Ten years ago in 2008, the "Symposium on the 80th Birthday of Mr. Hou Yanbei (Yan Jinghan) and the 60th Anniversary of Literary Creation and Education" was held. I sent a congratulatory message to my uncle:
Confucius and Mencius were compatible with Lao Zhuang, Zun Lu and Sun Li
Uncle Han was eighty years old and prosperous in his later years
This is my review of Uncle Jing Han’s character and prose Product summary. As for how Hou Yanbei, known as "Sun Li of Shaanxi", "respected Lu and surrendered to Sun", or whether he also respected Confucius in the same way as Sun, it is difficult to say. There are as many Hamlets as there are stars, and there are as many Sun Lis as there are people who "voted to Sun".
Before and after the Cultural Revolution, Sun Li's style changed greatly. In the early stage, he is deeper than songs and more than emotions, "likes to write happy things", and is full of femininity; in the later stage, when he is declining, he has attained the Tao, and the Tao has declined, he is deeper than the world, more than thinking, and his awareness of worries is strengthened, "the disease of decline is still cherished." "The world's affairs are still heard in the old wasteland." "Ten kinds of things after the disaster in Gengtang" is a profound and tragic story, full of masculine beauty.
Hunger and dictatorship have made Uncle Han, who has a weak character, become cautious. He is an empty-handed farmer who has lost his land, and he is also a bourgeois "stinky old man" who has been closed to the cowshed and sent to work. "Nine", the lowest level of the untouchables, every punctuation point in his writing was carefully considered. Sun Li's early works praising the human beauty of farmers and relatives were in line with his creative intentions.
I myself want to learn from Lu Xun and also from Sun Li. I want to learn from Lu Xun’s profound sorrow and indignation, and from Sun Li’s melancholy and indignation in his late and later years, especially the "Yun Zhai Novels" which are actually prose but claim to be "contemporary". Unfavorable, there is no way to send it. Cut it left and right, and save it in the group." He pointed at the noses of the Gang of Four and Feng Faction figures and sneered. My Uncle Han is frightened and restrained. He keeps his grudges and grudges deep in his heart. Even if he talks about it, he can only hint at it. He was outspoken just now when the reform and opening up broke out, but he still tolerated such intense and ruthless writings as Sun Li's "Wang Wan" and "Feng Qian".
But I was so angry that I yelled and made comments. I was so blunt and I didn’t cultivate my nature. I was really ashamed. The building is as high as the foundation is deep.
The smells are similar and the two are in love. Sun Li wrote "Orioles", Uncle Han also wrote "Orioles", Sun Li wrote "Sericulture Matters", he wrote "Sericulture Business and Others", Sun Li's collection of essays "Baiyangdian Chronicles", his collection of essays is named "Lugu Chronicles" . I especially noticed Sun Li’s "Anecdotes of the Dead", followed by "For the Dead Wife" by Uncle Han, and then "The Patient and the Sinner", "Sweeping the Grave and Visiting the Mother", "Dreams of Relics", "Piece of Earth" and "1998" A series of "The Land of Years".
I read Sun Li's "Anecdotes of the Dead" often, definitely no less than twenty times. It is very short, and can be read in ten or twenty minutes; the title is also bland, and there are only two cutscenes of an engagement and a secret meeting, but when I read "I dream about her almost every day..." and "It's this kind of text, I I can’t write any more.” Then before he died, he asked him, “Why did you send the cloth to my parents’ house?” He said, “It’s so it’s convenient for you to make clothes!” “She closed her eyes, her long-sick face , showing a happy smile. "I let tears wet my cheeks and couldn't calm down for a long time.
Uncle Han's "For the Dead Wife" first talks about searching for her in dreams countless times 20 years after her death. Then, she comforted her most worried children and grandchildren about how they were successful and worked and developed abroad. Each story was like a family history, with interesting ups and downs. As for himself? Human dignity is also restored. It was less than a year after her death that he was confirmed to be retired, his salary was increased, and his children and grandchildren were getting better. He said to her with a look of death: "You came to this world, it seems, just to suffer." When that day comes, "the fallen leaves will return to their roots, and you and I will be buried together." Teach people how not to cry!
In "A Piece of Soil" and "A Piece of Soil in 1998" he wrote:
My wife is an out-and-out farmer. She attaches great importance to growing vegetables, and I have some interest in growing flowers and the cauliflower battle is often fought on this piece of land. Unfortunately, she had been bedridden for many years, so she could only hide in the bed and command the narrow area that her eyes could reach. When spring comes, she urges me to plant tomatoes, so I plant tomatoes; when autumn comes, she urges me to plant garlic seedlings, so I plant garlic seedlings. Watching the tomatoes blooming and bearing fruit, she knew it was the beginning of summer and the dawn was growing. Looking at the garlic seedlings turning green, she knew the cold dew and frost were coming.
I really should be grateful to this small piece of land in front of my door. For many years, it has told the story of the Spring and Autumn Dynasties and the changes of the stars for a person who could not leave his house and could not see the stars, the moon, or the sky.
Later, my wife passed away, and the land remained barren, leaving only many grass insects living in the grass, making noise all day long from summer to autumn.
