"The Untamable Zebra—On Shen Congwen and His Literary and Artistic Achievements"

Shen Congwen is one of the most outstanding writers in the 20th century and a well-known expert in cultural history. He is still a mystery to many people. He joined the army at the age of 14 and came to Beijing at the age of 20 and began to read the big book of society. He has a legendary life experience. He has never gone to college, but he has made outstanding achievements in literature. It is indeed a miracle that he ascended the podium of a university and became an expert on cultural relics in his later years. He had a lot of misfortunes in his life, but he has always been a marginal figure. However, this marginal perspective and mentality have created fascinating art.

1. The border town of Phoenix that made Shen Congwen successful

Shen Congwen was born on December 28, 1902 in Phoenix, western Hunan. If you want to understand Shen Congwen, you must first understand Xiangxi and Phoenix City. Western Hunan is at the junction of Hunan and Guizhou. Here, the undercurrent of religion spreads here, and ignorance, simplicity, and multi-ethnic coexistence give it a mysterious color. The people here are fierce and brutal, but they are also loyal, holy, and not hypocritical. It is also a kind of knight-errant spirit that combines personal romantic emotions and religious emotions into one, creating another model of local personality and morality.

Phoenix City is "the most beautiful small town in China". Fenghuang is the place where the Miao, Tujia and Han people meet. Especially since the Qing Dynasty, the Han people's suppression of the Miao people and the Miao people's resistance have been uninterrupted. As an important town in Fenghuang, Han people continued to migrate there, and they also moved there in the form of troops. Shen Congwen's grandfather was a martial artist and later became an official in Guizhou. There is a tradition in Phoenix that they admire soldiers or those who are good at fighting. ?

The ancient city of Fenghuang has a clear evolution and a long history. The ancient city has a relatively complete style, numerous cultural relics and historic sites, strange and beautiful natural landscapes, and unique Chu and Wu culture. Fenghuang Ancient City still preserves Nuo opera, the "living fossil" of drama, and the culture and art of ethnic minorities are dazzling. On both sides of the Tuojiang River, there are antique stilted buildings, and there are many shops in the city. You can see Ming and Qing style dye houses, banks, shops, and wineries everywhere. Vendors in national costumes are scattered among them, forming a long and profound picture of social life in western Hunan. Picture scroll.

The profound cultural heritage, strong national customs, and magical landscapes have given birth to the famous modern writer Shen Congwen, who is well-known in the literary world, the Prime Minister of the Republic of China Xiong Xiling, and the famous painter Huang Yongyu... Phoenix, the hometown of the master, attracts many people. Literary youths come here to pursue their dreams. Their coming and staying, seeing and hearing, feeling and understanding make the phoenix of Xiangxi emerge from Shen Congwen's pen and fly to the world...

2. Literary Masters Eternal Life Restless Soul

Shen Congwen has been extremely smart since he was a child and has a strong memory. He entered a private school at the age of 6 and a model national school at the age of 12. Because he loved to play truant, he was sent to a local reserve technical class as a supplementary soldier right after graduating from elementary school. He left his hometown at the age of 15 and followed the indigenous troops and drifted in the Yuanshui River Basin for five years. It was the darkest era of warlord rule in China. He lived with soldiers, farmers, small craftsmen and other people at the bottom of society. , personally experienced their miserable lives, and witnessed the army killing innocent people. Living an unimaginably painful life, I got to know the good and bad people, customs and customs of a small corner of China, which laid a rich life foundation for my later creations.

In 1922, when the aftermath of the May 4th Movement was still lingering, he was influenced by newspapers and periodicals and resolutely left Xiangjiang and came to the unfamiliar Beijing alone. In Beijing, he wanted to go to university. When he went to Peking University, he was told that he had "elementary education" and even the registration fee was refunded. He was very angry and applied for Yenching University again, thinking that his academic qualifications were too low and he was not qualified to go to university. He decided to pick up a pen to write articles and make a living on his own, thus starting his life's struggle. Later, he worked as a librarian at Peking University, studying and writing hard, and received support and encouragement from Yu Dafu and Xu Zhimo.

In 1922, he began to publish works under the pen name "Xiu Yunyun" in Beijing's "Morning News" supplement, "Modern Review" and "Novel Monthly", and also edited "Beijing News" with Hu Yepin and others "Supplement" and "People's Literature and Art" weekly.

