If an article is a matter of the ages—an article is not something anyone can write how to write it—it is a story that has existed in the heavens and the earth, but is there any death to be obtained. I looked down on my previous works, and lost the awe of many works in the world. In review, the brilliant words, full of interest, and unique style that the previous companies envied are actually hindering the development of genius. ——Jia Pingwa
At first, I heard that Mr. Jia Pingwa's "Abandoned City" was rated as the modern version of "Dream of Red Mansions" and "Jin Ping Mei". I was curious and looked forward to the opportunity to take a look. How helpless, I looked around for a long time and couldn't find it. I think it was because this book was classified as a banned book for a while. By chance, I was hiding in the library to read and found this book on the shelf. The cover of the book looks a little shabby, and there are traces of tape on it. When I saw the first few chapters, I felt that this book was very similar to the beginning of the Red Mansions, all of which were introduced by supernatural events. I took it back and planned to read it carefully in half a month.
The "Destroyed City" I got is not the original complete, but the "Destroyed City" that was filled in the box after disputes. This is not a pity for me. After all, those outspoken and indulgent sections are just the viewing points of the yellow book. I always believe that the "Destroyed City" that I never forget is not like this. After reading the last chapter and preparing to close the book "Destroyed City", I asked myself a question: What do you remember? The answer is many things, but what is certain is that the main feeling is not naked sex.
"Abandoned City" is a novel published and published by Mr. Jia Pingwa in 1993 for the first time, and won the French Femina Literature Prize in 1997. Together with "Impy" and "Qin Opera", it constitutes Jia Pingwa's trilogy. Such a eloquent 400,000-character novel made him subject to criticism and criticism from the literary world. However, right and wrong are in the reader's mind, and what the reader feels is what it is. So, what exactly does "Dead City" tell?
"The Deserted City" tells the story about the decadence, degeneration, confusion and reflection of the four great literati in Xijing in the 1980s, especially the famous writer Zhuang Zhidie, which epitomizes the spiritual crisis of the entire society of that era in one piece of knowledge The body of the molecule. Today, I will interpret from three aspects how Jia Pingwa used the "Dead City" to regenerate the positive from the negative and then reshape the mind. Finally, I want to talk about the book's inspiration for me.
01. Freedom and Absurdity: Revealing the indulgent life of an intellectual
Zhuang Zhidie, a great writer who is famous in Xijing City, in this Xijing City, it can be said that the wind is the wind and the rain is rain. Although the novel begins with four great literati, namely the idle writer Zhuang Zhidie, the calligrapher Gong Jingyuan, the painter Wang Ximian, and the artist Ruan Zhifei, in my opinion, the story is mainly about Zhuang Zhidie. The novel is based on the emotional entanglement between Zhuang Zhidie and six women in this Xijing city, depicting a literati who tasted all kinds of favors when he was famous, and gradually became decadent, and finally lost his reputation.
It stands to reason that Zhuang Zhidie has an identity and reputation in Xijing City, and he should be the most free and easy to live. How could he end up like this? That is inseparable from the upright, casual and passionate side of Zhuang Zhidie. Money is a big test for people, and women are a big test for men. Zhuang Zhidie's original character was rebellious, focusing on inner happiness. From the description of his relationship with six women in "The Deserted City", we can see that Zhuang Zhidie's attitude towards each woman is different, which also shows that he is "rich" in life and thought.
The love and hate entanglement between Zhuang Zhidie and these six women is slowly revealed in Jia Pingwa's flowing narrative techniques. Sometimes, I wonder how much contact Zhuang Zhidie has with Jia Pingwa. Only when a person has experienced such thoughts and feelings can they be truly portrayed. Although a lot of exaggeration and fiction have been added to the story, in the eyes of the reader, this is a story that can be touched and is a story hidden in ordinary life. Jia Pingwa wrote it out, and how many thoughts were entrusted in it. I am afraid that only Jia Pingwa can understand it. What we can experience is the life journey of an intellectual from decadence to negative.
