Back to 80: My Literary Life

Chen Yingzhen founded the "China Unification League" in 1988 and served as its first chairman. In July of the following year, Renjian Publishing House was established. As a literary theorist, Chen Yingzhen is best known for "Chinese Literary History and Theory", and is known as the "Lu Xun" of Taiwan.

He advocates that Taiwan's modern literature is the extension and development of Chinese new literature in Taiwan, and is an integral and important part of Chinese literature. He is a very determined patriotic writer who often visits the mainland, and this time happened to be in Yanjing.

In a guest room of the Jianguo Hotel, Fang Minghua met Chen Yingzhen and talked about inviting him to serve as a member of the World Chinese Literature Award Jury. The other party readily agreed and took the initiative to contact Yu Guangzhong and Lin Haiyin to invite them.

Fang Minghua hurriedly expressed his gratitude.

After visiting Chen Yingzhen, Fang Minghua prepared to visit Qian Zhongshu, and first went to Yanda to meet Xu Yuanchong.

Xu Yuanchong is already seventy this year. In the teacher's office of the Department of International Politics of Yanda, Fang Minghua saw him, knocked on the door and introduced himself, and Xu Yuanchong greeted him with a smile.

"Are you Fang Minghua? Sit down, sit down."

Fang Minghua sat on the chair very politely.

"Li Li praised you very much in her letter to me, and even sent me the English translation of your collection of essays that she had just translated, but had not yet published."

Xu Yuanchong said, and took out a stack of manuscripts from the drawer, "I read it carefully, of course, mainly to see how well she translated it."

"Overall, it's good. Li Li has mastered the "Three Beauties of Poetry Translation" and "Exploiting the Advantages of the Target Language" that I proposed for literary translation." Xu Yuanchong said at last.

"Li Li is a top student you brought up." Fang Minghua said with a smile: "I have also read your "Art of Translation" and heard Li Li talk about your theory of three beauties, which are beauty of sound, beauty of form, and beauty of meaning." Fang Minghua continued: "In fact, I think that not only translation, but also the poetry we write should respect and follow this principle."

"Oh?"

"When I was the deputy editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of "Yanhe", I dabbled in modern poetry and wrote a theoretical article "Poetic Imagery in the Post-Misty Poetry Era", some of which was based on your views."

"Modern poetry is free, but it does not mean that rhyme is not important. The length and regularity of sentences and the harmony of rhymes are part of beauty. This is the wealth obtained from old poems."

The role of sentence length in poetry makes poetry rhythmic. Even if the singing method of lyrics is lost now, it is still catchy to read. This is the beauty of art. "

After listening to Fang Minghua's words, Xu Yuanchong smiled, and the wrinkles on his face immediately smoothed out:

"If you hadn't mentioned this, I would have forgotten it. I have also read the theoretical article you wrote. Although I mainly study the translation of ancient poems, I also pay attention to modern poetry. I think what you said makes sense. Look at what modern poetry is about, it's heartbreaking."

Speaking of this, Xu Yuanchong sighed.

"But there are also some good ones that follow your principle, such as Haizi's poems, and the poems written by Sichuan poet Zhang Zao a few years ago, which can be called "three beauties." Fang Minghua said.

The two chatted about modern poetry. After a while, Xu Yuanchong suddenly said, "Look at my memory. I forgot the purpose of your visit."

"Xiao Fang, Li Li also told me about your situation in the letter. You want to visit my teacher Qian Zhongshu. I can call my teacher in advance for you, but my teacher has been secluded for many years and rarely pays attention to the affairs of the literary world. There is also his temper. So as a student, I may not be able to invite him to come out."

Hearing this, Fang Minghua hurriedly said, "Mr. Xu, I am very grateful that you can help me introduce him, but whether it can be successful depends on human efforts."

After leaving Yenching University, Fang Minghua did not rush to visit Qian Zhongshu, but returned to the General Political Department compound. If you want to visit these people, you have to do your homework in advance.

Of course, it is not necessary to send any gifts, as long as you don't bring some fruits empty-handed.

At least after going there, the two of them will have some common topics, just like with Mr. Xu.

Most people are familiar with Qian Zhongshu, that is, the novel "Fortress Besieged".

As a realistic satirical novel, Fortress Besieged is known as the "New Scholars" of the 1940s.

The work is centered on Fang Hongjian, who returned from studying abroad in the early days of the Anti-Japanese War. It depicts the struggles and intrigues of a group of intellectuals who are far away from the times and the people in love, marriage, career, and life during the war-torn years. It reveals their inner poverty, emptiness, and humbleness, criticizes the dark reality of the unified areas, and reveals the crisis of modern civilization and the predicament of modern life.

Last year (1990), Fortress Besieged was adapted into a TV series starring Chen Daoming, Yingda and others, which attracted widespread attention.

This book includes Qian Zhongshu, and ordinary people are beginning to be familiar with him.

In fact, this book Fortress Besieged is just Qian Zhongshu's amateur work. His real job is literary research. He has a deep understanding of traditional Chinese scholarship, modern Chinese scholarship, and modern Western scholarship. He studied Chinese historical, philosophical, and literary classics in depth, and at the same time he never stopped reading and studying Western new and old literature, philosophy, psychology, etc. One of his representative works is "Guan Zhui Bian".

"Guan Zhui Bian" is a masterpiece written by Mr. Qian Zhongshu during his lifetime. The scope of the discussion is from the pre-Qin to the pre-Tang Dynasty. It is written in classical Chinese in the form of reading notes. The book quotes tens of thousands of documentary evidences from tens of thousands of works by four thousand authors. In addition to literature, it also covers almost all aspects of literature. In the social sciences and humanities, this book can be called the "Chinese Studies Classic". It is an academic work written by Mr. Qian Zhongshu with a lot of hard work.

The word "Guan Zi" comes from "Zhuangzi Qiu Shui". In "Han Shi Wai Zhuan" it is said: "It's like using a tube to peer into the sky, and using a cone to pierce the earth - what you peek into is big, what you see is small, what you pierce is huge, and what you hit is small."

In the evening, Fang Minghua was in the living room reading the first volume of this set of books, "Guan Zuibian·Mao Shi Zhengyi", which was an interpretation of "Mao Shi Zhengyi".

"Mao Shi Zhengyi" is a research work on "The Book of Songs", and is also the author of "Confucius". Fang Minghua is more interested in the "Book of Songs".

It's a pity that the traditional Chinese version published by Zhonghua Book Company is in vertical format, so I'm not used to it.

The problem is, there is no simplified version of Qian Zhongshu's "Guan Zuibian"!

This set of books was collected by Song Tangtang's grandma, so she took it out to read if she had nothing to do.

Grandma was knitting a sweater. When she saw Fang Minghua reading the book non-stop, she smiled and asked, "Xiaohua, why are you suddenly interested in this book?"

"Aren't you going to visit Mr. Qian Zhongshu? First pick up his book and read it." Fang Minghua replied.

Grandma laughed after hearing this, "Xiaohua, are you ready to surrender to me?"

Fang Minghua chuckled twice but did not answer.

"Actually, Xiaohua, I don't think it's necessary. Maybe Mr. Qian doesn't value these things." Grandma replied leisurely.