Chapter 50 my literary dream

My hometown, Daye, is located in the southeast of Hubei.To the east, it is very close to Dabie Mountains, an old revolutionary area, and to the north, it is only 200 kilometers away from Nanchang and Jinggangshan, the red bases of the Chinese revolution.The revolutionary flames of yesteryear once burned fiercely in this land.During the first Civil Revolutionary War, our hometown was the main channel for the Red Army to march from southern Hubei to Jinggangshan.Daye has successively produced famous revolutionary generals such as the founding generals Yu Lijin, Wu Xiuquan, Shi Haishan (Shi Jiming) and so on.On Nanshantou at the junction of Daye and Yangxin, Liuren Eighth Town on the verge of Yangxin, the Republic Marshal Peng Dehuai, General Teng Daiyuan and others established the Red Army, which made the Kuomintang fearful in this beautiful town.Mr. Peng and thousands of Red Army soldiers lived here for more than half a year, and fought hundreds of fierce battles with the Kuomintang armed forces here.The blood of countless revolutionary martyrs stained this large expanse of boiling land.In order to commemorate the revolutionary martyrs and educate the younger generations, after the founding of New China, the local party and the people's government not only established the Nanshantou Revolutionary Memorial Hall and the Red Eighth Army Revolutionary Memorial Hall (the director of the two memorial halls is Yin Xianyang) in the final resting place of these martyrs. In Qinglongshan Park in Daye, a monument to the revolutionary martyrs, which stands tall among the green pines and green fields and was inscribed by Marshal Nie Rongzhen himself, was established.The well-known "Daye military violence" led by the famous general of the Red Army, Cheng Zihua, took place here.

This red soil gave birth to many revolutionary songs. In order to collect and sort out these national cultural treasures, I often traveled between towns and villages, looking for many old Red Army soldiers and martyrs who could sing revolutionary songs, and wrote down a song. The exciting red ballad, whenever I hear a good song, it is always a treasure.I have loved listening to folk stories, singing folk songs, and collecting folk proverbs and allegorical sayings since I was a child.I remember that every hot summer evening, after dinner, the old people would move a small bamboo chair and gather under the tree in front of the house to chat with each other. Apart from talking about some strange things that happened recently, they often There are many novel and interesting folk legends.Those magical and magnificent stories always fascinate me.So that as soon as I saw the old people setting up a dragon gate array, I would immediately sharpen my head and squeeze into the crowd to listen with relish.

My father, who had been a primary school teacher and a township cadre, was usually very good at reading, and he also had a lot of anecdotes from ancient and modern China and foreign countries in his belly, and he also liked to tell stories.My father was very righteous all his life.When he was 30 years old, an uncle who had just grown up died unfortunately due to a sudden illness. At that time, according to the superstition in the village, it was best for young people not to go forward, otherwise they would be charmed out of their souls.But the father didn't believe that at all, and several other young people stepped forward to carry the coffin for the deceased.There were eight people carrying the coffin, which are called "Eight Immortals" in the countryside.When the "Eight Immortals" carried the dead up the mountain for burial, one of them accidentally staggered, causing the heavy coffin to suddenly lose its balance. In addition, most of them were inexperienced, so that the weight of the coffin tilted towards their father. , crushing the unsuspecting father's shoulders and waist on the spot.Afterwards, my father didn't go to the hospital for treatment in time, which left a lifetime of trauma. Later, he couldn't even pick tens of kilograms of millet.Therefore, he has not been able to do too heavy farm work, so except for the usual farm work such as weeding, plowing and digging, he is unable to do other slightly heavier farm work, so he spends all his spare time reading poetry and books. .He is full of weird and weird stories, as long as he tells about Water Margin, Journey to the West, Fengshen, Liaozhai, and folk stories inherited from the older generation, his eldest son will squat at his feet unshakably, concentrating He listened intently, fascinated.My father and I exchanged emotions in this most primitive way and instilled in me the principles of life.

