As the executor of Eileen Chang's literary heritage, I have been giving lectures on Eileen Chang in different places such as universities and bookstores.I am always asked about the status of my unpublished novel, even by interviewing journalists.To answer these questions, I always refer to the letter Eileen Chang wrote to my parents on March 12, 1992—the original will is attached with the letter—in which she once said: If there is money left, I would like to spend it on my works, for example, ask a master to translate.Unpublished publications, such as an English article on Lin Biao, have long since passed away. (The novel is going to be destroyed.) I didn't think about it, I'll talk about it later.

Here I want to point out that a will is a legal document, but an ordinary letter is not. Why do we have to "think about it" and "say it later"?As far as I know, this discussion never came up.In September 1995, Zhang Ailing passed away, and all her property was left to my parents.My father, Stephen Soong, was in poor health and passed away in December 1996.My mother Song Li Wenmei (Mae Fong Soong) has not yet decided where to go, worrying about gains and losses, she just puts the manuscript aside.In November 2007, my mother passed away, and it was up to me to decide. So I always ask my audience, should we respect Zhang Ailing's request and burn the manuscript?They always object with one voice.Some of them will inevitably cite Max Brod and Kafka as examples: if Max Brod obeys his friend's orders, the world will lose the work of Kafka.Obviously, if I destroyed it according to Eileen Chang's instructions, I would definitely form a tragic contrast with Max Brod, and thus go down in history.Of course, I don't have to obey the democratic vote, because the public may just like gossip.

I know you have to be very careful in your decision.Since Zhang Ailing didn't ask for immediate destruction, she said that she would discuss it in detail later, which proves that there is no room for change.If there is a "discussion", what is the topic?What prompted Eileen Chang to write this novel in the first place?Why did she delay publishing it?Why did you plan to destroy it in the end? It is naturally impossible to ask the three of them.Fortunately, they left behind a large number of letters: in forty years, they wrote more than 600 letters, with a length of 400,000 words.Among them, we can find the story of how it was born and why it was temporarily "frozen".The following are excerpts from the relevant letters:

Zhang Ailing July 18, 1975 I have been busy writing novels for the past two months, and the previous manuscripts are completely unusable.It's half written now.There is no hindrance in this article. "..." I said that I was also very rude when I talked about it. It is always better to expose this kind of place by yourself.Of course it doesn't mean denying yourself.
Zhang Ailing August 8, 1975 It gets longer and longer, so there is no half.
Eileen Chang September 18, 1975 Because it has been brewing for too long, it was written very quickly, but it has already been written.Of course, we have to put it aside for a few more days to prepare for changes, otherwise there will be endless troubles. "..." Some parts of this novel will make you and Mae laugh for me.But I still plan to send it to you to see if there is a chance that Hong Kong and Taiwan will be serialized at the same time.

Eileen Chang September 26, 1975 After putting it aside for a few days, I have copied it by hand today.I almost never revise my novels, unlike my papers where there are mistakes.
Zhang Ailing October 16, 1975 There are several places that need to be rewritten-the novel has been revised, which is obviously a thing of the past-I took advantage of the fact that I couldn't write, and I was lazy for a few days, and my dizziness stopped immediately.It seems that there is still some time to finish the manuscript, and it would be best if it can be serialized in Hong Kong and Taiwan at the same time. "..." One of the motivations for rushing to write is Zhu Xinnan's letter saying that I have tried my best to de-personalize the readers' impression of me in recent years, and I hope he will not write.Of course it won't work, but more than half the content of this novel is also irrelevant.

Zhang Ailing November 6, 1975 It is about writing about the past, although I have always wanted to write about it. Hu Lancheng is now in Taiwan, which makes him more satisfied.
Eileen Chang December 21, 1975 I am still writing, and of course I found that there are more and more places that need to be repaired.
Zhang Ailing January 3, 1976 Because of the needs of the plot, it is impossible to change the appearance.Those who have read "Rumours" will know at a glance that there are "Whispers" and "Amber Records" (Hong Kong War) in it, although the perspectives are different.

