Chapter 29 Reading Lao She's Posthumous Work "Right Under the Red Flag"

When I received the third issue of "People's Literature" this year, I opened the book to look at the catalog of articles, and suddenly found the long series of Lao She's "Under the Red Flag" written in bold. He wrote vigorously before the case....I quickly turned to the page number and read it in one breath. The editor told us that Lao She's autobiographical posthumous work has eleven chapters and more than 80,000 words, which seems to be only the beginning. The cruel persecution by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four" not only took the life of Mr. Lao She, but also caused the premature death of this work of special value... I read the three chapters of "People's Literature" intermittently with excitement and emotion. , Issues 4 and 5, I haven’t seen him finish the opening part, because he hasn’t written about the entry of the Eight-Power Allied Forces into Beijing, and his poor home was also ransacked. Fortunately, the author under the age of one was detained in a Only under the empty box, no little life was lost!Now that Mr. Lao She is dead, we will never be able to read how this story develops. This is really an eternal regret!

This "Under the Red Flag" is as full of anger and sorrow as the stories of China before liberation written by Lao She, and this anger and sorrow are described in his usual sharp and humorous style of writing, which makes people read There is a feeling of "a paper full of absurd words, a handful of bitter tears".This is the most touching part of this novel! He said: "I was born at you hour on the 23rd day of the twelfth lunar month, when all the people in Beijing, including the emperor and ministers of civil and military affairs, were sending off Lord Stove to heaven!" Starting from the birth, it describes everything surrounding this poor family of banner soldiers, and also describes the "banner people" at that time from nobles to civilians. For the "art of life", "a unique style of life , The rich really pay attention to it, and the poor pay attention to it." He wrote penetratingly about the thoughts, opinions, and practices of clothing, food, housing, and transportation.They all "keep money and food", they all have "hardcore crops", they all eat, drink and have fun, and they all care about face.He quoted his eldest brother-in-law:

"We bannermen, we can't do anything else, we have to talk about eating, drinking and having fun. Remember, we are number one in the world!" They are willing to spend money on festivals, birthdays, full moons, playing with birds, and raising grasshoppers. "People who do weddings and funerals often go bankrupt." My identity is about the same as that of a maid" and so on, vivid and lifelike. Lao She can not only describe people, but also can describe scenery. The spring and autumn in Beijing at that time he described are not for people who have experienced them, and cannot describe their loveliness and loathsomeness.

All of these, I can't quote too much.In short, readers must find this great work for themselves, so as to taste the bitterness of the author's efforts! What I want to talk about here is: Mr. Lao She used his long-term accumulated life experience to write a truth that Chairman Mao taught us in lively and moving plots, that is: "National struggle, in the final analysis, is a matter of class struggle."When I was young, before the Revolution of 1911, because I hated the corruption, incompetence, loss of power and humiliation of the Qing government, as a member of the Han nationality, I had never met any "banner people". Both the ruling class and the ruled class are disgusted; this understanding did not gradually change until later when they met some banner people during their participation in revolutionary and social activities.

As for Lao She himself, because he was born in a "poor banner soldier" family during the "dilapidated lamp temple" period of the Qing Dynasty, he shared weal and woe with the oppressed Han shopkeeper Wang and the Hui man Jin Sishu who were exploited and oppressed. Deep class feelings.When he wrote about the experience of shopkeeper Wang, he said this: Look at him, send him Qingwenjiedu pills, and even the women send their children to condolences. He is no longer "Little Shandonger", but Manager Wang, Brother Wang, and Uncle Wang. He gradually forgot that they were bannermen, and became their friends... They seemed to think that: How the Qing emperor treated the Han people was another matter, since the big guys couldn't do without each other, they might as well be friends.

He also said in the tone of his second sister: "Like the shopkeeper Wang and the uncle Jin Si on the mutton bed, although they are Han and Hui, they are emotionally indistinguishable from each other. Let them wash and do things, and they don't see each other." You have to lower your status... Everyone is a family, and anyone can do some work for anyone, and you don't have to ask who is a bannerman, who is a Han or Hui..." Mr. Lao She said: "Later, I When I understand something, I think the second sister's thinking is very logical." The logic is: "Generally, the Han people who work hard to eat are inseparable from us poor banner soldiers. They pass through the house. Some rich and powerful Manchus still look down on the Han people and Hui people, so they treat us like this with Han people and Hui people. They don’t take it seriously when they come and go. No matter what, they are them, we are us, and no one can stop the people from being friendly to each other.”

Therefore, on the day of the full moon in Lao She, the shopkeeper Wang of the Han nationality who worked as a coolie sent a pair of pig's trotters, which made him "unforgettable for the rest of his life... because he is a Han nationality".Uncle Jin of the Hui nationality also sent two slings of money, wishing him a long life, which made him "still feel strangely proud: my auspicious full moon day was celebrated by friends of the Hui nationality".What a deep class feeling between the nations!"Mutual friendship" with the exploited and oppressed people is "no one can stop"

Yes, this is the main factor that our beloved Premier Zhou said "makes the People's Republic of China a big family of friendship and cooperation among all ethnic groups"!August 10, 1979.