Chapter 20 Section 9 in Beibei

1. Beibei Beibei is a small town on the Jialing River, more than 50 kilometers away from Chongqing. It used to be a very ordinary town; but under the management of Lu Zuofu and Mr. Lu Ziying, it became an "experimental area".During the Anti-Japanese War, because many schools and institutions moved here, it became a cultural area again.The market naturally followed suit.It has neat hotels, fairly large restaurants, bathrooms, and gold shops and banks.It also has parks, stadiums, theaters, electric lights, and running water.It is no longer a small town, but a small city.Outside the city, there is the North Hot Spring Park, which can be used for sightseeing and swimming; there is a mountain, where Master Taixu and Master Fazun lived. They set up the Sino-Tibetan School of Science in Jinyun Temple to educate young monks.

In the 28th and 29th years, this place was bombed, many houses were destroyed and many people died.But repair as you go.Its city appearance has been revised more neatly and beautifully.This is an ideal place to call home.More specifically, it has everything that a metropolis should have.It has waterways and dry roads leading directly to Chongqing, and department stores can come in a steady stream.Its quietness and cleanliness are far from comparable to Chongqing.It also has its own little newspaper. Mr. Lin Yutang bought a small bungalow here.When he went abroad, he handed over the house to Mr. Lao Xiang and the "Cultural Association" to take care of it.Therefore, firstly, I have many friends here, and secondly, I have a place to live, so I often come here to play.In Fudan, there are Mr. Chen Wangdao, Chen Zizhan, Zhang Jinyi, Ma Zongrong, Hong Shen, Zhao Songqing, Wu Lifu, Fang Lingru; There are Yang Zhongzi, Yang Yinliu, Lu Qian, Zhang Chong and you gentlemen; there are also many fellows from Hebei; so I like to come here.Although they are all poor, taking turns eating one meal for each family will not make them bankrupt.

2. "Cremation" During the Anti-Japanese War, it was difficult to write novels due to busyness, illness, and unstable life.Even the short stories are not capitalized. This is because apart from being busy, sick, and living an unstable life, I also have a little practice writing dramas and poems.From 1938 to 1943, I only wrote a dozen short stories, and the income was .The name is very appropriate. From the winter of 1940 to the present (spring of 1944), I have always suffered from anemia.Every winter, as long as I am a little tired, I will feel dizzy; if I don't stop working immediately, I will faint from fainting, and I will spin around when I raise my head.As the weather warmed up, my dizziness lessened, so I picked up my pen again to write.It stands to reason that I should take a year and a half to take a longer rest.However, in terms of study, I am unwilling to be lazy for a long time; in terms of economy, I dare not live on debt.Therefore, when I got better, I wrote a little bit; when I fell ill, I had to "lie down".As a result, my body is getting worse and worse, and my works are getting more and more outrageous!In the two episodes with "Anemia", ashamed, I can't find anything decent!

In the summer of 1931, I came to Beibei again to write the novel "Cremation". Since the spring of this year, there have been very few air strikes; It is extremely hot in the sky, so I get up at five o'clock and stop writing at eight o'clock, and I can get more than a thousand words a day.I planned to write a novella, but I had 50,000 to 60,000 characters, and it was still difficult to finish, so I changed it to a novel.At the end of September, more than 80,000 characters have been obtained, and it is decided to finish the volume on Double Ten and return to Chongqing.On October 4th, he was admitted to the hospital to have the cecum removed, and everything came to a standstill.He was discharged from the hospital on the 20th and still had to rest in bed.At that time, the family members had already traveled from Beiping to Baoji; they were impatient and unable to move, and their hearts were even more anxious.Lai Youyou assisted in many ways, and his family members arrived in Bei in mid-November.Starting on the 23rd, I began to slowly fill in the novels; my wounds healed up, and I suffered from abdominal problems, so I might only write three to five hundred words a day.On December 11th, I wrote a complete article, about 110,000 words, which is "Cremation".It wants to tell people how perfunctory and cowardice in war are exactly self-defeating.

I haven't written a novel for more than five years, and I feel afraid when I write; the more afraid I become, the more panicked I lose confidence.The weather was extremely hot, and there were many illnesses, so I couldn't write any more because I mechanically mechanized myself.However, if you mechanize your mind and body, can you write good works?Excessive reluctance makes writing a torture.I smoked, drank tea, stared blankly, wiped my glasses, wandered around the room, anxious, sweating, and couldn't find the words I needed.A few sentences that are barely obtained are definitely not flowing from the pen, but the broken bricks and tiles that have been piled up with words. There is no way to modify them. The best way is to tear off the paper and write another one.Write another?I'm exhausted!I had no choice but to leave those rags behind.This is not a literary creation, but blood drawn from a stick!The local background of the story is drilled out of my heart.I want to write about a city occupied by the enemy, but during the years of the Anti-Japanese War, I have never lived in any occupied area.Just talk nonsense.In this way, my "place" loses the authenticity that readers can even smell the smell there.

