A Brief Introduction to the Novel Fortress Besieged

Fortress Besieged is a satirical novel with a unique style in the history of modern literature in China. The author Qian Zhongshu (19 10), a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, 1933 graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Tsinghua University, and then studied in Britain and France. He is a brilliant scholar with a thorough understanding of Chinese and western cultures. Fortress Besieged was written in 1944 and completed in 1946. At that time, the author was living in Shanghai, hearing and witnessing the insolence of the Japanese invaders, "Two years of worrying about the world and hurting my life" and "Preface to Fortress Besieged", and at the same time stubbornly putting his feelings and thoughts on life and academics into writing.

In the preface of the first edition of Fortress Besieged, the author once described his creative intention like this, saying, "I want to write about a certain part of modern society and a certain kind of characters." Referring to the content of the novel, we can see that the author deliberately shows the masses of intellectuals in modern China. Fortress Besieged depicts the hesitation and emptiness of some intellectuals in China during the Anti-Japanese War with comic satire through the emotional and marriage entanglements between the protagonist Fang Hung-chien and several intellectual women and Fang Hung-chien's experience from Shanghai to the mainland. The author explains the meaning of "besieged city" from the mouth of the characters in the novel, saying that it comes from a French idiom, that is, "besieged city". "People outside the city want to rush in, and people in the city want to escape." The whole plot of the novel is the siege and escape of young men and women in the intellectual circle in love disputes, which deeply shows the situation that some intellectuals are trapped in the spirit of "besieged city". This is the profound point of the theme of Fortress Besieged.

Content introduction:

Qian Zhongshu's novel Fortress Besieged is a household name, full of talent and wonderful metaphor.

After studying abroad for several years, Fang Hung-chien spent dozens of dollars to get a fake diploma from an Irishman before returning to China to cheat his father-in-law. Brilliant and knowledgeable Sue likes him, while he likes the beautiful and naive. Finally, due to various misunderstandings between him and his cousins, he left Shanghai temporarily and somehow married Sun Roujia, who also taught at San Lv University. After marriage, Fang Hung-chien said to Zhao, a close friend who always liked Su, "If you really marry Miss Su, you will feel that you are not much better than yourself." This is also how he felt in the marriage castle.

"Western donkey drivers, whenever the donkey refuses to go and the whip is useless, hang a bunch of carrots on their lips right in front of the donkey. The stupid donkey thought that the radish would reach his mouth in the previous step, so he continued to move forward step by step. The more he bit his mouth, the more his feet would catch up, and he took another stop unconsciously. At that time, whether it can eat this bunch of radishes depends on the happiness of the donkey people. "

Life is a besieged city and marriage is a besieged city. Qian Zhongshu's novel Fortress Besieged is a vivid picture of the world. Mr. Qian Zhongshu combined his linguistic genius with extremely profound knowledge, plus some ironic and humorous spices, and decided the country with one book.

Brief comments:

Fortress Besieged shows the subtle observation of the world and the superb art of psychological description. The author portrays Su, a talented woman, as a reserved and melodramatic woman with a small family and jade style, with a kind of talent hidden behind her. However, the analysis of Fang Hung-chien's complex personality and mentality, which is clever and timid, knowing but useless, is extremely tortuous and incisive. The description of Fortress Besieged runs through the artistic conception of satirical comedy from beginning to end. The basic plot of the novel revolves around Fang Hung-chien, and many characters and scenes in the novel are presented from a square perspective. Fang's attitude of observing people and the world and the satirical style of the author behind him are intertwined, which makes the satirical technique of Fortress Besieged unique.

The narrative of Fortress Besieged is not completely tied to the characters' personalities and plot clues. The author often digress, talk about the past and discuss the present, and quote classics, which makes the metaphors and epigrams of the novel emerge one after another, greatly increasing the knowledge capacity of the novel language, but sometimes showing off knowledge too much.

