Chapter 29 Called to come, lingering

Once upon a time, there was a prostitute named Cuihuan, who was fifteen or sixteen years old and had a melon-like face.She and her "sister"—Cuihua with a duck egg face aged seventeen or eighteen—both have snow-white skin. They used to do business in Ershilipu, Plain, Qihe County, Shandong Province, and they can play a kind of sanxianzi. He played the piano and sang ditties.There are many customers passing by Shishilipu, and some of them often write poems on the wall.Cuihuan likes to ask them to tell her the meaning of the poem, but after listening to it, there are only two meanings: decent people always talk about how talented they are, but no one in the world knows him; Well, it's nothing more than talking about how good-looking that sister is and how affectionate she is with him.However, Cuihuan thought: If the people who come here are all great talents, there are really few people without talents in the world. Have you become a baby yet?Furthermore, the writer of the poem said that the sisters are good-looking, such as that Xizi Wang Qiang, but there are only a few of the sisters in Shililipu, and some of them haven't even grown their noses and eyes. Are all empresses this boring?As for the kindness of the sisters and these guests, how can they sleep all night until dawn, and ask him to ask for a few silver for his own money, he wiped his face, straightened his neck, and yelled: "It's the right account yesterday. I developed it at night, so what do I need for my own money?" My sister begged again and again, saying that all the positive accounts would be taken by the shopkeeper and the mother who led the house, and no money would be released.These customers reluctantly gave two hundred Wen, a small skewer, threw it to the ground, and pouted and said: "You robbers and bitches, you are really nothing! You bastards!"

Later, Cuihuan met a different guest.The guest also wrote poems on the wall, but what he wrote was not about his own talent or the beauty of his sister, but about the feeling that the Yellow River was frozen, the boat was blocked by ice, and the car could not drive.This guest's surname is Tie Mingying, and his name is Bucan. Everyone calls him Laocan, but in fact he is only in his thirties; Cuihuan first met Laocan and called him Tie Lao.Introduced by the alternate prefect Huang Renrui, they met in the upper room and north room of a hotel on the east side of the south gate of Qihe County. Cuihuan has stayed there since then, and later changed her name twice.

The author Liu E (1857～1909)'s son Liu Dashen wrote an article "About Lao Can's Travel Notes" 27 years after his father was caught in a Luo disaster, charged with exile in Xinjiang and died in Dihua The article, which was annotated in detail by Liu Houze, the son of Liu Dashen, has a total of nearly 50,000 words, describing Liu E and his books.In the fourth section of this article, "Questions in the Middle", Liu Dashen wrote: Liu E’s nephew, Liu Dajun, also published an “Anecdote of Mr. Liu Tieyun, Author of Lao Can’s Travels” a few years before this long article (1933), in which he mentioned: “Mr. Uninhibited. I usually drink with prostitutes and play games every time. I definitely don’t want to do it in front of me. On a certain day... In my apartment in Beiping, I drank with two or three friends. At that time, I recruited more than a dozen prostitutes. ——such as Qin, Se, Xun, Yu, Konghou, Hulei, Sheng, Xiao, Pipa, etc.—distributed to everyone. Many flowers were displayed in the garden, on the rockery, and in front of the Temple of Flowers. Sitting in the middle with friends, surrounded by prostitutes. So I took a picture and made a wax diary—this is also a commemoration of Mr. Merry.”

Liu Dajie, who wrote the "History of Chinese Literature Development", is not close to Liu E, but he also heard the gossip indirectly. In "Liu Tieyun Anecdotes", he wrote Liu E: "He also likes to go to brothels, but he is different from others. He Call the girls, there are always more than a dozen at a time, Yingyingyanyan, sitting in a room, singing and making a scene, and then everyone rewards some money and leaves." It is said that the style of prostitutes is also divided into three, six, or nine grades. There is a world of difference between those who have subtlety and no subtlety, and those who are spiritual and non-spiritual.However, no matter what later generations think of the elegance of the scholars in the late Qing Dynasty taking photos with prostitutes, watching flowers and playing the piano, when Liu E invited a prostitute (probably because he whispered to each other and understood her heart) into the novel, it was not Two strings of bounties of one hundred coins or even "one's own money in two counts of silver" can be sent away.To put it bluntly: breaking into Cuihuan is much more difficult to pass than the prostitute who came to Liu E's apartment in Beiping to hold a piano and take pictures.For a novelist, this kind of "inviting God is easier than sending God away" is probably more difficult than how to prevent Du from revealing personal moral flaws that hurt his reputation in his novels.A character who is accidentally invited into the novel by the author can be called an "accidental traveler"—even though it is an accident, a traveler is a person with a purpose after all.No matter where the destination is, we must assume that it is the destination of the passengers, and the author may not be able to predict it.

