The author (first from right) took a group photo with Liu Yong (first from left), former chairman of the Provincial Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Text丨Li Xuefeng.
Mr. Liu Yong is a well-known peasant writer in China. He was my teacher and a good friend of mine, and on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, I couldn't help but write an example of my relationship with him for the sake of readers.
Acquaintance in the county. In 1957, when I was the head of the cultural station of Jianshan Township, Xiangxiang City, I attended the county's cultural stationmaster meeting at the county cultural center. A burly, slightly short-sighted man sat on the same bench as me, he was reading a book quietly with a book in his hand, I saw that he was looking very seriously, and I wanted to ask him what his name was, and he lived at **? But it was inconvenient to disturb him, and he couldn't speak when the words came to his mouth.
Soon, the meeting began, and the host asked Liu Yong to come to the stage to introduce his creative experience and the work of the Xiawan amateur creation group. Liu Yong said slowly: "My name is Liu Yong, I am from Juntang Village, Hushan Commune, I have only read books for three and a half years, but I like to write something, first of all, I learn to write new folk songs, and slowly learn to write Allegro, three and a half sentences, quyi and drama. My experience is that to be bold in writing is to be diligent. We must study diligently, read diligently, think diligently, and write diligently. Do not get tired of learning and writing. Everyone applauded.
After the meeting ended, I went to his room to ask him for advice. He said, "Don't dare to ask for advice, let's learn from each other!" I listen to your accent and know that you are a pot day, how many books have you read? "I said, I went to junior high school in Xiangxiang No. 1 Middle School. He continued: "You are in junior high school, you have a much higher education level than me, and you are young, and you have a lot of achievements! Let's make friends and keep in touch in the future! I said happily, "I can't ask for your love." After I go back, I will immediately set up a literary and artistic creation group, so that the straw sandals are impostored, and the portrait is made while playing. At this time, I heard the whistle and was about to discuss in groups, so we had to shake hands and say goodbye, which was the first time I met with Mr. Liu Yong.
Learn from the Lower Bay. Not long after, I took a car to visit Mr. Liu in Hushan Township. It was a crisp autumn day, and the red sun was shining. I met with Mr. Liu Yong and several comrades from the creative team in Xiawanpu, and they warmly received me. What impressed me the most was a lesbian named Li Xiu'e, who introduced her experience in creating new folk songs. She said: "It was Mr. Liu Yong who taught me hand-in-hand, so that I made rapid progress, I wrote 10 new folk songs at a time, Mr. Liu taught while changing and instructing, if it wasn't for Mr. Liu to teach me so patiently, there would be absolutely no progress today!" The other three comrades also made introductions respectively, and they all praised Mr. Liu's literary level and lofty character. This trip to the bay has given me infinite strength.
On the second day of returning to my hometown in Xiawan, I invited Liu Qiuqiong and Luo Chenghou, who were in Jianshan Elementary School, to set up a three-person creative group, with me as the team leader, with a clear division of labor, stipulating that they would each create 10 new folk songs and 3 quyi programs, and compile and print a briefing on "Jianshan Culture", which was engraved by Liu Qiuqiong. In less than a month, we have overfulfilled the task, Liu Qiuqiong teacher engraved with steel plate wax paper, with some Chinese paintings, printed more than 100 copies, after the briefing was published, distributed to the major teams and schools, has been highly praised by the township party committee and the majority of readers.
Immediately afterwards, I set up an amateur art troupe composed of 20 people for the leader, and invited Liu Guodi teacher from the county cultural center to come to the hall for tutoring, and in nearly half a month, I rehearsed costume dramas and literary programs such as "Happy Return" and "Bang Hai Cutting Reef", and performed on stage with group benches and gate pages in the houses where the teams and schools and personnel are more concentrated.
