Shen Congwen

Shen Congwen

Shen Congwen (December 28, 1902 - May 10, 1988), male, formerly known as Shen yuehuan, was born in Maolin, named Chongwen, with pen names of Xiu yunyun, Jiachen, shangguanbi, xuanruo, etc. he was born in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province. He is a famous Chinese writer and researcher of historical relics.

At the age of 14, he joined the army and wandered in the border areas of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou. In 1924, he began to write and publish novels such as the long river and the border town. From 1931 to 1933, he taught in Qingdao University. After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he taught in Southwest Associated University. In 1946, he returned to Peking University to teach. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, he worked in the Museum of Chinese history and the Institute of history of the Chinese Academy of social sciences. He was mainly engaged in the study of ancient Chinese history and cultural relics, and wrote the study of ancient Chinese costumes. He died in Beijing on May 10, 1988 at the age of 86.

Life of the characters

Shen Congwen was born in Fenghuang County, Hunan Province on December 28, 1902.

In 1917, he joined the first guerrilla detachment of the second army of the Xiangxi Jingguo United Army and stationed in Chenzhou (Yuanling). After graduating from his hometown primary school in 1918, he moved with the local Aboriginal troops to the border area of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou and the Yuanshui River Basin, and then formally joined the army.

In 1922, Shen Congwen took off his military uniform and came to Beijing. He was eager to go to university, but he had only received primary school education and had no source of income. He listened in Peking University.

He went to Beijing in 1923. Applied for Yanjing University Chinese class, was not admitted. Listen in at Peking University.

In 1924, his works were successively published in the morning paper, Yu Si, morning supplement and modern review.

From Beijing to Shanghai in 1928. Together with Hu yepin and Ding Ling, he organized the magazine "red and black" and the publishing house.

In 1929, he went to Wusong Chinese public school to teach and fell in love with female student Zhang Zhaohe.

After 1930, he went to teach in national Qingdao University (the predecessor of national Shandong University). Before the Anti Japanese War, he published more than 20 collections of works, such as the stone boat, the tiger cub, the little scene under the moon, the picture of eight steeds, etc.

In 1931, he accompanied Ding Ling to rescue Hu yepin, but failed, escorting Ding Ling's mother and son back to Hunan. From 1931 to 1933, he was a lecturer in the College of liberal arts of national Shandong University, and married Zhang Zhaohe on September 9, 1933. On the 23rd of the same month, he co edited Ta Kung Pao literary supplement with Yang Zhensheng.

Border town, completed in 1934, is the representative of this kind of "Pastoral" novel, and also a peak of Shen Congwen's novel creation.

In the spring of 1938, I went to Kunming to continue to compile Chinese textbooks for primary and secondary schools with Yang Zhensheng. In November, he was professor of Chinese Department of Southwest Associated University.

In 1948, it began to be severely criticized by the left-wing cultural circles. In the same year, the focus of work began to shift to the study of cultural relics. After 1949, he has been engaged in the research of cultural relics for a long time. After the founding of the people's Republic of China, Shen Congwen worked in the Museum of Chinese history and the Institute of history, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, mainly engaged in the study of ancient Chinese costumes. In 1950, he committed suicide because he could not bear the political pressure and was rescued.

In 1960, he published "dragon and Phoenix Art" and other articles. In 1969, he went to Hubei Xianning Wuqi cadre school to work. In 1978, he was transferred to the Research Institute of history, Chinese Academy of social sciences. In 1981, he published a monograph on the study of ancient Chinese costumes, which lasted for 15 years.

Shen Congwen was engaged in the archaeological research of Chinese textile clothing after liberation. In 1983, he suffered from cerebral thrombosis and was hospitalized. In 1984, there was a serious illness. After the rescue, it is more inconvenient to speak and move. On the afternoon of May 10, 1988, he died of heart disease recurrence and failed to rescue. He was 86 years old.

marriage and family

In July 1930, Zhang Zhao and Shen Congwen met for the first time in Hu Shi's office. When they first met, Hu school boasted that Shen Congwen was a genius and the most promising of Chinese novelists. But Zhang Zhaohe doesn't think so. Shen Congwen's love for Zhang Zhaohe is silent, but it's out of control. One love letter after another expresses his admiration. In a letter in June 1931, he made it his duty to be Zhang Zhaohe's slave. He said that most people would like to be slaves at the king's feet, but he only wanted to be slaves of Zhang Zhaohe. Zhang Zhaohe was finally moved and married in Beijing Central Park on September 9, 1933.

Shortly after the wedding, Shen Congwen returned to visit his hometown Phoenix because his mother was critically ill. In the cabin, he wrote to Zhang Zhaohe, who was far away in Beiping, and said, "when I left Beiping, I planned to spend half a day writing letters and writing articles. But when I got to the boat, I just wanted to write for you, and I couldn't do anything else.".