Cuihuan appeared in the middle of the twelfth chapter and played several roles.One, of course, is to use her mouth to describe the ugliness of the world's literati whores.On this point, Liu E, who writes "suave and unrestrained", "drinks with prostitutes, and plays on every occasion, never in front of one thing", is not guilty of guilt.In Liu E's view: being a prostitute is not a bad thing—it is even a manifestation of elegance; the bad thing is trying to use a few clumsy poems to make love for the prostitute's money.Second, from Cuihuan's self-reported life experience of "in less than three days, the family will be ruined" and even reduced to prostitution, which echoes the story in the third chapter of the previous article that Zhang Gongbao used Shi Junfu's "Jia Rang Three Strategies" to control the river but turned into tens of thousands of people. Hunger and drowning.With Cuihuan's personal experience as an example, one of the themes has been implemented: honest officials kill the country and cause disasters.As for the third function, it is to allow Lao Can to show his skill of "saving the beauty from the water and fire" - after all, he is the hero in this novel, both Bao Qingtian and Sherlock Holmes (in Chapter 18, Taishou Bai himself said: "Such a strange case, is it something that ordinary police can handle? I have to ask you, Sherlock Holmes.") complex, encountering an innocent young prostitute, how can there be no reason to save her without redemption?However, how easy is it to rescue a prostitute for nothing?The old man has extraordinary abilities, he can cure rivers, heal diseases, solve strange cases, and redress strange grievances, but he is a doctor who rings a string of bells and walks away. How can I teach him how to take a prostitute for a walk?Cuihuan's own way of saying is: "... rescue me from the fire pit, no matter what you do, girl and mother, I am willing." But Lao Can can't think so; For my old mother.

At this point, only by asking the other characters in the book to act on their behalf, can the deadlock be resolved smoothly without damaging the hero's intentions and demeanor.Therefore, Liu E had to entrust this task to Huang Renrui, who was witty and clever.Huang Renrui in the story has a lot of troubles because of this. In the seventeenth chapter, he pretends to let go and retreats to advance.He said this: "I have thought about it thoroughly, and there is only one way to ignore it. If you want to pull a sister out of the good, you have to have a excuse... Get him out, and where to put him? If it is in the store Here, neither of us will admit it. Outsiders must say that I did it. There is no doubt. I just got a better job. There are many people who are jealous. Can you not tell Gongbao? I won’t be in Shandong in the future. Why do you still want to recommend it? So it is absolutely impossible." Afterwards, Huang Renrui wrote a letter to Wang Zijin, the county magistrate, saying that "it is very pitiful to see a prostitute so-and-so from a good family" and "plan to Pull out the wind and dust, and accept it as a room (note: that is, the concubine), please do your best to maintain it, and pay as much as you are worth."On the surface, this letter is to borrow money to redeem Cuihuan's body, but in essence it is to borrow the honor of the county's parents to obtain a notarization, so that people will not misunderstand that it is Huang Renrui who bought the prostitute Tibetan spring.However, in fact, this is still part of Huang Renrui's plan: since this letter is written, Huang Renrui will say later when Huang Renrui holds a "happy event" for Lao Can and Cuihuan: "You have written all the documents in your own handwriting, so why are you so cunning?"

