Chapter 16 Preface to "Night Talks in Fengcheng"

I really appreciate that Xuanwen organizes his works into three parts: "seeking novelty"; "seeking truth"; "seeking beauty"! These works are all harvested by Xuanwen who worked on his desk during his spare time in government affairs.The title of the book is "Evening Talks", which reminds me sadly of Deng Tuo, the author of "Yanshan Evening Talks", and a sense of admiration arises spontaneously. It also reminds me of Xuanwen, a fat man who practiced summer exercises in the dead of night. The hard work of practicing in winter.Some people say that writing is a happy thing, and the author will dance whenever inspiration comes, but I deeply feel that writing is not a good job.If there is happiness, it will only come after the completion. In fact, suffering has been accompanied by the whole process of writing.Moreover, the torment is from the body to the soul.Take inspiration as an example, isn't it the result of soul torment?And as long as he is a serious author, he will not enjoy pleasure even after the work is completed, because there is no work without regrets for him.

So, I was puzzled, why did he bother to be a good official, or not to be his official, and he was willing to suffer this kind of suffering every night and every night?Now, if you ask an official to investigate, the official will definitely answer that you are the most tired of being an official in the three hundred and sixty lines. If you ask the common people, the common people think that in our society, only being an official is the most comfortable.According to the former, why does Xuanwen have to add up the troubles? According to the latter, why doesn't he enjoy the happiness? Picking up the stack of manuscripts that Xuanwen gave me, I understood a little bit: "seeking innovation", "seeking truth", "seeking beauty", this is probably the goal he pursued in his life, so he asked for trouble .

In the feudal era, Confucius set a principle: "If you are good at learning, you will be an official." Somehow, after several revolutions, it has now become "If you are an official, you don't need to learn"—you don't need to study when you become an official. Or you can be an official without studying; learning is also limited to the scope of red-headed documents.Among the "official friends" I have come into contact with, Xuanwen is one of the friends I respect more, because he is still a man and an official according to the previous principle.He was born in a small mountain village in Suichang County, Zhejiang Province. When he graduated from high school, he had to go to the remote Yongning County of Ningxia to jump in and settle down.Farming, making bricks, raising pigs, grinding tofu, picking up dung... After ten years of work, he has served as a production team leader, secretary of a commune, secretary of a county party committee, deputy secretary of a city party committee, etc., and has never put down his books.He can be said to be a person who "learns well and becomes an official", and "be good at an official but still learns".

Xuanwen and I got acquainted at the beginning of the reform and opening up in the 1980s. Although we didn't meet often, we still knew each other's situation in a city (the so-called "Fengcheng").The reforms in the past ten years have been ups and downs. It is not easy to be a writer, and it is not easy to be an official;Writers, because the serious literature has lost the "sensational effect", can't help but feel a little cold; officials, because people's expectations have risen, and they think that they have done a lot of practical things for the people, but it is difficult to get praise from the citizens, so they will inevitably feel a little bit. Wronged.The fickleness of the world today is different from the fickleness of the past.Under such circumstances, Xuanwen had to mix in literature as an amateur writer during his spare time as an official, and if he couldn't get along with the excitement, his grievances might double.But he is still tireless, never tired of it, and keeps writing. This kind of spirit can't help but make me admire, especially in this "Fengcheng".

I have lived in "Fengcheng" and its suburbs for more than half of my fifty years.This is a small provincial capital city that is very peaceful, cute and suitable for home, but it is not a city of "knowledge".People in small towns seem to have no rules about who counts as talents, and how to promote them to suitable positions, and they don't seem to care much about them.It seems that people here can only become "talented" if they go out, and those who stay here are those without talent.Most people don't pay much attention to "officials" such as Xuanwen, who "students are good at learning" and "officials are good at learning".This is why I am happy to write a preface for this book and recommend it to readers.

Tragically, this small-town atmosphere is not entirely the fault of the leaders of small towns or small provinces, but it develops slowly and lacks a kind of sprint strength, and because of the lack of sprint strength, the development is slow, so that few People will deeply feel the value of talents and realize the necessity of reform.This vicious circle is largely formed by geographical and historical factors.Looking through Xuanwen's articles, many of them launched sprints, advocated reforms, and criticized the bad habits of small towns.I agree with all these.But holding a spear in the face of traditional concepts and human habits often feels powerless, because these things are often like air, at most like cotton bags. "Tigers eat the sky and cannot claw", which makes the strong man sigh.

I just ask readers to pay attention to the pursuit of "seeking novelty, seeking truth, and seeking beauty" in Xuanwen.Since this pursuit runs through Xuanwen's life, it certainly runs through this book.If we value his pursuits, we need not nit-pick his words too much.Now, it is difficult for ordinary people to have the opportunity to communicate with the officials who lead them.Because of Xuanwen's realistic spirit, all his works are indeed telling the truth. I think this is an opportunity for ordinary citizens, especially the citizens of "Fengcheng", to get to know "officials".At the same time, under the system where the citizens cannot fully decide who will be their officials, the common people use the method of praising "officials to be excellent and still learn" to cultivate good officials, making politics more clear and clear, and it is also a transitional era. good way.Therefore, I would like to say that no matter from which angle we look at it, the publication of this book by Xuanwen is worthy of our joy.