Lin Haiyin and Xiao Hong are similar contemporaries, both were born in the 1910s, both are famous literary talents, and both wrote a childhood memoir from the perspective of a girl, the former called "Old Things in seongnam" and the latter called "The Legend of Hulan River".
Therefore, in Douban, you will find that in the position of the two books, there are readers who mention one of them and the other.
However, are the two books really that similar?
Xinyue just finished reading two books at the same time, and she was somewhat qualified to talk about this matter.
Both books are written in the first person, and "I" are girls under 10 years old, and according to various versions of the work, most of the books are written in the author's childhood, equivalent to the author's memoirs.
The two authors lived in a harsh social situation when they were children, the people were relatively poor, and they both happened to be the families of the poor who had a relatively rich material life.
At that time, Lin Haiyin (that is, the Yingzi in the book) lived in Beijing, had legacy assets in his ancestors, and his father had public office and a considerable income, so even if there were many children in the family, he could still afford servants and supported down-and-out college students.
Since childhood, Hideko has been carefree, and in her leisure time, she likes to explore and find small friends everywhere.
The "I" family of "The Legend of Hulan River" lives in a small town on the north bank of the Hulan River, and is a landlord in the local area, with a courtyard in front of the home and a garden in the back, a basement under a high-rise building, and many empty houses to rent to those who are living in the city.
Like Hideko, "I" am also very childlike and always like to spy on other people's lives.
Lin Haiyin advocates that the writing should be pure literature, trying not to involve politics or strong emotional color of praise and criticism, and the entire "Old Things in seongnam" is basically an objective narrative, leaving the space for praise and criticism to the reader.
The "I" of Hulan River is the same, there is no love or hate, and everything that happens around me is viewed from the perspective of God.
Innocent, ignorant, curious and life-free little girl, silently remembering the people and things that have appeared around her, and when she grows up, she turns it over and says that this is the most similar thing presented by the two works.
However, these are all "shape" similarities, because of this similarity, people always like to say that they are works of the same kind.
The difference that can be seen at a glance is the difference in geography, one in the northeast of China and one in the center of China.
But this difference is not an essential difference, because the roots of culture are the same, and the social state in which people live is also similar, both at the end of the feudal era.
Whether it is "Old Things in the South of the City" or "The Legend of Hulan River", the protagonists of the story are mostly working people who are struggling in suffering, such as the family of the former's Song Mother and the latter's Feng Crooked Mouth; and whether it is the former or the latter, there are ignorant and obsessive people, such as the former's Song Mother and the latter's reunion daughter-in-law's in-laws.
In Xinyue's view, the biggest difference between the two books is the difference in the values of their respective lives revealed by the two "I" through writing other people's words, or it can be said that the difference in emotional connotation and the author's inner consciousness are different.
That is, the difference between "God."
"Seongnam Old Story" contains 5 stories, namely the story of helping the mad mother find the lost daughter, the story of helping the young people who stole and supported the family to find spiritual salvation, the story of matching a young man and woman to resolve the emotional crisis of their parents, the story of helping the nanny Song Mama find the lost daughter, and the story of "I" growing up rapidly when the father died.
Although "I" am just a child and have very weak power in the world in which I live, from beginning to end, "I" are very active in participating in and trying to dominate the direction of everything.
For example, in "Hui'an Pavilion", others know about Xiuzhen, know that she is mad because she was abandoned by her lover and her illegitimate daughter was abandoned by her mother, know that her heart is on reuniting with her lover and children, know that her future is worrying year after year, some people may have sympathized with her in their hearts, but no one is willing to help her and comfort her, not even willing to get close, and walk around her house.
Others also know that You'er is a poor person, often beaten and scolded by her (adoptive) parents, and forced to sing, but no one sympathizes with and cares for her, and only those neighbors with bad hearts laugh and tease her.
Xiuzhen and Yu'er were so close together, but they never knew each other, and they missed each other bitterly but could not see each other.
"I" is ignorant, the meaning of adults' praise and denigration is not understood, her sympathy for Xiuzhen and You'er seems to be innate, and when she sees people, she has feelings in her heart, she approaches them, pity, comforts, and helps them.
"I" risked illness and high fever to facilitate the meeting between the two, stole the gold bracelet secretly hidden by my mother to pay xiuzhen as a travel expense, and did my best for a happy ending.
Every story in "Seongnam Old Things" has the subjective initiative of "I", and things are more or less moving in the direction she expected.
However, "The Legend of Hulan River" is not, and the "I" in the text is very responsible as an outsider, completely without interfering with the established development route of the parties.
Whether it was the reunion daughter-in-law who danced the Great God's family being abused to death, or the daughter-in-law and son of Feng Crooked Mouth being driven away, ridiculed, frozen to death, or starved to death, "I", like all the people in the small town, went to watch with a lively mood.
When she saw the period when Feng Crooked's daughter-in-law gave birth to a child, Xinyue was extremely uncomfortable in her heart.
At that time, it was a cold winter moon, Feng Crooked Mouth did not have any clothes or firewood to withstand the cold, he could only fold the flour bag to cover the newborn baby, unexpectedly, these broken bags were also viciously taken away by the mill owner, and finally the baby lay naked in the straw pile, crying bitterly.
