In the previous chapters, she actually developed her own writing ideas through reading, such as Zhang Ailing. There are some very important phenomena in the history of reading or literature: some novels are like this, the works beat the writer, and the details beat the theme. Zhang Ailing's "Talk about My Articles" said: "Writing a novel should be a story. Instead of making up a story by setting a theme, it is better to let the story explain itself. ..... Let's say War and Peace. Tolstoy turned out to be ... but it turns out that the unfolding of the story itself defeated the predetermined theme. This work was revised seven times, and each revision punished the predetermined theme. Finally, the remaining theme only occupies the position of interruption, and it is the most uncomfortable part of the book ... Compared with Resurrection, the theme of War and Peace is really vague, but the latter is still a greater work. Until now, when we read it, every inch of it is still alive. The difference between modern literary works and the past seems to be that at this point, the theme is no longer emphasized, but the story itself is given what it can give, and the reader can get what he can get. "
The creation of Li Jingrui's novel Shen Yutang comes from reading with her.
Shen Yutang basically does not rely on any plot, but the author patiently wants to restore the daily life of that era and stick it on historical clues. This period of history is the historical narrative of textbooks recognized and accepted by everyone. Althusser's "symptom reading method" is more than what the author wrote, so we look for her blank and read out its profound meaning.
In Zigong, Yancheng (called Zicheng in the book, the author's hometown), a remote place in Sichuan and Southwest Sichuan, the 42-year-old protagonist Yu Lixin, a salt merchant, spends 50 taels of silver a year to subscribe to the newspaper Ta Kung Pao, but it takes five days to reach Zicheng. "Ta Kung Pao was sent from Tianjin to the provincial capital, and then quickly sent to Zicheng. It was five days later, because the middle changed hands several times, and some small characters were smeared with ink. Yu Lixin was afraid of missing the news. Salt merchants grasp the current situation and the world trend through newspapers. Because the beginning of their era is the day when the little emperor abdicated. "This city is also a metaphor of China that day:" Except for the big salt merchants, no one in the city has a clock. They don't know their time. Compared with history, it has been five days late, at least five days. "
In Five Days Late, Yu Lixin only fell in love with Liang Rengong's article, which is why the author deliberately highlighted Liang Rengong. What I want to say is that many historical narratives at the turn of modern times have mostly obliterated Liang Qichao's clues, such as The Awakening Age, but "moving towards * * * and" is not enough. This book deliberately touches Liang Qichao, which is also the author's new invention, trying to restore it.
With the accumulation of details and communication in daily life, Sichuan cuisine will appear in novels (this is the nourishment of the classical novel A Dream of Red Mansions). But I don't think Sichuan food at that time was as luxurious as it is on TV today (just look at the Sichuan food, shark's fin and pepper by the British writer Fu Xia, and Sichuan food is not as delicious as it is now). Food is a luxury of salt merchants' families, and it is also the flavor of life and the adjustment of the times. For example:
Deep in the cabin, there is a big bag of white caviar salt with round particles, each of which is the size of a fingertip pearl. The shape of a fish is painted in ink on the salt bag to show the difference. This is the original technique of Shen Yutang, which is the most time-consuming and laborious. Only ten old workers in the kitchen can stand this salt. The market price of caviar salt is far from the market price, because Shen Yutang only makes and sells it every year, and the chefs in the kitchen only have Qingming Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Spring Festival, or entertain at home and make a table of salted vegetables with this salt. This bag weighs 100 Jin, and it is said to be given to Xiajiang military and political officials. The two salt policemen on board were both equipped with rifles, and even Yu Lixin was not allowed to board.
When the freezing rain gradually stopped, Hu Song put away his black umbrella with a long handle and Fuyu stepped onto the bluestone steps on the shore. He asked, "Dad, we asked for this bag of fish roe salt, but there is no surplus in our kitchen this year. Both the young master and the second young master said they would come back. How is this New Year's Eve arranged? Whose face is bigger? " Yu Lixin shook his head and said, "I don't know. Chen Junshan arranged it, and he didn't say anything. Just grab a table for New Year's Eve. I'm afraid Ji won't come back until the first month, but he has written to say that he will go to Beijing for a few days first.
