Text // Lang Lang
Xiao Hong, the author of "The Legend of Hulan River", is a modern and contemporary Chinese female writer, one of the four talented women of the Republic of China, and the literary Roselle of the 1930s. Mao Dun commented on the "Biography of Hulan River": "It is a narrative poem, a colorful terroir painting, and a string of poignant songs."
"The Legend of Hulan River" is a literary masterpiece depicting the feelings of hometown, and the author writes a biography based on the Hulan River in his childhood memories. It writes about the most ordinary people and things in this small northern city where the winter is particularly cold, and vividly portrays the social scene of the Hulan River in that year, and the human feelings are cold and warm. It reveals the ignorant people and cruel things in the small city of Hulanhe, and profoundly reflects the cancer formed by China's thousands of years of feudal bad habits, reflecting the coldness and desolation of people's hearts. The hometown brings Xiao Hong the cruel nature of feudal society, as well as warm and beautiful memories. The childhood story of Xiao Hong and her grandfather is the warmest and warmest picture in the whole book. The short tenderness of the parents in the small city adds some warm tones to the hometown. Feng's crooked mouthed child, grinning with small white teeth and smiling clean and pure, is a symbol of hope and beauty. The author can't help but carry a touch of warmth on the cold tone, and through contrast, shows the coldness of reality and the warmth of life. Xiao Hong is a woman who came out of Hulan Town, and under the influence of Hulan's "cold and warm breath", she escaped, pursued, and grew, and achieved a life that belonged to Xiao Hong.
The picture comes from the Internet, invaded and deleted
Each of our lives originates from the earth and is nourished by the earth. No matter how long you live in the city, there is always a touch of nostalgia. Xiao Hong grew up and left home to start her life of poverty, turmoil, and wandering, and the Hulan River called xiao Hong in the name of her hometown, and she wanted to go home many times in the middle of the way, and various reasons never came back. Unfortunately, until 1942, Xiao Hong died in Hong Kong, cremated in Hong Kong, and her ashes were buried in the flower bed in front of the Lido Hotel in Repulse Bay. At the age of 31, he could not return to his hometown until his death.
"The Legend of Hulan River" Xiao Hong was created in 1940. On September 1, "The Legend of Hulan River" began to be serialized in the supplement of "Xingdao Daily" "Constellation", and on December 20, "Hulan River Biography" was completed, and the serialization was completed on December 27.
At that time, China was invaded by Japan and fell into the most critical moment, and Xiao Hong herself was entangled in poverty and illness at the same time. Xiao Hong's greatest enthusiasm in this life is her dedication to writing, even in the turbulent war and extreme despair, she still works hard. The icy Hulan River summoned her to write her childhood with the tenderness of her hometown and created the classic book "The Legend of Hulan River".
Hulan River is Xiao Hong's Hulan River. It is Xiao Hong and her grandfather's Hulan River. There is xiao Hong's grandfather's illuminated childhood, and it is worth writing this elegy with his life. "There used to live my grandfather there, and now my grandfather is buried", is Xiao Hong's eternal home.
The weather in Hulan River is cold, the people are indifferent, and the yard is desolate. But the grandfather's love was warm, the bees in the back garden were buzzing very lively, the flowers were blooming warmly, the rice cake that had just come out of the pot in Feng Crooked's mouth was steaming, his younger son's smile was the purest, and the small white teeth that could not be hidden were a light in the dark feudal society. This light will not fade away because of the end of "The Legend of Hulan River", but will continue to illuminate the town of Hulan and illuminate the people in the town of Hulan. The author uses this light to carry the spiritual sustenance for a better life in the future.
First, the cold and desolate Hulan River
(1) The biting wind blows cold people's hearts
Hulan. A small county in northern China, it is located about 30 miles northeast of Harbin in Heilongjiang Province. Because the Hulan River, a tributary of the Songhua River, flows through the town, it is named "Hulan River".
