Chapter 14 Section 4 War Novels and the Beauty of Human Nature: "Lily"

Ru Zhijuan was one of the few writers who described war in the form of short stories in the 1950s.The short and delicate structure is integrated with the delicate and unique perspective, reflecting the unique bright and beautiful style of this female writer.This female writer who participated in the Art Troupe of the New Fourth Army in 1943 has a unique care and understanding of war. She does not seem to care about the victory or defeat of the enemy and us on the battlefield, but focuses on the emotional collision and relationship between people in the war. comminicate. The short story "Lily" 9 was written in the early spring of 1958, which was the climax of the "anti-rightist" struggle. Many writers and intellectuals suffered blows to varying degrees. In the highly political atmosphere of the times, the relationship between people has also become tense. In contrast, the simple and sincere interpersonal relationship in the smoke of war is even more nostalgic. "War prevents people from having the opportunity to have long conversations, but war can make people have deep friendship. Sometimes it only takes a few tens of minutes, a few minutes, or even a glimpse, and then it passes by. However, between people, it is in this In a moment, you can be honest with each other, and live and die together." 10 The author's motivation for writing is to express his feelings about real life by recalling and praising the holy interpersonal emotions in the war years.It is obviously an untimely work, so it is understandable that it experienced twists and turns before it came out. When Ru Zhijuan sent "Lily Flower" to many publications, the manuscript was repeatedly rejected on the grounds that "emotional It is dark and cannot be published". After many twists and turns, it was finally published in the "Yanhe" magazine. After being praised by Mao Dun, then Minister of Culture, it began to receive the attention of the critics.

The lightness, delicacy, and beauty of "Lily" are unique among the war novels of the 1950s and 1960s. It takes the war as the background and describes the close relationship between a young correspondent in the army and a new rural wife who has only been married for three days. Communicate in holy affection.The author's creation purpose is very clear and firm, that is to express the unforgettable and pure human relationship in war, and the beauty of human nature and human feelings reflected in this relationship.Therefore, the works are based on war life instead of writing about war scenes, involving major subjects instead of writing about major events.The hail of bullets in the war is just to set off the poetic "loveless love pastoral" between the young correspondent and the new wife. Write about ordinary people in life through the side of life, write about "housework" and "love between children" in daily life, This is an important feature of Ru Zhijuan's few short stories in his life. "Lily" is her early work. Although it is about war, it already contains the aesthetic pursuit of portraying the emotional world of ordinary people.Those two little correspondents who didn't even have names and the new rural wife were ordinary people like that.Under the background of the war culture that advocated writing "heroes" at that time, Ru Zhijuan consciously did not write the main characters in the works as "heroes", or did not write them as "heroes". The awareness of the artistic image of the "hero" is directly related.In her eyes, heroes should be the same as ordinary people. Fighting heroes are heroes only when fighting, but in ordinary life, they are ordinary people, who can blush and have girls Coy gestures, and what they talk about is just homely talk.In this sense, the small correspondent can also be said to be a hero.Since the writer avoids the fight scenes, she doesn't have to write about his heroism, but just his normal side.She also believes that the characters in the novel must be artistic images that can stand up, and then we can talk about whether they are "heroes". If you write about the small correspondent as a "hero", you must write about his heroic deeds , to highlight his brave side on the battlefield, the narrator of the novel can only walk with the "hero" and constantly discover his excellent qualities, and it can only be an opportunity to "sing carols and receive education". Moreover, according to the aesthetic habits of the time, Writers cannot let the new daughter-in-law laugh at the "hero" casually. Although the "hero" may have a temporary failure (such as not being able to borrow a quilt), being ridiculed will damage the image of the "hero".Therefore, the writer intentionally avoids positive shaping of the heroic image, just to stick to his own aesthetic style and not be influenced by the prevailing creative trend of thought at that time, which is exactly the value of Ru Zhijuan.

