After ten years' filtration and integration, the noise of various literary thoughts and schools in China in 1930s gradually subsided, and the atmosphere of relative freedom of thought initiated by the May 4th Movement gradually disappeared. With the change of the whole society, the mainstream of literature has become unprecedentedly politicized. A group of elites of the times consciously complied with the choice of literature by the times, sang the main theme of proletarian revolutionary literature with the "left-wing alliance" as the backbone, and showed strong creative passion. Under the background that the marriage of literature and politics has become a writer's independent choice, Shen Congwen, as a lonely man, stubbornly adheres to his own literary ideas and becomes a note that is out of tune with the mainstream of literature in the times. Politically, he was dissatisfied with reality and did not cooperate with the Kuomintang government, but he did not approve of class struggle and proletarian revolution. He always maintains a lofty and completely free attitude. In literary and artistic thought, he advocated the view of human nature, showing the ideological tendency of returning to simplicity, trying to change the dark reality, restore national vitality and reshape national character with the primitive and simple human nature in rural areas. In his creative tendency, he tried to concentrate on the political middle attitude, emphasized the original function of literature, tried his best to test the perfection of style, and deliberately kept his distance from the Party.

Shen Congwen is a controversial writer. His legendary cultural background and life experience, unique literary thoughts and political opinions not only bring many possibilities for reading his novels, but also leave many topics for studying his people.

First, the legendary life experience and cultural background

Shen Congwen was originally named Shen Yuehuan, and his main pen names are Xiu, Guan Bi and Xuan Ruo. Phoenix people in Hunan. 19 18 After graduating from primary school in his hometown, he went to the border region of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou and the Yuanshui River Basin with the local indigenous troops, and then officially joined the army and became a staff sergeant. 1922, attracted by the May 4th Movement, came to Beijing by himself, but failed to enter higher education. Encouraged by Yu Dafu, Xu Zhimo and others, he taught himself to write under difficult conditions. 1924, his works were first published in Morning Post Supplement, and later published in Modern Review and Novel Monthly. 1928 came to Shanghai with Hu Yepin and Ding Ling, and founded Red and Black magazine together. 1929 teaches at China College. The works of this period are collected as Ducks, Hotels and Others, Oranges and so on. , describing the folk customs and unique life of Xiangxi, attracting attention. Sasha Vujacic, Cow, Baizi and Alice in China Wonderland show the successful local expression and historical and cultural thinking in his early novels. After 1930, he went to Qingdao University to teach, and his creation became increasingly rich. Before the Anti-Japanese War, more than 20 collections of works were published, including Zhou Shi, Tiger Baby, Little Scene under the Moon, Eight Horses, etc. There is also an important anthology, Selected Works of Shen Congwen's Novels. 1934 The novella Border Town came out, which marked the maturity of his novels. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he went to Yunnan via Wuhan, Changsha and Xiangxi. When passing through Yuanling, I wrote the prose Xiangxi and the novel Long River (volume 1). Later, he taught at Kunming National Southwest Associated University. 1945 and returned to Beijing to teach at Peking University. Shi Wen edited the literary supplements of Ta Kung Pao and Yi Shi Daily.

After 1949, he has been engaged in cultural relics for a long time. He has studied the history of ancient Chinese costumes and material culture in the Museum of Chinese History and the Palace Museum. 1960 published articles such as "Dragon and Phoenix Art". 1978 to the Institute of History, China Academy of Social Sciences. As a writer, he was invited to attend the Third National Literary Congress and was added as a member of the National Federation of Literary and Art Circles. 1980 to give lectures in America. 198 1 year published the monograph "research on ancient Chinese costumes", which lasted 15 years.

Shen Congwen is a prolific writer. He has published more than 70 novels and essays, and also created a considerable number of poems and literary comments, totaling several million words. Generally speaking, his creation can be divided into three periods: 1924 ~ 1927 is the enlightenment period of Shen Congwen's creation. During this period, the creative objects were mainly peasants, sailors and soldiers at the lower level, which were basically original copies of life. Explain that the character's personality is not special, the personal impression is not strong, and the plot arrangement and story handling are improper. But after all, it has added fresh content to the publications with the theme of the city in the literary world for many years, which is more common in the works such as Ship on the Shore, Sentinel, Wild Boar Hunter and Company Commander. This is the formation of Shen Congwen's creative thought. 1928 ~ 1930 is the period when Shen Congwen's creation is further mature. The creation of this period has been born out of the original image, and the skills of layout and language materials have been greatly improved, from the description of characters to the shaping of characters, they tend to be mature and full. Such as Mix, Long Zhu and A Jin. They all profoundly depict the inner world of the characters in different tenses, leaving a deep impression on the readers. 193 1 ~ 1949 is the mature period of Shen Congwen's creation. During this period, the author's thoughts became more and more mature, observing things in the world from many different perspectives and giving them philosophical insight, forming a unique artistic style. It shows unique artistic charm in analyzing society, exploring life and displaying national customs. This period produced some weighty works. For example, Border Town, Long River and Crossing the Kans are all well-known masterpieces.