With the resourceful and well-informed old man, can he be fooled by this? Here, let's listen to what Huang Renrui said when he made this marriage happen: "I am planning for Cuihuan, and saving people must be done thoroughly. This (what) should be done, it’s good.” These words, no matter what, make people smell a bit of strong words—as if there is an author Liu E standing behind Huang Renrui, pointing out the sky and arguing to the readers. : Taking a concubine is a last resort, and it is not the intention of the old and disabled, and "it is not bad". In fact, the more Huang Renrui said so, the more he revealed that Liu E did not regard this marriage as a happy one.The reason is simple: as early as Wu Jingzi (1701-1754), he had repeatedly criticized the matter of taking concubines.For example, in the thirty-fourth chapter, Ji Weixiao persuaded Du Shaoqing: "Why don't you marry a beautiful woman who is as beautiful as a king and talented, and enjoy yourself in time?" Du Shaoqing's reply was: "The matter of marrying a concubine is the most unreasonable thing for me. The world is nothing but these people, if one person occupies several wives, there must be several unweds in the world.” And the traces of the brushwork are everywhere, so how willing is Lao Can, a hero with progressive thinking, to regress to the former sages? How about laughing?This is also why in the nine chapters of "Lao Can's Travel Notes II", Liu E spent a long time and a lot of effort in arranging that Cuihuan, who had been renamed Huancui, fell in love with a nun Yiyun with hair. , And then went to Guanyin Nunnery to become a monk, so that Lao Can could continue his journey of being alone and wandering all over the world.However, careful readers will not forget: Liu E actually didn't have many novel ideas about such heroic concerns as saving prostitutes, because in the twentieth chapter of the first edition, Lao Can actually reciprocated Cuihuan's "sister" Cuihua redeemed her body; painted a gourd according to the same pattern and gave it to Huang Renrui as a concubine. An example is cited, which is considered to be a case.So, how does Liu E view the matter of pulling prostitutes into concubines?If he thought it was a "last resort" and "good", why wouldn't Lao Can continue his journey with this fairy companion?If he didn't think it was right, why did Lao Can dispose of the rest of Cuihua's life so cheaply and hastily, just because "seeing Cuihua freezing herself yesterday, but covering her legs with a wolfskin mattress", "is also a useful person" If you have a conscience, you have to pull him out as well."

This is not just a moral value proposition of life, but also a technical problem of fiction. As Liu Dashen said: "This was never intended, but was written intentionally because of the force of the text." A few words show that there is indeed an automatic device in a work that cannot be controlled by the author. One is definitely not just for condemning two cruel officials.In Liu E's writing, the reason why he writes the sailing adventures in the dream (the first chapter) with such fine and thick brush and ink—it was written by Liu Dashen earlier—is actually an allusion to the reality of China.For example: "The sailing boat seen in Penglai Pavilion is a metaphor for China; twenty-three or forty feet is a metaphor for the number of provinces; four stewards are for the number of ministers of military aircraft; eight masts are for the number of governors of the province; new and old are for the nature of the governors at that time; There is a piece on the east side, about three feet long, which refers to the three provinces in the east; the disturbance on the ship, which refers to the coup d'etat of 1898; the high-spirited talk about people, which refers to the people with lofty ideals; ") This dream can be regarded as Liu E's original intention for writing this book: he wants to "reflect" the sufferings of the people with realistic details through the vision and footprints of a doctor who does not seek fame and despise fame (Shangyi Yiguo).The reason why this person makes a living by ringing bells instead of being a chivalrous man straddling a horse and wielding a sword is based on two reasons: first, the chivalrous man comes from a genre tradition that does not require realistic narrative; second, this genre tradition— ——Kanan novels—the common, key, and orderly characters are the enemies that Liu E fears and fears: honest officials;It is precisely because of these two reasons that Liu E's insinuations have an attempt beyond "innuendo and correctness". He seems to want to write a work that has experienced the plight of various common people in late Qing China.However, this is only the author's original intention in the first dream.

Indeed, two passages that are often cited by posterity and even once selected as middle school Chinese textbooks—Minghu Juli listening to black girls and white girls storytelling (the second chapter) and watching the river freeze on the Yellow River embankment (the twelfth chapter)— ——Xun Rankai is unprecedented in the history of Chinese novels.No novelist before Liu E has ever done such a realistic depiction of common people's activities and natural landscapes—they are so delicate and dense yet so isolated.Why do you say it is isolated?Because apart from these two paragraphs, Liu E has been almost involuntarily involved in the task he must complete in the novel: he must promote the plot.To a certain extent, promoting one plot after another that is bound to make readers "surprised" is against Liu E's original intention of writing about the reality of China in the late Qing Dynasty.To put it bluntly, he was incapable of discovering that legends are the enemy of real fiction, just as honest officials are the enemy of old and disabled.

