On the essential characteristics of local documents

The so-called "local literature" is often associated with some exotic and wild pastoral poetry. The small scene under the moon, the night in the water town or the ethereal rain scene often become the quiet and pleasant artistic conception of local literature. Yellow walls, black tiles, old people, young girls and yellow dogs are often regarded as typical backgrounds of local literature, which indicates that local literature may have some transcendental aesthetic characteristics. However, there are often rough folk customs, wild folk customs, even barbaric folk customs, ignorant rural rules and regulations, and cruel class oppression in local literature. Therefore, it is obviously not comprehensive enough to think that local literature only describes the pure land of the soul or only describes poetic pastoral scenery. In local literature, rough masculinity and delicate feminine beauty coexist, and simple humanity and magnificent class struggle outside the countryside can be accommodated by local literature, and the conflict between ignorance and civilization has become an increasingly prominent theme in the development of local literature in China. As for local literature writers such as Shen Congwen, who calls himself a "countryman", and Liu Shaotang, who calls himself an "aborigine", on the surface, their local works seem to focus only on pure and beautiful stories between villages; After careful study, it is difficult for any contemporary novelist who takes local literature as the theme to completely avoid the influence of modern consciousness and the outside world on the countryside. This influence is sometimes manifested in the form of direct conflict; In other local literature works, the writer's narration may indirectly express some negative attitude towards modern civilization. However, no matter what attitude writers who take local culture as the theme hold towards modern civilization, it is certain that the "local literature" in China literature in the 20th century is not a closed "local literature", and this type of literature always responds directly or indirectly to the challenge of modern civilization.

According to textual research, the explanation of "local literature" originated from Lu Xun in modern China. He said in "The Second Preface of China New Literature Series Novels", "Jane loves to describe Guizhou, and Pei Wenzhong cares about Guan Yu. Anyone who writes thoughts with a pen in Beijing, whether claiming to be subjective or objective, is often local literature. From the perspective of Beijing, he is the author of overseas Chinese literature. " (1) Although Lu Xun did not give a definite definition of "local literature", he outlined the creative characteristics of local novels at that time. At that time, most of the local literature writers stayed in the city, bathed in the civilization of modern cities and accepted the baptism of the May 4th trend. The candlelight of modern civilization and progressive thought almost became an important preparation for writers to write "local literature" at that time. In 1936, Mao Dun further pointed out that the most important feature of "local literature" is not the simple description of local customs: "As for" local literature ",I think the description of special local customs is like looking at a foreign picture, which can arouse our surprise, but only give us curiosity. Therefore, in addition to the special local conditions and customs, there should be a general struggle against our fate. An author with only a traveler's eye can often only give us the former; It must be an author with a certain world outlook and outlook on life to give us the latter as the main point of view. " (2) If Mao Dun's concept of "local literature" is the forerunner, then Lu Xun's "local world" is undoubtedly the most representative. In the rural environment composed of the last village, Tugu Temple, Wu Pengchuan and Xianheng Hotel, Lu Xun revealed the numbness, ignorance and cruelty of local characters with the eyes of enlighteners. In the world of Lu Xun's local novels, the local environment is definitely not a paradise to put some ideal of life, but a place to stifle the vitality of the nation. Luzhen and Mozhuang can almost be equated with Lu Xun's "iron house". Probably only in the narrative of recalling childhood did Lu Xun show some warmth to his hometown. Lu Xun's strict attitude towards the local environment is actually accepted and followed by many modern progressive writers. It has become the narrative mode of local literature pursued by modern writers in China to put major social propositions in the landscape of local life and local customs, and to show social changes and characters in social changes. Modern local writers, such as Xu, Jian Xian 'ai, Tai Jingnong, Xu Jie, Peng,, and so on, have written all kinds of tragic stories of the children of old China in their respective villages in a simple and meticulous realistic style: the world is bleak, the proletarians are unhappy in the patriarchal countryside, the life logic and social psychology extended by the feudal hierarchy are quietly destroying the lower class and the weak, and the closed remote villages are destroyed by Tai Jingnong in these local literature. The rural atmosphere of ignorance and indifference, sadness and gloom created by the narrator of the novel shows the strong sense of mission of these local writers to the lowest society in China at that time. Of course, these local writers are also anatomists of rural chronic diseases, such as Sha Ting, who wrote the darkness and impermanence in villages and towns dominated by "half man, half beast" and "indigenous" characters with sharp irony.

Paying attention to the politics, economy and class struggle in the rural world is a very important narrative trend of modern and contemporary rural literature in China. From the early left-wing local literature creation to Zhao Shuli and Sun Li during the Anti-Japanese War, the schools of local novels of "Shan Yao Egg School" and "Lotus Dian School" were formed. In Zhao Shuli's and Sun Li's local novels, the story of political struggle and war stories have become dominant. However, in the narrative of politics and war, these writers usually take ordinary farmers as the perspective, so their narrative and thinking still have a strong local flavor. Sun Li's local novels, in particular, depict the optimism, selflessness and courage of ordinary people in rural areas in the cruel war environment, and have a poetic upward force, which inspires the public to struggle for national liberation. However, this kind of local literature with revolution as the main line has developed to the stage of cooperative theme. In fact, its narrators have all become omniscients with keen political consciousness. They take local novels as a place to export revolution and continue revolutionary ideas, and attach great importance to shaping rural "revolutionary newcomers" with high revolutionary consciousness in the local world. These writers are mainly represented by Liu Qing and Hao Ran.