I wanted to write about the war in many ways, but I hit a wall everywhere. I didn't know the big things, and I didn't know the small things.I don't have enough deep knowledge and experience.I only drew an outline, but I couldn't fill it in perfectly. Some people say that when I write something, it’s all about touch, if it’s good, it’s good;I admit that I sometimes write extremely badly, but I deny random touches.Literature and art are not something that can be fudged.What the writer thinks is good, the readers may not think it is good. Different people have different opinions, and it is not easy to be consistent.However, whether the author has used his heart, he himself knows very well.If a work like "Cremation" was left before the Anti-Japanese War, I would definitely ask it to go to the wastebasket.Now, I don't have that courage.This novel of more than 100,000 characters took more than four months.Even if the time is wasted, the food is not wasted. The ten lines of paper—with copying copies—spent four knives, about one hundred yuan.One ingot of ink costs one hundred and twenty yuan—there are some cheaper ones, but they are still white after grinding.Each pen can only write about 10,000 characters, and at least 200 yuan is required for ten pens.It cost 1,100 yuan to ask someone to make a copy.I would like to ask: Do I dare to throw away such a large capital?I know it's bad, but I can't publish it without the audacity.I didn't touch it blindly, but the writer's life knocked me down!I make this statement not to ask people to forgive me, but to teach everyone to pay attention to how the life of a writer should be improved.If literature and art are still needed in society, everyone must regard literary and art writers as animals that must eat and drink tea.The War of Resistance was difficult, and the literati knew it better than anyone else, but when the manuscript fee was less than the cost of paper and pen, they had no choice but to find another way out.

3. Cecum and family planning At the beginning of October, I got appendicitis. This disease and malaria were the most prevalent in Sichuan during the Anti-Japanese War; everyone ate cheap rice, which contained a lot of weeds and rice.If you accidentally swallow them and enter the cecum, something will happen.There were many air raids, and the siren rang just as soon as I picked up the rice bowl; I had to quickly grab and swallow a bowl of rice or porridge, without caring about picking carefully; thus appendicitis came into being. I was admitted to Jiangsu Hospital.Mr. Liu Xuansan, director of surgery, did it himself.He is a northerner with good skills and a warm heart.However, he sweated a lot.It took three hours to find the cecum.My stomach was drooping a bit, and the cecum had moved, as if I was hiding first because I was afraid of being stabbed.The process was not bad, but the sutures on the outside were a bit thick (during the war, there was a lack of equipment), and the wound was a little watery, so I stayed in the hospital for a few more days.

Before I was discharged from the hospital, my family fled from Beiping to Chongqing.I had to teach them to come to Beibei.I can't move yet.Thanks to Shi Shuhu and Li Xiaoxie—both my classmates—managed to find a car for them, they even came to Beibei with their luggage. From then on, I didn't go to Chongqing very often.The transportation is getting more and more difficult, and the price of goods is getting higher and higher; entering the city once is as expensive as staying abroad.Except for the most important business of the "Cultural Association", I rarely went to the city.

My wife, Jieqing, found a small job in the compilation hall, and I got a stone of rice for a month, and I continued to write, and I managed to live with it. Ordinarily, for the sake of the family, I should find something to do.But what would an idle literati do?Don't talk about anything else, if I only brought two or three hundred yuan (which is not very difficult to raise) when I evacuated from Wuhan, and then started to operate it, I might become a millionaire. rich people.There are many people who have made a fortune in this way.However, a person has only one brain, so if he wants to write articles, he doesn't care about business, and if he wants to do business, he doesn't need to write articles.Outside of the mind, there are also volunteers.I cannot sacrifice my willingness to write for money.So, go to be a civil servant?No way!Although civil servants are not suspected of exposing the country to wealth, I am not used to sitting in the office.I am not reconciled to teaching.Teach me to put down the brush and get the chalk, I am reluctant.I would rather suffer than change my career.At best, this is sticking to one's post; at worst, it is a literati who is worthless.Call it what you want, my old idea.

I quit drinking.In addition to saving money, it is also for the body.Alcohol, I realized only now, does not help my writing, but rather dulls my mind. I also quit smoking.This is designed to save money. 4. Twenty Years of Writing——My Drama When I started writing novels, I didn't understand what a novel was.Likewise, when I started writing plays, I didn't know what theater was. By the time I wrote the script, I was already forty years old.In terms of writing, after more than ten years of practice, I have become more or less proficient; in terms of life experience, of course, I am much richer than before.With these two tools—words and life experience—

I will try boldly. My first script, "Remnant Fog", was only written for half a month. The script was able to be acted out, and it didn't fail miserably, so it must be somewhat good in the mess.After much deliberation, I came up with two points, which I think are the basis for the poor broom: (1) There are some places in the dialogue that are quite literary-not just supporting the progress of the story, but showing a little wit from time to time. (2) The character of the characters is quite obvious. Because of the performance of "Remnant Fog", the naive brother Ma Zongrong named me a playwright.He must have taught me to write a propaganda play for the Islamic Salvation Society.I don't have that much courage, because I know that the failure of "Remnant Fog" is completely a blind cat and a dead mouse.After all, I couldn't help it, so I brought out Song Zhi's brother to cooperate.The two of us wrote The State Comes First.In propaganda dramas, this is a successful book. It has characters, plots, effects, and is simple and easy to act.This play has been staged twice in Chongqing, as well as in Kunming, Chengdu, Dali, Lanzhou, Xi'an, Guilin, Hong Kong, and even Xikang.It was staged in Chongqing, with Ms. Zhang Ruifang as the heroine; Muslim friends even called her "our Zhang Ruifang" after watching the play! The success of this drama should of course be attributed to Song Zhi's brother, he has experience in writing dramas, and I am just a "primary school student".However, I am also very proud - not the success of the comedy book, but I feel that the Anti-Japanese War literature and art can achieve such a small achievement, and it can indeed stop the mouths of those who say that literature and art should not be combined with the Anti-Japanese War. This should really be clear!Last year, when I went to Dali, an elderly Muslim over 80 years old must read the author of "National Supreme" and begged me to write a few words for him as a souvenir.Hui Han has always been alienated, and with such a play, such a good impression can be generated. Who said that literature and art should not take on the task of publicity? After General Zhang Zizhong died in the country, friends in the military circle asked me to write a copy of "Zhang Zizhong".This time, I put in a lot of effort and corrected it five times, but I couldn't write it well. I still suffered from the disadvantage of not caring about the stage. The thoughts in the book took me some effort to think about.Its structure is naive. The four are stable and stable, and I didn't focus on writing and forget the skills, although I didn't pay much attention to skills. This play seems to be able to show a little skill. Although "Peach and Plum Spring Breeze" has won awards, there are many deficiencies in it.This play was co-written with Mr. Zhao Qingge, and the revisions during the performance were all written by him. At that time, I was ill in Beibei. What a difficult thing to write a screenplay!If there are few movements, the loss will be sluggish; if there are many movements, the loss will be chaotic.The writing is good, but the drama is not true; the writing is bad, but it is not reconciled.If you look at the stage, you lose your artistic nature; if you look at literature and art, you lose your stage.I see, let's write novels, it's so unpleasant to write plays!There are restrictions everywhere, like wearing iron shackles on your wrists, you are asking for trouble!Naturally, I don't regret spending time and effort on a few scripts that don't make it into scripts: hardship is a natural condition for literary and artistic cultivation! Five, twentieth anniversary On April 16, 1933, the "Cultural Association" held its annual meeting.The next day, my friends held a commemorative meeting for my 20th year of writing. There were many people present, and there were recitations, drums, martial arts, cross talk, magic and other entertainment programs.Many friends have written articles for me and given me gifts.By the time everyone taught me to speak, I was already crying.I am grateful for everyone's love and care for me, and I am saddened by the indifference towards literati in society. At the same time, I think of my own age and my lack of success. This gave me great encouragement.I know that my writing performance is not very good; the encouragement of my friends is like encouraging a rickshaw driver who has been pulling carts for 20 years, or a postman who has worked hard for 20 years.Then, in order to repay my friend's kindness, I should stick to my post more firmly, concentrate on writing, and write more carefully.I decided to write it down.Even if there is nothing to recommend this million-word novel in terms of content, I still have to write it as a great souvenir for the literature and art of the War of Resistance. six, I started planning to write a million-word novel.A million words, I think, can be written in two years; if you can write fifteen hundred words a day.In January of the 33rd year, I started writing this novel—that is. However, dizziness and malaria often make trouble.By the end of thirty-three years, I had only written 300,000 words.It may take three years to finish writing this article. Although Beibei is quieter than Chongqing, it is just as hot in summer.My bedroom-living room-study room is exposed to sunlight on three sides, and the heat doesn't dissipate until midnight, and bread can still be baked on the wall.I can't sleep well.Lack of sleep, of course, affects dizziness.I couldn't sit still in the house, so I had to go outside, and the mosquitoes outside were big and numerous, and the fans kept waving, and they would take advantage of the opportunity to enter and inject malaria on people. "Swinging" makes anemic people more anemic. Thirty-three years was the darkest time of the war. In the Central Plains and Guangxi, we were repeatedly defeated; the enemy kept attacking Guizhou.This made me worry, and I was extremely worried about the safety of the literary friends who escaped from Guilin.Anxiety and concern also slow down my productivity at writing.I still write every day.In addition to being dizzy and unable to get up, I always refuse to be lazy. For thirty-four years, my health was particularly bad.At the beginning of the year, because I gave birth to a baby girl, I couldn't sleep well and suffered from dizziness.At the beginning of spring, there was a pendulum again.In the past, dizziness was always in winter.This year, Xia Tian also suffered from this disease.In autumn, suffer from hemorrhoids and diarrhea.These ailments often make me put down my pen.I wanted to finish writing it in two years, but by the end of thirty-four years, only two-thirds of it had been written.This is simply not writing, but risking your life!