As far as writing is concerned, Fei Ming's words are both calm, warm and natural, but also pungent and convergent, with concise words and precious ink. So is Fei Ming himself.
On the one hand, Fei Ming is elegant in appearance and devoted to literature. Taking an English test with a brush at Peking University is said to be a temporary talk. In college, he read a lot of poetry books and had a deep understanding of both new and old learning. He once argued that literature had nothing to do with politics, which made Lu Xun very unhappy. They had a fierce pen battle. Lu Xun bluntly said in the newspaper: "Fei Ming's literary view is just a literary view of waste or parasites" and "writing articles thinks it has no influence on society".
On the other hand, Fei Ming is withdrawn. In middle age, Fei Ming was obsessed with Buddhism and stopped writing novels. Fei Ming is always eager to preach Buddhism to others or defend his own views, while outsiders are always embarrassed to smile. The poet Bian once said: "He showed me a manuscript that seemed to explain some Buddhist scriptures, and he talked about it and thought it was in line with the true meaning of Marxism ... I just thought he was very warm and touching." Scholar Zhang Zhongxing once said that he "argued with Xiong Shili that he was right, proved that he was a Buddha, and refuted that he was a blasphemer. This seems quite ridiculous to me, but when I saw his earnest and almost pious appearance, I had to laugh silently. " It can be said that no one can understand Fei Ming, and even Zhou Zuoren, the only teacher who knows him, has become a traitor, which is a great blow to Fei Ming. He's lonely. This sense of loneliness permeates all his works.
Fei Ming's writing career can be divided into two parts. The early masterpiece was Bridge. Fei Ming was a typical local writer at this time, and his articles were idyllic. At the same time, he initiated the poetic tendency of prose in his novels. These articles have no turmoil of the times, only the beauty of the countryside and simple customs. Like prose, we can hardly call it a story. There is no clear logical main line, and there is no contradiction and conflict that promotes the development of the plot. Here, time seems to have stopped flowing, but when we follow up Fei Ming's narrative day after day, the protagonist grows quietly, grows old quietly, and suddenly grows old all his life. The article seems to come to an abrupt end with a sigh.
Fei Ming focuses on the little people in the village and describes their living conditions in detail: smallness, happiness and satisfaction. However, it should be noted that there is still a lingering sadness behind this positive and optimistic attitude towards life. Where you will go is the main tone of these novels, and the satisfaction of the protagonist cannot cover up the poverty of living conditions. Both my unspeakable feelings for grapefruit in Grapefruit and Mrs. Zhang's resentment against her new era "three-inch golden lotus" in Mr. Zhang and Mrs. Zhang are full of sadness. These sorrows are not directly described, but they are everywhere.
In Mother Huan Yi and The Monk in the Temple of Fire, Fei Ming described in detail the living conditions of the people at the bottom. They are not painful, seemingly satisfied but empty, and their unaccompanied life experience makes the whole text shrouded in faint sadness.
After Bridge, Fei Ming wrote two representative works, Biography of Mr. Xu Fei and After Mr. Xu Fei flies away. Although these two books have not been completed, they reflect the other side of Fei Ming's style of writing. If the previous works reflect the freshness and naturalness of Fei Ming, then these two works express the obscure side of Fei Ming incisively and vividly. Like Mr. Wu Liu's biography, Mr. Xu's surname and place of origin can not be verified. Fei Ming even claimed that the existence of Mr. Xu was a problem. But in fact, xu teacher is more of a metaphor and hint to the author himself. But even so, there are many logical jumps in these two novels. Many strokes of the stream of consciousness can be seen from it. From Mr. Fei Ming's long speech, we can see Fei Ming's inner pain and struggle at that time, all of which are undoubtedly revealed in the text.
Fei Ming, in many articles, can see the ancient poems embedded conveniently. These poems are embedded in the text, which have a unique Gu Zhuo flavor and can also reflect the hazy poetry in the article.
For example, "in short, you got the landing of passers-by, so you are a complete drifter." Moreover, the burden of the world, every time you want to have a rest, its weight will come up. An unarmed man, even if you bear a thousand pounds, the children don't know him. He smiles and asks where the guests come from. "
Another example is: "Mr. Xu doesn't have to squat on two pieces, and he can see Nanshan leisurely, and the realm is endless."
Although this style of writing has been criticized by some famous writers, it has to be admitted that it is this style that gives the article a deep and serene Zen, and it also opens up a new road for later Shen Congwen, Wang Zengqi and others.
Fei Ming's knowledge of old and new is excellent, which makes his poetry attainments very high, which can be said to be on a par with his novels and essays. Fei Ming advocated abolishing the metrical form of poetry, which was different from the old poems. He also advocated simplicity and abandoned red tape. Therefore, reading Fei Ming's poems is often done in one go, without too much carving and whitewashing, but naturally full of sad beauty. Although his poetry stock is small, every capital is full of obscure beauty. This is quite similar to Li Shangyin. He wrote in the poem "dressing table":
Because I dreamed that I was a mirror,
Sink into the sea, and he will become a mirror.
A girl picked it up,
She will put on her dresser.
Because this place is a dresser,
There must be no sadness.
The poet compares himself to a mirror, and when he sinks into the sea, he can see that he is surrounded by endless sadness and pain. After being picked up by a girl and put on the dresser, the last two sentences were particularly brilliant, and there could be no sadness, but the feeling of sadness came to my face. Such sadness can be seen everywhere in other poems:
I learned to pick up China and take a gamble.
Run to the Peach Blossom Garden and pinch a flower.
So I took a sip.
I'm afraid I'm going to be a fairy,
Probably jumped into the water and died.
The moon came out to hang me,
I'm glad I'm still a mortal.
There's no body in the water,
A good day and a good moon shine on the sad stream.
It can be said that poetry is the crystallization of Fei Ming's life-long literary research and the essence and concentration of his whole writing style. These poems are not only extraordinary and beautiful, but also full of Zen. For example, Fei Ming wrote in the Mirror: "A person who immediately/evokes life/sweats/kills a horse, even if he is innocent." According to the characteristics of Fei Ming's prose poems and prose poems, brevity and artistic conception are the ultimate pursuit of Fei Ming's composition.
In the history of modern literature, Fei Ming plays a connecting role. He was deeply influenced by the Zhou brothers and passed this influence on to later generations. However, he is the only and unique existence. After that, few people can reach the height of Fei Ming and be as proficient in western learning in middle school as he is. The beauty of obscure literature seems to be broken after him, and Fei Ming himself is submerged in the long river of history and gradually unknown to people now. But there is no doubt that we should treat his value and contribution correctly.