The significance of cultural root-seeking.

In the mid-1980s, there was an upsurge of "cultural root-seeking" in China literary world. Writers began to explore traditional consciousness and national cultural psychology, and their creation was called "root-seeking literature".

1985, Han Shaogong took the lead in proposing in a programmatic paper "The Roots of Literature": "Literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions." He proposed to "transcend the real world and base on reality at the same time, revealing some mysteries that determine the development of the country and the survival of mankind." Under this theory, writers began to create, which is called "root-seeking school" in theoretical circles.

Rising background:

The rise of root-seeking literature is not accidental, but has its social background.

1. Cultural fever

With the development of economic construction, modern western cultural thoughts entered China along with other experiences and technologies, but intellectuals at that time mainly had two views on how to treat these thoughts:

Some people think that we should learn to imitate.

Modernism in Lian Wenxue's art is also regarded as an integral part of modernization, although modernist art is a resistance to western modern industrial civilization.

There is also a view that the goal of "modernization" should not be the same because of the different political environment and cultural foundation, especially the different cultural development models.

Therefore, when China's economy takes off, how should it take its own cultural tradition as an acceptance field to test and absorb western modern culture and develop its own modernization? This problem gradually attracted the attention of humanistic intellectuals at that time, which was reflected in the diversified investigation of traditional cultural values. This is different from the enlightenment discourse in the early 1980s. The anti-tradition and anti-feudalism emphasized by the enlightener can be used to criticize the rampant political absolutism during the Cultural Revolution. However, when studying the proposition of how to build modernization in real life, some intellectuals cannot help but notice that they must make good use of their own cultural traditions to transform reality.

Therefore, it is both an objective need and a subjective requirement to re-study and evaluate China's traditional culture. Around 1985, a large-scale cultural upsurge rose in the cultural field.

2. The author

In the whole ideological trend of root-seeking literature, educated youth writers played a major role.

When they are mature, they need to find a cultural symbol of their own. This generation of writers must find their own world to prove the significance of their existence in the literary world.

They use their experience of going to the countryside and being close to farmers' daily life, and through this life experience, they further seek the lost traditional cultural value of the people.

It should be pointed out that:

They are not aborigines living in traditional folk customs. On the contrary, most of them are people who actively accept western modernist literature. However, when the modernist methods are directly criticized by political parties, they have to use national packaging to implicitly express the emerging modern consciousness.

Therefore, the essence of culture is not to return to tradition, but to find a more favorable reception field for modern western culture. After a deeper understanding of the history of modern western literature and the writer's situation, writers who are eager to "go out" in literature are required to realize that following some western writers and schools, even if they imitate it well, cannot be original artistic creation. In their view, it should be a more feasible way for China literature to look for something vital from China culture through the mirror of "world literature".

Main ideological reasons:

1. Writers feel the profound restriction of "culture" on human beings and try to grasp it.

Since the end of 1970s, scar literature and reflective literature have made in-depth exploration of "human" self-consciousness in their works, trying to liberate "human" life and value. However, some writers have found that even if temporary political and moral factors are put aside, it is impossible for human beings to enter an absolutely free living space like animals-an invisible hand manipulates human beings behind the scenes and restricts human psychology and behavior patterns. This is ".

Many writers hope to grasp their members' "way of knowing things" from the perspective of "national cultural psychology", so as to answer the question of why China experienced the "Cultural Revolution" and even why China's national strength declined since the Tang Dynasty.

2. Some writers believe that since the May 4th New Cultural Revolution, there has been a long period of "traditional cultural fracture" in China, so they hope to make up for this "cultural fracture" with literature. Acheng thinks: "The May 4th Movement has undeniable progressive significance in social change, but it completely negates the nihilistic attitude of national culture. In addition, China society has been turbulent, which has caused the rupture of national culture to this day. The' Cultural Revolution' was more thorough, the national culture was awarded to the class culture, and we almost lost the fig leaf. " Han Shaogong also believes: "After the May Fourth Movement, China literature learned from foreign countries, from the West, the East, Russia and the Soviet Union; He also closed the door to the outside world, and Yelang arrogantly blocked and burned all' foreign goods'. As a result, national culture was destroyed and national self-confidence was low. "

