1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 329: The Last Hun

[On a high hill, a young woman is herding cattle. She is wearing a red shirt. The shirt has just been in the water at the bottom of the ditch and is not yet completely dry. Therefore, in the August sunshine on the plateau, the red is very bright; when the breeze blows, it looks like a flag fluttering in the wind.

The plateau at that time was not as ancient, as old, and as fragmented as it is now. The music for the stage was not as mellow and graceful as it is now. The music came straight out of the throat, with "uh" as the only lyric of the whole music.

There is a small river at the bottom of the hill, and beside the river is an ordinary village on the northern Shaanxi plateau. The village is called Wuerbao.

Wuerbao records a proud history of conquest by the Xiongnu. The Xiongnu cavalry crossed the Great Wall and went south to the Central Plains, deep into a certain place in the interior, captured states and counties, and abducted a group of Han people. The captives with some beauty were selected to serve as military prostitutes; the better ones were used to expand the palace of the aristocracy; the rest of the rough ones were driven to this sparsely populated area, where a village similar to today's concentration camp was built for them to live in, and it was named "Wuerbao".

]
Jiang Xian combined the inspirations from "The Romantic Sinner" and "Northern Shaanxi" to create the novel "The Last Hun".

In later generations, CCTV once broadcast a TV series called "Panlong Crouching Tiger on the Top of the Mountain", directed by Yan Yi, the director of "The Qin Empire: The Splitting", starring Pan Yueming and Liu Tao, which was adapted from the first volume of this novel.

Jiang Xian has also seen it.

I have to say that Liu Tao is really charming, with an overwhelming feminine charm.

She was already in her thirties at that time, but she is still young now.

In later generations, when traditional literature was declining, few people might have heard of the novel "The Last Hun".

However, during the period of the Shaanxi Army's Eastern Expedition, the author of this novel, Gao Jianqun, together with Jia Pingwa and Chen Zhongshi, were called the "Three Horsemen of the Eastern Expedition."

Together with the two writers Jingfu and Cheng Hai, these five people are collectively known as the "Five Tiger Generals of the Shaanxi Army's Eastern Expedition."

The Shaanxi Army's Eastern Expedition, a phenomenal event recorded in literary history, certainly had traces of commercial operations in it, but it cannot be denied that this Eastern Expedition did shake the literary world at the time and triggered a reading boom throughout society.

Just as during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the Qin State rose rapidly and swept across the six eastern states.

The novel about the "Five Tiger Generals" of the Shaanxi Army was also published in a very short period of time and became popular all over the country at that time.

Among them is this article "The Last Hun".

After its publication that year, sales quickly exceeded one million copies, shocking the Chinese literary world and being hailed as a plateau epic with a high reputation in the history of contemporary novels.

The content of this novel is very grand. To put it simply, two romantic criminals left behind the bloodline of the Huns. This bloodline, on the land of Shaanxi, performed scenes of epics belonging to their generation as history continued to advance.

So when you read it, you will feel like reading an online novel about a family cultivating immortals, because it really is telling the story of several generations.

This just happens to meet the requirements of "Yanhe" for Jiang Xian to write an article.

They wanted Jiang Xian to write about Shaanxi.

For Jiang Xian.

Shaanxi, this land is too heavy and too vast.

When American journalist Edgar Snow followed the Long March and came to this Loess Plateau, all he saw were crisscrossing gullies and barren yellow soil.

At that time, my friend sighed: "It is a miracle that humans can survive in such a harsh environment."

However, it is this magical land, beneath this vast expanse of loess, that has deposited profound historical memories and the ups and downs of the Chinese nation.

The novel "The Last Hun" has a very clever entry point in this land.
——Huns.

The land of Shaanxi has intricate ties with the Huns.

As the border area between farming and nomadism, northern Shaanxi is definitely a special area where the Huns once left deep footprints.

Here are not only the Terracotta Warriors, but also the only capital city left by the Huns.

It is the capital of the Great Xia Dynasty, a settled dynasty established by the Xiongnu, and the famous Tongwan City in history.

The Huns are a mysterious nation that inspires both fear and curiosity.

As an ancient and memorable nation, according to the records in "Records of the Grand Historian", the Xiongnu are considered to be of the same ancestry as the Chinese.

However, due to their extinction and integration, the Huns can only be remembered in history today, and the memories left behind have become a topic that people enjoy talking about after dinner.

But until now, people still don't understand the language spoken by the Huns.

There are too many mysteries about this nation.

