creative background

According to the records of Gaomi County, in 1897, Germany forced the Qing government to sign the Jiao'ao Lease Treaty, in order to incorporate Shandong into its sphere of influence as soon as possible, in order to plunder the rich mineral resources of Shandong's interior, in September 1898 began the survey of railways and the planting of road signs. In the winter of 1899, the Jiaoji Railway survey was extended to the area around Xihaoli in Gaomi City. In the process of exploration and planting, the Germans bought farmland at low prices and forced farmers to move their graves and houses, which was fiercely opposed by farmers along the route. In particular, Xixiang has low-lying terrain and the river flows in a north-south direction, blocking the waterway for the construction of railways, and flooding the fields with large waters, causing endless harm. In the autumn of 1899, the Jiaoji Railway began to be built westward from Qingdao, and soon reached the high-density boundary, where railways and trains, completely unfamiliar things caused fear among the locals. Ignorance of Western civilization has led to rumors that once the train comes, there will be no crops growing around for more than a dozen miles. The fear of trains, coupled with the brutal demolition of the Germans, led to a high-density anti-German railway trend.

On November 22, 1899, Sun Wen held a congress in Shengjiazhuang, and under the initiative of his organization, the anti-German contingent expanded rapidly, and the storm spread to 108 villages, and the villages and villages had leaders, who "milled gunpowder, struck the bell day by day, and gathered people to perform cannons." Each house has a broken pot to replace the gun." On January 2, 1900, Sun Wen, Li Jinbang and others led more than 200 people, carrying the flag and carrying cannons, went to the area of Hangjiabu to demolish 5 railway nests. On the 11th, Sun Wen, Li Jinbang, and others gathered more than 3,000 armed people in Zhangjia dazhuang, divided their troops into three roads, and once again went to the area of Hangjiabu to block the construction of roads. The Qing soldiers who were protecting the road construction saw that there were many people and immediately protected the Germans and returned to Gaomi County.

On April 9 of the same year, thousands of anti-German masses marched north from Shengjiazhuang to block the road, burned several nests, and prepared to attack the city. In the second half of the month, Sun Wen led the masses to fortify along the Liugou River and defeat the attacking Qing troops. Subsequently, the Qing army foreign gun brigade commanded by German advisers participated in the battle, and the masses resisted bloodily, and the struggle fell into a low tide due to heavy casualties. Sun Wen was hidden in Shengjiazhuang and Wangjiazhuang. He was later arrested on the morning of May 3 for betrayal by traitors.

On July 2, 1900, more than 3,000 anti-German masses gathered on the banks of the Liugou River, continued to block the road, and prepared to attack the city and rescue Sun Wen. Hu Jinggui, a member of the Qing Dynasty, saw that the people's morale was surging and unstoppable, so he killed Sun Wen north of the Dashi Bridge outside the east gate of the city.

Sun Wen was killed, and the Qing court ordered that the body should not be collected. Shan Zhaojin, an old man, disregarded his personal safety and went to weep, prepared his own coffin and collected Sun Wen's body, and made a memorial text to pay tribute. The inscription says: "The imperial court made a contract with the Germans to build the Jiaoji Railway, and the soldiers were in trouble, and the people were ravaged. As a farmer, Mr. Li is simple and simple, self-motivated, and cannot bear to sit idly by. Remembering that Du Shui was in trouble, harming people's livelihood, entangled the masses, daring to resist, pulling wood, burning nests, surging breath, and the sound was temporary. "

Sun Wenkangde was killed and became a national hero in the minds of the Gaomi people. A bloody man was gone, and the steam-spewing train was coming. The white steam dissipated, and Sun Wen's story spread over the Jiaoji Railway. Mo Yan, who was born in gaomi northeast township, has heard sun Wen kangde from the old population since he was a child. In the afterword to his novel "Sandalwood Punishment" (which is also a opera work of the same name created by Mo Yan in the early days), it is said that as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the People's Republic, the story of Sun Wen Kangde had been put on the stage by the highly dense Maolu artists. Mao Cavity is a local drama that spreads in Gaomi and Jiaozhou, and the singing voice is sad, "especially the singing voice of Danjiao, which is simply the crying of oppressed women.". Mo Yan has been a Mao cavity fan since childhood, and in his childhood hometown, he often made cameo roles in small roles and ran dragon sets on stage. The story of Sun Wen's resistance to the road is like a seed buried deep in his heart, and in 2007, Mo Yan wrote "Sandalwood Punishment", a book full of deep memories.

Evaluation of works

When talking about Mo Yan's works, Bi Feiyu said that "Sandalwood Punishment" can best reflect Mo Yan's creative characteristics and can reflect a wild posture.

Bi Feiyu believes that the narrative philosophy of the novel "Sandalwood Punishment" has a very important influence on the structure of the long story. "Novels need philosophical support, and without philosophical support, novels are difficult to penetrate people's hearts." Through the shaping of the character and the progression of the plot, your philosophy is presented. ”

————Bi Feiyu

"Sandalwood Punishment" was born in such a literary time and space, doomed to the fate of controversy, its existence impacted the writing style and literary atmosphere that has become a foregone conclusion, not to mention that it has a sense of destruction in a rather novel language, of course, for the author, it is indeed a reconstruction of the folk language system. For the consistent folk nature of the book, the author is sober about its recipients, or the market.

Mo Yanzhi's involvement in history has a long history, and the historical complex that began to linger in "Red Sorghum" has been vividly exerted here. But the intervention of modern history I think that "Sandalwood Punishment" has written something deeper, that theme, through Mr. Lu Xun discovered, the master and the slave, the transformation of these two roles is the root of the play. That inevitability.

———— He Xiangyang

About the Author

Mo Yan was born on February 17, 1955, formerly known as Guan Moye, a native of Gaomi County, Shandong Province, and a famous contemporary Chinese writer. Honorary Doctor of Literature from the Open University of Hong Kong, Visiting Professor of Qingdao University of Science and Technology.

In the mid-1980s, with the rise of vernacular works, full of complex emotions of "nostalgia" and "resentment", he was classified as a writer of "root-seeking literature". The work is heavily influenced by magic realism. Mo Yan constructs a unique subjective sensory world in the novel, with a whimsical narrative and defamiliar treatment, shaping a mysterious and transcendental object world, with obvious "avant-garde" overtones. In August 2011, Mo Yan won the 8th Mao Dun Literature Award for his novel "Frog". On October 11, 2012, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

His major works include "Sandalwood Punishment", "Fat Buttocks", "Transparent Carrot", "Treasure Map", "Forty-one Cannons", "Thumb Cuffs", "White Dog Swing Frame", "Wine Country", "Herbivore Family", "Mangrove Forest", and "Reunion of Comrades".