Literary Master 1983

Chapter 235 Yu Qie is dismembering me

Yu Qie thus began to give Guan Moye intensive training without any mercy.

He rides his motorcycle to Balizhuang South for class every day, and whenever he sees Guan Moye, he asks, "What kind of motorcycle is this?"

"Your motorcycle."

"what brand?"

Yamaha.

“Say it all out in one sentence.”

"Yu Qie's motorcycle is a Yamaha, it's like..."

"Alright, that's enough."

During class, Yu Qie held up Ba Jin's masterpiece, the Torrent Trilogy, "Family Spring and Autumn": "What is this? Guan Moye?"

"Classic literary masterpieces, Ba Jin's are the best..."

“Wrong!” Yu Qie said.

"The most..." in modern Chinese novels

“Wrong again,” Yu Qie said.

Guan Moye was almost speechless; no matter what he said, Yu Qie rejected it. At this point, Yu Qie pointed to the novel's title and made him read it aloud, word by word:
"Home, Spring, Autumn..."

Yu Qie said, "Alright, that's right. Just say what you saw."

Guan Moye was subjected to a torrent of lectures, told to speak less and tell the truth, which went completely against his nature. He was a writer with a particularly layered and extremely powerful writing style, sometimes so low it was nauseating, sometimes so high it was exhilarating. These qualities were reflected in his life and formed his "spring-like" personality.

More than one person has mentioned that Guan Moye was an extremely kind person, one could say overly so. He was so kind that when he was provoked, there would be a huge contrast – he would start cursing on the spot and completely lose control of his emotions.

But how could he do that to Yu Qie?
Actually, he admired Yu Qie a little, but was also a little afraid of him.

Yu Qie truly exemplified the principle of not letting any enemy go unpunished; they either switched allegiances like Luo Yihe or were branded with shame like Liu Xinwu. Li Duo of *Beijing Literature* criticized contemporary literary creators, saying, "They no longer fight to the death like they used to, which is certainly not good, the competition is too intense... but now they are increasingly harmonious, introducing each other to potential partners, traveling together, writing memoirs... If this continues, academic cliques and aristocrats will emerge."

Yu Qie is the kind of old-fashioned person.

Thus, this pressure could only accumulate in Guan Moye's mental world, almost driving him to the brink of collapse. Su Tong and Yu Hua, on the contrary, envied Guan Moye. They said, "Teacher Guan, the fact that Yu Qie is paying attention to you means he values ​​you. If you didn't have some ability, he wouldn't even bother with you."

Yes, that's how it is.

This is one of the reasons why Guan Moye was able to keep a straight face.

But sometimes Guan Moye couldn't take it anymore and would think to himself: Stop giving me special treatment and make me not talk. Telling the truth is worse than killing me!

Yu Qie insists on doing it this way. Isn't this tantamount to dismembering me, but not necessarily reshaping me?
This year, Guan Moye published "Transparent Radish," his breakthrough work. It tells the story of a little boy who is ignored and barely speaks, who is bullied. In the end, the boy erupts in an amazing fight: he pulls out all the radishes in the radish patch!
This incident actually happened during Guan Moye's childhood. He stole a carrot and was criticized and beaten when he got home. He remembered it for the rest of his life.

Then, he wrote this novel. In it, he pulled out those radishes he had never dared to pull before. One can imagine the significance of this novel to Guan Moye; this is the essence of his resilient, spring-like personality.

One day, Yu Qie mentioned this novel during class, which made Guan Moye very nervous. Writers who knew about Guan Moye's life also pricked up their ears, afraid of hearing anything unpleasant.

But Yu praised him.

"After this novel was published, many literary theorists analyzed its creative style, but I didn't find it particularly surprising. What I remember most is the writing skill, which reflects the writer's basic abilities."

“He described the little boy’s eyes in several parts. ‘His bewildered eyes were full of tears,’ then ‘clear as water,’ then ‘full of fear,’ and finally ‘two lines of tears flowed from the little boy’s eyes.’ It was written very vividly, making the reader feel very sorry for the boy.”

"So this is Guan Moye's ability, and also where he might make mistakes. Sometimes, we rely too much on this ability."

“Especially when depicting suffering, it’s easy to only write about the suffering and nothing else—such novels are very unpleasant to read and make one question the value of the novel.”

