Liu Qiong: Construct a Chinese life as I understand it

Liu Qiong is a scholar, writer, doctor of art, and deputy director of the literature and art department of People's Daily. He has won the "Rain Flower" Literary Award, the National NewspaperMan's Prose Award, the "New Criticism Award" of the "Literary Newspaper", and the "Contemporary Writers Review" Criticism Award. He is the author of "Outside the Words of the Flower", "Nie Er: Hurry but Eternity", "The Road to Chaji" and other monographs.

Anyone who has had contact with Liu Qiong can feel her heartfelt love for flowers. Living in Beijing, Liu Qiong's favorite place to visit was the Laitai Flower Market... When it comes to flowers, Liu Qiong can be described as a family treasure, "Osmanthus is sweet and fragrant, and plum blossoms are fragrant, which are the most beautiful gifts of nature." Every October, I want to go back to the south, just to smell the osmanthus flowers floating all over the city. ”

Liu Qiong's new work "Outside the Words Between Flowers" is a book related to flowers. "Since ancient times, plants, including flowers, have not only been the necessary external natural environment for our lives and the important material food on which our daily survival depends, but also the projection of our aesthetic objects and the spirit of the subject." In an exclusive interview with a reporter from China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph, Liu Qiong said, "The elegance and elegance of writing traditional poetry and the Chinese aesthetics of vanilla beauty explore a way of knowing and understanding the world, thus constructing a Chinese-style life that I understand." ”

The desire to create flowers and words has a long history

In 2020, Liu Qiong was invited by Zhu Hui, editor-in-chief of Nanjing "Yuhua" magazine, under the supervision of editor Xiang Xun, in addition to daily work, his spare time basically revolved around the theme of flowers and poetry, and wrote a column of "Outside the Words Between Flowers" for "Yuhua". "From January to December, I wrote a total of 12 poems every month. When the Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House was published, it used 'Outside the Words of Flowers' as the title of the book. Liu Qiong said slowly.

In Liu Qiong's view, the reason for the name "outside the word between the flowers" focuses on 3 elements, namely flowers, words, and words, and "flowers" and "words" to draw out two clear categories, plus a "outside", from the object image to the image, from the relatively specific flower word culture to the infinite abundance of Chinese culture.

Writing a book about flowers is Liu Qiong's long-standing wish. "A person's writing, especially a woman's writing, is often associated with direct experience. Writing about flowers and words is related to my upbringing. Liu Qiong laughed and said that she had an obsession with plants.

Liu Qiong was born in southern Anhui and lived with her parents in Xuancheng until the age of 4. Xuancheng since the ancient poet land, the rivers and mountains are picturesque, outside the window, the mountains are everywhere, within the field of vision, are peach blossoms, pear blossoms, apple blossoms, Yingshan red, orchids and other flowers. "The company of plants for me has become a memory that will last for me at the beginning." Liu Qiong fondly recalled her life at that time, and her mother planted two loofah seedlings on the courtyard wall in front of her house, and the melon vine grew fast, and the yellow flowers climbed all over the courtyard wall. Next to the mother's loofah seedlings, a rectangular flower platform was simply built, sprinkled with flower seeds, and watched the flower seedling arch out of the earth layer, remembering that there were trumpet flowers, "bath flowers", and henna.

Since then, Liu Qiong's habit of raising flowers has persisted, "so when Zhu Hui's editor-in-chief asked me what I was going to write in the column, I said that writing flowers, 12 months, a flower a month, and the festival basically corresponds." This is the origin of the book "Outside the Words of flowers".

Rediscovered in writing

Talking about the most favorite chapter in the book, Liu Qiong said bluntly: "To be honest, I really like these 12 articles. In each article, I try to have some new constructions. Originally written as a column, I was most afraid of repetition, and the more repetition, the reader had no desire to read. Therefore, when writing, I hope that I will also have the impulse to write, and fully enjoy the pleasure of creation. ”

Recalling the creative process, Liu Qiong said that most of the articles were written in one go, "many details were slowly awakened and rediscovered in the writing process." Among them, the one that was written most smoothly was "But the Begonias Are Still The Same", "Written smoothly, it is because Li Qingzhao is in a changing era, and he has rich experience and stories." I also have my own research and understanding of her poems and life experiences. ”

"If you want to say your favorite, it may be the article "Falling Plum Horizontal Flute Has Been Three More"." In this regard, Liu Qiong further explained that first, this song "Huanxi Sha Residual Snow Condensation Cold Painting Screen" is really good, and she really likes it. Second, from word to person, Naranjand is so perfect in her eyes. "Of course, this is also based on the imagination of Chinese aesthetics."

"Outside the Words Between The Flowers" can be said to "reveal" Liu Qiong's true kung fu in poetry. In the early morning, moving a small bamboo chair and reciting Tang poems and Song poems loudly in the courtyard was Liu Qiong's morning class as a child. "The earliest recitation was the 'Thousand Family Poems], and the first poem memorized was 'Remembering Qin'e'e'." This also evokes those memories of Liu Qiong's childhood, "'Remembrance of Qin'e' is a long and short sentence, known as the 'ancestor of hundred generations of song', which is said to have been written by Li Bai. After more than 40 years, the feeling of the outline when I first read this word is still vividly remembered. The boundless distance is calling us, and that may be what it means. ”

Like is the driving force behind persistence in creation

Growing up in a family with a tradition of reading, the only way her parents pointed out to Liu Qiong was to read. "Although I have had the habit of memorizing and learning ancient poems since I was a child, I was able to like them for a long time because of my two elders." Liu Qiong said that from history to literature, from hundreds of family names to thousands of poems, his strong interest in classical culture is because of his grandfather, "quaint poetry has become cheerful, vivid, interesting, and even very everyday in my grandfather's mouth." I remembered it all at once. "The other elder is Liu Qiong's elderly uncle, who was still writing professional literary and art reviews last year." My uncle liked Lao Du the most, and the cultivation of his classical poetry made me both envious and ashamed. ”

"I currently have two writing plans at hand, which are 'accounts' that have been owed for a long time." When talking about the current creative plan, Liu Qiong said that one is about coffee culture, "This is a particularly interesting topic. Coffee, a plant, has special requirements for the growing environment. There is a coffee growth belt on the earth, and China's Yunnan Dehong and other places are in this growth belt. The coffee selection is in a non-fiction form and can be completed next year. The other is a theoretical book on realist creation, which is slowly being written. ”

Reading Liu Qiong's prose is a kind of enjoyment, and listening to her comments on literary works on the spot is another kind of enjoyment. When asked how to find a balance between literary creation and daily work, she said that she was not diligent and slightly greedy, and the reason why she could stick to literary creation was because she really liked it. "Because I like it, something that may seem bitter to some people, I don't feel it at all, I just get pleasure from it." As for time management, increasing efficiency is probably a little bit of my experience. My choice is strict and I don't write perfunctory articles. If you don't read a book well, or if you don't have anything you want to say after reading it, you don't write, otherwise, you are not responsible for the author of the book, and you are not responsible for yourself. (China Press, Publication, Radio and Telegraph Li Jingxuan)

【Source: People's Online】

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