[The people need such writers and artists (1)]
Guangming Daily reporter Fu Xiaoyue
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Literature and art are the projects that cast the soul, and literary and artistic workers are the engineers of the soul.
Many literary and artistic artists have a dazzling aura on them and are loved and respected by the world; many literary and artistic workers are still public figures that young people admire and emulate.
Recently, chaos has occurred frequently in the field of culture and entertainment, and some practitioners are not worthy of morality, do not live up to their names, violate the law and lose morality, and arouse public indignation, and the relevant departments have quickly introduced a series of measures to comprehensively deal with it.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that literary and art workers "should win respect with profound cultural accomplishment, noble personality charm, and works of both literary quality and beauty, become practitioners of advanced culture and leaders of social customs, and achieve self-achievement and value in making speeches for the motherland and the people."
The famous masters of literature and art that we are familiar with all have firm moral ethics and lofty artistic pursuits, and are worthy of the title of literary artists with virtue and art. Starting today, we will launch a special interview to tell the story of the older generation of writers and artists who advocate virtue and art, virtue and art, so as to inspire more literary and art workers to establish lofty ideals, calibrate the artistic direction, bravely shoulder the heavy responsibility of the times, save righteousness for history, promote virtue for the world, and leave a clear name for themselves.
Wang Meng in Ili, Xinjiang. Bright pictures
In the eyes of a thousand readers, there are a thousand Hamlets, and in the eyes of a thousand readers, there may be a thousand Wang Meng.
The loyal Bolshevik king Meng, who joined the party at the age of 14 five days and has followed the party all his life;
Wang Meng, a continuous writer who has been working on the literary road for 68 years, writing nearly 20 million words, and is still active in the front line of creation since he wrote "Long Live Youth" at the age of 19;
Wang Meng, the "high-ranking official" who had been the Minister of Culture of the Republic;
Wang Meng, the "people's writer and artist" who grew up with the republic and always shared the fate with the party, the country, and the people;
…………
On this sunny morning, when he had just returned from Xinjiang, with deep affection and passion, talked about his second hometown and the "people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang who were as kind as a mountain to me", the reporter seemed to see another Wang Meng: the "old king" in the mouth of the villagers, the grateful Wang Meng who "sang Xinjiang, the land, and the people with all his heart.".
In July this year, Wang Meng went to Ili, Xinjiang, to investigate, and once again returned to the land where he had watered with sweat. He has lived and worked in Xinjiang for 16 years, half of which was spent in Ili. He rejoiced in the development and change of the place. The meandering Ili River, the rows of tall buildings and the farmhouses with colorful roofs made him feel excited. He was nostalgic for meeting his old friend. They hugged, shed tears, laughed, and said goodbye to each other in Uighur. The reporter saw a photo: Wang Meng and an old Uighur man hugged tightly, and the old man's eyes were full of tears. "That was the militia captain of the year, Khali Amat, a little younger than me, and now in his 80s. And then there's Meat Zi Amat, the Uzbek mansour, the Han Jin Guozhu..." He said a long list of names in one breath, "all of them are old acquaintances from 56 years ago, and they are also the archetypes of my characters." There are many more folk friends--my landlord,the second elder, the old branch secretary, Asim Yusufu, will never be seen again..."
The floodgates of memory and emotion opened instantly, and snow peaks, poplars, and grape racks surged forward.
In 1963, Wang Meng, who was not yet 30 years old, moved his family into Xinjiang. There are factors of the times, and there is no shortage of active choices. Wang Meng, who had been working in Beijing government organs and schools before, felt that he could not only linger in the lights of Beihai White Pagoda and Xidan Avenue, and vowed to "read about life, frontiers, nationalities, and desolate and struggle in the land of hardship and happiness"! From Beijing to Xi'an, then take a train for four days and three nights, walking on Lanxin Road, where the roadbed has not yet been completely rolled, all the way to marvel and all the way to the groan. "Well, what a big eye!" Wang Menghao laughed heartily.
"Great China, how much do you really know?" Wang Meng asked himself all the way. Later, in "This Side of the Landscape", Wang Meng portrayed a young cadre named Yin Zhongxin, writing that on his way to Xinjiang, he could not finish watching and listening, wondering why some people would rather stay in the pastry box-like office until they died all their lives, but refused to come out to see and take a walk. "There's your shadow here, right?" Wang Meng did not hesitate: "Just despise people also!" ”
"Deputy Captain of the Second Brigade of Bayandai Red Flag Commune in Yining County", this is the "official position" that Wang Meng is proud of in his life. He wanted to see if he could do it, rough, concise, open-minded, stoic, and "heart-to-heart, heart-to-heart" with ethnic minority villagers.
Start by learning Uyghur. "Going deep into life is like falling in love, can you bring a translator?" He deeply agreed with the words of a leading comrade of the autonomous region. From the beginning of the alphabet, he consulted the peasants who had attended school at any time, and the 7-year-old elementary school student also became his teacher. He set himself a target of 30 words a day, even "going crazy" to the point of dreaming in Uighur. A few months later, at the meeting of the production team, he spoke in Uighur. He also told the historical legends and humorous stories of the Han people to the villagers. By the time he left Bayandai, he could push open the door of a certain house at will, as if entering his own home.
