1980 My literary era

The Everyone Honghe Literature Award was first established because the huge prize of 100,000 yuan attracted the attention of the domestic literary world. However, this award is new, and the organizer "Everyone" magazine is not well-known and has little influence in the domestic literary world. , overall, the gold content is not high.

A few days after everyone was talking about the Honghe Literary Award, news came about the long-silent Yanbing Literary Award.

After four years, this most authoritative literary award in the Chinese literary world has finally received another award.

The fourth Yanbing Literature Award has a unique atmosphere from the very beginning.

In fact, it cannot be said that it started from the fourth edition. In fact, according to the original rules of the Yanbing Literature Award, the award is selected every three years. The first two editions were normal, but starting from the third edition, the work selection period was expanded to In four years, from 1985 to 1988, the norm has been broken.

The establishment of rules requires the hard work of many people, but it only takes one to break them.

The selection period for the works of this year's awards is directly set as 1989 to 1994, which spans as long as six years.

Recommendations for the Yanbing Literature Award are jointly recommended by literary associations, cultural departments, local publishing units and large literary journals across the country. As a leader in the field of domestic literature, the Chinese Literature Society has always had a strong say in recommending works.

The Chinese Literature Society publishes hundreds of literary works every year, and many of them are well-received. However, they are only a publishing house after all and cannot occupy all the places.

On the eve of submission of works, almost every day, the Chinese Literature Society office receives a large number of phone calls.

Without exception, they are all calls from writers from all over the world. The purpose of these people calling is naturally to qualify for the Yanbing Literature Award.

It stands to reason that it is the publishing house's business what works to submit. Writers should also have a good idea of ​​the quality, evaluation and influence of their works. However, in the face of fame and fortune, there are still very few people who can really treat it indifferently.

This situation has become a normal situation that the Chinese Literature Society has to face before submitting submissions for each Yanbing Literature Award.

Lin Weimin is the editor-in-chief of the Chinese Literature Society. If this matter comes up, many people should ask him about it.

But the conflict between him and the Yan Bing Literature Award is public. He has already announced that he will not participate in the selection of the Yan Bing Literature Award. Who would rub his brow and come to him to ask about such a thing?

This is a big pain for the editors in the agency, especially some senior editors and editorial directors. Everyone has been worried about this matter for the past few days.

"Chief Editor!" Zhao Xin entered the office and called Lin Weimin, with a hint of melancholy in his tone.

"What's wrong?"

"The submission list for the Yanbing Literature Award is out."

Zhao Xin handed over the list. This list was determined by the directors and deputy editors of various editorial departments in the agency. Lin Weimin glanced at it and saw that there were 22 titles.

Lin Weimin said angrily: "These people, do you think the award is given by our Chinese Literature Society?"

The number of works submitted for the Yanbing Literary Award in previous years is basically over 100. The last prize evaluation studio of the Literary and Art Association received a total of 104 works.

According to the figures from the previous year, the books submitted by the Chinese Literature Society this time accounted for more than one-fifth of the entire award.

No matter how prestigious the Chinese Literature Society is, it is impossible for the jury to accept all these works!

"We have discussed it several times, and this quota has been simplified." Zhao Xin explained.

"Is that how they simplify it?"

Zhao Xin was helpless. She knew that sending out the list was not easy to do, but those guys were cunning and cunning, and they worked together to assign this difficult task to her. She couldn't get rid of it even if she wanted to.

After receiving a few words of reprimand, Zhao Xin said, "Then I'll take it back and let everyone discuss it again."

Lin Weimin said: "No need, letting them discuss is a waste of time and nothing can be discussed."

He said, crossing the list with the pen in his hand.

When the list came back to Zhao Xin, the number was less than half, with only 10 movies left.

Zhao Xin was secretly stunned. The leader is really not afraid of offending people!

She stood for a few seconds holding the submission list. Lin Weimin asked, "Is there anything else?"

Zhao Xin came to her senses and said, "It's okay," but she still couldn't help but ask, "Editor-in-Chief, if you cross out 12 people at once, what should I do if these writers have any objections?"

"Have an opinion? If you have an opinion, you can raise it."

Translated, this can be understood as: Who in the hall is suing me?

Who can I tell you if you have any comments? Of course with the leader!

Who is the leader? Chief Editor Lin!

It’s all for nothing!

Zhao Xin understood what the leader meant and stopped talking. After leaving the office, she copied the list again and was about to send it to the Literary Association when she was surrounded by several editorial directors.

