In fact, Shen Congwen knows nothing about this at all. He just wrote "Rotating from the Text" with him, enjoying the scenery of the mountain village in the border town of Xiangxi, and also flowing out of the Xiaoxi River along his words. Among the modern literary figures in China, Mr. Shen Congwen is a master of "local literature". There are few direct lyrical paragraphs and words in his articles, but reading his articles is full of affection everywhere. Mr. Shen Congwen is a master who describes rural customs and tells folk stories. His writing style is like flowing water, the beauty of flowing water and the beauty of mountain village scenery, just like China's ink painting. The story hidden in the scroll constantly affects your feelings. China's folk customs are so real. Reading his works is rhythmic, vivid, ups and downs, simple and distant; The trunk is prominent, concise, beautiful, thick and rich. His articles are fluent and fresh in language, elegant in style and poetic in artistic conception. His brushwork is to describe the small towns in the border areas as carefree, super beautiful and super elegant. The characters in his works are so simple and honest, and the scenes are quiet and beautiful. When we read in silence, a quiet life and temperament arises spontaneously. This is why among the masters of modern literature in China, an ancient city like Phoenix is rarely found, and it has become a tourist attraction because of its masterpiece Border Town.
If we look at Shen Congwen by modern standards, does he look too rustic? He has no diploma, just a nominal high school student, has not studied abroad, and has no doctoral title. There are no magnificent and heroic figures in his works, let alone his novelty. He is always a mountain village for games. His writing not only stresses Confucianism and Taoism, but also stresses the artistic standards of western humanity. He is one of the charms of China's landscape painting. A style of China's rich border village customs, in which the essence of folk customs lies. His novels Border Town, Sasha Vujacic and Vegetable Garden are particularly good to read.
Shen Congwen's life can be divided into three stages. The first stage was when he was a soldier, which was the darkest period he saw in China, from the Revolution of 1911 to the warlord scuffle in the early years of the Republic of China. He is like a drop of water in a mountain stream, flowing into a small river. In his pure thinking, he has integrated the events along the Yangtze River and the affairs of all kinds of people in the rivers and lakes into a story river, and kept writing it down. The river is getting bigger and bigger, and he moved from a remote mountain village to Beijing, the national historical and cultural center. He called himself a "hillbilly" and "abandoned soldier" period. This period is the stage when he observes the society and experiences life. At this stage, he has accumulated rich literary creation materials and experience. He has been studying and writing Story Club in Beijing since 1922. During War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's period, he not only became a famous writer, but also became a professor at Peking University, a famous university in China, which was his second stage. The founding of New China was his third period, and his interest turned to the study of ancient Chinese costumes and ancient China cultural relics. At this time, he became a great scholar.
Although Shen Congwen has no diploma, what is most commendable is his keen interest in various social phenomena. He read a big book, that is, social practice enriched his cultural knowledge. At the same time, he is a thoughtful man. He is not a master of Chinese studies, nor a representative of Shanghai humanities, and even has no official background at all. But he has a kind heart and a beautiful soul. He has no literary theory, he is sincere, and his style is always so natural. His works are also extremely rich. He has seven or eight collections of articles and published more than six or seven hundred articles.
Shen Congwen is a very low-key writer. He always meets something by accident, and when his emotions flow, he writes some stories. There are no big writing plans and shocking news in my mind. Everything seems to have happened in an "accident". Novels and essays are also sent by emotions. He stuck these accidents together, decorated them with his heart and paved them with his feelings. In fact, Shen Congwen's literary creation theory has a certain psychological style. He told us that the vitality of literary creation lies in perceiving beauty and understanding beauty with heart. The source of creation is social knowledge, a great book that can never be learned. Only in social activities can we pick up social scenes and characters with our heart, put them in the "accidental" head, and organize stories with emotions. This is a literary activity. Shen Congwen spent his whole life writing about those rural savages and street people. "I wrote this article because I envy these ordinary things, I am shocked by everything, and I am very devoted to such a small career." So Shen Congwen's life is extremely simple and simple.
We read Shen Congwen's literary works carefully and found that his description was particularly amazing. Every brick, tile, wall, corner, eaves and beam of the building is delicate and emotional. Another example is a flower, a grass, a tree and a bug on the hillside, all of which have fresh names and smells. Every bit of rivers and streams has her charming figure in the waves. The characters in his works have abnormal temperaments. For example, there is a story in What I See in Qing Xiang, which tells that the baby daughter of the president of a chamber of commerce fell ill and died. Just after it was buried, it was dug out of the grave by a young man selling tofu in the neighborhood, and he slept in the cave for three days before being sent back to the grave. It was later discovered that the young man selling tofu was executed on the spot. Before the execution, the man smiled clearly and said, "beautiful, beautiful." The exquisite description of this period is absolutely amazing. There are also subtle descriptions in A Mountain King. Shen Congwen's literary description, whether it is the scene, atmosphere, dialogue or the inner activities of the characters, is fascinating.
