In Ordinary World, Lu Yao described the state affairs, political situation, family conflicts, hardships of farmers' life, emotional entanglements of the new generation, primitive morality and customs of the Loess Plateau, which constituted a panoramic view of rural life in China from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s. It not only reveals the author's warm and touching feelings for his hometown elders, but also reflects the author's profound philosophical thinking and understanding of life, society, history and life, which is severe, tragic and true.
Shuangshui Village is an unremarkable mountain village, located in the Loess Plateau surrounded by Hengduan Mountains. From 65438 to 0975, due to the abnormal political life of the country, many aspects of society were in a very turbulent and chaotic state. In the countryside, the life of farmers is becoming more and more difficult.
The eldest son of the poor peasant grandson is always the first in his class when he goes to school, and all the teachers in the school say that this child has a bright future. However, Sun's family was poor, and Shao An reluctantly returned to the team to participate in agricultural production after urinating, and together with his father, he provoked the burden of supporting the family. But Shao An is by no means mediocre. He has his own plans and ambitions. He will help his family and the elders in the village get rid of the poverty of several generations through his strong body and clever mind. The villagers chose him as the production captain of the first team, and even the village party secretary Tian did not dare to look down upon this young man.
Sun's eldest daughter married Wang Yinman from a foreign village. This loafer son-in-law is being dragged to the construction site for "reeducation through labor" by the commune for dumping rat poison, which has dragged the whole family to lift their heads. Lan Xiang, the second daughter, and Shao Ping, the second son, are both at school. No matter how poor the family is, we must save money and let the children learn some culture. Whenever this conversation is mentioned, Sun always feels sorry for his eldest son Shao An.
Tian's daughter is Runye, one year younger than Shao An. When I was a child, two dolls ate and slept together, regardless of you and me. When they are a little older, they go out to play together, and often take off their clothes and soak in the river to play with each other and paste mud. In the long run, two people grew up together and went to primary school together, not only in the same class, but also at the same table, which became a veritable "deskmate". After finishing high school, her work in agriculture was less, and Runye went to the county to study in middle school. After graduation, she stayed in the county as a primary school teacher and lived in Tian Fujun, the second father of Renxian Revolutionary Committee. But she never forgot her childhood friend Sun Shaoan, and took special care of Sun Shaoping, who is now in middle school in the county.
On this day, Shao Ping, who runs Ye Tuo, took a message, asking his brother to come to town sometime. Careful Shao Ping has guessed the secret. He likes Sister Runye very much and hopes that she can be his future sister-in-law. But Shao An is a little puzzled. He knows his family conditions and social status, and he doesn't want to wronged his beloved Runye. One is a farmer and the other is an "official" who eats official meals. The distance between them is too far!
But Shao An still crustily skin of head went to the county seat. Runye told him that her second uncle showed her a family. This man is Li Xiangqian, the son of another deputy director of the County Revolutionary Committee. He asked Shao An to help her make up her mind. Seeing Shao An's callous reaction, he was so anxious that he cried. Since then, Runye has returned to the village many times. In the light, he works for the school, but in the dark, he will be unsafe. Kechun went to Qiu Lai, but Shao An remained the same, which made Runye fall into great pain-she struggled between marriage and free love. Tian Ziran discovered the secret, but he didn't want to interfere positively, so he used a trick and decided to secretly stop the development of the situation.
Shao An started from the vital interests of the members and fed more pig feed to each household. Originally, Tian turned a blind eye, half obeyed and pretended not to know. Now, he decided to take it as a shell to punish Sun Shaoan, and he reported it to the commune. The commune believes that Shao An's practice is to openly lead members to take the capitalist road. So the whole commune meeting was held immediately, and Sun Shaoan was publicly criticized, which brought great political pressure to the bamboo slips.
Although Sun didn't know that Runye secretly loved his big boy, he also felt that Shao An should marry a wife, so he asked his younger brother Sun Yuting and his younger sister to help him find one. Coincidentally, He's family has a niece who is far away from home, so she really doesn't want a bride price. As soon as the woman said it, she was very satisfied with Shao An's conditions. Coke broke the old couple. Shao An finally took a look at his relationship with Runye, but still felt that it was impossible to be husband and wife, so he went to Shanxi on a blind date. A month later, Shao An brought back a big girl, which opened the eyes of almost everyone in Shuangshui Village. In the Spring Festival of the following year, Shao An married this girl named Xiulian. Mr. and Mrs. Sun were relieved, and of course they also gave Tian a heart disease.
