On November 2, 1975, Chairman Mao's eye disease was quite serious, but he still gave instructions on The letter from Yao Xueyu, which Hu Qiaomu forwarded: "Print and distribute all comrades in the Politburo." I agree with him to write li zicheng novels in two, three to five volumes. Mao Zedong. ”
The letter was sent on October 19, and within half a month, Chairman Mao personally gave instructions, and it was he who allowed himself to write "Li Zicheng." Yao Xueyu, who saw the instructions, burst into tears.
In this way, the second volume of "Li Zicheng" was published, and the China Youth Publishing House, which had been suspended for 10 years, officially resumed its book publishing business. Therefore, there is a saying in the cultural circles: Chairman Mao's instructions have saved a book and a publishing house.
Yao Xueyan, formerly known as Yao Guansan, was born on October 10, 1910 in Deng County, Nanyang, Henan Province, to a family of land-breakers. Due to the family's poverty, his mother prepared to drown the baby at his birth, but was saved by his great-grandmother. Since childhood, he loved to listen to his grandmother's storytelling, which also stimulated his imagination and literary interest. In the summer of 1929, he was admitted to the preparatory department of Henan University Law School. In the supplement of Henan Daily, he published his debut novel "Two Lonely Graves", which reflected the persecution and death of lower-class laborers by feudal forces, and began to read Marxist works. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he wrote a number of works on the theme of intellectual youth engaged in anti-Japanese rescue activities in the early stage of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, among which "Half a Cart of Wheat Straw" published in the "Literary and Art Front" had the strongest response.
Yao Xueyan's earliest contact with Li Zicheng's information was in 1941. The history of the Great Peasant Revolt at the end of the Ming Dynasty aroused his creative impulse, and he began to collect relevant historical materials about the Great Peasant Revolt at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
After liberation, Yao Xueyu settled in Wuhan and read Chairman Mao's "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party" and was greatly inspired. The ideas and methods of li zicheng's creation were deeply influenced by Chairman Mao's exposition on the question of peasant war, which not only embodied chairman Mao's historical materialist viewpoint on peasant war, but also further exerted the relevant expositions in Mao Zedong Thought. Yao Xueyan once emphatically said: "Without the Communist Party and Chairman Mao, there would be no me today; without Mao Zedong Thought, there would be no Li Zicheng; it was the Party and Chairman Mao who gave me a new artistic life for novel writers from the old society." Before liberation, the reason why I was interested in writing "Li Zicheng" and did not start writing was not only because there was no guarantee of life, but more importantly, I did not master the scientific weapons of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought to control this important historical theme, and I did not know what to write and how to write. The study of Marxism and Mao Zedong Thought enabled him to have a new understanding of historical materials, thus forming the theme of "Li Zicheng".
In 1957, Yao Xueyu began to write the novel Li Zicheng, and in the summer of 1963, the first volume of the book was published by the China Youth Publishing House. As the first vernacular historical novel after the founding of New China, it caused a huge and enthusiastic response among the vast number of readers as soon as it was published. The 300,000 copies of the first edition were quickly sold out, and more than 20,000 copies of the re-edition were also sold out in many places.
However, the review of this book is a double heaven of ice and fire. Some claim that the book celebrates the peasants' spirit of rebellion against despotism, while others think that the novel is a big poisonous weed.
Although it was summer, Yao Xueyu felt the severe cold in winter. In his distress, he thought of Chairman Mao, who packed a copy of "Li Zicheng" into a large envelope, went to the post office with a nervous mood, and sent it to Chairman Mao, wanting to hear Chairman Mao's views on the novel "Li Zicheng."
After reading the first volume of Li Zicheng, Chairman Mao became deeply interested in this novel. He believes that the historical novel "Li Zicheng" not only goes deep into history, but also jumps out of history, and is a perfect combination of history and art.
In August 1966, Chairman Mao personally presided over a meeting of the Politburo. In the middle of the meeting, Chairman Mao said to Wang Renzhong, secretary of the Hubei Provincial CPC Committee: "Yao Xueyu's 'Li Zicheng' was divided into two volumes (at that time, Yao Xueyu did not have a complete plan to write a five-volume "Li Zicheng", and Chairman Mao believed that this book was only two volumes). You quickly inform the city of Wuhan to protect him and let him finish the next book! ”
Wang Renzhong did not dare to be careless, and immediately called Song Kanfu, the first secretary of the Wuhan Municipal CPC Committee, to convey Chairman Mao's instructions.
Wang Renzhong
This directive not only saved the book "Li Zicheng" but also protected Yao Xueyu from being paraded and imprisoned. His books, materials, and cards were not copied either.
With chairman Mao's strong support, Yao Xueyan's enthusiasm for writing was very high, and on the eve of the National Day in 1975, the second volume of "Li Zicheng" was completed, but because of the political environment at that time, no publishing house dared to publish it for him. He wanted to start the third volume, but he felt that he was old and lacked the conditions, and it was very difficult to continue to create.
Chairman Mao has confessed to Wang Renzhong, secretary of the Hubei Provincial CPC Committee, that it has been almost 10 years since Yao Xueyan was allowed to complete the writing of "Li Zicheng.", and time has changed, and not many people know about it. With nothing to do, Jiang Xiaotian, the editor in charge of the first volume of Li Zicheng, gave him an idea, asking Yao Xueyu to simply write a letter to Chairman Mao directly, and to win Chairman Mao's instructions so that the book could come out.
