Sun Li (1913-2002), formerly known as Sun Zhenhai, later renamed Sun Shuxun, pen names include Sun Li, Yunfu, Sun Yunfu, Gengtang, etc., a native of Anping, Hebei, a famous modern writer, essayist, and founder of the "Lotus Dian School". Just like his pen name, Sun Li is like a "Yunfu", who has been working tirelessly all his life. If you count from the time he began to publish articles in the school magazine Yude Monthly at the age of 19, to 1995, he began to lie ill, he spent about sixty years of creative career. In the meantime, he has left people with a unique creation full of poetry and painting, leaving people with endless aesthetic enjoyment. Ordinary people can think that the writer is a Hebei people's family according to the strong Jizhong style expressed in many of the writer's works. As for all the relationships between writers and Shanxi, they are probably little known.
Young Sun Plough
In the essay "Childhood Memories", Sun Li once said: "The original residents of my hometown are said to be immigrants from Shanxi, and when I was young, I went to the homes of people in Shanxi and saw a photo of the old immigrant site, which has an old locust tree on it, which is the earliest residence of our ancestors." "What the writer said, presumably Hongdong, is undoubted. Based on this "search for roots", we can say that the writer has classified himself into the ranks of the actual Shanxi people.
It was also in the "young age" that on the street where his family lived, there were several families who went to Shanxi for many years to do small business and maintain the family's life, and it has been passed down for generations. Most of them are pickers. When these people return home during the summer and autumn seasons, they "always let their women deliver gadgets or broad beans to the children from house to house." Writers are naturally one of these "kids". Many years later, the writer still remembers this vividly, and still writes it into the essay "Childhood Memories". In this essay, the writer affectionately expresses the beautiful impression he has established on Shanxi from "gadgets or broad beans" from Shanxi.
Former residence of Sun Li
There is also one thing that happened to the writer in his childhood, which played a great role in the writer's creative life and the formation of the style of the work, that is, "listening to and listening to books". The main storyteller was a person in the village who "went to Shanxi for many years to do small business", and Sun Li called him "Uncle Desheng". Every time Uncle Desheng came back from a small business in Shanxi, when he had a little spare time in the summer and autumn, he took advantage of the opportunity to cool off at night and told the villagers about the "Seven Heroes and Five Righteousness" and other commentaries that he had learned when he was doing business in Shanxi. One autumn later, the village also came from Shanxi to roll noodles, and they lived in the village for three or four months, doing business during the day, saying the commentary "Hu Jia Jiang" at night, and using storytelling books to attract business. In those years, in Sun Li's hometown, which was located in the rural areas of Jizhong Province, the cultural life was quite poor, and "listening to and listening to books" became a rare cultural enjoyment for people here. This is even more so for Sun Li, who later became a writer.
Whenever people put down the porridge bowl and went to the bookstore, Sun Li, a small book fan, also ran away, accompanied by the old book fans, and sat there quietly until the end of the scene. It was inspired by the "listening and speaking books" that after being a little older, Sun Li was no longer satisfied with just sitting on the ground and listening to people, but found ancient novels to read on his own. It was during this reading that the writer cultivated his own literary interests, and even embarked on the path of creation later. All this is linked to Shanxi. Shanxi unknowingly gave the writer Sun Li the earliest enlightenment education in literature.
Sun Li after participating in revolutionary work
After participating in revolutionary work, Sun Li came to Shanxi four times. The first time was in the winter of 1939, when Sun Li went to Yanbei as a reporter for the Jin-Cha-Ji News Agency to accompany the army. During the interview, Yanbei, a "place where geese don't fly there", made the writer who was wearing "a coarse cloth cotton pants jacket" at this time suffer from "cold wind" and "ice and snow" because of his "tall stature, ankles and wrists, and a large part of the outside". It was in this way that Sun Li "felt the care and warmth of his combat partners for the first time." At that time, Comrade Dong Yifeng, who was interviewing with him, saw his embarrassing situation, and when he set out with the troops one day, he took off a Japanese military coat he had brought from Jizhong in the wind and put it on for Sun Li. The revolutionary friendship and the strong love between comrades during the war years greatly touched Sun Li and he never forgot it until his old age. The interview lasted until the end of the year, when Sun Li returned to his station in Fuping, Hebei Province. This made Sun Li leave his hometown for the first time for the Spring Festival. Chinese New Year's Eve night, the thoughts and sorrows of his parents and wives, and the simplicity and warm hospitality of the people in the mountainous areas left a deep feeling for Sun Li. The writer later wrote about his experience in two articles, "In Fuping" and "The Story of Clothing".