Shao 'an's marriage made Runye's heart churn like a raging wave for a long time. She is now in the "death day" after the emotional funeral. For the second mother Xu Aiyun and former mother Liu Zhiying, she seems to be able to resist repeated attacks, but when she thinks of her respected second father, Runye is puzzled. It turned out that Tian Fujun and Li, who was desperately "left", had never been together. Li won Tian Fujun over many issues with his political sense of smell. Someone enlightened and moistened the leaves If you can become Li's daughter-in-law, Li will no longer be your second father's enemy, and this county will become the unified land of Li Tian and his two families. Because of the despair of love and the love for her second dad, Runye finally agreed to marry Qianjin painfully. After marriage, the couple lived in the same room and different beds, and they lived a life with little affection from the beginning.
Shao An's younger brother Shao Ping goes to school in the county. After several years of study and life, he has both happiness and pain. Of course, the biggest gain is that he abandoned a lot of narrow-mindedness and prejudice of pure "hillbilly" and broadened his horizons. Originally among classmates, Hao Hongmei, a girl with similar situation to him, was very kind to him, but Hao Hongmei was born in a landlord family and wanted to change her position through marriage, so she gradually alienated Shao Ping, climbed the cadres' children to care about the people, and hurt Shao Ping emotionally. And * * * have the same hobbies, and make Shao Pinghe Tian Fujun's daughter, Tian Xiaoxia, a classmate of different classes, establish a pure friendship.
On the eve of graduation, Hao Hongmei stole a handkerchief from the supply and marketing cooperative because she had no money to buy souvenirs for her classmates. Others told Shao Ping about it and gave him a chance to get back at Hao Hongmei. Who knows that Shao Ping was generous, but she paid the handkerchief in full for Hao Hongmei, thus saving her reputation.
After graduation, students live far apart, and Shao Ping returned to Shuangshui Village, where he was born. It happened that Shuangshui Village School opened a junior high school class and was recommended to be a private teacher with Tian Runsheng, the son of Tian who graduated with him and returned to the village. At this time, Shao An has become a father, and Xiulian gave birth to a big fat man.
In a blink of an eye, at the beginning of 1978, Shao An heard a blacksmith who came out of Anhui to make a living, saying that their hometown had engaged in the contract responsibility system of joint production, and farmers' lives had been greatly improved now, so he intuitively divided his production team into several agricultural management groups and started a "small contract". Who knows that there is no windtight wall in the world, which immediately caused panic among some leaders in the brigade, commune and even county. Finally, the District Revolutionary Committee made a "final judgment": resolutely stop the capitalist restoration tendency of Shuangshui Village.
On the fifteenth day of the first month, there was a yangko in the countryside, and Tian Fujun returned to the village with his wife and daughter. Seeing that Shao An was not crushed, he was very pleased, so he patted Shao An on the shoulder and encouraged him meaningfully: "Work hard, I believe a brand-new situation will soon appear in the countryside."
Later, Shao An contracted the brick factory that the commune was about to close down. After making money, he invested in rebuilding Shuangshui Village Primary School. On the day of completion, county and township leaders personally attended the "inauguration ceremony". However, Shao An's wife suffered from lung cancer at this moment, and the ups and downs in life seemed to make Shao An feel it.
An overview of Ordinary World;
In the history of China's literary acceptance, Ordinary World has a certain representative significance: that is, there are huge differences of views between the academic circles represented by researchers and the history of literature, critics and readers. As soon as the work was published, it was very clearly affirmed by critics, and soon it won the authoritative award-Mao Dun Literature Award, which was awarded by the government and presided over by critics. It can be said that it has won the highest honor of literary criticism. Similarly, readers have a general understanding of Ordinary World. When it first came out, the readers responded enthusiastically. Some radio stations and newspapers reprint and replay, and organize listeners to discuss with readers. Moreover, this enthusiasm has continued to this day after more than ten years. In recent years, the popularity of Ordinary World ranks among the best in China's contemporary literature and even China's literature, and many college students even list it as their favorite and most cherished literary works. Such enthusiasm for reading is rare in the history of China's acceptance of new literature.
However, contrary to the opinions of critics and readers, the academic circles have never given a clear affirmation to Ordinary World, and contemporary literature researchers rarely talk about this work, let alone conduct in-depth research and positive evaluation of it. Therefore, in all kinds of contemporary literary history of China published since 1990s, almost none of them put Ordinary World in an important position, and many important literary works (such as History of Contemporary Literature in China by Hong Zicheng, History of Modern Literature in China by Zhu Donglin, Ding Fan and Zhu Xiaojin, and History of Contemporary Literature in China by Wang Qingsheng) did not even mention this work or the author Lu Yao.
