Did Zhang Henshui write romance novels or Yanqian novels? ——Reinterpretation of Literary Masters

For a long time, Zhang Henshui has been known as a master of romance novels in the history of modern literature , but in fact, most of his romance novels are not the usual love stories of eachother, life and death, and mutual affection. If we read the text carefully, we will find that the plot factor that plays an important role in Zhang Henshui's novels is not the emotion between the sexes but money.

In " Sorry and Laughter ", "Golden Fen Family ", " Chunming Foreign History ", "Deep Night", " Beautiful Grace ", "The Palace of Art", " Paper Drunk ", "Homecoming", "Modern Youth", " Heaven and Earth " In the texts of novels such as "Zhao Yuling Benji Yinhan Double Star", Zhang Henshui mainly used money as a means and tool to structure stories, advance narratives, shape characters and express ideas. want status. In this sense, Zhang Henshui is not so much a "master of romance novels" as he is a "master of Yanqian novels". This paper mainly takes "Causes of Laughter and Laughter" and "Family of Gold Fen" as examples to analyze the significance and value of money in Zhang Henshui's novels and the ideological implication expressed by them, in order to re-understand Zhang Henshui's novels from a new perspective, so as to Relieve people's historical misunderstanding of Zhang Henshui's "Romantic Novel Master".

In Zhang Henshui's novels, money is the hub that connects various character relationships and forms various character relationship models. For example, "Sorry and Laughter" revolves around Fan Jiashu to form three groups of character relationships linked by money, and Fan Jiashu's financial advantages and disadvantages determine the nature and development of the three groups of character relationships. Compared with the Shen family and the Guan family, Fan Jiashu has a financial advantage and is a wealthy person who is capable and willing to help them. In the process of continuously giving financial help to the Shen family and Guan's father and daughter, Fan Jiashu has become their "beneficiary", and "kindness" is the main emotional content between Fan Jiashu and Shen Fengxi. When Shen Fengxi expresses his love, he expresses it again and again. It is all gratitude to Fan Jiashu. Guan's father and daughter even kept this "kindness" in their hearts, hoping to have the opportunity to repay the kindness. With money as the link, the relationship between the Fan family tree and the Shen family, and the Guan family's father and daughter actually forms a benefactor/beneficiary character relationship model. If the Fan family tree does not have the financial advantage over the Shen family and Guan's father and daughter, then even if he is willing to help them, he can only have more than enough power. Fan Jiashu still has a lot of spare money after satisfying his living needs, so he can use this money to send Shen Fengxi to study, change her status as a drum girl, and provide the living expenses of the Shen family, and he can also use the money to send Shen Fengxi to study and change her status as a drum girl. When the father and daughter were in trouble, they generously helped Guan Shoufeng heal his illness. Compared with He Lina, a rich lady, Fan Jiashu is at an obvious financial disadvantage. He Lina's high spending makes Fan Jiashu surprised and can not help but be filled with emotion. Miss He once gave Xizai a two yuan tip, "This time, Jiashu was greatly stimulated. During the day, when she gave that one dollar to sing the big drum book, people were flattered, thinking that the unexpected adventure was really If you don't climb mountains, you don't find flat land. When she spends money like this, she thinks that ocean money is like a big copper. If one person becomes her husband, is this kind of expense easy to provide? I thought about it at the time, but Miss He saw that I didn't care, chatted and laughed with Mrs. Tao, and walked out of the hotel all the way." For Fan Jiashu, who has received a modern education and has a strong sense of male dignity, this financial disadvantage makes him completely lose his sense of gender superiority in front of the wealthy He Lina. , unable to feel the pride of men. Therefore, he initially rejected He Lina emotionally, which was mainly due to his disgust with her consumption style. As a rich girl, He Lina is deeply in love with this arrogant "poor boy", and even changes her way of life for the love of Fan Jiashu - giving up the luxurious life to enjoy and convert to Buddhism. Although He Lina's change is an active behavior arising from his love for Fan Jiashu, not from Fan Jiashu's deliberate pursuit, there is still an unconscious transformation and a consciously active transformation of the character relationship between Fan Jiashu and He Lina. If love is the subjective reason for He Lina to take the initiative to accept the transformation, then Fan Jiashu’s ideological advantage is the objective reason for He Lina to take the initiative to accept the transformation. . The money relationship determines the relationship mode between characters. It can be said that these three groups of character relationships are based on the material relationship with money as the core.

