Chapter 60 rustic

In the first few years of his arrival in Beijing, Shen Congwen was extremely disappointed with Beijing. He found that the officials in charge sold whatever they wanted, such as selling bricks for demolition of city walls in Beijing, cutting down trees in the Temple of Heaven and selling wood for coffins, and selling Yonghe Temple in charge of the Lama Temple. For things in the palace, those in charge of the Forbidden City mortgaged rare books to the bank; the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs raised foreign debts; when buying anything, the errands got kickbacks, and when looking for a friend, the concierge asked for money.

It was an unspoken rule in that era that the janitor asked for favors from visiting guests. The janitor of the "Morning News" where Shen Congwen published articles was no exception. Ken went in to report.Once, Shen received more than ten yuan in manuscript fees, and the janitor chased after him for money. Shen hurriedly handed him the check and ran away. For Shen Congwen's self-proclaimed countryman, the student Du Yunxie was quite surprised, because Shen couldn't match the countryman in western Hunan, and he looked more like a Jiangnan talent.Later, Du discovered that Shen always had a very contagious smile, smiling when meeting people, smiling when speaking, and sometimes even speaking with a smile when referring to certain social unhealthy phenomena or someone's shortcomings. , although not without bitterness at times.This smile didn't seem to have changed at all when he was in his eighties.Du felt that it was the smile that Shen called "country people". tenacious vitality."

In his later years, Shen Congwen told Jin Jiefu that country people are compared to Changsha people. The people there are stupid, don’t understand the rules of the city, wear sloppy clothes, can’t speak, and fight when they quarrel, so country people don’t know the rules. , Polite meaning. Wang Xiyan read Shen Congwen's novels, and felt that this person who had the courage to look at 400 human heads and a long string of human ears when he was a teenager, and wrote "Bozi" and such novels, always has a rough air of a foodie, and his voice must be very loud. Loud, every move must be presumptuous and unrestrained.But when he saw Shen for the first time, he was taken aback. He didn't expect that this man who is not tall, doesn't talk much, behaves elegantly, wears glasses, smiles gently, and looks like a frail scholar is actually Shen Congwen.

When Shen Congwen was studying at the "Great University", he went to school on Mondays and went home on weekends.Huang Yongyu heard that Shen was assigned to perform Yangko in the "Great University" and lead an organized life.When I go home on weekends, when I go on Monday, I pack a towel bag, pack a teapot, pack a few small teacups, and bring some good tea. I want to go to the "Great University" to invite people to drink tea, but they are reprimanded. After one day's study, Shen Congwen returned to the dormitory. Several classmates were happily talking about the camera. Shen turned around and went out. He felt that such empty talk was meaningless.He mobilized everyone to clean the toilets, but others told him: "We are here to reform our minds, just sit down and reform." Shen had to do it himself.

Gu Xuejie, who was also studying in the "Great University" at the time, recalled that after the holidays, when everyone returned to school, some people found that the toilets had been cleaned, and a dozen urinals had a new look. there is none left.In the meeting at night, the class teacher asked who did it one by one, but no one admitted.After the meeting, the class studied carefully and thought it was Shen Congwen who didn't go home during the holiday.Someone asked him, he just smiled.Asked how to remove the thick dirt, he said, there is nothing to do here, so he used the blade of the razor to slowly scrape the pools one by one for a whole day.

Shen Congwen went to Jinggangshan with several writers, and several others played poker in the hotel all day long. Shen was very angry. He said: "In this kind of place, play poker." In the early 1950s, a visitor from Beijing told Tian Tao that Shen Congwen was working as a lecturer in the Palace Museum.Tian Tao hurriedly wrote to Shen, only to find out that he had changed his career to research cultural relics.In the following decades, whenever Tian Tao went to Beijing for meetings, he would go to Dongtangzi Hutong to visit Shen Congwen.Shen's two bungalows are about a dozen square meters, with a writing desk, two chairs, a single bed, bookshelves and a pile of books on the ground.He still received the guests with a smile as before, moved the chair lightly to give up his seat, and spoke in a low voice.This situation reminded Tian Tao of the scene in Xixie Street in the 1930s.At that time, Shen also gently moved the chair to give up his seat, and spoke in a low voice, his voice could only cover the sound of turning pages.In this regard, Shen Congwen smiled and said: "We are so rigid."

Huang Miaozi and Yu Feng went to visit Shen Congwen together. Huang Miaozi recalled that Shen was "a small man with squinted eyes in his glasses, a shy smile when he saw strangers, and a low and clear voice with a Xiangxi accent. The words were speculative, emotional. Just follow the language like scattered flowers, like a fountain floating in a room, making people feel the fire of life sparkling. I compare this gentle and thrifty scholar with his childhood when he compared crickets with blacksmiths and gambled with wild children in his hometown. When I was eighteen or nineteen years old, I couldn't help laughing when I compared the image of my fellow soldiers going to the town of Kansai for a firecracker battle."

Shen Congwen spent nearly 10 years in the upper and two corridors of the Meridian Gate under the jurisdiction of the History Museum.It is written in his inspection book: "It was cold in winter at that time, and there was a draft blowing upstairs at the Meridian Gate, and it was often below minus 10 degrees Celsius. It was not allowed to warm up on it. Turning around on it to serve the people, there must be more With great patience and persistent enthusiasm, I think it is very natural and normal. The task assigned by the organization is equal to fighting, so I will try my best to persevere and fight to the end.”

Shen Congwen said in an inspection written during the Cultural Revolution: "From the surface of life, I can say 'completely finished, collapsed'. I can't say anything, because if compared with the old colleagues, not only old friends like Ding Ling, It’s as if people in heaven, that is, Mao Dun, Zheng Zhenduo, Ba Jin, and Lao She are all famous and very active. They fly around abroad and treat them as guests. What about me at that time? I went out before dawn and bought a Warm your hands with roasted sweet potatoes. When you take the tram to Tiananmen Square, the door is still open, so you sit down and look at the sky, stars and moon, and then open the door before you go in. When you go home at night, sometimes it rains heavily, so you wear a torn sack.”

One year, Huang Yongyu was in the forest and wrote a letter to Shen Congwen about the difficult life here. Soon, Huang received a long and sloppy letter written by Shen with a brush. In the letter, he talked to Huang about his three experiences: "1. To treat the people and the land; 2. When you fall, get up quickly and move forward. Don’t appreciate the place where you fell and delay things, don’t stop and lament; 3. Embrace your work forever and ever.”