It was another Friday night, and Jian Jian not only made a sumptuous dinner for Jia Youwei and Jia Qianqian, but also took the initiative to take on the finishing chores after the meal.

She was already completely familiar with the Jia family's kitchen, and she knew everything that should be placed there, as if she was in her own home.

After the meal, four dried fruits, four candied fruits, good water and good tea were placed on the table in the front courtyard one by one. For the rest of the day, instead of watching television, they habitually talked about literary topics.

"Yuan Meng told me that your "Life" has been printed in 10,000 copies, which is gratifying. Concise smiled.

"At dinner, you've already congratulated you. Jia Youwei said calmly.

"Yes, it seems that my memory is getting worse and worse. Women are just forgetful. The German sinologist Gu Bin once said that Chinese writers generally do not speak English very well, and lack the reading of original English literary works. What do you think about that?", he said with a succinct smile.

"This cute little German old man is a Chinese expert, but he is not very knowledgeable. Although he has a good understanding of Chinese culture, he lacks specific research on our actual national conditions.

In our country, the profession of writer is often not the first choice for readers. In the past, either the imperial examination was not successful, or the officialdom was frustrated, so he would retire to write books and theories, which is now called writers.

Even in modern society, we do not have the same respect for writers as the developed countries of the West, or our greatest rivals, the island nations. The island nation is also known as the land of books, which shows the importance they attach to books.

At the end of the final selection for the Akutagawa Prize and the Naoki Prize, a large number of journalists flock to the candidates. Otherwise, the candidate will take the initiative to invite his or her own editor-in-charge to look forward to the final result.

If the call received by the candidate is from the Spring and Autumn Publishing House, it means that you have lost the election. If you receive a call from the National PEN Club for the Promotion of Literature, it means that you have been selected.

The front pages of major newspapers, TV news and other media will report on you and your work in a big way. The literary award ceremony was also very grand, just like a movie award ceremony.

Works that have won the Akutagawa Prize or the Naoki Prize can also be selected as excerpts from elementary and junior high school textbooks, and the ideal has become a reality.

Our Mao Dun Literature Award and Lu Xun Literature Award are really not so high in terms of standard and treatment. Jia Youwei began to ramble on the topic tonight.

He paused, slowly lifted the lid of the tea bowl with his right hand and placed it on the table, and continued: "People who are good at English are in my country, and I am afraid that no one will take the initiative to choose to be a writer as their first career.

Writers, sitting at home too. You can see how writers are viewed in our country. As for the social status of the writer or something, that's it.

This has long lost the dazzling aura of the decade of the Cultural Big Bang, and there is no good life in the Republic of China. At that time, publishing an article in a newspaper was very expensive.

In May 1981, the Baoding literary journal "Lotus Pond" published Mo Yan's debut novel "Spring Night Rain Feifei". He got more than 70 yuan in manuscript fees.

At that time, the monthly salary of their company commander was only about 20 yuan. Mo Yan bought wine, bought roast chicken and drank it with his comrades.

During the period of the Republic of China, the newspaper and publishing industry had been completely market-oriented, and a very formal system of remuneration was formed, which gave birth to a large number of professional writers.

Judging from some historical data, as long as a writer can turn his words into lead characters, life should still be relatively nourishing.

In the 30s of the last century, 2 to 3 yuan per thousand words was the prevailing remuneration standard. The remuneration of famous artists can be more than 6 yuan.

Lu Xun wrote a supplement to the "Declaration", and the remuneration was six yuan per thousand words. The famous writer Zhang Hatshui signed a contract with World Book Company to create four novels at a price of 8 yuan per thousand words. With Zhang Hatshui's status in the rivers and lakes at that time, this standard should be top-notch.

The monetary unit of this period, the "yuan", was by no means comparable to today's renminbi yuan, which at that time referred to the silver dollar. What could a silver dollar do at the time?

Let's take a look at the memories of Tan Qixiang, a young staff member of the Peking Library at that time, who had a monthly salary of 60 yuan at that time, and also taught part-time courses at some universities in Beiping, and also published some things, with a salary of 5 yuan per class and 5 yuan per 1,000 words.

In this way, he earns about more than 100 yuan a month. Mr. Tan recalled the life he had lived in Peking decades later, and he still remembered it.

When I was single, the rent was about 5 yuan per month, and the meal was more than 10 yuan a month (Mr. Tan didn't want to eat well, and he went to the restaurant outside every day, and a meal didn't cost a single yuan), and the furniture teak desk and teak bed were only about 10 yuan.

Travel is surprisingly cheap, "taxi" (take a rickshaw) from Jing SX Gate to Dong'an Market, only 7 copper dollars (1 silver dollar is equal to 460 copper yuan).

Tan Qixiang likes to listen to dramas, watching a play by Yang Xiaolou is one yuan and two, and other famous actors such as Mei Lanfang, Cheng Yanqiu, Xun Huisheng, and Ye Shenglan are all 1 yuan.

It seems that cultural consumption is relatively expensive, but considering that they are all the top names in the country, the price is reasonable. In 1937, Tan Qixiang even spent 20 yuan a month to hire a secretary for himself, who was responsible for copying and writing.

Such a level of consumption means that a bachelor with 20 to 30 yuan per month can live a happy life in Beiping.

At the same time, this also means that an ordinary writer, as long as he is diligent enough and publishes 350,000 words a month, can be called rich in his life in Beiping.

Even if you only publish 10,000 words a month, you will have no problem making ends meet. This is enough to envy the writers who live in the basement of BJ today.

At the current level of remuneration, if they only publish 10,000 words a month, they will probably have to sleep on the streets. published 50,000 words, that is, barely enough to make ends meet.

And top writers like Zhang Hatshui and Lu Xun can live a life in a restaurant after writing for a day or two. Lu Xun's remuneration income is maintained at the level of several thousand yuan every year, and more than 10,000 yuan in some years.

It's hard to calculate how much money this is equivalent to today, but it is certain that his annual income can be about 10,000 times a year for high-level restaurants.

And Zhang Hatshui's life was even more affluent, he bought a big mansion in Beiping, probably because the area was too large and the decoration was too luxurious, so that it is rumored that he bought a palace.

On the so-called rich list of writers in the 21st century, the top few have an income of one or two million yuan, which may be comparable or even slightly higher than Zhang Hatshui and Lu Xun.

But those who rank around ten, with an annual income of two or three million yuan, can buy a house of twenty or thirty square meters within the fifth ring of BJ, which is enough to make any little-known writer of Lu Xun's time see a joke. ”