11th Mao Award winner Yang Zhijun: Be a serious and naive person in humanities | Writer | Mao Award
After the news of "Snow Mountain and Earth" winning the 11th Mao Dun Literature Award came, Yang Zhijun remained calm. However, the successive interviews overwhelmed him a bit, but in front of each interviewer, he answered the questions seriously, even if many were repeated many times.
Seriousness is his habit.
He once lived earnestly between the snowy mountains and the earth; After leaving, he diligently created "Snow Mountain and Earth". He earnestly pursues the arduous footprints of his parents and generations of builders of the Republic in his works, carefully depicts the great changes of the times in high-altitude areas and the spiritual path of grassland herders, and carefully observes the integration and conflict between humans and nature, humans and animals, ecology and development, agricultural and pastoral civilization and urban civilization.
Dialogue with Yang Zhijun, we not only focus our attention on this award-winning work, but also talk with the author about various aspects related to literature, creation, and ideals - how writers position themselves between ideals and reality; In the face of the spiritual crisis of modern people, what path does literature provide to rebuild modern people's beliefs and continue to write about human spirit.
"Snow Mountain and Earth" by Yang Zhijun, published by Writers' Publishing House
"The real writing opportunity arises from concerns about natural ecology."
What was your first reaction after the news of "Snow Mountain and Earth" winning the 11th Mao Dun Literature Award with high votes came to your study?
Yang Zhijun: Of course it was unexpected, but it also seems to be expected. To be honest, when I was writing this novel, I didn't have that strong idea - I had to win an award, not at all.
A true literary writer cannot consider too much, nor will they consider too much. The reason for writing is to express one's emotions, present ideas, and empathize with oneself. Many times, this is uncontrollable and cannot have a utilitarian purpose.
Since it is a work that I have condensed with my own efforts, I have the confidence that it is a good work that can bring benefits to readers. So, when creating, there is no expectation of winning or not winning, and winning is not surprising.
Shangshu: Where did your strong emotion of having to write first come from?
Yang Zhijun: My parents are both intellectuals. They love reading and have collected many literary works. Even in the era when reading was not allowed or allowed, almost all of the Chinese and foreign novels published in our country in the 1950s were in our family. When I was young, I didn't have any children's books and could only go to my parents' bookshelf to find things to read. At that time, when I was reading "Anna Karenina", I couldn't understand it at all. I flipped through pages and only knew that the people in the book were in love. "Water Margin" is an important enlightenment reading material for me, but I can't understand it either, and I don't even recognize many words. I only know that a large group of people are fighting. Of course, the generous and generous behavior of many characters in the book still left a deep impression on me.
Being exposed to literary works during my childhood was important for me to embark on the path of writing in the future, but it cannot be said to be my writing opportunity. The real opportunity came when I served in the Shaanxi Provincial Military Region. During that time, I was sent to the production team to provide support, and my daily meals were eaten door-to-door at farmers' homes, which allowed me to have a close encounter with the specific lives of farmers. Once, while waiting for my fellow villager to cook, I found a shabby book at his house, which contained a novel called "The Marriage of Little Erhei" by Zhao Shuli. After reading it, I thought to myself, oh my, I can also write such a novel! From then on, I embarked on the path of writing novels.
Some of the novels I wrote when I was young, some have been published and some have not been published; But even if they were published, I didn't consider them as my works in my heart - the things I wrote at that time, both in terms of language and skills, were really not very good. I believe that the starting point for my formal literary writing should be after going to college. I took the college entrance examination in 1977, the first year after it resumed, and was admitted to Qinghai Normal University. When I was studying there, I met many good teachers who benefited me throughout my life, and because we were the first batch of college students after the resumption of the college entrance examination, the teachers took extra care and care of us. The teachers' broad horizons and rich education have taught me a lot, and my thinking has been opened up. Teachers do not simply teach us writing skills such as structure and language, but rather combine their rich experiences to help us understand literature, literati, and touch the heart of writing.
After graduation, I returned to work at Qinghai Daily. Once, some farmers were trapped on the floating ice due to strong winds breaking the ice surface of Qinghai Lake. I went to the scene for an interview. At that time, in addition to completing the press release, based on this personal experience and insights, I also wrote "The Great Lake Fault", which was my first novella. As the environmental knowledge accumulated during the interviews became increasingly rich, I wrote "The Collapse of the Lake" again.
