1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 583 The Ironclad Rules of the Mao Dun Literature Prize

Jiang Xian moved away from Ding Shisun and went to Feng Mu to collect his graduation certificate from the Lu Xun Academy of Literature.

"Comrade Jiang Xian, congratulations!"

Feng Mu solemnly handed the certificate to Jiang Xian: "I've also read your 'The Little Prince,' it's really well written, very well. I just mentioned to Principal Ding that he wants to recommend your novel to all the students at the next freshman orientation ceremony at Yenching University. You need to publish this novel as soon as possible."

"publishing."

"Okay, you don't need to worry about it, I'll take care of it for you."

Feng Mu, who has always been protective of young writers, instinctively took on the role of a patriarch once again:

"How about this, I'll contact the people at Sanlian Bookstore to write this article for you."

Sanlian Bookstore?

Jiang Xian was somewhat surprised by Feng Mu's words.

The so-called Sanlian Bookstore should actually be called the Life, Reading and New Knowledge Joint Bookstore. It was formed in Hong Kong in 48 by the merger of Life Bookstore, New Knowledge Bookstore and Reading Publishing House. After the liberation, it moved to Beijing.

However, it was soon merged into the People's Publishing House, but retained its independent editorial office. It wasn't until last year, in 86, that Sanlian Bookstore finally regained its independent status.

Yes, many people should be familiar with Sanlian Bookstore, because Sanlian Bookstore has become a very large company.

Their publications, such as Sanlian Life Weekly, are considered China's Time Magazine.

There's also the magazine "Reading," which has been one of the most beloved magazines among Chinese intellectuals for many years, consistently boasting a loyal readership and rightfully earning its reputation as a leading publication in its category.

Furthermore, the popularity of "Fu Lei's Family Letters" in China is thanks to the publication by Sanlian Bookstore.

Other publications they produced include Ba Jin's "Random Thoughts", Yang Jiang's "We Three" and "Collected Works of Chen Yinque". The Sanlian edition of "The Complete Works of Jin Yong" has always been the best version that mainland readers hope to collect.

In short, Sanlian Bookstore is definitely a publishing institution of considerable scale, and also a spiritual history of Chinese intellectuals over half a century.

Jiang Xian, however, found it somewhat incomprehensible. If Feng Mu were to make the arrangements, the most suitable publisher would be the Writers Publishing House under the Writers Association, or perhaps the "Royal Publishing House" People's Literature Publishing House.
It shouldn't have been handed over to Sanlian Bookstore at all!
He was momentarily confused, feeling that Feng Mu had ulterior motives, but the current situation did not allow him to think about these things carefully.

After receiving the Lu Xun Academy of Literature certificate from Feng Mu, Jiang Xian now had two big certificates in his hands. It seemed that his academic qualifications were finally about to catch up with his wife's. Zhu Lin was a graduate student, while he was currently an undergraduate.

He shook hands with Feng Mu, bowed, and waited for the other members of the writing class to go on stage one after another to receive their certificates. He then stood in position for a photo as instructed by the staff.

Because he is tall, he stands far back and cannot stand with Ding Shisun, Feng Mu and the others who are sitting in the first row. It is a pity, but there is nothing that can be done. Height is something given by God and cannot be changed. Who told him to be tall?
"Jiang Xian, there's something I feel I need to remind you of."

After the ceremony, Feng Mu approached Jiang Xuan, paused, and said, "The next Mao Dun Literature Prize should be held next year."

Since the passing of Mr. Mao Dun, starting in 81, the China Writers Association, in accordance with Mr. Mao Dun's last wishes, used the 25 yuan of royalties he donated to establish the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

The first edition was held in 1981, and the winning works were novels written before 1981, including Zhou Keqin's "Xu Mao and His Daughters", Wei Wei's "The East", Mo Yingfeng's "The General's Song", Yao Xueyin's "Li Zicheng", Li Guowen's "Spring in Winter", and Jiang Xian's representative novel, which was also his debut novel - "Hibiscus Town".

The second edition was held three years after the first, in 1984.

Because not many outstanding novels were produced in the three years from 1981 to 1984, the number of award-winning works was not as many as in the first year, with only three: "The Yellow River Flows East", "Heavy Wings" (revised edition) and "The Bell and Drum Tower".

