What does Snow Country express?

The nihility in Snow Country has deeply penetrated the tradition of Japanese classical literature, and it is an "oriental" nihility. Although Kawabata Yasunari was dissatisfied with the present situation of the literary world when he first came to the literary world, he once launched a "new feeling movement" with Yokomitsu and others, trying to create a brand-new feeling world by means of Dadaism, Expressionism and other western modernist methods. He did not attach importance to the Japanese literary tradition and once "tried to deny it and exclude it."

However, after middle age, Yasunari Kawabata found himself more and more "having never experienced western-style grief and distress, and I have never seen western-style nothingness and decadence in Japan". He began to move closer to tradition. When writing Snow Country, in order to write the beauty that does not exist in this world, he can only seek creative inspiration from Japanese traditional culture.

at the end of Snow Country, he wrote: "She (Ye Zi) was lying flat in the air, and Shimamura was shocked at once, but suddenly she didn't feel dangerous or scary. It's like an illusion in the unreal world. The stiff body falls from the air and looks very soft, but that posture, like a puppet, has no struggle, no life and no freedom, and seems to be beyond life and death. "

This is the full embodiment of Kawabata Yasunari's nihilistic thought of impermanence in life and death: Shimamura didn't feel any horror at the death of Yezi. He felt that at the moment when she fell, she seemed to be flying freely, and life or death was no longer a very important matter.

at the moment when the leaves are either alive or dead, or dead or alive, Shimamura's eyes shuttled freely from birth to death and from death to life, and he suddenly realized the eternal thinking of life and death. He realized that life and death are only two points in the journey of life. Without life, there is no death, without death, there is no life, and death can be regenerated.

I realize that people don't care about life and death, and death is not the end of life, and "nothing" is not the affirmation of "being". Life and death, being and being are just two ways of life existence; I realize that only by daring to be sure of death can I have life, so that I can not be bothered by the shadow of death when I am alive, and I will not be afraid of life when I die.

such an impermanent view of life and death is precisely Kawabata Yasunari himself who expresses his views on life and death and the nothingness of life with the help of the image of Shimamura.

Yasunari Kawabata has been reading Japanese classical literature since he was a teenager. Most of these works have the impermanence of Buddhism. At the end of Snow Country, the scene of the leaves falling from the upstairs is described as picturesque: "When he (Shimamura) stood up and stood on his feet, he looked up and the Milky Way seemed to crash down to Shimamura's heart."

"The stiff body falls from the air and looks very soft, but the posture, like a puppet, is lifeless and unrestrained, and seems to be beyond life and death." The author's description of death makes people feel that for the author, death is the end of happiness, and after death, people return to nothingness like everything in nature, reaching the realm of everything as it is. This is also Kawabata Yasunari's own understanding of death.

"nothingness" constructs the ideological soul of Snow Country, which highlights the theme of the novel. Kawabata Yasunari's nihility, which "shows the essence of the Japanese mind with excellent sensibility and superb novel skills", is related to his life experience since childhood and the influence of the impermanent tradition of Buddhism in Japanese classical literature on his inner world.

according to Zen Buddhism, "Bodhi has no trees and a mirror has no platform. There was nothing, so there was no dust. " This is similar to Kawabata Yasunari's nihilistic thought of impermanence in life, emptiness in everything, destroying me and creating something out of nothing in Snow Country.

in Japanese literature, "mourning for things" is the aesthetic criterion of the whole Japanese traditional literature. From the oldest historical and literary works "Ancient Stories" to the famous works such as "Leaves Collection", "Tale of Genji" and "Grass in vain", they all have a sad mood. Japanese sinologist Hiroshi Benju once said: "In people's feelings, only depression, sadness and sadness, that is, all things that are unsatisfactory, are the most touching."

Yasunari Kawabata follows this Japanese tradition closely. As the first Japanese writer who won the Nobel Prize, he "showed the essence of the Japanese people with his keen sense and superb novel skills". His literature is rooted in the soil of Japanese traditional literature, and at the same time, he absorbs other writing skills, plus some special life experiences of Yasunari Kawabata, which makes his literature full of a touch of sadness.

The novel "Snow Country" takes the vast snow as the background, which lays its sad tone. If Snow Country is a melodious and moving piece of music, then the beauty of sadness is its main theme. ?

The death of the leaf reveals a kind of beauty, such as white snow, bright stars and bright fire. All these pictures can even be said to be beautiful, and the leaf, the spiritual lover of Shimamura, quietly left in such a scene. The life of leaves is like a string of sad notes floating in the air, scattered and scattered, and has been scattered in a hurry before it can form a beautiful music.

in Kawabata's view, beauty and sadness are inseparable and complement each other. Therefore, the novel Snow Country is full of sad feelings such as frustration, loneliness and sentimentality, and the ending has a certain tragic color.

Extended information:

Plot

This is a story that is entangled among island village, foal and leaves, and finally becomes foal. Shimamura is a freelancer who studies western ballet in Tokyo, and his family is well-off. He has met Komako, a geisha, in Tangzawa town three times. Komako is a geisha who has been to Tokyo. She can play Sanwei Line and keeps a diary.

Komako, who lives in a cultural border but loves literature and art, can't help but have a deep affection for Hakka Island Village, a foreigner who can understand her topic. The son of Komako's master Sanwei Line, Hangnan, was suffering from tuberculosis. Accompanied by a woman named Yezi, he returned to Tangze Town to recuperate, just sitting opposite Shimamura, who went to meet Komako for the second time.

The narrative of the novel begins here. Shimamura enjoyed the snowy scene in the evening through the foggy window, but when she saw the bright eyes of the leaves reflected on the window, she couldn't help but feel uneasy.

Komako has sincere feelings for Shimamura, but Shimamura just wants to enjoy this short-lived beauty. Shimamura heard that the master of Sanwei Line once wanted to betroth Koko to Hangmen, and Koko was also a geisha to treat Hangmen, but Koko denied it. Komako played with him during his stay in Shimamura, hoping to develop a long-term relationship. Shimamura not only appreciates the beauty and personality of Koko, especially after a drunken stay, but also secretly can't let go of the simple leaves.

After Hangnan died, the cinema in Machinaka caught fire, and the leaves couldn't escape, so he had to jump from a height, but he was also in born to die. The foal collapsed and clung to the leaf's body and cried. When the townspeople saw that she was out of order, they had to take her away. At this time, the island village in the same place remembered Matsuo Bashō's haiku, and the beautiful face of leaves reflected in the window that day, and then looked up at the sky, as if endless starlight were all pouring into my heart.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-Snow Country