Author: Lu Yao
Written in the early 80s of the 20th century
Category: Novels
Version recommendation: China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing Company Edition
Lu Yao, born in 1949, is a native of Qingjian County, Shaanxi. His work "Life" won the 2nd National Outstanding Novella Award and was made into a movie. His masterpiece novel "The Ordinary World" won the 3rd Mao Dun Literature Award. Lu Yao has served as vice chairman and chairman of the Shaanxi Provincial Writers Association. On November 17, 1992, Lu Yao died of cirrhosis of the liver.
"The Ordinary World" consists of three volumes, with more than 100,000 words. It has been hailed as "the first novel to describe contemporary urban and rural life in China in a panoramic way". Through complex contradictions, the author portrays the image of ordinary people from all walks of life. self-esteem, self-improvement and self-confidence in life; The struggle and struggle of life, the frustration and the pursuit, the pain and the joy; The conflict between daily life and the torrent of society is intricately intertwined, the exciting love stories are tear-jerking, and the tenacity shown in the suffering again and again sublimates people's spirits. "Ordinary World" has a strong sense of civilians and resistance, it is deeply concerned about the fate of ordinary laborers, embodies Lu Yao's consistent creative characteristics, and is a masterpiece of realism.
"Ordinary World" is Lu Yao's painstaking work. After the completion of the novel, the author could not even return to the real world from the book for a while, and even had to cross the street with the help of his younger brother. Soon after, he died.
But his work had a huge shockwave, and the Central People's Radio broadcast "Ordinary World" in a row, and in many cities, there was also a phenomenon of queuing up to buy this work. People also held various mourning activities for Lu Yao, and the condolence letters sent from all over the country were more than a foot thick, like snowflakes, and Shaanxi TV also filmed Lu Yao's feature film.
The key to the reason why Lu Yao and "Ordinary World" will have such a great impact is that his works are imbued with a high-spirited spirit of struggle. "Life is a never-ending struggle! Only when you choose a goal and feel that your efforts are not wasted in the struggle can you live a fulfilling life and your spirit will always be young", chewing on these wise sayings, so that people are full of confidence and hope in life. In this sense, Lu Yao and his "Ordinary World" will never be forgotten.
"The Ordinary World" has two editions: the People's Literature Publishing House and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Publishing Company, and was later included in the 3~5 volumes of "Lu Yao's Anthology" published by the Shaanxi People's Publishing House.
Synopsis
In 1975, the Loess Plateau was still a barren scene.
Sun Shaoping, a rural student in the first (1) class of the former Xi County High School, often chews on the inferiority complex and pain brought to him by poverty. Because of the same illness, he became close to Hao Hongmei, the poorest girl in the class, but soon, Hongmei alienated Shaoping, and it turned out that she was attracted to Gu Yangmin, the class leader whose parents were both high-level intellectuals. Shaoping's friend Jin Bo led people to beat Gu Yangmin severely.
Two years of high school life went by in a flash. With his tenacity and diligence, Shaoping has won everyone's respect. During this time, his most important gain was to meet Tian Xiaoxia, the daughter of Tian Fujun, deputy director of the county Revolutionary Committee. Tian Xiaoxia reads a lot and has an active mind. She also often borrowed newspapers and periodicals such as "Reference News" to read to Shaoping, so that Shaoping could look at himself and the things around him with a broader vision. After graduating from high school, Shaoping and Runsheng, the son of Tian Futang, the secretary of the village brigade, became a private teacher at Shuangshui Village School. At this time, Shaoping, in the depths of his thoughts, could not get rid of the influence of the countryside, and was unwilling to be limited by the countryside, so he formed a mixed spiritual temperament.
This is in strong contrast to his eldest brother Sun Shao'an.
