Chapter 18 1959 "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1)

Genre: Novel Author: Liu Qing Original publication: "Yanhe" Published time: April-October 1959 First publication: China Youth Publishing House Published: June 1960 In the teaching and research of contemporary literary history, there is a general statement of "three reds and one creation" for the novels during the "seventeen years".The "one creation" here refers to the novel "The History of Entrepreneurship" (the first part) written by the writer Liu Qing in six years. "History of Entrepreneurship" began to be serialized in the April to October issue of "Yanhe" magazine in 1959. Especially after it was officially published by China Youth Publishing House in 1960, it immediately aroused high attention and heated controversy inside and outside the literary world.Later, in activities such as "rewriting the history of literature" in the 1980s, it was repeatedly mentioned, and the comments were also different, quite diverse.In the field of literary creation in Shaanxi and the whole country, Liu Qing and his "The History of Entrepreneurship", as a representative of a literary tendency and writing style, are loved and imitated by some literary writers, so various new ones are constantly produced. influences.This kind of continuous attention, which consists of two aspects of criticism and creation, makes "The History of Entrepreneurship" a hot topic in contemporary literature.

Liu Qing (1916-1978), formerly known as Liu Yunhua.A native of Wubao County, Shaanxi. He started writing in 1934, went to Yan'an in 1938, and worked in the Cultural Association of the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region; during this period, he returned to the countryside of northern Shaanxi many times to deepen his life.On this basis, in 1949, he created his first novel "The Tale of Planting a Valley", and in 1951, he created his second novel "Bronze Wall and Iron Wall".In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Liu Qing served as the editorial board member and chief editor of the supplement of "China Youth Daily". In 1952, he left Beijing for Huangfu Village, Chang'an County, Shaanxi Province.He has successively served as a member of the fourth and fifth CPPCC National Committee, a member of the fourth provincial CPPCC, a director of the Chinese Writers Association, and the vice chairman of the Xi'an Branch of the Chinese Writers Association.

In 1954, Liu Qing began to brew and write the four planned "History of Entrepreneurship". During this period, he successively published a collection of essays "Three Years in Huangfu Village" (1956), a novella "Ruthless Iron - Chronicles in 1957" "(1959). In the first half of 1959, the nearly completed "History of Entrepreneurship" began to be serialized in "Yanhe" magazine. In 1960, the first part of "History of Entrepreneurship" was revised and published by China Youth Publishing House. After the "Cultural Revolution", Liu Qing edited Chapters 14 to 17 of Volume 1 and Volume 2 of "History of Entrepreneurship" while sick. Chapters 18 to 28 were not revised and processed in time, and the author unfortunately passed away.China Youth Publishing House combined the author's finalized and unfinalized drafts into "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part Two), which was published in June 1977.

"The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1), with a total of 330,000 characters, is divided into "Title Narrative", "First Volume", "Second Volume" and "The Ending of Part 1". "Title" mainly describes Liang San, a tenant in Xiabao Village, in the 1920s and 1930s of the Republic of China when social turmoil and famine were everywhere, and his life was embarrassing caused by the loss of his wife and dead cows.Until 1949, the whole country was liberated, and the world changed drastically. The grown-up stepson Shengbao was able to thrive in the new society and made continuous progress. This made the responsible Liang San feel a certain uneasiness.

"The first volume" and "the second volume" mainly describe how Liang Shengbao and his mutual aid group emerged at the historic moment in Toad Beach and their mutual wrestling with various people and various forces during the development process: After liberation, everything was left to be done, but the living conditions of ordinary farmers in Hama Beach were still struggling.Guo Zhenshan, the former chairman of the peasant association and the current representative director, presided over the discussion on active lending and broke up. Guo Shifu, a wealthy middle farmer, did not want to lend grain to poor farmers. .Ren Laosi, a poor farmer, was busy making adobes for others in order to have enough money to buy food; .

