Read | Luo Weizhang's long new work "Hidden History": See the back of yourself

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Curiosity and fascination with secrecy are common to people, and people are willing to see how works that truly reveal secrecy can peer into the interior of life, their own hearts, and get comfort and inspiration from them. Luo Weizhang's latest novel, "Hidden History", in the name of "secret" and "history" as a metaphor, gives perspective and revelation to the unspeakable and real emotional emotions under the appearance of ordinary people's daily lives, and to the consciousness and psychology that are hidden or ignored, reaching the hidden corners of people's inner world.

In April 2022, "Hidden History" was launched by Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, which won the jury award of the first Phoenix Literature Award (the original literary award judged by famous domestic critics and writers such as Li Jingze, Wu Yiqin, Liang Hongying, Bi Feiyu, Su Tong and other famous domestic critics and writers), which is another long masterpiece that has been well received by the literary community after Luo Weizhang has won various literary awards in recent years, occupying the blockbuster list of "Harvest", "Contemporary", "Yangtze River Literary Review", "Selected Novels" and even the top of the list.

A Journey of Sin and Punishment, Discovery and Redemption

The Hidden History is highly readable. The novel borrows a structure full of suspense, telling an unknown accidental event in the village, the tension of the narrative and the condensation of language are like a frame of film pictures gradually flashing and advancing, making people unconsciously hold their breath and follow the protagonist step by step into the dark and grand world of consciousness.

It was a daydream in the real world—there were countless holes in Laojun Mountain, and he had gone into the one above the cool well; it was normal to find a hole in the wilderness, but he had made god worse and worse to let himself drill into it, drilling deeper and deeper, until he saw something—like a fate, waiting for him, teasing him, and watching him. The protagonist, Gui Pingchang, did not think that he was just greedy to dig up the turquoise wheat winter, but was entangled in a long-hidden secret. In the eyes of outsiders, he has a kind of paranoia and lost his soul, and no one knows that he is clinging to a secret, which is related to his heart disease, about the "evil man" Gou Jun who went to Africa to work, about his wife Chen Guoxiu, and also about his lifelong fear and cowardice. He fell into a bottomless abyss.

The novel uses strange illusions to connect the two parallel time and space of reality and psychology, traces the secret history of the soul hidden under the daily life of ordinary people, explores the banal evil and unspeakable suffering in the depths of human nature, and erects a mirror to let people see themselves and others from it, and to see the most secret emotions in human nature, those emotions that are forgotten, ignored and even denied. This kind of in-depth exploration of psychology is one of the very distinctive characteristics of Luo Weizhang's novels: "My writing is more obsessed with exploring people's inner world, so some readers and critics say that I am a psychologist. I like this statement, which is reflected in many of my novels, and "The Hidden History" is undoubtedly the most thorough. ”

But the revelation of the psyche, the insight into the secrecy, did not constitute the ultimate goal of his writing: "I put the characters in the book, even myself, on the other side, and talked to each other, and we found that what was originally a homicide that had nothing to do with us quietly changed the way we behaved, our attitude toward life, our understanding of crime and punishment." From this, we slowly see the large shadows in our souls, which we ignore in ordinary days. ”

"Hidden History" takes on a new texture in the way it is written. The integration of thriller suspense techniques is not the biggest innovation for this novel, and it is only the wonderful and transcendent place of this novel that it is written with exaggerated and distorted reality to write ordinary daily life and survival situations. The fear, humility, and sadness of the little people accumulate in the heart, because a sudden event silently bursts, which is actually a reminder of people's inner concern, vigilance against the pursuit of so-called "normal", but also encourages people to pursue a higher quality of life.

When Luo Weizhang talked about the novel, he said: "I always have a view that a life that cannot see its own shadow is a life that lacks the spirit of reflection, and it is difficult to talk about quality. The shadow of life cannot be seen, just as the abyss of a river cannot be seen, and the power of the deep current of still water cannot be seen. ”

Use stories to light up the shimmer of humanity

Countless classic literatures have left eternal stories for the world, and these stories contain vivid and complex human nature, gathering the joys and sorrows of people who are moved by it, like the eternal moonlight shining on every small corner of the world.

"Hidden History" tells the story of a person whose humanity is constantly illuminated. In this story, you can see the face of the moon piercing through the clouds, hear the sound of the darkness being cut by the light, and smell the clear breath of the river after it has been washed away by the torrential rain. The story is both pure and full of possibilities, and is loved and admired by many people. It is extremely focused on such a small event, focused on such an ordinary person, like a simple but tense, energetic essay, flashing a deep, bright light.

The novel integrates decades of time and gradually deserted villages into the hearts of the characters, turning a simple event into a vivid silhouette in the tide of the times, so that it becomes rich, profound and timeless, and endlessly evocative, just like in our lives, a drum sound that resounds throughout the world, the drum stops, but it is still endless.

In addition to relying on the writer's strong pen strength and charming narration, this stems from the writer's enthusiasm for the profound inquiry of human nature. Unlike the rational analysis and guidance used in psychology, novels often naturally flow out of the philosophy of life in the story, which is how considerate and effective it is for people who are eager to see their hearts and understand themselves.

