Text/Yangcheng Evening News reporter Sun Lei
Photo/Courtesy of respondent
Not long ago, Zhang Xianghua, The Widow of Bai Yang, refused to select the excerpts from Bai Yang's book "The Ugly Chinese" into Taiwan's first-grade language textbooks, and formally declared to publishers on both sides of the strait: "Yi Bai Yang confessed before his death that he will now stop publishing "Ugly Chinese forever." ”
The Oriental Publishing House launched the book in the form of a hardcover edition for the first time in 20 years after the completion of the "Bai Yang Edition of the Chronicle of General Reference", and Bai Yang's work once again attracted attention. To this end, Zhang Xianghua accepted an exclusive interview with Yangcheng Evening News ——
In 2004, Bai Yang and Zhang Xianghua took a group photo
Every Chinese should have the roots of Chinese culture
Yangcheng Evening News: Bai Yang has written a lot in his lifetime, creating more than 170 works such as novels, essays, poems, reportage, historical works, etc. Is his time devoted to writing in his daily life? Will you help with housework?
Zhang Xianghua: Bai Lao really did not do housework, sometimes too busy, we will ask odd jobs to do. He is usually busy with business, but as long as he has inspiration, he must write articles. His time in prison made him cherish time.
Yangcheng Evening News: Historical works occupy a large part of his writings, so why is he obsessed with historical works?
Zhang Xianghua: One is interest, Bai Lao originally likes history, and the other is ten years in prison, he can't choose too much, he has to read the books in the library to pass the time.
Bai Yang was born in the 1920s, witnessed the ups and downs of China, and his own life was also very bumpy, which made him feel that the quality of the Chinese at that time needed to be improved, and the question he thought about the most was "why Chinese is what it is today", which must be answered from history. But the text was difficult to understand, and he felt that he had a responsibility to make more people understand.
People have the feeling of finding belonging, and history can provide us with that belonging. Every Chinese should have roots, no roots, no sense of belonging, light will doubt the meaning of life, in Taiwan, it will be brainwashed by "de-Sinicization" rhetoric, bringing greater trouble. Bai Yang chose the historical theme in the hope that modern people can know the ancient Chinese culture, think about the ancient Chinese culture, distinguish what is beautiful and what is not beautiful, and everything that is not beautiful should be abandoned and abolished, and then improve the quality.
"The End of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle of the Baiyang Edition"
Yangcheng Evening News: A major feature of Bai Yang's historical works is to inject historical views and commentaries into the clips, adding his own unique observations and commentaries, expressing his understanding and feelings as a modern person. In your opinion, what kind of perspective and historical view did he write history?
Zhang Xianghua: In Bai Yang's view, if human intelligence cannot break through the limitations of time and space, history cannot develop and progress. In every era, someone has to break through that era ideologically. Therefore, he chose to use the modern cultural background and the perspective of modern people to evaluate historical events. The values of modern people are democracy, rule of law and human rights, and The same is true of Bai Yang's perspective, he pays more attention to whether the people are happy in a certain historical period.
As for what historical outlook he adheres to, Bai Yang talked about this issue before he died, and he felt that what everyone should ask was whether his reasoning was rigorous, whether his conclusions were correct, and whether he had the wisdom of using soldiers, and it didn't matter what method he used, because he himself didn't know.
Dreams will dream of "Zizhi Tongjian"
Yangcheng Evening News: In 1983, Bai Yang, who began to translate the "Zizhi Tongjian", was sixty-four years old, and when the "Baiyang Vernacular Edition of Zizhi Tongjian" was completed in 10 million words, Bai Yang was already seventy-three years old, with white hair. Why did he use the vernacular translation of the Zizhi Tongjian at that time, and what did the completion of this book mean to him?