Because the writer got rid of the shackles of the concept of "hero", the beautiful emotions of the main characters in the novel have been freely and fully expressed.The novel mainly depicts the holy relationship between the young correspondent and the new daughter-in-law, but it is the narrator "I" who threads the needle between the two. The striking narrative feature of this novel is the female perspective, that is, "I" is a powerful The character with strong gender awareness was first written before the outbreak of the war. Because "I" was a woman, I was assigned to the frontier dressing station by the regiment leader, and then led to the escort of the small correspondent.The young correspondent was a nineteen-year-old rural youth who had just joined the army for one year. He was simple and honest, not good at speech, and especially timid about interacting with the opposite sex.In order to highlight his latter feature, the author spends more time describing his relationship with "I" and his new wife.On the way for the little correspondent to send "I" to the dressing room, it is an important stage to initially show the character of the little correspondent.The author intentionally arranges this march during the day instead of night, and before the general offensive instead of the roaring battle, so that the personality of the small correspondent who does not want to get close to women is clearly exposed.During this process, "I" acted like a little girl, such as being unable to walk, taking the initiative to recognize fellow villagers, and even provocatively asking him if he has a wife, etc., showing a kind of wartime The unique "pungentness" of new women with open thoughts and feelings contrasts the shy and simple appearance of the young correspondent and the joy for women in his heart.The novel writes such a plot: the small correspondent is going back to the regiment headquarters after completing the task (escorting "I" and borrowing the quilt), and he is full of excitement and gratitude for this experience of contacting women.The writer wrote:

He immediately became active, saluted me and ran away.After walking a few steps, he remembered something again. He dug into his bag for a while and took out two steamed buns. He waved them at me, put them on the stone by the roadside, and said, "I'm serving you dinner!" After finishing, he left without touching the ground.I walked over to pick up the two hard steamed buns, and saw that there was another wild chrysanthemum in the barrel of the gun on his back... There was hardly any discussion or commentary, but the series of movements of the little correspondent and the little gong inserted into the barrel of the gun at some point in time had already vividly displayed a character image.

The appearance of the new daughter-in-law is after the initial finalization of the image of the young correspondent. The work draws out the image of the new daughter-in-law through the help of the small correspondent who cannot borrow a quilt, and successfully shifts the focus of the work to the new daughter-in-law.The appearance of the new daughter-in-law is very natural and graceful, giving people a pleasing pleasure, just in sharp contrast to the solemnity at the end: The door curtain was lifted, revealing a young daughter-in-law.This daughter-in-law is very good-looking, with a high nose bridge, curved eyebrows, and a fluffy forehead.Although they are made of coarse cloth, they are all new.I saw that her head had been twisted into a bun, so my sister-in-law apologized briefly to her, saying that the comrade who came here just now didn't speak well, so don't take it for granted.She listened, her face turned inward, and she bit her lip and smiled.After I finished speaking, she didn't make a sound, she still lowered her head and bit her lip, as if holding back a bellyful of jokes and didn't finish laughing.

The character of the new daughter-in-law is shaped through her relationship with the small correspondent, or at the cost of the small correspondent's final sacrifice.At first, she went to borrow quilts from ordinary people on behalf of the army, but she refused to borrow quilts when the small correspondent went, but she did when "I" went.Readers can fully imagine the "embarrassment" of the two people's first contact through their existing understanding of the correspondent. She felt wronged by the correspondent in her heart, so when the correspondent took the quilt, she hung the clothes on the shoulders in a panic. When there was a hole, "the new daughter-in-law smiled and hurriedly looked for a needle and thread to sew it up for him. But the correspondent refused, so she took the quilt and left." Only women are so sensitive to tears in clothes , This opening will remain in the heart of the new daughter-in-law forever.Therefore, when she saw the big exposed hole at a glance from among the many wounded, she immediately became another person.The work writes:

I turned around and saw that the new daughter-in-law had gently moved an oil lamp over and unbuttoned his clothes. Her shyness and shyness just now had completely disappeared, and she was just solemnly and piously wiping his body... When the doctor and I took it When the medicine arrived, the new wife was sitting sideways beside him.With her head down, she was sewing the hole in his shoulder one stitch at a time.The doctor listened to the correspondent's heart, stood up silently and said: "There is no need for an injection." I went over to touch it, and it turned out that my hands were cold.But the new daughter-in-law didn't seem to see or hear anything, she still took the needle and sewed the hole thinly and densely.I couldn't stand it anymore, and said in a low voice, "Don't sew any more." But she gave me a strange glance, lowered her head, and continued to sew one stitch at a time.

Here, the author takes pains to repeatedly render the hole in the shoulder of the little correspondent, step by step to open the emotional gate of the new daughter-in-law, and to push the work to a climax step by step.When the hygienist asked someone to carry a coffin and was about to take off the quilt on the little correspondent, the new wife's emotions finally broke out.The author uses a series of words that are completely different from the emotional color when the new daughter-in-law first appeared on the stage: "snatched the quilt with his hands", "glared at them fiercely", "yelled half a sentence angrily", etc., and then, for her heart The "hero" in the book is covered with the "quilt covered with white lilies on a red background". It is through this carefully designed and selected quilt with "flowers symbolizing purity and affection" that the author finally completes the The author praises the beauty of human nature and affection in war.

