Listening to Books | Reading Zhang Ailing's "The First Incense": Ge Weilong's first life choice

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welcome to listen to the classic series, today we will continue to talk about Zhang Ailing’s novel "The First Incense". In the last lecture, we focused on analyzing the place where the legendary story "The First Incense" took place, which is the Liangzhai in the novel, which is actually a microcosm of Hong Kong. In this talk, we will specifically talk about the story itself. The time background set by

"First Incense" is roughly around 1940. The beginning of the novel happens to be when the spring is beautiful, the azaleas on the mountains are vigorous, and the spring mist on the mountains is filled. After that, after the capricious summer and bleak autumn, it finally ends on the desolate and desolate New Year’s Eve night. Each season corresponds to a change and a turning point. Within a year, a young girl went from being confident in her own future and ideals to constantly retreating in the face of reality, adjusting her expectations, and finally surrendering in front of life and becoming a complete loser. It can't help being cruel. The transformation of

's life experience is actually a theme that Zhang Ailing likes to show repeatedly in her novels. A type of standard protagonist in Zhang Ailing’s novels often has a certain self-belief at the beginning of the novel. This belief may come from the confidence in free will, the determination and grasp of the future, or the right The beautiful fantasy of future life, but at the end of the novel, this belief in life and self has almost been shaken, either destroyed or completely subverted. There is a huge gap between the unpredictable slumping ending and the beginning of the high-profile debut, full of ridicule from the cold reality of life-human self-confidence is nothing but an incurable conceit, life is cruel and complicated , Unreasonable far beyond imagination, beyond the scope of personal control. People need to pay a huge price to gain insight into the cruel nature of life, and finally they become a footnote to the so-called tragedy of life.

As we said last time, Ge Weilong is not a eldest lady who knows nothing about the world. On the contrary, she has a strong opinion and a clear goal when encountering things. She has future considerations, economic considerations, and an analysis of human affection and sophistication. She can be said to be a realistic girl. She knew that Liang Zhai was so ghostly and innocent, but she had enough self-confidence to maintain her personality at the beginning, hoping to stand upright, even if others gossiping, she could read her own book. But this expectation was denied shortly after. She found that in her situation, academic success had no special value, so her ideal changed from studying to marrying. Then from choosing an ideal partner, to discovering that there is no ideal partner, there is only one slutty in front of her, and worse, the slutty does not give her a chance at all, only to be her mistress. Opportunity. As a result, Weilong's ideals are further tailored. She does not seek marriage but a purely happy love. However, life has not let her go. This kind of humble love is still a luxury. In the end, it is money that can keep love. Ge Weilong uses his youth to exchange money, and then uses money to keep a tragic marriage. Every turning point, every decision and concession made, Ge Weilong looked incredible at the previous moment, but the reality is to force her to lower her head step by step, reminding her how naive her self-confidence is and what her expectation is How unrealistic.

Therefore, our interpretation of the clues revolves around Ge Weilong’s three life choices. These decisions she made are the turning points in her life, and these three turning points are connected to depict a life of continual decline and decline. Track.

Let’s take a look at Ge Weilong’s first choice today. Last time we said that Ge Weilong came to the aunt’s mansion and hoped that her aunt would give herself a certain amount of financial support so that she could successfully complete her studies in Hong Kong.

She just arrived at her aunt's house and happened to run into her aunt to go out. So Weilong sat in the living room and heard two girls talking in the hallway. It turns out that Mrs. Liang was coaxed to swim in Repulse Bay by the Qiao's thirteenth youngster that day. The Qiao's thirteenth youngest here is the later actor named Qiao Qiqiao, a very sociable playboy. Mrs. Liang obviously liked the Qiao's thirteenth youngest set, and she urged the girl to make up her dress before dawn. Before Mrs. Liang appeared, she was in the mouths of two girls, one mouthful and one little milk, and she looked like a romantic lady.

"Agarwood Crumbs-The First Incense (Movie on Paper)" (Zhang Kuang/Adapted by Sun Meng, Jingjing/Drawing, Wenhui Publishing House, August 2005) Illustration

Two girls talking hereOne is called Sui Sui, and the other is Sui Er. They are all next to the words, and they all mean squinting literally. It sounds strange, but they are very appropriate to their behavior and style. Although the two of them are dressed up as girls, they are also romantic figures of the same color, and their mouths are strong, and they are not forgiving when they talk. One of the girls named Sui'er said directly to Weilong: "Presumably it's a lottery, we can't socialize so much!"

