"The River of the North" is a novella written by contemporary writer Zhang Chengzhi, originally published in October 1984, and won the Third National Excellent Novella Award.
The text throughout this novel is very beautiful, delicate and atmospheric, and in general, it is a subjective lyrical way of writing, and the plot is to serve the feelings. While writing the story, Zhang Chengzhi pays more attention to the psychological and spiritual dynamics of the protagonist, in addition, the depiction of several rivers shows the great rivers and mountains of the motherland, and also implies that people's lives are like rivers, rushing and whistling, sometimes turbulent, sometimes quiet.
<h1>1. Huangshui of the Yellow River: Beautiful Encounters, Broken Lives</h1>
The beginning of the novel begins from the Loess Plateau, the yellow river, the valley of thousands of ravines, the meandering river, he faces the plateau, recalls the geographical knowledge in the book, and suddenly remembers that this face is called "meandering wide valley", facing the map and the earth, the knowledge on the book becomes a landscape to see. The boundless loess mountain hat and the rustic blue sky are all down-to-earth.
Although he graduated in Chinese language and was assigned to the Family Planning Propaganda Department, he did not want to engage in this profession, and geography was something he chose for himself to do for a lifetime. To this end, he came to investigate these rivers, always preparing for the postgraduate examination in human geography.
In the carriage of the truck, he met a female photographer, and the two accompanied him to the bank of the Yellow River. To her, he liked it. "I will definitely find my favorite location in the world". He told the young female reporter what he had in mind, and for this reason he was willing to give up his stable job, willing to learn a hard foreign language, willing to run for the river.
Everyone has a wish and wants to stay in their favorite location. Sometimes our choices are few, life is hurried for decades, and the things we want to do have not been done, they are fleeting; sometimes our choices are really rich, as long as we look for the career we love, do it wholeheartedly and wholeheartedly, and nothing cannot be done.
Who I am should only be decided by me, not by anyone else. In an era when college students obeyed assignments, giving up assignments was like a gamble, and after many years, no one could guarantee whether their choice was right or wrong. Rock solid, he is not afraid to pay for this journey for what he wants in his heart.
He swam across the Yellow River in front of the female reporter, and she was on the shore, filming for him the moment he walked towards the Yellow River.
She saw a moving picture: a noisy river full of red light was raging with sharply angular waves. In the center of the composition, a half-naked, broad-shouldered man is running with open arms toward the reckless river.
For a female journalist, this is a rare photographic work, for him, it is a thrilling journey. The water of the Yellow River was so powerful that it was difficult to conquer, and he felt that the Yellow River contained him like a father, protected him, and enabled him to cross it safely. In fact, he injured his right shoulder, and the pain was real. This is a tribute to the confrontation between man and nature, and it is also a description of man's coexistence with nature.
The two went together to the shores of Huangshui, the shallow loess mountains, the green wheat snow peaks, and the pleasant folk songs, all of which surrounded the two people and made people sink into a quiet mood. They found fragments of a clay pot in a ditch. This faience pottery is more than 4,000 years old, and the forest is depicted on it.
The girl said, "How unpleasant things are in the world, and life is often so broken." Facing this mutilation, she pressed the shutter.
He has a little understanding of the history of faience pottery, this is the Majiayao culture, no wonder this world is so mysterious, it turned out that thousands of years ago, this was once a forest, but now it has become a convex mountain, the rain washed away the ancient tombs, and the faience pottery flowed into a river. There are too many winds, frosts, rain and snow in the land of China, witnessing the changes in the world.
Antique-like faience pottery is left in fragments, which can no longer be spliced intact. Life is full of too many imperfections, but it is precisely because of this inability that life is real and picturesque. Put into the long river of history, everyone's life is just a speck of dust, and when the dust gathers, culture can spread. Nature records the footprints of human beings and also carries human memories.
This ceramic is like the life and appearance of that generation, they have experienced that special decade, they have been to the frontier, they have gone up and down the mountain, they have been confused, they have been confused, and now they are struggling to find, how is right, where is the hope, everyone is pursuing.
<h1>2. Walk alone on the Yongding River: In your heart, say goodbye to you</h1>
The night train is also like a river, not distinguishing between the head and tail, rushing forward, leaving both sides of the river behind.
After returning to Beijing, the female reporter threw herself into work, he carefully reviewed, he wanted to use the remaining one hundred yuan to go to Heilongjiang to see, but his family wanted to build a small kitchen, need to spend, he could not put down the current life, can not ignore his mother and brother, Heilongjiang travel can only give up.
The admission ticket thing was not so smooth, he wrote papers, found a supervisor, found an admissions office, sent a telegram to his alma mater, and was busy applying for the exam. His mother fell ill again, and he went to the hospital to accompany him for four days.
