Literary Master 1983

Chapter 358 Reactions from all parties
Wenhui Daily devoted half of its front page to reviewing Yu Qie's previous novels.

Then the conclusion was drawn: "Literary and artistic workers should come from the people and work for the people."

Many writers in the capital wrote to Yu Qie, praising his efforts.

The writer Shi Tiesheng wrote to Jin Jiepu: "Going to the mountains is a great thing! Humans are born lonely and helpless, and fate is unpredictable... But humanity is a whole, and writers are the organs of dreams! Your actions turn dreams into reality!"

That's a very formal way of putting it.

Because Shi Tiesheng did not know Jin Jiepu.

As for Yu Qie, Shi Tiesheng was not so aloof.

Both of them lived in Beijing and saw each other at least several times a year. Yu Qie had also pushed Shi Tiesheng's wheelchair before.

Yu Qie was the tallest and strongest, and should have been the one to carry Shi Tiesheng to meetings. However, after the "Spring Rain Action," Shi Tiesheng felt that "Yu Qie has done so much for polio patients, he shouldn't carry me anymore!"

Shi Tiesheng wasn't that open-minded either. His personality oscillated between open-mindedness and sensitivity.

When someone does something that sparks Shi Tiesheng's dreams or even fantasies, he can't help but admire them.

For example, when American Carl Lewis achieved great things at the Los Angeles Olympics, Shi Tiesheng excitedly wrote an article praising this black athlete, saying that he was "a black cheetah".

Yu Qie stood up to the government of a small country in Colombia and miraculously returned victorious.

For a time, Shi Tiesheng even felt that he could write an American martial arts novel—but later his illness flared up and he could no longer write a full-length novel, so he had to give up.

“If I could run and jump, I would carry Yu Qie on my back every day. I used to be a long jump champion! Wherever he goes, I will let him go! Yu Qie fulfilled my wish, and I was indebted to him.”

Therefore, the task of carrying Shi Tiesheng fell to either Yu Hua or Su Tong.

The Beijing Evening News interviewed Shi Tiesheng, who displayed letters between him and Yu Qie. The letters showed that Yu Qie would write to Shi Tiesheng every year during the holidays to inquire about his situation.

Shi Tiesheng would reply with a much longer letter.

“Yu Qie has always been this kind of person. He has a lot of influence, and the weaker the person, the more he can’t help but stand up for them,” Shi Tiesheng said.

"I believe that true kindness is not about flattering those in power, but about protecting the weak and appropriately improving the circumstances of others."

The Beijing Evening News published the letters between Shi Tiesheng and Yu Qie. The newspaper sold very well, and Shi Tiesheng even received an interview fee.

He publicly donated the money to the "Spring Rain Action" and was still very excited when he returned. He told his wife, "We should all do our part for society. With greater ability comes greater responsibility."

"I have nothing, but I still have my organs. If one day I leave this world, I hope my body can still help others."

"I have the same dream!"

Winston Lord, then the American ambassador to China, specially invited Kim Jye-puk to dinner: "I want to write a report for you on behalf of the president. You have become friends with the country's superstar, and suddenly you have also become an old friend of the Chinese people."

Jin Jiepu smiled and said, "I am a researcher of Yu studies. How will this help my research on Yu studies?"

Winston was a China expert, and his wife was a Chinese-American writer. Winston's tenure coincided with the best period in Sino-US relations, and he himself was considered one of the most knowledgeable and friendly ambassadors about China.

He was naturally very familiar with Kim Gei-po's previous research.

Winston exclaimed in surprise, "You two had a working relationship before! But weren't you researching that Shen guy? I remember... back in '81, you even alarmed the top leadership in China to get Shen Congwen to give a speech in the United States. In the end, special permission was granted for Shen Congwen to go to the United States, resolving his difficulties!"

"I thought you were still a follower of Shen."

Here, Winston uses the word "Disciple." It differs from the commonly used term "researcher" or "follower," and is closer in meaning to "disciple" or "believer."

In the Western religious sphere, this specifically refers to followers who believe in a deity, such as the twelve disciples of Jesus.

Kim J. P. was well aware of Winston's teasing.

To what extent does one need to conduct research before the term "disciple" becomes appropriate?
It's clear that Winston himself didn't understand why Jin Jiepu admired Shen Congwen so much back then, so he used the inexplicable and mysterious term "religion" to describe it. Jin Jiepu had encountered this kind of thing many times before.

This really isn't Shen Congwen's fault; Shen Congwen is definitely capable.

