Who is the author of my confession?

Is He Shu's My Confessions a martyr's poem? "(65438+ 10 16" Southern Weekend ") caused a heated discussion. After reading it, Lao Shi "really felt like a bolt from the blue" and wrote an article "Martyrs' Poems Can Be Forged" (see February 10 Guangdong Business News), accusing my confession of "deceiving hundreds of millions of teenagers and fake martyrs". Zhang Chen was full of affection for Lao Shi's article, so he wrote "Is the martyr's poem forged? "(see" Yangcheng Evening News Party "on February 23) and express your views. My Confessions is a famous poem with great influence. Who is the author? This is the focus of three articles. More than forty years ago, I read this poem from the reportage "Eternal Life in Fire" and enjoyed it very much. Later, I wrote a review, taking it as an example when talking about poetic art on some occasions, and never doubted its "source". He Shu said that this is not the legacy of the martyr Chen Ran, but written by Luo Guangbin, Yang Yiyan and Liu Debin, the authors of Eternal Life in Fire, which gave me a great shock. In the memory of writer Hu Yuan, He Shu vaguely revealed that Yang Benquan was the main author of this poem. As Yang Benquan is my respected friend, I immediately wrote to ask. At the beginning of February, I received a reply from Yang Benquan, who reviewed the poetic process of my confession in detail, and the "plot" in it may not even be clear to He Shu.

It happened on 1956. At that time, Luo Guangbin, Liu Debin and Yang Yiyan were writing a revolutionary memoir "Forbidden Zone" in the south hot spring on the outskirts of Chongqing. Yang Benquan was invited as a mentor and served as the editor of the supplement of Chongqing Daily. As early as 1949 and 12, when the special issue "So China-US Institute of Special Technical Cooperation" was published in memory of the martyrs, Yang Benquan had happily cooperated with these three revolutionary fighters who had risked their lives. Plus, Yang Yiyan is his younger brother, Liu Debin is his high school classmate, and Luo Guangbin, who is cheerful, hits it off with him, so the four of them get along very well, so just say what you have to say.

One day, Luo Guangbin took out a poem called My Confessions and asked Yang Benquan for advice. After reading it, Yang Benquan felt that this work, which expressed his feelings in prison, lacked the necessary images, the concentration of the theme and the loose sentences. Only "one can't lower his noble head/beg for freedom only if he is afraid of fools" is poetic, so he rewrote these two sentences through the gallop of artistic imagination with the help of what the three of them usually talked about in Kuomintang prisons, which concentrated on the feelings of revolutionaries at the moment when they were forced by the enemy to write a "confession". The third paragraph of the poem is conceived in combination with the background of China's revolutionary climax and the eve of Chongqing's liberation to express the spirit of revolutionary optimism. After being finalized, the whole poem is divided into three sections and twelve lines, of which ten lines are Yang Benquan's works. Luo Guangbin was tortured and shackled in prison. He is a staunch revolutionary. Therefore, Yang Benquan has always regarded Luo Guangbin as a model of poetry, instead of writing for Chen Ran, and he has no intention of faking it.

Due to various reasons, the Forbidden World was not published, nor was My Confessions, and great changes have taken place. The following year, Yang Benquan was named "extreme right" and sent to Yunnan to build neijiang-kunming railway. He went there for five years and cut off his cultural information. 1962, after reeducation through labor, he returned to Chongqing Daily to engage in manual labor, only to know that "Eternal Life in Fire" and the novel "Red Rock" had been published, and that "My Confessions" was regarded as the legacy of Chen Ran's martyrs and was included in "Poems of Revolutionary Martyrs" (Little Three). At that time, the rightist hat on his head had not been taken off, and he never dared to "talk nonsense and touch". It is of great significance to rewrite my confession. In addition to writing confession materials to the newspaper, he didn't even dare to reveal anything to his relatives. Now, if I hadn't written to Uncle He because I read his article, he wouldn't have told me all this.

Yang Benquan 1947 After graduating from the journalism department of Fudan University, he worked as a reporter and editor in several newspapers. After the reform and opening up, he resumed his work and retired as deputy editor-in-chief of Chongqing Publishing House. He is an accomplished poet himself. From 65438 to 0942, he began to publish poems in newspapers and periodicals in Shanghai and Chongqing. Over the years, he has published many poems under the pseudonym of Mu Ren. Although he is 80 years old now, he is still keen on poetry. He and several like-minded poets founded two tabloids, Xiao Shi and Xiao Shi Yuan, at their own expense, and actively advocated Xiao Shi, which was quite influential throughout the country. He is fully capable of writing such a good poem, and his remarks are credible.

In fact, Hu Yuan's memory quoted in He Shu's article also provides evidence: In those days, Hu Yuan read my confession in the South Hot Spring and asked who wrote it. "Yang Benquan let me guess. Luo Guangbin, I guess. Luo Guangbin smiled and shook his head. I guess it's Liu Debin again. Liu Debin shook his head. I said to Yang Benquan,' That's what you wrote.' Yang Benquan stretched out his hands and gestured a few times:' What you write is up to everyone.' "Visible Yang Benquan is the main author of this poem.

Yang Benquan has not taken back the idea of creative rights. In his letter to me, he said: "I not only took his poem (referring to Luo Guangbin) as the object of revision, but also kept his original two sentences;" What I provide is only the form of his immature poems. "

This kind of modification or rewriting is not uncommon in editing work. As a retired editor, I totally understand. No matter who the author is, my confession is a good poem. This poem is rich in emotion, magnificent, concise in language, sonorous in rhyme and strong in appeal, and it is a masterpiece in the history of new poetry. Although it is not Chen Ran's legacy, it still has high ideological significance, because it truly expresses Chen Ran's heartfelt wishes. I wrote to Yang Benquan in June 65438 +654381October +081October: "Although my brother was given by others, he gave a real poem that can be passed down from generation to generation." This is by no means a compliment. Since the creative process is clear, don't waste poetry because of people, but you can make a difference, such as deleting it when reprinting the copy of revolutionary martyrs' poems; When writing Chinese textbooks, the problem will be solved by canceling Chen Ran's name and explaining it.

Let's go back. He Shu chose this "poem case" to carry forward the spirit of seeking truth from facts. Lao Shi criticized the evil of forgery with indignation, and his ideological significance far exceeded this poem. Zhang Chen's calm analysis and judgment on related issues provide readers with an objective thinking situation. These three articles are all concerned from the ideological field, and they all reflect the conscience and sense of responsibility of intellectuals. Attachment: My Confessions There is a heavy chain under your feet. You can hold the whip high. I don't need any confession, even if my chest is facing a bloody bayonet! People can't lower their noble heads, but beg for "freedom" for fear of death; What is torture? The death penalty can't make me talk! I laugh at death, and the devil's palace shakes in laughter; This is me, a * * * party member's confession, singing a song of triumph to bury the Chiang family dynasty.