After school, I began to try to write down some wonderful stories that people told orally. In the spring of 1987, I inadvertently learned from the "Daye News" that a large-scale collection of folk literature was being carried out across the country, and all provinces, cities and counties were required to produce a set of three collections of folk stories, folk proverbs, and folk songs. In order to save local folk culture, the Bureau of Culture collected relevant local folk stories from the people of the whole county in Huangshi Daily and Daye Daily. At that time, I just entered Daye Jinhu High School, and I immediately became interested. I recorded and sorted out several folk stories that I was familiar with in oral form, and gave them to the person in charge of the "Three Sets of Daye Folk Literature Integration" office at that time. Li Yong, director of Daye Cultural Bureau, and Zhu Zhenshan, deputy director.They were very happy after reading it, because for folk literature, which also belongs to writing work, ordinary literary youths often dismiss folk literature, and I, a middle school student, would be interested.Although famous writers such as Guo Moruo, Shen Congwen and Shen's disciples, Wang Zengqi, who wrote the novels "Admonishment", "Da Nao Chronicle" and a large number of sweet and mellow prose, have also vigorously praised folk literature, but they are generally engaged in literary creation. Some people are unwilling to put folk literature into the category of literature, just like Yangchun Baixue is not the same as Xialiba people.At that time, people who were engaged in the collection and sorting of folk literature were generally elderly retired cadres, or the heads of local cultural stations at the lowest level, and those who had special feelings and understanding of folk literature were willing to do it.At that time, a middle school student like me who was only in his teens was able to be interested in collecting and organizing folk literature, which has always been regarded as unrefined, and it was really rare in the local area.

A few days later, the "Jinhuyue" supplement of "Daye Daily" at that time published two folk stories collected and arranged by me for the first time, and then with the help of the editor in charge at the time, Mr. Cha Daiwen, published the first A novel "Selling Medicine".Later, "Yellowstone Daily" and other newspapers also published my works one after another.Undoubtedly, it was a great encouragement to me, who was a rural middle school student at that time, to face these works that had been turned into printed characters with my own hands. I remember very clearly that the first time I was able to publish a work in a local newspaper, I submitted it under the stimulation of a teacher in my first year of high school.This teacher is my math teacher and my class teacher in the first year of high school.Because I don't pay much attention to study and my head is too stupid, apart from my strong interest in Chinese, my math class has not been very good, so I am not very interested in math class.In order to pass the boring math class after another, I often secretly read novels in class.In order to prevent the teacher from finding out on the podium, I deliberately pretended to be very serious, put the novel on the desk, pressed the math textbook on the novel, and at the same time held a pen in my hand, pretending to write, And the two eyes and all the body and mind are fully invested in the storyline below the textbook.Who knows, my little trick was quickly discovered by the teacher.Once, when I was burying my head and greedily reading a copy of Alexandre Dumas' "Three Musketeers", unexpectedly, I was quickly spotted by the teacher on the podium. He came to me with a teaching stick in his hand, and the eyes of fifty or sixty students in the class were all on the same page. Swipe followed and forced towards me, but at this time I was engrossed in the fascinating plot of the novel, but I didn't know anything about it.It wasn't until the teacher slammed the teaching stick in front of me that I was frightened out of my wits and frantically dropped several books to the ground at the same time. The teacher proudly asked me to press the book below from the ground. The novel was taken out and confiscated on the spot.

Frightened by this time, although I still used the time in physics class to peek at literature books and periodicals, I never dared to read any extracurricular books in math class from then on.What makes me even more uncomfortable is that since the "Three Musketeers" borrowed from others was confiscated in class, my teacher has always had a prejudice against me, so he often criticizes me in public.In order to correct my study attitude, I once seriously criticized me in public and said: "There are some students in our class who can't even learn their own textbooks well. How can they become writers?".Another time, because of my unsatisfactory grades in the math unit test, the teacher took advantage of the problem to ridicule me in front of all the students in the class, and said: "There are some students in our class who always What a writer's dream!... If he can publish a piece of work, I will reward him with a hundred times the manuscript fee..." Although he didn't name me at the time, he just "pointed and scolded" as before, But all the classmates knew that he was teaching me a lesson.Although I felt ashamed and unable to hold my head up in front of so many people, I was very unconvinced in my heart and thought, I would like to publish a few articles in newspapers for you to read!

In order to "challenge" this teacher of mine, once I took advantage of the opportunity of a speech contest in the class, and without any speech script, I gave an impromptu speech on the topic "Satire is the Best Medicine", and I was not polite to me. The teacher fought back, and at the same time showed my determination to him and all my classmates.Half a month later, I published two articles at a time in the supplement of "Daye News", and later published an essay in "Huangshi Daily".At that time in our ordinary high school, there were still very few students who could publish literary works in municipal newspapers, so I was very eye-catching in school at that time, and my classmates were even more excited.I still remember that one of my most mischievous classmates brought the newspaper with two of my articles to the teacher, deliberately tilted his head and asked, "Teacher, didn't you say that as long as he can publish one If you don’t write an article, will you reward him with a hundred times the manuscript fee?” My teacher was very embarrassed.Today, although this matter has passed more than ten years ago, I am deeply impressed by it.Now, more than ten years later, I tell this matter again, not deliberately exposing the teacher's shortcomings. On the contrary, I am full of gratitude to this teacher. If there is no "sarcasm" from him at the beginning, maybe I I will not be in a hurry to publish my works, and I have been insisting on reading and writing until now.I have been away from my hometown for fourteen years, and many of my teachers and classmates rarely see each other. When I returned home last year, I attended a high school reunion for the first time. This was the first time I have been wandering outside for more than ten years. Attend such a party for the first time.I remember that I also asked everyone about my teacher and wanted to visit him. I only heard that he has continued to be a teacher in a very good high school in the county.During that period, the "East Chu Evening News", sponsored by "Huangshi Daily" and the largest circulation in southeast Hubei, was serializing my first book manuscript "Undercover Adventure: My Fourth Narrow Escape" (the title at the time was "Undercover Reporter" Adventures").

