Chapter 8 The Brewing of the Atmosphere in "Reminiscing about the Old Fu"

"Reminiscing about the Old Fu" is the most poetic chapter in the collection.The artistic conception and artistic conception of the poem "The Bird Clothes Lane" quoted by the author before the book is fully expressed in the form of novels here.The origin of this poetic and picturesque feeling is the author's deliberate brewing and successful control of the "mood" in this novel. The plot of this story is not complicated. It tells the story of a frail old maid named Shun En who has retired for several years. She dragged her sick body from Tainan to Taipei and returned to visit the home of her master, Chief Li.The action of the plot covers a short period of time, probably less than an hour or two; most of the story is revealed by the conversation between Mrs. Shun En and another old maid, Robiniang. day".But now, due to the changing times, it has fallen into decline.Madame passed away two years ago.As soon as she died, the two young servants who had been favored in the house conspired to steal a box of jade and escaped, so this house, inside and out, was all "supported" by the seventy-year-old Mrs. .Miss Li had already left her home because she fell in love with a man with a wife, and the officer became sick and worried, and once clamored to become a monk.After young master Li went abroad, he became mentally disturbed, and now he comes back to live at home.Except for the two maids, the only characters in the novel are this middle-aged man who has turned into an idiot and never said a word.

The author has endless condolences for this aristocratic family and the decline and disintegration of the old traditional Chinese culture and the old social system that this family alludes to.And this feeling of mourning is conveyed powerfully in the absolutely objective narration of the full text through the remote and desolate atmosphere that fills it.Now, I intend to discuss the author's selection and description of people, places, and time in "Si Jiu Fu", the expansion and contraction of the distance between narrative viewpoints, the use of allusions and symbols, the intervention of the mysterious concept of "injustice", and other arguments to discuss how the author Brewing and controlling the atmosphere of this novel is used to present the theme of "nostalgia", and to promote the overall internal harmony of the novel, triggering a profound and desolate aesthetic feeling.

In order to present and allude to the decline of the old aristocratic family and the old social order of Mr. Li, which is not in line with the trend of the times, when the author described the appearance of Li's house at the beginning of the novel, he emphasized the specific phenomenon of old dilapidation. "The cypress gate has "peeled vermilion lacquer... a little moldy spot", the house "is already very dilapidated, the tiles on the roof are incomplete, and the eaves are uneven, with pinches of weeds growing from the cracks. On the gate post, Of the pair of glass door lamps, the right one is broken, and a rusty black iron seat is left on it. The black bronze doorplate nailed to the top of the gate has been polished for a long time."And "Li's house is the only old house in the whole alley. There are new-style gray apartment buildings and high-rise concrete buildings in the front, rear, left, and right sides, sandwiching Li's house, a wooden bungalow."Here, the new high-rise apartment buildings represent the Western trend, the new era, and the new society.These high-rise buildings "sandwiched" the already dilapidated Li's house in the middle, eagerly waiting for it to completely collapse, so as to annex this last piece of land.This is how the new forces oppress the old traditions!

Because of the purpose of the full text and the author's attitude, it is nostalgia for the past rather than welcome the new; it is retrospect rather than forward-looking;In other words, since what the author wants to present is the end of the old, not the new beginning, the author places great emphasis on the meaning of "twilight", making the story take place in a "winter evening" - winter, the end of the year; evening, the end of the year. sunset.And at such a time, facing the dilapidated Li Zhai, Mrs. Shun En is an old woman who has already reached the twilight of her life: "The back is completely bent; the hair on the forehead has almost fallen off... the body is so withered that there is nothing left." All that's left is a skeleton."The clothes wrapped around her "skeleton" were "shaking" in the winter wind.What a bleak and desolate feeling this scene gives people!

