Shen Congwen is very interesting. Sister-in-law Zhang Chonghe, the last talented woman in the Republic of China, called him "the third brother-in-law Shen". His two sons were named after their novels Dragon Ball and Tiger cub respectively. The eldest brother is called Shen Longzhu, and the second is called Shen Hu Zai. Because his wife Zhang Zhaohe nicknamed it "Sansan", she wrote "Sansan".
He was born in a military family in Fenghuang, Xiangxi, and his father, Shen Zongsi, was the commander-in-chief of Luo Rongguang, the magistrate of Dagu. He was stationed in Dagubao to fight against Eight-Nation Alliance. From July of 19 17 to August of 192 1 year, he served as a soldier for four years. Because he hated the habit of smoking opium in the army, he spent 47 yuan in Beijing and found opportunities to read some books. After that, I sat in at Peking University and took the exam. After I was admitted to Sino-French University, I couldn't get 29 yuan for room and board, so I had to give up.
There are many opportunities on the platform of metropolis. Shen Congwen, a "Northern drifter", tried to pick up a pen and learn to write when his dream of studying was shattered. All the way, he was admired by celebrities such as Yu Dafu, Lin Zaiping and Xu Zhimo, and eventually became a generation of literary masters.
In the old society, it was inconceivable that a professional family could become a great writer. Here, Shen Congwen can only look for the factors of inheriting the same culture from his mother.
Grandfather Huang Heqing, Tujia nationality, was born in Gong Sheng, an official of the Confucian Temple, and has a scientific name in the local area; Mother Huang Suying lived in the military camp with her brother Huang Jingming since she was a child. She is knowledgeable and well read. She was the first local woman to set up a camera to take pictures. Huang Jingming, Shen Congwen's uncle, is Huang Yongyu's grandfather. He once managed the private property of Xiangshan Kindergarten and Zhijiang Xiong Jia under Xiong Xiling, the first finance minister of the Republic of China. Xiong Xiling's younger brother Xiong Jie III is Shen Congwen's uncle. In other words, Huang Jingming is his sister's uncle's deputy.
Such a high-quality gene, such a prominent social relationship, and the participation and infiltration of the matriarchal family into the Shenyang family naturally brought a good and systematic fashion, injected a different kind of information gene into Shen Congwen's blood, and finally achieved his "literary" life.
After embarking on the creative road, Shen Congwen got to know Hu Shi because of the relationship between Xinyue and Xu Zhimo. When Hu Shi was the president of China College, he was hired as a lecturer in Chinese Department because of Xu Zhimo's friendship, and began his teaching career, where he met three of the four sisters of the Zhang family in Hefei. The four sisters are Yuanhe, Yunhe, Zhao He and Chonghe. Attention! They all have a "er" in the middle of their names, which shows that Zhang's father is eager for children. Heaven rewards diligence. After reconciliation, the Zhang family added six people in one breath: Zonghe, Yinhe, Dinghe, Yu He, He Huan and Ninghe, which really realized their wishes.
Shen Congwen, who has no college education, a military background and only graduated from primary school, has worked as a teaching assistant, lecturer, associate professor and professor in Wuhan University, Qingdao University, National Southwest Associated University and Peking University for the rest of his life by virtue of his teaching experience in Chinese academies and the recommendation of Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, Chen Xiying and Yang Zhensheng. At National Southwest Associated University, he studied under the famous writer-Wang Zengqi.
193 1 was hired by national Qingdao university in August. At that time, the principal was Yang Zhensheng, Wen Yiduo, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and head of the Chinese Department, Liang Shiqiu, director of the Foreign Languages Department and librarian, and Zhao Taimou, who specialized in drama, later became the provost. Look, they are all famous figures in the history of modern literature, culture and education in China. Shen Congwen is a lecturer in Chinese Department, teaching the history of China's novels and offering advanced composition classes.
Qingdao, with blue sky and clear water and beautiful scenery, is a livable place that the world yearns for. Liang Shiqiu, who was scolded by Mr. Lu Xun as "a running dog of a capitalist who lost his family" and had aristocratic feelings all his life, described such a situation in the article Drinking: "The only regret (of Qingdao) is that it has little cultural heritage, no historical sites worth pondering and no proper entertainment. Seeing the mountains and the sea for a long time will make you tired, so you will get together with friends to drink, have a small cup for three days, have a big feast every five days, make a fist throwing order, and use 30 pounds of flower carvings to make an altar, which will be used up overnight. Seven drinkers and a female history, just the number of eight immortals, all claimed to be eight immortals in wine. Sometimes they go out together, from Jinan to Nanjing, and Beijing is as far away as possible, boasting that' the wine presses the rubber area and punches the north and the south', and the expectations are very high, which is like a heroic cloud. "
In addition to Yang, Wen, Liang and Zhao, there are Chen Jichao, Liu, Deng Zhongcun and Fang Lingru, a female writer, who enjoyed this title long before Shen Congwen came to Qingdao. Getting together in a room all day to drink and have fun, almost leading a drunken life, makes students deeply dissatisfied, and some young teachers also have opinions. Mr. Shen Congwen is introverted, stubborn, fragile, shy and sensitive to the environment. Although he doesn't like drinking and guessing boxing, he is good at observing. From the perspective of a novelist and as a bystander, he spied the complexity and multiplicity of human nature from the characters of "eight immortals in wine" and could not help but write an eight-horse map.
