Chapter 14 Overseas visitors in the courtyard

In the early morning of July 25, 1979, Ba Jin got up early. In the early morning of summer, it dawned very early. He used to get up at 5 o'clock, but this morning Ba Jin got dressed just after 4 o'clock.He came to the courtyard where the morning sun was shining, and saw the fragrance of early spring in the green grass on both sides of Xiaoyong Road.A few clusters of flowers are revealing their fragrance in the morning light.He knew that a Chinese-American writer would come to his quiet courtyard today as a guest.He had to clean up everything in the courtyard.Ba Jin knew that this was the beginning of his foreign affairs activities after the "Cultural Revolution". It started quietly.

"Mr. Ba Jin, Ms. Yu Lihua is here on a special trip from the United States to the mainland of the motherland. The first writer friend she wants to meet is you!" Ba Jin remembered that a few days ago, comrades from the Organization Department of the Shanghai Writers Association came in person Go to his apartment and take care of matters related to the reception of the beautiful writer Yu Lihua. "Yu Lihua?" Ba Jin was obviously unfamiliar with Lihua's name.Perhaps he has rarely read overseas literary publications in the past ten years, especially the limited knowledge of this female writer who went to the United States from Taiwan to study in the early years and then engaged in writing, so he felt difficult for a while.

The cadres of the Writers Association introduced to the old man: "Mr. Ba Jin, Ms. Yu Lihua is one of the more famous Chinese writers in the United States in recent years. She went to the United States to study from Taiwan in the 1950s. It is said that Yu Lihua studied in Los Angeles. At that time, she accidentally wrote a short story entitled "THESOKROWATENDOFYACTSERIVER" in English. She did not expect that she would win the literary award held in the school. She writes novels and essays at the same time. Now she is a well-known writer in the United States. Of course, she wanted to meet you because she was very interested in your novel "Torrent Trilogy" when she was in college. "

"Oh," `Ba Jin attached great importance to the achievements of this Taiwanese beauty writer, and at the same time hoped to meet her soon.Yu Lihua's self-improvement and self-respect abroad reminded Ba Jin of his former study abroad career in France.He said: "It's just that I have read very little over the years, especially English works. I wonder if you can read some of Ms. Yu Lihua's works for me so that I can be prepared when I meet her. " The comrades in charge of the reception expressed their wish to look for it on their behalf, and added: "Yu Lihua's masterpieces in recent years mainly include "Dream Back to Qinghe", "Return" and "See Palm Again, See Palm Again". Some of these works have been published in some domestic journals. I reprinted it. Of course, Yu Lihua’s early works are hard to find, such as several collections she published in Taiwan’s Crown Publishing House, such as "Change" and "It’s Autumn" and so on. I’m afraid I can’t let Balao read them gone."

"Okay, I can read as much as I can, and I always have to be serious when meeting foreign guests." Although Ba Jin is a famous master in the Chinese literary world, when he heard that he was going to meet a writer from the United States, he still hoped that he would be there. You can read the works written by her before meeting each other, so that you can have a common language when you meet. Ba Jin has reached an octogenarian age.But he did not show his pride and aloofness in front of a junior writer. He still took advantage of the two days before meeting Yu Lihua to read her "Seeing Palms Again, Seeing Palms Again" with his glasses on.It was only after Ba Jin had a preliminary understanding of Lihua that he decided to meet Yu Lihua who had just flown from the United States to Shanghai in this quiet courtyard.

"Ba Lao, I was born in Shanghai in 1931. My father studied in France as a part-time student. After returning to China, he taught at Guanghua University." Yu Lihua narrated with the humility of a primary school student in front of masters like Ba Jin. own experience.Of course she knew that the qualifications and knowledge of the white-haired old man sitting in front of her could almost serve as her teacher.This is because when Yu Lihua was born, Ba Jin had already become famous in Shanghai for his famous novel, so she was very eager to meet Ba Jin.And when Yu Lihua read that book, it was after she came to Taiwan with her family, so of course Yu Lihua knew that Ba Jin played a pivotal role in the history of Chinese literature.

