The psychological order and pulse of that generation yesterday: Reading Essay on Sun Jianxi's novel The Country Xian

The Hometown Xian is based on the historical anecdotes of the author's family, and all the characters and plots have life prototypes. In the years of war, an "old man Sun" who was in charge of fire and water sticks in the county government at the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China returned to the mountain village to manage a rural area. He did education, built a river weir, responded to bandits' harassment, received the "grain" teams passing by, presided over the weddings and funerals of villagers, mediated various disputes and civil lawsuits, and buried the ghosts who died in battle and died of freezing and starvation, and so on.

All this, he must be fair and convincing. For this reason, he suffered from hardships and losses. He suffered from kidnapping and extortion. He made a night patrol with gongs to prevent theft and fire. For the sake of the safety of the villagers and places, his sons gave their lives. Although his family was ruined, one side of the society was basically peaceful and the people's lives were still going on. What did he rely on to govern the countryside at that time? What does he rely on to maintain the order of the village community?

As the story unfolds, the thoughts and words of the old fellow countryman are like a drizzle, infiltrating into the hearts of the people of the world at that time and place, and warming the hearts of today's readers like a spring breeze. This is the powerful internal force and wide-spread value of Chinese traditional culture, which is the magic weapon handed down by our ancestors. The word "benevolence" is like the moon printing Wan Chuan, the word "righteousness" is high and the sky is high, and the word "forbearance" gives up what one loves; What's important is that these basic values of the Chinese nation are not hung in the mouth of this rural sage, nor are they preached from a high platform in the school he advocated, but are implemented on the road under his feet and flying in the dust he kicked up.His life creed is "seeing marriage, seeing enemies, saying goodbye", and he hopes that people will get along in peace and help each other. The novel gives up the illustration of the concept, but its connotation and theme are revealed through the plots and details of the characters' stories. The natural flowing and silent power surpasses the story charm and the smooth reading pleasure of ordinary plot novels.

A fire and water stick in the former Qing Dynasty has long since failed and broken, and its legal value has not been recognized. But the old man in the countryside carries it with him, which supports his belief. The fire and water stick has evolved into his walking stick. People should have faith, and the belief of the old man Sun is that it is a blessing to do things like a scale and have a conscience.In the realistic literature of the past century, the typicality of characters is very clear, and the criticism or praise of folk culture is also clear-cut. Here in "Hometown Xian", let the characters walk by themselves and speak with facts. The old man Sun doesn't have much Confucian remarks, and he didn't enlighten anyone, but this character is real and touching, such as a farmer who hoes crops at noon, with sweat on his forehead, mud under his feet, and even dirt accumulated in the ragged fingernails of his sleeves. His way of doing things is not either-or. He has no heroic domineering, but a peacemaker's mother-in-law.

He has a wide range of connections, and he can also talk to bandits in the North and South Mountains, but he is not for personal or family interests, and his collusion is not for his own arrogance and decency; What he thinks day and night is how to settle the affairs of the country village society and let the poorest tiller live on. He is not a village official, but people like to ask him for advice when they have something to do. He has no domestic thugs, but all the armed people passing by talk to him first; He doesn't talk about ghosts and gods, but he sees mysterious things clearly. It is no exaggeration to say that the appearance of this country sage is a new image in China Contemporary Literature Gallery. In fact, the ultimate value of a literary figure depends on how many practical things he has done for the people.The story takes place in East Qinling, which is the junction of Hubei, Henan and Shaanxi provinces. It is a place where the heroes of Qin and Xiuchu mingle, and the cultural customs of the characters are diversified. The "smelly flower drum" artists interspersed among them sing the temple concept and practice the Jianghu interest, which is an interesting point in the novel.

In the novel, the school advocated by the old people of Sun is not a general third-person narrative, but a detailed and true description, from the hiring of teachers to the selection of teaching materials, to the school rules and mottos, not abandoning the tradition of old learning in teaching, but absorbing the true knowledge of new learning, and even the daily operation of the whole school. Write about Sun's dyehouse, from the purchase of leaves to the selection of pond mud, and so on. There is also the complicated process of pole making from material selection to processing, and so on, all of which are suspected to be the Republic of China edition of Tiangong Kaiwu;