Walking out of the kitchen of Li's house, the person who took Mrs. Shun'en in was also an "old woman": "A face of freckles and wrinkles, overlapping, like a sun-dried grapefruit shell"; gold earrings on the earlobe The son is an old thing, "reddened by grinding", but Mrs. Robinson and Mrs. Shun En, apart from being "old" and "ancient" in common, and in addition to being loyal to Li Zhai, they share other aspects, such as appearance and personality. Just the opposite.Sister-in-law Shun'en is sick and weak, so thin that "only a skeleton remains", her head is thin and her hair is falling out, her hands are "thin like bird's claws", her voice is weak and shrill, and she "shakes" and "shakes" when she moves a little .Robb's mother is a big fat man, with a "round and fat face", "a disheveled white hair, still full", "the body is twice as big as Shun'en's wife", "stepping on splayed feet, taking a step, the big belly bumps a few times" .She has a pair of "fat, thick black hands", "a loud and loud voice", and shouts "with a thick throat".When Mrs. Shun'en helped wring out the rag, causing her "two thin arms to tremble", Aunt Rob sharpened the desk vigorously, "puffing her cheeks, panting, until the desk was covered with dust and marinade." greasy water".

The reactions of these two old servants to the current situation of the Li family's decline also showed a great difference in their personalities.Mrs. Shun En's face was "full of sadness", "mumbling in her mouth", "smacking her shriveled mouth and shaking her head", asking questions "mutteringly", "swallowing" half-sentences, "very sad" Sighing loudly, calling out with "sickness".That is to say, her way of protesting against the fact of the current decline of the Li family is just weak mourning and lamentation.Rob's way of protesting was much more intense: she "slammed" the rag into the sink, "stretched her hands on her hips", "stomached up", and "sneered".Then he "thumped a few times solidly" on his waist.When she narrated how Gui Xi and Xiao Wang stole the jade wares and escaped, she "took up a gleaming kitchen knife on the case, and slashed it fiercely on the cutting board a few times", humming: "I chop the cutting board in the kitchen every day. Curse, curse those two wolf-hearted things: 'The sky strikes thunder and splits the five ghosts into pieces.'" Mrs. Rob was working hard to polish and wash the desk to remove the oil, implying that she was "holding on" with all her life to make the reality we have today The dirt of the world washes away.However, it is conceivable that "greasy" will be stained every day.And her "old life" may not last long.

It is very intentional for the author to portray these two old servants as opposite types in terms of appearance, manners, and tone of voice.I have already mentioned that in this novel, the decline of the Li family alludes to the disintegration of the entire Chinese traditional culture and traditional social order.The author's basic attitude is regret and condolences.Therefore, the author borrows these two characters who are equally "ancient" and "old" but have completely different personalities and appearances, and use their common nostalgia for the past to imply that people who cherish traditional social culture are not limited to a certain Types of.However, these people, fat, thin, strong, weak, rigid, soft, fierce, and tame, are equally incapable and unable to reverse the trend of the times, turn the bow and row back in the torrent of time. old days.Whether it's a desolate lament or a heartbroken curse, all the nostalgic people in the world can do is just sigh in unison!

In this way, the author's appropriate selection and description of people, places, and times create the desolate artistic conception and mournful atmosphere of the novel.In fact, the consistent mournful tone of this novel is related to the allusion of the title of the novel "Reminiscing the Old Fu".The title of this article is taken from "Ode to the Past" by Xiang Xiu (one of the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove"), a literati in the transitional era of Wei and Jin Dynasties.Ji Kang, a good friend of Xiangxiu, offended the powerful and was executed.Later, Xiangxiu passed by Ji Kang's former residence, the buildings and beams were destroyed, the days were thin and the mountains were cold, and the neighbors were playing the flute.Bai Xianyong used this Chinese literary allusion as the title of the novel. One used the literal meaning of the word "remembering the old", and the other said that Mrs. Shun'en, like Xiangxiu, lived in a friend's old residence. The third is to use the tone of his condolences.Also, as I said, Bai Xianyong's novel is the most poetic in the novel.Then, it makes sense to compare it to "fu".

The formation of the "poetic" and the stability of the atmosphere in the novel mainly depend on the beginning and end of the novel.That is.The first and last two scene descriptions of the dialogue between the two old servants have been removed.First of all, we notice that this novel is written from an omnipotent point of view.However, the author of "Almighty" is completely objective. He only describes the scene presented outside and the audible dialogue, and never penetrates into the subjective consciousness of any character.In such a consistent use of viewpoints, it is not difficult for us to feel that the "lens" used by the author for observation has changed several times in focal length.At the beginning of the novel, the focal length of the "lens" is quite far away, so we follow the author's eyes and see a painting, or a black and white art photography photo.Background: Winter dusk.Topic: An old wooden bungalow that can be seen to be once rich and magnificent, but is now dilapidated and sandwiched by new cement high-rises.Subtitle: A small, skinny old woman in black, looking up at the two cypress gates of this one-story house with peeling vermilion paint and mildew spots.In other words, we seem to be looking at the scene from a distance, so we can capture the scene "in full view".The overall general impression given by this particular sight.

