Autumn Garden
by Yang Benfen
About This Novel
In 1914, Qiu Yuan was born into a medical family in Luoyang. When she grew up, Qiuyuan married a Kuomintang civilian official stationed there. Qiuyuan first moved to Nanjing from Luoyang with her husband. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, the family moved to Chongqing, separated from the army and returned to the countryside of Hunan. In Xiangyin, Qiuyuan gave birth to five children, three of whom survived. Her daughter, Hua, was the second oldest. Poverty, hunger, and discrimination eroded the family day by day. Zhihua had witnessed his mother's struggle for survival since he was a child. After her husband passed away, Qiu Yuan and her two young sons lived in Hubei, struggling to survive. At the age of 16, Zhihua fled the countryside and went to a remote town to study and take root. Qiuyuan and Zhihua's mother and daughter were thrown to the bottom by fate, and two generations of women made their best efforts to survive. When Zhihua in his old age picked up a pen and looked back on his life, the real redemption had just begun.
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Official(62)Scraped 11d ago
Ordinary yet noble--Comments on "Autumn Garden"
"In 1932, from Luoyang to Nanjing In 1937, from Hankou to Xiangyin 1960, from Hunan to Hubei Returned to Hunan from Hubei in 1980 I have tasted all the ups and downs in my life, Finally ended up like this. " This is the evaluation of the heroine Qiu Yuan's life in the novel "Qiu Yuan". However, her life cannot be summarized in these few lines. The touch and power she brought to me are far more than that. "Autumn Garden" tells the story of an ordinary woman whose suffering makes her soul nobler. Her little feet that were wrapped and untied, her child who died after birth, her husband who died in his prime, her life where she had to eat every meal without finishing a meal, the desolation of her two sons fleeing the wilderness, her husband who passed away before her after remarrying, her life was full of ups and downs one after another, but she was never defeated. This is Qiuyuan. In the preface "Writing in the Kitchen", the author Yang Benfen said: "I rewrote this story over and over again, and accumulated a thick stack of manuscript papers. Out of curiosity, I weighed them - a full eight kilograms. The process of writing warmed the sadness deep in my heart." When "Autumn Garden" was published, the author Yang Benfen was already over eighty years old. She started writing this book after her mother passed away at the age of eighty-nine. She wrote down the life of her mother, Qiu Yuan, one stroke at a time in the cramped kitchen of her home while busy with housework. Yang Benfen is Zhihua, the daughter of Qiuyuan in the book. The girl who wanted to study was crazy. She liked to read all kinds of literary works and hoped to change her destiny through reading, but she finally gave in and stopped struggling. When she was in her seventies, she finally picked up a pen and began to write about the fate of her family: the ups and downs of a small family in China's turbulent years. It took her 10 years to get this book published. She brought her life back to life through writing. Her gentle and indifferent writing describes her mother's struggle to survive in the tide of the times, how her mother endured her fate, how she carried the world, and how she lived bravely. Anyone who has read this book will be moved by Qiu Yuan, because she is also ourselves to a certain extent. In his later years, Zhihua was finally able to put his life experiences into writing: I sit down at any time and let the pen in my hand move quickly across the paper. Before I finished writing this book, I always felt that there was something unfinished, and I was afraid it would be too late if I didn't do it. As soon as I pick up the pen, those past days rush to the tip of the pen, vying to be told. Zhihua hurried on with his pen and walked through his long life again.
