Writer and painter Fan Qian's latest novel "Ambush on All Sides" uses painting techniques to incorporate the text, so that the ancient songs and stories corroborate each other, and show the various ways of life of ordinary people in the troubled times in the dense text, arriving at the simple Chinese "virtual realm".
Starting from the plot of the novel, commentator Zifang believes that "Ambush on All Sides" inserts the first vision of "me" in the way of Huo Wentian's diary, and connects other characters with a character's affectionate vision, and the gentle river surface is thrown into a stone, and the ripples in the circle are the observations and feelings of "me", the inner world of "me", and it is easy to bring readers into the story. The text of this work also shows Fan Qian's strong ability to write scenes, realistically presenting the regional characteristics of Shanghai in a specific era, and has a strong atmosphere of market life.
Text/sub-party
Published in the Literary Newspaper on April 25, 2024
Fan Qian's novel "Ambush on All Sides" is like the plot: after Aru committed suicide, Huo Wensang, who was in love with his uncle and sister-in-law, was in a state of guilt, self-blame, and depression, and Huo Wentian asked his brother-in-law Xu Fanghui to take him back to Xixun Town to relax. The two brothers walked and talked, although they almost stayed at home, but they were well versed in the changes of the world, and Fumitian sighed that "generations are reincarnated, and the rich and the poor alternate...... The karmic retribution of the past dynasties is presented in the present world", Wen Sang, who has been in the ivory tower for a long time, does not believe it, and refutes, "Our Huo family has always treated tenants well, and the rent is only three or four percent...... The Huo family treats people with such integrity, where does the karma come from?" It was in this situation that Wen Tian sighed, "My fourth elder brother, don't you want to think about it, how can there be eggs under the nest?" This is the origin of the title of this commentary, "Under the nest, how can there be eggs".
As a long work of more than 200,000 words, "Ambush on All Sides" generally adopts the most "honest" chronological narration. The first chapter, "The Nest of the Hanging Horns", is narrated from the period of the Beiyang Military Government to the eve of the liberation of the country, the second chapter, "The Road Like Home", continues to be narrated to the eve of the Cultural Revolution, the third chapter, "The Sudden Night in the World", is narrated in 1966, and the fourth chapter, "Continuous", continues to be narrated around 1980. The narrative structure adopts the well-known "picaresque novel" structural style, that is, where a number of novel characters move, the author writes along with them, the so-called "a few flowers bloom, each showing a branch". For example, Huo's father (Huo Bingchen) and Dr. Xu have been active in Xixun Town; Huo Wentian first accompanied Huo's father for a long time, and after Huo's father died, he went to Shanghai and was repatriated to Xixun Town; Huo Wenhai's "reincarnation" revolutionary journey from Shanghai to his return to Shanghai; although Huo Wensang's family lived in Shanghai, their activities were different. The characters are not vagabonds, and the author's pen is like wandering. Huo Wencang went from Shanghai to the United Kingdom and then to Hong Kong, and Huo Wenzhen married to Wuxi and then moved his family to Nanyang, but the two lines were not launched. This is a matter of choice for the author, which serves the needs of the overall plot structure of the novel.
The narration visual generally adopts the omniscient and omnipotent third-person narration, but what is like a stroke of genius is that the first vision of "me" is inserted in the way of Huo Wentian's diary, and the affectionate vision of one character is connected to other characters, and the gentle river surface is thrown into a stone, and the ripples in the circle are the observations and feelings of "me", the inner world of "me", and it is easy to bring the reader into the story. Not only that, but even the implied author Fan Qian is also active from time to time, which is another major feature of the text. The text also shows Fan Qian's strong ability to write scenes, realistically presenting the regional characteristics of Shanghai in a specific era, and has a strong atmosphere of market life.
The novel is particularly successful in portraying the typical characters of typical times. After reading the cover paper, Huo's father, Dr. Xu, Wen Hai, Wen Sang, Wen Tian, Wang Shusheng, Xu Chao, Wang Hongzhen, Xu Fanghui, Huang Clam and other characters can still appear and play back vividly in front of my eyes.
The above is only the overall "impression" of the novel after reading, and the following is an attempt to summarize "Ambush on All Sides" with a few key words, hoping to investigate and explore some aspects of the novel with points and faces.
