In order to build a small town, Chadong Town has made great efforts in recent years, breaking down mountains and tearing down households, and tearing down a "border trade street" in the old residential area, which goes directly to the 3 19 national highway.
On one side of this avenue is a section of city wall left over from the Ming and Qing Dynasties. 1July, 950, 100 More than 5000 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army repelled the attack of bandits, which became a famous war example in the history of eliminating bandits in Xiangxi. Under the city wall is the Qingshu River. In Border Town, Shen Congwen described in detail: "The small white stone and agate stone with patterns at the bottom of the river are clearly visible. Fish come and go in the water like floating in the air. " But in the eyes of archaeologists, this Chadian town is another "geomantic treasure"-a river, but it will not be invaded by floods; Stand by the mountain, not in the shade. Even in the eyes of the ancients, this is a good place to live.
In the autumn of 2000, entrusted by the Provincial Cultural Relics Bureau, the Cultural Relics Management Office of the Autonomous Prefecture began to excavate this embryo street. Surprisingly, in the 80-square-meter opening area, only 2.8 meters were dug down, just like opening a perpetual history book page by page-scraping off the floating soil of the modern layer, exposing the Qing layer, and unearthed a large number of Qing porcelain pieces, "Qianlong Bao Tong" and blue and white porcelain cups. Digging down slightly, the second floor is the Ming Dynasty floor, and many pieces of porcelain have been unearthed. The third layer is the Jin Dynasty, and a small number of fragments and pottery pieces of Xiangyin kiln products in Han Dynasty have been unearthed. The fourth and fifth floors are the Han Dynasty, where pottery pieces from the Han Dynasty and a few prehistoric pottery pieces with sand were unearthed. From the sixth floor to the tenth floor, in the Neolithic Age, some clay pottery pieces, sand pottery pieces and charcoal pottery pieces were unearthed. The 1 1 floor was a site 10,000 years ago, and nearly 100 hammered stone tools were unearthed ..... When the excavation was nearing the end, nearly 1000 cauldrons, beans, cans, bone needles, nets and 9 hammerstones were placed in front of cultural relics workers. Cultural relics workers exclaimed: "This is another major discovery in the autonomous prefecture after the discovery of the South Great Wall!"
Just after the Lantern Festival, the reporter rushed to Huayuan, where he saw thousands of cultural relics. On each piece of pottery, the patterns are clear, and the "vein pattern", "thick rope pattern" and "thin rope pattern" are vivid. The Paleolithic cultural relics covered with two office desktops are even more fascinating and imaginative. Last year, several similar stone tools were found in Dongting Lake in our province, which caused a sensation. And there are a bunch of reporters in front. Picked up a paleolithic kitchen knife made of coarse gravel on the beach and waved it easily. Suddenly, the scene of cutting sandalwood for generations by the Qingshui River suddenly popped up, as if they still had their eternal body temperature on the stone tools. ......
Border towns are moving towards the future and the past.
Qingshui is a tributary of Youshui, and Youshui is a tributary of Shui Yuan. The Guyuan River, which meanders in the mountains of western Hunan, once left Qu Yuan in a boat. For thousands of years, this vast Yuanshui River has been shrouded in the mysterious atmosphere of "misty rain creek follows the national highway, and the peaches and plums beside the stream are like fog", which is also regarded as the earliest place for human activities in Wuling Mountain area. In the ancient Miao epic Cuobacuoma, there is such a record: "Men and women came to Luxi Cave together, and young and old came to Luxi Cave together".
However, is there a prehistoric civilization in the Paleolithic Age in Youshui, a tributary of Yuanshui? This has always been a question that the archaeological community has been thinking about. Long Jingsha, deputy director of the Cultural Relics Management Office of the Autonomous Prefecture, has visited the mountainous areas of western Hunan for many years and presided over archaeological excavations in places such as Phoenix South Changcheng. He agrees with an academic viewpoint in archaeology: from apes to humans, it should be from mountains to plains; The ancients were all thumbs, so it was difficult to sail against the current. There should be traces of ancient human activities in the mountainous areas of western Hunan. 1July, 989, during the national cultural relics survey, he took two assistants and found the ruins of Yin Shang in Qingshuihe River basin. In June, 2000, when the Eighth Annual Archaeological Conference was held in Jishou, they exhibited the excavated cultural relics, which attracted the attention of the participating experts. At the meeting, experts suggested that the archaeological work in our province should go to the marginal areas. This gave Long Jingsha great encouragement. Shortly after the meeting, he led the team straight to the tea cave. "We are moving towards a history of more than 8,000 years," he said.
