"There is no doubt that she is the greatest female writer of the nineteenth century, and her 'Green Plum Bamboo Horse' is the most beautiful love chapter I have ever read, and her deeply rooted narrative has the warmth of the sun and the coolness of the night." This is Yu Hua's praise for the Japanese writer Higuchi Kazuba.
Higuchi Kazuba was a major female novelist in early Meiji, japan, known for his short stories depicting women's lives. In order to change the financial situation of her family, she embarked on the road of novel writing. Her life was only 24 short years, but her literary works became a century-old classic.
In her work, almost all critics and readers consider "Aome Bamboo Horse" to be Higuchi's best novel. This book includes 8 small stories full of secular fireworks, such as "Aome Bamboo Horse", "Thirteen Nights", "The Great Chinese New Year's Eve", "Xingyun", etc., and her diary, Higuchi Kazuba, with her unique and delicate female perspective and emotional life that has gone through ups and downs, brings the lives of the people at the bottom of the Meiji era to you and me.
Her characters are like cherry blossoms, and then they quickly turn into withering. As she said, "I was born into this world to soothe the pain and disappointment of women in this world." ”
She bears this heavy reality, but is willing to paint a gentle background in her own story: "The world written by Ichiba seems to be forever frozen between the eaves houses she depicts, dirty, dark, and helpless, but everyone's feelings are still full and warm."
Let's open this book and look at this group of idiots, resentful people, suffering people, and lovers who are struggling on the lifeline. Going to see the ending of 8 kinds of love together gives us the courage to change.
01 Green plum bamboo horse, why didn't they end up together?
Lang rode a bamboo horse and went around the bed to get green plums", the branches are like silk and a bustling flower street, the feelings of young boys and girls are hazy like new shoots.
Midori is the younger sister of the geisha of the Qinglou Top, and will be the one who will continue her sister's work in the future; Shinru is the son of the abbot of Daiin-ji Temple, and is destined to follow the path of monks in the future.
Two people with very different identities and personalities, but under the care of the Sword of Love, they miraculously developed a good feeling for each other but did not know how to express it. The hesitation in the rain of Miden Li, the letter is like the hidden tolerance in the heart, so that this hazy and ambiguous love affair has not yet begun, it has quietly ended in silence.
On a frosty morning, someone planted a paper daffodil in the lattice door.
Although he did not know who had planted the flower, Midori inserted it into a small vase on the wrong checkered with great attachment, admiring the lonely and beautiful posture of the daffodil alone.
Later, she overheard that the day after she found the flowers, Shinru put on her robes for her studies and left the monastery to go out.
Not all feelings in the world can have a happy ending in the end, some people walk and walk and disperse, some people walk and walk, but they walk into two parallel lines.
02 Sacrifice your own happiness and become the well-being of the whole family
Akane is the daughter of the poor Saito family, and is favored by the rich Harada and becomes Harada's wife. The Saito family also stained the light of the son-in-law, living a life without worrying about food and clothing, and the neighbors envied Ah Guan for marrying a good family, but the suffering in Ah Guan's concern was only known to her.
On the night of September 13, Ah Guan returned to his mother's house alone, hoping to leave her husband and reunite with her parents. When she recounts her grievances over the years:
"Since giving birth to a child, he's like a changed person, and it scares me to watch."
After Ah Guan gave birth to a child, Harada's attitude changed greatly, and he saw the ignorance behind Ah Guan's beauty, which was the indelible mark brought about by poverty, she was not as good as the elegant aristocratic ladies at the time of socializing, nor was she as beautiful as the charming and graceful girls in the flower street.
After years of torture, Ah Guan made up his mind to run away, even if he left his child and fell into poverty, he did not want to be bullied again.
However, leaving Harada is no longer a matter for her alone, her responsibility is too heavy, she bears the heavy responsibility of providing for her mother's family, there is no financial resource, where can she support the whole family?
Her father begged her bitterly, "Your duty is to make your husband happy." ”
Ah Guan looked at his parents' old faces, burst into tears, and finally gave up the idea of running away, and drove home all night in a very embarrassing way.
Women in that era had no status, no economic resources, and could only be attached to men, Aguan was a typical representative of the low-level women in the Meiji period, and her tragedy was the product of the patriarchal culture in feudal society, and she silently endured the double oppression of patriarchy and husband's power.
03 Behind the seemingly romantic and beautiful love, after all, it cannot escape the sadness of reality
Have we forgotten our vows, have we really forgotten them all? No, I still remember, and you, I really don't know.
"Walking clouds" is the story of such a love lost to reality.
The young countryman Nozawa Keji went to Tokyo to study, borrowed to live in a relative's house, and saw that the owner's daughter Ah Su was very unhappy because she had to face a harsh stepmother and a cold father. Katsuraji, who feels the same way, sympathizes with Ah Xie under the fence and slowly develops a love affair.
Gui Ci's adoptive father in the countryside is actually his future father-in-law, he relies on the financial support of his father-in-law's family to have a life of studying in Tokyo, and the country letter has been urging Katsuraji to go back to get married, although Katsuraji is unwilling, but he is helpless. Before leaving, he said a lot of touching love words to Ah Suo, and promised to write ten letters to Ah Suo to impress Ah Suo's heart.
After Katsuraji returned, the blazing heat of the relationship soon cooled, and there were fewer and fewer letters, and finally there were only postcards every year. Yes, Katsuragi finally chose the fame and fortune in front of him, and the vows and promises he had made were quickly forgotten.
Waiting again and again, pain again and again, only disappointment in exchange, the ending will never be perfect.
Wait for your concern, wait until I close my heart.
Ah Suo's heart has opened the mouth, and life has to go on, without Gui Ci, Ah Suo is still surviving in the cracks. All the pain must be borne by oneself, and no one can replace it! No one is in pain anymore!
Higuchi Kazuba: "Green Plum Bamboo Horse" ¥49.8 Purchase
Higuchi's story is heart-wrenching. From "Green Plum Bamboo Horse" to "Xingyun", one story after another is full of love tragedy. No matter how men and women fight, they will not change their fate after all.