About the author
Fang Jixiao: Honorary Librarian of Lu Xun Museum, Beijing. He is the author of "Chen Mengjia's Past", "The Whereabouts of Chen Duxiu's Manuscripts", "Xu Zhimo and China's Kangqiao", etc.; the essay collection "Old Ink Records - The Ink and Past of Century Scholars", "The Second Record of Old Ink - The Inkblots and Past Events of Century Scholars", etc.; the compilation of "Mr. Chen Duxiu's Testament"; the collection of academic papers "Character Treasures - Collection and Appreciation of Celebrity Letters" (co-authored). "Old Ink Records - The Inkblots and Past Events of Century Scholars" was named "China's Most Beautiful Book" in 2006. "Mr. Chen Duxiu's Testament" was nominated for the 2007 Wenjin Award of the National Library of China.
This article was published in the September issue of the Beijing Chronicle, which was originally titled "The Father of Zhang Ga, a Little Soldier" in Beijing
Xu Guangyao's literary achievements have great roots in Beijing.
From October 1950 to September 1958, Xu Guangyao studied and lived in Beijing for eight years. In the past 8 years, Xu Guangyao has experienced the infinite scenery of the clouds, but also felt the torment and pain of the valley bottom, where he compiled his grand literary dream.
One
In July 1938, Xu Guangyao joined the Eighth Route Army, when Xu Guangyao was only 13 years old, the same age as his little soldier Zhang Ga. In the late autumn of 1939, Xu Guangyao was transferred from the special service battalion to the garrison brigade and worked as a clerk in the Hoe rape section. He performed very well in the army, joining the Chinese Communist Party in the year he joined the army, experiencing many major battles, and quickly growing from a "little red devil" to a strong revolutionary fighter.
During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Guangyao participated in more than 100 battles, large and small, and faced many sacrifices, but this never shook his revolutionary convictions. In July 1945, Xu Guangyao was awarded the "May Day" Medal of the Second Class. On the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Guangyao left the hoeing department and went to the headquarters of the Eleventh Division (formerly the Sixth Division) as a military reporting staff officer, and Xu Guangyao was one step closer to his literary dream.
Inscription for the author's monograph
During the Liberation War, Xu Guangyao began to fight with a pen. On March 29, 1946, Xu Guangyao was transferred to the Propaganda Department of the Political Department as a photojournalist, and later to the Frontline Drama Company as the deputy head of the creative group, not only to the front line to interview, write, but also to participate in the theater company's performance on the front line. On January 10, 1947, Xu Guangyao went to the Literature Department of the North China United University to study, where he met many literary masters, the biggest help to him should be Chen Qixia and Xiao Yin, Xu Guangyao soon grew from a literary and artistic warrior who could only write newsletters to a military writer. Soon Xu Guangyao was transferred to Yang Chengwu's North China Third Corps to run the Battlefield Express. At the end of June 1949, Xu Guangyao was stationed in Tianjin with his troops, and in early July, he took a leave of absence to concentrate on the creation of the novel "Plain Fire".
In October 1950, Xu Guangyao came to Beijing to study at the Central Institute of Literature. At the beginning of the founding of New China, the Central Institute of Literature was the predecessor of Lu Xun Literature Institute, and the first director, Ding Ling, and Zhang Tianyi, deputy director, were considered to be the Huangpu Military Academy in the field of new Chinese literature. Before the Institute of Communications Research, Xu Guangyao's novel "Plain Fire" had just been published, which was the first novel to reflect the life of the War of Resistance after the founding of New China.
Speaking of "Plain Fire", it should be conceived in Tianjin and born in Beijing. On July 7, 1949, on the anniversary of the outbreak of the All-out War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Xu Guangyao took a leave of absence to concentrate on the creation of "Plain Fire", and completed the first draft in only 44 days. At that time, Xu Guangyao was working as a reporter for the 20th Corps of the Xinhua News Agency, and taking advantage of the opportunity to go to Beijing to cover the Autumn Games of the North China Military Region, he brought the first draft to Beijing, hoping that his teachers Chen Qixia and Xiao Yin when he was studying at the North China United University would see it and give guidance. Chen Qixia read the manuscript in only 3 days and told Xu Guangyao that he had written well and that it was enough to publish, but it was better to revise and revise, and asked for fast revision.
