Literary Master 1983

Chapter 388 "Attaining the Way in the Morning" (Revised)
For the past two weeks, Yu Qie has been substituting for Hu Daiguang in teaching "Foreign Economic History".

This is Yu Qie's strength; he quotes extensively from classical texts, sometimes talking about Keynes during World War II, sometimes about Schultz who came to China at the beginning of the year... Yu Qie also has insights into the possible future direction of economics.

After the first lesson, the students really liked Yu Qie. They wrote to the school, hoping that Yu Qie would be the teacher of this class for a long time.

Because Hu Daiguang has an accent!

Old Hu lectured in Sichuan dialect, and his accent was very strong. This left many students at Yenching University completely confused.

In fact, many of Yenching University's "masters" are like this now. Students may like them as individuals, but they may not like their classes.

Yu Qie vaguely remembers that when Hu Daiguang mentioned economic theories such as the "Smithian Revolution" and the "Keynesian Revolution" in class, he used the term "gai ming," which was a very obscure term. Even Yu Qie, a native of Sichuan Province, did not understand it.

On one occasion, when Hu Daiguang was talking about the British economist Sraffa, his eyes suddenly lit up, and he raised his voice, saying, "Sraffa of Cambridge University wrote 'Producing Commodities with Commodities' over thirty years, which is less than a hundred pages long. He really saves words like gold!"

After he finished speaking, Hu Daiguang burst into laughter, but almost no one below laughed.

The students were asking each other questions because they didn't know what "fine rice and jade gold" or "one boye" meant.

When Yu Qie talked about Srafa from Cambridge University, he wrote "P. Srafa" directly on the blackboard, then recited Srafa's works in fluent English, drew a tree diagram, and talked about the new Cambridge school inspired by Srafa, and the influence of Srafa on the labor theory of value in Marxist economics...

After going around in circles, it miraculously came full circle again.

This approach completely won over the students.

In the second lesson, Yu Qie talked about Slava's communist connections and his close friendship with Italian revolutionaries.

At the same time, Slava also served as Keynes's assistant and indirectly created the "New Deal" guided by his theories—an economic policy that represented the rescue of the strongest capitalist country, which was actually biased towards red ideology.

Over the course of two classes, Yu Qie used storytelling to clarify modern economic theories.

What does this mean?
Yu Qie discussed the changes in recent years: "Looking at the past to understand the present, today, 'market' and 'planning' are not mutually exclusive terms."

"Back then, Roosevelt realized this, and he led the American economy out of the mire... Can we succeed now? I don't know, but this can inspire us to not think about things in a one-dimensional way."

After this second lesson, the students were almost convinced of Yu Qie's identity.

They blocked the classroom door and said, "Teacher Yu, please stay and teach a few more classes!"

Yu Qie naturally refused and tried his best to persuade the students to leave, but Hu Daiguang was extremely embarrassed and came to the office to complain: "These students have forgotten about me now that they have you. Sigh."

Yu said, “Professor Hu, you were the first to introduce Western economics, and you have made great contributions in this regard… We must never forget your contributions.”

"Yu Qie! What's our relationship now? Stop giving me that official talk." Hu Daiguang said listlessly, "I won't be able to do any more in-depth research in the future; that's an inevitable consequence of the times."

"Take Lin Yifu from the Agricultural Development Center recently... He's been conducting intelligence tests in the suburbs of Beijing, and I have no idea what he's doing! But he makes a lot of sense!"

Lin Yifu had mentioned before that he planned to include intelligence as one of the factors in his research, but he didn't expect him to do it so quickly.

It seems Lin Yifu did it too!

All previous studies in labor economics have assumed that workers possess the same labor qualities, skills, and intelligence, but this is certainly not the case in reality.

However, everyone makes this assumption in order to facilitate the construction of the theory.

For example, what the British could do, the Germans could do, and the Russians could do... and ultimately, all of them could achieve industrialization.

However, Watson's series of studies made Lin Yifu realize that the real world might not be like that. In some regions, intelligence can be a significant factor that either hinders or promotes development.

Yu Qie had been lacking material for his novel lately and wanted to exchange ideas with Lin Yifu. He went to the Agricultural Development Center on Jianguomen East Road and happened to run into Lin Yifu's wife, Chen Yun.

"Oh! Teacher Yu! You're Professor Yu now!" Chen Yun congratulated Yu Qie.

"You can be a professor too! You're an education PhD from the US!"

“Me?” Chen Yun pointed to herself and shook her head. “I’d rather not. Lin Yifu’s identity… makes people suspicious of him. If I’m too ambitious and try to climb the ladder, everyone will have a problem with our family.”