Jia Pingwa’s home
02. Reality and nothingness: Exposing the contradiction between traditional thinking and modern civilization.
uses a lot of line drawing and dialogue techniques in the novel to portray Zhuang Zhidie’s attitude and behavior in work, life and emotions. The truth is visible. This method of describing life is one that Jia Pingwa is good at. One reason is that Jia Pingwa has a certain art background, and another reason is the influence of the wandering culture in his hometown. The so-called wandering culture refers to the cultural value orientation derived from the wandering life of uncertain migration. This is an aesthetic connotation of Shaanxi culture, which is characterized by fluidity, sometimes gentle and sometimes unrestrained. It is in such a simple living environment that Jia Pingwa has captured a feeling in his heart that is always changing, and this feeling often makes him fall into confusion. Now we trace the reasons for his confusion, mainly in the following two aspects:
①The helplessness of life has led to Jia Pingwa’s unconcealed anxiety
Jia Pingwa had hepatitis B when he was writing "Abandoned City" and was on the way to seek medical advice. Tossing for a long time; another mother got sick and operated, and then his father died of cancer; another brother-in-law died, and the younger sister dragged the baby back to her natal home; another endless lawsuit entangled him; another he was involved in the unit He was humiliated by right and wrong, and rumors and rumors spread all over the world... The mental state of
made him unable to get the slightest comfort in reality. The helplessness of life made him reflect on the value of his first half of his life. A sense of inferiority and loneliness hit him. In this battle without gunpowder, Jia Pingwa almost collapsed. Finally, he found the root of the problem, that is, the lack of faith. In "Abandoned City", he gave this sobriety to a cow, injected human thoughts into the cow's brain, and let it shout out to this muddy world. This way of expression of magic and stream of consciousness precisely reflects his inner anxiety and anxiety.
②The drastic changes of the times have tortured Jia Pingwa step by step towards negativity
In the face of real life, Jia Pingwa feels powerless to resist, but he is still stubborn. In the 1980s, the times were changing. At that time, people's existing goals and value systems were disintegrating with the changes of the times, and a new cultural value system was still being established., This confusion and confusion occupied Jia Pingwa's brain. The anxious Jia Pingwa put this change into Zhuang Zhidie’s head. From the perspective of Zhuang Zhidie’s life in "The Deserted Capital", when a person is in the stage of gaining both fame and fortune, the reality behind this is hidden. Disorders of emptiness, emptiness, secularity, belief and morality are all manifested in this character. His behavior is decadent, degenerate and negative. This is a kind of desolation and pain that Jia Pingwa felt when he realized the lack of traditional culture and cultural value. Many times when reading "The Deserted City", in the depraved appearance of Zhuang Zhidie, I seemed to see the real Jia Pingwa.
Zhuang Zhidie in "The Deserted City" may be the shadow of Jia Pingwa, but what we need is not to understand some personal anecdotes, but to discover a series of events or a certain connection between characters, which is precisely this The connections between things or people benefit us a lot. It’s hard to imagine how many times Jia Pingwa engaged in self-struggle and self-abandonment in the process of creating "The Deserted City", but at the moment he finished writing "The Deserted City", he faced all this; when he could no longer escape , He no longer avoids, but chooses to accept. In Jia Ping's eyes, pain, confusion, and decadence are not the best state to resolve contradictions at this time. Calmness and acceptance are the correct attitude to seek answers.
The lighthouse in the dark night
03, struggle and reflection: searching for a beacon in the broken soul in self-repair
In "Dead City", Zhuang Zhidie's final ending is:
night falls, Zhuang Zhidie carries a big The suitcase came to the train station alone. After queuing to buy the tickets, I suddenly felt that he was about to leave the city. There was a little himself in this city. He was leaving, so he should say goodbye to him. He took the suitcase and turned back and walked to a public telephone booth. Zhuang Zhidie walked in, but found that the pavilion had been damaged. The number plate of the telephone was full of sand, and it could not be turned. The handset was also hanging there, like a huge spider, or like hanging. A broken shoe.
