Chapter 17 A novella with a 15-year backlog

When the midsummer of 1977 was approaching, No. 13 Wukang Road was full of vitality. Ba Jin felt that he had a strong creative impulse as in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.He knew that writing a novel was very different from translating someone else's work.Writing must be inspired and impulsive, otherwise there will be no brilliant words in his pen.In the past ten years, Ba Jin has rarely had such an impulse in his heart.The desire to create has become eclipsed with relentless mental blows one after another.For a while he didn't even want to read literary works, because the so-called literary works at that time were just a few books that Jiang Qing allowed to publish.Except for "Red Rock", which still has a certain literary taste, most of the rare novels are mixed with the unique "fake big empty" style of writing in the "Cultural Revolution" era. Even if he reluctantly reads such novels, it will make people feel like Chewy, uninterested.

Now Ba Jin once again tasted the smoke of the war in the 1950s from the old draft of "Three Comrades".The creative impulse in his heart is increasing day by day, and Ba Jin knows that he should struggle and get rid of the depressed and sad state of mind as soon as possible.Only when I start writing again, can I be worthy of my late wife Xiao Shan who was under Jiuquan.What exactly is he writing about? During the "Cultural Revolution" period, he had no sense of life. Even if he had life, it was mostly in dark tones. The kind-hearted Ba Jin did not want to reproduce too many dark side works in his pen.

Although "scar literature" was quite popular at that time, Ba Jin didn't want his works to become the "smoke of the past" following the fashion.His writing purpose throughout his life has always been to abide by the principle that if you don’t write, you should be fine. Once he starts writing, he must write something he is familiar with and touching.Perhaps it was under the domination of this kind of thinking that Ba Jin felt that it was necessary for him to process and modify the "Three Comrades" written before the "Cultural Revolution".He is too nostalgic for the life experience on the Korean battlefield.Now he is more grateful for the history that he was ordered to go to the front line of North Korea. He thinks that is the most memorable time in his life.

"On the night I left Pyongyang, my comrades got on the bus. I was still standing in front of the Ministry of Culture and Propaganda. I looked at the Mudanbong in the moonlight for the last time. The Memorial Tower for the Liberation of Korea by the Soviet Army and the Mudanbong National Theater were blown up. The gate wall at the back can still be seen. A hazy silvery white enveloped the entire city of Pyongyang, and a few lights shone from the white under the Moran Peak. To this heroic city, this beautiful land, and this brave and passionate people, I feel a love that cannot be expressed in words. I would like to stay here a little longer. But the GAZ took us slowly down the city street. Through the piles of bricks, through the ruins of walls , passing by those North Korean women in brightly colored dresses and carrying burdens on their heads, and passing by those small, simple shop doors, our GAZ car walked out of Pyongyang. Facing the constant flow of people and cars, we walked along Running along the road that has been bombed forever by American planes..."

Ba Jin's thoughts found more than 20 years ago.He also wrote on the Korean front and published a short article "Pyongyang, City of Heroes" in the June issue of "People's Literature" in 1952, which is now placed in front of him.When he wanted to revise "Three Comrades", he had to re-read the past written records.After a long catastrophe, Ba Jin's book collection was still not allowed to be opened, so Ba Jin had to try to find the North Korea he wrote in the Shanghai library. At that time, all the books in the library could not be read publicly. It took Ba Jin a lot of trouble to find the materials he wanted to read.The works published in "People's Literature" that year actually reproduced his experience in North Korea in front of this old writer who was over sixty years old.Those are undoubtedly precious memories in the depths of the soul!

