It was before the National Day, and the newspaper page was going to publish an interview with a cultural celebrity, and I interviewed Lu Wenfu. Teacher Guan Yurou who opened the door heard my intentions and smiled and said that Lao Lu was in the study upstairs.
Mr. Lu's study on the second floor is very spacious, in fact, it is a large room, with the function of combining a typical study and a parlor. From the back window, you can see the river and the Ginkgo Bridge. About to see that I was a little restrained, Lu Wenfu smiled and said to Teacher Guan: "Liu Fang's aunt Guan", go make tea for the guests! And said to me: If you follow the line of "alumni", then I and you can be called "social friends", because you and your aunt are both employees of the newspaper. These few words blurted out, and immediately made me a lot more relaxed. Mr. Lu declined my interview. He said that he should interview those who have something to say, he thinks that he can't say much new feelings in the previous interviews, so why waste the page. But he welcomed me to his house and talked about topics of mutual interest. For example, that day, he talked to me about a foreigner writing about Suzhou, of course, there are shortcomings than the local growing Suzhou people - do not know the customs, do not know the special meaning of dialect slang, it is inconvenient to slowly tell the folk customs of the people and sophistication; but there is also a corresponding advantage that the locals do not have, that is, freshness, for some unique cultural phenomena in Suzhou, in the eyes of the locals, accustomed to ignoring, but outsiders feel very interesting, along with the exploration, you can have a superior discovery. This is the truth of "living in the room of Youlan for a long time without smelling its fragrance", without too much bondage to be able to easily fight, but there is bold curiosity and doubt, which is of great benefit to writing.
Lu Wenfu Image source: Visual China
Mr. Lu talked about the advantages of writing in Suzhou, in fact, there is an element of encouragement to me, and more from his personal experience - he himself is an outsider in Suzhou.
Suzhou Middle School was facing the enrollment of the whole province, and he was admitted to Suzhou Middle School from Taixing Qiwei (now Taixing Hongqiao Town) in northern Jiangsu Province to attend high school (later, according to his classmates, Lu Wenfu's original name was "Lu Jigui", and his name was changed by himself when he entered high school, the meaning is clear, that is, he does not want to be a rich and noble official and nobleman, but is willing to be a "Yijie Wenfu"). Wenfu did not speak Suzhou dialect when he first entered Suzhou Middle School, in contrast, the Jiangbei accent of Taizhou dialect is more rustic, I don't know if it is the reason for this that he is thin and tall, he does not like to speak, but he flashes his big eyes and quietly listens to people. Like those writers who grew up in different places, Lu Wenfu has another layer of "xiangguan" cultural background or "birthmark", they speak the authentic local dialect, "lurking", but have the advantage of "hybridization", and unconsciously become a thriving. Today, Mr. Lu speaks Mandarin with me, which is more standard.
Lu Wenfu also compared Fan Xiaoqing among the writers with Su Tong. He said that Fan Xiaoqing is very familiar with the people of Suzhou, she actually has the cultural background of foreigners, the work contains atmosphere in peace, it will definitely be "blue out of blue and better than blue"; Su Tong is an authentic native, of course, he is a genius, his "Wives and Concubines in Groups" is written in the story of the ancient city of Jiangnan in the twenties and thirties, but it is written with flesh and blood, vivid and vivid, greatly beyond his own life experience, and the future is unlimited.
What left the deepest impression on me was Lu Wenfu's understanding of Suzhou culture. He said that Suzhou is the most exquisite place, Su embroidery is very famous, Suzhou gardens, alleys, jade carving wood carving, light products and food, all have the charm of Su embroidery. He writes novels, believing in "novel novels, from a small place", not greedy, must write a piece is one, like the famous restaurants in Suzhou, to have people's memorable signature dishes, do not make "fast food" box lunch, after eating the box to throw away the content. His short story "The Wall" is only more than 10,000 words, and from the first draft to the final revision, the number of words written before and after is at least five times higher. He quoted Confucius's "Analects" argument that "food is not boring, and it is not boring", saying that people today have two absolutely opposite understandings, one is to advocate that the finer the grain to eat, the better, and the finer the meat, the better; the other explanation is not to eat too much because the food is delicious. In fact, in his view, this refinement can also be understood as the consciousness of serving others, such as the work of writers and editors should be as fine as possible. Therefore, he edited the "Suzhou Magazine" in the rare years, not only must each draft be read, some rhetoric and punctuation are inaccurate, he must start to revise. I also clearly felt that he was also encouraging me, the editor of the newspaper's supplement.
