Chapter 25 Contemporary Chinese Writers Should First Be Socialist Reformers

Chinese: Your letter to Agui, because you mentioned my "Man's Style", Agui sent me the proof, which means that we can form a "triangular" communication relationship, through your "Huayuan Street" and my Discussion on "Style" and talk about some creative issues. I remember that in your small living room in Beijing, which was furnished quite comfortably by your sister-in-law, you, I, Wan Long, and Liang Pei once talked about the need to interpret our own works less in the future.When a writer writes a work, his feelings about the world and his views on the world should all be included in his work, at least this work should contain this part of his feelings and views.If he has other feelings and other views, then he should write another work.In addition to this literary work, he does not resort to artistic means, does not use artistic images, but uses the form of logic to explain this part of his feelings and opinions. Even if this writer cannot be said to be artistically incompetent, it can be said that He's a bit nagging.Moreover, his theoretical explanations of his own works often restrict readers' understanding of his work, and instead of strengthening the effect of his literary work, it will weaken the appeal of his work.Therefore, this method is not taken by the wise.

Your letter to Agui is very good. It talks about the opportunity to write "Hua Yuan Street", not grandly expounding the inexhaustible meaning of "Hua Yuan Street".It is true that the evolution of a building often reveals the fate of the people who once lived in the building; the process of changing owners several times forms a history that will arouse the exclamation of later generations.Su Wu's "Mr. Lou Cheng has gone, because of how good people are", Xin Qiji's "Dancing pavilions and singing platforms, the wind is always blown away by the rain" and "Ordinary alleys, where human slaves once lived" are not all because of the architecture. And inspired a sense of destiny?The building is still there, and everything is wrong; but there are also such cases: although everything is wrong, the later occupants are still repeating the fate of the previous owner.Here, the characters have changed, but the plot is the same. It is still the tragedy. This is also common. For example, in the past, there was no "Haunted House No. 13"?Now, however, times are different after all, and new tragedies, with backgrounds and tones of optimism, will at last reveal an encouraging light.This is where writers of our generation are luckier than the ancients.

I have also read "The Blue House" by Cheng Naishan. Although the art is a bit rough, I still like it very much.This is not only because the angle she chooses (that is, the "focus of sight" you said) is rather unique, but several characters in her works are also written very "vigorously" (Shanghai dialect), vividly expressing the uniqueness of certain citizens in Shanghai. image.However, what is interesting here is that it also starts from the history of a building, and it is also written about the people who lived in this building, but the development of ideas, characters and plots are quite different.I have no intention of comparing Cheng Naishan's "Blue House" with your "Flower Garden Street". These two works are completely different works; The history of the building, a girl who once lived in this building and another girl who lives there now got the creative opportunity, but it was suddenly moved to the background of the broad socialist reform, and a A small inspiration evolved into a novel about a reformer.

This is how I think, for people like you and me who have experienced ups and downs and have many fates, even if you are in the "group special team" in Guizhou, and I am in the labor camp farm in Ningxia, you are still thinking about the fate of the country.The painful life clearly tells us that our personal destiny is closely linked with the destiny of the country.In this mood, not to mention the somewhat poignant conversation between the two girls, or seeing two dogs fight.We also think about social issues.In this way, after the Third Plenary Session of the CPC Central Committee, we will of course, as you said, "sing a hymn to the fighters who are determined to reform, so that more people will care about and support this reform of great historical significance."

Without reform, China will have no way out, without reform, the party and the country will perish; without reform, you and I will fall into the 18th level of hell again, how can you write "Five Garden Street" leisurely, we What are the conditions for writing "Man's Style" leisurely?Right, where did you crawl out and go back to where you are!Recently, haven't some people tried to wipe out the achievements of cultural creation like the Third Plenary Session by taking advantage of the opportunity to clean up spiritual pollution?Therefore, we can add another sentence: Without reform, there will be no prosperity of contemporary literature!

