Li Guoping: In 2002, 45 years have passed in your literary career, how did you embark on the road of literature? Can you describe the initial beginning?

Chen Zhongzhong: Looking back, my literary career should be counted from a novel I wrote when I was in the second year of junior high school. It was an essay, and I wrote a novel called "The Storm in the Taoyuan," which was the first novel I wrote in my life. My interest, hobbies, and pursuits in literature began during this period. There were several factors that determined my later literary path, one was the influence of my family lineage, and the image of my father. The father was an authentic farmer, but somewhat literate. In his spare time when he couldn't work in the fields on rainy days, the difference between his father and the average peasant was revealed, and he always lay on the kang in his ancestral house and read classical novels and Qin operas. Second, when I was in my second year of junior high school, Chinese textbooks were divided into Chinese and literature, and I remember that a thick literature textbook included many works by modern and contemporary writers, including Zhao Shuli's short stories and Li Zhun's just-published "Can't Take That Road". I read their stuff and seemed to resurrect my experience of rural life as a teenager with a sense of intimacy and amazement. That's when I first developed the desire to borrow literary books. Then there is my junior high school Chinese teacher, surnamed Che, who just graduated from the Normal College, Mr. Che is probably a standard literature lover and literature enthusiast, he lectures on Chinese classes, and also tells us some interesting anecdotes and writers in the literary world at that time. Later, I wrote an essay "Embankment", which Mr. Che offered to copy for me and submit it to "Yanhe". This is the first time I've heard of "Yanhe". Mr. Che touched my literary nerves. I later said in an article that I didn't break through a layer of paper until I was fifty years old, and that literature was just a hobby. At that time, it was really pure interest and love.

Li Guoping: How many stages do you think your creation has gone through? Of course, "White Deer Plain" is a peak, how many peaks? How many turns?

Chen Zhongzhong: My literary creation has gone through three stages. In the first stage, starting from the occurrence and germination of creative desire, I set up a literary club in middle school, published a newspaper on the wall, and returned to my hometown after graduating from high school. After failing the college entrance examination, almost all the ways out of life were blocked, so I decided to engage in creation. In 1965, he published his debut novel "Night Over the Quicksand Ditch" in Xi'an Daily. Until 1978, it can be regarded as the first stage of my creation. From the initial hobby to being able to publish works, to attracting a certain amount of attention and repercussions, it is a long process, which includes basic training, learning and reference, as well as experience and lessons, and most importantly, it solves the problems of psychological self-confidence and inferiority complex in creation and the mystery of literature. The second phase lasted from about 1978 to 1986. In 1978, I was keenly aware of the arrival of literary spring, and literature could be used as a career. I was also transferred from the grassroots administrative department to the cultural unit, and I went to study, to reflect, and to convert to literature, which was almost a masochistic introspection. The process and purpose of stripping away is to use real literature to cleanse the non-literary factors in artistic feelings and rebuild the confidence of literature. This period was the most important turning point in my life and practice, and it solved the problems of introspection and self-consciousness. I remember that at that time, Mr. Cui Daoyi of "People's Literature" rushed from Beijing to a remote mountain village where I went to the countryside, and asked me to write a novel to make an appearance in "People's Literature", even if I wrote an essay and showed it to "People's Daily" first, otherwise some people would say that Chen Zhongzhong had already fallen down. I gritted my teeth and declined. I said that it is not a question of whether I am bright or not, it is up to me whether I lie down or not. I will comfort the reader in my own way. The deepening spiritual detachment at that time and later gave me a new life in literature. The third stage is the gestation, preparation, and creation period of "White Deer Plain". The biggest problem I faced during this period was whether I could complete my own creative ideals because I realized the connotation and historical content of "White Deer Plain", as well as the weakness of artistic expression.

Li Guoping: In your literary career, you have met many literary predecessors, literary editors, literary friends and poets, such as Wang Wenshi, Lu Zhenyue, Meng Wanfu, Xu Jianming, Zhang Yuegeng, Li Xiashu, He Qizhi, they can be said to be your mentors and friends, and they have always given you great support at important junctures in your creation.

Chen Zhongzhong: That's true, I have met many mentors and friends on the road of literature. The editor I was dealing with had planned to write a series of articles, but it hasn't been finished yet. I have never been close to these friends, and it is purely a literary exchange, exchange and love. In 1971, I didn't write for four or five years. Zhang Yuegeng was worried about me, asked someone to find me in the countryside, and urged me to publish the essay "Shining Red Star" in the "Xi'an Daily", which can be said to be Zhang Yuegeng reawakened my literary dream. That's it, we have been dating for thirty-one years, gentlemen's friends. The editor in charge of my first collection of novels, "The Village", was Comrade Xing Liangjun. Many of my literary friends and editorial friends have appeared at important junctures in my creation, and every step of my creation has been watered by their hard work, and my friendship with them has been tested by life for a long time, which is my luck, and I think the best way for me to repay them is to create.

