Backtracking to the Age of Literature and Art

Chapter 333 Local Literature
Yu Hua and Bi Feiyu each got a painting, but they all agreed that Yu Dong's was the best.

As Yu Dong said just now, flaws are also part of art.

Of course, to put it bluntly, wrongly written inscriptions are more likely to attract people's attention.

According to legend, Xu Wenchang, a calligrapher and painter of the Ming Dynasty, once ate dim sum in a dim sum shop. He thought the dim sum was good but the business was poor, so he took the initiative to write a signboard for this small shop, calling it "Dim Sum Shop", but he deliberately put "Dim Sum Shop" The word "heart" is written a little less.

After finishing writing, he signed his alias "Tian Shuiyue" to prove that it was written by him.

Later, someone saw that the fast signboard was written by Xu Wenchang, and he even wrote it wrongly, so they started discussing it.This story was widely spread, and everyone nearby knew that there was a signboard written by Xu Wenchang in this pastry shop, and there were typos on it.

As more and more people come to the dim sum shop, the business is getting better and better.

But later, the dim sum shop owner saw Xu Wenchang again, and suggested that he write that point down.

The boss thought, since so many people can watch it with less, wouldn't it be better to write it correctly?
Xu Wenchang agreed to him and made up for that point.

But after writing it correctly, no one paid attention to it.

The so-called rarity is the most precious, there are many things that are right, but very few things that are wrong.Just like the wrong edition currency, it is much more valuable than the genuine one.

After the three got the paintings, Wang Zengqi asked again: "Do you have any new works recently?"

Yu Hua said, "I have a novel, which has been published in Harvest this month."

"what is it call?"

""Xu Sanguan Sells Blood"."

"The title of the book sounds bluffing. I'll look for it later. How about you two?"

Bi Feiyu shook his head and said that there are no new works, in fact, there are, but there are only short stories, so he didn't say anything.

Yu Dong thought about it, and told about his new book, "My new book has just finished the first draft, and it's related to Shanghai, and I haven't decided where to publish it yet."

"It's good to write about your hometown." Wang Zengqi smiled, "If your new book is published, I'll write a preface for you. And Yu Hua, after all, I have taught you before."

Yu Hua chuckled, "You still remember."

Wang Zengqi had taught major classes at Lu Xun Academy of Arts before, so naturally he also taught Yu Hua, but at that time there were many students and few classes, and Yu Hua, the practical teacher, was not assigned to Wang Zengqi, so he didn't have much contact with him.

When she was about to call before, Yu Hua felt that Wang Zengqi couldn't remember teaching herself at the Lu Xun Academy of Arts, so she didn't mention it.

Yu Dong looked at Yu Hua, and thought that this guy was hiding very deeply.

But in retrospect, Yu Hua seems to have seldom mentioned the things in Lu Xun Academy of Arts, he obviously stayed there twice.

Wang Zengqi said with a smile, "Your students in this class are quite special. Many of them left a deep impression on me, such as you, Mo Yan, and Liu Zhenyun..."

Speaking of the students of that class, Wang Zengqi became interested again and remembered some interesting things to say.As for his initiative to write a preface to Yu Dong's novel, it seems not difficult to understand.

He always likes to promote juniors, A Cheng, Tielin, Jia Pingwa have all been supported by him, so writing a preface is naturally a trivial matter.

In fact, Wang Zengqi can be regarded as a "late bloomer". Ten years ago, in the literary world, he was rarely mentioned, but these years he has grown stronger and stronger, and he has written more and more.

A few years ago, when some writers of the same period, such as Cao Yu, gradually lost their artistic sense and found it difficult to handle literature, he quietly stepped out and wrote many excellent works, such as "Being Precepted". He wrote it at the age of 60, and "Danao Chronicle", for example, was written when he was 61 years old.

Wang Zengqi once said that there was a vine in the backyard of his house. The family did not know what it was, because it never bloomed. One summer, it bloomed a lot of white and yellow flowers suddenly, so they knew it was a vine. honeysuckle.

He suddenly wrote a lot of novels in the early 80s, just like that honeysuckle tree.

In the past few years, the old man's popularity in the literary world has increased, and more and more people like him.

