Lao Jia:

Knowing that you are writing a new book, the long letter written blindly a month ago, listening to you talk about what you wrote, as well as some of your thoughts, I can't help myself, and then I will write you some of my thoughts after listening, which can also be regarded as a continuation of the previous letter.

Tell me about my understanding of "stance" and "perception".

Let's start with the position.

Looking at a cup of drinking water, the angle is not important, because the scale of the cup is too small, you can see through it at a glance and see the whole. Looking at a detached house, the importance of angle is revealed. It's not the same thing to look from the front as from the back, and it's another thing to climb up the tall tree in front of the house and look down. Where you stand and where you look, which position you stand for, is your position.

Looking at a mountain is not the same as looking at a river. The mountains are quiet, but the seasons change. The river flows from moment to moment, but the seasons do not change much (except for the rivers in the north). Looking at the mountains, looking outside the mountains, is different from seeing in the mountains. Looking at the bottom of the mountain is not the same as seeing it from the top of the mountain. The attitude of the inhabitants of the mountain is also different from that of tourists outside the mountain. Looking at the river, looking at it from the shore, it's not the same as looking at it from the boat. It's not the same when viewed horizontally versus vertically. Looking down the river is more different from looking up and going against the current. The fish in the water, the people on the shore, and what Confucius said in "the river" all have their own positions.

Looking at life and society is more complicated than looking at mountains and rivers, but the concept of "position" is the same, and different angles produce different effects.

In the 80s, writers were "spokespersons", writing about agriculture, speaking for farmers, writing about industry, military, and even education, speaking for different industries, that is, standing on different standpoints. Today's times speak of "spokespersons". The difference between the spokesperson and the spokesperson, one word, is not a small change. The spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, and even the spokesperson of the Taiwan Affairs Office are also talking about "local interests," but they are talking about local interests in the overall environment.

Economics is now broken down into two types, macroeconomics and microeconomics. Macroeconomics refers to the basic principles of material and employment relations affected by the circulation of money and commerce, and is the general framework. It was a boxing ring, there were two people fighting on the stage, and a referee, surrounded by spectators, and there were people selling tickets at the door. Microeconomics refers to price indices, business cycles, and also the means of business operations. It is how two people fight in the boxing ring, whether the real fight is fake, whether the referee is fair, how the surrounding spectators place bets, whether the owner of the boxing ring has a dark box operation, people's interest in boxing at this stage, and so on.

Macroeconomics is big, and so is microeconomics. The difference is that you look at the problem from a different angle. The market economy and the planned economy are macro categories. The financial crisis brought about by Americans today is microscopic. There is a law between the market and the plan, and there is a law for the financial crisis.

The planned economy is socialist, and the market economy is capitalist. This judgment was overturned. China's development practice also proves that social progress is not such a clear one-size-fits-all thing. Another point is that, according to the previous theory, human society is moving forward in this way, primitive society - slave society - feudal society - socialism (capitalism) - communism. Now that something has happened to the capitalist system, the global financial crisis, is capitalism out of work? Is the next step socialism or communism?

Now that we have achieved success in the initial stage of socialism, the next step is the intermediate stage, and the next stage is the advanced stage? This is the way to evaluate the professional title, but what should we do when we reach the advanced level?

Where is God? Where is the way out and the future of mankind? God, light the magic lamp quickly, because the Americans are going to Mars, and we in China are also eager to try. Is that an inevitable way? Or is it a way to survive? Is Mars Noah's Ark?

Specific to your works, a series of your novellas in the 80s, such as "Shangzhou Sanlu", and novels such as "Impetuous", are from the perspective of farmers. At that time, you did not hesitate to stand like that, but in the 90s, you hesitated, and in the 21st century, you hesitated. Where you stand hasn't changed, but what you see has changed.

First "Waste Capital", "White Night", "Tumen", "Gao Laozhuang", and then "Missing the Wolf", "Happy" and then "Qin Cavity", your views and attitudes towards society have been "crossing the river by feeling the stones".

"Happy" is a variant, a "flower cavity" between the big plays.

