Chapter 28 Creation of "Yanzi"

It is often said that the creation of historical novels is actually the author writing about his emotions. If this is really the case, then there must be historical figures in it who can shake one's soul. For me, Yan Ying is such a person. I have long wanted to write about Yan Ying. It has been more than ten years since I had this idea. At that time, I was making a chronology of ancient Chinese history.Before writing historical novels, I always make a simple marginal note on some historical characters, which includes the date of birth and death of the character and a brief biography.But when I made a side note to Yan Ying, I found that there is no record of his birth year in various historical books, but fortunately, I still know that he died in 500 BC. Push, I can only marginalize a rough birth year.Although Yan Ying's marginal note had been prepared long ago, it has been stuck in the notebook and has not had the chance to see the light of day.

Until three years ago, Mr. Ikeda Masahiro, the deputy editor-in-chief of the "New Trend of Fiction" magazine, came to the house: Could you write a serial in our magazine? I had written a short serial in other magazines before, but hadn't attempted a real serial.Although I had already won the Naoki Award at that time, I was still a newcomer in the field of literature, so generally speaking, it was difficult to get the opportunity to create and publish serialized novels. To be honest, I am very grateful to Mr. Ikeda for his courage and courage. Let me walk in front of my peers, and for a moment, I feel refreshed.

What are you going to write about?Mr. Ikeda asked immediately. In the Spring and Autumn Period of China, there was a famous prime minister in Qi State named Yan Ying. Most people used to call him Yan Zi. This is a legendary figure. If you want to know more about him, you may wish to read the biography of the Spring and Autumn Characters written by Sima Qian. ! In order to show my sincerity, I also found out the book "Biography of Guan Yan", and copied the rumors about Yan Zi to Mr. Ikeda.Within a few days, I received a call from Mr. Ikeda: Just write Yanzi! OK!Yanzi! I'm more excited than ever that a dream I've had for years is about to come true.Putting down the phone, I immediately found relevant historical materials for research, took out my notebook again, and extracted everything about Yanzi, hoping to make Yanzi's image plump as soon as possible.But it didn’t take long before I became anxious. Although I collected a lot of historical materials, the real image of Yanzi could not be condensed. The first problem I encountered was that the date of birth of Yanzi could not be determined. In addition:

Yan Ping Zhongying was a native of Yiwei in Lai country. Sima Qian once said this clearly, but this kind of statement makes me feel even more distressed, because it is completely unreasonable. Lai State is a small country on the Shandong Peninsula. If this is Yan Ying's birthplace, then he is a foreigner in Qi State.If all this is true, then when did Yan Ying come to Qi State, and how did he obtain the status of a doctor?Originally, these problems gave me a headache, but after reading "The Legend of the Zuo Family in the Spring and Autumn Period", it became more complicated.

Yan Ying's father was named Yan Ruo, and as a doctor of the Qi State, Yan Ruo was also the instigator of the destruction of Lai, which happened in 567 BC.Since Yan Ying was born in the country of Lai, and Yan Ruo, as his father, destroyed the country of Lai, no matter how I think about it, I think it is unlikely. Including this one problem, so many problems piled up that I couldn't breathe, but if I don't solve these problems, I can't start writing the novel at all.I have also had the experience of starting to write first and solving various problems during the creation process, but if I can’t even solve the most fundamental problems of the novel like this, it will indeed make people so uneasy that I can’t start writing. I know this very well.

Although I bury my head in the sea of ​​books and history every day, the result is still very at a loss. Yanzi's image couldn't be established no matter what, and he even felt that he was getting farther and farther away from me. At this time, Mr. Gong Bianshang, deputy editor-in-chief of the publishing house, called: What happened to Yanzi? To be honest, I was a little discouraged at this time. It was still blank, without any feeling.Can you write about another historical figure? This sentence almost blurted out, if Mr. Miyabe told me at that time: If you're having a hard time, why not consider a different character?