If the money in "Causes of Laughter and Laughter" is the structural hub of the relationship between the three groups of parallel characters, then in "The Family of Gold Fans", the involvement of money in the emotional relationship between Jin Yanxi and Leng Qingqiu determines their relationship before marriage. The seducer/seduced relationship pattern and quietly switched to the dependent/dependent relationship pattern after marriage. Jin Yanxi is the son of a dignitary prime minister, and Leng Qingqiu is just a poor young woman who lost her parents. One is a playful rich young master, and the other is a smart little Jiabiyu. No matter in life or thought, it is impossible for the two of them to communicate or even get to know each other. However, Bai Xiuzhu, who was in charge of Jin Yan's family, did not become his wife, but Leng Qingqiu, a poor woman, married him. It was the material relationship established through money that made Jin Leng quickly develop from acquaintance to love. combine. In fact, Jin Yanxi and Leng Qingqiu have formed a material relationship of a lure/the seduced with money as a link, and love has instead become an emotional by-product of this material relationship. In the process of "purchasing", money turns deserted autumn into a kind of "commodity". The deserted autumn after marriage is only regarded by Jin Yanxi as an item purchased by himself. Leng Qingqiu inevitably fell into a situation of dependence, and the relationship between Jin Leng and Leng after marriage also changed into the relationship of the dependent/dependent. The pattern and development of the relationship between Xi and Leng Qingqiu are subject to this material relationship.

Most of Zhang Henshui's novel texts, like the above two texts, are based on the material relationship formed by money as the medium to set up the relationship between characters. Money is the starting point of the narrative of Zhang Henshui's novels, and the generation and development of emotional relationship can only be fully explained from the perspective of this material relationship.

In "Causes of Laughing and Laughter" and "Family of Gold Fans", money not only determines the mode of character relationship, the magic of money and people's desire for money are also the main constraints on the development and change of character relationships, and become the psychological motivation to promote the narrative. Money is first and foremost the driving force of the erotic narratives in both texts. In the development of the love relationship between Fan Jiashu and Shen Fengxi, Jin Yanxi and Leng Qingqiu, it first effectively stimulated and promoted the development of emotions, and played a positive role as a glue. However, as the money desires and perceptions of different characters change, money gradually becomes a destructive force, prompting them to eventually part ways. In the development of the relationship between the hero and heroine of "dividing one into one", money shows a two-way contradictory role and meaning, and the different attitudes and concepts of money between different characters become the best interpretation and expression of their character and personality.

Fan Jiashu's money not only changes Shen Fengxi's life externally, but also stimulates her desire for money internally. From a handful of copper alms at the beginning, to a piece of cash, to five yuan, it developed to provide all the living expenses of the Shen family. During this process, Shen Fengxi's expectations and desires for money have also grown with her gratitude to Fan Jiashu, and her feelings of happiness have become more and more inseparable from money. In the face of the powerful temptation of money, Shen Fengxi is not without psychological contradictions and struggles, but she still cannot resist this temptation. General Liu and Fengxi gambled at the same table, deliberately losing a lot of money to her, and secretly stuffed 300 yuan into her pocket to let her pay back the gambling book, and gave her a bead ring worth more than 1,000 yuan. Money most easily ignites people's desires and passions, and when money becomes more and more accessible, people quickly see it as their ultimate goal: "Money makes the opportunity for an individual to fully satisfy his or her desires closer and more tempting. As if it were possible to obtain at one stroke something entirely worth pursuing. Money inserts an intermediary stage between man and his desires, a moderating mechanism. There are countless other things that can be obtained by means of money, and this is what makes people like this It seems that we have more access to all these things than ever before." Between General Liu and Fan Jiashu, Shen Fengxi experienced a battle between money and conscience, and we did not find the role of emotion in it. Although she felt ashamed of Fan Jiashu, she thought that she could compensate for his economic losses after making a fortune. She did not think of Fan Jiashu's emotional contribution. The dream of making a fortune brought by money gradually overcame her conscience, and she finally succumbed to General Liu. When General Liu put the family's bank account, stamps and account books in front of Fengxi, she "smiled sweetly" and took it. "Because money can be used anytime and anywhere, it is also the worst trap to face when man is weak, and at the same time, because it can be used for all activities, it offers the soul at that moment its most seductive On the one hand." It was the temptation of money and the hegemony of power, combined with people's own desire for money and the fragility of human nature in the face of money, that made Shen Fengxi betray Fan Jiashu, thus changing the development direction of the story.

