Chapter 33 The Negation of the Negation of "Cao Mu Pian"

China's literary and art circles have always been called "the barometer of class struggle."For the Chinese literary and art circles, the spring of 1957 was also unusual and not peaceful. Quite unexpectedly, a group of inconspicuous prose poems published in the inaugural issue of a new poetry journal founded by Sichuan Province in early 1957, attracted the attention of the whole country. The author of this group of essays is only twenty-six years old, a skinny young man named "Liushahe".He would never have dreamed that his set of prose poems "Grass and Trees" with less than 500 characters in full would become a "masterpiece" that shocked the whole country in 1957!

When the smoke of history cleared, the author flew to Chengdu, stepped into Liushahe's study①, and asked him to look back at the "unusual" past... Liushahe is still so thin now, with a scholarly temperament.His big eyes looked extraordinarily bright.It's just that the years have carved rough wrinkles on his fair face.The young poets of those days are also very old now.When I picked up the camera to take pictures for him, he pointed to a picture of Tai Chi hanging in the study and said, "Put the picture of Tai Chi in it too!" So he picked up a chair and sat in front of the picture of Tai Chi for me to take pictures.

I asked about the name of the Liusha River, did it come from the Liusha River in the middle?Monk Sha came from the Liusha River. He said with a smile, his surname is Xu.According to the ranking of the Xu family, it is considered the old nine, so the nickname is called the old nine—it is precisely the old nine of the "stinky old nine", and also the old nine of "the old nine can't get away" in the Peking Opera "Taking Tiger Mountain by Outsmarting"!From Laojiu, another nickname was derived, called "Jiuwazi".His official "big name" is Xu Xuntan.Xu Xuntan was written on his ID card.He said that he took Liushahe as his pseudonym and had nothing to do with it:

"My pen name initially used the word Quicksand. In 1950, I found out that poets had used it in the 1940s, so I added a river, so I didn't get involved." The pseudonym Liushahe is well-known in the Chinese literary world, but few people know his real name nowadays. According to Liushahe, although he loved literature since childhood, he was admitted to the Agricultural Chemistry Department of Sichuan University after graduating from high school.He "was in Cao Ying and his heart was in Han", so he didn't go to lectures and was enthusiastic about writing.He wrote poetry and novels.In 1950, he published his first collection of poems "Rural Nocturnes" and his first collection of short stories, and he also went to Beijing to attend the National Conference of Young Literary Creators.

Liushahe is famous all over the country because he wrote the "Great Poisonous Weed" "Grass and Trees". In fact, when he wrote "Grass and Trees", he never thought that this group of short prose poems would become "National Poems". object of discussion". According to him, it was the autumn of 1956. After finishing his studies at the Literature Institute in Beijing, he boarded the southbound train back to Sichuan. His thoughts fluctuated along the way, and he wrote five allegorical prose poems, namely, "Aspen", "vine", "cactus", "plum" and "toadstool".After writing, since the writing is either grass or wood, it is named "Grass and Wood" as the general title.The original writing date indicated at the end of the article is "October 30, 1956".

At this time, the monthly poetry magazine "Xing Xing" was preparing to launch its publication, and all the soldiers and horses were "two white and two rivers", namely Baihang, Baixia, Shitianhe and Liushahe.The inaugural issue was in urgent need of poems, so Liuhe came up with "Grass and Trees".In this way, on New Year's Day 1956, when the first issue of "Xing Xing" came out, "Grass and Trees" was also published for the first time. The full text of "Grass and Trees" is as follows: In people's minds, Liushahe was the "Great Rightist" in 1957, and "Cao Mu Pian" was the "Great Poisonous Weed". The attacks on him and his works were always after the anti-rightist movement started.

However, the memories of Liushahe were completely beyond my expectations: "Grass and Trees" was criticized and accused of being a "big poisonous weed" in early 1957! According to Liushahe’s memories, I went to the Sichuan Provincial Library not far from his home, and looked up the “Sichuan Daily” and “Chengdu Daily” that year.The "black and white characters" clearly recorded the footprints of history. "Grass and Trees" did not attract much attention at the beginning. The trigger was that on January 8, 1957, when "Chengdu Daily" reported the news of the founding of "Xingxing", it quoted a passage from Bai Hang, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, to reporters. talk:

"Without the policy of 'Let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend' put forward by the Party Central Committee, the publication would not be possible. The spring of poetry has come! Not only poetry, but also literature as a whole is thawing." The word "thaw" at the end of this passage caused trouble. On January 14th, "Sichuan Daily" published "A Hundred Flowers Blooming and Dead Rats Littering" signed by "Chunsheng" (Note: According to the habit at the time, such critical articles were rarely signed by their real names, which also showed the guilty conscience of the critics.) ", criticizing the term "thawing" by the editor-in-chief of "Xingxing":

"This is tantamount to saying that literature and art were frozen before the announcement of the policy of 'let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend', which means that there is no literature and art at all." The article accused "Xing Xing" of not "letting a hundred flowers bloom" but "throwing dead rats around".The author cites a poem in the first issue of "Xing Xing" and thinks that it is "similar to the 'Peach Blossom River Beauty Nest' and 'Sister I Love You' that were popular in Chiang Kai-shek's ruled area 20 years ago."

