There is an eternal theme running through the work "Border Town" - "the beauty of human nature". As Shen Congwen said in his own words:
In this small border town of Chadong, this small town that seems to have been forgotten by time, there is a river street tower built on a winding mountain. In front of it is clear white water with fish swimming in it. There are several rivers connected upstream and downstream. A dangerous shoal with nine twists and turns. There is a white pagoda by the ferry river. Under the pagoda is a small thatched hut, surrounded by dense clumps of green bamboo forests. The travelers and merchants coming and going, the residents of Chadong, the sailors on the dock, the men carrying the burdens, the women washing and mending at the door of their homes, the old boatmen on the ferry, the bold and capable captain...these people all embody this. A simple and kind nature like this mountain city. However, there is goodness everywhere and misfortune everywhere, so tragedy inevitably arises from this simple emotion.
Cuicui’s mother is the only daughter of an old boatman. She fell in love with a Chadong soldier because of a rural antiphon and became pregnant with Cuicui. The garrison soldier wanted to ask her to escape downstream together. But judging from the behavior of escaping, one violated the responsibility of a soldier, and the other had to leave his lonely father. After some consideration, the garrison soldier saw that she did not have the courage to go far away, and he could not ruin his reputation as a soldier, so he thought to himself: since we can't get together to die together, no one should be able to stop us from dying together. First, he took the poison Dead. Cuicui's mother couldn't bear to kill her unborn child and couldn't come up with any idea. The matter was already known to the ferryman's father, but there was no further criticism and the father and daughter continued to live a peaceful life. After the child was born, she deliberately drank a lot of cold water by the stream and followed the soldier she loved to death.
Cuicui is a child born of love. The love between her parents sprouted and matured from simple folk songs. Later, Cuicui's mother became pregnant with a child behind her father's back, so the marriage should not be approved. One was unwilling to violate his duty as a soldier, and the other was unwilling to leave his father alone. However, neither of them was willing to abandon the other's love, so they agreed to die together. A soldier is unwilling to insult his duty as a soldier by becoming a deserter, nor is he willing to ignore his lover. He died for pure responsibility and love. Cuicui's mother did not want to implicate her father, nor did she want to live up to her love for the soldier. She died because of this simple family affection and love.
Tianbao and Nuosong fell in love with the beautiful and pure Cuicui at the same time. However, the two brothers did not turn against each other. Instead, they chose to sing to compete with each other to see who would win Cuicui's love in the end. Tianbao had already "walked the road first" to propose marriage to Cuicui's family, so no matter what, he let his younger brother Nuosong sing on the cliff first. After his younger brother sang, Tianbao knew that he was no match for his younger brother, so he was very upset. He generously handed over this love to Nuosong, and went down to Taoyuan with the cargo ship to bear the pain of broken love alone, but he was accidentally drowned and died. Nuo Song felt that he was responsible for his brother's death, so he had no intention of singing his courtship any more, abandoned Cuicui, and sailed around to look for his brother's body.
Tianbao died because of his simple family affection and love. He knew in his heart his brother's love for Cuicui. Since he could no longer get Cuicui's love, he would bear the sadness and pain himself and make his brother and Cuicui happy. All this stems from his sincere and deep brotherhood for his brother and his sincere and selfless love for Cuicui. It was precisely because of his deep brotherly love for his brother that Nuo Song gave up his love to find his brother's body.
The old boatman loved Cuicui, an orphan who had lost her parents since she was a child. After realizing that she was old and frail, although she always kept up her spirits and smiled, she was always there. At night, I was fascinated by the stars in the sky. He was afraid that Cuicui would be lonely and neglected after his death, so he wanted to find a good man for Cuicui who could love her and take care of her, so he kept worrying about Cuicui's thoughts and marriage. Finally, after hearing the lie from the Zhongzhai people who crossed the river that "Nuo Song agreed to Zhongzhai's marriage," he felt anxious and sad. He died with regret and worry when the thunder was about to cease in a thunderstorm night.
The old boatman died because he was worried about his old age and Cuicui’s unknown fate. Firstly, he was afraid that he would leave Cuicui alone when he died, and secondly, he was worried that Cuicui would die. She lost the same fate as her mother, and ended up in tragedy because of the entanglement of love and hate. From the old boatman's concern for Cuicui and his well-intentioned management, it is enough to show his deep concern for his granddaughter's happiness and his selfless love for Cuicui.
"Congwen's Autobiography" writes about Shen Congwen's experience when he was around 20 years old. In the 10th year of the Republic of China, he was nineteen years old. With the idea that "he happened to survive last time, his life seems to have been picked up, it doesn't matter if he is killed by bullets this time", he entered Sichuan with a detachment of the Jin army. In addition to a few extremely thin items of daily necessities and clothing, the luggage contained a few copybooks by Yazhengda people and a collection of poems by Li Yishan that recited his feelings. He always looks at human nature with a kind-hearted eye. Life and death in front of him is just a gamble of human affairs and destiny.
And because of his cold-eyed attitude towards life and death, all people and things in the course of life will eventually become a passing cloud, just like the water of a river. There are ripples and slight waves, but they do not block the mighty flow of the river and move forward without looking back.
However, when writing about the deaths of these characters in "Border Town", he showed a rare emotion.
Just like the people in the small town of Chadong, although their lives are so alienated from the general society, when tears and joy, in a kind of love and hatred, blend into the lives of these people, they become similar to other people in another land. , the whole body and mind were soaked by that little bit of love and hate, and became hot when seeing the cold, forgetting everything. If there are any differences, it's just that these people are a little more real and a little more confused. They all died for "love". It is precisely because they have such brilliance of "human beauty" that when the inevitable tragedy occurs, they will give generously for the family affection, love and friendship that have been woven into their bodies and minds. Go to death. It is precisely because of this brilliance of "human beauty" that these people also have "life worries" in their hearts, or because they have died and left orphans with no one to take care of them, because their dead lovers are lonely and neglected, because they have died and there is no one to support them in the family. . It is because of "human nature" that their ordinary life and death are so touching, and Shen Congwen, who is accustomed to killing people and has no regard for life and death, was moved by such a sacrifice. This also makes this kind of true love and "human nature" that has no interests or reasons, exert such great power.