After 1949, he served as the leader and deputy editor of the novel group of People's Literature and the executive editorial board of Wen Yi Daily. 1946 published the first short story "We Chairman Mao have a way". 1950 published the fairy tale "The Flying of Swallow Wan Li", 1952 won the first prize of children's literature. 1984 published the famous novel The Good Earth, and won the first People's Literature Award held by People's Literature Publishing House. Other important works include short story collection "On the Plain", "Happiness" and "Country Notes". The novella Daughter's Letter; The novel "On the field, go forward! 》; Fairy tale "Wan Li Feiyan"; Prose collection "Lost Soul of Huangshan Mountain" and "Floating Dust".
Qin Zhaoyang's novel creation can be roughly divided into three stages: the first stage is from the 1940s to before the founding of the People's Republic; The fifties and sixties were the second stage, characterized by the beauty of prose and poetry; The third stage is from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, when the style of his works changed from poetic lyricism to rational thinking. This is a writer worthy of study but neglected.
Qin Zhaoyang out of group spirit.
The towering trees under Baiyang Mountain
Hubei Daily reporter Han Xiaoling correspondent Qiu Minghua Shan
( 1)
Baiyangshan, winding for hundreds of miles, is the largest mountain range in Huilongshan Town, Tuanfeng County. 19 16, Qin Zhaoyang, a famous writer and critic, was born in a quiet small bay jujube shop at the foot of the mountain.
65438+ February mountain wind, chill. Looking at the rolling pine trees all over the mountains, a poem by Qin Zhaoyang suddenly appeared in my mind: "Why should towering trees take root deeply?" It is to prosper its green life. " However, when Qin Zhaoyang studied hard in the arms of Baiyangshan, he probably didn't expect that his name would one day be engraved in the history of contemporary literature in China.
There is a small pond in the bay, where cows graze leisurely. I asked Zhang Chunhua, who is over 70 years old, about Qin Zhaoyang's former residence. It happens that she is Qin Zhaoyang's niece. Zhang Chunhua pointed to a two-story building in Tang Lin and told me that Qin Zhaoyang's former residence was here. In the 1970s, the house was in disrepair and nearly collapsed, so they had to tear it down and build the present building.
Qin Zhaoyang studied in a private school taught by his father when he was a child, went to Hankou at the age of 12, and was admitted to Wuchang Rural Normal School in Hubei Province in 1934. After graduation, I taught in Huangzhou Central Primary School and began to create my own poems and cartoons. 1938, Qin Zhaoyang, a young man, bid farewell to his hometown with blood and went to Yan 'an, the holy land of revolution. In the following decades, Qin Zhaoyang came to Hubei several times. 1985, he was homesick, came to Han to attend the Yellow Crane Tower Pen Club in spite of illness, and wrote a poem with emotion: "More than forty years of romantic life, eight thousand miles of smoke. I came back suddenly, and my hometown has changed a lot this evening. " However, due to various reasons, he only went back to the jujube shop once at 1954. Zhang Chunhua still remembers that when Qin Zhaoyang entered the village, he sat in a two-wheeled cart.
Zhang Chunhua knows something about Qin Zhaoyang's life story, and his wife Qin Bocheng often tells her about this uncle. But in her opinion, her family has not been touched by many celebrities: life at home is still a little poor, and her 70-year-old wife still carries the burden of shaving her head in the streets every day, while her son is farming at home. Zhang Chunhua said, "What's wrong with a great writer? They left us nothing! "
(2)
As a writer and critic, Qin Zhaoyang is materially poor. However, in his 78-year life, he left too many things worthy of comment by future generations.
-Qin Zhaoyang wrote a lot in his life. Representative works include Daughter's Letter, White Sail, Looking Back, On the Field, Forward! A large number of collections of novels and short stories, such as The Good Earth, and collections of essays, such as On Conceptualization and Formulation and Literary Exploration, have also made great achievements in poetry and prose creation.
-Speaking of Qin Zhaoyang, people can't forget that a large number of masterpieces of pillar writers were published in People's Literature, which he presided over at that time, so that China literary circles have long admired Qin Zhaoyang-style editors and thought that an excellent editor should take cultivating writers and publishing good works as the highest goal.