At the beginning, all kinds of stories have been told, including the environment of Zicheng and the history of saltworks. Shuttle figures are dotted on river boats crossing the city. First of all, there is a father and son. A son is an adopted son, not his own. In addition to the protagonist's daughter Yu Lingzhi in this book, the other two brothers Yu Jizhi and Yu are in other places, and this New Year's Eve will be very special: the time is "the day when the little emperor abdicated, which is the 25th day of the twelfth lunar month", and the distance from 19 1 1 year is only five days, so it is the Spring Festival in Zicheng. How to arrange the New Year's Eve dinner for Zicheng people and Yu family? It seems that this is the focus of the despicable warlords who have robbed the salt tax one after another and harassed the big salt merchants, but it is Ta Kung Pao and Liang Rengong who haunt Li Xin's mind:
Yu Lixin turned to the front page of Ta Kung Pao and said that Xu Shichang, the Queen Mother of Yulong, had drafted the abdication rescript, which had been reviewed by Yuan Shikai. Although every place became independent in February and March, it was a foregone conclusion that the little emperor abdicated. Yu Lixin read four pages of newspaper repeatedly, but he was at a loss. He lifted the curtain of the sedan chair and looked around secretly. The city can't recognize the outline, only the faint light on the Zixi River, which is the light in the cabin of a crooked ship.
There are descriptions of the integration of this environment and the characters' hearts everywhere. The environment sets off the mood, the mood reflects the environment, and the plot turns around here. Another example is:
On Independence Day, Yu Lixin didn't go at first. He got up early in the morning and told the people around him to retreat. He burned the rain in the jar with a charcoal stove, made a pot of delicious slices, put a dish of beef by the unique fire of Zizheng, and then sat on the rattan chair under the buttonwood tree in the courtyard and read two volumes of Liang Rengong. "People who get * * * and politicians are always safe because of habit, and those who get * * * and politicians are often dangerous because of revolution. Please be reasonable. With the power of revolution, husband swept away the national constitution handed down from ancient times and put the highest purpose of the country on the shoulders of the people. After this great riot, it is indispensable for the divided people to maintain the balance of social forces with fierce party struggle. "
Most people may not have the patience to finish reading this novel, but fortunately, the author does not pursue fashion and does not let more people pursue it. According to her daily understanding of sticking to the ground, it is enough to build step by step! The watery atmosphere of Zigong City is very integrated with the frustration of depressed people. Grasping maturity is like boiling soup for many days. This kind of environmental description itself contains pictures and sounds, which is what Tarkovsky called a film feeling: "Where I grew up, rain was the set of the film after all. In Russia, there is a long period of continuous rain. Just say I like nature-I don't like big cities, and I feel extremely happy every time I stay away from the dazzling array of modern civilized products; Similarly, every time I live in a country house 300 kilometers from Moscow in Russia, I feel great. Rain, fire, water, snow, dew and wind blowing on the ground are all important elements that constitute our living environment and even the truth of life. "
Remote Sichuan has established contact with Beijing, the storm center. It is this newspaper that is five days late, and there is still a child who can't return it. In this way, the historical framework and the details of the characters are established. Yu Lixin fled to Beijing from the war in Zicheng. Inquiring about relations in Beijing is not only to rebuild relations, but also to restate modernity. In the book, the reporter talked about the current situation, the recurrence of Yuan Shikai's old tricks, how to sign Article 21, the doubts in the Song case, and even the grand appearance of a mole on his chin because his mother was ill and could not leave France to go home via the shrine.