Later, he felt sorry for the land in front of his door, so he still planted melons and flowers according to the land that his wife had seen when he was alive. Bees came and butterflies came. "How happy she is to be alive!"
Last words: "I sat where my wife had been lying before he was alive, tilted my head, and looked out the door from that position and angle. At first, I saw the three kinds of melons clearly every day - loofah, bitter melon and golden melon. Later, my eyes became blurred with tears and I couldn't even see anything."
Sun Li and his newly married lover. "Returning Home", people are different and things are different, they encounter obstacles at every turn, their emotions are complicated, and they give up even if they want to talk. At the end, the "second class" he hired suddenly asked him: "There is a man named Sun Yunfu in your village. How is he doing now? I have read his novels!" "He is still alive." It ended abruptly, which is thought-provoking. The situation is so good, I should be punished for my sins, the king of heaven is wise, really, everything is good! "Returning Home" is a masterpiece.
So why not Uncle Han's "The Patient and the Sick Wife" all the way to "Dreams"? The sick wife changed from jealousy and abnormal expressions to resentment into love. The three stages of emotional torture and the innocence and nobility of "breaking up" made her want to cry without tears. In her dream, she hurriedly said, "I will never see her again." !" I sighed three times while chatting and cried.
The sad past will never be forgotten. One day, my father asked me to write a letter to Uncle Han’s daughter and son, my younger brothers and sisters, asking them to prepare for divorce procedures for their parents. He said: "A living person, from his forties to his sixties or seventies, lives a life that is not This is not in line with human nature. I am a brother, so I have to take care of my children while I am still alive. The patients will still be able to receive careful care without delay. What a shame." My father was very emotional at the time and his lips were trembling. But the uncle was unmoved and stayed with her until the end, accompanying her to her grave until she dreamed of her for the next twenty or thirty years.
Then look at how many books they read. Sun Li has "Shuyi Wenlu" as evidence, and he adds comments and comments to every chapter. In September 1978, I wrote to Sun Li asking for guidance on how to improve my criticism level. When he answered in the letter how I should study, he listed so many book titles, from Russia to Europe to the Soviet Union and Japan, and then from foreign countries to China, from the preface to "The Book of Songs" and the preface to "Selected Works", through all dynasties, to Jin Shengtan's commentary on "Water Margin" and Wang Guowei's commentary on "Dream of Red Mansions", there are a lot of them, some of which I have never heard of!
Uncle Han is also an avid reader, avid collector of Dharma, and has spiritual exchanges with world-class thinkers. Foreign masterpieces enriched his aesthetic experience, and ancient Chinese prose and poems completed his refining sentences and recited them with vivid meaning:
When the wish is over, I will dig into the earth for peace
Return to the too empty coffin to be buried
——The Ultimate Suffering
Such a text cannot be written without the foundation of profound classical literature.
Although Uncle Han "respected Lu and voted for Sun Li", he was careful and natural in every chapter, but there are differences and similarities between him and Sun Li. Sun Li is short in talent, and Uncle Han is not as sophisticated as Sun Li, but more delicate. Uncle Han's articles are descriptive, like embroidery, where every stitch and thread must not be sloppy, and like Lu Xun said of Xiao Hong: "The female author's meticulous observation and deviant writing style add a lot of brightness and freshness." He said. With the help of Sun Li, don’t be limited to Sun Li.
Talented people have emerged from generation to generation, but now it is inappropriate to say that he is "Sun Li of Shaanxi". There is only one Sun Li and only one Hou Yanbei, both of whom belong to the same artistic school.
When he started writing while ill after a cerebral infarction, he got out of hand and published "Huashan Pebbles", "Lower Valley Chronicles", "The Bells of Silent Night" and "Moon Night" in succession. Straightforward, pointing to the sky and drawing the earth, with clear words and beautiful sentences, leaving behind a pure heart of good nature.
In one word: Beautiful, the style of Sun style prose!
If you want to ask about the artistic taste and flavor of Sun style prose, there are six words in total: light, thick.
The first movement: Look at life indifferently, be indifferent and clear your aspirations, speak like ordinary people, use life scenes you have experienced to understand life, use typical details and vivid images to express your feelings, emotions and desires, and create a new style. Structure, natural, bright, dilute, fade in.
The second movement: Presentation, Romance of Variations, free and unrestrained pen and ink, true love description. There are poems, paintings, rhythms, and melodies (no wonder Sun Li is a versatile and talented person. He is proficient in novels, essays, essays, literary theory, literary criticism, and eighteen martial arts. He also writes poetry, seals, and is also good at calligraphy. Uncle Han is well-read and knows everything about ancient times and the present. He has written poems and novels since he was a child, loved Qin opera, studied painting, and also practiced seal printing. He has been teaching writing courses for a long time, published two monographs on writing, and published the novel "Destiny Returns" . He writes characters in every novel; he has a strong sense of family affection, and the characters of the family members surnamed Yan are particularly outstanding. As long as he has written about them, I have no choice but to steal them.) < /p>
Enter the topic lightly, recall it with resentment, admiration, weeping and complaint. The more you read, the more interesting it becomes. Once the emotional shock reaches a boiling point, the reader can no longer get out.
