On January 10, China Literature Group released the 2023 "Twelve Heavenly Kings" list. Ji Yueren, a post-2000s online writer, made the list with his novel "Xuanjian Xianzu" and was named the "Quality King" of 2023 Classical Fairy Tales.
"Xuanjian Xianzu" is Ji Yueren's first online work. At the beginning of the novel, after the migrant worker Lu Jiangxian was reborn, his remaining soul attached to a cracked blue-gray bronze mirror and fell into the vast world of immortality. In the dangerous and unpredictable Dali Mountains, in a small village beside the Meichi River, a small family picked up this mirror, and then spread the immortal way and taught the immortal method, ushering in a magnificent new era. This is a rare group portrait of a family cultivating immortality. It has no protagonist, no system, no Madonna, and is anti-routine. It has been praised by netizens as the "masterpiece" of 2023 and "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in the context of cultivating immortality.
The famous writer Ma Boyong is also a reader of "Xuanjian Immortal Clan" and was amazed by the writing method of group portraits in "Xuanjian Immortal Clan". He believes that the Li family in the book has been written by the author with an epic sense of "change of generations and succession". "Starting from four mortal brothers in a village, they gradually grow in this cruel and evil world of immortal cultivation. This rise comes at a price. Readers will watch as generations of characters grow up and then endure different pains and even sacrifices. , just to make the family go further."
Bronze Mirror: A kind of good luck that sometimes works and sometimes doesn't work
At the beginning of the novel, Lu Jiangxian, who stayed up late to change the plan, turned into a blue-gray bronze mirror with a magical spirit, which was used by Li Li Xiangping, the third son of the family, found it in the Meichi River. Li Xiangping took the jianzi home. Lu Jiangxian discovered that although the Li family was born into farmers, they were outstanding. His father, Li Mutian, was courageous and knowledgeable, his eldest son, Li Changhu, was generous, his second son, Li Tongya, was brave and courageous, and his third son, Li Xiangping, and his youngest son, Li Chijing, were also smart and dexterous, so he wanted to teach Taoism. , leading the Li family to the prosperity of ZTE.
talked about the concept of group portrait writing, Ji Yueren said that the current online novels generally adopt a single protagonist model, and the protagonist has a halo to protect the body, giving readers a good sense of involvement. "But when readers read the story, they have a psychological expectation that the protagonist will not die until the end of the story, or even at the end of the story. Not only will the protagonist not die, but he will not suffer losses most of the time. Personally, this kind of It is difficult for me to grasp the writing method. Because in my creative concept, death is a very important part of the character."
In "Xuanjian Xianzu", Ji Yueren uses the omniscient perspective or the bronze Jianzi Lu Jiangxian as From the perspective of an onlooker, we see the world in the novel through the spiritual bronze mirror. "Lu Jiangxian is not the protagonist in this novel. He may represent a kind of good luck that sometimes works well and sometimes fails. Because novels are reasonable, reality is not. The key to writing lies in how to use reasonable methods to solve problems. To achieve the effect that is unreasonable in reality." Ji Yueren told Nandu reporter.
Another "deviant" aspect of the plot of "Xuanjian Xianzu" is the handling of the uncertainty of the characters' fate. The ending of the characters in the course of the story is completely unknown, and they may encounter sudden misfortune or death at any time. Ji Yueren had serious thoughts about this. He realized that fate is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Death may not be heavier than Mount Tai, but it may also be lighter than a feather.
He said: "In the past writing, the death of a person was not only a great sacrifice, but also death in the hands of small people due to some small mistakes, or some meaningless deaths, but these things are not considered by most Internet readers accept it. What they want to see is great sacrifices and valuable sacrifices. They allow characters to die, but the death must be linked to value. This limits the tragedy of some writings, such as the death of great people. Death of incompetence or something like that."
The first four sons of the Li family are all very charming characters. However, as the story gradually unfolds, the sudden exit of the characters gives readers an unexpected sense of loss. “For the reader, after he takes on that role and dies, the whole sense of substitution disappears, and he may suddenly feel uninterested."Ji Yueren discovered that for online novels that rely on a strong sense of immersion to maintain reader stickiness, this writing method is "a group of readers will be lost if a person dies, and a group of readers will be lost if a person dies." This is also a common practice in writing group portrait novels. The big difficulty lies.
Therefore, during the serialization process, Ji Yueren has been paying close attention to readers' messages and "trying his best to reconcile". For those characters that readers particularly like, allocate more time without affecting the plot. and scenes.
The Li Family: Impressive Character Creation
"Xuanjian Xianzu" tells the story of ten generations of the Li family. How to write group characters with distinctive personalities and lifelike characters is quite a challenge even for mature writers. Test. Ma Boyong praised: "The author has good writing skills. It is a big challenge to write so many characters in such a short space. Li Tongya, Li Xuanfeng, Li Yuanjiao, Li Qinghong, almost every generation has several impressive characters. What's even more rare is that the author also writes down various rules and concerns for the development of a family. This is more than just a fairy tale. "
Talking about the skills of character creation, Ji Yueren admitted that he "doesn't have much confidence". "The particularly attractive characters have been written, and when the remaining characters are taken out again, I don't want to He overlaps with the previous characters, and he needs to have his own unique shining point, which is quite difficult to conceive. Therefore, I will try my best to make some distinctions in details or personal habits, acting style, and speaking style, so that each character has a unique impression in the reader's mind, rather than a vague feeling. "
Ji Yue was born in Fujian and has an intuitive understanding of clan concepts and clan culture. He told Nandu reporters that the reason why the Li family in the novel can continue to inherit and prosper and become an influential family relies on It’s “family education and ideological inheritance.” “For example, there are strict requirements on corruption or enjoyment, and there are also teaching the family’s children on worldly experience, and recording family history. "There is also a spirit of heroic sacrifice among the tribesmen, either "self-sacrifice to preserve the clan" or "self-sacrifice to preserve the people."