Ge Weilong was angry with her servants, and heard that Mrs. Liang would not be back at night, so she had to leave. . Sui Sui accompanied her to open the garden door. The novel specifically describes the spatial relationship at that time. Suisui and Ge Weilong came out of the corridor and walked through the garden. There is a small iron gate in the garden. But the road beyond the iron gate is not the road, but the road has to be climbed down the spiral steps. While watching the small iron door latch, a car horn rang on the road and Mrs. Liang returned. The next scene of

is very interesting. There are five people in this scene. Sui Sui and Ge Weilong are standing at the small iron gate in the garden, opening the latch. As a result, the car horn rang under the stairs. I didn’t wait to see Ge Weilong’s Suier before. I didn’t know where to get out from. Ge Weilong and Sui Sui passed in the diagonal stab. He ran down the stone stairs, and laughed all the way. The milk is back, the young milk is back". At this moment, Sui Sui couldn't understand Sui'er's slave appearance, and turned back to the house. So Weilong was left alone by the iron gate.

Then look at Mrs. Liang under the steps. She stepped out of the car and let us see her appearance. It was a bit similar to the femme fatale in the Hollywood movies of the 1940s, with a face net on her face and a green face on her face. The jewel spider, bright and dark in the sun. The driver was a young man, Qiao Qiqiao, but his appearance was not described in detail here, except that he first stretched out his head to say goodbye to Mrs. Liang, but did not get a response from Mrs. Liang.

It turned out that Qiao Qiqiao asked Mrs. Liang to go out, using her as a pretense to ask another lady. The romantic young wife and Mrs. Liang were naturally furious. Qiao Qiqiao didn't want to be boring, and drove away. When Mrs. Liang looked back, the car was already far away. As a result, Mrs. Liang was left alone at the car that was leaving Juechen. At this time, Mrs. Liang joined Suier who leaned to meet down the steps, scolded Qiao Qiqiao all the way, and walked up the steps to the small iron gate in the garden, and then met Ge Weilong. The

scene is very dynamic, and the five entangled men and women in the story all appeared here. However, each person's trajectory and activity rate are different. Zhang Ailing arranges the advance and retreat of the characters in a smart way, and also uses the sense of space between the characters to explain the relationship between the characters.

among the people who left the game, Suzui was naturally the first to be out. We can feel a certain conflict in her relationship with Mrs. Liang. Although she was scolding her for being mean, she still had opinions on Mrs. Liang. When the young lady came home, she refused to wait a little while perfunctory, showing that the relationship was not good. Sui Sui left the scene first, which paved the way for her later quarrel with Mrs. Liang, who was subsequently driven out. And her departure and Ge Weilong's presence, leaving and staying, just hinted at the direction of their future destiny.

was the second to leave, it was Qiao Qiqiao. The male characters of slick prodigal like Qiao Qiqiao are often fictitious in Zhang Ailing's novels, as if they have great magical powers and can plan tactics without being exposed. This time Qiao Qiqiao was the same. With a flick of a shot, Mrs. Liang went into chaos, and finally left, leaving the battlefield to the women in the house. The remaining three women converge at the small iron gate: Mrs. Liang, who is calculating step by step, Ge Weilong who is passively staying in place, and a greedy Suier.

Mrs. Liang met Ge Weilong's nephew, and the writing is also outstanding. The aunt said straightforwardly: "Is Ge Yukun dead... One day Ge Yukun died of life, and I obediently took out the money to buy a coffin for him. He lives for a day, don't even think about borrowing money from me!" Weilong is young and tender. Can't afford to perfuse. There was a thick smile, but at this time the smile froze on his lips. Here we will find that Weilong's embarrassment is not entirely due to being robbed and not being able to get off the stage, but also a huge sense of shame. Originally, Ge Weilong was trying to take refuge in his relatives, but he did not expect that he was shamelessly naive in the face of Hong Kong's reality. The aunt can be regarded as the most avant-garde in the Ge family. The family, ethics, affection, and reputation have long been thrown away, and she is invulnerable with a copper and iron wall.

Ge Weilong, who had eaten behind closed doors, was about to retreat. On the one hand she was wronged, on the other hand sheI also feel that Liang Mansion is too complicated. The girls are devilish, and Mrs. Liang's communication is chaotic. So she had a foreboding that leaving might not be a bad thing.

But at this time, the author cleverly advanced the fate of Ge Weilong through an episode in the plot arrangement. Ge Weilong was hesitating to stay, but the two little girls said that Mrs. Liang was scolding and watching in the room. It turned out that there was a Sir Qiao in the upper-class social circle in Hong Kong, and that was Qiao Qiqiao’s father. Sui carried Madam Liang on his back and went out several times with him. So, how can girls like Sui Sui and Sui Er look like humans with higher eyes? It turned out that Mrs. Liang cultivated communicative talents to help her win over the noble officials. Therefore, all of them are Mrs. Liang's eyes and ears, and they all use the names next to the words, which seems very appropriate.