Leng Qingqiu, who came from a scholarly family and received a modern education, was also unable to resist the temptation of money magic, but unlike Shen Fengxi, she finally came to her senses - realizing the value of economic independence. Money is also an important means and medium for Jin Yanxi to approach and pursue the deserted autumn. If there is no money, there is no generation and development of this story. In pursuit of Leng Qingqiu, Jin Yanxi bought the house next door to Leng's family at a huge cost in order to get close to her. From the initial delivery of snacks, to the delivery of shark fins, to the delivery of pearl necklaces, in the process of giving gifts, Jin Yanxi gradually captured the hearts of deserted autumn. His freewheeling way of spending money has a huge appeal to a poor woman who has no life experience. As Simmel said: "A way of life that does not need to consider the monetary value of things will have an extraordinary aesthetic appeal." In In the face of the magic of money, a well-educated and smart woman also lost her due sobriety and vigilance. For a splurge like Jin Yanxi, his real interest and enjoyment lies in the purchase itself. Once the purchase is over, he has to find a new target to satisfy his splurge. When the material relationship of the seducer/the seduced is converted into the relationship of the dependent/dependent, the seduced has lost its attractiveness to the seducer, and the dependent is a burden to the dependent: "Relying on money Achieving a goal makes all the acts of harvesting the same, and there is no particular way of obtaining it reserved for any object, and therefore makes the object necessarily more irrelevant." The beauty that the two felt in their romantic relationship turned into a marriage relationship. in bondage. In the marriage relationship between Jin Leng and Leng Qingqiu, Leng Qingqiu did not have a rich dowry as economic capital, and her status as a young mistress did not allow her to make a living by working to make a living. Financially relying on Jin Yanxi and his family became her inevitable situation. Eventually she lost her independence and freedom. For Jin Yanxi, Leng Qingqiu, who is attached to his wife, has lost its original temptation and value. In the process of Jin Yanxi's constant temptation of money, he has transformed Leng Qingqiu and her love into a commodity exchanged through money. Leng Qingqiu's beauty and her intelligence are all through Jin Yanxi's money" purchase” is offset. After the fall of the Jin family, Jin Yanxi, who had always only regarded money as a tool for his own enjoyment, continued to spend extravagantly without any sense of responsibility to his wife and children. Leng Qingqiu dissuaded him from the need for life security. Jin Yanxi not only refused to accept the advice, but also expressed extreme contempt and insult to Leng Qingqiu, who was in a position of economic dependence, as a money owner, thereby denying Leng Qingqiu's economic domination. right. When Leng Qingqiu realized her sad situation of dependence, she finally realized the value of economic independence, and she began to refuse dependence. Here, money not only changes the narrative direction, but also the change in the concept of money shows the change in the character of Leng Qingqiu. From the above analysis, it can be found that in these two novels, money not only plays a role in promoting the narrative, but also plays an important role in shaping the characters. The important value and significance of money to novel texts can also be found in Zhang Henshui's other works.

In the modern economic environment, Zhang Henshui, on the one hand, did not completely get rid of the traditional Chinese moralistic view of money, which emphasized righteousness over profit, and arranged the fate of characters and expressed his position under the moral principle of repaying kindness. On the other hand, he has to admit the huge magic power of money as a "worldly god" in modern society and the fragility and powerlessness of human nature in the face of this magic power. The unequal relationship between the sexes and their predicaments concealed by the exchangeability of money also emerge from Zhang Henshui's contradictions in his conception of money.