-1956, Qin Zhaoyang published a famous paper "realism-a broad road", which questioned and reflected the increasingly serious dogmatism reflected in the literary and art policies since the 1950s, and had a great influence in the literary and art circles. He believes that under the premise of adhering to the general principle of realism, there is no need to divide all kinds of "realism" into different eras, and realism pursues life truth and artistic truth. Qin Zhaoyang was criticized for this, saying that his purpose in publishing this article was to expose the dark side of socialism. This and the fact that he helped to revise and publish the small novel "Between My Husband and Wife" became the two major charges that he was labeled as a "big right". Qin Zhaoyang disappeared from the literary world for 22 years.
-1979, Qin Zhaoyang "Rightists" corrected and returned to Beijing, where he served as deputy editor-in-chief of People's Literature Publishing House and editor-in-chief of Dangdai magazine. The following year, at the first national conference on the editing of literary periodicals after the founding of the Republic, he listed the fact that the "Cultural Revolution" was the most harmful to the literary and art circles, and clearly and forcefully pointed out that it was the people's desire and the needs of the times to expose the evils of the "Cultural Revolution" and set things right. Many years later, some writers still wrote articles recalling that at that time, Qin Zhaoyang said word for word in loud Mandarin with a strong Huanggang accent: "The real Goethe School should be us, us, us! We should be the real Goethe School for the new principles and lines of the CPC Central Committee! We praise through criticism, and criticize through praise! We praise the virtues of the route of the Third Plenary Session, bring order out of chaos, seek truth from facts, the indestructible righteousness of cadres and people, and the vitality of the nation ... This is also ideological emancipation! "
These views have become common truths in today's cultural and intellectual circles, but they were regarded as shocking remarks at that time. How brave Qin Zhaoyang was to say such a thing!
(3)
Qin Zhaoyang's parents are buried in Zaoshudian, and the tomb is very simple. 1992, Qin Zhaoyang's nephew, Qin Guilin, went to Beijing on business and said that he would erect a monument for his parents, but Qin Zhaoyang refused. He said, "I'm a clerk. Don't wear this head in the countryside. " 10 years later, Qin Guilin recalled this incident and still could not help feeling: "Uncle is too' Marxist-Leninist'."
"I am * * *" has inspired Qin Zhaoyang for decades. When he was wronged, what made him more miserable was not wearing the right hat, but being disqualified from joining the party. This made him feel that he had lost the most precious thing, as if his heart had been taken off and his soul was helpless! Even after taking off his hat, he still thinks about when he can rejoin the party.
Qin Zhaoyang once ridiculed himself as "Mr Banda", saying that he was serious since he was a child. After taking part in the revolution, * * * cultivated his serious character. In fact, Qin Zhaoyang's "insipid" embodies a firm belief and persistent pursuit. This makes his life particularly heavy because he bears too much sense of historical responsibility, but it has also become his spiritual motivation to persevere and overcome difficulties. In his posthumous work "The Last Song", he made a wonderful summary: "In my soul dream, I traveled alone in the land of the motherland, seeking an answer for my life: why I seldom laughed in my life, but sometimes I shed many painful tears ... When I woke up, an answer that was not the answer came to my mind: after all, you laughed at the end.
Qin Guilin, who is in her fifties, now lives in Longshan Town. He used to be the director of Huilong machine shop, and later he also grasped the processing of stone products vividly. He is also famous in the town, and the locals affectionately call him "Miao Zi". He has great admiration for Qin Zhaoyang. In his home, he carefully spread out a Chinese painting by Qin Zhaoyang for us to see, and told some stories about his dealings with his uncle.
