Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 216: When the country prospers, the chess fortune will prosper
The books were transferred from Xinhua Bookstore by Xie Daoyuan after he arranged for someone to communicate with the school. There are 50 books in total, half of which are "Lai Zi's Summer" and the other half are "The Death of Van Gogh" from the special issue of "Contemporary".

Xie Daoyuan originally wanted to distribute the books directly to the students, but he was stopped by the old man who was talking to Lin Chaoyang. "How can we not have the author sign his name in person?"

His proposal won the applause of the students. Lin Chaoyang had no choice but to sit down and sign his name on the title page of each book and write a blessing.

The students were delighted when they received his autographed books.

In just less than an hour of communication, they have been deeply attracted by Lin Chaoyang's conversation and are full of interest in his works. Now that they have the book in hand, the students can't wait to read it.

After finishing the exchange with the delegation from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lin Chaoyang returned to the library. It was almost time to get off work, so his return naturally caused some ridicule.

"Oh, the great writer who went abroad is back!"

"I never thought Chaoyang would have an international reputation now."

Lin Chaoyang calmly interrupted everyone's jokes and said, "Let me correct you. Hong Kong is an inseparable part of our motherland. There is something wrong with your statement."

After chatting for a few minutes, it was time to get off work, and Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle back to the Overseas Chinese Apartment.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Wu Zuoren and his wife walking together in the courtyard. He greeted them warmly.

"I haven't seen your father for a long time. When will he come next time?" Wu Zuoren asked.

"He is worried about the land at home, so he can't come until after the autumn harvest."

"It's a good thing for a person to have a thought. Now that I think about him, I miss him."

"Write to him later and tell him that you miss him and ask him to come to Yanjing as soon as possible." Lin Chaoyang said with a smile.

Wu Zuoren smiled like a naughty boy and said, "Tell him to bring something so he doesn't come empty-handed."

"Tell him to bring you a pheasant."

"I can't eat meat anymore. Bring me some mushrooms. The mushrooms you have are delicious."

After chatting and laughing with Wu Zuoren for a while, Lin Chaoyang went upstairs and went home, where he saw Zhang Dening sitting in the living room again.

"You come here quite frequently."

"I don't want to come either. Don't I have to talk to you about novels?"

"What to talk about?"

Zhang Dening said: "The style of your novel has changed a lot. It is not the realism of "Little Shoes" nor the stream of consciousness of "Lai Zi's Summer". It is a bit similar to "The Wreath under the Mountain", but the treatment of the story is more extreme."

"What does the editorial department think?" Lin Chaoyang asked.

"The novel is good, the plot is full of ups and downs, and it makes people feel excited when reading it. However, the final plot is a bit exaggerated and feels distorted. Is Jiang Nansheng's prototype Wu Qingyuan?"

Lin Chaoyang frowned when he heard this, "Why do you think Jiang Nansheng is Wu Qingyuan?"

"You wrote it yourself! Jiang Nansheng loves Go like his life, and he has won nine consecutive victories over Japanese Go masters. In real life, the only person we can think of who can describe this kind of person is Wu Qingyuan."

Lin Chaoyang shook his head and said, "I also wrote that Jiang Nansheng repeatedly refused the Japanese recruitment! He is a patriot, which is fundamentally different from Wu Qingyuan."

"I didn't say Jiang Nansheng is Wu Qingyuan. What I meant is, is this character based on Wu Qingyuan's experience?"

"No. How could I possibly use Wu Qingyuan's experience when writing about a character like Jiang Nansheng? Wouldn't it be awkward if you think about it?"

"Then the character of Jiang Nansheng is completely made up by you? If that's the case, it will be easy to be criticized." Zhang Dening muttered to himself.

"It's not like there's no prototype." Lin Chaoyang said.

Zhang Dening immediately asked, "Is there a prototype? Who is it?"

"This..." Lin Chaoyang hesitated. His prototype had not yet achieved the record of winning consecutive games against 11 Japanese chess masters.

"Is it true or not? You are not talking nonsense, are you?" Zhang Dening asked suspiciously.

“Does it matter whether there is a prototype or not?”

"Of course it is. Let me tell you, your last episode is exciting to read, but it is also easy to find fault with.

If there is no prototype to refer to, it will inevitably be criticized as a work of fantasy.

