Li Jianwu's early evaluation of Shen Congwen's works was more pertinent and in place. In his famous collection of comments "Drunken Flowers", there is an article entitled-Mr. Shen Congwen, who wrote: "Lovely! This is another feature of Mr. Shen Congwen's novels. The characters in his works are all lovely ","Each of these lovely characters has a kind and simple soul ","Their hearts are corresponding, and their actions and thoughts are consistent ". They are strong and impulsive, but some of them are upward emotions, struggling and overcoming selfish emotions. There is no excessive expectation for life, and all their efforts are spent on others: the beauty of adults. ""Mr. Shen Congwen is a painting, not a sculpture; His feelings about beauty make him unable to analyze because he is afraid of exposing the ugliness of human nature. " Mr. Li Jianwu is probably the first person to discover the beauty of human nature in Shen Congwen's works except the author himself. Although he didn't make a comprehensive and profound analysis, Shen Congwen should be satisfied with having such a bosom friend at that time. In addition, in the same article, Mr. Li Jianwu also compared Border Town with Eight Horses for the first time, and thought that Eight Horses was a mockery, but it was not the main theme of Border Town. It's a pity that we didn't find the two worlds of city and country, but only limited to the discussion of the effect of his novels.
Tracing back to the comments on the beauty of human nature in Mr. Shen's works, I am afraid it will fall on his self-reported inscription at the earliest. In the inscription of Border Town, he said: "Because they are honest, some aspects of life are extremely great, some aspects are extremely ordinary, some aspects are extremely beautiful, and some aspects are extremely trivial. When I started writing them, it was natural to make them more human and humane. In the preface of the later Selected Works, it was even more clear. He said: "I want to show a life form, a beautiful, healthy and natural life form that does not contradict human nature." He also said, "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 mankind. "This is probably the earliest positioning of Shen Congwen's novel' describing human nature'. The author's own statement is probably the best material to correctly understand the theme of the novel, so these paragraphs have also become necessary materials for those who discuss the theme of Shen Congwen's novels in the future.
Regarding the comparative description of cities and villages, Shen Congwen seems to be conscious at first. In the inscription of Border Town, he said: "I don't stop there, but I'm going to give them a chance to compare. In another work, I will mention that the civil war in the past 20 years has made some farmers who bear the brunt lose their original simplicity, frugality, peace and integrity. When he reached the long river, he quickly woke up from the pastoral mood of Border Town, where there were traces of urban-rural contrast everywhere, with the characteristics of the May 4th Enlightenment. In the inscription of Long River, he said:
The integrity, simplicity and beauty of human nature that rural society has always maintained have almost disappeared, replaced by a vulgar outlook on life that has been successfully cultivated in the real society in the past 20 years. Although the superstition of respecting ghosts and gods and fearing fate has been destroyed by common sense, the distinction between right and wrong in life has disappeared. The word "modern" has reached Xiangxi, but the specific things are only a large number of luxury goods that decorate the city civilization. High-quality cigarettes and various canned goods are widely consumed in all walks of life.
In Long River, we can easily see Shen Congwen's consciousness of urban-rural contrast. Subsequent comments in this regard are generally based on this.
From the founding of New China to the end of 1970s, the study of Shen Congwen in China was in a blank state. At this time, Shen Congwen was found in Hong Kong and abroad.
196 1 year, Xia Zhiqing's History of Modern Novels in China was published in English (refer to Fudan University Mainland Edition), in which a separate chapter was opened for Shen Congwen, and there was no lack of criticism on Shen Congwen's description of human nature: "Arguably, he walked around Hunan, Guizhou and Sichuan in the past, and his understanding of Miao people's life and customs should be no problem. However, this understanding lacks anthropological basis and is not profound enough, so Shen Congwen beautified the aborigines and said that he was completely "addicted to the realm of idealism". But on the whole, he basically has an objective evaluation attitude towards this description of human nature. He pointed out that "he (Shen Congwen) thinks that if human beings want to pursue higher virtues, they must maintain their primitive and pure nature like animals", and then Xia Zhiqing commented on Shen Congwen's novels Huiming, Mix, Sansan, Border Town, Sheng and Night in his article. Understanding sympathy and Mix's "purity and innocence, trusting people in everything" are both Xia Zhiqing's discoveries of Shen Congwen's human beauty. He commented: "a naive girl who will soon enter the adult society;" "A desperate old man still affirms the value of life-these are all symbols used by Shen Congwen to represent the pure feelings of human beings and an uncompromising beauty in this world." Shen Congwen's affirmation of human pure feelings and complete personality is undoubtedly a valuable criticism of the complacent and impetuous China society. "What's more commendable is that when discussing Shen's works, I also selected two kinds of works about Shen's city (night, size and tranquility) and country (Huiming, Sansan, Xiaoxiao and Border Town). These works have different styles, different achievements and different artistic levels, which are very representative and have created a new era.