Qin Guilin's father is Qin Zhaoyang's cousin, who lived in Wuhan before the war. When Qin Zhaoyang was studying in Korea, she lived with her family and received financial aid. After Qin Zhaoyang became famous, he never forgot his cousin's deep friendship. He sent 10 yuan every month until 1957 years ago. At that time, Qin Guilin admired this famous uncle for a long time. I often write to him, but all the words I can't write are empty, and my uncle scolded me. But it was not until 1967 that Qin Zhaoyang went to Huangshi to visit his younger brother Qin that Qin Guilin met his uncle for the first time in real life. It's just that he didn't expect that his uncle who had suffered a lot would look so young and optimistic. In those days, Qin Guilin was locked in his room and studied Go with his uncle for a few days, which became an indelible fragment in his memory.
(4)
Qin Zhaoyang is just one of many celebrities who stand out from the group spirit. Bao Huisheng, Li Siguang, a geologist, Xiong Shili, a philosopher, Yin, an economist and thinker, were all born here. How can so many outstanding talents be nurtured in this not-rich land at the southern foot of Dabie Mountain? Is it the tradition of attaching importance to education that plays a subtle role, or is it the smart and diligent character of local people? Tuanfeng people themselves did not get a clear answer.
Maybe there is a factor of hard work in the blood of Tuanfeng people. Walking in the county, the well-planned political and cultural center, the investment industrial park that has begun to take shape, and the lively and boiling old city all make you deeply feel the spirit of the group. According to Tong Chunzhen, member of the Standing Committee of the County Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, the annual fiscal revenue of Tuanfeng has quadrupled from the initial 20 million yuan to 80 million yuan in the past six years. Since the beginning of this year, the county has increased its efforts to attract investment. She said that Tuanfeng County has such a rich resource of cultural celebrities, which is a huge wealth, but it was not enough to dig and use it before. In the future, they will regard this as a golden signboard for external publicity and investment attraction.
Before I left the group spirit, I went to the jujube shop again. There is an oil tree in front of Qin Zhaoyang's former residence. It is said that Qin Zhaoyang had it when he was still in the village. I don't know which year the sudden wind and rain made it fall in the pond, but it still struggled to grow up and formed a very strange scene. Decades have passed, but it is flourishing, revealing the thick red of life in the bleak winter.
Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, we have some excellent editors of literary periodicals, especially in discovering and cultivating new literary people, who have worked hard silently for a long time; Under the severe interference of the "Left" ideological trend in the past to the literary cause, some people have been wronged for more than 20 years and paid a heavy price. In the history of the development of contemporary literature, I think not only their achievements should be buried, but also their experience in editing, discovering and cultivating new scholars is of great significance to today, so I wrote this article.
Work silently
Have you ever seen such an editor-in-chief? He exists in name only and does nothing. He didn't wait for his subordinates to send him a review. He only approved the word "use" or "don't use" on the manuscript. He has the pleasure of directly searching for excellent works and discovering talents from the mountains contributed by unknown authors. Qin Zhaoyang is such an editor.
1956 I worked as an editor under him. I remember one morning in summer, he gave me the manuscript of Xiaoping's novel "Three People in the Snow". He was the first reader of the manuscript, and he was selected from the manuscripts piled up on an editing desk after our editor left work. This novel was quickly published in the eighth issue of People's Literature that year, which was well received by readers and had a great influence. Xiao Ping published Children by the Sea in People's Literature 65438-0954, which is no stranger to the editors of People's Literature. However, before the publication of Three Stories in the Snow, his fame was not great, and it was not impossible for his manuscript to be missed by the editor, if the editor was not careful or did not identify it. Qin Zhaoyang's eyes were lowered, and he was too lazy to read the contributions of ordinary contributors. His thorough and meticulous style is undoubtedly a spur to every editor. There is also a completely unknown author, who was "panning for gold in the sand" by Qin Zhaoyang from the voluminous manuscripts. Readers in the mid-1950s may still remember the novella One Day, which was serialized in the seventh and eighth issues of People's Literature 1956. Later, People's Literature Publishing House published a single book. The author Huang Yuan is a doctor in Quanzhou Hospital. Before that, he didn't write any influential works. The manuscript sent to the editorial department is not like a picture. Written in a few scribbled 64-volume notebooks, the font is very small and the writing is not standardized. In the past, when encountering such a manuscript, the editor can return it without reading it. On the one hand, it is a long draft of tens of thousands of words; Secondly, such fine print is hard to attract people to read in a small book. But Qin Zhaoyang patiently read it (as the first reader of this manuscript, he also "picked it up" from the editing room), and personally sorted it out and sent it to the factory for distribution.