According to the traditional Chinese moral standard of emphasizing righteousness over profit, repaying kindness is a kind of good, and conversely, being ungrateful is a kind of evil. Shen Fengxi's "love" and "don't love" for Fan Jiashu first became a sign of whether to show gratitude or not. Fan Jiashu's generous donation itself is not without any purpose and expectation: "After she goes to school, with a little civilized atmosphere, it will be even better. If I cultivate her in this way, I will really know a hero who has never met. In the future, she will be more grateful to me when she has knowledge. Since she wanted to go, she felt so smug, she couldn't sit still in the house." Shen Fengxi also expressed her gratitude to Jiashu: "The dream I have dreamed all my life, I really have hope today. If you can really save me like this, I will never forget your great kindness." From Shen Fengxi's point of view, the benefactor saved him, so he should use his own body and life to repay, and he also "belongs to" "The benefactor's. Even if the benefactor does not expect the beneficiary's return, according to the general moral conventions and norms of human society, the benefactor is also obliged to repay the kindness morally in the process of accepting the grace of others. Therefore, from the moral requirements In other words, both Shen Fengxi and Guan's father and daughter have this obligation to repay their gratitude. The character relationship between Fan Jiashu and the Shen family, and Guan's father and daughter's benefactor/beneficiary can be transformed into an act of benevolence/repayment in action, and whether this behavior can be completed ultimately depends on the character's personality and personality. personality. In the end, Shen Fengxi betrayed Fan Jiashu because he could not resist the temptation of money, which led to the failure to complete the relationship of benevolence/repayment; Guan's father and daughter were willing to risk their lives to help and rescue Fan Jiashu, and completed the act of repayment. The former violates basic moral norms; the latter meets the moral requirements of retribution. The moral comparison of the relationship between the two groups of characters expresses the author's moral stance and moralistic view of money.

However, Zhang Henshui, who lives in a modern social and economic environment, has truly felt the positive effect of money in his real-life experience of selling manuscripts. He cannot deny that people need money in terms of material survival. As a person's desire for money and material pursuit in the sense of survival, Zhang Henshui regards it as a necessity of human nature, holding a tolerant and affirmative attitude, rather than simply denying it as a negative morality. Whether it is a drum girl or a female student, their body The desire for money is the rational existence of human nature. At the same time, from Zhang Henshui's contradictory expression of the concept of money, we find the unequal real relationship between the sexes, which is concealed by the exchangeability of money. Regardless of whether the relationship between Fan Jiashu and Shen Fengxi, or between Jin Yanxi and Leng Qingqiu, is controlled by money and is governed by the principle of money exchange, one party's contribution must require the other party's return to ensure the rationality and balance of this exchange relationship. The male protagonist pays money, and the relatively poor heroine can only reciprocate with her own body and emotions. The love between men and women is not based on equal emotional communication, but an exchange of money and emotions - with Idiosyncratic money trades for personal, idiosyncratic emotions. Women's bodies and emotions lose their original character and value in the exchange of money, because "as soon as we get them easily with the money in our hands, they lose their charm, not only because we Possessing them now and getting pleasure from them, but also because we get them in an impartial way, dilutes the value of these commodities.” Leng Qingqiu realized that through reflection on this relationship, The inequality with Jin Yanxi - on the surface, it appears to be a marriage through a new type of love, but in fact it is a marriage relationship established through money, and from this, I realize the need for women's economic independence. As Simmel put it: "When a woman offers her most secret and personal things in return for a totally impersonal, purely external factual return, the pecuniary equivalent represents the reduction of human dignity. Lowest point. The most intimate and personal things of the individual should be offered only out of a totally individual impulse, and balanced only by the equally personal offering of men.” The underlying monetary exchange rule supports The traditional moral code of gratitude and repayment, the discourse of genders during the May Fourth period was effectively explained with the help of the traditional Chinese view of righteousness and profit: Juansheng no longer need to repent for their failure to transform the opposite sex, because Zijun themselves are moral defective. This moral flaw in human nature allows the inherent inequality of emotional relationships and the fact that the female body is commodified to be ignored and masked. The actual connotation revealed by Zhang Henshui's novel text is: in a social environment where the female body is still the only capital for women's survival, the commercialization of the body is the only means by which women can improve their living conditions. This is an unspoken rule recognized by the society. , such a choice can only be made within the scope permitted by traditional ethics and morality. If it exceeds this scope, it will become an immoral behavior.

To sum up, if we understand Zhang Henshui’s novels not from the perspective of “romance” but from the perspective of “money”, we will find its more important value and significance: his material significance to human existence The emphasis and emphasis on the pursuit of modern thinking make up for a certain lack of modern thinking. In addition to thinking about the spiritual existence of people, it supplements the thinking about people's material existence - money is an indispensable means of survival and tools for modern people, and it is also a modern guarantee of human freedom and independence.

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