Since the publication of Red Bean, due to the different perspectives and themes of readers' understanding of red beans at that time and the special social environment at that time, readers' interpretation was divided and political issues were entangled, which was inevitably severely criticized in the "anti-rightist" storm of 1958. Regrettably, the writers who lived in the environment at that time did not pay attention to the attention of readers and the admiration of intellectuals after the publication of Red Bean, but blindly viewed Red Bean from a political perspective. Specifically, Sun's two articles criticizing several poisonous weeds in the July issue of People's Literature, and what kind of innovation it is-it was sorted out by the editorial department of this magazine and published in the June issue of People's Literature, which undoubtedly hit red beans into a dead end. Sun clearly pointed out in the article, "The novel Red Bean is also a kind of weed. Jiang Mei, the heroine who was educated by the party for six years, recalled how sorry, disappointed and sad she was for her aristocratic college student who was extremely hostile to the people's revolution and fled to the United States before liberation. " What is even sadder is that in July of 1958, Peking University Haiyan Literature Society held a meeting entitled "What's the problem with red beans?" The symposium sent red beans to the dead. Almost all the participants firmly or insincerely believed that Red Bean was a rotten film that preached the supremacy of petty-bourgeois love and exposed the author's incomplete ideological transformation.
Content overview
Through the love tragedy between college students Jiang Mei and Qi Hong because of their different attitudes towards life and political positions, the work tells the story of intellectuals choosing their own life path in the face of great changes in the times. Although love is the main commitment of the story content, it is not the theme of the work. What the writer wants to show is this kind of life struggle at the crossroads. World disputes and years have left some unforgettable memories. When Jiang Mei unexpectedly faced these two red beans, whose colors were still "very uniform and bright", an unusual past came to mind like a flood. Zong Pu's Red Bean describes the love story of Jiang Mei, a female college student, and Qi Hong, a young banker, on the eve of national liberation by flashback, revealing the arduous and tortuous mental journey of a generation of young intellectuals. Through a love tragedy, the novel expresses a question of how to choose one's own path and future life in the face of great changes in the times. This work contains profound ideological connotation and artistic passion, far exceeding the general sense of love novels. It expresses intellectuals' own narrative perspective in a short space. Although superficial, it implicitly shows the life choices and inner contradictions faced by intellectuals in the torrent of times intertwined with great pain and great joy, and highlights the author's love view and humanistic care for young people in the special era at that time.
evaluate
Zong Pu's Red Bean was published at the beginning of the anti-rightist struggle in 1957. Red beans are regarded as poisonous weeds that propagate the bourgeois concept of love and show the bourgeois "human touch", and are criticized as an example of revisionist thoughts in literature. Critics believe that People's Literature actually recommended poisonous weeds like red beans to readers, which actually contributed to the anti-party countercurrent in literature and art. Red beans were buried in the era of criticism and the author was forced to put down his pen. Only those who read the novel in those days can remember its beauty. When red bean was republished in 1979 as one of the "replay flowers" more than 20 years later, it won the love and praise of many new and old readers. The novel Red Bean, like the red bean held by the heroine Jiang Mei in the book, is still so bright and exudes indelible artistic appeal. This novel has a positive political tendency. The author wrote the young students Xiao Su and Jiang Mei's love and yearning for the revolutionary cause, and praised their student movement on the eve of the birth of New China to completely overthrow the decadent Kuomintang rule. Through the love tragedy of Jiang Mei and Qi Hong, it is shown by artistic means that love also has a class nature, which is restricted by political stance and outlook on life in real life. Especially in the special political environment, when the love and ideals of both sides cannot be unified and conflict occurs, contradictions, pains and even disillusionment of love will inevitably occur. The author puts this love in an extraordinary period to describe its gestation and collapse, in order to show that love cannot be all-encompassing, replace everything and dominate everything. Lovers in love do not live in a paradise, but are bound to be influenced by various factors in reality.
Love plot
At first, the love between Jiang Mei and Qi Hong was full of romance. * * * The same hobbies and mutual admiration brought them together. They only have love, poetry and music in their hearts. They only see the brilliance and enthusiasm on two faces. Like all lovers in love, they feel that the world around them is so beautiful. Zong Pu's beautiful and lyrical writing rendered the first love of Jiang Mei and Qi Hong picturesque. But people can't be divorced from society and reality after all. Jiang Mei was influenced by Xiao Su's revolutionary thought and encouraged by the atmosphere of welcoming liberation in the school, and learned the truth of his father's unjust death. Her thoughts have gradually changed, and she is no longer the lofty girl from another world. She understood the truth of fighting for everyone to get rid of suffering and live a real new life. She took an active part in the ranks. Her change caused differences and quarrels with Qi Hong. Qi Hong believes that people live for themselves. He hates human beings and thinks that no matter who they are, they all use each other. He wants his love and everything obeys him. Just like a person living in a dream, he doesn't care about anything except physics, music and love. Jiang Mei and Qi Hong are two people who have different outlook on life and walk on different roads. If the quarrel caused by these differences is a hidden explosive, their inseparable love still holds them together; Then the reason why they split is the fuse. When Jiang Mei is faced with the crossroads of major choices in life, she will follow Qi Hong to the United States, enjoy a peaceful and prosperous life and enjoy the warmth and sweetness of love. Or stay at home, stay in the revolutionary ranks, stay with your mother and fight for your beliefs and ideals. Jiang Mei's choice is painful. The author described Jiang Mei's complicated inner world with delicate brushstrokes. Perhaps it is because of this complexity that she is called the "human touch" of the bourgeoisie. Jiang Mei's love for rainbows has not changed, although they are so different. But she will never forget the man who broke into her life until she dies. It is because of this unforgettable love that her choice is particularly difficult and painful. How much courage and perseverance does she need to endure the irresistible temptation of love! It is through such complicated psychological activities and the difficulty of this choice that the author highlights the heroine's longing for the revolutionary cause and hope for the early success of the revolution. She lost the most precious love in her life, but gained new enthusiasm from revolutionary work. From the author's pen, we feel the intellectuals of their time, and their deep love for the cause of the Party and the new socialist China. They are so determined and persistent, and they have paid so many prices. Love is beautiful and painful; The story of love is getting better and better because of the pain in the middle.