China News Service Client, Beijing, May 15 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) According to media reports, the famous writer Ye Yonglie died on May 15, 2020 at the age of 79. This news instantly caused countless netizens to mourn, saying that "the deceased rested in peace, the old gentleman went all the way."

  Some people say that he is a pioneer of Chinese science fiction writers. Indeed, at the age of 20, Ye Yonglie became the main author of the popular science popular book "Hundred Thousand Whys", and later wrote many works such as "Little Smart Wandering the Future", which used words to affect generations of readers.

Ye Yonglie. Photo courtesy of Sichuan People's Publishing House

  Ye Yonglie was born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang in August 1940. When he was in high school, he became interested in science books, which laid the foundation for his later scientific creation.

  At the age of 11, Ye Yonglie wrote a small poem to the newspaper in his hometown and finally published it. He was greatly encouraged and fell in love with literature since then. Although he studied science at university, he did not give up literary writing.

  Many readers' first impressions of Ye Yonglie are probably the well-known set of "Hundred Thousand Whys". The work has a large circulation and a long history, and it is also the childhood memory of many children in China.

  In 1960, 20-year-old Ye Yonglie was a student in the Department of Chemistry of Peking University. By chance, he became the main author of "100,000 Whys".

  "At that time, the first publication of the chemistry volume was 176 'why', and I used 163." Ye Yonglie recalled that after the chemistry volume was written, other editors of the volume also came to him to write, including astronomy, microbes, etc. , "I'm not against those who come."

  So, at that time, the first edition of "100,000 Whys" was five volumes and more than 900 "whys". He wrote almost 300 "whys" by himself, accounting for about one-third of the whole book.

  After writing "One Hundred Thousand Whys", Ye Yonglie had a little ambition: to write "bigger things", so he wrote a science fiction novel, which is very popular "Xiao Ling Tong Roaming the Future", which was received by many readers. welcome.

Ye Yonglie. Image source: Screenshots of the video

  After graduating from university, Ye Yonglie was assigned to work in a research institute in Shanghai, but he never missed literary creation. So, after tangling for a while, he first went to the film studio as a director.

  As a director, Ye Yonglie is also very good. He has directed many influential science and education films. Among them, "Under the Traffic Light" won the Best Hundred Flowers Award for Best Science and Education Film in 1980. In his spare time, he devotes a lot of energy to the creation of science and science fiction.

  In addition to his own creations, Ye Yonglie has edited more than ten science fiction anthologies, such as "Chinese Science Fantasy Novels", "Chinese Thrilling Science Fiction Novels", "Chinese Surgery Fiction Appreciation Dictionary", "World Science Fiction Works Library" and so on.

  Moreover, Ye Yonglie once had a "gorgeous turn around" in his literary creation, writing the novel "Shanghai Trilogy", which is regarded as a transformation from documentary literature to a long urban novel, which took a lot of effort.

  For this work, he once mentioned that due to the strong continuity of the creation of novels, he is not used to writing and releasing: a writer is going to write several novels, it is equivalent to a writer ’s aircraft carrier, test With social experience and writing skills.

  In fact, in more than half a century of creative career, Ye Yonglie has established a perfect personal creation file. Various manuscripts, letters, photos, interview recordings, notes, work clippings, reviews, sample books, etc. are kept in categories.

  In terms of science popularization, in August 2017, the 28-volume Complete Works of Ye Yonglie's Popular Science, with a total of 14 million words, was published, including science fiction, scientific fairy tales, scientific sketches, popular science books, scientist biographies, and popular science creation theory. Category content.

"The Complete Works of Ye Yonglie's Popular Science". Photo courtesy of the publishing house

  People are often surprised by his exuberant creativity. He once shared such creative feelings: "Writing is actually a very lonely job. Every day I spend most of my time in my study and in front of the computer", "but once I write a good work , Writing new works, I am very satisfied. "

  He also said: "... I belong to a" coal furnace "writer. After the ignition, the firepower slowly came up and lasted a long and long time. I started the literature fire from the age of 11 and continued to burn until 60 years later. Today. "

  This is probably the most authentic portrayal of Ye Yonglie's life. (Finish)