Beijing News (reporter Liu Zhen) On July 17, a reporter from the Beijing News learned from Su Ting, the son of Su Shuyang, that Su Shuyang, a famous contemporary playwright, writer, writer and poet, died of illness in Beijing at the age of 81 on the evening of July 16, 2019.
Su Shuyang, born in 1938 in Baoding, Hebei Province, began to create literature and art in 1953, graduated from the Department of Communist Party History of Chinese University in 1960, and taught at Chinese University, Beijing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine (now Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine) and other universities.
In 1978, Su Shuyang was transferred to Beijing Film Studio as a screenwriter (a national first-class screenwriter), and after 1979, he served as a director of the China Writers Association and vice chairman of the China Filmmakers Association. His drama "Dan Xin Spectrum" won the first prize for the performance and creation of a gift to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and "Left Neighbor and Right House" won the National Outstanding Script Award for Drama, Opera and Opera. His representative works include the movies "Xizhao Street", "Spring Rain Xiaoxiao", "New Dragon Gate Inn", etc., and he is the author of the novel "Homeland", the short story "Wedding Collection", "Revolving Restaurant", "The Death of Lao She" and so on.
Su Shuyang's works have been translated into Foreign Languages such as Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Spain, Japan, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Italy, as well as Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongolian, Tibetan, Korean, and other domestic minority texts. Among them, the "Chinese Reader", written in the style of Su Shuyang's reading essay, was published in 15 languages and distributed more than 12 million copies in the world, becoming an example of Chinese books "going out". The recent tibetan reader has also been translated into many languages and widely distributed.
The Beijing News reporter had interviewed Su Shuyang in 2017, when he was 79 years old, he had no way to fully control the body, 25 years ago, he suffered from kidney cancer, lost his right kidney, and later "always diarrhea, can not go out as far as possible not to go out."
Su Shuyang. Beijing News reporter Wang Jianning in 2017
His life was accompanied by books, just read "Andersen's Fairy Tales" just after he could read, soaked in the Hebei Library during adolescence, systematically read at Renmin University, and became a "writing person" after graduation.
His status as a writer has earned him a lot of praise, and the bookshelf at home is interspersed with medals from various countries, including the Special Award for Artistic Contribution issued by the United Nations, China's Huabiao Award, Wenhua Award, Golden Rooster Award, etc.
Honor is not the driving force behind his writing, it is his heart.
Su Shuyang once summed himself up, did not betray his friends, did not bully people, did not walk through the back door, and said the truth.
Alma mater let him understand the "outlook on life"
To be able to go to Renmin University to study, Su Shuyang was "very happy."
In high school, he was poor in math, always hovering at the passing line, worried that he would not be able to go to a good university. On the day of the results, he stood at the school gate to see the list, from the last line to see, has not had his own name, did not expect to be the eighth place in the Beijing examination area, successfully admitted to renmin university.
The place was full of books and had a great appetite for him.
Playing small, Su Shuyang is a "book bug". When he was not in elementary school, he loved to lean on the acacia tree in front of Baoding's house, while reading "The Daughter of the Sea", while fantasizing; from the fifth and sixth grades, he would go to the Hebei Library to borrow books, the library card was made of ebony, he carried the book, watched the lotus flowers emerge sharp corners, flowers, and then to the lotus, residual lotus, "particularly beautiful."
In 1956, Su Shuyang became one of the first majors in the history of the Communist Party of China at Renmin University. The school has a strict teaching style, teachers will fasten neat discipline in class, they do not attach to books, and every sentence they speak has a source. Occasionally, he could hear special lessons—Hu Yaobang had come to give them lessons, Li Xiannian's secretary had read Li's manuscripts, and Wan Li and Zhu De had stood on their podiums.
What the NPC gave to Su Shuyang was also insights and experiences that could not be found elsewhere.