When the little emperor abdicated, even the capital was like this, not to mention the godless senior officials. The military and political circles are in chaos. Yuan Shikai was ambiguous, and Liang Rengong wavered from defending the emperor to opposing claiming the emperor. Of course, the big plot needs ten chapters to elaborate. Whether the salt merchants chose Yuan Shikai as the emperor or Cai E as the anti-Yuan decided his tragic fate in the social transformation period. Teacher Cai E writes about Liang Rengong. Of course, the biggest surprise is "Sun Wen" written from Yu Lixin's perspective: "Clear water means no fish, and the country has a history of 3,000 years. This has never happened before. Only such a careless person can achieve something ... far away, there was Huang Xing before the revolutionary party, followed by Song. So what? Finally, it's not Sun Wen who is standing on the table ... General Cai is born young and promising, intelligent, resourceful and courageous, but first-class people have never worked in China, Chinese people have poor knowledge and ethical ignorance among peers ... "(P172).
This passage also combines the life story of the adopted daughter, the same-sex love between the eldest son and Lin, Yang Du's fallacies and heresies confuse people, start a new stove in the south, the repeated struggle between Sichuan warlords and Yunnan Yunnan army, and the second son took over the family business after returning from Japan, but devoted himself to developing explosives and copying the "Great Rebellion" on the eve of Meiji in Japan. Xia Qian (Suzuki), the daughter of a Japanese revolutionary, hid in Zicheng, and two Americans came to Zicheng in tandem to preach and build a hospital. These great historical chapters cooperated with the long and indecisive love triangle between Lin Linpu and Yan, as well as the light marriage later, which led to the sudden and inexplicable death of the child in his uncle's experiment, and so on. At this point, the novel has entered a smooth and dripping plot, if we want to say the climax of traditional novels.
Writing about the appearance of a new character, Wang Qizhou, taking him to Beijing to study, writing about Peking University and writing about burning Zhao Jialou, is a bit like the routine of Mao Dun's novels "Eclipse" and "Rainbow", such as the revolutionary realism plot of taking a third-class train to send servants to Hankou, and how women integrate into the social trend. But unlike Mao Dun, she only did herself, because she "died" once and returned to Zicheng with revenge. The letter she sent to Lin Linpu expressed the difference between Li Jingrui and Mao Dun in letting women join the tide of the times. This is a kind of uncertainty: "Maybe I will come back and set up a school in Zicheng, maybe I won't, be a reporter in Beijing, maybe I will go somewhere and do something I don't know.
The torrent of revolution may be Tolstoy's regret after seven revisions of War and Peace: "Let's talk about War and Peace. Tolstoy originally wanted to attribute it to the attitude of a popular religious group at that time, but the story itself overwhelmed the predetermined theme. This work was revised seven times, and each revision punished the predetermined theme. Finally, the rest of the theme only occupies the position of interruption, which is the most uncomfortable part of the book, but there is no new theme to replace it. So after writing, Tolstoy himself felt that something was missing. " Zhang Ailing believes: "There are few works in the history of literature that simply praise the stability of life, but there are many works that emphasize the flight of life, but a good work is that it describes the flight of life based on the stability of life. Without this foundation, flying can only be floating foam. Many powerful works only give people excitement, but they can't give people inspiration, that is, failure lies in not knowing how to grasp this foundation. " Yang Fei's works can refer to contradictory works. Li Jingrui obviously wanted to escape from the rubber band that tried to hold him, so he said to Lin Linpu in his letter, "You're right, the times are rolling in, and neither you nor I can predict it. Each of us tries our best to study, burn salt and plant trees. You said wait for me, then you wait. This is your life, and I can't say anything. Just like my life, you can't talk too much.
To tell the truth, Zhang Ailing did predict the fate of later revolutionary novels: "The struggle is moving because it is powerful and sour at the same time. Strugglers lose the harmony of life and seek new harmony. Struggle for struggle, there will be a lack of aftertaste, and writing it will not be a good work. I found that in many works, strength is greater than beauty. Strength is happy, beauty is sad, and the two cannot exist independently. "
And back to Shen Yutang, Li Jingrui also grasped the commotion and choice of ordinary people in the great era, and kept a straight face.