Yu Dong came back from the future and knew that not only was the market rising now, but the market would continue to rise in the future.

After chatting for a while, Shi Songqing asked from the side, "Yu Hua and Bi Feiyu should already be married, Yu Dong, are you married?"

Bi Feiyu smiled, "Coincidentally, Mr. Shi, he just finished his wedding in September."

"That's right, congratulations, you should bring some wedding candy here, so that our old couple can also be happy."

"It's because I didn't think carefully." Yu Dong said with a smile.

"It's okay, it's okay. I feel happy when I hear the news. How did my wife meet? Is it a classmate or a colleague?"

Wang Zengqi flicked the cigarette ash and complained, "Why are you asking so many questions?"

"I just like listening to young people's love stories." Shi Songqing replied with a smile.

Yu Dong replied, "It's a colleague. In fact, I got the certificate last year, and I didn't hold the banquet until September."

"It's great now. I married him back then. After finishing the formalities and taking photos, I went to eat a bowl of noodles. It was a celebration."

Speaking of the past, Shi Songqing's eyes are full of memories, "I remember that noodle restaurant is called Zhangji Noodle Restaurant..."

Speaking of this, Wang Zengqi interrupted her, "Why is it called Zhangji Noodle Restaurant? It is obviously Erxiangzi Restaurant, which is next to Zhongshan Park. I remember it clearly."

"You must have misremembered."

"I'm sure I remember correctly."

The old couple argued again about which restaurant to eat noodles that day, arguing and fighting, and finally both of them laughed.

So many years have passed, and they are also getting older. It doesn't matter who remembers right and who remembers wrong.

But they all remembered that the noodles were very strong, the soup was very fresh, and the sun was very bright. She smiled at him while eating, and there was a layer of tiny sweat beads on her forehead like mist.

Listening to their memories, Yu Dong and the others also laughed. They didn't expect to be able to eat a handful of high-quality dog ​​food here today.

Yu Dong also remembered the time when he and Cheng Yanqiu received the certificate last year. It was very cold and it snowed suddenly. They went to eat duck blood vermicelli, and their bodies were warm. The warmth came not only from vermicelli soup, but also from other kinds of food. something indescribable.

When it was late, Yu Dong and the others got up to say goodbye, and the old couple went to keep them warmly.

The hospitality was hard to turn down, so they stayed.

Shi Songqing made a few home-cooked dishes, among which was pickled cabbage and mushroom soup, which he said was specially prepared for Wang Zengqi, and other people might not be used to it.

I thought it was just an ordinary meal, but I didn't expect Wang Zengqi to take out a bottle of Wuliangye when it was about to start.

"Originally, my friend gave me six bottles, but after drinking, there are only two bottles left. Let's just drink it."

Just drink it, but what Yu Dong and the others never expected was that Wang Zengqi had a very good capacity for alcohol and a great alcohol addiction. After drinking one bottle, he touched the last bottle.

The last few people finished off the two bottles of wine, and Wang Zengqi drank most of the bottle by himself.

It seems that he should drink like this often, but Shi Songqing watched from the side and didn't try to persuade him. Instead, he warned him not to get Yu Dong and the others drunk.

When he was drunk, he said, the spectator said he would live to be ninety, but he predicted that he would only live to be eighty.He is 75 years old this year, and being able to say this shows his open-mindedness.

He also said that tobacco and alcohol are his first life, while articles, calligraphy and painting are his second life.

For the sake of wine, he also wrote a pair of couplets: Just read the scriptures every day and read history softly, and learn Buddhism with wine.

When they left Wang Zengqi's house, Yu Dong and the others were already dizzy. When Jiang Jie came to pick them up, he was quite surprised: Mr. Wang can drink so well?
……

The next morning, Yu Dong and the others went to Yenching University.

Leng Xuejun, the dean of the Chinese Department, came to pick them up. As soon as he saw Yu Dong and the others, Leng Xuejun apologized repeatedly, "Principal Wu still has some business to do at this time, so I can't come to pick them up, please forgive me."

Yu Dong and the others smiled and waved their hands, "It's okay, are the others here?"