Zhang Ailing January 25, 1976 The plot is complicated, very dramatic, full of shocks, it is a love story, not a white paper for a lawsuit, and the ridicule of Hu Lancheng in it is not as it was later.
Zhang Ailing March 14, 1976 I just filled in the pages, and there are about 180,000 characters (!), which is really "The Great Reunion".Is to adopt a small part of that oddly long article! ——It is also mentioned in "Whispering Eileen Chang", the title of the book was not mentioned-plus the love story-it didn't exist.It will probably arrive next week, and the copy is a printed matter, so I'm afraid it will be a day or two late, otherwise you can read it at the same time.

Zhang Ailing March 18, 1976 I just sent it yesterday, and I remembered that two things needed to be added and changed that night. There is no way, so I have to send two more pages here—two copies of each page—please replace the original two pages.
Yong Wenmei March 25, 1976 I received the original the day before yesterday, and I immediately wrote back a letter to tell you at noon, and asked Stephen to pay by the way when he was at work in the afternoon.In the evening he came home with another package, and the original copy arrived too!So we don't need to compete with each other (you know we never compete for anything, the only exception is to snatch your works), and we can have a preview of each person.I've already finished watching, and I have mixed feelings in my heart. Stephen happened to be very busy and watched carefully, so I haven't seen the end yet... You must want to hear our reaction, but this time I still need you to be patient.

"..." I received your letter on the 18th today, and there are two pages that need to be changed, which is very easy to do.The problem is that Stephen said that there are many other small things that he thinks should be discussed with you. "..." This novel will make its grand debut (I mean it will be in the literary world) under the circumstances that attract much attention. We regard it as very important, so we always think about you. You must understand this sincerity, and you will not think we are too much.You already expected that some places would shock us - but that's okay, even I'm not as reserved and closed as I used to be.I am sure no other reader understands why you wrote this book as thoroughly as I do. Stephen never heard about your abortion in New York, you told me that time, I remember everything clearly.

Zhang Ailing April 4, 1976 I don't write to vent my anger. I always think that the best material is the material you know best, but because of the sanctions of nationalism, I have been unable to write. "..." I talked with Chen Ruoxi in Taipei because my views on the national government have always been influenced by my childhood and youth, and I am not pro-communist.In recent years, I feel that monolithic nationalism has become looser. For example, in the movie, there is actually a British and American spy who is not patriotic (played by Michael Caine).As for the "rogue" who is cheap, I have always worried about it in my letter before. ——He probably went to Taiwan through his fellow countryman Chen Lifu, who helped him before——The idea of ​​changing to a double agent is very good, but the problem is that I can't even watch spy movies and spy novels.Think about it later, and leave the manuscript with you.

