Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 231: Response to "The Chess Master"
It is still summer vacation now, and Tao Yushu seldom goes out. Most of the time he goes to buy groceries by bicycle. It is to save fuel. Even if gasoline is only a little over one cent per liter, it cannot be wasted.

It fully illustrates what it means to save where needed and spend where needed.

Lin Chaoyang goes to and from get off work on time every day, feeling relaxed and at ease. The busiest person in the family right now is Tao Yumo.

It has been a month since The Chess Master was published, and the editorial department of Yenching Literature receives hundreds of letters from readers of The Chess Master every day.

The number of letters from readers is more than any other work published before. This certainly does not mean that "The Chess Master" is better than other works, but it is because this novel has aroused too much discussion among too many people.

Not only are readers discussing this novel enthusiastically, but there is also heated debate in the literary and critical circles about this novel.

The article “On the Narrow Nationalism of “The Chess Master”” in “Shanghai Literature” was published only half a month ago. Normally, a single review should not have caused much response, but the novel became so popular!
Within one month of its release, "The Chess Master" sold 1.5 million copies, not only breaking the sales record of "Yenching Literature" for many years, but also surpassing a number of top literary magazines such as "People's Literature", "Harvest" and "October".

With millions of readers paying attention to it and the bold views contained in the article itself, it naturally attracted a lot of attention.

In the past few years since the reform and opening up, domestic public opinion and media have developed a strange rebelliousness. Before, you were not allowed to say anything, but now you are allowed to say anything, for fear that someone will accuse them of oppressing freedom of speech.

It is precisely this kind of public opinion environment that has created a market and supporters for many strange ideas in the country.

After the publication of "On the Narrow Nationalism of "The Chess Master", it quickly won the recognition of a group of elites who considered themselves to be clear-headed.

Over this period of time, several articles with similar arguments to this article have appeared in newspapers and magazines, causing quite a stir.

Of course, there are both negative and positive comments.

Two diametrically opposed review articles appeared in this month's "Yenching Literature", one is "A Hymn to Patriotism - Thoughts on Reading "The Chess Master"" written by Tao Yushu, and the other is "Becoming a Saint through Chess - Talking about the Protagonist Jiang Nansheng in "The Chess Master"" written by Li Tuo.

The two articles praised the novel "The Chess Master" from different perspectives and also won recognition from many readers.

One month after the novel was published, a number of review articles came out. Regardless of whether the opinions were positive or negative, they first created a feeling that the novel was a hit.

Moreover, the previous issue of "Yenjing Literature" was indeed a hot seller. The two complemented each other and further boosted the popularity of the novel "The Chess Master" among readers.

Even though the August issue of "Yenching Literature" has been on the market for a few days, bookstores from all over the country are still contacting the editorial department of "Yenching Literature" hoping to reprint it.

Editorial Department of Yenching Literature.

Last month's July issue sold 1.5 million copies, which of course had a lot to do with the novel "The Chess Master". As the editor in charge of the manuscript compilation, Zhang Dening can be said to be in high spirits recently.

The August issue had just been published these two days, and the editors' review tasks were not heavy, so she was chatting and laughing with a few colleagues.

Editor-in-chief Li Qingquan suddenly walked into the office and asked her, "De Ning, how is Lin Chaoyang's new novel going?"

"He only had that idea at the last writers' meeting. It would probably take him several months to write it down."

"Keep a close eye on him. People's Literature has some ideas about his new work recently."

Li Qingquan gave a warning, but Zhang Dening's focus shifted to another point and he asked, "How did you know?"

"You're in charge of a lot of things, and I still have to report to you?" Li Qingquan asked back.

"I'm just asking!"

After Li Qingquan left, Zhang Dening whispered to Zhou Yanru, "Have you noticed that there's something wrong with Old Li recently?"

"What's wrong?"

"He's different than before. A little edgy."

Zhou Yanru joked: "You observe very carefully."

Listening to her words, Zhang Dening realized that Zhou Yanru seemed to know something that she didn't, so she asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

Zhou Yanru acted mysterious, and Zhang Dening quickly said a few nice words. Zhou Yanru then said, "I heard that People's Literature has extended an olive branch to Lao Li again."

Hearing this, Zhang Dening's eyes widened in shock, "Old Li wants to return to People's Literature?"

"Keep your voice down!" Zhou Yanru said unhappily.

Zhang Dening knew he had said something wrong, so he lowered his voice again and asked, "He really wants to go back?"

"I don't know. I guess he hasn't thought it through yet, otherwise he wouldn't be so sullen every day. It's obvious that he's also very conflicted." Zhang Dening pondered and said, "A good horse never turns back. It's not a good choice for him to go back now, right?"

Li Qingquan was born in YA Luyi and served as the editor-in-chief of "People's Literature" in the 1950s. Both in terms of professional qualities and seniority, he is a very influential figure in the industry.

During the period of Buzz Buzz Buzz, Li Qingquan was attacked and exiled to Harbin. He was transferred back to Yenching in 1978 and served as the editor-in-chief of "Yenching Literature" (then "Yenching Literature and Art").

