Xu Jian's long reportage "Tianxiao - 1921":
The founding poem of the party at dawn
Wen 丨 Hu Ping
On the occasion of the nationwide commemoration of the centenary of the founding of the Party, the Wanjuan Publishing Company solemnly launched the new book "Tianxiao - 1921" by writer Xu Jian. This is a long-form reportage that comprehensively and exhaustively describes the birth and founding process of the Communist Party of China, with solid materials, rich scenes, and many little-known details, which are of remarkable value.
"Dawn of Heaven – 1921" is first and foremost a work of party history. In the past, many experts have made research and research on this period of history, and this work is also based on the accumulation of past party history. The difference is that writers have the vision, discoveries, materials and narrations of writers, and from today's positions and perspectives, they can give new interpretations to historical phenomena. All this makes this work an interesting literary work that has penetrated the hearts of ordinary readers. Of course, the author's creation has also won the affirmation and praise of historians.
As can be seen from the footnotes in the book, the author has put a lot of effort into reviewing the relevant materials to complete this work. Among them, many documents and articles were scattered and scattered in the past, some of which were contradictory to each other, and after the author's careful investigation and discernment, they were integrated under major themes, the falsification and preservation of the truth were formed, forming a complete system, and glowing with extraordinary brilliance, while the author's several on-the-spot personal interviews opened a deep door to reproduce the original historical appearance and truth.
The founding of the Communist Party of China is one of the most important historical events in China's modern and contemporary history, and it is also the most important starting point for commemorating the century-long glory of the Communist Party of China. Regarding the historical recounting of the birth of the party, in the past, most of them focused on the "one big", but before the "big one", many places had established Communist Party branches; before the establishment of the branches, they had experienced a period of Marxist introduction and propaganda. This time, "Dawn of Heaven – 1921" depicts the stage of party founding, starting with the first light that appears at dawn, and more forcefully portrays the entire process of "nurturing" the founding of the Communist Party of China, in which Beijing, as the cultural center of the country and the birthplace of the "May Fourth" movement, became the center of gravity of the party's construction. These reinforced elements are important and provide a credible basis for today's understanding of the "original intention".
The review of the party's "first congress" and the experience of all the "great" deputies is the main content of the whole work. Since a hundred years have passed, some doubtful facts still need to be clarified repeatedly. Xu Jian is good at grasping the suspense left by history, laying out the narrative and making the work full of reading tension. For example, on the question of whether there were 12 or 13 delegates to the "First Congress", the account in the book is quite fascinating: at first, Chen Tanqiu and Dong Biwu both proved that the delegates attending the meeting were 13 people, and Later Li Da believed that there were 12 delegates, and the participants Bao Huisheng were not included, and the archives provided by the Soviet Union also recorded 12 people. However, after liberation, Bao Hui monk wrote two ten thousand words, stating himself as an official representative. Zhang Guotao agreed with the "12 people" and thought that one more person was why Shu Heng. Ishikawa Akihiro, a researcher on the history of the Japanese Communist Party, deduced that there was one more person, Chen Gongbo, and the truth can be described as confusing. Xu Jian divided the discussion in the midst of the controversy, believing that Bao Huisheng was only sent by Chen Duxiu to attend the meeting. Throughout his life, Bao Hui monk was "always an outsider." This is not only telling stories, but also telling the story of a magnificent and muddy era of the Great Revolution, the maturation process of the big waves and the separation and differentiation that a new political party will inevitably go through, and some individual experiences that need to constantly make life choices in the ups and downs of social tides. The work is a biography of all the participants and workers attending the conference, which is the first case in the history of the party. The 12 official delegates gathered at that time to reach a consensus that would determine the future of ancient China. After that, after a long period of practical struggle, the Chinese Communists represented by Mao Zedong finally realized their historical mission in an arduous struggle and announced the birth of new China on the tower of Tiananmen Square. In the meantime, some representatives also parted ways and embarked on different paths of return. With "representatives" as the clue and "people" as the clue, this work unfolds the chaotic and majestic century picture, gives play to the special advantages of literature, and brings many emotions to readers who are experiencing life.