"Several writers from Baodao have arrived, Mr. Wang is on his way."

Yu Dong nodded, "Then let's go there."

On the way, Yu Dong asked about the specific situation on Treasure Island, and realized that not only Lin Qingxuan and Long Yingtai were here, but also the famous local novelist Xiao Lihong.

"What is the scale of this symposium?" Bi Feiyu asked.

"It's in the dining hall...it's the big lecture hall of our school. Except for some teachers from the school, the students all come to listen voluntarily."

Yu Dong nodded, but he didn't care too much. He was no stranger to Yanda. He had been here many times when he was in school. Before Gu Cheng came to Yanda for a meeting, Yu Dong even went to join in the fun.

It has to be said that the enthusiasm of the students for poetry in those years has reached the point of madness, which is not inferior to that of fans of later generations. When Yu Dong went that time, he could only stand far behind.

Following Leng Xuejun, several people first went to a reception room, where there were already a dozen people.

Leng Xuejun introduced them one by one, except for the teachers at the school, they were the three writers from Baodao.

All three were in their early 40s, but Lin Qingxuan grew more anxiously. There was only a handful of hair on the top of his head that was still resisting tenaciously. What was completely different from the top of his head was the long hair at the back of his head, which had already draped over his shoulders.Ugly is a bit ugly, but don't have a strong character.

When Yu Dong and the others arrived, Long Yingtai was chatting with other teachers, while Lin Qingxuan and Xiao Lihong just sat quietly.

Seeing that there was only Long Yingtai talking on both sides, a teacher from the Chinese Department pointed the topic at Yu Dong and the others who had just arrived: "Teacher Yu Dong, did you just arrive this morning?"

"I arrived yesterday and took a little rest."

Long Yingtai laughed at the side, "That's a pity, we should have dinner together last night, so I can see your demeanor earlier."

Knowing the situation, Leng Xuejun explained, "Teacher Yu and the others went to visit Mr. Wang yesterday, and they probably ate at Mr. Wang's home."

Bi Feiyu nodded, "Yeah, we don't have much time this time. We went to visit Mr. Wang out of selfishness. There is no rush to eat. After these two days are over, it will not be too late to eat."

"Yes, yes, eat later."

Taking advantage of the topic of eating, everyone started talking about other things. The teachers of Yanda University tried their best to make the atmosphere hotter, but only Long Yingtai and Bi Feiyu cooperated.

They chatted for a while without embarrassment, and after Wang Zengqi and Wu Shuqing arrived, everyone went to the lecture hall.

Before they got to the lecture hall, they heard voices coming from there, and students kept rushing there.

Seeing this scene, Long Yingtai's eyes lit up, "The students of Yanda University are very enthusiastic."

Wu Shuqing said with a smile, "You are all writers that the students love very much. Naturally, they couldn't hold back their excitement when they heard you coming. Speaking of which, this lively scene dates back to the past few years. When they come."

Hearing Wu Shuqing's words, Long Yingtai looked very happy.Her "Children, Take Your Time" received a good response in the mainland this year, and she herself opened a column in the supplement of "Wen Wei Po", so seeing so many people coming, the first reaction was that the students came for her .

In the first half of this year, she only started to have some real contact with the mainland's cultural circle, so she doesn't know much about the mainland's literary circle, let alone Dong and the others, she doesn't know much about Wang Zengqi either.

It wasn't just that she didn't know Dong and the others, Bi Feiyu and Yu Hua didn't know the writers like Baodao either, and among the three, Yu Dong knew a little about Long Yingtai and the others.

The reason why Yu Dong knew them well was not only that he came from a later age and experienced the era of information explosion, but also because he had done some research on the literary circle on Treasure Island when he was in college.

Because she misunderstood the purpose of the students, Long Yingtai waved enthusiastically to the students as soon as she entered the lecture hall, but the students in the front row all turned their attention to the male writers behind.

Most of the students had never met Yu Dong and the others, but they probably knew what they looked like.

There are rumors that several writers of the Jinyi Gang are suave-looking.

Suave isn't the right word to describe a writer, but that's what the rumors say.

In fact, this is mainly because everyone's expectations for the writer's appearance are too low, so writers who are a little fair-looking can be regarded as suave.

