Literary Master 1978.

Chapter 242: Cultural Relics Acquisition Point

In March 1981, Mr. Mao Dun, the leader of the Chinese Writers Association, was seriously ill. He made a decision on his sickbed.

On March 3, Mao Dun dictated a letter to the Central Government, which was recorded by his son Wei Tao, requesting that he be recognized as a DY after his death. He then dictated a letter to the Social Affairs Office of the Chinese Writers Association.

"Dear comrades, in order to promote the creation of novels, I will donate my royalties of 25 yuan to the Writers Association as a fund to set up a novel literary award to reward the best novels each year. I know that I will not be able to recover from my illness, and I sincerely wish that our country's socialist literature will prosper."

Two weeks later, on March 3, Mr. Mao Dun passed away at the age of 27.

On April 4, the China Writers Association held a leadership meeting, at which it was decided to nominate Mr. Ba Jin as the new leader of the China Writers Association and to establish the Mao Dun Literature Prize Committee.

Over the past six months, the China Literary Association has been preparing the award in accordance with Mr. Mao Dun's last wishes, and various news about the award have already spread throughout the Chinese literary world.

"I mean your novel needs to be submitted for selection."

Lin Chaoyang looked at her strangely, "Isn't it normal for one of my novels to be shortlisted?"

His tone was calm, but it made Zhang Dening want to beat him up. But when he thought about it carefully, it seemed that what Lin Chaoyang said was not wrong.

The Mao Dun Literature Prize is awarded to novels of more than 1977 words published between 1981 and 10.

If measured by this standard, "Parents' Love", "Lai Zi's Summer", "The Death of Van Gogh", "The Chess Master"... you won't know until you count, but when you do, you'll be shocked to find that Lin Chaoyang actually has four novels that meet the requirements.

Of course, these novels must first be screened by local literary associations, magazines, and publishing houses before they can be submitted.

Judging from the quality and influence of Lin Chaoyang's novels, it is almost certain that they meet the submission standards and requirements.

Zhang Dening didn't know that there was a word in later generations called Versailles, which was usually used to describe Lin Chaoyang's state at that time.

She resisted the urge to complain about Lin Chaoyang and turned to Zhu Changsheng, "Old Zhu, aren't you going to submit his novel to Humanities Publishing House?"

"Hmm... the club should have some arrangements for this. In recent years, our club has published quite a few long stories, so we have to screen them."

Since the 1950s, Renwen Publishing House has been regarded as a literary temple by domestic writers and readers. The best manifestation of the authority of Renwen Publishing House is that many classic literary masterpieces in China have been published by them in the past thirty years.

From the 1950s' "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River", "Defending Yan'an", "Lin Hai Xue Yuan", "Song of Youth", "New Heroes of the Children", "Wild Fire and Spring Wind Fighting the Ancient City", and "Great Changes in the Mountain Village"

In the 1960s, there were "Sunny Days", "Song of Ouyang Hai", "We Sow Love", "The First Branch of East Wind" and "The General Trilogy".

From "The Red Years", "The Shining Red Star", "The Golden Avenue", "The Big Knife", "The Mountains Are Red" and so on, it is no exaggeration to say that Renwen Publishing House carries half of the contemporary Chinese literary world.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Renwen Press continued the fine traditions of the previous decades and continued to publish a large number of excellent works.

In the original list of winners of the first Mao Dun Literature Prize, there were a total of six winning works, four of which were published by Renwen Press.

The results of the subsequent selections remained similar to those of the first session, which shows the heritage and authority of Renwenshe.

Listening to Zhu Changsheng's answer, Zhang Dening felt depressed as if he had shot himself in the foot.

After counting for a long time, Yenching Literature only found "The Chess Master" as a good candidate, but Renwen Publishing House had a large number of works that met the submission requirements. They didn't even need to judge the works, so they had to fight among themselves first.

It’s really hard to compare people to death, and you have to throw away goods when comparing goods!
Zhang Dening came with great joy to announce the good news, but suffered setbacks one after another, which made him depressed and turned his grief and anger into appetite.

