On that day, the enemy hit my village, and I lost my farmhouse, my family, my cattle and sheep.
Now that I am wandering on the Jialing River, I feel as if I can smell the fragrance of the soil of my hometown, the same flowing water, the same moon, and I have lost all laughter and dreams.
The river whimpered through every night, as if it were flowing on my heart.
- Duanmu Hongliang, "On the Jialing River"
Who is Tsubasa Tsubasa?
For many, the name is not loud. As Wang Furen commented in the book "Duanmu Hongliang", if we mention the names of Xu Zhimo, Lin Yutang, and Shi Jiecun, I am afraid that no one knows and no one knows, but if we mention left-wing writers such as Duanmu Hongliang or Luo Binji, I am afraid that there are very few people who know. However, "On the Jialing River", which was composed by him and composed by He Luting, can be said to have been sung all over China in that year. However, his hometown is not in Chongqing on the banks of the Jialing River, but in the small city of Changtu on the vast grasslands of northern Liaoning.
In 1939, when Duanmu Hongliang wrote this song of the Jialing River, his heart was reminded of his hometown that was being ravaged by the Japanese. He misses "the cauliflowers that have not been harvested, and the hungry and thin lambs" there, and the land where his ancestors have lived for generations. "The sky is like a blue glaze basin covering the night of the verdant wilderness", guided by the brilliant Big Dipper, which is the burial place that ancestors found for themselves, "the mountains hold the water, the water holds the mountains." Like a hound listening to the food coming from afar, the old man raised his sensitive ears and pressed them to the ground, listening carefully, only to hear a noise, flowing from the south to the north, like the wind, and like water."
Man walks on the vast earth, always looking for his own place. The meaning of the land, the meaning of the hometown, is the earth where the footprints of the ancestors of the generations have measured, and it is the place where the bones of the ancestors were buried into dust when they fell. So, "I have to go back, from under the enemy's bullets." I must go back, from the bush of enemy bayonets. Put my victorious sword and gun where I grew up. ”
This article is from the B08 edition of the Beijing News Book Review Weekly's June 11 special topic "For the Memory of Forgetting". More articles can be found at the end of the article.
Written by | Liu Yaguang
Duanmu Hongliang
01
Duanmu Qiren: Neglected left-wing writers
In 1912, Duanmu Hongliang was born in present-day Changtu County, Liaoning Province, his real name was Cao Hanwen, and later changed his name to "Cao Jingping" when he was studying at Nankai Middle School in Tianjin. In 1931, the outbreak of the "918" incident made the situation in the northeast tense. Duanmu, who was studying at Tsinghua University at the time, actively participated in anti-Japanese activities, and joined the Northern "Left League" the following year, after which he fled to Tianjin because of traitors and began a long wandering journey. It was not until his twilight years that he had the opportunity to return to his hometown in the northeast again.
In the history of Chinese literature, the group of northeastern writers who emerged and formed in the 1920s and 1930s is considered to be a group of people who cannot avoid when discussing modern left-wing literature, and Duanmu, as a member of it, is good at integrating his observation of society, thick emotions and delicate descriptions of the mountain scenery of his hometown, and his tone is both aesthetic and cold. He wrote about the water of The Heron Lake, mysterious and gloomy, "empty" in the thick fog, and "permeated with a withered paleness" in the moon. He also wrote about the grassland of the Horqin Banner, saying that the reason why the earth was uneven was because "it always has endless tears."
In 1936, after completing his first short story, "The Melancholy of The Heron Lake", Cao Jingping, who was floating in Shanghai, decided to give himself a pen name with the characteristics of his hometown: "Duanmu" as his surname, and "Red Sorghum" as a nickname for his hometown in the northeast. However, at that time, the public use of the word "red" would be considered "left" suspected, so it was later renamed "Duanmu Hongliang" as it is now known. The situation behind this anecdote of taking the name also became a common situation faced by the left-wing writers at that time.
Duanmu took the pen name, which was also suggested by Lu Xun, the leader of left-wing writers at that time. In Lu Xun's eyes, many Chinese literati at that time lacked sufficient deep understanding and empathy for the predicament facing China, and they either hid in the ivory tower to delve into mysteries or talk about concepts such as social justice in the abstract, but in the face of the real northeast crisis, they maintained an extremely "plain and rushing" state of mind. And Duanmu Hongliang, who fell in his hometown, the compassion for Cangsheng that transformed from the pain of the skin in his works, and the direct face of social contradictions from personal observation, undoubtedly made Lu Xun praised.
Since 1932, when he was still studying at Tsinghua University, Duanmu had exchanged letters with Lu Xun. Lu Xun not only introduced the young man into the Shanghai literary scene, which was not friendly to newcomers, helped him publish articles, but also inspired him to write his most famous long-form work" "Horqin Banner Grassland". However, when Lu Xun was alive, Duanmu never met him, which became a regret in his life. After Lu Xun's death, Duanmu successively wrote works such as "Eternal Sorrow" and "National Soul Lu Xun" to express his deep nostalgia.
As a literary leader, Lu Xun often organized like-minded left-wing writers to meet at home to talk about the current situation and literary issues. Along with Duanmu, who often became guests, there were also writers Xiao Jun and Xiao Hong. As Duanmu's second wife, Zhong Yaoqun, commented, literary historians studied Duanmu and cared more about the details of his interactions with Erxiao, even more than his works.
02
Two marriages: Did Duanmu fail Xiao Hong?