Shen Congwen's creative thoughts mainly focus on the primitive folk customs and faint homesickness in western Hunan, highlighting a primitive and elegant human beauty. He tried his best to explore the stormy life of the people and reveal the law of life. His writing points are ferry, wharf, slate street, shops, stone arch bridges, mountain people and boat people on the water. Reading Shen Congwen's works, there is a feeling that the mountain breeze blows on the face, refreshing and moistening the lungs, and there is a feeling of softness and rigidity. The mountain breeze in spring is his demeanor, and the temperament of water is his way of life; It can be seen that stubbornness in gentleness and gentleness in stubbornness are closely combined. When a disaster-stricken country was deeply eroded, he moved it with a natural beauty to arouse millions of people to struggle for a better life. He also used this technique to appeal to the spiritual awakening of an ignorant nation. In his string of characters, there is no sword and shadow, and there is no smell of war and smoke. However, under the calm water, there is turbid water, and there are sharp thorns in the blooming roses. Readers can feel the anxiety in enthusiasm, the hidden pain behind humor and the sadness between smiles.

Border Town is one of the exquisite works of art praised by Chinese and foreign readers, and it is the representative work of Shen Congwen's novels. The works mainly take the social background of Xiangxi in 1930s as the background, the Chadong Ferry at the junction of Hunan, Chongqing and Guizhou as the description object, and the life experiences of the old boatman and granddaughter as the carrier, vividly showing the simple folk customs and humanistic beauty in the unique environment of Xiangxi. The characterization in Border Town is based on the simple mountain people in the 1930s in western Hunan. The owner of the work, Cui Cui, is a beautiful, intelligent and generous Miao girl. She can sing and dance well and live a carefree and peaceful life. Only when the tide of love surges violently does she feel uneasy, which just constitutes a picture of Miao girls' life from adolescence to maturity. The old boatman is a kind, hardworking, simple, simple, hardworking, helpful and dedicated Miao grandfather. He cares about the next generation with the unique feelings of the Miao elderly. Although she was worried about Cui Cui's lifelong event, it was still "Cui Cui's own decision", which created an enlightened and independent image of the elderly and showed the Miao people's freedom of marriage for thousands of years. As for everything that happened later, it was a ripple in love life, which added stumbling and interest to the story. Tianbao and Nuopai are brave and enterprising. They punted into the sea, shouldered their shoulders, and mastered everything. The typical image of the younger generation of Miao family emerged in front of them. The local rich and powerful people are always smooth sailing, and it is the first time to go to sea, and they are like relatives and friends with their buddies. Even the treacherous merchant butcher, when the old boatman stands in front of the stall, will deliberately give him a few more knives or give him a knife. Shen Congwen's pen is an idealized paradise on earth. This writing technique, which combines the beauty of mountains, water and human nature, is not original in this article, but also exists in many of his works. From this, he confirmed his own statement: "Preserve the form taken by the last romanticism in the 20th century with a pen", and reached his own idealized artistic realm.

The novel uses the plot to promote the development of the story. The story of Border Town is very unique. The fate of the characters is completely arranged according to the law of life in Miao township. Strive to capture the images of life that will remain in natural and social memory forever, and put them together like a pearl map, deepening layer by layer, developing layer by layer, seeing the big from the small and seeing the real from the virtual. Played a high-end trick in dealing with the fate of characters. For example, when the characters are in the spring breeze, they can cover up that kind of joy, control the ups and downs, and prevent them from reaching the level of madness. When fate is in the torrent, the author tries to avoid the direct conflict of tragedy, and uses the gossip of secondary characters to tell it, which reduces the desolation of tragedy. It can be said that there is no sorrow in sorrow, which slows down the slope that people bear and achieves a special artistic effect.

