Bian cheng shan Qing shui xiu photography

Some people say that "Border Town" is an idyll of life in a mountain village in western Hunan, a sincere and enthusiastic love hymn, a blank poem written in the form of a novel, and a colorless painting. Pastoral is a literary term taken from the west. The essence of pastoral is to show simple and natural rural life, which is in contrast with complex and corrupt urban life. Xia Zhiqing praised Shen Congwen's Border Town as a representative work with pastoral flavor. Yang Yi said that Shen Congwen's "pastoral sentiment in his novels has the style of Qu Yuan's nine songs" is a real "return to simplicity". Pastoral is not limited to a specific aspect of literary works. It combines many artistic elements such as style, atmosphere, structure and theme, and has the characteristics of integrity and diffusion. Therefore, to appreciate Border Town requires a unique vision. If you just treat it as a general novel, you can't appreciate the real interest. Shen Congwen's brushwork is simple, but he is simple and concise; The brushwork is simple, but it is smooth after poetry.

Border Town (1934) is a representative work of Shen Congwen and a typical pastoral novel. The work creates a closed pastoral environment and is a paradise. The so-called "border town" is a remote town "tea cave", which is a small town in Xiangxi, Shen Congwen's hometown. It is isolated from the world, living in a primitive state, far from the mainstream society and modern civilization. The civilized factors of modern society have not entered its living state, which determines its primitive and natural way of life. This local custom is the most important object of this novel. In this local custom, Shen Congwen's cultural ideal is displayed. Everything in the natural state is beautiful. The original customs and human feelings of Xiangxi are displayed to the greatest extent in the works.

In fact, the love story of the novel only provides the most basic plot framework of the novel. The plot is progressing slowly, and the frame is filled with a lot of customs and feelings. The scenery here is beautiful, the folk customs here are simple, everyone is kind and simple, warm-hearted, self-sufficient, happy and happy, and lives a carefree life. At the beginning of the work, I wrote about the beauty of natural landscapes and human feelings. This river is very clear, and you can see the fish in it. The ferry is public, and the old man guarding the ferry is very warm-hearted. No one needs to pay. If he has to pay, he will be given local specialties, tobacco leaves and tea. There is also a vat, which makes tea for passers-by, and anyone who is thirsty will drink it. The army soldiers here, except the trumpeter who plays the trumpet every day, are known to everyone, as if they don't exist.

Primitive customs and human feelings are the basic objects of pastoral literature. China's classical pastoral literature is basically based on customs and human feelings. In this primitive custom, the goodness and freedom of human nature are shown. For example, in Peach Blossom Garden, after the narrator entered this paradise, he found that the folk customs here were simple, and people slaughtered chickens and cows and treated him warmly. The so-called, ignorant Han, regardless of Wei and Jin dynasties. It is the simplicity and kindness of human nature in isolation. It is a harmonious and beautiful realm of life. Intellectuals can experience a free mentality that is not suppressed by society in primitive customs and human emotions. Away from the fetters of officialdom and society, I gained a sense of spiritual freedom. Shen Congwen's pastoral novels are not a simple transplant of traditional pastoral literature, but a creation.

Due to the restriction of asceticism culture in ancient society, China intellectuals only regard pastoral as a symbol of social ideal and self-freedom of belief, and there is no love life in pastoral literature, not even a female protagonist. In the May 4th rural literature, as a kind of progress, the female image has become the protagonist of rural novels, but there is no love yet. In the story of bamboo forest, the protagonist is three girls, but the three girls have no love. Shen Congwen has love here, which is a modern transformation of this ancient literary prototype.

The love story of the work is as follows: Cui Cui, the girl guarding the ferry, is a beautiful, pure and naive girl. There is a local boat called Shunshun, and his two sons, Tianbao and Nuosong, are in love with her. Tianbao matched the bridge through the matchmaker and didn't get a clear answer. When his younger brother found out, he wanted to woo Cui Cui according to local customs. He consulted with his brother and courted Cui Cui by singing. But my brother Tianbao sang badly and felt that he was no match for his brother, so he gave up his pursuit and left his hometown. When he left home by boat, the boat was wrecked. Nuosong also misunderstood the old boatman because of his brother's death. He thought the old boatman was "crooked and stupid", so he killed his brother. Therefore, he gave up his pursuit of Cui Cui and left his hometown to work in other places. The old boatman was much older because he was worried about his granddaughter's marriage and died on a thunderstorm night. Cui Cui is in love with Noel. After work, she still stayed at the ferry, waiting for the promise to be sent. The work reads: "This person may never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow!" In fact, this is a tragic love triangle story. However, this kind of love tragedy embodies the beautiful human nature in the natural state.

The love tragedy in Border Town points to the goodness of human nature and reflects a beautiful human nature through the tragedy of love. What causes the tragedy of love is neither social environment nor culture, nor evil human nature, but good human nature. The main reason for the tragedy here is Cui Cui's innocence and purity. Cui Cui is not that kind of bold and provocative girl, but that kind of shy girl. Because of her personality, she won't express her love directly. She just kept it in her heart and didn't tell anyone, not even her grandfather. The old boatman respected his granddaughter's choice very much, so Tianbao and Nuosong didn't know who Cui Cui was going to choose, which led Tianbao to run away from home and even the boat was wrecked. As a result, there was a misunderstanding of the old boatman and the misunderstanding of flying away. So although it is a tragedy, it proves the beauty of human nature. With touching love stories and unique local customs, Border Town expresses the author's pursuit and desire for a better humanity, and embodies Shen Congwen's natural and cultural ideals.

The Xiangxi society written by Shen Congwen is not a real history, but a dream world, which is a symbol of human and cultural ideals written by Shen Congwen. Shen Congwen himself knows this very well. Shen Congwen said that Border Town pursues not the truth of life, but the truth of feelings. He said that it pursues a "life form": "What I want to express is a" life form ",a" beautiful, healthy, natural and non-contradictory life form ". My idea is not to lead readers to travel to Taoyuan, but to rely on Taoyuan to go up to a small town in the 700-mile-west water basin. When several stupid people are involved in a place, everyone should have a sadness and joy. This is the proper explanation of human love. "

"Border Town" is nothing more than yearning for beautiful humanity. Shen Congwen's choice of natural culture touched the cultural problems of human civilization or revealed the paradox of human civilization. It is "the antinomy between civilization and morality". In the historical process of human society, the progress of civilization is often at the expense of human morality. Civilization has also brought about the alienation of human nature. From primitive to modern, and then to post-modern, human history has continuously lost those beautiful things. Human beings have created civilization, but civilization has become the shackles of human beings. It reveals the embarrassment and dilemma of human civilization. In the final analysis, this rural world is nothing more than advocating an aesthetic life. That kind of simple, kind and pure love is nothing more than telling us not to always treat life with utilitarian attitude, but to live according to human nature.