Life is bitter as a song
"Autumn Garden" tells the ups and downs of a woman's life, and also tells the ups and downs of a family. I have struggled for half my life, wandering around in many places, just looking for the word "living". I have to sigh, "A grain of ashes of the times is like a mountain when it falls on an individual's head." People such as Qiuyuan, Renshou, Zhihua, Xu Aoshu, Si Laoguan and Bingtao were all more or less affected by the changes of the times and took a different path than they imagined. If there had been no Anti-Japanese War and those Japanese Japs, Bingtao would not have lost his parents and lived with his grandfather and suffered all kinds of hardships; if Nanjing had not been captured and Renshou's family had not returned to Xiangyin, perhaps there would not have been the sadness and loneliness that followed... But no one can predict that other roads will be better or worse. When we are in such an era and have such a journey, all we can do is fight against it and ask for what we can. In Qiuyuan, I saw this kind of confrontation, the unpredictable resilience of women, and saw her show wisdom for her family, work hard, never give in, and overcome the obstacles in life step by step. Although life is as bitter as a song, she still sings to her heart's content.
In Qiuyuan, you can see that in such difficult times, you will see the tenacity of women represented by Qiuyuan, their tolerance for fate, and the dazzling brilliance emanating from their bodies. "
Review--Autumn Garden Her family earned a living through medicine and was not rich. However, she could say that she had everything she wanted since she was a child. Basically, she didn't have to worry about food and clothing. However, things were unpredictable and her life had just begun. In that era, when a girl got married, it was like throwing water away, and the status of women was not as high as it is today. For them, getting married is equivalent to a second reincarnation. How you live depends on who your father is, who your husband is, and who your children are. Considering Qiuyuan's family, it is not difficult to choose someone who is a good match. However, Qiuyuan married him under the sugar-coated bombardment of benevolence. Later, when her husband said he would return to his hometown to work as a farmer, she followed her. When her husband said he wanted to help the poor, she gave him a dowry. Her husband did not want to beg for a child, so she took the child with her... Qiuyuan devoted her whole life to this family. In the end, she said, "I have tasted all the ups and downs in my life, and ended up like this." Her story is called the female version of "living". Qiuyuan has been fighting against the torrent of life all her life. She is tenacious, dedicated, hard-working and brave. When life throws hardships at her, she responds with songs.
I watched and cried all night
Why are there so many helpless tragedies in the world? Why do good people never end well? Qiuyuan went from a happy childhood to death of illness. She tasted all the ups and downs. She begged for food to avoid suspicion and sent her son off to remarry. Both her husband and her son died. Although she finally bought a stable life for herself and her children through persistence and hard work, this was the simple but tragic and painful life of the common people in that sad era. The old man who treated illnesses and saved people, two sisters-in-law who came from a miserable background, Xiaoquan and his poor daughter, the kind-hearted aunt of the Xu family, the simple and kind-hearted Renshou. Which of the young and talented Tian Si can escape? Reading this book was one of the summer assignments in high school. Starting from 0:00, I lay in bed in the middle of the night and cried through half a pack of tissue paper. I don't know if the suffering of our ancestors can be comforted by the prosperity of future generations, but I will fight for it anyway.
Living is the theme of the times
The life back then was really not what humans lived.
Comment - Yang Renshou He is a typical good old man in the old times. Even though he is not rich, he always maintains warmth. He helps the poor when he has money, and he is down-to-earth when he has no money. He has morality engraved in his bones. He is a good man, but he will wrong his family for the sake of his principles. In order to be a good man, he also ruined his wife's dowry. He is too cowardly to protect the family, so he is not a good parent or husband. But he went to farm without overestimating his ability. I think I can't laugh at him for this. Times make people. Although he had all kinds of shortcomings, he didn't give up on his elderly father even if he gave up the opportunity to get promoted and make a fortune. He didn't let his daughter go to school when everyone favored sons over daughters. He had obviously been an official, studied and fought, how could Ren Shou end up in a situation where his wife and children were all begging? What would happen if he lived in our time? No one will know that he has gone away with that period of history. We cannot over-evaluate people in the past from the present perspective. We must know that it is difficult to defeat the social settings with the strength of one person. Only by uniting together can we prevent the tragic fate of good people from becoming the norm.
I hope that future generations will also have so much "unyielding" in their genes, and that they will have the courage to "regenerate" themselves when facing difficulties with different destinies.