Zhiqing read the preface of "Zhang Kan", and a long letter came and suggested that I write about my grandparents and mother. Now the novel and biography are unclear.I wrote back and said, "Your custom-made novel is that", and now I wrote to say that after Euhoria passed, I found many obstacles and needed to be processed, using the facts, and asked him to soft-edal it based on the facts.But it must have gotten out.
Song Qi April 15, 1976 We are not rudes, to be honest, the concept of the country is also very light, but we have to face real problems. If the "rogue" is dead, or hasn't come out in the mainland, this problem is nothing, but he is in Taiwan, and he is waiting for a chance to turn around. Now he turns over, but at least it can drag you down.It is said in the novel that he took away all the correspondence and may still keep it in his hand, so it becomes documentary evidence, which is even more plausible.So now rewrite the identity, let him die unexpectedly, and can't speak.Another point is that if it is a double agent, it cannot be a government agent, because government agents will not betray.We used to make a movie based on Sy Ring, but the script didn't pass, that's the reason.What is Shao Zhiyong's identity, you don't need to specify it, because the novel starts from the heroine's point of view. The heroine loves him, that's all, and doesn't pursue his identity. In short, he was beaten to death. A double agent can be killed for the Japanese or the puppet government, or even be killed by the government's underground elements or the Communist Party's underground elements.You don't have to study his psychology, because you don't describe him positively at all.As long as it turns out that there is such an inconsistency between words and deeds in the end, using the same set to deal with every woman, and then everyone gets together and wears a pair, you can't help but laugh.Before that, Jiu Li was already disillusioned, and she went to the countryside not to miss him, but to visit and fulfill a wish, that's all.
Eileen Chang April 22, 1976 I got too involved in this novel, actually I am not unaware of the situation in Taiwan that Stephen mentioned - but I never thought that the underground workers in Chongqing could not turn their backs! ! !Yuan Shu claimed to be an underground worker of the CCP. After the war, he swaggered and brought a cook and a group of more than ten people into the CCP area, and was immediately detained.But his cover is a fake official, or not.Maybe it can be changed to Taiwanese - I taught Chinese to a Taiwanese businessman who went to university in Japan.Go to the mainland to do business with the Japanese army in Qingxiang. ——The hidden countryside after the war, as long as you go south, you will find the Hokkien-speaking area.A German overseas Chinese leader once wanted to recruit my aunt to go to Chongqing for activities. Maybe this person can be useful.Jiuli and Xiaokang met each other face to face, so I had to wait for the filming to write. For me, the film is on a different level of consciousness.Here you can only find circumstances to fit the scenes & emotions.This is a story of passion, and I wanted to express how love can turn and turn, and there is still something after it is completely disillusioned.What I feel right now doesn't belong in the story.I'm not busy, I need to wait for some time to talk about these things.I took all my letters back, otherwise they would have been unearthed long ago.
Song Qi April 28, 1976 I hurriedly read it in three days, because I had to go to work during the day, and I took some notes while reading.Write down any doubts about the wording and use of words, so that I can ask you for further discussion in the future. Mae read it before me, and the notes were not as detailed as mine. Together, the two of them can always cover the ground.Because from a good point of view, you are now an idol, and you have to show the good side to the readers; from a bad point of view, you are a target, and if you put it in a bad way, you have become the target of public criticism.There are many villains in Taiwan, the writers are jealous, the publishers who can’t get your book, plus people like Tang Wenbiao, everyone has a microscope and is waiting for your new work to come out, so that they can find the bones in the egg, I can’t wait for you If something goes wrong, it can knock your head off.For you, you have been inactive for many years, and now you suddenly become the center of everyone's attention. It is a rare miracle in the literary world, and it is also a turning point in your writing career, so it should be cherished.The above is our rimary concern in dealing with your new book. This is a thinly veiled, even attent autobiographical novel, not to mention us, anyone who is familiar with your works or has heard a little about your life will see it, and Chinese and foreign readers are all very nosy people, who like to read Fiction and truth are confused, especially Chinese readers don't care what is fiction and what is autobiography.This is also something we have to keep in mind. When I finished reading the first third, I had a feeling that the first and second chapters were too messy, a bit like a roll call, and the Pacific War was inserted. I have seen it in the early works. If it is serialized in newspapers, it may attract attention. I can't stop readers from "chasing" them down. I thought about suggesting to delete them or shorten them. Later, I felt that the appearance of my mother and aunt was related to the following. At the same time, there were many sentences in Zhang Ailing's style. It was a pity to discard them, so I decided to put