Ambush on All Sides was published in the Spring 2024 issue of Harvest Fiction Magazine
"Big River Novels"
"Ambush on All Sides" should be Fan Qian's first family novel, which writes about the survival of three generations of the Huo family from the period of the Beiyang Military Government to the end of the Cultural Revolution, which is one more generation than the novel "Tree Nest" by Wenzhou writer Dongjun.
Since it is a family novel, the characters are bound to involve two generations or more. Let's put aside the third generation of the Huo family in "Ambush on All Sides" (only the three children Xu Qing, Xu Hong and Xu Chao of Huo Wenzhu and Xu Fanghui have "scenes" in the text), it is not uninteresting to compare Master Ma and his seven sons in "Tree Nest" with Huo Bingchen and his six children in "Ambush on All Sides". Ma Lao Ye was a large landowner of Majiabao, and although he did not have an official or a half-title, he was the de facto ruler of Majiabao and "had the right to govern the entire Majiabao"; Huo Bingchen "once held a high position in the Beiyang Military Government" and claimed to be a figure on an equal footing with "Cao Shuai (Cao Kun) and Duan Shuai (Duan Qirui)," and his specific position might be "chief of the general staff" (as Wen Zhu said). In that era of wars and people's livelihood, economic strength and other "soft power" brought by it were the premise and foundation for the prosperity of the family, and it is no wonder that Master Ma can have seven sons, and Huo's "Chief of General Staff" has four sons and two sisters of "Pearl". Whether it is in Majiapu or Xixun Town, the birds in the "Nest of Hanging Horns" (an important image in "Ambush on All Sides") always have to fly out, and the children generally want to go out to the world when they grow up.
If "The Nest of the Tree" and "Ambush on All Sides" were to be translated into Japan one day, there would be a proper noun waiting for them: "Taiga Novel". In Japan, Taiga novels refer specifically to large-scale novels that describe the fate of several generations, but the etymology comes from France. However, on the basis of Taiga's novels, the Japanese created the concept of "Taiga drama", which is a long-form historical television series that includes family elements. Reading Ambush on All Sides, I was reminded of the short story "Taiga Novels" by the Japanese writer Hokudof, in which the protagonist is a writer named Minami Yajiro who decides to write something like War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, or Balzac's "Human Comedy" series in his lifetime. In order to make sure that he continued to write until the end of his life, he came up with a brilliant idea to keep the characters in his novels from dying. The protagonist's name is Yamane Hikozaburo.,Not only can't let him die.,But also let him "try to marry a wife who can have children.,Have more children.,And children and grandchildren can't die.。 There are more than 300 children and grandchildren in the novel, and Hikozaburo Yamane has not died yet. Minami Yajiro and the editor of the publishing house, who is in a hurry to publish his Taiga novel, can only sigh. But it's not that there is no way out, "endlessly, the last resort, to launch a world nuclear war, dear characters will definitely die." But—there is always a "but" in everything—according to the affectionate affection of the fictional character Minami Yajiro to his fictional character, "How can I do it." ”
Fan Qian
"Dahe Novel" is a satirical short story, and it doesn't hurt to treat it as an allegory, which is completely incomparable with traditional realist novels like "Ambush on All Sides", but I always think for no reason in the reading process of "Ambush on All Sides", from the period of the Beiyang Military Government to the founding of New China, more than 30 years have passed, after the Beiyang warlord melee, the Northern Expedition War, the War of Resistance against Japan, and the War of Liberation, the country and the nation have a lot of fate, and only the Huo family can sit back and relax, isn't this Nan Yajiro in "Dahe Novel"? If you don't want the character to die, the character can't die.
If a line is drawn on a precise date in 1949, only Huo's father (Huo Bingchen) and daughter-in-law Aru (Shen Yaru) died before this line, Huo's father is a normal birth, old age, sickness and death, but Aru's death can be mainly attributed to the times, the direct cause of death is the loss of stock speculation, and her death also returned Huo Wensang's free body, and the stock market crash was just in time, and she died well, and by the way, erased the moral debt of the Huo brothers. Or it can be said that due to the author's deliberate protection, even if the times are dangerous and the world is difficult, in the turbulent waves of the times, except for Huo's father's illness and death, the Huo family is basically safe.