In fact, I think that what you said about using Wu Qingyuan as the prototype is also a good idea. There is nothing wrong with his record being applied to Jiang Nansheng. "

Lin Chaoyang said impatiently: "Alright, stop mentioning Wu Qingyuan. You always talk about a Japanese."

Zhang Dening said helplessly: "I'm just afraid that you will be criticized, right?"

"Criticize me if you want. There are many people criticizing me."

Zhang Dening teased, "You don't have to worry about having too many lice, right? Don't tell me, I just read an article criticizing The Death of Van Gogh these days."

During this period of time, influenced by the conservative atmosphere, one or two articles criticizing "The Death of Van Gogh" appeared from time to time in the literary world.

"What did you say about me this time?" Lin Chaoyang asked in a relaxed tone.

"Isn't there a scene in your novel that describes Van Gogh soliciting prostitution?"

Lin Chaoyang immediately understood the point of the other party's criticism. "I wrote it based on the information, okay? Besides, I didn't write about prostitution specifically, that was to create a character!"

Zhang Dening said: "You are exaggerating. Why do they care about you? They say that your description is too detailed and harmful to readers, and that you are trying to excuse prostitutes..."

Lin Chaoyang waved his hands in complete silence, "Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore."

Zhang Dening laughed, "I really thought you didn't care, but it seems you don't have the willpower to control yourself!" "Even a clay man can still get angry, what kind of person is this!"

"Do you want to fight back?"

"I'm afraid I'll be covered in shit."

"You are a great writer, but your words are really vulgar."

"Are you okay?"

"I haven't eaten yet!"

Zhang Dening came today mainly to talk to Lin Chaoyang about some inside stories of novel writing. After going off topic for a while, she started talking about novels again and asked about the details in the novels.

The characters in Lin Chaoyang's novel do have prototypes, but he can't tell them because they have not yet reached their peak.

In 1984, China and Japan jointly held the first China-Japan Go Challenge Tournament. The challenge tournament was composed of teams with an equal number of players from both sides. Each team had a head coach, and the final winner was decided in the form of a challenge tournament.

At that time, the Japanese chess world was full of strong players, and they had absolute crushing power over Chinese Go.

In the media predictions before the game, both China's "New Sports" and Japan's "Go Club" magazines conducted surveys, and more than 80% of readers in both countries predicted that Japan would win.

Some even suggested that three Japanese players could sweep the Chinese team and that the Chinese side would be considered successful if they saw Kobayashi Koichi. No one was optimistic about the Chinese team.

In terms of lineup, the Chinese team has only four ninth-dan players, and the lowest-ranked player, Wang Jianhong, is only sixth-dan.

Japan has six 9th-dan players, and its lineup can be said to be far better than China.

After the game started, the situation was exactly as the media and most of the audience had expected. Kobayashi Koichi, who ranked third from the bottom, became an insurmountable mountain for the Chinese team.

At this time, the Chinese team only had one player left, Nie Weiping, who played as the main player and defeated Kobayashi Koichi under tremendous pressure.

He then defeated Kato Masao and Fujisawa Hideyuki, who was known as Japan's "Lifetime Go Master", and won the first China-Japan Go Challenge Tournament. At the same time, he achieved a major breakthrough as a Chinese player defeated a top-notch Japanese player for the first time.

In the next two China-Japan Go Tournaments, Nie Weiping was still invincible, creating the myth of eleven consecutive victories against Japan's top players, and bringing the Chinese team three consecutive victories in the China-Japan Go Tournament.

At the celebration banquet for his three consecutive victories, Nie Weiping officially became the first chess master in Chinese history.

The seemingly unrealistic nine-game winning streak of Jiang Nansheng, the protagonist in Lin Chaoyang's novel, pales in comparison to the real reality.

At this stage, Nie Weiping has swept the Chinese chess world, but has not yet won the China-Japan Go Tournament, so Lin Chaoyang cannot directly say that he is the prototype of Jiang Nansheng.

Moreover, when Lin Chaoyang was writing the novel and the protagonist Jiang Nansheng, Nie Weiping's experience was merely a reference. His novel actually combines elements of several works.

In shaping the protagonist, he referred to Wang Yisheng, the protagonist of Ah Cheng’s short story “The Chess King”;
In terms of story structure, he referred to the Kung Fu movie "Ip Man" in which the Japanese were defeated. Although "Ip Man" is a commercial action film, its smoothness in story structure far exceeds that of general film and television and literary works.

