Chapter 28 Cousin and other

Ms. Lin Peifen commented on a recent short story in "Book Review Bibliography", titled "Looking at Zhang - A Discussion on Meeting and Happiness". Really good, copy for readers: Change a thousand words before you feel at ease; Grandma is still a virgin girl. It is not allowed to look at the uncombed hair. ——Yuan Mei Qianxing The article mentioned that Mrs. Wu’s daughter called her mother’s cousin “cousin” instead of “cousin” in this story. It can be seen that “the two have a marriage relationship besides cousins—both of them kissed each other. In a married marriage, Mrs. Wu's husband is their cousin, and Mrs. Xun's husband is also one of the old relatives."

Ms. Lin is really careful.It's just that Mrs. Xun's husband is one year younger than their cousins, and Mrs. Wu's husband may not necessarily be younger than his wife. In fact, strictly speaking, it should be called "cousin".They are nothing more than simple cousins.I also hesitated for a while when I wrote the word "cousin", not because I didn't think that I should make a note. I have many cousins, and none of my aunts.My mother's cousins ​​are also my father's distant cousins, so they are considered cousins.I didn't realize until now that the word "aunt" is taboo.Could it be that "表" is not homonymous with the word "bitch"?Not only in our family—we are from Hebei—we have never heard the name "cousin" in relatives' homes.The only exception is that the Li family in Hefei has a son-in-law who is originally from Yangzhou and is the only relative from northern Jiangsu. His wife and my aunt are cousins, and their children call my aunt "cousin aunt".It sounded a bit harsh to me at the time, and I didn't investigate why.Of course, Eryou in the Red Chamber is also Jia Rong’s aunt—it’s true that married people are called "aunt" and unmarried are called "aunt", but the younger generation also call aunt "aunt".Presumably because being a concubine is not a formal marriage, the polite honorific title has to be treated as an unmarried aunt.

My mother is from Hunan, and she called my concubine "big aunt and second aunt".My aunt is also from Hunan.But my uncle's family is quite Shanghai-style, so my cousins ​​call my aunt's younger sister "Auntie"—"Auntie" is a Wu dialect that has only become popular in recent years—and this is the only family that has "Auntie". Logically, there is no substitute for the noun "aunt", but as far as I know, there is only one "aunt".Li Hongzhang's eldest grandson continued to marry the younger sister of poet Yang Yunshi, who was called "big aunt" by younger generations.The Yang family is from Jiangnan——Changshu?

But I call my stepmother's sister "Auntie", "Aunt Eight, Aunt Nine" and even "Aunt Sixteen".Their father, Sun Baoqi, has eight sons and sixteen daughters.The Sun family seems to be from the south of the Yangtze River - I have always been vague about these things - although they all speak Beijing movies very authentically. In addition, our relatives are all from North Central China and South Central China.It seems that except for the more open corner of the south of the Yangtze River—extending to northern Jiangsu—the word "aunt" is taboo in modern times, at least the verbal terms "aunt" and "aunt" have been eliminated, so as not to be confused with concubine.

"Xiaoyi" in Hokkien dialect is a concubine, presumably Fujian and Guangdong also call "Xiao" as "Xi".Nowadays, I am afraid that few people in Taiwan call their wives and sisters aunts. One of Zhang Ziping's best-selling novels in the past 30 years is about a young man falling in love with his mother's younger sister, Aunt "Yun". "Aunt Yun" is obviously not a colloquial language. This name is very strange and unnatural, and it is to avoid calling "Aunt Yun" or "Aunt Yun".Even in classical Chinese, it is wrong to call an unmarried girl an "aunt".The appearance of Zhang Ziping's novels is very Western-style, with horizontal typography. The locations in the book are "H City" and "S City", and it is impossible to tell whether it is a metropolis.My impression is that the author is from the mainland, and if he writes in Shanghai, it will be a later matter.He is also apparently allergic to the word "aunt".

The dispute between "cousin aunt" and "cousin aunt" is not mentioned, and it seems that the novel "Meeting Huan" itself should also be annotated.Such a long self-note for such a short article is really a joke.I really yearn for the traditional line drawing method - relying on a person's dialogue actions and opinions to express personality and intention.But longing for longing, whether one or two points can be achieved is another matter.Obviously failed, even a careful person like Ms. Lin didn't see Xun Shaofu in "Meeting Happy". ①I am interested in his wife's clothing, although he is not a sissy; ②I think that if blind marriage is like buying a lottery ticket, he won the first prize; The old wife is over middle-aged, but she still has a strong desire for her; it is because she loves her wife.As for him not being able to understand her subtext, and sometimes speaking inattentively, which made her angry, that was a common problem of most rough men.