In sharp contrast with the local writers who are progressive or directly involved in the revolution, there are another group of modern local writers who are addicted to the local scenery, among which Fei Ming and Shen Congwen, who became famous in the 1920s and 1930s, are the most representative. In Fei Ming's local literature works, young girls hang around and play in the sunset, and pedestrians carry men under the willows to enjoy the cool tea. The quiet and busy happy scene of the farmhouse completely erased the bloody side of the modern countryside and wrote an idyllic poem far away from the hubbub. As for Shen Congwen's creation, he also pays more attention to describing the "rough soul" and "pure lust" in the countryside. The cottages and docks written by Shen Congwen are quiet and beautiful, just like a quaint and fantastic genre painting. Especially the love stories that happened in these "foreign countries" are even more wonderful. Cui Cui, a girl in Border Town, has a simple and beautiful love view and experience, which is clear and implicit, and has not been polluted by modern urban civilization. In Shen Congwen's local literature world, everything in nature is spiritual, animals are dreaming, plants can talk, and the "divinity" of nature becomes the silent master of the local world. Then, what theme does Shen Congwen's quiet and detached local works intend to contain? It is "human nature" that Shen Congwen clearly stated in his Selected Novels of Shen Congwen: "There may be people in this world who want to build a pavilion to worship the building on the sand foundation or on the water, but that's not me. I just want to build a small Greek temple. Choose mountains as the foundation and pile them with hard stones. Exquisite, strong, symmetrical, small but not slender, it is my ideal building. This temple is dedicated to' human beings'. " Then, what we need to ask is, does Shen Congwen use the structure of a "small temple of humanity" to avoid the cruel reality that may exist, thus "beautifying backwardness" and "poetic numbness"? If we look at Shen Congwen's local literature works in this way, it is really too rude and too simple. In the corridor of Shen Congwen's poetic myth, even the most exquisite chapters are telling some irresistible sadness. In the face of the death of loved ones and the departure of lovers, didn't Cui Cui's crystal-clear eyes also declare the disillusionment of poetic myth? Another famous work by Shen Congwen, Husband, can almost be regarded as a sad song about the people at the bottom of the countryside. Shen Congwen, who entered the realm of pure beauty of local literature, did not necessarily understand the pain of society, but he described the marginal heterogeneity of local culture with frank, simple, coexistence of god and man, and leisurely brushwork, showing the quiet and far-reaching life force in the weak marginal culture, thus inherently criticizing the disadvantages of the so-called civilized society. In the rural literature writing in the new period, we can still see the continuation of Shen Congwen's rural literature writing type. In the local literature works of writers such as Wang Zengqi, Shen Congwen's clear and ethereal style is endowed with more optimistic and clear characteristics. In addition, Shen Congwen's local literature also created a writing mode to show the influence of cultural customs on people by showing the trajectory of human nature in "heterogeneous culture", which was inherited by writers such as Han Shaogong and Li Rui in the new period. However, Han Shaogong's perspective is more "objective" and "neutral" than Shen Congwen's, and they are more direct and keen to describe and analyze all kinds of stories that happened in the "heterogeneous culture" they saw. Just as Li Qingxi's analysis of the narrator's attitude in Han Shaogong's Daddy Daddy: "As far as the aesthetic subject is concerned, it is an outsider's attitude and keeps a sophisticated silence on everything. This is not a self-righteous cold-eyed observation, but a generous and broad-minded attitude. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is no feeling of' sadness and anger' of Lu Xun ... The original intention of the narrator is actually the recognition of traditional culture and national character. " (3) Whether Han Shaogong agrees with traditional culture and national character remains to be discussed, but one thing is certain: Han Shaogong is really good at imitating the perspective of "outsiders" and repeatedly examining various cultural provisions of local customs in his eyes. This calm writing attitude reached a very conscious stage in Han Shaogong's novel Maqiao Dictionary. In Maqiao Dictionary, local culture, especially local language, has become the most interesting and historical epitome and index of local culture. On the surface, Maqiao is a static existence. Only from the perspective of "outsiders" can we see the influence of modern civilization on Maqiao so thoroughly and get rich explanations. In the contemporary era when the consciousness of "global village" is getting stronger and stronger, China writers represented by Han Shaogong, Li Rui and Zhang Wei no longer take the excessive investment of self-emotion as the writing posture to protect local literature like Liu Shaotang, but stand on a more conscious and cold commanding height and describe the changes of local culture in various parts of China as cultural spokespersons.