Fortress Besieged was first published in Shanghai in 1947, and was revised by People's Literature Publishing House in 1980, adding the prequel and reprint written by the author. Qian Zhongshu's wife, Jiang Yang, once wrote Remember Qian Zhongshu and Besieged City. She has a very interesting account of the writing of Fortress Besieged and the relationship between some characters and prototypes in the novel. Please refer to.

Qian Zhongshu and Besieged City

Author: Jiang Yang

Qian Zhongshu wrote Besieged City.

Qian Zhongshu said in the preface of Fortress Besieged that he wrote this book. I finished reading penny wise and pound foolish. Every night, he showed me the written manuscript and watched my reaction eagerly. I laugh and he laughs; I laugh, and he laughs. Sometimes I put down my manuscript and laugh at him, because I not only laugh at what is in the book, but also laugh at what is outside it. I don't have to explain what I'm laughing at, but we understand each other. Then he told me what he was going to write in the next paragraph, and I was eagerly waiting to see how he wrote it. He writes about 500 words a day on average. He showed me the final version, which has not been changed. Later, he was dissatisfied with this novel and other "few works" and wanted to make a big change, but this is another story.

Zhong Shu chose the Song Dynasty, and I volunteered to be Bai Juyi's "old woman"-that is, the minimum standard; If I don't understand it, he has to add notes. But among the readers of Fortress Besieged, I became the highest standard. For example, a bachelor is familiar with the source of words in ancient poetry, and I am familiar with the source of characters and plots in the story. Besides the author himself, it's my turn to annotate Fortress Besieged.

Why do you need notes to read novels? However, every time many readers are interested in a novel, they are also interested in the author, and regard the characters and plots in the novel as real people and facts. Some simply regard the protagonist of the novel as the author himself. Smart readers admit that the author can't be equal to the characters in the book, but they say that the characters and stories created by the author can't be separated from his personal experiences and thoughts and feelings. Of course it is. However, I once pointed out in an article that an important part of creation is imagination. Experience is like a fire lit in the dark, and imagination is the light emitted by this fire. Without fire, there would be no light, but the size of light far exceeds that of fire. The stories created are often beyond the author's own experience in many ways. It is putting the cart before the horse to ask the author's experience from the story he created. The author's thoughts and feelings are created as if they were fermented into wine; It is not easy to identify the raw materials of wine. Have the opportunity to know the author's experience and what raw materials wine is made of. I am very willing to let readers see how many connections there are between real people and fictional characters, and what kind of connections they are. Because many so-called realistic novels actually describe their experiences in a brand-new way to enhance or satisfy their feelings. This autobiographical novel or novel autobiography is really a romantic documentary, not a realistic fiction. Fortress Besieged is just a fictional novel. Although it seems to be true, it is actually true.

In Fortress Besieged, Fang Hung-chien's hometown is famous for grinding bean curd while the iron is hot, and his famous product is clay dolls. When someone read this, he could not help but hum proudly: "Isn't this Wuxi?" Isn't Qian Zhongshu from Wuxi? Didn't he also study abroad? Don't you also live in Shanghai? Aren't you also teaching in the mainland? "A man who loves textual research has come to the conclusion that Qian Zhongshu's degree is unreliable, and the conclusion that Fang Hung-chien is Qian Zhongshu is more tenable.

