The stream flows down the river, around the mountain, and joins the river in the tea cave for about three miles. If people cross the stream and climb the hill, it takes only one mile to reach the edge of Tea Cave City. The stream is like a bow, and the mountain road is like a bowstring. There is a slight difference between distance and distance. This stream is about 20 feet wide, and the riverbed is made of big stones. Still water, even if it is too deep to sink, is still clear and transparent, and the fish in the middle reaches of the river can be counted. "
The characters in Border Town are vivid, full of wet and transparent scenery of Hunan and Chu, full of simple and sincere charm and human feelings, but every time you read it, you can't help but feel sad, such as touching something, such as a sunny afternoon in your childhood, or the world that you can't grasp now.
"From Sichuan to Hunan, there is an official road to the east. When this road came to a small mountain town called "Tea Cave" near the Xiangxi border, there was a small white tower beside the stream, and a family lived under it. There is only one old man, one girl and one yellow dog in this family. "
This is his border town, a quiet city, which Mr. Wang brought to us. From beginning to end, Cui Cui seems to be enduring something. Cui Cui is the embodiment of this success. Since she fell in love with the person who can take her dreams far away with singing, she chose silence. Although her heart is ups and downs, but the surface is the same. Grandfather died in a thunderstorm night, Tianbao drowned and the White Tower collapsed. Cui Cui still can't get rid of her mother's fate, but she waits.
I have always been curious about what made Mr. Wang paint such a kind fairy tale so sad. Mr. Wang was born at the beginning of19th century. At that time, China was facing a serious national crisis. It had just ended the feudal slavery rule of 1000 years under the eyes of western powers, and was in the darkest period of warlord scuffle. On the one hand, it is the influence of feudal thoughts for thousands of years, on the other hand, it is the massive invasion of western culture. Make the war-torn Chinese nation worse. In that turbulent era, the land of China was in flames of war and the people were in dire straits. After the baptism of the New Culture Movement, Mr. Wang resolutely chose Xiangxi, a simple and beautiful land. These gentle and straightforward people, in poetic language, whisper the sadness of the whole nation and call for the natural conscience of the Chinese people. It is because of their deep love that these sad words were born.
Everything in Border Town is so pure and natural, showing a poetic natural environment and humanistic society. However, in the end, all the good things can only be left in my memory: one of Tianbao and Nuonuo died, the other ran away, and my grandfather died in a stormy night. A natural love story ended in tragedy. Border Town is a classic text of Miao nationality fable in western Hunan.
By using the methods of physical symbols and psychological analysis, we can see the deep cultural metaphor in Border Town, and find Mr. Shen Congwen's totem of thinking in images about Miao culture in western Hunan, as well as his thoughts and worries about Miao/Han and cultural conflicts between China and the West.
From works to theory, Shen Congwen later completed a series of contrasting urban life forms, such as Xiangxi, Beauty of Rural Life Form and Synthesis of Critical Structure, and put forward his philosophy of "harmony between man and nature", that is, based on nature and returning to nature. The healthy and perfect human nature represented by "Xiangxi", a "beautiful, healthy and natural life form that does not contradict human nature", is exactly the content of all his creations.