When Aunt Rob appeared and brought Mrs. Shun'en into the room, the focal length of the author's lens suddenly shortened.So we see the slightest movement of the two old women, and hear their faintest sigh.From the content of their dialogue, we can get a glimpse of the actual details of the decline of the Li family.Until near the end of the novel, when Aunt Robinson and Mrs. Shun En went to meet Young Master Li in the yard, the focal length of the lens suddenly extended again, so we once again saw a set of scenes that gave an overall general impression. In the novel, there is a large section of dialogue in the middle that takes up most of the space, and its active function is to provide the plot of the story.When the two old women talked about the decline of the Li family in detail, they always used a mournful tone, but the desolate and sad atmosphere of this novel is mainly brewed by the two "distance paintings" (or "distance art photography") at the beginning and the end. convey.At the end, the atmosphere is more emphasized than the beginning.Now that we have talked about the beginning of the novel, let us look at the end of this essay.

The protagonists of "Reminiscence of the Old Fu" seem to be two old servants, Mrs. Shun En and Mrs. Robinson, but they are actually Chief Li, a declining noble family, and the traditional Chinese society and culture it alludes to.In other words, the protagonist of this novel is an invisible abstract idea.And the author concretizes this abstract concept: what is manifested in things is the dilapidated Li family's house—this is the main theme of the "vision painting" at the beginning of the novel.What is shown to others is the young master of the Li family who has become an idiot and out of touch with reality—this is the main theme of the "vision painting" at the end of the novel. Although the author did not specify it, we can speculate that this young master is the only male son of the Li family, the only person who can be relied on to "carry on the family line".And he turned into an idiot, a useless person, unable to carry on the family line, which symbolizes the "peaceless" of the Li family and the end of an era.It also symbolizes the disintegration of traditional Chinese society, and no one "takes over" traditional culture.Since the author mourns the "past" that is about to be completely severed, at the end of the novel, he places this idiot who is completely isolated from the present world in a desolate and desolate realm that seems to have been forgotten by the present world. In this way, when Aunt Rob walked into the courtyard with Mrs. Shun En's hand, "The small stone path in the courtyard is full of moss... the wormwood on both sides of the stone path is so thick that it grows up to the waist, very fertile, and the roots are fat. Many cobwebs were formed between the stalks, and the webs were full of dead insects."They walked to the end of the stone path, "Sister Shun'en suddenly realized that there was a fat man sitting on a round stone stool behind the wormwood bushes, the stems and leaves of the wormwood rose over his head, He covered it. Over his head, a dense swarm of grasshoppers was flying in circles."The Li family is not only a symbol of ancient culture and the old society, but also represents the young master of the Li family. Of course, the characteristics of "ancient" and "old" are inevitable, so he is "wrapped in a bloated gray old woolen coat" (what a heavy load! ); "The button of the coat fell off and there was only one button left" (the last button must be himself!).From his brown and dry hair that "almost fell out", we can know that he is a man who has already entered middle age.However, the exposed "pink tender scalp", "two bloated cheeks on his face", and his movements of playing with dandelion flowers all imply that this poor young master cannot go against the trend of the times and bear the responsibility of continuing the tradition alone. At the same time, they refuse to accept the cruel reality that "this era is over", and escape to the world of idiots, returning to the psychological age of infants and children. At first, Young Master Li didn't recognize Mrs. Shun En, who raised him up.He just "stared blankly with empty and absent-minded eyes."But when Mrs. Shun'en came closer, she whispered in his ear again, "Suddenly he opened his mouth wide and giggled, and the saliva flowed from the corner of his mouth, dripping onto the front of his shirt." superior".Mrs. Shun'en wiped his saliva for him, "suddenly opened her thin arms, and hugged the fat man's big head tightly into her bosom."She whimpered dryly, and called him softly, "The shriveled mouth was shaking, one after another, calling out in a miserable way." In the last paragraph of the novel, a vivid perspective picture composed of three or four lines of sentences is particularly successful in brewing a vast and desolate atmosphere: A gust of winter evening