Cao Cao: When I was a child, I dreamed of giving the world an order, which was the hazy pursuit of "king". When I realized that this could not be realized in reality, I turned to spiritual writing. The preface of my first novel Babel is "When a man can't conquer the world with a knife, he will choose a pen". Later, I thought it might be because I was born in a quadrilateral, so I have been pursuing a sense of balance and symmetry in the world, such as Eurasia, which has been trying to rebuild in my poems. I experienced many mysterious things when I was a child. My mother firmly believes that I was born of the gecko "snake lion", so I believe that the world is half visible and half invisible, so that we can fully understand our world. I have been afraid of the dark since I was a child, even the shadows. I have to take care of myself every night, so I have a strong observation of light. In my opinion, my later writing is only an interpretation of a desire that existed before childhood or fetal formation.
Far view: You are writing various literary genres. What do you think of poetry, novel, drama and prose? What is their relationship? What are your main published works at present?
Cao Cao: Actually, at first I wrote various styles, and later I concentrated on poetry. Now I give many friends in the literary world the impression that I am a poet, and then I wrote a novel. Now my novel "The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space" is going to be adapted into a TV series, and I will start writing plays later. I feel that the spirit of writing is the same, and different genres are in different States, so these genres do not conflict. It is impossible to waste poetry by writing novels, and it is impossible to write scripts that waste novels. My views on literature are all written in great poetics. Simply put, the core of poetry is musicality, the core of novel is legend, the core of script is contradiction, and the core of prose is interest.
At present, the published works include poetry anthology Who Symbolizes in Melancholy, Cold Lyrics, Eurasia Epic, Prose Collection, Notes of Babel, Travel Notes, The Great Kunlun Walking: A Journey to Xinjiang in Tibet, Novels, Babel, The Secret History of Kunlun: Babel, The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Timeline and the Secret History of Kunlun. However, there are still several books that I value very much waiting to be published, such as Meng Ji, a groundbreaking experimental dream, and Grand Poetics, my literary view.
Yuanguan: In 2008, you traveled to Tibet and Xinjiang. Why go to work and travel far away? How did you feel during your trip? What influence does it have on your creation?
Cao Cao: In the autumn of 2008, I quit my job as an editor of Xihai Metropolis Daily and embarked on a planned trip: starting from Qinghai, going to Tibet in the south, and going to Xinjiang in the north, the two most magical places in China. In my impression, the Xinjiang desert in the north of Kunlun Mountain and the Tibetan Plateau in the south are the centers of the Eurasian continent, while the Pamirs from Kunlun Mountain in Qinghai to the Pamirs in the west are the real centers, because the mountains on the Eurasian continent are wonderfully tied on the Pamirs. We humans have been in such a hurry all our lives. I think the meaning of life lies in free choice. When I walked on those mountains and deserts, I felt the meaning of life, and I was reflecting on life all the way. After traveling in Tibet and Xinjiang for several months, I began to write freely, and wrote 200,000 words "Walking in the Great Kunlun: A Journey to Tibet and Xinjiang" along the way, which will be listed in the near future. The first novel I wrote on this basis after I came back was The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space, and most of the routes in the book were actually taken when I was traveling. I have always felt that this trip is the most important turning point in my life, and the significance of this walk will continue to emerge in my life.
Metaview: You have been keeping a diary and nightmares. Please tell us about them. How do they affect your creation respectively?
Cao Cao: My diary started at 1997. My first writing started with a diary. Due to our education system, the previous diaries were all fabricated. For the first time, keeping a diary made me completely sincere to my heart. Honesty is the starting point of everything. In the early days, my diary was written as literature, which contained poems, novels, plays and so on. Every day, it had a title, and then it became independent. According to my recent preliminary statistics, there are at least 3 million words, and I am taking the time to type on the computer.
I have a strange habit since I was a child. Growing up, I remember dreams very clearly. Later, when I wrote poems, I found that many dreams were written directly as poems full of endless meanings. So I started dreaming on May 12, 2007. Every day, my dreams are numbered. The first dream is a nightmare 1. So far, I have recorded thousands of dreams. Recently, I've been thinking about sorting out nightmares and making them up. Nightmares keep my understanding of the world true. I will keep a diary, from the visible material world to the invisible spiritual world, until I die.
