Request a synopsis of the novel "The Siege

Siege of the City is a satirical novel with a unique style in the history of modern and Chinese literature. The author, Qian Zhongshu, a native of Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, graduated from the Foreign Languages Department of Tsinghua University in 1933, and later studied in England and France. Siege of the City was first written in 1944 and finished in 1946, when the author was living in Shanghai, hearing and suffering from the brutality of the Japanese invaders, "worrying about the world and hurting his life for two years" Siege of the City - Prologue, and at the same time, he was tough enough to "accumulate every cent" to put his own feelings and thoughts on life and academics into his work, At the same time, he had the tenacity to "accumulate every penny" to put his feelings and thoughts on life and academics into writing, and successively completed the novel "Siege" and the academic work "Talking about Art".

In the preface to the first edition of The Besieged City, the author described his creative intent, saying, "I want to write about a certain part of modern society and a certain type of character." With reference to the content of the novel, it can be seen that the author intended to show the life of the upper-class intellectuals in modern China. Through the emotional and marital entanglements between the protagonist Fang Hongjian and several intellectual women, and through Fang Hongjian's encounters all the way from Shanghai to the mainland, "The Besieged City" portrays the uncertainty and emptiness of a part of China's intellectuals under the anti-war environment in a comedic and satirical tone. The author explains the meaning of the title "The Besieged City" through the mouth of the novel's characters, saying that it is derived from a French idiom, i.e., "a castle under siege". "Those outside the city want to rush in, those 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 world in love entanglements, and at a deeper level, it is the expression of the situation of a part of the intellectuals trapped in the spiritual "siege". And this is the profoundness of the theme of The Besieged City.

Synopsis:

Qian Zhongshu's long novel "The Besieged City" is a household name for its brilliant talent and brilliant metaphors.

Fang Hongjian, who has been studying abroad for several years, spends a few dozen dollars to get a fake diploma from an Irishman before returning to China to cheat his father and "father-in-law". Real talent Su Wendang like him, and he likes the beautiful and innocent Tang Xiaofu, and finally because of all the misunderstandings between him and the cousins, temporarily left Shanghai, confused with the same teaching at the University of Sanlu Sun Roujia married. After the marriage, Fang Hongzhuan said to his dear friend Zhao Xinfang, who had always liked Su Wenlian, "If you really marry Ms. Su, you will feel that it is nothing more than that." That was sort of his epiphany in the castle of marriage.

"The Western donkey driver, whenever the donkey refuses to go, the whip is useless, so he hangs a bunch of carrots before the donkey's eyes, above the lips and kisses. This stupid donkey thought to take a step forward, the carrot will be able to reach the mouth, so a step and then a step forward, the more the mouth to bite, the more the feet will rush, unknowingly walked another stop. Whether or not it gets the bunch of turnips then depends on the donkey driver's pleasure."

Life is a walled city, marriage is a walled city. Qian Zhongshu's novel "Siege" is a vivid picture of the world's wells. Mr. Qian Zhongshu juxtaposed his linguistic genius with extreme knowledge and added some satirist humor seasoning to set the world on fire with a single book.

Review:

Siege of the City demonstrates a subtle observation of the world and the art of psychological description. The author portrayed a talented woman type character Su Wendan's reserve and pretentiousness, the small family style Sun Roujia suppleness behind the hidden city, can be said to be a hole in the dark; and the mouth on the sensitive and timid in the heart, not without insight and nothing to do with the complexity of the character of the analysis of the mindset of the Fang Hongguan, is more extreme twists and turns and into the wood three distinctions. From the beginning to the end, the portrayal of "The Siege" is characterized by a comedic tone of mockery. The basic plot of the novel revolves around Fang Hongguan, the novel's many characters, most of the scenes from the Fang's point of view, Fang's view of people reading the world's attitude of ridicule, as well as implied in the author of the novel behind his mockery of the tone of voice, staggered and blended, so that the satirical door of the Siege of a unique approach.

The narrative of Siege is not entirely close to the characters and plot clues, and the author is often oblique, talking about the past and the present, quoting and quoting, with novel metaphors, cautionary sentences, and so on, which greatly increases the intellectual capacity of the novel's language, but sometimes there are too many branches and branches, and it is suspected that they are slightly showing off their knowledge.

