Zhang Jie, born in 1937, is a native of Fushun, Liaoning. After graduating from Chinese University in 1960, she went to work in the First Industrial Machinery Department, and this life experience laid the foundation for her later creation of "Heavy Wings" against the background of economic reform in the industrial sector... This work on reform has been revised many times, and like the content of the work, it reflects the hardships of the early reform and opening up in the 1980s... The revised edition of the book won the second Mao Dun Literature Award in 1984. Here's my comment on the fourth revision of the book that year...
Zhang Jie
Contemporary life, like a kaleidoscope of flowers, is brilliant and colorful.
The reform on the land of China is like the rushing tide of the sea, and the back wave urges the front wave, and the wave is higher than the wave.
Reflecting contemporary life, writers need to use the color pen of art; to depict the current reform, not only need the color pen to fly, but also need the writer's strong passion of the times, and need the writer to have a spirit of reform.
Zhang Jie's "Heavy Wings" (published by the People's Literature Publishing House) is the first novel to reflect the economic reform in the new period of socialism in China. Since its publication in 1981, the author has revised it four times; the most recent time, it has made comprehensive additions, deletions, and rewrites, which have made significant improvements in ideology and art.
"Heavy Wings" is a picture of the colorful life of the times, and an artistic reproduction of the surging wave of reform. Therefore, this novel is worthy of our careful study and analysis.
Zhang Jie wrote "Heavy Wings" The First Edition of the People's Literature Publishing House
First, the main contradiction and the environment of the times
Reform is something that the people want, the trend of the times, and the concern of everyone. Rigidity, conservatism and reform, adherence to stereotypes and respect for reality, and testing truth with practice are a contest between two ideological viewpoints and two social forces since the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and a major contradiction that is obvious in real life. This contradiction in real life will inevitably penetrate into all corners and various fields of people's daily activities. Creations that reflect contemporary life, especially works that reflect reform, cannot but highlight and depict this contradiction, and cannot but inadvertently outline this environment. Zhang Jie, with the keen feelings of female writers, timely captures this major contradiction in reality and quickly composes it into a chapter, showing the rich changes in the reform process and its spectacular scenery; her novel "Heavy Wings" is outstanding in this regard.
In this novel, up and down, left and right, all kinds of characters from all walks of life, all of them are involved in the whirlpool of reform life. However, these streams in life reflect and show the changing traces and essential features of the great currents of the times from different angles, different aspects, at different levels, and in different ranges. The streams of the stream, arranging and rendering a strong atmosphere of life, constitute the typical environment of the real society; the great current of the times, reflecting the essential characteristics of our society, marks the forward direction of historical development. The main contradiction is that in the background and support of the environment of the times, it shows its own distinctive characteristics; these two are mutually causal, complementary, and complementary. The novel reflects the life of the times, and it must grasp the focus and core of the main contradiction, and at the same time, it must also place the main contradiction in the typical environment of real life. In this way, we can deeply excavate the essence of social history and fully display the colorful life of the times. "Heavy Wings" is to try to arrange the relationship between the two, revealing its own unique style and distinctive characteristics of reflecting life with art.