This time, the praise amidst the criticism actually made Guan Moye begin to reflect on his merits and demerits. He thought of his feelings when he saw the last scene of Yu Qie's "Little Shoes" at the beginning of the year: at that time, he thought he could not write that stroke of genius—a group of goldfish swimming in.

He still can't bring himself to write that scene. No matter how you describe it, it's not an exaggeration; it's like the finishing touch that transforms the entire story's meaning.

Is this the difference between me and Yu Qie?
Even so, you shouldn't always criticize me.

Alai, far away in Aba, finally sent a letter back to Yuqie. The letter said, "The first batch of sugar pills has already been distributed in Aba. Recently, everyone in our 'Grassland' magazine has been writing articles about this. You don't know, some comrades have even written modern poems for you, praising you as a hero like King Gesar..."

“I think King Gesar is not like Coca-Cola, there is only one in the world. Anyway, there are countless incarnations of him, so it is not surprising that one of them fell into your body.”

"Of course, you certainly wouldn't care about poetry of this level. When the leaders here heard that the 'Spring Rain Action' launched in the capital was actually created by children from Aba, they simply couldn't believe it and kept asking me about it! But no matter what I said, they wouldn't believe it. It wasn't until the documents were issued from above that they realized I was telling the truth."

"Do you remember the little boy who fell into the river? We're building a bridge here so that people won't have to hang from the iron chains to cross the river anymore. We initially planned to name the bridge after him, but his parents had ten children, and they gave his name to one of their brothers! He was forgotten! Only we remember him!"

"We submitted a report to our superiors, and the bridge was named Spring Rain Bridge. People who don't know the name find it strange because it doesn't rain much in Aba during the spring."

Because of this incident, Alai was valued by the provincial leaders and was transferred from the local magazine "Grassland" to the major literary journal of Sichuan Province, "Sichuan Literature," which was several years earlier than previously thought.

Yu Qie was in a good mood after his old friend got promoted. Coincidentally, the previously established textbook compilation committee had also largely approved Yu Qie's article, "How to Conduct Literary Research." The textbook was being developed quickly, and ideally, the first batch of freshmen in the literature department would be using it in the second half of this year. Then, in the list of more than ten people above, Yu Qie was among the top names.

Actually, there were some disputes during the arrangement of the list. At one point, people thought it should be arranged according to the alphabetical order of the surnames. If so, Yu Qie, who starts with "Y", would have to be placed last. At another point, some people thought it should be arranged according to work, so Yu Qie should be ranked first.

Those who won by doing nothing, like Buffett and Wang Meng, should be in the bottom two.

That's obviously a bit too arrogant.

In the end, this matter did not promote a democratic style. It was entirely a one-man show by Ba Jin and Wang Meng. After discussing with several veteran comrades, they decided to take the top three spots and leave the fourth spot to Yu Qie.

Ba Lao, Ding Ling (a female comrade), Wang Meng, and Yu Qie are the four chief editors.

The rest are editors-in-chief, arranged in order of their surnames.

Then, the opening "Editor's Preface," co-written by Ba Jin and Yu Qie, introduces the compilation process of this literary studies textbook to Chinese literature students nationwide. It begins: "Dear readers and faculty members, Yu Qie, along with the other editors, began a long compilation process in April 1985… This book is likely riddled with errors and will require numerous corrections later, but it is the best we could do. Sincerely, Ba Jin, Yu Qie, and the other editors."

Yu Qie was naturally satisfied with this arrangement; he had received all the recognition he was entitled to. Moreover, this incident reinforced his belief that sometimes a one-man show is faster and more effective than promoting democracy, and such incidents occur frequently. If Yu Qie hadn't spoken up during the Hangzhou meeting and had allowed everyone to chatter aimlessly, the social event of "Operation Spring Rain" would never have happened.

With the nationwide rollout of the "Spring Rain Campaign," which marked the conclusion of Yu Qie's previous fundraising efforts, the novel "Children of Heaven" was finally announced to be adapted into a film by the Shanghai Film Studio, becoming Yu Qie's first novel to be made into a movie.

This is not because "Children of Heaven" has the most artistic value, nor because it is the easiest to adapt, but because of the original author Yu Qie's insistence.

As a result, the entire studio was powerless to stop him. Even Xie Jin's earnest persuasion was in vain, and they had no choice but to follow his ideas.

