Life's Chronicle (Reflections on Masterpieces of Classical Prose)

Author: Shen Congwen
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-03-01
Features: Shen Congwen is a renowned modern Chinese writer. He was born in the remote and mysterious Fenghuang County of Xiangxi, with ancestry from the Miao, Han, and Tujia ethnic groups. Throughout his life, he created many outstanding literary works. This book selects excellent works from his prose collection Xiangxing Sanji (Journey to Xiangxi), the epistolary essay collection Fei You Cun Di (Remnants of Unsent Letters), and Xu Fei You Cun Di (Continued Remnants of Unsent Letters). In the essays of Xiangxing Sanji, he portrays the customs and traditions of Xiangxi to explore themes such as life and death, love and desire, and permanence and change. The artistic realm he created, where nature and humanity, scenery and customs are perfectly blended, is like a crystal-clear pearl, filled with dazzling poetic charm, bringing us enduring and profound emotions. Life is full of disappointments—about nine out of ten things go awry, and unhappy events are even more frequent. When you feel exhausted, emotion will support you to keep moving forward. Record of Life uses concise language, profound meaning, and skillful writing techniques to convey this truth. The entire essay can be divided into three parts: the first part is from the beginning to "as if mocking me," the second part is from "I envy everything" to "as long as I get the method," and the rest is the third part. The opening of the essay is unique and engaging. The author "bathed in the gentle sunlight" and "recognized spring from the sunlight," yet on such fine weather, he argues with the pine trees and the wind, envying the happiness of the roosters, revealing his dissatisfaction with life, his restless heart, and his inability to "live in the sunlight," remaining silent and tired. Thus, we follow with curiosity. However, don’t think the author will name-drop or complain passionately. Instead, he simply says, "What I hoped for has still not been achieved," completing his "casting off" work. What did he hope for? A substantial sum of money? A sincere encouragement? Or a complete rest? Continuing, we learn about the author’s helplessness and weariness toward his work, his pursuit of hope in the face of bleak prospects. From the tragic experiences of his friends, we understand that the author, too, "suffered from hunger and cold," chasing after wealth. The word "money" is too vulgar for the author to write about in the essay, fearing it would pollute the work, yet we deeply sense his need for it from the text. The outstretched hand can only grasp work, and the flame of the soul is constantly consumed. Some people have become rigid, yet the author even envies them, for he is tormented by his helpless work. At this point, we see the author’s inner conflicts tangled together, a painful, meat-grinding sensation, as he desperately wants to extinguish the fire of his soul. And we, too, cannot help but furrow our brows. Let’s look at the third part. "Suddenly remembering" lights up our eyes, and we follow the author’s "research." Here are a few scenes: three people—his mother, his sister, and his older brother. The mother’s frailty, the sister’s shyness, and the older brother’s reluctant farewell. Nothing is earth-shattering, yet like the waves of the sea crashing against our hearts. Because, what could be more simple and sincere than these emotions! And so, because he "wanted to make his mother’s face fatter," the author never retracted his outstretched hand, still clinging to faint hope. Thus, our eyes are also moistened with tears. The author’s thoughts stagnate as the sun sets, "my waist still aches," proving he remains "tired." "I want to pick a stone to hit those proud roosters," proving he still envies them. But when the author "prepares to face the wind at night," we breathe a sigh of relief, for we see him turning passivity into initiative, no longer fearing exhaustion and helplessness. Because of emotion, he has lifted a piece of sky in his heart, where it has always been clear and bright, filled with sunshine. Though reality conflicts with it, there is also beauty in the pain. In this essay, the author uses the technique of first suppressing and then uplifting, making the ending more impactful. Moreover, the author excels at using vivid "images" to express emotions, making them feel real. Record of Life?—It must be a record of how emotion supports you through adversity! China has always had two types of essayists— () and (). The greatest difference lies in that () treats the essay as a sharp sword, while () uses it as a carving knife. () are accustomed to being unconventional, willing to sacrifice for their beliefs, perhaps not skilled in swordsmanship, but they must strike at the core. "A special era will surely produce a special style," as Lu Xun and Mao Dun’s essays were realistic and combative, truly the product of the great era they lived in. To seek petty sentimentality, melancholy, or "ornaments" in their essays would be futile. They treated the essay as a "throwing spear" and a "dagger," never reducing it to a trivial pastime for erudite scholars to "discuss the trivialities of flies." As Ai Ying said, "Among China’s essayists, besides Mao Dun and Lu Xun, there seemed to be no one else who, for the sake of great social goals, had worked so hard to explore this path." Therefore, in a great era, to indulge in "appreciating" "humor," and "leisure," would be quite inappropriate. Isn’t that so? Once upon a time, the "humorous" Lao She encountered a rather awkward predicament. How could he have imagined that "humor" would bring him "danger"! His