《追月楼》:从民间的角度反思历史

来源:中国文化译研网

作者:

2019-06-05

编者按:为了更好地进行中国文学海外传播工作,让中国作品在海外被发现(Discover)、被理解(Understand)、被传播(Express),中国文化译研网(CCTSS)邀请国内资深文学主编及文学评论家,精选出近两百部短中长篇小说,形成第一期《中国当代文学作品指南》(简称“指南”),从更具权威性、价值性的角度出发,更好地向世界展示中国当代文学精品,传播中国书香。


夏读书,日正长,打开书,喜洋洋。现将“指南”中的精品文学作品以一日一推的方式向读者呈现,让我们不负一夏好时光。


追月楼.jpg

叶兆言丨《追月楼》



推荐理由


《追月楼》描写了抗战时期南京沦陷后,丁氏大家族形形色色人等的生活状况。家庭中平庸的琐事、妻妾间无聊的摩擦、儿女们纠结的感情困扰以及丁老先生坚守的民族气节,构成了小说的大致内容,这些平庸细碎的情节和片段在历史的幕布下展开发生,历史由此呈现出碎片化状态。


叶兆言曾说,《追月楼》是想调侃一下中国文学常写的“四世同堂”这种传统家族观念。小说中的丁老先生作为文化遗民的典型符号,身上充分体现着传统价值观念在大时代背景下的尴尬境遇,他的迂腐、执拗在历史氛围中展露无余。


作者叶兆言熟悉近代南京的历史地理,因此涉笔常带追慕南京秦淮文化的意味,作品饱含伤感和怀旧的气息。



Reviews


The Pavilion Zhuiyue depicts various lives of the members of the large Ding family after the fall of Nanjing. The novella describes much of the mundane triviality in the family, the endless frictions between Mr. Ding’s wife and concubines, tangled emotional confusions of his children, and his persistence in upholding his ethical integrity. All these detailed episodes and moments unfold as the curtains of history part and, as a result, history is presented as fragmentary.


Ye Zhaoyan once said, “I wanted to write The Pavilion Zhuiyue to ridicule the traditional mode of a Chinese family known as ‘4-generations living together’-- a common theme in Chinese literature. Mr. Ding, in this novella, as a typical symbol of the cultural relics, embodies the embarrassing situation of the traditional values in the background of an era full of profound changes, against which his doltishness and stubbornness is unfolded.


The author, Ye Zhaoyan, is familiar with the history and geography of Nanjing. His works, therefore, often evoke his admiration for the ancient Qinhuai culture of the city, giving his work an aura of sadness and nostalgia. 

作家简介

Author Profile

叶兆言.jpg


叶兆言,男,1957年生,江苏人,1974年高中毕业后进工厂当过四年钳工,1978年考入南京大学中文系,1983年考取南京大学中文系研究生,攻读现代文学专业,获硕士学位。历任金陵职业大学教师,江苏文艺出版社编辑,江苏作家协会专业创作员。


八十年代初期,叶兆言开始文学创作,长篇小说有《死水》《一九三七年的爱情》《花影》《花煞》《别人的爱情》《没有玻璃的花房》《我们的心太顽固》等,中篇有《悬挂的绿苹果》《五月的黄昏》、“夜泊秦谁”系列、《枣树的故事》《艳歌》,短篇《绿色的咖啡馆》等,散文集《流浪之夜》《旧影秦淮》《叶兆言散文》《杂花生树》《烟雨秦淮》《叶兆言文集》(七卷)等。


曾获全国中篇小说奖、《钟山》优秀文学奖、《上海文学》优秀作品奖、《时代文学》优秀小说奖、“双沟”散文奖。《追月楼》获1987—1988年全国优秀中篇小说奖、首届江苏文学艺术奖。




Ye Zhaoyan was born in Jiangsu in 1957. He worked as a fitter for 4 years after his graduation from high school in 1974, and then in 1978 he entered Nanjing University to study at the Department of Chinese Language and Literature in 1978. He began his graduate study at the same department in 1983 and earned his Master’s Degree in Modern Chinese Literature. His work experiences range from roles as a university teacher at Jinling Vocational University, an editor at Jiangshu Literature and Arts Publishing House, to a professional writer for Jiangsu Writers Association.