The scroll of "The Legend of Hulan River" unfolded in the cold wind, and the severe cold broke the earth. "It was so cold, the ground cracked and swallowed my buns." The open-minded old man in the book knows that the steamed bun has been taken away, but he jokes indifferently. According to the article, the harsh winter sealed off the earth, and the earth was full of cracks. There are a few feet long, a long one, and a few long mouths. Just think, it is not impossible that the steamed bun fell to the ground and was "eaten" by the earth.
Under the cold and ignorant feudal thinking at that time, society would "eat" people, so why is it strange that the earth swallows a steamed bun? Compared with the cold weather of the Hulan River, the indifference of people's hearts is the coldness of the bones. One can destroy with one's own hands a life that is waiting to be released, and watch the daughter-in-law of the neighbor suffer inhuman torture, and the life is consumed little by little. The coldness of the human heart is like the roaring north wind.
In the tragic story of the little reunion daughter-in-law being "eaten" alive, there is endless indifference, ignorance, and ignorance. The little reunion daughter-in-law was tortured to death in full view of everyone. The tumor of feudal thought is like an invisible knife, through the hands of the old Hu family's mother-in-law, the mouths of the spectators, and the small reunion daughter-in-law is "hacked to death with a random knife", which is outrageous.
The chapter "Little Reunion Daughter-in-Law" is arranged in the book after "Desolate Courtyard", which is the fifth chapter. As the reader crosses the desolate courtyard and accompanies the little reunion daughter-in-law to the end, her heart quickly freezes into ice. Presumably the reader's emotions are turning the tide and the sea, anger? Stranglehold? I really want to hit people!
If the little reunion daughter-in-law is a woman who "married from other places", there is no parents to accompany her alone in the Hulan River, and her relatives help each other, and it is excusable to be lonely and helpless. Then Xiao Hong's childhood, living in a big family is also lonely, obviously she has not been able to completely escape the invasion of feudal and decadent ideas.
However, strong and bold as Xiao Hong, she finally broke free of some constraints and walked out of Hulan. The stubborn breath in the text is fresh, simple and powerful. The cold of the weather contrasts strongly with the warmth of my grandfather, and all life is worthy of gentleness, and all tenderness will melt into the blood and become the foundation of life.
(2) The "coldness" of relatives is an eternal wound
Xiao Hong, surnamed Zhang, was born on June 1, 1911, and his scientific name was Zhang Xiuhuan. In 1916, she changed her academic name to Zhang Yingying. The day Xiao Hong was born was the Lunar Dragon Boat Festival, and it was originally a great joy for the Zhang family to be happy to have thousands of gold, but at that time, feudal superstitions said that the Dragon Boat Festival was Qu Yuan's sacrifice day, and it was an unlucky thing to be born on that day. Coupled with the deep-rooted idea of "son preference", Xiao Hong's arrival is bound to be less joyful for the elders in the family. Including parents, especially grandmother Fan Shi is the most unhappy.
Grandmother Fan herself was deeply influenced by feudal ideas, the idea of son preference was particularly serious, and Xiao Hong was born on an "unlucky day". As the first child in the family, originally carrying Fan's great hope of continuing the incense, Xiao Hongsheng was born as a daughter, and he was not valued. Fan Shi put his heart and love on his younger brothers.
In addition, "grandfathers don't manage money very well, and all household chores are managed by grandmothers." Grandfather was idle all day long, and grandmother did not assign him any work...". It can be seen that the grandmother's status at home is far above that of the grandfather, even if the grandfather loves Xiao Hong, it cannot change the grandmother's attitude towards Xiao Hong.
It is a pity that there is no description of the author being loved by his parents in the whole book, and there is no warm picture of being spoiled in the arms of his parents. Xiao Hong's mother was a traditional woman who opposed women's reading. Xiao Hong began school at the age of 9 after her mother's death. The school age at that time was the same as it is now, and it was also 6 years old. Girls are extremely unpopular with the old social atmosphere, and only raise their daughters roughly. Not to mention that Xiao Hong's biological mother died early, and her stepmother would not be too intimate.
Xiao Hong said in the article "Fragments of Feelings": "My mother does not love me very much, but she is always a mother. She was sick for three days, at the end of July, and many doctors came...".
