Border town

Border town

Border town, a novella by Shen Congwen, was first published in 1934.

The novel is set in Chadong, a small town on the border of Sichuan and Hunan in the 1930s. It depicts the unique local conditions and customs of Western Hunan with the beautiful brush strokes of lyric poetry and essays. It shows the goodness and beauty of human nature through the pure love story of Cuicui, a young boatman girl. Because of its aesthetic art, border town has a unique position in the history of modern Chinese literature.

The novel was selected into the top 100 Chinese novels in the 20th century, ranking second only to Lu Xun's cry.

content validity

Near Chadong at the junction of Sichuan and Hunan, beside the white tower of Xiaoxi, lives the hero Cuicui and her grandfather, the old boatman. There is a boat named shunshun in Chadong city. He has two sons. The first is Tianbao and the second is Nuo song.

On the Dragon Boat Festival, Cuicui went to see the dragon boat race. She met Nu ó, a handsome young sailor, by chance. Nuo song left a deep impression on Cuicui. At the same time, Nuo's elder brother Tianbao also fell in love with Cuicui, and asked the matchmaker to propose marriage in advance. Tianbao tells Nuo song that he fell in love with Cuicui one year ago. Nuo song tells Tianbao that he fell in love with Cuicui two years ago. Tianbao is also surprised. However, at this time, the local troupe always wanted to marry their daughter to Nuo. Nuo song would rather inherit a broken boat than marry Cuicui.

Instead of dueling according to local customs, the two brothers expressed their feelings in a fair and romantic way of singing folk songs and let Cuicui choose from them. Nuo song was a good singer, but Tianbao knew that he couldn't sing. He was disheartened and decided to sail away to do business.

Bixi side only heard the song of Nuo song one night, later, the song did not ring again. The old boatman couldn't help asking. He thought it was the eldest, but he learned that the singer was Nuo song. After the eldest told the truth, he went to do business. A few days later, the old boatman heard that the boss had an accident in a water boat and drowned

The boat at the dock is always smooth. Because of the death of his son Tianbao, he is indifferent to the old boatman. Shipmaster shunshun doesn't want Cuicui to be Nuo's daughter-in-law. The old boatman had to go home depressed. Cuicui asked him, but he didn't say anything. It rained heavily at night, and there was frightening thunder. The next day, Cuicui gets up and finds that the boat has been washed away and the white tower behind the house has collapsed. Cuicui goes to find her grandfather, but finds that the old man has died at the end of the thunder Yang Mabing, an old soldier, enthusiastically came to accompany Cuicui and made a living by ferry, waiting for the return of Nuo.

Creative background

Border town was completed in April 1934, which was the season of Shen Congwen's love and career. Although the society was turbulent in 1931, it was still a little peaceful on the whole. At this time, Chinese literati with conscience were thinking about the essence of human nature. Naturally, Shen Congwen was in the forefront. Therefore, he hoped to describe a small town in Xiangxi, which was similar to Taohuayuan, through his impression of Xiangxi, to show a clear way to the confused human nature in urban civilization. There is still pure and natural love in the world, and life needs to convert to the nature of nature.

The prototype of Cuicui, the heroine in the work, is a girl in a pile shop. Shen Congwen was on the March when a good friend named Zhao Kaiming met a girl named Cuicui in a wool shop in Luxi County. She was very handsome. Zhao Kaiming vowed to marry her. Seventeen years later, Shen Congwen's boat stopped at Luxi. Standing on the bow of the boat, recalling the beautiful image of Cuicui, he went to the pile shop. In front of the door, he saw a girl who was very similar to Cuicui, with familiar eyes, nose and thin mouth. Shen Congwen was too surprised to speak. It turns out that this is Cuicui's daughter Xiaocui. At that time, Cuicui married Zhao Kaiming who pursued her. By this time she had died, leaving her father and daughter. In order not to disturb Zhao Kaiming, Shen Congwen did not say hello to him, but his emotional shock could not be calmed for a long time. Cuicui, this beautiful and simple girl, he could never forget. In 1934, when he was sitting in the yard, writing "border town" in the shadow of jujube and locust branches and leaves in the sun, the image of Cuicui appeared on the paper. Shen Congwen mentions in his "Xiangxing Sanji: my wife" that when I wrote the story of the border town, the gentle character of Minghui, the granddaughter who made the ferry, came from the girl who was born in the wool shop