"Eight Horses" refers to eight professors. Some of them are physicists and biologists, some are philosophers and sinologists, some are literary experts in the Six Dynasties, and so on. These people are serious in appearance, full of moral articles, but full of secular desires in their hearts. Based on love and marriage, the novel describes the morbid life and depraved life of eight professors in a university from the perspective of sexual psychology and the protagonist Mr. Dashi. These professors are famous as scholars and experts, but their own lives are vulgar, chaotic, decadent and messy. The novel exposes the flashy hypocrisy of professors and reveals the two sides of people.
At that time, Shen Congwen's residence in Qingdao was in the professor's dormitory of Qingdao University at No.3 Fushan Road. When he went out, he was the first park, with Huiquan Bay and a bathing beach nearby. The climate is humid and sultry, and he called his room "narrow and moldy". Taking the professor dormitory of Qingdao University as the background, he wrote "Eight Horses" in "narrow and moldy".
Because the scenes of professors' family life were involved in a sarcastic tone, once the novel was published, it caused unhappiness among the people concerned, especially Wen Yiduo. Probably because he saw that the naked girl in the novel who painted Baoshen Pill had something to do with himself, he actually sat in the right position and found his own shadow from the characters in the novel. He immediately flew into a rage and broke up with Shen Congwen, becoming a stranger.
Until March 1938, Changsha Temporary University moved to Kunming, and Wen Yiduo and his party, consisting of more than 320 teachers and students, went to Yuanling, where they were warmly received by Shen Congwen out of the friendship of the landlord. He was invited to the "Yunlu" of his eldest brother Shen Yunlu for five days—especially Wen Yiduo, who later became a colleague of National Southwest Associated University—and the contradiction between them was gradually resolved and reconciled.
For example. 1945 On March 22nd, when Wu Han drafted, Wen Yiduo polished and Luo Longji added the book "Ideas on Saving the Current Crisis in Kunming Cultural Circle" for signature, Wen Yiduo personally went to Shen Congwen's home in Kunming and asked him to sign; Shen Congwen, on the other hand, stayed warmly and sincerely for a sumptuous meal.
At that time, prices soared, and it was sometimes a luxury for professors in The National SouthWest Associated University to have a full meal, especially Wen Yiduo, who had many children at home (six).
In the face of what reality points to so clearly, all other gentlemen in the Eight Immortals in the wine have never heard that the literary characters created by art are their strong reactions in real life, and they clearly and rationally control the boundary between literature and life. Their relationship with Shen Congwen, as always, reflects rich and elegant knowledge and self-restraint. From Qingdao to Peiping, then to Kunming, and then back to Peiping, until his sudden death, Yang Zhensheng maintained all-round friendly relations with Shen Congwen and his family all his life. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, at the beginning of Beiping's demobilization, the Yang family invited the Shen family to the Summer Palace Jiqingxuan for the summer. Liang Shiqiu has always been indifferent. Fang Lingru later went to Beiping to develop, and Shen Congwen also enthusiastically entrusted Xu Zhimo to take care of him. But ten years after the novel was published, he himself said with regret that the careless writing of the novel hurt the dignity of others.
Fu Hans, a German-American and Shen Congwen's fourth brother-in-law, said that "his appearance, speech and manners are very gentle". In fact, he is indeed a kind and kind gentleman, and he has always maintained the simplicity of a "countryman". Even if he hurts others, it is by no means intentional.
Therefore, he has many friends in his life, and the list is very long, including Xu Zhimo, Yang Zhensheng, Wang Jizhen, Hu Shi, Yu Dafu, Ba Jin, Xia Nai, Lin, Liang Sicheng, Ling Shuhua, Fei Ming, Zhu Guangqian, Feng Zhi, Li Jianwu, Jin Yi, Cheng, Cha Fuxi, Jin, Chen, Shao and Shi Zhe. Although there are people who turn against each other because of misunderstanding, such as Ding Ling, Xiao Gan and Fan Ceng, there are even younger generations who are regarded as masters, such as Wang Zengqi, Mu Dan and Huang Yongyu.
The third brother-in-law Shen is persistent and calm, indulging in creation and aesthetics. He has the spiritual pursuit and personality charm of a free intellectual and is a clear stream (and also a countercurrent in some periods) in the cultural circle. He is used to sticking to his heart and is good at understanding society and life by sticking to his personal feelings. Just like Zhou Muwang's brave "Eight Dragons", he competed in the realm of thought, followed his own personality and spiritual context, and wandered between Wan Li every day in order to find the root support in his heart, retell the origin of life with the voice of a long river, and describe the peaceful and quiet conversion of his soul.