Writer Ma Boyong: I hope to be able to write the joys, sorrows and sorrows of small people

Beijing, 27 Feb (Zhongxin Net) -- The hit drama "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscope" recently ended. The play is not long, but the content is ups and downs enough, telling a story about the genius of arithmetic in the Ming Dynasty and the silk tax of people.

Writer Ma Boyong is the screenwriter of the play and the original author. A few years ago, he finished writing "Daming under the Microscope", which contains a total of six stories, which are six people's livelihood stories that he excavated from a series of folk archival documents in the Ming Dynasty. The currently broadcast "Silk Case" is adapted from the first of these stories.

Looking back on his experience of writing a screenplay, Ma Boyong finds that it is very difficult to be a screenwriter, "From the story to the script, there is a long way to go. Screenwriting and writing fiction are two completely different ways of thinking. ”

Writer Ma Boyong. Photo courtesy of interviewee

Inspiration by chance

The inspiration for the original book of "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscopy" is actually very accidental.

While surfing the Internet, Ma Boyong found that a friend introduced a case on Weibo, that is, the Huizhou silk tax case during the Wanli Ming Dynasty, the case had ups and downs, interesting details, and a thought-provoking ending, "aroused my great interest."

Due to space, my friend's introduction to this case is not exhaustive. He was not too addicted to it, and went to read the original historical materials, and found that about this Huizhou silk tax case, a participant at that time collected hundreds of official documents, letters, notices, notes, etc. involved in the case and compiled them into a collection.

The name of the collection is "The Complete Book of Silk Silk", which is extremely rich in details and explains the cause and effect in great detail. But after he started writing, he found that to write this case clearly, it was not enough to simply translate the "Silk Book".

"Almost every detail that creates a lot of background problems. How to classify the tax subjects in Huizhou Prefecture? Why is it so categorized? Ma Boyong said that if you want to explain things clearly to others, you must know what is true and you must know why.

Therefore, when writing, he spent a lot of time to understand the economic form, customs and folklore of the entire Ming Dynasty, and even the writing of official documents, etc., and even down to the writing of calligraphy, "It gave me an inspiration, 'small' and 'big', not contradictory." ”

Ma Boyong felt that the so-called "big" of history is composed of countless "small". It is like a microscope that examines the changes of a drop of blood and a cell to judge the health of the entire human body.

"Arithmetic genius" handsome Jiamo

In the play "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscope", Shuai Jiamo is an arithmetic genius, and others call him "a nerd". He accidentally discovers a startling hole in local taxes in the county tax book, and the story begins.

"The character of Shuai Jiamo, he is not a typical person who will appear in ancient China. We will now see a lot of people like him, whose pursuit is particularly simple, very simple, one word 'true'. Ma Boyong said.

A still from "The Silk Case of Daming under the Microscope". Photo courtesy of the drama party

He originally wanted to write Shuai Jiamo as a "nerd", but soon found that such a character was not plump enough. For readers and viewers, everyone can understand a person who only pursues arithmetic, but may not find him amiable.

After careful consideration, Ma Boyong added a little "previous history" to Shuai Jiamo, including emotions, emotional changes, etc., his father's teaching of Shuai Jiamo, Shuai Jiamo's various memories of his father, all deepened Shuai Jiamo's understanding of arithmetic.

When this emotional impulse is combined with his own natural skills, people see the trajectory of Shuai Jiamo's life: his pursuit of arithmetic, obsession with investigating cases, etc., many of which are derived from his childhood and father's teachings.

From story to script

When talking to others about "Daming under the Microscope", Ma Boyong would habitually explain a few words, "It is not a novel, but a work that can be classified as non-fiction, or non-fiction historical prose." ”

The reason is that the relationship between the characters and the drama in the novel are guaranteed, while "Daming under the Microscope" is more about retelling historical events, and the development of events and character construction are supported by historical materials, and the motives and emotions behind the characters are not discussed.

This also created a problem for its film and television adaptation, which Ma Boyong described as "almost from scratch development". There are a lot of meeting minutes and debate processes in the original work, complicated numbers and calculation formulas, and it is difficult to turn it into a visual, audible and tangible work, which is also vivid and interesting, and requires the collective efforts of screenwriters, directors, actors and all departments of the crew.

As for the "silk case", he originally did not want to be a screenwriter, and at the beginning he proposed to train screenwriters and tell them what he knew, but later found that he had too much to talk about, "This time is special." I thought, this thing is so difficult, why don't I try it first. ”

After the script was written, Ma Boyong's respect and awe for the screenwriter deepened, "I found this very difficult. From story to script, there is a long way to go. Screenwriting and writing fiction are two completely different ways of thinking. One is to express in words, and the other is to present visually, and the transition between the two is very challenging. ”

Writer Ma Boyong. Photo courtesy of interviewee

"A real screenwriter has to think about more than just the story itself. He also has to think clearly about the state of the actor, the shooting situation, and so on. He felt that the responsibility of the screenwriter was more heavy, and he was only an amateur cameo this time.

I hope to write the joys and sorrows of small people

As far as the "silk case" is concerned, many small characters such as Shuai Jiamo and Feng Baoyu in the play come together to jointly outline a picture of the city in the Ming Dynasty.

In recent years, Ma Boyong has become more and more interested in writing these transactional contents and writing about small characters, "Some of the problems we encounter now, maybe the ancient people also had such confusion, so what kind of attitude should we face and understand with what philosophical view?" ”

He tried to find answers through his own writing, hoping to write about the life conditions of some small people, joys and sorrows, and analyze and look at the changes of a period of time based on this.

He revealed that the remaining five cases in "Daming Under the Microscope" will also be adapted by film and television one after another, but he will not serve as a screenwriter, "I will start, and the next few cases will be handed over to professional screenwriters." ”

"I'm quite satisfied with my current state, I want to write a lot of things, and I want to go back and continue writing novels." He said. (End)