a single spark can start a prairie fire(xīng huǒ liáo yuán)

a single spark can start a prairie fire

In July 1956, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, the Central Military Commission decided to publish a collection of reminiscent essays reflecting the 30-year struggle history of the PLA. This task was entrusted to the general political department. Comrade Xiao Hua, then deputy director of the General Political Department, instructed that the propaganda department and the Ministry of culture should jointly complete this work. The Propaganda Department has transferred Wang Bin, liming, Ding Mang, Xing Shicao and Chen Hanmin, and the Ministry of culture has transferred Wang Yuanjian, Li Dawei, Liu Liang, Zhang Lin and Wang mengyan to form the Department. The specific person in charge is Huang Tao, director of the Propaganda Department of the General Administration propaganda department. "A single spark starts a prairie fire" is selected and compiled by the Ministry of a single spark starting a prairie fire from "thirty years of the Chinese people's Liberation Army". From 1956 to 1982. A total of 637 articles, 3.6 million words, are included in the book.

Start writing

At the beginning of the essay solicitation of "a single spark starts a prairie fire", someone suggested to Huang Tao, the head of the Ministry, that Mao Zedong should write the preface or title of the book. Huang Tao considered it more appropriate to ask Mao Zedong to write the title of the book. But the plan originally decided by the general administration is that the book has a general title, that is, the glorious people's Liberation Army of China. Each episode has its own title. The first episode is "a single spark starts a prairie fire". The whole book traces back to the armed uprising. After the second episode, it is found that it is more difficult to name each episode than expected. The names of the third episode are more than 20, and none of them is very appropriate Yes. Therefore, Huang Tao suggested to Xiao Hua, deputy director of the general political department in charge of this work, that the whole set of books should be called "a single spark starts a prairie fire". There are two interpretations of "a single spark starts a prairie fire": one is that a small spark can cause a prairie fire. Second, small things have a bright future. Xiao Hua nodded and agreed. In September 1959, before the third episode of "a prairie fire" went to press, the General Administration decided to use the title of "a prairie fire" for the whole book. At this time, Huang Tao asked the printing house to bind a special hardcover book with a red velvet cover, and wrote a report to Mao Zedong in the name of the Ministry. He attached the book and asked him to write the title of the book. Huang Tao personally sent the report to Fu Zhong's office, deputy director of the general political department. Fu Zhong found Yang Shangkun, then director of the general office of the CPC Central Committee, and wrote a special letter to Chairman Mao. Not long after, Yang Shangkun called Fu Zhong and said, "the report of asking the chairman to inscribe on" a prairie fire "has been submitted to the chairman. There are many people asking the chairman to inscribe on it, but the chairman put" a prairie fire "in the front row. "In December of the same year, Huang Tao got Mao Zedong's inscriptions transferred from Fu Zhong, and wrote the four words" start a prairie fire "on an 8-inch white rice paper. At that time, Chairman Mao wrote two pieces of Chinese characters and asked the Ministry to choose one for use. According to Fu Zhong, Mao Zedong also wrote him a short message. There is not only the affirmation of "a single spark starts a prairie fire", but also the hope of further developing this set of books.

The origin of the title of the book

Since then, all editions of "a single spark starts a prairie fire" have used the title of the book inscribed by Mao Zedong. The original of Mao Zedong's handwriting is still kept in the PLA press. This is the only time that Mao Zedong wrote the names of many newspapers and periodicals and a book. the solicitation of articles received a warm response from marshals, generals, cadres and soldiers at all levels, as well as responsible comrades of central organs, provinces and cities, demobilized soldiers and the people in the old revolutionary base areas. In less than a year, more than 30000 articles were solicited, which was unexpected by the organizers. the task of compiling and revising is increasing and urgent. Some manuscripts can only be used as clues, and they need to be collected again. Huang Tao, director of the publicity department, is often called to a meeting, report and deal with the daily affairs of the publicity department. I watched them work hard and have to look for him for the reviewers. Huang Tao took the initiative to put forward to the leadership that "taking charge" is not the way to do it. He should concentrate on doing it well. In this way, he completely broke away from the work of the director of the publicity department and devoted himself to the publication of "a single spark". The ministry organized and coordinated the secondment of excellent troops and strong generals from various military regions to work, up to 36 at most. Originally, it was assumed that the work would be temporary and could be completed in a year or two at most. As a result, everyone was in a "temporary" state of work. Without the establishment or the office, they fought guerrillas everywhere. They moved from the general administration office building to Guang'anmen, and then to Badachu in Xishan. No one thought that this temporary job had been done for 26 years. In the past 26 years, Huang Tao has been working in this "temporary" organization without any temporary work. In the past 26 years, Huang Tao's position and salary have not changed at all. He has worked in the leading position of the division for 30 years, and only after his retirement can he enjoy the treatment of deputy military position. In the course of these 26 years, in order to adhere to the purpose of "respecting history, preserving truth and seeking truth", Huang Tao was criticized and censored during the "Cultural Revolution". However, he insisted: "history can't be made up. If it's recorded unfairly, the article can't be written." During the cultural revolution, Huang Tao was dismissed and put into a cowshed. He asked his family to bury the relevant materials and books of "a single spark" underground before copying, so that tens of thousands of contributions and many precious materials could escape the devastating catastrophe. This extraordinary 26 years has left behind a brilliant history book. Precious historical materials: Guo Moruo praised the book as an "Oriental epic" representing the great revolutionary war; Mao Dun said: it is both history and literature. "A single spark starts a prairie fire" has issued more than 6 million copies, and 36 works, such as Zhu De's shoulder pole, a bag of dry food, and a stretcher, have been selected into primary and secondary school Chinese textbooks. More than ten works have been adapted into film and television. More than 1200 articles have been reprinted in 94 newspapers and periodicals across the country. "A single spark starts a prairie fire" published eight episodes from September 1958 to October 1963. Among them, the fifth and eighth episodes were not published due to special reasons. It was not until 1982 that all the fifth and eighth episodes were published. The foreign language press has translated seven anthologies into 13 languages, including English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Arabic, and published them abroad. In 1992, the PLA Press published an anthology of "a prairie fire". In 2007, the PLA press again published "a prairie fire: unpublished manuscript". "A single spark starts a prairie fire" has become a well-known brand of PLA publishing house, which has created rich social and economic value.

Chinese PinYin : xīng huǒ liáo yuán