Strong ethnic and regional characteristics are the highlights of Border Town. The author rubs the characters into a strong customs environment and uses customs to lay out stories, vividly showing the primitive and quaint ethnic customs in western Hunan. Such as the crystal-clear river, Camus Diaojiao Building hanging by the river for thousands of years, dressed in festive costumes, men and women, old and young, standing by the river, watching the annual Dragon Boat Festival, watching the waterwheels, mills and ferries by the river, watching the songs of the long night companions of young men and women in Yamashita ... fascinating, causing infinite reverie. On the other hand, the success of Border Town is inseparable from the clever use of language. Its basic language is Xiangxi dialect. Xiangxi tries to use refined and simple language, avoid those bitter and difficult sub-dialects, and adopt colloquialism and spoken language close to life. Even metaphors are things that villagers often see and come into contact with, which are easy to understand. In terms of language expression, it is novel, vivid and vivid, which makes readers feel like a mountain breeze, cool and pleasant. Therefore, Mr. Yu Ling commented in the second episode of Shen Congwen's Selected Novels: "Therefore, the author hopes to treat the hypocritical, cowardly and selfish national aging disease with the healthy, simple and energetic moral elements preserved by the lower class. Seeing the ruthless law of historical evolution, I miss the simple human beauty of rural society, but it has been washed and swallowed up by modern' civilization'. " So as to achieve what he himself said, "My painful struggle in the past, the oppressed and unpredictable peasant's desire for love, can only be released and compensated in this story."

It is only the author's wishful thinking that the author exaggerates the beauty of human nature and loses the class nature and the original ugly side of human nature. But this does not diminish the artistic charm of the work at all, and it is worthy of being a masterpiece in the history of modern literature. As Jin said, "Shen Congwen's homesickness flows quietly on the land of China like Chen He. What flows in his and his national memory is a red river, which is a constant homesickness and an ancient emotion." It is the embodiment of national mission and responsibility.

Second, unique political ideas and literary thoughts.

1, edge and center

Shen Congwen's novels focus on the expression of human nature, describing people's lives in remote areas of western Hunan, especially the customs of Miao and Tujia ethnic minority areas, with a strong original Shan Ye local flavor. He described the life and living reality of the lower working people, ordinary clerks, rural intellectuals, boatmen, fishermen, hunters, craftsmen, soldiers, vendors, dancers, prostitutes, bandits, executioners and wizards. To show his affirmation of sound human nature and criticism of distorted human nature. These efforts make his novels break away from the mainstream literature and have long been regarded as "marginal literature", and he himself has long been regarded as a "marginal person" far from the center. In the literary world of China in 1930s, Shen Congwen's creation, whether in theme, subject matter or characters, ran counter to the mainstream literature and central literature, and was actually "marginal literature". However, if we put Shen Congwen's creation in the whole world literature or China literature (not just a certain stage), we will find that his literature is not marginal literature, but the center of the center.

The issue of "human nature" is the core of Shen Congwen's research, and it is also the cornerstone of correctly understanding and evaluating Shen Congwen. Shen Congwen's ideal of human nature is mainly manifested in eulogizing the perfection of human nature and attacking the distortion of human nature. Whether it's rural novels such as Hui Ming, Little Scene under the Moon, Border Town, or urban novels such as Gentleman's Wife, Big and Small Ruan, Learned Man, they are praising the health and simplicity of ancient human nature, lamenting the variation of people's hearts under the invasion of modern civilization, or exposing the decadence of morality. In addition, Shen Congwen's novels also have a strong sense of humanitarianism and modern criticism. Starting from humanitarianism, he exposed the alienation phenomenon brought by capitalist production relations, thus achieving the purpose of criticizing (rather than denying) industrialized modern civilization. For example, "Husband" reveals the deep sadness hidden behind her husband's life and is full of humanitarian thoughts. He criticized all the ugliness exposed by modern civilization in the early days of entering China with the overall structure of urban-rural opposition, and "enriched the diverse characteristics of China literature in the 1930s".

