Shen Congwen's Prose Essays on Western Hunan

A few years ago, I went to Zhangjiajie and Phoenix. Leave a deep impression respectively. At that time, I roughly heard that the tourism development in Western Hunan was related to tourists looking for the Xiangxi written by Shen Congwen. However, at that time, I had not read his article. In June of this year, I went to Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang again. Since I already knew a little about Shen Congwen, I made a special trip to Shen Congwen's former residence and paid a visit to Shen Congwen's cemetery. Because Shen Congwen's former residence is located on the street of the ancient town, there is an endless stream of visitors. Early in the morning, I asked three local people and walked 1.5 kilometers from Huilong Pavilion along the path along the Tuojiang River to Tingtao Mountain. Visit the grave of the gentleman who is repairing the surrounding infrastructure. While going up the mountain, I met a young man who looked like a college student. On the way down the mountain, I met several people who looked like university or high school teachers, leading a group of students. In fact, there is no monument or tomb in the cemetery. The symbol is a multicolored stone. On the multicolored stone is a handwriting written by the teacher: If you think like me, you can understand me; if you think like me, you can understand people! He passed away in 1988. In 1991, his family buried half of his ashes here and scattered the other half in Tuojiang River. After his wife Ms. Zhang Zhaohe, the "Cui Cui" whom he had been chasing for more than three years when he was young, passed away in 2003, the ashes stayed with him here forever in 2007.

When I went to Zhangjiajie this year, I also watched a large-scale song and dance party - "Charming Western Hunan". During this period, there were several passages in which Zhao Zhongxiang’s rich voice recited descriptions of Western Hunan from his article.

Recently, I finished reading "The Collected Works of Shen Congwen" which I bought at my husband's former residence. Only then did I have a more comprehensive understanding of Xiangxi written by Mr. Shen Congwen. Mr. Wang’s works were all produced in the 1930s and 1940s. The background of the novel is Phoenix before he was fifteen years old, and the scene in the Yuanjiang River Basin in western Hunan when he was fifteen to twenty years old.

In the first half of the year, I read the novella "Border Town". This is a novel written in the style of lyric poetry and sketches. The novel uses a lot of space to describe the landscape and humanities of western Hunan. The idyllic landscape, the leisurely folk customs, and the transparent and cool human feelings make you feel like you are in a paradise. The novel makes readers moved by simple love, but also worries about the impermanence of reality! In 2006, this novel was selected by Asia Weekly as the second best Chinese literary classic of the 20th century.

In the second half of the year, I read the short stories "Bai Zi", "A Jin", "Xiao Xiao", "San San", "Husband", "The Remaining Manuscripts " "Qiao Xiu and Dong Sheng" >

" makes the humanities of the 1930s and 1940s in western Hunan come to life on paper, filling the heart and spleen, and lingering in thoughts.

As for his three collections of essays, "Autobiography of Congwen", "Essays on a Travel to Hunan", and "Western Hunan". It also directly confronts the husband's growth experience and records what he saw and heard from the lower reaches of the Yuanjiang River to the upper reaches. It makes people yearn for it and make them yearn for it.

As Mr.’s works have been increasingly appreciated and recognized by people at home and abroad since the reform and opening up, I believe that tourism in western Hunan with Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang as the center will become more famous.

This is Shen Congwen. Before the age of fifteen, he was studying in private school and elementary school while observing Phoenix. From the age of fifteen to twenty, while doing military and official duties, he also observed Xiangxi. At the age of 20, he was drifting to Beijing alone. One time he was attending Peking University, and the other he was writing about his hometown. Ten years later, he became a famous writer and gave the quiet Xiangxi a story, a culture and a soul.

Cuicui, Sansan, Xiaoxiao, Qijie, Qiaoxiu, Nuosong, Baizi, Ajin, Zhao Kaiming, and the friend wearing the otter hat in Mr. Wang’s works will always live in the Yuanjiang River Basin in western Hunan. Here, as well as the picturesque landscapes they and their lives include: mountains, water, rocks, birds, fish, trees, bamboo, flowers, grass, smoke, fog, rain, boats, stilted buildings, small rock cities, small villages... , maybe it will make people want to find it forever!

Finally, let us taste two paragraphs of Mr. Xiangxi’s pastoral writings:

“It was about half past five, and the smoke from each house in the village was already raised high. There was no confusion. Then, under an extremely bizarre situation, they collapsed together under the pressure of the cold air and expanded into a patch of milky white mist. After a while, this wet mist surrounded and occupied the village. "< /p>

"There are high mountains along the river, with towering peaks, green bamboos and trees, and black rocks. The water is deep and clear, and the fish are as big as humans. On the huge black stones on both sides of the river bank, on a clear winter day, there are still wild beetles and blackbirds. , flew out of the bamboo huts in the valley, rested on the rocks and basked in the sun, singing sweet tunes leisurely, until a boat approached, then they calmly flew towards the forest together. There were many unknown waterbirds by the water. They are small and nimble, lively and happy, or their necks are very red, as if tied with a colorful belt, or their tails are like a fan, their patterns are beautiful, and their chirps are extremely crisp.

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