Personage introduction

Cuicui

Cui Cui is an innocent, kind, gentle and pure little girl. She is an ideal artistic image of the author who devotes her love and beauty. When Cuicui comes to the world, she is the angel of love and the spirit of love. Her grandfather brought her up, and the old and the young depended on each other. She is the daughter of both love and nature. She is the spirit and embodiment of beauty. The "beauty" of Cuicui is gradually expressed through her love story: the first stage: the budding stage of Cuicui's love. When she saw the dragon boat in a small town, the seeds of love sprouted when she first met Nuo song. The second stage: the awakening stage of Cuicui's love. Two years later, she went to the city to watch the dragon boat, and her love consciousness was fully awakened. The third stage: Cuicui's persistent love. After she fell in love with Nuo song, she did not expect that Nuo song's brother also fell in love with her. Out of loyalty to love, she explicitly refused to her grandfather. However, her love with Nuo song suddenly suffered a serious setback. Nuo song went away and her grandfather died, which made her "grow up" overnight. Finally, like her grandfather, she held the ferry post, fell in love and waited for the return of Nuo song, which fully showed the strong character of Cuicui.

grandpa

Grandfather keeps the traditional virtues of China, and he has unlimited affection for his granddaughter Cuicui. She worries about Cuicui's marriage and tries her best to make her love come true. In life, she also shows great concern for Cuicui. She doesn't let Cuicui sit on a hot stone for fear that she will get sick. She tries her best to understand Cuicui's thoughts emotionally and tells stories, jokes and songs for her when she is sad and lonely. He is also a simple, kind and stubborn old man. He is confident and proud of Cuicui's beauty. In order to marry a good family, he ignores the poverty and lowliness of her status. His heart is miserable, worried and confident.

Tianbao

Tianbao has a forthright and generous personality. He was the eldest son of the general manager of the boat, but he fell in love with the granddaughter of the poor ferry man. He knew that his younger brother also loved Cuicui, and they sang "Duel". However, he insisted that his younger brother sing first because he proposed to marry him first and "the elder brother took the lead in driving". As soon as his younger brother "opened his mouth", he knew that he was not the "enemy", so he greatly helped his younger brother and fully demonstrated his brotherhood. Later, he went out to rush to the beach, not only for his brother's happiness, but also to dispel his disappointment and sadness, "so that he forgot everything above". Finally, he died in an accident. It can be said that he died for his family and love.

Nuo song

Nuo song has his mother's fine character and delicacy. Nuo song lonely pursuit of love, and his brother's "Duel", singing love songs in the middle of the night, but not known to his sweetheart. In the end, he ran away lonely and didn't know where he was.

Shun Shun (supporting role)

Shunshun, an officer in exile after the Liberation Army in the former Qing Dynasty, managed wooden boats with some savings and prospered in his career. Because of his generosity, generosity, honesty and justice, shunshun was regarded as a hero and gentleman in charge of the water wharf.

Appreciation of works

subject

"Border town" is Shen Congwen's aesthetic ideal of "beauty" and "love", which is the best novel to show the beauty of human nature in his works. Compared with the fact that the traditional virtues in modern society have been destroyed, and are full of materialism and monetarism, the virtues preserved in the traditional culture highly praised in border town are superficial, vulgar and corrupt. Xiangxi described in the border town has beautiful natural scenery and simple folk customs. People don't talk about hierarchy and utility. People treat each other sincerely and love each other. Grandfather's love for granddaughter, Cuicui's pure love for Nuo, Tianbao brothers' sincere love for Cuicui and brothers' sincere brotherhood love all represent the traditional virtues of unpolluted agricultural civilization. The author tries his best to describe the natural purity of Xiangxi, but also to describe the spiritual purity of Xiangxi people. "Border town" describes the love of song proposal, brother let marriage, grandfather and Cuicui. These Xiangxi people's life form and way of life all contain the sorrow of the loss of ancient virtues and values in real life, as well as the criticism of modern civilization's material desire. The author highly praises the life style of Xiangxi people, and also wants to rebuild the national morality and personality.

artistic characteristics

The border town depicts the unique customs and customs of Western Hunan with the beautiful brushwork of lyric poetry and essays. It is mainly manifested in the following two aspects:

One is delicate psychological description. Psychological description is the description of characters' inner activities such as will, desire, thoughts and feelings in a specific environment. Or unfold the character's beautiful soul, or expose the character's ugly soul, in order to show the character's mental state and personality characteristics. There are many ways to do it: directly analyze it through dialogue, monologue, action, posture and facial expression; indirectly reveal it through fantasy and dream; or set it off with the help of scenery description, atmosphere rendering and the reflection of the surrounding characters. There are two ways in this paper: one is to reveal the characters' psychology through their fantasies and dreams. Cuicui's bizarre "wishful thinking" makes people feel lonely and lonely of a girl who gradually has her own psychology, and restlessness of her heart when she is in the bud of love; Cuicui's dream of "top beauty and top sweetness" shows her sweet feeling of hazy love and subconscious yearning for love. Second, through the description of the language and manner of the characters in the specific environment, it forms a strong hint to induce the readers to appreciate the inner mystery of the characters from the language and manner of the characters. Cuicui "with Jiao, a little complaining"

Chinese PinYin : Bian Cheng