Introduction to Zhang Tianyi, a famous modern Chinese writer

Zhang Tianyi (26 September 1906 – 28 April 1985), courtesy name Zhang Yuanding (张元定), courtesy name HanDi (汉弟), courtesy name Zhang Tianjing (张天清) and Tie Chihan (Tie Chihan), was a modern Chinese writer. Born in Nanjing, he completed primary and junior high school in Hangzhou, went to Beijing in the fall of 1925 and was admitted to Peking University the following year. In 1929, he officially began his professional writing career, joined the Left League in 1931, and after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, he has been engaged in anti-Japanese rescue work and literary and artistic activities in Changsha and other places.

After liberation, he successively served as deputy director of the Central Literary Training Institute, member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association, and editor-in-chief of People's Literature. Representative works include fairy tales "Da Lin and Xiao Lin", "The Secret of the Treasure Gourd", "The Bald King", the novel "Mr. Warwick", "Ghost Soil Diary" and so on. His fairy tales occupy an important place in the history of children's literature.

Zhang Tianyi was born in Nanjing in 1906. In the 11th year of the Republic of China, he co-founded small literary and art journals with his classmates Dai Wangshu, Du Heng and Shi Jingcun, and published works in "Saturday", "Law Month", "Week" and other journals. In the autumn of the 13th year of the Republic of China, he was admitted to the Shanghai Art College for one year; the following summer, he was admitted to the preparatory department of Peking University, and still read literary and art books and engaged in writing extensively after class. In the 16th year of the Republic of China, he joined the Communist Party of China, and in order to experience the social life of the lower classes, Xia Resolutely dropped out of school and served as a small clerk in Shanghai, Ningbo and other places, working as a tutor, accountant, reporter, office clerk, clerk, etc., in preparation for the pain of dismissal and unemployment. In the 18th year of the Republic of China, he corresponded with Lu Xun. In the 20th year of the Republic of China, he joined the Chinese Left-Wing Writers' Union and actively engaged in revolutionary literary and artistic creation and other revolutionary activities.

Engaged in anti-Japanese propaganda work

In the winter of the 26th year of the Republic of China, he engaged in anti-Japanese propaganda work, frequently went to the Tao Gong School and other places to give lectures, and donated money to support the anti-Japanese resistance with the characters, and wrote short stories such as "The Work of Mr. Tan Jiu" here. In the following year, he taught at Hunan Guoguo College. In the 28th year of the Republic of China, he served as the deputy editor of the observation daily newspaper of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee of the Communist Party of China. In the 33rd year of the Republic of China, due to illness, he returned to Xiangxiang to recuperate, and at the end of the year, he took his illness to work in the Chongqing "Cultural Association" Federation, and his illness was repeated and uncertain after that. In the 37th year of the Republic of China, after going to Shanghai, his illness turned critical and he was escorted by the organization to The Mirror Lake Hospital in Macao for treatment. In May 1950, he recovered and went to Beijing.

In 1951, he served as deputy director of the Central Institute of Literature, director of the Chinese Writers Association, editorial board member and editor-in-chief of People's Literature, member of the CPC Party Committee and secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, participated in the 24th National Congress of Literary and Art Workers, was elected as a member of the presidium, served as a deputy to the First to Third National People's Congress, and was a member of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Award-winning record edited voice

"The Story of Luo Wenying" won the first prize of the National Children's Literary and Art Works in 1954; "The Bald King" and "Da Lin and Xiaolin" were hailed as the second milestone in the history of Chinese fairy tales after Ye Shengtao's "Scarecrow"; "The Secret of the Treasure Gourd" and Yan Wenjing's "Next Ship" Port" are two important achievements in China's fairy tale creation since the founding of the People's Republic of China. In recognition of his contributions to the cause of children's literature in China, zhang Tianyi was awarded the honorary award for the second national children's literary and artistic creation award.

From Emptiness to Fulfillment (short story collection), 1931, modern

Diary of a Ghost Land (novel), 1931, Shanghai Noon Bookstore

Little Peter (short story collection), 1931, Shanghai Chunguang Bookstore

Gear (novel) signed by Iron Pond Han, 1932, Lake Breeze

One Year (novel) 1933, Good Friend

The Bee (short story collection) 1933, modern

The Back and the Tits (short story), 1933, good friend

Obayashi and Kobayashi (fairy tale) 1933, modern

Counter-Offensive (short story collection) 1934, Life

"Migration" (short story collection) 1934, Liangyou "Reunion" (short story collection) 1935, Wensheng

"The Collection of People" (a collection of novels and screenplays), 1936, Good Friend

