Yang Shuo, Liu Baiyu, Qin Mu: The prose life of "Three Greats"

What is "prose"? Regarding the definition of this concept, there have always been different voices in the literary world. Yu Dafu once said that there was no "prose" in ancient China, and this concept arose from translation. In fact, the word "prose" is recorded in the Southern Song Dynasty Luo Dajing's "Crane Forest Yulu", which is the opposite of "shisao", which refers to the text without rhyme, that is, the "pen without rhyme" proposed by the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

However, as an independent genre, prose is indeed a new product of entering the modern era, especially marked by the promotion of "beautiful literature" during the "May Fourth" literary revolution. Yu Dafu proposed that modern prose, unlike ancient texts, is "a reconciliation of human nature, sociality and nature." During this period, prose focused on individuality, and its nature was mostly "lyrical prose".

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the concept of prose has been greatly expanded, and in addition to lyrical prose, it has also included "narrative" and literary communications and reports (reportage, close-ups), as well as literary and artistic shorts based on arguments (essays, miscellaneous feelings). Sometimes, literary memoirs, biographies, and realistic historical literature are also included in the scope of prose. In the mid-1950s, inspired by the "double hundred" policy, the prose appeared the initial "revival" phenomenon, Lao She, Feng Zikai, Ye Shengtao, Shen Congwen and other famous artists have come out, and Yang Shuo and Qin Mu also published representative works such as "Fragrant Mountain Red Leaves" and "Lyricism of shejitan" during this period.

Since January 1961, people's daily has opened a column on the 8th page of "Pen talking about prose", publishing articles by Lao She, Li Jianwu and others on the importance of prose, proposing that "in our lives, every day is inseparable from prose." (Lao She "Prose Is Important") Subsequently, a variety of newspapers and periodicals such as Literature and Art Daily, Wen Wei Po, Guangming Daily, Yangcheng Evening News and so on joined the "Essay Discussion", setting off another peak in prose creation. For this reason, many people refer to 1961 as the "Year of Prose". A passage by Zhou Libo in "Selected Essays on Essays from 1959 to 1961" is enough to summarize the pursuit of prose revival in the 1960s: "All international and domestic events, social and family events, the waves of the sky, the micro of a thing, a little experience of oneself, a touch of feeling, a handful of sorrows, a star meditation, the sadness of the past, and the joy of the present dynasty can be moved to the paper and contribute to the reader." ”

In the wave of "prose revival", Yang Shuo, Liu Baiyu and Qin Mu are three writers with outstanding achievements and far-reaching influence. As witnesses to the founding of New China, they have similar creative themes; as pioneers in exploring the art of prose, they each have a unique creative style. It can be said that they wrote their lives in prose...

Yang Shuo: Turning reality into poetry

As one of the earliest famous of the "Three Great Essays", Yang Shuo's eye-catching article was "Fragrant Mountain Red Leaves" published in 1956, after this article, a series of famous articles such as "Sea Market", "Lychee Honey", "Camellia Fu", "Snow Wave Flower" and so on were widely resented, and even formed the "Yang Shuo Model" of contemporary prose creation. In Yang Shuo's representative articles, readers can directly feel the charm of "poetic prose", but his intention is not only to write scenes, but to pay attention to the lives of thousands of ordinary people, with a vivid "sense of life".

In 1961, it was called the "Year of Prose" by scholars, in fact, it can also be said to be the "Year of Yang Shuo". This year, Yang Shuo's "Snow Wave Flower" was published in the party magazine "Red Flag" magazine, and also formally put forward the theory of "poetic" prose ("Dongfeng First Branch , Xiao Bao"), which stimulated the discussion and thinking on new styles of prose inside and outside the literary circles, and also led a large number of writers including Liu Baiyu and Qin Mu to prose creation.

From the late 1950s to the early 1960s, Yang Shuo was at the peak of his prose creation, and this exuberant vitality may be related to the foreign affairs work he was responsible for in Asia and Africa. During this period, Yang Shuo undertook the responsibility of "cultural diplomacy", while experiencing the development of the motherland and exploring exotic scenery, this collision of cultures may have brought him a different experience. The prose collections of this period, "Asian Sunrise", "The First Branch of the East Wind", and "Fountain of Life", have both rich insights and poetic meanings, which can be described as a model of Yang Shuo's prose.

