Please allow me to copy some letters from Mr. Shen to Third Sister (my Jenny) first.

Three three, because the weather was a little too good, I stood at the back of the boat and watched the water for a long time. My heart suddenly seemed to understand something, and at the same time I seemed to get a lot of wisdom from this river. Yes, I have gained a lot of wisdom, not knowledge. I sighed many times, and the sunset at the top of the mountain touched me very much, and the pebbles at the bottom of the water also touched me very much. There seems to be no dross in my heart, and I love the river, the sunset and the boatman warmly! ..... I saw a small fishing boat, the black cormorant carrying it slowly rowed down, and I was very moved and loved the gesture of the boatmen on the stone beach. ..... Sansan, I don't know why, I am very touched! I hope to live longer and fully develop my life into my work. I will use my own strength to interpret the so-called life more solemnly and profoundly than anyone else! Three, three, I watched the water for a long time and got something from the stones in the water that I couldn't get at ordinary times. For life, for love and hate, it seems completely different from people. I feel very disappointed. I always look too far and too deep. For myself, I became a victim. I am very weak at this time. Because I love the world and human beings. Three three, if we are in the same place at the moment, look how wet my eyes are!

This is a letter from home, a "patent reading" for Sansan, not a declaration. Every word is sincere and trustworthy, whether you are dressed or not.

From this letter, we can understand why Mr. Shen wrote Border Town and why he wrote it so beautifully. Because he loves the world and human beings.

We can also learn about all Shen Congwen's works from here. Maybe you will find this explanation a little irrelevant.

Border Town has angered some theoretical critics and literary historians, because Shen Congwen did not write according to their requirements and their prescribed patterns.

The first charge is that "Border Town" didn't write about class struggle and "hollowed out the class attributes of the characters".

Must all works be about class struggle?

They think that the first person to be hollowed out of class attribute is Shunshun. They subjectively and apriori improved the tactfulness, saying that he was a "leader on the water", "the leading brother" and "the general manager of the regiment". I hope he will not be classified as a bully landlord. In fact, Shunshun is just a steward of the water terminal. He has some property, and his property is only "four boats". What class is he in? His class attribute is the idea of climbing up. For example, he wants to climb relatives with Wang Tuan, but he doesn't want his son to marry a granddaughter who works on a boat. He is a little poor and doesn't love rich people. But after all, he is just a steward of the water terminal. He is honest, fair and respected, and often solves problems for others, so it is difficult for people to write him viciously.

As for Shunshun's two sons, Tianbao and Nuosong, "when sailing south, they often accompany their own boats as buddies, which is bitter and bitter. When rowing, they pick the heaviest ones and pull their heads when picking fibers", not to mention "class enemies".

In response to such criticism, Shen Congwen gave a challenging answer: "You know that a work should have' thoughts',' blood' and' tears', and it is required that a work should show these things in the story development, characters' words, and even the cover and catalogue of a book. How easy it is to do what you want! But I can't give you this. I deliberately gave up on you ... "

The second charge, related to the first one, is that Border Town is a paradise, divorced from real life.

Is Border Town realistic or romantic? Does Border Town idealize real life? This is a very confusing question.

Why is this novel called Border Town? This is a question worth thinking about.

"Border Town" is not only a geographical concept, but also does not mean that it is a small town on the border. This is also a concept of time and culture. Border Town is the antonym of big city. This is "another thing in another part of China" (inscription on the border town). Mr. Shen ran from the countryside to the big city, hating the decadent life of the upper class and the "vulgar, stingy and selfish philistinism" of the city people, which triggered his homesickness and made him miss the simple folk customs of his hometown that had not been completely destroyed by modern material civilization.