As I was writing, I got involved in politics, now let me return to specific works. In your letter to me a few days ago, you said that my "Style" and your "Fa Yuen Street" have a strange similarity. It would be interesting if someone is willing to study this phenomenon from a comparative literary point of view.I'm feeling it too.If anyone is willing to do this, I can also provide a little first-hand information here.Many literature lovers, especially young people, always think that when we "writers" are together, we must talk about our own creative ideas and discuss profound issues in literature, such as stream of consciousness, modernism, magical reality Doctrine and so on.Little do we know that we are vulgar and vulgar people, with a lot of fireworks, and our mouths are full of firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. Sometimes, we play jokes and pranks on each other, which is even worse than some young people.You and I knew at that time that each of us was writing a long novel, but when we met, we only thought about eating like a hungry ghost reincarnated (for example, my sister-in-law would desperately keep me for dinner every time. It seemed that I was always very hungry. Hungry), or else, just think about how to beat Liangpei who has no family burden.None of us have talked about Five Garden Street or Manly Style.But after it was published, it was found that the leading spirit of our book is exactly the same, the character of the characters is very similar, and even some of the behaviors of the characters are exactly the same.This phenomenon, it seems, can only be found from the same destiny, the same aesthetic point of view, and the same ideal between the two of us.

Some people say that your Liu Zhao and my Chen Baotie both have strong idealism.I don't know what you think, but I admit it.Literature, if there is no color of idealism, without the brilliance of idealism, literature will not be literature.Hegel once said: "Art liberates the real content of phenomena from the pure appearance and deception of this dirty, short-lived world, and endows them with a higher reality derived from the spirit. In this way, unlike the general Compared with the phenomena in real life, the artistic phenomenon becomes a more ideal reality and a more real existence, not just a superficial phenomenon.” I think that Liu Zhao, Chen Baotie and another character in my pen—”Dragon The dragon species in "Species" should be said to be "the real content of phenomena" or "a more ideal reality".Of course, our understanding is not the same as that of Hegel. What we call "more ideal reality" does not come from the reality of spirit, but from the reality of real life phenomena.It is true that from the perspective of "pure appearance" and "superficial phenomena", there are not many leaders like Liu Zhao, Chen Baotie, and Long Zhong, and sometimes there are more people who make us shake our heads and sigh.However, it is such a small number of people who are the "real content" under our "real-life phenomenon".Because they not only embody the yearning, hope, and demands of the people, but also embody the inevitability of history.Shao you said "historical trend".Their own destiny is intertwined with the cause of socialist reform, and they may encounter setbacks and failures of one kind or another, but it is these people who win in the end.

After "Style" was published.See some comments.While affirming this work, many comrades have the feeling that "the idea is greater than the image".This kind of criticism is completely well-meaning and sincere, and all the opinions I have seen so far show the critics' love and strict requirements for the author.This is what I should pay attention to in my future creations.However, I also have some different understandings in my heart.I don’t know what you think; I think that as long as the author doesn’t directly express arguments in the novel, but expresses arguments that suit the character of the characters in the book, it can’t be regarded as “idea is greater than image”.Writing about the character is an essential part of shaping the character.In this sense, his particular idea is an important aspect of his particular image.The comments made by my Chen Baotie, including his "City White Paper", are all the results of his "one" independent thinking about the current reality, about socialist reform, and about Marxism.He is not reciting central documents and newspaper editorials (if so, it is also a typical image of a character), he has his own unique views, but is consistent with the party central committee, and thus is also Marxist.Perhaps there are inaccuracies and inadequacies in his "this one" arguments and methods, and these inaccuracies and inappropriateness are also his "this one" image.To be honest, theoretically and practically speaking, the socialist newcomers cannot and should not be "perfect", and they will not step onto the stage of history until they are fully prepared.There is no ready-made model of socialism, and there is no subjectively formulated picture of Chinese-style socialism, and those who are interested in reform are exploring and creating.All kinds of arguments in this exploration—ideas and specific practices, accurate or inaccurate, appropriate or inappropriate, can only be tested through practice.Here, it is important to have the brave and firm reform spirit of your Liu Zhao and my Chen Baotie.