In order to buy an early-maturing rice seed, Liang Shengbao went to Guo County.In order to buy more rice seeds, he was reluctant to spend two yuan for the hotel fee, so he simply slept on the floor of the box office of the train station for one night.After buying the rice seeds, the villagers all came to share them, but their own rice seeds were not enough. For this reason, the old man Liang San complained that his son was too stupid. Active lending could not be carried out, and the villagers threatened by famine asked Shengbao to take them to Zhongnan Mountain to cut bamboo and earn some money to buy food. Shengbao led the mutual aid group and the needy households with a sense of responsibility as a Communist Party member We went up the mountain together.During the extremely arduous work of cutting bamboo, the clumsy Shuan Shuan was poked and hurt his foot. Sheng Bao generously comforted Shuan Shuan, saying that he had done his work together, and asked him to rest assured.

Gaixia secretly likes Shengbao, but under the instigation of Guo Zhenshan's ulterior motives, she plans to go to Xi'an to work as a factory worker.Shengbao confides his love for Gaixia to his friend Youwan.Gaixia tries to find out what Shengbao means to her by asking Shengbao for her opinion on her going to work in the city; but Shengbao thinks that her thoughts have changed, and her reaction is very cold.Frustrated, Gaixia decides to become a worker.But when she was taking the job recruitment exam in the county seat, Gaixia, who was determined to make progress, was touched by the words of Wang Yumei, the regimental county party committee, and she resolutely gave up the exam and returned to the village.

Because of Shuan Shuan's father, Wang Er Zhigang, who made a lot of noise, the old man Liang took the opportunity to withdraw from the group, and Liang Shengbao's mutual aid group encountered an unprecedented severe test.But he united everyone with firm confidence, and with the development of Gao Zengfu, he absorbed Bai Zhankui into the group one after another, increased his strength, and stabilized the situation.In the autumn of that year, the rice harvest of the mutual aid group was unprecedentedly bumper. "The Ending of Part One" mainly writes about the initial success of Liang Shengbao's Mutual Aid Group, which further confirms the correctness and wisdom of the party's general line. In the winter of 1953, on the basis of Liang Shengbao Mutual Aid Group, Huangbao District established the first agricultural production cooperative - Dengta Agricultural Cooperative.

At the Huangbao Fair, Liang San, an old man carrying a catty of soybean oil, walked solemnly through the crowd. This slave who has lived his whole life has the air of a master of life. As soon as "The History of Entrepreneurship" (the first part) was published, it was promptly affirmed and highly praised by people in the literary circles.Feng Mu said in the article "First Reading of the History of Entrepreneurship" ("Literary News" January 1960 issue): "Although what is shown in the "History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1) is nothing more than It is the life of those years before the comprehensive socialist transformation of rural areas across the country, and what is concentrated in the works is only a struggle story centered on the growth and development of a labor mutual aid group in the foothills of the Zhongnan Mountains in the Northwest, but we can I affirm without hesitation: this work is a work that profoundly and completely reflects the historical destiny and life path of our country's peasants, and it is a work that truly records what happened in the vast rural areas of our country after the land reform and the abolition of feudal ownership. The work of an incomparably deep and incisive socialist revolutionary movement."

After the publication of "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1), Yan Jiayan published the article "On the Images of the Three Old Men of Liang in the "History of Entrepreneurship"" in the third issue of "Literary Review" in 1961, but it triggered a big debate. controversy.From 1963 to 1964 after Yan Wen was published, many newspapers and periodicals published articles that differed from Yan Jiayan’s views or discussed articles, the more important ones are: Feng Jiannan’s "Re-talking about Liang Shengbao" ("Shanghai Literature" October 1963 issue), Wu Zhongjie , Gao Yun's "On the Typicalization of the Image of Newcomers——Discussion with Comrade Yan Jiayan" ("Shanghai Literature" October 1963 issue), Qin Delin's "Is it appropriate to talk about artistic value in this way?" ——Comment on Comrade Yan Jiayan's Comments on "The History of Entrepreneurship" ("Shanghai Literature" November-December 1963 issue), Zhang Zhong "The Character Content and Artistic Expression of Liang Shengbao's Image——Discussion with Comrade Yan Jiayan" ("Literary Review" 1964 No. 3), etc.Yan Jiayan also successively published two articles, "About the Image of Liang Shengbao" ("Literary Review" No. 3, 1963), "The Image of Liang Shengbao and the Creation of New Heroes" ("Literary Review" No. 4, 1964), and critical Opinions are debated.