Originally Mrs. Liang was not willing to talk to Ge Weilong. But just as his right arm had a fault, he needed to consider a substitute player, and Weilong suddenly gained new value. So Mrs. Liang called Suier again to call in Ge Weilong for questioning. Mrs.

Liang inspected Ge Weilong and felt that she was good looking, fair-skinned, able to speak English, good at playing piano and tennis, and seemed to be a manufacturable. So I decided to invest in Ge Weilong and fund Ge Weilong to study. He usually lives in the mansion and is picked up by the driver.

Ge Weilong from the previous cold, to this moment things unexpectedly progressed smoothly, inevitably, there are some floating and dizzy. The following is a description of the scenery on the way Weilong came out of Liang’s house. The writing is very beautiful:

Weilong is walking down the mountain along the road. The sun has already turned west, and the back of the mountain is red and purple, golden and green, and lively. Extraordinary, it looks like the logo painting on the cover of a cigar box. The palms and plantains all over the mountain have been roasted by the poisonous sun to make them dry, like shredded cigar tobacco.

Wang Guowei said, all Jingyu is love. Therefore, from this scene, we can also realize that Ge Weilong’s mood is complicated, all kinds of emotions are violently colliding, and it is as lively as the afterglow of the setting sun, endlessly tumbling, there are unexpected surprises, and the ease of solving problems. There is curiosity, longing and fantasy about the future, and worries about the unknown.

But gradually, a dim expectation prevailed. "The sunset in the south is fast, and the dusk is only a moment. The sun has not gone down here. On the other side, at the end of the mountain road, the smoky trees are blurred, the green is soluble, and there has been a moon shadow. Weilong walked eastward, more and more, The whiter the moon, the brighter it is, like a white phoenix with a fat breast, dwelling on the turn of the road, making a nest in the fork of the tree. The more you go, the more you feel that the moon is in the depths of the tree ahead. Then there is no more."

And when the afterglow of the sun and the mist of the moon disappeared, Weilong wiped away the floating foam in her heart one by one, she went to see the Liang's house again, even under the gorgeousness , Can't hide the lifelessness. "Weilong stopped and rested for a while, feeling a little confused. Looking back at her aunt's house, she vaguely saw the yellow-ground and red-edged window mullions, and the sea was reflected in the green glass windows. The towering white house was covered with green The glazed tiles are a bit like ancient imperial tombs.” Although Ge Weilong is willing to accept Mrs. Liang’s funding, she can’t help but play a drum in her heart. "Weilong thinks she is a scholar in "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio". After going up the mountain to visit relatives, the house of your family has turned into a big grave in a blink of an eye; if the white house of the Liang family has changed to a grave, she may not be surprised."

As self-comfort, Weilong said to herself: "As for me, I walked into this ghostly world with my eyes open. If I get caught in an evil spirit, who do I blame? But are we my nephew, she Being held back by face, as long as I act righteously and stand upright, I am not afraid that she will not be polite. Outsiders gossiping, do what they say, I read my book. In the future, I will meet someone who really likes me. I understand, I will never believe those boring rumors.” In the novel, Ge Weilong is a middle school student. I always think that she should be a few years older, because her thinking is too mature and sophisticated. But at this time, Ge Weilong actually made me She feels very cute. She has the self-confidence of a young man, based on a kind of naive optimism, innocent belief in herself, in her personality and judgment, and believing that she is essentially different from Mrs. Liang and Sui'er Sui Sui and his ilk.

Next, the story progressed very quickly, and Ge Weilong's parents quickly quit the house and returned to Shanghai. Ge Weilong came to Liang's house accompanied by a mother Chen who was hired by the family to do rough work.

It was a spring evening, and the mountains were foggy. The following is another very famous description: "The white house of the Liang family melted stickyIn the white mist, only the light was swaying in the green glass window, the green faint, one by one, like ice cubes in mint wine. "The green and faint light and the fog are naturally ghostly, but here you don't feel any discomfort or coldness, because this weird air is wrapped in a modern coat, not a scary ghost. Sensen, on the contrary, seems enchanting and charming. Therefore, it is not wrong for Ge Weilong to compare himself to the scholar in the Liao Zhai. He knew there were ghosts, but still couldn't stand the temptation, so he couldn't help but walked into this modern ghost house.

was entering Liangzhai. Before, Weilong also found a detail. The rugged Chen Ma who accompanied her was "worn in a tufted new bamboo cloth blouse, and the pulp was very hard." Then people just turned around and their body was "in a blue cloth coat" It’s whirled inside and rubbed the bamboo cloth sharply.” In the novel, she pays much attention to women’s clothes. Sui'er and Sui's clothes are described. Sui'er means “wearing a tight-fitting snow-green jacket, Cuilan Narrow-legged trousers and a flat gold vest with a white background." She didn’t write about wearing it, but she wrote about the shoes "Clogs with golden lacquer and plum blossoms". In contrast, Chen Ma’s clothes really have a sense of simplicity of working people. , Wide, stiff, and not limited to details.