With the death of Huo's father and A Ru almost at the same time, the revolutionary soldier Huo Wenhai opened the prelude to the second chapter of the novel "The Road is Like a Track", and soon the whole world changed its new look: under the overturning of the times and the "collapse of the building", the Huo family, the "warlord family", can still be left alone? The answer is obviously no, the real doom of the Huo family has finally come, and the writing of suffering can be regarded as the real prelude. According to the novel character Wen Zhu, it was "robbed", "She remembered that when she first came to Shanghai, she and Fang Hui took A-Qing to the temple to burn incense...... When she burned incense, she prayed to the Buddha to bless her with a smooth life and a safe family. Only now do we know that the world has been turned upside down and people are uncertain. Even if it's a Buddha, he can't even protect himself, let alone bless her. So what is "robbery"? It is expressed in the novel, "Robbery is a kind of inescapable fate, destined in the past life, and received in this life." Lurking quietly in life, when it appears without warning, often like a thunderbolt in front of your eyes when you are unprepared. The robbery is disorderly and random...... How many people realize that the catastrophe will be calmed, dissolved, and forgotten, but the catastrophe will definitely come again, and it will appear unexpectedly with a new look, and we are always caught off guard. This is not only Wenzhu's intuitive summary of the various encounters of the Huo family in the last 20 years, but also implies the author's sigh and emotion about the impermanence of the world.
"Ambush on all sides"
On the bright side, if there was no such one, Fan Qian's novel would not have been called "Ambush on All Sides".
The next son is Huo Wentian, who has suffered from severe asthma since he was a child, and his face is blue when he gasps, and he only has air out but no air in. His eyes rolled and his hands and feet twitched, as if he was about to fall to the ground and die. Relying on imported German sprays, he was rescued from the ghost door again and again. Of course, this sick look can't go out to school, so the Huo family invited Mr. Private School to study at home. However, this young man Huo Wentian is the smartest of the children in the family, he can memorize 300 poems of the Tang Dynasty at the age of seven, and read all the sons of 100 schools at the age of nine. He didn't have a teacher to play the pipa well. A ten-year-old boy, weak and invincible, played a pipa solo "ambush on all sides", but he heard the famous pipa teacher Liu Shouchun burst into tears, and said that this child is a genius, and the future of music is immeasurable.
Looking at the full text, there are only three places where the famous pipa song "Ambush on Ten Sides" is mentioned, in addition to the above one, the rest are Huo Wentian playing "Ambush on Ten Sides" for Huo's father on his deathbed, and at the end of the novel, it is mentioned that Wentian lives by the water all the year round and suffers from rheumatoid arthritis, and his fingers are not dexterous, so he can't play "Ambush on All Sides" well.
As mentioned in the quotation, Wentian's performance of "Ambush on Ten Sides" once "made the famous pipa master Liu Shouchun burst into tears", but Liu Shouchun's original intention was to accept Wentian "as the successor of the mantle", and the reason why "tears filled his eyes" was of course due to the factors "brought in" by the content played in "Ambush on All Sides" ("Ambush on All Sides" adopted a narrative expression technique), but it was more out of cherishing talents and loving talents, "This child is a genius, and the future of music is immeasurable." But Huo's father is different, which can be seen from his reaction after closing his eyes and listening to Wentian's playing. He knew very well that this was the last time he heard his son play "Ambush on All Sides" in his life, and we can imagine that if he was not terminally ill, he danced and sang "Chu...... The overlord of Chu had no face to see Jiangdong's father...... Self-slaughtering Wujiang, the pain in my heart. I, I, I ......" is not known.
There is no "if". In Wentian's field of vision, Huo's father "sat upright in a rattan chair, motionless, like a mummy". When everyone carried Huo's father to the dining room and sat down, he refused to eat, and only explained his "last words", that is, the above-mentioned "Chu Overlord has no face to see Jiangdong's father and ......". "Before he finished speaking, his body was crooked, and he fell on the dining table", and never spoke again, "At five o'clock in the morning of the next day, the soul returned to the void." It can be seen that "the overlord of Chu has no face to see Jiangdong's father and ......" is equivalent to Huo's father's deathbed speech of appreciating Wentian's pipa solo "Ambush on All Sides", and thus it has become his "atypical" last words.