In 1970s, Jin's Biography of Shen Congwen was the most influential one. This American, who greatly admired Shen Congwen, promoted Shen Congwen's position to an unbounded realm. In his book, Shen Congwen's works are the main line, so it is inevitable to add comments on his works, including comments on the description of human beauty. For example, he said, "The country people written by Shen Congwen can't lie or cheat. They like to play tricks with kindness, but they don't use despicable means, especially guests-they have nothing to do with the methods prevailing in the city. They also said, "This writing idealizes the rural people, although it also contains the connotation of truth. "These have completely described the content of Shen Congwen's human beauty, but there is no detailed discussion. At the same time, he also believes that this beautiful description of human nature is also an idealized description, which is difficult to find in reality. Moreover, he also introduced "urbanite means" to oppose it, and had a perspective of binary opposition between urban and rural areas. But as a biographer, his concern still lies in the writer himself.
From 1980s to now, Shen Congwen's research has blossomed everywhere. The study of Shen Congwen's works began to be expounded from all angles, and only the part about the beauty of human nature and the dual contrast mode between urban and rural areas is explained here.
It is Wu who fully shows the beauty of human nature in Shen Congwen's novels. In his article On the Beauty of Human Nature Written by Shen Congwen (Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House 65438+1July Literature and Art Series No.0983, quoted from Shen Congwen's research materials), he chose Border Town, Niu, Huiming, Company Commander, and.
The beauty of human nature in Border Town is now in the word "love": the love of both sexes, the love of parents and children, the love of friends, the love of mankind ... It is this kind of love that Shen Congwen advocates and advocates, but he does not abuse it on others. In the inscription of Border Town, he declared at the beginning: "I have an unspeakable love for farmers and soldiers, which can be seen everywhere in all my works. I never hide this feeling. "
Then, it is from these people that he discusses their "love" and the beauty of human nature expressed by this "love". Then he put forward: "The beauty of human nature written by Shen Congwen is often a hymn of life". He said:
Life, for people, means nothing more than human physical strength and brain power, and humanity is contained in human physical strength and brain power. Therefore, first of all, life exists before we can talk about human nature. The beauty of human nature in Shen Congwen's works is inseparable from his full affirmation of human vitality. He believes that all nature is sacred from the perspective of pantheism. He personifies nature, and the divinity of nature is human nature. All the cheers of life in nature, in his view, have a kind of human beauty.
From this, we can easily see that Mr. Wu has been explaining the beauty of human nature contained in Shen's works from different angles and the concrete embodiment of this beauty of human nature in his works. What is commendable is that in the penultimate part of the article, he puts forward the social connotation of human beauty in Shen's works. He said:
Most of the beauty of human nature written by Shen Congwen has social content and does not completely exist in the writer's subjective intention. Writers often contradict the beauty of human nature with the ugly and dark reality, thus making their works have different degrees of practical significance.
It is pointed out that the beauty of human nature does not exist in isolation, which is of great significance for later introducing his urban novels into local novels. This is an article written in the early 1980s, which shows that the study of Shen Congwen entered a brand-new situation in the 1980s. However, it is always a difficult problem to discuss Shen Congwen's works from the perspective of human nature. So later works are based on it, either around an article or simply listing some phenomena of human beauty from some works. Has been unable to go deep.
Since then, many commentators have tried to interpret Shen's works from the perspective of human beauty. Fei resolutely expounded Shen Congwen's novel After the Rain from the perspectives of nature, humanity and beauty, and wrote the beauty of natural humanity-Shen Congwen's appreciation of Shen Congwen's After the Rain combines the beauty of human nature and the beauty of nature. Wang Wenjie's On Shen Congwen's View of Natural Humanity (Journal of Sichuan Normal University (Social Science Edition), No.5, No.31volume, September 2004) also expounds the beauty of human nature in Shen Congwen's works from a natural perspective. Zhao Lianwen's The Simple Beauty of Human Nature-On the Ideological Tendency (Academic Exchange Phase I 1996) also expounds the ideological tendency of Border Town from the perspective of human beauty. After describing the beauty of human nature shown by Cui Cui and the old boatman in Border Town, he said: "Border Town has great social significance, which gives people a healthy influence, appreciates beautiful art and achieves entertaining." He also believes that Border Town has certain anti-feudal ideological significance. "These are relatively new things from the analysis of human nature. Zhao Jinzhong, a professor at the School of Humanities, Zhanjiang Normal University, Guangdong Province, interprets Shen Congwen's works from the perspective of harmony. In Shen Congwen's Harmonious Society-a poetic analysis of the harmonious implication of Border Town, he thinks that "Shen Congwen's Harmonious Society includes three parts: harmonious natural environment, harmonious social environment and harmonious life form", and endows the harmonious social environment and natural environment with the beauty of human nature from the perspective of harmony. The coincidence and deviation between the beauty of human nature and the connotation of traditional culture-the reason why bamboo slips cover the value of Pearl, written by Liang, Department of Social Sciences, Qinghai University, when reading Border Town, is a relatively new problem. He believes that "readers pay too much attention to the beauty of human nature and ignore the deviation between the beauty of human nature and the connotation of traditional culture." This paper introduces two concepts: beauty of human nature and traditional culture. Shandong Normal University finished writing "A New Discussion on the Description of Human Nature in Shen Congwen's Novels" (Journal of Shandong Agricultural Management Cadre College, Volume 20, No.3, 2004). This paper examines the description of human nature in Shen Congwen's novels from three relationship frames: beauty and nature, society, beauty and sound human nature, and beauty and rationality, without departing from the interpretation of human nature, but no longer following the perspective of the works.
