First of all, that extraordinary man

1860 65438+1On October 29th, a boy was born in a small businessman's family in Taganrog, Rostov, and his father named him anton pavlovich Chekhov. Although my family got rid of the lowest serf status with the help of my grandfather, my father could not save the increasingly bleak business in the dark night in Russia. Pavel Egorovich Chekhov (father) went bankrupt in 1876, so his family moved to Moscow. Chekhov, who was only 16 years old, stayed alone in Taganrog to make a living as a tutor and continue his studies. Although parents did not live a rich material life based on little Chekhov, the husband and wife laid a solid nail for Chekhov's future achievements on the spiritual level. Pavel YeGolovic Chekhov is very devout and even fanatical to the Orthodox Church. The egalitarianism and nationalism of the Orthodox Church had a profound influence on Chekhov, although Chekhov was never a religious person. Chekhov later approached the lower class, and his sympathy and pity for the working people had a lot to do with his father. Mother Evgeniya likes telling stories to her children. This woman, who came from a merchant's family, followed her father through many Russian lands in her early years. Many stories were hidden in her stomach and brewed into stories over time. It snows in Russia, which is the best place to tell stories around the fire. Because of his mother, Chekhov's little heart ran out of Rostov province when he was a child and jumped to the land in his mother's story with rich imagination. Growing up with little Chekhov, I didn't know that a world-class writer was born in my arms.

For some reason, Chekhov did not describe his childhood in detail. However, from his correspondence with other writers, from the words in his articles and from others' memories of Chekhov, we can see that the writer's childhood life was not very satisfactory, even tragic. "Autocracy and deception ruined our childhood," Chekhov wrote in his later memories. Little Chekhov lived a childlike and sweet childhood full of philistinism and violence. Or the childlike child was completely eliminated under the wheel of life, so that he later recalled that he was just a middle school student who was used to obedience in torture. The description of Chekhov of Taganrog in Don Bo Graz's memoirs also describes this tragedy in this way: "Taganrog Middle School is like a special labor force, with a trainee class, which uses classroom practice to translate Greek and Latin instead of sticks." Chekhov also wrote in a letter to writer Shcheglov:

When I was a child, I received religious education and such training, such as singing hymns in church, reciting the gospel of the apostles and the hymns of the Old Testament, attending morning prayers, helping at the altar and ringing bells in the bell tower. What was the result? Now whenever I recall my childhood, it always gives me a very gloomy feeling. Now I don't believe in religion. You know, when my two brothers and I sang "Confession" or "The Voice of the Archangel" trio in church, everyone looked at us with emotion and envied my parents, but at the same time they felt like little prisoners.

Grocery shops on the verge of bankruptcy, lifeless middle schools and imprisoned churches ... Chekhov lived in a gloomy environment, but at the same time he created a humorous character in a depressed situation-Chekhov's unique humor. So that no matter how sad he is in the later days, this man who is good at telling jokes can always turn it into a joke and laugh at the past, just like his mother told her own experience as a story. It seems that under the beating of those years, a Chekhov-style humorous model has the most primitive appearance.

1879 Chekhov completed his high school studies and successfully entered the Department of Medicine of Moscow University. During his four-year study of medical theory, Chekhov also began his literary creation. Although at first I wrote for some humorous journals to subsidize my frivolous living expenses, it is undeniable that the early Chekhov literature was critical to some extent. Coupled with the long-term cold in Russia and the depression and gloom of the Russian era, humorous story can always bring some comfort to the people or reduce their psychological burden. Therefore, although Chekhov's early novels are of low value, they are excellent in readability and communication, which has gathered a large number of fans for him invisibly. Chekhov's works during his college years, though not imprisoned in the star-studded blue Russia, have been able to glimpse the criticism behind the articles. It can always arouse readers' deep thoughts through the absurdity and absurdity of events, and outline the hypocritical and ugly faces of people and tradesmen in capitalist society in Russian times. In Death of a Civilian, chervyakov was gradually tortured to death on the sofa by his own worries because he sneezed at a civilian general. It makes people think: Is it only his own timidity that drives chervyakov to death? The reason is to whip and expose the czar's autocratic system. The hierarchical social system and the bureaucratic atmosphere of bullying the weak and fearing the hard are unreasonable, which makes chervyakov unable to breathe normally under the pressure of society. Even though he is grovelling like a dog, he is still dying step by step. In my opinion, chervyakov's death is the best relief, leaving something more terrible than death-the freedom of being imprisoned.