"Xiao Zhao, what did the editor-in-chief of the list say?"

"Let's see the list!"

When Zhao Xin saw these old foxes, he became extremely angry. I will do all the things that make people angry, and you will do all the good things!

However, as she thought about the scene where the editor-in-chief's pen was crossing the list just now, the anger in her heart quickly turned into a sense of schadenfreude, and she handed the list out lightly.

Several people grabbed a piece of paper and almost buried their heads in it.

"Ouch! This is too cruel, just row half of it down."

"Why bother? Just report it. If you are screened by the literary association, it is also the matter of the literary association and has nothing to do with us."

Several editorial directors complained about Lin Weimin's unkindness, but Zhao Xin looked down upon these old foxes and snatched the list away. She scolded: "Otherwise, you can only be directors! Look at the consciousness of you guys. , the list we reported is true, but if you send it to others to mark it down, you will not offend anyone, but it is our Chinese Literature Society that is embarrassed."

A few old guys didn't feel ashamed, but instead teased Zhao Xin, "Hey, Xiao Zhao is really worthy of being a leader, his consciousness is high!"

Zhao Xin was too lazy to talk to these old foxes anymore, so she rolled her eyes at them and went straight to the Literary and Art Association.

The office of the Association of Literary and Art Circles is located at No. 10 South Lane of the Agricultural Exhibition Hall, in the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building.

The Writers Publishing House where the late Lao Rong once worked is on the fourth floor of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles Building.

Zhao Xin walked into the Federation of Literary and Art Circles building, went to the third floor, and knocked on the door of an office. There was a sign hanging on it that read: Yanbing Literary Award Judging Office.

After entering the office, Zhao Xin found the contact staff and handed her the list of submissions from the Chinese Literature Society.

The staff member was a young girl in her twenties. She glanced at the books on the list and said with a smile: "Your Chinese Literature Society has the strength to submit so many good works at once. "White Deer Plain", "Dust Settled", "Abandoned" "Capital", "Emperor Yongzheng", "The Last Huns", "Shouting in the Drizzle", "The Turbulent Autumn", "War and Man"... Yeah, I've seen them all!"

When Zhao Xin heard this, a somewhat proud smile appeared on her face. This was the foundation of the Chinese Literature Society.

She hasn’t said yet that this is the result of Chief Editor Lin crossing out more than half of it!

"Huh? Why are there no works by Lin Weimin?"

The little girl's question made the smile on Zhao Xin's face freeze. Is this girl really stupid? Why are the editor-in-chief's works not submitted? Is your awards office worried about this?

Zhao Xin was hesitating whether to teach this girl a lesson when the door to the office was suddenly pushed open and an old man over fifty years old walked in.

"Director!" the little girl shouted.

Zhao Xin occasionally came to the awards office to do business and recognized the old man. He was Chen Changben, the deputy director of the awards committee and an important leader of this term of the Cultural Association.

Chen Changben also recognized Zhao Xin and asked with a smile: "Are you here to deliver the list?"

"yes."

Chen Changben asked the little girl for the list submitted by the Chinese Literature Society. He glanced at it and frowned, "You, Chief Editor Lin, really don't want to sign up?"

Zhao Xin didn't dare to speak nonsense and nodded "Yeah".

Chen Changben sighed helplessly, "We are all one family, why are we so angry?"

Zhao Xin couldn't help but curse, "Why didn't I see you treating the editor-in-chief as a family during the award evaluation?"

Realizing that it was useless to talk to Zhao Xin, Chen Changben looked at the list again and said with a smile: "This group of your club is really elite and strong, and not a single work is easy to deal with!"

Zhao Xin smiled and said: "This is still conservative. Many works have not been included."

Chen Changben said: "Then I have to thank you, the Chinese Literature Society, for your mercy on behalf of other units!"

After joking for a while, Zhao Xin returned to the Chinese Literature Society. When she entered the office, she heard everyone discussing the submission list for the Yanbing Literary Award.

During the two hours she went to the Chinese Literature Association, word had spread throughout the Chinese Literature Society that Lin Weimin had wiped out most of the submitted places with a stroke of his pen.

Everyone admired Chief Editor Lin's courage, but what they were most concerned about was the consequences of doing so.

Writers are not indifferent to fame and fortune. On the contrary, in some aspects they are quite petty.

"I guess the editor-in-chief will be hated this time."

