Chapter 16 Section 2 The Destiny Combination of Family and History: "Three Families Alley"

Ouyang Shan, who used to be a member of the Shanghai Left League and later participated in the literary rectification movement in Yan'an, intended to write a historical novel "reflecting the ins and outs of the Chinese revolution" as early as 1942. It was originally titled "Revolution and Counter-revolution". In 1999, the book was officially written and renamed "A Generation of Merry". The first "Three Family Alley" was published in 1959,10 mainly expressing "the half-life experience of an intellectual named Zhou Bing who was born as a blacksmith". There are distinct individual characteristics in terms of shaping, expression methods and style sentiment.It takes Guangzhou in the 1920s as the background, integrates personal growth paths, family ups and downs, and historical vicissitudes. Major events such as the Northern Expedition of the National Revolutionary Army and the Guangzhou Uprising showed the development process of the labor movement from naivety to maturity in the 1920s, and the whole process from cooperation to splitting between the KMT and the Communist Party for the first time. Another intricate picture of the times.

The narrative of "Sanjiaxiang" is developed from patterns, and each character in the book is a typical class of a certain class.However, the author's unique entry point and method of expressing history are quite eye-catching. He did not describe this series of movements and struggles with special significance and distinctive characteristics in modern Chinese history from a positive perspective, but reflected them through the psychological process of the characters. The revolutionary movement expressed the political situation of the times by displaying the customs of social life, and ingeniously created a "typical environment" that was far away from the vortex of struggle and did not have the elements for the growth of revolutionaries--Sanjiaxiang. The epitome of Chinese society in the era.The writer carefully weaves a character relationship network based on blood relationship, marriage relationship and social relationship. Through the three families of Zhou, Chen and He and their various social relationships, the influence of the revolutionary movement on them and their attitudes towards the revolutionary movement are shown. , and through the deepening of the revolutionary movement, the various class forces are divided. Although the basic concept of this novel still conforms to the common name of the "class struggle" of the era, the complex relationship between them is especially important for petty bourgeois from different classes. The description of the diverse and complex relationships among intellectuals breaks the stereotype of general modern historical novels that simplifies and vulgarizes class relations and class contradictions.

Among the three families in Sanjia Lane, the Zhou family is a handicraft laborer who has forged iron for generations, the Chen family is a comprador capitalist developed by a small businessman, and the He family is a bureaucratic landlord who relied on relief and outbreaks during the famine. They represent Guangzhou The main social class of this type of metropolis.However, the writer did not mechanically use a class perspective to deal with the relationship between the three families. He started from the family-society relationship with Chinese characteristics, and freely constructed the "five-fold" relationship between the main characters in the work: on the basis of cousins ​​and in-laws, On the Internet, the triple relationship of brother, neighbor and classmate has been added.Chapter 8 "Oath of Alliance" and Chapter 9 "Exchange of Posts" describe Chen Wenxiong and other five middle school graduates, full of youthful passion, forming an alliance in Sanjiaxiang and swearing to "always support each other and dedicate themselves to the prosperity of the motherland". The innocence, self-confidence, and idealism of young people are very touching, and at the same time, through their personal disputes between different beliefs, it hints at the future split.This relationship shows that the class nature of people is not a priori, only in social practice, the specific economic status and social environment will gradually reveal the class nature of people.The writer has experienced the Yan'an rectification movement, and he pays special attention to describing the fluctuation and division of petty bourgeois intellectuals. Chen Wenxiong and his four sisters were originally progressive young people who had received the influence of the "May 4th" new culture. People are equal and sympathize with socialism, but they have exposed their weak and wavering characters one by one in the severe class struggle.It should be pointed out that the author's conception still reflects the influence of the common name of the times, and lacks a realistic understanding and respect for the revolutionary nature of intellectuals and the possibility of bourgeois-born intellectuals transforming into revolution in actual struggles.But after all, the writer described the process of differentiation delicately, providing readers with room for artistic imagination.

Zhou Bing, the protagonist in the historical scroll, was a very special artistic image in the gallery of literary characters in the 1950s and 1960s. The writer defined him as an intellectual who was born in iron.Being born in blacksmiths not only means that he was born in a family of blacksmiths for generations, and he has the blood of the early working class in his body, but also that he himself has been blacksmiths and has formed sincere friendship with a group of urban handicraft workers, which determines his success in life. In the revolutionary practice under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the class foundation of a strong fighter will be gradually honed.But at the same time, he is an intellectual. Although he has not received a systematic and complete bourgeois education, he has almost instinctively accepted the petty bourgeois ideology and feelings under the tender love of a group of young intellectual brothers and sisters since he was a child. It is destined that he will accept severe and even painful tests in the process of participating in the harsh class struggle.The writer neither portrays him as a hero, nor does he have the ideological burden that ordinary writers cannot get rid of. He can describe the inner world of the character more freely, and dare to bluntly expose the character's honesty, weakness, naivety, warmth, etc. Weaknesses and unrealistic, fantasy and other character weaknesses make the characters always have unique personalities and vivid characteristics.The Zhou Bing described by the writer is a "good-looking silly boy". This handsome and silly feature constitutes a "modern Jia Baoyu" Zhou Bing with a unique personality.He is full of romantic fantasies about the victory of the revolution, but he can't stand the blow of the defeat of the revolution. Although the writer has been tempered in the actual revolutionary struggle time after time through him and wrote about his growth and transformation, he is not in a hurry to complete the transformation process. .Especially when he hid in the countryside after the Kuomintang "purge the party", he wrote to his lover Chen Wenting repeatedly, and even revealed his address, which caused his eldest brother Zhou Jin to be killed.During the Guangzhou Uprising, he had grown into a brave uprising fighter, but his ideological consciousness still remained at the level of revolutionary fanaticism of "revenging Ou Tao". The creation needs of volume novels.

Directly related to Zhou Bing's character composition are two women: Ou Tao and Chen Wenting.Among the many female images in the works, the writer pays the most attention to Ou Tao and the most to Chen Wenting.Ou Tao embodies the writer's aesthetic ideal of Chinese women, who is beautiful, versatile, gentle, pure and kind, willing to be poor and courageous to revolutionize.The writer painstakingly created such an exquisite southern beauty, hoping to inspire Zhou Bing's fighting spirit through the tragedy of her death.It's just that the author's intentions are too deep here, and on the contrary, too obvious artificial traces are exposed.But in the first half of the novel, through the love process between Zhou Bing and Ou Tao, it describes a series of southern folk customs such as children begging for cleverness on July 7th, being lazy on New Year’s Eve, choosing a story after the day, and performing plays at school. Fascinating chapter.The writer's description of Chen Wenting is much more relaxed. Her childishness, enthusiasm and self-willedness, her "delicacy" and "arrogance" are all vividly expressed, and she is the most successful female image in the works.When dealing with the relationship between Zhou Bing and Chen Wenting, the author seems to be influenced by Zhongbaoer.The impact of the story of Kochakin and Dongiya emphasizes the logic of class differentiation, which prevents Chen Wenting's character from being further developed, which is a pity.But as far as the first part is concerned, since the writer has prepared well for the frivolous side of Chen Wenting's character, her decadence and transformation are basically convincing.