The author's mature expression is also manifested in the fact that when he wrote about each participant in 1921, he would not standardize and unify like an academic article, but would choose the most vivid and evocative scene to enter according to the characteristics of each person. For example, Mao Zedong began with a newly declassified top-secret medical record that recorded the last 19 hours of Mao's life on behalf of the "Big One.". On September 8, 1976, with an infusion tube inserted in the upper and lower limbs, an ECG monitoring cable in the chest, and a nasogastric tube inserted in the nose, Mao Zedong read documents and read books 11 times, adding up to 2 hours and 50 minutes, an average of less than 16 minutes each time, and the last reading was carried out at 4:37 p.m., and he left in the early morning of the next day. This verse alone reveals the extraordinary life connotations of a generation of great men to be awe-inspiring. The description of Chen Gongbo begins with ink in the iron window. Chen Gongbo's calligraphy was good, and after the end of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he was escorted back to China and imprisoned in Nanjing Prison, and when he faced the death penalty, the warden and prison guards also asked him for "ink treasures" from time to time. And the case in front of him was actually the handwriting left by Chen Duxiu when he was in prison, and Chen Gongbo had come here to visit Chen Duxiu. Chen Gongbo smiled at tian tian after hearing this, and deeply sighed at the trickery of fate on him. Next, the author retraces Chen Gongbo's life, especially the experience of leaving the party and following Wang Jingwei's surrender, and finally returns to the front of the article, writing that he finally fell into ink, wrote the last banner, and expressed his last nostalgia for life. This kind of writing can be described as unique, which not only firmly grasps the reader, but also makes the buried meaning in the historical materials suddenly get a clear and open hair. In reportage writing, the same subject will show a very different face under the pen of different writers, and the difference is not in the material, but in what the writer sees in the material.
After reading the whole book, I recalled that although there are many characters involved in the book, most of them have outstanding personalities, recognizable faces, and are real and credible. To be able to do this, naturally due to the author's persistent pursuit. In the book, chen duxiu, Mao Zedong, Li Da, Zhang Guotao, Chen Gongbo, Liu Renjing, Zhou Fohai, Wang Huiwu, Bao Huisheng, Ma Lin and other people have particularly distinct images, which are related to the author's play. The personalities of Chen Duxiu and Ma Lin were almost exposed when they first met. As the secretary of the Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China, Chen Duxiu was maverick and wildly talented, but As a representative of the Communist International, Ma Lin was arrogant and had a contemptuous attitude toward the newly founded CCP. Several conditions, including the payment of salaries to the CCP staff by the Comintern, made Chen Duxiu furious, categorically refused, and broke up with Ma Lin. However, after Chen Duxiu was arrested, Ma Lin went all out to rescue him, spent a lot of money to invite famous lawyers to appear in court to defend, find bail, open up various joints in the trial, and assist Sun Yat-sen in finally getting Chen Duxiu out of prison. Since then, the two have abandoned their former suspicions, and although there are still conflicts in political opinions, they have maintained full cooperation, a process that the author has described with great sound. Xu Jian is convinced that only by writing the characters alive can the reportage works diverge from the charm they should have, and this work once again reflects his philosophy.
This work recounts people and events more than a hundred years ago, the parties and witnesses have been dead for many years, and the number of interviews with the author has not decreased at all. Xu Jian worked tirelessly from north to south to visit the former residences of 13 participants in the CPC's major party congress and traced their traces of life. But in fact, the historical facts that can be found by him himself are limited, and even the appearance of the deceased's hometown is no longer what it used to be, but the author is still walking with great interest, even if it is only to appreciate the natural environment in which the person concerned lived. This kind of dedication attitude is somewhat touching, practicing the "three no-write" rules that Xu Jian has set for himself, that is, not writing where he has not walked with his feet, not writing stories that he has not heard with his own ears, and not writing where he has not seen with his own eyes. However, he did not walk in vain, with his feet as a pen, so that this work is full of the atmosphere of the scene, emerging the soul of the deceased, and taking people back to that distant era. Moreover, there were places he went that did not arouse the concern of many people in the past. When Xu Jian arrived in Liu Renjing's hometown in Yingcheng, Hubei Province, the director of the Revolutionary Martyrs Memorial Hall who received him warmly introduced Dong Biwu, but knew nothing about Liu Renjing, who was also the founding father of the party. After Xu Jian found Zhu Musen, who was nearly eighty years old, Zhu Lao tightly held his hand and said excitedly that he was the second person to interview Liu Renjing in decades. Liu Renjing, who also served as an interpreter at the party's "First Congress," had an outstanding performance in the May Fourth Movement, and later did a lot of work for the party, and because she agreed with the Trotskyist views, she went its separate ways with the party. Thanks to Xu Jian's interviews and investigations, we now know that Liu Renjing was the last "big" representative to die, who has been living in Beijing since liberation and has not been in contact with Wang Huiwu, the most important witness of the "big one" living in the same city. Shortly after being appointed to the State Council in early 1987, he was accidentally hit by a bus on the street and died. In this character, it clearly embodies the tragic conflict between the fog of history and the fate of individuals, and provides another reference for people to fully understand a century-old party history. However, the deepest impression he left on people may be the scene when he was still sword qi Danxin at the age of eighty, crane hair and childlike face, carrying a sword every morning, and practicing sword in the playground of north normal university outside Xinjiekou. The taste of life contained in this scene is also slowly presented to us by Xu Jian.
