Yao xueyin

Yao xueyin

Yao xueyin (October 10, 1910 ~ April 29, 1999), born in Dengzhou, Henan Province, is a modern Chinese novelist. He is a famous modern writer. He once served as honorary vice chairman of China Writers Association, chairman of Hubei literature and Art Federation, and chairman of Hubei Writers Association. Member of the sixth and seventh CPPCC National Committee.

Li Zicheng, a historical novel written by him in adversity, centers on Li Zicheng, the leader of the rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty, and Chongzhen, the emperor of the late Ming Dynasty. It portrays a series of historical figures with distinct images and reveals the special laws of the revolutionary war of the peasants in the late Ming Dynasty and the complicated situation of class struggle and national struggle in feudal society. Its large scale, majestic and novel writing style can be called the historical picture of the peasant revolutionary war. This great work started in 1957 and lasted more than 30 years. It has about 2.3 million words and is divided into five volumes. As soon as the first volume was published in the 1960s, it had a great influence and won the cultural award issued by the Ministry of education, education and foreign affairs of Japan. Volume 2 won the first "Mao Dun Literature Award" in 1982. Apart from Chinese and Japanese versions, Li Zicheng also has English and French versions, which has a growing international influence.

On September 23, 2019, Yao xueyin's novel Li Zicheng was selected into the collection of 70 novels in 70 years of new China.

Life of the characters

Modern novelists. Yao Guansan, formerly known as Yao Guansan, was born on October 10, 1910 in Dengzhou City, Nanyang City, Henan Province. My father went to Kaifeng superior normal school. Due to his poor family, his mother prepared to drown his baby when he was born. Fortunately, he was saved by his great grandmother. As a child, I loved to hear my grandmother tell stories, which stimulated my imagination and interest in literature.

Deng county is located in the southwest of Henan Province, with backward environment and frequent floods, droughts and plagues. With the oppression of feudal warlords, the peasants could not make a living, or went out to escape from famine, or took risks, and bandits were everywhere. When Yao xueyin was 9 years old, the bandits broke through the stockade, and Yao's house and clothes were all burned up. From then on, he fled with his parents to live in Deng county. In the county, I studied in a private school for more than a year, and then went to a church run primary school for three years. I recited a lot of ancient prose and learned to write. In his spare time, he likes to hear artists talk about such books as Shi Gongan, Peng Gongan and romance of the Three Kingdoms.

After graduating from primary school in 1924, he went to Xinyang middle school. In the winter of the same year, due to the outbreak of the second Zhifeng war, the school had a holiday ahead of schedule. On the way back home, Li Shuimo's bandit team, together with his second brother and two other students, seized him as a "meat ticket", and Xuan was regarded as an adopted son by a bandit leader. The special experience of living among bandits for about 100 days became the basic material for his later autobiographical novel long night.

Over the next four years, except for a few months in Fancheng Hongwen academy, he was basically out of school and stayed at home. During this period, I read many new literary works of the May 4th Movement and some novels of Russian writers, which cultivated my interest in New Literature and enhanced my dissatisfaction with the reality of semi colonial and semi feudal society. The lack of warmth in the family and the darkness in the society formed Yao xueyin's rebellious character. In order to pursue a new life, he once served in the progressive army twice. Because there is no way out in real life, it breeds a melancholy and sentimental mood. In the summer of 1929, he was admitted to the preparatory course of Law School of Henan University. At the same time, he published his maiden work "two lonely graves" and other works in the supplement of Henan Daily under the pseudonym of "snow trace". These novels wrote the tragic stories of the lower class workers who were persecuted and died by the feudal forces, showing a distinct democratic tendency. Soon after entering school, he took part in progressive activities and began to read Marxist works. He also read some representative works of the historical materialism school, such as the Pu school of Qing Dynasty, the school of ancient history discrimination and Guo Moruo, and aspired to become a Marxist historian or writer. In the summer vacation of 1931, he was expelled by the school authorities on the charge of "wrong thinking, absurd words and deeds". From then on, he ended his life as a student, contributing, teaching and living in Peiping and other places. On the eve of the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, more than 10 novels were published successively in literature quarterly, new novel, Guangming, morning post of Peking, Ta Kung Pao of Tianjin, such as "wild sacrifice", "disturbance of blockhouse", "road of life and death", and "election annals". These novels show the reality of darkness and chaos in the rural areas of the mainland and the struggle of the oppressed. In addition, he has edited two publications, mainland literature and art and today, published miscellaneous thoughts in mangzhong and Shenbao, and published many prose poems and literary papers. These articles also show the author's concern for reality and a keen sense of the times. Influenced by the popularity of literature and art and the discussion of popular language, in 1936, he collected the spoken language of his hometown and compiled it into Nanyang vocabulary.

