Liang Shiqiu recalled what Lao She wrote in Selected Essays.

When I went to America recently, I came across a small book collected by my daughter Wen Qiang, one of which was inscribed by Lao She. This was more than forty years ago, when Lao She and I both lived in Beibei, Sichuan. Lao She first lived in a small villa above Mr. Lin Yutang's house near the stairs. The room is very small, only a bed and a table, and she hasn't had time to hide in it. He is alone, writing for himself. once

I asked him how his novel was going, and he said he would write 700 words a day, not much. He is in poor health, suffers from gastroptosis, bends slightly when walking, and his face is obviously old. His writing attitude is very cautious, and 700 words a day are not written casually. He later said to himself, "Everything has to be considered for a long time." There lived an old Xiang army downstairs, but they didn't have much contact with each other. Lao She is amiable and approachable, but she is lonely at heart.

Later, Lao She moved out of that place and moved to one of a row of bungalows along the road. I remember living in another bungalow, and Li and his wife also lived in another bungalow. This place is close to my elegant house, so I have more opportunities to meet Lao She. One day I took Wen Qiang to see him. At that time, Wen Qiang was a junior two student in Shapingba Nankai Middle School and a teenager. It is a habit of young students to ask for signatures and inscriptions. Lao She happily took up a pen and wrote thirteen words for her: "Health and good knowledge are the best citizens". Although it is a general encouragement to backwardness, we can also see Lao She's simple and cordial attitude. He knows the importance of being strong.

At this time, the old man gave up acute appendicitis. There were many people suffering from appendicitis at that time, and I made a record among my friends. Due to the lack of anti-inflammatory drugs at that time, I was on the verge of laparotomy twice, and I was hospitalized for more than a month before I was taken back to Yashe for rest. Lao She followed in my footsteps and the operation was not smooth. According to the news from Zhao Qingge, it took an hour to find the cecum after the abdominal cavity was opened, but the cecum was found on the left side of the abdominal cavity. The common cecum is on the right. Lao She changed her position because of gastroptosis. After the operation, his health became worse and worse.

In the early days of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Lao She, like me, went to the rear alone, and his family was sent from Jinan to Peiping. He wrote to a friend and said, "My wife and children can't come out. I have to say goodbye to them. I am a parent, and now I must give them to fate. " Later, I asked his wife how she was doing. He pretended to be calm and said, "She did a good job. She now serves a people's library-the building behind the colored soil in Central Park. " In fact, at the end of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, the residents of Beiping had a very difficult life, and they had almost no livelihood. Soon, Lao She's wife, Ms. Hu Qing, came to the rear and soon lived in Beibei and moved away with Lao She, as if she had moved to a country near Chongqing. I received a letter shortly after he left, and six poems were written nearby (see appendix). This poem is well written, so we can get a glimpse of his mood. He lamented that he was silent in middle age, had no money to buy wine, was too old to be an official, and worked hard for his life, which was a portrayal of a group of tramps!

The death of Lao She has long been a mystery. It's no secret now. He died a terrible death. His father also died miserably. Hu Qing said:

When Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing, his father died in a grain shop in Nanchang Street. It's a letter from my uncle's second brother, who is also a flag soldier ... He got lost, passed by the grain store, went in to find water to drink, and happened to meet Lao She's father. The incendiary bomb that Eight-Nation Alliance attacked Zhengyangmen burned his father's gunpowder, and he was swollen all over. He climbed to this grain store to die. When the second brother saw him, he was speechless and black all over. He only gave him a pair of cloth socks that he took off because his feet were swollen. Later, these socks were buried in my father's little cenotaph. Lao She was less than two years old at this time.

This tragic family history is a natural novel theme. In Lao She's life, wherever he went, it returned to his memory again and again, arousing his infinite bitterness and indignation.

History will not repeat itself, however, history is often so similar. Lao She's father died under the fire of imperialism, and Lao She himself died tragically under the poisonous arrow of the theory of "dictatorship of literary black line". Lao She's father died alone and painfully in a small grain store, and Lao She himself died alone and painfully on the shore of a small lake. There are no bones in Lao She's father's tomb, only a pair of cloth socks, and there are no ashes in Lao She's own urn, only a pair of glasses and a pen ... (Preface to Under the Red Flag)

Lao She and his son died tragically, one in Eight-Nation Alliance and the other in the hands of the Gang of Four. The former died as a flag soldier under enemy fire. It is a tragedy that Lao She, a scholar, died under the poison arrow of the evil theory of "dictatorship of literary black line". Our understanding is that he did not drown in the water of the small lake, but died on the shore of the small lake. His body was cremated soon, but there was no ashes in his urn! People like Lao She have always been open-minded and detached. His ideological tendency has always been individualism and liberalism. His works have always been realistic, and he has deep sympathy for the poor people. What's more, he wrote a lot of eulogies because of the situation. In any case, he should not have his ending. However, what shouldn't have happened really happened. I have nothing to say. I think of a folk song "Tone sandhi Geer" written by Mr. Hu Shi when he quoted Dou Peng Gossip:

God, you're old,

Deaf ears, eyes and flowers.

You can't see people, you can't hear words.

Those who kill and set fires enjoy all the glory,

Vegetarians, reading the Bible, starving and being killed!

God, you can't do it. You're going to fall!

You can't! You're falling!

Lao She's last novel is The Red Flag. 1980 was published by Beijing People's Literature Publishing House in June, with a total of 142 pages and 97,000 words.

This novel was written at the end of 196 1 and 1962. According to Hu Qing's preface, the novel suffered a lot and the process was tortuous. The novel is mainly written by Manchu people, and it is Manchu people in the late Qing Dynasty, with the turmoil of the Boxer Rebellion as the background. Therefore, it is definitely different from the so-called "modern genre" in genre. Lao She dared to write this novel that he had long wanted to write because he thought he was allowed to "freely choose the genre under certain conditions", but he was wrong. 1962 A "modern literary inquisition" took place in the second half of the year, which implicated a large number of literary and art workers. "Who wants to write a novel inexplicably and be labeled as' anti-Party'?" "These abnormal phenomena in literary and artistic policies constitute the reason why Under the Red Flag has not been written and published so far."

164 page manuscript "Under the Red Flag" became contraband, "hidden in bathtubs, boilers, coal piles, from one house to another, from the city to the suburbs, like poor deer being hunted." When we read the novel Under the Red Flag, we can't see anything aimed at anyone. Perhaps the only thing we can discuss is the lack of slogans suitable for certain fashions. Perhaps this novel is a realistic work loyal to history, humanity and art, rather than serving anyone, so it is taboo. In a word, this novel has just started, and it introduces several characters in the story. I was about to write about the Boxer Rebellion and the tragic death of my father, so I stopped writing, and the draft was not published until long after Lao She's death.

It is a pity that the novel was not finished. This autobiographical novel is different from previous works, with a more serious attitude and no humor in spoken English. This is an autobiographical novel, but it is a novel, not an autobiography. The characters are real, the background is real, and the stories are interspersed with truth and falsehood. From this novel, we can learn about Lao She's life experience. (Excerpt from "Memories of Huaiyuan Dreams" by Liang Shiqiu, published by Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House. )