Siege of the City was first published in Shanghai in 1947, and a revised version was published by the People's Literature Publishing House in 1980, with a "Preface to Reprinting" written by the author. Qian Zhongshu's wife, Yang Jiang, once wrote Remembering Qian Zhongshu and the Siege, which is a very interesting account of the writing of Siege and the relationship between some of the characters and the prototypes in the novel.

Remembering Qian Zhongshu and The Besieged City

Author: Yang Jiang

I Qian Zhongshu wrote The Besieged City

Qian Zhongshu said in the preface to The Besieged City that the book was written with "every penny accumulated" by him. I read it "by the penny". Every night, he showed me the finished manuscript, eager to see how I would react. When I laughed, he laughed; when I laughed, he laughed. Sometimes I put down the manuscript and laughed with him, because I was laughing not only at the book, but also at things outside the book. I don't have to explain what I'm laughing about, but we understand each other. Then he tells me what he plans to write in the next paragraph, and I wait eagerly to see what he does. He averages about five hundred words a day. He showed me the final draft, and there were no more changes. Later, he was dissatisfied with this novel and other "lesser works" and was eager to make big changes, but that's a story for another time.

When Zhongshu chose to annotate the Song poems, I volunteered to be Bai Juyi's "crone"--that is, the minimum standard; if I couldn't understand, he had to add notes. However, among the readers of The Besieged City, I have become the highest standard. Just as a bachelor is familiar with the origins of words and phrases in ancient poetry, I am familiar with the origins of characters and plots in stories. Apart from the author himself, the one who is most qualified to do the exegesis for "The Siege" should be me.

What is the need for an annotation to read a novel? However, many readers are interested in the author of a novel and take the characters and plots of the novel as if they were real people. Some simply regard the protagonist of the novel as the author himself. Sophisticated readers recognize that the author cannot be equated with the characters in the book, but they say that the author creates characters and stories that cannot be separated from his personal experiences and thoughts and feelings. That's certainly very true. But as I pointed out in an essay, an important ingredient of creation is imagination. Experience is like a fire lit in the dark, and imagination is the light from that fire; there is no light without the fire, but the light reaches far beyond the size of the fire.1 The story that is created often transcends the author in many ways. The story of creation often transcends the author's own experience in many ways. To seek the author's experience from the story of creation is upside down. The author's thoughts and feelings are created as if they were fermented and made into wine, and it is not easy to recognize the ingredients in the wine. I have the opportunity to know the author's experience, and I also know what ingredients are used to make the wine, and I am very willing to let the readers see how much and how the real people and the fictional characters are connected to each other. For many so-called realistic novels are in fact altered narratives of one's own experiences that elevate or satisfy one's own feelings. Such autobiographical novels or novelistic autobiographies are really romantic chronicles, not realistic fictions. And Siege is just a fictionalized novel, even though it reads as if it were true and real.

"The Siege" wrote that Fang Hongjian's hometown is famous for its ironworking and tofu grinding, and its famous products are mud dolls. When someone reads this, he can't help but grunt in triumph and say, "Isn't this Wuxi? Qian Zhongshu is not Wuxi? He did not also stay in the ocean? Did not also live in Shanghai? Didn't he also teach in the Mainland?" There is a gentleman who loves evidence, and even deduced that the degree of Qian Zhongshu can not be relied on, Fang Hongzhan is Qian Zhongshu's conclusion can be more established.

