1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 594 Ye Shengtao

Fan Yong was busy with the publication of "The Little Prince" and could not stay in Shanghai for long.

After leaving the hospital, I visited several writer friends in Shanghai, including Ru Zhijuan, the mother of the well-known writer Wang Anyi, Li Guowen, who won the National Excellent Short Story Award for "Lunar Eclipse" and the first Mao Dun Literature Prize in 1982 for his novel "Spring in Winter", and Jin Yucheng, a talented young writer who is known to later generations for his representative novel "Blossoms".
After visiting Ba Jin around the country, Fan Yong realized that Ba Jin's health condition prevented him from writing the preface, so he decided to go to the hospital to say goodbye to Ba Jin and take the train back to Beijing overnight.

Unexpectedly, after returning to Ba Jin's ward, other people came to visit.

Fan Yongyi was quite surprised to see him.

— Ye Zhaoyan.

I had just read this young man's literary review of Jiang Xian not long ago, and I never expected that I would see him in Ba Jin's hospital room in the blink of an eye.

“Zhaoyan”.

"Uncle Fan, you're here too?" Ye Zhaoyan was also surprised to see Fan Yong.

"I was just about to ask you, what brings you here?" Fan Yong asked with a smile.

“Well, Grandpa knew that Old Ba had fallen and was hospitalized, and he wanted to come and visit him in person, but he’s getting old and it’s not convenient for him to do it himself. So my father asked me to come and visit him on his behalf. I’m in Suzhou, which is only a short distance from Shanghai,” Ye Zhaoyan said.

"So that's it."

Fan Yong realized that it was because Ye Shengtao cared about Ba Jin, but Ye Shengtao lived in Beijing for many years, so he asked Ye Zhaoyan to come and visit Ba Jin.

“Zhaoyan, I just read one of your articles a while ago. You’d never guess,” Fan Yong said.

"My article?"

Ye Zhaoyan smiled and said, "It should be the literary review I wrote for Comrade Jiang Xian's 'The Little Prince'."

"That's right, you guessed perfectly."

"I only have one article that I can be proud of these days, and it's all thanks to Comrade Jiang Xian. Because I wrote his novel, this article actually had the opportunity to be published in the 'Literary Gazette'! In fact, it's quite ordinary in my opinion, please forgive my poor writing," Ye Zhaoyan said modestly.

Ba Jin, listening nearby, became interested. "A commentary? What? Zhao Yan, you also commented on Jiang Xian's *The Little Prince*?"

"Yes."

Ye Zhaoyan said, "Mr. Ba, you've heard of 'The Little Prince'? You must read it when you have time. It's a really good novel. Everyone around me has read it and they all say it's well written. Jiang Xian can really write with a flavor that ordinary people can't write. I can't write anything like that at all. My skills are worlds apart from his. The difference is too great."

"I just heard about this novel and haven't had a chance to read it yet. I've been in the hospital and missed so much. It was only after Mr. Fan Yong told me that I found out."

As Ba Jin was speaking, something suddenly occurred to him, and his eyes lit up. "Zhaoyan, could I ask you for a favor?"

Upon hearing this, Ye Zhaoyan was startled and stood up, flattered. "Mr. Ba, you're too kind. Just tell me what you need and I'll do it. There's no need to ask me for help."

"Yes, yes, I feel embarrassed to even talk about it myself."

Ba Jin organized his thoughts and said in a low voice, "Mr. Fan Yong came to Shanghai this time to ask me to write a preface for Mr. Jiang Xian's 'The Little Prince' so that it could be used in his upcoming book series."

However, I accidentally got injured and ended up like this. Mr. Fan Yong's publishing task is very urgent, so he doesn't have time to wait for me to recover slowly.

Since you're here today, I was thinking, could you perhaps talk to your grandfather and Mr. Ye Shengtao about how Comrade Ba Jin wanted to ask him to write a preface for Mr. Jiang Xian's upcoming book, *The Little Prince*, and whether Mr. Ye Shengtao would be willing to agree?

"If it can be done, that would be wonderful. Due to health reasons, I cannot write a preface for Jiang Xian's novel, but if we can persuade your grandfather and Mr. Ye Shengtao, then this preface will be far more valuable than one written by Ba Jin."

Fan Yong, who was listening from the side, was stunned.

Knowing he couldn't write a preface for Jiang Xian quickly, Ba Jin went so far as to swallow his pride and ask Ye Shengtao to write one on Jiang Xian's behalf.

Ba Jin was a person who was very reluctant to trouble others.

Even sorting the donated books was done by himself.

He actually went so far as to personally beg Ye Zhaoyan for a preface.

