【What the Reader Says】
Editor's Note
The Chronicle of Writers is another form of chronicle of contemporary literature, which provides a rich data basis for the construction and research of the historical material system of contemporary literature.
The "Liu Youth Spectrum", "Lu Yao's Chronology" and "Chen Zhongzhong's Chronology" recommended by this issue of "Guangming Yue Reading" are the revelations of the truth of Liu Qing, Lu Yao, and Chen Zhongzhong's life and creation. From the three writers' chronology, we feel that they all pay close attention to reality, and pursue to start from the real sense of life and portray characters who can "represent the spirit of the times". From the writing technique to the inner spirit, the "people-centered" has truly fallen into the reality of literary creation. From the three writers' chronology, we can clearly see that they are the inner continuation of their literary spirit of "striving for excellence, having the courage to innovate, and striving to create excellent works worthy of our great nation and great era".
Write the epic of the people that never stops
Author: Zhang Yanqian (Shaanxi Provincial Research Center for Theory system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Researcher of Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences)
In recent years, the compilation of contemporary writers' chronology has become increasingly rising, providing a rich data base for the construction and research of contemporary literary historical material systems, and greatly promoting the in-depth study of writers' works and even literary history. Among them, Xing Xiaoli and Xing Meimei's "Liu Youth Genealogy" and "Chen Zhongzhong's Annals" provide accurate, clear, easy to audit, and have the function of an informative reference book for writers' creative history with a broad vision, rich historical facts, and rigorous academic spirit of examining authenticity and falsity. It is not only a relatively rational, objective, and personal literary history with a temperature of life, but also another form of chronicle of contemporary literature.
Liu Qing is writing. (1963)
Image courtesy of Xiaoli Xing
Chen Zhongzhong was in his later years in Bailuyuan.
Contribution to the construction of the literary historical material system
The in-depth advancement of literary history research depends to a certain extent on the discovery of new historical materials. Whether it is Liu Qing, born in 1916, or Chen Zhongzhong, born in 1942, in fact, their life experience and creative experience are not far away from history, but it is not easy to really investigate and present the life outlook of the two writers who are close to the truth. Xing Xiaoli, one of the authors of the annals, has paid attention to and studied Liu Qing and Chen Zhongzhong for many years, and has compiled the annals for two great writers, which is Xing Xiaoli's long-cherished wish in his heart. Although there was a relatively rich accumulation of research results in the early stage, and a large degree of data mastery, Xing Xiaoli did not take shortcuts, he repeatedly read a large number of original materials, visited the relatives and friends of the two writers, and also managed to consult the writer's personal files.
In "Liu Youth Genealogy", some special historical contexts and the special experience of Liu Qing, who has been forgotten or obscured by the literary world, are very concretely presented. In 1934, when Liu Qing was studying at Yulin Provincial Middle School, she read left-wing books and chinese and foreign literary masterpieces, and because the level of English reading improved rapidly, she read a large number of English literary works, thus becoming interested in literature. In 1943, he was posted in Mizhi County, northern Shaanxi Province, and the government documents of Yindou Township were suspended, and nearly three years of arduous rural life and day and night work made Liu Qing "relapse from old diseases and suffer from typhoid fever", when the county party secretary wanted to transfer him back to the county party committee, and then make arrangements after he was well, but Liu Qing insisted on staying. After completing "Copper Wall and Iron Wall", in 1952, in order to go deep into life, he resolutely left the urban life of Beijing and returned to Shaanxi, and in 1953, his family moved to Huangfu Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province. He slightly repaired a ruined temple on the edge of the cliff of Shenheyuan as a dwelling. In order to mingle with the peasants and facilitate his work and life, he put on the clothes of the peasants and the whole family lived a poor life of peasants. When he first settled in Huangfu Village, Liu Qing wrote an ideological novel reflecting the old cadres after the founding of New China, and in the face of the new situation, he decided to give up the novel of "Intervention in Life", which had been written for 200,000 words, readjust the creative plan, and devote all his energy to the writing of the novel "History of Entrepreneurship". From mutual aid groups to cooperatives, Liu Qing participated in the whole process of revolutionary changes in the mainland's rural areas, and the four parts of the "History of Entrepreneurship" he planned to write were conceived as "depicting the socialist revolution in Rural China" and "focusing on the process of social, ideological and psychological change in this revolution." After completing the first draft of the first part in 1954, he repeatedly revised it according to the new reality development and life feelings, and did not complete the revision until the end of 1959, first serialized in "Yanhe" and then published by the China Youth Publishing House.