After the outbreak of the Anti Japanese War, he came to Kaifeng from Peiping and worked as editor in chief of the weekly "wind and rain" with others. Before and after that, he also published dozens of papers and miscellaneous feelings. He also went to Xuzhou to interview the front line, and then wrote a simplified reportage "war letters".

In the spring of 1938, he went to Wuhan and soon joined the Cultural Work Committee of the fifth war zone to engage in progressive cultural activities against Japan. He published short stories "Bailonggang" and "almost half a cart of wheat straw" in "free China" and "literary front". The next year, the story of the red lantern was published in literary news. The latter two had great influence in China and were translated into English and Russian. One of the reasons why the short half cart of wheat straw and the later novella Niu Quande and the carrot are valued by the literary circles is that they successfully use the lively spoken language of the masses to write about the awakening and changes of the peasants in the Anti Japanese war. Since 1939, in the process of traveling to Hubei, Anhui, Sichuan and other places, Yao xueyin has devoted himself to the creation of medium length novels, such as when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming, love between the army and the horse, new seedlings, reunion, etc. Most of these works focus on the Anti Japanese and national salvation activities of the young intellectuals in the early days of the Anti Japanese war. They describe the high national salvation enthusiasm of the young generation, touch the dark corruption of the Kuomintang military and political institutions and the rampancy of the local feudal forces from the side, and reveal the complex struggle within the Anti Japanese camp. The writing style turns to euphemism and delicacy, and the language is more lively and diverse. But some works use too much ink in the love life of young men and women, diluting and even weakening the theme of the times. During this period, he also wrote a lot of literary papers, such as on the literary theme of the present stage, on popular literature and art, on literary reflection, and Qu Yuan's literary heritage. Some of them were published as how novels were written. In addition, he also published short collections such as "m station", "spring to the front line" and "almost half a cart of wheat straw".

Before and after the victory of the Anti Japanese War, Yao xueyin turned to the theme of his hometown and childhood, completed the autobiographical novel long night, and wrote a series of essays such as my grandmother, the fate of my grandmother, and sister-in-law. Long night is based on the rural area of western Henan when warlords were fighting in the 1920s. It describes the legendary life of Li Shuimo, a bandit team, and creates some flesh and blood images of "strong men". It truly and powerfully reveals the social roots of many farmers becoming thieves in the desperate situation of bankruptcy and hunger. At the same time, it also shows that they have great potential to resist evil forces Quantity. A novel like long night, which describes the characters and life of the green forest in a realistic way, is unique in the new literature after the May 4th movement. After the book was translated into French, Yao xueyin was awarded the Marseilles medal. From his early years, his novels revealed a kind of strong temperament: qiangher, published in 1929, portrayed a kind of strong character, and some of his works in the mid-1930s also wrote about some daring characters. It is Yao xueyin's unique contribution to modern Chinese literature to send a number of "strong people" images into the character Gallery of new literature to explore and express the beauty of being strong. During the war of liberation, Yao xueyin also wrote biography of Lu Rongxuan, a patriotic scientist, and short story recovery of human nature in Shanghai. After 1948, he first taught in Gaoxing agricultural school and then in private Daxia University. At the same time, he published such academic works as the royal guards in the early Ming Dynasty and the biography of emperor Chongzhen, which prepared the conditions for his later creation of Li Zicheng.

In 1951, Yao xueyin went to eastern Zhejiang to participate in the land reform. Because he did not understand the local language and customs, he had the idea of returning to Henan. This summer, he returned to Zhengzhou to engage in professional creation. In 1953, he moved to Wuhan because of the establishment of writers' Association in central and southern China. In addition to writing a small amount of reportage, short stories, essays and miscellaneous feelings, he was in a depressed period of writing. Only in the mid-1950s, he published papers such as "on the ideological nature of the scholars" and "a little doubt in the discussion of realistic issues". In 1957, he was wrongly classified as "extreme rightist" and began to write the historical novel Li Zicheng in adversity.

Yao xueyin, formerly known as Yao Guansan, was born in Deng County, Henan Province. Because of his poor family, he had only been in primary school for three years, but he didn't finish one semester of junior high school. He was captured by bandits and lived in bandits for about 100 days. This experience became the basic material for his autobiographical novel long night. He studied in a church middle school in Xinyang in 1924.

He was admitted to Henan University in the spring of 1929. The next year, he was arrested for taking part in the student movement. After his release, he was expelled from the University and left Henan for Peking.

In 1931, he was expelled by the school authorities for taking part in the school tide. Since then, he has studied hard and read extensively Chinese history and classical literature. He has been in Peking to contribute and teach for a living. He has published many novels, essays and literary papers in Beiping, Tianjin and Shanghai newspapers such as literature quarterly, morning post, Ta Kung Pao and Shen Bao, which is full of a sense of the times.

Chinese PinYin : Yao Xue Yin