3. At that time, China's literary world was greatly influenced by the trend of "seeking roots" in the world: represented by the "magic realism" about the development of ancient Indian culture in Latin America, as well as the descriptions of foreign folk customs by some ethnic writers in the Soviet Union and the modern novels with oriental flavor written by Yasunari Kawabata. Many young writers see the hope that the literature of the third world countries will go to the world from Marquez's works full of Latin American regional colors, so they show a strong sense of "cultural roots" in their creation. These writers firmly believe that the more national they are, the more cosmopolitan they are. Their "root-seeking" is dialogue with the world. They believe that only by truly completing the "root-seeking" can we find our unique literary style and style and gain a foothold in the world literary world.

As early as 1982, Jia Pingwa thought in his book "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" that "China's traditional beauty expression method should be used to truly express the life and feelings of China people." In this article, the trend of "cultural root-seeking" has begun to appear.

In addition, the works of these foreign writers not only show strong national characteristics and national aesthetic methods, but also clearly permeate the spirit of modern consciousness, are rich in national cultural uniqueness, and blend into the creative tendency of modernity, providing ready-made experience and effective encouragement for China writers who advocate "cultural roots". Therefore, "root-seeking literature" has shown the desire to integrate modern consciousness and national culture from the very beginning. In a sense, this is the continuation of the spirit of modernist literature since the early 1980s.

Cultural root-seeking consciousness includes three aspects:

First, re-understand and unscramble the national cultural material in the sense of literary aesthetics, and explore its positive cultural core.

Second, appreciate the heritage of ancient culture in the way that modern people feel the world, and look for the source of life energy.

Third, continue to criticize the ugly cultural factors in contemporary social life, such as the deep excavation of the deep structure of national cultural psychology.

But these aspects are not absolutely separated, and many works comprehensively express the meaning of "seeking roots".

On the whole, the literary proposition of the "root-seeking school" is that it hopes to base itself on China's own national soil, excavate and analyze the national bad habits, carry forward the excellent elements in the cultural tradition, grasp our nation's way of thinking, ideals and value standards from the cultural background, and strive to create literature with a truly national style and style.

Major events:

The consciousness of cultural root-seeking in contemporary literary creation was first embodied in Banpo, Nuorilang, Tibet, Dunhuang and other poems written by obscure poet Yang Lian around 1982, and later a large-scale group poem "Speaking of Freedom" created by imitating the thinking structure of the Book of Changes.

In the field of novels, it began with Wang Meng's series of "Yili" novels published between 1982 and 1983.

After 1983, with the publication and sensation of Jia Pingwa's The First Record of Shangzhou, Zhang Chengzhi's The River in the North, Acheng's Chess King, Wang Anyi's Xiao Bao Zhuang and Li Hangyu's The Last Fisherman, many educated youth writers devoted themselves to the writing of "cultural roots", which became this.

1984 65438+In February, at the symposium held in Hangzhou by cultural units such as Shanghai Literature magazine and West Lake magazine in Hangzhou, many young writers and critics raised the issue of cultural roots when discussing recent creative phenomena.

The banner of "cultural roots" really started on a large scale in 1985.

1985 is a very important year in the literary history after the Cultural Revolution. Before that, the writers' main work focused on the reflection of history and the criticism of reality. Too strong political pressure makes literary experiments unable to develop healthily and normally. 1985 The rise of cultural root-seeking consciousness has directly promoted literary experiments under the multiple relations of politics and culture, and aroused writers and artists' conscious concern for artistic noumenon.

At that time, a group of young writers published their own manifestos, including Acheng, Zheng Yi, Han Shaogong and Zheng Wanlong.

In a programmatic paper "The Roots of Literature", Han Shaogong took the lead in clearly stating the position of "root-seeking literature" and believed that the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of national culture. This cultural root-seeking is the awakening of potential historical factors in aesthetic consciousness and an effort to release the energy of modern ideas to recast and polish the national self-image. He declared that "literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions", and he proposed to "base on reality and transcend the real world at the same time to reveal some mysteries that determine national development and human survival."

