In September this year, Lu Xun Literature Prize winner Ye Zhou's novel "Dunhuang Benji" was produced by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House with the most grand traditional chinese thread binding method in ancient China. This is also another classic publishing style launched by the publishing industry after Yilin Publishing House launched the "Dunhuang Benji" paperback edition in December 2018 and the "Dunhuang Benji" hardcover collection edition in May 2021.
I got the news at the first time, knew that it was a limited edition release, and called Ye Zhou, "I booked in advance and bought two sets of collections." Ye Zhou told me, "It's too expensive." I said, "I want it to be expensive, but from a cultural point of view, how much does it cost to invite guests to a table?" You spent 10 years writing with your life, and the publishing house is made by hand with the most grand and precious! I bought a collection to read. Not only to respect your hard work and hard work, but also to respect the inheritance of traditional culture, with the Dunhuang story to complete a million words, dedication to the country, promote culture, talk about how easy it is! It's precious!
Two months later, I got my wish. "Dunhuang Benji" traditional line bound (limited edition) production, two letters, each letter eight volumes, a total of sixteen volumes, traditional vertical arrangement, all hand-bound. The beauty of the technique, the complexity of the process, the exquisite binding, have never seen it! When I open it and get it in my hand, I will naturally calm down, respectfully read it, you can feel Gansu's rich historical and cultural resources, thick cultural accumulation and magnificent vicissitudes. It is the great art and the equally great religion that have built the glorious Mogao Grottoes of the human spirit in Dunhuang, and people live in it that they have a sense of fulfillment and solidity in the meaning of real life.
In my opinion, "Dunhuang Benji" is the peak of contemporary literature. It is a truly pious work of literary creation, a work of feelings, a work of spirit, and also a work of Ye Zhou's personalized talent, which is rare in the world.
The purpose of life is to pursue happiness, and literature is an important form of expression, the embodiment of beauty. We often talk about climbing the peak of science, and we have rarely heard of climbing the peak of literature. I understand that it is difficult to climb the heights of literature. It is necessary to express the inner feelings of contemporary people and reproduce the social life of a certain period and a certain region. Expresses the objective world and subjective cognition, endows it with thoughts and emotions, and has the beauty of art. Only those who have the courage to dedicate themselves to literature can climb to the peak of literature, and Ye Zhou is one of them.
He used thick history, vivid characters, personalized language, from the perspective of the new era, and more promising the value of the future, to create "Dunhuang Benji" with sincerity and sincerity. As a native writer in Gansu, "Dunhuang Benji" is a pious work of Ye Zhou's unique language art to express his unique spiritual world, and a great work with a magnificent historical picture and an epic temperament.
In fact, in 2018, the first publication of "Dunhuang Benji" in paperback and Ye Zhou gave me a set of 1.09 million words, describing a series of thrilling historical events that occurred in the Hexi Corridor between 1910 and 1938, especially on the land of Dunhuang, and concentrated on the actual encounters and mental processes of the people in the western region in finding, opening up and expanding roads.
"On the ancient Silk Road, merchants, missions, monks and monks traveling from east to west traveled through this thousand-mile road of smoke and dust and the road of life, forming one settlement after another. But Dunhuang is different from these settlements, like the great kings on this long road, crouching on the ancient Silk Road. Those who traveled far on the long road, as long as they saw a lamp in Dunhuang, he knew that he had survived. "This is The Dunhuang in Ye Zhou's "Dunhuang Benji", which impressed me very deeply.
After the publication of Dunhuang Benji, it has been nominated for the 10th Mao Dun Literature Award, the 4th "Shi Nai'an Long Narrative Literature Award", the 7th "Fangcao" Literary Female Jury Award, and the 5th China Publishing Government Award Book Nomination Award.
Ye Zhou has been immersed in ten years, and his writing has not stopped. With his life and painstaking efforts to dedicate the "Dunhuang Benji" to the pilgrimage to Dunhuang, he used the power of literature to excavate the cultural value of Dunhuang, narrate the past and present lives of the Hexi Corridor, and tell the story of Dunhuang that has been sealed for a thousand years to the people of the present world. Reading this book has requirements for readers, and Ye Zhou defends his own ideas, which is highly linguistic and artistic. Tell the story of the difference in praying for life in the pursuit of a higher civilization.
In the communication with Ye Zhou, I have always been in the mood of emotion. I think, "At present, one of the important reasons why the spirit of the Chinese people is confused, poor and slippery slope is that literature lacks spiritual strength and fails to play a role in leading social culture. There is no writer in China who is so dedicated to literature as you, who can calm down, endure loneliness, have nothing to do with power, have nothing to do with money, self-pressure, find themselves to eat, and spend ten years writing this work for the national spiritual world. Only Ye Zhou, who is based on the Great Northwest, with his flesh and blood, and his personal experience of Dunhuang and the culture of the Hexi Corridor over the years, has used his spirit and soul to dig a spiritual cave in Dunhuang that makes people feel emotional. It's shocking. ”
I agree with Professor Wang Wenlan's reading and commentary on Ye Zhou's "Dunhuang Benji" with "the soul draped in robes", and the analysis is very profound, which brings inspiration to the reader and is intriguing. "The judges of the Mao Dun Literature Award, did everyone carefully read and really read Ye Zhou's work thoroughly?" People who live and do things that are purely spiritual homes need a religious feeling. He had to be as pious as a messenger, as a saint. This is the case with Ye Zhou, who created the Dunhuang Benji. ”
This book needs to be really calmed down to read. The author, Ye Zhou, is the one who uses a pen to send the sweet fragrance of lotus flowers to the hearts of the world.
Looking at Ye Zhou's masterpieces, poems, essays, novels, etc., I have a feeling that he has made a sincere wish and a firm mind before he started writing. As a result, the writing is smooth, the emotion is sincere, the brushwork is fresh, the charm is wavy, the passion is full of passion, the dripping is smooth, and the taste is intriguing. The language I describe Ye Zhou as one with bones attached to flesh, with blood in the flesh, is the essence of Tongtai, and is a living effort in life!
It should be believed that Ye Zhou has a strong pen, unique language, wonderful logic, profound and profound, he is doing his best to write, no matter when, no matter where, to maintain the eternal value of the heart and the persistent upward mind, must be the supreme pride of the human spirit.
At the end of the ugly year, standing by the river, the 2021 year of the magnificent era is about to pass, read the thick "Dunhuang Benji" on the desk, which is a rare atmospheric work, a work of strength and a meticulous work that has written the spirit of Gansu in recent years and paid tribute to Dunhuang culture. I conclude that Ye Zhou is a person who can make great contributions to the construction of a culturally strong province in Gansu.
Great, dedicated, godly and respectful of the wishes of the text!
Magnificent, hungry, structure the spiritual home!
Author | Ma Qiming