Film and television drama "Yan Ding'er" adapted from the novel
In the 1980s, a novel called "Yandinger" was widely circulated, with more than 60,000 copies first printed, and was included in the 100-year-old 100 classic books of Chinese children's literature, which told the story of the bumpy growth of the girl "Yandinger" who was born in a Manchu declining aristocratic family at the time of the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
The author of the novel is now very few people are familiar with, but if you have seen the classic film and television "Children of China" that swept the country, you may know that she is the creator of the script - the red writer Yan Yiyan.
Yan Yiyan is the protagonist of the novel Yan Ding'er, because this novel is written by her own story, as a Manchu gege from the fallen royal palace, she did not sink with that era, but went to Japan to study with her own strength, and after returning to China, she rushed to Yan'an in spite of herself in order to devote herself to the revolution, and even the writer Bing Xin was shaken by her "chivalrous style" and personally wrote to her to praise:
"As a girl from a feudal aristocratic family, you resolutely went to the forefront of the revolution, which makes me admire!"
What exactly happened to a once-dressed wangfu Gege that made her choose to be willing to shed blood for the revolutionary skull, about her legend, from the Zhumen at birth.
Yan Yiyan's autobiographical novel "Yan Ding'er"
Yan Yiyan's birth coincided with the fall of the Qing Dynasty, however, although the Qing Dynasty withdrew from power at that time, it was not yet completely destroyed, and it existed not only within the Forbidden City, but also in the royal palace outside the Forbidden City.
Her original name was Yan Yufang, her grandfather was a pint of the Qing Dynasty, her father was a hereditary bureaucrat, as a girl from a Manchu Zhenghuangqi aristocratic family, she was known as "Yufang Gege" in the royal palace.
There are two "women" who serve her, one is her nursing mother, and the other is to accompany and take care of her day and night.
Although the palace was full of courtyards and countless servants, she also lived a life of everyone serving from an early age, especially the tall Zhumen Gate guarded by two solemn stone lions, representing that the palace of the Yan Yiyan family was one of the typical aristocratic residences of the Qing Dynasty.
However, the rules she has to abide by have not changed in the slightest, and Mamma will conduct etiquette education for her every day, such as Gege should not smile and not show her teeth, and she cannot hold her palms to her cheeks, because she "raises her cheeks to invite disasters", and she cannot shake her legs and kick her legs, because she is not a system.
Especially within the height of this feudal palace, compared to the brothers who came and went slightly freely, the Gege could not take a step out of the Zhu Gate without major events and under the leadership of the prince.
Living in this environment, for all this red tape, Yu Fangge's childhood can be imagined to be very depressed.
The deeper reason why Yan Yiyan wanted to escape from the palace was that although she was born noble, she was "Yandinger" in her grandmother's eyes, and Yanding'er, which is the dialect of Beijing, is the meaning of the meaning.
Yan Yiyan's grandmother can be said to be a "Lafayette" in this big family, with deep-rooted feudal ideas, and she vented the anger of the manchu Qing dynasty on Yan Yiyan's uncle Lu Guangxi, because Lu Guangxi joined the alliance and was regarded as a "chaotic party".
Even Yan Yiyan's mother, Lu Haisheng, was reprimanded by this old lady, who regarded Yan Yiyan as a "broom star" before she was born, never called her name after she was born, called her "Yan Ding'er", and only loved her brother Yan Yuyu (nicknamed Brother Lin).
Under such a blow, Yan Yiyan's mother unfortunately died of illness when he was 7 years old, and his father remarried Puyi's clan sister, named Jin Xi, who was also Duan Qirui's dry daughter.
The stepmother treated her even more harshly, telling her that she would not pass the fifth grade and work at home from then on.
The stubborn Yan Yiyan did not want to give in, she was born to love reading, even if her grandmother did not let her brother go to the study with her, she had to stand outside the study to eavesdrop.
This time, she was even more energetic in her studies, coupled with her talent and intelligence, and was even admitted to the fifth grade of the affiliated primary school of Beijing Normal University. Two years later, he was escorted to the Beijing Normal University High School with the first place in the whole grade.
However, the feudal palace could not accept it after seeing Yan Yufang, who was a gege, to learn new ideas and new education, and decided to abandon her and drive her out of the palace, no longer providing her with education, and the family instead took her brother to Fengtian.
In 1928, the penniless Yan Yufang had to choose to go to the Beijing Hot Spring Girls' High School, which did not charge tuition, and in order to show her determination to break with the royal palace, she pawned all the valuable things on her body and changed her name to Yan Yiyan.
Without financial resources, she began to write, who would have thought that this Qing Dynasty Gege, who was expelled from the royal palace, published dozens of novels and essays in various literary supplements in just a few years, not only supporting herself but also becoming a new star in the literary world at that time.
In 1934, Yan Yiyan was admitted to the Faculty of Letters of Waseda University in Japan with excellent results in English, and although she was in a foreign country like other students studying in Japan, she was extremely concerned about major events in China and engaged in cultural and dramatic activities.
In 1937, the Outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, which was the most tangled time in Yan Yiyan's life, originally she could graduate in half a year and get a bachelor's degree, but in the difficult choice between her personal future and the anti-Japanese salvation, she finally gave up her personal studies and chose to return to the motherland to contribute to the anti-Japanese salvation of the country.
It can be said that as a nobleman born in a feudal royal palace, it is rare and admirable to have such a handsome temperament.
After returning to China, Yan Yiyan immediately joined the Shanghai Rescue Drama Team, on the one hand, he participated in the performance to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance, on the other hand, he studied under the famous dramatist Mr. Hong Shen and learned script creation.
At that time, the holy land of revolution became the place where countless progressive young people yearned for, and Yan Yiyan also yearned for it.