Lin Chaoyang looked at her with disdain and whispered to Tao Yushu, "I said she was just using the excuse of announcing the good news to get a free meal."

Tao Yushu rolled his eyes at him and said, "You might as well speak louder."

After hearing Lin Chaoyang's words, Zhang Dening ate more.

Jokes aside, Lin Chaoyang certainly understood Zhang Dening's good intentions.

His calmness was not fake, but came from his confidence in his own achievements.

In the past few years, he has written four works with more than 100,000 words, all of which have had a great influence. It is impossible that he can't find even one work that was shortlisted, right?

As for whether or not you can win the award, it depends on how the comrades on the award judging committee handle it.

"Chaoyang, don't you really consider joining the Literary Association?" After dinner, Zhang Dening asked Lin Chaoyang while burping.

Lin Chaoyang understood what she meant. After all, he was not a member of the Literary Association!
"So what if I join? If there is favoritism, what can I do as a young person who just joined the Literary Association?
It only adds to the troubles, so it is better to let things take their own course. Awards are just icing on the cake. Lu Xun and Ba Jin didn’t have many awards back then.”

Zhang Dening looked at him disdainfully and said, "You are just like a toad yawning - what a big mouth you have!"

After saying this, Zhang Dening felt much better. She finally got her revenge for being laughed at. Without giving Lin Chaoyang a chance to retort, she immediately changed the subject.

"But I think you still have a great advantage in this award."

Tao Yushu asked curiously: "What is the advantage?"

"He has so many works! If you count carefully, his four works, "Parental Love", "Lai Zi's Summer", "The Death of Van Gogh" and "The Chess Master", all meet the criteria for the award and have good reputations.

As long as the publishing house or magazine is willing to submit the works, it wouldn't be too much to have two works shortlisted, right?

Do they have a better chance of winning than those writers who only have one work shortlisted? "

Tao Yushu sneered, "How can you calculate like that? Is this an award or a math competition?"

Zhang Dening said anxiously, "Don't disbelieve me. We Chinese are the most willing to smooth things over. If Chaoyang really had four works shortlisted, even if none of them were worthy of winning an award, do you believe that someone would take the initiative to offer him an award?" Tao Yushu looked at Lin Chaoyang with doubt in his eyes, "Do you think this is really possible?"

Yes, very much.

The MVPs of losers in various competitions in later generations have proved that Chinese people are really capable of doing such things, and they are not ashamed of it, but proud of it. After receiving the award, they think they are leaders who are particularly understanding of human nature, and they openly show off this shameless behavior to the media.

In the eyes of these people, fairness, rules, and the rule of law are just playthings of power.

Lin Chaoyang shook off the flash of thought in his mind and said calmly, "This is what the judges are considering. There is no need for us to worry about it."

Seeing that he looked calm, Tao Yushu stopped worrying about it.

Zhang Dening looked at Lin Chaoyang with suspicion, thinking to himself, aren't you pretending too much?
The Chinese Writers Association launched the Mao Dun Literature Prize awarding ceremony, which was like a sudden gust of wind rippling a lake of spring water, causing a stir in the Chinese literary world in October.

Any writer who has published a novel in recent years and whose works are quite influential will take this award to heart. After all, this is the first long novel award event in the country.

Moreover, the award is named after Mr. Mao Dun, so the value of the award is self-evident.

However, at this stage, the award office formed by the Writers Association is only sending letters to Writers Associations, magazines and publishing houses across the country to request recommendations for works. There is still some time before the official awards, so no matter how concerned everyone is, it can only be discussed.

After late October, the sunny autumn air has a bit more solemnity. The autumn in Yanjing is always short-lived, often dying in less than two months. This year it seems to have gotten colder earlier than in previous years.

Early in the morning, there was a thin mist outside, and Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle out. He had recently found a good place.

These days, all state-owned cultural relics stores in Yanjing have purchasing points, which are similar to those trust stores, and they all buy low and sell high.