Take Yu Hua as an example, he is definitely not handsome, but if you really want to talk about it, he is indeed very personable in the group of writers.

Not to mention Bi Feiyu and Yu Dong, Wang Anyi also said before that the two of them directly raised the overall image of Chinese male writers.

Yu Dong looked at the students, and had to say that the students of Yanda University were very enthusiastic. At this time, the lecture hall was already packed, and everyone was shoulder to shoulder, leaving little space.There was a boy not far from the front row. He should have stepped on the bench, standing tall, with his coat open to reveal the clothes inside. He was wearing a white T-shirt with the words "Shouting in the Drizzle" and " west".

Some people pulled up a small flag with the names of Yu Dong and the others written on it.

Although the times are different, the ways of chasing stars seem to be similar, and these small flags and T-shirts are equivalent to the light signs of later generations.

Long Yingtai also saw these "light signs", and was amazed by Yu Dong's influence, while looking for her own name, but unfortunately she couldn't find it after searching for a long time, which made her a little discouraged, and then she thought, Probably because mainlanders don't often write traditional Chinese characters.

There was a large stage on the west side of the hall, and a row of tables were set up on the stage. After everyone was seated, Wu Shuqing took the microphone and said, "Students, please sit down if you brought a bench. For those who don't, Also try to lower your body so that the students in the back row will not be covered. There are a lot of people here today, please pay attention to maintaining order to avoid unnecessary confusion."

Since the canteen was built, there were no seats, and students had to bring their own benches to eat, otherwise they had to stand or squat down to eat.It is also because of this that any large-scale activities will be held here, and students only need to bring their own stools.

Then Wu Shuqing made some opening remarks, roughly talking about the theme and process of today's symposium.

The theme is Chinese literature on both sides of the strait, and the process is also simple. Today is a collision of ideas and expressing opinions.

After the opening remarks, Yu Dong and the others took the microphone and introduced themselves respectively.

The three writers in Baodao introduced themselves first, and there was polite applause. Later, when Bi Feiyu arrived, the applause was obviously more enthusiastic.

When it came to Yu Dong, the atmosphere had reached a peak, not only applause, but also loud shouts.

In the end, when Wang Zengqi got the microphone, he was also a little surprised. He didn't expect Yu Dong to be so popular with young people.

After the self-introduction was over, Wu Shuqing took the lead in introducing a topic: "Mainland and Treasure Island..."

At the beginning, everyone talked about literature on both sides of the strait, writers from the mainland talked about mainland China, writers from Taiwan talked about Taiwan.

In the middle, Wu Shuqing saw that this was not going to work, so he brought up another topic, talking about local literature.

The reason why we say local literature is because there are two representative writers of local literature here, Wang Zengqi is undoubtedly on the mainland side, and Xiao Lihong is on the Taiwan side.

Speaking of local literature, the two of them naturally have the most say, but Long Yingtai jumped out. The reason why she jumped out was because she once commented on Xiao Lihong's "A Thousand Rivers Have Water and Thousand Rivers Moon" and criticized this novel. It is blind nostalgia, and it is an out-and-out romance novel, one-sided, superficial, exaggerating the beautiful side of human nature, but ignorant of the depth, complexity and multi-faceted nature of human nature, or deliberately whitewashing.

So when it came to local literature this time, Long Yingtai naturally wanted to express her views again, but in front of so many people, she couldn't speak as straightforwardly as she wrote in the article.

"In my mind, local literature should be comprehensive and profound. Nostalgia is a great emotion, but nostalgia should not be allowed to cover up some real things. Local novels should truly record the true appearance of the people in that land , otherwise what is our nostalgia? Could it be just our wishful thinking?"

Hearing this, Wang Zengqi touched his eyebrows and did not speak.

Xiao Lihong didn't speak either. In fact, Xiao Lihong seldom spoke.

Maybe because he realized that something was wrong with the atmosphere, Long Yingtai said, "The same land is different for everyone. I just want to say that since rural novels aim to describe real life with local characteristics, Then the reality cannot be escaped. Furthermore, there are many differences in the cultural development of Taiwan and the mainland over the years..."