Ba Jin stood quietly in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows of the small building.Facing the two luxuriant magnolia trees in the yard, he was thinking about the fragment of his meeting with Kim Il Sung in North Korea in his early years.He and his creative team only lived in Pyongyang for 4 days.I met Kim Il Sung in an undecorated ordinary room. The leader of the Korean People's Army in breeches and military uniform worked here. He smiled and talked with Ba Jin and others amiably. more than an hour.Ba Jin could no longer remember what Kim Il Sung said after so many years. What he still remembers now is the smile on Kim Il Sung's young and round face.It was a confident smile, and there seemed to be a firm will in his smile that could not be transferred by any force.Ba Jin knew that Kim Il Sung, like Peng Dehuai, had moved and excited him too.Perhaps it was because he had conversations and meetings with such a great man that Ba Jin had confidence in North Korea and that war that he would win!

Decades later, Kim Il-sung, who remains in Ba Jin's memory, is still as fresh and lifelike as he was back then.He now only remembers a sentence that Kim Il Sung said: "What North Korea can be proud of is that North Korean women are heroic women!" "Why can't I recreate the heroes of North Korea in front of Chinese readers?" This is Ba Jin's insight after he stood in the small building and meditated for many days.In the process of revising "Three Comrades", Ba Jin felt that his life accumulation had disappeared due to the years of hard work.Criticism and street parades, difficult cadre school life, and family changes have diluted all the feelings in his heart.Most of his life in North Korea, in particular, has been forgotten.If he wants to improve "Three Comrades", he must at least review and meditate again.Ba Jin is by no means a writer who is eager for success. Every time he writes a work, no matter how long or short it is, he must go through serious and repeated thinking and conception. He will never resort to writing lightly until he has a complete understanding of the characters. .

Ba Jin's "Three Comrades" has gone through the cold and heat several times, and has been added and deleted many times, which is almost soaked in the painstaking efforts of this literary master.After he returned from the Korean War, he has been conceiving this manuscript in his mind. He hopes that one day he will write "Three Comrades" into a tear-jerking work.This is also the novel he spent the most energy on since the completion of the trilogy.Ba Jin started writing in the late 1950s in order to realize his "Dream of North Korea". However, after the first draft was written in Chengdu in 1961, Ba Jin himself was not satisfied.He found that this 25-chapter novella did not include the many touching stories he experienced and interviewed on the Korean battlefield.In this way, he put "Three Comrades" in his drawer for the time being. He wanted to let himself out of the story first, and after serious thinking and precipitation, he would make a thorough revision of this manuscript.However, a year later, when Ba Jin seriously revised "Three Comrades" from beginning to end, he was still not satisfied.

In the summer of 1963, Ba Jin looked for another opportunity to read this manuscript from beginning to end.After three years, Ba Jin had a deep reflection on the characters in the manuscript.Ba Jin thought he could not publish the novel easily and casually.He thinks that he is a writer who came back from the Korean battlefield, and he wants the heroes who died in foreign lands to have the most perfect artistic expression in his novels. Only in this way can he be worthy of those heroes who died heroically.Therefore, after he revised "Three Comrades" again in the winter of 1963, he was dissatisfied when he looked left and right. Finally, Ba Jin decided to freeze the work he had carefully revised many times.

During the long period of freezing, Ba Jin did not forget the characters in "Three Comrades" because of his frequent social activities.He knew that the characters in the manuscript were all his best friends on the Korean battlefield.He didn't want to use an immature work to rush to sensationalism or exchange for some kind of benefits. Based on Ba Jin's influence at home and abroad, he knew that if "Three Comrades" was published, many magazines would definitely come to compete for it. .The more this is the case, the more cautious Ba Jin must be.He secretly warned himself in his heart: "I would rather not publish the novel, but also must modify it into something truly touching."

