Skywalker is extremely important in Liu Xinglong's creative sequence, and although the award has brought reputation, what is more crucial is that it shows the universal characteristics of the author in the creation of novels in an almost specimen-like sense, that is, a deep response to the emotions of the times, the inheritance and promotion of cultural values, and the diligent pursuit of narrative art. Although these are reflected in works such as "Majestic Wind", "Holy Heaven's Gate", "Cockroach" and "Huanggang Secret Scroll", the most adequate and comprehensive expression, and the most able to reflect the author's writing style, is still "Skywalker". Skywalker was first published in 2009, while the novella PhoenixQin, which is related to its theme, was written in 1992 with a gap of 17 years, spanning a historical node that completely solved the problem of private teachers. We have reason to believe that after writing "Phoenix Qin", and in the nearly 10 years since the problem of private teachers was solved, the author has never been able to let go of this group of "folk heroes who silently walked in the land of China in the second half of the 20th century" (The title page of Skywalker). This complex is full of emotions in "Skywalker", which not only injects the image of private teachers represented by Principal Yu, Sun Sihai, Deng Youmi, Zhang Yingcai, Principal Hu, Wan Station Manager, Ming Aifen, etc., but also makes the novel enduring, and it is still touching to read, highlighting the infinite vitality of the work.
An accurate grasp of the life of the times
"Skywalker" takes the life and spiritual world of private teachers as the performance object, and takes the last few years of the national policy to focus on solving the problem of private teachers as the narrative time. Looking back at history today, the novel actually completes a very important and specific task, that is, to create statues and biographies of private teachers in the form of aesthetic narratives, to construct and confirm the merits of this heroic group that has made important contributions to the contemporary process of Chinese society, so that it will be remembered by society and history.
Is there any suspicion of overestimating the role of private teachers? Not at all. From a policy point of view, the problem of private teachers has been basically solved at the end of the Ninth Five-Year Plan, but their influence on China is still there and will continue for a long period of history: today, all the rural literate population over 30 years old and those who have been admitted to colleges and secondary schools and jumped out of the "agricultural door" have all contributed to the education of private teachers, and the rural students who have been enlightened and trained by them are still contributing their talents to society in all walks of life. Affected by the economic development conditions and some other external factors at that time, private teachers generally faced difficulties such as heavy work tasks, poor working conditions, and low salaries; but with a sense of professional responsibility and moral conscience, they stuck to the teaching posts in the countryside for a long time, and almost everyone's teaching experience had a bitterness that was difficult to hide. According to relevant statistics, the number of private teachers in the country was nearly 5 million at the highest, and such a huge group implicated every rural family (at that time, the rural population was still the main body of China), and this system existed for half a century. Therefore, the problem of private teachers is not a short-term phenomenon, nor is it only related to this group itself, but is a national and ethnic issue closely related to China's social development.
The novel reflects the author's high grasp of real life and social contradictions. The narrative time in the text is the era when reform and opening up are gradually deepening and the market economy is established, and the profession of private teacher with extremely meager economic income suddenly becomes the outlet of social emotions, and it is from this that the novel obtains the impetus for narrative. The boundary ridge in "Skywalker" is located in the deep mountains, life is closed, the villagers' concepts are backward and outdated, and the development of culture and education is imminent. However, Jieling Primary School not only has poor school conditions, the salaries of teachers are often owed by the village, and the lives of almost every private teacher are poor; Deng Youmi secretly cut yew trees, Sun Sihai planted poria, Principal Hu picked charcoal for others, danced lions, and the only dignity of rural intellectuals was shattered by reality. As a result, the transfer to public service has become the dream of every private teacher. Deng Youmi was always inquiring whether there was a transfer indicator, and Ming Aifen, who was paralyzed in bed, was thinking about the transfer to public affairs until his death. However, their wishes have been disappointed again and again, and when the local transfer policy comes, they need to pay a large amount of money to buy the previous working years, which has caused great harm to their spirit and soul. These plots are not exaggerated, and the experiences of the majority of private teachers in reality are even more tortuous and arduous than those written in the novel.