Qian Zhongshu is a native of Wuxi, graduated from Tsinghua University in 1933, in Shanghai Guanghua University taught English for two years, in 1935 to take the British Geng money to study in Oxford, England, in 1937 to get the Associate Doctorate (B. Litt.) degree, and then to France, into the University of Paris for further study. He wanted to study for a degree, but later lost his original intention. In 1938, Tsinghua University employed him as a professor, according to a letter from Mr. Feng Youlan, the Dean of Literature at Tsinghua at that time, this was an exception, because according to the old practice of Tsinghua, the first time he came back to China to teach only as a lecturer, and then he was promoted to Associate Professor and then to Professor. Zhongshu returned to China in September and October, disembarked in Hong Kong, and went to Kunming to teach at Tsinghua. At that time, Tsinghua had been incorporated into the Southwest Associated University. His father was a professor at the National Zhejiang University, and at the request of his old friend, Mr. Liao Maoru, he went to Lantian, Hunan Province, to help him establish the National Teachers' College; his mother, siblings, and others fled with his uncle's family to live in Shanghai. In the fall of 1939, after Zhongshu returned to Shanghai from Kunming to visit his family, his father wrote and called, saying that he was sick and wanted Zhongshu to go to Hunan to take care of him. Mr. Liao, the dean of the Teachers College, came to Shanghai and repeatedly persuaded him to become the head of the English Department, so that he could serve his father and take care of both public and private affairs. In this way, he went to Hunan instead of returning to Kunming. In the summer vacation of 1940, he and a colleague went back to Shanghai to visit his family, but the road was impassable and he turned back halfway. During the summer vacation of 1941, he traveled from Guangxi to Haiphong and took a ferry to Shanghai, intending to stay there for a few months before returning to the mainland. Mr. Chen Futian, the director of the Foreign Language Department of the Southwest United University, came to visit him in Shanghai and asked him to return to the United University. When the Pearl Harbor Incident happened, he was trapped in Shanghai and couldn't get out. He wrote a poem "Ancient Ideas", in which there is a couplet that says: "Crews pass through the Bi-han without many roads, dreaming of entering the first few floors of the red building", and another "Ancient Ideas" and says: "Heart like red apricots specializing in spring, eyes like yellow plums swindle the rain," all of them are to express the frustration of living in the fallen area.

Zhongshu and I first met in the spring of 1932 in Tsinghua, engaged in 1933, married in 1935, with the ship to the United Kingdom (I was self-funded study), the fall of 1937 with the French, the fall of 1938 with the ship back to China. My mother died a year ago, and my home in Suzhou had been looted by the Japanese, so my father took refuge in Shanghai and stayed with my brother-in-law. My father had taken refuge in Shanghai and stayed with my brother-in-law. I was in a hurry to visit my father, so Zhongshu disembarked in Hong Kong and went to Kunming, while I took the same ship directly to Shanghai. The principal of my high school alma mater at that time left me to set up a "branch school" in the "isolated island" of Shanghai. After the fall of Shanghai two years later, the "branch school" was closed down, and I temporarily worked as a tutor and a substitute teacher in an elementary school, as well as writing plays in my spare time. When Zhongshu fell into Shanghai without a job, my father gave him his hourly teaching position at the Aurora Women's College of Arts and Sciences, and we struggled to make ends meet in Shanghai.

On one occasion, we watched a play I had written together, and when we got home, he said, "I want to write a full-length novel!" I was very happy and urged him to write it quickly. At that time, he was writing short stories and was afraid that he would not have time to write a long story. I said it didn't matter, he could cut back on his lectures, we were living frugally and could be even more frugal. It so happened that our maid wanted to go back because life was getting better back home. I didn't force her to go back, nor did I look for another maid, but I just took on her work myself. I was an amateur in chopping wood, making fire, cooking, washing and so on, and often stained my face with soot, or smoked my eyes with tears, or scalded out blisters with boiling oil, or cut my fingers. But I was so eager to read Zhongshu's "Siege" (he had already told me the title and main content) that I was willing to be a servant girl under the stove.

Siege was written in 1944 and completed in 1946.

The book was started in 1944 and finished in 1946. He was as the original Preface says: "For two years he was worried about the world and saddened by life", and he was in a state of anxiety, and he was busy writing Talks on Art; there is a couplet in his poem for his 35th birthday, which reads: "The bee in the window has not yet come out of its bookish habit, and the magpie in the tree is hard to be at peace with its poetic passion", which is precisely about this kind of state of mind. I am very glad to hear that. At that time, we lived in the Qian family's extended family in Shanghai, including Zhongshu's father's family and his uncle's family. The two families lived together and shared meals, Zhongshu's father had been out of town, Zhongshu's younger brothers, sisters, daughters-in-law and nieces and nephews had left Shanghai successively, only his mother remained, and a younger brother stayed in Shanghai alone; the so-called big family was only like a small family.