Yuanguan: How did you embark on the road of writing? What do you mean by using the pseudonym Cao Cao instead of the pseudonym Yan Rui?
Cao Cao: I started my writing with a diary. 1999 began to try various genres of writing. My composition is often read as a model essay in class. At that time, I was so possessed that there was no composition paper in the middle of the college entrance examination. I have been studying well since I was a child, but I failed in the college entrance examination. I studied Chinese in college. As soon as I went, the Xiang Ying Literature Society was established. I was the president and was responsible for publishing Xiang Ying. In 2003, I began to try various writing styles, including poems, novels and plays. In 2005, Xiyuan and I established a poetry salon in the northern cold region, and the poetry style basically took shape. In 2007, I wrote The Great Poetism, launched the Great Poetism Movement with Xiyuan and Xidi, and printed my first book of poetry, Who symbolizes depression, in China Poetry Archives. Although I wrote the novel Babel in 2005, I still focused on poetry in my early days. Since I wrote The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space in 2009, my energy has shifted to novel creation. Now my energy continues to be diverted to the script, because my novel The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space is being adapted into a TV series. I think literature is a kind of spiritual externalization, which can be carried by poetry, novel, drama or any style. This is also the result of the development of literature, from lyric literature to narrative literature to performance literature.
I used the pseudonym Yan Rui in 2003. Yan Rui, the oldest musical instrument in China, has been lost. Was rediscovered in the ancient tomb, and the sound was abnormal. I once had a pen name Yan Rui, symbolizing the revival of China culture. When I founded the Northern Cold Zone Poetry Society in 2005, my name was Cao Cao: Cao, surname, oriental tradition; Who, philosophical proposition, western culture; The significance of combining Chinese and western culture. At this time, I have expanded my eyes from China to the world, hoping to realize the unity of things and me and build a free spiritual home for mankind, which is also the core of my later literary pursuit.
Yuan Guan: How do you feel about attending two sessions of Lu Xun College of Literature? How to treat the opposition between government and people in literature?
Cao Cao: In the second half of 20 10, he participated in the advanced research class for young and middle-aged writers in Lu Xun College of Literature on 14, and will soon participate in the first English class for young writers in Lu Xun College of Literature. Luyuan is the highest-level writer training in China, and each provincial writers' association can only recommend one person to attend advanced research classes. I am deeply honored that many outstanding contemporary writers have left Luyuan. Some people think that the writers association system belongs to the government and the people's publishing system belongs to the people. What is the opposition between academy and folk, literature and market? In fact, I feel that writing itself is your own business, whether it is so-called official or folk, it is just a way for your works to meet readers. It's best to do both. In the words of the plaque in the Forbidden City, it is "let it be held", which is deeply reflected in all aspects of creation and appeals to both refined and popular tastes.
From afar: Your first novel was Babel. What influence did it have on your later writing?
Cao Cao: The Tower of Babel, which I wrote during my internship in 2005, was revised three times and published by China Everbright Publishing House in 2007. At that time, I mainly communicated with my friends. This year, I revised it and incorporated it into the series "The Secret History of Kunlun", renamed it "The Secret History of Kunlun: The Tower of Babel (Prequel)", which has passed the examination of the publishing house and is expected to be listed in 10. Babel is the tower of Babel once shared by human beings, which means that human beings are of the same origin and the world is one, so as to pursue the spiritual home once shared by human beings. This book is my dream, and many of my later ideas sprouted here. Later, my residence was also called Babel. I hope we can build the Tower of Babel in our lifetime.
From afar: Your series "The Secret History of Kunlun" sells well. I heard that The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Earth will be adapted into a TV series. Please introduce the secret history series of Kunlun.