I think Yanzi will never become a novel to meet readers and friends.I can’t remember the full text of what Mr. Gongbian said, but his meaning is very clear. He is very interested in Yan Zi’s creation and hopes that I can finish the draft as soon as possible.After listening to his words, I knew that it was impossible for me to give up. The only thing I could do was to calm down again and collect various materials. Until now, I still clearly remember the scene at that time. At that time, I saw a copy of "Jin Wen Tong Shi" written by Mr. Bai Chuanjing, and one of the articles was called "Shu Yi Po".As I was reading that article, a strange thought popped into my head:

What would happen if this Shu Yi was replaced by Yan Ruo? By the way, in ancient times, 镈 refers to a small bell with inscriptions carved by the ancients. We call the inscriptions engraved on metal vessels as bronze inscriptions, which are also a kind of historical materials. Of course, Mr. Bai Chuanjing did not say that Shu Yi is Yan Ruo, but we can temporarily regard Shu Yi as the person who draws the bow, and regard Yan Ruo as the modified bow, so I assume that Shu Yi is Yan Ruo It's not a big mistake.From Mr. Bai Chuanjing's article, it can be seen that Shu Yi was the one who attacked and destroyed Lai country in one fell swoop, but there is no general named Shu Yi in the book "Chunqiu Zuo Shi Zhuan".

From this bronze inscription, I learned that Shu Yi's great ancestor was called Cheng Tang. Historically, Cheng Tang refers to the (Yin) King Tang of the Shang Dynasty. From this point of view, Shu Yi should belong to the surname of Zi. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the Song State was the country with the largest surname of Zi, and the State of Lai was also a country with the surname of Zi. Assuming Shu Yi’s origin If the land is the country of Lai, it means that he personally led the army to destroy his country of origin.But this is not the case. From a political point of view, sending a general with the same surname as the official of another country to attack the country can have the effect of appeasing public opinion. Therefore, we can regard Shu Yi's country of origin as the State of Song.In this way, all the clues can be connected. Assuming that Shu Yi is Yan Ruo, then Yan Ruo is the nobleman of Song State who fled to Qi State.

If this assumption is true, it can be related to some stories in "The Spring and Autumn Annals of Yan Zi". The story, I used to be confused about why Yan Zi would quote famous ministers from the Shang Dynasty as an example, but now it seems that everything is normal, since Yan Ying's family name is Zi, then he quoted Shang Tang Wang and Yi Yin. Examples are no surprise. As this difficult problem was solved, one problem after another was solved, and in the process of continuously studying historical materials, I also thought of the reason why it was difficult to form the real image of Yan Ruo and Yan Ying.

In fact, Yan Ruo is also called Yan Zi. If you can use Yan Zi and his son as clues to write, it will be smoother! The mood suddenly brightened, and after several twists and turns, I finally decided to start writing.Fortunately, the publishing house gave me sufficient preparation time. In retrospect, the publishing house contacted me to publish the serialization of "Yanzi" half a year ago. With the continuous development of the serialization progress, the image of Yan Ruo gradually became clearer, and I was deeply infected by the charm of this character.Finally I sighed: Is there such a good man in the world? Since I really like the image of Yan Zi, I don't want him to die too soon in my novel, and this serial is constantly moving forward. What encouraged me even more was that the editor-in-chief of the publishing house tolerated my willfulness, and the later editor-in-chief Mr. Xiao Tiaogang also praised it. It was with the encouragement of these praises that I once again Overcome the odds again. This is also the first time that I have worked as a serial novel writer with a publishing house editor and a novel illustrator.It should be said that the successful publication of this novel is inseparable from Mr. Takanashi Matsuo who is in charge of its editorial work, and Mr. Sidden who has devoted himself to painting. At least I should thank them both. In any case, it is always a pleasure for a novel to meet readers smoothly, not to mention that the characters in the novel are all real in history, and none of them are fictional characters.