Li Guoping: Along with your literary career, you have experienced different occupations, what was the original motivation for your creation? Is there a utilitarian purpose? When do spiritual things become dominant? Do they develop in parallel with the change of occupation? Are spiritual things clear together with embarking on the path of professional creation?

Chen Zhongzhong: As I said, in the initial stage, it was purely a hobby. In high school, I had the dream of being a writer. I recently wrote an article entitled "I Passed by the Military Emblem", which was about the situation during the difficult period of three years after I graduated from high school, when I failed to join the army, failed to take the college entrance examination, failed to recruit workers, and almost every path and every longing in my life was blocked, and as an intellectual youth, I was not willing to be a peasant or a private teacher with only 60 or 70 students, so I concentrated my efforts on taking the road of literary creation. The creative impulse of the early eighties was almost accompanied by the fate of literature. The creation of "White Deer Plain" can be said to be a realization of the value of my life and the meaning of life, we writers from peasant backgrounds, devote ourselves to literature, we cannot say that there is no motivation to change the state of existence and destiny of life, the process of secularity and spiritual stripping is difficult to mechanically divide, it is difficult to say which writer has embarked on the professional road, he has been stripped clean, I feel that this has something to do with the writer's realm and the depth of understanding of literature.

Li Guoping: Your life course and creative process have formed an isomorphic relationship with the ups and downs of the Republic, and your fate and creation have also had ups and downs.

Chen Zhongzhong: I started going to school in the 50s and was exposed to life. Since the 60s, as the most grassroots cadre in society, he has directly participated in social life and directly experienced and felt the changes in the destiny of the country and the nation. The process of national change and progress is also a process of detachment and spiritual upliftment of my soul again and again. It can be said that not only I, Chen Zhongzhong, but also any achievement of literature in the new period is inseparable from the background of ideological emancipation and reform and opening up. If such ability is a little worse, it will be squeezed by the train of life, and there will be no talk of spiritual stripping and spiritual growth.

Li Guoping: You said that when you were in your 40s, you had a kind of fear and vigilance, and when you were 50 years old, you had a lot of life alertness, what is your state of mind now?

Chen Zhongzhong: When I conceived and created White Deer Plain, I had a sense of crisis, fear, and urgency, and I felt that the age of 50 was an age mark, and in those years, there were constant reports of intellectuals dying young, and what I was afraid of was whether my most important artistic feelings, artistic ideals, and most important creations could be completed. Now I am at peace, mainly because the creative ideals that I realized at that time have been fulfilled at my most important age. My 60-year-old life is the same as my 50-year-old life, and there is no negativity in my attitude towards life and creation. The pursuit of a new realm of art and the pursuit of the meaning of life should all permeate into life.

Li Guoping: I remember that in the 80s, when the "Orion Constellation" came out, I asked an old man from the people to watch it, and the old man said that the victory of the sun will not defeat the foreigners. This can be said to be the embodiment of the creative aspirations and ambitions of your group of writers, and "White Deer Plain" can also be said to be the embodiment and practice of this literary ambition.

Chen Zhongzhong: Yes, "White Deer Plain" is inseparable from the promotion of the atmosphere of Shaanxi's literary scene at that time. Later, I wrote an article called "Crowding Each Other, Aiming for the Sky", which was about the literary atmosphere of the time. At that time, there were dozens of writers in our group, like-minded, pure, motivating each other, stimulating wisdom, not to be left behind, and competing in a positive sense. It can be said that everyone's success at even one step is inseparable from mutual encouragement. Lu Yao and Zhi'an have passed away. The current literary environment has been somewhat pathogenic due to the influence of the social environment, such as impetuousness, such as hype, and what I want to encourage each other with young writers is to persevere.

Li Guoping: In an interview between Li Xing and you, you mentioned that when you wrote White Deer Plain, you had two estimates, one was that it could not be published, and the other was that once it was published, it would definitely have repercussions. After the publication of "White Deer Plain", there were even stumbles in the evaluation process of the Mao Dun Literature Award, and it seems that the recognition and praise of readers and the literary community have formed a contrast with a certain statement, and the subsequent situation does not show the progress of the country, the progress of thought, and the progress of literature?

Chen Zhongzhong: There can be various comments about "White Deer Plain". The progress of our country is remarkable both economically and ideologically, and "White Deer Plain" has not yet risen to such heights. If there is a misunderstanding about "White Deer Plain", it is just a small episode and a small wave in the development of literature. In retrospect, every trend of thought in literature since the new period has caused controversy, and every conclusion has brought literature closer to literature itself.

