Maybe I didn't understand it before, but after I got married, I did have a profound experience. I used to stand outside the city and always felt that the fireworks in the city were particularly charming. Now in the city, I miss being single. I am free to go wherever I want.
Marriage is a binding net that binds us tightly in the city. However, there is more than marriage in Fortress Besieged.
Fortress Besieged is a novel written by Mr. Qian Zhongshu. It is a unique satirical novel and occupies a place in the history of modern literature in China. Known as "unofficial history of Neo-Confucianism" by literary circles, it was published by Shanghai Chen Guang Publishing House on 1947.
Although books have been banned for the first 30 years, few people care about them, since 1980 was republished, it has not only been very popular with readers, but also been republished many times, and has been translated into English, French, German, Russian and other versions, spreading all over the world. Even today, 70 years after the publication of the novel, we can often see the figure of Fortress Besieged on the bestseller list.
The book mainly describes the intellectuals in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War, and the author makes a profound analysis of the intellectuals at that time with exquisite techniques.
Fortress Besieged not only depicts the city of marriage for us, but also hides the city of career and the city of self, which together constitute the theme of Fortress Besieged.
Today, although our life is very different from that of 70 years ago, the three cities described in Fortress Besieged are still with us, which is one of the reasons for its enduring.
In Fortress Besieged, Fang Hung-chien has four relationships. On the boat back home, he met Miss Bao, who was warm and free, and fell in love with Dew. This is his first taste of love, but for Miss Bao, Fang Hung-chien is just a condiment on her journey.
When Fang Hung-chien met Sue, he was conceited. This Miss Su is very different from Miss Bao before. She has a good family and is a real female doctor studying abroad. But she was too cold, and even deliberately provoked the contradiction between Fang Hung-chien and another suitor, hoping to make two rival lovers jealous of themselves. Although Fang Hung-chien also likes Miss Su, he doesn't want to belittle himself. The more well-meaning Miss Su is, the more sincerely he refuses her.
Later, Fang Hung-chien met the love of his life-Miss Su's cousin, Miss Tang, in Miss Su's living room. Miss Tang is completely different from those enchanting people outside. She is naive and straightforward, naughty and lovely. She is more green than Miss Bao and more simple than Miss Su. Like a breeze, she gently and softly blew into Fang Hung-chien's depressed heart. But later, because of Miss Su's provocation, they missed each other in misunderstanding and never met again.
Finally, Fang Hung-chien met the most ordinary Miss Sun. Although Miss Sun is not good at anything else, she knows how to manage her own marriage. She and Fang Hung-chien used to be colleagues who lived in peace, but they were good at creating an ambiguous atmosphere, which made the whole office mistakenly think that they were lovers.
At first, the pressure of public opinion was not enough to make Fang Hung-chien submit. Miss Sun forged a letter from her father for herself, in which she strongly questioned her relationship with Fang Hung-chien and advised her to get married. In this way, she naturally became a victim of public opinion pressure and patriarchal pressure.
I'm afraid that Fang Hung-chien finally married her, partly out of pity and partly out of desperation.
Unexpectedly, Miss Sun was a completely different person before and after marriage. She is no longer the weak little sheep who used to have no opinion. She seems ordinary, but she has already set a trap for Fang Hung-chien. Miss Sun began to be cold, arguing with Fang Hung-chien about everything, making their marriage unrecognizable.
Qian Zhongshu reveals the contradiction of the city of marriage for us through Fang Hung-chien's love and marriage trajectory. Everyone who has been in love knows that marriage is really like a city. Countless men and women come here day and night for the goal of getting married. Some people are eager to come out even if they have just entered. Some people have been wandering at the entrance or exit. More people come in and out, and finally they don't know where they are going.
Although Fang is an international student, his major in Europe is puzzling. At first, I studied sociology and philosophy, but later I really couldn't keep up, so I began to study China literature.
