Chapter 8 Appendix: The Ascetic in Japanese Literary World

The announcement of the Nobel Prize for Literature is every Thursday. Kawabata Yasunari won the award on October 17, 1968, and Poland’s Mivaci won the award on October 9, 1980. On Thursday, in the last five years, every time the Nobel Prize for Literature was announced, it was also on Thursday. In the past two years, the voice of Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue has been very high. Especially last autumn, there were rumors in the Japanese press that it was either Ba Jin or Inoue Yasushi.So Yasushi Inoue's hometown, Yushima Town on the Izu Peninsula, every Thursday night, cadres and staff below the town mayor, plus 20 to 30 old friends of Yasushi Inoue, gathered together, waiting for the exciting moment.

There was no news until six o'clock, and there was no news at seven o'clock, so we had to disband after nine o'clock.However, in front of Yasushi Inoue's house in Setagaya, Tokyo, 50 or 60 reporters from various newspapers and TV stations surrounded him. Six or seven TV OB trucks had already started their engines, turned on their lights, and were ready to broadcast live at any time. At that time, the author squeezed among the fifty or sixty reporters in order to cover the news.There was no news at 9:30, and many Japanese journalists took out their walkie-talkies to contact other fronts, "Hello, this is the Inoue Mansion, do you have any news? Please answer." "Hi, this is the Ministry of Education. , There will be news coming in after ten o'clock, please answer." But after ten o'clock, there is still no news.In Inoue Mansion, members of the "Frog Club" who were about to celebrate sent representatives out to thank the reporters for their hard work. After the reporters dispersed, they continued to "congratulate" until one o'clock.

This has happened several times over the past two years.Every time Yasushi Inoue felt very sorry, and before we left, he came out to express his "sorry" to us, saying that he "unintentionally" let us stand for so long.One of his famous quotes is "This year, the Nobel made an exception and did not award me the prize." After all, he is a writer who was born as a journalist, and he understands the ups and downs of journalists better than anyone else. Unlike Yukio Mishima, who writes morbid and sentimental works, when a reporter asks for an interview, nine out of ten times he will definitely answer: "Talk on the phone. Okay?" Kawabata Yasunari is relatively easy-going, but he is too dull, and it is difficult for inexperienced reporters to interview things.

Yasushi Inoue has worked as a cultural and educational reporter in Mainichi Shimbun for 16 years and knows how to provide materials to visiting reporters.Every time he didn't get good news, he was disappointed enough, so he still had to say a few words to let the reporter's interview bookkeeping have some content.I remember once he said something like this: "Why did it cause such a commotion? I used to be a reporter myself, and of course I understand that the main reason is that if I win an award, what if my report loses to other newspapers?" What to do? But this matter is groundless. In the vortex of the great commotion, everyone he knew had no basis. No one knew the news, and no one even knew whether he was listed as a strong candidate. After thinking about it, I only have a few books to translate, and foreigners just want to give awards to the Japanese, so why should I judge it? It is very difficult to compare writers and say who is better than whom, let alone using various How to judge the quality of works written in different languages? So if the Nobel Prize is awarded to me, it is my luck, just like a stone falling from the sky and falling on my head impartially (laughs) ), but luck will come in tranquility. If there is such a commotion like today, it will never come at all. However, although I feel a little ashamed of such a commotion, I will not blame everyone. You have gathered here with all your good intentions. I should be grateful, but it’s a pity that time is wasted. There are many such wastes in life. Forget it. flew away."

Inoue Yasushi is a writer who writes with his legs, but when he was a reporter, he was a reporter who wrote news with his legs. The famous female writer Toyoko Yamazaki who once worked as his subordinate said that he was a writer who used his brain The intellectual reporter who interviewed.Since he became a writer, almost every work he writes requires careful research. In order to write, he climbed Mt. Hodaka. No matter how tired he is, he must take notes before going to bed. The book is full.His hard work and carefulness can be clearly perceived from the dense notes. He became famous for the short story "Shotgun" and won the Akutagawa Literature Prize for "Bullfighting" when he was forty-three years old.There is a reason why he gave up being a reporter and embarked on the path of a writer.He has been promoted to the position of Deputy Minister of Culture and Education in the Mainichi Shimbun. He visited a painter to write an art review. The painter threw cold water on him and told him: "If you really want to write an art review, you'd better start Go to Europe to see the original paintings and then write, then you can be the top art reporter in Japan, otherwise it’s better not to write.”

