Chi Zijian's latest novel "The Peak" will be jointly planned and published by People's Literature Publishing House and Shanghai Jiujiu Scholars, and the launching ceremony of the new book will be held at the Beijing Book Fair on 20 1518. ?
A novel without a protagonist
"I outlined a group of little people."
Reporter: When I read "The Peak", I always have a magical feeling: the dwarf An Xueer predicted life and death and the flight length of her body after being humiliated; The "warm story wrapped in death" told by bailiff An Ping; Strange things that Li Suzhen, a beautician in funeral parlour, met when she was making up for the dead. What's your intention in writing this in the novel? Is that town called Longzhan your idea of Macondo?
Chi Zijian: First of all, I want to say that the town I created is not Macondo in my mind, but Macondo in Marquez's works. I created Longzhan Town in my literature. The "magic" you said has something to do with the folklore I heard. There are always "ghosts" in such stories. Some "magic" is real. For example, the old shaman I wrote in The Right Bank of Ergon River really saved a child, and her own child would die, but she didn't give up saving others. What people talk about most is the strange things that happened when Li Suzhen combed the dead. I think such stories are very suitable for Li Suzhen, so they are written into novels.
Reporter: In The Peak, you insisted on writing little people, such as Xin Qiji, An Xueer, An Ping, Tang Mei and Shan Sisao. Everyone has his own story, but it is difficult to find the real soul. This is obviously a novel without a "hero" in the traditional sense.
Chi Zijian: This long picture should be so general, because I outline the group image of small people. You pick up any character and you will walk into this novel. For example, if you pick up Xin Xin, you will see Xin Liukai, Xin Qiji, An Xueer, Chen Jingu and other figures; Pick up the bong, and you will see Linda Hua 'an Camp, An Yushun Embroidered Mother, etc. Even if you find the old Wei who sells tofu, you can follow his footsteps and find Sisao and other miscellaneous characters. When a small person appears alone, it may not be very eye-catching, but when a group of small people with personality stand together, the scene is different. They form a long-axis picture.
Reporter: There are dozens of roles on the top of the mountain, men, women and children, but several roles are special. Like An Xueer, her divinity of predicting life and death brought her revenge and rape, which Yan Yan came to "see if she is a flesh". I've always been surprised at your arrangement for a Cher's life, especially when she was finally bullied by a fool.
Chi Zijian: Not long after, An Xueer was regarded as a god by everyone, but she was still very lonely among all sentient beings. She can understand the world, but no one can understand her. Such a lonely elf is on the earth, and his inner sadness can be imagined. After being raped, she became pregnant, and her body grew unexpectedly from a dwarf state, which made a Cher's maternity glow and she instinctively integrated into the secular life. In fact, she was originally in the secular world, but no one used to treat her as a normal person. People who come to see her have a purpose, to cure diseases and carve tombstones. All this is depressing. She bears the burden of connecting the passage of death and becoming a "god" on earth. How heavy this is for a child, who actually has no childhood. The birth of Burr is equivalent to giving Cher a "human childhood". However, when I write about her, although I let her experience all kinds of beauty in the red dust, in the dead of night, she will miss those sacred days in the past and the unspeakable joy in her heart when she can know the subtleties of the world and the secrets of the universe. She is still thinking about this problem, so the character Ann Cher is a complex character with humanity and divinity intertwined. Finally, Xia Shan kissed a Cher at the Land Temple on the top of the mountain. Because a Cher has "returned" to this world, she instinctively issued a desperate cry for help. She didn't expect Xia Shan to kiss her. Therefore, it is easy for readers to guess Cher's ending according to our mentality. In fact, this is an open ending. I didn't fully point out that she would be bullied again. This is just a possibility.
Reporter: The story of Li Suzhen also makes people feel sad. She takes good care of her disabled husband and has deep feelings for Anping. But because she spent the night in Anping, she accidentally poisoned her husband and lived in repentance from then on. This ending makes people feel a kind of "biting sadness".
