Chapter 26 Ye Shengtao I saw

Ye Shengtao I saw The first time I met Sheng Tao was in the autumn of the tenth year of the Republic of China.At that time, Brother Liu Yanling introduced me to teach at Wusong Pao Taiwan Chinese Public School.When we got there, he told me, "Ye Shengtao is here too." We had both read Shengtao's novels, so he told me that.I asked curiously, "What kind of person?" To my surprise, he replied, "An old gentleman." But when Yanling and I went to visit Shengtao, I didn't think he was old. It's just that the simple clothes and silent demeanor don't quite match the young Suzhou scholar Ye Shengtao we usually imagine.

I remember that the day we met was a cloudy day.As usual, I can't speak when I meet strangers; Shengtao seems to be the same.We made only a few general comments about the work, and then we left.Yanling told me that Shengtao always went back to Luzhi every Saturday; he loved his home very much.When he was in school, he often invited Yanling to go out for a walk; because I didn't know him well, I just sat in the room by myself.Soon, there was a sudden trend in Chinese public schools.I told Yanling about a tough method;—it is really a stupid and boring method! ——I'm afraid Ye Shengtao might not agree with it.But to my surprise, he actually agreed!Thinking about it later, he may have deliberately favored us; this is really the attitude of a big brother.Naturally, our approach failed, and the trend was delayed; so everyone came to live in Shanghai.I met Shengtao almost every day; at the same time, I got to know Xidi and my fellow brothers.A month passed in this way; it was really a good month for me.

I can see that Sheng Tao has always been a man of few words.When everyone talked, he always sat there and listened.But he doesn't like to be alone, he always seems to listen so interestingly.As for being alone with others, it is natural to talk to some extent; but there is no debate.He felt that the debate was about to start, and he often smiled and said, "I'm not sure about this." That's how it passed.He is also an extremely easy-going person, and it is easy to see his anger.The side cover of the "Morning News" that he worked so hard to keep, with his own words on it, was specially brought from home for me to read; I put it on a bookshelf at random, but it got lost.When he and I discovered this at the same time, he only showed regret, and then said: "Let him go to the end, let him go to the end!" I am still ashamed, because I know his composition is not good. Leave a manuscript.His ease comes from nature, not from experience and affectation.He hates the spirit of compromise in the world.During this month, I saw him rage once;--only once in all this time--that was the contempt for the compromisers of the trend.

The fad was over, and I went to Hangzhou to teach.The school authorities over there asked me to ask Shengtao to go.Shengtao wrote in a letter saying: "We want to swim in the West Lake to our heart's content, no matter it is winter." He came and taught me to go to the station to pick him up.I knew he would feel lonely when he was in a place like a station.His family is really nice, and his clothes have always been taken care of by his family.I often think that he is like a child; he is innocent like a child, but also like a child who cannot be separated from his family.When he had to be away from his family, he had to find some familiar company; loneliness was dreadful to him.So when he came to school, he originally lived in a room alone, but he was willing to use that room as our bedroom and mine as a study.In this way, we can be together often; I am naturally happy, and we go to the West Lake from time to time; sometimes we go down to the lake, and sometimes we just drink.At school, each had a desk, I only prepared homework, but he always wrote novels and fairy tales.When he first arrived, the school authorities came to see him.The next day, I asked him, "Do you want to go see them?" He frowned and said, "Do you have to go? Wait a day." He never went.He is most opposed to formalism.

At that time, the material of his novels was the accumulation of the past; the material of his fairy tales was sometimes a momentary interest.For example, "Big Throat" in "Scarecrow".That morning, we all woke up in bed and heard the whistle of the factory; he said: "There is another article today, I have already thought about it, and it came so fast." idea!When he writes, he often picks up the pen and stretches out the paper, and then keeps waving his hands to write down. He seldom hesitates to stop writing at the beginning and in the middle.His manuscript is very clear, with no more than three or five redacted words per page.He said he has always been like this.After each article is written, I naturally have a sneak peek; he often talks about the appropriateness of the ending, and he says that he is somewhat sure about the ending.After reading it, he immediately sealed and mailed the "Novel Monthly"; as usual, he sent it by ordinary mail.I always persuaded him to register; but he said, "I'm always like this." He has only been in Hangzhou for two months, and he has written a lot, which makes people envious. The seven articles in "Fire" from "Rice" to "Trend", and a part of "Scarecrow", were all written by him at that time with my own eyes.

After staying in Hangzhou for two months, he hurried back before the winter vacation; he really couldn't leave home, so he asked me to tell the school authorities before leaving that he would not come back no matter what.But he lived in Peiping for half a year, and it was also brought by a friend.A few days ago, I happened to look through the "Morning News Supplement" for eleven years, and saw his little poem about homesickness on the way back then. I reread it twice, and found it very interesting.Not long after returning to Peking, he joined the Compilation Department of the Commercial Press, and his family moved to Shanghai.From then on, I stayed in Shanghai until now—I was dragged to Fuzhou by a friend in the middle. There is an article "Jiang Li" that expresses the love of that time, which is a lingering text.These days, I run around in Zhejiang and sometimes live in Shanghai for a while, and he often takes leave to play or drink with me everywhere.Once, I stayed at his house, but when I came to Shanghai, I always liked to go out, so he kept saying that he couldn't talk freely;

He wrote to me, always saying that it would take a few days to talk freely when he got back. In January of the sixteenth year, I came north with my family and passed by Shanghai. Many acquaintances and I were farewell, and Sheng Tao was there.We drank happily and discussed that night; he kept silent as usual.After drinking the wine, he went to walk around again, and he followed.When he arrived at a place, his friends made a little joke with him; he was slightly embarrassed, but he was still smiling and silent.Sheng Tao is not a romantic man; in a sense, he is exactly what Yanling calls an "old gentleman".But he can understand others, he can forgive others, and he can "make sense" himself, so he is still-perhaps extra-relatable.It was almost midnight that night, and when I walked across Edoard Road, he recited Zhou Meicheng's words to me, "I'm sober from the wine, how can I spend the night forever!" I didn't say anything; I probably couldn't say anything about my mood at that time.We went to Yipinxiang and spent the middle of the night.This time I am especially sorry for Shengtao; he is someone who cannot afford to sleep less.Although his family lives in Shanghai, they still live in the countryside; they get up at seven o'clock in the morning and go to bed at nine o'clock in the evening.Once when I went there at 9:10, his house had already turned off the lights and closed the door.This natural, orderly life is right.That night, Boxiang said, "Brother Sheng will be unwell tomorrow." Thinking about it, I really don't know how to thank him.

The next day I boarded the boat and left. In the blink of an eye, I didn't go south for three and a half years.There are very few letters, but it is all my laziness.I can only see the change of his state of mind from Sheng Tao's novels; I will leave this for another article.Shengtao seems to have been to the crossroads in the past few years, but what about now?I don't know much about it.He used to drink some wine at dinner, "to be half-drunk"; recently he can't drink much, but he has learned to play the flute - a few days ago he said he knew "Eight Suns", now it's time to know something else That's right.He used to like to watch movies, but now he likes to listen to Kunqu Opera.But these are not "world-weary", as someone said; Sheng Tao is not world-weary, I know.Also, although he can drink and play the flute, he has never smoked any "high-quality cigarettes", nor has he ever lived in a "small villa", as some people think, and I know this.

In July 1930, Peking Tsinghua University.