The less than two years of high school life in my life was spent in Dayejin Lake High School.This place is the seat of Daye Township Government, also known as Maming, a very distinctive place name, so that it has always been in my mind forever.Later, after I arrived in Beijing from the south, when I was the front page editor of "Beijing Capital Public Security Daily", I used this place name as my pen name in each issue, and I always used this name when I wrote news comments for the front page headline of each issue. pen name.I think this name is very distinctive, and later when I published some legal cases in magazines such as "Foshan Literature and Art" and "Migrant Worker", I also used this pen name.Since then, this novel place name has become one of my many pseudonyms.It can also be seen that I have a special feeling for this place in middle school.

Since I usually love literature, this hobby has greatly affected my other homework, but it is extremely helpful to my composition.From elementary school to high school, my Chinese scores have always been at the forefront of the class. Not only are my compositions often posted by the Chinese teacher as model essays in the class for students to learn, but I often win awards.After entering high school, like all my classmates, I had a college dream, but my infatuation with literature did not change, but became stronger.When I was in high school, literature for middle school students was popular in middle schools across the country just like the popular young writers Han Han and Guo Jingming in recent years, which attracted me even more.Not only did I study and write on my own, but like other middle schools, I took the lead in organizing a few literature-loving classmates in high school to set up a "Golden Star" literary club. My classmate Cao Lei was the president, I was the editor-in-chief, and Li Yunjia and Hu Hongxia were the vice-presidents. The editor-in-chief, Xia Jinlan, Luo Zhijiang, Xiong Qifeng, Guo Qingqing, Ma Lixiao and other students at that time were all added as backbone members.There is no tutor, but what we have is the infatuated pursuit of art by us literary teenagers.

Without any sponsorship, there are only the dreams of us literary teenagers.We paid for the paper and engraving materials ourselves, and everyone wrote, edited, illustrated, mimeographed, and bound it ourselves.Our magazine is published twice a month.There is also a work discussion or poetry reading held once a month.Our middle school students' literary club, which was formed entirely by students in the school, became a unique and beautiful landscape on the campus at that time, and even became a spiritual Eden for all male and female students in the school in their spare time.At that time, although thousands of literary clubs founded by middle school students sprung up all over the country like mushrooms after rain, our school was noncommittal to our actions. At first, it neither supported nor opposed, but later, seeing us This literary club gathered so many people at once. The school was afraid that we would affect our studies if we continued for a long time, and was even more afraid of causing trouble. We only let our "Golden Star" survive for more than half a year before canceling it.

