Wen / Fu Jie
We Chinese love and even obsession with tea, which can be said to be soaked into the bones of the cultural genes, so that there are many familiar sayings such as "seven things to open the door early, chai rice oil salt sauce vinegar tea", "it is better to have no food for a day, not a day without tea", "a cup of tea in the morning, starving to sell medicine" and many other familiar sayings. It is true that tea is not only a necessity in our daily lives, but also an important part of the cultural construction of the Chinese nation.
Focusing on the study of tea, most of them are social science works, such as "Tea Empire: Asian Green Leaves Conquering the World", "Tea and Empire: How Taste Shapes the Modern World", "Tea War: Tea Transport and National Fortune", etc., while there are very few literary works with tea as the theme. As far as China is concerned, the writers who really integrate tea culture into the creation of novels, Teacher Wang Xufeng can be said to be one of the best, and "Wangjiangnan" is such a new work.
Wang Xufeng is currently the vice chairman of the Zhejiang Writers Association and a national first-class writer. He once worked at the China Tea Museum, was a director of the China International Tea Culture Research Association, and was also the leader of the tea culture discipline in the Tea Culture College of Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University. It can be seen that for the literary creation of tea culture themes, the author, as a special researcher of tea culture, has a unique knowledge background, which can not only explain the historical value of tea, but also excavate the literary connotation of tea. The "Tea Man Trilogy" ("There is Jiamu in the South", "Waiting for No Night", and "Building Grass for the City"), which won the Mao Dun Literature Award, is the author's classic.
Wang Xufeng's new book "Wangjiangnan" is the sequel to the "Tea Man Trilogy", which chronicles the pessimistic clutches and ups and downs of the Hang family from the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945 to the winter of 1964. This work integrates tea into history, not only a tea science popularization work, introducing the rich and colorful knowledge of tea production, production, storage, brewing, etc., but also a history of the rise and fall of the Hang family, writing the love, hatred, joy and sorrow of the various family members of the Hang family, as well as their different life encounters and destinies.
I. Group Portrait: The "Pain and Glory" of the Hang Family
There is no doubt that Hang Jiahe is the "talker" of the Hang family, not only arranging the thin things inside the big family in an orderly manner, but also responsible for the communication between the Hang family and the external world and the maintenance of human feelings, and is the "ballast stone" and "stabilizer" of the entire family.
Hang Jia and this role also reminded me of Wang Xifeng in "Dream of the Red Chamber", or closer, more like Bai Jiaxuan in "White Deer Plain". As the "mainstay" of the entire family, Hang Jiahe strongly supports the increasingly fragile family structure in the long river of time.
If the Hang family is compared to a tea tree, Hang Jia and undoubtedly the main trunk of this tea tree, other family members, whether peers or juniors, are "side-by-side oblique" branches. Different personalities, different life choices, and different ideals and beliefs determine that they will inevitably run to a very different fate. Among them, there are dramas, comedies, and tragedies, and in a small courtyard, a character legend and family epic mixed with "pain and glory" are staged.
(a) Hangjiawa with Haneda Leaf
Hang Jiahe is the spiritual pillar of the whole family, and Ye Zi is the "hostess" of the Hang family, and she is also hang Jiahe's xiannai helper. The two are brave and detached, and they can put aside the shackles of secular prejudice and "ethics" and resolutely choose to spend the rest of their lives together. From the annoyance of trivial matters of life to the impact of political movements, they did not waver or hesitate in the slightest.
I greatly admire and envy these two people, who can control the growth cycle of tea, control the temperature and heat of tea, and can control their "life and destiny".
(2) Hang Jiaping and Huang Na
As the second son in the family, Hang Jiaping was almost completely detached from "family politics", but poured his enthusiasm and effort into the vigorous revolution and construction. As a politician, he may only have "politics" in his heart, but there is no "home", for the affairs of the Hangzhou family, completely handed over to the eldest brother Hang Jiahe; for his wife Huang Na, he often "three times through the door and not enter". Of course, Huang Na's pungency and arbitrariness also doomed the end of the marriage between the two. The hasty union, the hasty end, hang jiaping's political success can not hide the failure of his marriage.
