Chapter 18 Don't have a feeling in my heart

I met Yin Ping in a study class organized by Beijing Film Studio in 1980.At that time, although Zhan Rong, Wan Long and others had already written novels, they were not as famous as they were later; Bi Bicheng was our team leader, and we were all students.The season is spring, and the discussion of "practice is the only criterion for testing truth" is also going on enthusiastically, and intellectuals are immersed in a sense of liberation.In art, we still seem to be in a kind of "shedding" stage; our wings are not yet spread, we are not yet prepared for what we will experience in the future.Looking up at the sky from the nest, the space is wide enough.After that, each made their own exploration, each had its own ups and downs, and each encountered its own happiness and misfortune, but after all, each of them wrote their own works.

We parted for eleven years.Although there have been correspondences, because they are busy with their own affairs, they are not frequent.Occasionally, when I see Yin Ping's works in the newspapers, I always pay attention to them if I see an old friend.Today, he published another collection.In the past eleven years, he has "swarms of sons and daughters".After intensively reading a few novels he sent me, first of all, I felt a special feeling in my heart. For people like me, the ups and downs of the plot and the twists and turns of the story are hard to attract me.I have experienced such a thing myself, but I want to find the peaceful life of small bridges and flowing water, bean sheds and melon stands in the book to comfort myself, and let me know that there is another kind of people living another kind of life in the world.Yin Ping seems to be digging into this elegant realm.It is not difficult to write a hero, and it is relatively easy to conceive a bizarre story. It is difficult to dig out distant or thrilling themes from the trivial things of ordinary people.This is why Cheever is praised.Historical experience tells us.Apart from unavoidable accidents such as ecological damage, natural disasters and earthquakes, what interfere with the normal life of human beings is nothing more than war and political movements.For heaven's sake, if we Chinese nation stop engaging in self-political campaigns, the only ones that will be left for future writers to write about are the subjects that Yin Ping is writing about now.The luck of mankind is also the luck of literature.I thought that literature should normally reflect the normal life of human beings.Although wars and political movements have created many great literary works, I would rather there be no such great works in the history of literature. Whether it is "scars" or "reflection", why bother? The "scars" are self-explanatory, and even "reflection" is not a good thing.For example, although the writers of my generation are still "reflecting", I think we are probably not "reflecting" in the future.

To put it bluntly, Yin Ping can be said to be my next generation of writers.In this generation of writers, I have already seen the signs of many big-handed writers.Once I told Li Guowen that I was very envious of this generation of writers.They can discover so many touching interpersonal relationships and inner worlds from today's street peddlers, and discover the extraordinary from the ordinary.We are constantly taking from the past, but they are really taking from the present.The extraordinary experience of our generation has made it difficult for us to detect the normal psychology of people today, especially young people.What I mean by "normal" does not distinguish between good and evil; because we often understand and speculate on other people's malice with great kindness, sentimentality and sympathy, and of course sometimes we wrongly blame others with malice.And only they can accurately grasp the "degree" of today's people's intentions, that is, "property."Art, in the final analysis, is nothing more than how to grasp the scale. Therefore, I often feel that among our next generation of writers, if we describe contemporary life truly and without any utilitarian purpose, we will definitely write great works.

Therefore, Yin Ping is indeed taking a relatively broad literary path.For the past, he has no burden; for the present, he has no prejudice.Moreover, age is his capital.The future of literature always belongs to their generation.However, I don't want to make any fanfare in the preface to a book.Now and in the future, competition in literature is fierce.A successful person, in addition to having the most basic skills and special feelings in literature, I think also needs to have, as Daisaku Ikeda said, "a sincere attitude towards life and a certain motivation to care about human suffering."

I hope that Yin Yiping and the writers of the next generation will have more compassion than us.