When the degraded prostitute in the legendary story appeared, we were so helplessly happy that she was promoted to the concubine of Lord Qingtian, but this is the story of Su San and Wang Jinlong in "Yutangchun". Liu E had to spend more pen and ink (like Han Bangqing's "interspersed with hidden flashes") to do a lot of "last resort", "expedient measures", "deceived" and "did nothing wrong" for the old and disabled to take prostitutes as concubines. " cover article.Readers still have to be suspicious: the old and disabled doctor just mourned in the last chapter (the twelfth chapter): "Now the country is in troubled times, and the princes and ministers are just afraid of delaying punishment. One more thing is worse than one less thing, and everything is useless." , what will happen in the future? The country is like this, what should a husband do for his family!" Why from the thirteenth chapter to the final volume, apart from yelling at the court and resolving strange grievances, he was busy taking care of Cuihuan and Cuihua The second prostitute, and you don't hesitate to make friends with the officials?

Considering Liu E's writing, when Lao Can watched the Yellow River freeze and cried, he had no plan to make Huang Renrui design a prostitute for Lao Can to be his concubine.Later when Cuihuan came on stage, Liu E couldn't help but use her mouth to ridicule those stingy prostitutes.However, this writing touches the spirit of the character; let me ask: How can a local prostitute who makes a living in a rural wild shop (Pingyuan Ershilipu) be so clever and cunning?If so, there must be some reason.That's why the thirteenth chapter has to have a section "The sour words of the daughter of the green lamp", let Cuihua first outline the background that Cuihuan was originally the daughter of a wealthy family, and then introduce a twist and turn back to the faint official Zhihe The big issue of misconduct and abuse of the people will come up.At this point, the two prostitutes are already lingering—they are no longer just the eyeliner of Mr. Fang who rings a string of bells and watches the people, but are also the objects of the author's irresistible romantic justice.They have the identity of the role. The reason why Cuihuan and Cuihua became characters is not just Liu E (or Lao Can)'s excessive love, but a more important factor is the cliché that is almost a certain motif in legendary stories. .This kind of cliché, with its accumulated texts in a large number of folk tales and operas as the background, endows the character of the prostitute industry with a unique status-she automatically becomes an energy that pulls the plot and meaning of the novel; Ordinary people such as bearers, waiters, waiters, midwives, village girls, cooks, nurses, etc. are more pitiful, respected or loathed. Looking at it from another perspective: If Liu E asked these two prostitutes to send a few bounties to let them return to him In his miserable life, he no longer hears about it, and it seems that he is only fifty or a hundred steps away from the stingy whore he ridiculed before, and the feeling is the same.The articulation here is this: Once a character, the prostitute, like any other character, must have a happy ending.Liu E ran into the most difficult trouble at this joint: at the end of the twentieth chapter, Lao Can presented Huang Renrui with a title of "congliang local prostitute" and a pair of couplets in front of the Yuelao Temple in West Lake. His own journey But stuck—Liu E never imagined that a prostitute who is always there but can't go away has come to the end of her story: being good.However, she had to accompany the protagonist, Lao Can, back to the path he should have taken—but diverted to the legendary story to set up an investigation—the road; The original intention promised by the dream of the pavilion... What he wants to create is a realistic novel that can "reflect" the suffering of the people.Just think: How can Lao Can carry such a loot won from a legendary story as an embellishment with him, how could he shed tears of worrying about the country that would freeze into icicles in an instant?This is why in "Lao Can's Travels II", which was written only nine times in total, Liu E spent a total of six chapters laying out the story of Gao Niyiyun, who looks like a prostitute but not a prostitute, and who looks like a fairy but not a fairy. For this reason, he insisted that Cuihuan, which was renamed Huancui, should be further improved, and it must be far away from the world.This extraordinary novelist did not complete any novels at all, but he left behind a lesson: No matter what should be done in real life, in realistic novels, the prostitutes in legendary stories should not be arbitrarily recruited; If they are not too evil, or too tragic, or not too heroic, the hero who cares about the country often pales in comparison, and often loses his caring practice for the suffering of the people, which makes him tinge with crimson. color.