Shizhuzhai is one of the four time-honored brands of Chinese art and a well-known cultural business card in Nanjing. At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the famous publisher and seal carver Hu Zhengyan set up a living room named "Shizhuzhai" at the foot of Jilong Mountain in Nanjing, more than 400 years of time have passed by, how to inherit and develop the skills of Shizhuzhai at present? Nanjing writer Yu Yiming replied with the novel "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code".
Recently, sponsored by the Jiangsu Writers Association and the Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and undertaken by the Nanjing Writers Association, Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House, and Shizhuzhai Art Group, the novel "Shizhuzhai Code" work seminar was held in Nanjing. As a project funded by the Nanjing Art Fund in 2023, "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code" writes cultural inheritance in an innovative form, which has been praised by experts and scholars attending the meeting.
Profound accumulation, expand the writer's broader and broader dimension
"Ten Bamboo Zhai Code" was first published in "People's Literature" and was recently officially published by Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House. "People's Literature" in the preface of the volume of "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code" made a key recommendation: "The novel traces the time from today to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the survival of the unique child is related to the carrier of civilization, and the inheritance of craftsmanship is related to cultural continuity." The author has the temperament of a craftsman, patiently observing every node and rhythm promoted by the plot; The work also implies an awe-inspiring cultural expression beneath the surface of the narrative – like an unshakable concentration in the chaos, like an unbreakable clear sound in the chaos; It is the pulse of the wind and bones, and it is also about the real life of the shadow. ”
It is not easy for a novel to win the favor of People's Literature and publish it. Xu Zechen, deputy editor-in-chief of "People's Literature", said: "Yu Yiming's previous "Fuji" and "Into the Stream" are all very good and full works, and "Shizhuzhai Code" continues this quality, and at the same time has some new expansions. He said that as long as he reads "The Code of Ten Bamboo Zhai", he knows how solid the author has investigated, "In the past, "Fuji" and "Into the Stream" relied more on his personal life experience, fictional ability, and imagination ability, and this work made us realize that he has a wider and more dimension. ”
Bi Feiyu, vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association and chairman of the Jiangsu Writers Association, also felt deeply about this: "If you are not fully prepared, it is difficult to write your work to a high level. Yu Yiming has read so many books and read so many materials, which I didn't expect. It is because of his unremitting questioning and reading that I see that the way the novel progresses this time has changed a lot, and I am especially happy as a reader. ”
Lu Haiming, general manager of Nanjing Publishing and Media Group and president of Nanjing Publishing House, said that after reading "Ten Zhuzhai Code", you can see how much information Yu Yiming has read and how deep the accumulation is, "and the details are nuanced and the plot is vivid."
Ye Zhaoyan, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Writers Association and chairman of the Nanjing Writers Association, said with a smile that Yu Yiming's previous achievements as an amateur writer "made those of us who are engaged in professional writing feel a lot of pressure." Now, Yu Yiming, who has retired from Nanjing Foreign Chinese School, can devote himself to writing, "I feel that his momentum will be stronger, because with more time to write, he will write more and better works." ”
Open up the past and the present, and tell the story of Nanjing
In order to attract more young people to approach and understand traditional skills, Yu Yiming carried out a two-line narrative of history and reality in "The Code of Shizhuzhai", and adopted the expression of time-travel, telling the history and inheritance of Shizhuzhai for more than 400 years in the transformation of time and space in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties and the 21st century. At the end of the novel, Hu Zhengyan traveled from ancient times through the computer, saw with his own eyes the reprinted "Ten Bamboo Zhai Scores", flipped through the pages page by page, and muttered to himself: "Beautiful, more beautiful than I printed at that time......
From the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code", we can get a glimpse of the continuation of Nanjing's thousand-year-old cultural context, and get a glimpse of people's exploration to promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China's excellent traditional culture.
He Ping, a professor at the School of Literature at Nanjing Normal University and vice chairman of the Nanjing Literary and Art Critics Association, said that the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code" provides a good example of how to transform local cultural resources into literary works.
He Tongbin, deputy editor-in-chief of the Yangtze River Literary Review, said that a large number of literati portraits and craftsmen have been created in "The Ten Bamboo Zhai Code", conveying the spirit of literati and craftsmen, "I have left a lot of inspiration, our cultural industry and manufacturing industry should draw experience and wisdom from traditional Chinese culture." ”
"This is a good work written in Nanjing." Wang Zheng, vice chairman of the Jiangsu Writers Association, chairman of the Jiangsu Literary and Art Critics Association, and vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that the novel is written about Shizhuzhai, but it is not only a writing of history, cultural brands, and skill inheritance, but more importantly, it writes an endless spirit.
Feng Wenlan, second-level inspector of the Propaganda Department of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, Chen Zheng, secretary of the party group and executive vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Wang Zi, member of the party group and vice chairman of the Nanjing Federation of Literary and Art Circles, Jiang Xiaodong, member of the party committee and deputy general manager of Nanjing Cultural Investment Group, and Chen Weiguo, secretary general of the Shizhuzhai Brand Protection and Inheritance Committee, attended the seminar.
Chen Zheng said that Nanjing, as the world's "literary capital", has always attached great importance to literary creation, and has set up the Nanjing Art Fund since 2018 to support and promote major themes and key creations, and many outstanding works have won literary awards inside and outside the province. The publication of "Ten Bamboo Zhai Codes" is an important achievement of the 2023 Nanjing Art Fund. In this seminar, in addition to the discussion of the "Ten Bamboo Zhai Code", it is also hoped that Nanjing's prosperous cultural context, profoundness, heritage and Nanjing's excellent traditional culture will be continued and disseminated in both depth and breadth, and it is hoped that more authors will adhere to Nanjing's writing, tell Nanjing's stories well, and create more good works that meet the requirements of the times, so as to make Nanjing's literary career more brilliant.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Nan
Proofreading Tao Shangong