"Liu Youth Genealogy" Xing Xiaoli Xing Meimei by People's Literature Publishing House (Revised Edition)
Chen Zhongzhong's Annals by Xing Xiaoli Xing Meimei Chinese Publishing House (Revised Edition)
Compared with the "Liu Youth Genealogy", Yu Xing Xiaoli's compilation of "Chen Zhongzhong's Genealogy" is relatively convenient for Yu Xing to grasp the information. Since 1988, Xing Xiaoli has worked with Chen Zhongzhong in the Shaanxi Writers Association, and has published "Chen Zhongzhong's Pictorial Biography" (Shaanxi Normal University Press, 2012 edition) and "Chen Zhongzhong's Biography" (Shaanxi People's Publishing House, 2015 edition). Xing Xiaoli knows that biographies have strong subjectivity, and the author will bet himself in the biography. As an informational reference book, the chronology emphasizes the presentation of historical materials and the restoration of historical events, and the required materials are more detailed than biographies, and the requirements are more rigorous than biographies. And those materials, in the cracks of history, in some unexpected personnel entanglements, or an accidental event, or a momentary detail, determine or change a person's fate.
Through the writings of the genealogist, family background, life activities, remarks, letters on the relationship between relatives and friends, as well as the key links, historical details, and major events that profoundly affect the composition of the genealogist in the literary field, the "Annals of Chen Zhongzhong" records one by one in chronological order. In the face of complicated information, the author closely follows the proposition of the relationship between Chen Zhongzhong's literature and life, and the seemingly flowing account records reveal the complex and simple spiritual essence of Chen Zhongzhong between the great troubles faced by life and the persistence of literary beliefs. In 1956, due to his family's poverty, Chen Zhongzhong had to take a year off school, which led to his later failure in the college entrance examination. In the first semester of the second year of junior high school in 1957, the middle school Chinese teaching was reformed and divided into two courses, literature and Chinese, because a short story by Zhao Shuli aroused the interest and impulse of 14-year-old Chen Zhongzhong in novel creation, which led to a literary hobby. In 1959, at the age of 17, Chen Zhongzhong learned in the newspaper that Liu Qing's novel "History of Entrepreneurship" describing rural life would be serialized in the April issue of "Yanhe", and his heart could not hold back the excitement and expectation, in order to buy "Yanhe", he saved the money his father gave him 2 corners to buy pickles, saved it early, and bought a copy of "Yanhe". When Chen Zhongzhong finished reading the inscription of "History of Entrepreneurship" in one breath, "I felt very comforted in my heart, and I felt that saving the 2 dimes of pickle money to buy this magazine was a great profit." This reading made Chen Zhongzhong deeply fascinated liu qing, and for a long time afterward, Chen Zhongzhong regarded Liu Qing as a model for understanding life and reflecting life artistically.
The chronology salvaged many seemingly trivial ones, but could reflect the thoughts, temperaments, mental states and changes of the master, or the events and details that could reflect the times and literary style, to a large extent refreshing some of the existing research and research results, supplementing, perfecting and deepening our understanding of Liu Qing, Chen Zhongzhong and their creations. It also has important academic value and significance for the construction of literary historical materials system.
An expansion of the perspective of the study of the writer's works
Liu Qing and Chen Zhongzhong's chronology have a common feature, that is, they attach great importance to the relationship and interaction between the genealogist and the times. Through a large number of credible materials such as hooking the master of genealogy and important conferences, literary activities, and literary events, the relationship between the master of genealogy and contemporaries and writers of the same region is fully demonstrated, so that we have obtained a lot of historical information on the development of contemporary literature. There are many intersections in the presentation of the two chronological literary historical materials, which can be used as references, supplements and analysis by each other. The author places the master of the music in the context of the times experienced by the master of the spectrum, places it in the development and change of literary history, and completes the consideration of the status of the writer and the work from the perspective of literary history. It not only glimpses the changes of the times, but also provides precious and powerful historical support for the study of the relationship between the writer's creation and the "seventeen years" literature and the "new period literature".