Fear, anxiety, regret, sadness, loneliness... Ordinary people will always encounter these not-so-beautiful confusions, dilemmas and struggles, "Hidden History" allows readers to follow the characters in the events and actions of thinking and digging, explore the root of inner pain, looking for the key to unlock the chain of the mind, can be called the Chinese version of the sensual text to interpret the psychoanalytic theory of the world psychologist Jung. "The dilemma of real life is a rather grand topic," said the writer Yuan Yuan, "but Luo Weizhang always finds the right story and the right form to express, not flashy, not scattered, each of his works is a solid and introverted work." ”

"Hidden History" proves to us that in the face of the places we do not want to face, we would rather be a more complete person than the "good people" in the eyes of others. But this is not a simple road, and to achieve this path in the work, it is necessary to pass through thousands of twists and turns. Yang Qingxiang, a professor at Chinese Min University and a well-known critic, said: "The Hidden History handles the subtle complexity of human nature with great flexibility, and the control of language, the grasp of narrative rhythm, and the creation of atmosphere are rarely accurate and in place. ”

There are many more touching points in the story of "Hidden History", the dignity and desire of ordinary people, the warmth and continuity of human nature, which shimmer in the branches of the story. We will see a pair of outlaw Mandarin ducks, singing ballads belonging to two people in poverty and despair; see the oldest and most compassionate Zhang Dawei in the village hiding a love that breaks the earth until his death; see the strange man Yang Lang in Luo Weizhang's "History of Sound", as always, collecting the sounds of the village and awakening people's memories from the abyss of time... They all stubbornly keep their secrets, in order to defend their lives, in order to be able to live. A life with secrets can become dark and narrow, but "some secrets, in the heart, are a lamp."

The mouth of a thousand rivers on Earth

The novel "Hidden History" was published, accompanied by Luo Weizhang's hand-painted "Thousand Rivers mouth on earth". Readers familiar with Luo Weizhang will never be unfamiliar with the village of Qianhekou, which is the literary hometown of the writer - Qianhe Village, Puguang Town, Xuanhan County, Dazhou City, Sichuan Province. In this publication, Luo Weizhang was specially invited to draw a topographic map of this prototype novel, which is of special significance. For the depiction of human feelings, animals and plants in this land, Luo Weizhang has undoubtedly reached the realm of divinity. Everything in his hometown surges with a deep and free sense of life, which is very rare in contemporary novels, especially in "Hidden History", and it is even more amazing and straight to the heart, which undoubtedly constitutes the unique and rich artistic charm of the novel.

With regard to plants and animals, Luo Weizhang said: "Sometimes my compassion for them is more than for people, because they are innocent, and people are often strong, and they will infringe on their interests and write about them." ”

The wind blows softly, blowing the water a few times, and the seedlings grow into rice stalks, and the whole field turns blue. The big-headed tadpole broke free of the milky white tirecoat, swung and swung, and in the blink of an eye, the tadpole transformed into a frog, and the frog climbed up the field, roasted the sun for a few minutes, stomped on the hind legs, jumped on the rice stalk, and plunged into the water from the rice stalk. As the sun went down, frogs chirped, and frogs rushed into the village like a tidal wave, wave after wave. In the sound of frogs, the young ears are revealed, and the rice stalks are jointed, getting higher and higher, thicker and stronger, and then they bloom and bear fruit. When the golden wind rises, the valley fragrance is everywhere, and I know that it is time to grind the sickle.

Increasingly desolate villages, animals and plants in the mountains and wilderness are still the same, this gesture of life makes the writer moved, admired, his novel is from such a barren, vast homeland to get creative power, such as "History of Sound" and "History of Silence" carefully collected the voice of the village, Lin Anping, who guarded the fate code of the barren mountains and mountains, the writer also wrote with persistence, let us look back at the lost homeland, "In this village that is falling down, there can be someone who comes back - not from Yang Lang's voice, but really come back, What a wonderful thing to come back with blood. (The Hidden History)

People live in the middle of all things, and all things are each other's footnotes, each other's achievements, in the "Hidden History", Zhang Dawei and the land where she lives is like this, representing Luo Weizhang's reflections on the relationship between people and land and all things- "Zhang Dawei's life is thin and rich, just like the mouth of a thousand rivers, just like Laojun Mountain, there is nothing to see, walk into the mountains, only to see the tiredness in the bright place, the wounds in the dark, but also to see a hundred flowers and pleasant people, a thousand fruits to raise people." ”

The sound of all things is preserved in villages such as the "Thousand Rivers Mouth". Everything will eventually fade, but it will continue to cut off distant connections, which is our luck and the weight that life should bear. Or, as the novel says, "Nothing in the world is going to disappear." They only disappear on the surface", which is also another meaning of "hidden history" - recalling the watery years of our lives, letting everything hidden in the abyss of time emerge, proving our existence, understanding our past, and living better.