Qian Zhongshu, a native of Wuxi, graduated from Tsinghua University in 1933 and taught English at Guanghua University for two years. 1935, he won a British scholarship to study in Oxford, England. 1937, he received an associate doctorate (B. Park Jung Su. ), and then went to study at the University of Paris, France. He wanted to study for a degree, but later he gave it up. 1938, Tsinghua University hired him as a professor. According to a letter from Mr. Feng Youlan, Dean of Tsinghua University Literature at that time, this is an exception, because according to Tsinghua's old practice, when he first returned to China to teach, he was just a lecturer, from lecturer to associate professor and then to professor. Zhong Shu returned to China in September and 10, landed in Hongkong, and then transferred to Kunming to teach in Tsinghua University. At that time, Tsinghua had been incorporated into the National Southwest Associated University. His father is a professor at National Zhejiang University. At the invitation of his old friend Mr. Liao Maoru, he went to Lantian, Hunan Province to help him establish the National Teachers College. His mother, brothers and sisters and others fled to Shanghai with his uncle's family. /kloc-in the autumn of 0/939, after Zhong Shu returned to Shanghai from Kunming to visit relatives, his father wrote and called, saying that he was ill and asked Zhong Shu to go to Hunan to take care of him. Mr. Liao, the president of Teachers College, came to Shanghai and persuaded him to be the head of the English Department again and again, in order to serve his father and take care of both public and private affairs. In this way, he went to Hunan instead of Kunming. 1940 summer vacation, he and a colleague went back to Shanghai to visit relatives. The road was blocked and he turned back halfway. 194 1 year summer vacation, he went from Guangxi to Haiphong, and it was Shanghai's turn to return to the mainland for several months. Mr. Futian Chen, Director of Foreign Languages Department of National Southwest Associated University, made a special trip to Shanghai and invited him to return to the General Assembly. During the Pearl Harbor incident, he fell into Shanghai and couldn't get out. He wrote a seven-character poem "Ancient Meaning", in which one couplet said, "If there is no road to Bihan, I dream of the floor of the Red Chamber", and another poem "Ancient Meaning" said, "My heart is like apricot in spring, and my eyes are like plum in the rain." These are all my disappointments when I was imprisoned in the enemy-occupied area. Fortress Besieged was written during the fall of Shanghai.

I first met Zhong Shu/kloc-0 in Tsinghua in the spring of 932, got engaged in/kloc-0 in 933, got married in/kloc-0 in 935, went to England by boat (I studied abroad at my own expense), went to France in the autumn of/kloc-0 in 937, and returned home by boat in the autumn of/kloc-0 in 938. My mother died a year ago, and Suzhou's home was looted by the Japanese invaders. My father took refuge in Shanghai and lived with my brother-in-law. I am eager to see my father. Zhong Shu got off the boat in Hong Kong and went to Kunming. I took the original boat and went straight to Shanghai. At that time, the principal of my alma mater left me and set up a "branch school" on this "island" of Shanghai. Two years later, Shanghai fell and the "branch school" closed. I became a tutor temporarily. I was a substitute in primary school and wrote plays in my spare time. Zhong Shu went to Shanghai without a job, so my father gave him the time of teaching in Aurora Women's College of Arts and Sciences, and we lived a hard life in Shanghai.

Once, we watched a play I wrote, and when we got home, he said, "I want to write a novel!" " "I'm glad to urge him to write quickly. At that time, he was stealing time to write short stories, fearing that he wouldn't have time to write long ones. I said it doesn't matter, he can reduce the teaching time, our life is very frugal, and we can be more frugal. It happened that our maid had to go back because of the improvement of her hometown life. I won't force her, and I won't find another maid. I just took over her job myself. Chopping wood, making a fire, cooking, washing clothes, etc. I am a layman. I often dye soot into my face, or smoke my eyes with tears, or boil oil, or cut my fingers. But I am eager to watch Zhong write Fortress Besieged (he has told me the title and main content), and I am willing to be a maid in the kitchen.

Fortress Besieged was written in 1944 and completed in 1946. As the original preface said, "two years of worrying about the world hurts his life", he was in a hurry and was busy writing "Talking about Art Record". In his thirty-fifth birthday poem, there is a pair of couplets: "Before the bookworm comes out, it is difficult to set a tree around the poem." It is this mentality that cannot be balanced. At that time, we lived in a big family that took refuge in Shanghai, including our father and uncle. The two families live together and cook separately. Zhong Shu's father has been away from home. Zhong Shu's younger brother, sister, sister-in-law, niece, etc. They all left Shanghai one after another, leaving only their mother and a younger brother alone in Shanghai. The so-called big family is just like a small family.

