Introduction to Xiao Hong's "Hulan River"

In Japan in 1936

Xiao Hong in 1934

Xiao Hong in Hong Kong in 1940.

In 1935, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun were taken to Shanghai

In 1938, Xiao Hong and Duanmu Hongliang

Xiao Hong was a talented female writer in the 1930s. She was also the young writer who received the most attention and support during her lifetime. UNESCO once gave Xiao Hong this evaluation on the 85th anniversary of her birth: "One of the best contemporary female writers in the world."

However, Xiao Hong only lived to be 31 years old. After leaving behind such masterpieces as "The Field of Life and Death" and "The Story of Hulan River", her life passed away prematurely. "Remembering the Female Writer Xiao Hong", which was recently broadcast on the Shanghai TV Documentary Channel, reproduced the short and bumpy life of this female writer. Her childhood, her writing, her emotions, and the cause of her death have once again become topics of concern.

Childhood without Love

On the Dragon Boat Festival, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month in 1911, a girl was born on the south kang at the east end of the Zhang Family Courtyard in Longwangmiao Alley, Hulan County, Heilongjiang Province. The girl's grandmother and father were unhappy. First, they thought she was a woman. Second, the Dragon Boat Festival is considered an unlucky day. The little girl in charge of the Fan family was named Ronghua, and the big one was named Zhang Naiying. This little girl is a female writer whose pen name is "Xiao Hong".

In the Zhang family compound, Xiao Hong’s favorite place is the back garden. Here, she temporarily forgot the pain of her grandmother's finger being pricked by a steel needle, her father's scoldings that often dehumanized her because of greed, and her sick mother's indifference. Every time after grandma scolded grandpa and Xiaohong, the old man and the young man would run away hand in hand to the back garden to play games and plant flowers and vegetables. That was the only happy time in Xiaohong's lonely childhood.

In addition to playing, Grandpa also taught Xiaohong how to read poetry and explained the meaning of poetry to Xiaohong. Grandpa Xiao Hong was the first literature teacher and the gardener who sowed the seeds of love in Xiao Hong’s young heart.

After entering middle school, under the influence of teachers and classmates, Xiao Hong devoured novels, essays and poems from all over the world. She read the works of Lu Xun, Goethe, Heine and Pushkin, exchanged readings with her classmates, talked with them, and sometimes argued and discussed the true meaning of life.

Xiao Hong not only reads books, but also writes some prose and poetry from time to time, which are published in the school's blackboard newspaper or school magazine. These works come from life, are simple and sincere. In the early summer of 1930, the school organized students to travel to Jilin. Soon after, the school magazine published a set of poems signed "Quietly Singing" and titled "Journey to Jilin". My best friend asked Xiaohong why she used the pen name "Yinqiao". She said, "Sing quietly." Later, after Xiao Hong became famous, she also used this pen name.

These prose and poems published in the blackboard newspaper and the school magazine can be regarded as Xiao Hong's earliest literary works.

Running away from home

Not long after graduation, Xiao Hong suddenly became preoccupied and moody, and often cried alone at night. It turns out that her family has already betrothed Xiaohong to Wang Dianjia, the young master of the Wang family. Wang was a student at Hosei University, but Xiao Hong was disgusted when she discovered that he was taking opium.

In the summer of 1930, after Xiao Hong graduated from junior high school, she broke with her family and left.

Xiao Hong has been lacking love since she was a child, so she has a strong desire for love. As long as someone shows a little love to her, she will blindly give ten times more love than the other person. She wants to recover the love she lost in childhood from others, and she needs to compensate with love. Sadly, she didn't know whether the other person also had the same desire for love as she did, which caused her to suffer repeated bruises in her later emotional world, and she was unable to extricate herself.

After Xiaohong arrived in Beijing, Wang Dianjia followed her and found Xiaohong. Although Xiao Hong didn't like him, she came to a foreign land alone, felt lonely, struggled financially, and desperately needed someone who could comfort her. Wang Dianjia is very good at being attentive and saying nice things. She finally succumbed to his shameless and cunning entanglements and soon became pregnant.