But since then, I have become more obsessed with literature.Later, I often published novels and poems in local publications, and became a well-known little scholar in our township.During the summer vacation of this year, the Daye Cultural Bureau and the Daye Federation of Literary and Art Circles held a folk literature pen meeting in the Xiaolei Mountain Scenic Area in Chengui Town. Due to my outstanding achievements in collecting and sorting out folk literature, I was invited by then Director of the Cultural Bureau Li Yong and Zhu Zhenshan, the deputy director, was highly recommended by the two leaders, and participated in the PEN meeting with Wenyou Ke Xiaojie, Shi Xianzhou, Chen Jun, Yu Bingxian and others, and I was the youngest member of the PEN meeting at that time. I met Yin Xianyang, a local writer and my teacher who has been supporting me since then, at this pen meeting held in the scenic area of ​​Xiaolei Mountain.Although he has a thin face, he looks quite fairy-like, he treats people kindly, and his smile is as bright as the sun. It can be seen at a glance that he is a teacher who loves life, is optimistic by nature, and treats people warmly. At that time, the relevant personnel who participated in the pen meeting were all well-known local cultural figures. In addition to Mr. Yin Xianyang, there was also Hu Yanhuai, a writer at the Daye Federation of Literary and Art Circles at that time.It was also at this pen meeting that I met local writers such as Zha Daiwen and Ke Zunjie, as well as other cultural celebrities.Since then, I have also received enthusiastic support and help from my hometown writers Huang Jing, Zha Daiwen and other teachers in my literary creation. My acquaintance with Mr. Yin Xianyang is not only because he is the oldest elder in this pen fair, nor because he is already a cultural celebrity in the Huangshi Daye area, but because of his open-mindedness, cheerful personality, fairness and warm heart.After the pen meeting, I started correspondence with Mr. Yin Xianyang.I often send the manuscripts I wrote to him who is far away at the Yinzu Culture Station.If there is no special reason, he will always write back to me within a week, not only densely filling my original manuscript with his revisions, but also attaching a page or two of greetings.He not only cares about my study and creation, but also cares about my life like a benevolent elder.Knowing that I love reading, he often sends several influential literary magazines inside and outside the province, such as "Yangtze River Literature and Art" and "Contemporary Writers", as well as manuscript paper... At that time, I not only kept in touch with him by letter, but whenever I was free, I would travel fifty or sixty miles to visit him on mountain roads, ask him face-to-face for advice on writing, and borrow books from him. Later, I decided to bid farewell to my impoverished hometown and go out to work, and wandered from city to city in the south; later, I enlisted in the army and became a member of the Marine Brigade of the South China Sea Fleet, and soon served as a company commander in the army and regimental documents, and gradually published a few works of study, and gradually attracted the attention of the relevant leaders of the Fleet Political Department, and then transferred to the military region to specialize in literary creation... My life is always in turmoil and change, but in the past ten years , no matter where I am and where I am going, I will write to say hello to this literary senior in my hometown and say I am safe.I remember that in the first year of my enlistment in the army, since I had already published a large number of various works in dozens of newspapers in the military area, the old man recommended me to join the Writers Association of Huangshi City and became a member of the Huangshi Writers Association. A member of the Hometown Writers Association. In May 1998, when I returned to my hometown from Guangzhou to visit him, he was already ill due to lung cancer.When he learned that I had just made an unannounced visit and adventure in Yangcheng, he decided to write these out.So, while sick, he wrote about the undercover adventures of me and Deng Shixiang in Guangzhou Wangshengtang, which was later published in "West China Metropolis Daily" and other newspapers. Now, whenever I look at the mountains and rivers of my hometown in the capital, I always think of Mr. Yin Xianyang, who has returned home from the crane, and his hearty laughter will ring in my ears, and my thoughts will always linger on him His persuasive teachings to me; I always see his thin and cheerful image in front of my eyes... When I was in high school, my family suffered great misfortune—a fire burned my already poor home to a pile of ruins, and all my piles of comic books and literary books were burned.The fire forced me to leave my beloved campus. After dropping out of school, I worked as a coolie in an engineering team in the county for more than two months. I worked more than twelve hours a day under the poisonous sun, carrying ash buckets and picking bricks. , Pulling sand, transporting gravel, carrying water, and pulling mud, every day is full of heat and sweat, but they can only get five yuan a day as wages.After dropping out of school, I was always depressed. Apart from overworking for more than a dozen hours every day, I studied hard and rarely interacted with others. My personality also became extremely dull and introverted.I remember, when I received the notice from the Cultural Bureau to participate in the Xiaoleishan Pen Fair, I was so poor that I couldn’t even afford a few yuan for the fare, so I just walked from my village called Shi Yinggao to 30. Daye County is more than a kilometer away. My biggest hobby is reading books. Of course, almost all of them are Chinese and foreign classics. There are also literary magazines such as "People's Literature", "October", "Contemporary", "Novel Monthly", "Selected Novels", and some newspapers. .Since my village was already poor, most of the money in the brigade was eaten and drunk by the selfish village officials. There were no newspaper subscriptions at all, and the villagers never read those newspapers. After I went to middle school, I often went to Daye County, either to live in my grandmother's house or my uncle's house.Because not only their living conditions here are far better than those in the countryside, but more importantly, newspapers can be read here at any time.In the uncle's house, there are all kinds of books, and he spared