Above, I briefly described Zhong Shu's experience, family background and his situation when he wrote Fortress Besieged, and wrote a brief introduction for the author. The following are some notes of Fortress Besieged.

Zhong Shu draws materials from his familiar times, familiar places and familiar social classes. But the characters and plots that make up the story are fictional. Although some characters are slightly real, everything is fake; Some plots are slightly true, but the characters are all made up.

Fang Hung-chien is based on two relatives: one is ambitious but ignorant, and he is always full of complaints; An arrogant singer. Both of them have read Fortress Besieged, but neither of them thought of Fang Hung-chien, because neither of them had experienced Fang Hung-chien. Zhong Shu takes Fang Hung-chien as the center of the story, and often sees things from his eyes and feels from his heart. Casual readers will sympathize with him from understanding, care about him from sympathy, and even integrate themselves with him. Many readers think that he is the author himself. /kloc-Flaubert, the author of the French novel Madame Bovary in the 0/9th century, once said, "Madame Bovary is me." Then, Qian Zhongshu could say, "Fang Hung-chien, that's me." However, there are many male and female characters who can be said to be Qian Zhongshu, not just Fang Hung-chien. Fang Hung-chien and Qian Zhongshu are just from Wuxi, and their experiences are very different.

We returned home by the French mail ship II (athos II), and the scene on the deck was very similar to that in Fortress Besieged, with French policemen flirting with Jewish women and China students playing mahjong. Miss Bao is pure fiction. When we went abroad, there was also a curvy Nanyang girl on board. Foreigners on the ship are very interested in her and regard her as an oriental beauty. We met a female student in Oxford who was sponsored by her fiance to study abroad. I hear she is very romantic. There is an Egyptian female student studying English in Oxford. Her skin is very dark, and we all think she is beautiful. Miss Bao is a combination of oriental beauty, romantic fiancee and Egyptian beauty. Zhong Shu heard the story of China students cheating on a mail boat. In the novel, Fang Hung-chien was seduced by Miss Bao. The boss of abalone stinks, so this lady's surname is Bao.

Miss Su is also a complex. Her appearance is a beautified classmate. Her thoughts and feelings belong to another person; This man is not beautiful at all. Another person smuggling goods alone. Zhong Shuyang translated the poem written by Miss Su. He told me not to translate it very well, but just generally. Miss Su's husband is another classmate, and the mandarin duck spectrum is randomly selected in the novel. The groom in a black dress and sweaty collar was none other than Zhong Shu himself. Because our wedding day is the hottest day of the year. In our wedding photos, the newlyweds, bridesmaids, girls with flower baskets and boys with gauze all look like pickpockets who have just been caught by the police.

Zhao grew up from a boy who was five or six years old that we liked, and added his twenties to him. The child has not yet grown into Zhao, and of course it is impossible to have Zhao's experience. If the author says, "Fang Hung-chien is me," he will definitely say, "Zhao is me."