The spinning and ploughing of cloth by Sun's daughters-in-law, from cotton twisting to weaving, seems to be a fine record of "intangible cultural heritage", which makes the labor object affectionate and the labor tools aesthetic, which is the author's contribution to contemporary novel creation; Also, at that time, the department store prices, currency exchange, shop management and market trade all had true and credible descriptions. No wonder Chen Zhongshi wrote an article after reading the manuscript before his death: "This novel shows the political and economic forms of rural China under the social background of great turmoil and great fission.Cultural form, educational form, production form, moral form, folk custom form, social structure and life movement form, like an encyclopedia of rural life in that era and that historical process, I can fully feel and appreciate the psychological order and pulse of the previous generation yesterday when reading. "In East Qinling in the 1920s, there was no revolutionary team, but there were progressive organizations, such as the secret reading club in Beijie Primary School. In the novel, there is a beautiful young woman "Eighteen Babies" with an important character "big face and double chin". Her father, grandmother who sings flowers and drums, and relatives who turn from mountain to mountain with "old company commander" are so close that they can't stop reading the plot. She was the eldest daughter-in-law of slips, but she was always coveted by old warlords. The legend of her birth, the twists and turns of her marriage, the unyielding fate, and the blurred death of her husband,When he was forced to work as a sidekick for the warlord's old company commander and send his children to and from school, he had the opportunity to get in touch with the reading club, and he happened to meet the "Cowherd" who had no guess when he was a child. He was a tea stove worker in a primary school. From this evolution to the end, the two went to the distance hand in hand. The distance is a place of great significance, a place where progressive young people are willing to give their lives. The tendentiousness of characters' thoughts, the logic of story extension and the inevitability of the evolution of the times are: first, understanding; second, firmness; the positive significance of works lies in the brightness and brilliance in the shadows.When he was forced to work as a sidekick for the warlord's old company commander and send his children to and from school, he had the opportunity to get in touch with the reading club, and he happened to meet the "Cowherd" who had no guess when he was a child. He was a tea stove worker in a primary school. From this evolution to the end, the two went to the distance hand in hand. The distance is a place of great significance, a place where progressive young people are willing to give their lives. The tendentiousness of characters' thoughts, the logic of story extension and the inevitability of the evolution of the times are: first, understanding; second, firmness; the positive significance of works lies in the brightness and brilliance in the shadows.The background of the work is that Liu Zhenhua, a warlord from Henan, besieged Xi 'an and Li Huchen, a city in Yanghucheng, defended the city for eight months, and then Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan fought in the Central Plains. The war of big warlords affects small warlords, and the interaction of small warlords directly affects people's lives and farming. No matter how great the contrast of reality is, the paving of history has always been seamless, and the description in "The Country Xian" has become the bridge of the above history.

The background of the work is that Liu Zhenhua, a warlord from Henan, besieged Xi 'an and Li Huchen, a city in Yanghucheng, defended the city for eight months, and then Chiang Kai-shek, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan fought in the Central Plains. The war of big warlords affects small warlords, and the interaction of small warlords directly affects people's lives and farming. No matter how great the contrast of reality is, the paving of history has always been seamless, and the description in "The Country Xian" has become the bridge of the above history.As a professional bookworm, I read "The Country Xian" and read out my feelings about my own life, such as the birth of "Eighteen Babies": the old father who picked the peddler piteously begged Chen Bagua, who could connect the gods with ghosts, and did as he told him. Later, "In the tenth month when the old peddler picked and buried an 18-catty Grand White Rock in the ancestral grave, there was a wow on the kang, and a female doll fell from the wife's crotch.

People are happy, but when my mother was pregnant with me, she was catching up with family planning, and my future was decided by the fertility index. My father went out to ask for indicators, and when he came back, my mother saw his father's misery! After all, I was born. I thought I was a boy, but I was born a girl. In addition, my mother was in dystocia, and my birth did not bring joy to my family. There are many unforgettable plots, such as the loss of his son. Old man Sun put his grandson Jin Hu in his old round-backed chair, and Jin Hu reached out and touched his face and said, "Grandpa, why are you crying?" Old man Sun said, "I didn't cry. When did I cry?" As he spoke, two tears welled up from the corner of his eye, and Jin Hu said, "Grandpa, I know you miss my dad again.…”You said my dad went to Laohekou to peddle and pick, and he will come back during the New Year, but he didn't come back after a year. Did he forget about us? "I was sobbing, and my grandchildren gathered around, rubbing their eyes and wiping their noses. My grandfather said to Jin Hu, "Your father is stubborn and earnest, and he is hard to avoid being mean to others. The road left for his family is getting narrower and narrower, and there is no way to go in the end ..."Several grandchildren struggled to wipe their tears, and I stretched out my arms and hugged them in my arms, saying, "Children, I told you that when you saw a long worm lying across the road, you made a detour, and when you saw a sparrow freezing to death, you picked up a handful of firewood to cover it. Everything in the world is spiritual. You gave it a bite and it rewarded you with a fight. In a word, everything is good, and it is a blessing to suffer."The author seldom uses the word "kindness" when writing about this country sage old man, but a few words he gave his grandson made him cry. When we read a literary work, we often see whether it has written a typical character. Whether the character is said by the author or by the actions of the characters is the difference between masterpieces and mediocrities. Many creators say that the plot is easy to find but the details are hard to find. Reading this novel, I am more immersed in the subtle details, which are the most beautiful words.

The author seldom uses the word "kindness" when writing about this country sage old man, but a few words he gave his grandson made him cry. When we read a literary work, we often see whether it has written a typical character. Whether the character is said by the author or by the actions of the characters is the difference between masterpieces and mediocrities. Many creators say that the plot is easy to find but the details are hard to find. Reading this novel, I am more immersed in the subtle details, which are the most beautiful words.

Sun Jianxi: There are mainly novels, essays, essays, jathyapple in Xunyang, Bowing down to Populus euphratica, Ode to the West, comments on Sun Jianxi's Comments, The Analects of Banana Peel, and novels such as Mountain bandits. He has won more than 30 literary awards such as Liu Qing Literature Award. The author of this article, Kang Pingping: pen name Xiaoxiao Rufeng, born in 1980s, lives in Xi 'an, Shaanxi Province, and is studying for a doctorate in philosophy at Oxford University.