Zheng Yi also believes that only by "crossing the cultural fault zone" can we "go out". (across the cultural fault zone)

Other articles include: My Roots by Zheng Wanlong, Managing Our Roots by Li Hangyu, and Cultural Constraints by Acheng.

There is an important similarity in their narratives, that is, China literature can only have a dialogue with "world literature" on the basis of extensive and profound "cultural excavation".

It is under this theory that these writers began to create, which is called "seeking roots" in theoretical circles.

Han Shaogong's The Roots of Literature

Talking from Chu culture: Where did the splendid Chu culture go?

Literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of national traditional culture. If the roots are not deep, the leaves will not flourish.

Two examples: one south and one north;

Guangdong (and Hong Kong): Simply copying western culture can only lead to cultural bleeding.

Xinjiang: To have real western literature, there must be no bones and blood of traditional culture (referring to Xinjiang's own culture). If we only "cross" some themes and techniques from mainland literature, it is difficult to have new vitality and vitality.

The inexplicable "sensation" of the introduction of overseas culture.

However, some people are already looking for their roots: re-examine the land under their feet and relive the nation's yesterday. Re-understanding the nation, awakening the potential historical factors in aesthetic consciousness, and pursuing and grasping the objective expression of infinite and eternal understanding.

Dana's artistic philosophy: people are multi-layered-helping us understand the so-called cultural level.

Writers began to look to a deeper level, hoping to transcend reality and reveal some mysteries that determine national development and human survival: First, pay attention to the countryside.

The local culture has preserved some traditional cultures: not the earth's crust but underground magma, which deserves the attention of writers.

This is not a closed door, nor is it against cultural opening. Only by finding a frame of reference for the alien can we know ourselves and enrich ourselves-and finally fall on ourselves.

The complex relationship between foreign excellent writers and a nation's traditional culture: foreign modern culture also has a vein.

American Humor Tradition and Cowboy Taste —— Chaplin, Mark? Twain, Europe? Henry;

Latin American myths, fables, legends and divination superstitions-Latin American magic realism;

The speculative tradition in continental Europe and the old scholasticism-the existentialism of Sartre and Camus;

Zen Culture and the Leisure Tradition of Oriental Literati: Yasunari Kawabata, the Japanese "New Sensation School";

Greek myths and legends-Greek poet Egri Tis.

……

The moon and sixpence: the story of Gauguin.

Many western scholars have great interest and hope in oriental culture.

China in reality: reform and construction, "introducing" science and technology.

China or China, we have a national self. We should release the heat energy of modern ideas, recast and illuminate this self.

A Cheng: "A nation's own past is easy to forget, and it is not so easy to forget."

Genre division:

Although under the banner of "cultural root-seeking", these root-seeking writers can't agree on what "culture" is. Most writers choose a region that they are most familiar with as the basic point of cutting into the cultural level. From this perspective, we can divide "root-seeking literature" into two major areas: "urban culture root-seeking" and "rural culture root-seeking".

Below, we will introduce these two kinds of "root-seeking literature" representing different regions.

(A) the root of urban culture:

There are not a few writers exploring urban culture. For example, Liu described the feelings of ordinary and colorful people in contemporary Beijing in Bell and Drum Tower. In Three-Inch Golden Lotus, Feng Jicai reproduces the discrimination and banter of men against women in China. Among these writers, He Lu is outstanding and can be called "two outstanding writers in the North and South".

Deng Youmei was famous for his short story On the Cliff in 1956. After entering the new era, he first launched several military works, and then focused on life in Beijing, and wrote a series of "Jingweier" novels. Among them, Nawu and Yanhu, the representative works, won the second and third novella awards respectively, and the rest were Looking for a Painter, Two Cats and Four Seas. These street novels, with strong folk flavor, mostly take the old times as the story background, and outline all kinds of characters from princes and grandchildren, children of the Eight Banners to the bottom of society, which have unique aesthetic charm.