Xu Guangyao returned to Tianjin and quickly revised the manuscript, and immediately sent it to Chen Qixia, and after reading the revised draft, Chen Qixia Shuangli asked Xu Guangyao to go to Beijing to revise the draft in person. After entering Beijing, Xu Guangyao finally revised the manuscript under the guidance of Chen Qixia. At the same time, Chen Qixia also asked the factory residents (Yan Chen) to extract one of the chapters, named "Zhou Tiehan", which was first published in the first volume of the fourth issue of "People's Literature" in 1950, and the factory residents also added introductory articles and comments. Chen Qixia was particularly enthusiastic about the publication of "Plain Fire", and for the title of "Plain Fire", he pulled together the factory people, Qin Zhaoyang, and others to name the book, discussed it for more than an hour, and dozens of names were named, but they were not satisfied, or Qin Zhaoyang said a few names, and finally adopted the "Plain Fire" he said. In June 1950, "Plain Fire" was first published by Sanlian Publishing House, and it met with readers in Beijing. In March 1951, the People's Literature Publishing House was established in Beijing, and in May of the same year, it began to publish books, and the first book published was Xu Guangyao's "Plain Fire".
Ninety-six years old left ink treasure
"Plain Fire" brought great glory to Xu Guangyao, and many universities and middle schools at that time asked Xu Guangyao to make a report. In March 1953, Xu Guangyao joined the National Literary Association, and on April 6, 1953, Xu Guangyao graduated from the Institute of Literature and Research. From June 10 to 15 of the same year, he participated in the National Youth Congress and was elected as an alternate member; from September 23 to October 6, he participated in the Second National Cultural Congress and ascended the Tiananmen Square Observation Platform on National Day.
Probably young and successful, he published a long novel in his 20s, so Xu Guangyao was very appreciated by Ding Ling during his study at the Central Institute of Literature. At that time, there was a saying that there was Xu Guangyao in the army, there was Chen Dengke in the locality, and there was a li na in the female writer, which meant that the three of them were particularly appreciated by Ding Ling.
Two
At the Institute of Literature and Research, Xu Guangyao felt the greatest honor that he was selected to join the delegation of Chinese writers to visit the Soviet Union and visit the Soviet Union, which was indeed the supreme honor at that time. The head of the delegation was Feng Xuefeng, the deputy heads of the delegation were Cao Jinghua and Chen Huangmei, Chen Qixia was the secretary general, and the members of the delegation included Sun Li, Wei Wei, Kang Mao, Li Ji, Liu Qing, and Hu Ke. Among the 16-member delegation, everyone else was a writer of certain qualifications, and Xu Kuan Yew was the youngest of them.
Shortly after returning from a visit to the Soviet Union, Xu Guangyao applied to Ding Ling to experience life on the korean front line in person, which was approved. Xu Guangyao entered the DPRK in April 1952, returned to China in December, spent more than 8 months in the Korean battlefield, has been at the forefront of the battle interviews, personally experienced dozens of battles of all sizes, and has always been touched by the heroic volunteer soldiers to defend the country and not be afraid of sacrifice. A few years later, in 1955, at the National Congress of Young Activists for Socialist Construction during the National Day, Xu Guangyao was immediately moved by the deeds of Liao Yixun, a soldier to resist US aggression and aid Korea, a special disabled soldier, and a "Chinese paul." So Xu Guangyao interviewed Liao Yixun three times and wrote the reportage "An Unfinished Book", which was published in the "People's Liberation Army Literature and Art", and later received the collection of essays "Calling Difficulties and Bowing Down". Xu Guangyao has also maintained a deep friendship with the Liao Yixun family.
From July 1953 to January 1955, Xu Guangyao went to his hometown of Xiongxian county as a military officer to engage in a primary agricultural cooperative, serving as the deputy secretary of the third district party committee. In his rural hometown, he ate, lived and worked with the masses of the people, and he was infected by the people's high enthusiasm for building socialism, and wrote "Trees and Warblers", "Old Tao", "Blind Date", "Tradition", "Silly Cow" and so on, which reflected rural life. After returning to Beijing, he began to conceive and write a novel reflecting the agricultural cooperative movement in his hometown, "The Rushing Daqing River" (Daqing River is xu Guangyao's mother river, which runs through the old county town).