During the nearly three years that Li Qingquan has led Yenching Literature, the magazine's development can be said to be booming.

Almost every year, Yenching Literature publishes a number of works with wide influence, and the sales of the magazine have therefore been rising steadily. Today, it is no less than those of several first-tier literary magazines.

The only regret is that due to the limited layout of the magazine, the works published in "Yenching Literature" are mainly short stories, so compared with other first-line literary magazines in terms of magazine influence and the discovery and promotion of new generation writers, there is still a little gap.

The development of Yenching Literature is of course inseparable from its leader Li Qingquan.

Looking back at the magazine's history of more than 20 years, Mr. Lao She and Mr. Zhao Shuli had high personal prestige, but in terms of the changes they brought to "Yenching Literature", their contribution was probably not as great as Li Qingquan's.

Colleagues in the editorial department, including Zhang Dening, all highly recognized Li Qingquan's leadership ability, professionalism and character. Now that they heard that he was leaving, their first reaction was that they didn't want him to leave.

The second reaction was that Li Qingquan had made a great contribution to the current development of "Yenching Literature". It was not a wise move to ignore the magazine that he had worked so hard to run and plunge into "People's Literature".

"That's the truth, but this guy..." Zhou Yanru sighed, "Who doesn't have a knot in his heart? Old Li was kicked out of People's Literature back then, so of course he wants to go back with dignity."

Zhang Dening couldn't help but sigh, "It's been 20 years, and things have changed. If Lao Li goes back, he may not be able to carry those old guys."

While the two were talking, Wang Jie came over, and Fu Yonglin came over, "De Ning, take a look!"

He handed over a magazine, which was Tianjin's "Xingang" magazine.

There is an unwritten rule in the Chinese literary world that each province has its own literary magazine. Yenching has "Yenching Literature", Shanghai has "Shanghai Literature", Hebei has "Hebei Literature"... and Tianjin's is called "Xingang".

"Xingang" was founded in 1956 and had used names such as "Tianjin Literature and Art" and "Novel Guide". It resumed publication in 1980 and used the name "Xingang". It is one of the literary magazines with relatively great influence in the northern literary world.

Fu Yonglin handed her the copy of "Xingang" so that she could read an article in it - "Also on the Nationalism of "The Chess Master"", which was signed by Wang Zengqi.

In July, Yenching Literature organized a writers' meeting. On the train back, everyone found the review article in Shanghai Literature. Instigated by Zhang Dening, they felt a sense of solidarity and agreed to write some reviews to support Lin Chaoyang.

Wang Zengqi's comments were submitted relatively late. The August issue had already accepted two comments by Tao Yushu and Li Tuo, so it would be inappropriate to include more, so he turned around and handed the article to "Xingang" magazine.

Since the groundbreaking publication of "The Rite of Initiation" last year, Wang Zengqi has quickly become one of the most sought-after writers in Chinese literary circles, and his manuscripts are naturally extremely popular among major magazines.

Even though it was just a review, "Xingang" magazine did not neglect it and published it in the new issue of the magazine as quickly as possible, and successfully arranged for Wang Zengqi to write two more articles.

“…We cannot ignore the fact that heroism in literary works has a positive motivational effect. It has inspired generations of people to persevere in the face of difficulties, and has a positive value that cannot be ignored in shaping personal character and promoting social integrity.

When talking about nationalism, some people will put the word "narrow" in front of it. We should be aware that when the nation is in danger of survival, nationalism has its irrefutable legitimacy.

Strong nationalist sentiment is a natural reaction to resisting foreign aggression and safeguarding national sovereignty. We cannot look at the issue in isolation from the times, and we cannot demonize this patriotic sentiment.

Literary creation is done by people, and its creative intention and social impact in a specific historical context deserve to be evaluated comprehensively from multiple perspectives, rather than simply criticizing its so-called "narrowness"..."

Zhang Dening spent several minutes reading Wang Zengqi's article, and couldn't help but smile. "Old ginger is still wise! Old Wang's move directly points to the core issue of the article in Shanghai Literature. Their views are not worth arguing about!"

When reviewing the manuscript of "The Chess Master", Zhang Dening once raised the issues of "one against nine" and "overly sensational" to Lin Chaoyang, but those were raised by her herself.

She was unhappy when a group of people, led by "Shanghai Literature", wrote articles to find fault with "The Chess Master", not to mention that the angles of these articles were obviously biased.

Fu Yonglin smiled and said, "Old Wang's article is very targeted. I think there will be a reaction from that side after a while."

"I'm just afraid that they won't respond. They are allowed to do it on the first day, but we are not allowed to do it on the fifteenth?" Zhang Dening said angrily.

The manuscript she had worked so hard to put together was well received by readers and the magazine sales hit a new high, but some people came to make things difficult for her, which made Zhang Dening very unhappy.

I thought it would be best if we could have a big debate. They were willing to argue, right? Then let's have a big debate. It would be best if the name of "Chess Saint" could be known throughout the country.

Didn’t Chaoyang say that he wanted more people to know about the novel “The Chess Master”?

If that were the case, wouldn’t this goal be achieved smoothly?
(End of this chapter)