was in the waiting room, but ran into Zhou Min head-on, and the two stopped. Zhuang Zhidie said: "Are you here to take the train? Where are you going?" Zhou Min said: "I am leaving this city, I am going to the south, where are you going?" Zhuang Zhidie said, "Let's You can go all the way again!" Zhou Min helped carry the suitcase and let Zhuang Zhidie sit on a bench, saying that he was going to buy a drink, so he squeezed into the goods yard in the hall. When Zhou Min came over, Zhuang Zhidie slept on the bench with half a tabloid on his face. Zhou Min said, "You drink a bottle." Zhuang Zhidie did not move, and opened the half of the newspaper. Zhuang Zhidie held Zhou Min's small backpack with xun cans in both hands, but his eyes turned white and his mouth crooked. On the side. The tragic ending of
can indeed make some readers who despise Zhuang Zhidie feel enjoyable. However, the profound implication is not whether such people have a tragic ending, but what Zhuang Zhidie’s attitude is after experiencing all kinds of things. Zhuang Zhidie is nostalgic for this city, but this city has no place for him. He wants to escape, but he doesn't know where to escape, because he has lost the guidance of his faith. Jia Pingwa is an experiencer of that era of change. He knows how many intellectuals in society have been confused and decadent in the wave of the times. These people have not been in line with the times. Their souls have nowhere to rest and can only be lonely. wandering. As the intellectuals in society,
is the first type of people who are aware of the changes of the times. For example, during the Qing Dynasty, Wei Yuan first proposed "learning from the barbarians to control barbarians" to deal with foreign changes, and for example, during the chaotic period before New China, Li Dazhao and others introduced Marxism to China. Therefore, when traditional thinking is in conflict with modern culture, what the intellectuals of the time should do most is to reshape the spiritual civilization of society and organically integrate the old and new ideas into a new type of thinking, rather than depravity and negativity. After experiencing the struggle, Jia Pingwa came to his senses. At the moment when Zhuang Zhidie was disillusioned, he found the bright light on the way forward in his broken soul-a brand new belief that guided people to live better.
From this point of view, the Zhuang Zhidie portrayed by Jia Pingwa in "Abandoned Capital" represents the degeneration and struggle of the entire social elite class. This is a cruel way of stripping oneself away from negativity and regenerating positiveness. Even if the soul is already broken, you must use your unyielding spirit to find a glimmer of light on the way forward. It is the courage to face the problem and solve the problem in order to survive better. Otherwise, just like Zhuang Zhidie, the world has no place to live, only withering!
04. The two real inspirations that this book brings to me
① Stick to my heart: a clear clue amidst the complexity
Xi Murong said: "I have always believed that the true nature of life is not on the surface, but on the extreme. Deep in my heart." Yes, a person is born like a piece of white jade, and when he grows up, he will encounter a lot of dust. Cover this transparent, but no matter how you cover it, you will eventually encounter soft tears. Dispel. Whether you are rich or poor, your heart is something that everyone is born with. Don't forget your heart and listen to the voice from the depths of your soul.
In real life, many people take gains and losses very seriously, and they want to fight for a high and low on a trivial matter. Once promoted, they start to be complacent. Once they fall into a trough, they don’t know what to do. In fact, no matter whether we live or study, we will have a principle or belief. Many times we forget this, so that everything will trap our souls and anxiety will follow. Stick to your heart and be yourself, those clouds in life will naturally slowly dissipate.
②Fearless to change: change is actually to become a better self
There are two kinds of people in the world facing change, one is the waiter and the other is the actor, Jia Pingwa chooses to act, and finally completes the spiritual reshaping. Although many people at the time became funerary objects of the changes of the times, there are still many people with conscious minds to come forward. At any time, we must not lose our confidence and courage.
Looking at the future, we will face more and more challenges. None of us can stop the development and changes of the environment. Only when we actively adapt to the changes in the environment can we blend in and survive in the new environment. There is change, this does not mean it is a bad thing, growth itself is to go through a process of change after another. If we don't shrink or avoid, change ourselves to become a better version of ourselves, we will continue to live well.
"Abandoned City" is a novel written by Jia Pingwa in the direction of "Dream of Red Mansions". It may be similar in narrative and language, but because Jia Pingwa himself was influenced by Shaanxi culture and his deep experience of local life, he was able to write it. Such a novel with both national literary tradition and contemporary life.
American writer Thomas Wolfe said: "All serious works are autobiographical in the final analysis, and if a person wants to create something of real value, they must use the materials and experiences in their lives." Jia Pingwa did this. He put aside a lot of worries and wrote what he had to write. I think the contemporary meaning of "Dead City" is not the erotic fragments that some people repeatedly chant, but how we should face the crisis and find ourselves.
Written by: Zhuangzhuang
Thank you for reading, thank you for your attention~
Jia Pingwa I am
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