Chekhov 1844 graduated from Moscow University and practiced medicine in Vignau, Rhodes and other places. At the same time, the real literary creation began. Doctors and writers seem destined to have a wonderful commonality. After all, a doctor's knife and a writer's pen are all things that can cut people open. By chance, I put together several writers I love or admire, and miraculously found that many of them are inextricably linked with the profession of doctors: Mr. Lu Xun graduated from Sendai Medical College in Japan; Junichi Watanabe was a doctor all his life; Conan Doyle used to be a ship doctor; Mao Mu entered St. Thomas Medical College in London to study; Flaubert was once a doctor. I began to think about the same sex in these two professions. First of all, the starting point of the two is basically the same. The doctor is to save people and the writer is to save the world. In the word "save", the two met by chance, and then the doctor who saved people carefully became a writer with great courage to save the world. Secondly, they have the same concerns and are thinking about some old topics: life, desire, blood, reproduction and so on. Finally, doctors are more likely to become great writers because of their keen observation and environment. After all, human beings can best reflect the essence of human nature between birth and death. Doctors witnessed the birth and death of people. Except for the special profession of doctor, no one can deeply understand this small reincarnation without taking the initiative to explore. Feng Tang said: "Every day, doctors have to face patients' pains, all kinds of diseases and pains, and each patient shows and endures pains in different ways. To be a good doctor, you should not only have good medical skills, but also have a kind, delicate heart that can feel the pain of patients. The deepest experience of being a doctor is "life is bitter". The same is true of writing. Writing expresses' humanity', which is tangled and bitter. If there is any inevitable connection between writers and doctors, I think it may be' pain'. "Doctors relieve physical pain, and writing relieves human pain. Therefore, Chekhov, labeled as a doctor, is more likely to feel the suffering and misery of the people in the Russian era, and at the same time see how this society is terminally ill. As a doctor, he can go deeper into the widest crowd. Faced with pain and death, he heard too many complaints and sighs about this era. A fire was burning in the young doctor's body, and he finally poured it into the text. You can always feel the unexpected cold in Russia, and Chekhov's fire makes the whole Russian literary world uncomfortable.

Mavryona Potapov's description of distress shows that after his son died, he wanted to talk to several different people about his inner distress, but he didn't get any sympathy. Three different confidences got the same result-no one settled down to pay attention to his pain. If the indifference between the soldiers and the three young people is the class difference caused by the unreasonable system, and the life of the lower class people is as humble as the cats and dogs of the upper class, it can be attributed to the system, but the young people who are also drivers are also indifferent and indifferent, which really makes people feel biting cold. Does the cold weather in Russia freeze human nature? The whole society presents a morbid state that emanates from the bones. Chekhov's description of Yao Na's distress is as cold as ever, but it does not prevent one hand from holding our hearts tightly:

Yao Na's eyes looked anxiously and painfully at the endless stream of people on both sides of the street: Isn't there anyone among thousands of people willing to listen to him? The crowd came and went in a hurry, and no one paid attention to him and his troubles ... it was boundless. If Yao Na's chest breaks, his pain will spread, and it seems that the whole world will be submerged, but even so, no one will see it. That kind of distress is wrapped in such a small body, even though I am looking for it with a torch in broad daylight. ...