First of all, from the theme. Literature is a study of human, and the expression of human, human nature and human psychology is an eternal literary motif. The humanity that Shen Congwen learned from tradition is the most dynamic and important theme when he describes himself. It is not only the logical starting point of image, but also the pillar of the whole image world. In that era when the revolution was above everything else, Shen Congwen stuck to his small temple of human nature from beginning to end, and tirelessly piled up an ideal building of "exquisiteness and firmness, both called small and exquisite". In the conflict between modernity and tradition, he relied on the ethical spirit and aesthetic strength cultivated by tradition to try to fully explain his theme. "Humanity" has a sense of religious sublimity for him, which is also the source of his artistic interest. In the preface of Selected Literary Novels, he said: "What I want to show is a' life form', a' beautiful, healthy and natural life form that does not contradict human nature'. My idea is not to lead readers to travel to Taoyuan, but to rely on Taoyuan to go up 700 miles. When a few idiots in a small city participate in one thing, everyone should have it. The concern for human nature reflects the consistency of Shen Congwen's attitude towards life and literary thought. On the one hand, influenced by the literary proposition of "for life" put forward by "Literature Research Society" in 1930s, Shen Congwen viewed life from the perspective of human nature; On the other hand, Shen Congwen's "for life" is different from "literature research society", he does what he doesn't do, thus forming his unique personality. In the social environment of the 1930s, in the struggle between blood and fire, some writers directly embraced life and equated it with the times, while Shen Congwen was obsessed with thinking about human nature, treating life beyond the times and calling the times a narrow life. In the face of the torrent of life of the times, he avoided the political choice of literature and adopted the cultural choice of observing the ideal life, which may be the main reason why his novels are different from revolutionary realism novels. Although his creative ideal of devoting himself to human nature reflects his alienation from modern China society since11930, does this show that he has a profound insight into human nature? All literature is actually a reflection on human nature, without the cloak of politics and the times. From this point of view, I'm afraid Shen Congwen's novels can't be summarized only by the word "edge".

Secondly, from the perspective of subject matter and characters. Shen Congwen's novels have a wide range of themes: some write about military life, such as After Joining the Army and Messenger; Some reflect the sufferings and struggles of working people, such as Husband and Your Life; Some wrote images of revolutionaries, such as Night and Crossing the Ridge. There are descriptions of life, customs, love and marriage of ethnic minorities, such as "Little Scene under the Moon", "Dragon Ball" and "Border Town". His favorite figure is the "lower class of Xiangxi people" who has nothing to do with the revolution. This theme field embodies three characteristics of Shen Congwen's creation: first, regionality. Xiangxi is a place full of myths and legends. For centuries, in people's minds, it has always been an area where mountains overlap and barbarians gather. This sinister and romantic place has made Shen Congwen's local literature. He described the local customs there and eulogized the history and customs of the frontier. The second is memory. Shen Congwen's description of Xiangxi was completed through his memories. He used his memory selectively, idealized his hometown in memory and created a complete picture of a better life. This pursuit of the past, based on memories, seems to be divorced from reality, but in fact it is a deeper criticism of modern culture. The third is civilians. Civilization is one of the important characteristics of Shen Congwen's novel creation. In the novel, Shen Congwen fully affirmed the lifestyle of ordinary villagers and citizens, and was extremely fond of and close to the people. Shen Congwen comes from a minority nationality. As a teenager, he lived at the bottom of the people for a long time. He is familiar with the land at the junction of Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei and Guizhou provinces and the Yuanshui River Basin stretching for thousands of miles. He learned about farmers, soldiers, shops, vendors, sailors, boatmen, prostitutes in diaojiao buildings and their joys and sorrows. These characters have gone through hardships and lived a poor and even ignorant life. Shen Congwen tried to show the perseverance, stubbornness and vigorous vitality of ordinary people through this pity or ignorance, thus showing his literary aesthetic tendency, that is, beauty is in the ordinary life form, and stable and unknown labor has its eternal value. The civilian world he created provided all kinds of "life discoveries", which made people think deeply for a long time. The characters in his novels seldom pin their hopes for life on great changes, but prefer to retreat to the indifferent and indisputable position advocated by traditional culture. Therefore, many people think that it has a conservative side, which can't keep up with the rapid changes of society and is far away from the theme of the times. However, who can deny that this kind of civilian life is exactly the way of life of most people in that era. After all, revolutionaries are a minority, and the life of civilians is the most real and common life. The marginal subject field does not mean that Shen Congwen is a marginal writer, and his works still reflect the life forms of the vast majority of people.

2, retrogression and progress

Generally speaking, Shen Congwen's novels mainly criticize modern urban civilization and praise primitive and simple rural life. This creative tendency gives people a feeling of "looking backwards" and seems to require people to return to the Middle Ages. Some commentators believe that the main reasons for this "backward-looking" feeling lie in the following aspects.

First, the middle attitude in political thought formed his concept of literary creation, which was isolated from politics, "making it difficult for him to distinguish right from wrong between politics and ideology in literary and artistic debates". Commenting on some left-wing young writers, he said: "Most young writers have similar articles. The content of the article is similar, and the concepts expressed are similar ... Because of the lack of independent knowledge, I only know the pursuit of fashion, and I completely lost myself. " At the same time, he also criticized Lu Xun's essays and sharply criticized the "humorous literature" advocated by Zhou Zuoren and Lin Yutang. Such remarks made him completely oppose revolutionary literature and become notes out of step with the mainstream of literature of the times.

