The old man's "Old Beijing Trivia" has always been my favorite reading, and "Old Beijing Autumn Words" is a masterpiece that describes the folk customs of the old capital, which is quite fascinating to read. The old man was originally from the Jiangning clan, and Guangxu entered Beijing as an official in the twenty-fourth year, so he lived in Beijing for a long time. He is good at poetry and literature, and has written a lot of works, in addition to the "Old Beijing Trivia", there is a specialized lecture notes on traditional Chinese studies such as "Four Narratives of Branches", and he is a typical old-school intellectual who is full of poetry books, and his stomach is full of old school roots and Ichijing memories. The old man had eight sons, six sons Chengyao, and in 1939 he married Lin Haiyin, the daughter of Lin Huanwen. This daughter-in-law is also famous for her literary talent, and the most famous is naturally the book "Old Things in Seongnam". But Lin Haiyin is a new-style character, with the sensitivity and delicacy of women, showing a different charm of the old Beijing style, and his fame is many times greater than that of his father-in-law. Born in Osaka, Japan, Ms. Lin moved to Beijing with her parents at the age of five and lived in Beijing for a quarter of a century, writing about her hometown after returning to Taiwan in 1948. The so-called distance produces beauty, and many times the premise of this beauty is thoughts. Some people say that thoughts are a poem, but sometimes, thoughts are more like a knife. Most of the countless masterpieces in literary history have arisen from homesickness.
"Seongnam Old Things" has now been included in the literary list of required reading for teenagers, but I have always felt that "Seongnam Old Things" is not suitable for children to read, and the faint sadness that pours out of its words is difficult for schoolchildren who are not familiar with the world to understand and empathize. More than once in the book, the author's description of his hometown is an island, surrounded by water on all sides, and we came to this Beijing by big ship and big train. In the story of "Old Things in Seongnam", there is always a distant Taiwan, and after the author returns to Taiwan, he gives birth to the silky memories of the old life in the south of Beijing in the past, and Beijing and Taiwan have become the two most important and indelible hometowns and two writing objects in Lin Haiyin's life. Both opposites and fusions, both different and similar, the people and things of the two places and Lin Haiyin himself are wonderfully closely linked. The five stories in the book are both independent and connected to each other, and the details are actually writing parting, and the whole book is very much like a childhood "departure". What is even more ingenious is that the length of the five stories is arranged from more to less, and the expression of emotions is gradually thicker. The first "Hui'an Guan" accounted for almost one-third of the whole book, the later the shorter the length, to the last "Daddy's Flowers Fell I Am No Longer a Child" only seven pages, but the layers of sorrow in the heart have been full of layers of preparation, and the story is still lingering after abruptly stopping, and it is difficult to settle for a long time. Teenagers do not know the taste of sorrow, and this kind of sadness and joy in the world is not something that a young scholar can penetrate?
More than twenty years after the novel came out, Mr. Wu Yigong's film of the same name based on the novel became popular, allowing many people to know Lin Haiyin and this thin masterpiece. The casting of the film is good, especially the atmosphere of the old Beijing city well is very impressive. Camel caravans, well nests, donkeys in the hutongs, foreign carts and courtyards are all so intimate and flavorful. In order to shoot this film, Shanghai Film Studio specially rebuilt a scene of an old Beijing hutong in the early 1980s. Due to space limitations, the film retains the main content of "Hui'an Pavilion" and "We See the Sea", merges and compresses "Donkey Rolling" and "Daddy's Flowers Fall I Am No Longer a Child", but the third story in the book, "Aunt Lan", is deleted as a whole. The adapted film is more condensed than the theme of the novel, and the film of less than ninety minutes is both soothing and compact, both bright and sentimental. However, I thought that "Aunt Lan" is still a very charming story in the book, like an interlude between the four stories before and after, telling nature is also a rather sad memory. One of the highlights of the film is the use of Li Shutong's "Farewell" throughout the film. This text was originally the text of Yingzi in the novel, and after adaptation, it became the main theme and background sound of the film, which was integrated with the film and became popular. The smokey past of Beijing with the song melody of "outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the green grass and the sky" announces the end of a period of sad childhood, as if everyone's life will drift through a haze. Growing up means some kind of sacrifice and separation.