There are two unimportant people who have the shadow of real people, and the author is handy and does not melt, so two acquaintances "sit in the right place." One didn't care, and the other heard that he was very angry. Zhong Shu exaggerated one aspect of Dong Xiechuan, but did not exaggerate other aspects. And Dong Xiechuan's speeches and poems, not copied a word, are all fabricated. Chu Shen Ming and his shadow are all wrong. The true face of that shadow is more exaggerated than Chu. Once he and I went to town by train from the suburbs of Paris, he suddenly took out a piece of paper from his pocket, which listed the conditions for a girl to choose a husband, such as appearance, age, knowledge, personality, family background, etc., and forced me to grade them one by one and arrange them in order. I know his intentions and his target, so I use little wings to deal with the past. Then he said to me angrily, "They said he was young and promising, but you said he was promising, not promising." I should tell him in a friendly and honest way that when I first met Zhong Shu, he was wearing a blue coat, a pair of wool shoes and a pair of old-fashioned big glasses, which was not "chic" at all. But seeing that he thinks I should stand on the same side with him, I can't help but say naughtily, "Of course, I think he is the most charming." He was shocked and silent for a long time. Later, I praised him for his straight suit, and he said in surprise, "Really? I always feel that my clothes are not quite right. Washing and ironing once a week is not as good as others'. "I'm sure his clothes are really straight, so he is very happy. In fact, Chu Shen Ming is also a complex. The glass of milk in the novel was drunk by another person. That man is also our companion in Paris. He is unmarried, telling us that he loves "fairy beauty", not "fairy beauty". However, one of his friends appreciates the beauty of fairies and is very interested in a prostitute with a dog. He wants to "play a game" and invite prostitutes to have a drink and chat. One night, a group of us were sitting in a cafe and saw the prostitute with the dog walk into another cafe. The admirer of "Fairy Beauty" took the initiative to say to the admirer of "Fairy Beauty": "I'll get her for you. "He hasn't come back for a long time. Zhong Shu said, "don't let the spider's fine web get entangled in the silk hole." I will save him. " Zhong Shu ran into the cafe and saw the admirer who was as beautiful as a fairy sitting alone at the table, drinking a cup of boiling milk, surrounded by prostitutes, laughing at him. Zhong Shu saved him. Since then, people often joke about that glass of milk, saying that if you are called a prostitute, you should at least drink a glass of beer instead of milk. It must be the glass of milk that dragged Chu to the restaurant to drink milk. That pile of medicine must have come out of that glass of milk.

Fang Tun-weng is also a complex. Because he is Fang Hung-chien's father, readers are sure that he is Zhong Shu's father. In fact, Fang Tun-weng is just a little similar to his father. Before and after my engagement with Zhong Shu, Zhong Shu's father opened my letter to Zhong Shu without authorization, greatly appreciated it, and wrote me a letter directly, solemnly entrusting Zhong Shu to me. This sounds like the style of Fang Tun Weng. When we fell to Shanghai, he wrote that I was "living a poor life and enjoying a happy life", much like Fang Tun-weng's tone. However, if Fang Tun-weng resembles his father in two or three places, and his uncle in four or five places, some of them are fabricated, because such feudal parents are common among relatives and friends. Both Zhong Shu's father and uncle have read Fortress Besieged. His father smiled; We didn't see his uncle's expression. My wife and I often privately wonder if they think Fang Tun-weng is similar to themselves.

Tang Xiaofu is obviously the author's favorite figure and doesn't want to marry her to Fang Hung-chien. In fact, if the author lets them become family members, and then the family quarrels and falls out, then the meaning of getting married like a besieged city is more thoroughly expounded. After falling in love, Fang Hung-chien said that if Zhao married Miss Su, it would not be much better. After marriage, he would find that he married the wrong person. These words are quite right. But he didn't marry the right person after all, and his words can be interpreted as comforting words.

As for the president of Dianjinyin Bank, the parents of Miss "I have him" and so on, they are all common Wuxi businessmen in Shanghai, so I won't comment on them one by one.

I enjoyed reading a passage from Shanghai to San Lv University by Fang Hung-chien and his party. I didn't go to Hunan with Zhong Shu, but I know all five people with him. None of them are similar to the five people in the novel, not even the slightest bit. I have seen Wang Meiyu's bedroom: a quilt with a bright red silk surface is stacked inside the bed; On the big round mirror on the table, a woman took off her shoes and sat by the bed, frying opium with half a washbasin. I saw this when I was looking for a house in Shanghai, and I described it to Zhong Shu. When I was studying in Tsinghua, I traveled together during spring break, spent the night in a deserted village, slept in the mud covered with hay, and had nightmares at night. A little doll below me shouted "Hold my red cotton-padded jacket" and pushed me with her hand, but she couldn't push it. I told Zhong Shu about the nightmare. Maggots are called "granulation", and I once told Zhong Shu that this is something new. Zhong Shu sent me a poem on his way to Hunan. He traveled to Xuedou Mountain with his traveling companions and had four poems about Ji You. I like the second and third poems very much. I might as well copy them down as a comparison between real people and novels.

