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Novels in the New Period and the Tradition of China Classical Literature

1 WTO spirit and decadent feelings

The ideological connotation of China's classical literature is very rich. The influence of classical literature in novels in the new period is mainly reflected in two aspects: one is the traditional spirit of Confucianism's entry into the WTO, and the other is the decadent feelings of literati.

China's classical literature is deeply influenced by Confucianism, with strong spirit of joining the WTO and strong color of social participation. The idea of "literature carries Tao" runs through the whole history of literature, and literature is therefore regarded as "a great cause of governing the country and an immortal event" The extreme expression of this spirit of joining the WTO is to directly serve politics, and its edge is the embodiment of the philosophy of life of "helping the world and the people". Throughout the history of China's classical literature, there are few pure personal creations, all of which contain the writers' social concern and express various political or cultural ideals. Starting from the Book of Songs and Qu Yuan, through the evolution of Du Fu, Fan Zhongyan and Wei Yuan, it has formed an excellent tradition of caring for the country and the people, and also conveyed the literary spiritual lifeline that emphasizes education and social functions. The spirit of classical literature's entry into the WTO was criticized as "writing carries Tao" in the May 4th new literature, but in fact, the May 4th literature did not really throw it away, but existed in a different way. What the May 4th writers really criticized was actually the connotation of "Tao" contained in classical literature, and the basic spirit of literature serving reality was still maintained-literature should not maintain the traditional feudal culture and feudal system, but serve the transformation and strength of China. As far as novels are concerned, Liang Qichao's novel revolution view still profoundly affects the May 4th writers: "If you want to win the people of a new country, you must first develop novels of a new country. Therefore, if you want new morality, you must have new novels; If you want a new religion, you must have a new novel; If you want new politics, you must create new novels ... "[7] The dominant tendency of the May 4th literature is still" for life "for the society and the public, while humanitarianism, patriotism and realistic criticism are always the most prominent ideological characteristics of the May 4th literature. Although it has been infused with many new modern ideological connotations, it still contains some spiritual imprints of classical literature.

Novels in the new period, especially novels at the beginning of the new period, also show a strong spirit of joining the WTO. This is very obvious in the writer's creative thinking. Although writers generally don't directly mention the tradition of classical literature, when talking about their own literary aspirations and cognition of literature, they almost always talk about the relationship between literature and reality, closely linking literature with politics and sense of responsibility. In other words, in fact, the writer's ideological core has inherently embodied the concept of classical literature's entry into the WTO. As Zhou Keqin understood, literature is "a vivid witness of the influence of the times and public life on the author's feelings, and the most authentic evidence of the combination of individuals and the times"; [8] Gao Xiaosheng talked about his first work "Funnel Households" when he returned to the literary world after an interruption of more than 20 years, and clearly expressed his creative responsibility to farmers: "I wrote them, but I wrote my heart" [9]; Jiang Zilong also closely linked his creation with the actual needs: "Director Joe's record of taking office was' forced'. Is forced out by life, is an ordinary China people's sense of responsibility for the four modernizations ... "[10].

The spirit of joining WTO is also reflected in creation. As far as the theme of the novel is concerned, the most typical embodiment of the novel in the new period is a strong sense of enlightenment. In the new era, many novels contain clear enlightenment concepts, and novels are regarded as tools of ideological education and used to spread various social and cultural awareness. Liu's works, such as Head Teacher, Wake Up, Brothers, etc., typically embody this idea, and because of this, the head teacher, full of didactic colors, is regarded as the beginning of literature in the new period and has become a literary model in a period. Except Liu, other writers' creations are basically similar. For example, Zhang Xianliang and Cong, who became famous for a while, took suffering as a way of moral preaching and attracted people's attention. Another example is historical novels, such as Li Zicheng and Cao, which all follow the ideological tradition of "taking history as a mirror" in China's traditional historical works. Summarizing historical lessons and guiding and serving reality with history are the consistent themes of these works. Moreover, the characteristics of this historical novel continued until the 1990s. For example, Chen's White Deer Plain, Tang's Zeng Guofan, Xiong's Zhang Zhidong, Zhang and other works all followed a similar historical view, which is the modern embodiment of traditional historical works (novels).

As far as the content of the novel is concerned, it is manifested in the close connection between the novel and real politics. The trend of novel creation in the new period is closely related to the changes of real politics, or the changes of novel content keep up with the liberation and development of the times and society. From the initial "scar" to "reflection", and then from "educated youth novels" to "literary reform", every rhythm of novels in the new period has a direct correspondence with social reality and political and cultural changes, and participates in social and political changes and the liberation of cultural concepts. Critical literary thoughts such as "humanitarianism" are essentially conveying another political idea and reflecting the writer's more independent social care. Since then, the trend of novel creation in the new century, such as "realistic shock wave", "officialdom novel" and "bottom writing", is also closely related to the realistic political situation, writers' realistic participation and social responsibility consciousness.