Duanmu, Xiao Jun, and Xiao Hong first met in 1937 at the "July" preparatory meeting organized by Hu Feng, and at this meeting, it was Xiao Hong who proposed that Hu Feng's original "Literature and Art of the War of Resistance" be renamed "July", on the grounds that the original name was "too general". This made Duanmu appreciate Xiao Hong from the bottom of his heart, and this sincere appreciation may also be something that Xiao Hong rarely got from Xiao Jun at that time. In 1938, the Linfen National Revolutionary University, where Duanmu and Erxiao co-taught, faced retreat under the threat of the Japanese army, and Duanmu and Xiao Hong decided to follow Ding Ling's Northwest Field Service Regiment back to Yan'an, but Xiao Jun insisted on staying, and Erxiao openly broke up from then on.
At the same time, Xiao Hong and Duanmu Hongliang were getting closer and closer. Among their "exiled youths", Duanmu's clothing and dress are different, often leather jackets with corduroy fleece pants, foreign atmosphere, and a breath of uninhibitedness. Other writers often talk about him, but Xiao Hong loves Duanmu's self-styled freedom. During his travels to Xi'an with Ding Ling, Xiao Hong often followed Duanmu to his favorite forest of steles and talk about the literature they admired. In June 1938, Xiao Hong and Duanmu held a simple wedding ceremony at the Datong Family Hotel in Wuhan and officially came together.
After marriage, the two inspired each other in literature, pairing each other's works with their own elaborate paintings, and jointly ushered in a peak of their own creation. In 1940, the two came to Hong Kong, and Duanmu created the "Prehistory of Horqin" dedicated to her hometown in the same year, while Xiao Hong left the "Biography of Hulan River", which also wrote about her hometown and made her famous in the annals of history. Duanmu always carefully cared for Xiao Hong's body, protected the aura of her creation, and accompanied this ill-fated and talented female writer through the last moments of her life.
Xiao Hong's death deeply saddles Duanmu, who returned to Guilin from Hong Kong, locked himself in "a haunted house" and spent six months writing the novel "First Kiss". The protagonist "I" and The aunt in the story have love for each other, but the object of this love projection is only a mirror image of the other party, and because of this, the love between "me" and the aunt is extremely pure. In this bitterness, there was his guilt for Xiao Hong's death, which proved how extremely pure his feelings for Xiao Hong were in his heart. However, there are also rumors that Xiao Hong left a four-word last word before her death, "I hate Duanmu".
In 1959, after being introduced, Duanmu Hongliang became acquainted with Zhong Yaoqun and registered for marriage the following year. Once, while sorting out Duanmu Hongliang's room, Zhong Yaoqun found a small locked wooden box, and when he opened it, he found that there was an envelope lying in it, which read "Xiao Hong's remains" - when Xiao Hong was first sent for cremation, Duanmu saw that a strand of her hair was exposed, so he carefully cut it with small scissors on the keychain, which has been preserved to this day. In the face of her husband's affectionate concern for his ex-wife, Zhong Yaoqun was moved to tears: "I understand his feelings for Xiao Hong, and I have great respect for this feeling, and there is absolutely no resistance." In his oral memoirs, Zhong Yaoqun indignantly defended the rumored "Duanmu failed Xiao Hong".
03
People to old age: rekindling creative enthusiasm
After the 1980s, Duanmu started another peak of his creative career with the help of Zhong Yaoqun. In addition to being a literary scholar, Duanmu also became an outstanding red scholar during this period with the writing of the long historical novel "Cao Xueqin". At this time, the end wood was over sixty years old. Without Zhong Yaoqun, this work may be difficult to produce.
Elder Zhong not only gave unique suggestions for his creation with his in-depth knowledge of Duanmu, but also strictly controlled his writing schedule and life schedule. Under the guarantee of sufficient energy, Duanmu's later years exploded into a creative output comparable to that of young people, which was amazing for a while. However, according to Zhong Yaoqun, Duanmu, who has amazing creativity, also has times when he can't write: when he encounters "directive articles", he is difficult, "if you assign him a task, he will not be able to write well."
In 1987, Zhong Yaoqun accompanied Duanmu Hongliang, who was already 75 years old, to Guangzhou to visit Xiao Hong's grave. In the autumn breeze, three sincere and passionate souls meet in time and space. Zhong Yaoqun read Duanmu's poem "Wind into the Pine" affectionately in front of Xiao Hong's tomb and swept Xiao Hong's tomb.
On October 5, 1996, Duanmu Hongliang died of illness in Beijing. According to his will, his ashes were placed in four places: one returned to his hometown in Changtu, Liaoning Province, one was scattered to bury Xiao Hong's ashes at the former site of the Hong Kong St. Stephen's Girls' School, and one was sent to the cherry ditch in Beijing's Xishan Mountain, where the legendary Cao Xueqin walked. The last one remained at his beijing apartment, by his family's side.
Resources:
"Duanmu Hongliang", by Wang Furen, The Commercial Press, August 2018
"The Biography of Duanmu Hongliang", by Kong Haili, Fudan University Press, 2011.1
"New Edition of Duanmu Hongliang's Works", by Duanmu Hongliang, People's Literature Publishing House, 2011.1
"Zhong Yaoqun on duanmu Hongliang's family affairs", Zhong Yaoqun dictated/Sun Yihan, compiled by Chinese Publishing House, 2015.5
Written by | Liu Yaguang
Edited | Sissi
Proofreading | Xue Jingning