Qingming Season (novella), 1936, Shanghai Literature Publishing House

"Wan Ling Yue" (short story collection) 1936, Business

The Bald King (fairy tale), 1936, Vincent

"Yang Qixia" (novel) 1936, Shanghai New Bell Bookstore

Chase (collection of short stories) 1936, enlightened

Spring Breeze (short story collection), 1936, Vincent

Strange Places (novella) 1937, Vincent

In the City (novel) 1937, Good Friend

Fellow Countrymen (short story collection) 1939, Vincent

On Character Description (Theory), 1942, Writer's Book House

Three Sketches (short story collection), 1943, Wensheng; Revised Edition, 1963, Humanities

Zhang Tianyi Anthology, 1951, enlightened

The Story of Luo Wenying (short story collection) 1952, Zhongqing

"Rong Sheng at Home" (script) 1953, Young

The Great Bad Wolf (screenplay) 1954, Young And Middle-Aged

Brainless Tales (Fairy Tales), 1956, Children

The Secret of the Treasure Gourd (Fairy Tale), 1958, Children

Literary Miscellaneous Review (Review), 1958, writer

To the Children (a collection of novels and screenplays), 1959, Humanities

Go to the Movies (novel), 1960, Literary Reform Publishing House

"Selected Novels of Zhang Tianyi" 1979, "Selected Works of Zhang Tianyi" (a collection of novels, fairy tales and plays) 1980, children

The Golden Duck Empire (fairy tale), 1980, the people of Hunan

Zhang Tianyi's Selected Short Stories (Vol. 1 and 2), 1981, Culture and Art

Selected Novels of Zhang Tianyi (Vol. 1 and 2), 1981, Hunan People

Selected Fairy Tales of Zhang Tianyi, 1981, Hunan People

Selected Works of Zhang Tianyi Children's Literature, 1981, Jilin People

Twenty-One and Others (Short Story Collection) 1981, Jiangxi People

Zhang Tianyi on Creation, 1982, Shanghai Literature and Art

Selected Works of Zhang Tianyi, 1983, People of Sichuan

Zhang Tianyi Literary Review Collection, 1984, Humanities

Zhang Tianyi's Collected Writings (volumes 1-7), 1985-1989, Shanghai Literature and Art (not yet out)

"Zhang Tianyi Fables", 1986, Anhui Children

Bao's Father and Son (short story collection), 1986, Hundred Flowers

Zhang Tianyi's Works (Fairy Tale Collection), 1987, Tomorrow Publishing House

Zhang Tianyi Research Materials (Shen Chengkuan, Huang Houxing, Wu Fuhui, eds.), 1982, Social Science

Zhang Tianyi Novel Manuscript (Du Yuanming), 1985, People of Ningxia

Zhang Tianyi (Shen Chengkuan, Zhang Daming, Wu Fuhui, Huang Houxing, eds.), 1987, Hunan Literature and Art

Bao's father and son

Author's name Zhang Tianyi

Artwork date December 1, 1986

Bao's Father and Son is a drama film produced by Beijing Film Studio, directed by Xie Tieli and starring Guan Zongxiang and Liu Changwei, released in 1983. The film is based on Zhang Tianyi's novel of the same name, telling the story of the old man who listened to the poor man and raised his son hard, but the son did not seek progress, and the hope of the old Bao Wangzi Jackie Chan was in vain.

To the kids

Worked in July 1980

The main content of "100 Classics of Chinese Children's Literature: For Children" is: Oh, Wang Bao is happy these days. Why? Because he has a magical treasure gourd! This treasure gourd can be conjured up in anything. Eat, play, use, everything. He can eat with his belly open and play with his temperament. He didn't even have to speak, just thinking about it, all his wishes were fulfilled. However, Wang Bao became more and more distressed and saw his classmates walking around,...

Golden Duck Empire

★ Children's literature by "master" writers in the history of modern Chinese literature. ★ A generation's unforgettable reading memories, often read often new must-read articles. ★ According to the old version of the Republic of China, the original illustrations are preserved, the original taste, and the nostalgic classics. The Golden Duck Empire is a long satirical fairy tale written by Zhang Tianyi before liberation, comparable to Orwell's Animal Farm, recognized as the most outstanding political fable of the twentieth century. "The Golden Duck Empire" and Zhang Tianyi's other three fairy tales (...

In a moment of life, the rich character history is seen through, the character lines are clear and not refuted, and the Dickensian refinement of the character's habitual actions and words is good, grasping the character's soul outline and its small characteristics, and writing out the big character.

(2) Pay attention to the flexibility and changeability of the narrative angle, take action and emotion as the internal basis of the narrative structure, dilute the storyline, rely on dramatic details and contradictions to structure the novel, and form a fragmentary and sketchy novel form with strong dramatic tension of the horizontal structure.