The third movement: the final concentration. The ending is carefully planned, lamenting the lack of human nature and the beauty of human relationships, with twists and turns, three sighs in one song, and a lingering aftertaste, which is thought-provoking. At the end of the song, people are still there, and this hatred lingers.
Sun Li admired Ouyang Xiu and summarized Ouyang's prose writing experience in a few sentences:
Ouyang Xiu's articles often start from an approachable place, start from concrete things that are sensible and reasonable, and start from extremely ordinary things. Starting from the principle. In the middle or at the end, the truth contained in the article is astonishing. And the impression left behind is even more profound than those who sing loudly.
In his letter to ***, he summarized it in just two sentences:
He has direction and can make twists and turns.
In the midst of concentration, one can think profoundly.
This is the true biography of Sun Li. The true biography is one sentence, and the false biography is tens of thousands of books.
Uncle Han also summarized his own experience.
"It is common to have deviant writing styles that combine sadness with happiness or happiness, but in the end it always comes back to 'doubling the sadness and happiness'. This seems to involve the 'tragedy' in aesthetics** * 'Problem.' "To put it simply, it means to 'filter' life through some techniques to remove the original roughness and vulgarity, to give people a more vivid and profound aesthetic *** that life itself cannot provide, and to purify people's emotions. , improve people’s spiritual realm, understand beauty, hate ugliness, sympathize with good and oppose evil, so that people can generate strength from grief and strive to realize beautiful wishes and ideals." (Postscript to "The Bells of Silent Night")
He also wrote: "In "A Dream of Red Mansions", it is written that Lin Daiyu learned from the silly elder sister that Baoyu would marry Baochai until she burned the manuscript and ended her infatuation. Her heart was full of pain and grief, but the author wrote it ***13 times Her smile, this series of smiles, is so shocking! ""The unique contrasting technique of using joy to express sadness has a strong artistic appeal!" (Back cover of my work "Beautiful Death") Inscription)
To sum up, it is verified that what I said about "light and thick, twists and turns, singing and sighing" is true and not false!
Language is very important, and the charm of language is related to the success or failure of prose. Language is so magical in their hands.
Simple, meaningful, implicit, as clear as words, without saying everything, complex feelings that are difficult to express can be explained in one sentence or even a blank space. As far as the presentation is concerned, there is almost no cliché, no showoff, no great words, and the title generally does not exceed five words.
It not only expresses meaning but also expresses appearance; it not only describes the joys and sorrows, but also knows the names of birds, animals and plants; it is both a visual art and an auditory art, and it is both a desk work and an oral work; the hand holds the pen. , but the oral appearance appears, so that it is "appropriate to watch and listen to". There is painting in the poem, a high level of language aesthetics.
Language is their famous brand, the same vernacular, incorporating many factors: classical, folk oral, daily life terms, (including proverbs), and at the same time from "Red Mansions" and "Notes" Take it from the "Huaben" and tell it in a trickle, just like the "Huaben" tells the story, like "The Red Mansion" tells the story in a sophisticated manner.
They worship language religiously. Language is extremely magical. It is a magic wand that can activate literary thoughts. People fall in love while reading. In my opinion, Sun Li, Wang Zengqi, Jia Pingwa, etc. all followed this path.
"The country is unlucky and the poet is lucky, and he can write a poem about the vicissitudes of life."
"Prose is to use living scenes to talk to oneself, to talk to relatives and friends with true feelings, to be humble and submissive, not to put on airs or to lecture others.
Beautiful, exquisite vernacular prose!
Hou Yanbei's prose is his exquisite language, and reading Hou Yanbei is reading his language.
Occasionally, when the mood strikes, he indulges in writing and narrative, and the elaboration is too detailed. It’s not just a show off.
It’s really hard to imagine that a patient who had suffered all his life and had no way to recover from his “cerebral infarction” in his later years could publish “Huashan Pebbles” and “Chronicles of the Lou Valley” within three years. "The Bells on a Quiet Night" and "Moonlight Night" are four major collections of essays with more than one million words, which is amazing! "The Late Autumn") Such a long and good prose seems to be a sequel to Qian Zhongshu's "The Besieged City", which is not easy!
Marx once said this: "There is no such thing as science. There is a smooth road to walk, but only those who are not afraid of hard work on the rugged paths can hope to reach the glorious summit. "
I doubt that prose writing can "hope to reach the pinnacle of glory" just by "not being afraid of hard work."
I now understand that without talent, no matter whether Sun Li Still "Sun Li of Shaanxi", "not afraid of hard work" cannot be learned.
Hard work plus talent will make you talented.
September 12, 2018 in Beijing. Ancient Garden
The date when the appendix was completed coincided with the 90th birthday of Uncle Jing Han, and he praised:
Half a lifetime is wasted
How to relieve worries for a long time Songs When Crying
Feng Xi Feng Xi Aftertaste Qu Bao
I once persuaded Uncle Han to join the Writers Association but laughed without answering
Yan Gang Autumn of 1898