them aside Talk about it later. By the time I saw Hu Lancheng, the problems raised in the previous two chapters became insignificant.I know that the title of your book is also ironical. The male protagonists in the wit and beauty novels all won the first prize, and then the three wives and four concubines are all beautiful and docile, and they are willing to live with him, so it is a "happy reunion".Now the male protagonist in this novel is a traitor, and he hid in the end, and all the women who liked him were either divorced, or trapped in the situation, or saw through him, and they all broke up with him. The scenery is not even a "little reunion". The heroine, Jiu Li, is written as a bold, unconventional woman: her love is unconditional, although she knows (1) the man is a traitor; (2) he has several other women; despised by relatives and friends.Of course, in the end she was disillusioned and abandoned him.But we can imagine that someone will point out: Jiu Li is Zhang Ailing, and Shao Zhiyong is Hu Lancheng.Knowing his identity and character, Zhang Ailing is still on good terms with him, and then adds a lot of fuel and sauce, one should be reconciled, and those who have selfishness and jealousy will be kicked by everyone, wishing to trample you to death. .At that time, you said it a hundred times: it is a novel, Jiuli is a character in the novel, she is not the same as Zhang Ailing, no one will pay attention to you. Don't forget, there is a time bomb next to it: "Rogue", this person did not know what was connected, went to Taiwan to teach at the Chinese Culture Institute, capitalized his articles, and later was accused of being a traitor, and the Central Daily came out to attack him. I had to be dismissed, and I had to use a pseudonym to write articles. As soon as it comes out, it's like a fat pig delivered to your door. Why don't you take this opportunity to show off and write your own strange essay?He kept saying: Jiuli is Ailing, some places are true, some places have been changed, other places are slightly different from my memory, etc. I can imagine the feeling of complacency.A person who is about to drown can do whatever he can grab in the water, and it drags you into the water as a result, why bother? I said above that you are an idol, and of course there are various restrictions and pains when you become an idol.Because there are masses of readers, and the psychology of the masses is like this, which is unreasonable.Half of the reason why you are today depends on readers' appreciation and liking for your works. The praise of academics and writers is just icing on the cake, and the official recent realization that you are the first anti-communist writer is a more favorable factor.If the previous conjectures come true, the officials will remain silent, and the readers will only listen to one side of the story, and the academic defense will not be effective at that time.Losing reputation may not be enough, Taiwan's writing career is over, and the goodwill established over the years will definitely be in vain.What I said above is not that I am alarmist, but that I have quite a lot of experience in this industry, and I have seen a lot, and it is by no means created out of nothing. I know that you tried to write Jiuli as an unconventional woman when you wrote it, and it didn't work out.Only a few readers may say that her unhappy childhood caused her to have such behaviors and psychology, but most readers will not sympathize with her. In short, she is an unsymathetic character.this is one. Secondly, these things have been accumulated in my heart for many years, and I always want to spit it out quickly, to get it out of your system.Like I have been in the film industry for so many years, I pretended not to know about many things, and finally I couldn’t resist it, which was equivalent to a breakdown. After changing the environment, I tried desperately to get it out of my system.Well, now that you have written it, this has been done.We should calmly and objectively consider your future and prospects. The major premise is that in its resent form, this book may not be published or published.Even Xintao will think twice, this book may make a fortune, but he will not destroy the Great Wall himself.Now the only way is to rewrite, there are two aroaches: (1) rewrite Jiuli, and identify her as Aileen.This cannot be done, because it is equivalent to rewriting the whole book. (2) Rewrite Shao Zhiyong.This is more likely.We guess Lanshan is Sang Hu. You can change him from a director to an actor. There is no reason why Shao's identity cannot be changed.You can change him into an underground worker, but he became a double agent for money, and he was merciful everywhere to cover up his identity. Later, someone found out and killed him. Jiuli can go alone instead of going to the countryside, expressing that she wants to see the place of origin of her loved one, but she meets Xiaokang and others for the same purpose. After exchanging notes and dressing up, it turns out that he used the same method and method to deal with it. All the women, and there were two country wives before, and then they were completely disillusioned. (The Araki part can be deleted, it has no effect at all.) This change is of course a major oeration, but the scope involved is relatively narrow, and there is no need to change Jiuli. And the family part, at least without a complete rewrite, might save the book. Jiuli did this because the life she lived made her completely ignorant of the world, so it was so, and many readers will sympathize with it.At the same time, this can also make the "rogue" have nothing to say. He may not always