Learn more about "Today in History", please visit todayinhistory.sxl.cn!

On August 9, 1936, Mr. ShenCongwen's "Border City" was published

Mr. Shen Congwenis a native of Phoenix, Hunan, and he was a famous Chinese writer andresearcher of historical relics.

After graduatingfrom elementary school, Shen Congwen left his home to join a band of bandits inwestern Hunan and later joined the regular army.

In 1922, ShenCongwen was tired of military life and wanted to go to college, but he onlyreceived a primary school education and had no money, so he had to observecourses at Peking University. In 1923, Shen Congwen once again applied for theChinese literature class of Yenching University, but failed again, so he had tocontinue to observe. In the process of auditing, Shen went from literature to alot, and also began to create literature. His famous work “Border City” is aculmination of his own creations.

The novel isabout a small border city in western Hunan around the 1920s, which bordersSichuan. The work sings about human nature, and embodies a "beautiful,healthy, natural, and non-contradictory form of life" in the characters,thus forming a small border city that does not distinguish between povertyRich, regardless of status, always treat each other with sincerity, and the idealenvironment of love is full of love everywhere, which means the authorDissatisfaction with the reality of the humanity of the thief. The scenes ofthe novel realm blend, have a poetic charm, rich in lush vernacular colors,simple and thick; The language is natural and subtle, like high mountainflowing water, very windy.

Living in thatvery turbulent era, Mr. Shen Congwen's life was also greatly affected. In 1948,Mr. Shen Congwen was fiercely criticized by the left-wing cultural circles. Inthe same year, the focus of work began to shift to the study of culturalrelics.

In early 1949,Mr. Shen Congwen could not bear the enormous political pressure and wanted tocommit suicide, but was eventually saved. Since then, Mr. Shen Congwen has nolonger made literary creations.

The politicalmovements of the 1950s and 1960s struck Shen Congwen and plunged him into astate of madness, and he kept chanting "Go back to western Hunan, I wantto go back to Western Hunan!", Zhang Zhaohe, his wife, wordlessly facedthis scene, and tears could not help but roll down. Later, under the carefulcare and medication of his wife, Shen Congwen gradually recovered his health,and he and his wife strongly survived the years of hardship and poverty.

Since then, Mr.Shen Congwen has focused on the study of ancient costumes. Unfortunately, ShenCongwen was hospitalized with cerebral thrombosis in 1983, and in 1984, he fellseriously ill and could not speak and act like a normal person. On theafternoon of May 10, 1988, Mr. Shen Congwen had a heart attack and died at theage of 86!

Today in History-August 9, 2022