However, there are clues that can be investigated.

In China, surname is very important.

For Chinese people, anything can be lost except the surname given by their ancestors.

Therefore, an expert in the study of names has done a study on the surnames of the Xiongnu people. It was finally discovered that in northern Shaanxi and Guanzhong, there are about 7 surnames related to the Xiongnu people, namely:
Liu, Qiao, Wan, Yu, Jin, Dong, Bu.

If the people living in this area have these surnames, they are very likely descendants of the Huns. This is much more scientific than looking at whether the little toe is a "dress".

Someone may say something at this time.

"Liu" is obviously a Han surname. As we all know, all Han people are from the Liu family.

Of course there is an explanation for this. Back then, the descendants of the Huns voluntarily surrendered to the Han Dynasty and were given the surname Liu.

Therefore, the fact that the Huns changed their surname to Liu was already a common fact in the Han Dynasty.

Jiang Xian started writing in the afternoon.

Because he wanted to add some of his own touches to the novel, he did not write very quickly. By dinner time he had only written less than a thousand words.

"Have you written a novel?" Zhu Lin asked while eating.

"Yeah." Jiang Xian nodded.

Zhu Lin immediately became curious, "What are you going to write this time?"

Jiang Xian did not hide anything and gave a brief outline of the novel:

A remnant of the Huns who migrated westwards settled in "Wu'er Fort" in northern Shaanxi, leaving behind a branch of Huns blood. This branch of Huns blood was then used as an introduction to tell the story of the magnificent life legends of two generations of three families on the northern Shaanxi Plateau.

Zhu Lin had also heard Jiang Xian talk about the little toe.

Jiang Xian not only told her.

Also watched.

Finally played it.

Therefore, she knew very well that the starting point of Jiang Xian's novel came from the beginning of that rumor:
"When the Xiongnu moved north, they made peace with several Han women in northern Shaanxi, and left their bloodline in northern Shaanxi."

"This is still about searching for roots." As a literary girl, Zhu Lin has grasped the essence of "searching for roots."

Jiang Xian nodded.

"Yes."

"The Last Hun" is still a literary novel about searching for roots.

The focus of the novel is on the internal exploration of political changes and folk culture in northern Shaanxi.

There aren't any heroes in the novel either.

But the personality of each character in the novel can finally be pieced together to form the personality traits of the Huns.

"It seems that you need to continue to work on 'root-seeking literature'," Zhu Lin said. "'Root-seeking literature' still lacks representative works. You have released such a novel of root-seeking literature after Red Sorghum. It will be difficult for the literary world not to pay attention to 'root-seeking literature' in the future."

"That also requires me to write a good novel." Jiang Xian said with a smile.

Zhu Lin glanced at him, her eyes twinkling.

"When have you ever written something bad?"

Indeed, as Zhu Lin said, although Jiang Xian’s writing subjects vary, one thing that remains unchanged is that Jiang Xian has never let down the expectations of his readers and the outside world.

This level of detail is not only found in novels, but also in review articles, creative talks, reportage, and even the popular literary novels submitted to "Story Club". Each one is of very high quality and it can be seen that it is not a perfunctory work and has attracted the attention of corresponding readers in specific fields.

In the following days, Jiang Xian basically isolated himself from the outside world and devoted himself to writing "The Last Hun".

Zhu Lin was also very considerate of him and went to bed early during these days to save his energy for creation.

China Film Corporation is holding a lively film screening.

Representatives from film companies in various provinces gathered in Beijing. Their mission was to watch the films. There were a total of 20 films this season. These representatives had to watch all of them and finally decide the number of copies they would purchase based on their feelings and judgment.

Representatives of these companies bought copies and went back to give them to their own film companies to schedule their releases. Although it was not as mature as in later generations, there were definitely plans and arrangements to release good films on good days.

"."

At this moment, what is being broadcast in the cinema is a rather rare action and martial arts movie.

It is "Shaolin Temple".

There were representatives from film companies from 29 provinces in total.

That’s right, 29. Hong Kong and Macao have not yet returned. Chongqing belongs to Sichuan at this time, and Hainan belongs to Guangdong at this time. Guangdong is now a province with a large GDP, and is firmly ranked among the top three in the country.

Members of these 29 groups watched "Shaolin Temple", a co-production between mainland China and Hong Kong.

how to say?

The directors over there in Hong Kong really have something.

I didn't learn anything ideologically after watching it, and there's nothing to criticize or reflect on, but I felt it was full of laughter and tears, and it was very interesting.

