Literary Master 1978

In March 1981, Mr. Mao Dun, the leader of the Cultural Association, fell seriously ill. He made a decision on his hospital bed.

On March 14, dictated by him and recorded by his son Wei Tao, Mao Dun first wrote a letter to ZY requesting that he be posthumously recognized as DY after his death, and then dictated a letter to the SJ Office of the Association for Literary and Art Circles.

"Dear comrades, in order to promote the creation of novels, I will donate 250,000 yuan of my manuscript fee to the Writers Association to set up a literary prize fund for novels to reward the best novels every year. I know that I will not be sick for a long time. I sincerely wish that my country’s socialist literature will prosper.”

Two weeks later, on March 27, Mr. Mao Dun passed away at the age of 85.

On April 24, the Association for Literary and Art Circles held a leadership meeting, at which it was decided to elect Mr. Ba Jin as the new leader of the China Association for Literary and Art Circles and to establish the Mao Dun Literature Prize Committee.

In the past six months, the Literary and Art Association has been preparing for the award in accordance with Mr. Mao Dun's last wish. Various news about the award has already spread throughout the Chinese literary world.

"I mean your novel needs to be submitted for selection."

Lin Chaoyang looked at her with strange eyes, "Isn't it normal for one of my many novels to be shortlisted?"

His tone was calm, but Zhang Dening had the urge to punch him. But after thinking about it carefully, Lin Chaoyang seemed to be right.

The selection scope of the Mao Dun Literary Award is novels of more than 100,000 words published from 1977 to 1981.

Measured by this standard, "Parental Love", "Lai Zi's Summer", "The Death of Van Gogh", "The Master of Chess"... I don't know how to count them, but I was shocked to find that Lin Chaoyang actually had four novels that met the requirements.

Of course, these novels must first be screened by local literary associations, magazines, and publishing houses before they can be submitted.

Judging from the quality and influence of Lin Chaoyang's novels, they can almost certainly meet the submission standards and requirements.

Zhang Dening didn't know that there was a word in later generations called Versailles, which was usually used to describe Lin Chaoyang's state at this time.

She resisted the urge to complain about Lin Chaoyang and turned to Zhu Changsheng, "Old Zhu, aren't your Humanities Club going to submit his novel?"

"Well... there should be arrangements in this club. In the past few years, our club has published a lot of novels, so we need to sort them out."

Since the 1950s, the Humanities Society has been regarded as a literary temple by domestic writers and readers. What best reflects the authority of the Humanities Society is that in the past thirty years, many domestic classic literary masterpieces were written by them. Published.

From the 1950s, "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River", "Defending Yan'an", "Linhai Snowfield", "Song of Youth", "New Sons and Daughters of Heroes", "Wildfire Spring Wind Fighting the Ancient City" and "Great Changes in Mountains and Villages"

In the 1960s, "Sunny Day", "Song of Ouyang Hai", "We Sow Love", "The First Branch of the East Wind" and "The General Trilogy" were released.

Then to "The Fiery Age", "Shining Red Star", "Golden Avenue", "The Story of the Broad Sword", "Ten Thousand Mountains Are Red", etc., it is not an exaggeration to say that the Humanities Society carries half of China's contemporary literary world.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Humanities Society followed the excellent tradition of the previous decades and still published a large number of excellent works.

In the original list of winners of the first Mao Dun Literature Award, there were a total of six winning works, four of which were published by the Humanities Society.

The selection results of subsequent sessions are still similar to those of the first session, which shows the foundation and authority of the Humanities Society.

Listening to Zhu Changsheng's answer, Zhang Dening felt a little depressed as if he had shot himself in the foot.

They at "Yenjing Literature" counted for a long time to find "The Master of Chess", but as for the Renjia Literary Society, they grabbed a lot of works that met the submission requirements. There was no need to award awards, and they had to fight internally first.

It’s really hard to compare people to death, and you have to throw away goods when comparing goods!

