Literary Master 1983

Chapter 437 Turning Point

So she joined Wang Anyi and his faction, joining the denunciation of *Contemporary* magazine. As the literary tide receded, *Harvest* magazine also became a casualty. A few years ago, Shanghai's literary scene was dazzling, comparable to Beijing's; now it pales in comparison.

She was willing to accept the misfortune that befell "Contemporary".

In the late 1980s, two groups of writers from the south emerged. One group was mainly from Hunan Province, including Han Shaogong and Gu Hua, who wrote rural literature. However, after they became famous, they increasingly focused their publications on major northern magazines.

Another group consisted of avant-garde writers such as Yu Hua and Su Tong. Logically, their stage should have been in the nearby magazines *Zhongshan* and *Harvest*. However, this was not the case. Yu Hua was recruited to *October* magazine. Su Tong was an editor at *Zhongshan*, and due to the avoidance system, he generally didn't publish his manuscripts in his own magazine; he also sent them to the north.

The result is that the more the economy develops, the more novels in the South decline!

Some writers from further south, such as veteran writers from Guangzhou, are puzzled: the economy in the south is clearly improving, so why are writers all going to the north?
Are these writers truly noble and virtuous, or have they foreseen future trends?
Li Xiaolin wrote a lengthy memoir about Yu Qie, comprehensively reviewing the events of the "Spring Rain Operation" and indirectly demonstrating Yu Qie's noble character.

A man like him wouldn't talk nonsense. If someone has a conflict with him, it certainly wouldn't be Yu Qie's fault.

The article, titled "Yuqie Through My Eyes," was written in just one night. Little Duanduan noticed Li Xiaolin writing a novel and came over to ask, "Mom, what are you writing?"

“Write in your diary, write about your Uncle Yu.”

“Then you should write about him properly!” Duanduan said, hugging Li Xiaolin’s arm.

"Why?"

“Our teacher said that the Spring Rain Action is the only large-scale charity event in China initiated by an individual. My grades are not good now, and many classmates at school don’t think much of me. The only person in the world who thinks I’m good is my grandfather.”

“And Yuqie!” Duanduan said. “I learned about him in class. That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Upon hearing this, Li Xiaolin couldn't help but shed tears: "Okay, I promise you!"

Ba Jin was the editor-in-chief of Harvest magazine. He didn't usually handle the day-to-day affairs, but nominally, he was in charge of deciding whether or not to publish any articles, big or small, in Harvest.

After Li Xiaolin finished writing his article, Ba Jin heard about it and asked to take a look.

After reading it, Ba Jin covered his face and sighed deeply. Soon after, tears streamed down his face and were covered by several pages of paper and his hand.

Li Xiaolin was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

Ba Jin was a very sentimental person, and in recent years, as his health declined, he became even more sentimental. He often lamented that he didn't have enough time, and then reflected and repented. After a while, he put down his manuscript and said, "I don't know why Yu Qie and *Contemporary* magazine have a dispute, but Yu Qie is a good person, a courageous person. Do you know what I mean?"

How could Li Xiaolin not know?

About ten years ago, Ba Jin boldly uttered the words "speak the truth" in a public speech. At that time, influential writers and editors across China, both in the north and south, were trying to figure out where the new boundaries of writing lay in this new era.
What kinds of discussions are allowed?
However, doing this kind of thing involves risks, and Buffett's bold remarks made him take on the risks that everyone else was taking.

In the capital, the late Wang Shimin and his friend Zhang Shouren, along with several others, founded the magazine "October"; in Shanghai, Ba Jin also pulled "Harvest" out of its coffin and relaunched it—a magazine that had been discontinued for many years.

The literary scene during that decade was incredibly vibrant, teeming with bold trendsetters. But if a dividing line must be drawn when later generations recall this period, it would likely be marked by Ba Jin's call to "speak the truth." Since he brought it up and nothing happened, others writing about it in their novels certainly wouldn't be a problem either.

Therefore, Buffett understood Yu Qie's overreaction: it seemed excessive, but it was actually the culmination of years of discontent. He also wanted to "speak the truth"!
Yu Qie had long been dissatisfied with certain phenomena in the literary world. The emergence of "Contemporary" magazine was exactly what he was looking for.

Otherwise, Yu Qie wouldn't have even implicated Wang Meng.

"Can you write my name on it too?" Ba Jin asked Li Xiaolin.

Li Xiaolin was certainly capable. The article was quickly published in Harvest, a bimonthly magazine. October was the month of its publication, so it caught up with this wave of competition and became a vital force in Yu Qie's camp.