When I read this, I have been expecting that "I" should go to the family warehouse to steal some clothes and go to cover the poor baby.
After all, this is what she can do, because she said that she often goes to the warehouse to steal things and play, and the family does not blame or care, and there is cloth in the warehouse, and the box where the second uncle stole the wine jug has a lot of clothes in it.
But unfortunately, until the last page of the book, Xinyue did not find "I" between the lines to have such a move.
I believe that Xiao Hong can expose these things, and she must have compassion in her heart, right? Why can't you do something about your own uneasiness? Is it a habit of not doing it or is there no courage to do it?
Many people will say that the tragedy of Feng's crooked mouth is caused by society and the times, and the author, as a child who has not lost his childish spirit, cannot change their fate no matter what he does, and cannot be harshly blamed.
But Xinyue disagreed.
In "Seongnam Old Things", Hideko makes an effort for everything and tries to make things develop in a good direction, but most of the time she also fails, such as Xiuzhen's mother and daughter who died under the railway tracks although they got together, the young people who supported their families by stealing repented but had to be imprisoned, Mother Song knew all the truth but could not find her children, and Hideko understood her father's love and expectations for herself but ushered in a farewell.
However, what she did was not meaningless, such as "Aunt Lan", Hideko successfully matched two young men and women who lived in their home, resolved the emotional crisis of her parents, and at least maintained the family's well-being for a certain period of time.
Or maybe xiuzhen's mother and daughter died, but in the end they experienced the feeling of relatives getting together and losing and regaining, even if they died, they had one less regret; the thief whose conscience was still alive and was captured by the police was also redeemed; Song's mother could not find the child, but she at least knew all the truth and left with a hope; Hideko's father died, but she grew up and took on the responsibilities of the family.
It can be said that as long as there is action, there is always a harvest, although the harvest is not an obvious golden ear of wheat, it may be a good soil to cultivate the next year.
Amazingly, the personalities and tendencies of the authors hidden in both books coincide with their own real life trajectories.
Lin Haiyin, who wrote "Old Things in Seongnam", is a positive energy image, losing her father at the age of 12, as the eldest daughter in the family, there are several brothers and sisters below, and her mother is a feudal woman who does not leave the house, Lin Haiyin consciously assumes the responsibility of the family.
While not giving up on learning and progress, she supported the whole family, through unremitting efforts, finally had a successful career, and also found a man with similar ideals, holding the hand of the son and the son with the old, becoming a good story.
But Xiao Hong, who wrote "The Legend of Hulan River", is a world of difference, she did not finish middle school, she broke with her family, and the end was only 31 years old in her life, changing more than n male partners.
Unlike Lin Haiyin's self-reliance, Xiao Hong, known as the "Four Talented Women of the Republic of China", did not have the ability to be independent until her death, and she completely depended on men to live.
She defected from the family, in order to make a living, she went to live with her ex-fiancé who broke off the marriage contract, and was later abandoned, wrote a letter to a certain editorial office for help, and the man who was sent to take care of her, Xiao Jun, became the second boyfriend, providing for her life, when the two broke up, Xiao Hong leaned on another man, Duanmu Hongliang, and there were two men who took care of her when she was sick, which is said to be ambiguous.
In the last serious illness days, Xiao Hong completely lost the ability to dominate her own destination, others sent her to which hospital to which hospital, some said misdiagnosis, some said that it could not be cured, anyway, she could not arrange herself in the place where she might want to go.
Just like the temperament that can be read in the book, Lin Haiyin is positive and optimistic, willing to take the initiative to solve and win opportunities in everything, but Xiao Hong likes to stand tall and satirize and ridicule, revealing an inhuman indifference.
The puddle of the East Street that Xiao Hong talked about in the book flooded people and flooded the livestock year after year, everyone knew its harm, everyone said its trouble, but it did not fill it, in fact, she was not the kind of person she laughed at.
She knew everything, her language was always to the point, but she did nothing, she waited for someone else to change.
If Lin Haiyin's good death has a certain lucky component, then you can take Zhang Ailing, who is also in the ranks of the "Four Talented Women of the Republic of China", as a reference, who also defected from her original family under the age of twenty, but Zhang Ailing completed her university studies by virtue of her scholarship and writing fees, and then basically did not rely on anyone, and when she fell in love, Hu Lancheng also wanted her to paste upside down.
Even to death, Zhang Ailing can calmly arrange her last time, elegant and decent, in stark contrast to Xiao Hong.
How hard you work is how lucky you are, and most likely, that's true.
Active and immovable, emotional tendencies and indifference, as the years accumulate, the thickness and darkness of the line of fate will become more and more obvious.
The former, the unity of knowledge and action, finally controls his own life; the latter, has the heart to deviate from what he is tired of but never has the power to get rid of it.
Tasting the differences in the articles, and then looking at the completely different lives of the two authors, Xinyue feels that the direction of a person's fate is actually traceable (words are one of the traces), and the causal relationship runs through the front and back of a person's life.