Editor Zhang Jie: Her "cleanliness" is the purity of the heart

On January 21, 2022, the famous writer Zhang Jie died of illness in the United States at the age of 85.

As one of the important writers in China since the new era, Zhang Jie has won almost all national literary awards, and is also the only writer in China who has won the Mao Dun Literature Award twice. Old friends think of Zhang Jie, lament her literary contributions, and also miss her personality charm.

Zhang Jie People's Vision Data Map

(i)

In 1989, Wen Neng, the former director of the editorial department of Huacheng, went to Beijing to organize a small gathering of writers in Beijing, including Wang Meng, Shi Tiesheng, Li Guowen, Chen Rong, Zhang Kangkang, and Zhang Jie. This was the first time Wenneng had seen Zhang Jie, and Zhang Jie, who was wearing a camel trench coat, left a deep impression on Wenneng.

"It was a camel trench coat, which I remember very well, and that kind of trench coat was rare at the time. She must have been fifty years old, but the knife of years showed no trace on her face. She is generally not very active in social situations, but in the face of familiar friends, she is still comfortable, with an indescribable charm and style. ”

Later, the two became familiar because of the composition. Zhang Jie is a generation older than Wen Neng, Wen Neng called her "Teacher Zhang Jie" at first, but Zhang Jie said don't call it so, it is very uncomfortable to call "Teacher", so she changed her mouth to "Zhang Jie Big Sister", and then gradually did not even add her name, and called "Big Sister". Once Wen Neng followed Zhang Jie to the association, people asked who this was, Zhang Jie replied, this is my little brother.

"She's always been so straight-forward, very straightforward about people and things." Wen Neng said, "She doesn't like to meet people she doesn't know well, and she refuses many important interviews." For example, after she won the Mao Dun Literature Award for the second time, reporters from CCTV and Beijing Television came to her door and did not let her enter. ”

For a relatively long time, Wen Neng and Zhang Jie talked more about literature, not manuscripts, but cats. Wen Neng told the surging news reporter that Zhang Jie did not have cats before, but her mother raised them. After the death of her mother, Zhang Jie especially loved the cat left by her mother, and she had to take it with her when she went abroad for business. Because Wenneng also has cats, Zhang Jie often looks for him, sometimes for an hour or two on the phone, all talking about cats.

For Zhang Jie's prose, everyone is most familiar with her nostalgia for her mother's "The Person Who Hurt Me the Most In the World Went.". But after that, there was another one that she wrote about the cat, called "Lucky There Is It." In the eyes of others, this cat may not be so important, but I think it means a lot to Zhang Jie, it is companionship, and it is also a deep miss for her mother. ”

In addition to the essay "Fortunately There Is It", Wen Neng believes that Zhang Jie's other novel", "Zhi Zai", has also been paid insufficient attention. First published in Harvest in 2006, the novel is a novel written by Zhang Jie after winning the Mao Dun Literature Prize for the second time. "I remember that this is her only work on ancient themes, written about Jia Nanfeng, the empress of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the novel, There is a monologue in the novel Rigda Nanfeng that says, 'What about the failure?' Failure is also life. Jia Nanfeng never regrets, regret is the salvation medicine for the weak', and I was very shocked to see this. ”

Wen Neng said that before Zhang Jie's women always needed an emotional sustenance, otherwise this life would be incomplete and mutilated, and what she herself was reading here never really let go. "I was really happy for her to see that sentence, and I thought to myself that my eldest sister finally let go of her obsession, and she accepted a life where emotions have nowhere to go." The rest of her life, she was freer. ”

(ii)

Wang Yonghong, the former editorial director of "Woodpecker", also met Zhang Jie when composing the manuscript, and she used "as usual at first sight" to describe the acquaintance of the two.