At that time, the mainstream in the literary world was scar literature. While almost everyone was reviewing history and creating scar literature, I was solely concerned with the social issues of ecological dimension. Perhaps this is due to the influence of my work. As a journalist, I am exposed to reality every day, especially in the western region, and have witnessed many phenomena that damage the ecology - such as blindly cultivating farmland on ecologically fragile grasslands, and so on. Therefore, ultimately, the real and important opportunity for me to write is my concern about the natural ecology.
"Compassion and sense of responsibility have become the foundation of writing in this life."
Up to the Study: After decades, your literary creations have always focused on ecological themes, reflecting your concern for ecology. Similarly, "Snow Mountain and Earth".
Yang Zhijun: Yes, I have always been like this. This is related to my nature. I admire and respect nature, and I also believe that humans are absolutely insignificant in front of nature.
Herders have a great reverence for nature, and their reverence for nature has become a sacred belief. For example, for a mountain, if outsiders remove grass or dig up the mountain to mine, the herdsmen will be very averse. They believe that mountains have spirituality and are sacred mountains that cannot be dug indiscriminately. Digging mountains is like cutting open a person's skin or injuring their flesh and blood. Divine mountains can become angry due to damage. Because herdsmen have such simple beliefs, the ecology of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau has been maintained relatively well for a long time. When I lived in the homes of ordinary people, I observed that they lived near water sources, but they did not directly wash their clothes and supplies in the river. They will dig a pit by the river and use buckets to transport the river water to the big pit for washing, because they believe that the river water is holy and there are gods living in it. How can people directly wash clothes in the river and dirty or disturb the gods?
They take as much water as they need or do other things, and will never take it recklessly out of greed. Just like digging medicinal herbs, if a herdsman only needs one plant today and sees three plants growing there, he will only take one plant and let the other two continue to grow or be left for others to use. Because this is a compassionate gift from the Mother Earth, taking and using it must be used where needed, and cannot be wasted or taken over.
I also have a special love for animals, which makes me love nature more and pay more attention to ecology. I have raised many animals, such as dogs, red billed ducks, and so on. In Tibet, the relationship between humans and animals is more intimate than in many other places. I once wrote "Tibetan Mastiff". Tibetan Mastiffs exist like family members in many herdsmen's homes and receive considerable care. Although herdsmen also slaughter and eat cattle and sheep for survival, they feel particularly sad before slaughtering them. They ask others to help slaughter their own cattle and sheep and recite scriptures to surpass them.
In "Snow Mountain and Earth", the snow mountain symbolizes the father to some extent, and the earth symbolizes the mother to some extent; The snow water of the snow capped mountains nourishes the living beings on the earth, providing them with a place to live. This is an ecological harmony. In short, ecology is an important concern in my writing. There are also some ecological novels in contemporary Western times, but they are still somewhat different from our ecological writing; This is related to the different cultural traditions of the East and the West. The concepts of nature, harmony, and moderation are very valuable parts of our ancient culture, and contemporary people should learn from them.
Study: After leaving the Tibetan area, you mainly live in Qingdao and have created many works with obvious Qingdao characteristics. What different impacts have Qingdao and Tibet, two different geographical spaces, had on your literary writing and spiritual life?
Yang Zhijun: The impact is definitely different. Firstly, the natural landscape and cultural attributes of the Qinghai Tibet region and Qingdao region are very different. In terms of natural landscapes, the Qinghai Tibet Plateau is mostly covered with snow capped mountains and grasslands, while Qingdao has a vast and magnificent marine landscape.
As far as I am concerned, although I currently live in Qingdao, I grew up in a Tibetan area. In my eyes and in my writings, Qingdao is more of a "grassland person" than an urban person's perspective. Perhaps related to the snowy mountains and the compassion brought to me by Tibetan culture, I naively hope to supplement the spiritual deficiencies of urban people through my works. For example, in "You Are My Rhapsody", hope is placed on the redemption and healing of people through music, while in "The Last Migrant Worker", it is hoped that the dedication of migrant workers is not only material, but also spiritual. Their natural simplicity and kindness are an indispensable part of urban spirit. Urban civilization is a concentrated reflection of human civilization, and it itself has strong cultural absorption ability. I pay tribute to the city with my works because it has given me many opportunities to think about life and reflect on life. I hope that my literature can extend from the vast snowy mountains and grasslands to the equally vast ocean cities, giving rise to a new literary thinking and spiritual pursuit.