In fact, this is Huo's father's "words and ambitions". Let's not forget the scene when Huo's father heard that "Wenhai and some radicals in society have been secret" and immediately rushed to Shanghai to have a "heart-to-heart conversation" with him. Wen Hai fought hard to participate in the revolution, because "the country is in danger", and did not hesitate to uncover Huo's father's "scars" to support his views, "Many years ago, you couldn't get used to the Beiyang Military Government's suppression of students, so you resigned from your high-ranking military position, disarmed and returned to the field", and asked Huo's father, "Today's situation is not much better than that time, why don't you understand that I want to do something for the country, and come to obstruct it in every way." Huo's father has always concealed the reason for his return to his hometown, and reprimanded Wenhai for "nonsense". However, in Wenhai, "I am proud to have such a jealous and hateful father. At the same time, please also understand that under the dual attack of emotion and morality of his son's naked heart, "Huo's father looked lost", and had to tell the truth:
Of course, the students are innocent, and the government is also beyond the power to catch them, and all kinds of factors make a mistake, and the situation becomes irreparable. For this reason, Cao Shuai, Duan Shuai and I did not shirk responsibility. Cao and Duan, the two marshals, have been vegetarians and recited Buddha since then, and I cut my robe and quit the army, and stayed away from power, all of which are a kind of compensation for my failure to fulfill my duties.
At this point, Huo's father retreated bravely from the high position of the Beiyang Military Government and lived in a corner (his hometown town) to pass away the remnants of his life. However, Huo's father was obviously unwilling, judging from the conversation with Wen Hai, how could he not agree with his son's point of view in his heart. "After a long silence, both father and son were a little moved", "Huo's father stood up, patted Wenhai's shoulder, and walked out of the door", it can be seen that although Huo's father spoke harshly, his behavior was like a loving father. Under the ambush of the times, Huo's father felt guilty for "not fulfilling his duties" and felt "the pain in his heart" because he had to retire to the rivers and lakes, and what was the difference between Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, who was defeated by Liu Bang's men in the battle of Qixia and thus "had no shame to see Jiangdong's father"? No wonder Huo's father almost closed his door after retiring to his hometown Xixun Town, and it is no wonder that he seized the opportunity to listen to Wentian's pipa solo "Ambush on All Sides" one last time before falling into a dying coma.
Huo's father is a prominent figure in the era he is attached to, and he is still unable to guard against the "ambush on all sides", not to mention all living beings. Regardless of whether they are noble or humble, individual human beings are born into the ambush of the times and society, and no one is immune, such as the members of the Huo family, and even more so the general public. In other words, although Fumita's performance of the famous pipa song "Ambush on Ten Sides" is only a small bridge in the novel (it can even be called a "detail"), if this bridge is missing, although it does not seem to affect the overall structure and plot advancement of this long story, it actually has a great impact. The famous pipa song "Ambush on All Sides" is not only a concrete object in the novel, but also a symbol with far-reaching meaning.
"Horn's Nest"
The image of "The Nest of Hanging Horns" first appeared before the first chapter of "Ambush on All Sides", "The Nest of Hanging Horns", and as far as the narrative of the novel is concerned, it first appeared in the eyes of outsiders, namely "Master Fei, a feng shui master who is famous in Huzhou". "Mr. Feng Shui" is also a person, and how is the "earth", "personality" and "heavenly character", but he only expressed it without a conclusion, and it is estimated that he bluffed Master Huo a lot. Although after all, he was a person who came over in the wind and waves, and his "expression did not move at all", but "a green tendon on his temple throbbed" still could not escape Master Fei's poisonous eyes. Master Fei visited Huo's house for the second time during the day, but he only "pondered for a long time and didn't say a word", until he woke up in the middle of the night and went to Huo's house alone, and then "seemed to have an understanding, but there was still a thin layer that couldn't be penetrated". Penetrating the heavens, there are the following scenes:
Suddenly, a blackbird rose from the eaves behind the house, first skimmed the water, then soared, then burrowed into the moon's halo, and then escaped into the night.
The novel avoids what Master Fei's "experience" had after seeing this situation, but from what he said to Master Huo the next day, "The nest of hanging horns under the eaves of your mansion...... Do not remove. This is the substantive conclusion, providing a guide to action for the master's family, which shows that Master Fei has "seen a glimpse of the whole leopard". It is Feng Shui, that is, Shinto Tao is not enough to be humane, and if you believe it, you don't believe it, and if you don't believe it, you don't have it, as Master Fei said, it's just a personal "mental image", and "the mental image can't be explained". Although Master Huo didn't know very well, from what Wen Wentian said later in front of his sister Wen Zhen, who had married and returned to the Huo family, "Daddy told the workers not to move those bird's nests", it can be seen that Master Huo obeyed Master Fei's words and resolutely complied.