Bing Xin once commented on Yang Shuo's prose: "It is as clear as water, simple and concise, fresh and handsome, so that people can chant low and cannot be cherished." Yang Shuo's writing is inherent and elegant, reflecting the temperament of classical literature and modern "beautiful literature", which is the reason why the "Yang Shuo model" was refreshing at that time. According to Zi Zhongjun, who once worked with Yang Shuo, Yang Shuo "has neither the arrogance of a great writer, nor the shelf of an old revolutionary leader, nor the romantic and uninhibited style of a literati." "He has a good foundation in classical literature, and he is also fluent in English." Yang Shuo's humility and delicacy almost make people overlook that he was also a revolutionary youth with boiling blood: as early as 1937, after the outbreak of the "July 7 Incident", he quit his stable foreign banking work, devoted himself to anti-Japanese propaganda work, and went to Yan'an in 1942 to join the Communist Party of China. After the founding of New China, he not only held important posts, but also personally went to the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea as a special correspondent of the People's Daily, wrote many battlefield reports reflecting the reality of the war, and created a long novel "Three Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" in this way. Zi Zhongjun once recalled, "I began to know that the name [Yang Shuo] was the novel "Three Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, and this book was a household name during that period. Therefore, Yang Shuo was originally known for his documentary reportage.

The Yang Shuo prose that we are familiar with today is a kind of "poetic prose" that is both delicate and plain. The so-called delicacy is that the focus is small, often swinging away from the subtleties, and describing things with "no branches" brushstrokes. For example, in "Camellia Endowment", it is said: "The spring in Yunnan is diligent and comes quickly, and everywhere is like a mother-in-law who is urging flowers." In contrast, it brings people into the "world of flowers." In "Snow Wave Flower", borrowing the girl's question, it leads to the old man's interesting theory of "the reef is bitten by the wave", and further thinks and sighs about the vicissitudes of the world. The so-called plain is to write characters vividly and perceptibly, as in the present. For example, "Fragrant Mountain Red Leaves" writes that "the old guide folded his hands on his belly, walked in front of him without hurrying, and always spoke so slowly." In "Lychee Honey", the dialogue between the author and Lao Liang, a few words, the living conditions of the bees, are supported by beekeepers and trays, which triggers the author's thinking.

Yang Shuo's prose is not only concerned with life, but also with people and all things. He watched the crowd all the time, caring for the fate of ordinary people. This feature can be seen in Yang Shuo's writings about the Korean War. Articles such as "Another Battle on the Korean Front" start from the real lives of ordinary people, showing the same hatred of the US military and their lives that have suffered from war and chaos. This true and delicate depiction is based on Yang Shuo's years of journalistic experience. Like many writers of the same period, Yang Shuo was a creator "on the spot", and it was precisely with the experience, eyes and mind of a journalist that he could show his unique insight in prose works. The old fisherman of "Snow Wave Flower", the graceful sister of "Penglai Wonderland", the old guide of "Fragrant Mountain Autumn Leaves", the gentleman of "Cherry Blossom Rain"... All these vivid characters are one person, but also a group of people.

To write about the individual is to write about an era. Although Yang Shuo's prose is known for its poetry, it never misses the grand propositions of the times. He often establishes the connection between the individual and the big times through small incisions with "individuality", and strives to "highlight the characteristics of current human history from the silhouette of some east scales and west claws". From the beautiful camellia to the prosperity of the motherland, from the diligent bees to the greatness of the laborers, from the autumn leaves showing the weathered and weathered and enduring style of the old man... All these have led the main thrust of the article in a grander direction. If beautiful language is the external feature of Yang's prose, then always paying attention to our people is the core of his creation.

"The bees are brewing honey, and they are brewing life." Yang Shuo has made a life full of blood and sweat, tears and laughter into a long aftertaste.

Liu Baiyu: Charge with a pen and sing in the battlefield

Liu Baiyu in "Prose Three Masters" is a native of Tongzhou, Beijing, and the Grand Canal gives him a rushing passion and indomitable courage, and also gives him a unique prose style.

After the "918" incident, when he was only 15 years old, he resolutely threw himself into the pen under the impetus of patriotism. Unfortunately, when the troops were stationed in Suiyuan, he was sent home to recuperate due to typhoid fever. Despite his temporary military career, Liu Baiyu still has the flame of revolution in his heart. Pen, also a weapon, he is not willing to rest, but devote himself wholeheartedly to study, admitted to the Chinese Department of the University of Northern Civilian State, and "armed" himself with literature and ideas.