When Shao'an was 6 years old, he followed his father Sun Yuhou into the mountains to chop wood. Later, although he barely finished high school, his family could no longer afford to send him to junior high school. Among the thousands of candidates who took the county's junior high school entrance exam, Shao'an ranked third and was admitted. But his student career came to an end completely with the arrival of this admission letter. His father wept bitterly before him. At the age of 13, he was already very sensible, and told his father that he could support his younger brother Shaoping and sister Lanxiang to study with his labor. Since then, Shao Anxin has quietly started his career as a farmer. Because of his shrewdness and toughness and the spirit of not being afraid of hardship, Shaoan was elected as the captain of the team by the members of the team at the age of 18. He did think about the members everywhere, such as dividing the pig feed land under the pretext of expanding the self-reserved land for the members, but he was criticized as a black model of "taking the capitalist road". In early 1978, he also tried to reform the contract responsibility system, but was severely stopped by the county party committee.
Shao'an's love life is both painful and lucky. He and Tian Futang's daughter Runye are childhood sweethearts, and they have a good relationship. But he dropped out of school to work as a farmer, but Runshi taught in the county, and the disparity in status made Shao'an finally choose He Xiulian, a rural girl in Shanxi. Fortunately, Xiulian worked hard and was very gentle and distressed to him, so that Shao'an's painful heart finally got some comfort. When Runye heard the news of Shao'an's marriage, she was heartbroken and married Li Xiangqian, whom she didn't like.
Time leaps forward to the 80s. The sound of ice breaking can be heard everywhere in the vast land. Winter won't last forever, spring is here again. Qiao Bonian, secretary of the provincial party committee, also conveyed the spirit of reform and opening up to cadres at all levels, and the wave of the production responsibility system swept the entire Loess Plateau on a large scale. At a time when Chinese society was undergoing earth-shaking changes, Sun Shaoping fell into great distress. At the end of his 3-year career as a teacher, he had to return home and become a farmer. But his cultural education made it impossible for him to be a farmer who kept to himself. The world outside Shuangshui Village tempted him so strongly that the 22-year-old finally broke away from the ancient admonition of peasants to settle down and relocate to the world.
Waiting for Shaoping's life is hard and heavy. In addition to teaching, Shaoping does not know how to do artisan work.
Like most of the peasants in other places, he could only do small work on various construction sites, carrying stones, carrying mud bags, and drilling holes. In the past two months, Shaoping has changed his appearance. The original fine skin and tender flesh have become black and rough, and he has become an authentic laborer. But when Shaoping has a little free time, he will still pick up a book and read a few pages. It's become a habit. Through continuous reading, Shaoping realized that only when one has a broader understanding of the world can he have a higher understanding of the hardships and hardships he finds himself in.
One afternoon, Shaoping met Tian Xiaoxia at the door of the movie theater. Xiaoxia's father has been promoted to secretary of the Huangyuan Prefectural Party Committee, and Xiaoxia is also studying at the Huangyuan Normal School. Despite the disparity in status, Xiaoxia was conquered by Shaoping's unique understanding of life. They agreed to meet once a week on Saturdays, and the green seedlings of love gradually grew in their hearts.
After graduation, Xiaoxia was assigned to the provincial newspaper as a reporter. Before leaving Huangyuan City, she and Shaoping visited Guta Mountain together. Shaoping was happy that Xiaoxia would enter a higher level of life, but on the other hand, he felt a little bitter in his heart. The clever Xiaoxia expressed her true feelings through a story, and in the shade of the tree, Shaoping hugged Xiaoxia tightly.
When the young couple indulged in the sweetness of love, the relationship between Tian Runye and Li Xiangqian also took a poignant turn. Although Runye was married to Xiangxiang, she never let Xiangxiang touch her, and Xiangxiang became her nominal husband. Forward madly in love with Runye, but he couldn't please her with all his scheming, so he had to drown his sorrows with wine every day, and finally one day he drove drunk and fell into a ditch and broke his legs. Forward pain is unbearable. Runye took the initiative to return to him, strengthened his confidence in living, and truly became husband and wife with Xiangqian. With the help of Runye, he set up a Li Ji shoe repair shop in front of him, re-appreciating the meaning of life.