In despair, Yao Na told his tragic experience to his horse, an animal. Fortunately, this horse didn't kill his last hope:

"The thing is, little mare ... Kusma? Janice died ... he said goodbye to me ... he died for no reason ... Well, for example, you gave birth to a cub, and you are the mother of the cub ... For example, suddenly, the cub said goodbye to you and died ... Aren't you sad? ……"

The little mare chewed hay, listened and smelled her master's hand. ...

Yao Na spoke forcefully, so he told it everything in his heart. ...

In an invisible contest between humans and animals, human nature has completely fallen. Lu Xun's "spectators" are similar to these insensitive and heartless characters. It is a tragedy when this kind of pain belonging to Yao Na pervades Russian society.

1886 is the year in which Chekhov published the most short stories, almost reaching the number of one every two days. But later, the number of works gradually decreased, and the pen front focused on the deep social problems, and the creation turned to profound and meaningful works. Coincidentally, this change is not due to a big event or a big man, but only to an obscure name: Grigorovic. Dmitry is an old Russian writer. After reading Chekhov's works, he wrote a letter to young Chekhov. The letter affirmed Chekhov's talent and hoped that Chekhov could cherish his talent, create under thinking and write more meaningful works. After that, Chekhov banned the idea of writing for a living with a serious literary attitude and began to become a pure writer. Dmitry was also dubbed as a "famous writer" and became the "Wang Lun" of Russian history. But the most ordinary people have extraordinary significance. Dmitry may not be a great Russian writer, but he can read Chekhov. At the most appropriate time, he turned to his own path and embarked on the world literary world.

1887 Chekhov went to eastern Ukraine to recuperate for his own physical reasons. In this process, it is also Chekhov's literary recuperation period. After he came back, the article became serious and got rid of the literary form dominated by humor. I began to look at nature, think about the fate of the Russian people, and think about the significance of my creation at a deeper level. Typhoid fever, Kiss, Volodya, Disaster, Wedding and Fugitive were all written in this period, and his novella Prairie won Pushkin Literature Prize the following year. This is not only a leap in his literature, but also a leap in his spiritual will. However, Chekhov confined himself to his own literary world. He satirized society and institutions, but he never entered Russian political circles. In his letter 1888 to 10, he solemnly declared: I am not a liberal, a conservative, a progressive, a monk or a bystander. I'd rather be a free artist, that's all. "He loves public welfare and Russia, but he is always on the verge of political connection. As a sober writer who refused to worship, he successfully adhered to his inner freedom.

1890 Chekhov traveled to Sakhalin Island alone. As a Russian exile, Sakhalin Island is full of hellish terror. Later, after passing through poor Siberia, the miserable life of the people made him have a clear understanding of the dark reality of Russia, and Chekhov, who had retired from politics, disappeared. On the contrary, it launched a cold-blooded attack on the Russian autocratic system. In this war without smoke, Chekhov showed the world the sufferings of the people in the Russian era. The famous novella The Sixth Ward and the reportage A Journey to Sakhalin Island were born because of this experience. In the same year, he also published short stories such as Thief and Gousev. Since then, Chekhov's literature has entered the peak of his life:

189 1 year, he created the novella Duel, which challenged lev tolstoy's view of "don't fight evil" and became the first writer to attack Tolstoy in the history of Russian literature.

From 65438 to 0892, he created jumping women, neighbors and the sixth district.

1893, he wrote and published short stories The Story of Anonymous and Big Volodya and Little Volodya.

……

In this decade, classics have been born in Chekhov's works. Chekhov's novels vividly describe the ugliness and darkness of the Russian era. He is like an indifferent swordsman, attacking ugliness again and again. He is taciturn and heartless. Who can imagine that this is the man who told you a humorous story sixteen years ago? The tragic experience of the Russian people created Chekhov's rapid growth in the mud, but Chekhov was not an angel sent by God at that time. An extraordinary great writer created by ordinary people, his literature and life will always be linked with those who are struggling at the bottom. The swordsman who grew up in that predicament tried to pierce the gloomy darkness. He succeeded.