In short, the compassion and sense of responsibility that Tibetan culture has brought me to a certain extent has become the foundation of my writing in this lifetime. When interacting with friends in Qingdao, they can feel the Tibetan cultural traits on me and the collision between these traits and Qingdao culture and marine culture. However, this collision brings more benefits than contradictions, which is wonderful.
In addition, the vastness of the Qinghai Tibet Plateau and the vastness of the Qingdao Sea are mostly presented in my writing, especially in the description of scenery, which is even more important. If I could gather together the scenes from my works, it would also be a thick book.
"As a writer, one should have their own standards and standards."
Study Room: Translator Lin Shaohua once wrote an article titled "Volunteers Teach Me to Write Novels". It was about how you taught him how to write novels, but he eventually "gave up" and believed that novels were untreatable, with humorous strokes. Can writing novels be taught or not?
Yang Zhijun: To become a writer, especially a good writer, there are undoubtedly many conditions that need to be met.
Firstly, the writer's own conditions and nature are very important. Some people are born with developed visual thinking, sensitive to the surrounding environment, and rich in emotions. As far as I am concerned, I am particularly sensitive to the natural environment I am in, and I naturally write like a god.
Secondly, the personal education and accumulation of writers are also particularly important. Starting from nature and reserving relevant education due to interest is the foundation for becoming a good writer.
Finally, it is the writer's cognitive ability towards life. Literary works written under different cognitive abilities, despite having the same life experience, have a distinction between high and low. Cognitive ability is closely related to postnatal learning, and only with good knowledge can one achieve high levels of knowledge.
In addition, I believe that a good writer must have the ability to eliminate distractions and be completely focused in order to produce good works. There are various complex affairs and temptations in social life. If we are deeply immersed in them and cannot extricate ourselves, we will exhaust our energy and vitality. It is probably a kind of vanity to want to write good works. Many good writers in history have learned to leave a gap in their hearts, always sticking to their ideals, and firmly holding onto them. Even so, it may seem ridiculous to some people.
After possessing these basic qualities, abilities, and beliefs, writing will become relatively easy. Mr. Lin Shaohua and I are friends, just chatting about literature together. We are not really teaching him how to write novels. Even if novels can be taught, Shaohua does not need my guidance. As an excellent translator, he has a great writer in his heart as his spiritual companion. Moreover, literary creation is not taught at all, but realized. It is the unique life experience of each individual writer, rather than written skills. It is an involuntary expression of a person's nature, education, and ideal beliefs, rather than just the structure of the text.
Writing is more about personal cultivation. Except for a few talented writers, most writers still need to go through countless practices, hardships, and failures before they can slowly embark on their own path of writing.
Study Room: How do you define a good writer?
Yang Zhijun: If you write an article or a story, you are a writer, let alone a good writer.
As a writer, one should have their own standards and standards, and not be too casual or cheap. The outstanding predecessors in the literary world, such as Hugo, Dante, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Marquez, etc., have established standards that serve as landmarks for us on the path of literary writing, and can also be said to be lighthouses of human spirit. Literary creation requires technology, but fundamentally it is not a technical activity. Its essence is still the human spirit. The ultimate goal of these novel masters mentioned above, whether realistic or romantic, is to express the breadth and depth of human spirit. Writers who stubbornly contemplate the crisis of human spirit are often pure and naive. Many people may not understand them - you just need to think about what to eat for your next meal, why do you have to think about these things? But this is also where their greatness lies. To be honest, only a few writers can meet this standard. For myself, although I may not meet such standards, I will always strive to approach such a goal - to be a serious and innocent person.
"How can literature survive without this naivety?"
Up to the Study: From the beginning of your creation to today's award-winning work, your creation is mainly based on your own life experience. There has been a discussion in the literary world that one voice believes that if a writer's creation is based on their own real experiences, it will be more genuine and closer to reality; Another voice believes that this will limit a writer's creativity and lead to singularity or even exhaustion. How do you view this issue?
