Bear witness to the earth
Fan Wen
As always, my writing always starts on earth. If I don't go through a certain region and a certain ethnic group that I want to write about several times, if I don't live in the village for some time, and drink enough of the baogu wine of my fellow villagers, I can't write. In the summer of 2020, as soon as the COVID-19 epidemic was under control, I went to Wenshan Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan Province to collect wind. In fact, in January of the year before the new crown, I had already gone to Wenshan to interview, and I had planned to go back after the end of the year, but I didn't expect to be affected by the epidemic until June. The trip to Zhuangxiang made me very interested in rice culture, and I ate most of the rice for most of my life, and I still don't know how a rice plant grows. I can only imagine in the wind: spring returns to the earth, the cuckoos begin to sing, the romance of the farmer driving the cattle to plough the field, the expectation when soaking the grain, the careful sowing, the blessing when planting, the song when planting, the hard work when the seedlings are planted, the sweet fragrance when the rice blossoms, the prayer when the ears are drawn, the joy when harvesting... Of course, I know this is idyllic petty bourgeois feeling. True rural life also needs to discover the sense of scene and texture of exploring the subtleties and going to the heart.
At that time I wanted to plant a field. I want to worship a master farmer as a teacher, "Kuwano will cultivate the father, and the lotus hoe will follow the shepherd boy." It starts with driving cattle into the field, three ploughs and three rakes, and then selecting and breeding seeds, sowing grain into seedlings, and then the rice aroma comes and harvests into the warehouse. I have to perform such a perfect and great process to qualify for "a good year in the rice flower township."
In fact, we are all planting a field of our own. Creating a novel is no different from planting a field. When I set my sights on the hot land of southern Xinjiang, I had a hunch that there was "a field" that I was willing to cultivate. I need to choose seedlings, cultivate intensively, connect to the ground, absorb nutrients, walk in the field, and find them on the ground. I used to work in the geology department for a while, and in the past, the geological team members generally used a combination of census and detailed investigation to find minerals. The census is to follow the longitude and latitude lines indicated on the geological map, roam on the land, climb over the mountains, cross the river in the face of water, and when some areas with better mineralization conditions are found, then enter the stage of detailed investigation, dig trenches, drill holes, drilling rigs, until the mineral reserves are clear. Whether it is farming or prospecting for minerals, there are not only laws to follow, but also to connect with the earth's qi and practice what they preach, and the same is true for literary creation.
Over the years I have developed the habit of writing a new novel at length, the first step is to do a lot of fieldwork, at least half a year to a year. The treasures of literature are on the earth, and they are also deep in the earth. I am fortunate that I live and work in a multi-ethnic province of Yunnan, and the 25 ethnic minorities have their own unique history, culture and ecosystem, and all have their own creation epics, religious civilizations, heroic figures, survival wisdom and love stories. The creatures that grow on earth and the people it nurtures have always been irreplaceable teachers for a writer. In front of this teacher, you are a student who will never graduate.
Yunnan Wenshan Zhuang Autonomous Prefecture is located in the southern borderlands, guarding the southwest gate of the country, more than 40 years ago it was still full of wars and heroes. It was not until the mid-1990s that it was fully opened to the public. Therefore, it is one of the regions with the widest and deepest poverty in Yunnan. After the battle against poverty began, the people of the frontier land declared war on poverty without hesitation. This is not inferior in any way to the war that defended the frontier. Generations of people have never lacked patriotic enthusiasm, and they are a group of people with the strongest feelings of home and country. They should not be poor and should not be forever behind the times. When the frontier is rich, the border defense will be stable. A road, an industry, and the introduction of an agricultural technology can make a village throw off the hat of poverty. I visited dozens of border villages, witnessed the great changes in remote mountain villages, and met many leaders who got rid of poverty and became rich. Some of them are the former models and combat heroes of that year. In Luojiaping Village, Maguan County, Xiong Guangbin, director of the village committee, is an old former branch and militiaman who has experienced hundreds of battles. In order to cover his comrades in a battle, he once operated an anti-aircraft machine gun for more than half an hour, and his ears were shocked and bloodied. At that time, he guarded the checkpoint on the position, and at night when he didn't sleep, he ate dried peppers, and in half a year, he ate more than a hundred pounds of dried peppers. Who would have thought that our years of peace would have something to do with these dried peppers? Now Xiong Guangbin has led the whole village to get rich, and every household in the village has a new house, a smooth cement road, an honor room, and a villagers' activity room. Flowers bloom on both sides of the road, fruits are dotted with branches, cottages are hidden in the shade, and even cooking smoke exudes a sense of tranquility and tranquility. Who could have imagined that this was once the frontier front?
It is an honor to be in the great battle against poverty. We are witnesses and recorders. For a writer, how to present it is particularly important. There are millions of stories of poverty, and there may be only a few roads to riches. I saw the importance of a road to an isolated village, and I saw a change in perceptions of a group of people. Especially in the border areas of ethnic minorities, prying the mountain of poverty may only need a fulcrum.
In the past, I thought I lacked a grasp of reality, but the sense of history seemed to be innate. However, in this era of great changes that have not occurred in a hundred years, society is progressing, the times are changing, and concepts are being refreshed. This is also a part of the historical process, a stage, which also requires us to perceive and understand, and to truly reflect it in literary means. The vicissitudes of the sea into mulberry fields are no longer the concept of time flies and the past is more than a thousand years in the minds of the ancients. In villages that a few years ago you had to ride into, you can now drive to the entrance of the village with a foot of the accelerator; the fashionable and fashionable young people in the villages can no longer tell whether they are farmers or urban office workers. The change is real, just between "turns".
