The small lotus exposes the sharp corners

　In September 1964, the Institute of Literature was divided into two, and the original Western literary research institutes in the Institute, namely the Soviet Literature Room, the Eastern European Literature Room, the Oriental Literature Room, and the Editorial Department of World Literature, were separated from the Literary Research Institute and established a new Foreign Literature Research Institute, with the famous poet and German literary authority Mr. Feng Zhi as the director. He was transferred from his post as head of the Department of Spanish At Peking University. When I entered Peking University in 1953, Feng Zhi was the head of the department. Later, after graduating, I went to the Institute of Literature and participated in the compilation of liberal arts textbooks in colleges and universities, and during the period when I was concurrently serving as the leader of the writing team of liberal arts textbooks in colleges and universities, and was the direct leader of the writing team of "Introduction to Literature".

　　Personally, I am willing to be assigned to the Institute of Foreign Literature. As a graduate of the Department of Foreign Languages, during my time at the Institute of Literature, I have always been closer to and more able to mingle with researchers in foreign literary studies. In fact, the Literary and Art Theory Research Office and the Western Literature Research Office where I belonged for a long time belonged to the same branch, the Party organizations lived together, and the political study would be held together, and in such an environment, I felt very comfortable living, which was one of the reasons why I wanted to be assigned to the Foreign Literature Research Institute.

　　Of course, the more important reasons are business considerations and personal career prospect planning. Specifically, first of all, I feel that I am afraid that I am still a piece of material for the study of literary history, and my interest is focused on the study of literary history and writers' works, rather than theoretical generalization and system construction. My enthusiasm for the study of the history of Western literary criticism is far less than that of literary history, and I have read far more writers than theoretical works, which is my main consideration. Secondly, I am not without ambition in theoretical research, I also want to become an authoritative theoretical critic, but also want to become a theorist with my own theoretical system, but in my mind, a theoretician should have a rich and profound knowledge of literature and history, it is best to have a certain national literary history or the history of the broken era, and a little smaller is to have a special and in-depth study of a writer and a huge work. My intention is to study the history of literature for ten years, and then go back to the elaboration and construction of theory. Again, in addition to these main considerations, there are some trivial reasons, such as I like to watch movies, especially internal movies, but at that time, only those who were engaged in Western studies could get internal movie tickets for Western movies... All these reasons led me to decide to go to the Institute of Foreign Literature.

　　I entered the Institute of Foreign Literature, of course, to the Western Literature Research Office led by Bian Zhilin. At that time, Bian Zhilin had two assistants, one was a young "old cadre" Xia Sen from Yan'an, and the other was Yang Yaomin, who studied English literature. My teachers and elders were Li Jianwu, Pan Jiaxun, Yang Dai, Luo Dagang, and Luo Niansheng. Between the master brother and the little master uncle, there are Yuan Kejia, Zheng Min, Yang Yaomin and so on. Among my peers, who were slightly older or basically the same age as me, were Liu Ruoduan, Xu Yuxin, Dong Hengxun, Zhang Li and Zhu Hong. Slightly younger than me were Lü Tongliu, Zheng Klu, Zhang Yinglun, and later Chen Hongwen, Ning Ying, Wang Huansheng, and Zheng Tusheng. As soon as I entered the Western Literature Research Office, I was appointed as the administrative secretary of the office, assisting Bian Zhilin in doing some clerical chores. At this time, probably in July 1964, when the institute was leading the discussion on the policy of the foreign literature research institute, Zhou Yang made instructions, one of which was to ask for the compilation of the "History of European Literature in the Twentieth Century", and stressed that whether or not to write a literary history was a "major matter of life and death" for the institute. The matter, of course, was handed over to the Western Literature Research Office.