Signed first day cover
In 1955, Xu Guangyao, Hu Ke and Du Feng were transferred to the Ministry of Culture of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army to engage in professional creation. In December of the same year, the Cultural Department of the General Political Department of the People's Liberation Army set up a creative studio, with Yu Ji as the director and Wei Wei as the deputy director, and the members were selected and transferred by the military regions. On January 6, 1956, the creative studio was officially established. The following are Wei Wei, Hu Ke, Du Feng, Xu Guangyao, Han Feng, Lin Liuqi, Han Xiliang, Ding Yi, Guo Guang, Shi Chao, Lu Zhuguo, Xi Hong, Shen Mojun, Li Bai and others. Xu Guangyao, Hu Ke, and Du Feng were transferred from the North China Military Region. Xu Guangyao, Hu Ke and Du Feng were assigned a single courtyard at No. 15 Da'er Hutong. On September 11, 1956, the three families moved into No. 15 Da'er Hutong, hu ke lived in the north room, Xu Guangyao lived in the east wing, and Du Feng lived in the south wing. From Gulou East Street to Jingshan Back Street to Da Xiang Feng to Da Er HuTong No. 15, from the Large Miscellaneous Courtyard to the relatively independent courtyard, Xu Guangyao finally had a stable home, a peaceful nest, and could create more steadily.
Here Xu Guangyao really wants to "show his grand plan". Soon he completed the first draft of the 198,000-word draft of "Rushing Daqinghe", and was also working on two other novels that had already been written, one was "The General Came to Us" and the other was "Tunnel Warfare". The origin of these two novels is General Kuangfu zhao. Xu Guangyao joined the Eighth Route Army in July 1938, which was the same age as his little Gazi joining the Eighth Route Army, and soon after joining the army, Xu Guangyao came to the garrison brigade where Kuang Fuzhao was the political commissar. Kuang Fuzhao liked and trusted this "little ghost" who could write and fight very much, and under the leadership of Kuang Fuzhao, Xu Guangyao quickly became a strong revolutionary fighter from a red ghost. Xu Guangyao had great respect for Kuang Fu Zhao, and he felt that Kuang Fu Zhao was the epitome of that generation of revolutionary soldiers, and he was determined to write a long novel based on Kuang Fu Zhao, called "Kuang Fu Zhao", which was later changed to "The General Comes to Us".
In 1950, Xu Guangyao, who was still working as a reporter in the Corps, went to the 67th Army, where Kuang Fuzhao was the political commissar, to conduct an interview, but was temporarily "arrested" by Kuang Fuzhao and followed him to Tangshan to inspect the production of the salt and fishing grounds of the troops. This time, Xu Guangyao was "caught" and gained a lot, and Kuang Fuzhao promised Xu Guangyao to lend xu Guangyao his diary to see, which was the best material for "The General Came to Us". On the way to Tangshan, Kuang Fuzhao told Xu Guangyao about his experience of creatively carrying out tunnel warfare in Xiongxian Mi's household chores, which made Xu Guangyao feel both magical and excited, and he was simply drunk. The inventor of tunnel warfare was so full of wisdom that later Xu Guangyao collected a lot of information on the invention of tunnel warfare in Xiongxian Mi, using tunnel warfare to fight against Japanese devils, and prepared to write a "tunnel warfare".
In the past few years in Beijing, Xu Guangyao has been collecting materials to write these two novels, "The General Comes to Us" has written a part, and "Tunnel Warfare" has also started writing early. Finally becoming a "professional writer", Xu Guangyao, who was immersed in the creation of No. 15 Da'er Hutong, would not have thought of the changes in society, and soon after he would be beaten into the right, the fate of the three novels was not good, and later even the manuscripts were lost. It is a pity and sad that the three novels that were supposed to have been born at No. 15 Big Ear Hutong in Beijing actually "disappeared". More than 20 years later, in the 1970s, after the rehabilitation, Xu Guangyao tried to rewrite "The General Comes to Us" with a pen, but the world changed with time, and the times changed, which was already an impossible thing.
Three
On January 23, 1958, Xu Guangyao began to write "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", initially named "Liu Gude'er", later changed to "Zhang GuDe'er", and finally named "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", and completed the writing of the novel and script of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" in just over a month.