From the founding of New China to 1957, Qin Zhaoyang worked intermittently as a novel editor and executive editor in People's Literature for five years, much longer than his professional writing time. Whether as an editor or chief editor, he always spends most of his energy on hard work, sowing and harvesting in the "ocean" of manuscripts. Do you want to count the works and talents he discovered and supported? The list of famous writers today can be very long. For example, in the early days of the People's Republic of China, Malachin's first novel "People on Horqin Grassland" and Sun's first novel "People's Literature" were all published by Qin Zhaoyang. Before the publication of Qu Bo's Lin Xuehai Yuan, Qin Zhaoyang selected the highlights from the novel Surprise on the Wolf's Nest, wrote the editor's note, and gave a timely and enthusiastic affirmation to the new writer who was about to come out. Some people know that Qin Zhaoyang discovered his first work, while others may not.
I want to say that this is the spirit of "bowing down as a willing ox" advocated by authentic Lu Xun. In the post of literary editor, I often meet two kinds of editors: one is those who read the manuscript carefully and have a good level, but are only willing to serve famous writers and don't respect the contributions of unknown authors, so there are few records of talents found in their editing records. There are editors like Qin Zhaoyang who are also good at contacting famous writers, but they are never satisfied with this. It seems that after half a year's editing work, if we don't find a few new names and promising "gold" from a lot of waste "sand", then we have not fully fulfilled our editing duties. Such an editor is more valuable.
Knowledge-courage-thinking
An editor should have "knowledge" and "courage". His "knowledge" is manifested in his extremely sensitive discovery of the author's new exploration and new thinking on life and art, as well as the significance of this exploration to the development of our social life and literary creation, and his timely and clear affirmation. His "courage" is manifested in his bold and decisive support and daring to publish such a work, which is often opposed by old habits, taking some risks, and even the editor paid a heavy price for it. So not all editors can do this. Editors who have thought about "peace" and "peace" will certainly not do so. However, the publications they edited were often "stable" and left no outstanding traces in the history of literary creation.
I still remember that in the early spring of 1956, China Youth Daily reporter Liu sent his first literary feature "On the Bridge Site" to the editorial department of People's Literature. Liu has been engaged in journalism for a long time, with a wide network of contacts, keen thinking and love of thinking. 1956 during the Spring Festival, he expressed his feelings accumulated for a long time in the form of literary features, and completed the manuscript at the bridge site in only one week. The writing is sharp and profound, which can be said to be the first time in our literary creation since the founding of the People's Republic of China that we have touched the disadvantages of bureaucracy and conservatism so sharply and profoundly; Moreover, it is not only bureaucracy and conservatism, but also boldly and sharply touched the temperament and behavior of some leading cadres for the first time, which is more profound than simply exposing bureaucracy and conservatism. Later, it has been proved that a "always right" and stylish figure like Luo is really rare in our ever-changing political life. Before that, Liu wrote a lot of special reports and translated Soviet works, but it was the first time that he reflected his life in literary form. On the Bridge Site is his first literary work. As the first reader of this work, Qin Zhaoyang suddenly found Liu, and he immediately wrote to him, affirming his exploration in short and distinctive language. Then in the April issue of People's Literature, "On the Bridge Site" was published with headlines, banners and extremely prominent positions. Qin Zhaoyang wrote an editor's note for the work: "We have been expecting such a sharp, critical and satirical close-up for a long time, and hope that more such works will appear after the publication of On the Bridge Site." He also wrote in the postscript: "In real life, the struggle between advanced and backward, new and old is always complicated and sharp, so we need the close-up of' scout' style very much. Like scouts, we should bravely explore problems in real life, reveal problems, deal a fatal blow to backward things and help new things win. This issue of On the Bridge is such a close-up. Are people like Captain Luo, engineers like Zeng and their struggles rare in our lives? How can you turn a blind eye to them What do you think if you don't write? " These words still feel fresh today and have not lost their meaning.