Xiao Hong and Wang Dianjia returned to Harbin and stayed at Daowei Dongxingshun Hotel. After staying for more than half a year, the two of them owed the hotel more than 600 yuan while sitting on the mountain watching tigers fight. Seeing that the situation was not good, Wang Dianjia wanted to slip away.

One day, he told Xiaohong that he would go home and ask for some money to pay off his debts. Xiao Hong believed it to be true and let him go, but he never returned. The hotel sent people to keep an eye on Xiao Hong and took her as a "hostage", hoping that when she could not repay her debts, she would be sold to a brothel and the hotel would not lose money.

Seeing her belly getting bigger day by day, Xiaohong could already feel her little life squirming, but she lost the joy of being a mother for the first time. She was scared, she was sad, she didn't know what to do. In desperation, Xiao Hong wrote a letter of help to the newspaper. Pei Xinyuan, the editor-in-chief of the supplement of "International Association" at that time, showed this letter to Xiao Jun, Fang and other young friends. Everyone is deeply sympathetic. They negotiated with the hotel as reporters, so that the boss did not dare to continue to insult Xiaohong for the time being.

Since seeing Xiaohong, Xiaojun has been thinking about how to save her. I think this is the only way to get her to come out and get married. But the first step is to pay off her debt and redeem it. For a poor writer, 600 yuan is simply an astronomical figure. It’s not easy!

At the time of the dilemma, the Songhua River in Harbin was flooded by heavy rains for several days, turning the entire city into a vast ocean. The hotel where Xiaohong was trapped was also surrounded by water. Taking advantage of the chaos, Xiaohong fled the hotel. Xiaojun sent her to the hospital and gave birth to a daughter. Because she had no money to pay for medical expenses, her life was unstable. When she was discharged from the hospital, Xiaohong had to leave her child in the hospital.

Embark on a literary journey

In poverty, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun began a honeymoon life of hunger and cold.

At the end of 1932, the "International Association" held a New Year's essay collection activity. With the unanimous encouragement of Xiao Jun and her friends, Xiao Hong wrote the short story "The Death of Aunt Wang" as an essay, and Xiao Jun personally handed it to Fang and Chen Zhiyu, who were editing a supplement to the "International Association" at the time. It describes the tragic experience of the hard-working and kind-hearted Aunt Wang and her family, and angrily accuses the landlords of cruel exploitation and oppression of farmers. After Fang and Chen's research, they immediately decided to publish. It can be said that Xiao Hong's literary creation has tied the soul of the Chinese nation from the beginning.

After that, Xiao Hong published works under the pen names of "Yinqiao" and "Tiandi". From August to December 1933, her works almost appeared in the "Death of Aunt Wang" issue of "Literary Weekly". "Night Whistle", "Mute Old Man", "Night Wind", "On the Road in the Morning"; prose "Troublesome Day", "Little Black Dog"; poem "In the Blur", etc. Xiao Hong began to embark on a difficult literary journey.

From 1932 to 1934, Xiao Hong published "August Day", "International Literary Weekly", "Datong Club", "Illusion", "Abandoned Children", "Legs" "The Bandage", "The Wife and the Watermelon", "Two Frogs", "August Day", etc. , "The Mute Old Man", "Leaves", "On the Road in the Morning", "In the Bewilderment", etc. Especially after the publication of the collection of novels and essays "The Gilded Doctrine" co-written with Xiao Jun, it attracted the attention of the literary world.

Due to the intensified persecution and suppression of progressive intellectuals by the Japanese and puppet regime, Ono and China were put on a blacklist and were in danger of being arrested at any time. In May and June of 1934, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun secretly left Harbin for Qingdao.

Xiao Hong only stayed in Qingdao for more than five months, but it was a very important stop in her creation. Here she completed her famous work "The Ruined Street".

Friendship with Lu Xun

In November 1934, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun traveled from Qingdao to Shanghai and found a residence at No. 283 Dula Road. After settling down, the first thing they did was to write to Lu Xun. They were eager to see him. After Lu Xun received the letter, he wrote a reply on the same day.

On November 30, 1934, Lu Xun met at Neishan Bookstore in Hongkou. Xiao Hong couldn't wait to hear Lu Xun's voice. The southern dialect with Shaoxing accent must be interesting. Is his smile as kind as the grandfather who loves her the most? And does he look like Master Shaoxing? Oh, there must be a thick callus on the middle finger of his right hand, which he got from writing articles.

