Chapter 21 postscript

Dong Yao The ten volumes (about 3 million words) of biographical literature in the "Beiyang Bingge" series took 19 years and 3 months, and was completed in November 2000. After many efforts, it was finally published, and a stone that weighed on my heart fell to the ground. In the past 19 years, my thoughts, emotions, and energy have been almost completely devoted to the years of melee and that group of colorful Beiyang characters. warlord. However, I couldn't relax, and I fell from the joy of pregnancy to the panic after the baby fell to the ground: I don't know what kind of "character" this "baby" will be?

I began to consciously study the historical materials of the Beiyang warlords' melee from July 1981.The purpose is to find a "base" for one's own literary creation. I am ashamed to say that I only have a primary school education and never dared to dream of being a writer.A turmoil dragged me into the ranks of the Heiwen people, and the disaster has been suppressed for more than ten years.After Tianqing, he walked into the literary world helplessly.However, I have no deep relationship with workers, farmers and soldiers, and it is impossible to experience it again.At this time, I was transferred to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to preside over the research of cultural and historical materials. Suo Xing chose the "open space" of the Beiyang warlords' melee.So, I started to collect and study relevant events and people, and I tried my best to investigate the places where important events happened, where important people were born, and where they fought; I also asked overseas relatives and friends to help collect information. After 10 years of hard work and accumulated rich materials, after retiring in 1992, he began to create.

According to the division of historians, from the year following the 1911 Revolution (that is, 1912) to the bombing of Zhang Zuolin's Huanggutun in 1928, it was a period of melee between the Beiyang warlords, a total of 16 years (also called 17 years). In the past 16 years, China has successively emerged the Anhui Warlord Group headed by Duan Qirui, the Zhili Warlord Group headed by Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun, and the Feng Family Warlord Group headed by Zhang Zuolin.Three legs stand together, each dominates one side.Because most of these groups were formed by Yuan Shikai's military training at a small station, and later Yuan Shikai became the Minister of Beiyang, and this team was called the Beiyang Army.In addition, there are Yan Xishan in Shanxi, Cai E in Yunnan, Zhuliu in Sichuan, and the National Revolutionary Army headed by Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek.During this period of time, China repeated the same melee situation as in the Warring States Period, Spring and Autumn Period, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. In the past 16 years, there have been 13 presidents (including interim ruling and generals of the army and navy), and 47 prime ministers; there have been no less than a hundred wars, and the war that shocked most of China was the battle of Zhiwan and Zhifeng. There were many wars, Zhifeng World War II, the battle of protecting the country, the battle of the Northern Expedition, the second Northern Expedition, etc., as the saying goes, "Wild in the wild, thousands of families heard about the war, and where did the Yige start fishing and woodcutters?" Yu Yu showed his "talent" and showed the most naked personality, which provided rich materials and various images for literary creation.

As a stage in history, the melee between the Beiyang warlords can be regarded as the most chaotic years in China.When people mentioned that period of time, they all condemned it with horror and gloom, as if there were neither righteous wars nor good people during this period.I have thought more than once, is this period of history easy to write? If not, will there be suspicion of "building monuments for bad people"? My friends also advised me: "Writing about those characters is too dangerous." Later, I really encountered such an embarrassment: when I was nervous about writing, a reporter from the Evening News came to visit and wrote a news article. It was said that I was "shot" when it was submitted for trial.The reason is that "people who have written about a group of bad people should not be publicized." I am only indifferent to this matter.

To be honest, those of us who started to enter the literary world in the 1950s are more particular about the idea of ​​"theme first" and "service", for fear of making a "direction" mistake.Especially the ones who have been hit.Therefore, I first selected a few less sharp-edged characters, and used the content of the novel to try it out in the newspapers and periodicals.The first person to choose was Xu Shuzheng (the title was "Xu Shuzheng, the Weird Beiyang"). The manuscript was published in the Jiangxi "Xinghuo" literary monthly in July 1988, and was praised by all parties.After that, I wrote more than 10 Beiyang figures such as Wu Peifu, Zhang Xun, Zhang Zongchang, Xu Shichang, etc., which were published in "Biography of Celebrities", "Flower Path", "Great Wind" and other literary publications, and were also well received.This boosted my confidence in writing novels.

The creative idea of ​​Beiyang characters was originally intended to be written in the form of romance.That is to say, use the age as the main line and events as the skeleton to connect the characters together.However, when it came to creation, it was difficult.First, during the Beiyang period, there were only disputes between military factions, and no independent national power was formed. The factions split and merged frequently, and crossed frequently. 1. The event as the main line may weaken the shaping of the characters and cause the cultural color to be dim; thirdly, the Beiyang melee is different from the Three Kingdoms War after all, and the final fate of this group of people was unified by the Revolutionary Army.In this way, there are many words to explain the incident and the process, and I am afraid that it will be written as a memorabilia; fourth, with so many events and so many characters, it is written in such a large (preliminarily expected to be 2 million words) length that I cannot grasp it consciously, and I am afraid that I will lose sight of the other .Therefore, the original idea was abandoned.

Abandoning the first idea, re-opening the train of thought, reversed the creative concept, that is, it became the character as the main line, and the event and time as the foil, writing about what people did in the era of melee.In this way, the atmosphere of melee may be lighter, but it is easy to write good characters.In the end, I chose 10 representative characters, they are: Yuan Shikai, the originator of Beiyang; The resourceful and provocative Xu Shuzheng, the representative of the direct line Cao Kun and the self-sufficient Confucian Wu Peifu, the representative of the Feng line Zhang Zuolin, the gangster Zhang Zongchang, and the changeable Sun Chuanfang.Among these people, there are Confucianists, such as Xu Shichang, Wu Peifu, and Xu Shuzheng; military strategists, such as Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui; bandits and robbers, such as Zhang Zuolin and Zhang Zongchang; Vendors, such as Cao Kun.They were able to drill out in different directions, and became the same prominent figures. Their ups and downs can best capture and express the turmoil of the 16-year melee.so.One by one to shape, will also focus on pen and ink.

