Chapter 66 fear

Shen Congwen said: "The blood of Chu people gave me a tragic destiny." In 1948, the People's Liberation Army surrounded Beiping City, and the Kuomintang troops retreated into the city. The two armies were in a confrontational situation.The Kuomintang notified Zaiping cultural celebrities to go south within a time limit, and Shen Congwen was also notified.Peking University student, Le Daiyun, an underground member of the Communist Party of China, and progressive left-wing students Li Ying and Wang Yiping visited the door one after another, hoping that Shen would stay in Beiping and welcome the liberation.Shen Congwen said to Zhang Zhaohe: "I can't say I'm bored, but I'm a little 'tired'." In the end, he chose to stay for the sake of his family.

Ma Fenghua recalled: In the later period of the Beiping siege, the "Democracy Wall" of Peking University, which had been dull for a long time, suddenly became lively again. Several posters concentrated their firepower and launched an attack on Shen Congwen.One of them copied in large characters an article Guo Moruo wrote in Hong Kong insulting Shen Congwen ("pink writer"), Zhu Guangqian ("blue writer") and Xiao Qian ("black writer").Some posters accused Shen of the "outdated consciousness" in his works, while others scolded him as a "prostitute writer" who had no "stand".

Shen Congwen's 14-year-old eldest son Shen Longzhu went to Peking University to watch the excitement, and told his father when he returned home.Shen Congwen felt that this time was "a real total negation" of him, and his previous worries quickly became reality. He was afraid, fearful, and felt that a net was being tightened.He felt depressed, thinking that someone was going to persecute him, always felt that he was being watched, worried that the walls had ears, and kept his voice low when talking to his family, often muttering to himself: "The time for reckoning has come!" Life is so fragile..."

Someone sent an anonymous letter to warn Shen Congwen, drawing a bullet in the letter, saying: "The day of reckoning is near." Shen didn't know what kind of disaster he would face, so he distributed part of the books to friends and classmates, saying: "Maybe I deserve to die. But these books are not guilty and should not die with me." When 1949 came, Shen Congwen was almost on the verge of a mental breakdown and became extremely sensitive. On January 2, he wrote a sentence at the end of the article "Green Nightmare": "I should rest, my nerves have developed to the highest point I can adapt to. I will go crazy if I am not destroyed."

One day in March, Shen Longzhu suddenly saw Shen Congwen put his hand on the plug of the wire.In a panic, Shen Longzhu unplugged the power and kicked his father away.A few days later, Shen Congwen cut the arteries in his wrist and neck with a safety blade, and drank some kerosene. Fortunately, Zhang Zhonghe (Zhang Zhaohe's cousin), who was a guest at Shen's house, walked past Shen's room , Hearing groans, he broke into the door and sent Shen Congwen, who had fallen into a coma, to Anding Hospital.After Shen was rescued and woke up, he thought the hospital was a prison cell, shouted to escape, and told Zhang Zhaohe to ask Tang Yongtong to try to save him.Zhang Zhaohe couldn't understand Shen Congwen's fear, so he could only write to Shen's brothers and sisters, asking whether the Shen family's ancestors had a history of mental illness, so as to provide reference for doctors.

Wu Han, who was the deputy representative of Tsinghua University's military control committee and dean of the Faculty of Arts at the time, was invited to solve the problem for Shen Congwen.Shen proposed to Wu to go to Ci County to burn kilns, Wu was very embarrassed.At this time, Shen Congwen was still immersed in pain. He asked himself: "What am I? Where am I? What do I want? What's wrong with me? What happened to me? I can't figure it out." On April 5, Yang Gang, the head of the party group of Tianjin Ta Kung Pao, visited Shen Congwen in the hospital and brought the latest People's Daily and Progress Daily. The next day, Shen Congwen lamented in his diary: "It's a pity that such a new I have no way to participate in this new era. How many people worse than me can still get a new life from various situations, but due to the objective limitations of my environment and character, I will eventually sacrifice in the process of the times. 20 years of writing articles has offended many people.”

The execution of his younger brother Shen Yuequan was a blow to Shen Congwen.Shen Yuequan was a lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army in the fourth phase of Whampoa and a hero of the War of Resistance.After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Shen Yuequan was unwilling to be a short lieutenant general in the Nanjing Ministry of National Defense. He decided to disarm and return to the field. He returned to Fenghuang and rented a small courtyard, planted flowers and grass, and did some consulting work for the nascent local people's government in his free time. Yunfei surrendered and went to be a lobbyist several times.

During the anti-revolutionary movement, Shen Yuequan was taken to the riverside as a counter-revolutionary.He spread an old army blanket for himself on the green grass on the river beach, sighed softly and said, "Oh! I didn't expect you to do this." Then he pointed to his forehead and said, "... let's hit here...! "Shen used to be famous for his marksmanship. He could light twenty or thirty incense sticks at the base of the wall, and use a shell gun to kill them one by one.He did not know how many people he taught to learn how to shoot, but he never thought that his head would be the target of the last instruction.

In 1958, Shen Yuequan's orphan, daughter Shen Chaohui came to Beijing from Xiangxi to join her uncle Shen Congwen.After the Cultural Revolution began, Shen Chaohui was ordered to return to Xiangxi as one of the "five black categories". All deposits in her name were confiscated and her household registration in Beijing was revoked. Thirty-two years later, in 1984, Shen Yuequan's grievance was cleared. The total compensation was 500 yuan, plus the ratification of the name of the uprising member, and his wife's title of county CPPCC member. Ma Fenghua recalled that shortly after liberation, Zhang Zhaohe joined the "New Democratic Youth League" in the name of a "group friend", and his two sons joined the Youth League and Young Pioneers. The more outdated.Shen said sadly: "Even my wife doesn't understand me, how can I hope to be understood by others!"

Once, when Ma Fenghua was at Shen's house, Shen showed Zhu an essay written by his second son, Huchu, and laughed at himself, saying, "Look, Huhu is about to start educating me." "Family", Ma Fenghua remembers writing on it: "The four of us in our family, except for my father, are all progressive in their thinking. My mother came back from Huada every Saturday, and started an ideological struggle against my father. I thought, if my father can also reform his mind, Then our family must be very happy. I have already discussed with my brother, and I will definitely help my mother and educate my father in the future to make our family a happy family." Shen Congwen added an eyebrow to the line "starting ideological struggle": "The word 'struggle' is like a fight. Your mother is not someone who knows how to fight. Can you use two other words instead?"

In October 1951, Shen Congwen went to Sichuan to participate in the land reform. This trip to Sichuan freed him from hesitation and pain. It happened that Guangming Daily published his statement article "My Learning".By this time, Shen Congwen finally no longer feared, and slowly integrated into this new society.