Border Town is the representative work of Shen Congwen's novels, and it is an excellent novella that expresses local feelings in the history of China literature. Based on the tea cave in the border town of Sichuan and Hunan in the 1930s, it depicts the unique customs of the Xiangxi border region with beautiful strokes of lyric poetry and prose. The love tragedy of Cui Cui, a boatman girl, highlights the goodness and beauty of human nature and the clarity and purity of the soul. It attracted many readers at home and abroad with its unique artistic charm and vivid local customs, and also established the special position of Border Town in the history of modern literature in China.
author
Shen Congwen (1902- 1988), formerly known as Shen Yuehuan, is a native of Fenghuang County, Hunan Province, Han nationality, but has some Miao descent. Modern famous writer, cultural relic researcher, representative figure of Beijing School novels, pen names Hugh Yun Yun, Chen Jia, Shangguanbi and Xuanruo. At the age of 65,438+04, he joined the team and roamed the border areas of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou. /kloc-started literary creation in 0/924, and went to teach at the National The National SouthWest Associated University after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War. 1946 returned to teach at Peking University. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he worked in the Museum of Chinese History and the Institute of History of China Academy of Social Sciences, mainly engaged in the study of ancient Chinese costumes./kloc-0 died in Beijing in 1988. Shen Congwen/Kloc-joined the army after graduating from high school at the age of 0/4. He hates the darkness of the world. After being exposed to new literature, 1923 went to Beijing, but failed to enter the university. Embarrassed, he began to write under the pseudonym "Hugh Yun Yun". From 1930s, he began to construct his own "Xiangxi World" with novels, and completed a series of representative works such as Border Town and Long River. He examined the present situation of urban-rural confrontation at that time from the subjective perspective of "countryman" and criticized the ugliness of modern civilization in the process of entering China. This concept, which is contrary to the masters of new literature, greatly enriches the expression range of modern novels. There are more than 80 books created by Shen Congwen in his life, which is the largest number of books among modern writers. Early novels include Oranges, After Rain and Others, Witch's Love and so on. The basic theme has been seen, but the urban and rural clues are still unclear, the description of gender relations is shallow, and the purity of literature is poor. After 1930s, his works were quite mature, including Dragon Ball, Hotels and Others, Zhou Shi, Tiger Boy, Black Mini-History, Scenery under the Moon, Eight Horses, Entering Kunming, Selected Novels of Old and New, Housewives and Spring Lantern. From works to theory, Shen Congwen later completed a series of contrasting urban life forms, such as Xiangxi, Beauty of Rural Life Form and Synthesis of Critical Structure, and put forward his philosophy of "harmony between man and nature", that is, based on nature and returning to nature. The healthy and perfect human nature represented by "Xiangxi", a "beautiful, healthy and natural life form that does not contradict human nature", is exactly the content of all his creations.
Status and influence
Mr. Shen Congwen has created many novels and essays in his life, but Border Town occupies the most important position among his many works. It is no exaggeration to say that Border Town laid the historical position of Mr. Shen Congwen in the history of literature. 1In June, 1999, Asia Weekly published "Top 100 China Novels in the 20th Century", ranked the novels written in Chinese all over the world in the 20th century, and selected the first 100 works.
All the participants are famous scholars and writers at home and abroad, such as Yu, Wang Meng,. In this ranking, Lu Xun's collection of novels "Scream" ranks first, and Shen Congwen's novel "Border Town" ranks second. But if a single novel counts, Border Town is the first. Border Town has been translated and published in more than 40 countries, such as Japan, the United States, Britain and the former Soviet Union, and has been selected into university textbooks by more than 40 countries or regions, such as the United States, Japan, South Korea and Britain.
Content essence
Near the tea cave at the junction of Sichuan and Hunan, next to the white pagoda of Xiaoxi, there lived a family. There are only two people in a single house, grandfather, old boatman and granddaughter Cui Cui, and a yellow dog with human feelings. The old man urinated leisurely on the ferry. There is a ship called Shunshun in Chadong City. He is a free and easy person, who likes to make friends and help others. He has two sons, the eldest of whom is called Tianbao. He is as generous, open-minded and unconventional as he is. The temperament of the second child is a bit like his mother. He doesn't like to talk, but likes to show off in the crowd, so he is called Northon. Everyone in the town didn't give a thumbs-up when they mentioned their three names. During the Dragon Boat Festival, Cui Cui went to watch the dragon boat race and met a handsome young sailor to see him off. He left a deep impression in Cui Cui's mind. Coincidentally, Tianbao, the brother sent by Nuo, also fell in love, and asked him to ask the matchmaker for a kiss first. Both brothers decided to have a showdown, so the boss told his younger brother all his worries, saying that this love was planted two years ago. The younger brother listened to this sentence with a smile and told his brother that he fell in love with Cui Cui two years ago, and his brother was really taken aback. ...