In the autumn of 1961, Zhang Qingtian, the editor of Hebei Literature, published "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" (novel) in the joint issue of Hebei Literature in November and December 1961 (No. 6-7). As soon as the novel was published, it caused a strong response and was very popular with readers. At the beginning of writing, perhaps Xu Guangyao never expected that the little Gazi he was supposed to use to survive really came alive under his pen, and it was extremely alive. The image of Xiao Gazi is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" has become an indelible red classic in the hearts of generations.
In May 1962, the China Children's Publishing House published a single edition of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", and only three months later, the China Children's Publishing House began to reprint "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", printing tens of thousands of copies. In 1964, an English translation of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" was published. At the same time as the publication of the monograph, the Beijing Evening News serialized "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" from May to July. The film literary script of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" was also published in the 6th issue of Film Creation in 1962, and in June 1964, the China Film Publishing House published a single version of the script. In December 1963, the Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House published the comic strip "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", and since then various versions of the "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" comic strip have been published continuously, and among the comic strips of the same title, the comic strip version of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" is not the most, but it is certainly one of the most.
After the novel was published, Xu Guangyao sent the script to the famous director Cui Wei. Director Ouyang Hongying saw the novel of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", was deeply infected and moved, she felt that if "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" was made into a movie, it would be a great success, so she went to Baoding to find Xu Guangyao and wanted to adapt "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" into a movie. Xu Guangyao told Ouyang Hongying that the script had been available and handed over to Cui Wei, at which time Cui Wei also realized the importance of making this movie.
According to Cui Song's proposal, in order to revise the script more perfectly, the Beijing Film Studio invited Xu Guangyao to Beijing to revise the script. The film script for "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" was finally completed in Beijing.
Everything is available, and when the film was filmed, the actor who chose to play Zhang Gazi encountered difficulties. The film crew rushed to the cover image of the novel "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" "according to Tu Suoji", and selected more than 80 children, Cui Wei looked at it, they all looked "handsome", thinking that Gazi could be a tiger, but it was more important to highlight his "Ga", even if it was ugly, it didn't matter. When he was struggling to choose an actor, Yu Lan helped solve this problem. Yu Lan gave Cui Wei a photo and recommended Angis to Cui Wei. The child's super thick eyebrows and face on the photo, Cui Wei hit it at a glance, the thing is so coincidental, it is really nowhere to step on the iron shoes. Cui Wei immediately sent someone from Hohhot to bring Angis to Beijing. As a result, Angis, who had no acting skills, really played the eccentric little Gazi under the guidance of Cui Wei.
The film, co-directed by Cui Wei and Ouyang Hongying, starring Angis, Zhang Ying, Ge Cunzhuang and Yu Zhongyi, was filmed at the end of 1963 and released nationwide. As expected, the film caused a sensation as soon as it was released, and it was screened for a long time and received rave reviews. The film's re-creation of "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" has pushed "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" to a higher climax, so that more people know "Little Gazi". "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" has influenced and educated generations, and the image of Zhang Gazi has become an indelible classic.
Four
At the beginning of the new century, Xu Guangyao, who had passed the age of ancient rarity, wrote his documentary essay "Last Night's West Wind Withered Bishu", which truly recorded his mental journey in Beijing in the 1950s. In 2001, the essay collection "Last Night's West Wind Withered Bishu" won the Lu Xun Literature Award.
Xu Guangyao is a famous writer and a person who is good at telling stories, because he is a person with a story. He personally experienced the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the War of Liberation, the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and the War of Self-Defense and Counterattack in Southern Xinjiang, and experienced the vicissitudes and changes of China in the past century. Some people say that Xu Guangyao is a life-oriented writer, and he himself does not object, because he has always insisted on the creation of realist literature that casts the soul for cangsheng, writing about the people he loves and writing about his familiar life. The story of the Beijing period is undoubtedly the most dream-filled, idealistic, and most ups and downs and touching story in Xu Guangyao's life, and the literary tree that could have flourished has been ruthlessly broken off many branches, fortunately there is still such a tenacious vitality, which is Xu Guangyao's luck and the reader's luck.
In the late 1990s, Xu Guangyao donated the manuscripts of "Plain Fire" and "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" to the Museum of Modern Chinese Literature. The manuscripts of "Plain Fire" and "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" went through several rounds with Xu Guangyao, and finally returned to Beijing, which is fate and "consummation".
Text/Fang Jixiao
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