(3) The exaggerated style of the comic strip and the satirical art of revealing the intention.

(4) Fresh and flowing spoken language.

Three ironic themes of Zhang Tianyi's novels

1. Anti-hypocrisy. The first type of hypocrisy in his work is of the old landlords and bureaucrats who served as traditional apologists. For example, in "Back and Tits", the gentry chief lady wanted to flirt with Ren Sanjie, but was resisted, so he set up a name to publicly interrogate her in the ancestral incense ancestral hall, and then forced Ren Sanjie to serve him as collateral for his debts in the name of forcing debts. Ren San pretended to be obedient, took the opportunity to beat him up, and ran away overnight. Behind the elder grandfather's denunciation of "all evil and adultery is the head" is his despicable personality who relies on power to fulfill his lust. The novel uses pillars to describe dregs and exposes the hypocrisy of the morality of science. As far as satire literature is concerned, Zhang Tianyi formally grasped the character characteristics of these landlord squires who deceived the world and stole their names, and exposed the hypocrisy of their thoughts and the indecency of their behavior with satirical brushwork, making readers laugh contemptuously and harshly. At the same time, it also shows the author's class consciousness of love and hatred, and writes about the awakening and resistance of the oppressed. For example, in "Back and Tits", Ren Sanjie severely punished the eldest grandfather and flew away with her loved ones.

The second type of hypocrisy in his work is of the bureaucratic bourgeoisie on the modern political stage. The political satire novel "Mr. Warwick", written at the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, is his masterpiece. Mr. Warwick was a city bureaucrat who was mixed in the anti-Japanese cultural camp. He is powerful but unlearned, pretentiously goes outside to swindle and deceive, runs around in rickshaws every day, is busy attending various meetings, interfering in various affairs, and spares no effort to shout "to identify a leadership center" in an attempt to monopolize and manipulate mass organizations and activities. Through the shaping of such a "package but not done" and sinister bureaucratic image during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the work exposes the Kuomintang bureaucracy's behavior of interfering with and destroying the people's spontaneous anti-Japanese organizations and activities in the name of the War of Resistance, which had a wide social impact at that time. Moreover, the hypocritical image of Mr. Warwick on the modern political stage is also clearly representative, which in turn makes the satirical effect of the work break through the limitations of politics and the times and enter the level of cultural psychological irony.

Zhang Tianyi

Second, anti-vulgarity. For those small intellectuals, small civil servants and small citizens of humble status, Zhang Tianyi focused on showing their gray life and vulgar and sad, contradictory and ridiculous psychological state. They may be empty and bored, passing the day by drinking, hanging out, and talking about love, although they feel bitter, they are powerless to extricate themselves, and sometimes they are willing to degenerate. Jingye in "From Emptiness to Fulfillment", "Pig Intestine" in "The Sorrow of the Pig Intestine", and Sang Hua in "Migration" are all such characters. They may become inflamed and possessive, dreaming of promotion and getting rich, and end up in a state of sadness and despair. The humble Bai Muyi in "One Year", Li Yitai, who has been ostentatious and has an empty soul, Liang Meixuan, who has been loyal and peaceful all his life, and Lu Baotian, who is both a lackey and a cow and a horse in "Lu Baotian", are all the mental states of this small person, which makes people hate and despise vulgar life from laughter. The author has no shortage of bitter sympathy in satirical ridicule, which further shows the depth of satirical literary expression and flogging human nature.

3. Anti-feudalism. For the people who live at the bottom of society in the A-Q style, the satirical theme of Zhang Tianyi's novel is anti-vulgarity and anti-numbness, lamenting its misfortune and angering it for not "waking up". This reflects Zhang Tianyi's profound influence on Lu Xun. The old Bao in the short story "Bao's Father and Son" is a servant who obeys the orders of an errand boy in the large mansion, he is not willing to be in such a humble position forever, and he is old, and there is no hope of getting rich, so he pins his hope of "climbing up" on his son Bao Guowei. He tried everything he could to offer his son to the "Foreign School", because only after the "Foreign School" graduated could he get the opportunity to become an official and get rich, and Lao Bao could also realize his wish to be an old lady. However, Bao Guowei did not argue, not only did not have to study hard, but also fell into a rogue student, and finally was removed from the school, so Lao Bao fell into the embarrassing situation of chicken flying eggs. The thoughts and behaviors of the Bao father and son directly reflect the vulgarity of the small citizens at the bottom of society, and the disillusionment of their ideals is the inevitable fate of such humble figures. For Lao Bao, this is not only vulgar, but also the ignorance and numbness that aid and abetting abuse. "Bao's Father and Son" is a representative work of Zhang Tianyi's satirical novels, and it is also the best in modern Chinese satirical novels, which interweaves and imprints the contrary behavior of Bao's father and son, and the whole work is full of humorous irony full of sour, sweet and bitter life. Lao Bao is not only the image of a small citizen whose dreams have been shattered, but also a victim of feudal order and culture. The author's Lao Bao is extremely responsible, honest and loyal, and he is full of the inferiority of the chinese feudal patriarchal system and the intertwining of semi-colonial and semi-feudal social culture, showing distinct secular tragicomedy characteristics.