In contemporary Chinese literature, especially in the "Seventeen Years" literature, every writer is not an outsider isolated from the major events of the times, and important changes in social and current events have more or less laid a certain mark on their literary life and creation. In the "Liu Youth Spectrum", the truth of his life and creation is revealed to a possible extent. Liu Qing originally planned to end up in Huangfu Village and use his life's efforts to complete the creation of four "History of Entrepreneurship". However, the weather was unpredictable, and the "Cultural Revolution" in 1966 disrupted Liu Qing's life arrangement. Some students raided Liu Qing's home, looted books, materials, and manuscripts, and the manuscript of the second part of the History of Entrepreneurship was also copied. In 1970, after experiencing the torment of fate with great ups and downs, Liu Qing began to read a lot of Chinese and foreign history books, especially Chinese and foreign modern history, as soon as she came out of the "cowshed". The perception of life, reflection and the literary pursuit of seeking truth and truth have enabled Liu Qing's thinking in her later years to be elevated to an unprecedented height. The excavation of these historical details corrects the image of Liu Qing, which was once misunderstood and solidified by us, restores the social and historical process of a period to a certain extent, and expands the perspective of the study of Liu Qing and his works.
In the "Annals of Chen Zhongzhong", we see that before Chen Zhongzhong created "White Deer Plain", in the accumulation of life, the shaping of characters, the "stripping" of ideas, and the preparation of artistic creation and exploration, all for one ambition - to write "works that really satisfy themselves", "to write a book for yourself that can be used as a pillow when you die", "to let these eyes that have been staring at literature since the age of fourteen or fifteen be closed steadily". In 1986, at the age of 37, Lu Yao completed the first part of his novel "Ordinary World" in this year. Chen Zhongzhong and Lu Yao are both professional writers of the Provincial Writers Association, and Lu Yao's creative situation seems unlikely to be untouchable if chen Zhongzhong is not touched at all. But Chen Zhongzhong, who is 44 years old, has his own experience and opinion on literary creation, and he believes that creation is the display of writers' life experience and artistic experience, and the creation of other writers is the life experience of other writers. Envy or jealousy is useless to one's own creations. The key is to "find your own sentence", for yourself, you can't look at the brilliant achievements of your literary friends and feel the pressure at the top, the psychology should be balanced, and the mentality should be relaxed. In accordance with his own plan, Chen Zhongzhong began by visiting large households around his hometown, consulting county records, party history, and cultural and historical materials, carefully studying family history, village history, and regional history, and focusing on excavating "the unique cultural and psychological structure of people in one region" and constantly deepening "the historical connotation and practical connotation that have been realized." After two years of preparation and preparation in 1986 and 1987, Chen Zhongzhong began to write "White Deer Plain" during the Qingming Dynasty in 1988, completed the first draft during the Spring Festival in 1989, and completed the revision in March 1992. From conception to completion, it took a full six years. In the end, "White Deer Plain" allowed Chen Zhongzhong to "climb to the top of this vast and endless original peak, and see the mountains and rivers." The creation of Chen Zhongzhong's short stories for many years can be said to be the preparation and tempering of his writing of "White Deer Plain". The record of Chen Zhongzhong's novel creation and publication in the annals, as well as Chen Zhongzhong's thinking on literary creation in different periods, this difficult exploration process is believed to enlighten more literary writers - the formation of classic works is obtained after continuous "stripping" and "searching".
