The title of this short article is actually the title of a book, and it is the voice of an old poet.
One day, wandering around in the old bookstore, suddenly the book "A Thousand Words to the Party" jumped into view, hurried to look closely, and there was undoubtedly a line printed below "Mao Bingfu", and in an instant, my heart was about to jump out of my throat.
There is a way that "there is a heart to plant flowers and flowers do not bloom". I have been looking for this book for at least thirty or forty years, and it is so hard to find! Published in October 1950, this book is a thin pamphlet, but to me, it means something extraordinary, as if it has the feeling of "a thousand words" to say.
To understand the old poet Mao Bingfu, read the "Content Summary" of this book, you can know what kind of legendary experience he has. The text is not long, and it is recorded as follows: "'A Thousand Words to the Party' is a collection of poems, allegro, and essays. It contains three poems, nine allegroes, and six essays. The author was originally an illiterate sufferer. After liberation, he entered the factory to work. Since then, under the education and cultivation of the party, after several years of diligent study and hard work, and then entering the accelerated literacy class to study the culture for more than a month, I began to have the initial ability to write. Although the level of writing in this pamphlet is not very high, it is sincere and simple, and it expresses the true feelings of a laborer. ”
If you want to go deeper, you can read the author's preface again: "My hometown is in the countryside of Ningbo, Zhejiang, when I was a child, I herded cattle and sheep for the landlord, and in those long and painful days, I had enough of the landlord's poisonous fist." Later, I worked as a handyman in a small theater, an apprentice in a restaurant, ran a single gang, and worked as a hawker... It has always been called 'Little Misery'. After liberation, I went into the factories to work and became the master of the country..."
Among Shanghai writers, Mao Bingfu's path to becoming a talent is quite unique. This is a worker writer who has come out of his misery. He lost his father at the age of seven and his mother at the age of nine, and it was the Communist Party that saved him from the sea of suffering. In the early days of the founding of New China, he was an illiterate primary school apprentice who received a handprint instead of a signature, and began to learn to write after entering the "Qi Jianhua Accelerated Literacy Literacy Class" in 1952. In the same year, he published the poem "A Thousand Words to the Party" in the "Labor Daily". Three years later, with this as the title, the Shanghai Culture Publishing House published his first collection of study works. Under the cultivation of the party, he attended the first National Conference of Young Literary Creators in 1956, after which he was recommended by the presidium of the congress to participate in the third workshop of the Chinese Literature Training Institute sponsored by the China Writers Association. Together with Hu Wanchun, Fei Liwen and Tang Kexin, he became the first generation of workers' writers in Shanghai. He has also published the poetry collection "Our Tomorrow", the script "Before and After the Autumn Rain", the novella collection "Fortune Telling Chronicle" and so on. After joining the China Writers Association, he became a director of the Shanghai Writers Association.
Mao Bingfu (left) and Fei Liwen
Due to malnutrition since childhood, coupled with the fact that he had suffered from diarrhea, there was no money for timely treatment, and his hair was very thin. Regardless of spring, summer, autumn or winter, he always wears a hat, and his co-workers call him "Hairy", and he is not angry. The simple and unpretentious clothing reveals the true colors of workers. Just a pair of highly myopic glasses shows his Sven, alert atmosphere.
The novels he wrote were like "Qingming River Maps" of old Shanghai. Because he grew up at the bottom of society, he talked about anecdotes about old Shanghai and raced through a living Shanghai dictionary. It is said that the "Trade Theater" has now become a woolen sweater factory; it is said that "Lu Wenzhan" is a well-known old shop specializing in cooked food; it is said that Yuanbaofang has a history, and in the fourteenth year of Guangxu, a family dug up three large cylinders of gold yuanbao when building a house, so they called this place Yuanbaofang, and the names of the children born in the factory were either what treasure or what yuan. And so on, as soon as he opened his mouth, he was very attractive and made people laugh. Novels such as "Shanghai Xiao Fu III" and "The Inside Story of the Fortune Teller blind" have won awards one after another. Maybe when he was a child, he did a restaurant running hall, and he actually cooked a good dish without a teacher, and when it came to cooking, he relished it. I can say that I can write and have a skill, and among Shanghai writers, there are not many commissions.
Letter from Mao Bingfu to the author of this article
Speaking of acquaintance with Mao Bingfu, it is also a rare fate. More than forty years ago, I participated in the Battle of Baosteel Construction Conference, and he was the editor of Baosteel War Journal. I love literature and got to know him because of my contributions. He published my studies, let me participate in the poetry activities of the Writers Association, helped me publish poetry collections, and helped me become a member of the Writers Association. He was my guide to literature, leading me step by step into the door of poetry and the door of the temple of literature. He encouraged me by telling me about his upbringing. He said that his first book was "A Thousand Words to the Party", which talked about his true feelings. When I was visiting the old bookstore, I paid attention to this book, and if I wanted to find it, I could ask him to write a number of words and keep it as a souvenir.
However, after finding this book, my hope became a regret, he has unfortunately passed away, only sixty-five years. He was born in 1931, and if he were still alive, he would be ninety years old this year.
Today, when I am rubbing this book "A Thousand Words to talk about the Party", Mao Bingfu's kind voice and smile have once again appeared in my mind. Thinking about this book, from the title to the work, between the lines, it is a sharp contrast between the old and new society, and all of them are his true feelings for the party. (Wei Yang)