Among these 10 manuscripts, Zhang Zuolin, Wu Peifu, and Xu Shuzheng were published by Beijing United Publishing House in July 1995, and major revisions have been made for this inclusion. How should I write about the characters in this period of history who are regarded as black? I adhere to two principles: first, follow the history, use realistic techniques, do not tamper, distort, or joke, and every major event has its own meaning. Basis; second, do not set a frame for yourself, first discard the concept of good and bad people from your thinking, and write the image of the characters.Strive to write the thoughts and emotions of the characters in the occurrence and development of the event.Controversial events and figures in history, do not intervene too much.For example, historians have disputes about Yuan Shikai, Wu Peifu, Zhang Zuolin, etc., especially Yuan Shikai.There are different opinions on naming Yuan Shikai "thief of the country" and "betrayal of the Reform Movement of 1898".I don't want to get involved in these debates, I just want to introduce to readers what Yuan Shikai thought and did at the time of "-3".

Most of the Beiyang people go out of the house for their own way out; once they have status, they will devour others by any means, develop themselves, and finally take power in the country.In the process of their wandering, they all showed very complicated thinking and character.Some of them also have great ambitions to serve the country; some want to do things that are beneficial to the country and the people after they have status.It's just that they haven't been given the space and conditions for peaceful and stable governance of the country.I think it is the job of historians and politicians to explore the gains and losses in this area. It is enough for writers to write what these people were doing (not what they did) and how they did it (not the result of what they did) during this period. .In a word, to shape the image of the characters, not to make political arguments for the characters.

The ten characters have each led the way in 16 years, and personal factors are crucial.Xu Shichang relied on the title of the gold list, Xu Shuzheng relied on his repeated tricks, Zhang Zuolin relied on pulling the pole, Zhang Zongchang relied on extortion and fraud, Yuan Shikai and Duan Qirui relied on militarism... They came out of their respective lands, Converged in the same space, floating and sinking with one's most thorough instinct, birth and death.As a result, individuality, personality, talent, and resourcefulness are fully displayed, and everyone is truly doing their own play, without covering up or covering up, and being naked.This provides the ideal material for the writer, and the writer only needs to "reveal" the characters according to literary means.According to my own calculation, the real material of the ten people I wrote accounts for 60%, and the fictional content accounts for 40%.Some people say that if the ratio is reversed, it may be more moving and vivid.I don't want to do that.As a historical figure, it is still based on history.Joking, I always think that it hurts both historical figures and readers; although history and literature are often irrelevant, I still write about people honestly in the spirit of "evidence".That's about it, I can't write anything "amazing".

There are many incidents and plots with intersecting characters, which is also a specific situation of writing with people.I am based on who is the main event, who is highlighted; the characters involved are described in one go, and excessive repetition is avoided as much as possible.Sometimes starting from character creation, events are divided and handled.For example, in the second Zhifeng War, I should have focused on Zhang Zuolin, but I passed Zhang Zuolin and focused on Wu Peifu and Feng Yuxiang.This will end up with Feng Yuxiang's coup in Beijing, the Zhili is completely over, and the finale of Wu Peifu's floating in the sea will come up.The restoration of Zhang Xun was the biggest event in Zhang Xun's life, but I focused on Duan Qirui and Xu Shuzheng in order to write about Zhang Xun's daring to go north (Duan supported behind him) and his failure after going north (Duan positively opposed). It was Xu Shuzheng.Relying on the characters, don't be wordy and repetitive. The creation of "Beiyang" in 2019 was a period when my thoughts and environment were very difficult.Family life divides most of the time, and sometimes while conceiving an article, I have to think about pots, pans, spoons, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar.Picking up the pen, I feel that there are still bowls to brush; I am rushing to write the plot, I look at the watch, it is time to cook, so I have to put it down; the night is quiet, now.It belongs to me, but my back is already sore and my eyes are sore.There is no way around this, my family is such a difficult scripture.In addition, there are also some unspeakable mental disturbances. I have no choice but to "steal" time and borrow time from sleep and rest.I bought a computer a few years ago and wanted to improve my writing conditions, but I couldn't be proficient for a while, and I was afraid it would take too much time, so I simply abandoned it. I am grateful to the Tongshan County Political Consultative Conference for giving me a lot of convenience, and to the leaders of Tongshan County for their great assistance, which enabled me to successfully complete the creative task.I would also like to thank my literary friends Liu Zhenhua, Tian Binge, Tong Xiaoling, Xiao Junzhi, An Qijie, Zan Jinlong, good friend Chen Sihua and others for their care and help, which gave me the confidence to complete the full manuscript; Xu Rong Street, Xuzhou Normal University Professor, Professor Yu Mingxia, Professor Mao Xin, Professor Wang Zhiliang of East China Normal University, etc. made sincere comments on the first three books and played a guiding role in the creation of the next seven works; , Lu Jianhua, Director of Literature and Art of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee, Li Weijian, former Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, Xu Yiying, Deputy Secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and former Director of the Propaganda Department, and Liu Xinhua, Director of the Literature and Art Department, all gave me great support and encouragement.The manuscript was written, but it was actually entrusted by comrades and friends from all over the world.On the publication of this book, my clan members Dong Kelin and Ms. Liu Guihua worked tirelessly and traveled all over the world, which is particularly touching.I am deeply grateful to them, and will use this kind of encouragement and help in my future creations, striving to write better works.