The first time I saw White Deer Plain was when I was a sophomore in senior high school. At the beginning, I read because I heard that the author's life experience is rough. I always think that a person's experience is a big factor affecting his creation. It is from this that I began to read this book.
The life time reflected in White Deer Plain spans more than half a century from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the beginning of liberation, which also involves a longer time after liberation. My general feeling is that this is a novel imbued with Chinese traditional culture, such as the dominant Confucianism, life metaphysics and mysterious and inextricable forces, the karma of the characters' fate, and so on. Of course, this is also a realistic novel, which deeply and truly reflects that era.
The whole book is a magnificent epic of the changes of the Weihe River Plain in the past 50 years, and a long scroll of colorful and shocking pictures of China's rural areas. The hero marries six and mourns six. The mysterious overture foreshadows foreboding. Two generations of descendants of a family have been fighting for the rule of Bailuyuan from generation to generation, and they have staged a series of soul stirring dramas: taking advantage of geomantic omens, playing tricks against beauties, being a dutiful son for a bandit, killing his wife by his relatives, fraternizing with each other, lovers turning against each other... The Great Revolution, the invasion of Japanese invaders, and the war within three years, Bailuyuan has been turned upside down, the king's flag has changed, and family hatred and national hatred are intertwined, The old land trembles in the throes of new life. The profound ideological content, the complex and changeable character, the twists and turns of the story, and the colorful local customs form the distinctive artistic features and thrilling authenticity of the work.
At first glance, it seems to be a brief history of the Northern Shaanxi Plateau. In fact, I think it is an epitaph written for the death of Northern Shaanxi. A lot of descriptions in the book can see the customs of northern Shaanxi. The author does not make any evaluation, but it is this kind of non evaluation that gives us more and more space to think about ourselves. In the ups and downs of the plot, I not only feel the changes in the fate of the characters, but also feel as if my soul has been cleansed as if I were in the scene. I think this is the greatest value of this book. This kind of value is not possessed by other novels. This kind of value is great. This is not a skill, it is a kind of heart language.
It is worth noting that there is no positive evaluation of the Communist Party or other political factions in the book. This avoids the strong political color of such novels, and greatly increases the readability of novels, so that readers will not be bored. I think the author knows that our readers know good and evil, distinguish good from bad, and do not need the preaching of so-called famous writers who are good teachers.
Weizai's White Deer Plain, immortal White Deer Plain.