　　Bian Zhilin is a particularly personality director of the institute, and the way he leads the Western literature research department seems to be "doing nothing". The old seniors and experts in the Western Room each do their own projects that interest them, and these projects are unmoved. The collective tasks assigned by the leadership are generally completed by young people. This time it's still the old rule. Therefore, a young-people writing group was formed to undertake the task of compiling the "History of European Literature in the Twentieth Century". It is said that they are young people, but they also have a certain number of years of research experience, at least four or five years (such as Zhang Li, Lü Tongliu, Zheng Kelu, Zhang Yinglun, they were already small and famous talents at that time), generally there were eight or nine years (such as Zhu Hong, Dong Hengxun and me), and even some middle-aged people with considerable seniority also participated (such as Yuan Kejia, Zheng Min, Liu Ruoduan), all of whom were later almost all famous scholars in the field of Western studies. Of course, the commander was Bian Zhilin, and the leader also formally appointed an academic secretary as Mr. Bian's assistant to the writing team, and this academic secretary was me.

　　With the position of "academic secretary" pressing on my shoulders, I was deeply prepared to make a great achievement, and I wanted to make a great contribution as soon as I entered the Western Literature Research Office, and have an excellent start, as the basis for my climb to the level of associate researcher. Therefore, my "academic secretary" is very motivated and energetic. I took the initiative to propose a planning plan and humbly submitted it to Bian Zhilin as a "very immature suggestion" for him to review.

　　Academic organization is essential. The task of writing is to be completed within a certain period of time, and first of all, a more detailed outline of the whole book must be written, and from the experience gained by the writing team of "Introduction to Literature", I know that such a detailed outline is very important and is not easy to complete. Therefore, I first made a master plan, from large steps to small steps to specific progress and finally to the tasks implemented on each person's head. Of course, every step taken, every step deeper, I not only solicited the opinions of the members of the writing team, but also asked the leader to report, as long as he nodded, or did not hold a different opinion, I made specific arrangements. This is the work of academic organization, it is "technical activity", and it is very professional. Moreover, as an academic secretary, he himself was able to lead by example, at least to undertake the task of writing French literature in the 20th century. Thanks to my years in the theory room, after all, my professional direction in those years was the history of Western literary criticism, and I finally touched the development of Western literary thought, and I have read a lot of specific writers' works, and I am still relatively familiar with it, and finally carried out the work of "academic secretary". Although the researchers who participated in this work were all of a relatively young generation, which one was not a talent? Such as Dong Hengxun, Lü Tongliu, Zheng Klu, Zhang Yinglun, and even Yuan Kejia, who is half a generation higher than me, almost what I can call Uncle Shi... It was precisely by concentrating everyone's wisdom and knowledge that in just three or four months, a detailed outline of 50,000 or 60,000 words was completed, that is to say, as long as it was refined, elaborated, and developed, a 200,000- or 300,000-word "History of European Literature in the Twentieth Century" was in sight.

　　Three months is not a long time, and it is undoubtedly a rare thing to achieve such a stage of results, and it is an impressive achievement. To put it bluntly, I was very self-satisfied and full of ambition. Looking back now, it was also a "good performance" in my personal academic career. At that time, the leaders of the Institute of Foreign Literature were also satisfied with this achievement. The matter soon reached the leading organs of the Faculty, and the leaders of the Faculty believed that the preparation of the detailed outline of the History of European Literature in the Twentieth Century by the Western Literature Research Office in a relatively short period of time was a gratifying achievement in the collective writing work and provided a relatively successful experience for the collective writing work. Therefore, a special report meeting was organized across the faculty, and I was asked to do a special report to report on the process of writing and introduce the work experience of collective writing.

　　To be honest, at that time, I was indeed quite proud, and I felt that I had come to the Western Literature Research Office of the Institute of Foreign Literature to make the first shot, and took a down-to-earth step towards the senior title of associate researcher.

　　(This article is excerpted from one of the "Everyone's Elegant Things" series of the Social Science Literature Publishing House, "Liu Mingjiu - The Ferryman of French Literature", with deletions)

　　(Liu Mingjiu/Self-report Liu Yujie/Finishing)

Source: China Social Science Network - China Social Science Daily Author: Liu Mingjiu Liu Yujie