In order to effectively show the living environment and the style of the times, the novel begins with a method that is significantly different from the traditional means of expression, starting from writing about life, starting from the special family of the journalist Ye Zhiqiu and the specific environment around his life, starting from zheng Ziyun, deputy secretary of the party group and executive deputy director of the Ministry of Heavy Industry, who is preparing to interview zheng Ziyun, who advocates reform, around Zheng Ziyun step by step to reveal the central contradictions of the real society, using a radial structural method to arrange and depict all aspects of the era environment: In the ministry, The sharp contradiction between Zheng Ziyun and the conservative minister Tian Shoucheng and the powerful forces he represented gradually became apparent; in the working relationship, Zheng Ziyun credited and supported the bold reforms of Chen Yongming, the director of the Shuguang Automobile Factory, and his various measures, resolutely refuted the distortion of facts and deliberately created chaos by Song Ke, director of the × Bureau, and launched a severe contest against some of the obstructionists he represented; in the automobile factory, Chen Yongming and his supporters, young workers Yang Xiaodong (later promoted to workshop director), Wu Bin, Lu Zhimin, etc., In society, Ye Zhiqiu and his adopted son Mo Zheng, Wu Guodong's wife and barber Liu Yuying, the painter, and Wu Guodong's fellow patients when he was hospitalized, their various ideological reactions to the reform, their different views, attitudes, and practices; in the family, Zheng Ziyun and his walking dead wife Xia Zhujun, who has different beds and dreams, and strives to follow the character, pursuit, and pursuit of today's young people. The desire to fall in love, the little daughter yuanyuan who requires an independent life, the huge differences and differences between them... These fully describe how different the experiences, paths, lives, and situations of different characters are, and how different their thoughts, realizations, feelings, and understandings are; these are all the waves and waves of life, and everywhere are the streams and streams of the times. From these waves and waves, from these streams and streams, can't they all reflect the colorful colors of the times and sparkle the colors of life!? These constitute all aspects of the environment of the times, and surround the main contradictions, forming a strong atmosphere of the times and outlining a panoramic image of social life. The main contradiction of the novel is to unfold in such a multi-layered and multi-faceted environment of the times, and it is a live drama of the times in which sharp and fierce reform forces and conservative forces are performed in such a specific background. Through this kind of artistic expression, the face of today's era can be vividly displayed, and the rich colors and diverse postures of the life of the times are fully displayed in front of people; the spirit of the times and its profound ideological content and social significance embodied therefrom are extremely dazzling and moving, and we naturally enter the artistic world arranged by the writer, breathe with the times, and share joys and sorrows with the people, so that we are deeply conquered by the artistic charm of "Heavy Wings".
Zhang Jie wrote "Heavy Wings" Revised Edition of people's literature publishing house in 1984
Second, the character image and character relationship
Novels need to create a variety of characters, through their activities to uncover contradictions and struggles, show the picture of life. Characters, on the other hand, live in an intricate web of social relationships. Therefore, arranging various complex relationships between characters often has a particularly important role and significance for depicting the life of the times and portraying the character of the characters.
Character personality is forged by the social life of the times; character relationship is a natural combination of various relationships of objective reality. To create a good character image and arrange the relationship between the characters, we must follow the natural laws of life itself. Therefore, only when the writer is immersed in the torrent of contemporary social life, participates in various social changes with the posture of a master, and carries strong feelings and distinct love and hatred, can he capture all kinds of representative characters in time, can he deeply understand and recognize various complex social relations and character relationships, so as to skillfully weave this relationship into a plot and vividly present these characters on paper.
Zhang Jie often maintains a keen eye and a clear insight into life, clearly excavates the essence of life, and explores the essence of contradictions without any discomfort. Therefore, the characters she wrote in "Heavy Wings" are one by one with a strong breath of the torrent of the times; the relationship between these characters, you and me, me and him, he and you, like a spider's web, interwoven with longitude and latitude, crisscrossing, is both eight-sided radiation, but also can be gathered in a central focus, powerfully showing the main tide of life and the characteristics of the times.
In the novel, the main characters in which the writer pours all his heat and affection into it are Zheng Ziyun and Chen Yongming. The two were superior-subordinate, with an age difference of about ten years, but both were independently responsible for one aspect of their work and were strong reformers. The pursuit of career executives, diligence, enthusiasm, dare to say dare to be responsible, there are many common things in their thoughts, temperaments and personalities. In the current cause of reform, in order to arouse all the enthusiasm of people and promote the rapid development of industrial production, the two men stand on the same line. But the experiences and situations of the two, especially their personal personalities and family life, are very different. Although Zheng Ziyun worked in the leading department, his personality was very stubborn, and even sometimes extreme; he was bold and upright, but sometimes he inevitably produced a certain cowardly feeling from the heart; in the fog-like political competition, in the extremely delicate personnel relations, although he disregarded his own interests, he also had moments of confusion when he ran into a wall, but he never showed weakness; he had a serious heart attack, but he always forgot everything and rarely considered himself when he worked. Chen Yongming is as sincere and frank as a child, very vigorous and quite composed; when he is doing work, he throws himself down and lays down his life to do it, but occasionally he can't help but complain to the leaders; he thinks of everything for the enterprise and the workers before himself, and never plans for himself; he can mingle with ordinary workers and young people, understand them deeply, and can breathe with them and share a common destiny. He also has a harmonious and beautiful family, and the relationship with his wife Yu Liwen is sincere and the love is very strong, which is in stark contrast to the appearance of Zheng Ziyun's family life, which only maintains a superficial husband and wife relationship. In the description of the work, Zheng Ziyun and Chen Yongming both live in sharp and fierce contradictions and conflicts, intricate personnel relations, it can be said that they are the tide of life, the promoters of the main tide of the times, the leaders of the masses, the backbone of today's society and the heroic character in the current reform. This is a category.