The transmission and inheritance of the spirit of realism
From the two writers' chronologies, we can clearly see that a relatively stable cultural tradition and literary spirit, that is, the realist tradition and spirit, are transmitted and inherited between the two realist literature representative writers of different periods. They all emphasize the eager attention to reality, strongly intervene in reality, and attach great importance to people's living state, mental state and destiny form. We pursue a sense of reality in life and passionately portray a character that "represents the spirit of the times." From the writing technique to the inner spirit, the "people-centered" has truly fallen into the reality of literary creation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Liu Qing repeatedly proposed to literary workers the idea of "three schools" and "one unit in sixty years". Emphasize the importance of social life for literary creation, and emphasize the importance of unswerving and dedicated literary creation as a lifelong cause. This is the summary of Liu Qing's personal creative behavior norms and creative experience. After the founding of the Republic, Liu Qing created a long novel reflecting the defense of Yan'an, "The Iron Wall of the Copper Wall", which did not achieve Liu Qing's expected purpose in both thought and art, nor did it meet the needs of readers well. The main reason for this is that he did not experience the war firsthand and relied mainly on interview records. The innate inadequacy of this novel made Liu Qing firmly believe that life is the foundation of creation. In order to reflect the revolution and construction of the republic, Liu Qing decided to go deep into life. In The village of Huangfu in Chang'an County, he demanded of himself as a member of the society and was proud of his peasantization. He lived in the courtyard of a farmhouse, wore peasant clothes, ate peasant-like food, walked as a car, carried a small basket to the market town to play soy sauce and vinegar, bought salt, and lined up with the peasants to shop. Because of his peasant costumes and attire, he was interrogated and not allowed to enter the peasants by the door satellite television of the provincial and county organs on several occasions. It is often when he meets cadres who know him that they relieve him of embarrassment.
Liu Qing took root in rural life, not only the individual paid the price, but even the whole family paid the price. Liu Qing's wife, Ma Wei, once told Wang Weiling, the editor in charge of "History of Entrepreneurship": "We have two stoves in our family. Small stove, specially for Liu Qing; big stove, me and the children's. The guests came, and they all ate small stoves with Liu Qing..." Wang Weiling went for a walk in the courtyard after eating, inadvertently walked into the kitchen, and saw Ma Wei and the children "gathered around a big pot, full of a pot of vegetable porridge, no dry food, no stir-frying..." Wang Weiling could not restrain her emotions and asked Liu Qing: "Your life is so urgent, why do you still donate all the manuscript fees of the "History of Entrepreneurship" to the Huangfu Village People's Commune?" More than 10,000 yuan, are you bad to leave a part? You've gone too far! ”
Liu Qing looked at Wang Weiling and said deeply and seriously, "I don't want any changes in my life, I just want to live in Huangfu Village." Here, I only want to do three things well: First, to establish good relations with grassroots cadres and the masses; second, to write a good "History of Entrepreneurship"; and third, to educate my children well. If you think about it, I am in the countryside, living among the masses of the people, everyone knows that I wrote a book, and today I published a book, took a huge amount of writing fees, and put it all into my own pocket to improve my personal life. They would say, 'This old man lives here and writes about us, and it turns out that he made his fortune personally!' If so, how can I stay in Huangfu Village?' Can "History of Entrepreneurship" still be written? There is a sentence in Liu Qing's novella "Fierce Iron": "If there is a division of labor in the world to enjoy and struggle, he is responsible for struggle!" This is the portrayal of Liu Qing's life!
These literary activities of Liu Qing are echoed in the "Chen Zhongzhong's Annals". Liu Qing believes: "Living in the environment of the characters you want to represent is the best choice for people who are engaged in literature. This kind of creative experience of going deep into life, Chen Zhongzhong also deeply believes that it is true, and personally practices it.
In his youth, he became acquainted with Liu Qing's Chen Zhongzhong because of reading the "History of Entrepreneurship", and his early creative practice was greatly influenced by Liu Qing's creation. Chen Zhongzhong called Liu Qing a "teacher." Although he did not move his hukou back to Xijiang Village under Bailuyuan in his hometown like Liu Qing, he never left Xijiang Village under Bailuyuan for ten years after he was transferred to the Provincial Writers Association to engage in professional creation. Looking back on the past years, Chen Zhongzhong deeply felt that his years in the countryside had a decisive impact on his creation, and his understanding and understanding of China's peasants and China's rural areas was exactly what he had accomplished in those years: "In retrospect, although he lived in the countryside, he went to school from childhood to adulthood, and his understanding of the countryside and peasants was only some appearances. I really have a little understanding of the countryside and the peasants, that is, more than ten years of working in the commune. This life is unforgettable. Without this life experience, it is hard to imagine that I could have written these works. Indeed, Chen Zhongzhong's 50 years of rural life have provided rich and vivid real materials for the birth of "White Deer Plain" and laid a solid and thick cultural foundation. In the process of learning to pay tribute to Liu Qing, he finally found "his own sentence" on the White Deer Plain.
