This article was published in the "Sanlian Life Weekly" No. 40, 2019, the original title of the article is "Zong Pu: Don't Write Sorry History", it is strictly forbidden to reprint it privately, and infringement will be investigated
Reporter/Ai Jiangtao
Zong Pu (Photo by Huang Yu)
Lonely long-distance running
Before his 90th birthday, Zong Pu finally drew the final conclusion to the four-volume novel "Wild Gourd Introduction". At this time, it has been exactly 32 years since she began writing this novel.
"One has to say many things and then remain silent." In the epilogue to the last volume of the novel, "The Book of The Return of the North", Zong Pu borrowed a sentence from her father Feng Youlan to bid farewell to the era she experienced and wrote, as well as the characters in the book that accompanied her for many years: "For a hundred years, Chinese has been struggling at a crossroads. I always thought that I had improved, but in fact I was going around in a circle. There are still many things to struggle for, and there is still a long way to go. And I'm going to say goodbye. ”
For those who are familiar with Zong Pu's creative process, this confession carries with it a rare calm and relief after a long run. The creation of "Wild Gourd Introduction" is often reminiscent of The New Edition of the History of Chinese Philosophy, which Feng Youlan completed in his later years by dictation. At that time, while Zong Pu was creating, he also spent a lot of time taking care of his frail and sick father. Relatives and friends who are familiar with the matter said that Mr. Feng Lao was able to complete this huge work, and Zong Pu was indispensable. Feng Youlan has always been compassionate to her daughter, and every time her daughter celebrates her birthday, she must write a birthday party for her. In 1990, Feng Youlan wrote the last link for her daughter: "Lu Dian Lingguang, the Lai family has a guardian spirit, will not be able to pass on the three generations of literature; the literary world is beautiful, know the hand of the raw flower pen, do not let the new compilation of the twin cities." Among them, "Twin Cities" refers to the original name of "Wild Gourd Introduction", "The Tale of Two Cities Hongxue". In the last days of her life, her father was still concerned about her novel writing.
From 1985, when he began to write the first volume of the novel "Nandu", in the past 30 years, Zong Pu has experienced the loss of his father, the death of his husband, and several major illnesses. Her health was very bad, and several retinas fell out, making her nearly blind in both eyes. Yang Liu, who has been the editor of the novel since the second volume of the "Tale of The Eastern Treasures", told me that the last two and a half volumes of the Wild Gourd Introduction were completely dictated by dictation.
As early as the end of 2017, when the first five chapters of the first draft of "Bei gui ji" were published in the magazine "People's Literature", I contacted the interview Zong Pu, and because of her fluctuating physical state, the interview had to be postponed again and again. At the end of June 2019, at my home in Changping Sun City, I finally met the author himself.
In 2012, Zong Pu left No. 57 Yannanyuan, who had lived for 60 years in Peking University, that is, Zong Pu's "Wind Lu", the "Sansongtang" in Feng Youlan's writings, and moved to the remote suburb of Changping. The simple and elegant living room is divided in two by a row of bookshelves, and on the wall behind the sofa is the poem that her father wrote for her in 1976: "A thousand poems of mountain flowing water, a boat of bright moon breeze wine." With the support of the nanny, Zong Pu walked out. As soon as she sat down, she said, "I have a vision of 0.02 in one eye, and the other one is completely blind." I was content, and I could still see the blue sky and the green trees. ”
For some reason, zong pu in front of me reminds me of the eight- or nine-year-old girl Song who obviously has the imprint of the author in the first volume of "Wild Gourd Introduction" and "Nandu Ji". When the "Lugou Bridge Incident" broke out in 1937, the 9-year-old Zong Pu was a little girl who followed her father, who was then the dean of the School of Letters at Tsinghua University. The whole novel begins with her childhood memories of Peking and that major historical event. The subsequent Southern Crossing, Eastern Tibet, Western Expedition, and Northern Return run through the narrative of the entire All-out War of Resistance, and are about the experiences and reflections of the group of intellectuals of the Southwest United University like her father. Of course, Zong Pu wanted more, and she wanted to write history for that generation and that era.
