1, sympathize with the people of Xia Di, Xiangxi.
After leaving Xiangxi, Shen Congwen, like his early life, gave deep sympathy to the lower class people in Xiangxi. This sympathy is mainly manifested in Cui Cui in Border Town. Cui Cui knows that she loves her parents' Nogo deeply, and Nogo also has a soft spot for Cui Cui, but they don't talk to each other for various reasons. Although Nuo Sansong sang songs for Cui Cui for several nights in the way of local customs, he was confused by this obscure girl. However, in Cui Cui's mind, she is the best in the team. Although she knows that she loves herself, she is depressed in doubt. Until Tianbao was "broken", grandpa died, and he was sent away, waiting alone at the ferry for the person who might come back tomorrow or never.
Cui Cui's parents fell in love because of singing, but they failed to get married. When her father had to leave "green camp" to "garrison", Cui Cui's pregnant mother had no choice but to drink cold water from the river and even die.
All these reflect Shen Congwen's sympathy for the lower people in western Hunan. This sympathy turns into a sad music in Border Town, which expresses the author's endless pity and care. Behind this pity and care, the author's deep pain is hidden, and it also reflects the original beauty of human nature. This view has been demonstrated by predecessors, and Zhu Guangqian, a literary elder familiar with Shen Congwen, accurately expressed this emotional connotation in Border Town:
"Its surface has been oppressed for a long time, but it is full of fantasy and sensitive ethnic minorities, and their hearts have a strong hidden pain. Cui Cui showed her own character in this respect. ..... He not only sang the voice of ethnic minorities, but also sang the voice of a generation of intellectuals. This is his profound point. " ⒁
2. Rational understanding of the "accidental" phenomenon in fate.
As we said before, Shen Congwen survived because of an "accident", and his life was decided by the "accident". In Border Town, Shen Congwen consciously explained the life phenomenon of "accident".
In the love between Cui Cui and Nuosong, people are most entangled in the discussion about "ferry" and "mill". "Ferry" represents the natural love form of Miao nationality, and "Mill" represents the marriage form of Han nationality with material interests. In the twenties and thirties of last century, a kind of values, represented by the mill, which is completely opposite to the traditional values of valuing righteousness over profit, quietly entered the world of border towns. In the conversation of the villagers in the border town, we can find that they are divided into two camps on this issue. "I heard from others that parents are happy to support the ferry." "He is not an idiot. Don't run the mill. Do you want to ferry? " "Then who knows. Hengshun people are' fried leeks with beef, everyone loves them' and only eat what they like. The ferry can't be worse than the mill! " Cui Cui heard the news by accident, but this accident affected Cui Cui's love and even her life. We might as well make such an assumption. What would the story be if Cui Cui hadn't heard the news? Perhaps Cui Cui expressed her love for Connaught without any misgivings. If so, the later tragedy would not have happened. If Cui Cui agrees that Tianbao's agent matches the media, what will be the ending of the story? Maybe in the future, as a mother, Cui Cui will have a happy family.
It can be seen that "accident" is not an incomprehensible "tie" or an innate "fate", but an inevitability of historical development and social evolution, but this inevitability has not been understood and recognized by the remote and isolated lower class people. This phenomenon is the same as Shen Congwen's "accidental" death in the raid of "magic soldiers" and "militia" because he stayed behind young.
3. Explanation of the word "love"
In the border town, it is natural to love and be loved. Without external pressure, hierarchy and ethnic discrimination, everything is so beautiful and natural, which is in line with Shen Congwen's love concept of wandering in Zhijiang in his early years-"Don't be the son-in-law of powerful relatives".
Cui Cui's emotional world is pure and beautiful, which transcends the secular interests. Her feelings for promise are independent, pure and loyal. Nuosong, on the other hand, clearly pursued Cui Cui from the very beginning, which was completely free from the influence of money, wealth and social status, and was not limited by parents' ideas-"Don't struggle for a living". This simple emotion beyond nature bred in the primitive countryside shows the nobility of natural love and reveals a new, sound and ideal harmony that the author hopes.