In the tea cave, Long Jingsha and his assistant toss and turn in the muddy water watched by thousands of people every day, peeling away the accumulated soil of history layer by layer with shovels, turning page by page into a history of ten thousand years.
Huayuan County was a county in the middle of Guizhou in Qin Dynasty, a place in Wuxi in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and a permanent hall in Qing Dynasty. In the county archives, we turned to the old Sui Yong Ting Ji, and finally found a few words about the tea cave: "It is located in the center of Hunan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces, and is famous for having two Han families living here in ancient times." Even the old people in the tea cave think that Border Town is only about 300 years old. This archaeological discovery pushed the civilization history of human development in Qingshui River basin to 10,000 years ago.
Long Jingsha didn't talk much, but he talked about archaeology. He told reporters that before this, the archaeological community generally believed that most of human prehistoric civilizations in Xiangxi were concentrated in the main stream of Shui Yuan, but this archaeological discovery confirmed that prehistoric civilizations not only existed in its tributary Youshui, but also existed in Qingshui River, a tributary of Youshui. Qingshuihe river basin is the most violent place where Bachu culture collides. It is of great significance in the archaeological field to be able to excavate the sites of ancient human activities in the depths of western Hunan. He revealed that in recent days, the provincial archaeological department will send experts to the tea cave for further research, and it is possible to carry out larger-scale excavation work in this area.
Qingshui River flows quietly. Riverside, urban construction is in full swing. Border towns are moving towards the future and the past.
Interpretation of Shen Congwen's Border Town
I saw Shen Congwen's Border Town last night, and I couldn't say how I felt. My heart seemed a little blocked. I am glad that I live today-an era where I don't have to suppress my emotions and slow down. Of course, I was deeply attracted by the beautiful, quiet natural scenery and simple folk customs, as if I had become a member of the border town, breathing the pure air there.
In fact, understanding the living conditions of a society is most clear from the marriage relationship between men and women. Although it shows the relationship between men and women, it can expose the economic, political, cultural and moral conditions of the whole society. The mysterious attraction between men and women from nature is separated by a whole history of human suffering.
The beautiful border town, because of its geographical location, is actually an environment with a low degree of human bondage. However, we can still feel profound historical traces from people living there-traces deeply rooted in the blood of China people.
Cui Cui, a young girl in Seeds of Love, is naturally unpretentious, but it is the precipitation of China's moral culture in every woman's blood for thousands of years-yes, it is the product of economic culture, not original; It belongs to the east, not to mankind; It is the product of human society, not the instinct of animals. Yes, men's inferiority complex, which is deeply rooted in women's blood, and the passivity of suppressing true feelings and waiting for happiness arrival are all gender characteristics endowed to women by thousands of years of human history.
The kind and lovely old boatman loves his granddaughter deeply and longs for her happiness, but he can't go beyond the limitations given to him by history and times. For his granddaughter's marriage, his inner desire, anxiety, self-esteem, inferiority, cover-up, hesitation, reluctance, contradiction and struggle-are all so sad and helpless. Yes, is he struggling with his heart? He is competing with the whole human history. How can he surpass the times and give his granddaughter a happiness he has mastered? Finally, the old boatman left with a lifetime of great regret. He cannot grasp the happiness of his daughter or granddaughter. Cui Cui, besides waiting for happiness, is there a second way to happiness?
Is this actually a story that happened in the border town? Isn't this the story that happened every day in China for thousands of years? Is it Cui Cui who is sitting on a rock by the stream? Isn't that countless women who have longed for happiness for thousands of years?
Yes, who can control their own happiness? Who can travel through history and enjoy the happiness that is not bound by the times? -The real encounter between a man and a woman is really across Qian Shan and a thick and difficult history of human growth. But such a day is really worth looking forward to and yearning for, because it is a day when human nature is truly liberated, a day when human beings are out of the shadow of history, and a day when human beings are not only materially rich, but also spiritually rich-although the road is still long, it is worthy of endless pursuit and yearning.