Reading the annals of Liu Qing and Chen Zhongzhong makes us feel that the two adhered to the realist creation method in different periods, "adhering to the people's position, writing the people's epic poems that are endless", and striving to create excellent works worthy of our great nation and great era" with the "inner continuation" of the literary spirit of "striving for excellence, having the courage to innovate, and striving to create excellent works worthy of our great nation and great era", at the same time, they have each created independent and peaked realist literary landmark works, and their works have conquered both art and readers. They have all found "their own sentences" and become an example for literary and art workers to learn forever.
Recreate the road inside and outside literature
Author:Wang Lu (Lecturer, College of Literature, Nanjing Xiaozhuang University)
In recent years, under the new research horizon of literary sociology, the empirical value of Lu Yao and his works is being presented in the process of historical progress in an increasingly complex and diverse way, during which the progress of historical data collation has laid a good foundation for the in-depth research. "Lu Yao's Chronology" is another masterpiece to promote the in-depth opening of Lu Yao's experience, presenting readers with a more three-dimensional and more realistic image of Lu Yao inside and outside literature.
Lu Yao went deep into life in the Yakou Coal Mine. (Photography by Wang Qinglin)
"Lu Yao Annals" by Wang Gang, Tianjin People's Publishing House
One
From the official publication of his works in the 1970s to his death in 1992, Lu Yao's literary creation lasted for nearly two decades. In the past two decades, the changes in the Chinese literary world have been clearly displayed in the "Lu Yao Annals" in the form of pre-score content. Various literary trends ebb and flow, literary systems and the changing situation of the times, and Lu Yao was eventually remembered by literary history as a "adherent of realism". If it is said that "the chronology collation should transform the classic understanding formed around the writer's works into a problem, rather than the basis for combing the context" (Yang Xiaofan, "Contemporary Writers' Chronology Research and the Classicization of Contemporary Literature"), then the "Lu Yao Almanac" presents through detailed historical materials and ingenious arrangement, which is exactly how Lu Yao finally established his own "realist" orientation in the process of wandering and gradual, choosing and updating. It can be said that keeping right and innovating, constantly enriching and updating the literary tradition of realism is the value of Lu Yao's literary creation as a "adherent of realism".
The Lu Yao Chronicle has a complete record of the creation, revision and publication time of almost every work of Lu Yao. In a clear time chain, the gradual course of Lu Yao's realist literary creation can be fully revealed. It can be seen that Lu Yao has always regarded the mainstream of reflecting the weather of the times and depicting the social and historical process as his conscious pursuit. In his 1983 book The Legacy of Liu Qing, Lu Yao called Liu Qing "by no means a person who is merely obsessed with the small stories of life" not a kind of master's own way, and his creation is to pay close attention to the changes and development of the times with a holistic vision. From the late 1970s to the early 1980s, Lu Yao wrote a number of novels, such as "In front of a new life" that depicted workers in the new era in a positive way, showing the enthusiastic response to the modernization construction. These writings reflect Lu Yao's full attention to social reality and the weather of the times, but at that time, his understanding of "realism" was still stuck in the original inertial thinking. The novellas "A Thrilling Scene" and "In a Difficult Day" exercise Lu Yao's ability to breathe new life into "realism." It is from these two novels that Lu Yao deepens his understanding of "realism" and gradually grasps the essence of reality with a challenging creative consciousness. On the basis of reading a lot of excellent realist works and continuous thinking in the past, Lu Yao gradually overcame the shackles of the previous rigid literary dogmas on his writing thinking, and showed an excellent realist creative spirit in "Life". He once said that "the sense of the times about the work is essentially a reflection of the essence of the life of the times ... The most prominent feature of our time is that society is facing a great turning point." Lu Yao not only saw the shackles of the irrational urban-rural dual mechanism on the life development of rural youth at that time, but also fully trusted the national changes in the transition period. As a result, the image of Gao Garin he created became a literary model reflecting the problems of the era of rural development at that time, and less than two years after the publication of "Life", the state gradually relaxed the restrictions on the development of rural population into the city, and the Gao Garin-style problem was historically solved. This cannot but be said to be a profound realistic depiction of the historical trend made by Lu Yao standing at a certain historical height and with the sensitivity of a literary artist.