Finally, it must be mentioned that Xu Jian's writing cannot be separated from his fiery affection for the party, and this feeling is not hypocritical, and it is naturally revealed in all the itineraries and pens, which has led to this masterpiece. Literature is a symbol of human emotion, and the success or failure of creation depends first and foremost on whether there is an infusion of true feelings.
Creative talk
Write a national reader of one of the ccp's major nationals
Wen 丨 Xu Jian
Xu Jian
Perhaps because Mao Gongrunzhi's figure covered our childhood, adolescence and youth, he is somewhat familiar with the grand narrative of the history of the CPC. Although some things have not been able to explore the historical truth due to the limitations of the times, with the rush of time, some memories have gradually blurred, and some readings have become as clear as yesterday. Therefore, when a publisher invited me to write a literary reading of the Party's "great" one, I was first stunned, then solemn, and finally gladly obeyed.
After agreeing to write this book, I made an additional request to the publisher, to read and walk, to visit the birthplaces, places of study, battles, heroic places, and even the burial places of the mutineers of the 13 conference attendees, to see places that others had not seen, to discover things that others had not discovered, and to activate the obstacles of unenlightenedness.
Enter the study, find out the shelves have long been dusted "My Memories", duck egg green three-volume cover, is the "Modern Historical Materials Compilation and Publication Agency" published, the time is November 1980, the internal reference book, the cost of work is only 1.25 yuan. I imagined that when I was 23 years old, working as an officer in the Political Department of the Southern Missile Base, I suddenly saw this book on the shelf of the Organization Department, and the author was actually Zhang Guotao, who was famous and famous. When I first got this book, more than 900,000 words, I lit the lamp and boiled oil, and read it for several nights. Surprised, I did not know why, I did not return the book, but "took" it for myself, took it from the base to Wuhan to study at the military academy, and then brought it back to the army, and then before being transferred to Beijing, I lost a lot of books, but this book was carried all the way. For 40 years, I have moved many times and have not been thrown away. When I re-published this book, it had been recommended as a must-read book for party history researchers by Mr. Yang Kuisong, who is known as the two contemporary Simas. In the darkness, it seems that they are waiting for a previous agreement, waiting for the book "Dawn - 1921".
Half a year of interviews, midsummer into Jingchu. Only Chu has material, Yu Si is sheng. Thirteen "big" attendees, five from Hubei and two from Hunan, accounted for half of the party representatives, which shows that the skies of the two lakes at that time were brightly starred and the talents were listed. The first stop is Liu Renjing's hometown, living in the State Grid Training Center, next to the Yingcheng Revolution Memorial Hall. Putting down his bag, he talked to the curator, and he didn't know who Liu Renjing was. However, they told me vigorously that during the anti-Japanese era, Dong Biwu and Chen Geng trained progressive young people here to carry out guerrilla warfare. At the end, I recommended the vice chairman of the CPPCC surname Zhu, and the elderly saw me and marveled, 40 years later, you are the second person to interview Liu Renjing.
In fact, archaeological field walking confirms one of my creative creeds: do not write where you can't go, don't write what you can't see, and don't write stories when you can't hear. In fact, writing or not writing comes from the heart and conscience of a writer. In the hometown of Li Hanjun and Li Shucheng in Qianjiang City, the old house has long collapsed, the artemisia annua covers the wall, the weeds are lonely, and there is only one stele Wenle stone: Li Hanjun and Li Shucheng were born. When asked why the former residence was not built, the relevant personnel of the Party History Office told me that the neighbor's family was a nail household and was unwilling to give up the vegetable field and requisitioned a parking lot. I am quite puzzled, the Li family's eldest brother Book City in the Shanghai French Concession Wangzhi Road No. 106 house, but the Chinese Communist Party's maternity bed. It's a shame to think about.