Jiang Xiaotian also mentioned that li zicheng, an extraordinary historical figure, is mentioned several times in the fourth volume of The Selected Works of Chairman Mao, and Chairman Mao praised Li Zicheng as "an outstanding heroic figure in the history of China's peasant revolution for thousands of years." However, Chairman Mao was also good at drawing lessons from the failure of Li Zimin's peasant uprising, which in 1944 marked the 300th anniversary of Li Zicheng's leadership of the peasant uprising. Guo Moruo published the "Three Hundred Years of Jiashen Festival" in Chongqing's "Xinhua Daily," and Chairman Mao repeatedly gave instructions to make this article one of the documents of the CCP's rectification. When the CPC Central Committee left Xibaipo and headed for Beijing, Chairman Mao likened this historic departure to "entering Beijing to catch up with the examination." He excitedly told other central leaders: "Today is the day to enter Beijing to 'catch up with the examination', and to enter Beijing to 'catch up with the examination'." Zhou Enlai then said: "We should all pass the exam and not return." Chairman Mao said: "If you return, you will fail." We should never be Li Zicheng, we all hope to get a good result in the test! ”
Jiang Xiaotian's words made Yao Xueyan take a reassuring pill. Therefore, one day in October 1975, Yao Xueyan wrote a letter to Chairman Mao with a pen and paper, claiming that he was the author of "Li Zicheng" and recalling the past when he submitted the book and received the chairman's attention to remember Chairman Mao's memory. Then talk about his writing plans and plead for help.
The letter reads: "Dear Chairman Mao! In addition to writing "Li Zicheng", I also had a plan to write about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and I also made some necessary preparations, but now in the blink of an eye, I am more than 60 years old, and my health is not very good, and "Li Zicheng" is not half complete. I hope to get your support again, so that I can complete "Li Zicheng" relatively smoothly, and strive to write a novel "The Tragedy of Tianjing" after the age of 75. In order to exert more and more strength for the party's literary cause, to occupy the literary position of the corner of historical themes for the benefit of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and to fill the blanks in the long historical novels since the May Fourth New Literary Movement, I will continue to strive for it until my life is over. Even if I fail to complete my writing plan in the end, I will not lose my ambition as a writer of Chairman Mao's time, and I will not turn my spirit into cold ashes at any time. However, I am confident that the President will support my work. He also told Chairman Mao that "the more Li Zicheng reflects the broader the social life, the more profound and complex the class struggle becomes."
At the end of the letter, he also attached an old style poem: Kan XiaoWen tong left hate, shame will vaporize cold ashes. Gaze at the spring tide, and write the autumn wind. May the clouds and clouds race, and the cup of wine will linger. Lu Yang was still struggling at night, and abandoning his staff into a forest was also magnificent. Yao Xueyu hesitated for a long time, worried that such a letter would be difficult to send to Chairman Mao, and if it fell into the hands of others, it would cause great trouble, and he would have to be exiled without going to prison. Therefore, Yao Xueyan first reported to song Yiping, an old leader he knew well in Wuhan and had served as secretary of the Wuhan Municipal Party Committee. Song Yiping was enthusiastic about dredging for him and talked to Hu Qiaomu about the matter, and Hu Qiaomu said that he could send the letter to Chairman Mao.
On October 19, 1975, Yao Xueyu sent a letter to Chairman Mao to Song Yiping. After several turns, on October 23, 1975, Hu Qiaomu transmitted Yao Xueyu's letter to Chairman Mao, which led to Chairman Mao's instructions at the beginning of this article.
The handwriting is written in pencil and has three horizontal lines. It was written less than a year after Chairman Mao's death. If you don't look at it with your heart, it is difficult to understand Chairman Mao's meaning. This is the most heartbreaking inkblot in Chairman Mao's calligraphy in his later years. The strokes are chaotic and disorderly, and the words are almost out of shape. It can be known that Chairman Mao was seriously ill at that time, but he was still concerned about the creation of a writer.
Under the arrangements of relevant parties, Yao Xueyan came to Beijing, eliminated interference, and continued to engage in the creation of "Li Zicheng". Yao Xueyu said: "Chairman Mao's timely instructions to protect me, especially for me to finish writing Li Zicheng, was a very small thing in his life, but in my life, it was a big thing. It is also a major event in the history of contemporary Chinese literature. I finally came to Beijing from Wuhan in late December 1975 to work on Li Zicheng. Chairman Mao has repeatedly protected and supported me, and I am very grateful. Without its protection and support, there would be no Li Zicheng."
In such a historical era, Chairman Mao twice instructed yao Xueyu to be protected and let him engage in the creation of "Li Zicheng", which is unique in the contemporary Chinese literary world, which shows that Chairman Mao greatly appreciates Yao Xueyu's creative ideas and the main content of "Li Zicheng".
However, unfortunately, neither Chairman Mao nor Yao Xueyu himself waited for "Li Zicheng" to be completed and left this world. The third volume of Li Zicheng was published in 1981, and it took 18 more cold summers until early 1999 that the fourth and fifth volumes of the book were finalized, and it was only then that the 3.2 million-word imperial masterpiece was finally completed. On April 29, 1999, when the last two volumes of "Li Zicheng" were about to be completed, Yao Xueyu drove to Hexi at the age of 89.