1904 65438+1On October 7th, Chekhov's play cherry orchard premiered at Moscow Art Theatre. Cherry orchard, which was originally intended to be a comedy, was transformed into a tragedy by konstantin stanislavsky, which seems to indicate that there will be a tragedy in Russian literature. Sad shout! In July of the same year, Chekhov died in Badenville. Only Chekhov's body was buried back in Moscow, and his soul was still floating in the blue land of Russia. In that land shrouded in darkness, Chekhov poured his unique passion and love into the suffering people he saw and impaled the unreasonable dark system indifferently. Mr. Lu Xun's "a thousand fingers, bow down and be a willing ox" seems to have been influenced by Chekhov's life. When reading Selected Short Stories of Chekhov, I couldn't help asking myself, Is Chekhov really dead?

Second, those ordinary people

"Little people" is a kind of characters in Russian literature in the 1920s and 1930s, which is accompanied by realism. This group is mainly composed of ordinary intellectuals, lower-level officials, ordinary workers and loafers. Although Pushkin, Dostoevsky and others have portrayed little people, Chekhov's little people are more interesting, and these people in his works are more in line with their physical characteristics and language ability. Chekhov's brushwork is simple and simple, and the artistic beauty of his novels is simple and true. When we talk about his novels, we can feel that the world in the article is highly consistent with the scenery, things and characters in the real world. Because he never deliberately carves and whitewashes, and makes some tortuous or tedious dialogues to win, it is the most silent recording technique. He just wants to record the truest appearance of society. Chekhov once said to Xie Grove:

A writer must cultivate his concentration and endless observation. You must turn the cultivation of good character into a direct habit and a natural quality! "Also repeatedly suggested that kuprin to the third level (workers, peasants and other ruling classes) walk a few more steps. He said to Teleshov, "Go a thousand miles, two thousand miles and three thousand miles away ... you will learn a lot and bring back many stories!" You will see people's lives and spend the night in remote post stations and wooden houses, just like Pushkin's time ... just be sure to walk along the railway to the third level, among ordinary people. Otherwise, you won't hear anything interesting. If you want to be a writer, buy a ticket to Nizhny Novgorod tomorrow and go all the way along the Volga River and Kama River from there. ...

At a railway station of Nikolai Railway, two friends met: one was fat and the other was thin. The fat man has just eaten at the railway station, and his lips are as shiny as ripe cherries. He smells like white wine and orange blossom. The thin man just got off the train with a suitcase, a package and a carton. He smells like ham and coffee grounds. Behind him stood a thin woman with a long chin, who was his wife. There is also a tall middle school student, squinting one eye, who is his son.

Simple strokes outline the gap between fat people and thin people. For example, the smell they give off after eating, fat people are "the smell of white wine and orange blossom" and thin people are "the smell of ham and coffee grounds"; Another example is the thinness of a thin man, which is not only manifested in his thinness, but also his wife is a "thin woman with a long chin" and his son is a "high-profile middle school student". They describe their wealth and status through simplicity and obesity. Even their belongings and relatives are mixed with the taste after dinner, harmonious and elegant.

Chekhov thinks that it is immoral and bad to describe horse thief. Therefore, the unfathomable villain is not what he did in a humble position, nor what he showed in his heart, but just completely conforms to his ideology. On a shallow page, once you have a sound personality, the image of a circle will not be confined to a two-dimensional space without ideology, which is unfathomable. The fat man and the thin man are jumping out of the page to perform a farce for the readers. In this two-way dialogue between readers and works, Chekhov endowed them with some vitality. Therefore, the ugly truth of the small characters in his works, such as servility, bullying, flattery, is manifested in their own behavior and language, not in adjectives and nouns soaked in rotten corpses. However, Chekhov's little people are not only servile and degenerate, but also show the light of human nature in them, such as Xiaowanka in Wanka:

Last night, he asked the butcher, and the butcher told him that after the letter was put in the mailbox, the drunk driver took the letter out of the mailbox in a mail van, rang the doorbell and distributed it all over the world. Wanka ran to the nearest mailbox and stuffed the precious letter into the mailbox ... He settled down hopefully, and after an hour, he fell asleep ... In his dream, he saw a stove. Grandfather sat on the stove, hanging barefoot, reading letters to the chefs ... Misgurnus walked around the stove, wagging his tail. ...