These two "wild" Northeastern youths attracted everyone's attention as soon as they entered Neishan Bookstore. After waiting for a few minutes, an elderly man wearing black rubber shoes and a black robe came in with a bag under his left arm. Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun greeted him with their eyes.

Lu Xun immediately stepped forward and said, "Are you Teacher Liu?" Xiao Jun nodded, and Lu Xun said, "Wait a minute, I'll just say a word to the boss." Then he walked into the back room. After a while, Lu Xun came out of the back room and said, "Let's go."

Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun followed Lu Xun to a nearby coffee shop owned by foreigners to drink tea and chat. At this time, the door rang and Yinghai came. Yinghai was particularly affectionate when she saw Xiaohong, feeling that she was like a big sister whom she could play with. Xu Guangping looked at Xiao Hong. "She is of medium height, fair and healthy, with a slightly flat back of her head, which is unique to Manchu girls. She loves to laugh and is innocent." This girl from the north left a good impression on Xu Guangping.

Xiao gave the manuscript of "Getting Married" to Lu Xun and asked Lu Xun for guidance and help him find a bookstore to publish it. After writing the first draft in Qingdao, Xiao Jun took him to Shanghai. Xiao Hong copied it for him using American strong paper produced in Japan. This kind of paper is only sold in Uchiyama magazine stores. Xiaohong pawned an old sweater for money.

Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun started their creation in Shanghai. Xiao Hong has written works such as "Travel" and "The Field of Life and Death". "August Village" uses the tragedy of Xiao Liuyi's family being forced to move and go crazy by the old forces many times, indicting the darkness of the old society and exposing the bitter experiences of the working people. Xiao Hong sent it to Lu Xun, who recommended it to the editor after receiving it. "August Countryside" is a bimonthly magazine published on March 5, 1935. At the same time, Xiao Jun wrote "Xiao Liu", "Overnight", "Xiao Liu", "Tai Bai", "Occupation", etc. In one breath, it was published in several publications after Lu Xun introduced it.

In Lu Xun’s eyes, Xiao Hong was just a big kid. Lu Xun repeatedly reminded Xiao Hong not to get rid of the "wild spirit" he brought from the northern countryside in Shanghai, and not to be tainted with the "squeamish, unpopular, and inhuman Jiangnan style." Lu Xun also specially guided and cultivated her writing methods so that she could not be separated from life, otherwise she would never be able to write articles. He hoped that Xiao Hong "had better go outside often to see the social situation and the faces of various people."

When Xiao Hong reads Lu Xun's interesting and meaningful letters, he often feels a passion in his heart. This passion turns into a creative impulse. She picked up a pen, lay on her desk, and wrote about the Northeastern people living on the occupied land during the national crisis with the delicate writing style unique to female writers. She wrote about the plight of her life in Shangshi Street, Harbin; she wrote about the bitter feelings she had with Xiaojun on their honeymoon and the complicated thoughts they had before leaving home.

After Xiao moved to No. 351 Road, the house got bigger. He wanted to invite Lu Xun as a guest, but Lu Xun was too busy. Finally, on May 2, 1935, Lu Xun and Xu Guangping took Yinghai to visit Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun. On this day, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun wrote as usual. Suddenly, Lu Xun's family fell from the sky, which made them very excited and happy. They were busy asking them to sit down and have a rest and chat. About an hour later, Lu Xun invited the two Xiaos out for lunch. Xiaohong completely forgot what she ate that day. She only noticed Lu Xun's kind words, hearty laughter and smoking posture. Ten days after this meeting, Xiao Hong completed a long memory essay "Sakura".

Xiao Hong lived up to Lu Xun’s expectations for her and made remarkable achievements on the road of new literary creation. It is Xiao Hong's masterpiece and one of the outstanding realist works of the 1930s. The publication of this work established Xiao Hong's position in the history of modern Chinese literature.

