Literary Master 1983

Chapter 349 Yu Qie's First Beneficiary (Part Two)
Jiang Wen will be a formidable figure in the future, but that is in the future.

It's not surprising that Yu Hua doesn't know him now. In Yu Hua's eyes, whether it's Zhang Yimou, Jiang Wen, or even Guan Moye, they are all ordinary people, and perhaps even inferior to him.

The two then talked about Su Tong's recent situation. Yu asked, "I haven't seen Su Tong for a long time. In the past two years, I haven't heard much about him making a name for himself."

"Guan Moye wrote 'Red Sorghum,' and you gained a foothold in the avant-garde movement. But what about Su Tong?"

This finally got Yu Hua talking.

Yu Hua said, "Su Tong is currently facing some difficulties..."

It turns out that Su Tong was also obsessed with literary research. His avant-garde style was too progressive for contemporary literary journals, and he was rejected multiple times.

In late 86, Harvest magazine took a liking to Su Tong's article "Bluestone and River." The editor immediately said that it "imitation of the predecessors was too strong," and asked him to revise it several times before it was finally published.

In the past, being featured in Harvest magazine was like "leaping over the dragon gate," and Su Tong thought that the sky's the limit for her now.

However, all of Su Tong's novels have been rejected this year.

There was even a case of "lead degradation"!
What does that mean?

There were two types of rejections at the time. The first was when the editor felt that the person was worth helping, so they would provide detailed comments and encourage the person to work towards their strengths.

"Lead removal" is the standard terminology used in the editorial department.

Often it's just a few sentences: "After review, it is not adopted" or "Does not meet the requirements of this journal," etc.

It means your writing is so bad it's beyond repair, even the editors don't bother to comment on it.

Given Su Tong's stubborn nature, he suffered repeated setbacks, which shows how distressed he must have felt.

Yu Hua explained, "Su Tong's situation is the same as mine. We've both moved out and don't live with our parents anymore. So the financial pressure is quite high. He's also very stubborn; he hasn't asked his family for a single penny since he left home, and things are very difficult for him now..."

Did Su Tong have this period of time?

I can't remember anything else.

As far as I can remember, although Su Tong had been engaged in literary research for a long time, she had a smooth life and could be said to have had no major setbacks.

He's also handsome, so sometimes his manuscripts that have already been rejected can be accepted by editors after he successfully schedules a meeting with one.

Su Tong probably only suffered for a short while.

As "avant-garde literature" gains more and more influence, Su Tong will rise to prominence.

Let's help him out!

Yu Qie said, "The situations of Harvest and October are quite special, and it's not appropriate for me to speak up. One has Ba Jin overseeing it, and the other is my own editor. If he were to be selected through matchmaking, it would actually be bad for him."

What other suitable platforms are available in China?

Yu Qie asked himself, "Contemporary Literature, Flower City Literature, or Beijing Literature?"

Yu Hua said, "Brother Yu, I don't think I've ever heard of you having any contact with these magazines, except for 'Beijing Literature'."

"What kind of contact do we need to make?" Yu Qie laughed. "If I recommend someone to publish an article, do I have to treat them to a meal first? Who wouldn't trust my judgment?"

Oh!
Yu Hua understood: Yu Qie naturally didn't need to do these things.

Back then, recommending him to publish articles in "October" was a direct and explicit statement; asking him to teach at the Faculty of Arts was also something that was discussed with Wang Meng.

No one refused him.

At this moment, Yu Hua understood even more the influence Yu Qie had back then, even though that was several years ago.

Think about it: even today, five or ten years from now, will I still have that kind of influence?
But he never mentioned it.

Thinking of this, Yu Hua clinked glasses with Yu Qie. “Literature is both pure and complex. Most of the time, it’s a gray mix of black and white. I have to thank you for letting me see more of the white side, but I haven’t really come into contact with the black side.”

"But you still have to write novels with particularly tragic endings," Yu Qie complained.

Because that's my literary aesthetic.

Just as Yu Hua was about to defend himself, Ma Weidu suddenly woke up. He said, "Su Tong? Su Tong! I know this person!"

As Ma Weidu spoke, he straightened up and said, "What impressed me most was that he was a very handsome man. He came to visit me at the time when he was working at 'Youth Literature,' and I gave him a warm welcome. I thought he would be working with me for a long time, but I didn't expect him to disappear later."

Where did he go?

“The Garden of Flowers, Youth…” Yu Hua knew these second- and third-tier publications like the back of his hand.

"Why these magazines?" Ma Weidu asked.

Yu Qie couldn't help but burst into laughter: "Because the editors of these magazines are all women."

Ma Weidu found it quite amusing. Knowing that Yu Qie wanted to promote Su Tong, he said, "Although I'm not a woman, I also appreciate his writing. He's from Beijing Normal University; how about we have him submit his work to *Youth Literature*?"

