Chapter 709: Like the Moon Surrounding the Sun, Like the Stars Surrounding the Moon
In the Chinese Literature Society, JZ’s house building is now the hottest topic.
But in the domestic literary world, there is an even hotter topic.
In 1994, the third issue of "Contemporary" published Lin Weimin's latest masterpiece, the novel "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea".
This work tells the legendary life of Jiang Yuliu, a Cantonese opera playwright nicknamed Nanhai Shisanlang.
Although it is based on real life, "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" is not a biographical work. Instead, it uses the writing style of a novelist to present the life of Jiang Yuliu, a famous Cantonese opera artist, to the public.
For most Chinese people, Cantonese opera is just a local opera with limited influence. Even many northerners know almost nothing about Cantonese opera. Lin Weimin's sudden creation of such a novel with a famous Cantonese opera artist as the background surprised not only many of his colleagues in the literary world, but also the vast majority of readers.
Compared with several other competitors, the sales of "Contemporary" in the past two years have remained very stable. Although the sales were a bit sluggish in the second half of last year, the basic market is still there.
After it was launched at the beginning of the month, sales volume followed a beautiful upward curve, influenced by the publication of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea".
In just one week, sales exceeded one million copies.
"Spirited Away" has been serialized for more than a year and a half, and this novel is also a children's literature work. If "Spirited Away" is not counted, Lin Weimin has not published a long work for nearly three years.
As Lin Weimin's heavyweight work since his absence from the literary world three years ago, the publication of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" naturally attracted the attention of countless colleagues and readers.
"Contemporary" specially wrote an editor's note at the beginning of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea", briefly introducing the content of the novel.
Before reading this novel, many people were misled by the editor's note at the beginning, thinking that this novel might contain many Cantonese opera elements. However, after actually reading it, they realized that Cantonese opera was just an embellishment in the novel.
What the novel is really about is the ups and downs of a genius' life in troubled times.
Many people can't help but think of "Farewell My Concubine" written by Lin Weimin when he was just starting out. At first glance, the two have too many similarities, but upon closer inspection, they are quite different.
Compared to "Farewell My Concubine" that year, Lin Weimin's handling of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" was more restrained and mature, and every stroke of his pen exuded the style of a master.
A week after the novel was published, we received more and more letters from readers, and the evaluation of the novel was generally very high.
Cai Wenjing, a junior student from the Chinese Department of Liaodong Normal University, wrote in the letter:
Entering the 1990s, I feel that China's novel writing seems to have entered a period of weakness.
The cultivation in the 1970s allowed a large number of Chinese writers to mature in the 1980s. During this period, a number of classic works with broad influence and readership base were born in the country.
Perhaps it is because the 1980s were too glorious, and after a cursory reading of the many novels since the 1990s, very few can leave a deep impression on people.
When writing about their creative works, some writers attribute this phenomenon to the fact that predecessors have already written everything that can be written, or that changes in the public opinion environment have squeezed writers' creative freedom.
I think such an idea is extremely absurd. The appearance of Lin Weimin's "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" aptly refutes the statements of those writers.
This novel has a solid style. Compared with "Farewell My Concubine" which has many similar elements, "South" has a stronger secular atmosphere. Lin Weimin depicts the old Shanghai, old Hong Kong and old China with simple but precise strokes. He does not deliberately pile up things, but can make people indulge in them in very short sentences.
Jiang Yuliu, a genius in the Cantonese opera world, is not a fictional character like Cheng Dieyi. He has a lot of material available for research, but these materials also bring constraints to his creation.
I appreciate the way Lin Weimin handled the character of Jiang Yuliu and the plot with ease and moderate humor based on facts, which made the character of Jiang Yuliu more vivid and full, and naturally integrated the character into the tide of the times and the general trend of history, composing the ups and downs of the fate of a favored child of heaven in troubled times.
I like "Farewell My Concubine" very much, but I have to admit that it is a bit frivolous compared with some classic masterpieces. However, "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" made me see a potential, a potential like "Gone with the Wind" and "War and Peace".
I naively think that it is a work that can go down in history like the above two works.
"This little girl has quite a good level of writing skills. No wonder she is a top student in the Chinese department."
After reading the letters from readers, Zhang Zhonge gave an evaluation.
Zhu Changsheng smiled and said, "Weimin's work this time has been highly praised by readers!"
"What's rare is that the opinions are unified, unlike some works, which are mixed. The letters from readers are either praise or criticism. So far, it seems that all the comments are positive, which is not easy to come by."
"Yes, he has maintained a high level of writing and high output over the years. Nowadays, writers with high output have unstable quality, and those with high quality have low output, but Weimin's works are more stable than before.
His "Nanhai Shisanlang" is just too stable in my opinion. I can't find any fault with it. It's really hard to comment..."
Zhang Zhonge asked with a smile: "What's the matter? Are you planning to brag about Editor-in-Chief Lin's masterpiece as well?"
"There's no need for me to do anything..."
Zhu Changsheng had a teasing smile on his face and looked towards a desk in the office.