Suddenly, I was deeply moved by those boys and girls who are straightforward and full of youthful joy. That's not the classical implicit "I love you"! I even want to cry-because I think of Cui Cui.
-Reading Shen Congwen's Border Town
The short story Border Town is a work written by the famous writer Mr. Shen Congwen in 1933. This "seat" border town is the strongest Xiangxi style floating around Mr. Shen Congwen.
Border Town is an excellent novella (the representative work of Shen Congwen's novels) in the history of China literature. Based on the tea cave in the border town of Sichuan and Hunan in the 1930s, it depicts the unique customs of the Xiangxi border region with beautiful strokes of lyric poetry and prose. The love tragedy of Cui Cui, a boatman girl, highlights the goodness and beauty of human nature and the clarity and purity of the soul.
Border Town has entrusted Shen Congwen's aesthetic ideals of "beauty" and "love", and it is one of his works that can best express the beauty of human nature. By describing the love tragedy of Xiangxi's daughter and lover Nuo, this novel reflects the painful fact that Xiangxi people can't grasp their own destiny in the face of "nature" and "personnel". So is Cui Cui, and so is Cui Cui's mother. They repeated their sad and desolate lives from generation to generation, but they couldn't find a way to get rid of this fate.
Through the love tragedy Border Town, Shen Congwen reveals the mystery of the fate of the characters and praises the innocent hearts of the border people. As for the theme of Border Town, in Shen Congwen's own words, "I want to show a' life form', a' beautiful, healthy and natural' life form that does not contradict human nature". "Border Town" takes the love between the granddaughter of the old man who supports him and Tianbao and Nuo, the two sons of the boatman, as a clue, and expresses the yearning and pursuit of rural life. If this quiet life is compared with the turbulent society at that time, it is simply a "paradise" out of the dust. People living in this paradise are full of primitive, inner and essential "love". It is precisely because of this kind of "love" that "when several fools and ordinary people are implicated in a place by an ordinary person, everyone deserves a piece of sadness and joy, which once properly interpreted the word" love "for mankind".
Border Town expresses the beauty of human nature by describing the pure love between young men and women, the sincere love between grandparents and grandchildren, and the kindness and mutual love between neighbors. The author wants to dilute the darkness and pain of reality and eulogize an ancient human nature and lifestyle symbolizing "love" and "beauty" through the love tragedy of Nuo. He Nuo bid farewell to the young people he deeply loved, neither pledging eternal love, being very much in love, nor doing anything out of line, nor trading power and money covered in copper, only the natural feelings between men and women bred in the primitive countryside, as fresh and healthy as flowers in the sun. The author not only warmly praised the way the two young people treated "love", but also enthusiastically eulogized the nobleness of Xiangxi people's behavior and the beauty of their souls.
"Border Town" is set in the Chadian area of western Hunan in the late Qing Dynasty, with the "Xiaoxi" ferry as the starting point, and the stream flowing around the cave flows into the Chadian River, and begins a touching love story between Cui Cui, a girl at the wilderness ferry, and Tianbao and Nuosong brothers in Shancheng River Street. With extremely beautiful and fluent language and picturesque writing, Mr. Shen Congwen described the quiet and beautiful mountain village along the Baihe River and the rich customs of Xiangxi border town: "Those who are close to the water are mostly in peach blossoms and apricot blossoms. In spring, as long as you pay attention, there will be people where there are peach blossoms, and there will be wine where there are people. In summer, dazzling purple cloth and trousers are dried in the sun and can be used as flags of others. When autumn and winter come, houses near cliffs and watersides abound. Yellow walls, black tiles ... ". These descriptions are full of natural simplicity and vivid interest, giving people a very beautiful enjoyment.
