On the eve of this year's Spring Festival, on January 21, an 85-year-old woman died of illness in the United States.
In the domestic literary world, she has created a miracle that no one has ever matched:
Two novels, twice won the "Mao Dun Literature Award".
Her name is Zhang Jie, and she describes herself as a "stray old dog" who wanders the spiritual world and wanders through different cultures.
At the same time, like a loyal dog, silently watch over some valuable values.
She is a literary predecessor who should not be forgotten, and many of her works are worth reading and re-reading.
01
Science and engineering, aiming at literature
In 1937, Zhang Jie was born in Fushun, Liaoning Province, and lost his father at an early age, from his mother's surname zhang.
When she was in school, she was excellent in all subjects, especially in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and was an outlier among the girls in the class.
In 1956, Zhang Jie was admitted to the Department of Planning and Statistics of Renmin University in Beijing.
This is a very hardcore science and engineering subject, and the main course is data analysis.
These subjects have made many students miserable, but Zhang Jie can easily get high scores.
In addition to studying, Zhang Jie especially likes to read literary masterpieces, especially foreign novels.
Years later, Zhang Jie's old classmate recalled:
During her college years, Zhang Jie had a wide range of interests and hobbies, and once joined the campus choir, participated in the literary and artistic performances between Beijing colleges and universities, and sang Northeast folk songs at the New Year's Party, singing very charmingly.
After graduation, Zhang Jie was assigned to the First Machinery Industry Department, and the main content of daily life was mathematical modeling, plus mechanical manufacturing.
In the extraordinary era of "prominent politics", Zhang Jie worked diligently and earnestly for many years in the post of pure science and engineering, away from the vicious fights between people, and read and think in her spare time.
At the beginning of the reform and opening up, Zhang Jie began to create literature, and her first works were mainly short stories.
One of the most influential is "Children from the Forest".
"Children from the Forest" tells the story of a lumberjack's child, Sun Changning, and his teacher Liang Qiming, who encountered before and after the Cultural Revolution.
Sun Changning, a teenager in the forest area, has musical talent, but has no opportunity to learn.
During the Cultural Revolution, Liang Qiming was sent to the forest area and became Sun Changning's enlightened teacher.
He not only taught Sun Changning all kinds of knowledge, but also taught him to be an upright person and not to use musical talent as a tool to pursue fame and fortune.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Liang Qiming died of illness, and Sun Changning was admitted to the Conservatory of Music to pass on Liang Qiming's musical dream.
This novel not only criticizes the absurdity of the Cultural Revolution era, but also focuses on depicting the truth, goodness and beauty of the human world.
This work made Zhang Jie win the 1978 Short Story Excellence Award, and has since entered the literary world.
02
"Record Breaker" of the Mao Dun Literature Prize
In the 1980s, Zhang Jie began to write novels, including "Heavy Wings" and "No Words". In 1984 and 2005, he won the second and sixth Mao Dun Literature Awards.
So far, Zhang Jie, the writer who has won the Mao Dun Literature Award twice, is the only one in the literary world.
Created in the early 1980s, Heavy Wings is about the throes of industrial reform.
This book takes the "battle" between the directors of the Ministry of Heavy Industry around the reform of the economic management system as the main line, and shows from top to bottom the comprehensive reform of the ministry, as well as the subordinate Shuguang Automobile Factory and even the grass-roots teams, from the big pot of rice to the modern enterprise.
The novel successfully portrays Zheng Ziyun, vice minister of the Ministry of Heavy Industry, who advocates reform, and Chen Yongming, director of the Shuguang Automobile Factory, as "tide makers".
At the same time, with the help of some "conservatives", from many angles, the hardships of reform have been explained.
After the publication of this book, it has not only been well received by all walks of life, but also received attention from relevant leaders.
The work has been hailed as a distinctive mark of the Reform Era.
It not only won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 1984, but also in 2018, it was selected as one of the "Most Influential Novels in the Forty Years of Reform and Opening Up".
Zhang Jie, who was honored and added, worked tirelessly after this, and after entering the new century, she completed another masterpiece, "No Words".
This novel, based on the life experience of female writer Wu Wei, tells the story of her marriage with generations of women in the family.
An ancient painting, one seemingly unrelated encounter after another, connects the turbulent displacement of this painting in the human world;
Generations of collectors are inextricably linked to each other.
No one knows that this ancient painting originated from a poignant and tragic love, but most of those who have anything to do with it are doomed.
In these stories, Zhang Jie reflects society through mortal small things, and has a very broad background of the times, from which it reflects the great turmoil and great changes in society, and the ups and downs of various characters.
The book has been praised by literary critics as "showing the social landscape of China in the past hundred years, making a unique record and examination of Twentieth Century China, and writing an inexhaustible era."
In 2005, "Wordless" won the Mao Dun Literature Award, and Zhang Jie became the "double winner" of the highest award in the domestic literary world.
This record has been maintained to this day, and no other writer has ever had such a special honor.
03
Wandering is the fate of a writer
Zhang Jie positioned herself as a "wanderer".
In 2013, at the age of 76, she published a collection of essays, Stray Old Dogs.
This is Zhang Jie's travel essay, which not only introduces the customs and customs of many parts of the world, but also focuses on her own "wandering philosophy".
In addition to writing, Zhang Jie's other hobby that has lasted for many years is to walk alone in the streets and alleys of the world, shooting all the way, recording one heart-touching moment after another with cameras and words, moving with the heart, and sending out feelings.
Her favorite places are mostly small towns that other tourists rarely set foot in.
"I was a stray old dog, and when I was asked if I preferred my hometown or somewhere else, my answer was: I like wandering the most."
"Including my writing, it is also an endless wandering. From short stories to long stories, and a variety of different subjects, I've been experimenting with them all these years. ”
"As a wanderer like a wild dog, I don't care about other people's eyes, like or dislike me, for me nothing, the clouds are light. A stray dog in his old age does not need to be famous, and the interests in addition to food and clothing are also a burden. ”
"The greatest comfort of wandering is that no one knows me, and I don't know anyone, so naturally there are no people who look at me unfavorably, and I don't want to mix things, which is really very comfortable." 」
Zhang Jie in the "wandering trip", never refuses to live in a high-end hotel, and tries to avoid the travel agency that young people love, because too noisy will affect sleep.
She once met an ordinary Russian woman in a small hotel abroad, and when she talked to her, she was surprised to learn that this woman's great-grandfather often went to Turgenev's literary salon.
In those days, Zhang Jie and the Russian woman talked freely in English about the classic literature of the world, and they saw each other and hated each other.
Such adventures, on the go, abound.
Zhang Jie lived to the age of 85, and in the last few years of her life, she was still wandering around and working tirelessly.
Zhang Jie's other works mainly include the novel "Zhi Zai" and the essay collection "Emerald".