What is gratifying to me is that the farm reform plan proposed by Long Zhong in the "Dragon Seed" I wrote three years ago was just an idea of ​​the characters in the book at the time, a literary language, and a means of shaping characters.However, the results of the discussion at the Ningxia Land Reclamation Work Conference a few days ago were completely consistent with the literary language of this literary image; the fixed wages will be abolished, and the joint production payment will also be outdated.Of course, this is not because the agricultural reclamation workers read the novel "Dragon Seed" or the movie "Dragon Seed", and I would not tell such a shallow joke.I am only saying that the character we create (including his ideas) has his reality after all; his ideas are the main factor in his image as a reformer.

Speaking of artistry, your "Fa Yuen Street" and my "Style" certainly have various deficiencies.However, my opinion is that these kinds of inadequacies only reflect the level of our artistic skills, not because we wrote about politics and followed the results of the current reforms.From a comparative point of view, your "Hua Yuan Street" is more delicate, subtle, and well-structured than my "Style", which shows that your artistic skills are stronger than mine.And my "Style" is brighter and more humorous than your "Fayuan Street", probably because our temperaments are not quite the same.

It is said that there is a saying now: If you want to write works that can be handed down to the world and have a high artistic quality, you can only stay away from the current politics and find and express yourself. The word "self" is seductive, and it must be very pleasant to find it and sleep with it.But I don't know what value this "self" has without the existence of "self".What you and I have experienced for more than twenty years seems to have made us very low-level, which is probably what artists who "find themselves" and "express themselves" disdain.In our view, there must be "self" before we can "find" and "express".To put it plainly, it is to save one's own life or old life first.We can talk about other things.Engels said this: "People must first eat, drink, live, and wear clothes before they can engage in politics, science, art, religion, etc." This "simple fact" must be understood by everyone.To seek self-discovery and self-expression without eating, drinking, living, or wearing clothes is really, as Hatoyama said, "the life of gods", which has never been seen in the world.When one billion people are busy with food, drink, clothing, and housing, how can an artist or a writer stay out of it and not express the joys and sorrows and wishes of the people?One billion people's food, drink, housing, and clothing are not well done, and their own "little life" or old life is not guaranteed, so where to find and express it? But to solve the problem of eating, drinking and drinking for one billion people , housing, and clothing, there is no other way but to carry out socialist reforms. I think this is probably the reason why you and I both set our sights on the reformers. Many well-meaning friends (by no means agree with those who seek and express themselves), hope that I can improve the artistic quality of my works.I'm often troubled by it too.Art is endless, and there are peaks beyond the peak; the improvement of the art of fiction is not to turn tricks within the art of fiction, but to seek it in various arts other than fiction and in the various aspects of life, not for a short period of time. Learning can be immediate.I have already talked about this issue in "The Dialectics of Writing Fiction" (Novelist, No. 3, 1983).Sometimes, I will burst out a very heavy sorrow of powerlessness.I think that although the artistic skills of the young and middle-aged writers of our generation are different in comparison with each other, on the whole, that may be the case.In the past two decades, while foreign writers have been digging wider and deeper in the field of pure art, we have been repairing the earth with a shovel in hand.Until now, my writing desk is still inseparable from "Modern Chinese Dictionary", but can this blame me for being lazy in the past and wasting twenty years of time? However, when my emotions stabilized a little, I was not discouraged.I have read some novels written by European and American writers, including Soviet writers in the 1960s and 1970s. Of course, there are many excellent works among them. Thoughts on life, exploration of history, and reflections on social life are nothing more than mediocre, and only give people a sense of novelty in form.We have cultivated the earth for twenty-two years, and we can write books by putting down a shovel. If we do not underestimate ourselves, what we write is at least not much inferior to theirs.Isn't that enough to make us proud? But why are we writing novels now?In terms of artistic skills, we should admit that we are poor and difficult to rely on; what we rely on is the accumulation of our own life and thinking about life, history and social reality.In a certain sense, the accumulation of life and thinking about life, history, and social reality are the foundation of