Literary Genius, 1950: I Write Legends in a Courtyard Compound

After returning to 1950s Beijing, Lin Wenyuan found himself in a crowded courtyard in the south of the city, a young worker who hadn’t even finished middle school. In his previous life, he had been a literature PhD specializing in modern Chinese literary history. Now he had a head full of later masterpieces and was putting down roots among the everyday bustle of the city. The literary giants Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Lao She, and Cao Yu were all still alive except for Lu Xun. Through a twist of fate, the others became his mentors. He kept a low profile in the crowded courtyard, writing one piece after another. Stream of consciousness, rural literature, and the misty poetry movement all took their turn on the stage. Zhao Shuli of the Yam Egg School, Sun Li of the Lotus Lake School, Liu Qing, Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi, and Jia Pingwa of the Shaanxi school, Wang Anyi and Feng Jicai with their Beijing and Tianjin flavor, as well as Bei Dao, Shu Ting, Shizhi, and other young artists, all crossed paths with him one after another. He did more than reproduce works from memory. The ideas in his writing inspired a generation of local writers, helping them begin work early on their own enduring masterpieces. From short stories and essays to novels, then on to performing crosstalk and skits, contributing to the Spring Festival Gala scripts, and branching out into screenwriting, he also got to know Ma Ji, Liu Xiaoqing, and Tang Guoqiang. In literary circles, he found older friends who appreciated him, as well as rivals with opposing views. Starting from a crowded Beijing courtyard, his writing reached every literary school across the country. In an era of material scarcity and burning ideals, he used words to awaken the times, growing from a courtyard boy into a literary master who shook the entire republic.