Two
While the writer's chronology objectively outlines the writer's creative history and the repercussions of the works, it also conceals the spiritual life history of the writer. The Lu Yao Annals record that in the eulogy of Lu Yao's memorial service, Chen Zhongzhong wrote: "Lu Yao's spiritual world is an 'ordinary world' constructed by ordinary laborers. He has the deepest understanding of what people in this ordinary world mean for China. He himself is a person who did not have a special intention in this ordinary world, but he became the spiritual spokesman of the people of this world. This is a very accurate and powerful summary of the spirit of Lu Yao and his works.
"Lu Yao's Chronology" shows Lu Yao's life before entering the public eye in a large number of pages. Through the memoirs of relatives, friends and colleagues and the details revealed in Lu Yao's articles, the Lu Yao Chronicle restores Lu Yao's difficult life before becoming a formal writer. The extreme poverty of childhood, the "passion, pain and mistakes of youth", the troubles of family affairs and work after starting a family, and the difficulty of exploring and writing all show the twists and turns of Lu Yao's growth. And all this became the source of Lu Yao's later creations, supporting his creations with a sense of reality and public care. When Lu Yao bid farewell to his original living soil with his outstanding literary achievements, he still invested his emotions in the ordinary laborer group and "demanded that he not lose the feeling of an ordinary laborer at any time." The phrase "do not lose the feeling of ordinary laborers" appears three times in the Lu Yao Annals. Judging from the material shown in the annals, it is not empty words, but is infused with solid connotations by Lu Yao's works and the actions of writers. Lu Yao has always regarded writing itself as labor, "emphasizing in a self-educated way that he has a correct attitude towards this kind of labor."
"Lu Yao's Chronology" shows in detail the creation and revision process of "Life" and "Ordinary World". "Life" went through a three-year preparation period, Lu Yao wrote three times, and finally under the encouragement of Wang Weiling's manuscript, it was truly written. When the China Youth Publishing House revised "Life", Lu Yao had not left his desk for a week, and he was tired and rested, sleepy and sleepy. And "Ordinary World" is Lu Yao's work completed with amazing perseverance. When writing the book, Lu Yao broke away from family and society, adhered to the daily plan that was close to machinery, missed the meeting with Qin Zhaoyang, who had an acquaintance with him, endured physical discomfort, and finally realized his self-expectation of completing a big work before the age of 40.
Lu Yao has always had a deep affection for ordinary workers and the land where they live, and his creations have always been oriented to the readers and the public, responding to the spiritual demands of ordinary workers. From the beginning of his creation, Lu Yao immediately determined that his works were "mainly written for the majority of readers to see, as long as everyone reads, this is the greatest comfort." The "vast number of readers" that Lu Yao refers to are actually ordinary workers who make up the vast majority of a country's members. "Ordinary World" is Lu Yao's praise to thousands of ordinary laborers in the style of Sun Shaoping and Sun Shao'an. What Lu Yao valued was the "mood of ordinary laborers to obtain precious things in difficult times", their "weight-bearing endurance and martyrdom character", from which he discovered the spiritual and emotional value, and also discovered the noble ways and manifestations of ordinary people's spirit. It is precisely because Lu Yao insists on starting from the spiritual expectations of ordinary laborers and writing the joys and sorrows of ordinary people that his works are likely to obtain a long-term historical echo and be liked by the majority of readers.
The lu yao presented in the literature inside and outside the "Lu Yao Chronology" is a concrete display of the rich details of Lu Yao's personal creation history and life history, providing ordinary readers with an excellent text close to the writer's spiritual life and life experience, and also burying a lot of research tips for the development of follow-up research, and its rich extension space needs to be further presented in other texts.
Guangming Daily (2022.03.17 11th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily