Border Town, known as "the purest novel text in the history of modern literature" and "the pinnacle of pastoral legends in modern Chinese literature", has been selected into the standard experimental textbook for ordinary high school courses published by the People's Education Press. , allowing high school students to appreciate the beauty of the world in western Hunan written by Shen Congwen.
The story written in "Border Town" is very simple, yet extremely beautiful: In a small remote town in western Hunan with beautiful scenery and simple people, two grandparents and grandsons live by ferry. The grandfather is over seventy years old. , still very strong, granddaughter Cuicui is fifteen years old, and has just begun to have a love affair. They are enthusiastic and helpful, simple and kind. Two years ago, at the Dragon Boat Festival dragon boat race, Cuicui met Nuosong, the second young master of the local boat owner, and the seeds of love were planted from then on. Nuosong's brother Tianbao fell in love with the beautiful and pure Cuicui, and asked Cuicui's grandfather to marry her. The local prince Tuanzong also fell in love with Nuosong and was willing to use the mill as a dowry to marry his daughter to Nuosong. Nuosu doesn't want to run a mill, but wants to marry Cuicui, and would rather be a ferryman. So the two brothers met to sing and propose, letting Cuicui choose. Tianbao knew that Cuicui liked Nuo song, so in order to satisfy his younger brother, he went out to the beach and died in an accident. Nuosong felt that he was responsible for his brother's death, so he left Cuicui and ran away. Grandpa died on a stormy night because he was worried about Cuicui's marriage. Cuicui was left alone guarding the ferry, waiting infatuatedly for the return of Nuo, "This person may never come back, maybe he will come back tomorrow!"
The novel is written in a beautiful style that combines lyric poetry and essays. , expresses the beauty of nature, folk customs and human nature, and depicts the scenery and human sentiments seen on the waterside boat. It is a poetic Xiangxi style painting, full of pastoral sentiment and local color, forming a unique lyrical rural novel.
1. Beautiful landscapes
What "Border Town" shows us is this picture: "There is a small stream, and there is a small white tower beside the stream, and a family lives under the tower. A single family. There is only one old man, one girl, and one yellow dog. We arrived at the edge of Chadong City. The stream was like a bow, and the mountain road was like a bow string, so there was a slight difference in the distance. The stream was about twenty feet wide, and the river bed was made of large rocks. The water was as deep as a pole. It cannot fall to the bottom, but it is still clear and transparent. You can count the fish swimming in the river."
The crystal clear river in the novel, the small town leaning on the water and the mountains, and the stilted buildings on the river street, are all so beautiful. The cable-climbing ferry, the white pagoda that is related to the "feng shui" of Chadong, the chirping of birds in the deep green bamboo bamboo...these scenery full of local colors are all natural, beautiful and graceful. The picturesque scenery makes people feel like they are in a dreamland, and all of them provide people with beautiful enjoyment.
2. Beauty of customs
In "Border Town", Shen Congwen depicts a beautiful regional custom painting of western Hunan in his childhood memories and in the ideal world. This genre painting is beautiful, exquisite, and wonderful. It contains the natural scenery, social customs, interpersonal relationships, human nature, etc. in western Hunan, and accumulates the profound, broad, mysterious and magnificent Chu culture.
Shen Congwen said: What I want to express is a "form of life", a "beautiful, healthy and not contrary to human nature." Therefore, there is a "form of life" in "Border Town" A simple and fresh world, an almost "paradise"-style rural society, showing the benevolent and simple local style. The Xiangxi he describes is like this: During the Mid-Autumn Festival, young men and women express their love in the form of antiphonal songs under the moonlit night; during the Dragon Boat Festival, every family locks their doors and goes to the riverside or on the hanging turret to watch the dragon boat race and participate in catching ducks in the river. "Whoever catches the duck will become the owner of the duck"; on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, dragon dancing, lion dancing, fireworks, "little firecrackers looked like falling rain", the small town was immersed in joy... …
The people living in this atmosphere are simple and kind-hearted, and any tense situation would seem out of place here.
In the boat race, the winning team can get a small silver medal. Outside the border towns, there will always be people who care about who will get it, but in the eyes of the border townspeople, the silver medal does not matter who gets it on the boat. Everyone's heads show the glory of a boatload of people working together. In the border town, there is no competition for fame and wealth.