Shen Congwen was nominated for the Nobel Prize several times, but unfortunately he didn't win. He himself was not good at boasting, and in the literary world, Shen Congwen also forgave others. He didn't have any enemies to hunt down, so he lacked stories of defeating enemies... Shen Congwen worked as a war correspondent, but he didn't achieve any military exploits or express any profound reflections on war.

Shen Congwen was overwhelmed by the immense terror of the battlefield and tried to restart.

Out of politeness, no one thought to spread his story around—it wasn't exactly a heroic thing to begin with.

Shen Congwen was purely concerned with his research.

But this world is too dull; it's becoming increasingly unsuitable for old-school writers like Shen Congwen. In fact, in China, don't people also follow those who seem like legends both in and out of their stories?

Humans are inherently strong; there's nothing you can do about it. This has nothing to do with literature.

“It’s no longer him!” Jin Jiepu said. “From now on, I am Mr. Yu’s disciple, I am his disciple!”
-
In early April, the layout of "Carrying Dad to School" was approved.

Wang Meng and others were delighted to see the submitted articles first.

He made a special phone call to tell Yu Qie: "The story is good, and the letter is well written. At the end of last year, the Southern magazine 'Huacheng' published 'Ordinary World,' which had a great impact and brought the novel back to the hearts of ordinary people."

"It is also a simple style of writing, which I call warm realism. People will always encounter suffering, but we are now praising suffering far too much... Readers should always see some strength and hope."

Wang Meng believes that his idea of ​​engaging in experimental literature was good, but some writers have misrepresented his original intention.

These people are mediocre bastards!
“We do experimental literature to win awards and to produce genuine insights, not to scam royalties; look at your ‘2666,’ you wrote it quietly and won an American literary award directly.”

"If everyone could be like you, that would be great."

Yu Qieze congratulated Wang Meng on winning the Italian Mondello Literary Prize.

This happened recently, on Jin Jiepu's way to Ning County. The Mondello Prize is Italy's equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Literature, a very prestigious award. The nominees are usually announced in February, and the awards are given out in June.

This year's awards ceremony has been postponed to March.

Not long ago, the lottery results came out, and wow! Wang Meng's name appeared.

CCTV was overjoyed and broadcast the news on its news that very day. "This station has a breaking news report: Recently, Chinese writer Wang Meng won a special prize at the Mondello International Film Festival in Italy. This is the first time a Chinese writer has received this award."

"Several Chinese writers have entered the competition for world-class literary awards... Among them, the most important is the Cervantes Prize in the Spanish-speaking world!"

However, Wang Meng did not receive the main award, but rather the "special award".

This is an honorary award given by the Italian Ministry of Culture specifically to foreign writers.

Therefore, CCTV did not provide much in-depth coverage, but instead mentioned "Cervantes"—that's the real heavyweight.

Wang Meng herself was already quite satisfied: "Italian literature doesn't have as wide an audience as Spanish literature, and this special prize is far inferior to the main prize, but this is all I can do. I wish you success!"

Yu Qie congratulated Wang Meng again. Wang Meng, however, thought of the letter Yu Qie had written to Li Yong, and felt a pang of emotion:
“From a literary perspective, my days are numbered. I haven’t left many marks in the ‘river of time,’ but you’ll have to look back at me; you’ve gone before me!”

The Southern Metropolis Daily also reported on the story of "foreign professors coming to the mountains"!

That day, Ma Shitu wrote a letter as promised, inviting Ba Jin to come to Chengdu to visit his hometown. Ba Jin immediately set off for Chengdu.

Then, on the train's sleeper berth, Ba saw the day's latest newspaper, which reported on Jin Jiepu's journey into the mountains with Yu Qie's letter.

He exclaimed upon reading it, "It's so well written! Especially the line, 'Pulling weeds on the hillside, gathering grains of rice in the fields!' It almost made me cry! This line shows that no profession is superior or inferior, and everyone is their own master!"

"The primary school students in the mountains and he, the writer, are equal in spirit!"

After saying that, his eyes really reddened.

Why did Ba Jin embark on writing?

Because he came from a prominent feudal family, his father was the magistrate of Guangyuan County, and the family lived a very extravagant life.

When he was five years old, his father was interrogating prisoners in court. No matter what the sentence was, the prisoners would kneel down and kowtow repeatedly, which left a deep shadow on him.

Why do some people stand while others kneel?

Are those people born inferior?

When he was nine years old, his parents and several other relatives passed away one after another, and the Ba family fell into poverty. For a period of time, it was the servants in his own household who taught him and conveyed simple moral values ​​to him.

He realized that life is unpredictable, and those feudal ethical orders are ridiculous... People should be completely equal in terms of personality, at least.

Thus, after reaching adulthood, Ba Jin wrote "Family," a masterpiece reflecting the feudal extended family and criticizing the hypocrisy of feudal clan society.

