Chapter 17 1958 "Exercise Exercise"

Genre: Short Story Author: Zhao Shuli Posted by: Spark Published: August 1958 Before 1959, Zhao Shuli's progress was weak and he only received some criticism.By 1959, criticism had turned into formal criticism.That year, he was criticized twice at the same time.One started from the novel "Exercise and Exercise", and the other was because he wrote a letter to Chen Boda to reflect the actual situation in his hometown during the "Great Leap Forward". "Exercising and Exercise" was first published in the August 1958 issue of "Spark", and then appeared in the September issue of "People's Literature" of the same year.By the way, the title of the novel "Exercising Exercise" was originally enclosed in quotation marks, but for some reason it was often ignored later on. Even the 1980 edition of Workers' Publishing House's "Collected Works of Zhao Shuli" is not listed in the catalog (fortunately, the text is still preserved. up).The quotation marks are inescapable because "exercise and exercise" is a catchphrase that Wang Juhai, the director of the Peacemaker Club in the novel, likes to say, and he often thinks of it for aggressive young cadres.It is a quotation itself, so the quotation marks are naturally necessary.In addition, it also reflects the character of the character, and also implies the author's criticism of the backward phenomenon, so the quotation marks cannot be ignored.

The story is caused by two rural women, one said "the calf hurts" and the other said "the food is not full".Giving nicknames to characters is a characteristic of Zhao Shuli's novels—in fact, it is also a characteristic of old Chinese novels, such as "Water Margin", because nicknames have two effects, one is to summarize the characters easily, and the other is to be lively .Zhao Shuli aspires to write authentic Chinese novels, and this tradition must of course be carried on.However, after liberation, people repeatedly raised opinions on this, and Zhao Shuli had to restrain himself later.The above is off topic.The words "calf pain" and "lack of food" are backward, selfish characters highlighted by the reality of agricultural cooperation. They are lazy and slippery about collective production, and they always like to take advantage of the collective.This constitutes a contradiction with co-operativeization.In the face of this contradiction, there are two attitudes.One is the muddy attitude adopted by the experienced Wang Juhai, and the other is the attitude of the young cadre Yang Xiaosi who dares to fight.The latter took advantage of Wang Juhai's opportunity to go to the village to hold a meeting, cleverly used cotton picking, exposed the ugliness of "calf pain" and "lack of food" in broad daylight, fought vigorously, educated other members of the commune, and proved Wang Juhai's past. All kinds of worries are unnecessary, and even play a conniving role.

From today's perspective, "Exercise" is quite political.First, it warmly praised collectivization; second, it exposed and criticized the selfish thoughts of individualism; third, it clearly stood on the side of Yang Xiaosi, a young force like Yang Xiaosi, who was energetic, aggressive, and decisive in dealing with things, and was gentle in dealing with things. Many rural veteran cadres criticized and even ridiculed them. Yang Xiaosi obviously appeared as a "socialist newcomer".This aspect has been discussed since liberation, and it is considered to be the weakness of Zhao Shuli's creation.Yang Xiaosi gives people a feeling that the writer is eager to improve his "deficiency" in this area.Yang Xiaosi and Wang Juhai have a contrasting relationship in the novel, and the "new" and "old" are distinct.This attempt suggests that Zhao Shuli's rural narrative is in a dilemma.His excellence originally lies in being closer to the life of farmers and less conceptualized, but now he persuades himself to accept the command of some concepts and label the characters.This is because, out of political awareness, he sincerely wants to bring himself closer to current affairs policies, and sincerely hopes that his creations will not remain at the level of "life-oriented", but can also shine with "idealized" brilliance.

Still, it was criticized. In the seventh issue of "Literary News" in 1959, Wu Yang's article "A Novel That Distorts Reality——Review of "Exercising Exercise"" was published.Regarding how Zhao Shuli "distorted reality", the article points out two aspects.First, although there will be "backward, selfish and lazy rural women" like "calf pain" and "lack of food", "they do not account for the majority of rural women, but are extremely rare."But "in the author's writing, except for Gao Xiulan, an ideal progressive woman, readers can't see the images of rural poor peasants and working women of the lower middle peasant class. Mother-in-law".Second, rural grassroots cadres "in most cases, they should be the incarnation of the party", but in the novel, "they have become barbarians with a bad style, at least bad cadres who are seriously divorced from the masses. "—Wu Yang here mainly refers to the shaping of Yang Xiaosi's image. He believes that "the director of 'Eight Faces' (referring to Wang Juhai) who is the tail of the masses" (referring to Wang Juhai) wrote very successfully, and the criticism of him also makes people " I am very happy", but regarding Yang Xiaosi, he thinks it is a complete failure, "It is better to say that the author is distorting and slandering the entire cadres than praising this type of cadres."