"Nawu" is set in the commercial society of old China and Peking in 1930s and 1940s, and depicts the embarrassing situation of Nawu, a son of the former Qing Dynasty, who wants to survive in society. "Smoke Bottle" shows the rebirth of the children of the Eight Banners from another angle, and describes how Wu Shibao, a ruined aristocrat, learned the stunt of painting in a snuff bottle and embarked on the road of self-reliance. Deng Youmei's works use authentic Beijing dialect and describe various traditional customs in detail. Even from the perspective of folklore, his works are rare.

Lu Sheng is in Jiangnan and grew up in Jiangnan. Most of his novels are based on trivial matters in Suzhou alleys, such as eating and drinking, weddings and funerals. His language is humorous and gentle, which embodies the long-standing charm of Wu and Yue culture from the overall atmosphere. His representative novella "The Gourmet" created the image of Zhu Zizhu, a housing capitalist who was addicted to food, and described his strange experience of devoting himself to his appetite for more than forty years before and after liberation and becoming a well-known gourmet in society after the Cultural Revolution. As a revolutionary and builder of New China, the narrator Gao Xiaoting's experience is a microcosm of China's political and economic life, especially his Hotel Revolution, which reflects the serious mistakes in economic work in the left-leaning era. But the most attractive part of the work is obviously not the comment on the superstructure, but the unique artistic charm of the food world and the strong folk color behind it.

In Helu's works, the description of local customs has become a major feature. For example, in "Wu Na", because those five students want to learn singing and drama, the following narrative is introduced:

"This box office is divided into rich and poor, and the fans are different. First-class ticket lovers should be free, rich and entitled. Only when you have leisure can you work hard, starting with carpet exercise; Only when you have money can you hire a gentleman, worship a famous teacher and set your clothes; Only when you have the right can you organize people to support you, put stills in newspapers and tabloids and write articles. Second-class people can only be famous if they have money and leisure. They can rent tables and invite performances, and singers can spend money to worship famous teachers. Then please Jiang Miaoxiang, Yan Juming and other famous singers to sing together. " Third-class people have neither money nor power, but they must also have a good voice, work hard, practice some real skills, and let people inside and outside nod, so as to make ends meet. "

Of course, the general reader can't understand the introduction of this industry rule, which will be very interesting to read. For another example, The Gourmet is particular about Zhu Xuan's teahouse: "There are teahouses everywhere in Suzhou. Why did Zhu go to Shiban Road in Nagato alone? Well-bred The big teahouse is separated from ordinary tea drinkers by several rooms, mahogany tables and rattan chairs, forming a small world of its own. The water there fell from the sky, and the tea was bought directly from Dongting Dongshan; Boil water in a crock, use pine branches as fuel, and make tea in a teapot made in Yixing. "

Just drinking tea is like a lot of attention, such as many rules-when a thing begins to form a certain order, its order itself often has meaning, and the so-called "culture" appears here. Many years later, Zhu Naben's "poor concern", which was hated by the "I" in the novel, was affirmed by the society and became a valuable "historical culture" representing Suzhou City-this may be what the novel wants to express: "culture" has been formed, so it is undeniable that it has become an "aesthetic object" with tenacious vitality.

He Lu's novels are good at expressing their familiar local customs with concise spoken language. As Deng Youmei said, he "longs for a kind of novel, such as The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival, which is a work of art.. It has aesthetic function and cognitive function, and also provides some reference materials for folklore scholars. " Although the works of these two writers may not play a powerful role in rebuilding China's national culture, they do show a little-known cultural tradition when telling the stories of characters, which makes readers feel some aesthetic pleasure and conveys a mellow folk charm.

(b) Rural cultural roots:

Compared with the former "root-seeking literature", there are more works that tend to show the rustic and even humble state of the countryside, and the fields of performance are wider. For example, Wang Zengqi's Notes on Noisy Events, Zhang Chengzhi's Dark Horse, Lu Yao's description of the intersection between urban and rural areas, Mo Yan's description of the secret history of ancestors' life in Gaomi Northeast Township, etc., such as Jia Pingwa's Shangzhou series novels expressing Qin and Han culture, Li Hangyu's Gechuanjiang series novels expressing Wu and Yue culture, and Zheng Wanlong's "foreign land" expressing the life of ethnic minorities in Daxinganling.

