Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Sun Lei
Photo/Courtesy of the People's Literature Publishing House
Since its publication in 1993, Chen Zhongzhong's novel "White Deer Plain" has been printed in more than 4 million copies, and the book has continued to be adapted by various art forms, and its popularity has never diminished.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the publication of "White Deer Plain", on the evening of April 28, the People's Literature Publishing House organized the first of a series of activities to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Chen Zhongzhong's birth - "I have handed over my life to you". A total of more than 300,000 people watched the event online.
On April 29, 2016, Chen Zhongzhong passed away due to illness. Today, 6 years later, we enter his literary world together and remember this great contemporary literary writer.
Writing inspiration embedded in the gatehouse of the courtyard
Chen Zhongsheng grew up in the countryside and worked as a cadre in the commune for ten years. More than 30 villages of the size of the commune do not know how many times they have traveled. It was not until a commune stationed on the Wei River that the rural areas of the country began to implement a responsibility system, and the era of reform and opening up began.
Chen Zhongzhong has always been fond of literature. When he was working for the family since he was a child, his father told him "Three Heroes and Five Righteousness", "Xue Rengui Zhengdong", "Bao Wenzheng Knife Chen Shimei", and in the second grade of junior high school, he wrote his first novel on the composition text, and at the age of fourteen or fifteen, a pair of eyes stared at literature.
Chen Zhongzhong
His interests and expertise led him to transfer from the commune to the Baqiao District Cultural Center, and in three years, he published more than 30 short stories and features.
At the end of 1982, he was transferred to the creative group of the Shaanxi Writers Association and became a professional writer. But as a professional writer, he not only did not move his family into the city, but moved back to his very remote hometown from Hanqiao Town, where the district cultural center where he used to work.
This year, he just crossed the age of 40, returned to his hometown, he stayed for 10 years, and created short stories such as "Kang Family Courtyard", "Boss Zizi", "Cellar", "Mr. Blue Robe" and so on.
Before the summer of 1985, Chen Zhongzhong regarded long-form writing as a relatively distant thing. "The main point, in my consciousness of writing, is that the novel is a frightening and too big thing to think about."
The study of Chen Zhongzhong's ancestral house
One autumn in his hometown, when Chen Zhongzhong sat down to write "Mr. Blue Robe", he suddenly had the idea of writing a long novel, which had no specific content at this time. "If you want to find the original image, it is the gatehouse of a courtyard with the inscription 'Reading the Farming Family' on the original, and I want to explore the mysterious story of this gatehouse."
Many years later, Chen Zhongzhong was also touched by the choice of the writing environment of the ancestral house under the roots of the north slope of Bailuyuan, "Out of my perhaps special psychology, I want to find a quiet and even remote environment, read the books I want to read and the books that I can't read, especially I need to chill down and chew on the life I personally experienced, I just crossed the 40 years old, the first 20 years as a student saw the rural life, and the next 20 years directly involved in the rural life." ”
Trace the endless treasures of the White Deer Plain
In April 1986, Mr. Chen Zhongzhong took a bus across the cold Bahe River to Collect Information in Lantian County, and for more than two years, Chen Zhongzhong was pursuing the endless reserves of the White Deer Plain:
The gongs and drums in the prosperous years when the wind and rain are smooth, the tragic scenes of starvation and death in various disasters dominated by drought; the feats of the villagers driving out corrupt officials that occurred in a certain dynasty and year are thrilling; the cries and tears of all the people kneeling on the official road to send off a clean official touch the heavens and the earth...
He visited the home of Lu Da Lin, a Song Dynasty scholar who wrote China's first "Township Covenant" to educate the people, which was also the academy where the "Niu Caizi" (the prototype of Mr. Zhu) sat in the museum and studied; he searched for the ruins of the grain store of the first Communist Party branch established on the White Deer Plain.
There are also stories from the old people in the village, including his own ancestors, including many details of his life that make him feel happy... All kinds of people and all kinds of things induce fictional characters and plots, and activate some details of life in his memory.
White Deer Plains
Chen Zhongzhong devoted his main efforts and energies to the White Deer Plain behind his ancestral house, as well as the ShenheYuan, Shaolingyuan, Fengqiyuan and Tongrenyuan, which were across the River from the White Deer Plain. In the "County Chronicles" that were too rotten to withstand being revealed, he saw the life form of the White Deer Primitive People in the "Bamboo Book Chronicle".
While visiting and collecting materials, the imagination-induced ideas occurred simultaneously, and the overall framework of "White Deer Plain" gradually took shape, and the characters and details were constantly enriched.
Establishment of the "White Deer Contemporary Literature Editing Award" with personal contribution fees
On a good morning during the Qingming Festival in 1988, Chen Zhongzhong sat on a sofa cut by a village carpenter in the simple study of his ancestral house, opened a large 16-carbid hard leather book on his knees, and wrote down the first line of the draft of "White Deer Plain": "Bai Jiaxuan later became proud of marrying a woman of seven rooms in his lifetime. ”
At this time, the whole world has been simplified to the point where only one White Deer Plain remains; this geographically conceptual ancient Plain is embodied in a person named Bai Jiaxuan: the last patriarch in "White Deer Plain" adheres to an ancient "Township Covenant" and faces challenges from various forces. Bai Jiaxuan is the White Deer Plain, and one person supports a plain.
In this way, the writing was very smooth, Chen Zhongzhong completed the draft in only eight months, and spent more than two years carefully revising, and at the end of 1992, "White Deer Plain" turned out to be a success.
Chen Zhongzhong's manuscript of "White Deer Plain"
After the manuscript was completed, he handed over the half-hundred-thousand-word manuscript to the People's Literature Publishing House. Later, Mr. Chen Zhongzhong told his friend that at that moment, he seemed to have entrusted his life to him. He went home to wait for fate, and he told his wife that if he couldn't, he would go home and raise chickens and never write again.
Chen Zhongzhong (center) poses with the editors of the People's Literature Publishing House
After the book was published that year, it not only received high praise from the literary circles, but also the success in the market was a bit unexpected, and it was reprinted six times in five months, printing 600,000 copies, and Luoyang paper was expensive for a while. "White Deer Plain" was republished in the first edition of the Humanities Society, and was in a prominent position in various distribution places and several major websites in China, and was sought after and loved by generations of readers.
During the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the publication of "White Deer Plain", Mr. Chen Zhongzhong proposed that he donate funds to establish the "White Deer Contemporary Literature Editing Award" of the People's Literature Publishing House from 2013 to reward the editors of the People's Literature Publishing House who have made outstanding contributions in the field of contemporary Chinese literature. This is the first time in China that a writer has set up an award for an editor at his own expense.
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Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Editor-in-charge | Zhu Shaojie
Proofreading | Peng Jiye