Being good at using detailed descriptions to express the spiritual outlook of the characters is an artistic feature that is often praised in this novel, but the narrative features of this novel are rarely noticed.Structurally speaking, the two protagonists are the narrators, and their psychological world is seen or felt through the eyes of the narrator "I", so the role of "I" is very important.The first third of the novel is about the image of the little correspondent in "my" eyes, and the middle third is about the correspondent and the new wife in the eyes of "my", and the only single contact between the two of them is completely fictitious. I don't know the true attitude of the new daughter-in-law towards the correspondent.It wasn't until the last third of the novel that the young correspondent was sacrificed that the new daughter-in-law's feelings erupted violently.But readers will not feel abrupt when they read this, it seems that only this kind of performance is in line with the character logic of the characters.This psychological logic of the reader is accomplished by "I".The novel describes the details of a small correspondent's clothes being hung up, and this detail first appeared in the eyes of "I": "He has gone far away, but I can still see the pieces of cloth torn off his shoulders fluttering in the wind." I'm so sorry I didn't sew him up before leaving." The new daughter-in-law didn't express her thoughts on the hole.But when the correspondent's body appeared, the new daughter-in-law recognized him from the opening.After that, "I" retreated to a very unimportant position, and the focus was on describing the new daughter-in-law sewing clothes.This seems to be a hint: the "regret" caused by seeing the cut on the correspondent's shoulder in "my" eyes is also the "regret" in the heart of the new daughter-in-law. It hints at the inner world of the new daughter-in-law.Although the novel does not directly describe the new daughter-in-law's inner feelings for the correspondent, the narrator's psychological activities play a rhetorical role of mediocrity everywhere.By analogy, in the first third of the novel, the small correspondent in the eyes of "I" is not just a general introduction of characters, but through "I"'s way of contacting and feeling about the small correspondent, readers can associate it with the fictional writing of the novel. The first contact between the new daughter-in-law and the young correspondent and the new daughter-in-law's feelings for him, with this kind of metaphor, there will be a hint of "non-stop laughing" when the new daughter-in-law appears.Expressing the emotional exchange between the young correspondent and the new daughter-in-law through such a narrative method is subtle and beautiful, which is evocative. [[Comment:]]

1 See the first volume of "Zhou Yang's Collected Works", People's Literature Publishing House, 1984, p. 529. 2 See Wang Yuanjian's "Under the Brilliance of the Spirit of the Revolutionary Predecessors—Talking about the Creation Process of Several Short Stories", originally published in the June 1959 issue of "Liberation Army Literature and Art", here based on "Chinese Contemporary Literature Series Wang Yuanjian Research Special Collection" No. 5-6 pages, PLA Literature and Art Publishing House, 1983 edition. 3 "Political commissar-reckless hero" is also very common in war-themed movies and dramas in the 1950s and 1960s. The more famous ones include "Dujuan Mountain" and "Independent Brigade".

4 "Red Sun" was approved by the General Political and Cultural Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in July 1957, and was first published in July 1957 by China Youth Publishing House as one of the "Liberation Army Literature and Art Series".After the first edition, three major revisions were made successively in 1959, 1964 and 1978, among which the biggest revision was in 1964. In the fourth edition in 1978, the original appearance of the second edition in 1959 was basically restored.This textbook is based on the 1978 edition. 5 "Linhaixueyuan", China Youth Publishing House, first edition in September 1957. 6 The "Five Tiger Generals" are composed of five characters: Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Ma Chao, and Huang Zhong. In the future, there will be more configurations of such five characters in classical novels, even considering the relationship between the five elements of "gold, wood, water, fire, and earth" .In contemporary war novels, some writers unconsciously use the "five tiger generals" character relationship model.In addition to "Lin Haixueyuan", there are also "Five Tiger Generals" such as Liu Hong, Wang Qiang, Lin Zhong, Lu Han, and Xiaopo in "Railway Guerrillas", and Shi Gengxin, Ding Shangwu, Xiao Fei, Sun Dingbang, etc. in "Fire King Kong" Sun Zhenbang's "Five Tiger Generals", etc.It is worth further exploring the aesthetic laws of these heroes' personalities. 7 Quoted from Qu Bo's "About "Linhaixueyuan", included in the book as an appendix of "Linhaixueyuan", People's Literature Publishing House, 1978 edition. 8 See Hou Jinjing's "A Fascinating Novel", collected in "Selected Works of Hou Jinjing's Literary Criticism", People's Literature Publishing House, 1979 edition. 9 "Lily", first published in the third issue of "Yanhe" in 1958. 10 Quoted from Ru Zhijuan's "How I Wrote Lily", November 1980.