Remarks after reading Part 1
A slowly flowing Baijiang River, a silently sad past...
A border town, in Shen Congwen’s writing cry. This is a beautiful city covered with a veil. It wanders alone at the intersection of joy and sorrow.
The Baijiang River is mixed between mountains and banks. If you want to get out of the city, you can only take a ferry. It was a small ferry boat, ferryed by an old man. He had a granddaughter named Cuicui. Cuicui's mother died when giving birth to her. Cuicui's father committed suicide soon after, leaving the old man alone to take care of Cuicui. Although only the grandfather and grandson are left behind, life is actually quite sweet. When Cuicui was thirteen or fourteen years old, she was already handsome and beautiful, and was pursued by many people in the city, especially the two sons of the captain - the eldest and the second elder. However, due to various reasons, the eldest brother drowned in the water, and the second elder left home. Cuicui's only relative, Grandpa, also died quietly on a night of lightning and thunder. At the end of the book, Cuicui was taken to the boat manager's house, and she was waiting painfully for the two elders to come home...
Regardless of whether the two elders came back in the end, in my opinion, it is impossible to achieve a relationship with him. A beautiful marriage with Cuicui. Because the love the two elders have for Cuicui is not true love. True love can withstand all kinds of hardships and tests, such as Yang Guo and Xiao Longnu in Jin Yong's novels. They had a long separation and the test of life and death, but in the end they never left. This is true love. Maybe the second elder still loves Cuicui, but can he let go of the hatred of his brothers, let go of everything, and let go of the so-called face? Since he has made up his mind to go to Taoyuan, even if he comes back one day, he might already have a family. In the days to come, Cuicui will surely live a life of dependence on others, just like Lin Daiyu. The captain adopted her because of the second elder. If the second elder didn't come back, would they marry her off easily? They would just make her wait, waiting for the person who might never come back.
"Border Town" vacillates between sadness and joy. Shen Congwen uses a slightly melancholy brushwork to depict this pure and beautiful first love. Every time I finish reading "Border Town", the shadow of Cuicui will always appear in my mind.
"Border Town", an erratic city, a sad story, telling the injustice of the world and the lament of fate...
After-reading Part 2
Crossing from one bank of the river to the other, walking from one end of the city to the other, singing from one mountain to another, this person may never come back.
Reading Border Town is like being pulled and dragged by Mr. Shen’s words to immerse yourself in the dream of a small town. The beautiful, flamboyant, dream of a border town, the people of the small town, our lives, go around and intertwined with each other...
The small town in the book is surrounded by mountains, rivers, lakes, Canopies, city walls, stilted buildings... Chadong comes into our eyes with its unique looseness, comfort and laziness; women, soldiers, trackers, sweet potatoes, poles... these are those What we had in the past, what we have now and will certainly have in the future, carry every bit of our lives and the hope of our lives. People who live in a small town, like us, have vague expectations about love and hate in people and things in those days.
He Street outside the city is a different scene. Restaurants, grocery stores, and teahouses not only decorate the plain surface of He Street, but also add a lot of embellishments to people's lives. The people here are ordinary, even vulgar. Women seal their feelings on men, rub their love and hate into their lives, and seep into their blood. This is the simplicity and longing of the people in the small town.
The natural protection and Nuosong in the city, and the greenery outside the city, have formed an unbreakable bond because of those temple fairs. The city of love and righteousness is a city that is plain but not lightly decorated but shines with brilliance. That city is too ideal and too far away from us.
We listened to this song again. The song sang about greenery, singing about Nuo sending, singing about rivers, singing about boats, singing about beautiful love and simple life. With a longing for a beautiful love, Cuicui and her grandfather went to the city to watch the temple fair. That night, Cuicui couldn't find her grandfather. She met Nuo Song at the head of the river. The young man invited Cuicui to his teahouse. Cuicui thought it was... The rumored alluring villain refused, but that person upset her heart. For several days, there was singing from the other side of the mountain. Cuicui gently lifted her soul up to look at the stars in the sky, but they were fleeting...
In the days to come. , I think Cuicui probably often thinks of Nuo Song singing on the other side of the river. And the unclear ambiguity made Tianbao die in confusion, in the disaster of the river, in the cleansing of the water; made grandpa uneasy and let the little maggots eat him; all of them left without looking back. story. It's just that the white tower was repaired in winter, but everything is in the past. In border towns, beautiful things have their own place. After Tianbao left, Nuosong also disappeared. What went away, was it the back or the song? Is it people or love... In fact, nothing has gone far, nothing has left. They are still in the city, just separated on both sides of the river. They are just passers-by in each other's lives. Walked by. But as the author said, everything is full of goodness, but there are misfortunes everywhere, so simple kindness will inevitably lead to tragedy in the end.
Everything seems to be a dream. From yesterday to today, I woke up from the dream, and my hands were empty, leaving only memories. The border town has a plain brilliance, and its simplicity has its own implications. The only thing that can be remembered is the timelessness. Memories of touch.
Cross from the other side of the river to this side, walk from the other end of the city to this end, sing the song from that mountain to this mountain again, that person may come "tomorrow".
The dream of the border town, the people of the small town, our lives are not over yet...