"Lin Yifu, do you think so too?" Yu Qie asked.

Lin Yifu gave an awkward smile and gave Yu Qie a look, letting him figure it out.

After some time, Yu Qie figured out Lin Yifu's recent research: he was conducting intelligence tests at a forging press factory in Tongzhou, a suburb of Beijing, and those who filled out the test could get free eggs.

This machine tool factory is a key enterprise of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, and currently has about 600 employees, along with several children and spouses.

Yu asked him, "What was your IQ score on the test?"

"The average score is 112."

"It's not that high."

"It's not high, but it's only not high among Chinese people. I'm preparing to test township collective enterprises in places further away from the capital."

"What's the point of you testing these?"

“We’ve always thought the factory workers were smart and advanced…that might be true. But intellectually speaking, that claim is probably untenable. If a farmer were to receive proper training, he might not perform any worse than others! We still have great production potential.”

Lin Yifu had just finished speaking when it was Chen Yun's turn.

It turns out that Chen Yun also longed for rural education in China—after all, she was a PhD in education.

The authorities are organizing a large-scale rural basic education policy to ensure that every rural child can receive an education. Yu Qie knew that this was the historical "Project Hope".

However, there are differing opinions on whether or not so many resources should be spent on this.

Professor Watson's "intelligence theory" is very popular in China these days, and Lin Yifu wants to jump on the bandwagon. His view is that the government should take on a lot of responsibility and train as many workers as possible.

Could this matter be left to future generations to handle?
Because education costs too much money.

Lin Yifu disagreed, and not from a simple value perspective, but from an economic point of view, he believed that "this investment would not lose money."

Then Lin Yifu said, "We have different roles. I'm good at research and hard work, while you're good at writing novels. I'd appreciate it if you could promote our research more." "I believe that popularizing education will be a great achievement for generations to come. Could you write more novels on this topic?"

What could Yu Qie say? He had no choice but to agree!
"Row!"

Thinking back, I realized: Goodness, I haven't finished writing the novel I owe Watson yet, and now I owe him another article.

Let me say something fair for Watson first: I hope this old man doesn't really get taken down.

He still needs to work as a top-notch lecturer for a while longer.

Currently, "The Rural Teacher" is widely welcomed throughout the country, and this short story has been reprinted far more times than "Carrying Dad to School." It is also frequently reprinted overseas, and every now and then, Yu Qie receives royalties from overseas, which means that his novel has received another payment.

Any one of these payments exceeded all royalties received domestically, excluding those for standalone publications. They dared not delay paying Yu Qie's royalties.

The largest single payment came from Harper, calculated at one dollar per word. With over 30,000 words in the entire text, that amounted to over 30,000 dollars.

Not a penny less.

Although there's a current trend of mainland writers going overseas, many writers still find themselves exploited by foreign publications, as it's difficult for them to protect their copyrights. For example, Tianjin writer Feng Jicai's novel "Strange Tales of the World" was published by a Japanese businessman. This Japanese businessman visited him in China, bowing deeply, expressing gratitude, and presenting him with sample copies and various small gifts, all meticulously packaged… The most valuable gift was a box of colored pencils, because Feng Jicai himself drew them.

Feng Jicai was initially delighted, as he wouldn't have received a single penny otherwise. The Japanese not only sent him gifts but also slipped several US dollars into an envelope.

However, years later, Feng Jicai felt indignant: Damn it, they took advantage of my ignorance and lack of worldly experience. Those Japanese are really fucking wicked!

For writers who receive overseas royalties, they face a situation where overseas royalties far surpass domestic royalties. This affects their creative mindset.

The writer Wang Zengqi wrote to a friend, saying, "I wrote seven essays for Ta Kung Pao, and I only received 360 yuan in total, which is really not much!"

Later, in the letter, he mentioned again that "the payment for the article is really not high!" and even angrily said, "I will never write articles for Ta Kung Pao again."

Because at that time, Formosa Publishing House gave him $1500 in royalties for another book, and that was only the first printing royalty; there would be more afterward.

Wang Zengqi used to be very carefree and didn't care much about royalties. Before and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he even wrote to Shen Congwen saying, "It doesn't matter whether I get royalties or not, I have a salary." But after he had his granddaughter "Huihui", he was preoccupied with "saving money for Huihui" and from then on he valued royalties very much, and he couldn't accept a penny less.

Yu Qie has to write a novel for Watson, aiming for publication abroad; he also has to promote the research of the Agricultural Development Center—which most likely means it's published domestically.

The difference in royalties is significant, but in terms of significance, the latter is probably more important.