Yan Jiayan believes that when the author created the image of Liang Shengbao, there were "three overs and three deficiencies"-"too much writing about ideas and activities, but not enough character description", "too much external support, not enough performance in conflicts", "more lyrical discussions, more objective Insufficient depiction".Comrades who hold different views believe that shaping the image of Liang Shengbao should focus on his own personality characteristics and character development, rather than starting from the so-called "peasant temperament" of ordinary farmers. The mental state of Liang Shengbao described by the author is completely in line with required by life and art.They also believe that social contradictions in different eras determine the different forms of expression of literary works. The struggle methods of Liang Shengbao and Yao Shijie are not hand-to-hand combat, but roundabout combat, so there is no "face-to-face combat". It is the characteristic of the times that shows the heroic character.Some people also think that Liang Shengbao was placed at the center of the conflict from the very beginning, but sometimes it was direct and obvious, and sometimes it was indirect and covert.In terms of artistic expression, the work closely combines subjective lyricism and objective description. Yan Jiayan also analyzed the image of the old man Liang San in more detail, and believed that through the shaping of this image, the author "successfully depicted the torrent hidden in the hearts of the majority of peasants—their spirit of transforming from the capitalist reserve army to the socialist allied army." The state and its change process", this character "becomes the most in-depth character in the whole book, summarizing quite profound and broad social and historical content".Some people disagree with Yan Jiayan's point of view, thinking that he separated the class characteristics of the image from the personality characteristics, ignored the ideological and social significance of the image, and replaced Liang Shengbao's position in the work with Liang San, thereby belittling the image. This is the achievement of Liang Shengbao's heroic image. After reading Yan Jiayan's article "About Liang Shengbao's Image", Liu Qing wrote an article "Ask A Few Questions for Discussion" ("Yanhe" August 1963 issue) on Yan Jiayan's image of Liang Shengbao. The analysis and comments from the author's point of view have expressed different views.Liu Qing believes that Yan Jiayan's views involve "some major issues of principle", and "there are also irreconcilable contradictions" between the writing method of the novel and Yan's views.But Liu Qing also pointed out in the article: ""The History of Entrepreneurship" (the first part) does have shortcomings and weaknesses. I often feel that I am ignorant and incompetent. Comrade Yan Jiayan implicitly pointed out that I have made hard preparations in life and art. It is not enough, it is correct. I really want to study the artistic techniques of the literary heritage of human progress in ancient and modern China and foreign countries. Especially his criticism that I am not enough to go deep into life, I am willing to accept. I am very grateful to "Literary Review" for publishing Comrade Yan Jiayan's article." After the 1980s, especially since the discussion of "rewriting literary history" in the late 1980s, people's comments on "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1) have produced new and greater controversies, and some worthy Thinking about new ideas and questions.Some people pointed out that the high affirmation of agricultural movements such as mutual aid groups and cooperatives in "History of Entrepreneurship" was obviously influenced by the popular leftist trend of thought at that time; limitations and therefore need to be re-evaluated.There are also commentators who disagree or do not fully agree with this negative point of view, and believe that to evaluate past literary works, while standing on the current position, we must also uphold a historical scale.Although people have not and cannot reach a relatively consistent opinion so far, based on the objective facts of the text, no one can deny the important status and unique ideological and artistic value of Liu Qing's work. The literary creations of the "Seventeen Years", including the writing on rural subjects such as "The History of Entrepreneurship", had a problem reflecting the agricultural cooperative and communalization movements at that time. How to evaluate these works and this phenomenon really needs In line with the attitude of historicism to do specific