say: "Shao Zhiyong is me", because he is a traitor after all, not an underground worker, and he is not dead.If he insisted on putting gold on his face, no one would believe it.Besides, most of the readers in the two paragraphs of Blue Mountain and Abortion will not identify for you.Of course, when you design the whole book, you have a complete overall plan, and even a small change will have a huge impact. I am not a superman, and I have no experience in writing novels. I know that it is easy to say, but in practice, there are problems everywhere.But after talking to Mae a few times, I think this is a feasible way. (2) If you think this method won’t work, and your brain can’t turn it around for a while, you have to put it aside for a while, think about it carefully, and only say that it is being revised. Fortunately, no third person has seen the original manuscript.After figuring it out, come back with a specific reform method. By reading this, you already know as much as I do.As far as I can see, their biggest hidden worry was Hu Lancheng who was in Taiwan at the time.They believe that Hu will take advantage of the good opportunity of publishing and will not worry about Zhang Ailing's life or death. Song Qi proposes a technical solution, which is to rewrite the hero as a double agent who is eventually assassinated.In this way, it is difficult for Hu Lancheng to claim that he is the prototype of the male protagonist. Of course, this will inevitably require a lot of changes. As a result, Eileen Chang also agreed with Song Qi's concerns, so she put it on hold temporarily and continued to write her "Lust, Caution".But throughout her life, she did not complete the revision. What about today?Hu Lancheng passed away in 1981, so all worries about him are gone.As for politically sensitive issues, today's Taiwan is vastly different from what it was back then, and such concerns can be put aside. The rest, in fact, are just two technical problems.First, back then I was worried that the heroine Jiu Li was too "not worthy of sympathy", that is what Song Qi called unsymathetic.But if this standard is established, I think many of Zhang Ailing's other works should never be published based on this reason.To give an example, how can Cao Qiqiao, the heroine of the novel, please the readers? (See Liu Shaoming's "Re-reading Origin") So no matter how "unworthy of sympathy" the heroine is, I don't think it is a reason enough to prevent the publication of the novel.Second, they were also afraid that readers would regard Jiuli as a copy of Eileen Chang, which would attract a lot of criticism.But as far as I can see, if Zhang is still alive and sees the words about her on the Internet today, she will understand how trivial her worries were.In fact, she has long since died, and any criticism can no longer hurt her deeply.The articles she left to the world will last forever, and they will never be less glorious because of this kind of voice. In addition, the above excerpted letters have fully revealed her original intention and process of creation, so I don’t need to make any excuses for her . At the beginning of this article, I quoted Zhang Ailing's letter to my parents in March 1992, which clearly stated that "the novel must be destroyed." Readers will probably wonder whether publishing this book is against Zhang Ailing's wishes.In fact, as long as we refer to the letters between her and the two editors of Crown, we will find that instead of destroying them, she actively revised them and planned to publish them as soon as possible.The following are excerpts from three of the related letters: Chen Lihua to Zhang Ailing August 26, 1992 Fang Liwan, the editor in charge of your book, told me that almost every day there are letters from readers or letters inquiring about the publication date. Because there is still a lack of manuscripts for "Contrast Notes" and "Contrast Notes", I am very much looking forward to receiving the work sooner, and I hope that Crown will be honored to publish it as soon as possible. , for the readers. (I'm looking forward to it too!)
Zhang Ailing to Fang Liwan July 30, 1993 Also, I forgot that "Contrast Notes" is too thick and the book price is too high.I'm afraid I haven't finished writing it within the year.It is better to publish "Contrast Notes" first.
Zhang Ailing to Chen Lihua October 7, 1993 Be sure to finish writing as soon as possible, so that you will not break your promise to the reader.
Based on this, we should understand that Zhang Ailing was reluctant to "destroy" it at all, and she kept revising it in her later years, possibly following Song Qi's advice, but unfortunately she never finished it.My personal opinion is that the double agent method is superfluous, and it will only lead to misunderstanding that Eileen Chang is cleaning up Hu Lancheng's identity as a traitor, so it's worth not changing it. Eileen Chang herself said: "The best material is the material you know the most." Among her published works, "Whispers", "Amber Records" and "Comparison Notes" can be said to have the most autobiographical value, and they are also deeply influential. Readers value.But in terms of "best knowledge", they are hardly comparable, so destroying it would be a great sin. My basis is that if Song Qi hadn't been in charge, pointing out the issue of Hu Lancheng and Taiwan's political situation had already been published in 1976.Since these problems no longer exist today, I have decided to publish the original manuscript without any deletions. That's why I've decided to make it available today.Whether you agree with my decision or not, you should also admit that I have at least explained everything here.