"When I was nineteen years old, I systematically studied Song Ci at the Wenjin Street Library in Beiping. Because I had a life as a soldier in the old army, one day looking at the turquoise ripples of the North Sea, I suddenly wrote a novel with inspiration, and I posted a half-cent stamp and sent it to Shanghai's "Literature". I didn't really think it would be published, and I forgot to send it. Who knew that one day in the library newspaper reading room, I read the newspaper, and from an advertisement for "Literature" in "Declaration", I found my name. "1936 was the year of Liu Baiyu's literary voyage, and with his exuberant creative power, he published works in Literature, Middle Stream, Writer, Wen Ji and Ta Kung Pao. The following year, the literary rookie was invited by Jin Yizhi to Shanghai and met Mr. Ba Jin. According to Liu Baiyu, "They were great writers, but they were like brothers to me, a young man in his early twenties. When talking freely, Ba Jin mentioned that he would compile Liu Baiyu's works into the "Cultural Life Series", and Liu Baiyu was overjoyed, but realized that he had not brought the works. When Ba Jin heard this, he only smiled slightly, and even took out a paper bag, saying that the manuscript had been compiled, and only Liu Baiyu had to review it. This "unexpected surprise" is Liu Baiyu's first collection of novels, "On the Prairie". The old writer's care and promotion of the new writer makes Liu Baiyu more confident to continue to "charge" on the literary road.

In the spring of 1938, Liu Baiyu, who had already cultivated "a martial art", finally realized his dream and rushed to Yan'an, the holy land of revolution, and joined the Communist Party of China in the same year. On the third day after arriving in Yan'an, Mao Zedong proposed to Liu Baiyu to teach, but Liu Baiyu, who was devoted to obedience, replied: "I am going to fight guerrillas behind enemy lines!" A few days later, Chairman Mao personally gave him the task of going behind enemy lines in North China. Liu Baiyu started his career as a war correspondent and rushed to the front-line battlefield of the anti-Japanese base area in North China -- in the midst of the war, he observed with his eyes, explored with his feet, and recorded with his hands, witnessing the true course of the War of Resistance Against Japan. After that, he came to the front line of the Liberation War as a reporter accompanying the Xinhua News Agency, personally experienced many battles to liberate Northeast China and North China, and then went south with the army until the liberation war was completely victorious. During the Period of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, he was still the soldier who charged with a pen, and twice rushed to the Korean front and wrote field communications and novels with first-hand information.

Years of fighting life not only tempered Liu Baiyu's will, but also made his writing have the courage of jin ge iron horse and swallowing mountains and rivers. From the late 1950s to the 1960s, Liu Baiyu mainly wrote prose and reportage, in which prose especially established a personal style with agitated emotions and magnificent momentum, and the works represented by the two prose collections of "Red Agate Collection" and "Pingming Xiaoza" were his "results of his exploration of new beauty".

What is the "new beauty"? It is a kind of magnificence with a fighting atmosphere, a passion that witnesses the birth of new China, and a unique prose beauty. In "Three Days of the Yangtze River", Liu Baiyu wrote: "I walked to the deck alone, when the river wind hunted, up and down, a piece of Hessen, and countless strong searchlights, shooting from the top of the ship to the river, the sky and the river was misty, lightning flashed, wind and water sound, not only made people deeply appreciate the great momentum of the 'High River Rapid Gorge Thunder Fight', but also you feel that you and nature are so close, just like the whole universe, listed on your chest." The water and sky, the wind and fog, blended together, as if it were not a boat, but that you yourself were fighting with the river. The Yangtze River, in his pen, is so exciting, and this natural boldness makes him feel "a solemn and beautiful emotion that fills my heart." I think the big era I experienced was suddenly concentrated on this rushing Yangtze River. This journey from open to narrow and back to open again made Liu Baiyu have the imagination of "fighting - sailing forward - through the night to the dawn". The Yangtze River is the embodiment of the great era and the symbol of the rush of new China.

The battlefield experience is the source of Liu Baiyu's lifelong creation, and it also allows him to open up a prose style that is different from Yang Shuo. Yang Shuo's prose is implicit and elegant, while Liu Baiyu is outward and passionate, often using the conception mode of real-life scenes and the memories of the war years, and using battlefield imagery to vent agitated feelings. Liu Baiyu once wrote such a passage in the preface to "Morning Sun": "My wish is just to be a correspondent to the vast number of readers, from real life, through my observations, to write some communications and convey some information that readers care about... It is born of life, it is the waves of the river, it is the spark of steel. ”

As a "field correspondent" in the literary world, the core of Liu Baiyu's prose is what he sees, what he experiences, and what he thinks in his heart, while on the outside is revolutionary enthusiasm that burns like fire. Throughout his life, he charged with his pen and sang for the motherland and the people.