In my opinion, Shen Congwen's poetic language, the scene presentation of ink and wash, and the charm of flowing water are the best literary masters. Shen Congwen also has many unique writing methods. His prose runs through some reasoning arguments, literary viewpoints, and some arguments and arguments against contradictory thinking in his works. This is also the expression of his weak scholar spirit. He doesn't want to quarrel with others face to face, but he expounds his views in a low-key way, and mostly in the form of Oracle. Reading Shen Congwen's books is like tasting tea, and the taste can only be tasted slowly and carefully. After the taste is forgotten, there are more and more right and wrong stories, and there are more and more natural dragon gate arrays. This is really the beauty of tea. You see, Shen Congwen was born in a remote village in the late Qing Dynasty. During the Revolution of 1911, when he was in his youth, he witnessed too many novel events. The May 4th Movement advocated the slogan of new culture. He broke into Beijing alone from a remote town. From 65438 to 0924, Shen Congwen became famous in the literary world. In a sense, Shen Congwen's vernacular style was unparalleled at that time. So that some people put his works into the leisure literature of "Crescent School". However, Shen Congwen has never been attached to political activities in his life. Show up in academic activities at most. Most of his identities are writers, teachers, editors and researchers.
In Shen Congwen's literary activities, "local literature" is unique in his novels, and his travel prose is unique in the new literature. Reading his travels reminds people of Li Bai and Du Fu in Tang Dynasty and Lu You in Song Dynasty. With the aim of "Research on Chinese Ancient Costume" and China Museum of Ancient Cultural Relics, he created a new discipline and specialty, which filled a big gap in the field of ancient culture in China. His weight in academic research far exceeds that of doctors and foreign scholars who stay in their jobs. In this way, regardless of whether he has simply divorced from the name of a professional writer, according to China's outstanding contribution to history and culture, he has become a master of China culture. To enter any college, he must compare with Guo Moruo. In addition, if evaluated by Shen Congwen's fans, he should be the biggest, widest and deepest top figure. At present, hundreds of sinologists all over the world are engaged in "Shen Congwen's research", and even Japan has set up a "Shen Congwen lecture". Shen Congwen's cultural activities and his contribution to China's new culture have become a research phenomenon. No wonder Shen Congwen ranks second or third in the ranking of modern famous families in China. Official comments call it "Shen Congwen is a master of literature, a historian and a calligrapher". I think this comment is a bit weak. He should be a master cultural figure rather than a brand.
Many readers think that Shen Congwen has no literary thought and theory, which probably implies that he has no diploma or has never studied abroad. I think it is because he is not bound by this aspect that he has created his unique observation perspective, writing style and unique aesthetic charm. I take Hu Shi, Lin Yutang and Liang Shiqiu as examples. Their ideological basis and literary theory are all foreigners', and they just take them to China to see a peep show. So most of their works are foreign mountains hung by foreign horses. But Shen Congwen is different. He is a butcher wearing a foreign watch and a Chinese tunic suit. Here, we might as well read more about Shen Congwen's On Creation. For example, "reading novels is reading social history" and "truth and enthusiasm can be conveyed" is so incisive. Some literary viewpoints and understandings can be reflected in literary works. For example, the epitome of social phenomena in China today can also be reflected in folk proverbs, such as "When you go to Beijing, you feel that your official position is small, and when you go to Guangzhou, you feel that your money is too small. I didn't know I was a hillbilly until I went to Shanghai, and I found it too early to get married when I went to Chongqing. " Shen Congwen's stories are full, such as those in Xiangxi, Beijing and Shanghai, which are somewhat similar to the current world situation. So life itself has a story, and there is knowledge everywhere in society. This is Shen Congwen's unique perspective.
Shen Congwen's life is full of legends. In the years of warlord melee, as a soldier, he killed many enemies and saved the day. A person who goes to Beijing to study writing is hungry and cold, just like a beggar who lives in drag out an ignoble existence. For love, I will not hesitate to pursue the fame of love between teachers and students. In the literary world, during the war, I did not hesitate to set up my own family, and I could live a clean life in the years of frequent political movements. In some gossip, we can pick up the historical and cultural relics of our ancestors for thousands of years in the hutong neighborhood of Beijing. He also has many interesting stories in the literary world. His remarks sparked a debate between Beijing School and Shanghai School. After liberation, he was identified as a "pink" writer.
Shen Congwen's personality is extremely important. He is an honest man, and he speaks frankly about his privacy. For example, he was admitted to Peking University, scored zero, and even refunded the registration fee of two yuan. I have just arrived in Beijing, and I don't even know punctuation. "It's just doing odd jobs and logistics for other research departments, not real research results," he said. Writing a novel is just writing a story. There is a unique aspect of his personality. He is active and bold. Wandering alone at the age of thirteen or fourteen, and wandering in Beijing at the age of twenty. He is kind, can deal with all kinds of characters, and can dig out a good character from all kinds of characters and customs. He is wise and confident, and will never stop until he reaches his goal. He is persistent, tenacious and hardworking. He attaches great importance to emotional lectures. In terms of personality and taste, I think Shen Congwen is a perfect scholar.
From Shen Congwen's life, we can see many problems worthy of contemporary thinking. A person's road to success is not all a diploma. Shen Congwen only has a high school education. He once wanted to study in Peking University, but he was not admitted. Many submissions were thrown into the wastebasket face to face. On the contrary, three years later, he became a professor at famous universities. This is a good warning to belittle yourself with diplomas and majors. At the same time, we should also realize that "society is a big book" and it is a university hall that can never be finished. The cultural heritage it carries is an endless source of creation and a treasure house of knowledge. Shen Congwen's life has given me another enlightenment, that is, to have a kind of endurance and spirit in the face of setbacks and accusations. Never give up in the face of setbacks and difficulties.
The above is just a miscellaneous one-sided impression. If you really want to know Shen Congwen, you have to find a time to visit the border town of Xiangxi and personally appreciate the customs of Phoenix.