Even in Xiangxi, this quaint folk custom is disappearing. Mr. Shen said in the inscription on the long river: "1In the winter of 934, I went back to Xiangxi on business from Beiping, and went north to my hometown Fenghuang County by boat. I have been to my hometown for eighteen years. Once I entered the Chen Valley, everything was different. On the surface, everything has naturally made great progress. If you try to pay close attention, you will see a downward trend in the process of change. The most obvious thing, that is, the integrity, simplicity and beauty of human nature maintained by rural society, is almost disappearing, replaced by a realistic and profitable outlook on life that has been successfully cultivated in the real society in the past 20 years. " The life written in Border Town does exist, but by the time Border Town was written (1933- 1934), it almost did not exist. Border Town is a nostalgic work, a kind of nostalgia with regret. Border Town is a tender work, but there is a deep sense of tragedy behind it.

It can be said that Border Town is both realistic and romantic. Life in Border Town is real, and at the same time it is idealized, which is idealized reality.

Why romanticism and idealism? Because I want to keep something beautiful and eternal, let it last forever and benefit future generations.

The preface to Shen Congwen's Selected Novels says:

There may be people in the world who want to build a pavilion on the beach or on the water, but that's not me. I just want to build a small Greek temple. Choose mountains as the foundation and pile them with hard stones. Exquisite, strong, symmetrical, small but not slender, it is my ideal building. This temple is dedicated to "humanity".

What I want to show is a "life form", a "beautiful, healthy and natural life form that does not contradict human nature".

Oh! "Humanity", this unlucky noun!

Mr. Shen has his own views on the social function of literature. He believes that good works not only make people feel "real beauty", but also have the power to attract people to be good ... From works, they can get in touch with another life and get some inspiration from this life scene, so as to have a deeper understanding of life or life. Mr. Shen's view is "too deep and too far". In my opinion, this is the most correct view of the function of literature. This is of course unacceptable to some theorists who are eager for quick success and instant benefit.

The most difficult and successful character in Border Town is Cui Cui.

Cui Cui's image comes from three sources.

One is a girl from a wool shop in luxi county.

When writing the story of Border Town, the granddaughter who got on the ferry was gentle and left a deep impression on the little girl who spread wool (My Wife).

One is the girl I saw in Laoshan, Qingdao.

The characters in the story, on the one hand, see a rural woman in Jiushui, Laoshan Mountain, Qingdao a year ago, and get the inevitability of life ...

The girl is a dead relative and has filial piety. What is she doing? According to Liu Yiyou, it is "starting water". Jin said it was "suing the temple". "Going into the water" is a custom in Xiangxi, but it may not exist in Laoshan. It is more likely to be "suing the temple." In his letter to Third Sister, Mr. Shen mentioned "reporting to the temple" and immediately "reported to the temple". Jinwen is translated, and "reporting" and "informing" are probably the same thing. I heard from Mr. Shen that I saw it in the car with Third Sister. At that time, Mr. Shen said to Third Sister, "Well, I can help you write a novel."

Another source is Jenny.

On the one hand, I took the bride around me as an example and gained a simple personality style. "("Water Cloud ")

But this is not a simple combination of three impressions, and the process of formation is much more complicated. Mr. Shen has seen many such gentle rural girls, and he has written many. Many impressions are stored in his memory, which turned out to be scattered. Laoshan girl only has a touch machine, which makes these scattered impressions aggregate and become a complete image, lifelike and lacking in anything. The implication is long, and you can get it once. This is a pearl cultivated by Mr. Shen's long-term homesickness complex.

Cui Cui is difficult to write because Cui Cui is too young (he can't be over sixteen). She is so naive, so simple. This novel is about Cui Cui's love. This kind of love is so pure, so beyond all worldly interests, so immaterial. Cui Cui's love has a growing process. On the whole, it is sensible and firm, but at first it is hazy and fluttering. Cui Cui's love is a string of dreams.