Her mother did not love Xiao Hong very much, and her father was not close to Xiao Hong. Especially after the death of his mother, his father's temperament suddenly became rude and violent, and he had no patience for people, especially for Xiao Hong. Perhaps these are the reasons why Xiao Hong's perception of "human feelings" is very "cold".
Xiao Hong is insecure in love, and in her love with Sanlang in her work "Shangshi Street", her passivity is revealed. Sanlang is the warmth she encounters after she leaves home, and this warmth makes her dependent and inseparable. When he was a child, he was afraid of losing his grandfather, and after meeting Sanro, he was afraid of losing his lover. Childhood life made Xiao Hong often suffer from gains and losses when she grew up, and she had no sense of security.
Xiao Hong's later path to study was blocked by his father, and he despotically promised Xiao Hong a family, and finally Xiao Hong broke off relations with the family, all of which were under the arbitrary control of her father, and there was almost no friendship between father and daughter. Because of the "coldness" of the people closest to her, it directly affected her to produce "rebellion". Home, in Xiao Hong's heart, was desolate.
(iii) A desolate home, filled with loneliness
In the chapter "Desolate Courtyard", Xiao Hong repeatedly wrote: "My yard is desolate", "My home is desolate", "Wind and rain, this yard is very desolate." It is a sunny day, and how much of the sun shines above this yard is as desolate as it is."
The author's description of the courtyard is overall illuminated by desolation and ruin. The rusty iron plow sleeping next to the trough closely describes the vicissitudes and brokenness of the years. "It is iron in essence, but it has fallen to this day, it is completely like it is made of yellow mud, like it is going to be paralyzed... If this ploughshare is a human being, it must cry with tears: 'My physique is better than all of you. This period is like a foreshadowing of Xiao Hong's life course, she was originally born in a rich family, the beginning was originally "physically" very good, but later she died in poverty and illness at a young age, in turmoil.
The desolate home is full of loneliness. Even if there are tenants living in the courtyard such as pigs, powder houses, grinders, and cars, it is reasonable to have a lot of life and be lively. But Xiao Hong felt desolate and silent, perhaps from the loneliness in her heart. Xiao Hong is lonely, she did not have a good playmate in her childhood, and she lacked the love of her parents.
Despite this, Xiao Hong lived a warm life, and fortunately, in her life, the heavens lit a lamp for her, that is, her grandfather. Xiao Hong and her grandfather are in the back garden, and they have a beautiful story exclusive to them. In Hulanhe, because there is a grandfather, a back garden, and a taste of hometown, Xiao Hong recalls that it is not only cold, but also a little warm.
Through the text, Xiao Hong's image of her hometown and home is more or less the "back garden" and the spiritual home built by her grandfather. When she left her hometown to live in another country, home became a spiritual totem in her mind. Later, she set up several small homes, none of which were a stable home that could hold her body and mind, and she was lonely.
She wrote in the article "Moving": "I am hungry, cold, my stomach hurts, Lang Hua has not returned, how impatient! Not even a watch, not even the time. What a boring, lonely home! I was lonely and isolated like a duck falling from a well. Stomachache, cold and hunger accompanied me... What home? It was simply a square at night, no sunshine, no warmth. ”
Writing this text, she must have thought about the scene where her grandfather gave her roast duck to eat, otherwise how could she persist under such difficult conditions? Only when there is love in the heart can we love others. The harsh living environment tested her body, and the strong heart did not bow to fate. She does not do the old women who were bound by male power, but chooses to be brave to love and pursue freedom. How much bitterness is there along the way?
Second, the warmth of the Hulan River
(i) Grandfather's love
Xiao Hong's carefree childhood under the protection of her grandfather is the most wonderful and warm part of the book. Although "The Legend of Hulan River" is not a work that is closely tied to the heartstrings, it is like a prose poem of idyllic life. Walking into the back garden of Xiao Hong and her grandfather, you can understand Xiao Hong's attachment to her hometown and her reflections on the ignorant life of her hometown.
Grandfather, Zhang Weizhen.
