Red bean

Red bean

Red beans is a short story written by Zongpu, which was first published in the seventh issue of people's literature in 1957.

The novel narrates the love tragedy of college student Jiang Mei and her lover Qi Hong on the eve of the liberation of Beijing, which is caused by the difference of life attitude and political position. It shows the hard and tortuous spiritual course of a generation of young intellectuals in the face of the great changes of the times. The whole article is full of warm and romantic sentiment and rich and implicit human feelings, showing an aesthetic style on the whole.

content validity

In 1956, as a new cadre, Jiang Mei returned to her alma mater, which had been away for six years. The dormitory arranged for her by the general affairs office is exactly the room she lived in when she was at school. Everything in the room is the same as before. After the statue of Jesus, she found the small box she had put in the past. Inside was a silver ring with two red beans. She picked up the two still bright red beans, the past rose from her heart like a layer of smoke, tears covered her eyes. In 1948, when Jiang Mei was a sophomore, she broke into two people in her life. One is Xiao Su, her roommate and senior of physics department, and the other is Qi Hong, Xiao Su's classmate. Xiao Su enlightened Jiang Mei's revolutionary thoughts by gradually guiding her. She encouraged her to join the singing group and sing the Yellow River Chorus. She read Ai Qing's and Tian Tian Tian's poems in the new poetry society, took her to read revolutionary books, invited her to play Donnie in the torch in the poetry recitation, and asked her to participate in wall newspaper copying, parade rescue and other work. Jiang Mei saw the power of revolution from Xiao Su, and realized that Xiao's life was connected with millions of people. It was so hot that even stones seemed to be warm, so she recognized the Communist Party. At the same time, Qi Hong, born in a capitalist family and with a beautiful ivory face, won Jiang Mei's love with his attainments in music, literature and art. They were in love. In fact, as early as the beginning of love, Jiang Mei faintly felt that in some aspects she and Qi Hong would never agree. Gradually, in addition to her own doubts, the views of her mother and Xiao Su also made the "gap" in her heart unable to be filled. Endless quarrel and crying, let love become two people's torture, she fell into the struggle can not choose, he did not know how to break into her life, she will never know how to drive him out. Qi Hong, who wants to monopolize Jiang Mei, is more anxious and more bossy. On the eve of the liberation of Beijing, Xiao Su was suddenly arrested. Qi Hong's reaction made Jiang Mei realize clearly that the gap between the two could not be crossed. Meanwhile, Jiang's mother tells Jiang Mei the truth about her father's death. It turns out that 15 years ago, Jiang's father was also arrested for the crime of thinking and never came back. The death of her father, the tears of her mother and her family tragedy make Jiang Mei know her life choice better. In the end, she firmly refused to go to the United States with Qi Hong under the crisscross of national enmity and family hatred, ending their love with "I don't regret".

Creative background

The writer Zongpu began to write novels in the University. After 1950, she felt that the scope of literature was becoming narrower and narrower. She could only write about workers and peasants, and had a pattern. She thinks it's better not to write something formulaic. After the "double hundred" policy was put forward in 1956, she felt that she could write according to her own wishes. Therefore, combined with what she saw and felt, she used her familiar intellectuals and campus life as the theme to create novels to show the intellectuals' inner struggle at the crossroads of the great changes of the times. She finished her novel at the end of that year. After the red bean was sent to the people's Literature Department, they accepted it as the creative embodiment of the "double hundred" policy and published it on the "innovation super large" of people's literature in July 1957.

Personage introduction

Jiang Mei

female college student, innocent, kind and sentimental, grew up in a well-off family. Her father was a university professor and had been an official for several years. Although his father died early, he grew up peacefully under the protection of his widowed mother. She used to be isolated from the world like living in an ivory tower, practicing piano in the daytime and reading reference books in the library at night, but the arrival of revolutionary Xiao Su and liberal Qi Hong changed her life. She is between the two forces, facing the choice of revolution and love.

Qi Hong

a senior in physics department, born in a wealthy family, his father is a banker. He is gentle, with a delicate Ivory face and artistic temperament. He is not only familiar with Su Shi's and Shakespeare's classic love poems, but also familiar with music. On the other hand, he hated human beings, hated the real world, was obsessed with physics and music, and was extremely egocentric. When he realized that he could not monopolize Jiang Mei and was gradually losing her, he became irritable and unreasonable.