But at this time, the local group always took Xinmo as his dowry and wanted to betroth their daughter to Northong. I would rather inherit a broken ship than marry Cui Cui. Grandpa naturally knows his granddaughter's worries, but he is willing to let her make her own decisions. The two brothers did not decide the outcome by dueling according to local customs, but agreed to express their feelings fairly and romantically by singing folk songs, so that Cui Cui could choose from them. Nuosong is a good singer. Tianbao knows that he can't sing as well as his younger brother, and he is disheartened. He resolutely set sail for business. I only heard the song sent by Nogo all night. Later, that song never sounded again. The old boatman couldn't help asking, but when he arrived in the city, people told him: It turned out that the boss got on the water boat and drowned ... The boat at the dock was always smooth sailing, and he couldn't forget his son's death, so he became indifferent to the old boatman. The old boatman was worried about his granddaughter's heart, but finally he couldn't bear to ask. But he blamed the old boatman for Tianbao's death and went to Taoyuan himself. The boat is always going well, and I don't want Cui Cui to be Nuo's daughter-in-law. After all, Tianbao died because of her. The old boatman had to go home depressed. Cui Cui asked him, but he didn't say anything. It rained heavily at night, mixed with frightening thunder. Grandpa said Cui Cui was not afraid, but Cui Cui said she was not. They lay quietly in bed, listening to the rain and thunder. The next day, Cui Cui got up and found that the boat had been washed away and the white tower behind the house had collapsed. Cui Cui was so scared that she went to see her grandfather, only to find that the old man had died when Ray was dying. ...
Veteran Yang enthusiastically came to accompany him, making a living by ferry, waiting for Nuo to return. Maybe Songsong will never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow.
Ideological content
Border Town has entrusted Shen Congwen's aesthetic ideals of "beauty" and "love", and it is one of his works that can best express the beauty of human nature. By describing the love tragedy of Xiangxi's daughter and lover Nuo, this novel reflects the painful fact that Xiangxi people can't grasp their own destiny in the face of "nature" and "personnel". So is Cui Cui, and so is Cui Cui's mother. They repeated their sad and desolate lives from generation to generation, but they couldn't find a way to get rid of this fate.
Through the love tragedy Border Town, Shen Congwen reveals the mystery of the fate of the characters and praises the innocent hearts of the border people. As for the theme of Border Town, in Shen Congwen's own words, "I want to show a' life form', a' beautiful, healthy and natural' life form that does not contradict human nature". "Border Town" takes the love between the granddaughter of the old man who supports him and Tianbao and Nuo, the two sons of the boatman, as a clue, and expresses the yearning and pursuit of rural life. If this quiet life is compared with the turbulent society at that time, it is simply a "paradise" out of the dust. People living in this paradise are full of primitive, inner and essential "love". It is precisely because of this kind of "love" that "when several fools and ordinary people are implicated in a place by an ordinary person, everyone deserves a piece of sadness and joy, which once properly interpreted the word" love "for mankind".
Border Town expresses the beauty of human nature by describing the pure love between young men and women, the sincere love between grandparents and grandchildren, and the kindness and mutual love between neighbors. The author wants to dilute the darkness and pain of reality and eulogize an ancient human nature and lifestyle symbolizing "love" and "beauty" through the love tragedy of Nuo. He Nuo bid farewell to the young people he deeply loved, neither pledging eternal love, being very much in love, nor doing anything out of line, nor trading power and money covered in copper, only the natural feelings between men and women bred in the primitive countryside, as fresh and healthy as flowers in the sun. The author not only warmly praised the way the two young people treated "love", but also enthusiastically eulogized the nobleness of Xiangxi people's behavior and the beauty of their souls.