The other category is the antithesis of the reformers. The main representative was Tian Shoucheng, minister of the Ministry of Heavy Industry. He is a man of the wind faction who has two sides and three swords and turns the wind and turns the rudder; he is a Lilu who values the official hat and self-interest above everything else; and he is also a schemer who makes good use of power and is duplicitous. Reform is not reform, he does not care, but is concerned about whether his personal position of power can be maintained, therefore, all his words and deeds, behavior, always first explore the direction of the wind, look at the climate, and then decide whether to take a step or not, and how to take the question. In order to preserve his vested interests, he must appoint confidants, win people's hearts, deal with them skillfully, and form gangs. In this way, the reformer, who shares the worries of the future of the country and the interests of the people, naturally becomes the antagonist between him and the forces he represents; they are contradictory and sharply opposed in terms of political standpoint, ideology, moral sentiment, world outlook and outlook on life. Therefore, Tian Shoucheng first suppressed and belittled the role and contribution of the reformists, and at a certain time he tried to appropriate the achievements of the reformers for himself; in order to strike at the strength of the reformers, he tried every means to try to make Zheng Ziyun a deputy to the Twelfth National Congress of the Party. What's more, when Zheng Ziyun was admitted to the intensive care unit due to myocardial infarction, he actually had a feeling of "victory" from schadenfreude, and was full of confidence in the "future" for himself to have one less opponent... The novel does not avoid contradictions and dares to describe this opposition head-on, so the portrayal of the character of Tian Shoucheng has considerable depth of thought. Of course, from a higher point of view, this artistic image is still somewhat insufficient in terms of personalization, and his development to the current state, its historical reasons and ideological roots are not written enough, so that people feel that the flesh and blood are not full enough, and the image is not strong enough.
Another category is other relevant cadres and ordinary people and various figures in society around the above-mentioned contradictions and struggles. Among the vice ministers, there were Wang Fangliang and Kong Xiang; among the cadres of the Ministry of Heavy Industry, there were Fang Wenxuan and Feng Xiaoxian, Song Ke, He Jiabin, Guo Hongcai and He Ting, Xiao Yi and Ji Hengquan; in the automobile factory, there were Wu Guodong, Li Ruilin and Dong Dashan, Yang Xiaodong, Wu Bin and Lu Zhimin; among others, there were Ye Zhiqiu and Mo Zheng, Zheng Yuanyuan, Yu Liwen, Liu Yuying and Xia Zhujun, and so on. They are also involved in the current trend of reform from different angles and in different aspects. They, either actively engaged in this contest in the spirit of revolutionary masters, or express their attitudes with strong political sensitivity, or are forced to express their own views for their own interests, or have to choose their own positions because of the involvement of events, and will naturally have a centripetal force or centrifugal force toward the reformers or conservative backwards, and there will be a clear expression of love and hatred for themselves or for or against. At the same time, almost everyone, without exception, has been washed in the soul and purified in this wave of reform. This can also be said from another point of view: these characters naturally constitute a complex relationship as dense as a spider's web, and its entangled phenomena are dizzying in all areas of society. Almost every one of them is related to all parts and aspects of society, entangled, interdependent, and mutually restrictive, so as to show the unique personalities of different characters in various complex relationships, and promote the change and development of various relationships and the advancement of contradictions and conflicts layer by layer. Character relations reflect the relationship between society, the times, different ideologies, and different contradictions and struggles. This is the network of social relations of reality. These relationships, in the artistic depiction of "Heavy Wings", through the shaping of the character image and the depiction of the relationship between the characters, powerfully show the development process of today's times and the face of social progress. Thus, to a certain extent, this work has become a microcosm of our society and era today.
Heavy Wings has been reprinted many times
Third, the character's soul and the style of the times
The soul of the character is the eye of society and the window of the times. Clearly and accurately reflecting the character's spiritual activities, delicately and truly depicting the character's spiritual reaction, often can effectively express the characteristics of social life style and changes in the times. Zhang Jie has played the strength of female writers in this regard, and with her keen and unique sensitivity and observation, she has timely captured and excavated the spiritual changes and subtle reactions of the characters of the times, thus making "Heavy Wings" show a strong life atmosphere and characteristics of the times.
