Mr. Sima Changfeng described Fortress Besieged as "an out-and-out love novel" in his New Literary History of China, but this understanding obviously failed to comprehensively summarize the theme of Fortress Besieged. However, Fortress Besieged is indeed a novel that reveals a unique love philosophy. When we talk about Fortress Besieged, we can't help talking about love. When we talk about Fortress Besieged, we can't help but discuss what the love story in Fortress Besieged provides for the secret of human love.
In Fortress Besieged, almost all men and women are involved in the field of love. Mr. Fang Hung-chien had a disgraceful "dew marriage" with Miss Bao on the cruise ship returning to China. After arriving in Shanghai, Fang Hung-chien was "forced" to get involved in a "love triangle" planned by Miss Su, starring Miss Su and performed by Mr. Zhao. This "love triangle" quickly expanded into a "multi-angle love": Fang Hung-chien fell in love with Su, another suitor of Su, and Cao Yuanlang, a poet who later became Su's husband, joined in, and * * * staged a vigorous multi-angle light comedy of love and resentment. In the isolated university, Mrs. Wang, who is roughly "one red mouth and ten sharp and long red nails", is unwilling to be lonely. She acted as a matchmaker and organized Zhao and Fang Hung-chien to give Miss Fan and Miss Liu a blind date. As a result, the matchmaker was involved in a "peach news" with Zhao, and the president Gao Songnian was also involved, exposing Mrs. Wang's secret love. Of course, the most successful love here is that Fang Hung-chien fell in love with Sun Roujia. Miss Sun "deliberately" set a love trap, and Fang Hung-chien became Sun Roujia's love captive because of "one thought of tenderness". On the way to college, many ambiguous stories happened between Li and Suzhou women. After arriving at the university, Lu Zixiao courted Zhao with a "professor's love letter", while Miss Fan borrowed books to show her kindness. This is Zhao, a runaway in love, whose love was later solved. He fell in love with a female college student who was willing to marry him because she failed two courses. As for Miss Su, she was later reduced to a smuggler's "single-handedly" and had a close relationship with Zhao after marriage, which seemed to alienate her. In a word, Fortress Besieged really shows different kinds of human love landscapes everywhere, including love triangle, polyandry, first love, unrequited love, extramarital love, pure love and even more melodramatic love. Fortress Besieged only lacks the love of life and death.
It is no accident that there is no classical romantic love between life and death in the novel Fortress Besieged. Studying the love relationship between men and women in Fortress Besieged carefully, the author sets some romantic plots and details for the "pure love" of Fang Hung-chien and Tang Xiaofu, while other love relationships between men and women are melodramatic.
The "disappointing" of the relationship between men and women in Fortress Besieged is usually not from outside interference, but from affectation or affectation caused by the unsynchronized feelings between men and women. This is particularly prominent in the series of love experiences of the protagonist Fang Hung-chien. Needless to say, Miss Bao made Fang Hung-chien "disappointed and deceived, and his self-esteem was damaged. He refused to lie down, like a tumbler, he stood up after holding it down and shook it badly". It seems that their one-night stand was blackmailed by the ship's waiter Liu "culpable of punishment" and should not be regarded as a pure "sweeping everyone's fun". The love between Fang Hung-chien and Dr. Su doomed Fang Hung-chien's embarrassing situation from the very beginning. Fang Hung-chien went to Su's home and said, "I know there may be a lot of trouble from now on, but life is really boring. There are too few ready-made girlfriends!" Although this motive is "impure", it also shows that Fang Hung-chien's motive of actively approaching Sue is not to gain Sue's love. Unexpectedly, Su "misread" Fang Hung-chien's intention. When Fang Hung-chien's attention completely shifted, Su was particularly stubborn, although he knew it himself: one night in the back garden of Su's house, Miss Su hid in a foreign language and ordered Fang Hung-chien to kiss her. Fang Hung-chien couldn't avoid it and kissed symbolically, trying to get rid of it quickly. Miss Su said, "I won't let you go." Miss Su looked at the expression on Hung-chien's face and thought that he was too excited and would lose his autonomy and dare not stay. Hung-chien ran out of the door, believing that the lip kiss just now was very easy and could not be used as evidence of loving her. It seems that kissing is also equal to physical examination, and it takes a certain weight to be qualified. "On such a romantic moonlit night, if the hero and heroine talk to each other in this scene at this time, then the emotion and the scene are synchronous and symmetrical, which is a very poetic description. Unexpectedly, Fang and Su's two heroes and heroines have diametrically opposite ideas, which constitutes an asymmetric humorous scene of "disappointing". The inner unsynchronization and inconsistency between the hero and heroine actually "failed" Sue's enthusiasm and initiative. It doesn't matter if you just "fail", because "failed" love often appears in the form of tragedy. It is ridiculous that the parties who express their love are still in the dark and are so wishful to indulge in the illusion of love created by themselves when the emotional expression "fails". Suppose Fang Hung-chien "makes it clear" as soon as he finds out that "the situation" is wrong and tells Su that his heart is elsewhere, then the emotional trajectory of both sides will be clear, and there will not be much humorous effect. Because the words are "white", the words and deeds of the parties and their inner feelings will soon be unified, and both of them are in a state of "knowing", so Su will act rationally instead of being so "stupid" and so melodramatic. So the moonlit "weightless" kiss is ridiculous. After all, the words, deeds and thoughts of Sue, a blind lover of love (Sue ordered Fang Hung-chien to kiss her and thought that Fang Hung-chien was impulsive) are far from her "real" love mode (Fang Hung-chien doesn't love Su but has to perfunctory her). Fantasy is divorced from reality, but the parties are still confused and even strengthen their fantasies, which leads to this comic humor scene.