Shen Congwen's character was formed under the large cultural background of the "May 4th" era. One of the characteristics of the "May 4th" era was a state of ideological and spiritual freedom, personality. The publicity era, coupled with his Xiangxi character, enabled him to dare to express his personal opinions regardless of your status or achievements after entering the literary world.

This is the real Shen Congwen in the 1930s and 1940s. Appreciating his works in the 1930s, we not only have the content in "Border Town" or "Xiang Xing Ji" in our impression, but also a large number of various essays full of masculine spirit, criticism of society, There are so many criticisms of culture. Including the debates between the "Beijing School" and the "Shanghai School" and the "anti-similarism" arguments, those remarks were very sharp and militant in style.

Literature is a kind of beauty, and history and archeology are also a kind of beauty. There is not much distance between the two. Beauty is what Shen Congwen pursues throughout his life. In his later years, he was obsessed with the study of cultural relics and had a lot of experience in clothing, porcelain, brocade and silk, and old versions of scriptures. A "Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes" is full of variety and majestic. Like his novels, it flows with peaceful beauty. He has a unique understanding of the charm of human nature shown in cultural relics, which is as natural and unique as his creations. In the tunnel of history, he found the ink of the spirit and wrote a touching chapter in the history of archaeology.

Shen Congwen is a restless person. Only a restless person can create so many beautiful works for this world, and his works can always overflow with the vitality of life. The Untamed Zebra is an unfinished work by Shen Congwen. He said: "The Untamable Zebra is close to being 'stubborn'. It is old and can be scrapped at any time, but it still retains a baby state emotionally." He never took precautions against others and had no sense of opportunity."

On May 10, 1988, Shen Congwen died of illness in Beijing at the age of 86. In 1992, his ashes returned to his hometown of Phoenix under the escort of his relatives. Half of his ashes were scattered into the Tuojiang River, and the other half were buried under the colorful stones in Tingqing Mountain. His tombstone was engraved with a sentence: If you think like me, you can understand "me"; if you think like me, you can know "people".

3. "Border Town", always overflowing with vitality

In 1934, Shen Congwen published the famous novella "Border Town". It represents Shen Congwen's creative style. In the novel, Shen Congwen used his own ideals to beautify the border town, showing the tranquility and harmony, far away from the noise and turmoil, and the simple and honest human beauty that corresponds to this. Some people say that Shen Congwen is just a wild vegetable plucked from the fields of his hometown, with soil, and presented on the "dining table" of the readers. Others can't learn it even if they want to, and he is said to be unique in the world.

Shen Congwen's creative style tends to be romantic. He requires the poetic effect of the novel to integrate realism, dream recording, and symbolism. The language style is simple and simple, the sentence structure is simple and the backbone is protruding, simple and thick, Simple yet expressive, with strong local color, it highlights the unique charm and charm of rural humanity.

"Border Town" shows readers the harmonious life form of the world in western Hunan. Embodying Shen Congwen's aesthetic ideals of "beauty" and "love", it is his most prominent work that expresses the beauty of human nature. The novel describes the twists and turns of love between Tianbao and Nuosong, the two sons of the group manager of Chadong Wharf in the mountain city, and Cuicui, the ferryman's granddaughter. Green mountains, green water, the old boatman by the river, the 16-year-old Cuicui, the natural protection on the wooden rafts on the river, the lively Nuo song in the dragon boat...

Shen Congwen said: "Everything is full of kindness, but everywhere It’s an unlucky thing, and since it’s an unlucky thing, a simple good ending will inevitably lead to tragedy. “The small waterside town bathed in moisture and harmony embodies the frankness and kindness of human nature. The ancient etiquette and customs of "civilized" society cannot exert their power in the face of natural human nature. However, when all kinds of emotions in life develop naturally, there are all kinds of mistakes and accidents. As a result, the novel contains various propositions such as the present and the past, survival and death, permanence and change, providence and man-made, etc. What hangs over the entire novel is a helpless sense of fate. ?

What does "Border Town" give people? Quiet life, mellow humanity and honest and simple people. Coupled with the poetic and beautiful natural scenery and local colors, when people are intoxicated by the beautiful human nature, it gives people a dual beauty of emotion and color. In addition, it also has a little sadness and a little happiness, and you can slowly get in touch with it. The emotions of the characters and the emotions of the writer, that's not going to corrupt you. The feelings of love and hate arouse people's longing for a better life. A unique hidden worry that is difficult to describe in words. The nostalgia and helpless regret for the lost beautiful things.

Therefore, American sinologist Jin Jiefu believes that China’s greatest writer in the 20th century, after Lu Xun, should be Shen Congwen.