Lu Xun liked Xiao Hong’s works very much. Shortly after arriving in Shanghai, when he saw "Cargo Ship" written by Xiao Hong, he said: "If it's well done, you're welcome. It's full of enthusiasm, which is very different from the works of so-called 'writers' who only play with some skills." Lu Xun read "The Wind of Early Autumn" ", and felt that Xiao Hong "depicted the determination of the northern people towards life and the struggle against death, but it was often just a matter of course; the author's meticulous observation and deviant writing style added a lot of brightness and freshness."

After Lu Xun got the manuscript of "In the Army", he sent people to "promote" it in all directions, hoping to find a bookstore that could publish it publicly. Zeng Literary Society was willing to give her a publishing house, but the manuscript was sent to the Book and Newspaper Censorship Committee of the Central Propaganda Department. It took half a year, but the result was that it was not approved. During the six months of anxious waiting, Xiao Hong wrote to Lu Xun more than once, and Lu Xun always replied to her patiently.

By the time "Shangshi Street" was to be published as the third slave series, Ye Zi's "The Field of Life and Death" and Xiao Jun's "Xiao Liu" had already been published, both with prefaces written by Lu Xun. Xiao Hong wrote to Lu Xun and said: "All of their books include "The Field of Life and Death" written by you, and I want it too!" After Lu Xun received the letter, he wrote "The Field of Life and Death" for "The Field of Life and Death" on the night of November 14, 1935. ” and gave it to Xiao Hong the next day.

"" is a landmark work on the Northeast people's struggle against the invaders. It has been reprinted no less than 20 times since it was first published in December 1935.

Lu Xun Xiao Hong did not always prefer Lu Xun. On the one hand, he affirms her small progress; on the other hand, he always gives realistic criticism and help to her ideological and creative weaknesses. Lu Xun said in the preface to "Feng Harvest": "Narration and description of scenery are better than description." This short sentence not only praises Xiao Hong's strengths in narrative and scene description, but also wittily points out Xiao Hong's weaknesses in characterization, which are not vivid enough and become a kind of pure naturalism. She still had to work hard at writing. Afraid that Lu Xun and Xiao Hong would not understand his painstaking efforts, he wrote very clearly in his letter on November 16, 1935: "There is a sentence in the preface called 'It is better to describe the scenery than to describe the characters.' It is not a good word, and it can also be interpreted as describing the characters. "

In March 1936, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun moved to "Yongle Lane" at the bottom of Sichuan North Road, intending to be closer to Lu Xun. From then on, Liang Xiao "would come to the new village in the mainland every night after dinner. There were almost no interruptions in windy and rainy days." They chatted and talked about funny things. Lu Xun laughed so much that he even took a cigarette. He couldn't stop laughing and often made him cough. The laughter was so contagious that Xiao Hong bent over with laughter.

Sometimes, when Xiao Hong lay on Lu Xun's knees, she felt as if she had returned to her childhood. Xiao Hong once asked Lu Xun: "Are your feelings for young people paternal? Or maternal?" Lu Xun: "I think my attitude towards youth is 'maternal'!"

One day, Xiao Hong was wearing a A novel red coat, a brown plaid skirt and a pair of short boots. She felt pretty good about herself and went to Lu Xun's house, hoping that Lu Xun or Xu Guangping would compliment her clothes. Xu Guangping was busy with housework, and Lu Xun had no time to take care of her clothes. He was sitting on the sofa smoking. Xiao Hong couldn't help it. She said, "Teacher Zhou, are my clothes beautiful?" Lu Xun looked Xiao Hong up and down and said, "It doesn't look very good." Lu Xun was afraid that Xiao Hong would be unhappy, so he continued to explain: "Your skirt is the wrong color. The red top." It has to be matched with a red skirt, otherwise it is a black skirt, not brown." Then Lu Xun talked enthusiastically about how the color of the clothes should be coordinated with the fat skin color of the human body: "Thin people should not wear black clothes, and fat people should not wear white clothes; Women with long feet must wear black shoes, and women with short feet must wear white shoes; square plaid clothes cannot be worn by fat people, but they are better than horizontal plaid clothes. Cross-checking, fat people put them on, and the fat people are more divided on both sides. Wider. Fat people wear vertical stripes to make them look taller and wider when viewed horizontally."