Once, when she was shooting the anti-Japanese film "The Last Drop of Blood" in Wuhan, she listened to the report made by Comrade Zhou Enlai and strengthened her determination to become a revolutionary literary and art worker.
After inquiring, she went to Hankou and found Li Kenong, the head of the Eighth Route Army's office in Wuhan, who was quite tasked with work in Wuhan at that time, and his external identity was the secretary general of the Eighth Route Army headquarters and the secretary general of the CPC delegation, and his real identity was the secretary general of the Yangtze River Bureau, who was also responsible for the party's intelligence work.
Yan Yiyan expressed to him his desire to go to Yan'an to participate in the revolution, and Li Kenong praised her after listening to it.
As a Qing Dynasty gege who came out of the decaying royal palace, it is rare to be able to maintain a pure heart and devote himself to the revolution after returning from studying abroad.
Li Kenong told her with great pleasure: "You want to go to Yan'an, I will write you a letter of introduction!" ”
Yan Yiyan was extremely excited after hearing this, and with Li Kenong's introduction letter to leave Yan'an and go one step further, she began to prepare, in the spring of 1938, just when she was immersed in the creation of dramas in Shanghai, she received the news that she would form a team with more than a dozen enthusiastic young people to march to Yan'an.
Li Kenong
Yan'an is no better than the "song and dance" of shanghai, where life is extremely difficult, everyone lives in a dark cave dwelling, especially on the road to Yan'an, basically relying on their feet to walk step by step.
They had to brave the enemy's front and back blockade, and on the other hand, they had to face the cold wind of the biting Loess Plateau, and she also had to carry heavy books and luggage in the mountains.
For a Qing Dynasty Gege who had once been served by a "woman messenger", it was like learning from the Western Heavens, but Yan Yiyan gritted his teeth and insisted.
After a few days, her feet have been worn out of blood bubbles, the whole day of wind and food and sleeping still has not worn away her fighting spirit, after half a month of walking, after thousands of hardships everyone finally arrived in Yan'an.
On that day, when she saw Yan'an's landmark, the towering Pagoda Mountain, she burst into tears, exhausted and unable to get up again, she was carried to her destination by her partners.
After Yan Yiyan carefully took out Comrade Li Kenong's letter of introduction, the revolutionary comrades in Yan'an extended a warm welcome to her arrival, and she finally entered the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University as she wished.
The Anti-Japanese War of the Yan'an Period
Wangfu Gege's feat of defecting to Yan'an for the revolution was known to the famous prose artist Bing Xin at that time, and personally wrote a letter in which he praised her:
"As a girl from an aristocratic feudal family, you resolutely went to the forefront of the revolution, which makes me admire!"
Yan'an, since then, has become the starting point of Yan Yiyan's revolutionary literary and artistic work, and her talents have been fully utilized, first of all, 5 dramas created in a row sensationalized the whole of Yan'an, and then she was transferred to the Lu Xun Art Institute from 1940 to 1944, translating nearly one million words of textbooks in 4 years, many of which have been published, such as "To Young Directors", "Gothic", "Hungry People" and other chapters.
In addition to drama creation and translation of classic masterpieces, this talented Gege also starred in dramas herself, and in 1940 she successfully played "Grandma Gu Ba" in Cao Yu's "Sunrise", and her superb acting skills were impressive.
After the founding of New China, Premier Zhou did not forget to comment when watching the "Sunrise" performed by a certain troupe: "Or our Grandma Gu Ba in Yan'an acted well!" ”
It can be seen that Yan Yiyan's acting skills are obvious to all.
What really made her famous was that after the victory of the War of Resistance, she came to the northeast with a large army and entered the northeast literary and art work group, where she participated in the land reform, went deep into the countryside of the northeast, and created more than 20 short novels.
Later, after entering the Northeast Film Studio as a screenwriter, she traveled all over the northeast to visit hundreds of soldiers of the Northeast Anti-League in order to create it, and finally wrote an excellent film script "Sons and Daughters of China"
As soon as the film was broadcast, it swept the north and south of the great river, telling the heroic deeds of the "eight women throwing themselves into the river" in the Northeast Anti-Japanese League, and the script reflected the arduous combat life and great dedication of the anti-Japanese fighters, and successfully shaped the group portrait of the anti-Japanese heroine.
In 1950, "Children of China" won the "Struggle for Freedom" award at the 5th International Film Festival of Karlovy Vary, and at this point, the first film script created by Yan Yiyan became the first film in New China to win an international award, which shows the spirit of his literary achievements.
After the founding of New China, Yan Yiyan has become a red writer with a reputation at that time, she still works tirelessly, and in the following decades, she has always devoted herself to work with a hundred times more enthusiasm and devoted herself to literary creation.
In view of Yan Yiyan's outstanding achievements in special contributions over the years, in her later years, she enjoyed the treatment of a generous old cadre and lived alone in a two-story suite in the North Shadow Living Area, but her life was extremely simple and she donated all her income.
During the Period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, she donated her own writing fees to support the soldiers on the front line, and during the three years of suffering, she continued to hand over the only 20,000 yuan in her life, and she always maintained a hard life style.
In 1997, Teacher Yan Yiyan died of illness in Beijing at the age of 85, and when her relatives were sorting out her belongings, they found that she did not leave a penny for herself, and the furnishings in the home were so simple that there was only one bed and a few tables and chairs, not even a table and chair.
Yan Yiyan (1912-1997)
This Qing Dynasty Gege, who was expelled from the royal palace, in that turbulent era, with perseverance that was different from ordinary people, walked a different path, from giving up his life to yan'an to becoming a revolutionary literary and artistic warrior, Yan Lao's life was a life full of legends, a life admired by future generations!