I read this book in one breath. I have lived in a rural area since I was a child. Although I have never experienced the plots in the book, my innate ability to empathize seems to be experienced with them, heart-wrenching, helpless, and longing... Living in this era, we are so happy and free from material torture, but our hearts are so fragile Although the length of life is limited, no matter what, should we calm down and think about the meaning of life and feel the beauty of this world...
Qiuyuan tells the life of a woman named Qiuyuan. Qiuyuan and Renshou are sincere and kind-hearted. Even when they are short of food and clothing, they still generously help people who are poorer than themselves.
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Official(62)Scraped 11d ago
Ordinary yet noble--Comments on "Autumn Garden"
"In 1932, from Luoyang to Nanjing In 1937, from Hankou to Xiangyin 1960, from Hunan to Hubei Returned to Hunan from Hubei in 1980 I have tasted all the ups and downs in my life, Finally ended up like this. " This is the evaluation of the heroine Qiu Yuan's life in the novel "Qiu Yuan". However, her life cannot be summarized in these few lines. The touch and power she brought to me are far more than that. "Autumn Garden" tells the story of an ordinary woman whose suffering makes her soul nobler. Her little feet that were wrapped and untied, her child who died after birth, her husband who died in his prime, her life where she had to eat every meal without finishing a meal, the desolation of her two sons fleeing the wilderness, her husband who passed away before her after remarrying, her life was full of ups and downs one after another, but she was never defeated. This is Qiuyuan. In the preface "Writing in the Kitchen", the author Yang Benfen said: "I rewrote this story over and over again, and accumulated a thick stack of manuscript papers. Out of curiosity, I weighed them - a full eight kilograms. The process of writing warmed the sadness deep in my heart." When "Autumn Garden" was published, the author Yang Benfen was already over eighty years old. She started writing this book after her mother passed away at the age of eighty-nine. She wrote down the life of her mother, Qiu Yuan, one stroke at a time in the cramped kitchen of her home while busy with housework. Yang Benfen is Zhihua, the daughter of Qiuyuan in the book. The girl who wanted to study was crazy. She liked to read all kinds of literary works and hoped to change her destiny through reading, but she finally gave in and stopped struggling. When she was in her seventies, she finally picked up a pen and began to write about the fate of her family: the ups and downs of a small family in China's turbulent years. It took her 10 years to get this book published. She brought her life back to life through writing. Her gentle and indifferent writing describes her mother's struggle to survive in the tide of the times, how her mother endured her fate, how she carried the world, and how she lived bravely. Anyone who has read this book will be moved by Qiu Yuan, because she is also ourselves to a certain extent. In his later years, Zhihua was finally able to put his life experiences into writing: I sit down at any time and let the pen in my hand move quickly across the paper. Before I finished writing this book, I always felt that there was something unfinished, and I was afraid it would be too late if I didn't do it. As soon as I pick up the pen, those past days rush to the tip of the pen, vying to be told. Zhihua hurried on with his pen and walked through his long life again.
Life is bitter as a song
"Autumn Garden" tells the ups and downs of a woman's life, and also tells the ups and downs of a family. I have struggled for half my life, wandering around in many places, just looking for the word "living". I have to sigh, "A grain of ashes of the times is like a mountain when it falls on an individual's head." People such as Qiuyuan, Renshou, Zhihua, Xu Aoshu, Si Laoguan and Bingtao were all more or less affected by the changes of the times and took a different path than they imagined. If there had been no Anti-Japanese War and those Japanese Japs, Bingtao would not have lost his parents and lived with his grandfather and suffered all kinds of hardships; if Nanjing had not been captured and Renshou's family had not returned to Xiangyin, perhaps there would not have been the sadness and loneliness that followed... But no one can predict that other roads will be better or worse. When we are in such an era and have such a journey, all we can do is fight against it and ask for what we can. In Qiuyuan, I saw this kind of confrontation, the unpredictable resilience of women, and saw her show wisdom for her family, work hard, never give in, and overcome the obstacles in life step by step. Although life is as bitter as a song, she still sings to her heart's content.