The performance style created by Hong Kong directors is really different from what they have seen before.

Previous films all had a stage-like performance style.

For example, if a soldier accidentally steps on a landmine, he must display a calm and majestic rhythm in singing, reciting, acting and fighting.

"Comrades! I stepped on a landmine!"

"I'm going to start clearing mines now!"

When you say this, you need to be confident, have a cool posture, and have a firm look in your eyes.

After a series of actions, it doesn’t feel like stepping on a landmine, but rather like digging for treasure.

"Shaolin Temple" is different. I heard that several actors in it have real kung fu skills, and the fighting was very noisy. After watching it, I couldn't help but open my mouth and sigh, this is kung fu.

Overall, the audience should enjoy watching it.

However, the biggest issue is also of concern to all the representatives.

“Will there be any problems after this movie is broadcast?”

This is something the delegates have to consider.

What if they buy the copies and they are not allowed to broadcast them in the end? Wouldn’t they suffer a huge loss?

But in general, the scale of movies nowadays is still very large.

Beijing Film Studio once made a movie called "Silver Snake Murder Case".

Many of the scenes in it can be described as childhood nightmares.

If this scale were to be broadcast today, even online writers wouldn’t dare to write it.

But they broadcast it at that time.

Of course, the film industry also criticized it.

The magazine "Popular Movies" once reported that 18 scenes in the film were indecent. At the National Film Work Conference, "Silver Snake Murder Case" was criticized as a negative example.

But it doesn't affect people's ability to make money.

"Silver Snake Murder Case" was a huge hit after its release, setting a record for the highest number of copies that year.

Even later, during the off-season for moviegoers, many cinemas would re-screen the film to attract audiences.

An employee of Beijing Film Studio recalled that "Silver Snake Murder Case" was one of the most profitable films of the Beijing Film Studio.

Of course, the movies at that time were definitely strict in some aspects, focusing mainly on ideology.

The representatives consulted with each other.

"The director is from Hong Kong, and the screenwriter is our own. He is familiar with the situation in the mainland, so he shouldn't write randomly."

"Shaolin Temple? Isn't this a feudal poisonous weed? Can this thing really be broadcast?"

Everyone was quite nervous, and finally the representative from Guangdong made the decision in a very domineering manner.

"Don't worry, there will be no problem! I haven't even read the People's X Newspaper before, and it mentions the screenwriter of this movie, Jiang Xian."

"Yes."

The Liaoning representative also spoke up. They also had money at the moment. As a province with a large GDP, they spoke very arrogantly, "Just buy it. The co-production of the film was approved by the higher-ups."

Representatives from several provinces with small GDPs had many concerns. Before filling in the number of copies, they did it just like buying something. They had to inquire more and weigh the pros and cons.

After a brief exchange, each of them had a number in their minds.

I have to mention here that it is said that "Shaolin Temple" sold 1 million yuan at the box office with a ticket price of 1.6 cents, which is actually a false statement.

First of all, how can the ticket price be 1 cents? It's too low. The ticket price of even the most ordinary small cinemas is more than that.

The starting price for watching a movie in Haizi is 2 cents.

And they also said that these rural touring screenings don’t sell tickets at all.

Movie screenings in rural areas are mostly private.

Generally, when there is an activity in the brigade or someone in the village has a happy event, they will book a theater for all the men and women to watch a movie, and the price is negotiated through negotiation.

Besides, the box office figure of 1.6 million is even more fake.

Because Chinese movies did not have box office statistics in the 80s.

At present, the national film distribution and screening are all handled by China Film Corporation.

However, China Film Corporation does not release relevant data to the public.

It was not until 1994, when Hollywood blockbusters were introduced to China, that relatively authoritative data on Chinese film box office began to emerge.

So the box office is not important at this moment, the distribution revenue is the key.

Although "Shaolin Temple" is a classic, its distribution revenue was not the highest that year.

From the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 90s, the film with the highest distribution revenue was "Mom, Love Me Again".

At this moment, the representative from Guangdong was holding a piece of paper, ready to fill in the number of copies of "Shaolin Temple".

There are three options: 35mm copy, 16mm copy, and 8.75mm copy.

35mm is shown in large theaters, that is, in urban theaters, and the latter two are generally used in towns and rural areas.

The main consideration is 35mm.

For the last movie, he only bought 8.

As for Shaolin Temple.
This movie is really good.

He thought about it and filled in a number that he thought was very large.

"34."

(End of this chapter)