The wind blows the sea, towering like a mountain; The waves are broken, and the snow is suspected for generations. I often see mountains, and the ups and downs are caused by water; Winding without bones, wrinkles with waves. It is to know the water and the mountains, and each thought is in its place. For example, a hero can prepare different beautiful women. Being impregnable in Lu is just a matter of understanding the wisdom of others.

The mountain is too quiet, but the hidden waterfall stays up day and night, making the rain angrier. There are also tears, and I dare to pour out my chest; Just like this mountain, don't change outside. I am silent, and I am glad to meet you in the distance. I hate a lot of wandering, but I don't know how to hide. Go your own way if you can't talk it over.

In this novel, only the visit to Xuedou Mountain is mentioned, but nothing is mentioned. Tourists are naturally tourists, and Fang Hung-chien, Li and others are busy with it. It shows that there are many things that can be fabricated, facts can be put aside, and facts can't squeeze into this fabricated world.

Li Meiting also had some shadows when she met widows. A friend of Zhong Shu's is a loyal elder who met a widow who claimed to be in trouble during her trip. That friend sponsored her, and later she realized that she had been cheated. I have a classmate nicknamed "merry widow". I once described to Zhong Shu that she washed off her powder before going to bed, and her face, eyebrows, eyes, nose and mouth were all gone. A Suzhou widow was made up about these two unrelated things. When she met Li, she gave birth to quips such as "She is a good person".

The thick lady in the certificate office reminds me of the female clerk we saw in a post office in Shanghai. Her hair is yellow, her face is pale, her eyes are upturned, and she is wearing a light purple linen cheongsam. I once told Zhong Shu that if her skin is white and greasy, and her hair is soft and black, she can become a beauty by replacing the light purple linen cheongsam with a soft purple silk cheongsam. Mrs. Wang is so beautiful that I think she has met before.

Miss Fan and Miss Liu must be familiar to everyone, so there is no need to introduce them again. Although Sun Roujia followed Fang Hung-chien to Hunan and returned to Shanghai, I have never met him. None of the women I know (including myself) looks like her, but after a little contact with her, I found that she is the most common one in our circle. She is highly educated and has no special skills, but she is not stupid. Not beautiful, but not ugly; I'm not interested, but I have my own opinion. Fang Hung-chien "has a wide range of interests and no experience"; She has no interest except planning. Her world is very small, only inside and outside the besieged city. The freedom she enjoys is limited. She can squeeze into the city from outside the city or squeeze out from the city. Her greatest success was to marry a Fang Hung-chien, and her greatest failure was to marry a Fang Hung-chien. She and Fang Hung-chien are typical women among intellectuals. Thankfully, Sun Roujia's cleverness lies in that she can draw Mrs. Wang's "summary": ten red nails and one red lip. A young woman who envies and despises herself can be so sharp. But this cleverness was given to her by Zhong Shu. Zhong Shu is used to mastering this kind of "summary". For example, he can master the "summary" in everyone's voice and distinguish speakers by voice, even though he has never met anyone.

Perhaps, just like Don Quixote, I smashed the puppet stage with my sword, and the characters in Fortress Besieged were scattered all over the floor, with cardboard limbs all over the floor. However, when I finished reading the novel paragraph by paragraph, it was not that I found the real thing, but that I saw the fragments of the real thing. After piecing it together, I created people I had never met, and made up things I had never thought of. I was surprised when I laughed and couldn't help saying, "I can expose your peep show." Zhong Shu laughed with me, understood my smile and admitted that I smiled well, but with a little pride.

Maybe I did something as disappointing as Don Quixote. However, I believe this can explain the relationship between Fortress Besieged and real people.