[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-rising-in-1979":3,"chapter-rising-in-1979-rising-in-1979-chapter-22":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Rising in 1979",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2260730,4412,"Chapter 22: Poetry Resounds Far and Wide, Towering Over the Age","rising-in-1979-chapter-22",22,"\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun immediately froze, afraid of startling Wei Ming’s inspiration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Wei Ming asked him: “Did you bring paper?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun blinked: Paper? Are you saying you’ve got shit?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming added: “And a pen—hurry, write it down, it’s slipping away! Quick!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Oh oh!” Liu Zhenyun was immensely relieved—he always carried a pen and small notebook to capture fleeting moments of inspiration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then Wei Ming began reciting a poem; Liu Zhenyun assumed it would be just a short passage, but before he knew it, over ten minutes had passed!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His hand could barely keep up with Wei Ming’s pace—it was an epic poem!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It filled several pages before he finished writing!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wei Ming completed the entire poem in one uninterrupted breath, without a single pause!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing, Wei Ming brushed an invisible sleeve and said, “Done and dusted—remember to treat me,” then vanished without altering a single word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What a sublime, masterly air!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun stared, dazed and awestruck—he knew this was a realm he could never reach.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the way back to the dorm, he kept his head down, eyes never leaving the notebook—each line struck him like lightning, his heart remained deeply unsettled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside Building 32, he accidentally bumped into Qiang Ge of the ’77 Law Department, but luckily the man was easygoing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Male students from the Chinese Department lived on the third and fourth floors; Liu Zhenyun’s room was 406, notable for its “rusticity”—nearly all its residents were rural students, diligent and earnest in their studies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before entering the dorm, he met Luo Yihé, a junior from ’79 Chinese, who also wrote poetry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though Luo was from Beijing, he had spent his childhood laboring with his parents in rural Henan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So he got along well with Liu Zhenyun: “Hey, senior, what’re you staring at so intently?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Looking at treasure!” Liu Zhenyun laughed. “Luo, you love poetry—come in and appreciate it with me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Who wrote it? Old Xiong?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Inside the room, Liu Zhenyun announced: “I’ve got a poem by Wei Ming.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The name “Wei Ming” had become known throughout the Chinese Department by yesterday.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ah, not a novel? I like novels,” Lao Tian said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiao Yang in the dorm said: “Don’t read it yet—I’ll go call Old Xiong. He’s been coming back and forth.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Liu Zhenyun never opened the notebook, no matter how much others begged.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon, Xiong Guang arrived—not alone, but with several seniors from ’77 Chinese: Gao Xianjun, Huang Ziping, Su Mu, and Liang Zuo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old Xiong clapped Liu Zhenyun on the shoulder: “Little Liu, you’ve got something, right? It’s a poem!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You read it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun cleared his throat and solemnly recited: “‘Ideal,’ by Wei Ming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is stone, striking sparks from stars;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is fire, igniting extinguished lamps;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is lamp, lighting the path through night;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is path, guiding you to dawn.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiong Guang nodded—it was interesting. Such neatly structured parallelism was out of fashion now; everyone preferred poems without rules.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But achieving elegance in this linked-structure form required real skill—Wei Ming had clearly mastered it, and with great power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still not done, Liu Zhenyun continued:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In times of hunger and cold, ideal is warmth and food;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In times of warmth and food, ideal is civilization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In times of chaos, ideal is peace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In times of peace, ideal is prosperity.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Another tightly structured passage—using the rhetorical device of chain repetition. Though the words were plain, they struck straight at the deepest yearnings of the human heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Little Liu, let me read a bit,” Xiong Guang, itching to speak, took the notebook from Liu Zhenyun.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ideal is a pearl, strung one to another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Linking past and future, glowing endlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A beautiful string of pearls, the backbone of history.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The past illuminates the present, the present illuminates the future, ancestors illuminate descendants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is a compass, guiding ships on their course;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is a ship, carrying you out to sea.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But ideal is sometimes the curve where sea meets sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Visible but unattainable, tormenting your striving heart.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After finishing, Xiong Guang fell into thought and asked: “Who else wants to read?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The youngest, Luo Yihé, took the notebook.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ideal makes you smile at life;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal makes you stubbornly defy fate. Ideal makes you forget your temples have turned white;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal makes you, though white-haired, remain innocent.