In Xiangxi world, everyone lives calmly and calmly. But in their simple and indifferent life, they have deep feelings and love.
Between the old boatman and Cui Cui, an old man and a 14-or 15-year-old girl are a beautiful scenery in the border town. Their relationship is full of love and being loved, tolerance and understanding, and their simple and pure affection reflects the harmony of the western Hunan world. One year during the Dragon Boat Festival, Cui Cui had made an appointment with her grandfather to watch the boat together. She and Huang Gou went to the Diaojiao Building to watch the fun. When he left, Cui Cui asked, "Who will accompany you when I leave?" Grandpa said, "When you leave, the boat will accompany me." Cui Cui frowned with a wry smile: "The boat will accompany you, hey, hey, the boat will accompany you. Grandpa, you are really ... "Finally, Cui Cui decided not to go and said to grandpa," Let the boat go, I will accompany you instead of the boat! " Although these words are silly, we can feel the deep affection between Cui Cui and the old boatman. Cui Cui can shout "Grandpa, I want you" to Grandpa across the river. Cui Cui can cry alone without affectation, and all she gets is grandpa's care and love. Although it is not a paradise, it seems to be a paradise on earth.
The novel also embodies the innocence and beauty dissolved in urban life in the two characters, the old boatman and Cui Cui.
The ship is always smooth, and the material life of the ferryman is at two completely different levels. However, their feelings are closely linked, and the harmony of their lives is not cut off because of material differences. No matter who guards the wharf or supports the ferry, they all enjoy a certain degree of personality equality in a simple humanistic care. They talked heart to heart, and a pot of wine seemed so sincere, natural and harmonious.
The work takes love as the core, which allows us to experience the beauty, health and nature in life in the quiet and harmonious border town. Cui Cui lost his family in the storm, but the kind Xiangxi people didn't make him feel lonely and helpless. The ship is always busy, take care of it wholeheartedly. Even Yang, who was rejected by her mother in the past, didn't come to take care of the helpless. They got rid of secular utilitarianism and lived quietly and simply, and these pure and simple feelings and love made every ordinary day of ordinary people warm and touching, showing the harmony of the western Hunan world.
These are Shen Congwen's "interpretations" of the word "love".
3, miss the beauty of human nature
During his years in the army, Shen Congwen was "used to the martial arts of Hunan soldiers and the darkness of persecution and killing." Facing the cruelty of society and the ignorance of life around him prematurely, he eliminated any possibility of showing off his curiosity when writing "cruelty" and "ignorance" in his works in the future, and instead formed a character of pursuing a better life and kindness. " ⒂
Cui Cui, the hero, is the most successful character in Border Town. She is an elf bred by mountains and rivers in western Hunan. "Cui Cui grew up in a windy day, with dark skin and crystal clear eyes", "She is innocent and lively, and looks like a small animal everywhere", "She never thinks about cruelty, never worries, and never gets angry". The breeze in Xiangxi gave her a strong body, and the green mountains and green waters in the tea cave gave her a pair of clear and transparent eyes like jasper. She is charming, beautiful, wise and has a crystal clear temperament. Cui Cui is the embodiment of beauty and the soul of this book. Her intelligence, beauty, innocence, kindness, spotless mind and relaxed living conditions make her a beautiful goddess in the author's dream, leaving readers with her "naive and elegant temperament, which is her poetic rhyme like a fish swimming in the water." ⒃
"Border Town" "Human nature is good". Only kindness can make it easier to feel the power of sadness, because a greater shadow of fate hangs over their survival. The protagonists Cui Cui and Raul have a dream in their hearts, a dream with the same meaning. However, the daughters of this group of generals, married to a rolling house and wearing a shiny twisted silver bracelet, blocked their way, which is a kind of heterogeneity for the ancient Xiangxi cultural tradition. It can be seen that the value of mercenaries has quietly entered the border town, which has inevitably changed people's way of life. Raul pursues poetic love and rejects utilitarian mill marriage, but in the end it is difficult to get rid of the continuation of love tragedy and the impermanent fate of life! Cui Cui's grandfather, an old boatman, was also in the competition between his own "broken ferry" and Wang Tuan's "new mill". When pulling the ferry, he was told that his parents gave him it out of abacus and decided to "mill" instead of "ferry". After that, he rushed to the city and was confirmed by the smooth boat, feeling disillusioned and exhausted. It's not just grandpa's life that died, but the disappearance of "humanity" and the rupture of "harmony".