Sun Li's second visit to Shanxi was in 1943, also in winter. At that time, the Japanese Kou was attacking the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region on a large scale. In the struggle against the "sweeping-up," Sun Li and the teachers and students of the high school class of the North China United University went to a small village in the mountains of Fanzhi, Shanxi. Due to the fatigue of the journey, he suddenly fell ill, had a high fever all day, and had many chickenpox in his neck and back. Limited by medical conditions, the only way at that time was to find a safe and secluded place to recuperate slowly. So, accompanied by a nurse surnamed Liu and a student surnamed Zhao, the writer came to a small village of Artemisia Erliang, which stands on the top of Wutai Mountain. In this barren village on the top of the hill, Sun Plough lived all winter. During this period, the concern of the comrades-in-arms who came with them and the care of the masses left an indelible impression on the writer. In particular, the little nurse "Liu Lan", who had been a child bridesmaid, was simple and sincere, worked hard and complained, and patiently and meticulously nursed the writer; and the lively and cheerful, enthusiastic and enthusiastic women director of the village did more hard work on the safety, clothing and food problems of Sun Li and his party. It was with these two men as models that the writer later wrote two short stories about this mountain life of recuperation, "Caregiving" and "Artemisia Liang".
Works by Sun Li
Sun Li's third visit to Shanxi was in the late spring of 1944. At that time, the writer had just returned to Fuping after recovering from his complicated illness, and after only one night's rest, he followed the orders of his superiors and embarked on a journey to Yan'an with his comrades. The procession passed through Xinxian County, Shanxi, just in time for a nearby war. At noon, they entered a small mountain village where the villagers had dispersed. When Sun Plough went to the pot to brush the bowl after a hurried meal in a farm yard, there was a sudden "buzzing" sound, and the pot flew up. It turned out that a grenade had been pre-buried under the stove that had exploded. Sun Li suddenly became covered in blood, and there seemed to be a piece of flesh two inches long on his forehead. When Sun Li wiped it with his hand, the terrible things on his face were actually some sewage and a vegetable leaf, and he had to go to the small river outside the village to wash his face. While washing his face, he quarreled with a woman who was washing vegetables downstream. Sun Li was frightened, and in the blink of an eye, he encountered such a thing, and the extent to which he was in a bad mood at that time could be imagined. However, this small dispute over washing faces and washing vegetables later led to the writer to write the famous work "Mountain Memories". In the article "Memories of the Mountain", the writer reveals this, saying: "The girl in the novel is definitely not the woman I met this time, this woman is very harsh and not cute. And this kind of person, in real life, makes up the majority, and they are innumerable in my memory. The dispute over washing faces and dishes is nothing more than a wedge that causes this beautiful memory. Also in "Memories of the Mountains", the writer affirmed one thing, saying: "If it were not for the strong casting of the pot in Shanxi and the tight foundation of the stove, then I would have been out of the sky." ”
Sun Li last came to Shanxi in 1945. At that time, the Japanese had already surrendered, and according to the organizational decision, Sun Li left Yan'an, where he had lived for a year, and marched with the North China Literature and Art Task Force led by Ai Qing to the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region. Since Sun Li was from behind the enemy, he was sent as a front station, and at the same time took care of the task of driving donkeys for female comrades. In October, Sun Li and his party arrived in Hunyuan, Shanxi, where they rested for some days. Unlike in the past, when he came to Shanxi, despite facing the danger of civil war, Sun Li was in a relaxed and happy mood like the comrades who had just won the victory in the War of Resistance. In his own words, "This is really a triumphant return, a sprinkling of glory". Later, the writer mentioned this matter in two essays, "Old Things in a Certain Village" and "Costume Story".
In his later years, Sun Plough
Sun Li was originally a descendant of Shanxi immigrants, and in his childhood he was first immersed in Shanxi through the "storyteller trader", and in the years that followed, he came to Shanxi many times to carry out revolutionary activities, which undoubtedly enriched his creative life, making him use the shanxi character style as the material and enriching his dazzling works and painting gardens. In the history of modern literature, there are not a few writers who have set foot in Shanxi and left a deep mark on their works, but it is rare for someone like Sun Li to establish such a close and long-term relationship with Shanxi with his creations. Shanxi's contribution to the writer Sun Li's fame in the literary world should not be forgotten.