Lu Yao: Adhere to the determination, vision, and charm of creation
2024-11-27
Due to his adherence to the realistic creative philosophy, Lu Yao's works are regarded by some writers and critics as an effortless form of writing. In fact, as long as we understand the hard work he put in for his creation, we can deeply realize that Lu Yao's creation is truly a high difficulty writing. His deep and profound determination is beyond human capability. After "Life" earned Lu Yao fame, he did not indulge in the joy and glory of fame, but made up his mind to write more weighty works in his life before the age of 40. So, in order to create 'The Ordinary World', Lu Yao began a tenacious and resilient preparation work. During the three-year brewing period, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to literary experience, social and historical experience, real life experience, and other aspects. He engages in high-intensity massive reading, studying classic Chinese and foreign novels, and learning from the creative experience of epic works. In his reading list, there are as many as a hundred novels, among which foreign works such as Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" account for the vast majority. For some works, he repeatedly studied them, such as reading "Dream of the Red Chamber" three times and Liu Qing's "History of Entrepreneurship" seven times. At the same time, he extensively studied theoretical, political, philosophical, economic, historical, and religious works, as well as specialized works in agriculture, commerce, industry, and technology, as well as various knowledge-based booklets on folk customs, meteorology, afforestation, finance, taxation, and more. Lu Yao believed that "only by thoroughly understanding the social and historical background can we accurately depict the living and spiritual forms of people in these backgrounds in art." In order to accurately restore the historical situation from the spring of 1975 to the early summer of 1985, he adopted a dry, time-consuming, and mind consuming method - consulting old newspapers. He flipped through the bound editions of People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Reference News, Shaanxi Daily, and Yan'an Daily over the past decade day and night, and his fingers were worn by the paper, revealing capillaries. In addition to accumulating reading experience on his desk, Lu Yao also extensively delved into various industries and gained a three-dimensional understanding of the living world at that time. As he himself said, "Rural towns, industrial and mining enterprises, school offices, and trade markets; state-owned, collective, and individual; from the provincial party secretary to the ordinary people; as long as they can be reached, they will try their best to reach them." "When he runs until exhausted, he returns to a certain guesthouse or hotel to rest for a few days, recover his strength, and then go out to run. He gets out of this car and gets on another car; one day in the rural breeding room, another day in the thatched hut at the ferry crossing; this night he sleeps without a cover or clothes, and another night he sleeps with satin blankets and hot baths." It can be seen that in order to fully capture life experience, he has paid unimaginable hardships. With the accelerated development of society, some later writers often have anxiety about the speed of publishing their works, fearing that if no works are frequently published, they may soon be forgotten by the literary world. In such a fast-paced creative state, it is difficult to maintain the rhythm of "slow work leads to fine work", let alone do tedious desk work like Lu Yao, nor do they want to step out of their "comfort zone" like Lu Yao and work hard to enter the depths and new places of life. As a result, the combination of media information, imaginative themes, crude and monotonous writing styles, and repetitive narrative forms have become common problems in fast-paced writing. Although there are a large number of long novels published each year, there are not many that are remembered by people. Under new historical conditions, there have been new changes in the production, dissemination, and consumption of literature, but today's writers still need to learn from Lu Yao's deep and profound determination. Only in this way can writers create masterpieces that belong to the era and achieve a leap from the plateau to the peak. Daring to enter the 'no man's land' and establish one's own symbol: Writing about the depth and breadth of the changes of the times. Hungarian theorist Lukacs, based on the theory of 'totality', requires literary writing not to narrate directly visible and isolated facts, but to focus on describing the various relationships between characters and reality, paying attention to the enduring things in the rich diversity, as well as the developmental tendencies and potential trends that are still in their infancy and whose subjective and objective characteristics have not yet been fully developed in terms of society and characters. In summary, in Lukacs' view, literature is not a one-to-one mirror like reflection, nor a simple and direct dynamic reflection, but a comprehensive interpretation of the inherent nature of reality and historical development trends. To artistically understand and grasp the overall trend of the times and historical development, writers need to have profound insight and perspective. Lu Yao is such a writer with insights into the times, whose historical consciousness, sense of reality, and foresight are rare among contemporary writers. When many writers at that time painfully accused the "scars" of the times, his "Thrilling Scene" did not simply reveal the pain of history, but attempted to write about the multifaceted and true nature of the times. In the novel, he portrayed the image of Ma Yanxiong, a party member who still had a noble spirit of dedication during abnormal times, thus constructing a kind of childlike sentiment and spiritual light that penetrated the future. In "Life", he depicts the life confusion and psychological struggles of rural youth, the hardships and helplessness of farmers' survival... Although the living situation has undergone tremendous changes, it still has the power to directly touch people's hearts. This power comes from the writer's artistic ambition. Lu Yao once said, "We should dare to extend our tentacles to places that others have never been to before, dare to enter the 'no man's land' and establish our own symbol." Adhering to this creative philosophy, he pays more attention to the depth and foresight of writing about the changes of the times in "Ordinary World". The novel showcases the