Chapter 140 Lao She's Prose

Mr. Lao She is a prolific and versatile writer well-known both at home and abroad.During his more than forty years of writing career, he has written many novels, both long and short; plays for operas, operas and dramas.These more than 50 essays with hundreds of thousands of words are just some of his "small pieces"!But from these essays, we can see his character, his hobbies, his life's encounters, the people he has come into contact with, the places he has lived or traveled... Reading these essays is like hearing his words. The conversation after tea and wine is so cordial and meaningful.

From the first article, we know that Lao She's childhood and youth life was very poor and poor.He said: "In fact, most of the things I encountered in my childhood were neither sweet nor beautiful." In his recollection, he always felt that his childhood life was both sweet and beautiful, only because he had a "hardworking and honest person" who would The mother who silently "suffers hardships".His "life education" was passed on to him by his mother: hospitality, love of flowers, love of cleanliness, keeping order and so on.All these draw the outline of the character Lao She.

There are many works in memory of friends in these essays.Some of his friends are also my friends, such as Mr. Luo Changpei, Mr. Xu Dishan... He and Luo Changpei: He praised Dishan: "He's knowledgeable but doesn't put on airs. He loves to tell jokes, and he has all the elegant ones in the village... Innocent and lovely." He praised Bai Dizhou: himself, in humorous contempt, to make an effort. " When referring to He Rong, he said: Such as iron.When he is stubborn, don't talk about flattering others, even if he is perfunctory in general, he will not refuse.When he is submissive, his emotions are fully mobilized by his reason. "

We often say: "You make friends with whoever you are." From the character of Lao She's favorite friends, we can fully see his character. There are several articles about Beijing in this collection.He loves Beijing.He said: It was given by this ancient city. " "I love it like I love my mother." "Beijing was liberated, and people's hearts and eyes saw the light." This is why after liberation, the word "ecstasy" often appeared in Lao She's articles! Lao She loved mountains and rivers.In the short articles describing the landscapes of Jinan and Qingdao, the "green" hue is particularly highlighted.

In "A Bigger Imagination," he says: Algae, so green all year round... It seems to imply the "green" in God's heart, which is such green. " He also wrote in "Informal Park": Floating green mountain peaks, success is a scene with green as the main color. " He wrote in "Qingdao in May": I understand what is called 'spring is as deep as the sea'.Green, bright green, light green, dark green, yellow green, gray green, all kinds of green are connected, interlaced, changing, undulating, green to the sky, green to the foot of the mountain, green to the outside of the fishing sails. "

The above paragraphs have fully demonstrated Lao She's preference for green!He not only knows what "the green in God's heart" looks like, but he can also see "all kinds of greens" from the blue "sea" that I am familiar with. After he spent several years teaching and studying in Jinan and Qingdao, the "July 7th Incident" came!During the years of "unprecedented catastrophe and unprecedented struggle" mentioned in the article "Bombing", he ran away from home, from Xuzhou to Wuhan to Chongqing, engaged in literary and artistic work during the War of Resistance.It was in the early 1940s, when he was in Chongqing, that we had more chances to meet him.We lived in Geleshan at that time, and he often traveled to and from the suburbs of Chongqing, and often came to sit and sit when passing by.He was busy writing propaganda literature and art at that time, but on the other hand he was poor and sick.I was also in poor health and often vomited blood.

When we met, we didn’t talk much about current affairs, and he made friends with our children. Sometimes when the air raid sirens sounded, Lao She and the children would take some peanuts or sunflower seeds to the air-raid shelter, although Geleshan had never been bombed.I remember Lao She wrote a poem of Qilu for us at that time: sweating frequently asking for good tea and sharing the children’s scrambling for cakes and bait for a moment The manuscript of Yue Junxie's poem was also confiscated during the ten years of turmoil.The horizontal scroll hanging on my wall was given to me by sister Hu Yiqing who found it from Lao She’s posthumous manuscripts.

There are several travel notes in this collection, which were written by Lao She with a sense of "ecstasy" after liberation.As it says in "Miscellaneous Feelings of Journey to the South": In "Scenery of Inner Mongolia", he sang: "Three Red Flags Light the Great Wall with One Heart in the North and South" In short, after liberation, with boundless enthusiasm, Lao She devoted himself to the creative activities of praising the new China, the master of the new China, praising the party and praising Chairman Mao.At the same time, he also has busy social activities, but his hard-working creative activities and busy social activities have not interfered with his habit of loving flowers and small animals.The last few articles in this collection are works about talking about pigeons and cats.When we read his two posthumous works in 1965, we can see that he was "fortunately in a prosperous age" after half a lifetime of suffering, starvation and suffering.He is gratified, grateful, and optimistic, and he only wants to "strive to the top" in his job post while he is old and sick:

My past life is full of sorrows, and my sorrows are long and my memories are new: I used to be cold and hungry in childhood, and full of sourness and bitterness in my prime. Rolling water, boundless people in the last days, if there is no Communist Party, wilderness ghosts are neighbors! Today's old age is prosperous, and there is no worry in the day and night, sons and daughters compete for labor, and workers and peasants share the joys and sorrows. Poetry recites new things, and pens sweep old romance. Mo Xiaoxing held on to his stick, fighting for the top! Who would have expected that in the second year after he wrote these two poems, in August 1966, the "Cultural Revolution" that he came out of the hospital for convalescence gave him unexpected spiritual and physical changes? He was shocked, confused, hesitant, he fell from the cloud of "ecstasy" to the abyss of "extreme pain".In this way, a "model worker in the literary and art circle", "people's artist", and "master of language" found "short-sightedness" on the emerald green lake after a day of hard thinking and meditation!

After ten years of catastrophe, on the land of China, those who contributed to the country and the people became the victims of Lin Biao and Jiang Qing's counter-revolutionary cliques, Lao She was not the only one?It is precisely because of these many sacrifices that the Chinese people will always remember the painful lessons of the past ten years, and the whole country will work together to set things right and overcome all difficulties to build a stable, united and prosperous China like today! I never thought that this preface to "Selected Essays of Lao She" would end in such a mood!Just because these essays reflect Lao She's life step by step, from his "life" one can think of his "death".The "death" of Lao She's group of people who have contributed to the people and the country has made us old people experience "prosperous times" in our "old age".April 1, 1983