You see, the director of the factory, Chen Yongming, complained to Minister Tian Shoucheng (pp. 300-304). He was telling the truth. Every sentence shows his revolutionary vigor of daring to think and dare to act, his efforts to turn the tide of decline and turn losses into profits after he went to the factory, his improvement of the production environment, his respect for the labor of the workers, and his concern for the lives of the masses; at the same time, this complaint, every sentence is a criticism of bureaucracy. Criticism of unhealthy trends, the impact on those who hinder reform. These words can only be said by Chen Yongming, who is completely sincere to the party's cause and is bright and upright, and only the reformers who shoulder the heavy responsibility of the times and history can do them. How unmistakably this complaint revealed Chen Yongming's frank mind and noble character; in contrast, Tian Shoucheng's smooth selfishness, the deep city government, the exquisiteness of the eight sides, and the humble character and clumsy deeds of dealing with Yuru seemed despicable! From this minister, we see the shadow of some old bureaucrats in the new period; from Chen Yongming's spiritual reaction and ideological character, we deeply feel that a heat of the current era has spread throughout the body, inspiring people's spirits and inspiring people to forge ahead!
On the issue of treating the deputies to the Twelfth National Congress, the novel's psychological description of Tian Shoucheng and Zheng Ziyun is also quite wonderful:
(Tian Shoucheng): Deputy to the Twelfth National Congress, say that nothing can let Zheng Ziyun go up. The first round is not yet a fixed number, the matter is man-made. This may be his last attempt, and it is impossible to have another one. Chance, age, and situation are not right. If he was destined to sink, he would have to drag Zheng Ziyun along to sink before he could count it as ben. Honestly, who is he worse than? How good is Zheng Ziyun than him? Now, want to unload and kill the donkey?! He Tian Shoucheng still did the work!
Let him stretch his neck and wait for the knife to fall? Joke. Nor do you look at who he is. The chick stomped his legs a few times before he died!
- p. 347
(Zheng Ziyun): In order to gain the freedom to fight with Tian Shoucheng, he made six retirement reports. Officials can be improper, but the deputies of the Twelfth Congress must not be, not for personal reasons, but for the sake of fighting. He felt that after the Third Plenum... The "leftists" who have always been correct in successive movements, the remnants of the "whatever factions", the remnants of the "Gang of Four", are accumulating into a social force that has not improved the lives of the people of the cities fast enough; Causing dissatisfaction among the masses of the people, etc., all boil down to the wrong line of the Third Plenary Session. Mingli did not dare to say it, so he had to oppose the spirit of the Third Plenary Session under the banner of four insistences. In fact, the four insistences are completely consistent with the spirit of the Third Plenum, and without the four adherences, where can there be a Third Plenum? But now it's someone who wants to split it.
As soon as he thought of this, Zheng Ziyun felt a thousand emotions.
- p. 358
In this chapter, in the novel's artistic depiction of the formal contest and showdown between the two forces, the reformers and the those who hinder the reformers are really strongly contrasted and clearly distinguished: politically, one adheres to the party's principles and always thinks about the spirit of the Third Plenum; the other is yin and yang, verbally supporting, but not in the heart. Ideologically, one completely regards the party's cause and the interests of the people as the criterion for its own actions, and the other completely ignores the party and the people, and in order to preserve its own power and position, everything can be done at any cost. In character, one is so resolute and upright, with a sincere and fiery heart, because he has put everything about the individual aside; the other is strong in the outside, hypocritical and fierce. Because he only thinks about personal gains and losses. Aren't the two different political attitudes and ideological viewpoints of the reformers and the obstructionists, the two different world outlooks and outlooks on life, and the two different positions and methods of understanding problems and handling problems exactly the living reality around us today?!
Look at the phone call that Director He Ting made to Vice Minister Kong Xiang for her second daughter's work in Beijing. When Kong Xiang made a formal statement that the children left behind after the death of a cadre needed to be taken care of, the work wrote:
...... How does she go down? And how to take a stand? Did Kong Xiang deliberately pinch her?
On He Ting's white face, uneven red spots suddenly flew up, like urticaria. She really wanted to smash the phone microphone in her hand with a bang.
But she can't do that...
Scolding in my heart: What a fake!
At the beginning, Kong Xiang's son-in-law, a college student who had only studied one class struggle class, did not rely on her strength to arrange for her to come to this unit! These people crossed rivers and demolished bridges and did not pay attention to conscience.
...... In these years, whoever is honest, who suffers losses.