"Ms. Dragon."

Suddenly, Yu Dong spoke. With a faint smile, he suddenly spoke. The interrupted Long Yingtai was taken aback, and then said politely, "What's your opinion, Mr. Yu?"

When Yu Dong spoke like this, everyone on and off the stage looked at him, wanting to see what he had to say.

"Ms. Long reads foreign literature, so her understanding of Chinese literature may be somewhat one-sided. Although for some reason, the development of local literature on the two sides of the strait is somewhat different, overall, there are almost no differences."

He was not very polite as soon as he spoke. Long Yingtai raised her eyebrows and was about to say something, but Yu Dong didn't give her a chance and continued, "49 years ago, in mainland China, there were two types of local literature. Huang and Tai Jinglong are the representatives, and their works are mainly critical, while the other category is represented by Mr. Wang’s teacher, Mr. Shen Congwen, and the works are more pastoral.”

"At this time, Baodao was influenced by neon and other places, and there were more critical local literature. After 49 years, Baodao had more idyllic and pastoral-type local literature that inherited new mainland literature, such as Lin Haiyin's "Old Stories in the South of the City", Mason's "Hometown and Childhood". In the 80s and [-]s, the local literature on both sides of the Taiwan Strait rose up, and the diversity coexisted, and the local literature also introduced some realistic techniques..."

Yu Dong quietly sorted out the history of local literature for everyone, and then concluded: "I think, whether you are a writer or a critic, you should look at literary works with an inclusive attitude. It is not because a person is recalling his hometown. When it was more romantic and unrealistic, I felt that there was too much whitewashing, otherwise it would end up going to an extreme."

"Since Ms. Long is studying foreign literature, she should also know that even Mark Twain, when writing works related to the countryside, more often reflects the healthy and lively life mood of post-war America. Since Mark Twain Wen can temporarily put aside the complexity of human nature in reality and only focus on beautiful things, so why can’t we Chinese writers? Or, Ms. Long doesn’t think there is any beauty in our hometown that is worth praising?”

After Yu Dong finished speaking, there was applause, and even Wang Zengqi applauded softly.

Seeing this, Long Yingtai quickly argued: "Mr. Yu Dong may have misunderstood me. Of course, I did not mean to deny pastoral songs, but blind nostalgia may make the dross of the old era reappear. For example, a certain In some novels, the poison of traditional ethics to the people is deliberately downplayed, and traditional ethics is idealized, which may make people ignore the inferiority of traditional ethics.”

Yu Dong didn't look at her, but turned to ask the students below, "Students, do you think that life must be suffering because of the novel "To Live"? Do you think that because of the novel "Border Town" Are all the people in the world beautiful?"

"will not."

Yu Dong got a reply, nodded, and looked at Long Yingtai again, "Ms. Long, let me ask you another question. Do you care that blood is thicker than water? Do you think blood is thicker than water is a narrow nationalist thought?"

Faced with the two questions suddenly raised by Yu Dong, Long Yingtai was stunned.Not only her, but others were also stunned, because these two questions were asked very suddenly.

Yu Dong looked at Long Yingtai quietly, waiting for her reply.

Long Yingtai squeezed out a smile, "Blood is thicker than water, of course it cannot be said to be a narrow nationalist thought, in fact it should be the medium and concrete embodiment of civilization inheritance."

Yu Dong shook his head in disappointment, because Long Yingtai "once" said this question, she said she didn't care that blood is thicker than water, she said "If we have no consensus on the scale of civilization at all, if we have no consensus on the value of the base , There is no dialogue at all, and blood is thicker than water, so there is no meaning."

These are the original words of Long Yingtai, which sound very lofty and reasonable, but this is a typical sophistry. Who sets the standard of civilization, should it be her, Long Yingtai or the hundreds of millions of people?If the cognition of the scale of civilization formed by the gathering of the spirits of hundreds of millions of Chinese people is not on the same line as Long Yingtai's cognition of the scale of civilization, whose problem is it?

Now, Long Yingtai gave different answers to the same question, probably because of her different identities.

As a result, Yu Dong underestimated her by three points, and even lost interest in playing against her.

(End of this chapter)