Let’s take a look at how these two criticisms are made. In the first aspect, the critics admit that farmers with "calf pain" and "not enough to eat" exist in reality, but the question is whether they occupy the "mainstream".According to the literary theory at that time, it was impossible to write about whatever was available in life in creation. It should write about the mainstream, not the tributary, let alone the low; Write.This is sometimes theorized from the perspective of arithmetic. For example, when a writer writes ten characters, among them, how many are the mainstream, and how many are the tributary and low-end. If the number of the latter is actually more than the former, It shows that the author's views on life are non-mainstream.Wu Yang's "distortion of reality theory" reveals this meaning.Although in "Exercise", "calf pain" and "lack of food" are obviously isolated among the members of the agricultural society, and most farmers do not adopt their attitude; however, Wu Yang's account has another He calculated the algorithm from the scope of "rural women", and found that among the "images of rural women" written and appearing in the novel, "calf pain" and "lack of food" have an advantage in numbers.In this regard, he believes that the novel has made a "distorted" reflection of reality.

As for the second aspect, Wu Yangzhi was dissatisfied with Yang Xiaosi, thinking that this image discredited the party's grassroots cadres in the countryside, which actually had some truth.Judging from the plot itself, Wu Yang believes that Yang Xiaosi's way of dealing with the problems of "calf pain" and "lack of food" is an overbearing "threatening method" and "teasing, intimidating, and forcing orders" to the masses.However, as we said earlier, the image of Yang Xiaosi appeared as the opposite of the amiable Wang Juhai image, intended to affirm the courage to fight, be bold and resolute.From the perspective of policy and abstract ethics, there is a distance between Yang Xiaosi's practice and the open principles; but in objective reality, the relationship between Yang Xiaosi and "calf pain" and "lack of food" is a power relationship. Regarding the relationship between the government and the people, the former has the power to restrain, lead, control and subdue the latter. Isn’t Wang Juhai’s “mistake” that as the director of the society, he does not show enough and weak performance of this power relationship?Therefore, although you can say that Yang Xiaosi, as a party cadre at the grassroots level in the countryside, is not "friendly" enough from the perspective of policy and abstract ethics, it is indeed the party that requires them to resolutely fight against bad people, bad deeds, and backward phenomena and win them. play the most important role.This is clearly written in the novel: Although Wang Juhai is very "friendly", he can't stop people and things that are alien to the road of collectivization; that's why Yang Xiaosi did the opposite and achieved remarkable results.In this, there is actually a problem that the writers cannot solve, that is: on the one hand, the grassroots cadres of the party should be perfect in revolutionary ethics, have great appeal, and be sincerely loved by the masses; Carry out various struggles with a clear-cut banner and a strong and powerful force.The most ideal situation seems to be that certain factors in the images of Wang Juhai and Yang Xiaosi can be concentrated in one person at the same time.If the "idealized" method is used to create, such characters can also be "shaped", just like the "perfect" artistic image in the "Cultural Revolution" later.However, Zhao Shuli's understanding has not yet reached this level; he still writes whatever is available in reality, and the reality itself has a "dilemma" between Wang Juhai and Yang Xiaosi, so he has to write about two kinds of rural grassroots cadres, and then According to the political position, put the tendency on Yang Xiaosi's side.

On the whole, "Exercise" exposes Zhao Shuli's old problem: he is good at writing old-fashioned and outdated characters, and it is good at writing, but it is not good at creating "new people".After careful identification, Wu Yang accused him of "distorting reality", which was largely caused by the novel's description of "old" strong and "new" weak. "Calf hurts" and "I can't eat enough", Wang Juhai wrote vividly, delicately and vividly, but Yang Xiaosi and others were thin, dry and flat on the outside.This completely contradicts Zhao Shuli's subjectivity. Subjectively, he especially hopes to successfully write "newcomers" well, but he just can't; The thing-the reason is life, and the resources used by life to support the creation of "new people" and "heroes" are far less abundant than "old people" or "ordinary people".And Zhao Shuli's "unfortunate" is a writer with a particularly profound life accumulation. As he writes, the richness of life itself is unknowingly ready to come out, and subjectively, he particularly hopes that well-written "newcomers" and "heroes" will be revealed in the process. He looks thinner and paler, but people don't seem to understand his suffering, thinking that he underestimated the creation of "newcomers" and "heroes", and even reached the point of "distorting reality".