Life, how involuntary. It's not so easy to review with peace of mind. Family and affection cannot be ignored. Everyone is the same, in the cracks of life, looking for their own fresh air, taking a big breath, and then facing the specific days.
The reporter girl's photo was not successfully published, and she wanted to talk to him, but met his friend Xu Huabei. Xu Huabei is obsessed with art. In several of her photographs, she immediately picked out the back of the Yellow River and the faience still life. Xu Huabei wrote a review for the two photos, published them together with the photos, and he confessed to the girl.
He was restless, the girl he admired was confessed by others, and Heilongjiang could not go, so let's investigate a nearby river. He chose the Yongding River, which flowed through Beijing, and when he was about to leave, the female reporter appeared in front of him.
This was the third river the two of them had gone to together. She was too tired that day to rest by the river. He walked alone along the river. The river that splits the mountains northwest of Beijing into a canyon seems so calm and the waves are turbulent that you can't see the wanton emotions written in the textbooks. It turns out that this river, which is not at peace and whose bed has changed repeatedly, will also have such a quiet moment.
Life is not like this, there are strong winds and waves, there will be a trickle, no one can always be in the highlight moment, nor will it always hover at a low tide.
When he returned, he found the girl asleep. He wanted to embrace her a lot, but he knew that Xu Huabei could help her, whether it was emotionally or career, Xu Huabei was the best choice. In his heart, he silently said goodbye to this beloved girl. What selfish and selfless love it is. The reporter girl had been waiting for him to speak, but he never mentioned a word. For her own good, he decided not to love her.
Joshott house once said that the fantasies of youth are both fanatical and cute. He had fantasized about being with a beautiful girl, but these lovely thoughts had said goodbye.
There is a kind of love, not together, but to give each other happiness. Maybe this is the love of this life, to come to business. In this life, I only want you to have a happy face for a lifetime.
<h1>3. Dream to Heilongjiang: Walk on the road of dreams</h1>
It wasn't until five days before the exam that he got his admission ticket. He remembered that he had promised her to invite her to Western food, so with his good news and enthusiasm, he went to her.
She was happy for him from the bottom of her heart. In the face of many days of rushing to the examination, this result is very gratifying.
So many costs of life, so many tastes, are gently written off by this success.
People are always willing to discuss whether the process is important or the result is important, and only those who get a satisfactory result are qualified to say that the result is not important. People who only experience the process are also mindful of the result. It's just that people's lives can't be completed smoothly, just like the river can't be calm all the time, there will be dangerous beaches, there will be rapids, no matter what the result, calmly face it.
While eating at the dinner table, they heard a song whose lyrics seemed to have been written for them:
Both of us are put to the test
And who the hell are you
If everything will crash from now on
Then who was I again
She told him that Huabei had already proposed to her.
Before the exam, he received an invitation from Xu Huabei to an engagement reception. He thought that the girl had found North China, North China had found victory, and she had found the river in the north. Everyone found what they were after. Wow.
His love was so simple, not mixed with a trace of jealousy and anger. Youth may have regrets, but this young time, even clear mistakes are charming.
On the night of the exam, he came to Heilongjiang in his dream, he saw the vast land, saw the wilderness sandbar, saw the frozen soil and snow fields.
The hard ice armor was cracking and cracking, and the blue-black river water jumped up and pushed away the giant ship-like Iceland. At the same moment, a long warm current came from the snowfield.
This is the Heilongjiang he thinks about day and night. Although he could not see the real face, the great river had already taken root in his heart. In the dream, the sound of the river melting was so real that it merged with his snoring. He slept so warmly and steadily that night.
The window lights up, the morning light appears in the east, and the story ends here.
Whether the protagonist of the novel has succeeded in the examination and whether he has studied the great river in the north as a lifelong career, the author did not explain.
The beloved girl will eventually be happy, and she can still overcome all difficulties and walk on the path she likes in the years of youth, which is enough.
Some commentators say That Zhang Chengzhi's novel is a banner flying high in the idealism of the 1980s. Everything in the text, whether smooth or frustrated, seems to be full of goodwill. His words, like a picture scroll, unfolded and closed. Wandering in it, like a gentle wind blowing across the face, the little heart is also soft.
His writing is gorgeous and simple, like the sparkling waves on the water of a calm lake, seemingly calm, but in fact it shimmers with light.
The youth in Zhang Chengzhi's pen are also the people who pursued ideals in the 1980s, and they are also us in this dynasty. In the face of today's increasingly numerous choices, how to find the love of the heart and persevere to achieve it is the life journey that everyone needs to go through.
Life is constantly flowing, constantly changing when it exists. It is a river that flows from nowhere to nowhere. Everyone is a river, we change, we flow, we search, we taste, we are happy.