…………
Regardless of what he meant, she now had to pretend to be stupid, and the camera had to subtly remind him: Don't forget what's going on with yourself!
"Yes! Those three children really should be taken care of. Arranging individuals now is not as difficult as it was in the previous two years. Many new research units have been established, and as long as they have real skills, there are still places to arrange. Alas, if it weren't for the difficulties in my family, I wouldn't have been able to open my mouth. After working for so many years, I have never made a fuss about myself. The more one's own business, the more difficult it is to do, unlike doing things for others, and being open-minded and having no worries. In my case, you know, the patient number in the family, just take him to the hospital, carry him up and down, it is difficult enough. Not to mention the difficulties in other areas. I am also a section chief, and now it is the time to do the 'four modernizations', and it is not easy to explain which point is worse than the masses. Carrying such a big burden really affects my work. How can you do without a helper? Anyway, I have no other way, and I have not learned to go through the back door, only rely on the old leader, do not need me to say more, you also understand my difficulties. Well, if you don't have a good job, don't be embarrassed, and if you have any chances in the future, just think of your daughter!
The tone of his voice over there immediately changed, and he remembered the human feelings that had not been returned. , forget about her father. Let her play! ”
- pp. 324-326
It's a wonderful piece of text. Walking through the back door, unhealthy winds, and the relationship between people are all transactions; here, it is all one word: private. He Ting's demeanor and tone of softness on the outside and hardness on the inside, a stable victory, a handle in her hand, and an implicit threat, are so vivid and vivid, such as at present. For her work, she can completely ignore it, she is a bureaucrat; for herself, she is deliberate and painstaking, and in order to achieve her goal, she can really be called a "warrior". Kong Xiang's kind of lofty, official,holding a shelf, posing with a mighty look, how pretentious his appearance is, but in fact he is so fierce and inward-looking, no wonder He Ting saw through it at a glance, and continued to attack him without fear, and the result was broken as soon as he attacked. "Don't look at this old man, he is confused, confused, he has left the secretary, he can't say it clearly, and the concept of 'black hat' is clear." He Ting had a number in mind, and her understanding of Kong Xiang could be counted as three points. On the surface, the two seem to have different ideas, resulting in contradictions, but in fact, the two people's thinking is the same: they are just two personalities, two statuses, two angles and two ways of dealing with problems, and their essence is completely the same.
Chapters like the above, we can find a lot of works. For example, from Ye Zhiqiu, He Jiabin, Mo Zheng, Zheng Yuanyuan, Liu Yuying, Wu Guodong, Wang Fangliang, Yang Xiaodong and other figures, their psychological reactions and behavioral performances in various contradictions and conflicts can quite fully reflect the variety and richness of the life outlook of our times, reflect the distinctive characteristics of the times and the strong atmosphere of life. Therefore, although "Heavy Wings" is not perfect in terms of artistic structure, lacks the proper echo of the layout of some characters, and some discussions are still wandering away from the characters and plots, we say that one of its important artistic achievements is to provide our readers with a fairly weighty, contemporary, colorful picture of contemporary life.
"Heavy Wings" was selected into the 70 years of New China's 70-year long novel collection
After the publication and publication of "Heavy Wings", some of its plots and discussions have been criticized a lot. What is valuable is that the author was able to absorb everyone's correct opinions or the reasonable factors of certain opinions, and after several repeated and serious deliberations and revisions, as Zhang Guangnian said in the revised "Preface", "After a large amount of effort to save the essence, the temple people have a refreshing feeling." "There have been significant improvements in thinking, art and language use.
Re-reading "Heavy Wings", I think that Zhang Jie used her own artistic color pen to persistently praise "people dedicated to the reform of the industrial front system", "In creative practice, she herself has also carried out new and new reforms ideologically and artistically." (Zhang Guangnian: "Preface") Writes about reform in the spirit of reform. Such efforts deserve our full recognition and praise.
I think it is precisely because the writer has this spirit of realism and unremitting artistic pursuit that this novel can finally show the splendor and colorfulness of today's social life so timely and so intensely!
This is the first novel in our country to reflect the reform life in the new era, but its luster is still so bright and so tempting!
The economic leap of China's modernization drive, although the future is full of difficulties and hardships, the wings are still quite heavy, but after all, we are flying towards a prosperous and brilliant future!
Zhang Jie has won the Mao Dun Literature Award twice, the only one so far.
Revised according to a review written on October 14, 1984