Qin Mu: All-encompassing "supplementary" prose

Qin Mu is the only southerner in the "Essay Three", living in Singapore with his family as a child, and then briefly returned to his hometown of Chenghai, Guangdong, to attend high school in Hong Kong. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, seeing that the motherland was in danger, he resolutely interrupted his studies and went to Guangzhou in 1938 to participate in the propaganda activities of the Anti-Japanese Salvation. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Qin Mu moved to Chongqing and was responsible for the editing of the China Workers Weekly. During this period, he not only actively participated in work and political activities, but also worked tirelessly and published many influential essays. During this period, Qin Mu also often participated in the gatherings of the Zaozi Lanya Literary Association, where he often met Mao Dun, Lao She, Hu Feng, Feng Xuefeng and others, and published his first collection of essays with the help of Ye Shengtao. This valuable experience inspired him to continue to write in his turbulent life and busy work.

Compared with Yang Shuo and Liu Baiyu, the outstanding feature of Qin Mu's prose is the fusion of knowledge and interest. He is good at starting from the daily life scene, telling the reader the history behind a landscape and a family, with a clear vein and beautiful writing, so that readers can harvest knowledge in the joy of reading.

"I mainly write prose, which is closely related to my creative experience." The main reason for the formation of Qin Mu's prose style may be related to his many years of editing work. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Qin Mu lived in Guangzhou and served as the director of the Guangzhou Editorial Office of zhonghua bookstore. At that time, he was mainly responsible for the editing of a series of books called the "Chinese Popular Library". The content of this set of books covers fairy tales, history, geography, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology and many other fields, "introducing a variety of more correct knowledge in an interesting tone", which can be described as all-encompassing. (Qin Mu's "Memoirs of Literary Career") Editing such a set of "interesting encyclopedias", Qin Mu needs to master a lot of knowledge, which also lays a knowledge foundation for his prose writing.

Compared with book editors, Qin Mu's more important identity is that of newspaper editors. As early as before the founding of New China, Qin Mu had been working in newspapers and periodicals for a long time, and his work experience in the Yangcheng Evening News after the founding of New China had achieved the peak of his prose creation. Qin Mu said in his self-description: "The work of newspapers is the heaviest of all the cultural work I have ever done in my life. But newspapers give people a rigorous workout, and I sincerely feel that I have benefited a lot. The high-intensity review work has exercised his perception of words, and the style of running the evening newspaper supplement has stimulated his creative enthusiasm. He once sighed: "Writing articles, supplements are even more all-encompassing, the universe is large, the flies are small, all-encompassing, and all kinds of things in the world can be gathered together." (Qin Mu's "Memoirs of Literary Career") In running newspapers and writing, Qin Mu carried forward this "practical and amiable" style of writing and formed his own unique understanding of prose.

"Excellent prose should be meaningful, healthy thinking, beautiful writing, full of personality, unique style, and full of feelings. I think that rich themes and diverse techniques, and the style of writing are elegant and free, which is a higher realm. (Qin Mu's "Memoirs of Literary Career") This view of prose is also a portrayal of Qin Mu's prose style. Qin Mu's prose often starts from the foreground and the things around him, swings away his thoughts, and brings out the knowledge and thinking behind it little by little. This kind of "side-by-side quotation" writing method is quite wonderful for ancient notes. Taking "Flower City" as an example, when Qin Mu wrote the wonders of a hundred flowers competing for glory, he introduced the personality, place of origin and life history of various types of flowers, and connected the hundred flowers with people's lives, telling about the flower arrangement customs and characteristic flowers in various places, the tone was kind, the writing was smooth, and it could be said that "moisturizing things and silent" wrote a flower folklore history.

Qin Mu's prose not only pays attention to knowledge and interest, but also emphasizes "words and things", which triggers readers' in-depth thinking and stimulates readers' feelings of home and country. This is undoubtedly a common feature of prose writers from the 1950s to the 1960s. In "Land", Qin Mu talks about his feelings about the land and tells the story of the heavy-eared escape during the Spring and Autumn Period, thus tracing the customs and habits of the land in Chinese history. In "Lyricism of shejitan", Qin Mu once again expressed his deep affection for "soil" with the help of the far-reaching meaning of the five-colored soil of shejitan: "Looking at this shejitan, you will think of The soil of China, the loess of the Yellow River Basin, the red soil of the Sichuan Basin, the fertile black soil, the white chalk soil... You will think of many stories of dirt in literature: someone wrapped up a bag of the soil of the motherland and hid it abroad; someone who died must sprinkle the soil of the motherland on his chest; someone returned from a foreign country and leaned over and kissed the land of his own country. ”

In Qin Mu's creative career, he always worked busily while writing "sneakily". Prose is a genre he loves and excels at, and it is also the medium through which he sows the seeds of knowledge and shares the light of ideas. All things in nature, human history, folk life... Qin Mu's prose is just like a small window after another, constantly bringing fresh scenery to readers.