Chinese Writers Network • Read with you ·
Author: Liu Xinglong
Publisher: Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House
Publication time: 2024-07
In the 60s of the 20th century, the bronze heavy weapon Jiuding Qigui was unearthed, according to the ritual system, the Son of Heaven Jiuding, should be equipped with eight Gui. Why the Nine Tripods and Seven Gui are missing has become an unsolved mystery in the archaeological community.
Ma Yuezhi, an expert who swore not to touch bronzes, returned to the bronze research site because of an early warning letter written in an oracle bone inscription and presided over the Jiuding Qigui research group. During the investigation, he found that the mystery of the human heart is far better than artifacts: some people regard the Nine Tripods and Seven Peaks as the steps to enter the body, some people take advantage of their positions to hide cultural relics, and some people use cultural relics to set up a bureau to spy on their fate, and he himself seems to be just a chess piece...... As the "Hearing Leak Worker" with the skill of hearing leakage surfaced, the mystery was gradually revealed, but there was still a more thrilling fate hidden in the world.
Liu Xinglong: Feel the passion of bronze
It seems to me that the novel requires both the writer and the reader to deal with texts that are heavier than Tarzan with a strategy as light as a feather.
In 2004, I came into contact with the national treasure-level bronze heavy vessel Zeng Hou Yizun plate for the first time, and a literary aura immediately flashed in my heart. Ten years later, in 2014, I published my novel "Pan Yu", which was based on Zeng Hou Yizun's plate. From "Pan Yu" to the newly completed "Hearing Leakage" (Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House), it took another 10 years. In the first 10 years, Zeng Hou Yizun plate was still "cold", displayed next to the "hot" Zeng Hou Yi bell, and few people cared about it. In the next 10 years, several friends in the archaeological field took turns to come up with ideas, suggesting that I had written "cold", then "hot", and then the famous Zeng Hou Yi chime.
Zeng Hou Yizun plate and the inscription at the bottom. Source: China Archaeological Network.
In the autumn of 2022, I met Fang Qin, then director of the Hubei Provincial Museum, at the Lu Xun Bookstore in Hanyang, and heard that I was writing about the Nine Tripods and Seven Tripods that were more secluded than the Zeng Hou Yizun plate back then, so he asked from a professional point of view: There is still a complete set of Nine Tripods and Eight Tripods in the Hubei Provincial Museum, why do you want to write the incomplete Nine Tripods and Seven Pavilions? In this regard, I jokingly explained that in 1966, the first complete set of 9 Liedings unearthed in Hubei Mountain, Hubei, caused a sensation in the cultural circles for a while, but there were only 7 matching them in terms of etiquette, which is incomprehensible. Was this missing one lost for some reason, or did it never exist at all? This innate suspense, like history leaving a stroke of genius, as long as it is mastered well, it is not twice the result with half the effort for writing, at least it can be close to the water.
When I first saw Zeng Hou Yizun 20 years ago, I was thrilled, and suddenly I got the hint that it could be written into a novel. When the launch ceremony of "Pan Yu" written according to this implication was held in the Hubei Provincial Museum, Director Fang Qin revealed after repeated confirmation that it was the time period when "Pan Yu" was printed, and the archaeological team excavated the hypothetical "Zeng Hou Bing" in "Pan Yu". Based on this unusual fate, the people present unanimously suggested that why not write a "bronze heavy weapon II" again. I have been talking about these words in my heart for two years, and once I was talking to my children at home about the hearing leakage work in my memory, and inspiration came. A few years ago, I heard the car radio, and there were more than a dozen leakage workers in the Shanghai Water Supply Company, who would lie on the ground of the old Shikumen with an iron rod in their hands in their hands and listen to the possible leakage of the water pipes underground. After saying this, he was stunned, and then told the children: "Bronze Heavy Weapon No. 2" can be written. After that, I turned on my computer, created a new document, and typed the word "hearing leak" on it.
Ever since I told my family about this unique hearing leakage, the children have been asking every once in a while, when will they start writing "Hearing Leakage"? In the fall of 2022, I finally started writing in earnest, and the happiest thing was not myself as a writer, but the children who have changed from undergraduate to doctoral students, and from middle school students to master's students. Years of accumulation have made the opening part go smoothly. By mid-December, nearly 100,000 words had been written. Unexpectedly, the threat of disease was looming, and a serious illness made me stay in the hospital for 21 days. After being discharged from the hospital, during the half year of recuperation at home, everything related to literature was left without a trace, and it was not until the summer of 2023, when my family went to Xiaoqiling on the top of Taohuachong in Yingshan County to escape the summer, that I turned on my computer again and continued to write "Hearing Leakage".
Although real life is not the only source of grace for literature, it is the greatest source of grace.
There is a sentence in "Hearing Leaks", "What is found in the form of archaeology, if it is not further perfected in the spiritual life of man, is not much different from the broken copper and iron that has been dug up." This sentence has the same meaning for writing in the name of literature. This is clearly about archaeology, but in fact it refers to all human behaviors, including healing. This should be the case after a serious illness as an individual, and it should be the same after a catastrophe as a society.
In the autumn, I spent four months alone in my house in the southern suburbs of Wuhan, writing "Hearing Leaks" and taking care of my family's vegetable patch and flowers, until the last day of the year, when the first draft of about 400,000 words was largely completed, and then I returned to my residence in the city center for the winter. Judging from the degree of coldness, around New Year's Day is the beginning of winter in Wuhan. Whether I'm writing the first draft in the suburbs or returning to the city center to revise the second and third drafts, I seem to be more concerned about the vegetables I grew with my own hands, as well as the black peonies and other flowers that my friends sent me all the way. As soon as I think of them, even the passages that need to be completed in one go, I don't hesitate to put them aside for a while, go to the vegetable patch or the garden, and carefully serve them before picking up the inspiration that I threw on the keyboard again.