There is one thing I have to say, because it is from my heart. From "Waste Capital" to "Qin Dialect", what I read is a "sense of the scene", "a sense of the present", a "present continuous tense", and I have not yet read "later", "future", and "prophecy".

"Dream of the Red Chamber" is a prophetic book. But "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a book about "laws".

There are two kinds of social laws in China: one is the "deductive method", "30 years in Hedong, 30 years in Hexi", 1919 to 1949 is 30 years, 1949 to 1979 is 30 years, and 1979 to 2009 is 30 years. There is also a saying that "five hundred years out of a true dragon son of heaven", the basis for this is very mysterious, according to the celestial phenomena.

The second law is the "inductive method", the Qin Emperor and the Han Dynasty, the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Republic of China, and the People's Republic of China, which are the changes of the times, with a beginning and an end.

The inductive method is macroeconomics, and the deductive method is microeconomics.

The "law" of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is among the microscopic.

You have internal cultivation in "Easy Learning", "Mysterious", as well as "Celestial Phenomena" and "Star Emblem", can you converge in the book when writing a new book?

On that day, you talked a lot about "land" and land policy. It's a good point, but there are also some issues that can be studied.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's greatest contribution to China lies in the word "people", and his "Three People's Principles" have contributed to the creation of the world.

In the past, the land of China belonged to the emperor alone. The soil is the emperor's land, the people are the subjects, and the pillars are also the slaves. Since Mr. Zhongshan, Vientiane has been renewed, the people's league has the wish of independence, the name of the country is first "Republic of China", and then "People's Republic of China", although there is still some old atmosphere, but the clouds have opened, the light has shone in, and the calculation is that from Mr. Zhongshan to the present, only a hundred years have passed, and compared with the "unified imperial system" of two thousand years, the time is too short. It will take a while for the "common people" to change themselves.

When you talked about land policy that day, and when you talked about distributing land to the peasants and then taking it back, you still stood on the concept of the imperial system and the emperor, and put the state and the people against each other.

For example, in the early 80s, the land was allocated to agricultural production contracts, because we had to care about the food of hundreds of millions of peasants. After entering the 90s, the development of cities required a large amount of land, and the most difficult things of reform were exposed, because the land belonged to the entire Chinese people, peasants, and urban people, and the focus of contradictions was concentrated in the urban-rural junction zone.

The land is not just for the peasants, it is part of the reform. It is only because the Chinese population is large and eating is a big thing that there is the term "basic farmland".

On the basis of "the land belongs to the peasants", I feel that I am on the wrong side.

Reform is the concept that is changed.

Let's talk about the ideas in the reform.

Land and Pastoral

Agrarian thinking and pastoral economy are the core values of our tradition.

When my daughter Mu Yi was in the first grade of junior high school, you wrote a bookmark to her, "First-class people are loyal and filial sons, and two things are to study and cultivate the fields." She had been pressed under the glass pane of her desk. In the past, Chinese were two things, reading and ploughing, and many people had a door plaque written on the gatehouse: ploughing and reading heirlooms. A general, after his great military exploits, must "disarm and return to the field", and when the prime minister of the dynasty seeks to hide, it is called "telling the old man to return to his hometown". But today's lieutenant generals or ministers, retired, the state gives pensions, not land.

In the past, the land was the foundation of a person's life, and the generals and ministers, the emperor wanted to give the land, and he also had to use his power to enclose the land. Merchants who do big business also have to buy land in the countryside, and those who have no land are barnyard grass, which is blown away by the wind. Land is the basic reference for judging the value of a family or a person. The distinction between large households, solid households, and dilapidated families is based on land. Those who have land are called landlords, and those who work on other people's land are called peasants. Peasants are not occupations, they are synonymous with status, just as civil servants were called lords in the past. The uneven ownership of land was the fundamental cause of social instability and even turmoil in the past, and the main reason for the "rise of the pole" was that the peasants had no way to live.

In the past, poems or articles were written about pastoral music and homeland feelings, which were the "main theme", because it was the core value at that time. The word wanderer is said for the homeland, and the homesickness of the wanderer is also a "main theme".

