Literary and Art Review 丨Pan Kaixiong commented on Qingshan's "All Realms": What is "Realm" in all circumstances?

The "realm", the realm, the situation, the situation, add the pronoun "everything" in front of this big or small noun, and the meaning is also big. Qingshan's newly published collection of essays is named after the three words "All Realms", and the content is imaginably wide. As the author himself puts it, "In All Things, the years of life after the writing and publication of The Valley of Shamo are recorded. Being at home alone and quiet makes people think more. There is also a comprehensive overall review and examination of itself." This means that the time involved in "All Realms" is roughly about three years, and as for space, it is both "thinking more" and "all-round" and "holistic", so it is well deserved to be named after "All Realms".

In any case, in the Chinese literary world, Qingshan, Baby Anne, or baby Anne, is a maverick objective existence: her creation began in 1998 on the Internet but quickly moved away, always traveling, thinking and writing as an individual freelancer; since the publication of her first collection of novels "Farewell to Vian" in January 2000, more than 20 works have been published so far, although the publication time is not completely balanced, but on average it is almost a new work per year, basically novels and prose creation alternate The subject matter of the work cannot be called wide, but the topics involved cannot be called narrow, especially the prose creation is more imaginative; for people to be quiet and low-key, for the aesthetic and elegant, the appearance of each new work will always stir up a lot of ripples, although it may not be considered a "hit", but it is definitely one of the few writers who can continue to sell well in every work... It is this series of maverick "tenacious" beings that make it difficult to ignore her, including this "All Things".

If we say that Qingshan's novels, whether long or short, although each has a different artistic presentation, there are still traces in general. And her prose creation, the early ones are still decent, one by one, but since the publication of the 2013 essay collection "Sleeping Void", she has simply not followed such basic rules. The whole book is only divided into four large sections, each occupying about 50 pages of space, each plate is divided by a number of asterisks, between the asterisk and the asterisk is a paragraph of text, more than five or six paragraphs, short only one paragraph, each paragraph is not more than a hundred words long, short is even less than 20 words, a typical "silk language style". Although this "All Realms" continues to continue this "whispering style", at least the scale of external freedom and ambiguity is greater. If the four plates in "Sleeping Void" are respectively titled with expressions such as "electric dew bubble shadow", "lotus pavilion listening to rain", "heart like autumn moon" and "people forget", we can generally guess the main purpose of the content of the plate to which they belong, then in "All Realms", the names of the four plates have become "as a magic", "the dawn is faint, very quiet", "simplicity and purity" and "the oil lamp in front of the Buddha", which are not without Zen and mysterious expressions, and it is impossible to guess the main content of the plate to which they belong. At best, it can only be concluded that it is mostly full of subjective ideas of the author.

Such a free and unbridled structure and style inevitably brings about a subversive question: although prose is characterized by "scattering", is it still prose? At first glance, this may seem like a problem indeed! Just thinking about it again, who stipulates that prose creation can only be done this way and not that way? It seems that I have never seen such "legislation", not to mention the saying that there is no law in the text. If reading such a text brings you not distraction, but a pleasant heart, then why not a happy thing?

According to Gyeongsan's self-description: "All Mirrors", although the appearance is fragmented, but "the inside is a continuous and continuous flow of heart, conveying memories, emotions, feelings and concepts that are extremely real to me", "the prose exposes itself at a glance". The author has such a master's own way, and reading his text again is indeed more or less consistent.

For example, when it comes to reading, there is a text in All Things: "Following the information in the diary, I bought several books by Thoreau, Rousseau, Punin, Dostoevsky, Hesse, and Tolstoy." Read it now, the time is just right. If you study in your twenties, it is possible that martial arts will be scrapped. Perhaps worried that the above text is incomprehensible, the author then specially added another small paragraph: "It's like learning to punch, first you don't know any theory, you can fight when you get started." After playing for a while, I carefully pondered the theory, understood it in my heart, and understood it very deeply. Don't let reading become a cognitive impairment, so that it affects the punch. "To be honest, the first paragraph doesn't match my personal perception and experience. I have always thought that a large number of classics can only be read when I am a student (no matter what kind of student), and reading after entering the workplace is largely led by occupations. Moreover, this is not only my personal experience, but also due to my predecessors. After reading Gyeongsan's second paragraph, I understood her previous statement that it is normal and correct to hold such a perception as a professional writer. The difference between me and Qingshan is difficult to say whether it is right or wrong, but it is only due to the different positions of each side. And I can also say with great confidence that my own statement may be more mainstream and correct, Qingshan may not be unaware of this, but still have the courage to express her chest, which is her frankness and disclosure, and it must condense her own thinking.