"Eating, living, and working together, these words are really done in a down-to-earth manner." Wang Meng talked about the landlord's father and the eldest wife, and in the small courtyard of the two old earthen houses, he lived for six years. He didn't know how many naans he had beaten by the eldest bride, how many ramen noodles and radish strips he had made, and the "lao wang" in the mouth of the old father and the eldest lady also used the knotty and twisted peach wood flat burden like a twist to walk for three or four hundred meters, and he didn't know how many times he picked up water for them! He spoke of scenes that will never be forgotten. He and the villagers together to pick up the Turman, live together in the nest to repair the canal, get up in the middle of the night to ride the wind and the field, carry a hundred kilograms of sacks to load the car, drink and sing together to eat pilaf... Wang Meng, who was almost weak as a teenager, has been physically strong ever since, and he thinks he has benefited from this experience. "I don't know if Wang Mengge is a writer, I just know that you are a farmer in Bayandai." This sentence of the accountant of the brigade that year, Wang Meng felt, was the best praise for his life.
"Wang Meng ge" is of course a writer. He is like a sponge, absorbing the juice of the life of the people of Xinjiang; he is always observing and thinking. He often stayed up late under the kerosene lamp to write and draw, and to write down interesting things during the day. He not only uses Uyghur as a means of communication, but also appreciates it as a culture. "Come out, eat the air", he experienced the charm of plain and vivid from the folk language. "Fire is the flower of winter," he admired the wisdom and expression of the national proverb.
If you go deep into Baoshan Mountain, you will not return empty-handed. Embedded in the earth, with the people in mind, we will surely get enlightenment and strength. When Wang Meng bid farewell to Xinjiang, returned to Beijing, and once again opened a new chapter in literature and life with a thin momentum, Xinjiang life became an inexhaustible literary rich mine, giving him a majestic, optimistic, warm and humorous background. In the "In Ili" series of novels, the villagers who spend their days and nights with him become flesh and blood images in his pen, shining with the light of humanity, and he understands their strengths and weaknesses, joys and sorrows, their lives and hearts so deeply. The novel "This Side of the Landscape", known as the "Qingming River Map"-style folk painting scroll", snow peaks, pastures, river valleys, orchards, tall poplar trees, large strip fields, bread, wall painting, catching cars, watching mills, repairing water canals, playing samarium sickles... The "overwhelming details" are talked about by people. When the Mao Dun Literature Prize was awarded to "This Side of the Landscape", the award speech said: "Between Wang Meng and Xinjiang, there is a long and lush root system. The colorful life on this vast land is an important source of Wang Meng's unique tone and attitude. "In contemporary Chinese literature, few writers have been so intimate, so enthusiastic, so full and vivid to show the picture of multi-ethnic common life, from upright character, beautiful love, honest labor, to magnificent scenery, splendid customs and utensils, to the language that echoes the rich expressions and tones of all ethnic groups, all of which are enthusiastic tributes to life and dreams."
And the deeper imprint is not only in the text, but also deeply engraved in the soul. In "The Hidden Mud House Courtyard", Wang Meng wrote the story of the second elder of the landlord with a very emotional stroke, and when he thought of them, "there was an indescribable sense of love, responsibility, steadfastness and clarity." I felt like they had given me so much that I would never be able to use them for the rest of my life. "They are not greedy, not lazy, not jealous, not tired or impetuous, neither harsh nor weak, nor obscure nor reckless," "I often draw inspirational strength and reassurance from recalling them." How grateful he was to this piece of land that not only gave him "new experience and new knowledge", but also gave him "new and more simple and healthier concepts and attitudes"! These not only gave him precious friendship, but also promoted him to think deeply and introspect his father!
In the forty-two years since he transferred to Beijing, Wang Meng has never forgotten Xinjiang. Returning to his hometown several times, he recounted his old friendship with his fellow villagers and friends, and also took the elders of the village to Beijing for medical treatment. As a librarian of the Central Museum of Culture and History, he went to Xinjiang many times to investigate and perform his duties, and made suggestions for the transformation of the old city of Kashgar. He has lectured for the Xinjiang class of the Central Party School more than twenty times, and has done his best to promote national unity...
The endless friendship, the endless folks, the endless earth, the endless literature! It was almost noon. Wang Meng stood up, "Work and go!" He called the study a "workshop," got up at five o'clock every day, began to exercise and write, and when the reporter met him this morning, he had been working for several hours. He is always concerned about life, and it seems that there has never been a time when his literary thoughts have dried up, and he feels that he "has something to write" and "is interested in big things and small things". The momentum of his novel creation is still "cheerful", "Life and Death Love", "Post affair", "Laughing Wind"... One after another. His creative field is so vast that when one reader read a work about the life of peasants on the outskirts of Beijing and signed "Wang Meng", he did not believe that Wang Meng was wang Mengye, and asked the editor "really dare to bear the pseudonym".
"Spoilers to you, I've just finished my long new work, Monkeys and Boys. Old Man Wang still has monkey energy! He smiled childishly.
At that moment, the grounded "Lao Wang" who spoke of the Uyghur eyebrows and dancing, the youthful Wang Meng who wrote "All the days come, let me weave you", and the 87-year-old Wang Meng who still had the pursuit and struggle in front of him seemed to be one in an instant.
Guangming Daily ( October 29, 2021 01 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily