In 2005, famous literary critics and publishers Bai Ye, Ni Peigeng and others launched the "60 Century Literature" selection activity. Zhang Ailing ranked second only to Lu Xun, with an expert score of 100 and a reader score of 98.5. Zhao Shuli ranked 31, experts scored 85 points, and readers scored 55 points.
Zhang Ailing is a literary myth of the new era, and it is very popular. And Zhao Shuli seems to have been abandoned by the reader, snubbed and ignored by no one. Zhang Ailing and Zhao Shuli's starting point is the same, and in 1943, almost at the same time, two literary stars representing the new trend of new literary development arose: one was Zhang Ailing in Shanghai, a southern occupied area; the other was Zhao Shuli in Yan'an, a northern liberated area.
Zhang Ailing's appearance, in the words of Fu Lei, "This is too abrupt, too much like a miracle." When "Three Mile Bay" was published, Fu Lei praised Zhao Shuli for "innovating the way traditional novels are written."
In the history of modern literature, in addition to Lu Xun being defined as the banner of direction, there is another writer who also has such an honor, that is, Zhao Shuli. On July 25, 1947, the Jinji-Hebei Luyu Border District Literary Association held a literary and art symposium to discuss Zhao Shuli's creation. Chen Huangmei made a concluding speech entitled "Moving In the Direction of Zhao Shuli": "We feel that we should put forward the direction of Comrade Zhao Shuli as our banner and call on literary and art workers in the border areas to learn from him and look up to him!" In order to better reflect the actual struggle, we must better study Comrade Zhao Shuli! Let's stride forward in the direction of Zhao Shuli! ”
After liberation, Zhao Shuli, together with Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She, Cao Yu, etc., was included in the literary history as a writer who had important works before 1942. In 1956, at the first enlarged meeting of the Directors of the China Writers Association, Zhao Shuli, together with Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She and Cao Yu, was called the "master of language art" in modern China. At that time, Zhao Shuli's fame could be described as thunderous, in the words of the American journalist Jack Belden, "probably the most famous people in the Communist area besides Mao Zedong and Zhu De." ”
Overseas scholar Xia Zhiqing was the first literary critic to bring Zhang Ailing to heaven and Zhao Shuli to the ground.
Xia Zhiqing proposed in the "History of Modern Chinese Novels" that Zhang Ailing is the most talented Chinese writer since the May Fourth Movement and the best and most important writer in China today. Xia Zhiqing concluded about Zhang Ailing's masterpiece The Golden Lock: "This is the greatest novella in China since ancient times. ”
Xia Zhiqing can be said to be dismissive of Zhao Shuli, saying in the History of Modern Chinese Novels: "Zhao Shuli's early novels, unless they include the funny tone (which is generally considered humorous) and the colloquial language (which makes the story sound more beautiful when pronounced), can hardly find any advantages." ...... Zhao Shuli's stupidity and clown-style writing cannot be used for narrative at all."
Xia Zhiqing himself specializes in British and American literature, "With my interest and training for more than ten years, I can only be called a researcher of Western literature." Xia Zhiqing commented on Zhang Ailing and Zhao Shuli from the perspective of Western literature, and it was difficult to understand China's traditional cultural and literary personality. Therefore, In Xia Zhiqing's eyes, Zhao Shuli's writing is "stupid and clown-style".
Zhao Shuli is the founder of the "Yam Egg Pie", the representative of China's "vernacular literature", and the most successful writer after Lu Xun to portray peasants. Zhao Shuli's works may seem old and unattractive to many readers today. Now is the era of industrial civilization, peasant agriculture has long been marginalized, the popular is the middle class culture and petty bourgeois sentiment, Zhang Ailing, the grandmother of petty bourgeois culture, is of course hot.