As the story unfolds, Border Town describes the prosperous and peaceful dock market in Hejie Street, the simple world and folk customs in western Hunan. Although there is an "old general yamen stationed in a battalion" and a local "Lijin Bureau (tax collection)" in Hejie Street, it does not seem to exist. Everywhere is the "Five Hundred Houses" with busy work, quaint shops and leisurely life scenes. "When the boat came, I looked at countless trackers from a distance on the beach ... I brought snacks and foreign sugar, but when I landed, I took it into the city to change money. Adults, brooding a nest of chickens, raising two pigs, telling the boatman to wear a pair of gold earrings, bringing back two zhangs of green cloth or an altar of good soy sauce and a double Mobil lampshade, take up more than half of the hearts of housewives. "On the river street, even prostitutes are impressed by the world." Always full of energy ... try to tie your heart tightly to a distant person. When dreaming, I always dream that the ship is approaching the shore, and a person staggered to the shore from the springboard and ran straight to this side. "These objective and vivid descriptions reflect the profound foundation of Mr. Shen's life in Fenghuang County. His delicate observation of the life of River Street, his familiarity with Xiangxi folk customs, and his close-up of intuition and reverie seized the wonderful moment and gave people vivid life scenes. " River Street is full of people living at the bottom, such as "trackers", "boatmen" and "prostitutes", but as an outstanding writer of the "new culture" of that year, it may be for the love theme, not to mention class opposition or social contradictions.
Although we only understand the distant Xiangxi era from the text, we may not really understand what kind of social environment it is, but Border Town is described by Mr. Shen as a modern "Peach Blossom Garden" similar to that written by Tao Yuanming, isolated from the outside world at that time, from which it is not difficult to see Mr. Shen Congwen's yearning and pursuit for a harmonious and beautiful society.
Cui Cui, the heroine ferry girl in Border Town, is the embodiment of purity and beauty and the beautiful soul of Border Town. Grandpa the old boatman is a simple but stubborn old man. He is confident and proud of the beauty of Cui Cui. In order to marry a good family for Cui Cui, he ignored the poverty of his position, and his inner worries and responsibilities were intertwined. Shunshun, a former exiled official of Qing Dynasty, managed wooden boats, had a certain savings, and his career was booming. Because of generosity and loyalty, he is known as a heroic gentleman on the side of "Zhangshui Wharf". His two sons "Da Lao" and "Raul" were educated by their father's Jianghu manners, and they were beaten and tempered in the waves, and they all became smart and handsome teenagers in the Jianghu "Yue Yun" style. After crossing the river or catching ducks, the two brothers fell in love with Cui Cui at first sight and fell in love with the beautiful Cui Cui. The "second old man" told Cui Cui that he would rather have a broken ferry than the "new mill". Tianbao, the "old man", never gave up the pursuit of beauty in the chaotic times with Cui Cui. After getting to know each other, these two persistent brothers resolutely stood on the cliff covered with moonlight and sang the song "Three Years and Six Months" for Cui Cui.
Border Town is a love tragedy. It seems that the words are carefully chosen, but in fact the pen and ink are faint and dignified. Her touching is the beauty of love tragedy. Mr. Shen's delicate and youthful life vividly depicts a girl's shyness, trance and indifference, representing the hazy change of her mind. It is a tragedy that Cui Cui, who has never had a mother's love and has never been involved in the world as a woman, is at a loss in the face of infatuation, burying herself again and again, avoiding shirking, and finally waiting in depression. On the cliff, Tianbao and Nuonuo can no longer hear the folk songs that send their brothers to the moonlit night. Tianbao drowned in the whirlpool. In addition to his sadness, Nuo refused to accept the urging of the "new mill" at home and went to the distant "Taoyuan" land. At this heartbreaking moment, after Grandpa ate "a stuffy fist" at the water pier, the White Pagoda in Bixi Village finally collapsed on that night of heavy rain and thunder. The only relative of Cui Cui, an old boatman who worked hard all his life, died in his sleep in anxiety and expectation. In the narrative of Yang and others, I understand everything. She cried all night, but the years like songs flowed away like a white river.
The end of Border Town is also very tragic and profound, with a deep artistic conception: "In winter, the collapsed white tower was repaired again. However, the boy who sang under the moon and let Cui Cui drift gently because he sang in his sleep has not returned to the tea cave. "
"…………"
"This person may never come back, maybe" Tomorrow "!" Mr. Shen's exquisite poetic embellishment has left people with long regrets and infinite worries and expectations.