wind passed by, and the overgrown wormwood in the yard trembled rustlingly, blowing up Mrs. Shun En's large black coat and covering the fat man's body.Mrs. Rob was standing in the grass. She folded her hands and hugged her big belly. She squinted her eyes and looked up at the cloudy sky. The cold wind blew her thick white hair all over the place. Zhang up. In this text, there is a faint symbol of death lurking.Rob Niang's "thick white hemp-like hair blows all over the place".This sentence creates an image that makes people see the white net of death flying over their heads.As for Mrs. Shun En, "the large black coat was blown up and covered the fat man's body", which gave people a similar impression. They felt that seeing death or defeat covered the young master, the Li family, and the traditional Chinese culture. social culture.In fact, at the beginning of the novel, the author carefully managed to create the black and white symbols of death here.In the first paragraph, when describing Mrs. Shun'en, the author pays special attention to her black coat: "Wearing a loose long coat made of thick black wool, it dragged down to her knees". The bundle is also black: "Her left hand is bent, and a black cloth bundle hangs" (white egg inside).As soon as Rob Niang entered the stage, the author especially compared her disheveled white hair to "like a net woven of white hemp". But the most obvious symbol of death in this novel is, of course, the actual death of Mrs. Li.Her death from illness, like the young master becoming an idiot, alludes to the collapse of the Li family and the collapse of traditional social culture.It is worth noting that Mrs. Li said a word before her death: "It's so cold." Interpreted in symbolic meaning, it is our current "so cold" that prompted her death and the collapse of traditional Chinese society and culture. The world - this cold, machine-like industrial and commercial society that abandons human warmth for material and utilitarian interests. However, Mrs. Li's death also involves another problem that is not easy to explain, that is, the little "supernatural" (Supernatural) meaning hidden in this novel.First of all, we noticed that Mrs. Shun En and Mrs. Rob Niang are quite "superstitious".Seeing Mrs. Shun En who had been separated for a long time, Mrs. Rob yelled "God", and said, "My left eyelid twitched for a day, but it should be on you!" Mrs. Shun En said the last thing before learning of Mrs. Li's death. "It's so cold," he suddenly realized, he said, no wonder she dreamed three nights in a row that his wife was beckoning to her, asking her to bring her a windbreaker to wear.When she got the news of his wife's death, Mrs. Shun En "burned two paper girls for her elderly to use there" in Tainan.When she learned of the decline of the Li family, she called out "sin" twice, but Aunt Rob muttered and criticized: "The feng shui of their family's ancestral grave is not good." Such speeches and thoughts, of course, fully conform to the actual situation of the characters in the old Chinese society, and constitute a very successful "realism".But I think the author has a mysterious meaning in addition to the realistic purpose, implicitly hinting to us that there is some kind of unexplainable, irrational and mysterious force in the world that controls the fate of mankind.No matter whether it is a person, a family, a country, or a society or a culture, once it is branded as "evil" by the god of destiny (or demon), it will have to embark on a path of irreparable ruin.And the author's mysterious concepts and hints add a mysterious and ominous atmosphere to the novel "Reminiscing about the Old Fu".Careful and sensitive readers can easily notice that when describing the two old maids, the author especially endows them with some "witch" characteristics imagined by ordinary people: Mrs. Shun En's back is bent, and her "two bony shoulder blades protrude high, making her thin and small His head is sandwiched in the middle", his hands are "thin like bird claws", a "black cloth bag" hangs from the bend of his hands, and the long black loose coat wrapped in "a skeleton" trembles in the wind.She "muttered in her mouth" and "dangling her thin head back and forth", when she came to Li's house, she tried to scream under the kitchen window at the back door, and then, "in that dark window, a bird popped out suddenly. Come on."This Mrs. Rob is also an "old woman" with "a head of disheveled white hair" and a face "like a sun-dried grapefruit shell". In this way, the two old maids in the novel, on the one hand, are real characters with flesh and blood, strengths and weaknesses, who are very loyal to the Li family and the traditions of the old society; , a follower of the "God of Fate" (or "Magic") with an ominous nature, or sentinel.And the role of this second identity in the novel is quite similar to the three witches in Shakespeare's "Macbeth" tragedy.Just like in "Macbeth", the