The above is a brief description of Zhongshu's experience, his family background, and the situation he was in when he wrote Siege of the City, and a brief introduction to the author. Here are some notes for "The Walled City".

Chong Shu drew his material from a familiar era, a familiar place, and a familiar social class. But the characters and plots that make up the story are all fictional. Though some of the characters have a slight resemblance to real people, they are all fictional; some of the plots are slightly realistic, but the characters are all fabricated.

Fang Hongzhi is based on two relatives: one is ambitious, often full of complaints; the other is arrogant and loves to boast and sing. Both had read "The Siege," but neither one self-identified as Fang Hongzhan, because they never had Fang Hongzhan's experience. Zhongshu made Fang Hongzhan the center of the story, often seeing things through his eyes and feeling from his heart. Inadvertent readers will sympathize with him from understanding, sympathize with him from concern, and even merge themselves with him. Many readers think he is the author himself. The French nineteenth-century novel "Madame Bovary," the author of Flaubert once said: "Madame Bovary, is me." So, Qian Zhongshu can also say, "Fang Hongzhuan, is me." But there are many other male and female characters who can be said to be Qian Zhongshu, not just Fang Hongzhuan. Fang Hongzhuan and Qian Zhongshu are both from Wuxi, and their experiences are far from identical.

We were returning home on the French mailboat Athos II, and the scene on deck was very much like the one in The Walled City, including the French police officer flirting with the Jewish woman, and the Chinese students playing mah-jongg, etc. The scene on deck was very much like the one in The Walled City. Ms. Bao, however, is pure fiction. There was a curvaceous Southern girl on the same ship when we went abroad, and the foreigners on board took a great interest in her and regarded her as an Oriental beauty. In Oxford, we know a fiancé sponsored by the female students, I heard that very flirtatious. There was an Egyptian female student at Oxford who studied English language and had dark skin, and both of us thought she was very beautiful. Ms. Bao was a combination of an Oriental beauty, a flirtatious fiancée and an Egyptian beauty. Zhongshu had heard stories of Chinese students cheating on mailboats, and Fang Hongzhan in the novel was seduced by Ms. Bao. Abalone's Wreck is stinky, which is why that lady's last name was Bao.

Miss Su is also a composite. Her looks were glorified of a classmate. Her mind's eye and feelings belong to another; this person can be not beautiful at all. The one who traveled in a single gang and trafficked in illicit goods was another. The poem made by Ms. Su was translated by Zhongshu, who asked me not to make it good, but just average. Ms. Su's husband is another classmate, the novel is a mess of lovebirds. The groom who wore a black tuxedo for the wedding, with a hard white collar soaked yellow and soft with sweat, was no one else but Zhongshu himself. Because our wedding day is the hottest day of the year. On our wedding photo, the bride and groom, the bridesmaids, the girl with the flower basket, and the boy with the veil, all look like pickpockets who have just been captured by the police.

Zhao Xinmei grew up from a five- or six-year-old boy we liked, to whom Zhongshu added the age of twenty-something. This boy has not grown into Zhao Xinmei so far, and certainly could not have had Zhao Xinmei's experience. If the author had said, "Fang Hongjian, that's me," he would have said, "Zhao Xinmei, that's me."