Runsheng's love is even more peculiar. As he drove through a village near Yuanxi County, he suddenly discovered that the young woman selling mutton dumplings was Hao Hongmei. When Hongmei graduated from high school, she stole a handkerchief from the store because of poverty, which annoyed the always ethical Gu family, and they forced the farmers to cut off contact with Hongmei. Hongmei later married a rural elementary school teacher, but the teacher died in an accident. Hongmei had just given birth to a child. Since then, orphans and widows have struggled to survive. The kind-hearted Runsheng often sent coal and noodles to help Hongmei, and over time, they finally got together.
In order to earn a living and end the wandering life. Shaoping decided to go to the Daya Bay Coal Mine as a worker. Here, he got along well with his master Wang Shicai's family, and the kindness of Wang Shicai's wife Huiying and his son's naughtiness always made Shaoping feel at home. Xiaoxia has sent a few letters, and she still has a deep affection for Shaoping in the letters.
Later, Xiaoxia took the opportunity of the interview to visit Shaoping, who said that he was ready to dedicate himself to the coal mining business and planned to apply for the coal technical school. Xiaoxia felt that she loved this coal digging man even more.
But unfortunately, soon after, Tian Xiaoxia died heroically on the front line of the flood to save the lives of the masses.
Master Wang Shicai saved his apprentice An Suozi, but was also killed by the steel beam.
Sun Shaoping was almost crushed by this tremendous grief. At this time, Hye-young gave him endless care and attention. The hearts of the two miserable people crept closer. Soon, Shaoping was seriously injured by a boulder in order to save his workers, and the mine leaders immediately decided to send him to the provincial hospital. His life was saved, but Shaoping was left with a terrible scar on his face. After that, he politely rejected the courtship of Kim so, a female college student, and returned to the Daya Bay Coal Mine. From a distance, he saw that Hui Ying, who was wrapped in a red scarf on his head, Ming Ming, who had a red scarf floating on his chest, and a puppy with a copper bell ringing around his neck, were galloping towards him...
If Shaoping is with a tragic passion, constantly choosing suffering to deepen the understanding of life, so as to surpass the consciousness of small farmers in the spiritual realm, Shao'an embodies more of the characteristics of farmers.
Since the implementation of the contract responsibility system in rural areas, the Shao'an couple have worked at sunrise and earned their income, and their lives have been both tense and steady. Later, Shao'an's classmate Liu Genmin (deputy director of Shibijie Commune) introduced Shao'an to help the construction site pull bricks, in the process of pulling bricks, Shao'an saw the shortage of bricks and tiles, so he used the money earned from pulling bricks to open a brick kiln, made a lot of money, was elected by the commune as a top household, and participated in the original West County "Kufu Meeting". Sun Shaoan was deeply stimulated by the more imposing pretender Hu Yonghe, who felt that he could not be satisfied with the status quo and should let go of his hands and feet to develop his career. After the end of the "Kwafhu Society", he managed to take out a loan to buy a brick machine and expand the scale of the brick kiln. Hu Yonghe passed on a lot of business know-how to Shao'an, and Shao'an also learned to entertain and give gifts, and life has forced a closed countryman to open up to the outside world.
With the boom in Shao'an's business, many relatives and neighbors in the village begged to do odd jobs in his brick kiln. Shao'an couldn't bear to look at the plight of the villagers, and a solemn sense of responsibility rose in his heart. So he borrowed another 10,000 yuan to expand the brickyard and hired more than 30 people in the village as laborers. Unfortunately, the brick-burning master he hired with a high salary this time was a liar, and Sun Shaoan's bricks were all burned. He could not afford to repay the loan and could not afford to pay the wages of the village helpers. Everyone immediately looked at him in a different light. Some have started to say sarcastic things. Shao'an trembled in the night wind like a bird with its wings broken by a storm.