For example, when it comes to morality, Gyeongsan believes that "it is not monopoly, but not exploitation of others." But in some relationships between men and women, there is no joy to speak of. Exploiting money and flesh with each other"; speaking of maternal love, in Qingshan's view, "true maternal love is mixed with various emotions such as exhaustion, guilt, sadness, hardship, anger, loneliness"; when it comes to midlife crisis, Qingshan feels that "it is probably to find yourself slowly distanced from changing social values"; speaking of mystics, Qingshan bluntly says that this is "a person who is deeply limited in life and the material world and is willing to explore"... Such a minimalist language and intuitive expression in "All Realms" abounds, that is, Qingshan himself. A combing of past life is also a kind of presentation of the trajectory of exploration and growth along the way, just like a parade that puts one's heart under the sun, which is related to multiple dimensions of the two levels of material and spiritual. The attitude is concise and direct, the deep memory and the secret emotions are spontaneously revealed, and the intellectual component is wrapped in seemingly casual words and two words. Of course, the topics touched by "All Realms" are far more than the above four examples, but the basic appearance is more or less the same, which is also the most prominent and prominent common feature of this new prose work in content.

Another example is, "Camellias are blooming in the garden of the hometown." Bright red intricate petals, laid layer by layer. Open in this way, immersed in the dew and breathe softly", this is the description of the flower in the novel "Lotus" by Baby Anne"; "The orchid is a special flower, the wild orchid in the valley, the root whiskers are thick and long, and has a moving aroma", which is the introduction of orchids in "All Realms". Similarly writing flowers, compared with the two, the former text is obviously more aesthetic, and the latter is much simpler. This small difference may also give a glimpse of Gyeongsan's attitude towards the two stylistic languages of fiction and prose: the latter she pays more attention to fast and direct, simple and spontaneous, open-minded, and shared with others.

Before concluding this article, I would like to say a few digressions that are basically unrelated to "All Realms" but have a little to do with Qingshan. Her literary creations began on the Internet in 1998 at the end of the last century under the name of Baby Anne, and her own attitude towards this history is equally frank: "I left the Internet in 2000. Not interested in online literature, not concerned, has nothing to do with it. ”

It is true that Qingshan's stay in the territory of so-called "online literature" is very short, but short time does not mean that it does not exist. If the theory of "internet literature" is true (the objective fact now is that whether it is denied the same, the term "network literature" seems to have become a conclusive conclusion and has the potential to be a grand view), then Gyeongsan's "Baby Annie's Era" should be one of its originators in any case.

Of course, I highly agree with Qingshan's view that "there is no concept of a so-called online literary network writer at all." Literature has only a distinction between good works and bad works. "The so-called network is just a platform, a kind of communication channel, and it does not mean that the literature that appears on this platform or this channel can set up another portal in terms of standards." The Internet is neither an "enclave" of literature nor a "special zone" of literature. Although there is certainly a difference in the basic standards of literature, this does not mean that another set of standards can be set, let alone lowered standards. I used to imagine: if the literary works that were allowed to circulate on the Internet at the beginning were roughly the same as the artistic expression of Baby Anne at that time, would the term "online literature" still appear? Even if there was such a word, it would never swell to such a huge volume now. Literature is literature, "only the distinction between good works and bad works", relying on what medium to carry and disseminate is not theoretically important.

However, this theoretically unimportant issue has now become so important that it is even necessary to improve and reconstruct the evaluation system. This has indeed become an inexplicable and strange thing, and it is no wonder that the simple and frank Qingshan has to leave it alone.

Author: Pan Kaixiong

Editor: Fan Xin

Planner: Shao Ling

Editor-in-Charge: Huang Qizhe

*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.