no expense to order a large number of books for Jiandi and Fangmei, such as "Children's Literature", "Youth Literature", "Story Club", "Fairy Tale King" and so on. Children's Books.After my uncle's death, I seldom have that kind of warm memory.Later, after being forced to drop out of school due to a fire at home, I joined the army of construction and engaged in extremely heavy physical labor. Despite this, I was still eager to study.The anguish and perplexity of youth and growth are all relieved by one book after another.I remember that for a period of time, in order to read books and read newspapers in time, I often set out from the village alone, walked more than 30 kilometers along the railway that had just opened to traffic, to Daye County, and went to the library to read books.It was not until the library was closed that my head was filled with the messy knowledge I had just learned, so I reluctantly left, and walked along the railway for more than 30 kilometers in the darkening twilight, and returned home.Back and forth, I quickly became acquainted with several staff members in the library, and they sometimes let me take the magazine back to read.Later, with the help of Teacher Li Yong, I got a library card in the library. Since then, I can also go to the library to borrow books like a city person, and I can freely take them home to read. In my spare time, I rolled up my muddy trouser legs, barefooted, holding a notebook and a ballpoint pen. Whenever I saw an old man who could tell a story, I pestered him to tell a story, or chased the old man with gray hair. My old lady sang some folk songs to me; on midsummer nights, wherever people sat chatting in front of and behind the village, by the pond, or under the trees, I would plunge in and hear the wonderful stories and stories told by others. Jokes, immediately recorded with a pen, completely disregarding other people's ridicule and ridicule. After joining the army, I still couldn't forget my literary dream after intense training.At that time, when our Marine Corps was conducting the most difficult "sea training" in the Beibu Gulf every year, due to the arduous military training and the extremely tight time, we could not settle down to read and write. Only when I went to bed every night, I could secretly read and write .I remember that I was worried about being discovered and reprimanded. Every time I turned off the lights at night, I would cover my head tightly with a thick quilt, hide inside the quilt, lay down on the bed, write with a flashlight, and read it again the next day. Send out the written manuscript quietly.In this way, I used this method to put thousands of emotions into writing, and one after another prose and poems tainted with the sea wind, damp and salty atmosphere were continuously published in military and local newspapers.Later, my small talent was quickly appreciated by relevant leaders, and I was first transferred to run a blackboard newspaper, and then transferred to the company as a clerk.Half a year later, he was transferred to the Political Department of the Fleet to study literary writing. After being transferred to the Fleet, with the help of several writers such as Chen Zhibai, a famous naval poet and writer, and my teacher, I wrote a series of historical novels reflecting the Anti-Japanese War, and was recommended by our creative room director Song Shugen to "Liberation Army Literature and Art" , although the editor later wrote that these novels were well written and could be published, but now the magazine focuses on the works of contemporary military life and asked me to write some works that reflect the current life of the army.Later, one of the short stories entitled "Ponytail" was selected and published by "Navy Literature and Art".Seeing my own work posted together with the works of several famous writers in the Navy, my heart is naturally sweet. Now, from a poor rural boy who loves literature, with a magnificent dream of life, I have wandered in the rivers and lakes from south to north for more than ten years.Although in addition to the news works of more than 2 million words published in major newspapers and periodicals across the country, there are almost zero literature.But looking back at the past, I found that my path was like a circle, with literature as the apex and wandering as the radius.After fulfilling my dream of being a reporter, now I am 30 years old, and now I am reliving my dream of being a writer, just like the romantic youth in the past. Gains, pains, and joys are written in books.In addition to the several documentary works that I am currently busy with, I have also started writing a trilogy of journalist novels. The first "Wandering Reporter" has written more than 100,000 words.In order to expose the ugly darkness in the society, and to faithfully fulfill the duties of a journalist, I have been attacked and retaliated against by my critics many times in the past ten years. I was framed and slandered for the first time, was handcuffed by the relevant department, and was illegally detained for 11 days in the name of a criminal suspect. In particular, I escaped death four times in the south... But I never regret it, I always think that There is nothing shady about writing critical reports.Although I have gone through all kinds of painful ups and downs in my life, I have never been discouraged.I remember that Mr. Lu Xun once encouraged us in the book: "May the Chinese youth... those who can do things do things, and those who can make a sound can make a sound. There is a little heat and a little light, just like fireflies, and they can also shine a little light in the dark without waiting. Torch." Yes, people must let their youth shine brightly, for our society, for our country, for our people, and for Ishino himself. Whether in the military or on a wandering journey, I often question myself: Will I succeed?Although I was born clumsy, I never lost confidence in myself.As long as I look for the right path, I will go forward bravely. Literature is somewhat solemn for a literary youth like me. As early as my youth, I, a country boy, was tempted by it and dragged by it into a painful "wrong" path. "Writing conveys Tao", literature is the kind that can quietly sow some seeds in your heart. As for when the seeds will grow into seedlings and fruit, and the quality of the fruit pulp, apart from the right time and place, sunshine and rain, it depends on yourself. hard work. Literature has greened the Garden of Eden of my youth; literature has adorned my wandering dreams.