Today, the peasants have their own land, and they have a share per capita. When the ownership of the land is unequal, the landlords are the most, the rich peasants are the lesser, and the poor peasants and hired peasants are the poor. If something is divided equally, the inner magic of that thing will decline until it disappears. In terms of general trends, farmers are now professionals.

The connotation of the word peasant has changed.

It's just that this change has yet to be clarified and recognized.

For example, "small town construction" and "new rural construction" are contradictory; "small town construction" is to relieve the pressure on big cities because a large number of peasant workers have moved to the cities; and the purpose of "new rural construction" is similar, to attract peasants back to the land. This policy has not been very effective, so it has created an image of "new migrant workers" in the city, issued urban hukou to some outstanding farmers, and let the children of migrant workers go to school nearby.

The book "Happy" foreshadows this contradiction and embarrassment, but it would be better to choke on the spicy flavor.

About "Questioning"

How a writer "questions" reveals a lot of things about himself, knowledge, vision, open-mindedness, insight and insight, and can also see taste.

There are three types of questioning:

1. A person really doesn't understand the kind that the student asks the teacher;

2. Showing off common sense, such as 100,000 whys, is in the category of popular science.

These two aspects are one and are not in the realm of literature.

The second is to see, see, look, and be provoked. People who hold this kind of skepticism must remind themselves that they have seen far enough, are they short-sighted, and what do they think about ten or fifty years from now?

The law of society is the general trend, and how to move forward is "determined by heaven".

A strong ** makes people rejoice; a weak ability, rushed, and constantly makes people depressed. Essentially, these two situations are the same thing, and people's jubilation or discouragement are "the authorities are confused", both are "in this mountain".

The excitement or frustration of a good writer shouldn't be here.

The third type of questioning is science fiction-esque, self-assertive, whimsical, and sky-high prices.

There is also the basic question of questioning, that is, from what standpoint to question.

There was a philosopher in ancient Greece who used to sleep in a large clay pot, and Alexander the Great knew about it and asked him, "Is there anything you need my help with?" The philosopher opened his eyes and said, "Thank you very much, please take a step away and do not block my light." ”

Some interpret it as the wisdom of philosophers, and that light is not something that the emperor can bestow.

Some people read that they are not afraid of imperial power.

Inherent in both interpretations is skepticism. Actually, philosophers don't think about it at all. He didn't think about anything other than not blocking the light.

There are many problems with our "interpretations", such as the downfall of Confucius's travels around the world because many princes and kings did not buy his account. Reading Zhuangzi is to stay away from the political whirlpool and have heaven and earth in mind. Qu Yuan fell out of favor with the King of Chu, Li Bai "couldn't get on the boat when the Son of Heaven called", and how Su Shi was, how Wang Anshi and so on.

The voice of "questioning" is too close to politics! It seems to be standing in the courtyard of the government and looking out. Politics is the heart of society, but literature has to rise.

About "Lead" and "Lag"

The literature of the 80s was hot and had many readers. Writers look at social issues accurately and have a good pulse. For example, "The Class Teacher", "Garland Under the Mountain", "The Position of Love" and so on, it was the early stage of the reform, the glacier had just thawed, and the trees on both sides of the bank had just grown tender leaves.

However, with the progress of society, writers do not see society very clearly, not dazzling, but the social structure is pluralistic and more postureful. The writer's vision is no longer "ahead of its time". You can make a comparison and put writers, economists, sociologists, medical scientists, military scientists, legal experts, and scientists together. Writers not only look at society as "ahead of their time", but even have a gap. The fundamental reason for the indifference of literary magazines and the sense of loss of most writers lies in this gap.

To analyze this problem, it is clear to look at the table of contents of some literary magazines. If you look at the title in the table of contents, you can see what the writer sees and thinks in his heart. Many literary magazines can't sell, not because of the "marginalization of literature", but because the writers are "lagging behind". If the writer writes something that is not at the level of social anxiety or social progress, if he cannot hear the rhythm of the difficult progress of social civilization, and if he cannot hear the sound of the wheels of ideas rolling on the railroad tracks, such literature is destined to be unpopular.

I'm a little sleepy, so I'll write about it here first.

Scribbling so much, I really want to read your next new book that you enjoy even more.

Mu Tao

2009.10.27