Ge Weilong can't help but continue to compare Chen's mother with Sui Sui and Sui'er. The people who wear the same hairstyle and braids, but Chen's braid is tied up murderously. Weilong suddenly felt that she didn't know her. She had never looked at her objectively. It turned out that the servants who were familiar with her family were not able to get on the table like this. At this time, Ge Weilong's standard of judgment was already There has been a change. Although she is still rationally persuading herself to appropriately draw a line with the Liang family, reminding herself to get out of the mud and not stained, she has begun to move closer to the Liang family in terms of evaluation criteria, so she said, people Always changes much faster than I thought.

just happened to be in a treat on this day, so she did not greet Ge Weilong, let Suier lead Weilong into the house. Weilong stayed in such a mansion for the first time, could not help but feel a little trance, and again Excited, and intoxicated, feeling that she was in a boat in the sea of ​​fog, drifting, relaxed and happy.

Then, she found that the whole closet was full of clothes. At first she thought it was her aunt’s clothes, but she didn’t evacuate it. "She is not getting childish at all, she can't help but lock the door, secretly trying to wear them one by one, but they all fit. She suddenly realized that this was specially prepared for her by her aunt. Homely brocade robe, gauze, silk, soft satin, short coat, long coat, beach cloak, pajamas, bathrobe, night gown, afternoon gown for drinking cocktails, semi-formal dinner gown for meeting guests at home, The color is complete. "

"Agarwood Crumbs-The First Incense (Movie on Paper)" Illustration

Where does a female student wear so many clothes. We have repeatedly emphasized that Ge Weilong is not an ignorant and childish boudoir girl, she knows very well. Wealth doesn't come out of thin air. She whispered to herself: "What's the difference between this and buying someone in the Changsantang? "Changsantangzi is the name given to some high-end brothels in Shanghai in the late Qing Dynasty. To beg people is to buy in. This man is a man next to a single person. The man is the name of the prostitute in Shanghai and Suzhou in the Qing Dynasty. Ge Weilong knew Mrs. Liang’s abacus in her heart. Aunt estimated that she would use her to communicate and win over guests. Although she did not have a very clear understanding, she was certainly not completely ignorant.

Ge Weilong was shocked by various possibilities. I didn’t close my eyes all night. I just closed my eyes and tried on clothes there, trying one after another. The woolen fabrics are furry like provocative jazz; the thick velvet is like a melancholic classical opera theme song; The silky soft satin, like "The Blue Danube", circling people in a cool shade, flowing all over the body. Why does

Weilong feel this way? It turned out that Weilong was dancing with a gramophone downstairs, so Weilong was half-dreaming and half-awake In between, the texture of music, the texture of clothing, and even the texture of emotions have escaped from the original framework and are entangled with each other. When you are awake, clothing is clothing. It is a pleasing investment for Changsantangzi. It is depraved. The sinister bait. But in the dream, Weilong’s sensual side was released, and she got a richer and three-dimensional experience from these clothes, which came from the modern experience of the abundance of the upper class. Clothes are more than just It is made of stiff blue bamboo cloth, but has a luxurious and diverse texture. Music, dance, opera and other novel things are naturally the embodiment of modern life; even the emotions that people can experience seem to become richer and more abundant. For excitement, there are classical melancholy and jazz provocativeAnd the enthusiasm of the rumba is an experience that would not be found in an old dull family. Of course, there is another important point. These are the lives of a young female student of ordinary family background that could not have been achieved.

Everything that Weilong feels in her sleep, touch, music, and emotions are disrupted, and then recombined to create an all-round modernity. So half-dreaming and half-awake, Ge Weilong made the first major choice in her life. She whispered to everything downstairs: See it!

When Zhang Ailing was 19 years old, there was an award-winning essay called "A Dream of Genius". There was a particularly famous sentence in the article, "Life is like a gorgeous robe, covered with fleas", but Ge Weilong only sees the gorgeous clothes now. It is too late to see this troublesome fleas. Okay, that's our third lecture, Ge Weilong's first life choice.

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