It's worth mentioning that the winning authors of the second edition were all old acquaintances of Jiang Xian.

"The Yellow River Flows East" is a novel by Li Zhun, who was also the screenwriter for the films "Garland Under the Mountain" and "Hibiscus Town". He became quite familiar with Jiang Xian when filming "Garland" in Yunnan.

"The Bell and Drum Tower" is a novel by Liu Xinwu.

It must be said that among all the novels Liu Xinwu has written, "The Bell and Drum Tower" should be the most worth reading. Although it is not as famous as "The Class Teacher", it far surpasses "The Class Teacher" in terms of literary quality and ideological content, and is undoubtedly his best novel.

As for "Heavy Wings" (revised edition), that is Zhang Jie's novel.

It should be emphasized here that the award was not for "Heavy Wings", but for "Heavy Wings" (revised edition).

This is completely different.

Why? Zhang Jie once said that the experience of publishing "Heavy Wings" and the hardships she went through were enough to write another book titled "Heavy Wings".

Her story "Heavy Wings" was first serialized in "October" in 81, and then published by People's Literature Publishing House in the same year.

It wasn't until 84 that the People's Literature Publishing House finally published the fourth revised edition.

The reason for using the word "finally" is that the process of criticism, revision, and publication was so arduous that it is incomprehensible to those who did not experience that era.

To put it simply, when this novel was first published, there were more than 140 strong criticisms from leading cadres!
How daring was Zhang Jie's writing?
"Over the past thirty years, there have been successes and failures. To be honest, it has been mostly failures."

"There's too much population, and too many people are wasting their time. Sometimes, even a film needs to be approved by the bureau before it can be shown. Whether a woman can get her hair permed was discussed three times by some XX. No wonder we can't handle important matters well; all our energy is wasted on trivial things like plucking duck feathers."

"When literature is simply literature, some people might treat it like toilet paper, and others might never read a single literary book in their entire lives. But when literature is offered to people as a gift from the government, it becomes a food enjoyed by young and old alike, and everyone will eagerly take a bite."

Male theft and female prostitution, rising prices, gold speculation, bedwetting, train delays, traffic congestion, housing difficulties, and stagnant wages—all are sins of literature.

"."

Even Jiang Wen wouldn't dare to explicitly state these contents in his film, and they might not even pass censorship if posted on Qidian.com.

Zhang Jie actually published it.

So, Ms. Wei Junyi from the People's Literature Publishing House quickly persuaded Zhang Jie to revise the novel while also explaining and communicating with higher authorities. It was a great effort to save the novel. After two years and more than a hundred major revisions and thousands of minor revisions, the fourth revised edition of "Heavy Wings" was finally published by the People's Literature Publishing House. This fourth revised edition then won the second Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Therefore, when many people evaluate the worst works in the Mao Dun Literature Prize, they include "Heavy Wings" in it, not understanding why this novel won the award, and thinking that Zhang Jie's level is just so-so.

Actually, they didn't know the inside story.

Because most people can only read the revised edition of "Heavy Wings," not the original "Heavy Wings." A novel that has been altered beyond recognition naturally suffers a significant loss in readability.

In short, none of the three winning works in the second Mao Dun Literature Prize were particularly outstanding and did not cause much of a stir.

And if you want to talk about the most brilliant full-length novel published in China between 1981 and 1984, you have to go to Jiang Xian!
"Red Sorghum" and "The Last Hun"—these works of his root-seeking literature are considered by many in the literary and artistic circles to be far more brilliant than the three works that won the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Why didn't these works win awards?

Because the Mao Dun Literature Prize committee had an unwritten rule that the same author should not win the prize in consecutive years, which is an ironclad rule that has been followed ever since the Mao Dun Literature Prize was awarded.

Well, this ironclad rule of the Mao Dun Literature Prize has always been controversial.

Because a writer's peak creative period is usually fixed in a certain period. For example, Yu Hua's creative output exploded starting in 87, with a series of works including "Going Out at Eighteen", "Cries in the Drizzle", "To Live", and "Chronicle of a Blood Merchant".
It must be said that the novels he created during this period are his most representative and best works. After that age, his later novels are not as good.