Among them, Dark Horse is an excellent work. With profound and beautiful language and strong emotional color, this novella praises the broad mind and tenacious vitality of grassland women and expresses their deep love for "mother" and "land". In addition, Lu Yao's Ordinary World is welcomed by readers because it shows the vast urban and rural and social reality and vividly depicts the tenacious life course of young people.

Among many works, Han Shaogong's novella Dad Dad is regarded by many as a typical representative of "root-seeking literature". This novel tells the story of a remote and unknown cottage "Jitouzhai" and the ignorant and mysterious living conditions of its residents who claim to be descendants of Xingtian. The novel takes a mentally disordered child "Bing Zi" as the central figure, and describes the strange customs and origin of Toutou Village, the isolation of people in Toutou Village from the normal world, their "grudges" with Jiwei Village, and the process of abandoning the old man and children and moving their families after defeat.

There are many strange customs in Jitouzhai in the works. For example, if you get lost, you have to pee and scold your mother to get rid of the so-called "fork ghost". Their residents will suffer from a strange disease called "picking worms", and the symptom is "fish eats fish in the stomach and chicken eats chicken in the stomach". The cure is actually to learn to crow three times after drinking the blood of white cattle; The language on the mountain is also different from other places, such as "talking", "father" is "uncle" and "sister" is "brother". But there is no doubt that Jitouzhai is a self-sufficient "small society". It has its own myths and legends, its own written history, its own customs and rules, and even formed its own set of language patterns-that is, it has formed its own set of "culture". Jitouzhai is undoubtedly a strange place, but it seems to really exist in a corner.

The central character of the novel, Bing Zi, also has many strange things. When he was a teenager, he could only say two words: "Dad" and "X". Children of his age have all grown into mature men, but he is still "only the height of the basket, still wearing a crotch-opening red trousers." Mother always said that he was only thirteen years old, but his face was obviously old and there were slight wrinkles on his forehead. He is "blind and dull, with a big deformed head, like an upside-down green gourd, pretending to be his head, which contains some strange substances." ..... See people regardless of gender, old and young, kindly shout' Dad'. If you stare at him, he will understand, turn your eyes to a position above your head, roll your eyes slowly and mumble' X?' Turn around and run. He has a hard time turning his eyelids. It seems that he can only roll his eyes if he is fully prepared for his chest, abdomen and neck. Turning around is also very laborious. On the soft neck, the head is swaying like a pepper mill, and it must be along a big arc to successfully turn the head steady ... "Legend has it that C cub was born because his mother killed a spider essence. He was bullied by children at random in Jitouzhai, and it seems that he has no pleasure in being a man. But at the end of the novel, Jitouzhai's old, weak, sick and disabled all committed suicide by taking poison, but he miraculously survived after drinking twice the amount of C-cub.

The epigenetic Compal obviously has the shadow of "Ah Q" in his works, and even when he was described, the language of his works began to exude the irony of Lu Xun. However, the more symbolic figure in the work should be the mentally disordered child C. Bing Zi can only speak two words. In his sensory world, the outside world is summarized as simple and abstract poles: good and bad, joy and hate. The existence of Bingzai seems to be worthless. It's better to be alive than dead. However, it is he who will live forever, always wearing open-backed pants, a runny nose, a long pustule, a huge and empty head, and wrinkles on his forehead-a little old man who will always stagnate at the age of thirteen. This image symbolizes a situation that human beings often encounter, a state of being unable to grasp the world, unable to express themselves, weak and helpless. His immortality symbolizes the eternal weakness and smallness of mankind.

In a closed state, it produces its own culture, and this "culture" finally hinders the development of "civilization". This is the case in Jitouzhai, and it seems to be the case in "China" for many years, but isn't it the case in the whole human society on earth? In the mid-1980s, there appeared many iconic works such as Daddy and Daddy, such as Han Shaogong's Return, Girls and Girls, and Wang Zengqi's Notes on Making a scene in Heaven. Most of the areas described in these works are far away from modern civilization and in a closed and stagnant state, thus better preserving the original cultural form and reflecting the ancient history and lifestyle of our nation and even mankind, thus having. Among the root-seeking writers, Acheng, a young writer, should be said to be the one with the most unique personality and superb artistic skill. His representative works, Three Kings, Chess King, Tree King and king of the children, have attracted great enthusiastic attention from sinologists all over the world. The expression of Taoist realm and Confucian style in his works is still controversial and discussed today.