overall social landscape and emotional structure during the era of reform and opening up through a deep historical background and broad social scenes, and also artistically reveals the origin and destination of the great historical process of reform and opening up and modernization construction. The work reflects deeply on the fate and life path of young farmers, captures finely the psychological and spiritual changes caused by national economic policies, and reflects on the fission and reconstruction of rural ethics and traditional family ethics after the transformation of the times. In "The Ordinary World," Lu Yao has a comprehensive understanding and grasp of why China's rural reform occurred and how to build modernization. He also has unique observations and reflections on the development path of China's rural areas and the direction of farmers' future lives. From this perspective, writers must have a comprehensive grasp and profound observation of the reality of the times in their creations, as well as a keen consideration of historical perspectives and future trends. If one is obsessed with describing fragmented and superficial real life; Or indulge in interpreting trivial and isolated events to construct the uniqueness of one's own so-called individual experience; Or excessively pursuing technical writing while neglecting the exploration of the complex spiritual core of the times; Even falling into the worship of knowledge and philosophy, blindly piling up and transplanting knowledge about history and philosophy in the text, lacking fresh content about society, the times, and life, such works will only cause readers' reading emotions to be low and aesthetic fatigue, and the attractiveness of literature will become weaker and weaker. The reason why a work can be continuously read and people from different periods can read different experiences and derive new themes from it is because readers see a holistic and seamless world in the work, and different aspects of this world have inspirations for people. Readers can also feel the future trends and undercurrents that are sedimented in the depths of time. The achievement of such a level in a work naturally depends on the author's overall and forward-looking perspective. Lu Yao is a typical example that sets an example for contemporary writers. Full of concern for the fate of Chinese farmers: the souls of the characters in his works are imbued with Chinese cultural background. Today, countless readers are still close to Lu Yao's works, not only because his works vividly depict the profound changes in the reform and opening up era and society, but also because of the unfamiliar atmosphere and unique charm of specific regional cultures. In fact, in his works, the Chinese people's tenacious will to survive, spiritual map and cultural genes are clearly visible. In many scenes full of bitterness and bitterness, we see that rural China has experienced poverty and hunger, but the people on this land still stubbornly and tenaciously face the difficulties of survival. In the many rural youth portrayed by Lu Yao, such as Ma Jianqiang, Gao Jialin, Sun Shao'an, and Sun Shaoping, we can feel the indomitable and persistent spirit of the "strugglers". Despite the malice, frustration, conflicts, and struggles in the world, he always deeply writes about the beautiful human nature and pure morality of the people on the yellow earth. Many characters in his works are always filled with touching kindness and compassion, making readers feel the power and warmth of traditional morality. The posture of Liu Qiaozhen and Sun Lanhua guarding love is beyond worldly utilitarianism and completely stems from the essence of human nature. After her husband Li Xiangqian was injured, Tian Runye let go of the emotional knots of her past love and devoted all her body, mind, and love to caring for her husband's life. This is the brilliant glow of traditional Chinese morality shining on women. After Gao Jialin failed to enter the city and returned to the countryside, the comfort and tolerance of his fellow villagers, such as Grandpa Deshun, were also a sliced representation of the good qualities of Chinese farmers. Although Lu Yao's texts depict the real society of the 1970s and 1980s, especially rural life, the characters in his works always flow with the genes of excellent traditional Chinese culture, exuding a profound and far-reaching cultural meaning. Here in Luyao, the unique land feelings of the Chinese are obvious. In "Life", Liu Qiaozhen persisted in working on the earth after a breakup, believing that the earth could accommodate all the pain. After Gao Jialin returned home disappointed, he also "tightly grasped two pieces of yellow soil with both hands", just as Grandpa Deshun said: "It is this mountain, this water, and this land that have fed us generation after generation. Without this land, there would be nothing in the world!" In addition, the mysterious atmosphere of the East also flickered in his characters. Sun Yuhou in "Ordinary World" is illiterate, but he can draw star charts by hand and has a mysterious perception of the incident at Sun Shao'an's brick kiln. Sun Shaoping was able to reunite with Tian Xiaoxia in his dream after her death. At the same time, Lu Yao also described the picture of family life on the loess land, such as father's kindness and son's filial piety, brother, friend, brother, brother and brother, husband and wife's softness, showing the historical inheritance of Chinese people's life and living order, all of which reflected the Chinese cultural background in the souls of the characters in his works. From this point of view, the reason why Lu Yao's works have great charm is related to the Chinese people's long-standing survival schema, spiritual pedigree and profound cultural atmosphere hidden in the realistic narrative, thus naturally mobilizing the collective empathy of readers. In addition, in the rural narrative of Chinese literature over the past century, Lu Yao's works have demonstrated a new narrative ethics, which is to truly write from the perspective of farmers, eagerly pay attention to their survival and destiny, and not write about the countryside and farmers in a "superior" and condescending manner. As Lu Yao himself said, as the son of a farmer, he is full of concern for the fate of Chinese farmers. There is no distance from the countryside, no barrier with farmers, and the protagonist in the work resonates with the lives of many readers on the same frequency. So, his works inspired generation after generation to connect with the countryside and farmers
Edit：Momo Responsible editor：Chen Zhaozhao
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