Chapter 32 Starlight Rising from the Darkness and Pool of Blood——The Educated Youth Novel "Wave"

When it comes to educated youth literature, one must mention the novella "Wave".As we all know, in the third to four years after the start of the movement to go to the countryside, a large number of educated youths gradually entered township and county-level enterprises through regional recruitment, and re-formed a living circle. "Wave" is a famous novel that reflects these educated youths in a small town between the countryside and the big city. "Waves" was created in 1974 by Zhao Zhenkai (Bei Dao).Zhao Zhenkai is a senior high school student in Beijing No. 4 Middle School. During the "Cultural Revolution", he worked as a construction worker.His younger sister unfortunately drowned in the Northeast Cadre School because she rescued her companion who fell into the water.Because of the loss of her daughter, the mother's nerves were stimulated and she fell ill.

The novel was first drafted in November 1974 and revised in June 1976.This novel is known in underground literature as the most mature one reflecting the emotional life of educated youths sent to the countryside. It is a leader in underground literature both in terms of art and depth of ideological understanding, and it has the scale and bearing of a novel. . Through the narration of several characters, the novel "Wave" pieced together a picture of life from different angles: In a small city in the north, two educated youths from Beijing, Yang Xun and Xiao Ling, met.Xiao Ling was recruited from the countryside to the city. Her parents were senior intellectuals who committed suicide successively during the "Cultural Revolution".In the countryside, Xiao Ling once fell in love with a cadre's son and conceived a girl. Later, the cadre's son went to university through the back door and abandoned her.Yang Xun is also a son of a cadre. When he joined the queue, there was a severe drought in the countryside. He took the lead in opposing the payment of public rations and spent time in the county jail.After Yang Xun and Xiao Ling fell in love, they learned that Xiao Ling had an illegitimate daughter, and their relationship developed a rift.At this time, Yang Xun's mother transferred him back to Beijing, while Xiao Ling was found out by Yang Xun's Uncle Lin for "life problems" and sent back to the mountainous countryside.When Yang Xun returned to look for Xiao Ling, Xiao Ling had unfortunately died.

Yang Xun's "Uncle Lin" in the novel, Lin Dongping, director of the Municipal Revolutionary Committee, is an old comrade-in-arms of Yang Xun's mother. internal punishment.The novel implies that Lin Dongping is Yang Xun's actual father.In this small city, there are party moths like Lin Defa; cadre children like Yuanyuan (Lin Dongping's daughter) and Duoduo live; homeless Baihua also lives; "Wave" is actually a prose poem.The whole story is just the carrier and frame of the poem.The style of the novel is rational "calmness" besides poetic.This kind of calm comes from the stern look at the cruel and rough real life.There are no bizarre plots, no soul-stirring sentimentality, and no tearful accusations, only the "calmness" of facing reality and the fluctuations surging deep in the heart.

The author wants to express the turbulent pursuit of young intellectuals, as well as the efforts to preserve the only bit of "elegance" surrounded by the rough life of the lower classes.The city in the book is full of broken icons, evil, violence, all kinds of absurdity and loneliness.In the novel, the author mentioned "starlight" many times.Starlight is the only light in this dark night. When there is no warm sunlight, this cold light is extremely precious.This starlight is the undying conscience hidden deep in the hearts of Xiao Ling and the others.This astral light is an attachment to humanity that needs to be preserved, a light of reason.

In the novel, there is a strong contrast between "elegant" and "rough" everywhere.Xiao Ling has a kind of elegance that cannot be taken away by rape and deceit, and cannot be washed clean. She will never be able to assimilate and coordinate with the rough environment, unless she dies.Her parents died trying to maintain this "grace".This is a kind of cultural accumulation that has penetrated into the bone marrow of a generation of educated youth.Because of this, Xiao Ling is extremely weak and easily hurt.Living gracefully here also means maintaining fantasy, self-love, dignity, and the right to pursue, as well as passion, compassion, sensitivity, and courage.Both Xiao Ling and Yang Xun have the tenacity and tenacity of this "little bourgeoisie".