Ke Ling said in "Sending Zhang Ailing from Afar": "I pulled my finger to calculate, the great literary world, no stage can put a Zhang Ailing; the fall of Shanghai gave her a chance." ”
Zhang Ailing herself said: "I even only write about small things between men and women, and there is no war or revolution in my works." ("My Own Article")
Overseas historian Tang Degang directly criticized this as a kind of "Shunmin literature" and "imperial literature", "but this kind of work can neither inspire great wisdom nor cultivate true disposition to go around, only in the small circle of personal emotions, pretending to be pitiful; pheasant wild orphans, in the end, is not the best product - this is Zhang Ailing." Ai Ling, a traitor tabloid known as a traitor, was once airlifted by enemy planes and thrown into Chongqing in bundles. I was also a literary and artistic youth with low hands and high eyes. If you read it, but feel that it is only evil, what 'literature' is there? Ai Ling's commitment to marrying a traitorous woman in her youth is no longer enough. Drinking and drinking love words with Hu Lancheng is especially numb to read. In the age of the extinction of my nation, I can remain indifferent, and I do not believe that the soulless writer can have literature." (Tang Degang: "The Last Glory: Talk about Zhang Ailing")
Tang Degang did not believe that writers can have literature without souls, and Zhao Shuli is a writer with a soul. Zhang Ailing is a petty bourgeois sentiment of aristocratic literature, and Zhao Shuli is a civilian literature peasant standard.
In the position of literary history, Zhao Shuli is not inferior to Zhang Ailing. Since the May Fourth Cultural Movement, Europeanized literature has been seriously detached from the public, and Zhao Shuli has read "The True Biography of Ah Q" to the peasants, but no one understands it. Zhao Shuli created a popular and popular creative trend, and created a new form of novel, the modern novel form of the commentary style.
Zhao Shuli is a writer who truly stands on the stand of the peasants, takes the peasants as the target, and speaks for the peasants. Zhou Yang said at the 1962 Dalian conference: "None of the Chinese writers who are really familiar with the peasants and the countryside can surpass Zhao Shuli," praising the "iron pen and holy hand" that describes the peasants.
Zhao Shuli has a clear sense of purpose, that is, to serve the peasants, to write about the peasants, to listen to the peasants, to show the peasants, and after the publication of "Li Youcai's Words", it was read by many local cadres as a guide to land policy to illiterate peasants with good results. Zhao Shuli said very clearly, "I don't want to go to the literary world, I don't want to be a literary artist." I just want to go to the 'literary stall', write some small books and go to the temple fair in the stall selling small record books, and two or three copper plates can be bought, so that step by step to seize the position of those feudal small record books. It is my wish to be such a literary writer. ”
Zhao Shuli called his novel a "problem novel" and demanded that "the people like to read it and play a role in politics"; "I myself would rather not file a case in the literary and art circles than change my views." As long as the masses can understand and love to read, this will achieve my goal. ”
"I am a sage among peasants and a fool among intellectuals," is Zhao Shuli's own exclamation. Some people criticize Zhao Shuli for only having a political direction and no literary direction, which is actually a misreading of Zhao Shuli. Zhao Shuli has always insisted on speaking for the peasants, and has paid the price of blood for this.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhao Shuli began to be marginalized, and his writing was criticized as a "narrow peasant world view", "did not shape heroic figures", "good at showing the backward side, not good at showing the forward side". Zhao Shuli was criticized for writing "middle figures" many times after the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Zhao Shuli himself said, "Comrade Hu Qiaomu criticized me for writing things that were not big (I did not touch major themes), did not go deep, and could not write inspiring works, asked me to read more reference works, and personally selected five or six works from the Soviet Union and other countries for me, and asked me to remove all my work and read them wholeheartedly. ”
In 1959, Zhao Shuli gave the "Book of Ten Thousand Words" to the Magazine "Red Flag" to express his views on the exaggerated atmosphere in the countryside, and was later criticized for being "a tone" with Peng.
Zhao Shuli is known as a "people's writer", because there are very few Zhao Shuli who, despite the vicissitudes of the situation, has always adhered to his literary ideals and ethics, insisted on writing for the peasants, and "painfully felt the pain of the problems in the countryside and spoke for the peasants". Now don't talk about peasant writers, that is, there are very few words to the peasants.
Because of the changes of the times, Zhao Shuli was forgotten and snubbed, and Zhang Ailing became popular in the literary world, but Zhao Shuli has entered the history of Chinese literature and has been flowing for hundreds of years.