Cao Cao: There are five books in the series * * *: Secret History of Kunlun: Babel (prequel), Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space, Secret History of Kunlun 2: Imperial Seal of Kingdom and Roman Crown, Secret History of Kunlun 3: Babel of Maya, Secret History of Kunlun: Universe (finale). Kunlun means heaven. I try to tell people with the secret history of Kunlun that we once had the spirit of the world and that we human beings were providence. The Secret History of Kunlun Mountain: The Tower of Babel (prequel) talks about the chaotic state of human beings, which was rewritten by the Tower of Babel. The Secret History of Kunlun 1: The time-space axis is centered on the time-space axis of jade in Kunlun Mountain, showing the unique customs of Tibet, Xinjiang and Pamirs in the center of Eurasia. The Secret History of Kunlun 2: Passing the Imperial Seal and the Crown of Rome is to show the expansion of culture from the two river basins, the center of human civilization, to Persia, India and China in the east, and to Judaism, Egypt and Greece in the west. It is the distribution point of the seven centers of human civilization, the center of eastern power, the symbol of western power-the imperial seal, and the node in the book. The Secret History of Kunlun 3: Mayan Tower of Babel traces the civilization from west to east to the Mayan civilization in Central America, from which we can understand our current mysterious confusion about the world-"Kunlun". The Secret History of Kunlun: The Universe (The Grand Finale) will tell our most confused hearts and starry sky, and it is also my prediction of the world. Our world was originally a holographic mixture of spirit and matter. At present, the first and second films have been listed, the prequel is being reviewed by the publishing house, the third film is being written, and the outline of the finale has been listed. The Secret History of Kunlun 1: Axis of Time and Space has been basically negotiated with a film and television company in Beijing and is being adapted into 25 TV series. I will be one of the screenwriters at that time, and the details will be introduced later.
Coming from afar: What is the origin of your organization of the poetry salon in the northern cold region? Who were the main participants at that time? Are you still active?
Cao Cao: In 2005, I wrote Poetics, an outline imitating Haizi. Nishihara and I set up the Northern Cold Zone Poetry Salon in Qinghai University for Nationalities, and we often discuss poetics together. Later, only Yi Ming joined the school. The name of the northern frigid zone comes from our yearning for the element Great North of Eurasia. In 2007, Xiao Bo Yu Ling, Yi Lang and Yu Ge also joined the team. Later, young poets from all over the country, such as sad Li, Moses, Long Meng and Cheng, joined in one after another. At this time, due to different views on poetry, our pursuit became "in the northern cold region, every wind has its direction", and the northern cold region became a gathering of colleagues. At the end of 2007, we printed poems in the cold region of northern India, and mine was a cold lyric-Eurasian pastoral. Nishihara and Ichiro and I organized three "poetry recitals in the northern cold regions", which had a great influence in Qinghai at that time. All the important poets in the province attended, and Xining TV's "Summer Zero Distance" column made a reading program in the northern cold zone. In this way, the northern frigid zone has formed a powerful trend in the poetic circles of China and Qinghai after 1980s. In 2008, I went to work and traveled far away. After traveling in Tibet and Xinjiang for several months, I seldom participated in activities in the northern cold region. However, at the second Gao Dun Camp Art Festival not long ago, I discussed with Nishihara and Ichiro and planned to continue my activities in Xining. Any community has its own life. When the river is rough, write what you should write, and spend your adolescence without writing. I think this is natural.
Distant: After you wrote the Manifesto of Great Poetics, you started the Great Poetics Movement. Why do you want to open such a school? What is your core proposition? What's the impact now?
Cao Cao: Due to the different pursuits in the northern cold zone, in order to maintain our pursuit of great poetry, I wrote seven chapters of the Manifesto of Great Poetism in early 2007, and continued to promote the poetics of great poetry with Xiyuan and Xidi. We have been firmly pursuing great poetic poetics, but we often organize activities in the form of northern cold regions. At present, each school of China's poetry has its own words, and the urgent task we are facing is to take care of the spirit of poetry from generation to generation. What we really need is to combine ancient and modern, Chinese and western, and achieve a great poetics. Our world is permeated with a great cosmic spirit, which is closely related to our hearts. We must find the great order or Tao in our hearts, so that we can understand the world. This is the "greatness" of the poem. This universal spirit will be shaped with things, its external form is elements, and elements are expressed as images by images. This image system corresponds to the essence of the universe, that is, the "big" image of poetry. We must use language to describe this image, from words to lines to sections, from words to rhetoric to texts, from words to images to meanings. What we have to do is to express that cosmic spirit with a unique language text, which is the "greatness" of technology. The characteristics of great poetics are spirituality or sacredness of meaning or content, systematicness or typicality of elements or images, and integration or fusion of texts or characters. This great poetics is a concrete and subtle symbolic process from the universal spirit (meaning) to the elements (image) and then to the language (speech), and finally the poetic text will show the universal spirit through the elements.