Dr. Su is not the only one who is good at being melodramatic or sensational in Fortress Besieged. Miss Fan's IQ in college is obviously not too high, and she is also a sentimental role. In order to win Zhao's love, she began to think: "There is only one thing, she will never leave. She heard that the more women's love experiences, the greater the magic they have on men; I also heard that men are only willing to marry a woman with a pure heart. If Zhao courted, would she walk here? It was a treat the day before, and she was so blessed that she took a balanced attitude, indicating that many people madly loved themselves, but never loved anyone, so this is the first love. " Then, Miss Fan lent Zhao Yi a fake script with the author's courtship information signature on it.
Miss Fan is too ostentatious and belongs to the category of silly elder sister. Her affectation is very superficial, and she is the kind of fake model that people can see through at a glance. Sun Roujia should be the first to talk about the emotional intrigue of men and women in Fortress Besieged, because Sun Roujia is a master of making and using love rumors.
"People should gossip more." Miss Sun still lowered her head and lowered her voice.
Hung-chien was upset and pretended to be calm. "Let them talk, as long as you don't care, I'm not afraid."
"I don't know which bastard-I suspect it's Lu Zixiao-wrote an anonymous letter to my father, creating-creating rumors about you and me, and my father wrote to ask-"
This poor appearance and Lu Zixiao's "misdeeds" in writing "love letters" to Sun Roujia are at the forefront. Sun Roujia sent "Teacher Fang, will you teach me?" Fang Hung-chien also carefully designed a "reply" plan for Miss Sun. How can you not believe Miss Sun's "grievance" at this time? Miss Sun fully mobilized the positive factors of "gossip", created the false pressure of vulgar power, and achieved intimacy with Fang Hung-chien. Facts have also proved that the existence of Lu Zixiao and Li will only shorten the distance between Sun and Fang faster and produce a sense of intimacy of "belonging to the family". Clever use of "external force" to achieve the "surprise victory" of love is the outstanding point of the clever Miss Sun, and it is also the super-level play of the art of "making love".
A great deal of pen and ink in Fortress Besieged focuses on the narration of Fang Hung-chien's love and marriage. The most subtle psychological description of Mr. Qian Zhongshu in this novel may be the emotional entanglement between Fang Hung-chien and four women. Critics can analyze the multiple philosophical implications of Fortress Besieged, and it is not unreasonable for ordinary readers to read Fortress Besieged as a love novel. But I appreciate the psychological changes of men and women in the process of love in different environments in Fortress Besieged, but I have no choice but to find that the love in Fortress Besieged is not so "beautiful", that is, it does not leave the reader with the impression of "poetic love" in which men and women love each other. Fortress Besieged shows too little tenderness and heart-to-heart. The author of Fortress Besieged is used to smearing a mocking color on China's classic love image of "willow shoots on the moon, and people meet at dusk". Fortress Besieged is a love novel, but there are few "pure words" in this love novel that directly express love between the hero and heroine, except perhaps the courtship letter sent by Fang Hung-chien after refusing Su Hou. Even in this letter, Fang Hung-chien's love words are "hiding from Tibet" to avoid the abrupt expression of love. This novel is all about the ambiguity between men and women, but apart from the mutual attraction between men and women, it is more about jealousy, affectation, suspicion, deception, picky, disgust and even betrayal between men and women. Although Fortress Besieged doesn't create a desolate eschatological love space in an extremely special situation like Love in a Fallen City by Zhang Ailing, the love between men and women in Fortress Besieged isn't "forced" to a critical state by external forces as in Zhang Ailing's novels, such as the absolutely special war-torn environment of love between Hong Kong and China in The Golden Lock, such as the torture of young people's love happiness by sadistic Cao. We can find an interesting phenomenon, that is, even if there is a rival in love in Fortress Besieged, it is also a pseudo rival in love, belonging to a "rival in love" with little threat. For example, the most famous rival relationship between Fang Hung-chien and Zhao in Fortress Besieged turned out to be a fake rival relationship, and they didn't love the same woman. But Su, a female doctor, is very happy that Zhao and Fang Hung-chien regard each other as rivals in love. She wants to use Zhao's existence to arouse Fang Hung-chien's courage to love and let Zhao and Fang fight for themselves. Although Su prefers Fang Hung-chien, she also attaches importance to the existence of Zhao as a "rival in love" because Zhao is a very important love chip for her. If Fang Hung-chien is interested in her, then a specific rival in love is the most effective catalyst in love life, which is what makes Dr. Su particularly moved and melodramatic. As mentioned above, Lu Zixiao is also a false rival in love. Sun Roujia didn't love Lu Zixiao, but she made full use of Lu Zixiao to fabricate an "anonymous letter" which was very important to her love life. The role of rival in love is not a real competitor in Fortress Besieged, but a tool for emotional calculation or emotional game between men and women. The key to the success or failure of "love" lies in whether the male and female characters understand each other's emotional trajectory and capture "love" in the right environment and opportunity.