Fan Yong couldn't help but feel a surge of emotion.

How much care and love this old man had for Jiang Xian, this young writer!

What a profound friendship existed between Ba Jin and Jiang Xian!

If Ye Shengtao had written the preface, Fan Yong felt that its value would be no less than that of Ba Jin.

Comrade Ye Shengtao was not only a famous educator, literary publisher, and social activist in our country, but also an artist of language and a renowned and talented writer.

More importantly, he was the person who wrote the first fairy tale in my country.

When Fan Yong first read Ye Zhaoyan's literary review, he thought that if Ye Shengtao had also published a literary review of "The Little Prince," the discussion surrounding "The Little Prince" in the literary world would have reached its peak.

Now, Ba Jin personally asked Ye Shengtao to write a preface for Jiang Xian's upcoming book, "The Little Prince".

In Fan Yong's view, there is not much difference between writing a preface and writing literary criticism.

The thought that his original idea now had a chance to come true filled Fan Yong with barely suppressed excitement.

"Mr. Ba, so that's how it is." Ye Zhaoyan said readily after hearing Ba Jin's words:

“I was just thinking of recommending ‘The Little Prince’ to my grandfather. As you know, my grandfather is in charge of compiling textbooks. It would be such a pity if ‘The Little Prince’ couldn’t be included in textbooks and could not be read by children. I really want him to read it and see what his opinion is. However, I haven’t had the chance to visit him in Beijing. Now that you’ve brought it up, I’ll take the train to Beijing as soon as possible and tell my grandfather about it in person. I believe he will agree.”

"that would be great."

Ba Jin was very pleased to hear Ye Zhaoyan's reply. "Then I'll leave this matter to you, Zhaoyan. If it's feasible and Mr. Ye Shengtao thinks it's appropriate, please remember to give me a call. I want to thank Mr. Ye Shengtao in person. If it's not feasible, please also remember to tell me, and I'll think of another way for Mr. Fan Yong."

"Comrade Ba Jin, everyone says that you are a great tree that shelters young writers from the wind and rain in the literary world, and I truly understand that today."

Fan Yong remarked with deep emotion, "With a patriarch like you in the literary world, how can we worry about a lack of writers in the future literary scene!" After bidding farewell to Ba Jin, Fan Yong and Ye Zhaoyan decided to travel back to Beijing together, riding the same train.

The journey was long, so The Little Prince became their conversation topic to pass the time.

"I only read this novel because someone recommended it to me."

Ye Zhaoyan said, "At first I wasn't very interested in reading a children's novel, but after reading it, I realized how good this fairy tale is. This 'Little Prince' is more like an adult book than a children's book."

"Correct."

Fan Yong strongly agreed with Ye Zhaoyan's statement, "The metaphors in this novel are so brilliantly written! They're completely beyond what children can understand, but the core of the story is enough to attract children's interest in reading it. Jiang Xian has left them a valuable spiritual legacy. In the years to come, they will gradually come to understand what this novel teaches them."

The feeling Fan Yong described was similar to the classical Chinese poems he learned in his student days.

Back then, I couldn't appreciate the imagery in the poems and lyrics. I could only follow the teacher's instructions and memorize them by rote. At that time, it felt like a boring task, just to pass the exam. The teacher explained the poems word by word, and the students mechanically recorded the meaning of the poems, the author's life, and the background of the creation. But deep down, I could hardly resonate with these ancient words.

"In youth, one knows not the taste of sorrow, and loves to climb high towers. Loves to climb high towers, and feigns sorrow to compose new verses." Xin Qiji's lines perfectly capture the reality of that time.

When I read Li Bai's "When life is good, enjoy it to the fullest; don't let the golden goblet face the moon empty," I only saw the superficial carefree and unrestrained spirit, and thought that the ancients' life of drinking and having fun was very pleasant.

Reading Du Fu's "How can I obtain thousands of mansions to shelter all the poor scholars of the world and make them rejoice?" is simply an expression of a noble ideal.

When reading Li Shangyin's lines, "The silkworm spins silk until death, the candle burns until it is ash," one might simply interpret them as steadfast and unwavering love.

As the wheels of time roll ever onward, we struggle and tumble through the waves of life, experiencing success and failure, tasting joy and sorrow, and feeling the joys and sorrows of reunion and separation.

Those once obscure and difficult-to-understand verses suddenly shone into my heart like a ray of light, and I suddenly understood.

Li Bai's line, "When life is good, enjoy it to the fullest; don't let the golden goblet face the moon empty," reflects the complex state of mind of someone who drowns their sorrows in wine after setbacks in their official career.

