The famous writer Zhang Jie died of illness in the United States on January 21, 2022.
Zhang Jie is an important representative writer of Chinese literature in the new period, and his works such as "Heavy Wings", "No Words", "Love, Cannot Be Forgotten", "Emerald", "Child from the Forest" and so on have a wide influence. He has won the second and sixth Mao Dun Literature Awards, and has won the National Outstanding Novella Award and the National Outstanding Short Story Award for many times. Some of his works have been translated into many languages and have won the Order of the Italian Knights and the German, Austrian, Dutch and other multi-national literary awards.
Zhang Jie's novel "No Words" was published by Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House in 2002 and won the 6th Mao Dun Literature Award in 2005. The novel is divided into three parts, counting more than 800,000 words. The novel began in 1989, was torn down in 1994, and polished over and over again after 1998. It took 12 years to complete.
"I think the real writing started with Wordless, and all the writing that was done before was done in preparation for it."
"I hope that readers who love literature will understand me."
"Our book must not affect anyone, but I believe there are still a few readers who can understand me." This is enough, how many confidants are there in life? ”
Han Jingqun, editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, recalled: "'Wordless' won the second Lao She Literature Award, and in her acceptance speech, Zhang Jie once said that "Wordless" has two mothers, one is herself, and the other is Sui Lijun, the responsible editor of Wordless. ”
"After reading "No Words", I also understood Zhang Jie." Sui Lijun said.
Such cooperation is a great blessing for writers, editors, and publishers.
October Literature and Art has the privilege of having a relationship with such an outstanding and responsible writer and such a magnificent and vast literature.
Today, the writer is gone, but the literature is still there. Hereby excerpt sui Lijun's editor's note on "No Words", perhaps reading is the best memorial to a writer.
Zhang Jie once wrote a simple wish in the article: "People often lament that the flower cannot stay for a long time, and in memory it will never wither." For everything in the past, I would like to remember only the good and forget the bad. When I die, everything I have loved will be as fresh as it was when I had never left me. ”
Deeply mourn teacher Zhang Jie! Love cannot be forgotten, and Teacher Zhang Jie's works and demeanor have long existed in the hearts of her readers.
Wordless: The Writing of Life
Text | Sui Lijun
It was as if it were a war, and after another three months of busyness, the third part was finally printed today, following the first and second parts of "No Words". As the editor in charge of this book, I can finally free my hands to write something. For several months, every day full of "No Words", full of zhang Jie, and at this time, in the past two years, for this book manuscript and Zhang Jie's repeated exchanges and talks, I can't help but flash back in front of my eyes one by one. What kind of work is Wordless? What kind of writer is Zhang Jie? After tossing this masterpiece for at least five or six years, I couldn't help but ask myself. Come to think of it, it's really hard to say.
Zhang Jie, who is well-known in the literary world for his novel masterpieces such as "Love, Cannot Be Forgotten" and "Heavy Wings", spent twelve years writing "No Word".
The novel "No Word", with the life experience of female writer Wu Wei as the main line, tells the marriage story of her and her family of several generations of women, depicts the ups and downs of various people in the great social turmoil and the great changes, shows the era in China in the past hundred years, and makes a unique record and examination of China in the twentieth century, writing a whole era. The novel is divided into three parts, counting more than 800,000 words. In 1998, the first part was published by the Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, and zhang Jie revised tens of thousands of words, and now together with the second and third parts, the beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House has a full set of them.
Zhang Jie said that since the creation of the novel began in 1989, it was torn down and restarted in 1994, and after 1998, it was changed over and over again, word by word, and this change and grinding was another two or three years...
Wordless First Edition (Hardcover Edition)
Zhang Jie's hard work, I really feel it. Not to mention that the various materials she interviewed and collected for "Wordless" were two feet thick; it was not that she had taken the train to the remote prototype village town twice or three times for a small detail to find a unique artistic feeling; let's say how many days and nights in the past twelve years sat in front of the computer for more than ten hours to deliberate on the words, the manuscript changed from thin to thick, and from thick to thin, and finally she had to compress the four parts and more than one million words that had been written into the three parts and more than eight hundred thousand words today, which was enough to imagine that Zhang Jie's hard work was extraordinary. I remember that one day she came to me sweating, with a clean face of honesty and anxiety and then with Zhang Jie's quick talk, saying that she was stuck in writing, anxious. So the two women nagged for a while, and then she hurried away, and then wrote that the temperature that day was 42 degrees Celsius! Zhang Jie, who regards herself as an "old catcher", has so far refused air conditioning.