Zhang Dening came to announce the good news with joy, but was hit one after another, making Zhang Dening depressed and unhappy, and his grief and anger turned into appetite.

Lin Chaoyang looked at her with disgust and whispered to Tao Yushu, "I just said she was using the excuse of announcing the good news to make a living."

Tao Yushu rolled her eyes at him, "Why don't you speak louder?"

After hearing Lin Chaoyang's words, Zhang Dening ate more.

All joking aside, Lin Chaoyang certainly understands Zhang Dening's good intentions.

His calmness is not an act, but stems from his confidence in his own achievements.

In the past few years, he has written four works with more than 100,000 words, and their influence is not small. It is impossible that he cannot even find one shortlisted work, right?

As for whether you can win the award, it depends on how the comrades on the awards committee operate.

"Chaoyang, don't you really consider joining the Cultural Association?" After dinner, Zhang Dening asked Lin Chaoyang while burping.

Lin Chaoyang understood what she meant. After all, he was not a member of the Literary and Art Association!

"So what if I join? If there is any favoritism happening, what can I, a junior who just joined the Literary and Art Association, do?

On the contrary, it only adds to the troubles, so it is better to let nature take its course. Awards are just the icing on the cake. Lu Xun and Ba Jin didn't have any awards at that time. "

Zhang Dening glanced at him upon hearing this, "It's like a toad yawning - such a loud tone!"

After Zhang Dening said this, she felt much better. It was a revenge for being laughed at just now. She immediately changed the topic to the main topic without giving Lin Chaoyang a chance to retort.

"But I think you still have a great advantage in this award."

Tao Yushu asked curiously: "What are the advantages?"

"He has a lot of works! If you count carefully, the four works "Parental Love", "Lai Zi's Summer", "Death of Van Gogh" and "Chess Master" all meet the conditions for the award, and their reputations are also good.

As long as the publishing house or magazine is willing to submit, it is not too much to have two works shortlisted, right?

Isn't the chance of winning greater than those writers who only have one work shortlisted?"

Tao Yushu sneered: "You still calculate it this way? Is this an award or a math competition?"

Zhang Dening said anxiously: "Don't disbelieve it, we Chinese are most willing to do things like muddying the waters. If Chaoyang really has four works shortlisted, even if the four works are not up to the level of winning works, do you believe it or not, someone will take the initiative to offer him an award?"

Tao Yushu looked at Lin Chaoyang with doubt, "Do you think it's really possible?"

Yes, it's possible.

The loser MVPs of various competitions in later generations have proved that Chinese people can really do such things, and they are not ashamed, but proud. After the award, they think they are leaders who are particularly humane, and publicly show off this unscrupulous behavior to the media.

In the eyes of these people, fairness, rules, and rule of law are just toys of power.

Lin Chaoyang threw away the flash of thoughts in his mind, and his face was calm, "This is what the judges consider, we don't need to worry about it."

Seeing that he looked calm, Tao Yushu no longer struggled.

Zhang Dening looked at Lin Chaoyang with suspicion, thinking, are you pretending too much?

The Literary Association launched the Mao Dun Literature Award, just like the wind blowing up a lake of spring water, causing a commotion in the Chinese literary world in October.

As long as there are writers who have published long works in recent years and whose works are quite influential, no one will not take this award to heart. After all, this is the first long novel award event in China.

Moreover, it is named after Mr. Mao Dun, so the value of the award is self-evident.

However, at this stage, the award office formed by the Literary Association has only sent letters to literary associations, magazines and publishing houses across the country to request recommended works. There is still some time before the official award, so no matter how concerned everyone is, it can only be discussed.

After late October, the autumn with bright sunshine has a bit more solemnity. The autumn in Yanjing has always been short-lived, often dying in less than two months. This year seems to be colder than in previous years.

Early in the morning, there was a thin mist outside, and Lin Chaoyang rode his bicycle out. He recently found a good place.