"How can you do anything without being hated by others? All these works have been submitted to the awards office, and a lot of them have been brushed off. The reputation of our agency is not good! It's not that you don't know that the editor-in-chief and the jury will not deal with them. "

"Hey, that's really weird. In fact, the editor-in-chief has good relationships with many people, so why did it get to this point?"

"This person is a human being when he is alone. But when he enters the system, he becomes a social animal."

"Brilliant!"

…

Lin Weimin's dismissal of many works will naturally arouse the resentment of some writers, but it is also because of his selflessness that the Chinese Literature Society shines in the evaluation process of this Yanbing Literary Award.

On October 15th, the Yanbing Literature Award Reading Class gathered at Yenching Socialist College. The reading class consists of 23 members. It is a peripheral organization for the selection of the Yanbing Literature Award. Most of the members are from various literary institutions and colleges and universities. Professional critics and some writers are among them.

In the next half month, the reading class will focus on reading the 112 novels that were submitted for this year's Yanbing Literature Award.

It is a very challenging task to complete the reading and evaluation of 112 novels in half a month.

It is impossible for each member of the reading class to read every novel once, so the novels are read in groups.

Even though 12 works were rejected, the Chinese Literature Society still ranked far ahead among many institutions with the 10 submitted works.

Moreover, many of the works they submitted were of greatest concern to all members of the reading class.

Many classic works such as "White Deer Plain", "The Dust Has Settled", "Emperor Yongzheng", "The Last Huns", "War and Man", have not only won the love of countless readers in China, but also created an excellent reputation in the literary world.

Cheng Jiangong is one of the members of this reading class, and his group happens to be responsible for several novels from the Chinese Literature Society.

Most of the members of the reading class have read many of the works that participated in the review, especially the works submitted by the Chinese Literature Society. After several years of accumulation, they have become widely known and influential, and everyone has basically read them.

Therefore, the atmosphere in the reading group was quite relaxed during the reading process.

Cheng Jiangong is a writer, but none of his works were selected for this Yanbing Literature Award. He had dealt with Lin Weimin, and he helped Pan Yaoming of Hong Kong Sanlian Bookstore invite Lin Weimin and others to visit Hong Kong.

He put down the book in his hand and sighed softly, "It's difficult!"

Radar on the side heard his words and raised his eyes from the book, "It's indeed a bit difficult. There are so many good works."

Cheng Jiangong shook his head, "I'm not talking about the difficulty of screening."

"What's the meaning?"

"I mean it's difficult for other units to submit works."

As Cheng Jiangong spoke, he showed the "Emperor Yongzheng" in his hand to Radar, "This "Emperor Yongzheng" alone is enough to stand out from the rest. The quality of the works of the Chinese Literature Society this year is too high. I am really afraid of them." I’ve taken up all the winning spots!”

Radar is a writer, editor, and critic, but he is best known as a critic. He has read many works submitted by the Chinese Literature Society many times. He couldn't help laughing when he heard Cheng Jiangong's words.

"It does feel a bit like college students bullying elementary school students. However, the work is here, and there is no doubt about its quality. It still needs to be evaluated."

Cheng Jiangong smiled and said: "In my opinion, "White Deer Plain" and "The Dust Has Settled" will definitely occupy two seats. "Emperor Yongzheng", "War and People" and "Autumn of Turmoil" are also seed candidates. Yu Hua's "In the Small" "Shouting in the Rain" and Huang On-yee's "Documentary and Fiction" suffer because of their unflattering style..."

"There are still many works that have not been submitted. I heard that Lin Weimin won 12 novels with a stroke of his pen this time. These are all seeded contestants selected by the Chinese Literature Society and selected from the best."

"So I say, it's not only difficult for us to screen, but it's also difficult for the selection. But the most difficult thing is for other submitting units, they almost become running companions."

He joked with Radar, and then said with some regret: "It's a pity for Lin Weimin. None of his novels meet the criteria for selection."

Hearing this, the smile on Lida's face faded slightly, "There is nothing we can do. Wherever there are people, there are rivers and lakes. The last time was so unpleasant, he had already said he would not participate in the evaluation."

Cheng Jiangong joked: "It's okay if he doesn't participate in the evaluation, otherwise other units will have no chance."

"Haha, you're right. Speaking of which, those units have to thank him. Not only did he not participate in the review, but he also brushed off a large number of high-quality works."

Cheng Jiangong weighed the books in his hands, "But even these, the Chinese Literature Society has a crushing advantage."

Radar spread his hands, "There's nothing we can do about it!"