Author introduction Zhong Acheng was born in 1949 in Tomb-Sweeping Day. When he was twelve or thirteen years old, he had read many Chinese and foreign literary masterpieces, such as Cao Xueqin, Luo Guanzhong, Shi Naian, Tolstoy, Balzac, Dostoevsky and Hugo. I didn't finish middle school, and when the Cultural Revolution began, I went to rural Shanxi to jump the queue. At this time, I began to learn to draw. In order to sketch in the grassland, I moved to Inner Mongolia and then settled in the farm of Yunnan Construction Corps. When I was in Yunnan, I met the famous painter Fan Ceng. They crossed the generation gap and became best friends. After the Cultural Revolution, recommended by Fan Ceng, the editorial department of World Book made an exception and hired Acheng, and the author returned to Beijing. After 1979, Acheng assisted his father, Mr. Zhong, in writing film aesthetics. From Marx's Das Kapital and Hegel's aesthetics to China's Yijing, Confucianism, Taoism and Zen, ancient and modern Chinese and foreign, astronomy and geography, Acheng discussed with his father and made the past serve the present, which further laid the foundation for the formation of his later writing style. Acheng started writing on 1984. Acheng showed his philosophy in his first novel "Chess King": "The educated youth life, which is generally considered to be very bitter, may be upgraded by the poor class with low living standards! In addition, the' heroic' behavior of ordinary people is often the epitome of history. Those ordinary people will glow with some brilliance when they are forced. After that, when ordinary people return to ordinary people, they are often scared by their own behavior. Therefore, personally, they often start from scratch, return to zero, and history goes further. " As soon as the novel was published, it shocked the literary world, and won the Fujian Short Story Selection Award and the Third National Excellent Novelette Award with 1984. Since then, works have come out one after another, including the article "Culture restricts human beings". His collection of works, Chess King, was published by Writers Publishing House as the first series of literary rising stars. * * Including three novellas Chess King, Tree King and Child King and six short stories Dinner, Stump, Turnover, Sleeper, Fool and Lost.
The content summary works focus on the "chess king"-Wang Yisheng, an intellectual youth, and describe the story of an ordinary person in an unprecedented era. Wang Yisheng was very poor in family life since he was a child. Besides going to school, he has to help his mother fold the pages to supplement the family. Once he happened to see a book about chess from the folded pages, followed by playing chess and winning chess. Since then, Wang Yisheng, who has no entertainment life, but has a good brain and good mathematics, has discovered a colorful and interesting world from chess. He is crazy about chess, just crazy. In addition to trying every means to find someone to play chess, when no one plays chess, their brains become the battlefield of the game between the two sides. The humiliated and uneducated mother was afraid that Wang Yisheng would learn chess by mistake, but she knew that she loved her son and was good at chess-she only got a little fun from chess in a poor and embarrassed life, and left Wang Yisheng with a toothbrush when she died.
After Wang Yisheng entered middle school, he became famous for his chess skills. He often wins the championship in inter-school chess competitions, and there are many rumors and anecdotes about chess gods, so he is called "chess idiot". During the Cultural Revolution, it was said that because he played chess "God", he arrested four opponents to watch the game, used them as pickpockets, took the opportunity to touch the bag, and somehow collected "ill-gotten wealth" and was arrested by the rebels. In other words, he got through the helpless ancient chess pieces of famous domestic players, but he didn't want to call them disciples against his will, which made the famous players very angry. Or he was working for an old man who knew chess very well, and mistakenly tore up the posters of a rebel group, which became the fuse of "exposing conspiracy" and "fighting back" between the two opposites. At that time, the wall was covered with posters with Wang Yisheng's name. The Old Man Picking up Rotten Paper is of great significance in Wang Yisheng's chess game. Wang Yisheng met the old man because he was looking for the lost chess book. After the guidance of the old man, he began to understand that although rootless chess can know the number of sets beyond a hundred steps, it will not become a climate; Only by understanding the truth that prosperity leads to failure and weakness leads to venting, grasping the opportunity, creating momentum, suppressing the spirit of the cause, taking advantage of the trend, taking root and inaction, can the opponent be helpless. From then on, I began to seek the true meaning of China Taoism and the theory of Yin and Yang into the chess strategy. On the train of educated youth going to the countryside, Wang Yisheng met the educated youth "I" who went to the farm on the same side in order to find a chess friend. Through what he saw and heard when he married Wang Yisheng, the author deliberately exaggerated Wang Yisheng's personal feelings about hunger in his long-term poverty life. For the real pursuit of "eating", he described his "pious" and "delicious" state without giving up a grain of rice or a drop of oil flower. In contrast, Wang Yisheng loves playing chess, but he has great tolerance. In his words, "the only way to solve my troubles is to play chess and keep comfortable in it." But to stop him from playing chess unless his brain is cut off. My parents died of illness at the beginning of the exercise and lived without food and clothing for two years. Similar experiences and feelings have established trust and sympathy between Wang Yisheng and me. A few months later, Wang Yisheng played chess all the way and found the breakthrough where "I" was. After being warmly received by a "snake banquet", he won the game with chess player Ni Bin (nicknamed Zudan) and became a chess friend. Zudan advised him to take part in the chess game in the regional sports meeting six months later. However, because Wang Yisheng often asks for leave to play chess, the leader thinks that he has not performed well, and he has never been a representative of the game, so he is not qualified to participate in the chess final. Foot egg for his promotion and Wang Yisheng's participation, several times to the regional secretary of culture and education requirements. When he expressed his intention to present an ancient family painting and an ebony chess set in the Ming Dynasty, the secretary of culture and education said that he would "recommend talents without avoiding personal interests" and agreed to Wang Yisheng's participation. Wang Yisheng, on the other hand, was quite dissatisfied with the token given by his father, refused to participate in the competition, and insisted on playing chess with three experts decided at the regional sports meeting. When this incident started, several people proposed to play chess with Wang Yisheng, and the game was decided. Wang played blind chess all his life, and nine people played with Wang all his life at the same time, resulting in a series of wars in nine innings. Around the chess field, thousands of spectators cheered for it. Wang Yisheng bent down and only urged the "I" aside to take away the "wordless chess" left by his mother. The battle lasted from morning till dark. Wang Yisheng's whole soul is immersed in the world of chess. He beat eight people in succession and won the last game. His opponent is the regional champion. Wang Yisheng's chess skills of combining Taoism and Zen, connecting Yin and Yang, calculating skillfully and treating people with things left a deep impression on the old man. Originally, he was at home, and enthusiastic people rode bicycles to pass chess. At this time, he personally went to the chess field and asked for peace. Wang Yisheng agreed to the old man's request. After a long chess break, when he saw the "wordless chess" left by his mother, he just woke up crying from the ecstatic chess game.