Ye Zhaoyan started writing novels in the early 1980s. His works include the novels: Stagnant Water, Nanjing 1937: A Love Story, A Flower’s Shadow, Floral Evil, Other People’s Love, Flower House without Glass Walls, Our too Stubborn Hearts, among others. His novellas include: Suspending Green Apples, May Dusk, the series of “Moor on the Qinhuai River at Night”, Stories of a Jujube Tree, and Lascivious Songs. He is also the author of several short stories, including Green Café, and several prose collections, including Wandering Night, Old Shadow of Qinhuai, Ye Zhaoyan Prose, Misty Rain on the Qinhuai River, and Collections of Ye Zhaoyan’s Works (7 volumes).


Ye is the recipient of several awards, including the National Outstanding Novella Award, the Zhongshan Outstanding Literary Award, the Shanghai Literature Outstanding Work Award, the Times Literature Outstanding Novel Award, among others. The Pavilion Zhuiyue won the National Award for Outstanding Novella from 1987 to 1988 and the 1st Jiangsu Literature and Arts Award. 


中文概要

Synopsis

丁老先生点过前清的翰林,因此交往好友中,很有几个遗老遗少。他又是老牌同盟会会员,当今的党国元老,有几个都是他的至交。寿宴上,因为国难中的个人态度不同,两位客人发生争执。

南京沦陷后,丁老先生支持仲祥去参加革命,并且拒绝随家人搬到难民区,选择蛰居在追月楼上。挽今追昔,发誓日寇一日不消,一日不下追月楼,又把楼上他睡的那问卧室易名为“不死不活庵”。除了读书,丁老先生便埋头写《不死不活庵日记》,人既不能好死,也不应该歹活。丁老先生准备仿先贤顾炎武的《日知录》的体例,写一部不朽的传世之作。 

足不出户的丁老先生还是能从家人口中听到外面世界的凄凉。南京平静之后,老先生身体开始好起来,满头白发中长出黑发。他便翻遍古书,找到了几处记载,认为是自己“善于养浩然之气”的结果。

丁老先生还是不下追月楼,得到的都是坏稍息。日本人仿佛战无不胜,国军则退了再退,徐州丢了,郑州丢了,广州丢了,武汉三镇又告弃守。惟有南京太平无事,成了日本人的大后方。

丁家田产在战乱中被烧大半,房租收入锐减。物价又陡然上升,当家的长孙伯祺只好瞒着丁老先生,回铁路局上班。有位新来的上司因为知道伯祺是前清翰林的后人,便向他索字画。这位上司有几分好古癖,收集字画的手段有些死皮赖脸。伯祺只好硬着头皮去找爷爷求字,丁老先生教育伯祺一番后,还是作诗给他。

仲祥因为失恋从内地回到南京,终日借酒消愁。丁老先生很不高兴,恨仲样放着好端端的义民不做,回来做偷生的顺民。仲祥知道爷爷不赞成自己回来,因此,也懒得上追月楼听爷爷教训。他早就觉得爷爷老糊涂了,就算是不糊涂,老人家也不会理解他在外头的苦楚,更不会理解他还有一项为了失恋而痛苦的心。

丁老先生的弟子少荆,是汪精卫集团的心腹。丁老先生把他视为“汉奸”,但少荆出于师生礼仪,对老先生客气尊敬。打过两次交道后,就开始抱怨丁老先生是不识时务。八姑娘婉和少荆的交往因此经历不少波折。

女婿明轩一方面利用少荆的关系做了教务长,一方面又瞒着丁老先生,努力维持着大家族中和平的局面。最终,得知真相的丁老先生和少荆闹翻,得了一场大病,不久去世。少荆和婉赶在料理老先生后事之前,匆匆办了婚事。丁老先生想要埋在追月楼小院的遗愿,因众人反对,未能得偿。


The senior, Mr. Ding was appointed as a Hanlin in the Qing Dynasty. As a result, quite a few of his old friends are survivors of those bygone ages. Moreover, he himself is a senior member of the Tong Meng Hui and his best friends even include some of the founding members of the present Nationalist Party. During his birthday banquet, two guests start to quarrel because of their different attitudes towards the present national calamity.