The production team is currently recruiting actors. Because the original novel is set primarily in areas inhabited by ethnic minorities, the film project has attracted official attention from the very beginning. It is planned to be filmed and released in the same year, with semi-public screenings across the country to coincide with charity events. This further limits the director's creative freedom in adapting the novel.

Xie Jin could only complain to Yu Qie: "I plan to finish filming this movie in three months. Then, I hope you can allow me to choose one of your novels to film. That's what I really want to film."

Xie Jin recalled how he had pulled out all the stops to make "The Way Out," inviting every friend he had ever been in contact with, but to no avail. Even the beautiful Gong Xue was reprimanded.

Yu Qie laughed and said, "I'm just a novelist; I can't decide anything. You should ask the publisher or the publication, not me."

Xie Jin clicked his tongue in amazement: "Isn't today's 'October' magazine under your control? The editor-in-chief, Su Yu, is from your hometown, and the deputy editor-in-chief, Zhang Shouren, is your personal editor. 'New Reality' is the biggest selling point of the 'October' magazine. You are the soul of this magazine. More than half of the letters sent to readers are because of your reputation."

Xie Jin was unaware that the newly joined writers had only submitted their work to "October" after witnessing Yu Qie's development.

It seems that Guan Moye also needed to go through such a process of "contact and subjugation".

He's a stubborn person, and he became famous early on. If no one suppresses him, he'll never change. He's different from Yu Hua, who's smooth and clever. Yu Hua would revise his writing if asked, as long as he could make a living, but Guan Moye demanded that the publisher not change a single word. He'll either be subdued by external forces or rebel even more strongly next time.

Yu Qie chose the former.

So, after Guan Moye thought he had a slight respite, Yu Qie became even more demanding of him. Guan Moye could discuss any literature he wanted to create, but if he made a mistake, Yu Qie would point it out mercilessly.

Guan Moye felt that his literary idol was beginning to choke him.

"Avant-garde literature? Guan Moye, you have no idea what that is."

"You're talking about post-apocalyptic worlds again? This is a type of literature that has no audience in mainland China. It's something I wrote for awards abroad. You don't think I'm offering it to domestic readers, do you? In our society of one billion people, there are nine hundred million farmers and one hundred million workers."

"You can't even understand magical realism now? I thought it was your foundation."

Under immense pressure, Guan Moye could only pour his energy into writing novels. He had a vague idea in his mind: if I could write an outstanding novel, while Yu Qie's novel was inferior to mine, would Yu Qie finally take me seriously?

This idea was crazy, but once it took hold, it was uncontrollable, making Guan Moye lose his appetite and unable to think about anything.

Driven by passion, Guan Moye completed the outline of the novel in just a few days, which he named "The White Dog Swing".

“The original white, docile dogs of Northeast Gaomi Township have been passed down for generations, and it is now very difficult to find a purebred one.”

This is the first sentence of the novel "The White Dog and the Swing," and it has a very evocative quality.

In fact, it is an imitation of Kawabata Yasunari's "Snow Country" which describes "a large, black Akita dog squatting on a stepping stone, licking hot water for a long time".

Clearly, this is a novel in the style of tragedy:

After becoming a university teacher, "Jinghe" returned to his hometown in glory, while his former lover "Nuan" became a poor and slovenly ordinary village woman.

Nuan, a beautiful woman who could sing and dance, became disabled after falling from a swing in an accident. She eventually married a mute man, and the hardships of farming turned her into a coarse peasant woman. Jinghe later went to university, and the blind Nuan married a mute man from a neighboring village, where they had three children who were also mute.

The ending describes how Nuan tricked her husband into going to town to buy cloth, and the white dog led Jinghe to the sorghum field. Nuan made a request that Jinghe couldn't refuse: she wanted a child who could talk.

……

It is a novel entirely in the style of Guan Moye. From this novel, the “Gaomi Northeast Township” mentioned by Yu Qie became Guan Moye’s exclusive “literary territory”, and he transformed from a wandering literary beggar into the “king” of this territory.

"Gaomi Northeast Township" has become an important geographical coordinate in the history of contemporary Chinese literature. It is like the country road in Yu Qie's "The Way Out" where the Minnan Chinese leave their homes, or the hometown of Tianjin that Li Xiaojun mentions when he travels to Hong Kong and New York in "Reunion." It is a place of infinite beauty, which he has almost never returned to, but which is always full of warmth. This is precisely the huge difference between them.

(End of this chapter)