The Biography of Zhang Ailing Author: Zhang Jun Publisher: Guangxi Normal University Press Published: August 2021
■ Huang Ruiyu
If I were to sum up Zhang Ailing in one sentence, perhaps I would say: "Make a living with your life, and be ruthless because of love." "As a pearl shining in the history of Modern and Contemporary Chinese literature, Zhang Ailing is unique, mysterious, legendary, and pitiable.
Zhang Ailing is an enigmatic writer. In order to study Zhang Ailing, many people are immersed in history, eager to restore the life behind Zhang Ailing's almost romantic tragic emotions in the clues. Zhang Jun is different, he started from Zhang Ailing's works, and the literature and history corroborated each other. His new book "The Biography of Zhang Ailing" presents a beautiful and realistic image of Zhang Ailing in front of the eyes of the world.
Zhang Jun is a professor and doctoral supervisor in the Department of Chinese and Chinese Literature at Sun Yat-sen University. In recent years, his academic interests have mainly focused on the study of contemporary Chinese literary history. He has created "The Red Chamber on the Sea", "Zhang Ailing's Fifteen Lectures", "Research on China's Contemporary Literary System" and so on. The Biography of Zhang Ailing is a systematic and summative work on Zhang Ailing.
As a senior research expert, "The Biography of Zhang Ailing" is "very unsightly". In the creation of this book, the author does not follow his previous purely rational style, but with a little tenderness. This gives the book an aesthetic atmosphere, which produces a closer temperament with the rumored Ailing. The world says, "A woman's talentlessness is virtue." Zhang Ailing did not believe this remark, she was a talented woman in the world, but because of her talent, she had the idea of not being willing to be mediocre. Her head was held high, showing three points of pride and seven points of indifference, and she coldly stared at the rolling red dust. Zhang Ailing is a legend and has become a symbol, but this book is not written exactly according to the symbol "Zhang Ailing". While studying her life, the author pays great attention to disenchantment for her image, for example: in the eyes of the world, Zhang Ailing is a woman who pursues beauty and pursues the wind and snow, and Zhang Jun tells us that even Zhang Ailing will worry about chai rice oil and salt, and in addition to romance, she can also see reality. Through Zhang Jun's faint pen and ink, readers can see that after the famous door, she is proud of herself as a self-reliant person, can see that she is sad and compassionate and can see the pity and ridiculousness of all sentient beings, can see that she walked out of the exquisite literary world but was confused and helplessly lost in the real world, and can see that she "stood naked under the sky" after she made the art of life... Zhang Ailing is eager to find her own home in the vast and chaotic world, but The Heavens have arranged for her to go to another possibility. Since Gu Qi was born as a teenager, when Zhang Ailing gradually completed her inner perfectionism in the form of loneliness, when she experienced the wealth of the young family but finally saw everything empty, this Kuang Shiqi woman finally truly realized the essence of life. For those "exquisite tribulations" that Zhang Ailing has experienced, Zhang Jun has gently depicted them with a faint pen and ink.
The book is divided into eight chapters, which exhaustively lay out Zhang Ailing's exploration of the inner world, her attitude towards perfectionism, and even her writing techniques. The method of writing with citations restores to the greatest extent possible a generation of genius and strange women for the reader. Behind the author's plain language, there is also an immeasurable tension. In this book, Zhang Jun chooses to use the timeline of Zhang Ailing's life to introduce her life background, and at the same time, he also reflects Zhang Ailing's ideological situation and life situation at different times by quoting her articles and collection paragraphs published in different periods. Through Zhang Jun's interpretation, readers can know that Zhang Ailing, as a woman, does not have any political factional position, and she is only proud of her own style. "The long is the tribulation, the short is the life." "Life is a gorgeous robe, crawling with lice." "Laugh, and the whole world laughs with you, and cries, and you cry alone." Many readers can blurt out these philosophies of life of Zhang Ailing, but if they know the story behind them, perhaps readers will find themselves with a little heartache at a certain moment.
"The Biography of Zhang Ailing" is a heart-wrenching book.
Of course, this book, like other biographical works, fails and cannot fully and completely interpret ai Ling. Some readers commented: "It would be better if the work were less zhang jun's voice, and some views are difficult to get people to agree." Indeed, "The Biography of Zhang Ailing" is written about Zhang Ailing in Zhang Jun's eyes, and this Zhang Ailing will naturally have Zhang Jun's voice. Perhaps this is also the reason why the author introduced Zhang Ailing's work itself into the book. From another point of view, the author quotes Zhang Ailing's novels in the book, and even speculates on Zhang Ailing's emotions and life based on the content of the novel, foolishly believing that although this practice is beyond reproach, it is inevitable that it will be biased.
Zhang Ailing is a poetic woman with fireworks in her hand, her novels are vulgar, but she is very detached. If the reader wants to feel this detachment, in addition to his own experience, perhaps "The Biography of Zhang Ailing" can bring us some reflection and emotion.
【Source: Xi'an Daily】
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