Like many novelists, Zong Pu resents readers for taking a seat with the character stories depicted in the novels with real people. She summed up her creative method as "re-cutting, re-refining, re-reconciling", and quoted the Australian writer Thomas Kinnerly as a reply on the title page of the novel "Such Kingdoms": "This novel is not a real thing. If there are clues that point to anything, the author hopes that they have nothing to do with any personal matter, but rather with the characteristics of the Australian soul. ”
"The idea of the long story "Wild Gourd Introduction" began to brew in the 50s. At that time, shortly after the victory, I felt that we should write down our entire War of Resistance. Because the War of Resistance was really a general mobilization of the whole people. The general mobilization of the whole people spontaneously and sincerely defends their country. But I have not written it all the time, on the one hand, I always feel that it is not good to write, on the other hand, it is always busy outside, there are many things, or the environment is not right. Zong Pu said.
From brewing to writing, there are 30 years; from writing to completion, another 30 years. Why is Zong Pu so obsessed with that history and this novel?
Speaking of which, Zong Pu and Wang Meng, who is 6 years younger than her, belong to the "returning writers" who became famous since writing in the 50s and then raised their pens again after the "Cultural Revolution". Wang Meng published the short story "A Young Man Came to the Organization Department" in 1956, and Zong Pu published "Red Beans" in 1957, each of which is an early masterpiece of the two. As early as 1948, Zong Pu, who had just transferred from the Department of Foreign Languages of Nankai University to the Department of Foreign Languages of Tsinghua University, had published her first novel " A.K.C " in the Tianjin Ta Kung Pao " , but "Red Beans" published in "People's Literature" in 1957 won her initial reputation.
"Around 1948, the whole society was in turmoil and changing. Some want to go, some want to stay. "Red Beans" is about a pair of college student lovers who made different choices in that big era. After more than 60 years of time, talking about this novel again, what Makes Zong Pu remember deeply is a sentence by Wang Meng: "When I read "Red Beans", I read the vicissitudes. ”
Perhaps only those who lived through that era can understand the taste. In any case, the vicissitudes of history seem to have always been the constant theme of Zong Pu's novels. Whether it is the early "Red Beans" or the "Who Am I?" written after the "Cultural Revolution". "Dreams on the String", "Three Living Stones", including the later "Wild Gourd Introduction", are all like this.
Among many critics, Zong Pu belongs to the "true color" writer, which may also be seen from her understanding of the novel: "Because writing a novel is nothing more than writing true feelings." Yang Liu, who is more familiar with the writing of Wang Meng and Zong Pu, said: "Wang Meng is a genius in language, and his talent for language is not something that anyone can catch up with. He wrote synonyms, a large one on a page, more powerful than relying on Marco; Zong Pu's every sentence and every word went through her heart and brain, and it could be said that it was bitter. Zong Pu's complex for this novel is self-evident. She and her father and brothers experienced an unforgettable part of the national history, and she felt that it was her responsibility to write it. This sense of responsibility is very pure and heartfelt. As the responsible editor who witnessed Zong Pu's 30 years of writing, I empathize with her. ”
In the 1980s, Zong Pu began to write "Wild Gourd Introduction", and it was Wei Junyi, then president of the People's Literature Publishing House, who prompted her to start writing this novel. In 1984, Zong Pu participated in the Novel Conference held by the Humanities Society in Yantai. Wei Junyi said, you should write a long story. I said I wanted to write, and I've thought about it a lot. Later, after starting to write, the Humanities Society called a responsible editor, and at that time it was Wang Xiaoping. When I wrote a chapter, she took it, read it with Li Shuguang, the deputy editor-in-chief of contemporary literature of the Humanities Society, and gave advice, and I wrote another chapter and she took it again. It can be seen that they attach great importance to this novel. Referring to this past, Zong Pu still remembers it clearly.
The world in the wild gourd
In the afterword to the first volume of "Nandu", Zong Pu explained that the name of the entire novel was originally formulated as "The Tale of Hongxue of Two Cities", but because many friends did not like it, they changed it to the "Wild Gourd Introduction" that they had originally conceived.
The name of the novel reflects Zong Pu's view of history. On many occasions, she has explained this: "I write novels, and I often suffer from sticking to history. History is dumb and depends on others to speak. I sympathize with it. But I'm writing a novel again, and there are a lot of intricate and unclear things in it, which is really 'what medicine is sold in the gourd'. People don't really know what history is, only the history of writing. Therefore, life and history are 'wild gourds', and there is no way to make it too clear. So why 'quote'? Because I can't talk nonsense about history, I can only say an introduction, lead you to see history and look at the state of life. ”
When he began to write "Nandu Ji" in 1985, Zong Pu's eyesight was still good, and there were no obstacles to reading and writing. In 1988, the novel came out, and Nandu became the only volume of her entire work with a complete manuscript. The novel takes the experience of the family of Meng Fan, a professor of history at Minglun University, crossing Kunming in the south after the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War as the main clue. In the light of history, Peiping fell on July 29, 1937, Tsinghua, Peking University and other schools moved south one after another, on November 1, 1937 Tsinghua, Peking University, and Nankai jointly established a temporary university in Changsha, and in 1938 the National Southwest United University was established in Kunming, including the life of the United Nations University's Grammar and Law School in Mengzi from April to August 1938.
