"Fresh, natural, healthy, bright, rich in life, authentic in the countryside, full of reading beauty. Reading such works as the New Year approaches, it is refreshing. On January 26, at the scene of the "Xiajiang" seminar, Zhang Zonggang, doctor of literature and director of the Poetics Research Center of Nanjing University of Science and Technology, said. Sponsored by the Nanjing Writers Association and Youth Magazine, the seminar started from the book "Xiajiang" and took "a possibility of writing Nanjing's history and culture" as the proposition, aiming to help Nanjing build a "world literary capital".
"Xiajiang" focuses on a family that migrated to Xiajiang (near Baguazhou, Nanjing City), digs deep into the historical and cultural resources of this land, and depicts the life of Xiajiang people in order to survive in this endless land, overcoming obstacles and moving all the way, and shedding countless painstaking efforts and sweat. The author, Wang Chengxiang, is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, a first-class literary creator, and a columnist for the magazine "Chinese Sons and Daughters" in charge of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League. During his university years, Wang Chengxiang began to create literature, and has published more than 100,000 words of novels and short stories, and has published many works such as "Where to Return in Spring", "Melodious Frog Song" and "Village of Memory", and has won the National Liang Bin Literature Award, Lu Yao Youth Literature Award, Jiangsu Ten Year Reportage Award, Jinling Literature Award, etc.
In the eyes of Li Qiao, editor-in-chief of "Youth" magazine, Wang Chengxiang recovered after his illness and completed "Xiajiang", "the Paul Kochagin of contemporary literature". In July 2013, after the publication of "The Growth Trilogy", Wang Chengxiang took a year off to try to write another novel with the theme of "Shangjiang" and "Xiajiang". During the preparation of the new book, Wang Chengxiang suddenly suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. After being discharged from the hospital, he sat in front of the computer more than once, trying to type some words, but before the next sentence could be typed, the meaning of the previous sentence was completely forgotten. In order to recover as soon as possible, Wang Chengxiang insisted on exercising, and when he felt that his body was gradually improving, he immediately devoted himself to the writing of "Xiajiang".
"Writing itself is a war, a war that belongs to one person. In the battle without the smoke of gunpowder, you have to fight against every word and every sentence, against mediocrity, laziness, sitting in the well and watching the sky, arrogance, inability to bear loneliness and other bad things, and at the same time, you have to contend with unfavorable factors such as accidents in your soul and cerebrovascular vessels at any time...... Until the last satisfying end is drawn. In order to write "Xiajiang", Wang Chengxiang has searched for historical materials and visited the site many times, and the book mentions local songs and folk customs in many places, integrating the history and culture of Nanjing into the historical and cultural writing. He told a reporter from the Jiangnan Times that for a writer, such a pursuit is not only to forge ahead, but also to not forget the original intention.
At the seminar, the atmosphere was warm, and the participating scholars spoke enthusiastically, giving pertinent comments on the book and offering suggestions for the creation of Nanjing's literary masterpieces. The guests unanimously agreed that this work has opened a new window for understanding the history and culture of Nanjing, and also made the "Baguazhou", the geographical coordinates of Nanjing, which had received little literary attention in the past, leap into the public eye.
Wang Zheng, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Writers Association and chairman of the Provincial Literature and Art Critics Association, said frankly that Wang Chengxiang made great efforts to write the "History of Xiajiang", which brought "new possibilities" that aroused joy, discovery, and expectation for another kind of writing of Nanjing's history and culture. Two novelists, both vice presidents of the Nanjing Writers' Association, also expressed their views. Yu Yiming said that it is difficult to write novels in a scattered style, and we should learn from Cheng Xiang, be a hard worker, and write while we are alive. "Xiajiang is a noun and a verb; Mr. Cheng Xiang is writing a family history, and family history is the history of the country. Cao Kou said.