Secondly, in literature, Shen Congwen advocates describing his own "history of heart and dream", showing strong nostalgia, which makes his works lack the flavor of the times and stay away from the mainstream of life. Some critics believe that Shen Congwen was born in a military family in western Hunan, his grandfather was a prefect, his father had experience in joining the army, his mother was born in a local scholarly family, and Shen Congwen left the army and embarked on a literary road. Such a family background made Shen Congwen have a strong sense of superiority and accumulated it as a kind of psychology. Therefore, his Xiangxi world is actually his kind of "feudal manor-style pastoral scene", and the characters are the external manifestations of "young master image" and "subject image". His whole creation can be regarded as "tracing back to and snuggling up to a respectable family background and a childhood scene illuminated by the family background". Therefore, what people always see in his novels is the Xiangxi world, a Xiangxi world far away from the world and the times, with the color of five tuo gangs. As for Shen Congwen's urban novels, some critics think that because of his lack of sufficient understanding of cities, his observation of Xiangxi culture is relatively rigid, and he only makes a static comparison between Xiangxi and cities, instead of a dynamic comparison from the perspective of historical development and evolution, thus ignoring the inevitable trend of social development; At the same time, he often covers up class contradictions with urban-rural contradictions, thus ignoring the class nature of human nature.

Thirdly, the human nature described in Shen Congwen's novels is against the law of human development, showing primitive barbarism and poverty. "completely ignoring the suffering, injustice and resentment of the poor, completely ignoring the ideological differences of people with different class status, and even completely ignoring the harm of prostitution system, people feel that they are in the country of gentlemen in the mirror garden." These words seem to remind people that whether it is Shen Congwen's creative background, creative tendency, aesthetic ideal, or the form presented in his works, it shows that Shen Congwen's novels are divorced from the times, opposed to class, and pursuing an ideal realm that does not exist in real life. In a sense, for example, it should be a retrogression relative to the development process of society.

3. Romance and reality

Although Shen Congwen inherited the romantic tradition inherent in southern culture in the general tendency of creation, due to his multi-level exploration of life forms, four basic types of works have been formed, such as recalling water-like reality, satirizing truth, symbolizing lyricism and romantic legend, showing the unity of diversity in creative methods.

In terms of the composition of his works, his creation shows consanguineous connection with China's traditional art and national literature: emphasizing artistic conception, pursuing the unity of things and me, paying attention to the relationship between reality and reality, leaving blank space, and highlighting the charm of characters on the basis of realistic feelings about personnel. At the same time, he combined the expressive techniques of various western modern art schools and formed the organic flesh and blood of his artistic creation. Symbolism, impressionism, subconscious and abnormal psychology are all printed in his works.

In terms of style and language form, he showed many explorations and originality, and was called "style writer" and "word magician" at that time. Shen Congwen is a writer who is relatively far from the mainstream of modern literature. The evaluation of him should not stop at political standards, but also examine his creative position and aesthetic value in the literary world from the perspective of modern cultural transformation. His literary contribution is mainly grasped in two aspects: first, he created a natural, healthy and harmonious "Xiangxi World" in the form of literature and explored a sound "life form". The second is to create a poetic and lyrical novel style. When reading Shen Congwen's novels such as Border Town, we should pay special attention to the aesthetic experience, the so-called "emotional gymnastics" brought by pastoral sentiment, and avoid theoretical preconceptions and excessive interpretation of the "meaning" of the works. Investigate the "Xiangxi World" written by Shen Congwen. We should pay attention to the primitive, simple and harmonious "life form" that Shen tried to "transcend the realm" in order to distinguish and criticize modern urban civilization. This is the purpose of Shen Congwen's creation. When commenting on the masterpiece Border Town, we should pay attention to the rural customs, natural scenery and the beautiful realm of human destiny, as well as the sad pastoral artistic conception. Cui Cui, an innocent girl in the novel, whose hazy love transcends all worldly interests, and their quiet and self-sufficient life have injected the author with beautiful nostalgia, imagination and expectation, but also hidden a deep sense of tragedy. It should be understood that Shen Congwen's construction of this pastoral "life form" in Xiangxi has the meaning of cultural criticism, that is, criticizing what he thinks is the ills of modern urban civilization, so that people can understand the past greatness and present degeneration of "this nation" from this "beautiful picture"

Shen Congwen's outstanding contribution to modern novel art lies in his creation of lyric novels with great artistic individuality. "Creating boundaries" is the key of Shen Congwen. The setting of characters in a pure heart, the integration of natural scenery and personnel folklore, the projection of the author's life experience, and the lyrical brushwork of flowing water create the artistic conception of blending reality and dreams.