Liu Yong and I have similar interests, love to write and watch plays, and also love acting, he and I have both sung "Bangs Cut Reefs" on stage! Many of the opera programs I have written are still influenced by him. I remember that the new folk songs and opera programs I compiled were often published in the "Propaganda Materials" engraved by Zhou Mengxu in the county cultural center, and sent to the county's township cultural stations, and some were also published in the provincial "Workers, Peasants and Soldiers' Literature and Art" and "Mass Art Museum". At the end of the year, Hushan Township and Jianshan Township were both rated as advanced units of cultural work by the county cultural center, and Liu Yong and I were on the list of advanced individuals in cultural work.
He gave me a copy of the book "A Gong Rings in the World", and his name was signed on the title page.
Compete on the same stage. On January 2, 1959, the Xiangxiang County Party Committee held a county-wide cultural and educational front heroes meeting in the Great Hall of the People. The meeting elected the first Federation of Literary and Art Circles composed of 23 people, I was one of the members, Feng Jiaren, Minister of Propaganda of the County Party Committee, was elected as the chairman, and Liu Yong and Zhang Yifan were elected as the vice chairmen.
On the evening of the 4th, the first grand poetry competition was held in the auditorium. First of all, Liu Yong, a peasant writer, took the stage with great excitement and chanted several poems. After listening to it, one of the songs is in praise of the public canteen:
The team set up a large canteen, and the meals were cooked fragrantly.
The wind sends fragrance to heaven, and the Jade Emperor is five days long.
Then Liu Qiwen of Dongshan Commune recited four poems, showing their sky-high enthusiasm in the fattening movement:
The high mountains beat war drums, and the flat ground snores.
Just in the blink of an eye, the turf was pushed into a large hillside.
The third was when I took the stage and chanted three poems, one of which was a celebration of the heroism of the reservoir construction site
The red flag of the mountain pass chong reservoir is flying, and thousands of troops are heroic.
Thousands of hoes were raised at the same time, and the mountains bowed their heads.
This poetry competition is only a good start for the literary and artistic creation of Xiangxiang, and the atmosphere is very warm.
In addition, around July 1959, the county party committee held a large-scale exhibition of the county's economic construction at the Xiangxiang Normal School (Zhaojun Temple). At that time, I was the docent of the cultural exhibition room, and Mr. Liu Yong's Xiawan creative group in the exhibition room occupied a place and introduced their creations, which is still fresh in my memory.
Shaoyang for further study. In June 1960, Liu Yong, Li Xiu'e, and Tan Yingzhong, led by Comrade Zhao Xutang, director of the county cultural curator, participated in the representative meeting of amateur literary and artistic creators held in Shaoyang, which lasted for five days. I slept in the same room with Mr. Liu Yong, the weather was unusually hot, there was no ceiling fan in the room at that time, I relied on my own oiled paper fan to relieve the fever, whenever I took a nap, I slept on the bed and tossed over, I always couldn't sleep, but what I admired the most was Liu Yong.
He didn't take a nap, he still sat at the desk and read, his eyes were very close to the book, he was sweating profusely, and he forgot to wipe his sweat with a hand towel and read his book intently.
When formulating the creative plan, his plan was to compose 10 scripts, 100 new folk songs, and a novella**, which amazed me, and under his influence, I also made a plan to compose 3 plays and 50 new folk songs.
Apartment visits. In the spring of 2014, I heard that Mr. Liu Yong was in poor health and returned home after being hospitalized, so I bought an old hen of more than three catties and invited Comrade He Yibing to visit him in his apartment in the provincial capital. As soon as we entered, he greeted us warmly and took a photo with the two of us, and I saw that he had lost a lot of weight and asked him what was wrong. He replied, "It doesn't matter if you're sick. "He also cheered us up and talked a lot about the old things. He said: "I live in Changsha, you are in Xiangxiang, you are too far apart, estranged, today you come to see me, very grateful, old friends, the old love is unforgettable." "I have repeatedly told us to take good care of our bodies. After chatting for about an hour, we saw that he was a little tired and inconvenient to talk about, so he insisted that we eat before leaving, and we politely declined and shook hands to say goodbye. Who knew that this was the last time I met Mr. Liu! After 10 years, the past is vivid, and I miss him deeply.