Border Town The Seven Savages and the Last Man to Welcome the Spring Festival by Shen Congwen: The Disillusionment of Utopia

It is my fault that I am so ignorant about my study. When I first read it, I could only experience the happy, quiet and free life like the Peach Blossom Garden, but I didn't realize its profound meaning. After studying, I realized the profound theme-the feeling of utopia disillusionment.

There used to be a natural and true way of life on the Xijiang River in northwest Hunan, but with the raising of cattle, sheep and livestock and the progress of human civilization, the feudal official system came quietly. The seven savages in the book are not real savages, they are just a group of villagers who resist the official system and love freedom. The view that "officials are useless things" is the same. They agreed that if someone came to Beixi to set up an official, they would deny this absurd reform. They are willing to live freely and equally, and would rather be dominated by ignorant gods than by officials.

But in the end, their way of resistance completely annoyed the government. After the last one ushered in the Spring Festival, they bled to death.

From the flowing brush strokes, I read Shen Congwen's yearning for primitive civilization, his worship of the primitive, spontaneous, mysterious and just world built by Xiangxi civilization as a model, and his regret for the ultimate disillusionment of Utopia.