Distinguish and appreciate
● Notes on text appreciation
First, the creative background
Border Town was completed in April 1934, which is the representative work of the author. Regarding the creative motivation of this novel, the author said: "What I want to express is a' lifestyle', a' beautiful, healthy and not against human nature'. My idea is not to lead readers to travel to Taoyuan, but to take advantage of the 700-mile journey from Taoyuan to a small town in the Youshui River Basin. When several stupid men and women are implicated in a place by an ordinary person, everyone deserves to have a sadness and joy, which has properly explained the meaning of the word' love' to human beings. " Taking Cui Cui's love tragedy as a clue, the whole article vividly shows the beauty of local conditions and customs in western Hunan.
Second, the plot of Border Town
In a remote town with beautiful scenery and simple human feelings in Xiangxi, there are two grandparents and grandchildren who make a living by ferry. Grandpa is over 70 years old and still strong; Granddaughter Cui Cui is fifteen years old, the seed of love. They are warm and helpful, simple and kind. Two years ago, during the Dragon Boat Festival, Cui Cui met the second young master of the local boatman and planted the seedlings of love. Tianbao, the brother sent by Nuo, likes beautiful and pure, and asks people to ask for relatives from his grandfather. The local Wang Tuan has always taken a fancy to Nuosong and is willing to take the mill as a dowry to marry his daughter to Nuosong. I would rather be a ferryman than a miller. I want to marry Cui Cui. So the two brothers agreed to sing and propose marriage, and let Cui Cui choose. Tianbao knows that Cui Cui likes to send promises. In order to fulfill his younger brother, he went out to the beach and died unexpectedly. Northong felt responsible for his brother's death, so he left Cui Cui and ran away from home. Grandpa worried about Cui Cui's marriage and died on a stormy night. Leave a man guarding the ferry and wait for promise to come back. "This man may never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow!"
Third, simple human feelings.
The bright and clean scenery of the border town educates simple people. In the novel, everyone is enthusiastic and honest, and everyone has the legacy of an ancient gentleman. "Everything is very orderly, the people are restless and happy." (Section III of Border Town) Beautiful moral sentiments are still carried forward here.
1. Cui Cui
Cui Cui is naive, kind, gentle and pure. She lives alone with her grandfather and takes good care of him. Because grandpa doesn't understand her heart, she fantasizes about running away and letting grandpa find her, but when she thinks of her helplessness when grandpa can't find her, she is worried about grandpa and afraid of blaming herself for the consequences of her thoughts. She fell in love with Nuosong, and her feelings were pure and sincere. After the excerpts, Nuo was sent away, and she unswervingly waited for the return of her sweetheart, showing her persistence in love.
2. Grandpa
Grandpa Bao has the traditional virtues of China, and he has infinite love for his granddaughter. Worried about Cui Cui's marriage, trying to make Cui Cui's love come true. In my life, I am also very concerned about Cui Cui. I don't want Cui Cui fidgeting for fear that Cui Cui will get sick. Emotionally, I try my best to understand Cui Cui's thoughts. When Cui Cui is sad and lonely, I tell her stories, tell jokes and sing songs.
3. Natural forest protection
Tianbao is generous. He is the eldest son of the boatman, but he falls in love with the granddaughter of the poor ferryman. He knew that his younger brother loved Cui Cui, too. They sang Duel, but he kissed first because of himself. "Be the brother's leader", so he insisted that his brother sing first. As soon as his brother "spoke", he knew that he was not an "opponent", so he generously fulfilled his brother and fully showed brotherhood. Later, he went to the seaside, not only for his brother's happiness, but also to dispel his disappointment and sadness, "so as to forget everything above." In the end, he died unexpectedly. It can be said that he died for affection and love.
Fourth, a lonely heart
Xiangxi, as a closed agricultural civilized society, people also show loneliness.
1. Cui Cui
Cui Cui's parents died when she was very young, and her heart was very lonely. Although there is a grandfather who takes care of himself, he can't really understand her feelings as a girl. She "looked at the red clouds in the sky and listened to the messy voices of rural businessmen floating on the ferry, and her heart was a little thin and desolate." No one can understand the mood of a girl who longs for spring, so she feels that "this day has become a painful thing." She wept bitterly for this helpless life. Grandpa can't understand her inner sadness, so he can only coax her into saying, "Don't cry, be an adult, and don't cry no matter what happens." If you want to survive in this land, you must be hard-working and strong! "For a teenage girl, such words are too unrealistic. Tianbao and Nuo sang Duel for her, but she didn't know it. She can only hope for the realization of love in her dream, and the reality seems to have nothing to do with her. Finally, Tianbao ran across the beach and died. Nuo sent home, and grandpa died of grief over her marriage. However, she can't understand the cause and effect of all this, so she can only watch the ferry alone and wait for the return of her sweetheart. " This person may never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow! "No one can tell her when to wait alone.
