Zhang Ren

There was an eye-catching landscape in the literature of the 90s, that is, a group of young "new generation" writers entered the literary world with their youthful vigor and vigor. They don't have the heaviness of history like the "57" writers group and the "**" remembered young writers, nor do they have the nostalgic complexes that are slightly longer than them, such as Mo Yan, Su Tong, Ge Fei, Ye Zhaoyan, etc. This group of writers born in the 60s and 70s did not have many precepts, nor did they have rhapsodies or fanaticism, but faced reality with a normal heart, emphasizing personal experience and personalized experience. Rather than crowding on a ladder to catch the wave, they look for their own literary ladder. Wang Yuewen from Hunan is one of them who is quite active in his creation. He began publishing novels in 1991, and in just six or seven years, he went from being an amateur author in a remote county town in Hunan to a well-known national journal and frequently won awards. His work is so striking that it is clearly closely related to the unique world that the author has expanded. He excelled at portraying county and prefecture-level officials and complex mentalities, which are rare in the works of his contemporaries or even today's popularity. Some people think that it is an official novel, but when you read his works carefully, you will find that his novels rarely write about the fate of a single official or individual, and the author's gaze radiates a group of officials at a certain level (or "leading group") like a fan, showing the subtle mentality of detachment and intrigue from the real relationship between various officials. Therefore, Wang Yuewen's novel series is not so much called an official novel as an officialdom novel.

"Spring and Autumn of Officialdom" is a collection of short and medium stories by not all but part of the author, accounting for only about half of the total number of creations. The three novellas, "Tonight and Night", "Autumn Wind Courtyard", and "Night Langxi", are independent but the characters and plots are related to each other. "Autumn Wind Courtyard" should be the beginning of the author's officialdom series of novels, and it is also the most prominent artistic charm among his many novels. It writes about the loss and coldness of the secretary of the prefectural party committee after his retirement, showing the hot and cold world of the ups and downs of the Huan Sea. Zhang Zhaolin in "Tonight and Night" is Tao Fan's successor, he began to respect Tao Lao Secretary and finally became alienated, replacing himself with his own people, this process just exposed the old officialdom of excluding heterogeneity and reusing cronies. Guan Yinda, the protagonist of "Yelangxi", is Tao Fan's son-in-law, and his official career was prosperous, but his old father-in-law quit the first-line pass, and his situation deteriorated. It can be seen that the success or failure of his rise and fall does not depend on his personal political achievements, but on the advance and retreat of the old secretary Tao behind him. It can be said that success is also Tao Fan, and defeat is also Tao Fan. But the deep value of this novel is not here. What is intriguing is that Guan Yinda, who was not appreciated by the higher authorities, was elected as the county magistrate in the general election, thus raising the call for institutional reform in this officialdom novel.

Wang Yuewen's portrayal of officials is vivid, revealing that officialdom is divided into three parts. Those who seek to be promoted have exhausted their organs, those who are promoted are complacent, petty civil servants are snorting, and those in power are dictating. All this, obviously, has something to do with the author's profession. It is certainly right to write about his familiar life and summarize his achievements in this old saying. However, if you ponder a little, you will raise such a question mark, as a civil servant, there are many people who are familiar with the life of civil servants, why did Wang Yuewen write a thought-provoking series of officialdom novels? The author has a creative talk entitled "I Need the Comfort of the Soul". He said: "I recalled the situation when I worked in that county, smiling all day long, taking small steps, and saying yes and right in front of the leader." So the leader said that I was mature, capable, and willing to work. By secular standards, it was my most proud time. But "I can't stand not to speak." In that kind of environment, what you say all day long has already been stylized in terms of content and form, and there is no difference between what you say and what others say, and there is no difference between what you say and what you don't say. So I started writing novels. Fiction is the way a writer speaks. It turned out that he was not copying life, but he was inspired to say something different from the "stylization" of officials. Instead of writing about officials as an official, he chose the way a writer spoke. In other words, he examines and dissects the life he is familiar with from the conscience of an intellectual and the sense of mission of a writer. As a result, his novels break through the pattern of writing cadres that has existed in contemporary literature, and reject simplistic writing that is either exposed or praised (or even deified). It goes beyond moral criticism, puts all kinds of officials in the context of the market economy, does not look up or down on officials, and grasps the life of officials from a cultural perspective with civilian consciousness.

