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Shen Congwen's attitude toward suffering was very elegant. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, we hadn't seen each other for a long time, and suddenly we met in Dongtangzi Hutong, and he saw me, but pretended not to see me, and we passed by. At this moment, he said four words without tilting his head: "Be calm!" ”
——Excerpt from Huang Yongyu's "Ordinary Shen Congwen"
2000.01 "Bookhouse"
In his later years, Shen Congwen saw Zhao Shuli in his eyes
Text/Zeng Xiangjin
In China's modern history, 1949 was an extremely special year, especially for the intellectual community. This year, some intellectuals followed the Kuomintang to retreat to Taiwan, such as Mei Yiqi and Fu Sinian; some went to Hong Kong or went to Europe and the United States via Hong Kong, such as Ye Lingfeng and Zhang Ailing; more people stayed in New China, and Shen Congwen was one of them. At a time of change, there is no room for personal respite and escape, and the intellectuals who remain on the mainland have basically experienced the pain of the transition period. Specific to the field of literature, some people are like a spring breeze, and some people are retreating in a hurry. Shen Congwen's life, on the other hand, was divided into two distinct stages in 1949: literary creation and the study of cultural relics. In the early stage, Shen Congwen came to the bustling metropolis of Beijing from the remote Xiangxi, and with a pen in his hand, he broke through the world of literature and became a representative figure of the Beijing school of writers. When he appeared in a college lecture hall, it was hard to imagine that he only had a primary school diploma. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shen Congwen had to put down his beloved pen for various reasons (mainly political factors) and devote his energy to the study of lacquerware and porcelain costumes.
The consultants of the 87th edition of "Dream of the Red Chamber" include Zhou Ruchang, Qi Gong, Cao Yu, Shen Congwen, Jiang Hesen, etc., and Shen Congwen is the consultant of the costumes worn by the characters in the play. High-definition stills from netizen @ photographer Wang Xiaojing (Sina Weibo).
However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shen Congwen did not completely isolate himself from the literary world. Although he did not create such masterpieces as "Border City" and "Long River", he always maintained his attention to the literary world and often expressed his opinions on the works of writers of the time in private. For example, Zhao Shuli's "Three Mile Bay", Shen Congwen wrote in a letter to his younger son (Shen Huyan) after reading it: "I spent six cents and three cents to buy a copy because of the introduction of the book seller, and I didn't think it was very good to read it. The tone of the writing is not attractive, the description of the character is not deep enough, only the action and dialogue, but do not see how the person thinks when he should think. Everything is superficial, plus a bunch of names! Writing a novel like this is not in line with the reader's psychology, my mother said well, I don't know what it means, I should look at it again, I will see that it is not good. From the lines, we can clearly feel Shen Congwen's criticism and dissatisfaction with Zhao Shuli's novel. At the same time, he also had a lot of criticism of Zhao Shuli's writing style: "According to my opinion, if you write a novel again, you must have complete freedom of action to have hope." If you go to the countryside like at present, you are only looking at the students, so can you really see the students' usual hip-hop situation? Even when you go to the company, you can't go to the book, because it's all business, tasks, meetings, reports, and arrangements. Further down, although there is direct contact with work, but all the peacetime life is very strange, live for ten days and a half months, where can we put together chapters? ...... For example, according to Zhao Shuli's writing in the countryside, rural cadres should not look at it, and students should not want to see it. One-third of them are rural cooperation terms, which is very tiring! There is a great difference between Shen Congwen's immersive writing and Zhao Shuli's experiential writing, which dooms the differences between the two.
In fact, not only Zhao Shuli, Shen Congwen cast a skeptical and scrutinizing gaze on the entire literary circle at that time: "The literary world is really too dull. "Ba Jin or Zhang Tianyi, Cao Yu and other masters are frozen." He even said helplessly when writing to his eldest brother (Shen Yunliu): "Some writers write almost the same, always writing, never seeing the slightest brilliance, just as the Sichuan people said, 'I don't know how to do it!'" Shen Congwen was actually under a lot of political pressure when he said these amazing words. As is known to all, Guo Moruo published "Rebuke reactionary literature and art" in the first series of the "Popular Literature and Art Series" published in March 1948, attacking Shen Congwen as a representative of "peach red", "making calligraphic paintings on the text, and even writing about the living Spring Palace on the text", and politically "has always been consciously active as a reactionary". This caused great trouble to Shen Congwen at that time, and he even committed suicide by cutting his neck at one point. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Shen Congwen was also suppressed, losing his university teaching position, not being qualified to participate in the first Literary Congress, and finally falling to the point of working as a commentator in a museum. On this point, his proud protégé Wang Zengqi once said with emotion: "From a university professor to a docent, Mr. Shen did not feel that there was any 'loss of points'. He was not only happy with himself, he was simply happy. It's just that acquaintances see him explaining, and their hearts are always a little sad. It can be said that Shen Congwen at that time not only lost the right to publish his works, but in a sense was in a state of being watched and transformed.