According to Zhang Manling's record in the "Reflections of the Southwest United Great Journey", at that time, the route of the united masters and students moving to Yunnan was mainly divided into three routes: the first route was Changsha to Go south to Guangzhou via the Yue-Han Line, to Hong Kong, and then to Haiphong in Vietnam, and then to Kunming by boat, and then to Kunming by the Yunnan-Vietnam Railway; the second route was to enter Kunming through Yunling and Liuzhou; the third road was to walk along the Xiangqian-Dian Highway into Kunming, that is, the famous "Xiangqian Dian Tour Group" including Professors Wen Yiduo and Yuan Fuli, which consisted of more than 200 teachers and students and hiked more than 1,600 kilometers. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Feng Youlan traveled by land from Changsha, and his family traveled from Beiping by water to Mengzi, Yunnan.
Although Zong Pu did not agree to enter the reading by taking the seat of the number, the actual situation is that when people read the entire Wild Gourd Introduction, it is difficult not to compare that era with those people. In "Nandu Chronicle", in the face of the War of Resistance, Meng Fan said indignantly on campus: "My generation of students is a prophet. In contrast, after the "July 7 Incident", Wu Youxun, a professor in the Physics Department of Tsinghua University, and Feng Youlan, a professor in the Department of Philosophy, met up and patrolled the school at night. Lü Qingfei, who bears the shadow of Zong Pu's grandfather Ren Zhiming in the novel, is also reminiscent of the famous poet Chen Sanli, who died of refusing to eat on the eve of the destruction of Beiping City, and the father of Tsinghua professor Chen Yinke.
However, for Zong Pu, who was 9 years old at the time, the inner emotions that drove the narrative were the streams and fireflies next to the B of Qinghua Garden, the snacks and large teapots in Beiping City, and of course, the situation when Mengzi and his brother went to the shop to print the manuscript of "New Science" for their father. Chen Yinke's deep pain of "the south crossing should think about the past, and the north return to the end is afraid of the next life" has turned into the sadness in Zong Pu's novel: "The two children did not expect that it would take so long to go back." By then they had grown up, and their beautiful childhood was gone forever, and could only become a memory hidden in their hearts. Flying fireflies become distant dreams and cease to exist. ”
In 1990, his father died, followed by a serious illness of Zong Pu himself, which delayed the writing of the second volume of the "Records of Dongzang" until the second half of 1993. Beginning in 1996, Zong Pu's eye disease worsened, and the second half of the Book of Eastern Tibet was written entirely by dictation.
Zong Pu recalled to me the writing process at that time: "I dictate, and my assistant comes to type. When writing the first parts of the "Records of the Eastern Tibet" and the "Records of the Western Expedition", the eyes can still see a little. There was a stage when I used two computers, one of which was typed on this side, and one side was transmitted to the other computer, which became a very large word, and I could read it on the computer. Later, it didn't work, and the big characters couldn't be seen, so I simply didn't look at it. She calls her writing style "snowball," "writing a rough idea first, and then slowly adding it yourself." I couldn't look at it, because I knew by my ears what I had written before. You can only ask people to read it, read it back and forth, and change it repeatedly."
The Book of Eastern Tibet is mainly written about the life of the professors of the United Nations University during his time in Kunming. They live to the sound of alarms and insist on teaching. In the case of soaring prices, the family of the professors of the United Nations Had to do some side business to subsidize the family, and President Mei's wife once made a dim sum named "Dingsheng Cake". People who are familiar with that period of history always have a sense of understanding of Zong Pu's novels.
At that time, Zong Pu was a student at the United Nations General Assembly High School. She still remembers guang weiran reciting He Qifang's poem "I Sing for Young Boys and Girls" at school. I remember that my father was always very busy at that time, attending classes, meetings, giving speeches, writing articles when he came home, and talking to the children very little. Once, she was walking on Wenlin Street, met Luo Changpei, a professor in the Literature Department of the United Nations University, and asked her, "Tonight your father is talking about "On the Wind and Currents", are you going?" Zong Pu said that her level at that time was not enough to listen to professional academic reports, but because of her memory at that time, she was extremely impressed by her father's speech.