Between Beauty and Truth —— The Poetic Paradox of Laozi and Zhuangzi and Shen Congwen's Narrative Mode of Urban-Rural Binary Opposition Liu (Academic Exchange, No.8, August 2003, 1 13) put forward the concept of narrative mode of urban-rural binary opposition, and he regarded Border Town to Long River as a transition from beauty to truth. Although I talked a little about the beauty of human nature, the center is to discuss the beauty and truth of Border Town and Long River. This paper discusses the binary opposition between beauty and truth, city and countryside, and focuses on the true beauty of Border Town and Long River.
When talking about Shen Congwen's Border Town in Lan Dizhi's monograph Classic of Modern Literature: Symptom Analysis, he explained Border Town with his own unique analytical method by grasping the special symptoms of Cui Cui's "never seen the world" and "pure country girl", thinking that it constructed a natural lifestyle unrelated to the secular world and put forward Border Town.
Chen Sihe, a professor at Fudan University, also put forward the idea of "idealized emerald, idealized border town" in his lecture on "Border Town" in Fifteen Lectures on China's Modern and Contemporary Literary Masterpieces, and regarded the emerald and the world in "Border Town" as an ideal realm divorced from the secular world. He said: "Border Town embodies the beauty of the world and the human feelings under the influence of nature. Here, he separates the beauty of human nature from the beauty of human feelings, which is inseparable from the two images of Cui Cui and Border Town. Cui Cui embodies the beauty of human nature, and Border Town embodies the beauty of human feelings.
After that, there are many miscellaneous, innovative, stereotyped and meaningless papers on the beauty of human nature. However, as long as the theme of Shen Congwen's works on western Hunan is mentioned, there seems to be a feeling of linking his works with the description of human beauty.
As for Shen Congwen's exposition of binary opposition between urban and rural areas. Zhao Yuan said in the article "Xiangxi World Constructed by Shen Congwen" (Literature Review No.6, 1986):
There are two "reference worlds" here, and the two cultures invent each other without concealing each other: "urban culture" makes "Xiangxi culture" have an idealized form, and "Xiangxi culture" makes "urban culture" really sick. Finding and discovering the "opposite" may also become the driving force of aesthetic creation.
This is an early and accurate way to regard Shen Congwen's novels as a kind of binary opposition mode between urban and rural areas. Moreover, he also discussed the proposition that "Xiangxi embodies the tendency of cultural criticism". Are words with unique value. On this basis, a series of papers about Xiangxi world or urban world appeared later. But it's probably the same routine
Li Junguo, School of Humanities, Hubei University, wrote "Mutual Participation Mode between Urban and Rural Areas and Criticism of Urban Civilization —— On Shen Congwen's Urban Novels" (published in Journal of Adult Education College of Hubei University). He thinks: "Shen Congwen's description of the depravity of urban life, the morbid urban morality and the hypocrisy of urban humanity reflects the critical color of urban civilization." Through the discussion of a series of urban novels, this paper lists the morbid expressions in a series of urban novels. At the same time, it is also believed that through the comparison of the "urban-rural mutual participation model", the pathological state of the city is more prominent, thus having a strong sense of cultural criticism.
However, most of the discussion articles start with urban novels or rural novels to explore the system of mutual reference. At the same time, it unconsciously introduces opposing worlds to learn from each other, which has almost become a routine for discussing Shen Congwen's novels. Such as Fuhui Wu in "Thirty Years of Modern Literature in China", when talking about Shen Congwen, he said:
Shen Congwen's interpretation of Buddhism has two sets of pen and ink, which can describe two completely different realities. When he turned to observe this commercial city from the perspective of a countryman, he could not help showing the sharp thorn of irony. In fact, novels describing urban life are not completely independent of Shen Congwen, but have always existed as a foil or supplement to his whole rural narrative style.
Here, Shen's urban novels are defined as vassals of his rural novels, which cancels the independent significance of his urban novels. In fact, he reflected on urban novels from the perspective of rural themes.
Most authors still consider it from the perspective of mutual reference. Wang Jizhi's "Shen Congwen's rural novels and their creative implications" (Nanjing Academy of Social Sciences, 1992.6, No.52) said: "Shen Congwen's novels try to describe the historical and realistic life scenes he experienced from both rural and urban aspects." Obviously, while expounding rural novels, he also introduced urban novels as a reference. Yin Bianying, Institute of Literature, China Academy of Social Sciences, is the author of "The Story of Urban People —— On Shen Congwen's Urban Novels". The article said: "Anyone in the city story is so vague as a shadow compared with those elegant and beautiful images in Shen Congwen's rural novels." He also introduced rural novels as a reference for discussing urban novels.
Shen Congwen's novels are numerous and miscellaneous, and his articles are even more numerous. Here, only some representative expositions are selected and summarized, because it takes more than a short space to make a comprehensive summary of the articles, not to mention that some articles are echoing opinions.