The deal was done in the blink of an eye.
-
Jinling, a dilapidated single apartment in Xinjiekou.

Since graduating, Su Tong has lived in Nanjing. After graduating from Beijing Normal University, Su Tong was assigned to Jinling Academy of Arts as a counselor, and later transferred to Zhongshan magazine as an editor.

These two experiences allowed Su Tong to come into contact with both young literary enthusiasts and a large number of emerging writers.

Han Shaogong, Lu Yao, Jia Pingtu... these are all people he knows, scattered all over the country.

These people all had strong personalities. For example, Jia Pingtu liked to smoke 8-cent Golden Monkey cigarettes, and his room was always filled with smoke. When Lu Yao saw the editor visiting, he would immediately offer him cigarettes, and the brand of the cigarettes was "Happy New Year".

He met Deng Xiaohua, a female writer, by a dilapidated wall on the street in Changsha. She was working as a seamstress there. A seamstress who could simultaneously study Chinese and foreign masters such as "Kafka," "Borges," and "Lu Xun," and whose conversations and actions were all about popular literary topics... all without interfering with her seamstressing.

This left a deep impression on Su Tong.

These people all have one thing in common: they are all boastful and love to talk about heroes of the world. Although they live in dilapidated houses, their minds have already soared to the heavens, wanting to compare themselves with international writers.

When they talk about the hopes of this generation, it's hard not to mention Yuqie.

In 85, Yu Qie wrote "Children of Heaven" and "Lurking" at the same time, which already won the respect of his contemporaries; and after Yu Qie frequently won honors overseas, he was close to being an uncrowned king. Today's Chinese people value foreign achievements too much.

Yu Qie once wrote "The Big Shot," criticizing students who insisted on studying abroad no matter what. Now, those students studying abroad, in order to obtain visas, often discuss "Metro" with US visa officers at the embassy, ​​pretending to be patriotic and idealistic.

That's hilarious.

He is now competing for the Cervantes Prize in the Spanish-speaking world.

The more authentic a writer is, the more they understand the value of Cervantes. This award seems to be second only to the Nobel Prize, stipulating that "any writer who has won the Nobel Prize cannot receive the Cervantes Prize," while winning the Cervantes Prize first does not affect that person's eligibility for the Nobel Prize.

No one has ever done this before. It seems the Nobel Prize is vying with it.

Why do you have the right to unilaterally use the process of elimination on me?
Doesn't that mean I'm inferior to you? How could that be?

Nevertheless, the Cervantes Prize's audacity earned him a reputation among literary figures. Even before the prize was awarded, a trend of studying Yu Qie had already emerged in literary circles, known as "Yu Studies."

If Yu Qiezhen does win the award, then these "Yu studies" will certainly be very prescient.

It's okay if you don't win an award.

Even without Cervantes, there are other awards; it's only a matter of time before he starts writing.

The youngest teacher in the history of the Faculty of Arts is now standing before the halls of fame, while I'm back to the days of rejection. How is it that after several years, I've gone from being able to catch up to him, to not even being able to see his shadow?

A group of literary youths at Jinling Academy of Arts inspired Su Tong.

Their school publication featured "Candlelight 'Night' Talks," a popular topic among universities in Beijing, and they held a debate competition among freshmen.

This article, which was first published in Yenching University's student newspaper, is now gradually spreading southward thanks to Yenching University's influence in the higher education sector.

The affirmative side argued that "we still need to study today," while the negative side countered that "studying is not as good as going to sea."

As a literary editor who graduated from Jinling Academy of Arts, Su Tong was invited to sit in on the school's debate. She saw the affirmative side first quote the viewpoint of "Candlelight Night Talk": "Reading is not a panacea, and there is nothing in the world that can be done once and for all... Even if this matter seems worthless today, it is still something we have to take on."

"Because we are Chinese university students, the times have entrusted us with the responsibility of making progress."

The opposing side also delivered a brilliant argument: "You have many grand ideas, but you've forgotten yourself. You've become numb to these ideas. The reality is that your family needs you to support them, and you need to fight for your own life. You can only be responsible for yourself."

"Knowledge is no longer valuable; however, going into business can greatly improve your life!"

That’s true!
Su Tong wanted to applaud!
When he was a tutor at Jinling Academy of Arts, his salary was only a third or a quarter of his royalties. And at that time, he was by no means a famous writer, so you can imagine how low salaries are now.

Let alone going to sea to make money?

An umbrella produced in Shanghai is transported all the way to Beijing to be sold, and even with the shipping costs, it is still cheaper than an umbrella produced locally.

Because the umbrellas in the area were purchased directly from state-owned factories in Shanghai, and that was at the official price.

The umbrellas sold by resellers are at cost price, or even below cost price—umbrella factories use the official price to subsidize themselves.