2. Grandpa
Because of the tragedy of his daughter and son-in-law, grandpa left an indelible scar in his heart. Cui Cui shouted in fear, which puzzled him. He told his granddaughter the story of his mother, which moved her even more. He didn't directly tell Cui Cui about the choice of the Tianbao brothers, but made his granddaughter "a little confused" and gave Cui Cui a "gentle and pitiful smile", which showed his inner contradictions. He loves his granddaughter and is afraid that she will go back to her mother's old way, but he can't say it directly. After the excerpt, the granddaughter's tragedy was caused by Tianbao's death, and there was nothing he could do. He couldn't ask anyone for help, so he gave up. It can be said that he died in loneliness.
3. Tianbao Brothers
Tianbao likes Cui Cui, but his agent refuses to come back. He didn't know that Cui Cui liked Nuo Song and Nuo Song also liked Cui Cui. Unconsciously stepped into the entanglement of love. Finally, he knew that he had no hope and could only leave the sad place alone. Finally died in an accident, which may be his lonely destination.
Nuoge can also be said to pursue love alone, "duel" with his brother, and sing love songs in the middle of the night, but it is not known to his sweetheart. Finally, I ran away alone and drifted somewhere.
It can be said that everyone in Border Town is struggling in loneliness, and the final "maybe come back tomorrow" is just masturbation in loneliness.
Cultural connotation of verb (abbreviation of verb)
The author's ideal is to express "a beautiful and healthy life form that does not contradict human nature" and "give a proper explanation to the word" love "of human beings." So, relative to what is "a beautiful, healthy and human life form"?
The author eulogizes the virtues preserved in traditional culture to this day, which is relative to the fact that traditional virtues have been destroyed in modern society, and materialism and monetarism are shallow, vulgar and corrupt everywhere.
Xiangxi described by the author has beautiful natural scenery and simple folk customs. People don't talk about rank or utility. People treat each other sincerely and love each other. Grandpa's love for his granddaughter, Cui Cui's love for Nuo purity, Tianbao brothers' sincere love for Cui Cui and sincere brotherhood between brothers all represent the traditional virtues of unpolluted agricultural civilization. The author tries his best to describe the natural clarity of Xiangxi and the inner clarity of Xiangxi people.
The author wrote about Song's proposal of marriage, the marriage of the two brothers, and the feeling that Grandpa and I lived together. These life forms and lifestyles of Xiangxi people imply the sadness of the loss of ancient virtues and values in real life, as well as the criticism of the materialism of modern civilization. The author emphasizes the lifestyle of Xiangxi people and also wants to rebuild national morality and personality.
Related reading comprehension
Reflections on Border Town I
The short story Border Town was written by the famous writer Shen Congwen on 1933. This "Border Town" floats around Mr. Shen Congwen's Xiangxi amorous feelings most strongly.
Border Town is an excellent novella (Shen Congwen's masterpiece) in the history of China literature. Based on the tea cave in the border town of Sichuan and Hunan in the 1930s, it depicts the unique customs of the Xiangxi border region with beautiful strokes of lyric poetry and prose. The love tragedy of Cui Cui, a boatman girl, highlights the goodness and beauty of human nature and the clarity and purity of the soul.
"Border Town" is set in the Chadian area of western Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty, with the "Xiaoxi" ferry as the starting point, and the stream flowing around the cave flows into the Chadian River, and begins a touching love story between Cui Cui, a girl at the wilderness ferry, and Tianbao and Nuosong brothers in Shancheng River Street. With extremely beautiful and fluent language and picturesque writing, Mr. Shen Congwen described the quiet and beautiful mountain village along the Baihe River and the rich customs of Xiangxi border town: "Those who are close to the water are mostly in peach blossoms and apricot blossoms. As long as you pay attention in spring, there will be people where there are peach blossoms, and you can sell wine where there are people. In summer, dazzling purple cloth and trousers are dried in the sun and can be used as flags of others. When autumn and winter come, houses near cliffs and watersides abound. Yellow walls, black tiles ... ". These descriptions are full of natural simplicity and vivid interest, giving people a very beautiful enjoyment.