After the fall of Nanjing, Mr. Ding supports Zhongxiang to participate in the revolution and refuses to move to the refuge area with his family. Instead, he chooses to confine himself in the pavilion named “Chasing the Moon.” Pondering over the history, he swears that he won’t leave the pavilion as long as the Japanese invaders are still rampant in China, and he even changes the name of his bedroom to “Not-Dead-Not-Alive Temple.” Besides reading books, Mr. Ding buries his head in writing “Diaries in the Not-Dead-Not-Alive Temple,” with the belief that if he cannot die decently, he should at least live decently. Mr. Ding wants to follow the Style of Gu Yanwu’s Record of Daily Study and write a great book that can be handed down.



Confining himself at home, Mr. Ding can still hear bad news about the outside world from his family members. After Nanjing becomes more secure, his health also improves and new black hairs grow in his all white hair. He therefore searches out all ancient books for this reason and convinces himself that it must be because of his cultivation of the noble air.



Mr. Ding still stays in the pavilion, but all incoming news is bad. It seems that the Japanese army is invincible and the army of the Nationalist Party does nothing but retreat. They lose Xuzhou, later Zhengzhou, later Guangzhou, and most recently, the 3 towns of Wuhan. The only peaceful place now is Nanjing, which has become the rear guard of the Japanese.



Most of the properties of the Ding Family are burnt in the war, which results in a sharp reduction of income from rent and, at the same time, everything gets more and more expensive overnight. Boqi, the oldest grandson, who is in charge of the family now, has to secretly go back to work in the Railway Bureau. His new supervisor learns that Boqi is the descendant of a Hanlin of the Qing Dynasty. He therefore asks Boqi to bring him paintings and calligraphy. This new supervisor is more or less crazy about antiques and his way of collecting paintings and calligraphy is shameless. As a result, Boqi has to brace himself to convince his grandfather to write him some calligraphy. Mr. Ding blames Boqi for this, but still, he writes something for him.



Zhongxiang comes back to Nanjing after his girlfriend leaves him. He always drowns himself in liquor. Mr. Ding is very disappointed in Zhongxiang who, in his eyes, gave up being a loyal man fighting for his country and now cowers at home in submission to the invading Japanese. Zhongxiang knows that his grandfather is disappointed at him and he therefore tires of going up to the pavilion to be bothered by the old man. He thinks that his grandpa has been senile for a long time and even if he is not senile, the old man would not understand what he suffered outside, let alone his broken heart abandoned by love.



Mr. Ding has a student named Shaojing who is a core member of the Wang Jingwei party. Mr. Ding sees him as a traitor. Shaojing is always polite and respectful to Mr. Ding as a student should be. However, after a couple of conflicts, he starts to complain of the old man’s stubbornness. Consequently, the love between him and Wan, the 8th daughter of the family, suffers significantly.



Mr. Ding’s son-in-law, Mingxuan, finds himself a position as a dean in a school by taking advantage of Shaojing’s network while also trying to maintain a superficial peacefulness in the big family by cutting down news from Mr. Ding. In the end, however, Mr. Ding breaks up with Shaojing when he learns the truth and he gets severely sick and passes away soon after. Shaojing and Wan quickly get married before Mr. Ding’s funeral. Mr. Ding’s desire to be buried in the yard of the Pavilion Zhuiyue is unfulfilled because it is opposed by everyone in the family. 

责任编辑:罗雨静