天香

by Wang Anyi, 王安忆

晚明，上海县申家造“天香园”，申柯海娶妻小绸，又阴差阳错纳闵氏为妾，于是恩怨纠缠。闵氏系苏州织工之女，有绣艺，带入申家，与小绸共创“天香园绣”；柯海侄媳希昭以书画入绣，成天下一绝。申家家道中落，侄女蕙兰嫁入平常人家，后寡居。希昭、蕙兰等以绣支撑家用，蕙兰更设幔授艺，使“天香园绣”光大天下。

Genres: China

474 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

About the author

Wang Anyi (王安忆, born in Tong'an in 1954) is a Chinese writer, and currently the chairwoman of Writers' Association of Shanghai. The daughter of a famous writer and member of the Communist Party, Ru Zhijuan(茹志鹃), and a father who was denounced as a Rightist when she was three years old, Wang Anyi writes that she "was born and raised in a thoroughfare, Huaihai Road." As a result of the Cultural Revolution, she was not permitted to continue her education beyond the junior high school level. Instead, at age fifteen, she was assigned as a farm labourer to a commune in Anhui, an impoverished area near the Huai River, which was plagued by famine.

Transferred in 1972 to a cultural troupe in Xuzhou, she began to publish short stories in 1976. One story that grew out of this experience, "Life In A Small Courtyard", recounts the housekeeping details, marriage customs, and relationships of a group of actors assigned to a very limited space where they live and rehearse between their professional engagements.

She was permitted to return home to Shanghai in 1978 to work as an editor of the magazine "Childhood". In 1980 she received additional professional training from the Chinese Writer's Association, and her fiction achieved national prominence, winning literary award in China.

Her most famous novel, The Everlasting Regret (长恨歌), traces the life story of a young Shanghainese girl from the 1940s all the way till her death after the Cultural Revolution. Although the book was published in 1995, it is already considered by many as a modern classic.

Wang is often compared with another female writer from Shanghai, Eileen Chang, as both of their stories are often set in Shanghai, and give vivid and detailed descriptions of the city itself.

A novella and six of her stories have been translated and collected in an anthology, "Lapse of Time". In his preface to that collection, Jeffrey Kinkley notes that Wang is a realist whose stories "are about everyday urban life" and that the author "does not stint in describing the brutalising density, the rude jostling, the interminable and often futile waiting in line that accompany life in the Chinese big city".

In March 2008, her book The Song of Everlasting Sorrow was translated into English.In 2011, Wang Anyi was nominated to win the "Man Booker International Prize."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wang_Anyi

Reviews

[Nanabookworm · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 綿密老派但很囉嗦。王安憶不是張愛玲黃碧雲那種文字妖豔的奇才，但她足夠勤奮和細膩。她的女主角不是強勢決絕的烈女，卻自有一番倔強的生存之道。這本寫晚明世家的繁華和頹靡，也許不是最生動，但足夠有趣動人。第一卷小綢和妯娌的生死之交姐妹情深，閔對正室小綢的無條件好感和依賴（偽百合）反而生硬，不過刻畫閨閣女子的情誼總比直男角色可愛，妯娌的死和那件繁花盛開的壽衣把金蘭姐妹之間斷腸的死別的確描繪得很動人。第二部寫才女希昭和阿潛的姻緣，希昭不世出的才華和阿潛被戲曲勾魂離家出走，這種傳奇的戲碼不是王安億擅長，希昭實在太完美出世了，反而沒有人味。第三卷的蕙蘭，看似是千金落難嫁入平民家早早喪夫守寡的淒慘命運，王安憶卻把她的倔強和善心寫得充滿人間煙火，男人的缺席和女徒弟發誓不嫁，倒是有女性當自強的現代思想

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

應該說是誤上了紅樓夢賊船？XD
當初會來看這本書是因為大家書評說它是另一版的紅樓夢，但書拿來真是嚇一跳，好厚一本，好像大學畢業後就沒讀過這麼厚實的磚塊書...

整本書內容非常豐富，如果沒興趣不免嫌它繁瑣（但不愛，跳過去就是了）。我沒有連續看，所以看到後來人物關係有點混在一起，不過大家族本來就是人事關係複雜，要通通抓住也不太容易。

簡單說，這是一個「一個大家族最後怎麼靠女人撐起來」的故事。裡面的男性除了有世俗氣的（跟實際生活有所接觸的），其他一概無用，只會賞賞花、玩玩鳥兒而已，真正主事的都是女人，奈何不了這是個男尊女卑的時代，多少英雌豪傑就這樣埋沒了。

[Yunong Bai · Rating 5 out of 5]

越读越有味道。绝不是女性视角的红楼梦——明代富贵人家百年中逐渐没落，而女人们通过天香园绣，不仅维持了生计，更是承接古今、出世入世、连接起了一颗颗人心。小绸、镇海媳妇、闵女儿、希昭、惠兰、戥子、乖女，多少人心，经历了人世间跌宕起伏的酸甜苦楚，“唯有揣摩，体察，同心同德，放能够那么一点一滴真知！” 这份敏感是不怕社会动荡生老病死世态炎凉的。天香园的绣阁没落了、人去楼空，但是这艺术随着敏感的女人们而繁衍生息，“纡尊降贵，去尽丽华，但那一颗锦心犹在。” 只有女性作家才能拿捏到如此版温暖的力量。

[Jjj · Rating 4 out of 5]

读着读着就有点红楼梦的感觉，场面小了一点

[Elisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

我不认为红楼是顶级小说，但我相信它是顶级的文化百科式小说。红楼的闲笔和知识是立体的，有机统合在整个故事之内，所以显得丰富，本书却像是一味平摊开来，铺得越大，越觉得淡薄贫乏。有些地方说理简直是网络文学水准。故事确有动人之处，可惜

[X G · Rating 5 out of 5]

何必跟红楼梦比呢，“园子荒芜但并不衰败”，天香园其实生机焕发。

[Xuan Luo · Rating 3 out of 5]

王安忆的语言收放自如，这小说的素材也有趣，只是在故事的讲述方面有点太大线条，没有情感代入感。