In his freshman year, he and his classmates lined up at the airport to welcome the Albanian delegation, but before the delegation arrived, Premier Zhou Enlai went to the tarmac and shook hands with everyone one by one. "I'm not very tall, standing at the end of the student line, Premier Zhou shook hands with me with both hands, looked into my eyes, smiled, like an elder looking at a junior, with his head still tilted toward me, chatting with me." They discussed the "issue of ancient history staging" in the chat, discussed Guo Moruo's views, and Premier Zhou encouraged the students to write letters to Guo Moruo, who wrote and received a reply and posted it on the corridor of the History Department. "I think premier Zhou must have called Guo Lao." Su Shuyang said that the picture of shaking hands with Premier Zhou will never be forgotten.
In his ordinary study, his teacher Professor He Ganzhi always instructed him: You must remember that the bench should sit cold for ten years, and the article should not be half empty. To have a piece of material to say a point, to have your own independent opinion.
His alma mater gradually understood what the "outlook on life" was.
"The heart is one inch wide, the illness is a foot away"
In 1960, after graduating from the National People's Congress, Su Shuyang spent a smooth time, writing a lot of poetry, drama, prose, he often wrote about the lives of Beijing citizens and intellectuals, the brushstrokes have a strong Beijing custom painting color, some people call him "Beijing flavor novelist".
In 1978, he created the drama "Dan Xin Spectrum", which was staged as the first original work after the restoration of the old name of Beijing Renyi, and some audiences cried and fainted in the theater after watching it.
It was a very sudden thing to find himself sick, that is, in 1994, on the day of the Lantern Festival, he participated in the celebration party held by the central leadership for people from all walks of life, and on the way home, he found that what he saw in front of him was hazy and swirling, and he could not even see the steps clearly. After being admitted to the hospital, the result given by the hospital was kidney cancer, and the family hid it from him, saying that it was diabetes, and it was not possible to hide it after a while.
That year, Su Shuyang was 56 years old.
Like many cancer patients, he didn't want to accept reality, and a question came to mind – why was it me who had cancer? He sneaked out of the hospital, went to the park to drink, while drinking while enlightening himself, fifty-six is also walking, sixteen is also walking, twenty-six is also walking, what is the way to get here?
After figuring it out, he cooperated with the doctor's surgery and in May 1994, his right kidney was removed.
Postoperative recovery is a long tug-of-war, the days fall into repetition every day, take medicine, exercise, take medicine, and exercise again, he constantly encourages himself, the heart gradually relaxes, "the heart is one inch wide, the disease retreats a foot", Su Shuyang learned to treat the disease as a friend, every time he goes to the hospital, he does not say to see a doctor, but says "see old friends to go to the doctor".
He summed up his experience - "a good attitude can go to cancer, optimism can go to the disease, quit smoking, limit alcohol, less trouble, and be open-minded and peaceful."
"Still a young man who is not deeply involved in the world"
Over the years, he was often invited to participate in various activities, and even a special "conference broker" invited him to stand for the award ceremony or various conferences, but he refused.
Su Shuyang did not like these Vanity Fairs, he commented that many years later, "still a young man who is not deeply involved in the world."
He described his generation as "mad with the love of Russian literature", grew up reading Pushkin and Lermontov, longing for birch forests, the steppes, the young girls of youth, the quiet Don River, and the struggle for ideals all their lives, "there is a kind of romanticism and idealism in the bones".
When writing, he always reminds himself that "a writer is a doctor in the spiritual world, who wants to heal people's heart diseases."
He always practiced the "three-thing doctrine" in doing things, that is, "politically he does not cause trouble - because he does not understand politics; economically there is nothing to do (1,000 yuan can not be counted), more or less to do something for the nation."
He summed himself up — he hadn't betrayed his friends, he hadn't bullied anyone, he hadn't walked through the back door, he had done everything himself, he had meant it, and he was telling the truth.
Su Shuyang once said: "The path of creation is my own choice, no matter how weak I am, as long as the candle of life is still burning, I will walk, even if it is crawling, I will struggle on this road."
Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen
Character written/Luo Qian
Edited by Tian Kaini
Proofread by Lu Aiying