The occurrence and development of love between men and women in Fortress Besieged is mostly the result of direct "contest" between men and women, rather than the threat, compulsion and encouragement of external forces. The author of Fortress Besieged probably wants readers to see clearly how men and women, as independent individuals, will behave in love without external intervention. People's wisdom, nobility, cowardice, and humbleness are all dazzling performances inside and outside the emotional siege. Fortress Besieged refers to all aspects of human nature in normal love, especially the less noble and lovely side of human nature in love life. Fortress Besieged describes how the weakness of human nature plays a role in love and marriage.
In many literary works involving young men and women in China's modern literature, most of the love tragedies of young men and women are caused by external factors: the invisible threshold between classes and families, the destruction of feudal evil forces, the tragedy of arranged marriage, or the injustice of overseas love caused by the weak motherland. For example, in Mr. Ba Jin's Home, the love tragedy between Chueh-hui and Ming-feng is caused by external evil forces. Letting the beauty of youth be destroyed in the hands of worthless, backward and powerful forces will undoubtedly greatly inspire people's determination and courage to destroy the feudal system. The struggle between good love and bad external environment is an important mode of writing youthful love in China's modern literature. This kind of love writing mode often expresses the theme by mercilessly exposing the harsh environment, lashing and praising the love of youth. The description of love in Fortress Besieged pays more attention to the display of people's own characteristics. Fang Hung-chien's social status and economic situation in Fortress Besieged went from bad to worse. By the end of Fortress Besieged, Fang Hung-chien's economic life was in trouble, but his class status or economic situation was not regarded as a decisive factor affecting his love and marriage life. All the characters in Fortress Besieged obviously belong to different social classes. There are many so-called upper-class snobs in Fortress Besieged, but they do not highlight the role of class or class attributes in love life. The most obvious is the love game centered on Miss Su's living room in the first half of the novel, which is simply a "love vacuum game". The author puts the characters in a "vacuum" that completely excludes external interference, so that each character can perform his own love skills. Fang Hung-chien stayed at her ex-husband's house. She is a modern girl, and her parents have no restrictions on her. Zhao is a dude, and Sue has provided us with a broad space for love. People in love can treat guests whenever they like and get together whenever they like. The author designed such a "closed love laboratory" in a "vacuum state" so that the hero and heroine can display their love talents without interference. As a result, these people in love, or suffer from loss, or ponder, or avoid, or attack in a roundabout way, or make love affectedly, or envy slander. Su Wensu, naive and proud Zhao, a little pedantic and a little clever Fang Hung-chien are all practicing the art of love. The weakness of human nature has also been pushed to the most eye-catching position through the performance of this group of people who are in love in a "vacuum".
It can be said that Fortress Besieged is about love, not how to resist external pressure and get the love you seek. Fortress Besieged is about love, but through various types of love stories, it shows the weakness of human nature. Man, an animal known as the spirit of all things, has so many contradictions, feelings and information that are difficult to communicate when dealing with his marriage and love. The most unique significance of Fortress Besieged lies in writing the weakness of human nature, criticizing the negative side of human beings and satirizing all kinds of "stubborn diseases" in human nature. Xia Zhiqing, an American scholar, said in the History of Modern Novels in China: "Fortress Besieged is a novel that discusses the isolation and communication between people." You hit the nail on the head.
Fortress Besieged criticizes the weakness of human nature with descriptions of various love relationships, and magnifies all the less beautiful aspects of people's love life with satirical brushstrokes. Although it is not a complete "appreciation of ugliness", it vividly depicts the imperfect and less lovely side of people through "love lies" in various situations. However, the author's attitude towards the weakness of human nature in Fortress Besieged is not negative, because the author makes readers see this kind of "love lie", this kind of melodramatic love and ridiculous and pitiful sex, and makes readers find the shortcomings of human nature in laughter, which is a very positive and high-profile criticism and correction. Fortress Besieged makes people realize their own weaknesses in a humorous reading atmosphere, rather than conniving at readers to enjoy their weaknesses. Fortress Besieged is different from the popular novels of Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School. It is purely for the sake of love for readers to appreciate, because the author stands at the intersection of Chinese and Western cultures and looks at people's weaknesses with the eyes of a wise scholar and writer, thus achieving sharp and in-depth criticism.