Li Guoping: In a more important period, Shaanxi's literary creation was taught by Liu Qing, and you are one of the representatives. In recent interviews with you, you have talked a lot about foreign writers, is it true that your literary resources come mostly from foreign writers, especially Latin American writers?

Chen Zhongzhong: Many writers in Shaanxi have indeed studied and learned from Liu Qing. I don't think we have read enough about Liu Qing's legacy. Like Zhao Shuli, Liu Qing, and Wang Wenshi, we will still gain many new things if we reread them today. Later, Shaanxi writers had a process of getting out of Liuqing, and there was a sentence "It is good to enjoy the shade under the big tree", and there was also a sentence that "no seedlings grow under the big tree", and there was a problem of self-reliance here. My reading of foreign writers is not only Latin America, but also Western European and Russian literature, but I have been reading Latin American literature a lot lately. In addition, when I read foreign literature, I not only focus on artistic things, but mainly find ideological enlightenment there. Speaking of which, by the way, I don't pay much attention to traditional literature, which may have something to do with the education I received, classical culture, classical literature is the weak side of my literary resources, and now I have a strong desire to make up classes, but I understand quickly and have a poor memory.

Li Guoping: There is a consensus on the evaluation and positioning of "White Deer Plain", this book has been written for ten years, do you often look back on the creation of "White Deer Plain"? How do you think of "White Deer Plain" today?

Chen Zhongzhong: "White Deer Plain" is the experience and understanding of specific life in that historical background, and it is the artistic pursuit and creative ideal that I made the greatest efforts in that period. It's the completion of an artistic text, and I don't think much about it when it's done. Of course, I also realized some regrets, such as the later chapters are a little weaker and not as full as the previous ones. In the later chapters, I wrote that the second generation of Bailuyuan walked out of Bailuyuan and devoted themselves to a broader life, and some of them were still doing underground work and military life, and my grasp of the atmosphere may not be as full and deep as rural life, which shows the importance of life experience.

Li Guoping: Reading your interviews and articles, I found that there are several key words: experience, sacredness, and conscience.

Chen Zhongzhong: It's not a category concept. Conscience is the basic character of Chinese traditional knowledge in all dynasties, and it runs through the most beautiful prose and poetry of all dynasties. Conscience is a psychological form, a spiritual form, and it is not possible to pretend to be strong. Specific to creation, concern for human beings, even for the humblest life, the writer's love, compassion and sorrow are implicit in it, and the reader is most sensitive to these things, which also fundamentally determines the writer's artistic temperament and the appearance of the work.

Li Guoping: Recently, I have read several of your short stories, especially "Days", which write about the living conditions of Chinese peasants, their helplessness and hope, tenacity and perseverance, from which you can read your attention to reality, and you can also read the calm after you return to "White Deer Plain", as if you are returning to the state when you wrote "White Deer Plain". Forty-five years is not the end, sixty years old is not the completion of creation, are you preparing for a big construction, or are you systematically thinking about creation?

Chen Zhongzhong: My recent short stories, "Days", "The Writer and His Brothers", and "The Story of Layue", focus on the vulnerable groups in contemporary life, not sympathy and appeal in the general sense, but focus on the psychological state in the state of existence, revealing a kind of social psychological information and imagery, and leaving a perceptual imprint on the process of social progress. I never make any commitments about my creations, and my creations are faithful to my experiences and perceptions at every stage. I think contemporary life can stimulate my psychological feelings the most, and can generate the most creative impulse and desire for expression.

Li Guoping: Some writers say that readers are always more reliable than critics, which of course cannot be separated from the special context, but it also has a lasting meaning, and it is the honor of the writer to have the wide recognition of the reader, and it is the continuation of the writer's vitality.

Chen Zhongzhong: Since I have been engaged in creation, I have also had the feeling that my creative labor has been verified and recognized by readers, but I have never reached the echo of "White Deer Plain", and my life and my creative reward are all here. Since the publication of "White Deer Plain", I have personally stamped and signed tens of thousands of books, and a reader in Shijiazhuang wrote in a letter: "I want to write this book without being tired to death and coughing up blood, I wonder if you will still live to see my letter?" And I was surprised that even in the most remote places, readers have no obstacles to reading and understanding "White Deer Plain". As I once said, the reader is the soil in which the work survives. If my book makes even a small benefit to different readers, it is my greatest psychological compensation, and I can only repay them with my creative labor in my limited life.

(Originally published in Shaanxi Daily, July 31, 2002)