《纽约时报》悼沈从文

一个只读过小学的人，竟成了一个大作家，而且积累了那么多的学问，真是一个奇迹。……他说自己不是天才(他应当算是个天才)，只是耐烦。……他的耐烦，意思就是锲而不舍，不怕费劲。……他的作品看起来很轻松自如，若不经意，但都是苦心刻琢出来的。《边城》一共不到7万字，他告诉我，写了半年。……为了试验一下把六朝译经和口语结合的文体，这种文体，后来形成一种他自己说是“文白夹杂”的独特的沈从文体。……(沈先生)多数时候都是笑眯眯的。他总是用一种善意的，含情的微笑，来看这个世界的一切。到了晚年，喜欢放声大笑，笑得合不拢嘴，且摆动双手作势，正像一个孩子。只有看破一切人事乘除，得失荣辱，全置度外，心地明净无渣滓的人，才能这样轻快地大笑。……他搜集，研究这些东西(丝绸图案)，不是为了消遣，是从中发现，证实中国历史文化的优越这个角度出发的，研究时充满感情。我在他80岁生日写给他的诗里有一联：

    “玩物从来非丧志，著书老去为抒情。”

    这全是记实。……在昆明，我到文林街20号他的宿舍去看他，到吃饭时总是到对面米线馆吃一碗一角三分钱的米线。……他经常吃的荤菜是猪头肉。

汪曾祺在《星斗其文，赤字之人》中描写沈从文

May 13, 1988

Shen Congwen, 85, a Champion Of Freedom for Writers in China

By EDWARD A. GARGAN, SPECIAL TOTHE NEW YORK TIMES

Shen Congwen, a novelist, short-story writer, lyricist and passionate champion of literary and intellectual independence, died Tuesday in Beijing, his relatives reported. Hewas 85 years old.

Although almost entirely unknown to Western readers, Mr. Shen's oeuvre, much of it embued with the folklore and customs of his native western Hunan, has been compared to that of William Faulkner.

One of the first films from China to be released commercially in the United States, ''Girl From Hunan,'' which opened in New York in March, was based on ''Xiao Xiao,'' a novel by Mr. Shen.

Denounced by the Communists and Nationalists alike, Mr. Shen saw his writings banned in Taiwan, while mainland publishing houses burned his books and destroyed printing plates for his novels.

So successful was the effort to erase Mr. Shen's name from the modern literary record that few younger Chinese today recognize his name, much less the breadth of his work. Only since 1978 has the Chinese Government reissued selections of his writings, although ineditions of only a few thousand copies.

''Shen's masterpieces rank with Chekhov's,'' wrote Jeffrey C. Kinkley, a professor of Asian studies at St.John's University in New York and the leading American authority on Mr. Shen. ''Shen Congwen looms large in the history of Chinese literature not because he wrote an unusually monumental work but, on the contrary, because his contributions to literature were so diverse and pervasive.''

He was born Shen Yuehuan on Dec.28, 1902, near the town of Fenghuang, in the western mountains of Hunan Province. His father was a failed military officer and writer who mismanaged and lost his family wealth.

In his teens, Mr. Shen tried his hand at soldiering although the corrupt character of the military eventually repelled him and he gravitated toward an idealized notion of the literary life, adopting the name Congwen, meaning dedicated to culture.

Mr. Shen was influenced by the ferment in China's literary world in the early 1920's. He wrote exuberant if undisciplined poetry exploring nature, and one-act farces skewering modern social conventions.

He developed a preoccupation with sexual themes during these early years, a focus often criticized by Communist writers decades later.

As he developed as a writer, his work concentrated increasingly on the mores of the people in western Hunan. ''Ultimately,'' Mr. Kinkley wrote, ''he conveyed a sense of his country folk asa moral community sitting in judgment of modern China.''

In 1932, he published ''Fengzi,''his first major work, a psychological novel. ''Long River,'' thought by many literary critics to be his finest novel, appeared in 1943 and, according to Mr. Kinkley, ''presents Shen's most vivid, observant and extended scenes of country life.''

It was then, however, that his political problems began. A Communist intellectual described Mr. Shen as are actionary. Mr. Shen agreed to take political classes, a process that led to his being forced to write a confession exposing his alleged failures.

His publisher announced in 1953 that his books were being burned and the printing plates destroyed. Mr. Shen retreated into a life of study and some writing, much of it devoted to antiquities and design. He published a respected study on bronze mirrors of theTang and Song Dynasties.

In the political turmoil that swirled around intellectuals from the late 1950's until the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Mr. Shen cleaned toilets, attended political indoctrination courses and tried, unsuccessfully, he said, to write fiction.

In 1978, he was freed to write what he wished, but by this time his age prevented an aggressive return to writing. He visited the United States briefly in 1980 and returned to China tolive in a spacious apartment provided by the Government in belated recognition of his contributions to 20th-century Chinese literature.

''I have a rule,'' Mr. Shen declared in 1980. ''Once people are promoted to high office, I no longer seek to have social intercourse with them.'' He remained true to his rule, living quietly and attended by his son and wife until his death. In China, his passing was unreported.

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