In short, Zhang Tianyi has created a colorful tragic and comedy world with his novels, with exceptionally rich connotations.

The Road to Growth Edit voice

During primary and secondary school

I have read a lot of Chinese and foreign literary works. In 1922 he wrote a comical and detective novel, publishing a short story called "New Poems" in Saturday magazine. After graduating from high school in 1924, he entered the Shanghai Academy of Fine Arts to study painting for one year. In 1926, he entered the preparatory department of Peking University because of his dissatisfaction with the curriculum he took and his family's poverty, and he dropped out of school the following year to work as a tutor, a small clerk, a journalist and an editor. In 1929, he published the short story "Three and a Half Days of Dreams".

Join the Chinese Left-Wing Writers' Union

In 1931, he joined the Chinese Left-Wing Writers' Union, participated in the work of its Literary and Art Popularization Research Society, and assisted in editing publications such as Cross Street. The production of creation is increasingly abundant, facing reality, and the content is full, bringing a fresh breath to the literary and art circles. At this time, he wrote short stories such as "From Emptiness to Fulfillment", "Little Peter", "Bee", "Counter-Attack", "Migration", "Reunion", "Wan Yu Yue", "Spring Breeze", "Chase" and other collections, and his novels are good at satire and humor. The most written is the vulgar and ridiculous life of small citizens and some intellectuals, in order to reveal the hypocrisy and ugliness of reality, and to attack the ills of deformed society, "Bao's Father and Son" is his masterpiece. During this period, he also wrote novels such as "Ghost Soil Diary", "Gear", "One Year", "Pidgin Strange Hero", "In the City", the novella "Qingming Season", the children's literature works include the long fairy tales "Da lin and Xiaolin", "The Bald King", the novella "Strange Place", etc., which are all about education in vivid and lively storytelling, and promote the development of Chinese children's literature.

After the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he participated in the initiation of the Shanghai Literary and Art Circles Salvation Association, and served as an editorial board member of the "Salvation Daily" and a director of the All-China Literary and Art Circles Anti-Enemy Association. His short story collection "Three Sketches" profoundly exposed the dark side of the anti-Japanese movement in the Kuomintang area, aroused the attention and discussion of the literary and art circles, had a wide social impact, and stopped the situation of "desperately turning backwards" in the Chinese literary circles at that time. Among them, "Mr. Warwick" is the masterpiece of his satirical novel. In 1942, due to lung disease, he recovered from illness in Chengdu, Shanghai, Hong Kong and other places, and quit writing for many years. The long fairy tale "The Golden Duck Empire" was also unfinished due to illness. In 1950, he went to Beijing; he served as deputy director of the Central Institute of Literature, member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association, chief editor of People's Literature, and editorial board member of Children's Literature. In addition to editing publications and cultivating young literary and artistic workers, he is also engaged in children's literature creation, publishing novels such as "Going to the Movie", "The Story of Luo Wenying" (won the first prize of the National Children's Literature and Art Creation in 1954), "They and Us", the fairy tale "The Story of the Brainless", "The Secret of the Treasure Gourd" [2], the script "Rong Sheng at Home", "The Big Bad Wolf", etc., and published them as "To the Children". The character portrayal is delicate, the imagination is rich, vivid and interesting, and the works are deeply loved by young readers for decades, and have made important contributions to the development of children's literature creation. Since the 1930s, Zhang Tianyi has also published many theoretical criticism articles with novel and original insights, publishing literary and art treatises such as "On Character Descriptions", "Literary Miscellaneous Reviews", "Zhang Tianyi Literary Criticism Collection", etc., and many of his works have been translated into a variety of foreign languages and published.

Zhang Tianyi returned to work after liberation, served as a member of the party group of the China Writers Association, and married Shen Chengkuan [3]. During the Cultural Revolution, he was tortured, and after the "Gang of Four" was crushed, he wanted to write again, but unfortunately fell ill, paralyzed and aphasia, and died in 1985.

The enlightenment given to us by Mr. Zhang Tianyi is to work hard and strive for the upstream, not only to make progress in academics and in thinking, but also to be positive and optimistic, not afraid of difficulties, strong and unyielding, and tenacious, which is the common point of a person's achievements.