Chapter 16 In memory of Mao Dun

It's the season of falling flowers again, on the grass outside the study window in the suburbs, the pink and white cherry petals seem to be many periods.Life is always divided into many stages, and in each stage we will always encounter new situations, and then adjust our cognition and mood either consciously or involuntarily.The petals continued to fall outside the window, and inside the window I was arranging the books on the shelf.When I touched the first, second and second volumes of "The Road I Traveled" with extremely simple binding, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. That is the memoir of Mao Dun.It was published successively after his death. The People's Literature Publishing House stamped his seal on the list according to the list he made before his death, and distributed it to everyone. I was lucky to get it.I have read these three volumes of memoirs carefully, and I have a lot of emotions, but I have never written an article.Although there are "Lu, Guo, Mao, Ba, Lao, Cao", in the past 20 years, except for the literary award named after Mao Dun, people often pay attention to it. Mao Dun's works and research on him have been very quiet. . "Mao Xue" has never been formed, and his descendants are also very low-key. They don't come out to write articles to recall, accept interviews, or contribute to Zhaoxian. As a result, he is almost the loneliest one in the ranking list mentioned above.

More than 20 years ago, in accordance with Mao Dun's wishes and with his contribution as the principal, the Mao Dun Literature Award was established. It is currently the highest literary award recognized by ordinary people in mainland China.What exactly is Mao Dun's literary concept? Whether the writers and works that have won the Mao Dun Literature Award should conform to this concept? Some people will definitely think it superfluous or even ridiculous when I raise this question.In fact, both those who organized this award, those who fought for this award, and many reporters in the media have completely regarded this award named after Mao Dun as an award that can accommodate writers with different ideas and different pursuits. The "basket of honor" of the work, the debates, adjustments and final announcements during it, have nothing to do with the questions I raised.

Needless to say, since the mid-1980s, Xia Zhiqing’s "History of Modern Chinese Literature", which was written in English and translated into Chinese by others, has exerted a huge influence in mainland China. In the history of modern literature in mainland China, Shen Congwen, Qian Zhongshu, and Zhang Ailing had no status at all. Scholars and readers in mainland China who had been imprisoned and suppressed for a long time were surprised when they suddenly read the works of Shen, Qian, and Zhang.These writers who were originally denied, indifferent, or even not turned away by left-wing writers including Mao Dun, have written masterpieces with such unique aesthetic value.In the twenty years since then, Shen, Qian, and Zhang's enthusiasm has continued to heat up, while Mao Dun has been in a state of being frozen.In fact, in Xia Zhiqing’s book, there is also a special chapter for Mao Dun, and this conclusion is drawn: “Mao Dun is undoubtedly the greatest Communist Party writer in modern China, and he is not inferior to any famous writer in the same period.”

The theme of Mao Dun’s novels comes first. He sets up the characters, plots and details according to the theme, and has the habit of making a detailed outline based on them. When the novel as an art develops to the current situation, these are all considered by most people. regarded as a fatal flaw.But I have recently re-read his novels, especially, I still get an aesthetic pleasure. His novels are interesting and sometimes touch the depths of human nature.I admit that when I wrote "The Class Teacher", there were many "Mao Dun factors" in the essay.This may be the root cause of his encouragement after reading "The Class Teacher" and his high expectations for my future creations.

Although I didn't have the opportunity to have close contact with Mao Dun and have an in-depth conversation, I have been favored by him.This does not mean that in March 1979, when I won the first prize of the national excellent short story, he smiled and handed the award certificate to me.The most memorable thing is that more than a month before the award, in the small auditorium of the Friendship Hotel, the People's Literature Publishing House came forward to hold a symposium aimed at encouraging the creation of novels. At that time, the literary garden destroyed by the "Cultural Revolution" was deserted. , Mao Dun attended that symposium, and had a cordial and specific discussion with most of the people present at the meeting, who were mostly novices like me who had not officially entered the literary world.He encouraged us to write novels that completely got rid of the influence of the "Gang of Four" and were worthy of the new era.During the discussion that day, he suddenly asked Yan Wenjing, who was hosting the discussion: "Is Liu Xinwu here?" I quickly stood up from my seat, and Yan Wenjing said, "That's him." Encouragement and expectation.There are not many opportunities to get such attention in one's life.

I have to admit that during the entire writing process, Mao Dun's eyes have been cast in my heart, which is the driving force behind my hard work.It was already the summer of 1984 when I finished writing. A literary bimonthly magazine that has been following my debut novel told me that they could only serialize it in two issues across the year. The full text was published in 1984, because the evaluation scope of the second Mao Dun Literature Award was limited to before the end of that year.I held back to win this award, because the person who set up this award once valued me so much, and I got my wish.I think I won this award for works that conform to Mao Dun's literary philosophy. The core of that philosophy is that writers should embrace the times, pay attention to society, have a sense of mission, and make their artistic imaginations have the functionality of interpreting life and improving society.

Mao Dun passed away in late spring 25 years ago.I walked out of the study and collected those beautiful petals from the green grass, and the petals in the palm of my hand gave off a fragrance.Feelings of gratitude surged in my heart.No matter how others evaluate Mao Dun nowadays, in my mind, he is an eternal model of a literary genre with vigorous vitality.