In the late 1980s, especially after the 1990s, the literary spirit of novels in the new period has changed to some extent, and the traditional spirit of joining the WTO has been criticized and ridiculed by some writers (the most typical one is that "new historicism" novels deconstruct and ridicule traditional historical novels with a new view of history), and its performance has also declined obviously. At the same time, another spirit closely related to classical literature is quietly rising and becoming a literary trend of the times, which is the decadent consciousness of traditional literati.

Decadence is not a complete feature of China literature, and even the concept itself comes from the West. However, this does not mean that this thought does not exist in China's traditional culture and literature. On the contrary, the traditional culture influenced by Taoism contains a strong decadent connotation, and in the subsequent development, it combined with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism to form a long tradition with a strong sense of scholar-officials, and also formed its own unique characteristics. Generally speaking, the decadence in China's literature is more of a cynical attitude, which is also closely related to the mentality of seclusion and enjoyment. This is different from the decadent trend of thought in the west, which is often world-weary, and is combined with aestheticism. Because the decadence of China literature is often the product of the failure of traditional Confucianism, influenced by mainstream Confucianism, intellectuals generally regard the ambition of social responsibility as their basic pursuit. However, in reality, not all intellectuals have the opportunity to realize their ideals and ambitions, but it is also quite difficult to successfully realize the spiritual transformation of "saving the world". So many people will give up Confucianism when they are frustrated. Falling into nihilism and skepticism, indulging in small interests in the personal world, his life is illusory and free, and his literature typically shows the decadent ideas of China culture. In addition, the decadence of China literature has a prominent feature, which is contradiction and chaos. Because in the long-term cultural accumulation, the social consciousness of China intellectuals is strong and lasting, and it is difficult for ordinary people to get rid of the influence of this thought suddenly, which leads to the decadence of China literati, just like many hermits in China history. The decadent literary spirit was embodied in the intellectuals in Wei and Jin Dynasties, which was discussed in Lu Xun's The Relationship between Wei and Jin Literature and Manners, Medicine and Wine. Of course, not only in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Zhuangzi's literary works contained the core of decadent ideas, and the literature in the late Ming Dynasty was even more extreme.

The rise of decadent ideas in novels in the new period is closely related to the evolution of the culture of the times. Since the end of 1980s, with the deepening of reform, political thoughts have been further liberated. At the same time, commercial culture entered China and quickly became the mainstream culture of the society, and the social and cultural pattern has undergone tremendous changes. In this process, on the one hand, literature has been pushed away from its original position as a political follower, and its hypocrisy and affectation have been exposed, which has fundamentally impacted the traditional thought of "writing to carry Tao". On the other hand, with the wave of spiritual and cultural loss, literature gradually lost the survival foundation of spiritual belief. In this case, the writers' life choices in the new period are varied, and their spiritual world is scattered, so the decadent thoughts of traditional literati will naturally be exposed to some writers. This point, just as some scholars have analyzed the literature of the late Ming Dynasty, "The ideal personality of the ancient Confucian tradition is based on self-cultivation. Through self-cultivation, family harmony, courtesy and honesty, people can become a gentleman who can be poor and happy. ..... In the late Ming Dynasty, because Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism gradually lost its lofty position, the trend of thought of individuality rose, and the interest in pursuing individuality in the late Ming Dynasty was far greater than that in standardizing perfect personality. What they appreciate more is the distinctive and arrogant literati personality, rather than the perfect saint personality. " [ 1 1]

Broadly speaking, the spirit of "avant-garde novels" in the 1980s has a certain decadent color. The writer realized the weakness of literature in reality and turned to form to confront reality, which contained some decadent colors of traditional literature. Some scholars' exposition is accurate: "It is precisely because of the same aesthetic preference and inner desire for depression and decadence that Ye and Su embarked on the boat of' homesickness' and sailed to the river of time of' death' in the past." [12] However, what is truly typical is Jia Pingwa in the early 1990s, or it started the decadent trend of novels in the new period. In the 1980s, he dabbled in reform, "seeking roots" and other themes, and there were traces of "carrying Tao" in his creation. However, in "Wasted Capital" published by 1992, he keenly expressed the theme of intellectuals' decadence and helplessness after literary marginalization. The decadence and death of Zhuang Zhidie and the decline of the whole Xijing cultural circle in the works convey the author's strong sense of cultural failure and nihilism. Just as the expression of the novel borrowed from the famous novel Jin Ping Mei in the late Ming Dynasty, its spirit directly inherited the decadent tradition in the late Ming Dynasty.