The "Nest of Hanging Horns" is naturally a concrete object first of all, that is, a bird's nest under the eaves of the Huo family's mansion. Bird's nest Bird's nest, naturally there must be a nest of birds, where does no bird come from. Master Fei's vision is the bird first and the nest later. If there are no birds, the nest becomes a desolate still life, and its meaning is impossible to talk about. The bird and the nest are inseparable from each other. Not only Master Fei, but everyone in the Huo family saw the same. For example, Xu Hong and Xu Chao sisters went back to Xixun Town to visit their uncle Huo Wentian, who was repatriated, and the latter sent them to the station:
Walking slowly along the water's edge, they walked to the opposite side of the Huo family's mansion, and the three of them stopped in unison and looked across the water. The upturned cornices of the mansion are reflected in the dim sky at dusk, like a set on a stage. There is a flock of birds circling on the ridge of the roof, falling and fluttering, and it will not disperse for a long time.
Another example is when Wen Sang came back from Xinjiang, divided the house and married his mother-in-law (with a daughter), but "the big ones can't be provoked, and the small ones can't be touched", feeling that he has fallen into a deeper desert, "life is pale and tired, fragmented, like an old house about to fall apart." "Maybe dreaming of returning to his hometown can bring him a little comfort.
As mentioned earlier, the three siblings Wensang, Wentian and Wenzhu were "invited" to visit the Huo family's old house. The reason is that the eldest brother Huo Wencang is "the object of the country's emphasis on the united front", and "the above decided to return the Huo family's old mansion in Xixun Town." Not only must it be returned, but it must also be repaired inside and out...... It is necessary to be authentic and satisfying Mr. Fok Wencang, who has returned from Hong Kong to visit relatives. As a result, the three siblings, accompanied by government staff, revisited the old house, hoping that they would recall "how the house was laid out in the first place, and what were the characteristics", so as to help the renovation work be targeted.
This is true both in reality and in dreams. We don't know how many horned nests there are under the eaves of Huo's house, and we don't know if the "blackbird" we saw is still the magpie that Wen Tian saw when he told Wen Zhen that "Daddy told the workers not to move those nests". In response to what Master Fei said to Master Huo back then, "Watching the sky at night, the stars are intricate, and the wind and clouds are changing, which is really weird and indistinguishable." "The heavens are like this, and so are the horned nests.
The author arranges for a special person like Mr. Feng Shui to pay attention to the nest of hanging horns first, and claims that "don't get rid of it", and the meaning is more than just as literally presented. The nest of hanging horns is an important image throughout the novel, and its crumbling but ultimately unfailing image is a true portrayal of the turbulent fate of the Huo family in the turmoil of the times, and the mysterious bird that flies out of the nest of hanging horns and its unknowable ending can be compared to the complex and tortuous lives of the members of the Huo family who are wandering outside. As long as the nest of hanging horns is still there, even if the Huo family is covered in the waves and sands of the times, the hope of life will always continue. As the novel says, "Ten years have passed, and everything is finally calm." Just like Wenzhu originally planned to go to Xixun Town to visit Wentian, but by mistake ran to Suzhou, and when he came back, he already "looked calm, and his behavior and speech were quite normal". "I know my sister won't come back", she finally got rid of the ten-year dream of still getting along with her imaginary daughter Xu Chao, in Wentian's view, "Ten years later, the little sister Wenzhu finally got out of the pain of losing her daughter and returned to a normal life", "This deep and long wound finally scarred, although it still throbbed from time to time." ”
Because the nest of hanging horns is still there, the warmth of humanity is still lost in the cold current of the times. The same is true of the young long-distance bus ticket seller who inadvertently healed Wenzhu's pain, as is the former Huo family's cook Ah Xiang, her son Changgen, and granddaughter Anitou, and even more so the eldest sister of the Xu family, who never married and took care of her sick and paralyzed father in bed until his death. Because of their presence, the cold and cruel background of the text has a warm bright color, and that bright color, like a light emitted from the inside of the text, is faint enough, but it is enough to penetrate the reader's heart as if scarred by the hammer of the novel's narrative.
Manuscript Editor: Zheng Zhouming New Media Editor: Zhang Yingying
Pictured: Photo.com
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