Wu Yang's critical essays seem to be isolated.The author is not an insider, and most of the reactions after the publication of this article were for Zhao Shuli, such as Tang Tao's article "The Focus of Character Description" and Wang Xiyan's article ""Exercising and Exercise" and Reflecting Internal Contradictions among the People" (published separately In "People's Literature" 1959 No. 8, "Literary News" 1959 No. 10).As far as this matter itself is concerned, it may not be a "criticism", but a "discussion" about "Exercising".However, it still formed an atmosphere of criticism against Zhao Shuli, because at the end of the year, Zhao Shuli became one of the key targets of the Chinese Writers Association's anti-rightist movement, and the relationship between "Exercise and Exercise" and his rightist thoughts There is a proven relationship.

Around April 1959, Chen Boda asked Zhao Shuli for a manuscript for the newly founded "Red Flag" magazine.They have dealt with each other in the past.The appointment was a novel, but Zhao Shuli did not write a novel. On September 24, he sent a paper titled "My Opinion on How the Commune Should Lead Agricultural Production".The original text is said to have more than 10,000 characters, but now I can't find it. What I can see is an excerpt made by the Chinese Writers Association to criticize him later, which is included in the fourth volume of "Zhao Shuli's Collected Works".Zhao Shuli said: "Has the state purchased more agricultural products? Do you feel that there is a shortage of food? As far as I know, there is such a 'sense'..." He also said that "the masses have money to spend and food Eat, have time to serve yourself, you can be full of energy and feel comfortable to participate in production", and so on.These words, or rather the delivery of this article, came at an inopportune time. On August 16, just after the Eighth Plenary Session of the Eighth Central Committee of the Party was held in Lushan, Peng Dehuai, Huang Kecheng, Zhou Xiaozhou, and Zhang Wentian who raised opinions on the "Great Leap Forward" were purged.Zhao Shuli didn't have time to understand these high-level situations.A little later, presumably Zhao Shuli would not have sent the article.And earlier, for example, if the article is sent out before the Lushan meeting, the problem will not be too big.Now, shortly after the Lushan Conference, at this juncture, Zhao Shuli, who was unaware, sent such an article, making it difficult for Chen Boda, who was in the know, to turn a blind eye and ignore it.Therefore, in the subsequent anti-rightist movement, the article, together with Zhao Shuli's letter, was forwarded to the party group of the Chinese Writers Association for criticism.The person who presided over the criticism was none other than Shao Quanlin.Although we learned in 1962 that Shao Quanlin did not take seriously the criticism of Zhao Shuli in his heart, he still performed his duties at that time.Criticism was concentrated in November and December, with constant conferences and small meetings.Although he has been questioned since liberation, Zhao Shuli, who has always been a "flag" has become a real villain for the first time.Soon, the disasters in the countryside became more and more obvious, and Lin Biao instructed the General Political Department to issue the first instruction to "stop the anti-rightist movement", which was approved by the central government (Chen Tuoshou, "Heaven Knows Whether People Are Sick", People's Literature Publishing House, 2000); In this way, the criticism of Zhao Shuli came to an end without any treatment or conclusion.

"Creation of rural themes" is the cornerstone of institutional literature, and Zhao Shuli can be said to be a cornerstone of "creation of rural themes".For such an iconic and symbolic figure, from the Yan'an era to today, his fate has taken a strange trajectory, gradually changing from a leading figure to a backward figure, and even the object of criticism. However, everyone knows that Zhao Shuli himself is not actually Not much has changed, it is still the same "country old master", and he is as familiar with and close to farmers as in "Xiao Erhei Gets Married".Therefore, when in 1962 he began to reflect on the issues of rural areas, agriculture, and peasants, and literature also began to reflect on the issue of "creation of rural themes" on this basis, Zhao Shuli became a mirror again: Where did the problem come from?Was Lao Zhao wrong, or was someone else wrong?Does the fact prove that Zhao Shuli's creation is more in line with the reality of farmers?

