About Kolding – Read the Commentary on Kolding

Many years ago, on January 5, 1987, at the Literary and Art Hall near the Jing'an Temple in Shanghai, I had the privilege of having a relationship with Mr. Ke Ling. At that time, I was just a sophomore. In 2004, I wrote an article entitled "A Special Autograph" to commemorate this experience. Later, this article was published in the "Xiamen Library Sound" and "Wenhui Reading Weekly" that year. Moreover, I was quite surprised and fortunate that in order to cooperate with "creating a bookish society and shaping civilized citizens", as the opening work of a series of publicity activities, the "Xiamen Daily" on December 22, 2004 also conducted an interview on this topic with the title of "Hard-won Special Signature Book".

As I wrote in A Special Signature Book, I see Mr. Kolding as a small, silver-haired, spirited, and wise old man. Not only that, but through the signatures left by Mr. Ke Ling on the "Sixty Years of Ba Jin's Anthology" (Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, December 1986, 1st edition), I seemed to see the aura from the bones of this famous writer and editor in the history of modern literature.

Of course, I cannot speak of my knowledge of Mr. Kolding without mentioning another well-known writer with whom I am acquainted, that is, my grandfather's friend and fellow countryman, Mr. Shituo. To be honest, the first time I knew the name Ke Ling came largely from my knowledge of Mr. Shi Tuo. This is not only because they are both writers of the "isolated island period" after the fall of Shanghai, and they have a good relationship with each other, but also because they are also partners in work, and they have adapted the famous stage play "Nightclub" based on the excellent play "Bottom" by the Soviet writer Gorky.

However, it should also be admitted that in the past, my understanding of Mr. Ke Ling was often fragmented, and it was not until I recently read the "Commentary on Ke Ling" written by Mr. Zhang Liming (China Social Sciences Press, July 2008, 1st edition), that such a kind of mutilation gradually became complete.

Basically the same as ordinary biographies, the "KeLing Commentary" from "Shaoxing's hometown", "childhood, adolescence", "teaching career", to "dabbling in the press", "devoting himself to the film industry", "outlaw 'isolated island'", "the fall of the whole territory of Shanghai", from "the days of peace and democracy", "the early spring of the republic", "the 'Cultural Revolution' years", to the "second spring", "the big drama", it can be said that Mr. Ke Ling's life is more completely recorded. Although such an all-round approach may not be unique and profound, as the only biography of Curing at present, it is indeed rare to be so comprehensive and complete.

In my eyes, compared with Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Ye Shengtao, Wang Tongzhao, Qian Zhongshu, Shi Tuo, Zhang Ailing and other writers who have been in contact with him who are known for writing long novels, Mr. Ke Ling seems to be more suitable for being an editor who is willing to make a wedding dress, an excellent essayist, essayist, and playwright. The reason for this is not only because the novel is not actually his specialty, "and the literary 'threshold' of the novel is too high" (remember that in 1994, the first issue of "Harvest" published the first chapter of the first part of the long series of novels "Shanghai One Hundred Years" written by Mr. Ke Ling, "Ten Mile Ocean Field", but unfortunately the years were not spared, and since then there has been no following in the huge production of dreams. The novels he composed in his youth, such as "The Sheep" and "The Silver Light Song of 1932", are obviously not representative), and more importantly, they are also reflected in Mr. Ke Ling's outstanding achievements in literary editing, essays, essays, and drama creation. Obviously, through the Curing Commentary, I have reinforced this feeling and given this understanding more de facto support.

Needless to say, I have read not many of Mr. Ke Ling's works, and I still remember them vividly, one is his collection of essays "Xiang Xuehai", and the other is published in November 1984, which seems to have "overturned" Zhang Ailing's work - "Remote Mail zhang Ailing". Perhaps because "Zhang Ailing Fever" has not yet faded, so that in the "Keling Commentary", more pen and ink are naturally given to the latter, while the former can only be regarded as a brush stroke. The introduction of Ke Ling's interaction with Zhang Ailing appeared in the two special chapters of "The Fall of Shanghai" and "The Second Spring" of the "Ke Ling Commentary", and the detailed and objective comments were enough to make me admire Mr. Ke Ling's editorial achievements. Therefore, I thought, if there is no Ke Ling, without the magazine "Vientiane", there may be no Zhang Ailing, no Huang Bao...

Unlike many biographies of domestic figures, the writing tentacles of the "Keling Commentary" did not shy away from ending abruptly until the founding of New China, on the contrary, it also listed two chapters dealing with sensitive topics, "Early Spring of the Republic" and "The Years of the Cultural Revolution". Moreover, what is even more valuable is that the "Commentary on Ke Ling" does not blindly protect the master, for example, on the issue of the famous actor Shi Hui's "jumping into the sea and dying", it clearly points out that Ko Ling once wrote an article entitled "Shi Hua - A Typical Villain", which was published in Wen Wei Po on November 28, 1957. Although Mr. Curling later apologized to the already ancient stone in the article "My Journey in Life".

In the past, I didn't pay much attention to where Mr. Ke Ling was from, until I read the "Commentary on Ke Ling", I didn't know that he was Mr. Lu Xun, a fellow countryman of Qiu Jin's heroine. This also made me speculate about the reason why Mr. Ke Ling adapted Mr. Xia Yan's drama version of "The Biography of Qiu Jin" into a movie script. "Shaoxing has a long history and splendid cultural relics, is the hometown of Xia Yu's rule of water, the state of restoration, the city of Qiu Jin's martyrdom, the birthplace of Lu Xun, the spiritual heritage, and the wealth of the enemy of the country." ......”。 If You add Mr. Ke Ling, the future trip to Shaoxing seems to be more meaningful.

It stands to reason that as a complete commentary on Curing, it is natural to attach a catalogue of Mr. Curing's works (including records of different editions, etc.) to the end of the book. This is both a summary and a convenience for interested readers to further understand and study. But apparently, this point was ignored by the authors of the commentary. In addition, it is also a strange thing that there is not a single photograph of the owner in the more than 500 pages of commentary. All this can only be hoped to be supplemented and perfected when the book is republished.