Chapter 14 Section 14

Earlier I said that the love concept of Lao San and Jing Qiu was influenced by European and American literature, which aroused some people’s dissatisfaction. "Holy", you put all the credit on the account of the foreigners again, what does this sound like?Even if it is not entirely due to Chinese literature, at least it must share a share with European and American literature, right? In fact, I was just talking about a fact, not about the "Chinese Lover", but about two ordinary people, Lao San and Jing Qiu.The fact is that in their love enlightenment stage, they can only read a few love novels and hear a few love stories, and among these novels and stories, the ones that really play a role in the formation of their love view , is one of the few books and stories, which happen to be European and American.

The third child has read many European and American literary works, and the ones that have had a greater influence on him have been discussed before, so I won’t repeat them here.Jingqiu’s family used to have some world famous books, and her mother tried her best to keep them for a period of time, but with the deepening of the Cultural Revolution, the situation became more and more severe, and those books were gradually destroyed, and some books were torn off the cover first. And the introduction, people can't tell what kind of book it is; some books are put on the plastic cover of "Selected Works of Mao Zedong", and they were used for a period of time, but they were not preserved in the end.

Jingqiu's elder brother also loves to read books. He has borrowed many books, which were circulated underground. They can only be read for a few days and must be returned within a limited time. Therefore, Jingqiu always reads them in a hurry when her elder brother is not at home.At that time, she only read books where there was a "she", because without a "she", there would be no love story. The European and American literature she has read includes "Shakespeare's Plays and Stories", "The Sorrows of Young Werther", "Byron's Poems", "Pushkin's Poems", "Contemporary Heroes", etc.To save space, I will not list them one by one.

Some people saw me say that Lao San and Jingqiu were influenced by European and American literature, so they asked them how many European and American literature works they had read, as if only lying in the pile of books could be regarded as an influence.In fact, I use the word "enlightenment" mainly because the third child's mother and Jingqiu's parents have read a lot of European and American literary works and are deeply influenced by them, especially in terms of love. Those who have a view of "Supreme" pay more attention to the enjoyment of the spiritual level that "cannot be eaten as food".They not only tell the children the stories in European and American literature, but their own attitudes towards love also play a role in nurturing the children.

As for how many books to read to be considered "indulgence", there seems to be no fixed rule, and it should vary from person to person.Some people may not be influenced by reading piles of literary works; some people have read several literary works, but each one has a profound impact, so it should be called influenced; some people are changed by a book. It is not uncommon for this situation to affect one's own view of love, or affect one's life.Of course, if you insist on saying "direct reading is called influence, indirect reading is called edification", I have no objection, but in any case, edification is not necessarily proportional to the quantity.

We can see from the stories of "Romeo and Juliet" and other influences on Jingqiu, not only because she mentioned these two books, but also because she learned about love from them. She used Jane Eyre to warn herself not to She loves Rochester's allusions to warn herself not to love the third child. She draws from the story of Romeo and Juliet that Romeo did not turn back on Juliet because death was ahead of him.From these examples, we can see how a little girl who knows that she will give up her life if she falls in love uses her limited literary knowledge to force herself to downplay love.

Jingqiu's love for Dr. Cheng also reflects the influence of European and American literature on her.What she saw from Dr. Cheng was actually a third child, a third child whose Douban hadn't turned black.Although she wrote poems for Dr. Cheng, she never thought of breaking up the marriage between Dr. Cheng and Mr. Jiang. For her, loving someone can be purely a matter of thought and emotion, and there is no need to be married or even be together. , Love if you can't get it, love if you can't see it, that is true love. This kind of love view of "don't need to be together, love if you can't get it, and love it if you can't see it", we can find its shadow in books such as "The Sorrows of Young Werther", in which there is a book that does not match everyone's love. A character who is united by loved ones but keeps love in his heart forever.For a little girl like Jingqiu who advocates spiritual life and doesn't know the relationship between love and sex, that kind of love may be more shocking and desirable than the love that lasts forever, because it is far away from the world and transcends the world. time and space.