Different from the current development of overseas Sinology, it is really puzzling that a China student went abroad to study China literature under the international environment at that time. Not counting this, because he didn't finish his thesis, he couldn't graduate normally, so he had to buy a fake doctorate certificate and take it home to cheat his parents.
After returning to China, the fake doctor moved around and did three different jobs.
Fang Hung-chien's first job after returning to China was in a bank. He is an international student who graduated from China Literature Department, but he entered the bank opened by his father-in-law's family. This is not so much a job as a fake job. He idles around all day and does nothing.
Later, with the turmoil of the times, he had to leave his gentle hometown and go to a small county town in Hunan with some friends to teach at a newly established San Lv University during the war.
When he first arrived at San Lv University, he also thought about preaching, teaching and dispelling doubts, so that the younger generation can stand up again and transform our country. It can be seen that there is still blood in his bones.
However, in a newly established university, the total number of students is just over 100, and the complexity of its organizational structure is comparable to a huge gang system. Fang Hung-chien is squeezed out everywhere in the school.
He was originally hired as a professor, and when he officially joined the job, he only had the title of associate professor. No matter how hard he tries, he can't climb the professor's hat.
Those in power in schools are uneducated people, while those with learning skills do not attach importance to teaching. Fang Hung-chien was distressed: he finally moved to another place, started from scratch, and gave full play to his ambition, only to find that he just fled from a city that looked like a bank to a city that looked like a school. It looks different, but it's all the same.
Later, Fang Hung-chien was expelled from school because he was exposed by his colleagues, so he had to leave Hunan and return to Shanghai. On the recommendation of a friend, I went to a newspaper. Fang Hung-chien was not discouraged. He believes that the essence of newspapers and schools is the same, both for developing people's wisdom and saving people spiritually. But in fact? Because there was no shortage of staff in all departments of the newspaper office, Fang Hung-chien ended up in charge of two publications, Family and Women and Culture and Art.
None of the three jobs can make him realize his self-worth, and even none can make him worry about food and clothing. Whenever he changes to a new job, he is always full of expectation and joy at first, but when he has to change to another job, only great disappointment awaits him. It seems that I struggled from one city and ended up trapped in another city.
Throughout the novel, whether in marriage or at work, Fang Hung-chien has been doing one thing, that is, seeking a sense of belonging and identity. He was convinced that the truth of his knowledge was not directly related to his degree, but he bought a fake diploma guiltily before returning to China. It seems that only proven learning can be regarded as learning.
He is also timid in love, as if what others say is more convincing than what they do. He never seduced Miss Su or promised her love, but when Miss Su slandered him in front of Miss Tang, he was speechless. Finally, it was even more puzzling to marry Miss Sun, because other colleagues in the office and elders in their hometown thought that he and Miss Sun were already a couple, so he strode into the trap set by the other party and proposed to Miss Sun.
He is even more ridiculous in his career. When he was teaching at San Lv University, he was obviously good at China literature, but he was willing to teach a public subject called Theory. When I was an editor in a newspaper, I obviously wanted to be in charge of the economic and current affairs pages. Finally, I can only write kitchen tips on how to pour sesame oil on spinach.
Fang Hung-chien is not an ignorant man. He has his own clear pursuit of love and doesn't go with the flow. Doesn't he have his own expectations in his career?
But he made a fatal mistake: throughout his life, he tried to live according to other people's expectations. This is the strongest and most difficult siege in people's minds. Fang Hung-chien's blind desire for a sense of belonging and identity bound him no matter how he struggled.
The city of self is the most difficult city to break through in the world. Qian Zhongshu is keenly aware of this. He wrote all the difficulties and loneliness that each of us can't get rid of in life through a small square hung-chien.
Each of us can see our own shadow from the book.
The besieged city of life is like a cage of providence. If you accept your fate, you can only wander between different besieged cities. If you want to break the cage, you may have to penetrate human nature and see through the secular world, so that you can face everything in the world calmly.