The annual Mao Dun Literature Prize has been announced – how many of these 5 novels have you read?

Li Er’s novel \"Brother Yingwu\" took 13 years to complete, and its length was also record-breaking – it was reduced from 2 million characters to nearly 900,000 characters. The central plot of the novel revolves around the preparation for the establishment of the Confucian Studies Institute at Jeju University and the welcome given to the great Confucian scholar Cheng Jishi, who returned to his homeland. As the key figure, Brother Yingwu connects everyone involved, linking those above and below as well as those on the left and right. Due to the interests involved, the owners of Taodu Mountain Chain Hotels, the chicken farming magnates, the underwear industry leaders, and even global financial giants all show up. And so, the simple turned complex, the clear turned subtle; what was originally an academic matter evolved into major initiatives for developing Jeju’s economy, such as urban renewal, technological innovation, and attracting foreign investment... In this novel, readers will encounter a great deal of quotation marks and book titles. \"Brother Yingwu\" makes use of dialogues, speeches, discussions, writings, recollections, and associations, citing and referring to hundreds of texts from China and abroad, ancient and modern. Through classical Chinese texts such as The Book of Songs, The Book of Changes, Tao Te Ching, The Analects, The Book of Rites, Mencius, Mozi, Records of the Grand Historian, The Book of History, and Avatamsaka Sutra, as well as renowned works from both China and abroad like The Republic, Poetics, The Wealth of Nations, Lectures on the History of Philosophy, and The Communist Manifesto, one can get an idea of the author’s intellectual background and range of reading.

Xu Huaizhong, the author of \"The Story of Riding the Wind,\" is a renowned military writer; at the age of ninety, he was still one of those who personally went to the Dabie Mountains. Set against the historical backdrop of the 1947 campaign to advance thousands of miles into the Dabie Mountains in Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, and Henan provinces, \"The Story of Riding the Wind\" tells the story of three people and a horse. As a direct participant in the advance toward the Dabie Mountains, every character and every story depicted by Xu Huaizhong in his novel, especially the details, possess a high degree of historical authenticity. In the 1960s, Xu Huaizhong created a draft of \"The Story of Riding the Wind\" based on this theme; it was nearly 200,000 words long. However, due to various unforeseen circumstances, the manuscript of the novel was destroyed. This work began four years ago, and after continuous revisions and improvements, it is now, more than 50 years later, finally available to readers. Xu Huaizhong said, “What I wrote is a ‘national style’ wartime romance with a serious and grand narrative backdrop.” ”

In his novel \"Northward\", which he worked on for four years, Xu Zechen tells such a story: In 1901, amid turbulent times and chaos across China, the Italian adventurer Paolo Di Marco came to China under the pretext of conducting cultural research, and began a journey along the canals with Xie Pingyao... Xu Zechen grew up by the river; right in front of his school was Shi’an Canal, the largest man-made canal in Jiangsu. He later lived in Huai’an for a few years, moving back and forth along the banks of the Grand Canal that ran through the city. He observed a little bit each day and heard something new each day, thus learning quite a lot about the canal. “Over the past 20 years, I have gradually incorporated the canal into my novels. This also led to the development of a specific interest in canals; I would carefully collect and study any images, texts, research, or even casual rumors related to canals. It was also thanks to this years of dedication that, after writing stories set in canals in a general manner, I resolved to give it my all this time and put the Grand Canal as the main character at the forefront of the novel; thus emerged the four-year-long creation of \"Northward Journey\". ”Xu Zechen said. The renowned writer Cao Wenxuan said, “Xu Zechen is not a historian; he is merely a writer. Yet the novel ‘Northward’ might, years from now, become a work on the history of the canal, and it’s even possible that some historians will pay attention to it.” With this novel, which is essentially a work based on his personal experiences, he has provided us with a history of the canal that can be smelled, seen, and touched, as well as a segment of Chinese history reflected in that history of the canal. ”

Chen Yan’s new novel, \"The Protagonist\", is regarded as a moving tale of fate, a profound \"Chinese story\" told in the style of classical Chinese aesthetics. With a solid and delicate writing style, he vividly recounts the rise and fall, the successes and failures throughout nearly half a century in the life of the famous Qinqiang opera artist Yi Qin’e, as well as her complex relationships with Qinqiang opera and broader historical events. The renowned writer Wang Meng commented that *The Protagonist* offers a different world within contemporary literature. Though there are many works depicting opera characters, none is as in-depth, rich, detailed, and believable as The Protagonist. “The Protagonist” is also an extremely “complete” work, featuring vivid characters that move the reader deeply. Its intrinsic connection with Chinese traditional culture is also worth in-depth exploration.

Liang Xiaosheng’s novel \"The World of Humans\" is set in the Gongle District of a provincial city in the north, and it depicts the life stories of several ordinary families across several generations over a period of fifty years: the rule of politics and social turmoil during the Cultural Revolution; and the hardships and anxiety that accompanied life in the later stages of the Cultural Revolution； Life has gradually changed since the reform and opening up, fates have shifted, and so on. The novel has more prominent protagonists at different times, but all of them are ordinary people. Through the interweaving of small moments and a group of ordinary people, the work reflects the profound impact of a rapidly changing era on the lives of ordinary folks, as well as the intricate connection between the fate of the era and that of individuals. The work also emphasizes the importance of an individual’s own efforts and the mutual support among those at the bottom of society during times of great change and societal upheaval; it shows that it is not only necessary but also crucial to do so. It conveys to people that, no matter what era comes, one must walk their own path and take control of their own destiny.