If modern literature has a memory, it should not forget the city of Beijing in 1977.
In that winter when the haze has not yet dissipated, when our eyes skip the white paper and black characters on the Xidan wall, or the Zhiqing who walk the streets and alleys in the alleys of those hutongs, the undercurrent of spring has begun to surge, and a literary town is about to rise here.
The spring breeze of thawing came from the Beijing Publishing House, and in October of this year, Wang Shimin, the editor of the Beijing Publishing House, gradually came up with the idea of running a journal.
After staying at the Jinan Hotel, in his diary, he wrote: "On October 17, I went to Jinan for a meeting; on October 24, I wanted to set the title of the series "October"..."
No one would have thought that this legendary publication called "October" would soon witness a new era.
Like most literary publications of the time, not many were self-organized, and almost all magazines had a publishing background, and October was no exception.
Wang Shimin, then director of the literary and art editorial office of the Beijing Publishing House, had the idea of starting a journal while chatting with his colleague Zhang Shouren.
The enthusiasm of literary and art workers broke out after ten years of turmoil, and everyone agreed, and when discussing the name, the imperial capital under the red culture naturally thought of the October Revolution, and in the follow-up publication, the editorial board explained the name of "October" in this way:
"Because 'October' shines with an unusually brilliant brilliance in human history ... Since 1949, the flowers in Beijing in October, the red flag in October, and the gongs and drums in October have become symbols of the victory and joy of the revolutionary people"; and the "Gang of Four" was smashed in one fell swoop, "Don't the people of the whole country sincerely regard 'October' as our pride?"
The name must be, and the remaining problems are the problems of the team and the manuscript.
The group is simply divided into four groups: long novels, short stories, poetry and song art, and literary theory, and the personnel are directly drawn from the literary and art editing room.
Wang Shimin, Zhang Zhongye, Zhang Shouren, and Xiao Desheng, who had experience in the editorial department of People's Literature, set up the original editorial department of October.
At that time, "October" was not like today, and the "October" at that time was not like today, and there were many followers who raised their arms and called for followers, and in Zhang Zhongyi's later words, the literary and art circles at that time were "warm and cold at first", and there were not many people who wrote.
Coupled with the limited time, there is no way to solicit manuscripts nationwide, can only be put together in the "Beijing Circle", several pen holders and authors of the Beijing Publishing House are also "shirtless", many editors have contributed their original manuscripts to the book, such as Jin He's "Yaxa" edited, Wu Guanghua's "Zhuang Song Xing" ... Everyone collected firewood and flames high, which was sloppy and "put together" the first issue of "October".
In 1978, the inaugural issue of October was officially released.
The cover is a light white background with beautiful spring flowers, and the two big characters of "October" in red are written by Li Huajin, an artist at the Central News Film Studio.
In the catalogue of the inaugural issue, we can still find names that later shone in the literary world.
At that time, Liu Xinwu, who was also the editor of the junior group of the Beijing Publishing House, was hesitant to publish his debut work "Class Teacher" in "People's Literature".
The novel was originally not published until the beginning of 1978, but Zhang Zhongye, who had read the novel in advance, keenly judged after reading the original manuscript that Liu Xinwu and his "Class Teacher" would cause a sensation in the literary world, and immediately found "internal colleague" Liu Xinwu and made an appointment with him for a new draft of "The Location of Love".
Facts have proved that Zhang Zhongjun's eyes are like a torch, and "The Position of Love" has become the first work to publicly discuss "love" after a decade of turmoil, which is quite influential of the times, and once published, it immediately attracted countless readers.
Liu Xinwu proudly said: "This is the highlight of my life."
Later stories, we all know, Liu Xinwu's hit and the "October" editorial department's insight into gold, became a good story in the literary world, Liu Xinwu also became a long-term co-author of "October" in the years that followed.
(Representative writers of "Scar Literature": Lu Xinhua, Liu Xinwu, Wang Yaping)
Another character associated with "October" is Xie Mian . On the question of whether to involve "literary theory", everyone unanimously decided to set this precedent and set up a column of "learning and reference", which was supported by the Department of Chinese of Peking University, which also made Xie Mian, the future head of the department of Peking University Chinese, inextricably linked to October.
There is also a very interesting vignette, when it was founded, in fact, "October" itself did not have a regular issue number, so it could only be issued under the name of "series of books", and it could not even be written with "publication words", and could only be replaced by "editor's words".