Jia Pingwa's creative spirit has a wide range of successors after 1990s, and its representatives are younger "late generation" writers, mainly Han Dong, Zhu Wen and Sharla Cheung. Like Jia Pingwa, these writers also felt the nothingness after the collapse of the traditional literary system, but in contrast, they were much less dependent on the traditional system and showed a certain independent spirit and higher literary demands for the remaining literary system. But they didn't really get rid of the restriction and pressure of the inner reality system, so they often expressed their resistance to reality in decadent ways such as sex, nothingness and aestheticism. Specifically, their creation has three remarkable characteristics. One is the nihilistic attitude towards life. Their protagonists are often dissatisfied with reality, but unable to change it, so selectivity and fantasy are used as a way to resist society; The second is strong individualism. Their concern is basically limited to personal destiny and survival value, and they seldom think about things related to society, and rarely write directly about real life outside the individual; The third is the feelings of artistic literati. Although there are great personal differences in writers' creations, on the whole, their indulgence in personal life often reveals a certain degree of traditional literati sentiment, or self-appreciation and narcissism.

It should be pointed out that the classical literary spirit displayed by novelists in the new period is not single and pure. Their creative spirit is closely related to the mainstream political thoughts in reality and modern western culture and literary concepts, or these factors have been integrated into a whole, and it is difficult to simply separate them. For example, the idea of entering WTO in novels in the new period contains modern enlightenment spirit, which is also directly related to realistic political concepts and realistic literary thoughts; Similarly, the decadent trend of thought also contains the influence of modern consumer culture, with a strong imprint of post-modern culture. It can even be said that the spiritual brothers of the rampant decadent literary trend in novels in the new period are the burgeoning consumer culture in China.

Reflection: Tradition and Modernity of Literature

For new literature, the relationship with classical literature involves its basic characteristics and spiritual source. Because of this, people have been thinking and discussing the new literature since it was founded. Famous writers and scholars such as Lu Xun, Mao Dun, Shen Congwen and Yao Yao have all expressed their opinions specially, and in recent years, writers and scholars such as Zheng Min have also made profound reflections. In this sense, this paper's thinking on the relationship between novels and classical literature in the new period is bound to be related to the historical tradition, characteristics and development trend of new literature.

First, emancipate the mind and treat the classical literary tradition with a more open mind;

As mentioned above, the new literary tradition has always treated classical literature with a critical and alienated attitude. There is no point in being too hard on our predecessors. Different cultural backgrounds put forward different cultural requirements for the times. It is urgent to go to the old and welcome the new in the May 4th era, and learning from the West is its primary task. But today, we really need to look at the tradition of classical literature from a new perspective.

This is first related to the cultural characteristics of the times. Today is an era of economic and political globalization, and commercial culture is bringing the whole human culture into its orbit and planning. In this context, it is of special significance to maintain the uniqueness of national culture, and literature should also adjust its relationship with tradition and show its national individuality. After thousands of years of reproduction, China literature has become an indispensable part of traditional culture. It bears the unique character of China culture, the thoughts and behaviors of China people, and embodies the unique spiritual personality of the Chinese nation. To maintain the characteristics of national literature (culture), we must re-examine the long-standing classical literature and understand its profound national character and cultural individuality. "When we restore our faith in the old literature, because we can't create the world (in fact and theoretically impossible), we can and should only build new houses on the old basis. ..... we should know more about our oriental culture. Oriental culture is absolutely beautiful and elegant. " [20] Although this passage by Wen Yiduo was said in the 1920s, it still has practical significance today.

In the thinking of classical literature, we need to rethink the concept of "modernity". Modernity is the trend of the times, but whether modernization is westernized and whether modernity is a simple linear development of evolution has been questioned more and more. The modernity of literature is particularly complicated. As a unique spiritual product, literature can never be evaluated by simple evolutionary thinking. Literature is not necessarily superior to the previous generation, but it has its own characteristics and values. Classical literature is the most mature and accomplished of China's traditional literature. Its unique aesthetic value still has a long-lasting charm today, and it has not lost its meaning at all.

Finally, we should also consider the basic creative laws of literature. American poet Eliot once emphasized the significance of traditional consciousness to literary creation: "We should not only understand the past, but also