一
On March 14, 1981, the 85-year-old famous modern Chinese writer Mr. Mao Dun entered the last days of his life. When Mr. Mao Dun was seriously ill, he left a will and donated 250,000 yuan in royalties to establish the Mao Dun Literary Award to reward writers for their outstanding novels.
In his half-century literary creation, Mao Dun created a large number of short and medium-length novels, as well as prose and drama works. Among them, novels such as "Midnight", "Rainbow" and "Frost Leaves Red Like February Flowers" occupied a very important position in Mao Dun's creative career and caused widespread influence at home and abroad. It is most appropriate to name a literary award after Mao Dun to encourage the creation of novels.
As a result, China has the first Mao Dun Literature Award named after an individual. The Mao Dun Literary Award is awarded every four years. The participating works are novels with a word count of more than 130,000. It is currently the most important literary award in China. Since the first Mao Dun Literary Award was selected in 1982, the General Secretary has selected ten Mao Dun Literary Awards, with 45 people and 46 works winning (Zhang Jie won twice with "Heavy Wings" and "Wordless") Mao Dun Literature Award), and two other people won honorary awards for their two works. .
The most active and famous writers in the history of contemporary Chinese literature, such as Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi, Wang Anyi, Mo Yan, Liu Xinwu, Chi Zijian, and Jia Pingwa, have all won the Mao Dun Literature Award. More writers regard winning the Mao Dun Literature Award as their lifelong goal.
The famous writer Wang Meng participated in the selection of the first Mao Dun Literary Award with his novel "Long Live Youth", but unfortunately failed. Since then, Wang Meng has been shortlisted for the third, fourth, and seventh Mao Dun Literary Awards with his works "Moving into Human Form", "The Season of Loss of Abnormality", and "Green Fox", but failed in all of them. It was not until 2015 that he successfully won this award with "This Landscape". This year, Wang Meng is already 81 years old.
So, how much is the prize money for the Mao Dun Literature Prize?
Since the Mao Dun Literature Prize is based on the 250,000 yuan donated by Mr. Mao Dun as a fund, and the interest is used as a bonus, the initial bonus amount is not high. 31 years ago, when Mr. Lu Yao won the third Mao Dun Literature Award for "The Ordinary World", the prize was 5,000 yuan. After deducting Lu Yao's travel expenses between Xi'an and Beijing and buying 100 sets of "The Ordinary World" to give away, there was not much left from this bonus.
In the 1990s, the prize money for the Mao Dun Literature Prize increased to 50,000 yuan. In 2011, thanks to the donation from Hong Kong's richest man Li Ka-shing, the prize money of the Mao Dun Literary Prize was increased to 500,000 yuan, making it the literary award with the highest prize money in China.
II
In the late 1970s, China set off an upsurge in literary creation. A group of young and powerful writers emerged and created a large number of literary works that met the needs of the times. Since 1977, the Chinese Writers Association has begun to award the National Outstanding Novella Award and the National Outstanding Short Story Award.
Since 1996, the National Outstanding Novella Award and the National Outstanding Short Story Award have been converted into the Lu Xun Literary Award. Currently, the Lu Xun Literary Award is one of the highest honor literary awards in China.
The Lu Xun Literature Award is awarded every three years and consists of the National Outstanding Novella Award; the National Outstanding Short Story Award; the National Outstanding Reportage Award; the National Outstanding Poetry Award; the National Outstanding Prose and Essay Award; and the National Outstanding Literary Theory, Literary Criticism Award; National Outstanding Literary Translation Award, 8 categories. Up to now, the Lu Xun Literature Award has been awarded seven times.
When the Lu Xun Literature Prize was first established, the prize money was very low. It was only 3,000 yuan for the first prize, 8,000 yuan for the second prize, and rose to 10,000 yuan after the third prize.
Later, the Li Ka-shing Foundation donated 5 million yuan, so the amount of the prize was greatly increased. The prize money for the fifth Lu Xun Literature Award was raised to 50,000 yuan, and the prize for the sixth Lu Xun Literature Award was raised again to 100,000 yuan.
Three
China has the Mao Dun Literature Award and the Lu Xun Literature Award, but is there a Guo Moruo Literature Award?
Yes, but the name is "Guo Moruo Literary Award".
In 1987, with the approval of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the Guo Moruo Literary Award was established. The Guo Moruo Literary Award was established in Mr. Guo Moruo's hometown - Leshan City, Sichuan Province. It is guided, approved and supervised by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles. The Leshan Municipal People's Government and the Leshan Federation of Literary and Art Circles serve as permanent organizers. It consists of literature awards, calligraphy awards, There are 8 categories: Art Award, Photography Award, Dance Award, Music Award, Folk Literature and Drama Award, and the selection is held every 5 years.
Although the selection scope of the Guo Moruo Literary Award covers the national and overseas Chinese art circles, with young and middle-aged artists as the main targets, and it is also known as China's three major professional art awards together with the Shanhua Award and the Horse Award, but from the selection , judging from the actual situation of the awards, its selection scope focuses on "using a variety of literary and artistic forms to tell the story of Leshan, display the image of Leshan, and spread the voice of Leshan." Most of the winners are local literary and artistic creators in Leshan City, and a local literature The award is no different, so its influence cannot be compared with the Mao Dun Literature Award and the Lu Xun Literature Award.