Wang Yuewen said in his letter to me that his novels are divided into two categories, one is officialdom novels; One category is non-official novels, such as "The Story of No Head and No Tail", "I Want to Be Chic", "The Old Testament is Lost", "Snail", "Winter Without Snow", "Reed Flowers in the Sky", etc. It should be said that the latter category is different from pure officialdom novels such as "Tonight and Night", where the pen and ink are not condensed in the relationship between officials that can be felt but difficult to speak, and the plot story is also distanced from officialdom. However, this is what the author calls a non-officialdom novel about small people, and in my opinion, they are still inextricably linked to official positions and power, both implicit and explicit. Just like "The Loss of the Old Testament", which is included in this episode, the original intention is to write that three old classmates often get together without appointments, unrestrained, but one day when they have an appointment to get together, they want to discuss their ambitions, but the friends miss the appointment. The reason for this is that one was promoted to deputy section chief in the company, and the other was promoted to the director of school teaching. As a result, the happiness of the three old friends of "having nothing to do together" has disappeared since then. Everyone has their own ambitions and plans, and no one has to blame anyone, but there is no need to avoid it, from the changes in the friendship between the three old classmates, the allure of the official position and its rusty soul are revealed. As for the fate of Wang Fan, a college student who has just come to work in the city government in "I Want to Be Chic", it is closely related to the mode of officialdom. Wang Fan, who has just entered the first door, may have some kind of figure of the author himself, but Wang Fan reminds me of two other characters, namely Wang Meng's "The New Young Man in the Organization Department" Lin Zhen and Liu Zhenyun's "Unit" and "A Place of Chicken Feathers". The three are very similar, they are all young intellectuals who have just arrived in the power organs, and they all have ideals and are eager to do a vigorous career. But they live in different eras, and their personalities and fates are very different. Lin Zhen came into being in the 50s when the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League called for "learning from Nasga", and he had the courage to fight against bureaucracy and all unhealthy tendencies, and was simple, enterprising, and full of vigorous and progressive spirit; Kobayashi is a petty civil servant in the wave of market economy, and in order to get a house, he has to enter the officialdom track of seeking promotion. Kobayashi lost his youth and fell into mediocrity, which makes people sigh for the kind of life that wears out people's will. Wang Fan and Lin Zhen's ideological character are far apart, but they are quite similar to Xiaolin. The chic he initially longed for was nothing more than abiding by the youthful ideals and free and pure personality of college students; His later chic was "no complaints, no fighting, no fighting", "what should be confused is confused, what should be ambiguous is ambiguous, what should be hazy is hazy, this is chic".

From the subject matter level, although some chapters of Wang Yuewen's novel do not deliberately narrate the story of official officialdom, the ups and downs of some characters in the novel still have the projection of officialdom and power. From this, I found that the author's artistic nerves have a sensitive point, that is, the special influence of official position and power on all kinds of people. This sensitive point can also be said to be the writer's creative personality and unique perspective. Therefore, a talented writer does not necessarily appear to be all-encompassing in the world, but whether he has his own unique sensitivity and forms his own unique contemplation to grasp the fulcrum of life. The British historian Acton said, "Power corrupts," adding that "history is not a web woven by innocent hands." Of all the causes of depravity and moral degradation, power is the most eternal and active. "Officials, power, and literature should undoubtedly use it as a sensitive point, to pursue, excavate, and question. It should be said that there are not many novels about officials and officialdom in literature now, especially those that go beyond the level of the subject matter and enter its depths, which is even rarer. Wang Yuewen's novels naturally need to refine and expand the breadth and depth of life, but he pays attention to deep exploration in the officialdom novels and non-officialdom novels, so that he has found his place in the crowded literary world.

I think Wang Yuewen's vision and value orientation in examining the life of officials and officialdom can be diversified and more open. In the short and medium stories included in this collection, the author mostly analyzes and evaluates the current unhealthy officials and officialdom from the cultural character coordinates of the honest and honest traditional "scholars". In fact, it is also a frame of reference for traditional novels that peel back the "appearance" of officials. There are certainly similarities between real life and corrupt officials in history, but after all, history has moved from an agricultural economy and a planned economy to a market economy. The times have changed, the economic environment and the entire social and cultural environment have changed, so it seems that it is a singular way to dissect officials and power only from the ancient ancestral teachings and the traditional character of Qing officials, and it is also necessary to explore the psychological character of today's more complex officials from the perspective of the actual commodity economy, social secular and cultural mentality.

Reading Wang Yuewen's officialdom novels, I also have an impression that the officialdom atmosphere he wrote is very sufficient, very real, and in place, the virtual and real and the gladiatorial fights, in the midst of the talk and laughter and gluttony, I seem to hear the sound of fists and feet. The novel has indignation, sighs, and ridicule, and stops at indignant sighs and ridicule. The atmosphere of officialdom is very strong and stops at the atmosphere of officialdom. It's a little sighing, and a little helpless. Writers should not be asked to prescribe "prophetic" prescriptions on how to stop corruption. A writer's mission is to make his work a warning to the world and a wake-up call for the world. Officialdom novels cannot be judged on officials, but also return to "enrollment", and literary criticism cannot but invite officials of all shapes and shapes to the judgment seat of human nature, not superficial but profound torture of the souls of characters. Judging from Wang Yuewen's life skills and artistic talent, there is reason to expect him to create more particularly exciting or shocking images of officials, and to create more novels that permeate the spirit of the times and the meaning of the times.