I have been engaged in writing for many years, and this is the first time that I have gone from a young writer to an "old writer" in other people's mouths, and I really feel wonderful and interesting in the process of writing. After going back and forth from the garden to the study, or from the study to the garden, back and forth, I call this reaction a passion that I have never had before, and a passion that is completely different from cynicism but more reliable.
This winter is so bad that two freezing rains in quick succession have broken a lot of trees in the city center. The evergreen holly leaves and the budding camellia are all frozen into amber. When meditating on the revision of "Hearing Leakage", it can be heard through the double glazing, as if the world is exploding. When you get up and open the door to watch, you will easily be attracted by the crystal pendant-like ice cubes hanging on the leaves and buds for a long time. As soon as the frozen streets became passable, I drove to the shores of Lake Townsend to see the plants that grew with Hearing Leak as food and scenery. Spinach and Hongshan cabbage, which have always been fearless of the cold, have been destroyed by the cold like flue-cured tobacco leaves. In just half a month, all of them have come back to life. Looking back at the people of "Hearing Leakage", the matter of "Hearing Leakage" is actually inseparable from such a scene. Just as the harsh winter has its own unique beauty of the harsh winter, who would have thought that those tomb robberies would become funny stories in "Hearing Leaks", just like the naturally fermented cakes sprinkled in the vegetable field, which stink, but they complete the growing vegetables and make them delicious in the world.
Author: Liu Xinglong
Publisher: Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House
Publication date: April 2014
Ten years ago, shortly after the publication of one of my "bronze heavy objects", Pan Yu, on the occasion of the National Day, Director Fang Qin suddenly invited me to an archaeological excavation site in Zaoyang, and expressed in a very seductive tone that he had a hunch that important artifacts would be excavated there this afternoon. A few hours later, when we arrived at the scene, we really caught up with a bronze tripod that had just revealed its ears. After some step-by-step operation, a typical Chu Ding appeared in front of the world. Curator Fang Qin used a bamboo skewer to remove a piece of soil at the bottom of Chu Ding, and said casually: This is a practical device. Meaning, this is the utensils used by Chu Ding's owner for daily cooking. Under Fang Qin's guidance, I saw the fireworks in the world 3,000 years ago that remained on Chu Ding for the first time, and for the first time I felt that the majestic bronze heavy weapons could also be extremely friendly.
"If a person looks at the Stone Age with the eyes of his own time, and uses his teeth to taste the hair and blood of the primitive society with his teeth chewing the delicacies of the mountains and seas, he must be the most unproductive fool on the earth today." The sentence I conceived when I wrote "Hearing Leakage" was originally said in reverse, but before I started to write it, I figured out that the meaning of life is not to be demanding from others, but to find and make up for one's own shortcomings. Then a few words naturally poured out: "In the face of history, the bronze heavy weapon that can best reflect the spirit of the king is none other than Ding Gui." In glorious dynasties, bronze tripods will make this splendor even more brilliant. In a dynasty of decay, the bronze tripod will set off this exhaustion even more ruined. "From "Pan" to "Hearing Leakage", I have written two novels about "Bronze Heavy Weapon", almost 700,000 words, until I wrote these few sentences, I have a deeper understanding of "Bronze Heavy Weapon". Just as I experienced the illness at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, I learned about the relationship between literary creation and reclamation and vegetable planting. The kind of bronze heavy weapon that will show dignity until death, known as the Ming vessel, has no other use except for burial in the ground, and it is not a product of passion 3000 years ago, and it is a discarded object of passion after 3000 years. Just as the bronze heavy weapon is not only the bronze heavy object itself, after the novel is written, it is no longer about revolving around words, nor is it a half-pushed and half-made exchange between words and things for eating, drinking, and Lazar, it must be that the words in the pen have a wonderful blend with the flesh and soul that they perceive - only this kind of blending of you and me and me and you can be called passion.
People have long been familiar with the bell of Zeng Hou Yi, and later familiar with Zeng Hou Yi Zun plate, hidden in the depths of the museum Jiuding Qigui will sooner or later be familiar, familiar and unfamiliar bronze heavy weapons, faces look all cold, in fact, passion is the foundation of their life in history. Whether it's a writer or anyone else, it's a blessing to feel the passion that lies behind them. The same is true for life and literature, it can be said that passion needs to carry a mountain, it can also be said that passion can embrace a sea, and it can also be said that even if a person's passion cannot reach the whole human race, at least it is the rational and emotional resonance of a group and a society. Passion is stored in our bones, and only when we can truly and sensibly undertake and act can the energy of passion explode.
(Article source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, July 4, 2024, 7th edition)
About the Author
Liu Xinglong, born in the ancient city of Huangzhou, is currently the deputy director of the Novel Committee of the Chinese Writers Association and the honorary chairman of the Hubei Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles. His works have won the Mao Dun Literature Award, the Lu Xun Literature Award, the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award, the Hundred Flowers Award and the Huabiao Award. His main works include the novella "Phoenix Qin", "Carrying Tea Leaves to Beijing", and the novels "The Gate of Heaven", "Skywalker" and "Panyu". Many of his works have been translated into English, French, Korean, Japanese, Viet Nam, Hindi, Arabic, Poland and other languages.
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Typesetting: Xiao Yao
Editor: Liu Ya Second trial: Zhang Junping Third trial: Wang Yang