Why did Zhang Ailing's novels become popular in the 1940s and the new era?

For those of us who passed by Zhang Ailing, we can only know her from the articles she left behind. In prose, she is clear and direct, and the novel is obscure and tortuous. In the final analysis, knowing Zhang Ailing means knowing her novels, because for us, only novels are the meaning of Zhang Ailing. Therefore, the result of understanding is to snatch Zhang Ailing from the novel and then return it to the novel.

Look at Zhang Ailing's prose first. What I saw in it was a secular Zhang Ailing. She has a keen interest in daily life and the details of daily life at present. In Interesting Apartment Life, she said, "I like listening to this city." In the city, she pays great attention to the people and things crowded together. Elevator workers have a small air stove in the backyard to cook something to eat; Listen to the servant under the wall, translate the conversation on the phone into western language and pass it on to Xiaodong's family; The smell of beef stew. Such popularity is what she likes. In another essay, Keep an Eye on the Road, the street view she wrote is also warm and cold in the world: the smell of boiled pumpkin and bright orange give her a feeling of "warming the old and poor"; On a cold morning, someone made a small stove on the sidewalk, which was very choking, but "I like walking in that smoke"; A postman in green is riding his old mother, which makes her very moved. There is a little red light on someone's bicycle wheel-it is invisible in our time. When I was a child, someone tied colored wool on the wheel, which meant the same thing-she read it carefully and praised it as "beautiful". When talking about this project, she read Cezanne's The Virgin holds the Body of Christ. To her great surprise, the virgin is the most ordinary woman, poor, doing some odd and small needlework, with a gray heart and gray hair. She also noticed that the virgin was not holding Christ, but "turning her back to busy with something", while holding Christ was "another" Christ? Didn't remind her of anyone in the world, "all he has is the beauty of the pattern", so he missed her interest. What she likes is such familiar details of life, being nervous with her and feeling close to her skin. There is a solid livelihood in this detail, and some interest in lowering expectations.

Zhang Ailing's interest in secular life is different from Su Qing's. Hu Lancheng was right about Su Qing, a native of Ningbo. He said that Ningbo people are in high spirits, but they lack aftertaste and are really interested in joining the WTO. Zhang ailing is not. Her love for the present life stems from her fear of life, and her view of the world is nihilistic. In Notes on Apartment Life, she described a series of daily scenes with great interest and suddenly summed up a sentence: "What is long is suffering, and what is short is life." Therefore, this short life is better placed in short-sighted happiness, because the head and tail are connected with "long suffering." Only by looking at a little enjoyment under your nose can you be confident. From this point of view, while enjoying the nothingness of life, Zhang Ailing is emotional and enjoyable, which saved her. In "A Road Needs a Pair of Eyes", she wrote that she went shopping. When she was blocked, she had to stay in the street outside the blockade. A maid tried to break through the defense line and shouted, "It's getting late! Let me go back and cook! " Then, "everyone laughed." This is a place that conforms to Zhang Ailing's outlook on life. When the disaster comes, the cooking time at home is meticulous. On the unconscious maid, it is positive, but on Zhang Ailing, it is negative. Because she knows better than the maid the meaning of "blockade" and the disaster of this era. But she is not a realist. She can face the reality realistically. Instead of pursuing the specific reasons of the facts, she generally believes that life is always an misfortune, there is no reason to go downhill, and individuals do nothing. As she wrote at the end of "Changing Clothes", a child rode a bicycle, spread out his handle, and walked flexibly through the small food market where the stalls were collected and the garbage was everywhere. So, she wrote: "Is giving up the cutest moment in life?" It was in this light sweep that I took a little adventure, but in the end I was safe and a little proud. Just a little trick. Zhang Ailing likes to return to love, but in fact she doesn't believe in their meaning. Otherwise, she would be Su Qing, a native of Ningbo. Otherwise, she wouldn't be so greedy to grasp the tangible things in life. She is in the eternal life hall, where there are no bones left, looking for the coolness within reach of the world. In "I See Su Qing", it is written that Yang Guifei and Tang are angry and drive back to their parents' home. "This is simply a story in the Local News. She doesn't like the violin because it is too abstract, but Hu Qin's voice is much more realistic. " Go far and round, still return to the world. "

This is Zhang Ailing, who was directly confessed by herself in her prose. In the novel, Zhang Ailing hides behind the scenes. About once, I didn't hide well, I showed my true self. Is in the "love of the whole city", Bai Liusu has just arrived in Hongkong, and the relationship with Fan Liuyuan is in a stalemate, making efforts in the dark. They stayed in two rooms in Repulse Bay Hotel. In the evening, Fan Liuyuan called Bai Liusu to her room and read her The Book of Songs: "Live and die with wealth, grow old with your son, hold your hand and grow old with your son", and there was a long explanation at the bottom. It's like Zhang Ailing talking, not Fan Liuyuan. In Zhang Ailing's novels, few people are so aware of the vastness of life and have poetic feelings. Zhang Ailing never put herself into a novel and played a role. Because even she is nothing, she is not suitable for the material and object of secular novels. Most of the characters in her novels are secular people-citizens. The most distinctive feature is Shanghai. Hong Kong has some, but more exaggerated, more like a secular stage, a dramatic secular world. The stories of "the first fragrance of agarwood crumbs" and "the second fragrance of agarwood crumbs" will be a bit strange. The story that happened in Shanghai is even more tacky.