Among the four characters here, Mrs. Wu's daughter is a bystander.Regarding her own life experience, we only know that her family opposed her early marriage. After marriage, her husband went abroad for further studies, and because he could not go with her, we only knew the hardship of having no money.This is not just remorse for marrying a poor man, at least there is no sign of remorse, and the young couple are obviously in love.It's just parting sorrow plus facing reality - growing pains. Mrs. Wu has two contradictions: ①Painful for her beloved cousin, Caifeng Follows the Crow, who is so grievous that she can't wait for Hongxing to get out of the relationship, but she feels contemptuous of her nail-biting story—it is because the former is a person met through social interaction, which is more romantic;② Because she was more knowledgeable than Mrs. Xun, she felt that she could understand Shao Fu better—he would rather incubate bean sprouts at home than work for the warlords. After the Northern Expedition, he went to Nanjing to find a small job.But on the one hand, she still finds fault with Shao Fu, but she is quite tolerant towards her husband, "resentment but not anger",—only angry at her rival in love, calling "bitch" in her heart, which is contrary to her ladylike image— Abandoned and happy to write him home letters.

Obviously she still hates Shao Fu.The gay unrequited love of girlhood marries him, and decades later she's still resentful.On the contrary, Mrs. Xun has already made peace with reality, and she is very content, knowing that her current small family life is considered happy.Once Shao Fu dies, he has nothing to live for, and he is ready to support himself.Her indifference to Shao Fu's death showed that she never loved him.But a person will always have feelings in his life, but even if she was tempted by the poker friend who admired her back then, so what?I have no choice but to talk about the nail tip forever.

Each of them had a small volcano in their hearts. Although they couldn't see the fire, they only emitted a little smoke occasionally. It was not "withered wood and ashes" or "numb to the point of no feeling" as Ms. Lin said.This estrangement, I think, has been around for a long time.This is just a clumsy attempt by me, but the tradition of "meaning beyond words" and "commonly speaking" has also been lost. We are not used to reading between the lines.On the other hand, sandwich articles are not riddles.In the introduction, Ms. Lin said that another recent work of mine "Lust, Caution" - the name of the heroine is homonymous as "Wang Jiazhi"? )

It reminds me of someone who once said in the China Times "Human World" supplement that the light yellow wall in my novel "Relentless" is a national concept-preferring the color of the yellow race-and belongs to the "Dream of Red Mansions" school.Of course, even Dream of the Red Chamber has Bu Shiren (not human), Jia Yun's uncle.But at that time, the view that novels were game articles could not be escaped. Even if Cao Xueqin disagreed, he would still do it occasionally.To this day, are you still naive enough to use the names of characters to swear or imply the purpose of writing a book?

In addition, Ms. Lin also raised the point of view in "Meeting and Happy".I have always followed the omniscient point of view of the old novels and used the point of view of the characters present.Individual dialogue segments. If there is someone's dialogue or action in this paragraph, if there is any feeling, it is also someone's, and there is no need to add "he thinks" or "she thinks".This is the common practice in all countries today.There are many such examples in this novel.Ms. Lin singled out what Mrs. Wu thought, "There is a saying in foreign countries: Death makes people equal. In fact, they are equal before death. Of course, it is too late for a woman..." Refers to "Criticism and Narrative", It is "the author's criticism of the characters in the novel", presumably because the original text quoted a famous English sentence, which was mistaken for the author's opinion. Mrs. Wu "has a lot of talent for learning" (original text), but she didn't say that she has learned both Chinese and Western.Mrs. Wu is a real person. She has accompanied Mr. Wu to study in Britain and the United States for many years. Although she did not formally enter university, her English is very good.I thought it was an off-topic article, so I omitted it.Had it been mentioned, she was familiar with this most frequently quoted English phrase, so it would not seem so obtrusive. Moreover, her daughter hated herself for not being able to go abroad with her husband, and there was even more reason for that.I will add this point in the future, and I am very grateful to Ms. Lin for reminding me. (1988)