These days, Yanjing’s state-owned cultural relics stores have purchasing points, just like those trust stores, doing things like buying low and selling high.

Collect antiques from ordinary people at low prices and sell them at high prices. It is best to sell them to foreigners to earn foreign exchange. Some cultural relics that are identified as more important will be donated to museums.

Today is not like later times. First, antiques are not as valuable as later times. Second, there are not as many auction and private management channels for cultural relics trading in later times. If someone has antiques, they can only sell them to cultural relics shops in most cases.

At these cultural relics shops, citizens of Yanjing and farmers from the surrounding areas often come to sell things. Jewelry, diamonds, jade, gold and silver jewelry, calligraphy and painting, porcelain... There are purchase points for all kinds of antiques and cultural relics.

For example, Dongsi and Bamiancao have jewelry and jade purchase departments of the foreign trade department. The purchase point of the Bank of China specializes in purchasing gold and silver jewelry. The purchase points in Xidan and Liulichang collect calligraphy and painting, porcelain and other things.

Lin Chaoyang came to the Xinjiekou Cultural Relics Shop Purchase Point. The antiques purchased are of various types, including ceramics, calligraphy and painting, gold and jade, miscellaneous items and many other categories. Therefore, it is also a popular one among the many cultural relics shops in Yanjing.

When he came to the door of the purchase point, Lin Chaoyang did not approach it, but looked at the door of the purchase point from a distance.

At this time, the purchase point has not yet opened, and there are already several people waiting in line at the door.

Lin Chaoyang looked at the time. It was just after seven o'clock. There was still more than half an hour before the purchase point opened. There was still enough time.

There were not many people queuing at the door of the purchase point. There were only four people, young and old, but they all had a common feature: they were men and dressed simply. They were from the rural areas near Yanjing.

This situation was also very common in front of the purchase point. These people were basically in urgent need of money, such as the marriage of the younger generation, the illness of relatives, and the repayment of debts...

After a few words with these people, you can also see all the sufferings of the world in front of this small purchase point.

There have always been speculative antiquities dealers around the purchase point. Even in the years when the crackdown was the most severe, there were still the figures of these antiquities dealers.

Some of them were serious collectors, while some were side-sellers. They cheated and deceived people in every possible way. I don't know how many people have been cheated over the years, and most of them were rural people from the suburbs of Yanjing.

At this time, the people were simple and honest, and the rural people had no guard against going to the city to sell things, so the antiquities dealers targeted them.

Over time, these antiquities dealers became notorious. When ordinary people who came to buy things saw someone talking to them, they immediately became alert. Some people simply didn't even talk to them.

At this moment, Lin Chaoyang approached and talked to a few people, and they immediately looked alert.

"Comrades, don't get me wrong. I'm not a middleman. I just like collecting antiques."

Lin Chaoyang explained, and seeing that the alertness on the faces of several people was still there, he didn't say any sweet words like those antiquities dealers, but directly made his attitude clear.

"If you guys have any good stuff, you can let me see it. You can sell it to anyone, and the purchase point will give you RMB. I have some remittance certificates and foreign exchange certificates in my hand.

As long as the goods are good, we pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand. "

After listening to Lin Chaoyang's words, several people's eyes lit up.

Overseas remittance coupons and foreign exchange coupons are hard currencies, much more valuable than RMB. The key is that ordinary people have no channels to obtain these things.

"Are you really exchanging remittance certificates and foreign exchange certificates with us?"

The young man who spoke was wearing a washed-out military uniform and liberation shoes. It looked like someone in his family must be a soldier.

Lin Chaoyang did not speak, but took out a remittance coupon with a face value of 100 yuan from his pocket and waved it in front of several people.

Everyone felt relieved when they saw the overseas remittance coupons that were guaranteed to be genuine.

The young man was the first to approach Lin Chaoyang, "Look at this thing of mine, it was left behind by my great-grandfather."

The young man said as he took out a small, delicate object from his shoulder bag.