The balance of power quickly tilted towards Yuqie's side.

The Contemporary magazine gradually felt that pressure: from south to north, from Shanghai to Beijing, for some reason, everyone was speaking up for Yu Qie.

Although Yu Qie was nominally an individual, the *Contemporary* magazine was a collective. Yet, they felt as if they had been exiled from the literary world; they were the isolated party. Even within the "literary holy land" of No. 166 Chaonei Street, they felt very lonely.

In early October, in Dengzhou, more than twenty judges from the Mao Dun Literature Prize committee were in a "closed-door" study session when news came from Stockholm that Yu Qie had made it into the top three.

Could it be that I can really kill someone instantly?
Yu Qie was surprised when he saw the news in the newspaper. He himself couldn't believe he had reached this position.

The organizing committee found a sanatorium in Dengzhou. After checking in, they discovered that it was actually a military-affiliated sanatorium, mostly inhabited by retired cadres and family members of military personnel.

Three days ago, this group of retired cadres heard the news anchor say, "According to news from the Swedish Academy, Chinese writer Yu Qie has entered the forefront of the Nobel Prize competition and has a certain chance of winning the award. His odds are the third to last among all candidates, and as of the day this station reported, his odds have almost tied with the second to last."

"Dear viewers, the Nobel Prize announcements over the years have always been risk-bearing for betting companies. They package 'prize quizzes' as gambling games, exploiting human greed to swindle the savings of citizens abroad..."

The news garnered the attention of the entire sanatorium. Just then, the retired cadres learned that the Writers Association was coming, and the list included Yu Qie, whom they had been longing to see.

They waited and waited, but to their surprise, Yu Qiezhen arrived.

In the sanatorium, there was an elderly cadre surnamed Yang who was particularly warm to Yu Qie. This was because Yang had participated in the battles on the Laoshan front, and Wu Yuanjia had originally written a letter to him.

He refused to reply, and then Vo Nguyen Giap wrote to Yu Qie, who also did not reply. He felt a sense of camaraderie: "Professor Yu, Vo Nguyen Giap is also a big shot. You correspond with him, which might increase your reputation. Why don't you reply?"

“This is a matter of principle,” Yu Qie said. “Matters of principle are not open to discussion.”

"Great!" These words made everyone at the sanatorium very happy.

As for the military literature that Yu Qie mentioned, they also have their own views: they believe that the general situation of military literature is that it is not realistic enough and the stories themselves are not exciting enough.

"Both the protagonists and the antagonists are very clear. The protagonists are heroic and all-powerful, while the antagonists are despicable villains, not the same as those in history. In fact, the antagonists also have their personal motivations, their ideals and principles, and even their ambitions and beliefs. However, because their ideology is inferior to ours and their organization is inferior to ours, they are destined to fail!"

"Some writers have realized this problem, like Xu Huaizhong. He's very talented; he wrote *Anecdotes from the Western Front*, about female soldiers on the front lines. But writing about female soldiers wasn't enough for him; he wrote a companion piece, *Nguyen Thi Clove*, about female soldiers in Vietnam… But he could only go so far, because that was incredibly bold! He made a valuable exploration." "…"

This is the scene that Cheng Huangmei, Zhu Shengchang, and others saw when they came to the sanatorium to inform Yu Qie to go to a "meeting".

Yu spoke fluently and eloquently, captivating a group of veteran cadres who sat in a row, listening intently to his analysis. The veteran cadres frequently showed expressions of sudden understanding or nodded vigorously.

Someone asked Yu Qie, "Since you writers have realized the problem, why don't you continue to move in a positive direction?"

"Because of insufficient theoretical knowledge, we couldn't continue," Yu Qie said.

These words made Cheng Huangmei prick up his ears. His eyes lit up, and he tiptoed closer to Yu Qie.

Yu Qie added, “When we write about the tragedy of fate and the struggles of the characters themselves, we need to study the theories that govern their thoughts! For example, in ‘Lurking,’ you may think that Yu Zecheng initially believed in the Three Principles of the People, but that’s not true. He only has the most basic patriotism. He approached the red theory entirely out of this sentiment and his admiration for his first love, Zuo Lan.”

"Then, we arranged the plot to change Yu Zecheng's thinking. Now most people only think the plot is clever, but it also depends on the writer's research on theory, because this is a very dangerous plot arrangement... If you have not studied the theory in depth, you cannot write why Yu Zecheng would defect to the Communists. The readers will not believe you, and the character of Yu Zecheng will not believe the pen that guides his fate."

"That's fucking well said!" Cheng Huangmei exclaimed, his face flushed with excitement. He said, "So it turns out my theoretical understanding wasn't good enough!"

As he walked, he said, “Writing this kind of novel is very dangerous. It’s easy for people to think that you are praising someone in name but criticizing them in reality, using subtle language. So only truly skilled writers can write about vicissitudes! It’s like dancing on a tightrope! I used to think it was just a matter of writing techniques, but now I know that there is also a theoretical level involved.”

After saying this, Cheng Huangmei turned around excitedly and said to Zhu Shengchang, "I think these words can be used as the award speech for 'Lurking' winning the Mao Dun Literature Prize."

"After this novel was written, many people analyzed and studied it, but in the end, Yu Qie himself explained it most thoroughly! It turns out to be a theoretical research issue."

Zhu Shengchang was quite embarrassed and managed a few forced laughs.

He originally came to cause trouble for Yu Qie, but given the occasion and circumstances, he had no choice but to keep quiet.

The Mao Dun Literature Prize does have a top prize, similar to the "National Award-Winning Short Stories" list. Nominally, it's a large list, with no particular order of inclusion. However, in reality, because the judges' votes can be quantified, the novels that receive more votes naturally become the winners of that year's "King of Novels."

The first winner of the Novel King competition was "Li Zicheng" because it received the most votes.

The second book is *New Reality*, which is Yu Qie's trilogy of "Da Sa Ba, We Two, and Together with You". Now collectively known as the "New Reality Trilogy", these three novels are considered "the most comprehensive and profound masterpiece reflecting the lives of urban residents in China during the 1980s" as the 1980s came to an end!

The evaluation comes from Zhang Shouren of "October". He also said, "One trilogy is enough to rival thousands of 'rural literature' works combined."

Chinese scholars like Yu are just disgusting.

The thought of this made Zhu Shengchang feel nauseous.

Ba Lao is far away in Shanghai and it's impossible for him to come to Dengzhou to guide their work. The person with the most say on a daily basis is Cheng Huangmei.

He actually shouted on the spot, "Lurking has won the Mao Dun Literature Prize!" This is outrageous!

According to the original regulations, an author cannot win multiple awards in principle; and judges are not allowed to have any works to be selected.

Now there are no principles left at all.

Cheng Huangmei's statement is even more outrageous; the awards will not be announced until next year, yet people are already talking about the "jackpot."

If you all have no principles, then I should have no principles either!
The group returned to the sanatorium and secluded themselves to read novels. Afterwards, each person voted on the forty-odd novels available, following the principle of majority rule. The voting was completely anonymous; the judging panel received a printed list of the main novels, and if they felt a novel deserved to advance to the next round, they ticked it.

This is the first round, which mainly involves screening the candidate articles. Ultimately, less than a quarter of them will advance to the second round.

The second round of voting is even more stringent; winning entries must receive at least two-thirds of the votes. If not, the awards for that year will remain vacant. If all entries receive two-thirds of the votes, then all awards will be given out.

Yu Qie ticked off his own novels, including "Lurking" and "Ordinary World." He also ticked off all mainstream novels.

"Have you all finished reviewing? Finished writing?" Cheng Huangmei asked, looking up.

Everyone answered in unison, "The evaluation is finished."

So, an unrelated translator from the Writers' Association Secretariat was assigned to count the votes. When he received the votes from Yu Qie, he discovered that Yu Qie had temporarily crossed out his own work, "Lurking."

How could someone who is a judge not vote for their own novel?

This person, lacking experience, actually asked on the spot:

"Teacher Yu, are you going to vote or not?"

“I won’t vote,” Yu Qie said.

He could only make a strange sound, and after a while, he came to count the votes: the result was that books such as "Lurking", "Ordinary World" and "The Second Sun" were selected.

However, "Lurking" lost two votes and lost its previous domineering momentum.

Zhu Shengchang stood up excitedly and pumped his fist. Before Yu Qie could say anything, Cheng Huangmei exploded: "You didn't vote for 'Lurking'? What gives you the right not to vote for 'Lurking'?"

“We are just having a literary discussion, and how I vote is my right! Don’t slander me! Besides, I’m not the only one who didn’t vote,” Zhu Shengchang said. “Two votes mean that two people didn’t vote, besides me, there was another person.”

“Great minds think alike; I have not succumbed to tyranny.” Zhu Shengchang had completely lost his mind. He shouted, “Please, the other comrade who did not vote, stand up!”

As a result, to his astonishment, Yu Qie stood up.

(End of this chapter)