Two less important characters have the shadow of a real person, the author of the hand, without melting, so that the two acquaintances are "in the seat". One is not concerned, the other heard very angry. Zhongshu exaggerated one aspect of Dong Xichuan, but not others. But not a word of Dong Xichuan's speech or verse was copied from the readymade, it was all fabricated. Chu Shenming and his shadow were not the same. The shadow's real body is more exaggerated than Chu Shenming's. Once I traveled with him on a train. Once I took the train with him from the outskirts of Paris into the city, he suddenly pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, which lists a variety of conditions for young girls to choose a husband, such as appearance, age, education, character, family history and so on **** 178, forcing me to a group of scores, and arranged in order of priority. I know his intention, but also know his object, so a small wing to cope with the past. He then huffed and puffed at me and said: "They said he (refers to Zhongshu) 'young fluttering', you say, he 'fluttering' is not 'fluttering'. I should have been more generous and honest. I should be more generous and honestly tell him that when I first met Zhongshu, he wore a green cloth coat, a pair of woolen shoes and a pair of big old-fashioned glasses, and was not at all 'fluttering'. But I saw that he thought I should be on the same side with him, so I couldn't help but be naughty and say, "Of course I think he's the most 'flamboyant'." He was so angry that he didn't say a word. Then I complimented him on his suit, and he said in surprise, "Really? I always think my clothes don't hold up, and even if I wash and iron them once a week, they don't hold up as well as other people's." I am sure that his clothes are indeed straight, he was happy. In fact, Chu Shenming is also a composite. The glass of milk in the novel was drunk by another person. That person is also our companion in Paris, he is not married, once told us: he loves "the beauty of the fairy", not love "the beauty of the goblin". A friend of his, however, appreciated "the beauty of a leprechaun" and was so interested in a prostitute with a dog that he wanted to "call a game" and invite the prostitute to come over for a drink or something to talk with him. One night, we were sitting in a café together, and we saw the prostitute with the dog go into another café. The admirer of "Heavenly Beauty" volunteered to the admirer of "Goblin Beauty," saying, "I'll go get her for you." When he didn't come back for a long time, Jong-shu said, "Don't let the spider goblin web you in the silk cave, I'll go save him." Zhong Shu ran into the cafe, only to see "Tian Xian Mei" admirer sitting alone at a table, drinking a cup of very hot milk, surrounded by prostitutes, snickering at him. Zhongshu "saved" him. Since then, people often make fun of that glass of milk, saying that if you are called a prostitute, you should at least drink a glass of beer, not milk. Quasi is that glass of milk for Chong, so Zhongshu Chu Shenming pulled to the restaurant to drink milk; that a large pile of drugs quasi is also a scene, from the glass of milk out of it.

Fang Dunweng is also a composite. The reader is certain that he is Zhongshu's father because he is Fang Honggeng's father, when in fact Fang Dunweng bears only a passing resemblance to his father. Before and after Zhongshu and I were engaged, Zhongshu's father took the liberty of opening and reading my letter to Zhongshu, and was so impressed that he wrote me a letter directly, solemnly entrusting Zhongshu to me. This was very much like the style of Mr. Fang Dun-weng. When we were in Shanghai, he wrote to me that I was "happy in poverty", which was also very much like Fang's tone. However, if Fang Dun-weng was two or three times like his father, then he was four or five times like his uncle, and a few times like him were fabrications, for these kinds of feudal patriarchs were common among friends and relatives. Both Zhongshu's father and his uncle had read The Siege. His father smiled; we did not see his uncle's expression. Our couple often wondered privately whether either of them felt a resemblance between Fang Dunweng and themselves.

Tang Xiaofu was clearly the author's favored character, and was reluctant to marry her off to Fang Honggeng. In fact, if the author makes them become family members, by family members and then quarrel and fall out, then the significance of getting married as being in a siege is elucidated more thoroughly. After Fang Hongzhan fell out of love, said Zhao Xinfang if married to Ms. Su, but also said that after the marriage will find that the marriage is always not the person you want. These words are all very true. However, he did not marry the woman of his dreams, and his words can be interpreted as words of comfort.

As for the president of the Point Gold Bank, the parents of Ms. "I, you and he", etc., they are all common businessmen in Shanghai, Wuxi, and I will not comment on them one by one.

I love to read the part where Fang Hongjian and his party of five traveled from Shanghai to Sanlu University. I didn't go to Hunan with Zhongshu, but I knew all five of the people he traveled with, and none of them resembled the five in the novel, not even a hint. I have seen Wang Meiyu's bedroom: a big red silk quilt on the bed, folded inside the bed; a big round mirror on the table, a woman sitting on the edge of the bed with her shoes off, and half a basin of opium frying next to her. That is what I saw when I was looking for housing in Shanghai, and I described it to Zhongshu. I was a student at Tsinghua, spring break traveling with a partner, night in a deserted village, sleeping in the hay on the mud, nightmares, underneath a small doll straight to me yelling: "pressed my red cotton jacket", one side of the hand to push me, but can not be pushed. I had told Zhongshu about that nightmare. I also told Zhongshu about the maggots called "meat buds" as something new. When Zhongshu went to Hunan, he sent me poems along the way. He and his travel companions traveled to Xuedoushan, there are five ancient poems and four, I like the second and third, I may as well copy, as a real life facts and novels as a comparison.