It can be seen that Mr. Lu Wenfu misses the life of the newspaper quite much. He recalls working as a photojournalist in a newspaper, using a camera that was relatively poor at the time, and sometimes to have a bird's-eye view, he had to climb a tree and ride on a tree branch to shoot. He was in his early twenties and began writing novels as a journalist. The public debut work is called "Moving The Wind", of course, it is the meaning of "changing customs and customs", the theme is to write about the prohibition of gambling in the countryside, and the character modeling and narrative language obviously have traces of news communications, but the text is full of spirit inside and outside. By 1956, when he was 28 years old, the short story "Deep in the Alley" was a national hit, and he turned into a professional writer with this gorgeous turn. Through the rebirth process and complex psychological state of a prostitute who was once sold into prostitution in the new society, the novel boldly expanded the field of expression of the subject matter, which was well received, and laid the foundation for the source of water and wood of his "alley literature" in one fell swoop. Later, due to political persecution, Mr. Lu was sent to work in factories and farms for twenty years, eating up the hardships of life, but at the same time, he also stared at the depths of life with a deeper gaze, and made new explorations in the depth of shaping characters and pioneering life. The alleys of the ancient city are still the specimens of Lu Wenfu's dissection of society and life.
Suzhou in the 1960s in the lens of a French photographer Image source: Visual China
There was a lot of talk that afternoon, and it would have been very easy if I had compiled an interview based on that. But I respected Mr. Lu's wishes, and promised him at the beginning not to write an interview, so that he was willing to talk to me about everything. I didn't write the interview as agreed. Since then, I have met Mr. Lu several times, and I saw that there were people around him talking, which was not convenient to disturb, but they smiled and nodded to each other, which was a greeting. Once at the Taihu Pen Meeting, Mr. Lu was sitting in a wheelchair, and when he got on the elevator, I wanted to get a chance to get close to him first, but when I saw Su Tong on the side, I still knew how to "let Xian". Mr. Lu also smiled and asked Su Tong to carry him into the elevator. I looked at them from behind and connected with details about their original names. Mr. Lu's original name was "Lu Jigui", Su Tong's original name was "Tong Zhonggui", they all did not love wealth and nobility by nature, but they all used their painstaking efforts and talents to give their mother city nobility. In my understanding, Lu Wenfu is deeply in love with Suzhou, the second hometown, he not only used his "sweet and sour realism" (writer Wang Jia sentence) to write the charm of Suzhou, but also recommended the TV art master Liu Lang to direct "Six Records of Su Garden", dubbed by the famous announcers Fang Ming and Lin Ru of "Yangguang", which was a great success. People are fond of his novels "Foodie", "Well", "Hawker Family", "Qinggao", which is also due to his great dedication to each work. It is said that his earliest national short story award, "Dedication", put forward a major proposition of respecting knowledge and respecting talents, and with the conscious dedication of intellectuals and the image of urging people to forge ahead, it shows the author's unconventional artistic vision and artistic consciousness of the first half-beat. Compared to the writers who "play a good hand of cards badly", he can always play a good hand of ordinary cards. If he has a good hand, he must play even more amazingly. Just like the same ingredients, the dishes served on the table are very different, and a good cook can always deduce what is exquisite.
On July 9, 2005, Mr. Lu bid farewell to the ancient city of Suzhou, which he loved forever. On that day, a fellow writer from Shanghai came to Suzhou to offer condolences, which touched many people. This writer's name is Chen Cun. I didn't see the scene in person, I didn't even see the photos, and I couldn't take pictures and upload them anytime and anywhere as I do now with my smartphone. I learned about the situation from a friend's phone. He said that Chen Cun in Shanghai carried a wreath alone, hunched over his waist, took a train to Suzhou, and rushed to Teacher Lu's spiritual hall. The prayer flag-shaped paper belt of the wreath has handwriting, on one side is "Lu Wenfu Teacher Eternity" and on the other side is "Junior Chen Cun Jingban". Chen Cun's lumbar spine was not good, he couldn't straighten his waist, and his head and chest were the same"? "The shape bows at the same time and everywhere. He himself was silent, and wrote an essay called "Crooked Man's Self-Description", which was self-deprecating and embarrassing in pain, but it was funny. Suzhou writer Lu Wenfu died, and Chen Cun bent down from Shanghai to Suzhou, forming a huge symbol, turning the work of a writer in the bookstore into a maverick outside the bookstore.
I specifically asked, didn't you buy wreaths directly in Suzhou after arriving in Suzhou? The other party said, no, It was Chen Cun who specially carried it from Shanghai and came by train. I thought about it and felt that this was really in line with Chen Cun's personality. Only when the writer has a lot of energy, will he not know the circle. This wreath brought from Shanghai has not only touched a city, but at least touched the writers in this city. Until today, 14 years later.
Chen
I once went to the Temple of Earth Park in Beijing to find the artistic conception of "Me and the Temple of Earth" and sat quietly in the cooper bush for half a day. At that time, Stetson was still in his wheelchair and endured the hardships of being a human being. I asked several park staff members, and they didn't know who Stetson was. I also asked the driver and the waiter in the taxi and hotel in Gaoyou, whether they knew Wang Zengqi in the city, and replied that they did not know. I was very disappointed, but now, I am relieved. Readers, just need to remember the work or the characters in the work, the name of the writer is actually not very important. But between the writers, a wreath from Shanghai to Suzhou by train, a paper wreath, passed on a lot to their books.
Caption: Xuanmiao Panoramic View, Source: Visual China
Column Editor-in-Chief: Wu Bin Text Editor: Wu Bin