Once this article was published, it shocked the literary world with the author's unique aesthetic perception, life experience and creative style. The novel is called "Chess King", and the author really tells a story of "Chess King" with a clever pen, which is very interesting and you can't help reading it. However, the novel is unique among the works with the life of educated youth as the theme, because the writer's purpose is not only to "convey chess by writing", but to "write people by chess"; Moreover, the story of a little person who is quite different from the cultural spirit of the "unprecedented" era shows the existence and appearance of real life and real life in the historical perspective of the distance formed in that era. Wang Yisheng is an ordinary person living at the bottom of society. His life situation can be summarized by the word "poor". The per capita living expenses of the whole family are less than 10 yuan. In order to save his family, he even canceled school activities such as going to the park and watching movies. Either because of life circumstances or because of personality characteristics, Wang Yisheng fell in love with chess and his youth life was radiant. No poverty, no external interference or disqualification can sever the relationship between Wang Yisheng and chess, even in an unprecedented era. Here, what the author tries to illustrate through characters is not the relationship between man and chess, but an ordinary and realistic attitude towards life. Readers can't help laughing when they read Wang Yisheng's "insipid" and mistakenly tore up the posters of a rebel group, which made his "big" name make a lot of noise and was taken away by the opposing factions as the focus of "struggle". What is contained between that moment and a smile is the rich content of the times, the inspiration of the image of the work, and the ridicule of the whole deformed era. The uniqueness of Acheng's aesthetic perspective lies in that when he reflected on that era, he was not immersed in it, but detached from the image and examined life. Therefore, from the cultural phenomena such as "rebellion", "crusade", "rebellion" and "big-character poster war" that can be seen everywhere at that time, we can see its absurdity with history and real life. This is a subtle manifestation of the contradiction between Wang Yisheng, an ordinary little person, and the consciousness of "dominating" the times. Under the bright background, it reveals the solid and irreversible process of history and life under the distorted cultural surface of that era. Wang Yisheng's love for chess and chess, his modest and eager to learn, straightforward and resolute chess products-his cautious personality show his persistent enthusiasm for life, but as a "person", "loving life" is not empty talk, and "life" is not maintained and continued by empty spiritual slogans. Wang Yisheng's feelings and views on "eating", including his eating attitude, are discussed in his works. If people's spiritual needs often represent the so-called "elegance" side of people, while the material needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation are more regarded as "vulgarity", then this work completes the image-building of a real person in the natural unity of "elegance" and "vulgarity". However, the description of the characters in the works does not stop at the social level, but shows efforts to transcend reality, individual existence and grasp the world life as a whole. The writer's understanding of China's classical philosophy, Taoism and Zen spirit is imperceptibly permeated in the characterization. In Wang Yisheng's chess learning experience, it goes without saying that the advice of the old man who picked up rotten paper is of decisive significance. His understanding of "qi" and "potential" made Wang Yisheng's chess skills better and better, and finally he was the winner. And Wang Yisheng's life path and personality, which was not depressed and persistent in poverty, adversity and predicament, didn't have the philosophical significance of governing by doing nothing in that abnormal era? The author's description of a fierce battle on Wang Yisheng's chess field particularly highlights this feature of the author's creative thinking: Wang Yisheng "put his hands on his knees and cast a thin stump with iron bars, as if he didn't see anything, as if he didn't hear anything." "... eyes deep in the dark, like overlooking the universe, the vast universe. That kind of life is like gathering in a messy hair, which lingers for a long time, slowly diffuses and burns your face hot. "It is not so much a dedicated chess player as a" chess soul "melted by the national cultural spirit. It is far from being limited to a specific real life, but it has eternal significance with ancient, present, future and universal life. Chess King is not only deeply conceived, but also shows the artistic skill of integrating it into the creation of perceptual images and the performance of story plots. The author writes about the love of educated youth and the friendship of chess players, which makes people feel the rare understanding, sincerity and closeness between people in that abnormal era. The author describes the love between mother and child. The strokes of "Chess without Words" are gently lifted, forming a thrilling artistic force, which makes people can't help it. The details of the work list, such as "eating", are like meticulous carving, which makes people express their hearts and minds; Writing scenes, such as "A Thousand People Watching Chess", is full of style, harmonious and consistent, and it is really extraordinary to write with different characters. Coupled with concise words, humorous language, ironic tone, and the brushwork of "static" and "dynamic", the novel has a unique aesthetic feeling. In a word, the works reveal and sublimate the mysterious philosophical fate and lofty cultural meditation in ordinary life. In the narrative of the story, Acheng's novels, with their simple and realistic brushwork and unique style, are touching and thought-provoking, with intention in mind, emotion in action and spirit in condensation.