Zhang Xianghua: Because Bai Yang thinks that the Tongjian is a good book. However, the Zizhi Tongjian was written in ancient Chinese from 1,000 years ago, which is very jerky and difficult to understand, and few people are willing to spend time to read it, so they began to translate. The process was indeed very arduous, and he had to do the work of nearly ten million words alone. Since 1983, it has been translated for a total of ten years, during which time it has not been interrupted.
The End of the Chronicle of the General Chronicle of Bai Yang was not completed until 2001. When writing, Bai Yang would even sleep and dream at night to dream of "Zizhi Tongjian", and often suddenly woke up in the predicament of being puzzled. It can be said that among Bai Yang's works, the "Zizhi Tongjian" series has the longest writing time, the largest amount of engineering, the most hard work, and the strongest sense of achievement.
Yangcheng Evening News: In your opinion, what is his attitude toward traditional Chinese culture? Why criticize and at the same time devote a lifetime to sorting out for it?
Zhang Xianghua: In Bai Yang's view, China is one of the ancient civilizations in the world, with a long and rich history and culture, and whether human beings can rise and fall and cause disadvantages is closely related to whether Chinese history can create new ones. However, too long will also be problematic, the feudal system in China's history is too long, and our good people have lived a very hard life for thousands of years. Bai Yang writes history, which is an analysis and criticism of different angles of traditional history, in order to exercise himself to face the history of his country honestly.
Refused to select "The Ugly Chinese" as a Textbook in Taiwan
Yangcheng Evening News: You previously announced that "Ugly Chinese" will stop publishing in 2024. Is this Bo Yang's last wish?
Zhang Xianghua: The creation of a book has a specific background of the times. Bai Yang said before his death: "When China has progressed, then you can not read this book." "Chinese personality is gradually growing, with a healthy heart, mentally and physically, and will no longer deceive himself that he has no shortcomings, and no longer indulges in the closed, conservative, and unrealistic problems of the past. So today, we have new goals to pursue, and this book should be scrapped.
Yangcheng Evening News: "Ugly Chinese" stopped publishing, is it Chinese is no longer "ugly" or less "ugly"?
Zhang Xianghua: Bai Yang wrote "The Ugly Chinese", the spearhead directly refers to the official field in Taiwan at that time, reading this book, can not be separated from the background of the times at that time, must have a corresponding historical knowledge reserve.
"Ugly Chinese" was published in Taiwan in 1985, more than thirty years ago, the current Chinese civilization has made progress compared with thirty years ago, for example, other countries have not done so well in China's poverty alleviation work, and since the epidemic, China's prevention and control efforts and the degree of cooperation of the Chinese people, I am very moved... So, the book should stop being published now.
Yangcheng Evening News: Why did you refuse to select the excerpt of "Ugly Chinese" as a Chinese textbook for the first grade of middle schools in Taiwan?
Zhang Xianghua: Actually, since 2016, I have continued to receive similar invitations from education publishing houses, but they have refused. If Bai Yang were alive and saw that the young people in Taiwan were gradually being brainwashed by "de-Sinicization" and resisting cross-strait reunification, he would be very angry! Bai Yang said to me more than once: "The time of 'Taiwan independence' is the time of reunification." ”
In such an educational context, when young people in Taiwan know very little about Chinese culture, even if they read Bai Yang's articles, how can they understand the spirit of Bai Yang? It is bound to misread this book.
Yangcheng Evening News: Some people compare Bai Yang's essays with Lu Xun's essays, and some people think that Bai Yang is the "greatest essayist" after Lu Xun. How did he evaluate Lu Xun?
Zhang Xianghua: Elder Bai likes Lu Xun's novels very much, Lu Xun is a great writer, once in a speech, someone asked Elder Bai if he was better than Lu Xun, Elder Bai said: "I think I was born behind him, I am standing on Lu Xun's shoulders, of course, I will see farther." Elder Bai did not compare him with Lu Xun. I think Lu Xun and Bai Lao both care about society and have the same place. (For more news, please pay attention to Yangcheng Pie pai.ycwb.com)
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Editor-in-charge | Wu Xiaopan
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