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had barely finished four lines when someone snatched the notebook away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liang Zuo, short and slightly chubby, read in a serious Beijing accent: “Ideal is an alarm clock, shattering your golden dreams;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is soap, washing away your selfishness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal is both an acquisition,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And a sacrifice.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Someone else immediately took the notebook:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If ideal brings you honor,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That is merely its byproduct;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>More often it brings the loneliness of misunderstanding,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Laughter within loneliness, bitterness within laughter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next reader, while reciting, waved his arms:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Ideal makes the faithful suffer misfortune;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ideal gives the wretched a way out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ordinary people become great through ideal;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those who have ideal are ‘great men’!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each stanza, each verse, raised the emotion higher—the whole room fell into a kind of feverish excitement; even the student who claimed to prefer novels recited a passage with great fervor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Room 406 had drawn the attention of neighboring dorms, all gathering around.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because the poem was long, everyone took a turn, and finally it returned to Liu Zhenyun’s hands.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only one page remained—he would deliver the finale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“When ideal blooms, peaches and plums bear sweet fruit;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When ideal sprouts, elms and poplars cast thick shade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ride the steed of ideal, whip in hand, set forth now;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The road ahead is bright with spring, the sky above is clear and sunny.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around them, people murmured the final lines: “The road ahead is bright with spring, the sky above is clear and sunny.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then erupted a thunderous, prolonged applause—as if it would lift the dorm roof off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A student from ’78 asked: “Who wrote this poem? It’s amazing—I feel full of strength just listening!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Magnificent and grand—truly a masterpiece!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I feel energized too, warm all over—I want to rush out and join the Four Modernizations right now!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>One of Liu Zhenyun’s dormmates said: “It’s written by Wei Ming, the gatekeeper at the South Gate—and his novel is about to be published in ‘Shouhuo’!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This guy’s a genius! This poem’s incredible—pass it around, let us copy it!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes! I want to copy it too—I’ll paste it on my wall!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And clever Luo Yihé had already pulled out paper and pen, scribbling furiously.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, Liu Zhenyun raised his hand—he had more to say: “Classmates, let me tell you how this poem was written—Wei Ming is even more talented than you imagine!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I originally came to him on behalf of ‘Weiminghu’ to commission a piece. At first he refused—he was submitting his novel to magazines for income to support his family. So I said, then write a poem—just a short one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He replied that poetry requires inspiration and passion, and he didn’t have the theme I wanted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I took my leave. Then guess what happened?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As everyone waited eagerly, he tactfully took a sip of water, then spoke slowly:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I had barely taken seven steps—seven steps! Not one more, not one less—when Wei Ming called out to me: ‘Damn! Got it! Got it! Got it!’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then he told me to pull out paper and pen. Luckily I had them—he recited while I wrote, in one continuous flow, without pause, and not a single word was changed. Then he just walked away.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Whoa!” The whole room erupted—even Luo Yihé, who was copying the poem, nearly dropped his jaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This poem, paired with this story—unbeatable!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is this real?” someone questioned. Though Cao Zhi once composed a poem in seven steps, he was one of the greatest literary geniuses in history!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And that was a five-character poem of just a few dozen characters, while Wei Ming’s poem, by rough count, must be six hundred characters at least!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Did he write such a long poem without even drafting it?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That’s simply miraculous!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Facing some people’s doubts, Liu Zhenyun swore: “I’ll stake my head on it—every word is true!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Liu Zhenyun say that, most of them believed him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiong Guangjiong stepped forward and said: “Though none of us could produce such a thing, I believe geniuses exist in this world—Wei Ming is clearly a genius far beyond our reach. I’ve decided: this poem will be published in the first issue of Weiminghu!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Aren’t the layouts already finalized?” someone asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As chief editor of Weiminghu, Xiong Guangjiong said seriously: “This poem, ‘The Song of Ideal,’ is like the earnest counsel of a wise elder to us young college students—every word a pearl, every line truth. If placed on the inaugural issue of Weiminghu, it will surely inspire not just Peking University students, but all youth across China. I believe this holds great significance.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun raised his hand: “I agree!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xiong Guangjiong: “Good, then remove your short story and make space for ‘Ideal.’”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Zhenyun: “Huh?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(Let’s update this chapter early—it’s the end of the month, time to clear votes~ Lao Fo or2~)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",1519,"2026-06-19T16:30:57.111Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","5861acb616a83a30913ba90ee5cf8f91d740d74fc0b3ad2be1538e2095032040","rising-in-1979-chapter-23","rising-in-1979-chapter-21",509,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frising-in-1979-cover.jpg"]