For the third child and Jingqiu, to love someone is to find ways to bring her/him happiness. If "throwing a shot put" for her can relieve her menstrual discomfort, then "throw a shot put" for her; If it can make him happy, then die with him; if meeting her will cause her trouble, then hide away; if dying for love is not what he wants, then live well. When they do all this for the happiness of each other, they themselves are also happy, because for them, being loved is a kind of happiness; loving others is also a kind of happiness; The one you love is the one who loves you, that is the ultimate happiness.If the objective reality allows them to be together, and they can openly walk hand in hand on the street, then naturally they are happy, but if the objective situation does not allow, if they can only meet behind the scenes, or even not meet, but as long as the two are in love, then Still happy.

People who hold Lao San and Jing Qiu's view of love can't stop love with life and death, and can't stop love with death.Love is as long as life, and even longer than life, because when a person's life ends, love still exists in other ways.The third child left her diary and poems to Jingqiu, so that she could still feel his love after his death; Jingqiu took her daughter to visit the third child thirty years later, in order to let the third child know that life is in the Go on, love goes on. wrote: "In Jingqiu's opinion, if he doesn't know that she loves him, but he still loves her, then it is true love."Jingqiu's point of view is probably difficult for ordinary men to understand, maybe they can't figure it out at all.Whether it was before or after the third child, she rejected all suitors, and most of those suitors fled as soon as they refused, and never heard from them again.In her opinion, this proved that they didn't love her. If they really loved her, how could they run away as soon as they refused?

It is estimated that those suitors also have their own reasons. Since you do not agree to fall in love with me, why should I deal with you?Instead of wasting that time and losing face a few more times, it's better to find another woman as soon as possible. When the third child fell in love with Jing Qiu and pursued Jing Qiu, she might not have known what Jing Qiu was thinking.But his understanding of love is exactly in line with Jingqiu's definition of love, that is, love is love, love is not a foreshadowing before you get it, but a lifelong career.If the other party does not love him subjectively, then he will use his love to impress her, persuade her, and try to make her fall in love with him; if objectively the two are not allowed to love each other, then he will love her from a distance, Love her from afar; if his love can only bring her pain and harm, then he will hide away quietly and let her live a carefree life.