In Qiuyuan, you can see that in such difficult times, you will see the tenacity of women represented by Qiuyuan, their tolerance for fate, and the dazzling brilliance emanating from their bodies. "
Review--Autumn Garden Her family earned a living through medicine and was not rich. However, she could say that she had everything she wanted since she was a child. Basically, she didn't have to worry about food and clothing. However, things were unpredictable and her life had just begun. In that era, when a girl got married, it was like throwing water away, and the status of women was not as high as it is today. For them, getting married is equivalent to a second reincarnation. How you live depends on who your father is, who your husband is, and who your children are. Considering Qiuyuan's family, it is not difficult to choose someone who is a good match. However, Qiuyuan married him under the sugar-coated bombardment of benevolence. Later, when her husband said he would return to his hometown to work as a farmer, she followed her. When her husband said he wanted to help the poor, she gave him a dowry. Her husband did not want to beg for a child, so she took the child with her... Qiuyuan devoted her whole life to this family. In the end, she said, "I have tasted all the ups and downs in my life, and ended up like this." Her story is called the female version of "living". Qiuyuan has been fighting against the torrent of life all her life. She is tenacious, dedicated, hard-working and brave. When life throws hardships at her, she responds with songs.
I watched and cried all night
Why are there so many helpless tragedies in the world? Why do good people never end well? Qiuyuan went from a happy childhood to death of illness. She tasted all the ups and downs. She begged for food to avoid suspicion and sent her son off to remarry. Both her husband and her son died. Although she finally bought a stable life for herself and her children through persistence and hard work, this was the simple but tragic and painful life of the common people in that sad era. The old man who treated illnesses and saved people, two sisters-in-law who came from a miserable background, Xiaoquan and his poor daughter, the kind-hearted aunt of the Xu family, the simple and kind-hearted Renshou. Which of the young and talented Tian Si can escape? Reading this book was one of the summer assignments in high school. Starting from 0:00, I lay in bed in the middle of the night and cried through half a pack of tissue paper. I don't know if the suffering of our ancestors can be comforted by the prosperity of future generations, but I will fight for it anyway.
Living is the theme of the times
The life back then was really not what humans lived.
Comment - Yang Renshou He is a typical good old man in the old times. Even though he is not rich, he always maintains warmth. He helps the poor when he has money, and he is down-to-earth when he has no money. He has morality engraved in his bones. He is a good man, but he will wrong his family for the sake of his principles. In order to be a good man, he also ruined his wife's dowry. He is too cowardly to protect the family, so he is not a good parent or husband. But he went to farm without overestimating his ability. I think I can't laugh at him for this. Times make people. Although he had all kinds of shortcomings, he didn't give up on his elderly father even if he gave up the opportunity to get promoted and make a fortune. He didn't let his daughter go to school when everyone favored sons over daughters. He had obviously been an official, studied and fought, how could Ren Shou end up in a situation where his wife and children were all begging? What would happen if he lived in our time? No one will know that he has gone away with that period of history. We cannot over-evaluate people in the past from the present perspective. We must know that it is difficult to defeat the social settings with the strength of one person. Only by uniting together can we prevent the tragic fate of good people from becoming the norm.
I hope that future generations will also have so much "unyielding" in their genes, and that they will have the courage to "regenerate" themselves when facing difficulties with different destinies.
I read this book in one breath. I have lived in a rural area since I was a child. Although I have never experienced the plots in the book, my innate ability to empathize seems to be experienced with them, heart-wrenching, helpless, and longing... Living in this era, we are so happy and free from material torture, but our hearts are so fragile Although the length of life is limited, no matter what, should we calm down and think about the meaning of life and feel the beauty of this world...
Qiuyuan tells the life of a woman named Qiuyuan. Qiuyuan and Renshou are sincere and kind-hearted. Even when they are short of food and clothing, they still generously help people who are poorer than themselves.