witch's mysterious dialogue and mysterious prophecy brewed a shocking and awe-inspiring tragic atmosphere. The feng shui of the ancestral graves is not good", we can't help being awe-inspiring, lamenting the unreasonableness of human destiny and the irresistible desire of human beings, so, "Looking up at the sky with dark clouds", how can we not "remember the meaning of the earth" Yoyo, I am so sad and tearful"! Another mysterious hint of the author is related to the dream of Mrs. Shun En that I just mentioned.Mrs. Shun'en retired before Mrs. Li died of illness. After retirement, she has been living in Tainan and relying on her son for a living.Due to her weak and sick body, this is the first imitation in several years. During the conversation between the two old servants, Mrs. Shun En asked thoughtfully what her wife's last words were when she died. When she learned that her wife closed her eyes, she only said one sentence "It's so cold", her face was filled with sadness, she nodded suddenly, and told Aunt Rob sadly that she had dreamed three nights that her wife was standing among the peonies in the garden of the mansion in Qingliangshan, Nanjing, waving to her Shouted: "Sister Shun En, Sister Shun En, go and get me a cloak, the wind is blowing." In this way, the author obviously hinted to us that Mrs. Shun En's visit this day was inspired by Mrs. Li's soul.But why?Why did Mrs. Li summon Mrs. Shun En?After leaving the world, what more can she ask for? The answer is yes, at the end of the novel. Mrs. Shun En, who was "sick and fainted", never knew that her grandparents, Young Master Li, had returned from a foreign country because of a mental disorder.When she learned that, and followed Mrs. Robinson to the courtyard to meet him, she saw this poor idiot, in such a cold and windy winter, "with his shoes and socks off, a pair of fat, bald feet, neatly joined together, Put it on the muddy floor, it was frozen red."He was "playing with a handful of flowered dandelions, and the white flocs of the dandelions sprinkled all over him."This scene echoed the dream she had had for three nights in a row. Mrs. Li, who was standing in the peony flower, asked Mrs. Shun En to bring a cloak to keep out the cold because of the wind and cold weather.Young Master Li, who was sitting in the dandelion white catkins, was freezing in the cold, silently waiting for Mrs. Shun En to bring him some warmth.The lady's call in the dream was exactly the silent call from the young master's heart.The "spirit" of the mother is the "spirit" of the son.A mother is a son. And Mrs. Shun En, following the call of the soul of her benefactor, Mrs. Li, came to Li's house and brought warmth to the young master who was out of touch with reality, making his "empty and absent-minded eyes" "have no expression at all". "'s face suddenly burst into a "hee hee smirk".Mrs. Shun En really brought the cloak requested by the lady in the dream to the young master: Didn't we see that her large black coat was blown up by the wind and "covered the fat man"! However, there is one thing that is very ironic.That is, this black coat that gives warmth is also a symbol of death or defeat.The author thus hints that only our traditional humane society can make human beings feel warm.But this kind of society, because it does not conform to the modern trend, has to be defeated! Here, the basic predicament in the world is implied: paying attention to the spirit will lead to the ruin of the body; paying attention to the body will lead to the ruin of the spirit.Between the spirit and the body, it is often a matter of choice or rejection, and it is not always possible to compromise.Both utilitarianism and social materialism in Western industrial society only pay attention to physical reality, and do not pay attention to or deny the existence of spirit at all.In this way, there is no "spiritual" entanglement, the society prospers quickly, the country prospers rapidly, and the material living standards of ordinary people also improve rapidly.Unfortunately, the basic "individuals" that make up a society and country lose their "mind" and "cleanness" and are just "meat" and "things".The world has become "so cold", and human hearts cannot communicate.People have become healthy and strong walking corpses.On the contrary, my country's traditional culture and traditional social concepts have always placed more emphasis on spirituality and "purity", while ignoring or belittling physical reality.So the world is full of warmth; man, because he can distinguish himself from animals and inanimate things, that is to say, because he is the "spirit" of all things, can maintain a share of the honor and dignity of being a "human being". Living on the spirit, a society, a country, and a culture, in the case of long-term disregard for physical reality, will inevitably collapse due to anemia.No wonder the dilapidated Li's house is located in "Nanjing" and "East