"Miss Yu's father is also a student studying in France?" Ba Jin didn't expect that the conversation between him and Yu Lihua would be more harmonious than expected.As Ba Jin, who came out of the hell of the "Cultural Revolution", he was very unfamiliar with how to participate in foreign affairs activities. He secretly asked himself to be as cautious as possible in front of the visiting guests. Although the smoke of the "Cultural Revolution" had dissipated long ago, however, There are still lingering fears in the old man's heart.When he heard that Yu Lihua's father had the same experience as himself, the distance between him and the guest suddenly shortened: "So your ancestral home is also in Shanghai?"

"No, my ancestral home is in Zhenhai." Yu Lihua felt that it was an honor to have a conversation with Ba Jin at home.She has been looking forward to this day for many years in the United States.Now that she is back, she never expected to meet the author of the "Torrent Trilogy" whom she admired as a child so smoothly.She was also surprised that Ba Jin, who was once rumored overseas to have committed suicide under the attack of the Red Guards, is not only still alive today, but also has an amazing memory.She said to Ba Jin: "I lived in Shanghai until I was 7 years old before returning to my hometown Zhenhai. Later, my father lost his job, and our whole family went to Fujian. After I studied elementary school in Fujian, I was exiled to Hunan because of the war. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War We went to Ningbo again. As for going to Taiwan, that was in 1947, when I had just graduated from high school."

"Is Ms. Yu's writing in the United States going well?" Ba Jin didn't want to involve politics in his conversation, what he wanted to talk about was literature and writing. "Ba Lao, frankly speaking, it is not easy for a Chinese to write in a foreign country." The female writer poured out her thoughts in front of Ba Jin. When a guest visits, it is better to say that it is a female scholar and writer who is far away overseas, returning to China to consult with a great writer who has been admired for many years.She brought Ba Jin into a strange world that she once loved: "In the United States, the status of a writer is by no means high, but very low. I mainly teach there, and I can write the rest of the time. And what I like is not I write in English, but write in my own mother tongue, why? Just because what the writer writes must be read by readers who are familiar with her."

Ba Jin's heart suddenly jumped wildly.He didn't expect that this meeting with Yu Lihua would bring back something that had been missing in his heart for a long time.He, who had wandered through Europe, felt the same way as Yu Lihua.After hearing her words, Ba Jin suddenly felt that the path he took back then was not wrong.He couldn't help asking: "Why?" Yu Lihua said: "When I was studying in Los Angeles, although I won an award for writing a novel in English, but later I encountered writing failures for several years, and rejecting the manuscript once became the most unbearable thing in my heart. .It wasn’t until 1961 when I wrote "Dream Back to Qinghe" that I realized that although I was writing in the United States, I was still Chinese! Because my readers have always been Chinese!"