At the Dalian Conference, Zhao Shuli's creation became the focus.Everyone feels that this problem cannot be avoided. Shao Quanlin, the host of the criticism in 1959, made his point of view: "In the past few years, Lao Zhao's creation was underestimated." In addition to the long-term and arduous nature, this comrade will not "blow the five winds". When others are hot-headed, he is very depressed, and we have criticized him. Now it seems that he sees it more deeply. This is realism. victory." Zhou Yang said: "Comrade Zhao Shuli is really familiar with the countryside... Later, Comrade Zhao Shuli was proved to be right in many ways. For example, he had a problem with too many production commands at that time. This spirit is worth learning. He He can persist in what he feels from his life, and he will not be negative because the Chinese Writers Association criticized him and put up big-character posters (sometimes it is not always appropriate to use big-character posters internally). A writer still has to write about what he sees, feels, What you believe in. Don’t write about what you don’t see, feel, or believe. Be faithful to life, truth, and objective things. Telling the truth to the party is the embodiment of party spirit.” Zhao Shuli is like a microcosm.In the past, on rural issues, he acted in violation of objective laws and economic laws, using political will to "extend" the reality, leading to disastrous consequences-this phenomenon is projected in literature, which is Zhao Shuli's creation that is more based on life and rural reality , considered to be backward in thinking and not tall, from a model leader in "rural theme creation" to a woman with small feet who can't keep up; It is others who have become "scuds" - this is what Shao Quanlin summed up in his "creation of rural themes" over the past ten years: In general, it is very revolutionary.But from the perspective of reflecting the depth of reality and the long-term, complex and difficult nature of the revolutionary struggle, it is not enough.In terms of character creation, it is relatively simple, the themes are not diverse enough, and the complex struggles in the countryside are not reflected enough.The simplification is reflected in the character, the relationship between people, and the process of struggle, which shows that our works are highly revolutionary but not realistic enough. ("Speech at the Dalian Symposium on the Creation of Short Stories on Rural Themes", "Selected Works of Shao Quanlin's Comments", Volume 1, People's Literature Publishing House, 1981) The crux is actually "false", "big" and "empty".Shao Quanlin wouldn't say that, maybe he didn't think so; but the essence of the situation he analyzed was this. "Strong revolutionary, not realistic enough", if you go down this road, the "Cultural Revolution" will be fake, big, and empty not far ahead. "Simplicity is reflected in the character, the relationship between people, and the process of struggle", isn't it fulfilled one by one in the model play?The roots have actually been planted long ago, and they are very deep.At this special moment in 1962, at the Dalian Conference, everyone took a look in the mirror of Zhao Shuli and clearly saw the problem. However, the Dalian meeting was destined to be a "black meeting" before it was over.Because almost at the same time, the Beidaihe Central Working Conference put forward "class struggle as the key link", which pointed to the road to the "Cultural Revolution". In 1964, the Dalian Conference was finally publicly criticized for advocating the writing of "intermediate characters", and Shao Quanlin stepped down for this.Because of the Dalian Conference and Shao Quanlin's appreciation, Zhao Shuli was also regarded as a bad example of the "intermediate character theory" in creation. As a result, he was beaten and seriously injured to death at the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution".It should be said that the work "Exercise and Exercise" itself and the repeated controversies surrounding it since 1959 revealed many profound difficulties in the "Seventeen Years of Literature". (written by Li Jiefei) Zhao Shuli: "Three Mile Bay", People's Literature Publishing House, 2005 Edition Zhao Shuli: "Speech at the Dalian Symposium on the Creation of Short Stories on Rural Themes", "Zhao Shuli Collected Works" Volume 4, Worker's Publishing House, 1980 Edition Shao Quanlin: "Speech at the Dalian Symposium on the Creation of Short Stories on Rural Themes", "Selected Works of Shao Quanlin's Comments", Volume 1, People's Literature Publishing House, 1981 Edition "Writing and Art News" editorial department: ""Writing middle characters" is the literary proposition of the bourgeoisie", "Literary and Art News" August and September 1964 "Literary News" editorial department: "Materials on "Writing Middle Characters"", "Literary News" August and September 1964