In the summer of 1964, in the small courtyard on Wukang Road, the night lights were often on all night.Ba Jin rediscovered "Three Comrades" in the midst of his busy schedule.He knew that it was time to push this manuscript out. The novella that had been in his drawer for four years, he had already managed to choose every word carefully.Moreover, many publications in Shanghai and Beijing are frequently asking him for manuscripts at this time.Driven by the general trend, Ba Jin seems to have made the greatest determination this time. He wants to use the summer evening break to polish "Three Comrades".He knew that as long as he was willing to take out the manuscript, he could publish it at any time.However, after several nights of revision at his desk, Ba Jin actually stopped writing again. He found that there are still many deficiencies in "Three Comrades", and the problems in the manuscript cannot be solved in a few nights.The more Ba Jin thought about it, the less he wanted to hastily withdraw his troops.He has a kind of will to revise not to die endlessly, no matter the characters or the plot in the book, Ba Jin refuses to let it go easily.He asked himself to at least reach a level that he was satisfied with before he could publish it publicly. The autumn wind blows away the severe heat of midsummer, and winter is coming soon. Thus passed 1964.He would rather write a few essays and essays to deal with the influx of solicitations than sell his "Three Comrades" lightly.In the winter of 1965, Ba Jin had some free time again. At this time, he remembered the manuscript in the drawer that he had circled and outlined in red with a red pen. This time, Ba Jin changed from before the Spring Festival to the end of the severe winter, but he was still not satisfied.In this way, Ba Jin had no choice but to put down the manuscript again. In May of that year, when the spring breeze had already blown the buds of the magnolia tree in his courtyard, Ba Jin found "Three Comrades" again.This time, he almost reworked all the unsatisfactory places.However, just a few days before he was going to publish "Three Comrades", Ba Jin changed his mind again: "Let's wait a little longer. Instead of just publishing it like this, it is better to seriously revise it!" Originally, Ba Jin wanted to continue to revise "Three Comrades" in the spring of 1966, but he never dreamed that at the turn of spring and summer of this year, a rare red frenzy Suddenly attacked the north and south of the river.The turbulent situation in the country can no longer allow Ba Jin to continue sitting at the table and revising his novella written for the heroes on the Korean battlefield.In the past more than ten years, Ba Jin never forgot this novel even under any difficulties and circumstances. However, at that time, he could not even protect his own life, so how could he find an opportunity to get in touch with "Three Comrades"?Fortunately, after the catastrophe, this manuscript was unexpectedly preserved.However, just when Ba Jin decided to publish "Three Comrades" as his first novel for the rest of his life, he suddenly felt that if "Three Comrades" were to be published publicly, he would at least have to work hard. He can no longer go to North Korea to revise "Three Comrades".Even if Ba Jin wanted to travel far, it would be inconvenient for him to travel far. After all, he is old.Walking is also somewhat difficult.In this way, he must review the war decades ago with the help of second-hand information.Of course, it would be more beneficial to reread his own works of the same kind, which, after all, was his life.The three thousand miles of rivers and mountains along the Datong River still leave a deep impression on Ba Jin's mind today. "It rained all day, and in the evening it cleared up. Night fell over the hills. At first there were a few wisps of gray smoke coming from the chimney in the big kitchen nearby, and then they disappeared. The night grew darker and darker. Thick, only a few paddy fields and water in the open land below the mountain were shining brightly. From there came the sound of frogs sounding like drums. The air was clear and fresh. It was a peaceful spring night on the Korean battlefield. It sounded not far away. A young voice sang "Aunt Wang Wants Peace". At first it was sung by one person, and then two or three people sang together. As soon as the singing fell down, there was a burst of joyful laughter. Several people spoke with accents from different provinces. I was talking. Then I couldn’t hear the voice, and then I noticed that someone was talking loudly on another hillside...." Ba Jin looked through the "People's Literature" in August 1952, and found that he wrote it in North Korea. Essay "A Spring Night in the Korean Battlefield".When he reads it now, Ba Jin is still fascinated.No