Xiao Hong sketched his image through some small accounts, kind, humorous, and knowledgeable. Grandfather's love for Xiao Hong is overflowing with words, and his love for the author is reflected in every action and every word.
When her grandfather was working in the back garden, Xiao Hong imitated it. "Grandfather wears a big straw hat, I wear a small straw hat, my grandfather plants flowers, I plant flowers; grandfather pulls grass, I pull grass", "Grandfather crouches on the ground to pull grass, I will put flowers on him." "The red flowers, as soon as I came in, my grandmother saw it. She burst out laughing when she saw nothing and didn't say anything. My father and mother laughed too, and I laughed the hardest, and I rolled on the kang and laughed...". The wonderful picture of the back garden is a rare warmth in the cold and desolate Hulan River, which warms the reader's heart and also warms Xiao Hong's entire life.
Grandfather loved Xiao Hong and would grill duck for her to eat. There is a passage in the book where my grandfather wrapped the duck in the well with yellow clay and burned it for Xiao Hong to eat. I ate, and grandfather watched from the sidelines. Grandfather does not eat. When I finished eating, my grandfather ate it. He said that my teeth were small, afraid that I would not be able to bite, so he first let me choose the tender one to eat, and he ate the leftover one. Just a few simple words, vividly showing the grandfather's love for "me", portraying a warm picture of the interaction between grandchildren and grandchildren.
The back garden was sealed off on the days, but fortunately a storage room was found. Xiao Hong rummaged through the boxes and cabinets in the storage room to find out the strange things, and chased after her grandfather to find out. Xiao Hong turned over the old lantern, and her grandfather wiped it clean for her, lit a foreign candle, and ran around the house until it was broken; Xiao Hong didn't know what the post was, and her grandfather brushed it on the demonstration for her.
For Xiao Hong, her grandfather was a light in her life. Give her warmth, give her strength, give her love and faith in truth and goodness. Most importantly, her grandfather taught her to read and write, building a bridge between her bold pursuit of herself.
When she began to read and write after her grandmother's death, Xiao Hong felt sorry for her grandfather, fearing that he was lonely, and quarreled about moving to her grandfather's house. At that time, my grandfather taught Xiao Hong to read and write. Her grandfather was her enlightenment teacher, who inadvertently sowed the seeds for Xiao Hong's later literary development. This is the future Xiao Hong, which has become the pride of everyone in Hulan Town.
(ii) Warm colors in small towns
On the one hand, the people of Hulanhe are infiltrated by feudal and decadent ideas, ignorance, ignorance, and indifference, but on the other hand, they also have the simplicity and love of all the Chinese people, which is good to paint the small town of Hulanhe with some warm colors.
The warm colors quietly wiped by the author are natural and have a sense of light. It's like acting casually, and it's like a carefully crafted brushstroke. For example, the old man who sells steamed buns slipped and fell on the soles of his feet on ice and snow days, and the steamed buns rolled to the ground. The old man looked at the person who ate his bun and not only did not blame, but also joked that her bun was swallowed by the earth. Passers-by laughed when they heard this joke, and the old man's positive and open-minded mentality was very personable and warm. It contrasts strongly with the "cold" weather, creating a relaxed atmosphere. Proper image of the Chinese people, kind and atmospheric.
In addition, in the article watching the fire and burning the clouds, it depicts a warm and moving picture of family affection between grandchildren. "Grandmother's hand, holding the fly of the white horse's mane, used the fly to drive away the mosquitoes. The grandmother didn't know that the child was asleep, and thought he was playing there! 'Let's go down and play!' Pressed Grandma's leg numb. With a push of his hand, the child was already asleep shakily." Such a happy and loving picture, like the taste of grandfather and Xiao Hong, but the protagonist is not a grandmother.
Hulan River, people living in this small town have wild stage plays to watch every year. This is the highlight of the play, even the married girl must return to her mother's house. The three aunts and two aunts also got together. "Every family is like this, killing chickens to buy wine, laughing and greeting the door, talking about each other's homely things, saying interesting things, every night will be three more, lamp oil do not know how much wasted." Mother-in-law of a village abused her daughter-in-law; Which family's father-in-law will drink wine and go crazy; and whose girl will have twins just over a year after she got married; And whose son, at the age of thirteen, had a wife of an eighteen-year-old girl. Under the candlelight, a conversation in the middle of the night is really very warm and kind." Obviously, the wild stage play
What's important is not watching the play itself, what matters is getting together.