Du Fu's line, "How I wish I had ten thousand mansions to shelter all the poor scholars of the world and make them all smile with joy," reflects the deep sorrow and compassion he felt while living in a chaotic world and witnessing the displacement of the people.

Li Shangyin's lines, "The silkworm spins silk until death, the candle burns until it turns to ash," are a metaphor for the persistent pursuit of life's ideals.

When I was young, I read poetry without understanding its meaning; when I read it again, I had become a person within the poem.

Having lived half a lifetime, I have come to understand those poems and, in doing so, life itself.

The same applies to "The Little Prince". When we were young, we might have just read it to pass the time, to see something new, or to find the illustrations interesting.

It wasn't until I grew up that I understood why people who could discern the "boa constrictor swallowing an elephant" were so rare, why alcoholics were trapped in a vicious cycle of shame, why the lamplighter had to light and extinguish his lamp every minute without a single second of rest, and why the fox made the Little Prince leave.
Only when you truly become one of those strange adults the Little Prince mocks can you truly understand the metaphors hidden behind the story.

After returning to the capital, Fan Yong did not rush back, but instead went to visit Ye Shengtao with Ye Zhaoyan.

As the "social butterfly" of Sanlian Bookstore, Fan Yong was certainly not dull when it came to interpersonal relationships.

Although it was Ba Jin who entrusted Ye Shengtao with writing the preface, ultimately, it was for the sake of Sanlian Bookstore that such a request was made.

If Sanlian Bookstore really remained silent and truly viewed this matter as a conflict between Ba Jin and Ye Shengtao, then that would be truly unreasonable.

Ye Shengtao's residence was No. 71, Dongsi 8th Street, Dongcheng District, which is adjacent to Chaoyangmen North Street to the east.

This is a three-section courtyard house, facing south.

There's a saying in old Beijing: "If a new painting of a tree hut doesn't look ancient, the person behind it must be from the Imperial Household Department."

This means that the officials working in the Imperial Household Department were all nouveau riche; their houses were newly built, the trees in their yards were newly planted, and the paintings on their walls were not antique.

Ye Shengtao's courtyard was originally the residence of an official in charge of the curtain storehouse of the Imperial Household Department during the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty.

The courtyard faces the street and has an exquisite little Ruyi gatehouse with a gable roof, tiled roof, and clear water ridge. The brick carving on the lintel is exquisite.

Inside the gate, there is a screen wall in a straight line, three rooms facing backwards, and two gatehouses, all with gable roofs and tiled ridges.

The first courtyard has a hall on the north side and a hanging flower gate leading to the second courtyard.

The second courtyard has three rooms in the north-facing building with a front porch, two side rooms on each side, three rooms in the east and west wings, and one side room on the south side of each wing.

The area is surrounded by covered walkways with various window designs.

The three-courtyard complex has three rear rooms and two west side rooms, all with gable roofs and clear water ridges.

There are four trees in the courtyard. There is a crabapple tree on each side of the north house, facing the crabapple tree. On the south side of the courtyard gate, there is a white lilac tree and a black jujube tree.

Ye Zhaoyan explained to Fan Yong that the crabapple and lilac trees in the courtyard were planted by Ye Shengtao himself.

In the past, whenever the crabapple blossoms were in bloom, he would invite four old friends from his childhood to admire the flowers, get together, drink and chat. However, later on, several of his friends passed away one after another, and Yu Pingbo also stopped going out due to old age and fear of the wind. Thus, the gathering of the five elders when the crabapple blossoms were in bloom came to an end.

"grandfather."

Before long, Fan Yong, along with Ye Zhaoyan, met Ye Shengtao, a highly respected elder in society, education, and culture.

The old man is over ninety years old this year, with white beard and hair, and he uses a cane, but he still looks quite energetic. He said that every day around four or five o'clock in the afternoon, he takes his cane and goes for a walk on the street, walking two or three kilometers before returning home.

Seeing Ye Shengtao's condition, Fan Yong felt very uneasy. The old man had limited energy and was hard of hearing. He had to cup his hands behind his ears to hear him speak. Fan Yong really didn't know if the old man could finish such an article in his current condition.

"Ah, Mr. Ba Jin's entrustment."

Ye Shengtao had heard Ye Zhaoyan talk about this matter before, and he agreed without hesitation. "It's just a preface, it doesn't need to be many words. Since Mr. Ba Jin asked me to do this, how could I refuse?"

"You've done your best."

Fan Yong was already quite pleased that Ye Shengtao agreed to write a preface. If it were a literary review, it would be a real challenge for the old man Ye Shengtao, but as for a preface, it wouldn't require many words. A hundred or two hundred words would be enough for Sanlian Bookstore.

(End of this chapter)