Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 127 Pingwa, I don’t like what you said!
The last "master class" of this semester in the Yanshi University Writers Class was taught by Jia Pingwa.

As a writer who wrote "Shangdu", "Fuzo" and "Feidu", he was not attending a novel class, but teaching everyone how to write essays.

On the podium, the fat-headed Jia Pingwa, speaking Mandarin with a strong Shaanxi accent, slowly told everyone his views on prose:

"Since the last climax of prose writing in the 60s, when Liu Baiyu, Qin Mu and others created the genre, domestic prose has fallen into a vicious circle of 'catering to the times' and 'meeting the occasion', with exclamations like 'ah' flooding the air, and pretentiousness and flowery tricks everywhere.

There is also a kind of prose that moans without reason, writes about small emotions, trivial matters, flowers and plants, and nags from beginning to end, just like a shrew or a bitch! This is due to the limitations of the prose genre and the writer's personal pattern.

So I have been advocating "big prose" since the 90s - the subject matter should be broad, the emotions should be broad, and the thinking should be deep..."

This is indeed one of Jia Pingwa's creative propositions. For this purpose, he specially founded a journal called "Meiwen", which specifically collects articles that conform to his "big prose" point of view.

Zhang Chao really didn't like what Jia Pingwa said. There were two main reasons:

First, the so-called "big prose" has become a prominent school of prose since he proposed it in the 90s. In addition to himself, Yu Qiuyu and Liang Heng can be regarded as the best among them.

However, the drawbacks of this type of essay are also obvious. First, the writing style is uniform or even identical. It has become a routine to extract a grand theme from the scenery or secular human feelings. As long as you are proficient in the three steps of "story + poetic language + cultural sigh", anyone can write a "great essay" with similar results.

This relatively monotonous and repetitive text structure led to the emergence of "big prose" in the early 21st century.

After defeating Yang Shuo, these advocates of "great prose" found themselves in the same predicament as Yang Shuo did back then.

Second, Jia Pingwa advocated the concept of "great prose", which, from Zhang Chao's 20 years of experience, was more like a behavior of grabbing land in the literary world. Relying on such operations, Jia Pingwa continued to consolidate his position as the "King of the Northwest" in the literary world, and has been trying to "go to Luoyang".

He didn't stop until his daughter Qianqian made a public revelation on the Internet.

When it came to the free discussion session, Zhang Chao said, "I don't agree with Mr. Jia's views on prose just now."

Jia Pingwa didn't expect that someone would object. When he saw that it was Zhang Chao, he couldn't help but ask curiously: "I remember that you, a little kid, never wrote prose, right?"

Zhang Chao was stunned for a moment before he realized that he had written a lot of novels and a few modern poems in the past year, but he had never written any prose. The main reason was that prose was too personal, and without personal experience, it would be hard to copy it.

It's like even though he was familiar with several collections of essays published by Li Juan many years later, it was impossible for him to transplant his reading experience into his own work like he did with a novel.

However, he quickly reacted and said, "It is precisely because it is not written that I disagree."

Jia Pingwa said, "Then tell me about it."

Zhang Chao said slowly: "Prose belongs to literature, and literature, in my opinion, is a manifestation of the inner world of human life. As a non-fictional genre, prose is based on sincerity and sincerity. Whether it is 'big' or 'small', it can only be born out of the writing process, not to deliberately confirm a certain theory.

Teacher Jia, you are against prose 'pandering', but if it panders to one's own preconceived position on the style, isn't it 'pandering'? "

Jia Pingwa smiled and said, "Before I came here, Xiaosheng told me that you were a troublemaker and liked to be a dissenter. I didn't expect it to be true. Since you are against 'big prose', what is your own view on prose?"

Zhang Chao thought for a while before saying, "When I write prose, I will never act pretentiously and start from the Book of Songs or ancient Greek tragedies when I see a stone or an ancient monument. I will not always connect it to human nature, history or philosophy.

In my mind, prose is the projection of the outside world in my heart. It describes my emotional experience and reflects the connection between the real world and me... It is the problem that should not be framed by a certain concept. My understanding of the "loose" in "prose" is "freedom" - freedom of form, freedom of content, and freedom of spirit. It is only "big" when it is really necessary, and it is fine to be "small" at ordinary times, which can better reflect the freedom of prose. "

Jia Pingwa and several older male classmates felt offended - you are only 20 years old, you can grow up at any time, is that a big deal?

However, Jia Pingwa quickly reacted and said with a smile: "Well, for this essay assignment, you should hand in an essay that you think reflects your point of view. If it's not well written, don't blame me for giving you a harsh grade."

Zhang Chao answered without hesitation: "Okay!"

Jia Pingwa thought that this was just Zhang Chao's scholarly ambition, but he didn't expect that Zhang Chao was really tempted to write some prose. Before his rebirth, he had been wandering in different foreign lands for 20 years and rarely went home; after his rebirth, he only stayed at home for less than half a year before returning to Yanjing.

My hometown Changfu is becoming more and more like a dream that I often wake up from, broken, intermittent, and even a little unreal.

He wanted to write about Changfu, Dengyun Road, those familiar streets and alleys, and his feelings over the past year.

A week later, Jia Pingwa received Zhang Chao's "homework". At first, he didn't care, because novels often rely on imagination and skills, but prose is different. Without the accumulation of life experience, it is difficult to write smoothly.

But soon, he was attracted by Zhang Chao's words:
[In the past, when a house was built on Dengyun Road, no matter how big or small it was, a yard was always left, called "Chengxia". Part of the land in Chengxia was paved with stones or cement to harden, and part was used to grow flowers and vegetables. My old house had such a Chengxia, with cement in the middle and vegetable gardens on both sides, but no flowers were planted...]

[The old house on Dengyun Road is a traditional civil structure - with earth as walls, horizontal wood as beams, black tiles and white walls, and overhanging eaves and rain corridors - so it often attracts swallows and sparrows to roost... We don't need to worry about sparrows. They are called "jiji" in the local dialect, probably because they like to live in groups. Jiji is a humble bird among birds. They are content with what they have, not competitive or impatient, and cautious...]

[The verbs used to describe the coming of rain and snow in dialects are very different - rain is 逿雨; snow is 落雪. ... Snow is a rare thing, a distinguished guest, and a miracle that is hard to come by in a small southern town - so the lively but somewhat strong and rough word "逿" is not appropriate for it. Only the gentle and crisp sound "落雪" is suitable for its light temperament.]

Zhang Chao handed over three articles in one breath. After reading them, Jia Pingwa fell into deep thought.

Compared with Zhang Chao's novels, his prose is not amazing at first reading, but after careful reading, the Changfu County and Dengyun Road he described seem to be right in front of you. This plain, calm and simple style seems to have disappeared from the literary world for a long time.

These essays are neither deliberately sentimental nor moralistic, and they do not even give any special meaning to the narratives, but the emotions flowing in them are enough to move people.

Of course, Jia Pingwa would not think that his concept of "great prose" was wrong just because of his few articles... After thinking for a long time, he contacted Zhang Chao.

"Teacher Jia, how would you rate my homework? I'm not going to fail, am I?"

"I won't grade your essay."

"No grading? What about my final grade?"

"As for the grades... you've definitely passed. But I'll let the readers decide the grades for these essays!"

"What do you mean?"

"You must want to write more than these three articles, right? Come to Meiwen, and I'll give you a column, publishing one article in each issue. I want to see what readers think of your essays."

(End of this chapter)