Knowing that it might bring great risks to himself, why did Shen Congwen make such a surprising statement? In the author's opinion, the reason can first be traced back to Shen Congwen's cultural identity. In fact, in addition to being a great writer, Shen Congwen was also an excellent literary critic. As early as the 1930s, Shen Congwen launched his most important and influential collection of commentaries, "The Collection of Foam". In the book, Shen Congwen made a special chapter discussion of Feng Wenbing, Luo Peanut, Shi Jingcun, Xu Zhimo, Mu Shiying, Bing Xin, Lu Xun and other writers, using horizontal comparative criticism methods and poetic language to criticize the style of these writers' works, becoming a liberal literary critic with the same name as Liu Xiwei. With the theoretical preparation and practical preparation in the early stage, Shen Congwen after the founding of the People's Republic of China had a kind of "unbearable care" for the literary circles at that time. Similar attention and remarks precisely show Shen Congwen's keen literary tentacles and unique literary vision.
Image from @CCTV News
Shen Congwen's criticism of Zhao Shuli's works and dissatisfaction with the literary scene at that time also stemmed from his character that could not tolerate sand in his eyes. We look at Mr. Shen's pictures (especially in his later years) and he is always smiling, like a child. But Shen Congwen also has an angry side of King Kong, the barbarism of hunan people and the bloodline of the Miao and Tujia families act on him at the same time, making him hide a tiger in his heart. On this point, we can easily understand it in his series of works such as "Long Zhu" and "Small Scenes Under the Moon". Specific to interpersonal communication, the relationship between Shen Congwen and Xiao Qian is very representative. Shen Congwen can be said to have the grace of knowing Xiao Qian, and Xiao Qian has always regarded Shen Congwen as his guide in writing, and they were still very close in the 1930s and 1940s. Who knew that after the founding of the country, the two gradually drifted apart, so that they were like strangers. Lin Jinlan, a fellow writer, said of their relationship in the 1950s and 1960s: "Xiao Qian also had an ugly saying to Shen Congwen: 'He sells the countrymen. Xiao Qian said this in response to Shen Congwen's self-proclaimed countryman. Shen Congwen didn't find a single harsh word, but he just said softly: 'He's brilliant.' In 1970, Shen Congwen received two letters from Xiao Qian in succession, the first reply was acceptable, the second reply was much shorter, and the first paragraph said: "I hope to return the previous letter, I am very grateful." ...... The children's repeated exhortations, 'It is not appropriate to communicate with people casually during illness, so as not to get into trouble', is very reasonable! "The fact that the former teachers and students were born here cannot help but make people sigh." An important reason for the "teacher-student discord" was that Shen Congwen felt that Xiao Qian had followed the Communist Party too closely, so that in his opinion, he had a bit of flattery. Shen Congwen had always advocated "thinking", but Xiao Qian chose "faith" at that time. In this regard, Shen Congwen, who was soft on the outside and strong on the inside, naturally did not think so.
Shen Congwen
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Image from @Parrot Shi Hang (Sina Weibo)
Shen Congwen's criticism of the entire literary circle at that time came from his confidence in his own literary creation and his deep love for literature. Shen Congwen had great ambitions from the beginning of his writing - "to take the work to the world to compete with the world's first-class short story writers or the first-class short works in literary history" "When I used my pen thirty years ago, I just wanted to pass the record out of Chekhov", it can be said that Shen Congwen was satisfied and even conceited about his own literary career. It is precisely because of this that Shen Congwen is so angry at Wang Yao's criticism of his works in the New Chinese Literary History Draft. Let's go back to the "Three Mile Bay" mentioned at the beginning of the article, Shen Congwen once said: "In addition to reading "Three Mile Bay" every night, I also look at "Xiangxing Sanji", and I think that the author of "Xiangxing Sanji" is still an author who can write articles. Then, he compared the stagnation of his creation after the founding of the People's Republic of China with Cao Zhi's turbulent migration and Cao Xueqin's hardships, and laughed at himself: "The author of "Xiangxing Sanji" is really lucky, more than half a hundred years old, Judas is mentally strong, and his family has a treasure of gold and ink jade, and he is well-known." Here we do not feel that Shen Congwen is selling himself and boasting, because his literary achievements deserve such praise. In the author's opinion, it is precisely because Shen Congwen is familiar with the three ambiguities of literary creation and understands what a truly excellent literary work should be, that he will think that the new literature at that time "cannot give most people greater happiness than playing sparrow cards."
The long ditch flowed silently, and in the blink of an eye, Mr. Shen had left us for almost thirty years. Today, we are faced with "seventeen years of literature" and "Cultural Revolution literature" full of formulaic routines, and when we look back at Shen Congwen's remarks in those years, we can't help but express our deep admiration. And Mr. Shen's ambition to "make his literature, especially the short story, reach the level of being comparable to the world's writers and no inferiority" can also be said to have been realized, just as Bai Xianyong said during Shen Congwen's visit to the United States: "Life is short, art always exists, and Mr. Shen's novels still radiate dazzling brilliance from the thirtieth era to the present." ”
About the Author:
Zeng Xiangjin (1990-), male, a native of Ji'an, Jiangxi, is a doctoral candidate in the School of Literature of Nanjing University, with research interests in modern and contemporary Chinese literature.
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