one is more familiar with North Korea than Ba ​​Jin. Every mountain, every river and puddle there has so far left a deep impression in his head.He decided to revitalize his former life to become his inspirational impulse. Soon Ba Jin discovered that if the "Three Comrades" were to be revised according to the old basis, the effect after publication would definitely be unsatisfactory.This manuscript is quite different from the novels he wrote in North Korea.There are the prototypes of life, as well as the accumulation of his many years of living in Shanghai, so it is handy to create a pair of old comrades who reunited on the battlefield in his own writing.Although "Three Comrades" also comes from the real life of the Korean battlefield, due to many problems such as structure, Ba Jin felt unable to change it.So he decided to choose a person from "Three Comrades" to write.This is the "Comrade Yang Lin" he wrote later! Yang Lin is a volunteer soldier Ba Jin is more familiar with.His voice and smile still flashed in front of Ba Jin's eyes after decades of events.He remembered that when he returned from North Korea in 1952 and made a short stay in Beijing, he once wrote an article "Farewell to Friends in the Korean War Field" under the light of the hotel.Ba Jin had already drafted this manuscript on the eve of leaving North Korea, and wrote a draft on the train returning home.At that time, he wrote down his feelings at that time with sincere thoughts.He later published this manuscript in the "Beijing Daily" on October 25 of that year.Now Ba Jin has also found that article. Looking at the words he wrote before, Ba Jin couldn't help crying again. He wrote: "The day before I left North Korea, I deeply felt that this country and the friends here pulled my heart. I really wanted to seize that second, one minute, one o'clock, and the arrow seemed to fly away. Time. I would like to see again, hear their conversation again, spend one more moment with many of my beloved friends. I want to keep forever the memory of my life at the front. Memories of those exciting days. Tomorrow the car will be When driving me through the blockade of enemy planes to the motherland, the cold autumn night in North Korea will soak my cotton padded clothes, but I will bring the warmth of my friends with me, and the faces of their heroes will shine on me. Light the way...” The night light is faint.Ba Jin came to the study upstairs, spread out the manuscript paper on the table, and wrote the four characters "Comrade Yang Lin"!This was the beginning of his novel writing after the "Cultural Revolution", so Ba Jin felt that his pen was very dignified. He asked himself to write as before, with his own feelings, his own blood, and his own feelings about life. . When countless beautiful words flow out of his pen, Ba Jin's mind will melt into a movie-like realm. It was as if a scene from a movie appeared in front of his eyes.That was the only real-life movie in his life, "Heroes and Daughters" shot by Changchun Film Studio in 1964. The smoke billows and sings heroes, Surrounded by green hills, listen attentively, The sunny day thunders and the golden drum, The waves of the sea make harmony. People's heroes drive tigers and leopards away, Risk your life for the revolution. ... The familiar melody seemed to ring in the old man's ears again.Ba Jin will never forget this familiar song. Even in the dark years when he was under "dictatorship censorship", even if he left his home in Shanghai alone and went to the Fengxian May 7th Cadre School to participate in field labor, Ba Jin only had to think about it. When I was in trouble, I would hum this song secretly by myself.For some reason, Ba Jin, who has never liked singing, dancing and singing, as long as he hums this song in his heart, all the depression, pain and loss in his heart will disappear along with the song. Ba Jin is very grateful to Changchun Film Studio.Many of his works have been put on the screen in his life, especially the famous works, which have not only been put on the screen, but also on the stage of drama.However, Ba Jin's favorite movie is undoubtedly this feature film adapted from his novel.Of course, this has something to do with Ba Jin's unforgettable years in North Korea. Thinking of this movie, Ba Jin can't help but think of the life related to the heroes in the movie.That year he went to North Korea to lead a creative team to conduct on-the-spot interviews. When he experienced life in the Sixth Company of a certain regiment of the Volunteer Army, he himself came into contact with the prototypes of characters in movies and novels.Comrades of the Sixth Company told Ba Jin many touching stories. Among them, the most memorable one was that the Sixth Company was in the defense of Kaesong. When the battle was at its most intense, there were