Zong Pu: What is the responsibility of a novelist

【Approaching the Writers】

Author: Fei Yi (Research Fellow, Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

At the age of 91, she is the daughter of the famous philosopher Feng Youlan. His work "The Record of Eastern Tibet" won the 6th Mao Dun Literature Award in 2005. She has passed the age of the back, because of her weak eyesight, reading can only be "ear reading", first choose a good article, and then ask someone to read to her, and writing is more difficult, first dictate, ask the assistant to record it, and then repeatedly revise and polish until satisfied. This is how the "Northern Return" published at the beginning of this year was completed.

This year's National Day holiday, with respect, I came to Mr. Zong Pu's home. Zong Pu's new home is located in a quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of Beijing, not as big as I thought. On the right side of the entrance is a partitioned bookshelf, on which are placed literary classics such as "The Complete Works of Lu Xun" and "The Complete Works of Shakespeare", which have been yellowed, and in front of the book there is a small hand-painted portrait of Zong Pu bowing his head and meditating. Inside is the parlor, where her collection of fairy tales and translations are displayed on the coffee table. What attracts attention is the couplet on the wall: "A thousand poems of alpine flowing water, a ship of bright moon breeze wine." It was Mr. Feng Youlan's handwriting for his beloved daughter when he was 84 years old, and the words were a little crooked, so it is no wonder that Zong Pu jokingly called it "oblique link" in the article.

Just as I was watching the couplet, with the support of the nanny, the 91-year-old Zong Pu came out of the bedroom with a smile and a groan, a brown shirt covering a beige vest, elegant and clean, but I didn't expect her to be so tall. When I read "Wild Gourd Introduction", I took it for granted that the author was also a petite person like her Song. Seeing that I was so amazed, Zong Pu was happy: "I have one meter six six, and I have not become shorter until I am old!" When I sat down, I wanted to sit on the couch of the guest, but she beckoned me to sit down next to her, pointed to her ear, and said, "Speak like this, you can hear clearly." ”

I brought her an academic journal with papers on her work, The Journey to the West. She picked it up, squinted her eyes, and nodded, "This is a good topic!" I'll come back and listen. "Very early learned that due to weak eyesight, Zong Pu reading is "ear reading", first choose a good article, and then ask someone to read it to her, because the listening is also not good, when listening, but also wear a hearing aid. Writing is more difficult, first dictate, ask the assistant to record it, read it to her again and again, and revise and polish it repeatedly until you are satisfied. This is how the "Northern Return" published at the beginning of this year was completed. "The Book of The Return of the North" is the fourth part of Zong Pu's series of novels "Wild Gourd Introduction", before that, the first three "Nandu Ji", "Dongzang Ji", and "Western Expedition" were widely praised. Among them, "The Record of Eastern Tibet" won the Sixth Mao Dun Literature Award in 2005.

Zong Pu recently photographed Huang Yu

In 1957, Zong Pu published the short story "Red Bean" in "People's Literature", which came to prominence in the literary world. At that time, there were even college students who visited the Summer Palace, the love affair of the protagonists of the novel, Jiang Ming and Qi Hong. After returning to the literary world in the new era, Zong Pu frequently produced excellent works, and the short story "Dream on the String" won the "National Outstanding Short Story Award" in 1978. For more than thirty years, Zong Pu's main energy has been spent on the writing of "Wild Gourd Introduction", and it has become her responsibility to complete it, "otherwise I am sorry to boil over the history that immediately condensed around her."

"Beigui Ji" tells the story of the teachers and students of Minglun University represented by Meng Fan's father and daughter who returned to Beiping to rebuild their homeland after the victory of the War of Resistance, and the novel not only focuses on imitating the intellectuals' enthusiasm for serving the country and the feelings of home and country, but also describes the sorrows and joys encountered by the teachers and students of Minglun University under the wrapping of the torrent of the times. Compared with the "Jinge Iron Horse" in "The Tale of the Western Expedition", "The Book of The Return of the North" does not write about the fierce revolutionary struggle on the eve of the founding of New China, but takes it as a background, through many seemingly "nothing" details, with extremely poetic brush and ink, presents the living conditions and spiritual outlook of a generation of cultural people, and their joys and traumas in life such as study, love, and separation are put into paper one by one, converging into a cultural epic with fireworks and human feelings. The novel has a certain autobiographical color, which combines the real experience of Zong Pu's return to the north and campus life in that year. "We also came back by plane. It was a freight plane, there were no seats, and we sat on a small bench and flew all the way back to Beiping, very excited. But when I asked whether the intellectuals portrayed in the novel had realistic archetypes, she said slyly: "The characters written in the novel must have the shadow of the people in the writer's life, and as for whether the main characters have prototypes, the novelist will not answer this question, otherwise he is the killer of the novel." ”

Writing about love has always been Zong Pu's strength, from the early years of "A.K.C" and "Red Beans" to today's "Beigui Ji", love has always been an important theme of Zong Pu's writing. "The Book of The Return of the North" writes about the love of several young men and women, Shenghe Wuyin, E and Wu Jiayu, Xuanzi and Wei Feng, written either gracefully, deeply, or romantically. The exquisite conception and the elegance of the language make it hard to believe that it came from the hands of an eighty- or ninety-year-old man. Although Zong Pu wrote about the love of many young people, his penmanship was very restrained. I smiled and asked her: "The love you wrote has always been only holding hands, at most kissing the cheek, have you ever thought of breaking through?" Zong Pu also laughed when he heard it, almost laughed off the hearing aid, paused, and then answered me seriously: "I think that "The Tale of the West Chamber" and "Peony Pavilion" are very beautifully written, but I do not approve of the bold behavior of the protagonist, and it is our tradition to stop at etiquette. I love this kind of love. ”

Before the publication of Beiguiji, it was published in People's Literature and won the 2017 China Writers Publishing Group Award for Outstanding Writer Contribution Award and the 3rd Shi Nai'an Literature Award. However, there are also voices of doubt. Speaking of someone criticizing Zong Pu for giving Feng Youlan a high evaluation by borrowing the mouth of a novel character in "The Book of Northern Returns", Zong Pu said: "My father is a historical figure and a scholar, and if I want to write that history, I must evaluate my father, which cannot be avoided." I just want the history I write to be closer to the truth. This is my responsibility as a novelist. "In a sense, Zong Pu, who has been creating and completing "The Book of The Return of the North" under difficult circumstances for ten years, has the same tenacious and unyielding spirit as his father." Zhishan Huihai faxed the fire, willing to do the back salary with the previous salary", she proved the significance of passing on the torch with her own actions. And this persistence and sense of responsibility for history also let us see Zong Pu's feelings as a writer.

"I have fixed a long scroll of paintings between the first koji," Zong Pu said, saying that she was going to say goodbye to the characters and the times in the book. But don't believe that she really wants to say goodbye to the literary world, because next, she decided to concentrate on writing fairy tales. "I recommend you read my fairy tales." Zong Pu pointed to the fairy tale collection "The Story of the Total Fin Fish" on the coffee table and said with a smile.

Guangming Daily (13th edition, October 23, 2019)