The author weaves a barbed web of the indispensable work needs of society for private teachers with the unfair treatment they receive, their humble status, and the self-esteem and self-love of intellectuals, so that they will be bruised whether they hold out or flee. The contradictions around their efforts and acquisitions, survival and ideals, morality and responsibility reflect the pains of the transition period and the underlying deep contradictions. The success of the novel is first of all due to the writer's deep experience and accurate grasp of real life and the spirit of the times, which is affirmed by the phrase "accurately writing a complex and tangled life" in the speech of the 8th Mao Award.
A vivid portrayal of the spiritual image
The writing of the living conditions of private teachers presents the characteristics of critical reality. On this basis, through the portrayal of the character image, the author wrote the selfless love of the poor and ambitious private teachers for the cause of education and the students, as well as the warmth, kindness and compassion hidden in the depths of their souls; he also poured out the bitterness and grievances that had accumulated in their hearts for a long time for this group of folk heroes, completed a complaint about the dignity and rights of life for them, and finally erected a spiritual monument with a literary image.
Although the complex life situation constructed by the group portraits is described, it is obviously not the author's ultimate goal to reflect reality as it is. In the process of connecting life phenomena into a narrative as a whole, the novel always has a touching pulse flowing between characters and events, which is the professional sentiment, moral ethics and kind humanity shown by private teachers, which is undoubtedly the most important spiritual force that supports the novel and the author's attempt to pass on to the reader, and also constitutes the basic aspect of the theme of the novel. Connecting the choices of characters with difficult lives, their noble souls are revealed, and the private teachers who are neglected by society have a personal charm that can attract and inspire others. The novel has repeatedly borrowed the mouth of Wan Station Manager and others to say "the poison of Jieling Primary School", what is the "poison" here? It is the spiritual temperament and human warmth of the teachers. All the people who have interacted with them have been deeply touched and attracted, and they cannot bear to give up, and even the Jieling Primary School has become a "temple". Zhang Yingcai wanted to go to the Institute of Education to study, and when he bid farewell to Jieling, his uncle, wan station manager of the township education station, said something to him that explained this: "I want to say that Jieling Primary School is a big temple that will appear, and it is not appropriate, but it always makes people feel at ease, and every once in a while I want to go to worship." You have to be careful, that place, those few people, will make you poisoned and addicted! Wan Station Manager himself, Zhang Yingcai and Lan Fei, who once worked in Jieling, Luo Xue and Xia Yu, who briefly supported teaching, and Ye Biqiu, a student of Jieling Primary School, were deeply affected throughout their lives.
Wan Station Manager does not forget Jieling, although it involves personal emotional factors with Caritas; Zhang Yingcai was impressed by this when he first went to Jieling, he not only wrote to the outside world to reveal the real situation, but also brushed his uncle's face and rejected the "transfer to public" indicators that others dreamed of, which seems to be related to his ideals when he first entered society. But in the final analysis, it was the teachers' spiritual demeanor and human brilliance in their careers that touched them, and Zhang Yingcai said clearly when filling out the form: "I can't fill in this form." Should give them to Principal Yu! They did it all, I just wrote an article. Zhang Yingcai is one of the protagonists in the novel, a witness and observer of the life of a private teacher, and the author portrays him as a rural intellectual with ideals but running into walls everywhere, constantly failing but adhering to his conscience and growing up. Principal Yu is weak, Deng Youmi seems to be a delicate egoist, and Sun Sihai is untamed, they have the weaknesses of ordinary people, but in the teaching position, they embody extraordinary morality and personality, and become the spiritual standard of that era.
Because they have to take care of family life, private teachers often can only teach in their own villages, "they are natives, always treat students as their own children", not only take care of the daily life of students like parents, but also send their children home every weekend, and the more windy and rainy, the more they have to travel back and forth. They also have to maintain relations with village cadres to obtain support for salaries and school buildings, while Principal Yu's process of "stealing art" in the city's primary school makes people even more awe-inspired by their professional pursuits. As intellectuals, they are deeply aware of the great righteousness, but at the same time they are deeply kind and compassionate, such as in the face of a mental indicator of the transfer of the heart and mind, they unanimously agree to give the bedridden Caritas Fen, and so on.