The daughters in "Flower Xie", I thought they were the real Miss Shanghai. My father is a frivolous and irresponsible person, probably like the third young master in the Golden Lock, but his wife is not as wise, incompetent and tasteless as the third little milk. I thought the white rose and the smoky bird in Red Rose and White Rose would be her when she was old. Daughters know that no one can rely on them. They must learn from society on their own and live a good life. Zhang Ailing wrote: "Young ladies can't afford to wear new silk shirts, and cloth jackets are too cumbersome. They just wore a hollow cotton robe and put it in a box a few months later. The next year, they were moldy and made new ones. " Modern rough and spicy core can withstand tossing. With more sisters, it has become a small society, conflicting with each other, which means the law of the jungle. As long as an honest and cowardly person like Chuan Chang has a little affection, his fate will be very bad. She was born with consumption and some sad feelings, but this feeling was eroded bit by bit by the delay of her illness. My fiance who is studying medicine naturally knows the ending, but he is very patient. It was two years before others found him. Then, the family even cared about the money for medicine, and eating two apples a day became the talk of the family. Finally, she wanted to have a sad ending and commit suicide, but she couldn't buy sleeping pills. She had to take a rickshaw, eat western food and watch movies. This is probably all the fun of a miss Shanghai in her spare time, and she will finally enjoy it. This is a rather sad scene, but this sadness has been eroded by the delay of illness. Chuan Chang also made two pairs of embroidered shoes, a pair of leather shoes, and tried one foot on the shoes. After a long time, he said, "This kind of leather looks very strong and can be worn for two or three years." Three weeks later, she died. This is the man in the secular world, and death is imminent. The world has long given up on her, but she still pays silly attention to some small things and earns more money than she can chew.

The people in Zhang Ailing's novels are really vulgar, and Fu Lei once criticized their vulgarity, which is no exaggeration. As I said just now, she doesn't really believe that these secular things have much redemption significance, so she smiles bitterly. And she can't help but want to hide in ordinary things that can be seen and touched, so her vision can only be so narrow. In Compassion, Mr. Mi, Mr. Deng Feng and Mrs. Yang on the mahjong table are a group of people, aren't they bored? Those glazed tile ladies are also boring. What about Hongluan Jubilee? If it weren't for Yu Qing's anxiety and unwillingness to bid farewell to the boudoir, the whole story would be boring. Here, on the contrary, it is Zhang Ailing's nothingness that saves the secular wind and gives these boring lives a desolate background. These selfish and blind desires have a serious nature close to tragedy. For example, Cao in The Golden Lock is always fighting for her ugliness and strength, with despicable means and extremely dark heart, and the small goal she strives for is also humble. When her struggle became more and more hopeless, she took revenge on the world. However, her world is very narrow, only her relatives. Therefore, it is her relatives who get revenge. When she kills her own hope, she also kills the hopes of people around her. Life fell into darkness, and the darkness was so deep that Cao, a vulgar woman, was a little sad at that time, thinking that her struggle was fruitless and worthless: if she chose a clown in her same class, "after a long time, she gave birth to a child, and that person was somewhat sincere to her." However, in Zhang Ailing's pen, it was 30 years ago, and even Cao's remorse has died. What did a positive life like Cao Qiaoqi leave behind? The dead are like this, and nothingness covers all desires. Zhang Ailing's interest in secular life makes a concrete, realistic and vivid footnote for this boundless outlook on life. This lament has a cause and effect, a beginning and an end, and a story and a human form.

Therefore, here, Zhang Ailing's nothingness and practicality, mutual care, recognition and help have created her best novels.

Love in the City is also one of her best novels. Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan, a pair of men and women now, were thrown together like dice by fate and became husband and wife. This is a rare happy ending in Zhang Ailing's story. As the article said: "There are legends everywhere, but they may not have such a happy ending." But it is also unpredictable. Coincidentally, the world is still, more unreasonable. Life is still boundless. Here, Zhang Ailing also made a reasonable footnote for this vastness. Driven by their own desires, Bai Liusu and Fan Liuyuan made a detour, playing hard to get, only to find that the world has changed a lot and the survival plan is the best. They suddenly cherished a little comfort in front of them, giving people a blind sense of security. Here, Zhang Ailing is the closest to the characters in her works, and this story also contains the most complete one of her outlook on life, which contains a gesture of slightly compromising the nihilistic life, which is in the same strain as Zhang Ailing's thoughts. Just because I walked too close, I exposed myself, and the characters were slightly off topic. As mentioned earlier, in the moonlit night, Fan Liuyuan sighed. Fortunately, Bai Liusu said, "I don't understand these things", and the things were brought back to the scene.

In this way, Zhang Ailing's secular spirit became artistic under the light of nothingness. When she wrote about Su Qing and wanted to talk to Su Qing about "the feeling of life experience", she imagined Su Qing's eyes: "I don't know what you are talking about! Probably art? " Su Qing is not "artistic", and there is no background behind her secularity. Here, we can see that Zhang Ailing's outlook on life has gone to two extremes, one is the concrete feeling of the moment, and the other is the nothingness of life. In fact, there is still a long process, that is, realistic ideals and struggles. And Zhang Ailing, like the child riding on the dirty floor of the vegetable market, "relaxed the handrail, staggered and passed lightly." This "crossing" is naturally easy. As soon as she saw the nothingness of life, she retreated to the secular world and finally let go of the broader and deeper meaning of life. It is simple to jump directly from a detailed description of the secular world to an endless conclusion. Therefore, it is easy to return to vulgarity and boredom. Therefore, I respect Lu Xun, a realist, more, because he firmly walked on the steps of reality, so he had a foothold and courage to go to nothingness. Just like "passers-by", go straight ahead, not knowing where you are going or what is ahead. The child says it's a flower, and the old man says it's a grave, but you still have to look forward and understand. He took the cloth wrapped by his children and the goodness of the world to the unknown front.