And the triangular relationship between Hang Jiahe, Hang Jiaping and Ye Zi is the "elephant in the room" for everyone. Fortunately, Hang Jiahe and Ye Zi have a deep affection, and the Two Brothers of the Hang Family handle this relationship decently, maintaining the "integrity" and "completeness" of the family. But I believe that Hang Jiaping's heart is still a little "difficult to ping", especially after ending his marriage with Huang Na, I am afraid that he still has some nostalgia for the old love, such as chapter 24 Hang Jiaping in the dialogue with Ye Zi alone, the sentence "In fact, the second brother has always had you in his heart, you are the most important..." has shown his true heart; the parting hug also makes Hang Jiaping feel "I am not numb, I can continue to live and continue to fight."
(3) Hangjicao and Luo Li
The beautiful and lively Hang Jicao and the loyal and heavy Luo Li were a loving couple, but Luo Li's identity as an underground party member and a series of major events such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Kuomintang Civil War and the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea made the two love more grinding, gathering less and leaving more, and even going to Yunnan together to pick up their son Hang Brown back.
Due to the sacrifice of the single-line contacts, Luo Li was unable to prove his identity as an underground party member, resulting in endless censorship and grievances, and even suffered repeatedly in the political movement. Fortunately, the two are stronger than Jin. This incomparably beautiful and tenacious feeling is the most powerful spiritual pillar for them in the years of suffering. The reunion at the end makes people happy and sad, how I hope they can "keep the clouds open and see the moon"!
(4) Hanghan and Yellow Banana Wind
Hanghan and Huang Shaofeng are brothers and sisters who are not related by blood, and the combination of the two is no longer logical. Life is playful and playful, faith-minded, and the love between the two of them is flat and bland, but it is also loud and vigorous. Among all the people in the Hang family, their love tests are the fewest, and the burden they carry is also the lightest.
(5) Hang Pan and Cao Jiayuan
"Just because I feel Junyi look back, it makes me think about Jun's dynasty and twilight." Cao Jiayuan fell in love with Hang Pan at first sight, and he was the only one who could make Hang Pan's teeth spring, just like Hang Jiahe was keenly aware when he first saw Cao Jiayuan - "No matter how well her daughter hides, she can't escape her life."
The tribulations experienced by the two lovers are no less than those of Hang Jicao and Luo Li. However, a wide strait separated the two people's thoughts, and more than ten years of time could not consume each other's enthusiasm. Cao Jiayuan made a desperate bet, drove the opportunity to surrender, and finally exchanged for the reunion of the two. "Lovers eventually become dependents", their marriage is a rare happy event for the Hang family in the famine era.
In addition, in the Hang family genealogy, there are also Hang Fangyue, Hang Forget Worry, Hang Dedi, Wan Luo Ma and other people, who are old or young, or steady or impulsive, or conservative or radical, and together constitute a colorful picture of the Hang family characters.
SECOND, culture: the "face and lizi" of the tea people's spirit
Su Shi, a literary hero of the Northern Song Dynasty, once wrote an article entitled "The Biography of Ye Jia", which condensed Ye Jia's life experience and praised the person's high style and brightness and indifference. This article is actually an anthropomorphic technique for the tea "tree monument", Ye Jia is the personality embodiment of tea.
Perhaps for another interpretation, Su Shi's article is also a depiction and praise of the tea people. They are indifferent to fame and fortune, quiet and far-reaching, and are quite in line with the temperament emitted by tea. As the author puts it, "It's not that I drank the tea, it's that the tea has already drunk me." "The characteristics of tea are attached to people and grow the temperament of tea people.
Hang Jiahe in "Wangjiangnan" is a model of contemporary tea people. In addition, there are also special tea leaves, Hangji grass, Hanghan, Hangpan, Hang Forget Worry and so on. The "face and lizi" of the tea people's spirit have been vividly reflected in them.
Hang Jiahe is one of the top tea experts in Hangzhou, and his knowledge of tea is as precious as ever. The familiarity of tea production, planting, processing and production is only the "face" of the tea people's spirit, and hangjiahe's noble personality is the "lizi" of the tea people's spirit, that is, the perseverance and high wind and bright festivals displayed in the face of power, and the ancient road of hot sausage and charity shown in the face of weakness.
