Chapter 36 1985 "Half of a man is a woman"

Genre: Novella Author: Zhang Xianliang Release time: 1985 Published in 1985.It tells the love story of Zhang Yonglin, a rightist man, during the Cultural Revolution.This is one of Zhang Xianliang's series of novella "Apocalypse of the Materialist". Through nine novellas, he attempts to completely "describe a man who was born in a bourgeois family and even had hazy bourgeois humanitarian and democratic ideas." The young people, through the "suffering course", finally became a Marxist believer in the whole process.Because the relationship between men and women is described in a naturalistic way, which involves sensitive issues of sex.

Zhang Xianliang, a native of Xuyi, Jiangsu, was born in 1936.Works began to be published in the 1950s. In 1957, he was listed as a rightist for publishing the long poem "Great Wind Song" in the "Yanhe" literary monthly magazine, and was subjected to labor education, control, and imprisonment for more than ten years. After being rehabilitated in September 1979, he wrote again.Among his masterpieces, He is the most well-known, and many works such as "The Wrangler" have been put on the screen.He is the main representative of cultural people "going into the sea" in the early 1990s.

Flipping through Zhang Xianliang, when I tried to find the parts that surprised, unfamiliar and moved me back then, I became at a loss.Rereading the novel, on the contrary, all the details, metaphors and symbols that were ignored before suddenly all appeared-this book became another. Reading is a miraculous thing. Ten years ago and ten years later, the experience of a book is completely different-you can't get back the many small traces that shocked you back then, and you can't get back the amazing passages at the moment. I can't remember the year I read this novel, it was around the end of the 1980s.At that time, I was an extremely ignorant and ignorant middle school student. This book was once included in the anthology of literary works in the new era.Huang Xiangjiu's brave act of dedicating himself to make Zhang Yonglin a "man" is really memorable, and he was surprised by the novelist's bold narration—you know that at that time, the literature in the new era had just been lifted, and the writing of personal emotional life had just surfaced. Zhang Xianliang actually used A completely "realistic" (even called naturalistic by people at the time) way of writing about the relationship between men and women should really be regarded as the first one to eat crabs.This was my most intuitive feeling about this novel at the time. Of course, as a woman, I have a natural aversion to Zhang Yonglin.

Huang Xiangjiu is a well-known figure in the history of contemporary literature. She has a humble background, lives in the countryside, is illiterate, a widow, has an open private life, and takes the initiative to men... When she faces a man who has become a "waste", she takes the initiative to sacrifice herself His body made him a "man", and when he appeared as an image of unconditional dedication and no request at all, Huang Xiangjiu's divinity captured many readers, which can be seen in the literary reviews of that year.She is beautiful, natural, and at ease. In her body, there are factors related to the land, nature and nature. This is a woman who is willing to give and has the spirit of the mother of the earth. ——Zhang Yonglin's selfishness, timidity, and meanness are all magnified in front of such an image.When you read the novel, you will immediately feel that Zhang Yonglin is repentant and has an infinite attachment to Huang Xiangjiu.

But, in fact, when the end of the novel mentions that "there are more important things in the world than women", when the novel repeatedly mentions his dialogue with Da Qingma and his reciting and belief in materialist theory, you You will find that things are not so simple.In fact, Huang Xiangjiu is not regarded as an equal to Zhang Yonglin, she is only regarded as his "opposite sex", his "other" and the existence of desires that disturb a man's free pursuit of ideals.The interesting part is here.Huang Xiangjiu and the ideal of materialism have become two opposing symbols. They are constantly fighting in Zhang Yonglin. One is regarded as a man's instinct, desire, which is constantly involved by a person named Huang Xiangjiu; the other factor is revolution. Ideals, materialist ideas, and materialist theories dominate Zhang Yonglin's identity as an intellectual. Therefore, he pursues materialist beliefs mentally and is constantly troubled by "incompetence" in his body.Zhang Yonglin is so contradictory.Huang Xiangjiu and her sex made him a realistic man, but this obviously deviated from his ideal and spiritual pursuit, so Zhang Yonglin finally chose to leave.Only such a choice can show the strength of this man and the nobility of the metaphysical level.

This is a choice between love and desire, a decision between materialistic ideals and personal feelings.In fact, when Zhang Yonglin left those temptations and desires, it was actually a bit painful. He blamed himself and felt sad. As far as the human being is concerned, isn’t the desire to leave the reality and return to the ideal not to give up the small self and take the big self?Therefore, both Huang Xiangjiu and the reform-through-labor farm became the purgatory where the intellectual Zhang Yonglin was rescued—Huang contributed his "body" and "love" with his warmth, generosity, and "natural" admiration and love for intellectuals. It is also the existence of "them" that enabled him to gain the experience and reinvention of "men", which gave Zhang Zhang a reason to be grateful when he recalled his life after climbing the Tiananmen Gate.