She stopped suddenly. "Do you like poetry?" "like." "I'll recite a song, would you like to listen?" "certainly." She stared straight ahead, her voice soft and earnest: Green, how I love you green. Green wind, green branches. boat at sea, The horse is in the mountains. ... Green, how I love you green, starry frost, and that which seems to open the way to the dawn And the fish of darkness come with them. Figs with sandy leaves, rubbing against the wind, The mountain rises like a wild cat Its enraged agave. ... Even in an extremely primitive state, in the wilderness, she still wears a beautiful white dress.

After a while, the lights went out, and she stood at the door, wearing that snow-white dress, and came over.Against the backdrop of the vast night sky, in the entire black ocean, she is a shining wave, and the stars are the countless droplets. She put the bottle and glass aside, walked up to me, and looked at me with a smile. "Come on, hold me tight," she said. Opposite to this "elegance" and "sensitivity" are the "roughness", "wildness" and "cruelty" that exist everywhere, and they shatter the fragile self-esteem of people who once existed.

Belts whistled, brass hoops flashed in the air.Suddenly, my mother rushed out of the encirclement and ran to the balcony. She quickly rolled over the railing. "Anyway, as soon as I die, I will jump if anyone wants to come over!" Everything is still.The sky is so blue, the white clouds are motionless, and the sun caresses the wound on my mother's forehead. "Mom—" I yelled. "Lingling——" Mom's eyes turned to me, her voice was so calm.Mother.I.Mother.blood beads.white clouds.Sky ... He poked the brim of his hat with his belt, and took a step forward, "Jump, jump!" I jumped down, knelt on the ground and hugged his legs tightly, looking at him with pleading eyes, he lowered his head and hesitated , lips parted slightly, revealing shiny teeth.He swallowed hard and pushed me away.

"Mother--" The white clouds and the sky turned abruptly. If ferocity and brutality are a hammer, then "elegance" is a fine piece of porcelain, vulnerable to a blow.No matter how rich a person's "life" is, it is no match for a knife. "Waves" shows how easily "civilization" is defeated by "violence" and "ignorance". The more developed civilization is, the more sensitive nerves it creates will bleed and groan under the impact of "roughness".The entire civilized building collapsed in an instant during the "Cultural Revolution" and turned into nothing.

"Wave" truly records the rational thinking of young intellectuals at that time. In the novel, an "Uncle Shen" who studied Oriental history at Harvard said to Xiao Ling: "Old Hegel had this saying: 'Beings unite themselves in the history they themselves create, and history, as a concrete universality, judges them and transcends them...' That is to say, people It is difficult to understand history through oneself, and people at the peak of historical trends lack this understanding even more, which is the tragedy of some great people." "If a country blows the horn with an indeterminate tune, it is It is a symbol of the decline of power and a prelude to the rise of the entire nation..."