Li Wei, a critic, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Literature of Nanjing Normal University, said that "Xiajiang" captures the charm of Jiangnan culture, which not only reflects the life of the people at the bottom of Xiajiang, but also reflects their strong growth ability. The whole work, which seems to be warm, is full of hardship, and the spiritual thread of Xiao Hong's work is the same as the end. "Down the River" is a work about the narrative of the water town, the story is set with a story, the background is grand, and the emphasis is on writing life, so that the grand background gradually disappears into the story. In the view of Han Songgang, a critic, a specially invited researcher of the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature, and the deputy director of the Creation and Research Office of the Jiangsu Writers Association, the chapters in the book are small and big, and it can be seen that the cultural context of the Chinese nation was not easily broken during the war.
Zhang Deqiang, a critic and associate professor at Nanjing University of the Arts, pointed out that "Shangjiang" and "Xiajiang" are not only regional terms in "linguistics", but also have the meaning of dynamic livelihoods, and there are also stories about immigrants one after another. It is not difficult to see that Nanjing is indeed a city of immigrants. Zhang Guangmang, a professor and doctoral supervisor at Nanjing University, believes that "Xiajiang" shows the history of Xiajiang in mobility, "The combination of the life and death of the people at the bottom and the description of the customs and customs has remained unchanged in change, and has achieved tension in readability." ”
"In the book, there are many ballads, many place names, and some major events, which are all true. Zhu Ronghui, a first-class writer and editor of Phoenix Media, said that the ingenious combination of fiction and non-fiction is a major feature of this work. In addition, the underlying narrative in the grand context is another feature of this novel, which deserves serious study by scholars. "The river that Yu Hua wrote about in the novel "Mistakes by the River" is not the river of his hometown, it is very deep. And what Wang Chengxiang shows in "Xiajiang" is the area of Nanjing where we live. Wang Zhenyu, a first-class writer and deputy editor-in-chief of Phoenix Publishing and Media Group, said that writers can do some expanded understanding and research on the literary narrative of Jianghe.
"'Down the River' is a work that surprised and overwhelmed me. Wang Leiguang, who came to Nanjing for the first time, said that this work deviates from the conventions of novel writing since the 20th century, and the structure is completely open, with many threads, and various elements are linked to each other, but it is full of blanks and growth. As a doctor of literature from Shanghai University and a teacher at the School of Literature of Jiangxi Normal University, Wang Leiguang said that the narrative language of "Xia Jiang" has a strong flavor of Wang Zengqi, and the dialogue of the characters in the book has the quaintness of the old Jiangnan. "Many people think that vernacular literature is to write about old, backward, and rustic things, but I think that vernacular literature must discover the spiritual light from the real object, and the narrative and dialogue of "Xia Jiang" have achieved this. ”
Peninsula Peninsula, a writer signed by the Jiangsu Writers Association, believes that the proposition of the seminar is inclusive and inspiring, just like farmers planting rice and wheat have their own reliable ridges and ditches. He said that the convening of this symposium was just like "timely rain" and brought an opportunity for "another kind of writing" of Nanjing's history and culture in the coming year. "'If you are not afraid of slowness, you are afraid of standing, and if you stand for one station, you will stand for two and a half miles. As a folk critic, I sincerely hope that writers can inject more rural elements, local flavor, rural temperament, and rural feelings into the writing of Nanjing's history and culture with the consciousness of '10,000 years is too long, seize the day', and make explorations and efforts. ”
Nanjing has a rich literary heritage and rich cultural connotation, and the ever-changing urban development has attracted generations of poets and writers to enter Nanjing and write about Nanjing. Wang Zi, vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that "Xia Jiang" is a project funded by the Nanjing Art Fund, and hopes to take advantage of the convening of this symposium to call on more writers to pay attention to the creation of Nanjing themes, maintain the concept of the times and the people's position that writers in the new era should have, pay attention to reality, focus on the present, and create more good works that meet the wishes of the times and the people.
(Jiangnan Times reporter Zhang Ziyang)