art.I boldly summarized it into such a formula: the height of art is directly proportional to the depth of describing life and characters. Therefore, I have set myself such a task: I do not pursue the eternity of art, I only pursue the reality of the moment in which I am living now.If I truly reflect the reality of this moment, my work can be accepted by a wide audience.Art, on the other hand, can have aesthetic value only based on the relationship between expression and reception, and only from the standpoint of social practice. "Fa Yuen Street" and "Style", in terms of art, of course, are by no means perfect and exquisite.On the contrary, I am afraid that they are still rough, and there are many places that should be reworked.But, at least, they express the passion, vitality, problems, aspirations, ideals, and arduous struggles of Chinese people in the 1980s.I really appreciate Bao Chang's comments on "Style". There is only one sentence: "In our current very difficult and complicated life, there is a proud smile, a smile of faith." (see December 1982) "Literature Newspaper" on May 15th) I think this sentence can also be added to your "Hua Yuen Street".Yes, we only pursued the moment, only this moment, but why is it so unpredictable that our works will not have some recognition value for future generations?Can't people in the future see from our works how some of their ancestors came here and how they thought about it?I have said before; the characters in our works all have a certain degree of reality, even if some of the ideas of the characters in the book are proved to be wrong after practice, the factors that constitute their mistakes are reality, because that is the reality of our generation. can only be achieved.Although people's aesthetic concepts are constantly changing, after a few years, just like when we look at literary works several years ago, the direct aesthetic feeling of the work will be mostly permeated by the cognitive value of the work. Therefore, our works Perhaps there is also a certain aesthetic significance.In this way, if we hold firmly to the reality of this moment, we may also achieve eternity. And the reality of China at this moment, its "real content" can only be socialist reform. I often think about what my mission as a writer should be.I am ashamed to say that writers are engineers of the soul.A party member writer can also be said to be a party member first, and then a writer, such as you.As for me, I haven't cultivated to your level so far. I can't think that I should first realize that I am a public and then a writer.But even if you and I feel that way, it still comes down to how we should think about the writer's mission now. In terms of literature, that is, the profession we are engaged in, we are finally ranked at the end of the realist writers.However, the method of realism has stipulated that we should select and organize the essential elements from non-essential materials, and reveal the progressive factors in the future direction of history, which is the so-called "typicality".After all, "typicality" has a functional meaning.This function is to inspire readers to criticize all remnants of the old society including its ideology, and to change reality.If realist literature lacks the awareness of participation in trying to change reality, its existence value is questionable.Not only us, some outstanding foreign writers also believe that typification is to concentrate all the forces that are already active to face social change.The typical protagonist is thus a figure who, at a given period, concentrates all changing forces in himself, who has a certain decisive influence in putting social changes into practice, and who at the same time adopts a posture of predicting the direction of social development, The protagonists in the works of Balzac and Tolstoy have always been praised by others, and this is the reason why Jia Baoyu is an immortal literary model. From this point of view, as a contemporary Chinese writer, one should first be a socialist reformer.Only when we have the participation consciousness to change the reality, our works have power.If we lack the interest in changing reality and stay away from the social practice of hundreds of millions of people, we will kill our own artistic life.We will no longer be able to engage in such a profession. Recently, I have realized this more deeply.After the Party Central Committee proposed to eliminate spiritual pollution in order to better build a socialist spiritual civilization, I received both positive and negative education.But this should be a matter for our other letter to discuss.Here I just repeat what I said above. Without reform, there will be no prosperity of contemporary literature. It is by no means unfounded. Of course, just because we demand ourselves as socialist reformers doesn't mean we have to write about reformers.This goes without saying.Cheng Naishan can write "Blue House", Tie Ning can write "Red Shirt Without Buttons", and I can also write the one that will be published in the second issue of "October". After you come out, you must "read it".I look forward to reading your "March Willow". goodbye! Xianliang 1984.1.3 night