The generation of young people who grew up during the "Cultural Revolution" are accustomed to thinking about history and personal destiny. "Wave" left a vivid sample of the thinking of young people at that time for future generations. "Wave" is a poem, and it is a poem with a philosophical color. Lin Dongping taught Xiao Ling a lesson at the train station. "Young people's emotional fluctuations are temporary." "Uncle Lin, have you ever experienced such a moment?" "We've had a lot of painful experiences." "So you take that experience and teach young people that they're doomed too, right?" "I don't want the tragedy to repeat itself." ... Xiao Ling: "I believe the world won't always go on like this, maybe this is where we are different." "You're still young." Xiao Ling smiled slightly, "So this world seems too old." Lin Dongping weighed the long historical evolution and the short life of an individual, and concluded that the temporary fluctuations of young people's emotions are meaningless.However, Xiao Ling did not limit herself to the length of an individual life, she calibrated herself on the big self of history, so she was able to "smile" to Lin Dongping.The waves of history are formed by the "fluctuations" of hundreds of generations, and Xiao Ling at this moment is already the waves and long river of "history".At this moment, she entered eternity. Xiao Ling is the spokesperson of the author, so why not Lin Dongping.In the novel, the author has revealed Lin Dongping's pain more than once, and has been shaken.In the novel, Yang Xun said to Xiao Ling, "As long as we live, there is hope." This reflects the author's inner pain while waiting in the dark for the unpredictable dawn.It's a Becketian hope: as long as we live. The whole world is still as dark and peaceful as before, but "starlight" rises from the darkness and pool of blood.The thoughts and deeds of several young people, their stories of blood and tears are nothing but temporary fluctuations in emotion.But this "fluctuation" contains many, many contents.This is what the author wants to talk about. Some people commented on "Wave", "It is the light of poetry rising in the darkness and pool of blood, it is the hot tears on the snow, it is the trembling of a sad heart, and it is a wordless song that reverberates like meditation on a land of suffering." "Close the book, the sunshine on the beach, the flickering lights, the moonlight dancing on the floor, the mercury lamp on the snow, the firelight in front of the statue of Sakyamuni, and the silver-gray cold light in the field, The light from the window of the ruthless train going north... the most memorable is the starlight in the vast night sky, which rises from the darkness and pool of blood, shines on the ancient and vast land and the people suffering from hardships, connecting life and death, Good and evil, yesterday and tomorrow..." This novel can be regarded as a report on how the educated youth live gracefully, and it is a work that reveals the inner world of the "educated youth tribe". The shortcoming of the novel is that the author's accumulation of the life of the educated youth in the countryside is still not rich enough, and the treatment of Chen Dongping, Bai Hua, Yuanyuan and other characters seems simple.Compared with Xiao Ling, the male protagonist Yang Xun also looks flat and lacks ink. In order to let everyone understand the style and text characteristics of the full text of "Wave", the last chapter (Chapter 11) is transcribed as follows: (Yang Xun) I closed the blue book and lit a cigarette.The rain drew irregular thin lines on the glass window.Little lights float in the distance.The bushes beside the embankment were illuminated by the light scattered out of the window, flashing by. I exhaled thick smoke on the glass window, opened the blue book again, and read on. (Xiao Ling) On the left are unfathomable cliffs.The trees on the shore rustled in the rain, and the branches swayed slightly.The lights of the city in the distance have been covered by the mountains. the way.the way. (Lin Dongping) I walked out of the garage, followed the tiled path, and stepped up the steps. The corridor was quiet, and the wall lamps cast a soft light. In front of Yuanyuan's bedroom door, I stopped, listened, and then knocked on the door. "Sleeping? Yuanyuan?" Nothing happened.I turned the handle of the door and turned on the light. The bed was empty.The room was messy, the drawers of the chest of drawers were half open, and a pair of trousers were dragged outside.There is a note under the teacup on the table: "Dad, you are a liar, I will never come back!" (Lin Yuanyuan) The gravel under his feet was rattling, and there was a stuffy tank truck parked beside him. "When did you leave home?" I asked. "I haven't played at home." Bai Hua said. "Then how were you born?" "Stop talking!" "Why are you so powerful, hmph, just ask me casually." He stopped in front of an open tank truck. "Go up." I struggled to climb up.Hey, it's warm and there's a pile of hay in the corner.I take off the plastic raincoat. "Just sleep here?" "Speak again, and I'll strangle you to death!" (Yang Xun) I closed my book, picked up my bag, and headed for the car door.Buffers rattled and the train stopped at a small station.I walked down the escalator, facing the slightly cool breeze.Walking towards the brightly lit dispatching room of the station, a thin middle-aged man stood at the door. "When does the car going south pass here?" I asked. "Forty minutes later." (Xiao Ling) There was a strange roar.I still don't understand what's going on, but the roaring torrents cover it.I grabbed a small tree by the side of the road casually, and the rolling stones rattled and hit my ankle and leg, causing severe pain. Suddenly, the soil under my feet loosened, I tilted my body, and fell down... (Bai Hua) With a bang, the car shook.After a while, there was a long siren. "Get down!" I said. "I?" "Go home, go back to your father." "You, why are you lying?!" She bit her lip and said. "Go down!" I forced her to the door step by step. "Bastard!" she said, turning and jumping off. The train moved slowly. (Yang Xun) I get out of the car.The tinkling sound of the vehicle inspector's hammer was particularly loud in this rainy night.The mercury lamp was caught by the rain and turned into a hazy halo. Beside the fence gate, the old man who checks the ticket is yawning, his tape raincoat is shining. (Xiao Ling) I woke up with a blade of grass brushing my cheek.Between the cliffs overhead, mist floated.Soon, the sky cleared and the moon rose. Suddenly, a girl who resembled me floated forward and disappeared in the golden stream of light...