In He Shuheng's hometown, facing the big mansion, I saw that he was once in that boat, taking xiucai and taking the name of merit, but when he realized that there was no hope and future, he resolutely broke with the old world, and then spent his whole life rushing to take the exam. When he was a teacher, he was an enlightened gentleman, known as the Four Masters of Ningxiang; later he went to a new school, was admitted to the Hunan First Normal School, and was a classmate of Mao Runzhi, who went out of Xiangxiang together to participate in the "One Big". In the early 1930s, he went to Moscow to study. When he first returned to Shanghai, he learned that his adopted son, the eldest son-in-law, Xia Zhibing, and the secretary of the party's Xiangdongnan Special Committee hung their heads at the changsha city gate and comforted their eldest daughter Shishan that the revolution was not a dinner party, but a sacrifice. After withdrawing to the Soviet zone, he became the minister of the Workers' and Peasants' Supervision Department of the Chinese Soviet Republic, the president of the Supreme Court, and the minister of internal affairs. He was regarded as a right-leaning opportunist by Wang Ming and his ilk and dismissed all his posts. Before the Long March, he was excluded from the list and stayed behind to fight guerrillas, with almost zero chances of surviving. Jiangxi Meikeng, a plate of peanut rice, a pot of old wine, he and his old friend Lin Boqu said goodbye, took off the sweaters woven by the sisters of Shishan and Shisi, and gave them to Lin Boqu, saying that the mountain is high and the road is far away and the water is cold, please take care of it. Sending comrades-in-arms, on the journey, when the sky breaks, it is a separation of life and death. His wife, Yuan Shao'e, watched her hometown for a lifetime, until liberation, and those who should have returned all came back, why didn't her husband return? At the time of death, his only wish was that life could not be the same day, and death could be the same cave, but when He Shuheng and Qu Qiubai broke through together, they were shot and killed by the White Army in the mountains, and the remains were difficult to find. I stood in front of The Tomb of Old Lady He and asked the firmament, when will the soul of Old Hero Heng return? There is also Elder Dong, during the Long March, the lover is not in the Long March list, the infatuated wife sent all the way, followed the team for three days, and when they arrived at Wuling, the husband and wife waved tears apart. The Five Ridges are majestic, and a pair of people who love each other have been in heaven and on earth ever since. After many years, Elder Dong recalled this, chanted a love poem forever, inscribed it, and suddenly the old tears flowed.
Just like that, from Shaoshan To Duxiu Peak. On the first night of arrival, there was light rain, the next day the wind was beautiful, and the morning light rose from Shaofeng. When visiting the bronze statue of Mao Gong, looking up at the sky, the blue is hada-like blue. Extremely far away from the mountains, the sun and the moon shine together, and the sky is auspicious. I have been to Shaoshan many times, revisited the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall that day, and then looked at the 72 patched pajamas, and instantly realized that a nightgown blocked the wind and rain of the people, and the sky was cold and warm. In the next ten days, I walked all the way from Shaoshan to Duxiu Peak, to He Shuheng's house, to the old residence of Zhou Fohai in Yuanling Woxi, and then from Huaihua to Chongqing by high-speed train, and into the last years of Chen Duxiu in the Jiangjin Stone Wall Courtyard. A small memorial, I actually watched quietly for three and a half hours. At that moment, the puzzle of Chen Duxiu in the juvenile fragment was completed, Chen Gong was talented and maverick, and his character was doomed to a tragic fate. Ten days later, walking to Duxiu Peak, the autumn rain suddenly stopped, the sunset Cangshan, Zhongfu Gong did not go far. Wandering around Duxiu Garden, I couldn't help but sigh: The people of Anqing treated their son Chen Duxiu kindly and buried him with grand specifications.
Go to the end of the water. After returning to Beijing at the end of the interview, I had just written for less than a month, and when the new crown pneumonia epidemic began, I was on the bench for five and a half months, writing every day from 7 o'clock in the morning to midnight. By early April, my immunity had declined, I suffered from shingles, and I was in pain for a month, and my relatives and friends from all over the world sent me medicine to relieve my little sickness. When the 310,000-word "Dawn - 1921" came to an end, he wept with joy. In the instant of the ten-day meeting, he wrote about the vicissitudes of the past century and followed the 13 party deputies to walk alone behind him, such as experiencing a journey through purgatory. Push open the window, when the spring is bright, the birds are chirping, the iron fence roses are flourishing, and life is quiet and beautiful. In the distant sky, Nan Chen Bei Li and 13 "big" participants came to me, youth and dreams, original intentions and beliefs, loyalty and betrayal, sacrifice and dignity, magnificence and sinking, all returned to their souls and jumped on the paper.
The word "Tianxiao" is taken from the meaning of Zhuangzi's "Heaven and Earth" chapter "In the Darkness, Seeing Xiao Yan Alone", Mozi's new book with ink fragrance wafting, thinking of Dong Biwu and his wife returning to Jiaxing on the Qingming Festival in 1964, sitting on the painting boat, climbing the huxin island, standing in the smoke and rain building, and inscribing "The beginning is also simple, and the bi is also ju". It is still spoken by Zhuangzi.
On May 15, 2020, the manuscript was sent away, and a red journey came to an end, which made me regretless in this life. The second tribal curtain of the Prime-Age Transformation Trilogy is like a victorious soldier who has won a battle, returning the token and waiting for the next expedition. Thanks to Mr. Liu Kexing, Wang Yuewen, Ji Hongjian, Wang Lijun, Han Shengxue, Xiang Xiantao, and Mr. Li Yinde, who helped each other in the walking interview, for their generosity and assistance, they provided many orphan books out of print.