It's hard not to go crazy when something as simple as changing hands can make you rich.

Values ​​can also be changed.

The affirmative side further argued: "What you're talking about isn't 'going into business.' 'Going into business' should be a neutral term. Chen Chunxian, the youngest doctoral supervisor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, decided to break free from the high walls of constraints and establish a private technology company in Zhongguancun to contribute to my country's scientific and technological development... That's what 'going into business' means."

"And you're talking about reselling!" the affirmative side quoted a passage: "'In the next few years, there will be a group of resellers in our society. They will act as capillaries in the market order, but there can't be too many, because too many will clog the main arteries...'"

"We are college students, we already have a good life ahead of us, why do this? In the long run, is it really a good thing?"

The opposing side argued, "Debate can't be based on dialectics! It's either right or wrong; there's no such thing as 'right now, wrong in the future'! Otherwise, there's no way to debate! That's just sophistry! Who said that? Where is there such a document?"

The affirmative side: "These words were said by Yu Qie."

Did Yu Qie say this before?
This completely baffled Su Tong. He was listening with great interest.

In "The Way Out," didn't he sympathize with those struggling to make a living?

There was a middleman in Sichuan Province named Mou Qizhong who said, "My brief conversation with Yu Qie was beneficial to the publication of this book," and "Yu Qie spoke up for us."

The opposing side was clearly unconvinced: "I'm a big fan of Yu Qie's books, and I'm sure I've read almost all of his novels, and I've never seen that sentence. Yu Qie certainly has authority, but you can't fabricate his words to refute us!"

The third speaker for the affirmative side immediately laughed and said, "This is a course paper that Yu Qie wrote in his sophomore year. It was excerpted in 'Economic Research' and, because it was quite bold, it was attributed to Hu Daiguang. But our research has found that it was written by Yu Qie."

The opposing side was speechless: "What kind of achievement is this? You say it was written by Yu Qie, so it was written by Yu Qie?"

The affirmative side argued, "This was written by a man named Ping Xinqiao. He was Yu Qie's classmate and class monitor at the time, and he was also Yu Qie's collaborator on the thesis. His words carry authority."

The opposing side was thrown into a panic and made up a few random words to evade the issue.

Subsequently, the affirmative side used this as a basis to relentlessly attack the negative side, eventually first removing them from the list of "loyal fans of Yu Qie," and then repeatedly reciting Yu Qie's inspirational quotes, which moved the students and teachers present.

The debate culminated in a vote.

The students wrote their names on small, anonymous slips of paper and handed them in.

Su Tong was a special guest; he didn't need to submit any official documents, but rather express his views in his own name. These guests included faculty members from the School of Literature at Jinling Academy of Arts, relevant university leaders, and editors from some local publications.

Then, the voting weight of the guests is the same as that of the students, each accounting for half.

It's one thing for society to say "studying is not as good as going into business," but how could school leaders possibly support such a viewpoint? The guests would definitely vote for the affirmative side.

Therefore, as long as the affirmative side also wins the student vote, they will achieve a great victory.

The opposing students also knew about this, and after the fourth debater finished his concluding remarks, he immediately showed a look of utter grief.

"Sasha!"

The vote counting took an exceptionally long time, but the results were already becoming clear on the blackboard. The number of votes for the affirmative side was increasing, with roughly one positive vote for every two positive votes.

When the votes reach a certain stage, the "majority rule" is triggered. Currently, there are over four hundred people; if the affirmative side receives over two hundred votes, further counting is unnecessary.

"Four heads... eleven heads... twenty-nine..."

Su Tong silently counted the numbers in her mind.

When he reached forty-two votes, his heart was pounding. And there was no reversal; several more votes went to the affirmative side. The "going-to-business" faction lost completely, and the "studying-for" faction won.

As the youngest guest, Su Tong was the first to answer his choice.

"Let me state my position first: I choose the affirmative side." Su Tong didn't try anything funny.

“To supplement the family income, you don’t necessarily have to give up your studies. You can do writing, take on freelance work, or something like that…” Su Tong’s words were a bit disorganized at first, but she sorted them out later. “What we really need to change is our mindset about careers.”

“In the past, if someone was a butcher, he didn’t need to study; all he had to do was kill pigs. Now, as times change, the demands on people are getting higher and higher.”

"Think about it carefully, Yu Qie, whom you mentioned, did a lot of things, and some of them, from a traditional perspective, are not things that a novelist should be concerned with. But he did them anyway!"

"As for me? I'm not exactly content with my lot either. I used to be a counselor, younger than many of my students, so I should have had a bright future ahead of me. But I've been persisting in writing, and that's how I've seen some opportunities and hope... I'm not against going into business, what I'm against is losing your skills in the process!"

(End of this chapter)