During the fall of Hangzhou, in order not to accompany the Japanese to play chess, Hang Jiahe preferred to cut off a finger to show the wind bone. When he landed in the Wu family, Hang Jiahe still gave the prepared tea bubble rice to his nemesis Wu Sheng when he made tea and rice every year; seeing that Liu's widow had a difficult time selling property, Hang Jiahe still instructed his family to send some daily necessities when he was in difficulty...
III. History: The "Suffering and Glory" of the Fusion of Three Histories
"Wangjiangnan" has many characters and a large time span, covering many historical events and political movements with suffering and glory, such as the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the founding of New China, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, the "Three Antis", "Five Antis", "The Great Leap Forward", "Anti-Rightism", and many other historical events and political movements that have suffered and been brilliant. If the fate of the characters of the Hang family is vertical, the turmoil and social change of the times are horizontal, crisscrossed, composing a twisting and turning family epic, as the author said in the afterword, "The creation of this work, for me, the biggest insight is that I realize that there is no clear boundary history in the novel, especially China, this nation that has not interrupted the cultural context for five thousand years, some are just the history of the soul and the history of destiny of people who are endless between the dynasties, no matter how history advances. How culture evolves, how the world changes, how the heavens and the earth break, people's hearts and destinies are all carried out in a coherent manner, and the Chinese nation has been advancing in difficulties and twists and turns. ”
"Wangjiangnan" not only portrays jiangnan culture and tea people's spirit, but also soaks up a strong sense of home and country and humanistic care. The writing of the "fusion of three histories" of personal history, family history and national history has greatly expanded the sense of depth of history, as well as the vicissitudes of personnel and people that are no longer changed by the changing situation and the shift of things.
The title of the novel is taken from Su Shi's "Wangjiangnan Chaoran Taizuo", in which "Hugh thinks of the old country and will try new tea with new fire." Poetry and wine take advantage of the years" is probably the best expression of this kind of historical change, personnel turnover caused by the sad vicissitudes of the state of mind.
Finally, it seems to me that the novel has probably three fly in the ointment. First, there are words with modern meaning or buzzwords such as "light bulbs", "male gods", "handsome guys", "flower idiots", "girlfriends", "break away", etc., which are extremely incompatible with the overall writing style of the novel, causing language fractures, destroying the mood of the story, and even dismembering the coherent and smooth reading experience.
Second, there are many places in the text that excessively popularize tea knowledge, and the plot of the novel does not achieve natural chimerism, as if a paragraph of agricultural technology promotion is suddenly inserted in the literary plot. Although the novel takes tea as the theme, these tea knowledge science that is not very compatible or even out of place will still obscure the expression of the work and deviate from the normal narrative rhythm.
Third, some sentences in the novel are not concise enough, and they lack a temperament that is old enough to be skilled and comfortable. If you can further deliberate and make trade-offs, I believe that the whole novel will "go to a higher level".
But the flaws are not hidden, "Wangjiangnan" is still a work worth calming down and carefully considering; once immersed in it, you will fall into the sometimes fresh and wonderful, sometimes somber and sad world of fiction, and empathize with the characters of the Hang family. And the reading experience brought by the novel is also like tea tasting, "Takeshita forgot to say to purple tea, quansheng Yuke drunk Liuxia".
This article is a book review of Wang Xufeng's "Wangjiangnan" book, authorized by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House)
Selected Chinese books
"WangjiangNan"
Wang Xufeng
Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House
January 2022
"WangjiangNan" is the latest novel created by Mao Dun Literature Award winner Wang Xufeng in the past 26 years. The novel recounts the ups and downs of the Hang family and the fate of the characters in the magnificent social process of the nearly two decades before and after the founding of New China.
Wang Xufeng wrote about tea people and tea, and in the earth-shaking era, he wrote about the choice and openness, integration and progress of Chinese in the midst of the smoke and rain in Jiangnan; in the excitement of the times and the sound of wind and thunder, Wang Xufeng wrote a long and low return and swing back to the intestines, wrote about the aroma and tea nature, wrote the poetry and strength of Jiangnan culture, and wrote about China's demeanor, feelings and character.
The story of the Hang family is also a Chinese story, which intersects historical memories and emotional imagination, which is both a reconstruction of the passing time and an exploration of the modern inheritance of cultural traditions. The novel provides a new narrative of the upheaval and permanence of Chinese life and spirit, witnessing a century of China in personal history, family history, and ethnic history.
Good books in Chinese
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