Killing chickens to buy wine, pulling homely routines, this is the taste of home, strong family affection, simple Chinese way of getting along. Simple, with love. Xiao Hong has been wandering all her life, chasing stability all her life but not being able to. In those turbulent years, writing this warm text, I think hulanhe is her hometown in the end, and there is a special tenderness left there.
In "The Legend of Hulan River", Feng Crooked Mouth, a humble little person, also has his glorious side. As a father, his love for his son is deep and powerful. Feng Crooked Mouth's fate was tragic, his woman gave birth to his two sons and died soon after, but Feng Crooked Mouth did not hang, did not kill himself, or lived well.
In the book, it is mentioned that when Feng Crooked Mouth goes out to do things and eats at the owner's house, or when the east neighbor Xishe does a red and white celebration, he saves the meatballs and braised meat himself, and when the table is dispersed, he wraps it in a towel and takes it back to his son to eat. For the sake of his son, he did not feel embarrassed at all, this is the hot father's love.
Reading Xiao Hong's childhood in "The Legend of Hulan River" is lonely, and the love from her parents and grandmother is limited. The warmth inadvertently left in her words may be the true feelings she longs for in her heart. She longs for the love of her parents and the warmth of home.
(3) Fiery life
The back garden is full of life and vitality. There is life here, and bees, butterflies, and dragonflies sing the praises of life. Flowers, cherry trees, plum trees, and elms claim the sovereignty of plants.
"The flowers bloomed, as if the flowers had woken up. The bird flew, as if the bird had gone to heaven. The bug barked, as if the bug were talking. Everything came alive. They all have unlimited skills, and they can do whatever they want to do. Whatever you want, whatever you want.... Butterflies flew freely, one would fly a pair of yellow butterflies from the wall, and the next would fly away from the wall a white butterfly. Whose house did they come from and where did they fly? The sun doesn't know this either. It's just that the sky is blue and leisurely, high and far away."
The author uses the perspective of a child to write about the vitality of the garden, bringing the reader into the garden full of vitality, where everything is thoughtful and lives according to their own liking.
Bugs and plants pursue freedom and live the way they like. How can a man easily bow to fate? The story of Feng Crooked Mouth, it is a hot current, is the hope of life. He lived a strong life, perfectly living up to the conjectures of his viewers. His children grew up day by day, even if they didn't look really obvious. But it is true that day by day, the big ones will drink horses, the small ones will laugh, and they will clap their hands. This is hope, the sun will eventually shine on the earth, and every life deserves to be gentle.
Life is like weeds, as long as there is sunshine, rain and dew, they will grow savagely and reproduce endlessly, as long as there are the minimum conditions for maintaining life, the instinct to survive, they can bear everything and let life continue endlessly.
"The Legend of Hulan River" begins in the cold, ending with "a slight grin, the little white teeth are exposed", and the whole book is finally accompanied by warmth and hope.
Just like Xiao Hong, although she did not collect thousands of pets in her childhood, there was always a light that shone for her, giving her the courage to move forward. Life is short, but it is lived passionately.
Third, a warm flower blooms in the ice and snow
Xiao Hong is a warm flower that blooms in the ice and snow, and there is stubbornness, tenacity and persistence flowing in her bones. In her literary career, she was successful. She is the embodiment of the small town of Hulan, which is famous for Xiao Hong.
So, is she free? Probably free. She chased freedom and lost her stability. But one thing is certain, in this world, even if she gives up everything, she will not lose her writing. Writing is her lifelong obsession, the only thing she is willing to do.
As a creator, she lives to the best of her ability. In 1933, she published her first novel, The Outcast, under the pseudonym Whisper. In 1935, with the support of Lu Xun, he published the famous work "The Field of Life and Death". In 1936, he traveled to Japan and wrote the essay "Lonely Life" and the long group poem "Grain of Sand". In 1940, he arrived in Hong Kong with Duanmu Hongliang, and later published the novella "Ma Bole" and the novel "The Legend of Hulan River".