In these "cultural roots" literary works mentioned above, the expression of "people" has changed greatly compared with the previous period. The characters in these works are no longer transcendental gods or heroes, or even the focus of the works that the author tries to express, but the concrete manifestations of many life forms. Behind them, there is a huge invisible hand that controls and manipulates all life, including the typical. Revealing the individual is actually revealing the whole, and the joys and sorrows of the individual belong to the whole. In the novels of representatives of root-seeking writers such as Acheng and Han Shaogong, the mutual restriction, conflict and adaptation between life and culture are fully manifested. These lives are no longer a simple embodiment of human nature, but have been engraved with a deep cultural imprint. Conversely, the characters written by root-seeking writers are life symbols attached to culture.

Genre influence:

"Root-seeking literature" has undoubtedly played a certain role in inheriting the traditional culture of China. At the same time, many root-seeking writers absorbed a lot of modernism and even postmodernism in their creation, and made great contributions to the development of China literature itself.

However, the limitations of "root-seeking literature" are also very obvious. Most writers' understanding of the concept of "culture" is "generalizing from the partial", and tend to deliberately exaggerate some folk customs, while ignoring the true anatomy of "nationality". In particular, some writers are almost paranoid about the rejection of modern civilization, obsessed with excavating the stagnant and deformed traditional life, and lack the guiding significance for contemporary life, which leads to the alienation of their works from contemporary reality, thus leading to the decline of "root-seeking literature" a few years later.

Traumatic Literature Reflection Literature Reform Literature Root-seeking Literature Modernism

Scar literature is directly caused by works that expose the disasters of the Cultural Revolution and describe the tragic experiences of educated youth, intellectuals and persecuted officials during the Cultural Revolution. Not long after this concept came into being, there was "reflective literature". Generally speaking, trauma literature is the source of reflection literature, and reflection literature is the deepening of trauma literature. Based on their eager pursuit of the modern country, the writers expressed their quite consistent thoughts. In this respect, the "reform literature" that appeared at the same time also has the same ideological basis. The former exposes and thinks about the obstacles and repression of the "Cultural Revolution" to modernization, while the latter faces the scars and ruins of the "Cultural Revolution" and calls for urban and rural reforms.

1985

1985 There were many events in this year, which made this year a symbol of the "turning point" in literature recognized by some critics: the "Cultural Revolution" and the writing of contemporary history were still directly or indirectly concerned by many writers, but a number of works with different ideas and artistic forms from the "scar" and "reflection" novels appeared.

Ma Yuan's The Temptation of Gangdise, Zhang Xinxin and Sang Ye's Peking Man, Shi Tiesheng's A String of Life, Liu Suola's You Have No Choice, Wang Anyi's Small Bag Zhuang, Chencun's Boys and Girls, One * * * Seven, Mo Yan's Transparent Carrots and Han Shaogong's Daddy and Daddy.

The main parts of these works reveal two important literary trends in this year with their creative achievements:

"root-seeking literature"

"Modernism" literary thoughts.

Root-seeking literature is initiated by a group of young writers, aiming at highlighting the "cultural" significance of literature (opposing literature as the carrier of social and political concepts), trying to promote the deepening of "reflective literature" from the traditional cultural psychology and personality, and to explore and reconstruct the national cultural spirit as the basis of literary development.

Modernist novels and western "modernist" literature have similar themes: expressing the absurdity of the world, describing people's loneliness, and some of them have the meaning of "anti-culture" and "anti-sublimity", and often use artistic techniques such as symbol, stream of consciousness and "black humor". At that time, there were Liu Suola's You Have No Choice, Blue Sky and Blue Sea, Variations without Theme by Xu Xing, and some novels by Can Xue, Chen Cun and Han Shaogong.

According to the boundary of 1985 (not in the sense of time, but in the sense of theme and perspective), A Pool of Clear Water is closer to the previous reform literature and even reflective literature, while Return is more root-seeking, even with the tendency of modernism.