At the age of 4, Shen Congwen had a bug in his stomach and his face became yellow and thin. His parents steam chicken liver with herbs every day. When he was 6 years old, he got a rash and was uncomfortable to be held. When he lay down, he coughed and gasped, so he had to sleep on a bamboo mat in the shade. His parents even prepared for the worst: they prepared a small coffin. Fortunately, he recovered from his illness and has been as thin as a monkey ever since.
At the age of 6, Shen Congwen went to primary school. Because his mother taught him to read when he was a child and his grandmother gave him candy to eat, Shen Congwen had known more than 600 words before he went to school, and with a good memory, Shen Congwen felt that learning was very easy. Private school education is boring, and with the bad students in senior grades, Shen Congwen began to skip classes and wander in the sun all day.
He was full of curiosity. "Why do mules cover their eyes when grinding?" Why can a knife harden in water when it burns red? Why did the Buddha carver carve wood into a human shape, and how did he make it out of such thin gold? Why does a small coppersmith drill such a round eye on a copper plate and carve it neatly all the time? "
He looked around. "Look, listen and smell everywhere, the smell of dead snakes, rotten grass, the smell of butchers, the smell of earthen kilns that burn bowls after rain ... the sound of bats, the sigh of scalpers when butchers put knives into scalpers' throats, the sound of rhubarb-throated snakes hidden in the ridges, and the whispers of fish poking water in the dark. ...
He watches casting knives, fishing and weaving. He steals plums and loquats from other people's orchards and annoys them by singing folk songs. He went to the river to watch the butcher kill cattle and was familiar with the process of killing cattle. He witnessed the family revolution, went to Chengtou to see the beheading in the river, and saw the frightened, depressed and complaining eyes of the victim before he died, which made him hate abuse of power all his life.
Because of frequent truancy, I was locked at home by my parents and refused to eat, and was punished by my teacher at school. When there is no food to eat, it is often my sister who secretly gives it to him, and he sleeps when he is full. Shen Congwen often daydreams when kneeling, imagining that there are kites in the sky, mandarin fish in the water and fruits on the mountain. His later imagination in literature was cultivated at that time.
13 years old, Shen Congwen joined the army. Officers' regiments are formed locally, and soldiers often cross the streets in groups. Shen Congwen believes that soldiers are strong, energetic and flexible, and being a soldier is a good way out. His family was happy to agree (both paying and Shen Congwen fooling around all day), so he joined the army. Every day is a morning run. Wipe the gun if you don't run. When it's time for dinner, you rush to the kitchen, expecting hot bean sprouts and rice in the pot, as well as four or two fat pork once a week.
For the first time, before departure, the army gave everyone a modern ocean. Shen Congwen immediately bought a small sharp knife, put it in the leg wrap and ate a bowl of glutinous rice balls proudly. "It seems that once you have a knife, you can have no worries." Along the way, while enjoying the steamed goose and bacon hospitality of the rich peasants, landlords and squires in Zhaibao, the locals on the levee shot at the back, often saying, "Bang, we fell down." Before the troops arrived, the gangsters hid in the deep forest. The so-called suppression of bandits means to be stationed in the local area, either arresting people in the street or waiting for the local landlord militia to escort "bandits." Many of them are honest people, and they are released after paying the money. Those who have no money will be beaten until they confess and beheaded the next day.
Life is really lonely and boring. They cut bamboo, make holes and play flutes, and the streets are full of attention. They set traps up the mountain to catch weasels, and the stripped weasels stuffed rice bran to dry and pack things; They covered carp and crucian carp with chicken in the field, and the fish caught were wrapped in yellow mud and stuffed into hot ash for stewing. They get five yuan a month, so they play cards nine times, drink local shochu, eat pork and beef, and occasionally eat dog meat. "Burn the skin of that dog leg, then go to the water by the stream to scrape off the charred part of the skin, cut it into small pieces, put a bowl on it, go out to buy all kinds of spices, go back to the machine repair place and hang the tile bowl of the iron wire and try it yourself."