We buy antiques from ordinary people at low prices and then sell them at high prices, preferably to foreigners to earn foreign exchange. Some cultural relics that are identified as more important will be donated to museums.

Today is not like later generations. Firstly, antiques are not as valuable as they are in later generations. Secondly, there are not as many auction and private operation channels for cultural relics trading as in later generations. If someone has antiques, in most cases they can only sell them to cultural relics stores.

At these cultural relics shops and purchasing points, citizens of Yanjing and farmers from the surrounding areas often come to sell things. There are purchasing points for jewelry, diamonds, jade, gold and silver ornaments, calligraphy and paintings, porcelain... all kinds of antique cultural relics.

For example, Dongsi and Bamiancao have the jewelry, diamond and jade purchasing departments of the foreign trade department. The purchasing point of the Bank of China specializes in purchasing gold and silver jewelry. The purchasing points in Xidan and Liulichang collect calligraphy and paintings, porcelain and other items.

Lin Chaoyang came to the Xinjiekou Cultural Relics Store Purchasing Point, which purchased a wide variety of antiques, including ceramics, calligraphy and painting, gold and jade, miscellaneous items and many other categories. Therefore, it is also one of the more popular cultural relics stores purchasing points in Yanjing.

When he arrived at the door of the purchasing point, Lin Chaoyang did not go closer, but looked at the door from a distance.

The purchasing point hasn't opened yet, but there are already a few people waiting in line at the door.

Lin Chaoyang looked at the time. It was just after seven o'clock. There was still more than half an hour before the purchasing point opened, so there was still enough time.

There were not many people queuing at the door of the purchasing point, just four, old and young. But they all had one thing in common: they were male and dressed simply. It was obvious that they were from a rural area near Yanjing.

This situation is also very common in front of the purchasing points. These people are basically in urgent need of money, for their younger generations to get married, their relatives to get sick, or to pay off debts...

After chatting with these people for a while, you can also see all the sufferings in the world in front of this small purchasing point.

There have always been speculative antiquities dealers around the purchasing points, and even in the years when the crackdown was the strictest, there was no shortage of these antiquities dealers.

Some of them are legitimate collectors, while some are shady merchants who use every possible means to cheat and defraud. Over the years, countless people have been cheated, and most of them are rural people from the suburbs of Yanjing.

At that time, people were simple and honest, and rural people were not wary of going into the city to sell things, so the antiquities dealers targeted them.

Over time, these antiquities dealers became notorious, and ordinary people who came to buy things would immediately become alert when they saw someone talking to them, and some people simply didn't talk to them at all.

At this moment, Lin Chaoyang stepped forward and talked to a few people, and the group of people immediately looked alert.

"Comrades, please don't misunderstand me. I am not a middleman. I just like collecting antiques."

Lin Chaoyang explained, and seeing that the vigilance on the faces of several people was still there, he did not speak sweet words like those antiquities dealers, but made his attitude clear directly.

"If you have any good stuff, please let me see it. I will sell it to anyone. The purchase point will give you RMB. I have some remittance coupons and foreign exchange coupons.

As long as the product is good, we will pay for it and deliver it to you, without cheating anyone."

After listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, several people's eyes lit up.

Overseas remittance coupons and foreign exchange coupons are hard currency and are much more valuable than the RMB. The key is that ordinary people have no channels to get these things.

"Are you really going to exchange remittance vouchers and foreign exchange vouchers with us?"

The young man who was speaking was wearing a well-worn military uniform and Liberation shoes. It looked like someone in his family must be a soldier.

Lin Chaoyang didn't say anything, but took out a hundred-yuan remittance voucher from his pocket and waved it in front of the people.

Everyone felt relieved when they saw the genuine remittance vouchers.

The young man was the first to approach Lin Chaoyang and said, "Look at this thing of mine. It was left by my great-grandfather."

As the young man spoke, he took out a small and exquisite object from his bag.

(End of this chapter)