Xiao Su

Revolutionary, leader of student movement, roommate of Jiang Mei, classmate of Qi Hong. She is shrewd, frank, selfless, brave and optimistic. She is straight to the point about people and things. She doesn't talk too much, doesn't talk too much, and is down-to-earth. As Jiang Mei's revolutionary enlightenment mentor, she not only opened up Jiang Mei's understanding of revolution, but also gave advice on her love. When Jiang's mother was ill, she took the lead in selling blood to raise money to help Jiang Mei.

Appreciation of works

Theme of the work

The novel is about the love tragedy caused by the difference of life attitude and political position between college student Jiang Mei and lover Qi Hong on the eve of the liberation of Beijing. But "love" is only a form of expression, not the theme of the work. From the perspective of intellectuals, through the sad love story, the author expresses the inner contradictions of intellectuals when they face the difficult choice of life in the current of the times, the pain of their own flesh and blood struggle at the crossroads of life, and the joy after making the right choice. In the process of Jiang Mei's growth, Xiao Su, a revolutionary, and Qi Hong, her boyfriend, represent two forces of revolution and love respectively. They lead her in the opposite direction. Xiao Su brings her into a new world and promotes a pure girl living in an ivory tower into a broad society. Qi Hong tries to bring her into a narrower world with the power of love and art. The writer describes Jiang's emotional changes in these two aspects in great detail. On the one hand, under the guidance of Xiao Su, she more and more actively participated in social activities, and finally came to the forefront of the procession in protest against the massacre of young students by the Kuomintang. On the other hand, the relationship between Jiang Mei and Qi Hong is getting deeper and deeper, and the contradiction is becoming more and more acute. But "their love is just like opium, which makes people unhappy and never ends.". Finally, whether to stay in Peiping to meet the overwhelming pressure of the PLA or to promise Qi Hong to leave the United States, she bravely made her own choice. It should be noted that Jiang Mei is not a "heroine" from the beginning to the end. When she happily welcomes the revolutionary life, she will still see things and think of people and feel sad about her past love. This complex emotion also indirectly conveys the pain of the choice at that time. as for the two forces that had great influence on Jiang Mei's life, the writer did not confine herself to the mainstream ideology at that time, conceptualized them based on a pale concept, and made a simple value judgment. Unlike the common revolutionary figures, Xiao Su gave Jiang not a pale idea, but let Jiang feel that she was giving comfort, knowledge and strength to human beings, and brought her into a new world through the care of a human nature. As for Qi Hong, the author's exposure of his selfish and overbearing nature is a more complicated process, rather than a simple label based on class analysis. More importantly, the author also noticed that in the process of love, the multiple aspects of his personality showed the complexity of human nature.

Artistic features

Symbolism

the author uses a lot of symbolism and metaphor in the novel. For example, the novel uses "pink oleander" as a metaphor for Jiang Mei '. "Bird" is Xiao Su's nickname for Jiang Mei, with the metaphor of pursuing the direction of life. The process of bird flying out of pink oleander is her growth from a college student who is not familiar with the world to a mature revolutionary worker.

Poetic mood

the whole work is full of delicate and sorrowful feelings and poetic charm. The work describes the love between Jiang Mei and Qi Hong in poetic and picturesque language. For example, "they Seeing the soft branches dyed yellow by the jasmine, and the lotus leaves covered the pond, they were once lost in the faint fragrance of the lotus, also in the strong sweet fragrance of the osmanthus, and then in the winter of snowflakes. "They expressed the sweetness of young people's love with the vitality of nature. Jiang Mei's nostalgia and tears caused by red beans make her works full of sentimental beauty.

Work evaluation

Song Rushan, associate professor of Chinese Department of China Culture University: Jiang Mei, Qi Hong and Xiao Su are all intellectuals in the University, but their family background, attitude and life pursuit are not the same. The sparks of life from the three people's aggregation interweave Jiang Mei's growth process, which makes readers feel UPS and downs with Jiang Mei's emotions in the process of reading. This kind of resonance not only comes from the humanitarianism displayed in Zongpu's novels, but also from her insistence on "sincerity" and "elegance" in her creation. These are the concepts of "red beans" which are quite different from those of the 1950s

Chinese PinYin : Hong Dou