It is not difficult to see from this that although the sparrow is small and complete, sometimes it can only be a vision, and that era was more of a feeling of the stones to cross the river.
The earliest "October", even its own pricing and sales are not clear.
Throughout 1978, "October" included the inaugural issue, a total of only two issues were issued, and in the second year, it slowly tried to make a quarterly magazine, made four issues, and handed over to Xinhua Bookstore for sale, and the number of pages per copy varied greatly, ranging from more than 200 pages to more than 400 pages, and the price also hovered between 1 yuan and 1.5 yuan.
The reason for this situation is, on the one hand, because the manuscript is not easy to put together, on the other hand, because the equipment was rudimentary at that time, and it could only be manually typed in lead, which took a long time.
Moreover, at that time, the paper between the publishing houses was "limited supply", and the total amount of the Beijing Publishing House was only 1200 tons a year.
In 1978, "October" ran two issues, and it "ate" 10% of the amount of the whole publishing house, so the editorial department could only save.
But it was this pioneering process from scratch that gave October a unique charm unlike any other magazine. In the literary journal world, there is a very prestigious saying that "October" and "Flower City", "Contemporary" and "Harvest" are called "Four Great Flower Dan".
"October", on the other hand, was dubbed "Knife and Horse" for its boldness and enterprising, which is very indicative of the uniqueness of this publication in the 1980s.
In the 1979 journal of October, the editorial board boldly put Liu Ke's "Feitian" up, which was a rather unbelievable thing, and in Zhang Zhongye's words, it was commented that "Feitian can be said to be the first novel to touch on the ugly behavior of the corrupt privileges of senior leaders, which is very shocking."
The novel directly alludes to the authorities in the turbulent years, causing widespread social repercussions, so it was listed as the "five poisonous weeds" at that time.
In this atmosphere, October unearthed a large number of writers and works that we later became familiar with, and published them in October.
Like Deng Youmei's "Female Soldiers Chasing the Team", Liu Shaotang's "Pu Liu Ren RenRen" (later selected as a middle school textbook), Jia Pingwa's "Di Hua", Zhang Jie's "Heavy Wings" (later won the Mao Dun Literature Prize), from Wei Xi's "The Tenth Bullet Hole", Zhang Xianliang's "Love Story of the Earth Prison" and so on.
These names, which originally appeared in the history of modern literature, symbolized youth, vitality, and the courage to break through everything in the early eighties, when the chaos first began.
It is precisely such a group of "young people" who have achieved mutual achievements with "October" and fired the first shot at the literature of "Guang Zhengwei", and only then have the "pioneer" and "writing the truth".
In a sense, "October" opened a door to the literary thought of that era.
By the end of 1980, throughout the early 1980s, October carried the banner of "literature returning to itself", stabilized sales at 500,000 copies for several consecutive years, and overpowered Contemporary and Flower City, becoming the undisputed king of literary publications at that time.
Time is gone, when we wake up, we suddenly realize that the October of 1978 is already more than 40 years ago, and "October" has also gone through nearly half a century of the tide of the times.
For "October" itself, the ambition to "expose the suffering of the disease and attract the attention of healing" is certainly not smooth sailing.
But fortunately, they and the writer were supporting each other and walked over to each other.
We admire the literary magazines of that year, not only because of their own sales and the famous authors behind them, but because of their unique literary persistence and taste.
After 1985, with the rise of "scar literature", "October" began to gradually appear weak, and was gradually surpassed by "Flower City" and so on.
But "October" still insists on its own understanding of realism, which is a literary bone that is difficult to see now.
Even in the face of the boiling "waste capital" incident in the 1990s (which has been covered in previous articles, it will not be repeated), and in the face of the almost sky-high fine of one million in the 1990s, October and the Beijing Publishing House behind it carried everything.
Just as Jia Pingwa later said with great emotion: "Literature has the laws of literature itself, literature has the great truth of literature, and we must adhere to the quality of literature", this quality based on realistic literature may be the reason why "October" has gone through thousands of sails and laughed until now.
(Jia Pingwa wishes the 40th anniversary of "October")
Is there still a way out for pure literature today?
This grand proposition may not be able to give an answer to a copy of "October", but when we walk into the bookstore and glance at "October" on the shelves, we may remember what Xie Mian of the Department of Chinese of Peking University said when evaluating "October":
"We firmly believe that in a certain period, due to a certain opportunity, literature and the times will once again rub together and re-generate a dazzling spark. This is our prayer and expectation. ”
Author 丨 Zhai Chenxu
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