After the publication of "The Book of Eastern Tibet", the scholar Chen Pingyuan, in his article "Zong Pu's "Past Style"", compared the literary creations of the university students about this period of history: "Luqiao's novels focus on 'youth imagination', Wang Zengqi's prose is more 'literati interest', Zong Pu, I think it is quite 'historian consciousness' - its series of long pieces is lofty and ambitious... I think that in China, there are many writers who can write about the War of Resistance, but very few can write about university life during the War of Resistance. Qu Index, among the writers in the world, the most suitable one is Mr. Zong Pu, who started from "Red Beans" and has both knowledge and literary talent. "The Chronicle of Eastern Tibet" won the sixth "Mao Dun Literature Award" in 2005. Multi-volume novels are awarded before they are fully completed, which is extremely rare in the Mao Prize awards.
For Zong Pu, the most difficult writing process was the third volume of the Western Expedition. According to Zhang Manling's statistics, during the entire War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the number of students who joined the army at the United Nations General Assembly was not only the 832 carved in the monument of the Southwest United University, but also reached more than 1,100, accounting for one-tenth of the total number of students in the United Nations. The year 1942 was an extremely difficult year in the history of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Following the cut off of the Yunnan-Vietnam Line, in January 1942, 60,000 Japanese troops attacked Burma in an attempt to cut off the Burma Road. The Chinese Expeditionary Force entered Burma to fight, due to the serious shortage of middle- and lower-level cadres and special forces of the Expeditionary Force, a large number of Allied troops came to China in urgent need of translation, and the National Government launched the Intellectual Youth Campaign, which at that time had the slogan of "one inch of mountains and rivers and one inch of blood, one hundred thousand young people and one hundred thousand troops." A large number of students from the United Nations University who joined the military took place against this background, and what Zong Pu's "Record of the Western Expedition" describes is exactly the historical fact that the students of the United University entered Burma to fight.
Since he had no practical experience in the military, Zong Pu relied only on materials collected from all sides. Fortunately, Zong Pu's brother Feng Zhongliao once joined the army. In 1943, Feng Zhongliao, a second-year student in the Mechanical Department of Southwest United University, volunteered to join the expeditionary force as an interpreter. In order to get more details, Zong Pu asked her brother who was far away in the United States to tell her about the events of that year over and over again. In order to write a good plot related to the battle, she also asked her friends in the current army for advice and received enthusiastic help.
Still, on paper, it's shallow. In 1988, Zong Pu went to Tengchong for a run. "At that time, the Kunming Cultural Bureau sent me a car and a companion. I went to Baoshan, Matsuyama, Tengchong. In Tengchong's National Martyrs Cemetery, there are endless tombstones of warriors. I think these are very young people! I cried there alone. After I came back, I felt confident. ”
In 2008, at the age of 80, Zong Pu completed the writing of "The Journey to the West". The plan to complete the last volume of the Book of the Northern Returns became even more urgent. Compared with the previous volumes, the writing of "The Return of the North" was completed by her in the struggle against the disease. Yang Liu clearly remembers that when the "Northern Return" was about a third, Zong Pu was admitted to the ICU ward of the hospital due to cerebral hemorrhage. "When I got to the hospital, she told me that if she couldn't write it, how to deal with the first draft of the part she wrote, it felt a bit like an explanation of the aftermath." At that time, I was also worried, I don't know if she can continue to write, just comfort her that it is okay, don't worry. ”
To everyone's surprise, Zong Pu not only survived, but also insisted on writing the entire novel. Not only that, after writing the "Beigui Chronicle", which mainly tells the history of the victory of the United Nations Professors from the North to the founding of New China in 1949, she also wrote a brief account of the fate of the protagonists of the novel. In the complete edition of the five volumes and four volumes published by the Hong Kong Zhonghe Publishing House, the "Introduction to the Gourd" was published together with the "Beigui Ji".