Through the description of the emotional world of the characters, the author also makes the character image of the characters more full. The love between Sun Sihai and Wang Xiaolan, Principal Yu and Lan Xiaomei, and the complex emotions of Wan Stationmaster and Ming Aifen are embedded in a flute, a pair of leather shoes, a love poem and a phoenix piano, and with the help of imagery, the novel anchors the connection between the actions and meanings of the characters, not only injecting flesh and soul into the image, but also sublimating the theme again.
The inheritance and promotion of cultural values
The artistic shaping of the private teacher group directly reflects the author's concern and concern about rural culture. Another potential theme dimension of the novel is the adherence to and promotion of cultural values based on traditional morality and humanistic spirit.
In the half century after the founding of New China, the school became the only knowledge "distribution center" in the countryside. The group of teachers with private teachers as the main body undertakes the mission of disseminating cultural knowledge in rural areas and enlightening and educating farmers. However, compared with the enthusiasm for politics in the early days and the economy later, the rural administrators neglected education and teachers, and the countryside faced the crisis of being "abandoned" by modern knowledge and culture. The teachers of Jieling Primary School were oppressed by the village chief Yu Zhi, in addition to the arrears of wages, the school building was smashed by the boulders rolling down in the rainstorm, principal Yu and the masons paid for the repairs out of their own pockets, etc., Yu Shi even broke into the classroom and beat Lan Fei, who was in class... In the face of "power", private teachers are completely weak people who have "no power to tie their hands", but in such a working environment, they still love students like children, and faithfully fulfill the mission of imparting knowledge and enlightening people's wisdom, which is touching and touching. On the other hand, it is the farmers' thirst for knowledge and respect for the teachers. The first thing parents do when they go out to work and return to their hometown is to come to the school gate, not only to pick up their children who have not been seen for a long time, but more importantly, to send gifts to the teachers, and their unconditional trust and simple feelings may be the fundamental reason why Principal Yu can persist.
The "old village chief", who does not appear positively, is an open-minded and culture-oriented figure, and is the spokesman for the rural cultural tradition in the novel. His tombstones have always become an important force in witnessing justice, encouraging teachers, correcting the villagers' thoughts, and are also the symbolic roles that the author uses in the narrative to balance Yu Zhi. During his lifetime, he vigorously established Jieling Primary School, which opened a door to the civilized world for the mountain village. The author borrowed ye Biqiu's masonry father to state the concept of the old village chief: "A stove built in mud can only take ten years and eight years at most." Every word that teachers teach students to recognize can be used for generations to come. The old village chief even forced his "Amaranth" daughter to recognize words. Zhang Yingcai often saw her reciting texts after arriving in Jieling; when she learned that her daughter was going to the city to be a nanny, she cried at first, and later she even said, "It's good to read!" You are not allowed to eat without reading! Such words. As intellectuals, private teachers also have a complex relationship with rural politics, and the novel eventually allows Sun Sihai to replace Yu Zhi as the new village chief, implying that in the struggle against rural power, culture and knowledge will be invincible, which is in line with the old village chief's thinking. The struggle between the private teachers with a sense of reflection and the rural cultural tradition represented by the old village chief and the "village valve" Yu Zhi reflects the folk position in the author's narrative.
Of course, the inheritance of cultural values of Skywalker is mainly reflected in the private teachers' ideals and beliefs in education, their inner ideals and beliefs, that is, their loyalty to the country and the nation, which is not only the profound connotation of the spirit of traditional Chinese culture, but also the mainstream values needed in each era. In the film of the same name adapted from "Phoenix Qin", the ceremony of raising the national flag in the primary school has touched countless audiences; as a wonderful scene that also appears repeatedly in "Skywalker", Principal Yu pulls the rope, Sun Sihai plays the national anthem with a flute, and the simple, sacred and solemn flag-raising ceremony is an important symbol of the theme. Under the illumination of the national flag, we saw the bold loyalty of the private teacher group and the hope of the nation. (Quetzalcoatl)
Source: Literature and Art Daily