All the political movements in the 1950s and 1960s hit Shen Congwen and made him fall into a state of madness. He kept saying, "go back to the west of Hunan, I want to go back to the west of Hunan." Zhang Zhaohe faced this situation speechlessly, and his tears rolled down. Later, under his wife's careful care and medication, Shen Congwen gradually recovered. He and his wife lived through the hard and poor years.

Sons: Shen Longzhu, Shen HuChao

Anecdotes of characters

Children's stories

In 1915, Shen Congwen went to the second primary school of Fenghuang County from a private school. Half a year later, he transferred to Wenchangge primary school. Because Shen Congwen was lively and playful, he often played truant and went to the street to watch puppet shows. His schoolbag was hidden in the earth temple. Once, he put his schoolbag in the earth temple and watched the play all day. After watching the play, the other children had already come home from school. When he went back to the earth temple to get his schoolbag, he found it missing. The next day, he went to school as usual. As soon as he came to the campus under a Phoebe tree, he met his grade teacher, Mr. Mao. Mr. Mao punished Shen Congwen for kneeling under the nanmu tree and asked him where he had been yesterday. Shen Congwen replied, "I went to the theatre." When Mr. Mao saw that Shen Congwen was still so righteous in playing truant, he severely criticized him and said, "it's useless to play hard. Trees like to grow up, but you like to be under the trees. It's too frustrating to be a dwarf instead of an expert!" After Mao's patient persuasion and instruction, Shen Congwen realized his shame and then became brave. He changed his old bad temper, studied hard, and his grades improved very quickly.

First lecture

Shen Congwen stood for 10 minutes because of nervousness on the day of his first lecture. I finally opened my mouth, and I finished all the hasty 10 minutes. He was embarrassed and helpless again, and wrote on the blackboard: "my first class, I'm afraid to see you many." After class, the students' comments spread to Hu Shi, the president of Peking University. Hu Shi said with a smile, "if you can't speak in class and the students don't scold him, that's success."

Extramarital affair

The meeting and acquaintance between Shen Congwen and Gao Yunxiu (pseudonym Gao Qingzi) is very dramatic. At that time, Gao Qingzi was Xiong Xiling's tutor. Shen Congwen went to Xiong Xiling's villa in Xiangshan on business. The host was not there, but Gao Qingzi was the one who welcomed the guests. Both sides had a good impression when they talked. A month later, when they met again, Shen Congwen found that Gao Qingzi's clothes were intended to imitate the heroine in his novel the fourth, and they began to communicate more. Since then, during the Anti Japanese War, the two people were in Kunming and had more opportunities to communicate. Shen Congwen's controversial work "watching the rainbow record" may be related to this sentiment. But in the end, the relationship didn't last. Gao Qingzi is like a meteor in the sky of Shen Congwen's life.

inscription

In May 1982, Shen Congwen went to Zhangjiajie with his wife, Ms. Zhang. The day before, he saw jinbianxi at the foot of the mountain. The next day, he was going up the mountain. Because of his inconvenient legs, his wife and his entourage went. He stayed in the hotel. The comrades of Zhangjiajie management office brought paper and pens to ask him to write an inscription. He agreed. The management wanted to accompany him, but he refused. The comrades in the management office were worried about letting him stay in the room alone, for fear of any inconvenience. Shen Congwen said, "as for the body, I just checked, there is no big problem, you can rest assured.". After playing for most of the day, when his wife and his entourage returned to the hotel, they saw that Shen Congwen had written many works, such as "Zhangjiajie", "jinbianyan" and "zhanjuan". At this time, he was tired. When he saw his wife, he said that he was really tired today. Seeing a stack of inscriptions, the comrades of the management office were a little embarrassed. For those who want to publish a book and ask him to write its title, he often has to write several of them and send them to others for selection. Shen Congwen never pays attention to pen and ink when he writes. In 1981, he wrote to the writer Peng Jing Feng Xin that the pen he used was only worth 13% for primary and secondary school students, and the paper was only 15% for window paste Korean paper. Ink was the ink that was precipitated and added water, so it had no luster. It should be called dead ink. It seemed that the expert in using books knew that he was a layman. He was often dissatisfied with his writing.

personal works

A collection of Novels

Collection of essays

Academic works

"Appreciating jade from literature", "bronze mirror of Tang and Song Dynasties", "dragon and Phoenix Art", "lacquerware of Warring States period", "Research on ancient Chinese costume" and so on.

Related Biographies

Calligraphy

Mr. Shen has always been fond of calligraphy and has a good reputation in the circle, but he never thought that calligraphy was a fun thing for himself. He never thought of selling calligraphy for profit. Only once, after the victory of the Anti Japanese War, he helped a poet Ke Yuan.

Work style

Creative style

Shen Congwen's writing style tends to Romanticism. He requires the poetic effect of the novel, which integrates realism, dream and symbolism. The language style is simple, the sentence pattern is simple, the main body is prominent, simple and thick, simple and vivid, with strong local color, highlighting the unique charm and charm of rural human nature. Shen Congwen's novels with rural themes are typical rural cultural novels, which are not only related to urban "modern civilization" on the whole

Chinese PinYin : Shen Cong Wen