Xiao Hong left these many works in her short life journey, so that we have traces of her story.
Throughout Xiao Hong's life, her childhood and the warmth and cold of Hulan Town had a great impact on her life. The "coldness" of her family prompted her to resolutely walk out of Hulan and go on a turbulent and impoverished life journey; the warmth of the back garden is the light in her heart, the energy she has to move forward, and the confidence to face a hard life.
As a woman, she lived boldly. In order to continue her studies, she resisted her father's order by "becoming a nun" and resolutely left home in order to break free from the marriage contract of the family. She came to this desolate world to wander, looking around for a stable home that could be full of body and mind.
When "The Legend of Hulan River" was created, the hometown was no longer what it was, and the Japanese army invaded and was devastated. Her Hong Kong had also fallen.
"The Legend of Hulan River" was a work at the end of her life, when she had "seen all the landscapes" and recalled that her hometown would always be filled with infinite tenderness, and in the social context of the time, it was also extremely helpless. Now repeatedly studying the "Biography of Hulan River", what moves people is warmth, and it is the strength of love that gives people a brave life.
How cruel reality is, how warm love is. Therefore, the warmth in "The Legend of Hulan River" warms Xiao Hong's entire life. It is worth her life to write this classic chapter.
In 1942, the red of the flames that opened in the decaying mud withered in Hong Kong.
"I will be with the blue sky and clear water forever, leaving half of the "Red Chamber" for others to write..... Half a life has been white-eyed, cold, and dead first, unwilling, unwilling! "--Xiao Hong
epilogue
"The Legend of Hulan River" reveals Xiao Hong's deep feelings for this small city, and her longing for her hometown is precipitated in the wandering, and she tells the world her feelings with the classic masterpiece of "The Legend of Hulan River". The layout and weather of HulanHe City, as well as the living conditions of the people of Hulanhe City, are recorded. The most warm and moving thing is that "I" get along with my grandfather, which is the softest tone in the whole work. The interactive picture of the grandson and grandson is warm and loving, making the reader relaxed and happy, and the heart is warm. The back garden and grandfather are the most important emotional cornerstones of Xiao Hong's creation of "The Legend of Hulan River".
Home, for Xiao Hong, is the existence of her grandfather. At the beginning of her perception of emotion, it was her grandfather's careful pampering of her, which established a sense of love and being loved. Compared with the snub of her parents and the contempt of her grandmother, her grandfather is particularly important in Xiao Hong's life. After the death of her grandfather, Xiao Hong had no motivation to go back, and finally chose to come from her hometown north of the north to Hong Kong in the south of the south. In Hong Kong, he wrote "The Legend of Hulan River" only because "in the small town of Hulan River, my grandfather used to live, and now my grandfather is buried."
Unfolding the grand picture of "The Legend of Hulan River", the cold color system of the base call, walking into it is indeed cold. But if you go deeper, you will be pleasantly surprised to find that there is a moving ambiguity hidden in the subtleties. As I walked, I didn't know when the warm light was laid on the top of the scroll, bright and righteous.
Xiao Hong, who is always young, wrote about the cold in "The Legend of Hulan River" and also depicted warmth. People, it is not easy to live, even if the smoke is everywhere, we still have to forge ahead, and gratitude always has a warm force to silently support. May everyone hide their own "back garden" like Xiao Hong.
bibliography:
Xiao Hong. Hulanhe Biography - Shijiazhuang: Hebei Children's Publishing House, 2014.3
Wang Chen. Xiao Hongchuan: Not Afraid of Separation, Only Afraid of Emotions - Beijing: China Overseas Chinese Publishing House, 2018.3
Xiao Hong. The Field of Life and Death - Changchun: Jilin University Press, 2017.7
Xiao Hong. The Legend of Hulan River - Changchun: Jilin University Press, 2017.7
Xiao Hong. Shangshi Street - Changchun: Jilin University Press, 2017.7