In this way, "Stars" was criticized less than half a month after its publication, but neither Liushahe nor "Grass and Trees" was involved. On January 15, "Sichuan Daily" published "Jinchuan"'s article "Thinking from "cemetery" and "thawing", which only criticized the word "thawing". However, in this way, "The Star" attracted the attention of the "critics".So, someone "scanned" "Stars" carefully, and finally cast their "critical" eyes on "Grass and Trees".

On January 17, "Sichuan Daily" published "The Defense of "Poplar"" and "The Voice of "Cactus" signed by "Xi Bo".The article wrote in the tone of "Topol": "But you, Liusandhe who writes poetry! Today, when blood blooms into flowers and tears turn into laughter, you still regard me as a slave of your writing, misinterpret my spirit, and degrade me at will!" In the tone of "cactus", the article issued an appeal: "Why did I speak up, why did I defend, please refer to the first issue of "Xingxing", Liushahe's "Grass and Trees"." In this way, "Grass and Trees" attracted attention. Since then, "Sichuan Daily" has published articles one after another, criticizing the newly launched "Xingxing", and named the work "Grass and Trees". As for, I criticized a few words such as "taking pornography as love", the tone of the criticism is difficult to raise. "Grass and Trees" is not the case. As the criticism heated up, it began to be outlined, and it was raised from a political point of view.Some articles even said that ""Grass and Wood" is a very small number of elements who do not want to accept socialist transformation. They feel that a class is dying and are full of emotions of decline. They want to sing an elegy for the demise of the old society!" It should be noted that Liushahe's father owns 20 mu of land and is a landlord.Such political criticism has pushed the 26-year-old Liushahe to a precarious situation. However, many people disagree with such political criticism.On February 8th and 12th, the Literary Theory Criticism Group of the Sichuan Federation of Literary and Art Circles held two symposiums.As the Sichuan Daily reported at the time: "Qiu Qiankun, Xiaofeng, Shen Zhen, Hua Jian, etc. spoke in support of "Cao Mu Pian" and believed that they should not be criticized like that. Qiu Qiankun believed that the weakness of "Cao Mu Pian" was that the position was not clear, which would cause unfavorable criticism objectively. The effect. Shen Zhen said, it’s not yellow. Don’t people also shout "Long Live Communism" when they kiss? "Grass and Wood" is just a little vague. From this point of view, it is not wrong. Xiaofeng thinks that "Sichuan Daily "The criticisms of "Grass and Wood" and "Grass and Wood" are based on dogma, not from the point of view of life. These criticisms are not realistic. He said: 'I hate it very much'..." With the warming of China's "big climate", at the end of February, criticism began to cool down, and "Sichuan Daily" no longer published critical articles on "Grass and Trees"-because Mao Zedong wrote "On the Correct Handling of Contradictions among the People" speak. Liushahe was relieved from the crisis and breathed a sigh of relief. Liushahe recalled that "Grass and Trees" was mentioned again in the newspaper at the beginning of June.However, instead of continuing to criticize "Grass and Trees", it is to deny the criticism of "Grass and Trees" at the beginning of the year. At that time, the Sichuan Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles invited writers, professors, and literary critics to hold a symposium and make a big statement. Zhang Mosheng, a professor of the Chinese Department of Sichuan University and a veteran writer, stood up and believed that the criticism of "Cao Mu Pian" was wrong. On June 4th, "Sichuan Daily" published Professor Zhang's speech: "What do the leading comrades of the Federation of Literature and Art Circles think about the erroneous criticism of "Grass and Trees?" What kind of attitude did you have when you read Mao Zedong’s report? After listening to Mao Zedong’s report, let’s look back and see whether the crude, top-down criticism of the works is in line with the party’s literary and artistic policies.” At the meeting, Professor He Jianxun of Southwest University for Nationalities also spoke out, saying: "In my opinion, "Grass and Wood" reflects the pain, disappointment and a certain degree of terror of some intellectuals after the historical movement, especially after the anti-revolutionary movement. The reality reflected in "Grass and Wood" does exist. Especially after the anti-revolutionary movement, some intellectuals felt pain, disappointment, and even terror.” He Jianxun also said: "You shouldn't just hit Mei Xiang and miss, but also ask the old lady." The "old lady" he refers to is the leader of Sichuan literature and art. On June 5th, "Sichuan Daily" published Liu Bing's speech, pointing out: "The criticism of "Grass and Trees" is a general outbreak of dogmatism, subjectivism, and sectarianism among literary and art leaders and literary critics in our province. The result of the encirclement and suppression of "Grass and Trees" is the gap in the "Hundred Flowers Blooming" in the literary and art circles. And the walls obviously deepened and thickened." On the same day, "Sichuan Daily" also published Liushahe's speech, which was even more eye-catching. Quicksand said: "When discussing "Grass and Trees", the newspapers did it like that. The rebuttal articles could not be published, and they were more and more drawn to the political fringes. I was not afraid personally, but I was very angry." Liushahe also said humorously: "Sometimes I like to complain, just let it go, and others will remind you that if something goes wrong, they will pay you with zero savings and give you everything. And these criticisms are very unconvincing." After negation of negation, "Grass and Wood" can be regarded as "overturning the verdict"!