The ferry and the mill form a group of contradictions, which is the cause of disharmony. In people's lives, sincerity and beauty are always disturbed by various external factors and entangled by human limitations. The variability between people is great, and the change of human nature and the impermanence of fate have become a basic proposition that no one can grasp. Although everyone in Border Town is extremely kind, it has an inevitable tragedy.
The collapse of the White Pagoda, the death of the old boatman, and Cui Cui's love tragedy all indicate the end of simple folk customs, the loss of beautiful humanity and the fall of true love in Xiangxi. A pure and simple, perfect and beautiful Taoyuan world, where all the relics and customs are buried. Therefore, Border Town is a nostalgic work, a kind of nostalgia with regret, which is not absolutely correct.
5. Express inner loneliness
In Shen Congwen's life experience, we know that "country people" living in big cities are lonely. This kind of loneliness is not loneliness, but an inner pain that is not recognized by people. The author also showed this idea in Border Town.
Cui Cui's grandfather, who has no wife, brothers and sisters, or even parents, the incomplete family who has been dating each other in the middle, and Cui Cui, who lives alone after his grandfather's death, have all become a lonely picture, hiding the sadness in people's inner world.
Grandpa's only daughter (Cui Cui's mother) died after drinking cold water from the river, because she could not get married. The death of more than one person's life is the disillusionment of all grandpa's joys and hopes. Grandpa, who has passed away and has no one to tell, has long suffered silently from the pain of "losing his daughter". When the nephew grows up, grandpa can forget the pain of separation of flesh and blood, but once in the city, he has to know that he lost his happiness and even his life because of his indecision. The kind grandfather is guilty and sick, and it rains heavily.
The pain caused by the separation of relatives did not end after grandpa's death. As the only descendant of Grandpa, Cui Cui continued to accept the painful baton and suffered the double pain and loneliness of the death of his loved one and the departure of his lover. After grandpa's death, Cui Cui not only picked up the lingering pain in grandpa's life, but also continued his work, guarding the ferry that people came and went every day, enduring the pain of losing grandpa and waiting for the arrival of his lover. However, in the face of the unbearable pain of normal people, Cui Cui, like her grandfather and all Xiangxi people, "shoulders her own destiny and continues to live in this world for herself and her children, no matter how poor and difficult she is, she never escapes all the efforts she should make to survive." This verifies what Shen Congwen said in an article entitled "1934 1 month 18"-"In their lives, love and hate, gain and loss, they still share crying and laughing, eating and drinking. For the coming of cold and summer, they feel worse than others in the world. History means nothing to them. However, mentioning their unchanging and unrecorded history for thousands of years makes people feel speechless. "
Shen Congwen is the spokesman of rural narrative, and the countryside is the carrier of Shen Congwen's personal inner feelings. While expressing the loneliness of Grandpa and Cui Cui, he also showed his own loneliness, reflecting the life experience of Xiangxi people and himself.
To sum up, the purpose of Shen Congwen's creation of Border Town is not to describe a paradise isolated from reality, but to express a "life form" and inject the "sadness and joy" he has experienced in his life for more than 30 years into this "life form". This is not a "masterpiece to prove that human nature is good", nor is it "a poem, a love song sung by his parents to Cui Cui".