We can find shadows of the youngest Jingqiu's view of love in European and American literature, but not in the Chinese literature they have read. In Chinese literature until 1976, when the third child died, there were very few novels that were purely about love, and there were almost no novels about the kind of love that the third child Jing Qiu liked.Until then, the loveliest is probably the story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai. The story of "Blessed Lovers" exists in the form of folk literature and art. We only know that Zhu Yingtai disguised herself as a man to go to school, met her classmate Liang Shanbo, and fell in love.But Liang Shanbo, a silly boy, didn't see the clue until the two of them graduated and were about to leave school. Zhu Yingtai revealed her true face through various hints and explicit expressions on the way to send each other off. The following plot is mainly about the struggle for marriage autonomy and the failure of one party to die of illness and the other to die in love. During the period from May 4th to 1949, due to the influence of European and American literature, some novels containing love descriptions appeared, such as Ba Jin’s. Arranged marriages are the main ones, men and women are still striving for the stage of marriage autonomy, and romantic free love is still relatively extravagant. This is not to say that the love of the third child, Jingqiu, does not exist in Chinese life, but that Chinese literature has never been willing to write about this kind of love. Female characters can live for love and die for love, and everyone will hold a cup of love for her. Tears of sympathy, sigh endlessly.But if a male character also lives and dies for love, he's going to be ridiculed.Zhu Yingtai died for love, everyone appreciates it very much, but if Zhu Yingtai dies of illness and Liang Shanbo dies for love, then readers may not get sympathy: "Suicide for a woman! I have no ambitions! How can I look like a man? Could it be that there are no fragrant grasses everywhere in Tianya?" In Chinese literature, there is no love of the kind that Jing Qiu likes. In addition to the contempt for women in Chinese culture, the literati's pursuit of immortality is also an important factor.Chinese literati of all dynasties have always pursued "immortality", and this tradition has not disappeared until now. Those who think they are engaged in literary creation may not write for money, but they must write for "spreading". The purpose of writing is to Entering the history of literature, of course, the purpose of entering the history of literature is to be famous forever. It is said that the Chinese are not afraid of death, but the Chinese are afraid that no one will remember after death.If you want to not be forgotten by the world after death, there are only two ways. One is to have children, so that you can live in the memory of future generations; the other way is to let yourself live in history. ".What is history?It is the history book, that is, history. "Keep loyalty to reflect history" is to strive to let history record one's glorious deeds.This loyalty is not a love for a certain woman, because loving a woman will not be written into Chinese history, unless the survival of the country depends on this woman. Warriors can make meritorious deeds by fighting on the battlefield.Siege cities, expand territory, serve the country loyally, and die on the battlefield will naturally be written into history. Although it is likely to be just a number in the history books, such as how many people died in a certain battle, it has entered history after all, and no one knew it beforehand. Know who will be the numbers and who will leave the names.Maybe everyone goes for the name, but in the end it only becomes a number. To be immortal, literati can only rely on the immortality of their works, because no one's physical body can be "immortal", only "quickly immortal".If you want your work to be immortal, of course you have to rely on major events, so Chinese literati have always believed in the creative principle of "Writing to convey Tao", and this "Tao" is not the way of personal survival or love, but the way of those great and noble lights. The radiant "Tao" must at least be related to the nation, country, history and so on. It can be said that until 1976, the objective reality of Chinese literature was like this. If you want to write, you can write about major themes, and love can only be a condiment.Writers write in this way, critics analyze in this way, and readers expect in this way.If you only write about love, especially if you write about the love of a man who "takes women seriously" and "revolves around women", then you don't even think about immortality, and you don't even have the possibility of publishing it. You will be judged as worthless by critics, saying that your writing is "thin", "vulgar", etc., and readers will be disappointed after reading your work: what is this writing about?Nothing but love! Works like this with love between men and women as the main line, not to mention at that time, even today, those literati with a strong sense of "immortality" will still criticize it as "vulgar", calling it a "romance novel" contemptuously, saying It doesn't have the anti-feudal heights of "The Butterfly Lovers", it doesn't expose the harm of family feuds to young people like "Romeo and Juliet", it doesn't criticize the Cultural Revolution's vandalism, and so on.Even if they praise it, these people still have to touch on some major issues. It seems that otherwise it cannot show the great significance of the work, nor can it show the foresight of the reviewers. I suspect that people’s disdainful attitude towards love in life is influenced by literature, so many people—especially men—put love and career in opposition, as if as long as you don’t take love seriously, your career will be successful , As long as you take love seriously, your career will inevitably fail. But love and career are two mutually compatible concepts, not an "either-or" relationship, nor a "life or death" relationship.Applying Amy's analysis method, the two variables of love and career can have at least four different combinations: 1. Success in love and success in career 2. Love succeeds, career fails 3. Love is not successful, career is successful 4. Love is not successful, career is not successful If you consider that love and career are not limited to the two possibilities of "successful" and "unsuccessful", but also the possibility of "relatively successful" and "quite successful", there are more