At about the same time as "Old Things in Seongnam", Lin Haiyin also published another small book in Taiwan, "Two Places". Obviously, the title refers to both Beijing and Taiwan. Also in this thin little book, the author arranged only two parts - the first series wrote About Peking, and the second series wrote about Taiwan, with equal pen and ink. Beijing nurtured Lin Haiyin, and Taiwan eventually made Lin Haiyin, and both places are Lin Haiyin's mother, which together constitute her entire genes. In the first series, there are chapters such as "Wenhua Pavilion HairCut", "The Chronicle of the Dang on the Flyover", and "Twilight Dialogue" that write memories in a novel style, just like the "Old Things in the South of the City", Yingzi's parents and Song Mama appear again, just like the continuation of the novel makes the reader understand; there are also some chapters that specifically conceive of Beijing customs and customs, such as the autumn colors of Beiping in "Beiping Manbi", the uniforms of female students, and even the trivialities of changing foreign lamps and selling frozen children. The Places such as Hufang Bridge, Wenjin Street and Baiyun Temple that appear in these articles are not far from the "Old Things in the South of the City", and they are inexplicably kind to read. Author Ziyun: "It turns out that what I wrote, counting and counting, is all Chen Guzi and rotten sesame seeds!" But how much I love these! The author's love rhyme and "Old Things in the South of the City" are generally the same, and the words used in the choice of words are inadvertently exquisite, and some places are even "more Beiping than the Beiping people". The first part ends with "Ying Zi's Nostalgia", which uses five letters to express the remembrance of the relatives in the hometown, which is the most emotional and heartfelt stroke. This article has also become the title of many other editions of Lin Haiyin's anthology, which shows its importance. The tone of the Taiwanese part of the second series is more idyllic. Taiwan is the home of the author's ancestral home, childhood home and the second half of his life, and it is also the environment in which he writes, so he lacks a homesickness when writing about Beijing. Although it was arranged in the second series, this part of the article was written earlier than the first series, and it is a batch of works after the author's first return to Taiwan. The purpose of his writing is actually to make local propaganda and introductions for compatriots who have moved to Taiwan on the mainland as a Taiwanese, so that they can familiarize themselves with the new living environment. Therefore, the content is written first, such as "Hsinchu White Powder", "Love Yubing", "Taipei Hot Spring Comic Writing", "Mengjia", "Beitou two hundred years ago", "Tainan "Spend a Small Month"" and other articles, so that people who have been to Taiwan have a great sense of understanding. There is also a group of articles called "Taiwan Folklore Miscellaneous", which can be described as a comprehensive and detailed writing of local customs. The articles in Beijing and Taiwan in the whole book happen to be the unity of diachronic and synchronicity, and can also be seen as Lin Haiyin's love letters to Beijing and Taiwan.
Since 2011, a number of documentaries on the theme of "They Write on the Island" have set their sights on local writers writing in Taiwan. Most of the subjects are alive, and only Lin Haiyin is the one who has passed away. The title of this episode is also called "Two Places". The author is the famous documentary filmmaker Yang Lizhou. Lin Haiyin, who returned to Taiwan, was not only a writer, but also a well-known publisher, and in the 1950s, he was hired by the supplement of Taiwan's Lianhe Bao as an editor-in-chief. Later, he independently founded the literary magazine "Pure Literature Monthly", served as the publisher and editor-in-chief, and discovered and cultivated a large number of backbones of Taiwan's literary circles. Therefore, Lin Haiyin is often called the godmother of Taiwanese literature. The writers who have been promoted by Lin Haiyin in the film, such as Huang Chunming and Yin Di, recall with deep affection the kindness of this loving mother. There are also the stories of Qi Bangyuan and Yu Guangzhong at Lin Haiyin's memorial service, which are very touching. What moved me the most was the scene in the film where Lin Haiyin and her daughter Xia Zuli revisited the southern city of Beijing one after another. Lin Haiyin wrote in "Yingzi's Nostalgia and Afterword": "I now miss my second hometown of Beiping, and I dare not think about when I will see the familiar city walls, glazed tiles, muddy alleys, and endless snow..." In 1990, Lin Haiyin finally returned to Beijing after more than 40 years of absence, back to the Jinjiang Guild Hall in Nanliu Lane, where she and her mother lived after her father's death. Lin Haiyin spoke a clean Beijing dialect, and gently chatted with the residents in the courtyard to reminisce about the vicissitudes. Lin Haiyin, who has become Mr. Lin, has changed back into Xiao Yingzi at that time. Nine years later, her daughter Xia Zuli also visited the Jinjiang Guild Hall and asked her old neighbor about her mother's past. She also revisited the auditorium of Union Hospital, where Lin Haiyin and Xia Chengyao held their wedding ceremony in May 1939. Xia Zuli in the camera recalls to the end, tears in her eyes, she seems to understand what Beijing and Taiwan mean to Lin Haiyin. The whole film is promoted in this crying tone, and the viewer re-acquaints herself with Xiao Yingzi in The South of Beijing and Mr. Lin of South taipei through her desk, circle of life, and editing desk.
Jinjiang Guild Hall located in Nanliu Lane outside Xuanwu Gate
Lin Haiyin said: "Thinking of Beiping, it is like leaving something and not bringing it, it is really because I have lived in that place for too long, like a tree taking root." In fact, there are not a few Beijing-taiwanese literati who have similar experiences to Lin Haiyin, and they have also written their own Memories of Beijing after they arrived in Taiwan. From Qi Rushan to Pu Xinshe, from Liang Shiqiu to Tang Lusun, the two places separated by the strait are constantly thick and inexplicable nostalgia. Not long ago, I heard that the list of the first batch of cultural relics and building revitalization and utilization projects in Beijing's Xicheng District was included in the Jinjiang Guild Hall, and it will be transformed into the Lin Haiyin Literature Exhibition Center in the near future. I sincerely hope that this small courtyard can be opened as soon as possible, so that more people can feel Lin Haiyin's lingering feelings for the hometown of the two places.
2021.7.9
Author: Shi Ning
Editor: Xie Juan