Nine-year-old Xiaowanka was sent to the shop of shoemaker Aliaxing as an apprentice. In the article, he gave his grandfather Constantine? The memories quoted in Makaric's letter show that Xiaowanka's experience in the past three months was extremely tragic. It is better to be a slave than an apprentice. Not only do you not have enough to eat every day, but the boss and proprietress will beat him and poke him because of a little mistake. The masters are also playing with him, and they have to put the boss's children to sleep at night, but he can't sleep himself. In this case, Wanka felt happy, but he didn't completely lose hope in life. He is a thoughtful child, and he still has a beautiful fantasy about the world, which is precious in that era when his thoughts are sinking and his desire for money is rampant. So in the process of writing to grandpa, he fantasized that grandpa could take him back and get rid of this kind of suffering. However, whether a letter without an address can reach Constantine is not explained at the end of the article, and readers don't know, but it also leaves a very rich imagination space. In Distress, Marv Yao Na Potapov is oppressed by life. Although his chest is full of the pain of his son's death, he still lives strong and even yearns for a better life:

"In fact, I didn't even earn money to buy oats," he thought. "That's why I'm so upset. A person, if he can mind his own business ... let himself eat and his horse eat, then he will always be calm ... "

Chekhov thought: "On the stage, everything must be as complicated as life and as simple as life. People eat, just eat, but at this time their happiness is formed, or their lives are ruined ... "These little people may have never been exposed to big waves in their lives, but they have their own yearning and happiness. These yearnings and happiness may be insignificant or even ridiculous to others, but they are unique to them. Little people like Xiaowanka and Yao Na are unfathomable, because they can yearn for beauty in an evil world. When they show kindness to the world, they are not rewarded with kindness, even with malice. This time, it is the real hope that they will not be disappointed. In the dark days of Russia, there were always little people like Wanka, but they were caught by Chekhov's articles.

Chekhov's female images are also extremely rich. He did not vilify or beautify the women in his works, but naturally put their lives into the pen, truly showing their original state. They are pure and kind, but they do not hide their vanity and debauchery. In the description, Chekhov also exposed the persecution of women in the Russian era in physical and mental aspects, and analyzed the defects of women's consciousness, which promoted the birth of women in the new era in Russia. As described in In the Canyon, Ak Sernia:

Aksinya has naive gray eyes and seldom blinks. She always has an innocent smile on her face. Her rare blinking, long neck, small head and slim figure all look like snakes; Coupled with green clothes, yellow chest, and a smile on her mouth, she looks like a poisonous snake, standing up from the tender rye field in spring and watching pedestrians.

Chekhov did not deliberately vilify Axelnia in his description, but with the progress of the story, Axelnia gradually moved towards the character of a poisonous snake; In order to compete for family property, she scalded Ba Li's children to death. Under the temptation of money, this kind girl gradually degenerated and became a poisonous woman breathing in the dark. This intangible change is the most unfathomable. At the moment when Ba Li's child died, Axel Niya died. What is left is just a profit-driven shell. But Chekhov's works are not only about degenerate women like Axelnia, but also about Naga people who complain and resist life. She abandoned the parasitic and pale old life day after day, ran away from home and ran to a broad and mysterious new life. "The whole past has been cut off from her and disappeared, as if it had been burned, and even the ashes drifted away with the wind," Chekhov wrote in the article.

The unfathomable of little people is that they dare to challenge life and that they can endure the pain of the limit of life. They also run for their lives. Whether they are kind or mediocre, they all have one or even more kinds of courage. The little man gasped slowly under a heavy burden. Chekhov wrote them together with the baggage in the book, and then the reader picked them up and called out the pages to perform. When life awakens again, it is unfathomable.

Written by Mao Fukang