In terms of the core of the story, Lin Chaoyang goes completely the opposite of "A Game of Chess That Is Not Finished", and its main focus is on growth and patriotism.

Jiang Nansheng in his novel comes from a wealthy family and is extremely talented in Go. He has been obsessed with the game since childhood and has no rivals.

At that time, China was in turmoil, but the chess world in Japan was booming. His father originally wanted to send him to Japan to continue his studies, but Japan brazenly launched the war of aggression against China, and his further studies came to nothing.

After the outbreak of the war of aggression against China, Jiang Nansheng's family fell into poverty and he had to make a living by playing chess.

He happened to meet Kondo Jiro, the second son of the Honinbo family, who came to China to entertain the troops with the Japanese Go Association. Kondo Jiro came from a Go family and was easily defeated by Jiang Nansheng.

Seeing that Jiang Nansheng was young and had excellent chess skills, Kondo Jiro wanted to recruit him. Jiang Nansheng loved chess as if his life, and longed for a paradise in this chaotic world where he could play chess quietly.

He was attracted by Kondo Jiro's solicitation. Just when he was about to accept the Kondo family's solicitation, he met a beggar begging passers-by on the roadside of Chenghuang Temple. The Japanese businessman gave alms to the beggar, but the beggar not only refused to accept it, but also cursed at him.

Even a beggar knew about national hatred and family feuds. Jiang Nansheng felt ashamed and refused the Kondo family's recruitment. However, he did not expect that the Japanese businessman, who held a grudge against the beggar for insulting him, called the Japanese gendarmerie to arrest him.

In order to save the beggar, Jiang Nansheng had no choice but to find Kondo Jiro for help. Kondo Jiro took this opportunity to recruit Jiang Nansheng again. In order to save the beggar, Jiang Nansheng wanted to accept Kondo Jiro's invitation, but he was harassed by Li Zhuo, a traitor chess player who was a member of the Chess Patriotic Association and naturalized in Japan.

In order to save the beggar, Jiang Nansheng had to play chess with Li Zhuo. After winning the game with Li Zhuo, Jiang Nansheng thought he could save the beggar.

But what awaited him was only the cold body of the beggar. It turned out that the beggar had been brutally killed long before he was caught by the military police. However, the Japanese did not kill him on the spot because there were people watching on the street.

In anger, Jiangnansheng questioned Kondo Jiro, but no matter whether it was the life of a beggar or the life of a Chinese, it was nothing but grass in Kondo Jiro's eyes. He recruited Jiangnansheng purely because he saw that he could be used by him.

Seeing through the Japanese's evil ambitions, Jiang Nansheng's heart was filled with hatred, but he could do nothing about it.

At this time, in order to create a false image of goodwill, the Japanese invaders planned to hold a Go competition to promote the friendship between the two peoples. The Japanese side would be represented by the Japan Go Patriotic Association, and the Chinese side would be represented by a group of Go masters assembled by the Japanese.

In the challenge match, the Chinese players lost the game either actively or passively, while the Japanese players were invincible and showed off their power.

Jiang Nansheng loved Go all his life. Seeing all the ugly situations on the chessboard and the stimulation of the beggar being killed made him hate the Japanese so much that he challenged the Japanese players.

He won all the way and defeated many top Japanese chess players in succession. The people were delighted. The Japanese were angry and humiliated, but they also looked at him with admiration and wanted to recruit him again, and advised Jiang Nansheng not to challenge him again.

But Jiang Nansheng had long understood the cruelty and hypocrisy of the Japanese, and since he issued the challenge, he never thought of retreating unscathed.

Jiang Nansheng's refusal and the two Japanese chess players' defeat again completely angered the Japanese. Facing the Japanese's threats and inducements, Jiang Nansheng remained fearless.

He also left a message: "When the country prospers, the chess will prosper. China's national fortune has declined to this point, all because of our weakness. I have no other talents in my life, and the only thing I can show off is my chess skills, which I should use to repay my country."

The ending that Lin Chaoyang arranged for Jiang Nansheng was that he would be shot to death by a Japanese officer before he challenged the tenth Japanese national player.

"Ten" is the number of perfection. Although it is a pity that Jiang Nansheng died before he achieved great success, it also fits the precarious situation of China at that time.

Jiang Nansheng's national integrity and sense of righteousness are the missing "one". Combined with his nine victories, he can be called the chess saint and his name is spread throughout the world.

(End of this chapter)