analysis.In the author's opinion, the agricultural cooperative movement in China is an objective history, and it is a past process of the growth and development of Chinese farmers.Those works that truly and profoundly reflect this period of historical life should not simply deny their actual aesthetic significance.As far as "The History of Entrepreneurship" is concerned, although it directly praises the agricultural cooperative movement and tries to describe the road choices of Chinese farmers in the early 1950s, in the specific description of the work, it is not a simple geographical interpretation or graphic policy, but rather It is a true, profound and artistic reproduction of the rural life he is familiar with, rural farmers, and writes the real ecology, realistic pictures and spiritual charm of the local rural life at that time.Liang Shengbao, Gao Zengfu, Liang Youwan, Liang San Lao Han, Guo Zhenshan, Guo Shifu, Yao Shijie, Gaixia, Sufang, etc. in the novel, as artistic images, represent certain classes and political tendencies, and at the same time, they are full of flesh and blood. , everyone has distinct personalities, and they can all be called typical characters on different levels.The contradictory relationship and interconnection between these characters constitute the main story of the work, and also outlines the real, vivid and poetic picture of rural life in Guanzhong, China in the 1950s. In the debate about "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1), people's understanding of the value of this work and the significance of Liu Qing's creation is also deepening and continuously manifesting.When talking about the distinctive artistic features of "The History of Entrepreneurship" (Part 1), the "Portrait of Contemporary Chinese Literary History" edited by Wu Xiuming made the following concise and concise summary: 1. The combination of grand structure and fine description 2. The combination of narration and discussion; 3. The combination of the spirit of the times and the regional customs.When talking about Liu Qing’s artistic exploration, he pointed out: “He is a revolutionary, standing at the macro level of the history of the times, to explore the history and real destiny of the peasants, as well as the future development path. What is particularly prominent is that he He always puts the peasants on the important juncture of historical change or turning point for performance." These subjective factors "added obvious idealized and political colors to his realism, making his works sensitive to new things and new ideas. The capture of ideas, the whole text is filled with strong political passion, and there is a kind of exciting emotional power, these characteristics are most fully displayed in "The History of Entrepreneurship." This view, in the "History of Entrepreneurship" and Liu Qing's creation In terms of re-understanding, it has quite a representative meaning. So far, it has been 50 years since the publication of "The History of Entrepreneurship" (the first part), and more than 30 years since Liu Qing passed away.In the process of reading the works and Wise people, people are also deepening their understanding of him and sublimating their understanding of him.On the fifth anniversary of Liu Qing's death, Li Ruobing, a writer who was once Liu Qing's comrade-in-arms and colleague, said from two aspects: "Liu Qing is a person with firm belief" and "a person who has always lived among the people". He called Liu Qing "a man with capital letters", and believed that his "40 years of creative career has provided rich experience, which is worth learning and learning from". Liu Qing and his "History of Entrepreneurship", on the one hand, have been discussed endlessly in the field of literary criticism, and on the other hand, they have played an influential role in literary creation.For example, the creations of Shaanxi writers such as Lu Yao and Chen Zhongshi were deeply influenced by Liu Qing and his works, and their works were more or less marked by this influence. (Written by Bai Ye) Zhao Shuli: "Three Mile Bay", Popular Publishing House, 1955 Edition Zhou Libo: Great Changes in the Mountains and Villages, Writers Press, 1958 Edition Feng Mu: "First Reading of "The History of Entrepreneurship"", "Literary News" No. 1, 1960 Li Xifan: "Talk about the Thought and Art of "The History of Entrepreneurship", "Literary News" 17-18 Joint Issue, 1960 Yan Jiayan: "On the Image of the Three Old Men of Liang", "Literary Review", No. 3, 1961 Feng Jiannan: "Revisiting Liang Shengbao", "Shanghai Literature", No. 9, 1963 Liu Qing: "Ask a few questions for discussion", "Yanhe" No. 8, 1963