essay The Danger of Humor was both an apology and a defense of his own "humor." This naturally stemmed from Lu Xun’s criticism of Lin Yutang’s Lunyu (The Analects) monthly journal, which Lao She frequently contributed to. When the nation faced internal and external crises, Lin Yutang’s advocacy of "humor" and "spirituality," "centering on oneself and valuing leisure," naturally gave rise to suspicion of mere playfulness. Lu Xun, who never overlooked anything, criticized Lin Yutang for steering humor toward "making the cruelty of butchers laugh, and ending the matter with a smile." This was only natural. However, if we look at the letter Lu Xun wrote to Tai Jingnong on June 18, 1934, we see that he held even Lao She’s humor in even less regard at the time. He wrote, "In the literary world, there are numerous publications, mostly belonging to the 'small essay' genre. This was promoted by Lin Gong Yutang, who suddenly discovered the Records of the Song and Ming dynasty essays and thought them precious, yet his own works have become far inferior. If this continues, he may end up with Lao She and Baofeng in the same boat. In reality, it is also something that cannot be stopped." This is quite unfair to Lao She, for even at that time, Lao She’s humor was quite different from Lin Yutang’s—"Lin Yutang’s essays are humorous yet comical, while Lao She’s humor is serious." Compared to Lu Xun, Yu Dafu was much more open-minded. He believed, "idle talk, leisure, and humor—why can’t they also follow the times and progress?" This shows that, in his eyes, whether a writer follows the times and progresses does not depend on whether their "style" is "spiritual," "leisurely," "humorous," or "heroic" and "rebellious." In reality, Lu Xun was not the "unyielding" and "unfeeling" figure some imagined due to reverse psychology. In terms of essay writing philosophy, he was quite "avant-garde." He believed that as long as essays expressed genuine emotion, writing could be "as casual as possible, with flaws not being a problem." At the same time, Lu Xun’s sharp and incisive insights were unmatched by others. He pointed out that the illusion of essays lay in "pretending to be real." In other words, in Lu Xun’s view, the most valuable thing about essays was "authenticity," and they must avoid the pretense of "deception" and "feigning." Essay writing is truly diverse and cannot be encompassed by the two categories of () and (). Just as Liang Shiqiu said, "There is one person, and there is one style of essay." Although Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren were blood brothers, their "styles" were vastly different, proving this to be the case. What an essay becomes or how it is written depends on the author’s essay philosophy, which is actually their personality, deeply connected to their bloodline. Therefore, Liang Shiqiu emphasized that the "style" of an essay is "the person themselves." "The beauty of the style is purely the author’s personality." He believed that essays have "no fixed format, they are free," and that "beauty lies in appropriateness." Zhou Zuoren was the first to propose that modern essays are "narrative," "artistic," also known as "beautiful prose," and must "use one’s own sentences and thoughts." Zhu Ziqing advocated "expressing oneself," valuing the "secret of solitude." For example, Shen Congwen insisted on "writing the history of my own heart and dreams" in his essays, and particularly emphasized that "subordinating literature to a political purpose or a moral name will not produce good literature. Teaching with literature fundamentally loses its meaning as literature." He upheld the pure artistic nature of literature, just like his contemporaries He Qifang, Li Guangtian, Xiao Qian, and even his disciple Wang Zengqi. Zhang Yiping, representing the "Haipai" (Sea School) writers, bluntly stated, "The works of scholars, in the eyes of the refined, are indeed a great and immortal enterprise, but in my foolish view, under capitalism, all works are merely commodities." He upheld the commercial nature of literature. Like Zhang Ailing and Su Qing, who belonged to the same school, they also explicitly stated that they wrote for a living and for money. Today, even if one writes for food, yet writes well, it is no longer easily criticized for low intellectual or moral standards. This also shows, as Liang Yuchun said, "Since the advent of small essays, there have been many definitions of them, and none of them are entirely correct." Yet, I still admire the carefree and sincere spirit he left behind at the age of 26, as well as the innate talent and intuition that could only be natural. He believed that essays were "discussing life in a relaxed and casual manner." And compared to poetry, essays are "even freer and more chaotic!" I largely agree. In fact, tracing the footsteps of modern Chinese essays in the 20th century, whether the early "Yushi School," "Lunyu School," the "Ice Heart" style praising maternal love, Xu Zhimo’s "Wild Horse Running" essays, or the once-revered classics of Yang Shuo, Qin Mu, and Liu Baiyu, or even the Taiwan-based Yu Guangzhong who aimed to "cut off the (braid)" of essays, or the recent "cultural essays" and "little woman essays," they are at least consistent in one aspect: "I write with my own hand, I speak with my own mouth." Regardless of the "style," whether it is the hard-hitting political satire leaning toward (zawen), the soft and melodramatic essays expressing emotions without illness, or the sorrowful and tearful essays triggered by scenery and emotion, essays, to some extent, can serve as a sanctuary for the soul or a resting place for the spirit. Art is independent, and essays must be individualistic.