Ba Jin said excitedly: "This is because most of the artistic concepts and materials in your mind come from your own motherland, right?" "That's right, Balao, my soul and body are always inseparable from my motherland!" Yu Lihua felt that talking with Ba Jin was very casual. Their conversation was not an official meeting, but like an old and a young. The writer, sitting in Ba Jin's spacious living room, was talking about his creative experience.She told Ba Jin: "The material was accumulated in my childhood and youth. I have been away from my hometown for many years, and I always miss my hometown. I once told a friend of my troubles. He said that since you can't express your feelings in English, Then why can’t I write it in my mother tongue? Who will read it after I write it? This is also a problem. Later, I thought I should show it to my compatriots, so I handed the manuscript to the Crown Company in Taiwan. It was a success in the country. After the publication of "Dream Back to Qinghe", it was the first sensation in Taiwan. It was serialized in Taiwan's radio stations and newspapers, and later it was filmed in a TV series, Balao. This is why I want to go back to the mainland to find my roots. what!" "That's right, Ms. Yu, it's better to be in my own country!" The meeting between Ba Jin and Yu Lihua gave him an unexpected spiritual shock.Although Ba Jin had stepped out of the shadow of the "Cultural Revolution" before, he also began to have his own freedom of writing.However, Ba Jin has not yet realized from the bottom of his heart the setbacks and injuries brought to him by this disaster, how should he face it?He also tried hard to forget the past with a broad mind.Especially the unfortunate death of his wife Xiao Shan left him with deep and deep pain.However, he really realized the relationship between his motherland and his mother, after he was ordered to meet Yu Lihua, a "foreign guest".Ba Jin felt that what Yu Lihua said to him was from the bottom of his heart.During the meeting, he also discovered his own weakness from this successful female writer.Ba Jin knew the impact and inhuman treatment he received during the "Cultural Revolution". Although it broke his heart for a while, the motherland is his mother after all. In the frequent foreign affairs activities since then, Ba Jin has always adhered to this principle: he will never "complain" in front of any foreign writers, and of course, the old man does not want to talk about the "Cultural Revolution" experience.All he wanted to talk about was his infatuation with Chinese literature. On May 22, 1980, Ba Jin met the famous female writer Nie Hualing who was visiting the motherland from the United States in his small courtyard with the fragrance of magnolia flowers. She is also an outstanding Chinese-American writer. Although Nie Hualing is also a female writer who went to the United States from Taiwan to write, the paths she and Yu Lihua took are quite different.This female writer from Hubei once hosted the political publication "Free China" in Taiwan that confronted Chiang Kai-shek. On the eve of the catastrophe in the mainland of the motherland, she resolutely went to the University of Iowa to visit the "Writer's Workshop" writer.In recent years, Nie Hualing has tried her best to host the "International Writing Project IWP" activity in the United States, which aims to unite writers including mainland China, and has contacted many Chinese writers at home and abroad.Nie Hualing's literary achievement is that she - a Chinese woman, became a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1977!This is a miracle among Chinese writers! That morning, Nie Hualing came to the small courtyard at No. 13 Wukang Road with her husband, the famous American poet Paul Anwar.Ba Jin talked with her mainly about the current situation of overseas literature and Taiwan literature.Nie Hualing told Ba Jin: Overseas Chinese writers read works of domestic writers all the time.When she was in Taiwan in the 1930s and 1940s, she was very anxious because she could not read the works of domestic writers, especially the early works of Ba Jin and others.At that time, Taiwan could only read the books of Xu Zhimo and Zhu Ziqing at most.She began to study Lu Xun's works around the 1950s, so her writing at that time was like an orphan groping. Nie Hualing believes that writing in Taiwan is very difficult, and it can be said that there is no one before and no one to come after.Of course, there were still classical literature in Taiwan at that time.Those writers who started writing in the 1950s also feel that they have a rich cultural heritage.But Nie Hualing believes that we modern Chinese should have the situation of modern Chinese, and we must also have modern Chinese literature.It was under these circumstances that she went to America.She told Ba Jin that after she arrived in the United States, she was influenced by Western culture, so she was even more worried about the country and homesickness, and always hoped to melt modern style writing into her traditional literary atmosphere. Through conversations with two overseas female writers, Yu Lihua and Nie Hualing, Ba Jin gave him a better understanding of the world.Eleven years of confinement and confinement have numb the old writer's nerves.However, when he talked about his writing to guests from overseas, Ba Jin was still full of sincere love for the motherland and the people.He said: "My writing also has twists and turns. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, I began to study Marxism, but I didn't learn it well. I want to use my pen, which is used to writing about darkness and pain, to rewrite new people and new things, and praise the people. But I don’t have enough time to get acquainted with new people and new things. At the same time, I need to participate in some activities that I am willing to participate in, and take on some jobs that I am willing to take on. Therefore, I have written fewer works. There was a period when I reached North Korea, living deeply in the Chinese People’s Volunteers. The first time I met ordinary soldiers and lived with them, I was a little timid. A person who has been locked in a study for a long time and came to the big family of revolutionary soldiers, of course he will be mentally shocked , but at the same time I felt warm. The commanders and fighters did not treat me as an outsider, as if I was a member of the family, and because I had recently arrived from the motherland, they were especially affectionate to me. In North Korea, where the struggle is most acute, love and The expression of hatred is very prominent. People are used to expressing their feelings with concrete actions. I find that there are epic and heroic deeds every day. Most of these young people who came out of rural China are proud of suffering and doing more hard work. Happiness, at the critical moment, they are scrambling to sacrifice their lives. I feel ashamed in front of these people, I often compare my heart to theirs, and I can't stop the inner struggle. So, I feel that writing in China is the greatest Happiness." After listening to Ba Jin's conversation, the visiting foreign guests couldn't believe that he was an old man who escaped death in the catastrophe.Because Ba Jin has no shadow in his heart, his words are full of sincerity to the party and the people. Ba Jin said to the visiting guests: "I often think of when I was writing "The Fourth Ward", I borrowed the words of Dr. Yang, the author of the book, and said, 'Become kinder, purer, and useful to others.' I love After falling in love with these people, falling in love with the environment, starting to make friends with them, I stopped thinking about writing. I went back the next year after I left, because those people, those heroic deeds captured my heart. I have a total of I lived there for a year. I came back for the second time, and I planned to go again, but other jobs held me back. I left the life of struggle, and my old habits gradually returned. Gradually estranged, and even lost contact. Therefore, there are not many works written, let alone shaping the image of the people's heroes." The visiting guests hoped that Ba Jin would tell a little "truth".He also did not shy away from the "Cultural Revolution". Ba Jin was no longer the person who dared not even speak in the cowshed. Ba Jin's character determined that Ba Jin must tell the truth at any time: "Before the 'Cultural Revolution', I often During my visits abroad, I published many essays praising the cause of people’s friendship, praising the new society and new life. But these have turned out to be my “criminal evidence”, and I was criticized as a “big poisonous weed” during the ten years of the “Cultural Revolution”. He was also regarded as a "big writer" and "black old K" and locked in the bullpen. He was subjected to various mental torture and personal insults, and was deprived of the freedom to publish articles for ten years. At one time, I believed in Lin Biao, who persecuted me. And the 'Gang of Four' and their minions, I believe in everything they preach, I consider myself a 'sinner', my book is a 'poisonous weed', I am willing to plead guilty and plead guilty. I completely deny myself and am ready to accept reform and be a new man. I I also wish Lin Biao and Jiang Qing "good health and eternal health" together with everyone. During the first three or four years of the ten-year catastrophe, I even decided to abandon writing, thinking that it would be a blessing for me to be a small clerk in the reception room of the Writers Association Branch. But The minions of the "Gang of Four" said that I was not even worthy of this kind of work, as if I had committed a heinous crime by writing those books. Today I am also surprised that I am so obedient, sincere, and shameless. I did what they told me to do. But then I found out that it was a big scam, people were fooling me, and I felt empty and disillusioned. I might have committed suicide during this period, but my wife Xiao Shan was in my life By my side, her feelings are tied to my heart. And I am not willing to just 'die by itself' like this..." All foreign friends who listened to Ba Jin's conversation in his living room could not but admit that the old man's heart was crystal clear.From Ba Jin's candid conversation, it is almost impossible to see that he has the slightest resentment and pain for the "Cultural Revolution".In particular, when Ba Jin talked about the storm that just ended, he said: "My mind has gradually calmed down again. I can analyze myself and others. Criticism, I was able to analyze, study those critical drafts, and observe those who spoke. I gradually became sober, I was able to think independently, and I also learned the art of struggle. After seven years of criticism, the "Gang of Four" and its henchmen In July 1973, they suddenly announced that my question would be dealt with as a 'contradiction among the people, not wearing a counter-revolutionary hat', and only allowed me to do some translation. In this way, they labeled me as a 'counter-revolutionary who didn't wear a hat' They kicked me out of the literary and art world, and I don't want to ask them to show mercy and give me a way out. I found out the memoirs of Herzen that I was going to translate more than 40 years ago, and I translated hundreds of words every day. Cen walked together in the dark night of Russia in the nineteenth century. I cursed the Fascist dictatorship of the 'Gang of Four' just like Herzen cursed the tyrannical and dark rule of Tsar Nicholas I. I firmly believe that their days of tyranny will not be too long. I In this way, I survived and saw the demise of the 'Gang of Four'. I was liberated for the second time, and I picked up a pen again. And after seventeen years of separation, I have the right and freedom to have friendly conversations with friends from all over the world. Yes. Now, I picked up the pen again, I am excited, I am happy, I feel that there is a vast world in front of me, I want to write, I want to write more..." The silent Ba Jin was resurrected again. He is no longer the "ghost and snake spirit" who dared not speak out in the cowshed. He is a real person with courage, insight, backbone and thought!