Nowadays, great poetics has become a trend among the younger generation of poets and has been well received by many colleagues. Many feather's "Dancing on the Pen: Literary Witness of the Post-80s" lists great poetry as the three major literary trends initiated by the post-80s, which is juxtaposed with statesmanship and sexy writing, and has a special chapter on it. During my study in Luyuan, I had extensive exchanges with writers from all over the country on great poetics. Great poetics is a central topic in the study of Lu Yuan's poetry, and the poet Li Xiaoyu praised it as "a masterpiece under the background of cultural geography". During his stay in the Green Park, Dean Shi, a famous critic, paid great attention to the development of great poetics and thought that great poetics "has advanced literary spirit and great literary ambition".
At the beginning of 20 10, I wrote a long poem "Great Poetics", which elaborated the poetic view of Great Poetics in detail and extended the concept of Great Poetics to all literary genres. Great poetics conforms to the development of literature and the trend of the spirit of world harmony. Summarizing the past poetics, ancient and modern, Chinese and foreign, can solve many problems faced by our literature in reality and open the direction of future literature development. I hope great poetics can be carried forward.
Far view: Your poems have been building their own utopia: "Babel" or "Eurasia" or "Kunlun". What do they mean in your mind?
Cao Cao: Babel is a widely circulated biblical allusion. It is said that the prototype is the hanging garden of Babylon. Humans will build the Tower of Babel together. When God knew this, he was very afraid and confused human language. People stop building because they can't communicate, and a nation is scattered around. Now I'm going to build the tower of Babel and restore the free home of mankind. I have moved a lot in recent years, but the name of Babel has not changed. My first novel was also called Babel, and my collection of essays was also called Notes of Babel.
Generally speaking, our human civilization stretches in the north temperate zone of Eurasia, which was once the home of human freedom. There are indications that our civilization did not originate in many places, but originated in one place and then spread to other places. People set out from Mesopotamia between the two rivers, arrived in Judea, Egypt and Greece to the east, and arrived in Persia, India and China to the west. I have such an ideal home in my poems, novels and plays. My long poem is called Eurasia Epic, and Eurasia is also the core of the Kunlun Secret History Series.
Whether in Indo-European or Sino-Tibetan languages, Kunlun means heaven. Kunlun is the ancestor of Long Mai in the world. It extends from here to the east and west, and it is the distribution of our civilization, pointing to the vast starry sky and deep hearts. My novel The Secret History of Kunlun has a concrete interpretation, trying to interpret the world I understand with five books.
Yuanguan: You are a freelance writer now. Please tell me about your daily life. Many contemporary people are singing elegies for literature. What do you think of this?
Cao Cao: In 2008, I came back from traveling in Tibet and Xinjiang and began to write freely. Qinghai is the core of Kunlun Mountain, and the Yangtze River and Yellow River flow out of its embrace. Now I live in Xining at the foot of Kunlun Mountain. This bookstore is still called Babel, and there is a lover named Mi Duo and a dog named Babylon. Basically, I spend half my time writing every day, and I will do all kinds of things I want to do at other times. I think we can neither miss eternal spiritual happiness nor miss material life.
At present, literature is facing an unprecedented crisis. In the face of new factors such as market, internet, film and television, literature seems to go from bad to worse. I feel that literature is just changing. People who stand still seem to stick to literature, but in fact they stay away from literature. From the birth of literature to the present, that spirit is constantly changing. Our original literary form was poetry in both the East and the West, and the decline of poetry is the most serious today. In fact, the spirit of literature has already flowed into narrative literature. After the birth of film and television, our literary spirit was diverted to performing film and television. The spirits of poetry, novels and plays are interlinked, and they all absorb "elements" from our world to build a world. This element should be integrated with the inner spirit internally and with the essence of the world externally. This element is an "image" element for poetry, a "story" element for novels and a "scene" element for scripts. I believe that literature will never die out, but will only appear in a new attitude. Today, we can only write a kind of literature that appeals to both refined and popular tastes, which makes the public love it at the story level and makes the elite think at the spiritual level.
(China International Industrial Culture Network)