Everyone's life is a broad river, or like a trickle, or like a mighty river, this endless life, what has been created, and what has been left behind? Countless classic literary works seek to interrogate the meaning of existence and life, trying to find eternal value in the finite life.
Writer Lu Min's latest novel, "Golden River", is also a "contemporary echo" of this literary motif.
"Golden River" is Lu Min's realist long-form masterpiece, the work was first published in the "Harvest" long volume in the autumn volume of 2021, before publication, it has won the jury award of the first Phoenix Literature Award, and was listed on the List of Novels of the Chinese Novel Society in 2021, which attracted the attention of the media and readers.
In April 2022, the hardcover single edition of "Golden River" was launched by Yilin Publishing House, paying tribute to the contemporary "human world" of torrential courage with the warm light and shadow of the golden years.
Golden River
By Lu Min
Yilin Publishing House
"Golden River" selects the first generation of small bosses under the background of the vigorous development of private enterprises after the reform and opening up as the protagonist, and takes the late state of Mu Youheng (Youzong) in the last two years as a look back and observation point.
His early brother He Jixiang died unexpectedly because he helped him, and before his death, he entrusted all his wealth in the south to raise his unborn flesh and bones, but he moved it as the "first pot of gold" and made it happen, which also led to a lifelong entanglement of crime and punishment.
Teacher Xie, a special reporter who does not fight and does not know, has been "lurking" for many years, intending to crack his wealth code, but eventually he has become a general confidant and relative, and in the red-skinned notebook that is constantly pushed down and re-found, he intentionally or unintentionally records the mottled way of panning for gold in the general sand.
The old son Mu Cang, who suffers from Asperger's syndrome, the perverse son Wang Sang, who is obsessed with Kunqu acid and rot, and the dry daughter Heshan, who has the unfortunate and barbaric growth of the world, are all iron-blooded soft intestines and relatives who cannot always be supported and cannot be lost.
With nearly 400,000 words, Lu Min writes magnificent material creation and relay circulation with the help of a family's 40 years of vicissitudes, reflecting the oriental concept of wealth and intergenerational spiritual history from tradition to openness and modernity.
The book of the times of the same generation of reform and opening up
"There is always this man, I have been thinking about him for many years"
The creative theme of "Golden River", Lu Min has been brewing and nurturing for more than twenty years.
Lu Min was born in the 1970s, as a contemporary of reform and opening up, she consciously wrote as a writer at this time, and the first batch of private entrepreneurs who were active in various industries in society were naturally within the scope of their gaze:
"There is this person, I have been thinking about him for many years, and I have been preparing for many years. For example, the timeline of the past forty years, from which to see when the 'Hope Project' began, when the 'double holiday' was implemented, when the construction of the highway began, when the pager exited, and so on. A lot of valuable 'time information' is in the timeline. For example, Kunqu Opera, although I originally watched a lot of plays, I still had to read some stage scripts, and even the teaching materials of the drama school, rehearsal videos, etc. were taken to see. There are also autism research, looking for academic works by experts, looking for documentaries in various countries, etc., in order to grasp the characteristics of each character in the novel. ”
Lu Min
Some critics believe that "the growth and maturity of the seven-zero generation of writers are synchronized with the reform and opening up, and this kind of personal and contemporary fusion also reflects and constructs the creative outlook of their generation, and the gesture gradually broadens, and the Words and Things, words and feelings of concern about the Chinese experience of 'here and now', which is a kind of depth and temperature after the integration of individual talents with the experience of the times." ”
"Golden River" takes the family narrative as the incision, through the vicissitudes of the Mu Youheng family and two generations, looks at the drastic changes of the times, penetrates the personal life history with a large historical pattern, and details the establishment of the special zone since China's reform and opening up, the emergence of private enterprises, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, the operation of the sea, the establishment of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, the family planning policy, the pairing of students, the revival of Kunqu opera and other key words of the times, tells a story about moral emotions, material creation and multi-frequency resonance of the times, and pays tribute to the contemporary "human world" that is brave and courageous.
In this book, Lu Min returns to the heavy theme of realism, places the typical faces of the times in the flowing river of history, depicts the history of material creation and spiritual transformation of the Chinese people since the 1980s, and presents the vigorous tone of the times with great courage to excavate into reality.
Wu Yiqin, vice chairman of the China Writers Association, said: "'Golden River' has a unique theme and complex theme, which is a texture that a good novel should have. It positively reflects the course of our era in the 40 years of reform and opening up, and has the temperature of the history of our era and the coolness of the times. ”
A masterpiece of spiritual writing
"Both material and immaterial, both need relay and continuation"
"Golden River" takes Mu Youheng's last two years of late life as the starting point, and the whole book is divided into four parts, the titles are "Giant Wings Hanging Down", "Ruler Shrinking Bell Slowly", "Heat Silence Dialogue", "One Thing Is Quiet, All Things Run", and the epilogue "Like a Trickle", which corresponds to Mu Youheng's mental state at various stages:
Looking back at the mottled roads of the past;
Introspection and monologue in old-fashioned farewells;
Difficult trade-offs in many choices;
The intergenerational collision between the father's generation and the child's generation, mixing the subtle game of folk wisdom and family ethics;
From the small to the dissipation of gold, the relay between matter and immateriality stretches and stretches.