People are often vulnerable. But people are the most tenacious. With Xiulian's encouragement, Shao'an once again struggled to take a step forward and re-embarked on the journey of entrepreneurship. He borrowed some money from Hu Yonghe, and his father Sun Yuhou also took out the pension money. Shao'an's brick kiln began to ignite. Billowing black smoke shot up fiercely into the sky, once again enveloping the southern sky. After the first batch of bricks came out of the kiln, they were sold out within three days. The money owed to everyone in the village was paid off immediately. After the collapse of the brickyard learned the lesson of failure, the second take-off developed at an astonishing speed. In less than two years, profits have flowed into Shao'an's pocket.
Shao'an's courage gradually grew. When he heard that the commune's township-run brick and tile factory, which was about to close down, was going to be contracted to run by an individual, he immediately rushed to sign the contract. At this time, Hu Yonghe found Shao'an again and encouraged Shao'an to go with him to sponsor a TV station to shoot TV, Shaoping immediately stopped him when he found out, and persuaded him to use this money to do something practical for the people in the village. Shao'an funded the rebuilding of Shuangshui Village Primary School. On the day the school was completed, county and township leaders came to attend the "inauguration ceremony" in person. Shao'an's wife Xiulian suffered from lung cancer at this time, and there are endless ups and downs in life waiting for this farmer entrepreneur to taste.
The two brothers, Shao'an and Shaoping, complete their exploration of life in different ways, and in this ordinary world, they are the real sons of the earth.
Brilliant chapter recommendation
1. "The First Confession of Heartfelt Love" (Chapter 14 of Volume 1) Li Dengyun, deputy director of the County Revolutionary Committee, proposed to Runye for his son Li Xiangqian, Runye asked Shao'an to discuss, and confided his true feelings to Shao'an, Shao'an was both happy and painful. This description makes Shao'an's simplicity and kindness, and Runye's shyness and bravery leap onto the page, and it is heartwarming to read.
2. "The First Flight of the Eagle" (Volume 3, Chapter 14) Sun Shaoping, who ended his teaching career in Shuangshui Village, came to Huangyuan City to break into the world despite the obstacles of his family. He did the heavy work of carrying stones, gritting his teeth and accepting the test like an ox. The hardships and greatness of life are powerfully presented here.
3. "Bitter Love" (Volume 4, Chapter 50) Li Xiangqian sawed off his legs due to a car accident, and all thoughts were lost. At this time, Runye took the initiative to come to his side. He closed his eyes and savored the fruits of his hardship, letting tears flow down his cheeks. Human nature, human affection and human kindness burst out with heart-palpitating brilliance in an instant.
4. "Transcending the Self" (Chapters 53 and 54 of Book 6) These are the last two chapters of the book.
Shao'an funded the rebuilding of the school, and Shaoping returned to the coal mine after recovering from his injuries. In this ordinary world, the brothers continue to surpass their own limitations and compose a song of vitality of youth and life.
Wonderful language excerpts
△ The person who can't be defeated by difficulties is the real man! Masculinity should be primarily an intrinsic quality, not something that can be shown by "makeup" and performance.
△ Life has a broader meaning, it is not about what we get from buying: the key is whether our soul is full. The ideal of life should be as pious and enthusiastic as a religious believer should be for religion.
△ What dies is only the shell, and life will be nirvana, and it will live forever in another form. As long as spring does not die, life does not die, and there will be flowers that welcome spring and bloom every year.
△ Women are wine, which makes you confused; Women are water again, colorless, tasteless, ruthless and meaningless.
△ Leave the night to the ghosts, the day should belong to people..
△ Friendship between people does not depend on whether they are relatives or not. Yes, when we were young, we often thought of the word relative as beautiful and important, and once we grew up and began to live independently, we soon learned that kinship is often vulgar, trying to get rid of each other, and rolling our eyes when we can't; Even the biggest difficulties in your life are often caused by your relatives; Life will also tell you that relatives are often not as sincere to you as friends.
△ People have to break into the world and live a lifetime in peace, it is better to die after a few beatings. Even if you suffer a little hardship, as long as you can go through some more worldly things, you will not regret dying.
△ The nobility and lowliness of the profession cannot explain the value of a person's life. The honey of life brewed through a lot of hardships is definitely more delicious than the one that can be easily obtained.