Road", and the pair of glass door lamps on the gate post of the house, "the one on the right is broken". Bai Xianyong has a calm mind and clearly understands that if we want to live in this world, we must accept the physical reality and pay attention to the physical reality.However, his infatuated heart stubbornly refuses to give up the "spirit" which he obviously thinks is more precious than life.Therefore, in his novel creation, we can often feel the strong and tight tension between body and spirit.His outlook on life is obviously "it is better to die than to die", and he completely agrees with the traditional Chinese culture.I have read a critical article on Bai Xianyong's novel published in a magazine in Hong Kong. The author is obviously a leftist named Li Li, and the title of the thesis is "The Makeup Artist of the Funeral Parlor".This "makeup artist" refers to Bai Xianyong.Li Jun criticizes Bai Xianyong's novel themes and characters, and cites "Si Jiu Fu" as an example to criticize Bai Xianyong's "class concept".Li Jun was very appreciative of Miss Li's "spit on that family", and seemed to think that it was right for two young servants, Gui Xi and Xiao Wang, to steal a box of jade from their master and run away.However, what made Li Junyi most indignant was that Bai Xianyong "put into the mouth of such a loyal and model servant" the words that scolded Gui Xi and Xiao Wang. , and blame others who are unwilling to be exploited." I didn't want to waste space talking about such "literary criticism". The reason why I mentioned it was to use it as an introduction to explain why Bai Xianyong chose two old maids to express his nostalgia for the past. . I have discussed in considerable detail that the real protagonist of this novel is not the second old maid, but Chief Li's family and traditional Chinese social culture.The Li family alludes to traditional social culture, so those who faithfully mourn traditional social culture cannot be members of the Li family, but they must be very loyal to the Li family.There is no more suitable candidate for such a person than an old loyal servant of an old-fashioned family. And Mrs. Shun En and Aunt Robinson, just like several famous black maids in American "Southern Literature", like Dilsey in "The Sound and the Fury", or "Mammy" in "The Sound and the Fury", are not at all Think of their status as a lowly "slave".They only feel that they are friends who help their masters work, and they maintain a dignity in this status.Therefore, in their minds, the love between master and servant is far more valuable than the abstract concept of "human rights" (just like today's women, although they know the truth of "feminist rights", they are still willing to be bound by "love").Most of us, when we talk about the American Civil War, often think that the southerners are the "bad guys" who oppressed the black slaves, and the northerners are the "good guys" who liberated the black slaves.This really distorts history.The real meaning of the Civil War was the struggle between the industrial and commercial society in the north and the agricultural society in the south.There is a large group of historians in the United States, led by Charles A. Beard, who insist that the causes of the Civil War are economic, the results are political, and the emancipation of blacks is only a by-product. Moral questions are irrelevant.Therefore, the victory of the industrial and commercial society in the north is not necessarily the victory of humanitarianism, and the failure of the agricultural society in the south cannot be said to be the retribution that the aristocracy deserves.No social formation in the world can possibly be perfect.Every society has advantages and disadvantages.The survival of a society has nothing to do with "good" or "bad", but depends entirely on whether it conforms to the trend of the times and the needs of the times. William Faulkner, a writer of southern American literature, has infinite nostalgia for the southern agricultural society that was swept away by the trend of the times. I think there are some similarities between Bai Xianyong and Faulkner's novels, but this I have already discussed it in the article "Bai Xianyong's Fiction World", so I won't go into details now. Another popular example is Margaret Mitchell's (Gone With the Wind).Those who have read it must have sympathized with the Confederates and hated the "Yankees" when they saw the battles of the Northern and Southern Army.In fact, General Lee (Gen. Robert E. Lee), the leader of the Confederate Army who was born as an aristocrat, became a famous great man in history despite his defeat in the end.His noble temperament, solemn demeanor and lofty ideals are still praised and praised today.This kind of phenomenon is not common in the real society of the United States, which only cares about success and failure. A lot has been said, and the topic is far away, so this is the end.