The wind is blowing the sea water, standing as a mountain; the waves are flying white, the snow is suspected to be a few generations. I often look at the mountain, undulating water; meandering if no bone, wrinkled with the intention of waves. I know that the water and the mountain, think each out of its place, such as the great man, different amount of beauty can be prepared. The old man in Luzhong, who only understands the wisdom of other places.

The mountains are quiet, but the waterfalls are hidden in the middle of the mountains, and they flow day and night, and the rain is even more furious. The mountain is a place where the waterfalls are located, and the rainfalls are even more furious. The same tacit understanding without words, far service like a meeting. I hate the fact that I have traveled a lot, but I don't think it's a good idea for me to hide it. I don't want to be a part of it, but I'm sure I'll be a part of it.

The novel only mentions the tour of Mount Xuetou, not a word about the scene of the tour. The people who traveled to the mountain are the people who traveled to the mountain, and Fang Hongjian, Li Meiting, etc. are busy dealing with Wang Meiyu. I can see that the fabricated things are very rich, the real thing can be put aside, and the real thing is not squeezed into this fabricated world.

Li Meiting's encounter with the widow is also a bit of a shadow. Zhongshu has a friend who is a loyal elder, on the journey, met a widow who claimed to be in distress; the friend funded her, and later realized that he was fooled. A classmate of mine was nicknamed the "Wicked Widow", and I once described her to Zhongshu as having washed off her face when she went to bed, and her eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose were all gone. About these two irrelevant things out of a Suzhou widow, and then touch Li Mei Ting, was born, "Lucky is a good man" and so on the wonderful words of strange text.

The certificate of Hou's wife reminds me of a woman we saw in a post office in Shanghai. She had yellow hair, a pale face, eyes slanted upward, and wore a light purple linen cheongsam. I once told Zhongshu that if she had white skin and soft black hair, she could be a beauty if the light purple linen cheongsam was replaced by a dark purple silk cheongsam with soft lines. Mrs. Wang is just such a beauty, and I see déjà vu.

Miss Fan, Miss Liu and others must be familiar with, no need to introduce. Although Sun Roujia followed Fang Hongguan to Hunan and back to Shanghai, I have never met her. Among the women I know (including myself), none of them look similar to her, but with a little more contact with her, I found that she was the most unusual visible in our circle. She is highly educated, nothing special, but also not stupid; not beauty, but also not ugly; not much interest, but have their own ideas. Fang Hongzhan had "very wide interests, but no experience"; she was uninterested but very intentional. Her world was very small, confined to the "walled city" and beyond. The freedom she enjoyed was also limited; she was able to move from the outside of the city into the city, and from the city out of the city. Her greatest success was marrying a Fang Hongzhan, and her greatest failure was also marrying a Fang Hongzhan. She and Fang Hongzhan are very typical of the great women among the intellectuals. Sun Roujia's cleverness is to be able to draw Mrs. Wang's "brief": ten points of red nails, a red lip. A young woman who envies, envies and despises a woman she envies, envies and despises would have this kind of acerbity. But this cleverness was given to her by Zhong Shu. Jong-shu was used to catching these "nuggets", such as the "nuggets" in everyone's voice, and recognizing the speaker by his voice, even if he had never met them before.

Perhaps I am like Don Quixote, wielding a sword and destroying a puppet theater, hacking the characters of The Siege to pieces and littering the floor with papier-maché remains. However, when I read the novel paragraph by paragraph, what made me put down the manuscript and laugh was not the discovery of the real thing, but the discovery of half a claw of the real thing, which was pieced together, creating people I never knew, fabricating things I never thought of. I laughed out loud because, after being surprised, I could not help but say, "I can break down your Western-style mirror. Zhongshu laughed with me because he understood my laugh and recognized that I had laughed well, but also with a little smugness.

Possibly I, like Don Quixote, have done something very upsetting. However, I believe that this comes to illustrate the relationship between The Siege and real-life reality.