ways to combine the two.In real life, there may not be many examples of double harvests in love and career, but there are many people who do not take love seriously and end up with both failures in love and career. Chinese literature, which disdains love and only treats love as a condiment, was not spared during the Cultural Revolution and was all listed as banned books. Why was it banned during the Cultural Revolution for all works with a touch of love?I am afraid that only those who issued the ban can answer this question.It seems a bit far-fetched to say that it is because of the fear that the description of love will lead the teenagers to bad, because even if love was written in the works before the Cultural Revolution, it is definitely not the way it is written now. Most of those love descriptions are written three feet away from the bed. Stop it, according to the American standard, it is a PG13 level. Let our current readers definitely think it is "not enjoyable". So my guess is: banning descriptions of love is actually banning descriptions of human nature, because the love between men and women, in the final analysis, is only the most basic requirement of human nature.But the Cultural Revolution talked about class nature, "Affinity is divided according to class", "The sun is the reddest, Chairman Mao is the closest".Human nature is the way of the bourgeoisie, and "love is supreme" is the way of the petty bourgeoisie. The proletariat will do the opposite, put human nature into the forbidden zone, put love into the forbidden zone, and let class nature become people's Lord of life. There were only a handful of novels published during the Cultural Revolution, and most of them were tools for "literature and art to serve proletarian politics." The characters were all tall and complete heroes who did not eat the fireworks of the world. The creative principles at that time sound confusing and dumbfounded now. For example, the villain cannot be the main character of the work, the positive character cannot have shortcomings, and there have been heated debates about whether the middle character can be the main character of the work. , the final conclusion is: it can be possible, but it is necessary to rewrite the transition process of the middle character from bad to good, and the "bad" before the transition cannot be written too much, and the transition must be written in a reasonable and reasonable way, not too abrupt. In literary works at that time, even the surnames of the characters had unwritten "hidden rules". The positive characters were usually surnamed Gao, Zheng, Fang, and Hong, while the negative characters were mostly surnamed Bai, Diao, Hu, and Qian. .Advocating red, so those surnamed Huang can only be bad things. The villain in "The White Haired Girl" is called Huang Shiren.Going north to fight against Japan, "South" became the opposite. The villain in "Red Detachment of Women" is called "Nan Batian". In terms of appearance, the positive character needs to be tall and burly, with a red face, while the negative character, if he does not have a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks, is wretched like Diao Deyi, then he should be fat like Hu Chuankui.Da Shichang in his youth, because he was a white-faced scholar, could only play a backward youth, while Yang Zaibao, who was more armed, could play a progressive youth. Lao San and Jing Qiu grew up in such a cultural atmosphere.When the Cultural Revolution began, Jingqiu was in the second grade of elementary school. By the time she graduated from high school in 1975, her entire student life was basically spent in the Cultural Revolution.The Chinese literature she read during that period was very limited, and the descriptions of love were even more pitiful. Jingqiu had read "Lin Haixue Yuan" at that time, but she only remembered this plot: The little nurse Bai Ru admired the young and handsome supervisor Shao Jianbo, but she dared not express it. Once she found that Shao Jianbo wrote in his diary A little poem about her reveals her boss's admiration for her.Jingqiu only remembered the first line of that poem: "A small girl in the army of ten thousand horses".In the book, there is Bai Ru teasing Shao Jianbo, holding his diary, reading this little poem in front of him, and Shao Jianbo chasing Bai Ru around the stove. Jingqiu has also read "Bitter Cauliflower", and only remembers the love-related fragments in it. There are two parts: one is a young man named Deqiang who falls in love with a girl named Xingli.Jingqiu only remembers that Deqiang was thin and thin, he liked to put his hands in his trouser pockets, and he seemed to like to whistle and play songs.There is almost no description of the love between the two lovers in the book. It is only known that Xingli died later because she discovered that her father was using the radio to send reports to the enemy. illegitimate child) killed. The other is the wedding of Deqiang’s sister Juanzi. It was really a revolutionary wedding. It didn’t have any other “colors” except red. A babbling brook flows."Needless to say, such a description further strengthens Jingqiu's understanding of "marriage is a wedding", and a wedding is nothing more than talking about love. Jingqiu also watched "Youth in the Flames of War". She didn't remember those war scenes, but only remembered that there was a modern Hua Mulan in it, named Gao Shan, who disguised herself as a man to join the army and fell in love with a man named Lei Zhenlin. A comrade-in-arms, but because she didn't want to expose her female identity, she could only bury her feelings in her heart.Later, Gao Shan was injured in the war and underwent surgery and was hospitalized. A comrade named Lei came to visit her and saw her sleeping "the silhouette of a girl's breast like a distant mountain in the fog", so the truth came to light. In Jingqiu's view, the function of this "breast outline" is to let the comrade-in-arms surnamed Lei know Gao Shan's female identity. As for the physical reaction of comrade-in-arms surnamed Lei to this "outline", it is not mentioned in the book, Jing Qiu Naturally, I can't imagine it. Mao Zedong once said this, (roughly speaking) in the field of ideology, if the proletariat does not occupy it, the bourgeoisie will.Using this theory to analyze the formation of Lao San and Jing Qiu's view of love, we can say that in the age when Lao San Jing Qiu grew up, the proletariat forgot to occupy the field of love novels with shocking literary and artistic works. Autumn's love world is occupied by European and American literature.