"The reason we get to know each other all at once is because we have a lot in common in our personalities." Wang Yonghong said that what impressed Zhang Jie most deeply was that she was very brave and had a "purity habit", "The so-called cleanliness is the purity of the heart, she belongs to the kind of person who thinks in her heart, says what she says in her mouth, and does what she does in action." Writer, you can say that it is deeper, you can also say that it is more sleek, she and those writers who love to make a move are not the same person at all. Chinese talking about the face, zhang Jie's face is so frank, it is really born from the heart. She dared to write, dared to do, and spoke out the voices of our generation. ”

At first, her good feelings for Zhang Jie stemmed from the article "Love, Cannot Be Forgotten", which was greatly shaken when she read it, "At that time, the 'Cultural Revolution' had just passed, not to mention love, it was love, family love was not easy to talk about, everyone talked about hate and struggle." The love written by Zhang Jie is spiritual love, not the love that was later vulgarized, and my feeling at that time was that this feeling was particularly pure, precious and sublime, very touching, so I especially liked her. ”

Of course, there are people who feel that they have been enlightened and awakened by "Love, Which Cannot Be Forgotten", and there are also people who criticize Zhang Jie because of this. "Zhang Jie told me that they criticized me for anything, and they didn't pull their hands in the text, which was platonic spiritual love."

Looking back at that time, Wang Yonghong was a little excited. "Where do we re-recognize the value of life?" It is from the beginning of such an excellent writer as Zhang Jie. Looking back at this "Love, We Can't Forget" now, people who didn't experience the 'Cultural Revolution' really can't understand how shocked we were at that time. ”

In addition to literature, the two female friends also exchanged lives. Wang Yonghong knows that Zhang Jie's life is actually very hard, with a mother and a daughter, and sometimes she has to help her mother sew gloves to subsidize the family. "She's really strong, doesn't talk softly, isn't favored, and always tries to be a person." Wang Yonghong said, "She is a rare person who can unify her personality and writing, and I cherish the discussion of human nature in her works, and admire her insistence on being brave to be 'self'." Many people don't know the difference between 'self' and 'selfishness', and I think the most fundamental difference between the two is 'not hurting others'. ”

(iii)

Wen Neng believes that Zhang Jie's contribution to contemporary Chinese literature is enormous and obvious to all. "Not to mention that in the late 1970s, he was awarded a national award, won the Mao Prize twice, and was accepted as a foreign academician by the American Academy of Letters and Arts as early as the 1990s... Her creative span is long, and her iconic works exist at all stages of the new era. Moreover, the beginning of women's literature in contemporary Chinese literature should have originated with her. It seems not unusual for us to talk about this topic now, but her "Love, Cannot Be Forgotten" suddenly exploded a forbidden area, opening up a new path, a new perspective, and making pioneering contributions for the creation of later female writers. ”

After settling in the United States, Zhang Jie basically lost contact with the literary circle. Wen Neng came to the United States three years ago, but he had never met Zhang Jie. Wen Neng has regrets, but she can also understand: "She always pursues freedom and freedom, and this pursuit becomes more freewheeling after her later years." In the early years, there may still be some constraints and considerations, but in her later years, especially when you see her writing "Stray Old Dog", it is completely a trip that is said to be walked, and she can reach that state. ”

Wang Yonghong also never saw Zhang Jie again after going abroad. In 1987, Wang Yonghong went to Canada to settle down, and before leaving, she went to see Zhang Jie. "After going abroad, I was also very busy, and slowly there was no contact, but I received 'No Word' from her. In my opinion, Wordless has a lot of archetypes from her life. Later, the news of her sealing came from overseas literary circles, and she no longer had contact with the outside world. The last thing I knew about her was that I heard she was gone. Wang Yonghong sighed, "To tell the truth, my heart hurts." I am a woman inspired by her articles. But I have lost such a good friend, and Chinese literature has lost such a flesh-and-blood female haojie. ”

After learning that Zhang Jie had left, Wang Yonghong read and read Zhang Jie's essay "My Four Seasons" and saw it with tears. The article reads: "I have loved, hated, laughed, cried, tasted, and realized... When I think about it carefully, I know that there are more sunny days than rain, more harvest than labor, as long as I have lived seriously and paid without shame, no one has the right to laugh at me as a fool who cannot make ends meet, and there is no need to use his scale to measure whether I am worthy or not. ”

"I feel that this article is a portrayal of her life. She was constantly reflecting on herself, dissecting herself, and at this point I didn't see any other contemporary writer comparable to her. She didn't care to listen to those dirty words, and she wouldn't be frightened by those things, she hit a wall and fell, but she didn't give up, constantly summing up why she failed, constantly looking for the root cause, and then moving on. Wang Yonghong said, "From another point of view, everyone has to leave that day." She has lived this life meaningfully, inspired, helpful, guided others, and left behind works, which is very brilliant. I wish I could learn from her. ”