作家作品 | 刘醒龙：价值是小说写作的真谛所在

编者按

近年来，中华文化“走出去”的影响力不断扩大，在全球文化多元化发展日益兴盛的背景下，中国文化译研网(CCTSS)联合中国作家协会《小说选刊》杂志社，启动“新世纪中国当代作家、作品海外传播数据库”项目，将100位中国当代优秀作家的简介、代表作品以及展示作家风采的短视频翻译为10种语言，集结成1000张中国作家名片向全球推介。千张“作家名片”将鲜明地向世界宣告：我是中国作家，我在进行中国创作。

此种形式和规模是中国故事走向世界的一大创新，会让世界更加全面、客观、公正地了解中国优秀作家作品，同时也是打通中国文化走向世界的“最后一公里”。

小说的精髓，

终归是对价值的判断。

刘醒龙，男，1956年1月出生于湖北省黄冈市历史文化古迹东坡赤壁旁的一家政府招待所。现任《芳草》文学杂志主编，中国作家协会小说委员会副主任。1973年元月他高中毕业，曾当过水利施工员、工厂车工，1984年发表小说处女作，1992年发表成名作中篇小说《凤凰琴》《秋风醉了》。1998年7月他在西藏遭遇泥石流吞没，根据亲身经历创作了长诗《用胸膛行走的高原》。此后，他主要进行长篇小说创作，著有《威风凛凛》《痛失》《弥天》《圣天门口》《天行者》《蟠虺》等。中篇小说《挑担茶叶上北京》获第一届鲁迅文学奖，被翻译成法文《Du Thé d’hiver pour pékin》，由巴黎中国之蓝出版社出版，法国国家电视三台曾专题介绍。长篇小说《天行者》获第八届茅盾文学奖，被翻译成英文《the sky dwellers》，由伦敦欧若拉出版社出版。此外还有多部作品被翻译成英法日韩等文字。

“用人的眼光去看，满世界全是人。用畜生的眼光去看，满世界全是畜生。”关于小说，刘醒龙认为：“记录这个世界的种种罪恶不是小说的使命，小说的使命是罪恶发生时，人所展现的良心和良知、大善和大爱。记录这个世界的种种荣耀不是小说的任务，小说的任务是表现光荣来临之前，人所经历的恍惚与呻吟、羞耻与挣扎。” 评论家冯牧曾著文点评刘醒龙的小说为“新的现实主义”，后被文学界誉为“现实主义的旗帜性作家”。评论家李敬泽认为，当全天下的人都写“不信”时，刘醒龙选择写“信”，这样的文学更加难得，也更需要底气。拥有这种底气，写小说的人可以如同剑客，不去夸耀手中宝剑如何出自名门，而只相信削铁如泥的品质。又像真正爱着女人的男人，同样不会四处炫耀女人的美丽，只会倾心守护这种美丽。

近十年来，刘醒龙创作出版了获广泛好评的史诗性长篇小说《圣天门口》（三卷）、获茅盾文学奖的长篇小说《天行者》，以及令文学界为之震撼长篇小说《蟠虺》。2014年最新创作出版的《蟠虺》，小说中“识时务者为俊杰，不识时务者为圣贤”的言说，以及贯穿整个文本的世所罕见的青铜重器曾侯乙尊盘，将经典小说的奇异性与现代小说的开拓性，完美地结合在一起。一方面写青铜是根硬骨头，一方面写人性所能抵达的心灵，这些都如刘醒龙一向所信奉，文学写的是小地方的大历史，小人物的大命运。

刘醒龙

Liu Xinglong

Liu Xinglong was born in January 1956 in a government guesthouse next to Dongpo, Chibi, a historical and cultural site in Huanggang City, Hubei Province. He is now the editor in chief of Fragrant Grass, a literary magazine, and deputy director of the Fiction Committee of Chinese Writers Association. In January 1973 when he graduated from high school, he worked as a water conservator and factory lathe worker successively. He published his debut novel in 1984 and in 1992 he became well-known writer with his novellas Phoenix Harp (Feng huang qin) and The Drunken Autumn Wind (Qiu Feng Zui Le). He produced a long poem The Highland Walking with Chest based on his personal experience In July 1998 when he was involved in a mudslide in Tibet. Since then, he has engaged himself mainly with writing novels including Weifenglinlin, Painful Loss (Tong Shi), Dark Sky (Mi Tian), The Saintly Gate to Heaven (Sheng Tian Men Kou), The Sky Dwellers (Tian Xing Zhe) and Snake Pattern on Bronze Ware (Pan Hui). The novella Going to Beijing With a Load of Tea (Tiao Dan Cha Ye Shang Bei Jing) won the first Lu Xun Literature Prize. Its French version titled Du Thé d'hiver pour Pékin was published by Bleu de Chine in Paris and given a special report on French National TV 3 channel. The novel The Sky Dwellers won the Eighth Mao Dun Literary Prize and was published by London-based Aurora Publishing LLC. In addition, many of his other works have been translated into English, French, Japanese and Korean.

“When you look through the eyes of a human being, you see the world is full of people. When you look through the eyes of a beast, you see the world is full of beasts.” With regard to fiction, Liu Xinglong believes, “Recording all the sins of this world is not the mission of fiction. Rather, its mission is to note down the sense of conscience, kindness and great love that people exhibit when evil occurs. The task of fiction is not to record various glories in the world, rather it is to show the absent-mindedness, moaning, shame, and struggle people experience before glory comes.” The literary critic Feng Mu commented that Liu Xinglong’s novels give rise to “New Realism”. Liu was later hailed by the literary world as a “banner for new realism”. The literary critic Li Jingze believes that when people all over the world write “I don’t believe”, Liu Xinglong chooses to write “I believe”; and that this kind of literature is even more rare and requires more confidence. With this kind of emboldening power, people who write novels can be like swordsmen, who Place their trust in the sharp quality of the sword instead of boasting about how their swords come from a good hand. They are also like men who truly love their women, guarding their beauty rather than show off to others.

In the past ten years, Liu Xinglong has created many wide-acclaimed works, including the historical novel The Saintly Gate to Heaven (three volumes), the novel The Sky Dwellers, which won the 8th Mao Dun Literary Prize, and the novel Snake Pattern on Bronze Ware (Pan Hui), which shocked the literary world. His most recent work Snake Pattern on Bronze Ware (Pan Hui) in 2014, narrating the story around rare bronze Zeng Houyi plate, is an exemplification of the time-honored proverb that “He who understands the times is a wise man. He who does not is a saint.” In the novel Liu Xinglong fuses perfectly the strangeness of classic novels and the pioneering nature of modern novels. On the one hand, he writes that bronze is a hard bone and on the other, he also writes about the spirit that humanity can reach. All of this is what Liu Xinglong has believed all along: Literature is to write about the great history in small places and the grand fate of ordinary people.

英文审校 | 咸慧

编辑 | 朱贺芳

“文化互译，沟通世界”