The same applies to most other writers; writers like Wang Shuo and Mo Yan created their best representative works during this period.

Of course, this doesn't mean that every writer's peak period is during this time.

Most writers create their peak works at different times, which is related to factors such as their personal economic situation, health condition, and lifestyle.

Take Tolstoy, Fitzgerald, Rimbaud, and Haruki Murakami, for example; their creative processes were completely different.

For them, creating a good work not only tests physical strength, but also requires the author to be financially well-off and have a regular lifestyle in order to create a masterpiece.

Of course, Rossini's case also shows that accumulating wealth can reduce creative motivation.

In general terms:

A genius might emerge in one's early twenties, but that's often not their true peak.

Most masters achieve fame in their thirties, when they begin to show their peak.

The forties are when a true peak emerges, and that's when a master can continue to create.

When someone in their sixties produces a major culmination of their work, it is usually a sign of literary genius.

Generally speaking, an author's first peak age is between 31 and 40 years old, and many famous works were completed in this age range, such as "War and Peace", "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and "Red Sorghum".

As for genius writers, they can create representative works in their twenties, such as Han Han. His representative works were basically created in his teens to his twenties, but such cases are relatively rare.

Most writers reach their first peak around 35-38 years old, while mature writers reach their peak around 43-47 years old. A very few literary giants can still create a summary work when they are in their sixties or seventies.

In short, to sum it all up, a writer's peak creative period is very short, often lasting only a few years, and then it's over.

The rule that the same author should not win the Mao Dun Literature Prize consecutively is particularly offensive.

If you win an award this time, you can't win it next time. By the time you can compete for an award again, six or seven years have passed since you last won. Most writers have long passed their peak period by then and can't produce any works that are worthy of being considered for awards.

This is considered lucky. If you were unlucky, you would be at your peak, but due to some twist of fate, you would not win the prize. A few years later, a new session would come, and you would finally win the Mao Dun Literature Prize that you had been longing for. But if you wanted to be nominated again, you would have to wait for several more years and wait for the next session. This would take more than ten years. How could you possibly have so much to write about then?
Therefore, this rule of the Mao Dun Literature Prize means that many writers can generally only win the prize once during their peak creative period.

In later generations, so many years have passed, and there is only one writer in all of China who has won the Mao Dun Literature Prize twice. That's right, only one.

Yes, it's the same author I just mentioned—Zhang Jie, the writer of "Heavy Wings".

But to put it another way...

The purpose of the Mao Dun Literature Prize is to encourage more writers to engage in the creation of full-length novels, rather than to give established writers greater fame.

The purpose of this award is to discover new authors of full-length novels.

From this perspective, it is not advisable for the same author to win the Mao Dun Literature Prize consecutively, which is also a more reasonable use of this resource.

In short, this rigid rule has both advantages and disadvantages.

Now, three years have passed since the second Mao Dun Literature Prize was awarded, and preparations for the third Mao Dun Literature Prize seem to be underway.

Jiang Xian, the first winner of the Mao Dun Literature Prize, was eligible to be nominated again for the third time after a one-year hiatus.

However, it's a bit awkward.

From 1984 to 1987, Jiang Xian's writing of novels stagnated.

So much so that when we look back now, apart from "The Drifters" and "The Hunger Games" which were published abroad, we can't find a single full-length novel by him!
“Your work ‘Hibiscus Town’ didn’t get first place last time, which was such a pity. I’m sure you didn’t feel anything at the time, but you must have felt regretful afterward,” Feng Mu said to him.

When the first Mao Dun Literature Prize was being awarded, "Hibiscus Town" seemed to be the undisputed winner from any perspective.

Unfortunately, He Jingzhi's comment that "the word count is too low" caused "Hibiscus Town" to miss out on the top prize at the Mao Dun Literature Prize.

Jiang Xian didn't dare to complain about this. He Jingzhi had been lenient enough with him, not even mentioning sending him to Qinghai.

However, after so many years, He Jingzhi's influence is no longer as great as it used to be.

How many years can a writer have a creative burst period?

"Don't you want to make up for this regret from back then?"

Feng Mu said expressionlessly, "In a few years, will you still be able to write a decent novel in the next few cohorts?"

"That's an unknown."

You should seize this opportunity.

(End of this chapter)