What is even more rare is that the Ji Yue people are not just concerned about family lineage in the novel. Growth, and thinking about the clan system itself. He told Nandu reporters that for the new quasi-feudal dynasty in the novel (compared to the Southern and Northern Dynasties), the family system is more suitable for grassroots governance. But the Li family has now written The seventh generation will eventually be written down to the tenth generation. Hundreds of years have passed. “A system that hangs over everyone’s heads, if it is still a family system, is obviously not reasonable enough. "
In the novel, generations of the Li clan tried to build their own political system and grassroots governance methods. As their power and strength gradually increased, they restored the world to the Qingming state bit by bit. Ji Yue people A reporter from Nandu revealed that the novel's vision will eventually open up from inside the family to the wider world. "If the Li family simply creates a family-style dictatorship for the whole world, it will be meaningless. The follow-up will definitely be Progress slowly. "
's first online novel is an extraordinary success.
00 post-Ji Yueren is still a college student, majoring in public administration. He has been interested in ancient systems since he was a child, and is familiar with "Shangshu", "Book of Rites", "Zhuangzi" and "Zhuangzi". He studied ancient classics such as "The Book of Changes" and "Warring States Policy". After high school, he got into modern and contemporary literature. The works of writers such as Mo Yan, Lu Yao, and Chen Zhongshi cultivated his love for literature. Colombian writer and representative figure of Latin American magical realism literature added "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Sia Marquez gave him a great spiritual shock.
"For the literature of that era in New China, Marquez's influence was very great. As a literary critic of people like Mo Yan, we The new generation who grew up under the tradition will be able to read the commonalities after reading too much. I literally couldn't sleep at night after watching "One Hundred Years of Solitude". Some readers say that "Xuanjian Clan of Immortals" is a version of "One Hundred Years of Solitude" in the context of immortality cultivation, which is really shameful. It’s not that the level gap is huge, after all, it’s difficult to compare online literature and serious literature together."Ji Yueren told the Nandu reporter.
As for online literature, he only gradually dabbled in it in high school. At that time, paper versions of online literary novels such as "Fights Break the Sky" were passed around among classmates. It was passed on to him, "After reading two books, I felt it was good, so I read on, as if another world had opened up. "
Ji Yueren revealed that he first wrote "Xuanjian Immortal Clan" out of motivation for practicing writing. At that time, he was reading "White Deer Plain" and "Song of Ice and Fire". The first one was about family. The latter is a typical group portrait novel, and is blessed with many supernatural elements. "Xuanjian Immortal Tribe" combines the characteristics of the two. With the theme of immortality, Ji Yueren constructed a relatively silent and depressing novel atmosphere after the war, forming Unique world landscape and narrative style.
Since this is his first full-length work, Ji Yueren chose the method of serializing online articles, which can not only be published conveniently, but also "test" the writing level. He said: "Today's young people are actually very With little capital, if you write a novel in seclusion for several years, and you are an unknown newcomer, and you just publish it like this, others may not read it. But through the online article serialization platform, if you write 10,000 or 20,000 words, you will know roughly your level and how readers will evaluate it. "
The pace of story development was very slow at the beginning, and there were not many readers. After it was put on the shelves, the order price was only 600, and only about 600 people were reading it. However, "As the Li family continued to explore, the Li family became aware of the entire situation. The changes, the epic feeling came out, and the deaths of important characters were enough to impress the readers... I dare not guarantee that people like Li Xiangping and Li Qijin may have revealed the secrets of the entire northern and southern world through their deaths. The dark side has a unique charm. "Ji Yueren recalled. The performance of the book is getting better and better day by day, and its reputation is growing. It has even been spontaneously recommended by senior figures such as Ma Boyong and Qitongren. Up to now, "Xuanjian Xianzu" has been serialized for more than 1.96 million words and has received 549,000 It is always recommended, and many book fans have started to read it for the second or third time.
Many people praise Ji Yue for his sophisticated writing style, and "Xuanjian Immortal Clan" is worth reading carefully word by word. But he told the Nandu reporter that there is nothing special about writing. The trick is actually to "grow your own writing style bit by bit" through the online article serialization platform. "Readers will tell you what is attractive and what is not attractive, and you will get enough criticism and suggestions. Through these reflections, you can make little adjustments to your writing style. "
The excellent results of "Xuanjian Xianzu" have also brought a lot of income to Ji Yue people. He told Nandu reporters that on the one hand, "when you have income, you will be more calm and decent in doing things." On the other hand, On the other hand, as a college student, "the time I usually spend going to the library is squeezed out, and I spend more time on my own books."
has firm thoughts about the future and will continue to work in the Internet field after graduation. Writing. "If there is no problem, just keep writing. At least this book must be finished. After the second book, we will see the results. If you are not very accepting of this writing method, you may write while working." "In his heart, he hopes to truly write a sense of magic and epicness like "One Hundred Years of Solitude", but he is worried that the form of serious literature is not friendly to online readers. "I can only give it a try while wearing shackles. Present tragedies and comedies while trying to satisfy the reading experience as much as possible. "
Written by: Nandu reporter Huang Qian
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