How many times is this "nagging"? I'm afraid neither of us can remember. I only remember that before she left Beijing for the United States this time, I went to her house for three days to check the problems in the manuscript. One day, Comrade Jin Binghua, secretary of the party leading group of the China Writers Association, came to visit Zhang Jie, but he was not able to sit for a while and talk more -- for a while, the main conversation was "No Words", and Comrade Jin Binghua also very professionally pointed out a little deficiency in the cover design sample, and the chat was very happy. And after she left, we immediately continued to do...
Award-winning edition of Wordless
With Zhang Jie's talent, why is this? This is Zhang Jie, both the arrogance that ordinary men can't reach, the slenderness that ordinary women can't reach, and the demand and attachment to perfection that ordinary men and women don't match, and there are many things that I can't say enough, leaving for expert comments.
And "No Word" not only has a solemn and magnificent grand narrative, but also has wonderful details that can be called classics, the whole book is ethereal and timeless, never simple and straightforward, and its rich human nature and social connotation are even more difficult to describe. The novel writes about love, writes about love, and even writes about extramarital affairs and sex, but it is not limited to the private affairs of men and women, but puts the fate of the characters in a broad social context to show, showing the huge impact of the social environment on the fate and psychological transmutation of the characters, thus also writing about the era that is difficult to say.
The novel's text is flexible and free, the plot is exquisite and ups and downs, the characters are complex and realistic, and the layout is magnificent. Like a majestic symphony, sometimes the waves crashing on the shore, sometimes murmuring, a sound, a strong artistic shock for those souls, telling their experienced vicissitudes and confusion in their hearts, percussioning the whole century, leaving endless thoughts, which can be described as hong and wanton, giving people a strong artistic shock.
Zhang Jie has said to me more than once: "No matter what, I tried my best." If I don't write well enough, it's a matter of ability. It's not a matter of attitude, it's not that I didn't make an effort..."
She also said: This long work cannot be written early, the skill is not enough, the late writing is not enough, I am afraid that I can't write it, it seems that all my life's creation is preparing for this work.
She even said: All the novels I have written before are exercises for this novel... Even if I die immediately after writing this novel, I am willing...
It's writing with life!
"Wordless" is Zhang Jie's best novel!
I remembered several times when I talked about the manuscript, talking about the fate of the characters, talking about the emotional place, Zhang Jie actually cried and lost her voice...
Lao Tzu once said: "The sound of loud sounds is loud, and the elephant is invisible." "Too deep suffering may be difficult to express, too full of feelings may not be able to say, is known as "no word.". However, in "Wordless", we see the writer's painstaking search for the spiritual home of mankind and hear the writer's beautiful hope for the new century.
After reading "No Word", I also understood Zhang Jie.
"No Words" Second Edition (Binding Design: Zhang Jie)
From "Love, Can't Be Forgotten" to "Heavy Wings" to "No Words", should we re-recognize Zhang Jie?
I have seen "The Endless Xiao Hong", "The Endless Zhang Ailing"... If we can also come up with a few "inexhaustible" writers in our Beijing writers group today, wouldn't it also be the achievement of our time?
We have a lot of novels, but there are not many intriguing and "inexhaustible" ones.
As a literary editor, I naturally hope for more writers and works that can be called "inexhaustible". I am willing to say responsibly, Zhang Jie, never lose to Xiao Hong or Zhang Ailing.
If you don't believe me, read Wordless.
Some newspaper articles collected by Teacher Sui Lijun
The article was published in the Beijing Evening News on January 6, 2002 in the supplement of Five Colored Earth
Editor: Wang Hao
Actual photo: Yan Jin