Yang Zhijun: Writers have different types and characteristics. Some writers are lifestyle writers, and once they finish writing their own lives, they have nothing to write about. Some writers are imaginative writers who can largely detach themselves from their real lives and write many things based on their imagination - science fiction writers are a typical representative of this type of writer. There is also a type of writer who is both realistic and imaginative. This type of writer is the most brilliant, with an inexhaustible source of writing. I hope to become a writer who is loyal to both reality and ideals.
Shangshu: "Snowy Mountains and Earth" seems to reflect your duality - it is a realistic theme, but also carries the banner of idealism.
Yang Zhijun: It's like this.
In the eyes of our generation, the ideals of my parents were particularly noble and dazzling, but in fact, when they experienced history, from their own feelings, it was their most ordinary daily reality. Their generation was very pure, they were not very good at weighing the pros and cons of things, but just felt that I should do this thing to the best of my ability. They consciously integrate their lives into the needs of the times, which is almost a certain instinct of theirs. Like my mother, as a doctor, treating illnesses and saving lives is her instinct; My father was very worried and anxious when he saw children in remote areas who couldn't read, so he naturally founded a school in order for them to be able to read, learn knowledge, and have a culture. Many children attend the school he runs and learn cultural knowledge. These children grow up and stay on the grassland, becoming grassland cadres and contributing to the development of the grassland.
They also strictly adhere to relatively high moral standards in their behavior. Nowadays, our living conditions have improved. However, with the prevalence of materialism, we have faced more temptations, and our purity has relatively decreased. Among them, a small number of people seem to have much lower moral standards. Sometimes, the bottom line requirements of the previous generation have become the ideal pursuit of our generation. I think literature is a very suitable way to call for a pure and noble spiritual return, and it is also necessary to promote this calling spirit in literature. What needs literary writing the most is not what is already rampant or what everyone has or is pursuing, but what everyone has forgotten, what is missing, and what should have been pursued.
What we lack now is human spirit, and writers should focus on this. But the premise is that the writer himself is a person with emotions, a moral sense, and ideals. Just like Jean Valjean in Hugo's writing, he carries Hugo's own personal ideals. Hugo believed that the most perfect person is not someone without anger, sin, and error, but someone who can repent with sin. Jean Valjean was a model of repentance. In fact, the moral standard of the literary image Jean Valjean is the moral standard of the literary figure Hugo himself. Tolstoy was also a person with a high spiritual realm. He divided his wealth among farmers and serfs, and this spirit is reflected in his literary works as his "Tolstoyism.". In them, personal ideals and literary works often exhibit a high degree of unity.
Going to the study: Contemporary people are facing a common spiritual crisis, and there is a type of work that showcases this spiritual dilemma, which triggers resonance among the public. As a result, some literary and film works have become "internet celebrities". And your work depicts the arduous footsteps of parents and generations of builders of the Republic in building grasslands, the great changes of the times in high-altitude areas, and the spiritual path of grassland herders. The characters in your writing carry a sense of nobility. Are you worried that there may be a sense of distance between them and contemporary readers, which may not resonate with readers?
Yang Zhijun: I believe that truly good, responsible, and responsible writers all point their anxieties in the same direction, all concerned about the human spirit. Pointing out difficulties is a concern, and presenting the lofty spirit of ideals is also a concern. The two have different paths and the same goal. To some extent, the greatest advantage and contribution of critical realist writers is not criticism, but achievement. What to build? It is the ideal of humanity, and the establishment of ideals is precisely to fill the gap in reality. Some people may find such writers and works too naive or even ridiculous; However, innocence is the most precious thing for a writer, and it is also the foundation of ideals. How can literature survive without this naivety?
In "Snowy Mountains and Earth," I feel that I have balanced the relationship between theme and literature quite well. Undoubtedly, literature has literary standards and is the paradigm and convention of literature as literature. These are not only established by predecessors in literary history, but also constantly updated by later generations. Although I am writing works with strong thematic and contemporary themes, I strive to achieve a literary level that satisfies me, whether it is the use of language, the shaping of character traits, the development of plot, or the advancement of logic.
I also try my best to pursue poetic expression in realistic writing. In fact, the scenery, culture, and unique language of the grassland itself have the beauty of original poetry. The materials I use and the poetic treatment of my literary language make my novels have a certain poetic quality. Novels are meant for reading and require readability, and emotions are an important measure of readability and the flesh and blood of a work. I am also a person full of emotions, and I try my best to make my works emotional and emotional. I use emotions to inspire the soul of my works.
Yang Zhijun
