The History of Entrepreneurship, which has been serialized since the spring of 1959, is a classic work in the history of New Chinese literature. The writer Liu Qing tries to answer in his work "why did the socialist revolution occur in rural China and how did this revolution occur?" On the one hand, he depicted the historical features of The Process of Socialist Transformation of Agriculture in China through the tortuous cooperative movement carried out in the typical environment of toad beach in the Weihe River Plain; on the other hand, he expressed the change in the thinking and feelings of the peasants in this period through a number of typical figures with distinct personalities, such as Liang Shengbao and Liang Sanlaohan.
After the novel was published, it was praised by the literary community for its "profoundness of reflecting the vast life of the countryside" and "creating a group of characters who reached a considerable artistic level". In the 60 years since its publication, the great spirit of realism embodied in the "History of Entrepreneurship" has lasted for a long time, and Liu Qing has also become a representative of the writer who goes deep into life and praises the people.
Writer Jia Pingwa said that he was young at the time and heard the story of Liu Qing, but did not have the opportunity to see it. I've had the pleasure of meeting Liu Qing. The writer Chen Zhongzhong asked me: "Old Yan, how many times have you seen Liu Qing?" "I said that from 1969 to the eve of his death, there were six visits to Liu Qing. Chen Zhongzhong said: "I have only met him once, or he is speaking from above and I am listening below." "Yes, I am luckier than them, I am familiar with Liu Qing, but I do not deeply understand Liu Qing. Now to talk about Liu Qing, it is to deeply understand Liu Qing and inherit Liu Qing.
Liu Qing created two miracles. One is to go deep into life and praise the people, in this regard he is an example for countless writers to learn; the second is to discover the beauty of the soul, create truth, goodness and beauty, in this regard, Liu Qing has also achieved the ultimate.
The first manuscript of the History of Entrepreneurship.
Liu Qing (third from right) chatting with farmers in the field.
Liu Qing is like an ascetic monk, and the top of the heel sinks to the grass-roots level, which is very bitter. He bid farewell to the big city, settled in a ruined temple in Huangfu Village, and pulled a large family of people to live a hard life and eat coarse grain. "Not crazy, not alive", Liu Qing has made a transformation of her feelings and done more good things for her peasant brothers. He wrote the "Three Character Sutra of Cultivating Livestock and Breeding" for the members of the society. He saw that the rural areas of northern Shaanxi were dry and barren and "uneasy in his heart" and wrote "Proposals to Change the Land Management Policy of Northern Shaanxi". He mediated personnel disputes and family conflicts, and was trusted by the villagers. He did not take a needle and a thread from the masses, asthmatic, but the daily medical expenses were never reimbursed; the manuscript paper was not received in the provincial writers' association, but he pitied the poor and the young and paid for it himself, and donated all the 16,000 yuan of the "History of Entrepreneurship" to the Wang Qu Commune to build a hospital. "I have a salary and I don't need the money," he said. When she began to write the second part of the "History of Entrepreneurship" in 1961, Liu Qing borrowed 5500 yuan from the China Youth Publishing House to pay for high-voltage wires and poles for Huangfu Village.
Why did Liu Qing do this? Because Liu Qing was a faithful practitioner of Mao Zedong's "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum," he regarded the "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Art Forum" as a treasure book for creation.
When Liu Qing was alive, Ba Jin was still alive, and my impression at that time was that Ba Jin was the child of the May Fourth literary enlightenment, and Liu Qing was the child of literature and art serving the workers, peasants, and soldiers.
The "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" calls for: "China's revolutionary writers and artists, literary artists and artists with outstanding achievements, must go to the masses, must go to the masses of workers, peasants, and soldiers, to the fiery struggle, to the only vastst and richest source, to observe, experience, study, and analyze all people, all classes, all the masses, all vivid forms of life and forms of struggle, all the original materials of literature and art for a long time, and then it is possible to enter the creative process." With an amazing and tenacious will, Liu Qing has devoted herself to rural life for 14 years, first as a person, then as a writer, expressing "new worlds and new characters", until death, leaving an epoch-making "history of entrepreneurship" and leaving an infinite personality charm. We may wish to make a comparison, which of the above requirements for writers and artists has not been achieved?
It is precisely because Liu Qing is a model of going deep into life, General Secretary Xi Jinping's "Speech at the Forum on Literary and Art Work" mentioned Liu Qing in this way: "Because he has a deep understanding of the life of peasants in Guanzhong, Shaanxi, his characters are so vivid." Liu Qing was familiar with the joys and sorrows of the villagers, and the central government had introduced a policy involving rural peasants, and he could immediately imagine in his mind whether the peasant masses were happy or unhappy. ”
The pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty is the eternal pursuit of Liu Qing's creation. In the process of taking root in life, he discovered the beauty of nature, the beauty of life, and the beauty of the soul. Liu Qing's so-called rooted life is rooted in the soul of people and expressed in literary works, thus influencing the spiritual world of a generation of writers and readers.
Liu Qing praised the straight and righteous temperament of the Shaanxi peasants, the filial piety, diligence, simplicity, prudence, and stubbornness of the shaanxi peasants, breaking the old techniques of artistic conception, narrative strategy, and psychological description, shaping new character models such as Liang Sanlaohan, Liang Shengbao, and Guo Zhenshan, and building a huge art palace with beautiful details of life, brick by brick and tile are clear.
Liu Qing's natural scenery and labor scenes are so real and wonderful! His depictions of the peasants' arduous struggles in yearning for a new life (such as Liang Shengbao's purchase of rice seeds, cutting bamboo, etc.) are meticulous depictions of traditional morality and ethics, full of human affection. He elevated the regional culture of Sanqin and the spoken dialect of Guanzhong to the aesthetic level, which is delicate and cold and precise, full of life interest, novel and intentional.
More importantly, the appearance and psychology of the croppers who have suffered for thousands of years are keenly captured and recorded by Liu Qing when China's agricultural socialist transformation is coming and has arrived. He was an eyewitness, an experiencer and a expressor of creative individuality at this important historical moment. In this sense, "History of Entrepreneurship" records the times and moves China.
Liu Qing's contribution to literature also lies in the fact that he inherited the tradition of novel realism since May Fourth, and at the same time took the novel tradition from outside, especially the Russian-Soviet critical realism, and combined it with the thoughts and feelings of the broad masses of the people of his own nation, and achieved the national style, local customs, and Chinese style novel models that the people liked to hear.
Liu Qing has passed away, and the "History of Entrepreneurship" has remained. "History of Entrepreneurship" pushes the art of the long novel to a new aesthetic level, its narrative rigor and exquisite details, the expression of humanity in suffering and the praise of peasant labor are refreshing, and it is a recognized peak work and red classic in the service of literature and art for workers, peasants and soldiers. No wonder Lu Yao said that Liu Qing was his "godfather of literature" and read "History of Entrepreneurship" seven times, and Chen Zhongzhong also read "History of Entrepreneurship" seven times. It can be said that Liu Qing has influenced generations of people.
When Liu Qing attended the Fourth Literary Congress, he said to me: "I am a person who abides by two points: objective laws demand me, and party spirit and principles require me." This is the foundation of his personality and literary creation.
In 1978, Liu Qing left us forever, and fortunately, he contributed a "History of Entrepreneurship" to the Chinese literary scene. Liu Qing and "History of Entrepreneurship" are two miracles in the Chinese literary world.
Commemorate Liu Qing and learn from Liu Qing! (Yan Gang)
The illustrations in this article are provided by the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature and Liu Qing's family
Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition