Chapter 34 postscript

Lao She, Ba Jin called him "the best model of Chinese intellectuals"; Cao Yu called him "a contemporary Chinese 'hero'"; the government awarded him the title of "People's Artist";Yes, selling well in the United States and shocking Europe, Lao She has his own place in world literature.People expect to know more about Lao She, his experience, temperament, thought, personality...This calls for biography: other biographies, autobiographies, more than one. Lao She once had the idea of ​​writing an autobiography, but later dismissed it.This To Us" is actually a "accurate".Although quasi-autobiography is permeated with the editor's reading principles, readers may be more likely to get a real sense of historical time and space from it.Generally speaking, people, especially the elderly, are always easily dominated by a latent desire: to re-live the life at that time under the understanding and state of mind at this time.In this way, the autobiography becomes the old man's reinterpretation and even shaping of his past when he was young and middle-aged.From this point of view, quasi-autobiography can avoid such colors and mistakes.Although the editor of the quasi-autobiography must not be able to start from the beginning, orderly time by time, and salvage the sediment in the memory, and it is difficult to achieve strict back and forth in the arrangement of materials, but his attitude may be calmer and more rational , more scientific, and thus perhaps closer to reality.

I entered the university in 1977 to study Lao She, and since then I have continuously gained new understanding, and gradually I have a complete Lao She alive in my heart.After reading sixteen volumes, I read all his novels, dramas, old poems, new poems and prose, and the context of "Book" discovered so far.Lao She often "examines myself three times a day" like Zeng Zi; he repents like a Christian.Lao She is good at describing himself. He always introduces himself to people in the form of "how do I..." and analyzes himself, his behavior and experience, and his thoughts and feelings.We can easily get a whole picture of Lao She from these materials.

Naturally, there are a thousand Hamlets for a thousand readers.The key lies in how to grasp the autobiographical characteristics of Lao She.His self-portrait is: an ordinary person, a writer—a person who can write stories of characters in various genres to express emotions, and a person who pursues the truth—caring about life, the future and future of mankind, and willing to transform his thoughts for this, including abandoning own everything.I'm based on ordinary people, writers, seeking truth. The most ideal way is to highlight the life experiences and behavior interests of "ordinary people", and regard the trait of "writer" as only one kind of behavior, while the life attitude of "seeking truth" is completely hidden under the self-narrative facts.However, objective materials do not depend on my will.Looking at the youth and youth of life is of course interesting; and the self-narration of a professional writer's life is definitely inferior to that of a "star"; what's more: to "reform the mind" in order to seek the truth, with the mission of "serving the people", only pay attention to Social and ideological development, deliberately ignoring the little things around us, this will undoubtedly lead us into biographical articles with such a focus: young and middle-aged "pass on the line", and old people "pass on the heart".It is not easy to coordinate these well.I have done my best not to have my autobiography dwindle like natural life.In addition, great efforts have been made in coordinating intonation. "To form an organic whole, I arranged Lao She's autobiographical materials appropriately, merging, abridged, and combined.But my rule is: keep the original appearance of the work as much as possible.Except for deletions and combinations, I have only added a few words with a penetrating tone, which are marked in parentheses, so that readers can understand them. "is directly based on "Lao She's Letters Collection" (edited by Shu Ji, People's Literature Publishing House, Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House), and largely benefited from "Lao She's Life and Creation Autobiography" (People's Literature Publishing House) by Mr. Hu Jieqing. , referring to "Lao She Chronicle" (edited by Gan Hailan, Bibliography Publishing House), "Lao She Research Materials" (edited by Zeng Guangcan and Wu Huaibin, Beijing Shiyue Literature and Art Publishing House), etc.

Lao She is sacred in my heart.I dare not blaspheme. "can be liked by readers, and I hope readers can be like Lao She, an ordinary person, an honest person, a dedicated person, and a person who relentlessly pursues the truth. Xu Deming