Compared with the previous novels, the narrative style of "The Return of the North" is consistent, occasionally slightly scattered, which can be imagined in the difficult state of creation. Despite this, Zong Pu's literary style is still full of energy, and the character stories are still swaying and colorful. Willow couldn't help but sigh when talking about some of the plots in the novel: "She has a lot of things that are very divine." For example, the combination of Wei Feng and Ying Zi step by step is very solid, very ethereal, very romantic. Two people with completely different origins, experiences, and personalities fell in love with each other, and Wei Feng came to the Chongqing Ball and exchanged heart songs with Xuanzi. In the small courtyard of the Fan Noodle Hall of the Buddha Xiang Pavilion in the Summer Palace, the two had a strange wedding. Bi Chu and Dai Chu sewed some gold, silver and jewelry into The Coat of the Dragon, because the once princess-like Ying Zi had to follow Wei Feng to the Liberated Area and live a completely different life. Generally speaking, this combination is too incredible. But these are not imaginary, and can be found in life. ”
Feng Youlan and Zong Pu father and daughter (photo taken in 1988)
Tell history
In Zong Pu's later life, if "Wild Gourd Introduction" is the main axis of literary creation, then the large number of memories she wrote and articles commemorating her father became another focus of life. Zong Pu said: "I want to write down the history I personally experienced and play a role in correcting the audiovisual situation." ”
The influence of his father on Zong Pu is obvious, and Meng Fan in "Wild Gourd Introduction" is the embodiment of the father to some extent. In that era of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Feng Youlan not only assumed the position of dean of the School of Letters of Southwest United University, but also worked tirelessly in addition to busy teaching, speech, and teaching affairs, and wrote down the "Six Books of Zhenyuan" that were enough to construct his philosophical system: "New Theory of Science", "New Matter Theory", "New World Training", "New Original People", "New Original Dao", and "New Zhiyan". In the "Self-Introduction to the Three SongTang", Feng Youlan summed up his writings in the War of Resistance: "The upheaval and displacement did not prevent me from writing. The rise and fall of the nation and the changes in history have given me many enlightenments and inspirations. Without these revelations and inspirations, books cannot be written. Even if it is written, it is not like this. These six books, which are really just a book, are divided into six chapters. The main content of this book is a reflection on the traditional spiritual life of the Chinese nation. ”
What makes Feng Youlan still alive in history is the inscription on the monument to the Southwest United Nations Congress that he wrote when the General Assembly was dissolved in 1946. In this inscription, Feng Youlan starts from the uniqueness of China's historical geography, talks about "seamless cooperation, the scale of academic freedom in the inner tree, and the title of the fortress of foreign democracy" after the union of the three schools, and finally falls to several southern crossings in history, "Our people's fourth southern crossing is able to reap the full merit of restoration in less than ten years, Yuxin does not mourn the south of the river, and Du Fu is happy to harvest the north of jibei." To this day, I still feel like a golden stone sound.
In Zong Pu's memory, his father was a person who was often caught up in meditation. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, several professors from Tsinghua University moved from Changsha to Kunming, passing through Zhennanguan, when Feng Youlan on the car broke a broken bone because his arm touched the city wall. Jin Yuelin once joked with Zong Pu when mentioning this past: "At that time, the driver told everyone not to put your hands outside the window, but to cross the city gate." Only your father, when he heard this, considered why it could not be placed outside the window, what was the difference between being placed outside the window and not being outside the window, and what its universal and special significance was. Before I finished thinking about it, I had already broken my bones. ”
In the interview, Zong Pu also told me a joke about my father: "During the Cultural Revolution, our house was divided among others, and the whole family lived in one room, which was very crowded, and the stove was placed in the courtyard. I was living in the city at that time, and once I went home, my mother said to make dumplings today. When the dumplings were wrapped and ready to be cooked, the dumplings were gone. Where are the dumplings? After looking for half a day, I found my father sitting on the dumplings, and he didn't realize that he was sitting on the dumplings. ”
In Feng Youlan's later years, Zong Pu not only took care of his father's living and eating, but also served as his indispensable secretary and housekeeper. In September 1982, Zong Pu accompanied his father to Columbia University to receive an honorary doctorate, and when he waited for the flight, his father, who loved poetry, recited a poem and wrote about the three most important women in his life: "In his early years, he studied with his mother, and in his middle-aged career, he had a virtuous wife." Late in the evening, I got my daughter filial piety and helped me fly in the clouds. ”
Whether it is writing novels or reminiscences, Zong Pu has always embraced the consciousness of a historian. However, her view is much lower, and she always holds a worry and pity about "history can only be written history". In comparison, writing fairy tales seems to be more free. In her early years, she wrote a series of fairy tales such as "The Story of the Total Fin Fish". When she said goodbye, she told me, "I still have all kinds of ideas. I also want to write fairy tales, but I have to look at the body. ”
(This article is written with reference to Feng Youlan's "Self-Introduction to Sansongtang", Zong Pu's "Telling History: My Father Feng Youlan", "Old Things and New Theories - My Father Feng Youlan", Zhang Manling's "Southwest United Thoughts" and other books.) Thanks to Li Hui and Meng Qingyuan for their help in the interview)
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