only two people left in the entire position. They were the squad leader. Zhao Xianyou and correspondent Liu Shunwu.Although the American devils several times larger than them had already rushed up from the hillside with swords and guns, Squad Leader Zhao and the small correspondent still resisted desperately until they ran out of ammunition and food, and they still showed no sign of fear.Suddenly, Liu Shunwu noticed that the American soldiers had already rushed up from them. Zhao Xianyou was quick to think, and immediately raised the walkie-talkie in his hand, and loudly reported to the head of the regiment: "The enemy has already rushed up, leave us alone, and shoot at us quickly! Let's fire! . . . " Although Ba Jin did not personally experience this heroic scene, Ba Jin's heart was moved by the narration of the soldiers of the Sixth Company.When he heard about the heroic sacrifices of Zhao Xianyou and Liu Shunwu from the memories of the head of the regiment afterwards, the figures of the two heroes always flashed before his eyes.Perhaps it was from then on that the idea of ​​writing the experience of Hero Liulian defending the frontier of Kaesong into a literary work as soon as possible in the form of a novel surged very strongly in the writer's mind. After Ba Jin returned to Shanghai, whenever he thought of the experience of the Sixth Company of Heroes, he would feel impulsive and passionate.However, his desire for creation was not truly expressed until the early 1960s.He can't simply explain to readers a simple scene of a hero defending his position. Ba Jin's uniqueness lies in that he must give new life to the real history.Therefore, he mobilized his many years of living experience in Shanghai and decided to enrich this material.Ba Jin knew that some volunteer soldiers in Shanghai also died on the Korean battlefield.As a writer in Shanghai, no one understands and is more familiar with the feelings of the Shanghai masses against the US-Aid Korea War than Ba ​​Jin.In this way, there is a legendary story-the birth of the novel. Originally, this novel was originally conceived by Ba Jin to be read only by those relatives who have never been to North Korea.But he didn't expect that after the novel was published in a journal, the reaction would be very strong.Ba Jin never thought that his novel would attract the attention of Comrade Xia Yan, vice-minister of the Ministry of Culture in Beijing.After reading it, Xia Yan instructed the Central Film Bureau to include Ba Jin's film in the 1963 filming plan.The Central Film Bureau soon assigned the task of filming to Changchun Film Studio. Changying attaches great importance to Ba Jin.They immediately formed a creative team headed by the famous director Wu Zhaodi.Beginning to adapt the novel, Wu Zhaodi and screenwriter Mao Feng came to Shanghai to meet Ba Jin, and they quickly reached a consensus on the future film. After the first draft of the script was written, Ba Jin was very satisfied, because many plots and characters that did not appear in the original novel were strengthened in the movie script.In particular, the shaping of Wang Cheng's image became more specific and prominent. When Mao Feng and Wu Zhaodi heard Ba Jin's introduction, they both shouted at Zhao Xianyou who died on the battlefield, "Fire at me!" Much appreciated this detail.Therefore, the image of Wang Cheng has been more vividly reflected in the movie.The cast also satisfied Ba Jin very much. In order to make this key feature film, Changying specially invited Tian Fang, a famous performance artist from Beijing, to play the role of our army commander Wang Wenqing in the film.Liu Shilong will play Wang Cheng, and veteran actor Pu Ke will play the Korean grandpa in the film.In addition, Guo Zhenqing, Liu Shangxian, Zhou Wenbin, Zhao Wenyu and other famous actors all co-starred in this film, and the lineup was very strong for a while.Although "Heroes and Daughters" was released nationwide, more viewers who have never been to the front line of North Korea have a deeper understanding of the epic life through artistic images, but what Ba Jin did not expect is that during the ten years of catastrophe, , Jiang Qing went so far as to say that this film is a "big poisonous weed"!Ba Jin was severely impacted as a result. Now, when Ba Jin decides to write another novel set in the Korean War, his artistic image will float in his mind. Comparing "Three Comrades" with my own, how is its artistic achievement?How ideological is it?If the ideology and artistry of "Three Comrades" can't exceed the similar works he once had, then Ba Jin will never publish it lightly. After much thinking, Ba Jin finally decided to give up his years of hard work. He only selected a part of the plot from "Three Comrades" and rewrote the short story "Comrade Yang Lin" from scratch!