The professors in the School of Economics also knew about this, because many of them had been abroad.

Seeing that Yu Qie was always writing English novels, Hu Daiguang teased him, "Is it because writing Western novels makes more money? You should become an international writer!"

Upon learning that Yu Qie also had a Chinese novel on the same subject to write, Hu Daiguang remarked, "I thought you were going to earn foreign exchange, but you've started writing in Chinese again. You don't want to let go of either!"

Yu Qie looked up and said, "I am first and foremost a Chinese writer, and then everything else."

The School of Economics at Yenching University was newly established, and everyone's working conditions were very poor. The unit only had a solid wooden table that was 1.8 meters wide and 80 centimeters high. The tabletop was uneven, so someone used a large piece of glass to press it down to make the surface flat.

Sometimes, people would secretly watch him write: they would see Yu Qie thinking for a long, long time, as if he were daydreaming, doing nothing, scribbling on the draft paper! But once the general structure in his mind was completed, he would immediately start writing quickly.

"His writing is simply divine!" Hu Daiguang said.

Another professor, Li Yining, commented after seeing this: "He writes novels so fast, but he's so slow at writing papers."

Yenching University has a beautiful garden called Shaoyuan. Historically, Shaoyuan was destroyed several times, leaving only bare, dilapidated buildings. In the 1980s, Yenching University renovated Shaoyuan and built the "Shaoyuan Hotel" to accommodate foreign scholars and students.

Although the international students here know Yu Qie, they don't feel the same way that the students on the Yenching University campus would want to lift him up!

Yu Qie would often stroll around here, and sometimes when he came across fallen leaves, he would pick up the most beautiful and plump ones to use as bookmarks for his novels, pressing them under the manuscript paper.

Glass is slippery, so you need something to cushion it to prevent ink from splattering everywhere.

At this very table, Yu Qie first completed the English-Chinese bilingual version of "The Way to Dawn." After finishing it, he faxed the English version to New York, where it was reviewed by Harper's team.

"The Way of Dawn" was originally written by Liu Cixin. The general content is that in the future world, a "unified model of the universe" appears. This is the ultimate mystery of the universe in the eyes of many scientists, but it cannot be conveyed to mankind due to the "knowledge sealing principle".

Therefore, in order to obtain the secret of the Great Unity, scientists decided to exchange their lives for a chance to "know". The moment they "know" the secret, they will lose their lives, but these people are willing to do so, because "if one hears the Way in the morning, one can die content in the evening".

It would be worth dying immediately if I could understand the truth!

In the original work, there is a key character named "Stephen Hawking"—a British scientist who became famous later in life. Although he was already famous at this time, Yu Qie replaced him with the fictional physicist James, a man of Irish and Scottish descent.

James Watson should be in a better position now! He'll have a lot to say about it.

At this moment, Márquez finally arrived in the capital, where he bid farewell to his foreign friends for the last time.

Both Marquez and Carmen spent several months in China, but their experiences were quite different. Carmen frequently traveled between China and Japan to explore the East Asian market, while Marquez genuinely visited most of the cities along the Yangtze River.

Marquez spent two weeks in Wanxian alone. He visited Yu Qie's home, read the words Yu Qie had written to inspire him, rode his bicycle to the local post office in Wanxian, and even bought a pirated wall clock from the "Nande" Group, because the group's founder claimed to be Yu Qie's "first fan".

At the Soviet pilots' cemetery in Wanxian, Márquez learned of a story that had been told there.

In 1939, Soviet pilot Kulichenko led his bomber squadron in a surprise attack on the Japanese Hankou Airport. While passing through Wanxian, his engine was hit and he was forced to make an emergency landing.

Kulichenko unfortunately crash-landed on the river. He was shot in the chest and left shoulder, exhausted, and unable to swim to the shore. He was swept away by the river and died.

After his death, the entire county mobilized to search for Kulishenko's remains, which were found more than 20 days later. Following Chinese custom, Kulishenko was laid to rest. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the local government built a mausoleum for him and appointed dedicated caretakers.

Even after the Sino-Soviet split, Kulichenko's mausoleum was not forgotten. When Márquez visited the mausoleum, there were flowers laid there, all picked from a nearby park.

He was greeted by the son of the former tomb keeper, a young man who had volunteered to guard Kulishenko's tomb. He initially did not receive any allowance or subsidy.

Marquez was deeply moved and wrote a eulogy in Spanish. The eulogy was ultimately left beside the tomb:

"No matter how times change, the people here will never forget you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, we are certain of that."

Coincidentally, when Márquez wrote these words, Yu Qie had just finished writing Watson's "The Road to Dawn".

(End of this chapter)