Yu Qie is young now, his family is happy and healthy, and he has not experienced any major wars, but he has understood this principle at a young age.

If truth exists in this world, then there are indeed some people who are better at grasping it!

Li Xiaolin, Yu Qie's daughter, laughed and said, "Yu Qie's letter doesn't contain a single idiom or obscure character, which shows that he thought about who he wanted to write it to. Although this letter looks simple, not just anyone could write it!"

Ba Jin nodded. "He knew who he was writing for."

"He wrote a letter to elementary school students. He wrote '2666', a book that even I couldn't understand, to the judges."

For this trip home, the entire Ba family who could come out of retirement were present.

My daughter, Li Xiaolin, took leave, and my son, Li Xiaotang, happened to come to Chengdu to collect manuscripts.

My granddaughter kept refusing to go to school and even took a few days off. She still doesn't like going to school, and her grades are mediocre.

The teachers at school always say: You are Ba Jin's granddaughter?

Putting everything else aside, at the very least you need to learn Chinese well!

Three years have passed since the Hangzhou Conference in 84, and now this little girl is beginning to take on the appearance of a young woman, standing tall and graceful.

Duanduan has recently taken to reading leisure books, and the Ba family lets her do as she pleases.

Li Xiaolin teased her daughter, "Do you still remember Brother Yuqie? That year you were begging for sugar pills, and he made sure that all the children in the country could get them."

Duanduan said, "How could I not remember! Yu Qie's novel 'We Two' was in the first-year junior high school textbook, and his classmates even wrote him love poems! But he never replied."

Li Xiaolin had been joking with Yu Qie, but then he was shocked: "You're all so young, how can you write love poems for people? Even Yu Qie wouldn't do that!"

Duanduan said, "I don't need to write love letters. If I have feelings for someone, I'll just meet them and say it. In our new society, age is not a problem!"

"You, you!" Li Xiaolin was furious and was about to slap his daughter to teach her a lesson.

But then I saw that the passenger next to me also had a newspaper and saw the news about the foreign professor going to the mountains.

The man immediately shouted, "Yu Qie has done something good again! He launched the 'Spring Rain Operation' before, I wonder what kind of activity he's doing this time?"

Subsequently, other people who saw the news also joined the discussion. At that time, those traveling in soft sleeper berths were all high-ranking officials who had their own insights into society.

People often talk about social news, engaging in loud and boisterous discussions.

Then someone else said, "Distributing sugar pills is easy, but running an education system is very difficult. People talk about a century of education; we're not talking about a hundred years, but at least twenty or thirty years... No one in China can do it! This is the government's responsibility, this is the nation's responsibility!"

The person in front said, "Of course I know! But Yu Qie must have done something! At the very least, he must have donated money to this primary school student, we just didn't know it (at Yu Qie's request, it wasn't written in the newspaper at the time)."

"You're right! Wasn't that professor Yu Qie called over? He can even boss around American professors!"

Mr. Ba was deeply moved when he heard this.

Yu Qie is not only an idol for young people, but even here, passengers from all over the world know Yu Qie's story.

He said to the "rebellious" Duanduan, "I have no opinion on who you want to date in the future, as long as that person is a good person."

what?
“Dad…” Li Xiaolin’s eyes widened.

His son, Li Xiaotang, was also bewildered: "Wait, what are you doing?"
As the train drew closer to his hometown, Ba Jin seemed rather cheerful. He added, "But you have to face extremely fierce competition. When I was young, I received so many love letters that I couldn't possibly read them all."

“One of them was a high school girl who wrote to me for more than half a year. She asked why we couldn’t meet, which put me in a difficult position… When I saw her, I found her to be quite pretty and spoke with the manners of a well-bred lady. That person was your maternal grandmother.”

Buffett's wife was fourteen years younger than him, and they dated for a full eight years, turning this high school girl into an old maid.

Fortunately, they were very happy after marriage and had a deep and loving relationship.

“Yu Qie isn’t as ‘eccentric’ as me; he’ll only be more popular! Even if he’s still single, you probably won’t be able to compete with him!”

makes sense!

I've heard that actress from the Shanghai Film Studio really likes Yu Qie.

There are just too many people who like Yuqie, and you don't know which ones are actually related.

Li Xiaolin wanted to provoke his daughter: "Duanduan, your education level is too low! Yu Qie is going to get a doctorate and will definitely become a big professor in the future! Can you even finish junior high school?"

Upon hearing this, Duanduan's eyes immediately welled up with tears: "I can't get into Peking University, I can't compete, I really can't compete."

When Buffett saw this, he couldn't help but burst into laughter.

(End of this chapter)