For Yasushi Inoue, who was born in Kyoto University and majored in aesthetics, this passage was a heavy blow. From today's point of view, it also brought back to life Yasushi Inoue at that time. His father-in-law Adachi Buntaro, who was an honorary professor of anatomy at Kyoto University at the time, encouraged Yasushi Inoue by saying: "Life is a reserve period before forty, and if you don't accomplish anything at sixty, your life is doomed. Now start placing your bets!" Inoue Yasushi put all his eggs in one basket - on the writer's road.In order to concentrate on writing novels, he separated from his wife and children and lived a truly lonely life. The finished manuscript was handed over to Haruo Sato, then to Jiro Daibutsu, and finally to the consultant of "Literary World" magazine Kami Kai today.He bet on the right treasure!

Since "Shotgun" and "Bullfighting", he has consistently expressed enthusiasm, obsession, love and hate, and nothingness in his stories; With the background of China's Western Regions, etc., when he has a bird's-eye view of the destiny of a long-standing nation with a concise style, although he lacks the personal experience of sharing weal and woe, he can't help but resonate with the author's childhood longing. Writers like to explore the unknown. In order to write Chinese historical novels, Yasushi Inoue has personally visited Xi'an and the southern foot of the Tianshan Mountains more than 20 times. The social background and character creation in the novels have undergone intensive on-the-spot investigations.To be more precise, he not only has the sharp sense of a journalist, but also has a "scholar's research addiction", and his enthusiasm for the historical research of the Communist Party of China has surprised experts.In 1957, when I went to mainland China for interviews, I kept a copy of the proofs in my travel bag. When I arrived in Guangzhou, where the story was set, I took out old materials and asked the names of flowers and plants, but the locals couldn't even answer a single one.

There was another episode in this trip. Yasushi Inoue lost his makeup case on the Cantonese-Han Railway going north from Guangzhou. A fellow traveler said to him: "It is said that there are no thieves in mainland China, but there are still—" Yasushi Inoue hurriedly Said: "Don't let the translator know, it's not good to spread the word." When the car arrived in Hankou, he had to go to a department store to buy a new set. Unexpectedly, just after he bought it, the translator sent him the grain box that he had thrown away. , he looked at his companion and said, "It's a good thing we didn't tell—"

Like Kawabata Yasunari, Inoue likes to travel.Kawabata likes to wander and wander, and often only carries the money for a one-way ticket with him.Yasushi Inoue’s trip was carefully planned. He said that there is no time for thinking in Tokyo, and only when traveling can he conceive quietly.He also likes to supervise art appreciation, but it is only limited to supervision, and it is not easy to buy.He is not interested in other fishing, watching movies, golf, etc., and even has little time to read. The books piled up in his study are all necessary materials for writing novels. He himself said that he almost never missed any books about the Western Regions.

In addition to Chinese historical novels, he also likes Indian novels. He said that countries with the same Buddhist culture or Chinese character culture have a common historical site, which is always easier to understand, especially the long history of China, which has a profound impact on the Japanese. Unfathomable charm. Yasushi Inoue’s historical novels are deeply influenced by the concept of impermanence. After reading every work set in the Western Regions, there will be a consistent feeling: life is like a battle, for a goal, bursting out the spark of youth, but In a blink of an eye, the splendor returns to plainness, and everything returns to silence.This is the trend of history, and youth and impermanence constitute the dual themes of Yasushi Inoue's works.