It seems that it has greatly challenged the restricted area of ​​literature at that time, but it has not crossed the line.The novel is faithfully the literary proof that materialism is the only magic weapon that ennobles and saves an intellectual.Then, you will also understand why Zhang Xianliang named his "Apocalypse of Materialism" - this novel is a typical work of an intellectual who was successfully reformed in a labor camp, and such a work, even in " Indiscretions on "Life Issues" are also due to the instability of the will of the revolutionaries. With the help of this, the "Revelation of the Materialists", which is composed of , etc., Zhang Yonglin tried his best to shape them as being born from materialism. Rescued "hero".

As a later reader, instead of criticizing the masculinity and "heroism" in this novel, it is better to realize why Zhang Xianliang designed all kinds of contradictions and conflicts for the characters of this novel at that time.Today, a conflict that does not seem to be a conflict at all in the eyes of many readers can turn a person so tossing and turning at the time!You don't understand why the seemingly charming love affair can't make Zhang return to Huang Xiangjiu's side - is this theory, this transformation, another kind of alienation of human beings? When such a kind of alienation is frankly accepted and regarded as a "successful transformation", why is this inconsistent with the original intention of the movement that was launched at the beginning?Doesn't this just prove the logic that people like Zhang Yonglin should reform themselves?Mr. Hong Zicheng believed in "General Situation of Chinese Contemporary Literature" that Zhang Xianliang's novels, based on the farm life in labor camps and the beautiful emotions between the protagonist and folk women, proved that Zhang Yonglin was not a victim of history and a passive victim, and that the countryside and labor camps were not hell—— That is the purgatory for intellectuals to take the initiative to endure hardships and eventually grow into mature "materialist fighters".Yes, these terrible historical nightmares, the sacred, almost sublime crucifixion shines through these novels.Even the combination of Zhang Yonglin and folk women has a metaphorical color of intellectuals' desire to "take root" in the countryside.However, as He Guimei said, "It is precisely such a way of narrating history that confirms the cultural logic in the past history: the movement in the 1950s was not based on this logic, sending intellectuals to the countryside, Prisons and labor camps?"

In other words, the novel does not provide us with a greater angle of reflection. What you see is the humility of Zhang Xianliang and Zhang Yonglin. What the reader sees is that a person would rather give up how to become a man and pursue a greater ideal. Efforts——Zhang Xianliang used his materialist apocalypse to express that the "Cultural Revolution" was a history of salvation for intellectuals, and then completed the history of shaping the "self" into a cultural hero after suffering.This is a pity for the novel, and it is undoubtedly due to the constraints of the historical context at that time.I think this may also be Zhang Xianliang's real experience at that time.As a later reader, it is unrealistic to ask the novelists at that time to be giants in thought and action. It should be admitted that this novel started the work of Chinese literary creation constantly stepping into the minefield. The writing of life is becoming more and more common, and this kind of literature eventually affects the quiet but huge changes in the values ​​and ethics of the entire Chinese society.Therefore, today, I would like to regard it as a meaningful metaphor of the social and cultural context at that time. I think it has room for continuous interpretation and interpretation.

As a female reader myself, I feel that I can't stand the naturalistic description in the book.I think there will be many female readers as well.This is not only because most of the intellectual women in China have always had some cleanliness, but also generally regard their ideals, purity, independent personality, and career as the most precious things in their hearts. The symbol of , exists only in gender.That's really insulting to people. ——Wei Junyi: "Thinking Caused by a Bestseller" ("Literary News" December 28, 1985) When Zhang Yonglin hurriedly stepped over the bodies of women, like a dead body, to the so-called bright future under a grandiose banner, his frankness and hypocrisy also shocked you. ... We still have to thank him for his sudden advance on the literary battlefield. He alone penetrated into a desert of sexually repressed literature that no one has ever set foot in, and created such a strong literary image of Zhang Yonglin for us: such innocence and Such despicableness is intertwined, such correct thoughts are intertwined with such fallacious concepts, such human limitations are mixed with such human and transcendence, such rare frankness is entangled with such pretentious hypocrisy.What the author said in the book undoubtedly has the deep meaning and breadth of the weather-beaten adults and wisdom.

——Zhou Weibo: "Zhang Yonglin is a Hypocrite" (Wen Wei Po, October 7, 1985) In the novella we are talking about, Zhang Yonglin has become a firm sober historical materialist, and his rational sobriety seems to be difficult to reconcile with the ardor of passion.Where lava-like anger and pain need to be expressed in the tumbling vortex, the writer turns to the protagonist's dialogue with Da Qingma and the sages.One level is the natural lust of a living person, and the other level is sharp political (economic) thinking and the resulting sense of mission. ... Zhang Yonglin, a man "brought up" by women, has a sense of mission that does not add to his brilliance, but makes people feel a kind of high-sounding selfishness and indifference.Between the vivid and concrete passion and the sharp and intense politics, there seems to be only an abstracted eternal struggle between the sexes.Women are not firstly regarded as an equal "person", but firstly regarded as a person of the opposite sex.In fact, no matter whether they are worshiped as the "Madonna" or used as a ladder to "transcendence", they are two types of abnormalities with the same psychology and the same historical prejudice. ——Huang Ziping: "The Struggle Between Soul and Body Head-on" (Wen Wei Po, October 7, 1985)