Lu Xun's words filled Xiao Hong with admiration. She wondered how Lu Xun knew "this"

When Xiao Hong was eating at Lu Xun’s house, she often showed everyone how to make leek zygots, hinge cakes, and especially dumplings. Lu Xun always listened to Xiao Hong’s advice and always agreed to what to eat for dinner. Later, Xiao Hong often went to the movies with Lu Xun's family. Xiao Hong couldn't remember it at all. The long-awaited feeling of "maternal love"

In the whirlpool of love

Since the release of "August Countryside" and "Preface", Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun have become. Literary lovers in the literary world. They are such a happy, harmonious and happy couple in people's eyes.

But at some point, Xiao Hong seemed to have some kind of pain hidden in his heart. "Tiredness, disappointment and sadness enveloped her life." In order to get rid of the pain, Xiao Hong often stayed at Lu Xun's house all day long, and Xu Guangping had to put down housework to accompany her. What happened between her and Xiao Jun?

Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun, one is slender and the other is rough; one is sick and the other is strong; one hand is slow and the other can write just sitting down.

"Duanmu asked me to hand it over to him today, and I promised to talk tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will tell him that it is for you. If he asks, can you just admit that it happened?" Nie Gannu agreed.

A few days later, Nie Gannu met Xiao Hong again on the road. Xiao Hong made sure to treat Nie Gannu to dinner. After entering the restaurant, Xiaohong watched him eat three full bowls of food and then spoke. "If I sympathize with you, will you forgive me?" "I won't forgive without you." "I just gave it to him about the small bamboo stick."

Nie Gannu was stunned and seemed to want to redeem himself. What. He asked: "It's just a small stick. It doesn't symbolize anything else, right? Xiaojun said you have no experience." Nie Gannu was still reminding Xiaohong. "I have important things!" Xiao Hong spoke firmly, but Nie Gannu could hear her voice trembling.

Now that the three of them met, Xiao Jun and Duanmu hugged politely and then went into the room to wash their faces. Xiao Hong also entered the room, stood aside and said with a smile: "Sanlang Tai, let's separate forever!" "Very good." When Xiao Hong heard Xiao Jun say "OK", she hurried out.

Xiao Jun said: "Our eternal farewell is so ordinary and rustic, it has been confirmed without any nonsense or disputes." According to later generations, Xiao Hong was pregnant at the time and belonged to Xiao Jun, so Xiao Hong Jun suggested that when she has a child, if she doesn't want his child, he can raise her. However, Xiao Hong's decision to leave has been made. She no longer accepts his kindness and is unwilling to hand over her child to Xiao Jun.

Many years later, Xiao Jun calmly analyzed the reasons why he and Xiao Hong broke up: "In the course of our economic life, not all of them belong to the avenue. Just like ordinary young men and women, there has always been a conflict between them. Suspicions, misunderstandings and interference from 'external forces'. But things in the world will eventually change. Once the subjective and objective conditions change, time and space change, the basis of communication changes, and correspondingly people's thoughts, feelings, and ideals will also change. Changes will inevitably lead to changes. If you can understand this simple truth, there will always be certain rules for the occurrence and development of anything, so it is not surprising to say goodbye to us."

Xiao Hong is often accused of being the reason why the two Xiaos broke up. In fact, the two Xiaos came together in a dramatic way at that time, and the balance of public opinion was tilted towards Xiao Jun, because it was Xiao Jun who rescued Xiao Hong in distress, and a strong man saved a weak one. One pays and the other gets, which is inherently unbalanced. No matter how Xiao Hong devotes all her love to Xiao Jun in the future, people think this is what she should do. Xiao broke up with a "third party". Public opinion is definitely against Xiao Hong, which makes Xiao Hong sad. She hates this male-centered world.

Xiao Hong also has complicated feelings towards Duanmu. Duanmu once told a friend that at that time "several writers expressed a favorable impression of Xiao Hong. Once Xiao Hong came back with a cane. Everyone was fighting for it. Xiao Hong told everyone to hide it and let everyone find it. Whoever finds it will win the prize." It belongs to it. At the same time, he quietly told Duanmu where the artifact was. Of course, Duanmu discovered it. "This article is a "little bamboo stick" given to Nie Gannu.