Ordinary World is not a popular literary work like Zhang Henshui, Qiong Yao and Jin Yong (even it has caused widespread controversy in recent years), but it is definitely formal and serious literature. Therefore, people have been concerned about the serious differences in their evaluation, and some scholars and literary lovers have also expressed their confusion and doubts. It should be said that Ordinary World is not perfect, but it is far from useless. In people's extreme praise and criticism of it, it reflects the pluralistic pattern of culture and literary criticism of the times, and also contains certain problems in value orientation and critical attitude. The evaluation phenomenon of Ordinary World is not an isolated event, but has certain universal significance. Thinking about this phenomenon will help us to deepen our understanding of contemporary literary creation and literary history writing.
The basis for evaluating a literary phenomenon is to look at the work itself. It should be said that "Ordinary World" can have such a wide and sustained influence, and it has its own advantages that cannot be ignored. In my opinion, its most prominent advantage lies in its keen concern for real life (specifically, the rural masses in the era of social change). Lu Yao is a writer from the countryside who has been paying attention to the countryside. "Ordinary World" and his other work "Life" have had a great response among readers (especially rural youth), because they truly and concretely reflect the vast reality of rural areas after the reform and opening up, especially reveal the farmers' pursuit spirit of changing their destiny in the most profound and thorough changes in this rural society. Lu Yao expressed his real understanding and sympathy for the peasants, and also partially revealed the coldness and hardship of reality.
Associated with this concern is the strong and sincere love of the ordinary world for the object of writing-farmers, which is unreservedly integrated into the works. As Lu Yao himself said, "As the son of an orthodox farmer, ... I am full of anxiety about the fate of farmers in China. I am more concerned about the hardships and pains in their journey to a new life, not just the great joy after arriving on the other side. " (2) Ordinary World has invested the author's strong subjective feelings and expressed them without reservation, which is very attractive to readers. A notable example is that works often integrate the author's feelings and thoughts into the characters' personalities and thoughts, showing deep concern for the fate and life of the characters. Sun Shaoping, the hero of the work, has received special understanding and attention from the author. Their mouths often express profound thoughts on life: "What should we cherish most when we live in this world? Money? Power? Honor? Yes, it's good to have these things. But nothing is more precious than warm human feelings-this is the real beauty of life you feel. " This can be said to be the language of the characters and the voice of the author. Their thoughts and feelings blend together. Objectively speaking, the artistic effect of this method has both advantages and disadvantages, but its appeal to readers is beyond doubt. Especially when objective writing is becoming the creative trend of China in the second half of the 20th century, this kind of creation with strong subjective color shows its own special artistic effect.
It is these two points that make Ordinary World win the recognition of many readers, especially young readers, because the social changes in China, which reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, have never been an opportunity to change their destiny in the rural history of China (except the peasant uprising in feudal times, perhaps it was the product of turbulent times, and farmers mainly assumed the role of cannon fodder), such as Gao Jialin, Sun Shaoping and Sun Shaoan. At present, most students living on university campuses belong to this type. If Gao Jialin's confusion and failure in life only deepened their rational thinking (perhaps because of this, living in contemporary rural youth is not as popular as Ordinary World), then the struggle and success of Sun Shaoping brothers in Ordinary World became their spiritual epitome and source of confidence. * * * The same life trajectory and * * the same fate choice make these readers naturally love "Ordinary World" and pay attention to the ups and downs of the characters, just like their own lives.
Moreover, the value of "Ordinary World" is not completely limited to the reality itself, but it also has some significance beyond the concern for reality, such as the passion and idealism expressed in the works, which has a broader significance to a certain extent, because in the current China literature, the works that express trivial and humble life occupy the absolute market, and it is difficult to find works that are both ideal and passionate. However, life can't be short of ideals and passion. The current literary situation can easily disappoint those mediocre and numb readers who are eager to escape from life (the most typical ones are young college students, who are at an age full of illusions and hopes for life and instinctively reject works lacking ideal spirit), expressing their recognition and welcome to Ordinary World.
Finally, I would like to mention the creative method adopted in Ordinary World-traditional realism. After the alienation and distortion in 1950s and 1960s, the realistic method has been despised by most post-80s writers, but Lu Yao has successfully used this method. For example, "Ordinary World" shows serious pursuit and unique artistic charm in the objective description of real life and the display of local nostalgia charm. Of course, this can strongly infect readers who come from rural areas but go to cities to make a living, so that they can truly feel the deep homesickness in a foreign land and soothe their wandering hearts. At the same time, it can also make young urban readers feel fresh, and at the same time, they can appreciate the exotic beauty of rural areas and learn about a richer life world.