As far as the changes in the fate of the characters brought about by the "turn", I pay more attention to the history before the characters "turn". The writer Wang Anyi said that a long story is to write about the fate of people. No one's fate is similar, and no one's fate can be summed up in a word. Of course, I appreciate the fate of those legendary, heroic figures. Just like the protagonist of my work, Zhuo Shimin. I once interviewed an old police officer with a special identity and became friends with him. For many years his name on the payroll was just a code name (impropriety I'm sorry to say his name here). He is a legend of the times of peace, an unsung hero who silently guards peace for all of us. I asked Zhuo Shimin, a veteran with experience in the war, to use the detection of an abduction case to go into the remote countryside and go to the main battlefield of poverty alleviation, just like taking my vision to pay attention to this great war declaring war on poverty. Like the other characters in the work, he also wants to complete his magnificent turn again in the continuation of the legend of life. I believe that some people live to interpret legends. This keeps writers like us from being too lonely.
This is my seventh novel since the beginning of the new century. It's also a transformational work of mine (allow me to make a "turnaround"). In the past, I was more devoted to historical narratives, taking national culture and history as the objects of my study and expression, Tibetans, Naxis, Yi, Hani, etc. For a writer, the cultures of all ethnic groups are our writing strengths and inexhaustible resources. Although I am not a minority, and I have different bloodlines with them, speak different languages, and have a sense of cultural estrangement and strangeness, there are many difficulties and obstacles to overcome to enter these ethnic minorities. This time I turned my attention to the present, to the Zhuang people. I know it's a huge challenge. I regard the Zhuang people and their culture as a new course, and to be precise, writing this book has taught me a lesson in my life. As I walked on the border of the southern country, I relived the fiery and pure 1980s, when the cannon was booming here, and I was a young man who had just graduated from college and came to the frontier of Yunnan, and we often went to comfort the "loveliest people" of the new era who came down from the battlefield, and their sense of glory and pride in fighting for the country made me unforgettable. I also re-recognized concepts such as frontiers, nationalities, national gates, and borders that are not just in the sense of human geography, but also promote people's sense of national identity, national dignity, and pride as a Chinese. Although the national border is invisible, it is as heavy as a thousand in the minds of every frontier. Before the battle against poverty began, many villages were below the extreme poverty line, with a per capita annual income of less than 1,000 yuan, and even building a cement road seemed luxurious. However, it is these borderland people who have silently assumed the responsibility of fighting the border for many years. They should not be poor, and the villages on the border should not be poor. Every village entrance, every village road, is where the national gate is located. When the frontier is lifted out of poverty, the border is secured; when the border is secured, the country is at peace.
I have benefited greatly from the style and experience of life in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao Autonomous Prefecture. This is the enlightenment of the social reality of this big era for me. The sun is still the sun, and the people on the ground have followed the footsteps of the times and turned around gorgeously. I am pleased with those who have completed the turn of fate in real life. Of course, including the protagonist of my work, Zhuo Shimin, who used to be an iron-blooded policeman who was in the limelight, was a community resident after retirement, stepped forward when others were in difficulty, turned around and was still an iron-boned hero, with his own life and blood, to dedicate his own strength to fairness and justice and to poverty alleviation. In this great era of great changes that have not occurred in a hundred years, everyone is trying to keep up with the pace of the times, and is more or less changing their identity, pursuing civilization, pursuing progress, pursuing prosperity, and pursuing a high-quality lifestyle.
Thanks to the "Selected Novels" for its love for my work, in this era of flowers, it is my honor and encouragement for a work to win the favor of many novels. I would also like to thank the Wenshan Prefecture Party Committee and the Prefecture Government and the Prefecture Federation of Literature and Literature for their support and help to me in the front line of life, and to my good brother Zhang Bangxing, a good brother of the Zhuang ethnic group, who is the leader of my study of Zhuang culture. In particular, I would like to thank the People's Literature Publishing House and the Magazine of "Contemporary" for their great encouragement and support from the beginning of the selection of the topic. When the first draft came out, the Humanities Society specially invited experts and scholars Pan Kaixiong, Shi Zhanjun, He Shaojun, Ying Hong and others to review it. At the review and revision meeting, they put forward very valuable and professional revision suggestions, which benefited me a lot from the subsequent revisions. We would like to express our sincere thanks to you together!
A native of Sichuan, he graduated from the Department of Chinese of Southwest University in 1985 and went to work in Yunnan in the same year. He has worked as a geological team member and cultural and press officer, and now works for the Yunnan Writers Association. He is a national first-class writer, the chairman of the Yunnan Writers Association, and the vice chairman of the Yunnan Provincial Federation of Literature and Literature. He is a member of the Jiusan Society. He is a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a member of the 12th Yunnan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political He began publishing literary works in 1986 and has published about 7 million words of various literary works. Mainly based on the creation of novels, representative works include the "Tibet Trilogy" that reflects the history of Tibet for a hundred years - "Water Milk Earth", "Compassion for the Earth", "Earth Song", and "My Blood and My Land" and "Eyes of Chongqing", which reflect the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. He has won many important awards for domestic literature such as the People's Literature Biennial Award, the Contemporary Literature Award, the October Literature Award, and the 2017 Chinese Good Book, and "Water Milk Land" has been selected as the "New China 70 Years 70 Novel Collection". Many of his works have been translated into English, French, German and Italian.
Editor: Chen Ming
Second instance: Li Chengqiang
Third trial: Song Song