Shen Congwen is used to beheading and killing people, and prefers to contact nature and simple and hardworking people. He often goes to the ironworks to see the workers cast iron. He likes them waving hammers with bare arms, quenching pieces of red iron into water, and drinking and talking nonsense around a bowl of dog meat when they are not working. Even if you drink too much, you should go swimming to prove your courage. Shen Congwen often joins them and helps them play the bellows. He likes these brave and diligent workers.
/kloc-when he was 0/5 years old, a secretary came to the army and brought them new things, such as what electric lights look like, what torpedoes look like and what trains look like. There is also a box of books, and the secretary told Shen Congwen the story of Zhuge Liang in etymology. Shen Congwen couldn't put it down and began to subscribe to newspapers at the suggestion of his secretary. One day, Shen Congwen was walking on the road, and the oncoming woman saw him turn away because she saw the military uniform he was wearing. Shen Congwen's self-esteem was hurt, soldiers were hated, and he felt that he was a scholar and should be respected, so he began to practice calligraphy and read. My relative has a box of "Say No" series, which was finished in a few months. He doesn't like books that tell the truth, but he likes books that describe life phenomena.
17 years old, the family arranged a blind date for him and gave him four slim girls to choose from, but he didn't choose. Because he has his own plans, he thinks he will marry another white-faced girl. He wrote her love poems all day, and the younger brother of the white-faced girl cheated him out of his family savings. He was so scared that he fled from his family and army and spent nearly two months in Chenzhou by boat. Every day on the boat, he ate Chili and drank the cold north wind, and then lay on his warm and soft cotton-padded clothes, listening to vulgar stories. It was then that he learned to accurately describe the characters (especially women) and use the language (proverbs, puns and metaphors) flexibly in his later novels.
At the age of 20, a fellow villager introduced him to a job as a military document receiver, which cost nine yuan a month. The army is going to Sichuan. Others join the army to get rich and get married. He wanted to see what martial arts were like, so he joined the army again. They crossed bamboo rafts, slept in haystacks and watched meteors. He later wrote this experience into the novel Border Town.
After Shen Congwen came back from Sichuan, his level of writing official documents has been greatly improved, and he served as the secretary of an officer. The officer is a middle-aged man in literature and art, and his collection of books, albums, porcelain and rubbings are kept by Shen Congwen. Shen Congwen looked over and over again when he had nothing to do, and slowly understood it, which laid the foundation for his later study of ancient costumes. His former colleagues gradually alienated him because he spent more time reading and less time playing. He often goes to the mountains alone with books. When he is tired, he looks at the white clouds moving in the sky and the leaves flowing in the river. He still feels lonely and depressed.
Soon, the county set up a newspaper, and Shen Congwen went to work in the newspaper. He began to read trendy and renovated magazines and get in touch with new ideas. He used to like superficial things such as life phenomena and natural scenery, but now he is interested in deep-seated abstract knowledge such as life experience, thinking and wisdom. In order to strengthen the level of autonomy, various schools have been set up in various places. Shen Congwen often goes to see them study, play ball and have fun, and his heart is full of envy. A serious illness that lasted for 40 days and the drowning of a strong friend made Shen Congwen start thinking about the direction of life. If he dies this time, he hasn't seen many things and has been to many places. Shen Congwen is unwilling: "Compared with power, knowledge is willing to gain wisdom and let go of power ... and suffer a little for his ideal, so he can't live casually and unjustly."
1923, Shen Congwen 2 1 year. The world is so big that Shen Congwen wants to see it. From Hunan to Hankou, Zhengzhou, Xuzhou, Tianjin, and finally to Beijing, Shen Congwen stood at the gate of the station with a roll of luggage and began his drifting career in the North.
193 1 year, Shen Congwen was 29 years old and wrote this experience in Qingdao.
From 65438 to 0934, Shen Congwen published the autobiography of Shen Congwen, which tells the story of his boyhood and youth, the nature he contacted, the education he received, the things he loved, the will he cultivated, the life and death he experienced, the change of his life direction, and the life story of a rural teenager growing up. The following year, Zhou Zuoren listed this book as one of my three favorite books in 1934.