When Cui Cui first met her parents, she had an unforgettable impression on them. Parents invited Cui Cui to his home to wait for her grandfather. Cui Cui thought he wanted her to go upstairs with a singing woman, and that he had bullied her, so he said softly, "You pervert!" "Later, I learned that it was an old man, and I was surprised and ashamed of the swearing words before. When I got home, I saw my grandfather. " Another thing that belonged to my grandfather kept Cui Cui silent for one night. "

Two years later, during the Dragon Boat Festival, my grandfather and Cui Cui went to the city to see the dragon boat. From the conversation between my grandfather and my elders, I understand that my parents always spend the Dragon Boat Festival in Qinglang Beach, 600 miles downstream. Cui Cui and her grandfather were on their way home. They suddenly stopped and asked, "Grandpa, is your boat going to sunny beach?" This shows that Cui Cui's heart is flying to the beach at this time.

Two parents are changing and visiting Cui Cui's home. Parents want to leave, and Cui Cui pulls the boat. "Cui Cui squinted at the guest and saw that the guest was staring at her, so he turned his back, sipped his mouth and pulled the horizontal cable with great conceit ..." The word "conceit" is very good.

Cui Cui heard two women gossiping that Wang Tuan had always wanted to marry her in-laws and that the dowry was a factory. She also said that her parents didn't want to grind, and they were glad that someone supported the ferry ... Cui Cui thought: It's impossible to marry her. These rumors forced Cui Cui to get in touch with practical problems.

But Cui Cui is still in her dream. According to the "road" pointed out by the old boatman, I will send my parents to sing for Cui Cui at night. "In Cui Cui's dream, the soul floated for a beautiful song, as if it floated gently everywhere: going up to the White Pagoda, going down to the vegetable garden, getting on the boat, and then flying back and forth on the cliff. What to do? Pick Saxifraga! " This is a very nice slow-motion movie, accompanied by singing.

Things have gone through many twists and turns.

Tianbao's elders couldn't walk by car, so they asked the matchmaker to find Cui Cui and drove the tanker to Chenzhou, where they fell on the beach and were flooded.

On that thunderous night, the old boatman died.

Grandpa's friend Yang came to keep company. "Because they must talk about grandfather and this family, they later talked about everything before the old boatman died. Therefore, Cui Cui understood many things that his grandfather didn't mention when he was alive. The parents sang, the eldest son died, and the father and son were indifferent to grandpa. People in Zhongzhai used the mill as a dowry to seduce their parents, and their parents remembered it. Cui Cui cried all night after making things clear. " After crying all night, Cui Cui grew up. What will happen?

"I usually have the best imagination of the scenery, and I can describe it well" (Xiangxing Jibolanzi Pill). Shen Congwen can be said to be a master of landscape writing. The scenery in Border Town is wonderful, which makes people feel deja vu. Why write about scenery in novels? Scene is the environment in which the characters live, the externalization of the characters and a part of them. The scene is a person. Not to mention how Shen Congwen is good at writing landscapes, just give an example to illustrate how he is good at writing sounds and smells; "It's getting late, other birds seem to be resting. Only the cuckoo keeps calling. Stones and mud were exposed to the sun all day, and then a kind of hot air was released. The air smells of earth, plants and beetles. Cui Cui looked at the red clouds in the sky and listened to the chaotic voices of businessmen floating on the ferry, and his heart was a little thin and desolate. " Which poet wrote about the smell of beetles?

The structure of Border Town is extremely perfect. Twenty-one sections, in one go; And each paragraph has its own beginning and end, which is a complete prose poem. This is not a long scroll, but a 2 1 page continuous picture album.

The language of Border Town is the best language in Shen Congwen's heyday. Neither like the initial sweep, unrestrained; It's not as complicated and obscure as the later period. The language of this period, every sentence is full, full, sweet and sour, like a basket of newly picked Yantai agate cherries.

What position should Shen Congwen's novel Border Town occupy in the history of literature? In the introduction of the biography of Shen Congwen, Jin said: "It is conceivable that critics from non-western countries, including China, will make a fair evaluation of Shen Congwen one day: regard Shen Congwen, Flaubert, Stern and Proust as writers with equal achievements." One day, when will this day come?