Chi Zijian: Many readers like Li Suzhen and her love with Anping. Li Suzhen waited on her paralyzed husband all the year round, but because of a tryst with her lover Anping on a snowy night, her husband died unexpectedly. Although she had no regrets about her husband's life, the death made her feel unbearable and she found herself guilty. Her conscience was hard to accept when she learned that the court had acquitted herself. She must appeal and demand that she be punished. On this issue, I have also consulted legal experts: Can people who are acquitted appeal? Therefore, there are such examples, so Li Suzhen's case has a legal basis in real life. When I write about Li Suzhen, I feel the pain inside, but I think her ending is still warm, because she has an peaceful love. Love always awakens women.
Writing has moved from the city to the countryside.
"These two fields are the source of my writing."
Reporter: In many of your previous novels, "Even if the world is cold, I am willing to squeeze out some human warmth", but the writing of the fate of the little people in The Peak gives me a strange and desperate feeling. I don't think this is a "late style" writing. what do you think?
Chi Zijian: In the third issue of Shanghai Literature, Mr. Cheng Depei published the article "Chi Zijian's Vision-Revelation of the novel The Peak". There is a sentence in the article: "This is an important change in Chi Zijian's 30-year creative career, which should not be underestimated", similar to the words you said that the feeling is not "Chi Zijian's style". A writer can't stay the same, but this change is not a deliberate change, but a natural change, that is, a change in the literary category. Years have stained the temples with frost and snow, always when we are quietly unconscious, and so are the works. I can only say that when I was fifty years old, I wrote a work that settled in my heart.
Reporter: The strangeness of The Peak may also come from the structure of your novel. The "chain ring" structure in Pan Kaixiong's mouth obviously has a sense of design. Why do you want to design like this?
Chi Zijian: Pan Kaixiong defines the structure of this novel with "link" and compares its image. The flashback in flashback and the memory in memory make the story go back quietly when it is advancing, which is very consistent with this novel, because it can organically combine the sense of depth of history with the present life. In fact, flashback is a common novel writing technique, which is not novel, but it may be rare to flashback all the characters together and connect them so that they can move forward side by side. With this structure, the content should be completely digested before writing, otherwise it will not appear properly in the chain.
Reporter: When I interviewed Xu for Jerusalem before, he felt that the length, density and difficulty of the novel should match the style of the novel, whether it is volume or structure. In your opinion, what does the structure of a novel mean to writing?
Chi Zijian: Without a good structure, a novel has no skeleton.
Reporter: The appearance of "Yellow Chicken and White Liquor" and "Good Night Rose" once made people sigh that your writing theme has shifted from the countryside to the city. Now, The Peak takes you back to the familiar rural narrative.
Chi Zijian: Because these two fields are the territory of my life and the source of my writing. I think everyone is reading novels, so there is no need to make a fuss about the theme.
Reporter: Although The Peak is a rural theme, Tang Mei's story reminds people of the university poisoning case. Others, such as "the thief's entry into the room causes the official earthquake, the girl sells herself for money, and the anti-Japanese war veterans are delayed in getting fair treatment", all have their own realistic directions. There are so many realistic materials in a work. What are your considerations?
Chi Zijian: Actually, poisoning is not uncommon in literary works. For example, Pan Jinlian poisoned Wu Da in Water Margin. But I don't want to cut off the hero's head and offer blood sacrifices to the victims; I am willing to let Tang Mei "cut out" her heart, cut off the broken parts, and lead the victims to live hard and wash away their sins. If literary works have the power to point directly at people's hearts, it is not what they describe, but what kind of atonement it gives to guilty people. The anti-Japanese war veterans written in it were seen with my own eyes in a small village on the Sino-Russian border. In other words, in such an era, between mountains and rivers, there is injustice and evil. Face it and express it naturally.
Reporter: You wrote a postscript entitled "Every Story Has Memories" for The Peak, which is rare in your writing experience.
Chi Zijian: Record your writing experience. You can also jump out of the work and express your personal feelings. For example, the poem I wrote in the postscript can also be regarded as an extension of the emotion of "the top of the mountain".