Under painstaking efforts, his works have a keen sense of the times, but also have aesthetic specificity, so his works can be brewed into a relatively high-level popular literature, which is different from ordinary reasoning works or popular novels To put it bluntly, Inoue's literature is like an artist's masterpiece, which is carved by Inoue's ingenious skills. Some people who read his works may criticize him as not an artist of the soul. However, evaluating works of art is, after all, Relying on subjectivity, for any writer or work, we might as well abandon the original scale and change to another angle and vision. His works are not hard to read, with fresh and lively style, solid structure, not greasy colors, maintaining a certain style in the essence, and he is successful in the fusion of popularity and artistry.Reading his early work "Shotgun" (serialized in Central Supplement, translated by Yaxin), the gorgeous vocabulary and decorative taste may give people the feeling of being too pretentious. On the contrary, "Bullfighting", which won the Akutagawa Award, although It was well received, but it gave people a feeling of "slightly astringent". Fortunately, these problems rarely reappeared in a series of works in the future. After "Bullfighting", he has also won many awards, such as the Minister of Education Award for Art Selection Award, the Art Academy Award, the Mainichi Art Award, the Noma Literature Award for "The Diary of His Royal Highness Yodo", and the "Feng Tao" award. " won the Yomiuri Literature Award, and "Lucia's Drunken Dreams" won the Japan Literature Award.Immediately afterwards, he received the Kikuchi Hiroshi Literary Award and the country's highest honor of the Cultural Medal. He became the president of the Japan PEN three years ago and is currently preparing for the International PEN in Tokyo next year with several directors including Oe Kenzaburo. In order to prepare for the International PEN, it is necessary to donate money to the business community and publishers, and Yasushi Inoue is very capable in this regard.Some people compare him to Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Japanese literary world, who can turn enemies into friends intentionally or unconsciously. If he is a politician, he seems to be the talent of a secretary-general.For example, he is very good at establishing interpersonal relationships in his contacts with the literary world.At that time, there were four important towns in the literary world, one was Haruo Sato with three thousand disciples, the other was Fumio Niwa of Waseda, the third was Seichi Funabashi, and the fourth was Yasunari Kawabata.Ordinary writers make their debut and at most choose one important town to follow to the end. Yasushi Inoue is different. His famous works were published by Haruo Sato, and later he joined the fellow association of Seiichi Funabashi.At the same time, he joined Fumio Niwa's "Niwa Golf School", and finally assisted Yasunari Kawabata in handling the work of the director of the Japan PEN Club.In other words, he has the spiritual support and care of the four important towns at the same time. But Yasushi Inoue neither taught famous masters nor recruited apprentices. He could talk to anyone and took good care of him. He attended weddings and funerals and gave speeches.Many editors accompanied him for a drink as a shift change.After taking office as the president of the PEN Club, the number of mundane duties increased, and the time for writing was also encroached on. Every year when autumn is approaching, everyone starts to discuss which of Inoue’s works may be considered for the Nobel Prize. Professor Shoichi Saeki of Tokyo University and literary critic thinks that it is unlikely that Inoue will receive the award, but he said that if Inoue His works have been valued, probably "The Wind and Waves", which describes Genghis Khan's Eastern Expedition, and the more promising one about American immigrants. Unfortunately, these two works only have Korean translations, and there are no English or European translations. Akiichi Saeki criticized that Yasushi Inoue’s works are not only popular but also lack tension. The whole article is a dull narrative without any climax. However, the history of the Tang Dynasty is written from the perspective of the entire Asian history. This kind of history feels that Westerners are Rarely, if Inoue's work wins an award, this is probably the main reason. Another literary critic, Kenkichi Yamamoto, said: Yasunari Kawabata received the award for expressing the essence of Japanese psychology with his keen sensibility. The target works are "Snow Country" and "A Thousand Feather Cranes". Surprisingly, the characteristics brought out by his keenness are almost a kind of morbidity, just like those of Akutagawa Ryunosuke and Mishima Yukio, but Inoue Yasushi is different. He is just the opposite. It is difficult for foreigners to understand his personality. Pros, only the Japanese can understand him. Kenkichi Yamamoto said that Yasushi Inoue has historical novels and news novels beyond the standard since Natsume Soseki, not to mention that he also has private novels that are difficult for foreigners to understand, such as "Mother's Story" and "Tao". It will be even more gratifying to the Japanese if they are rewarded. It is a well-known anecdote that Inoue Yasushi broke one ear due to judo in college. It may be because of this that the upper body loses its center of gravity. Standing on the podium, the right shoulder always tilts up, leans forward slightly, and speaks in a low voice. Even so, every time I talked with him on the phone, he never misheard or missed a word, asking him what his future ambitions are?He said that he still wants to continue writing historical novels in the future, because the roots and limits of human desires can be found in Japanese or Chinese historical figures. This kind of work is very interesting. A critic compared Yasushi Inoue to being like a water bird whose feet are paddling desperately under the water, but on the surface there is only a graceful posture.However, in my impression, Yasushi Inoue is like an ascetic monk in a university hall. He once said clearly that he would rather be a "West Traveler" than a "Rikyu". Rikyu was a maverick in the Azuchi-Momoyama era , leaving a lot of biographical information, but no works. Saixing was a monk in the early days of Kamakura. He left works such as "Shan Jia Ji", but his "biography is unknown". It may be his true wish to read his works rather than leave a record of his life, but is it possible to live in modern times?