As the story unfolds, Border Town describes the prosperous and peaceful dock market in Hejie Street, the simple world and folk customs in western Hunan. Although there is an "old general yamen stationed in a battalion" and a local "Lijin Bureau (tax collection)" in Hejie Street, it does not seem to exist. Everywhere is the "Five Hundred Houses" with busy work, quaint shops and leisurely life scenes. "When the boat came, I looked at countless trackers from a distance on the beach ... I brought snacks and foreign sugar, but when I landed, I took it into the city to change money. Adults, brooding a nest of chickens, raising two pigs, telling the boatman to wear a pair of gold earrings, bringing back two zhangs of green cloth or an altar of good soy sauce and a double Mobil lampshade, take up more than half of the hearts of housewives. "On the river street, even prostitutes are impressed by the world." Always full of energy ... try to tie your heart tightly to a distant person. When dreaming, I always dream that the ship is approaching the shore, and a person staggered to the shore from the springboard and ran straight to this side. "These objective and vivid descriptions reflect the profound foundation of Mr. Shen's life in Fenghuang County. His delicate observation of the life of River Street, his familiarity with Xiangxi folk customs, and his close-up of intuition and reverie seized the wonderful moment and gave people vivid life scenes. " River Street is full of people living at the bottom, such as "trackers", "boatmen" and "prostitutes", but as an outstanding writer of the "new culture" of that year, it may be for the love theme, not to mention class opposition or social contradictions.
Although we only understand the distant Xiangxi era from the text, we may not really understand what kind of social environment it is, but Border Town is described by Mr. Shen as a modern "Peach Blossom Garden" similar to that written by Tao Yuanming, isolated from the outside world at that time, from which it is not difficult to see Mr. Shen Congwen's yearning and pursuit for a harmonious and beautiful society.
Cui Cui, the heroine ferry girl in Border Town, is the embodiment of purity and beauty and the beautiful soul of Border Town. Grandpa the old boatman is a simple but stubborn old man. He is confident and proud of the beauty of Cui Cui. In order to marry a good family for Cui Cui, he ignored the poverty of his position, and his inner worries and responsibilities were intertwined. Shunshun, a former exiled official of Qing Dynasty, managed wooden boats, had a certain savings, and his career was booming. Because of generosity and loyalty, he is known as a heroic gentleman on the side of "Zhangshui Wharf". His two sons "Da Lao" and "Raul" were educated by their father's Jianghu manners, and they were beaten and tempered in the waves, and they all became smart and handsome teenagers in the Jianghu "Yue Yun" style. After crossing the river or catching ducks, the two brothers fell in love with Cui Cui at first sight and fell in love with the beautiful Cui Cui. The "second old man" told Cui Cui that he would rather have a broken ferry than the "new mill". Tianbao, the "elder", never gave up the pursuit of beauty in the chaotic "road" and "car road" rejection with Cui Cui. After getting to know each other, these two persistent brothers resolutely stood on the cliff covered with moonlight and sang "Three Years and Six Months" for Cui Cui.
Border Town is a love tragedy. It seems that the words are carefully chosen, but in fact the pen and ink are faint and dignified. Her touching is the beauty of love tragedy. Mr. Shen's delicate and youthful life vividly depicts a girl's shyness, trance and indifference, representing the hazy change of her mind. It is a tragedy that Cui Cui, who has never had a mother's love and has never been involved in the world as a woman, is at a loss in the face of infatuation, burying herself again and again, avoiding shirking, and finally waiting in depression. On the cliff, Tianbao and Nuonuo can no longer hear the folk songs that send their brothers to the moonlit night. Tianbao drowned in the whirlpool. In addition to his sadness, Nuo refused to accept the urging of the "new mill" at home and went to the distant "Taoyuan" land. At this heartbreaking moment, after Grandpa ate "a stuffy fist" at the water pier, the White Pagoda in Bixi Village finally collapsed on that night of heavy rain and thunder. The only relative of Cui Cui, an old boatman who worked hard all his life, died in his sleep in anxiety and expectation. In the narrative of Yang and others, I understand everything. She cried all night, but the years like songs flowed away like a white river.
The end of Border Town is also very tragic and profound, with a deep artistic conception: "In winter, the collapsed white tower was repaired again. However, the boy who sang under the moon and let Cui Cui drift gently because he sang in his sleep has not returned to the tea cave. "
"…………。"
"This person may never come back, maybe" Tomorrow "!" Mr. Shen's exquisite poetic embellishment has left people with long regrets and infinite worries and expectations.