In April 1938, Xiao Hong and Duanmu decided to return to Wuhan. The train was about to leave. Nie Gannu squeezed through the crowd and said loudly to Xiao Hong: "Xiao Hong, you are the author of "The Field of Life and Death" and the author of "The Preface." If you want to think about your literary stance, you have to fly upward. The farther you fly, the better." This was a friend's heartfelt words, and Xiao Hong almost burst into tears. The train started, and Nie Gannu made a flying gesture to Xiao Hong and pointed to the sky again. She smiled knowingly, nodded, and waved goodbye to her friends. Her eyes kept searching in the crowd, trying to find that familiar figure, but the train drove faster and faster, the crowd gradually became smaller, and Xiao Hong's hand dropped weakly.

From then on, Xiao Hong and Xiao Jun We parted ways and never met again.

"I will always live with blue sky and clear water"

In January 1940, Xiao Hong and Duanmu Hongliang arrived in Hong Kong by plane and lived in a small house in Lok Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. in the room. Xiaohong is in poor health, often coughing, having headaches, and suffering from insomnia. However, she still writes diligently. After completing the unfinished novel "The Field of Life and Death", she began to write the novel "The Field of Life and Death", which is based on the fall of half the country's mountains and rivers after the September 18th Incident.

Xiao Hong began to conceive of "The Field of Life and Death" in 1939 when she was in Chongqing, and began writing after arriving in Hong Kong in 1940. The first half of the novel was first published by Chongqing Times Publishing House in January 1941. The cover was designed by Xiao Hong herself and was reprinted many times. In the same year, Hong Kong's "August Village" began to serialize the second half of "The Field of Life and Death" until the end of Chapter 9 in the autumn of 1941, when Xiao Hong dropped out of school due to illness.

On January 12, 1942, Xiao Hong was sent to Happy Valley Yanghe Hospital in Hong Kong. After the doctor's consultation, Xiao Hong was sent to the operating room the next day. This operation accelerated Xiao Hong's death. ——She was misdiagnosed as a throat tumor by an irresponsible doctor Li, and underwent throat surgery. As a result, her condition took a turn for the worse and she was in great pain.

That night, Xiao Hong was leaning on the hospital bed, and Duanmu Hongliang and her friend were beside the bed. Xiao Hong said: "There are only two kinds of human spirit. One is to develop upward and pursue one's highest peak; the other is downward, despicable and selfish. What do writers pursue in the world? If everything is for the good of people , you should do it. We are not the winners in this world, we must pay." Xiao Hong continued, "I want to write something in the future, but I know that I have to leave you to live like this, so weak, and so dead. What the hell!”

On January 18, 1942, Xiao Hong was transferred to Queen Mary Hospital and underwent another surgery to replace the breathing tube in her throat. At 12 o'clock on the night of the 19th, Xiao Hong asked Luo for a pen. She wrote on the pad: "I will always be with the blue sky and clear water, leaving the half of "Shangshi Street" to others to write. I have been treated coldly for half my life, so I died first, unwilling to accept, unwilling to accept !" This was Xiao Hong's last cry. She doesn't want to die. She still has a lot to write.

On the morning of the 21st, when Xiao Hong was talking to Duanmu and Luo, her face was rosy and she ate half a can of beef. The copper pipe in her throat was blocked by phlegm, so she made a hoarse voice: "I'm completely fine, I've never eaten so much."

At dawn on the 22nd, Luo came to Mary again When I was at the hospital, I discovered that the sign at the door saying "Japanese Army Field Hospital" had been changed. When he went upstairs, Xiaohong was gone. After many twists and turns, I found Duanmu and found out that Xiaohong had been transferred to a temporary hospital and was in critical condition. There is still a shortage of funeral expenses. I borrowed twenty yuan from Luo and gave it to Duanmu. Unexpectedly, on the way to the hospital, the two met another "misbehaving boy", and even their money and clothes were robbed.

When Luo and Duanmu finally arrived at the temporary hospital at around 9 a.m., they saw Xiao Hong covered with a blanket, lying on her back, her face pale, her eyes closed, her hair spread behind the pillow, her face gradually turning pale. It turned gray, and foam came out of the surgical site at the throat. At 11 o'clock, Xiao Hong breathed out her last breath.