At the end of 2019, Mr. Feng Zhiming went to Frankfurt to visit relatives, and when the new coronavirus infection epidemic broke out, he was stuck in Germany, and he was firmly blocked in his hometown. Under this coincidence, he had an impulse to create, and in May and June 2020, he began to create "Yun Mengze" (domestic version) and "Another Country in Life" (overseas version) - the idea of this work was formed in 2008, which shows the long time of conception. ** It should be an unexpected fruit of this world-class pandemic, although it is not to be celebrated, but it is also thanks to it.
Over the years, he has been working tirelessly. We have read his "Eight Hundred Years of the Chu State", which should be a kind of historical-style essay, because the historical materials of the pre-Qin period are inconsistent, and he was busy with daily affairs, so he wrote it for eight years one after another. He believes that this should be a reading note, a narrative style, and a brisk and humorous tone to tell the past of the Chu State. This kind of theme has been enduring, and the book has been published in two editions in mainland China and in traditional Chinese overseas.
After Yun Mengze finished writing, Mr. Feng Zhiming had the urge to ask me to read it. The reason for this, he said, is because of my international background of working in Europe and Australia for several years, and the reason why I grew up in the Jianghan Plain at about the same time as him. Because I am usually busy with mundane affairs, this is a long story of more than 400,000 words in the first draft, and I am afraid that I will not be able to bear the weight of this reading, so the author uses abbreviations to introduce its writing characteristics and other forms, and compresses this long work into more than 10,000 words for me to understand, thinking that after I read it, I will have some discussions with him. "Yun Mengze" began in Europe and ended in Germany; In more than 400,000 words, he wrote about the three eras of the Jianghan Plain -- the thirties and forties of the last century, the era of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the contemporary era of reform and opening up. In my opinion, it should be like "White Deer Plain", at least 500,000 words, with a grand structure and many characters, so that it can be told more completely.
Perhaps because of the background and other reasons, I read "Yun Mengze" carefully, and even I was surprised by the degree of devotion, and helped him correct many clerical mistakes, and we had many heated discussions. Now that Feng Zuo has finalized the manuscript at 450,000 words, I have spent a weekend to interpret this ** from my point of view, and I am willing to do some useful discussions with readers and critics.
This ** perspective is very new. In the three eras written, especially in the movement of the founding era, the people in the water towns and lakes even criticized the streets with the nostalgic color of fishermen, and the humor was vivid and even made people laugh. And Yin Zhihong used old foreigners as foreign signboards, causing all walks of life in the city to imitate them wantonly, hundreds of thousands of people were westernized, and even alarmed the foreign media. Yin's mother, a medical professional, frantically tried to make hormone dishes after returning to the city, which caused the city's population to plummet, and the current situation is worrying. This symbolic way of writing gives the work a lot of room for stretching. The missionary's missionary experience in the water town of Zeguo in "Yunmengze" reminds me of the characters in "Rich Breasts and Fat Buttocks", and I compare the two to each other, and I feel that they have their own characteristics and are not equal.
Regarding his hometown, it is not that he does not see the light of hope here, and Li Ruji's generation of Liang Yizhen is a wise move to hold the mentality of "this place of peace is his hometown".
From a macro perspective, the first article involves European cultural history, and with the research direction of Professor and Liang Yizhen, he predicted the future of the European Union and the withdrawal of capitalism from the stage of history, criticized the ugly behavior of imperialism, and mocked the ** of Panyan's attachment to the situation ruthlessly. From the perspective of historical depth, he judged that although it is said that there are hundreds of millions of people who believe in Western religion at present, it can be judged from the historical materials of the Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, as well as the religious debates between China and the West in the 50s of the 20 th century.
I very much agree with Mr. Lu Xun's opinion: "What has a local color can easily become the world." "I have several years of experience in Europe and Australia because of my foreign station, and I think that if Yun Mengze goes abroad in the future, it should fully estimate the possible political impact, and in general, it should enhance the interest and closeness of foreign readers in Chinese culture, and reveal the commonality between Eastern and Western cultures and the commonality of the human spiritual world.
The author of "Yun Mengze" wrote about his hometown in the opening chapter, and many capable people have gone out to settle down in the coastal area, and settled in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and it is already an atmosphere of the times in other places.
People in other places, well!
Wuhan, September 15, 2021.
Revised on November 8, 2021.