Yao Shuzhi joked, "Xiao Tong, it's not good for you to do private work openly during work hours, right?"
"This can't be considered as private work. It is also a way to promote the works published in our magazine, which can indirectly boost the sales of our magazine."
Tong Zhonggui said without blushing or beating his heart.
Yao Shuzhi gave him a thumbs up and said, "Great! It's not in vain that I learned from your master."
"Hehe!" Tong Zhonggui smiled and kept writing.
That day was Friday, and the Literary Gazette was published every Friday.
As the earliest established, highest-level and most influential newspaper in the domestic literary and artistic field, Wen Yi Bao has always been loved by countless domestic literary and artistic circles and readers, and has a wide audience.
The new issue of the Literary Gazette was published early this morning and was immediately placed in bookstores, post offices, and newsstands across the country. Some units or families who had subscribed to the newspaper received a brand new copy of the Literary Gazette that smelled of ink early in the morning.
Many people would open the newspaper while eating breakfast or drinking the first cup of tea on the way to work and immediately discover the commentary article published on the front page of page two.
"Great skill is not elaborate, and a heavy sword has no edge - On "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea"."
The title of the article is obviously a quote from Jin Yong's novel. Nowadays, many people are fans of Jin Yong's books and recognized this sentence at a glance.
“It is a great pleasure to read Jin Yong’s martial arts novels. There is a sentence in The Return of the Condor Heroes that I like very much, so I used it as the title of this article.
There are certain objective standards for measuring anything, and the same is true for measuring the quality of literary works. However, people have many faces, and their life experiences, ideological realms, and artistic accomplishments are different, so the understanding and evaluation of a work often varies from person to person.
Today I want to talk about Lin Weimin's new work "Nanhai Shisanlang". I am a colleague of Lin, so I dare not talk about the friendship between teacher and student, but he has indeed taught me. The opinions in the article may not be correct, and the attitude may be unfair. I hope my colleagues will criticize and correct me.
..."
The commentary article is very long, and the author states his identity and position in the first one or two hundred words. Those who are interested will smile knowingly after taking a look at the signature.
"Su Tong".
He is a writer and also an editor of Contemporary Magazine. Contemporary Magazine is Lin Weimin's base camp. There is nothing wrong with what Su Tong said in the article.
At the same time, his words also made the purpose of this passage clear: I am going to praise Teacher Lin to the death today, and no one else can stop me.
Reading further, Su Tong first analyzed the content, creative techniques and concepts of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" from a professional and meticulous perspective. After a long speech, he suddenly changed the topic and talked about the author Lin Weimin.
"The significance and value of "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea" lies not only in its epic spirit, but also in the author's diversified value orientation in terms of characters, history, events and emotions. It brings people into a cultural atmosphere that is always free and omnipresent, interpreting the characters' personalities and stories.
During the creation process of this work, Lin Weimin's creative ability and skills have reached the pinnacle that contemporary writers can achieve, and there is no one in the contemporary literary world who can match him.
He keeps pace with the development of Chinese literature in the new era. He is sensitive to the development of the society at that time, yet at the same time stays away from the mundane world. He depicts the modern life at the same time indulges in the traditional culture. He reflects the real society with super-sensory perception, yet also conducts metaphysical inquiry through the mundane world.
In the contemporary literary world, he is a unique writer who debuted early, achieved fruitful results, and had strong and lasting creativity. He has produced new works every year for more than ten years, and each work is innovative. He is always young, always full of emotion, and always making progress.
Standing behind him, I always feel jealous, ashamed, and frustrated. I look up at him, look down at him, and look at him straight. I always selfishly think that it is the misfortune of all literary creators of this era, not just me, to be in the same era as him.
We are hidden in his light, and the closer we get to him, the dimmer we become.
But isn’t this also a kind of luck, like the moon surrounding the sun and the stars surrounding the moon, with his brilliance, we who are dim can also shine.”
After reading the long review of more than 5,000 words, readers had different reactions.
Many readers who like Lin Weimin felt like they had found a soulmate. They regarded Tong Zhonggui's article as a treasure and kept recommending it to people around them. They also quoted words from the article from time to time to brag about Lin Weimin and "The Thirteenth Son of the South China Sea".
Some readers who claim to be rational disagree with Tong Zhonggui's comments, thinking that he has none of the integrity and backbone of a scholar and is blatantly flattering his teacher, which is shameful.
Colleagues in the literary world had mixed feelings after reading this article.
They agreed with most of the points in Tong Zhonggui's article, but the boasting about Lin Weimin in the second half made everyone feel uncomfortable.
Since ancient times, there has been no first in literature and no second in martial arts, and it is normal for scholars to look down on each other. However, they cannot deny that a considerable part of Tong Zhonggui's compliments are indisputable facts.
The more contradictory the mentality is, the more it confirms what Tong Zhonggui said in the article.
Like the moon surrounding the sun, like the stars surrounding the moon.
In the vast sea of literary talent, everyone seems to have become a foil to Lin Weimin.
(End of this chapter)
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