"Golden River" confronts the real choices faced by different individuals in the contemporary era of rapids, and writes the warm light and shadow of the golden years.
As a leading writer of the post-70s generation, Lu Min's writing not only pays attention to traditional narratives, but also contains speculative themes, which is full of experimental spirit and modernity.
From the rural "dark disease" writing of the "Dongba Series", to the spiritual escape of the people in the city in "Running Moon", to the offensive and outrageous hormone explorer in the "Hormonal Night Talk", Lu Min has been committed to spiritual writing, exploring the hidden places in the depths of the human spirit and thought, and is considered by critics to "have pure and distinct artistic beliefs and well-trained artistic talents" and "stand at the forefront of Chinese novel art".
Although "Golden River" confronts wealth and material things and is "dedicated to the creator and what he has created", it still continues the vein of Lu Min's spiritual writing, and the critic Hu Ping called "Golden River" a model of spiritual writing.
In the great changes in the life of entrepreneur Mu Youheng, the sins and punishments of the brothers of life and death, the clutches of fathers and sons, and the vicissitudes of the sons and daughters of the world are the most difficult to give up, and he takes gifts as the final chapter of his life, and moves towards clarity and clarity in the flowing water.
"This golden river full of mud and sand and full of vitality, accompanied by the general (Mu Youheng) all the way galloping, how to start from scratch, how to walk non-stop, covered with sand and gold, how to tie ropes to remember, quicksand and forget."
Lu Min activates the potential good thoughts in everyone's heart, like a golden river, nourishing all things in heaven and earth.
Some commentators have pointed out that The Mu Youhengs in "Golden River" "play a very important role in this group of people, their ups and downs, the ups and downs of their fate, which have profoundly affected the social, political, economic and cultural life of Chinese society for more than 40 years, and more concentrated on carrying the atmosphere of an era."
Dual time and multiple perspectives
Carrying a 40-year-long wide-format era picture
With its skillful novel style, full of full literary experience, and a realistic vision, "Golden River" presents the social changes and the spirit of the times in the past 40 years of China's reform and opening up.
Golden rivers, related to gold: business laws, property accumulation and changes in the concept of wealth;
Related to sand: the number of sand in the Ganges, the passage of time when the hourglass is recorded;
It is related to water: great good is like water, and gifts are given.
The famous critic Wang Chunlin believes that reading "Golden River", first of all, it is worth noting the writer's setting of the "short" and "long" dual narrative time frame, and writing more than half a century of "long" time with the "short" time of the protagonist's later years of eight months, which is a major feature of modern novels: the length and depth of small incisions.
The original feature reporter Teacher Xie lurked by the side of Youzong, in the red-skinned notebook that was constantly pushed down and re-coming, and recorded the total mottled path in numbers, these secret records ran through the book, Lu Min said in the creation talk, "add a writer's perspective to the text, and use the non-fiction writing plan in the novel to deconstruct the biographical material of the protagonist in the torrent of years." From Teacher Xie's point of view, the plot of the whole work can also be regarded as a process of brewing and conceiving a complete writing activity. They are like a garden where trails fork, and together they constitute a path of fiction and non-fiction.
"Golden River" uses the red-skinned notebook as a literary imagery with a sense of age to lay the structure, the inner monologue full of stream of consciousness to unveil the multi-dimensional aspect of reality, and the noisy multi-voice narrative to present the magnificent landscape of the times.
"After determining the position of Teacher Xie's writer, for Mu Youheng and his children, I abandoned the common omniscient and omniscient narrative, and placed small microphones on their necklines, moving with the camera position, taking a restrictive third-person perspective. On this basis, in view of the always suspicious personality and physiological conditions, mainly presented by oral recordings or inner monologues, and the proud orphan Heshan, only the image in the mirror is her exit, and her second-person narration to the mirror constitutes another voice... I hope that this will bring me closer to them more delicately, like the lines of the river—you, me, and him are all the same Creators. ”
It is worth mentioning that "Golden River" also borrows the repeated defeats, battles and courage of the leader of the Kunqu troupe of Wang Sang and his friend, Wang Sang, to record the maintenance and watching of the Kunqu opera genre in the current cultural consumption scene for 600 years, and write the intergenerational transmission from material to intangible. The Shouzheng innovation of Kunqu Opera, in succession with the blood of the descendants, and the transmission of wealth across generations, together constitute the three "circulation themes" of "Golden River".
Critic Meng Fanhua spoke highly of this: "The biggest charm and attractive place in the novel is the use of Kunqu opera, which can be said to constitute the finishing touch and soul of this novel." For this reason alone, Golden River is currently the best of all Lu Min's long stories. ”
"Or it is a trickle, or it is flowing to heaven, and it is connected from generation to generation, which is the river of life of all creators and the law of this existence on earth." "Golden River" explores the change and permanence of complex human nature in a novel style: even if everything will eventually dissipate, the dissipation will condense into new life and continuation.