Wu Boxiao, formerly known as Xicheng, came to Qingdao in the winter of 193 1 after graduating from Beiping Normal University. He wrote:
On a cold night in the early winter of that year, I took a train from Ji Jiao to the east and went to Qingdao alone in the light, shivering in the cool wind, walking along the long stone railing, watching the red light extinguished in the distance and listening to the turbulent water on the left, silently blurring the influence. A night in the hotel is a dream of a foreign land, and it is chaotic until dawn; Lonely and sad in the morning, I became sad and unintentional. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of the sky through the window, and my chest suddenly felt that I had seen the sea for the first time.
When he first arrived in a strange Qingdao, he fell in love with the sea. Although "life is sparse" and "solitude is better than hard work", he goes to the seaside to watch the sunrise every morning. Run to the seaside far away from the town, lie on the beach in the sun and listen to the tide.
Wu Boxiao found a job in Qingdao and a part-time job: working as a clerk in the president's office of National Qingdao University with a low salary, and compiling a supplement for the Republic of China Daily under the introduction of a friend. During his college years, he met and made friends with famous old writers such as Yang Zhensheng, Wen Yiduo and Liang Shiqiu. In fig, he wrote that in order to compile a supplement, he "contacted some budding poets and writers, such as Li Guangtian, Cang Kejia and Li Huiying. From then on, he "dreamed of writing as a career and squeezed into their ranks." "
After arriving in Qingdao, he rented a house on Qixia Road, and there was a courtyard gate on Fushan Road at the top of Baguan Mountain. After he settled down in this "humble abode", he looked around the green mountains and green waters around Baguan Mountain and saw that "the house is hanging on the hillside, and the doors and windows are all mountains", so he wanted to give this humble abode a name. He thought, "don't call it a villa, because it is not a branch of a nearby house where it lives in summer;" It is not appropriate to call any building, because the top and bottom are facing the sky. If you don't have a name, just call it a mountain house. It's very honest. " Therefore, it is called "mountain residence". At the end of some of Wu Boxiao's early essays, it was written in the mountain house. This former residence has been demolished. Wu Boxiao wrote an essay "Shan Jutu", in which he wrote:
..... often feel a sense of loneliness, the original north is too remote, too far from the market! ..... However, it is as green as the east wind blowing over hay after winter. In a trance, there was a buzzing sound in front of and behind the house, like girls quarreling and a group of lively children drinking noisily; I don't know why, but you woke up when Zhiyou rang. You hear birds singing in the valley at once. Where is the ethereal bell, it is humming. When you open your eyes, a ray of light behind the curtain wakes you up completely ... If you come to Yushan Building, you will like it, won't you? It is very interesting to be near a mountain.
In his mountain house, he wrote "Four Seasons on the Island", "Fishing Salt in Silver Island" and "Gulls at Sea".
During the September 18th Incident, Japanese imperialism invaded the three northeastern provinces. In the voice of the people in the city to resist Japan and save the nation, Wu Boxiao published the article "Black General Shouts for Retreating Keshan" in the Republic of China Daily. This newspaper angered the Japanese in Qingdao by calling a North Korean who assassinated the Japanese emperor a "righteous man", setting fire to the Qingdao Party Department of the Kuomintang and destroying the Republic of China Daily on Zhongshan Road. Since then, Wu Boxiao has lost this part-time job.
Wu Boxiao is a frequent visitor to Wang Tongzhao's study. He recalled: "In the study of Guan Hai No.2 Road, how many beautiful sunsets you (Wang Tongzhao) sent away and greeted the lights of thousands of families on the mountain and below." Wang Tongzhao wrote: "I have the opportunity to meet him. Soft beach; Black stone overlapping valley; On the Haitang trail in that big park; Drink' bitter dew' (wine name) and pour green tea in that small garden; Or a hurried greeting outside the sesame cake shop when it snows on winter nights; Meet every other day on the colorful blue waves; Laugh at each other under the cry of Lao She's double-reed tune. " They often get together in a bar called Mao Rong Feng and spend little money, mainly for friendship.
He has a close relationship with Lao She. In his later years, Wu Boxiao recalled: "After September 18th, in Qingdao, Lao She was a professor of university literature and I was a literary apprentice. I am six years younger than him, but I am a frequent visitor to his seaside study. The entrance to his house is opposite the weapon rack, which lists guns, knives, swords and halberds; The first draft of Camel Xiangzi was spread on the study table, which left a deep impression on me. " He claimed that he and Lao She were "friends who have forgotten each other".
Wu Boxiao often gets together with some literary friends in Qingdao, "sitting in the office and writing short articles with them. In half a year, three or five acquaintances met regularly, each with a novel, poem or essay, and everyone exchanged comments. If you don't flatter, you will inevitably find fault, and you won't feel ashamed and inferior, saying that your work is not good (why not try to write it in a good way? ) but strive for mutual scrutiny. This naturally formed a spur and encouragement, and each worked hard to make a little progress at the next party. "
In Qingdao, Wu Boxiao formed the habit of "climbing mountains, watching the sea and going through forests" and "traveling everywhere" at dawn, dusk or noon. Sometimes I go to the seaside by boat and play tennis once every three or five days.
In Qingdao, of course I want to go to Laoshan. On one occasion, Wu Boxiao went to Taiguan Pass to climb a mountain on the warship Poseidon. He felt that "although there were many people, it was only nine Niu Yi hairs, and last year's outing was nowhere to be found. Stay overnight and pick up a small piece of ink crystal ... When the ship broke down, it was already dark and all the stars looked up. Two words slipped out: the return of Laoshan, full of boat wind; I want to go back, there are lights all over the street. "
Yindao (now Hongdao) was once the largest island in Jiaozhou Bay, and once had "eight scenic spots of Yindao". On both sides of the island are the famous salt fields in Jiaozhou Bay. In the past, there was a liner from Xiaogang to Yindao every day.
He and his friends also went to Yindao, saying, "The motive is to look at the rural scenery and visit the fishing and salt of Qi. ...... Somehow, a concept thought that' island' should always be hills and mountains, but unexpectedly Yin Island turned out to be flat. "
/kloc-in the summer of 0/936, Wu Boxiao moved to Guan Yi Road at the foot of Guanxiang Mountain, which was much closer to Jining Road. There is an alley here, but it is not a road, it is a stone step. He counted carefully and found that there were "sixty-two steps". For this new house, he wrote "The Room on the Island":
Finding several houses and a home in a crowded city is more difficult than finding a stable job in a crowded sea. This summer, I sweated in Qingdao for three days, and I found it after touching all kinds of nails. For a big room, the rent is 1 1 gold for one month, except for cold water, the rest of the furniture is lighted.
..... This two-story building is located on the top of the mountain. The drying platform overlooks the city and seamounts. During the day, watch the sunrise in the morning, see the colorful glow, see the misty distant mountains, the mountains and islands are connected with the water and the light and the sky, and the waves shake the golden shadow. When you are in Chensi, you can see fishing boats in the bay, and thousands of white sails are hung on thousands of boats. The scene is extremely vast and magnificent. In the evening, watching the sunset, watching the twilight, watching the wisps of smoke on every ship, my thoughts are deep and distant with the current smoke scene. The light is on, but it's dark. /kloc-the night view at the foot of a 0/00-foot tall building is more than one million lights!
He stayed here for only two months and then left Qingdao, first to Jinan and then to Laiyang, where he became the principal of an ordinary normal school. He specially invited Mr Lao She to give lectures in Laiyang. Because of his friendship in Qingdao, Lao She "promised to give a lecture no matter how tired the long-distance bus was".
When talking about his literary creation in Qingdao, Wu Boxiao said, "At that time, I overreached myself. I once dreamed of creating a style: the life theme of the novel, the language feeling of poetry, and the length structure of prose. The content is mainly stories, characters, landscapes, gardening, birds and animals, insects and fish; Emotional roughness, unruly, graceful and restrained, diluted, there must always be a sweet aftertaste. The genre belongs to prose, but I hope it is not prose poetry. " He wrote an article "The Sea" in Qingdao, in which he wrote:
..... The sea breeze is the hardest, the sea fog is the thickest, and the sea and sky are the farthest. The artistic conception of the sea is the most charming. Haibo is charming. The tide is rising. The sound of the sea is tragic and sad, with a long history. Ah! Sea! Who can finish its grandeur and magic in one breath? Just ask the fisherman who is moored in the shallows and smoking under the bright moon. Just ask the man who ran and jumped to pick up mussels in the hot sun in early spring!
After liberation, some people included Hai in a collection of prose poems, but he thought it was only prose.
Wu Boxiao selected some of his published essays and gave them to Mr. Wang Tongzhao, hoping to publish a collection of essays. Shortly after the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Wu Boxiao went to Yan 'an to join the revolutionary struggle. I lost contact with my friends in the occupied area.
Wang Tongzhao is very serious. He compiled Wu Boxiao's prose into A Collection of Feathers, and wrote a preface under the pseudonym of Pei Wei, which was published by Ba Jin in Cultural Life Publishing House. But Wu Boxiao doesn't know. 1949 In the spring, Meng Chao sent him a collection of poems, and then he realized that his first collection of essays had been published for 8 years. At the national "literary congress" meeting, Ba Jin told him that the manuscript fee was sent to him and a receipt was received. Who collected the manuscript fee of Feather Book under a pseudonym? This has always been a mystery.
Since then, Wu Boxiao has written many excellent essays, and Remember a Spinning Wheel has been incorporated into middle school Chinese textbooks.
1982 published a collection of essays "Forget the Year", which included several essays written in Qingdao that were not included in Feather Book.
In The Memory and Thinking of Ficus, Wu Boxiao talked about the significance of Qingdao to his literary creation in his life. On this page of the feather book, the photo taken by Wu Boxiao in Qingdao on 1934 is an eternal commemoration.