Shen Congwen's Humanity

When Shen Huchu recalled Shen Congwen, he wrote that if you appreciate any literary work, "homely" is a high compliment. Reading his works is also the same-although the language and content are far away, it always gives people a very real and natural feeling, as if those small towns and villages between mountains and rivers and people in small towns have come alive on the page. This feeling is difficult to express accurately. Thinking about it, I had to say "yes"-as if people in that small town should be like this.

But this "truth" is not as real as photography, but the truth in painting. It is vivid and artistic, and after some subjective treatment, it is not only sketching, so it can bring people into the strange world of Xiangxi. But whenever he writes about people in the countryside with admiration and love, I always feel uncomfortable. I think they are too ignorant and powerless, just like sleepwalking. I felt this way when I watched Border Town last semester, especially when I read Autobiography of Congwen and Sasha Vujacic. Shen Congwen said that he would build a "small Greek temple" and "worship human nature". So I want to find out the meaning of this "humanity". He also recognized the character of a "countryman" and had deep feelings for the rural areas of western Hunan, so this question ultimately boils down to one point: what are the people of western Hunan in small towns and villages like?

Sasha Vujacic is talking about a rural marriage. Mix is an orphan who lives in an uncle's house. She works as a child bride in another family, becomes the labor force of her husband's family, and plays the roles of sister and mother in her husband's life. Slowly, Mix fell in love with her husband's wife and got pregnant. She tried every means to abort the child, and it finally happened. Mix is either sold or sunk. Now that the fate of buying and selling has been decided, Xiaoxiao gave birth to a son, so there is no need to go. When the children grow up, the in-laws are married. Xiaoxiao held her husband and children and watched another Xiaoxiao enter the door.

Rustling is naive, even a little resigned. "She knows nothing, so she becomes a daughter-in-law." She is not shy or afraid. She doesn't know what will be sharpened after entering the door, and she can't bear it. "drink cold water" and "eat rough rice" My mother-in-law was born like a pair of scissors, but she looks very good. Mentally, her husband's family let her grow naturally. When she was 15 years old, "the heart is still a discredited heart." Cui Cui is also such a naive figure. She naturally grew up in Shan Ye, simple and pure. Not only young people, but also the older generation, like the flood in Border Town, silently (even flatly) accepted the tempering of nature, without complaining or expecting anything, just living in the sunshine and rain.

Exposure of extramarital affairs is a big deal. The rules in the village are strict, or they will sink into the pool and die in humiliation and pain; Either sell it, obviously it will not be easy in the future. However, the punishment is decided, but it seems that there is nothing: "This matter has been made clear, but according to the rules of the countryside, it seems that it doesn't matter. Just wait for the punishment, everyone will be relieved. " Words such as "following the rules" and "rules" often appear in Border Town and Autobiography of Congwen. They have a unique magic power, which can suppress the violent side of the things involved (whether scandals or killings), as if even if they are full of thorns, as long as the "example" is included, people will have a backbone, which is not worth making a fuss about and must be implemented. It is precisely for this reason that even though the fate of rustling makes people nervous and worried, this novel still makes people feel very stable and harmonious.

Besides, Shen Congwen's humanity has a more dynamic side. This vitality exists in Shan Ye's children's games and in the daily work of rural people, but it is most obvious in sexual scenes. He wrote about the sailors on Chen Jiang's boat and the women on the diaojiao building, four dogs and sisters, and the love in Huangluozhai, full of wildness and vigorous vitality, a deep power that seems to emanate from the land, which makes you smell the wildness.

The Xiangxi people written by Shen Congwen are naive and prosperous, corresponding to the "distorted" and "unnatural" people in the city. The female students in Xiao Xiao Li "eat people", and Shen Congwen in Ba Ma Mali called the urbanite's personality "morbid", which suppressed the natural nature. "Rules" sometimes run counter to people's wishes, but Shen Congwen allows rules to exist, allowing Xiangxi people to "do everything by instinct and habit", because this rule itself is a natural collective consciousness, which is naturally produced from life, so it can form a symbiotic relationship with the vitality of the wild, and it is the continuation of rural life in Xiangxi, so that the vitality of the wild will not become barbaric. The two are unified in innocence, forming an ignorant nature, a freedom that has nothing to do with self-awakening and self-consciousness, a real, so "homely" and "real" humanity, which is pure and beautiful and can be appreciated.