Wang Zengqi's Inheritance and Transcendence of Vernacular Novels

Wang Zengqi's fictionalized vernacular novels with pure language washed with water, poetic customs and folklore, and unspeakable love for his children have won universal praise. As a vernacular novelist, his works not only absorbed the consistent tradition of vernacular novels, but also surpassed the vernacular novels of the previous period in terms of narrative perspective, narrative discourse, and philosophical implications.

I. The Positioning of Wang Zengqi's Vernacular Novels

When reading Wang Zengqi's novels, there is no intense plot conflict, but a quietness and softness like that of a small bridge and flowing water flowing in the heart. The "quietness" of his works matches the natural form of his hometown, where green water surrounds people's homes, and the colorful humanistic scenes. According to his novels, they can be divided into the following two categories.

One category is the virtualization of the real things in his hometown. Such as the "precepts" in the good cause of the temple, Minghai small monks; "Nao Chronicle" in the Nao, tinsmiths, the security team; "different" in the preservation of the Hall of Pharmacy; "three friends" in the painter Jin Yifu, and so on, are in the hometown of Gaoyou, real people and things, the writer in the novel will be their virtualization. Another category is the display of the customs and folklore of the hometown. Precepts" about the rules of the temple and "precepts" process; "Danao Chronicle" spent nearly half to write the scenery along the coast of Danao, as well as customs and anecdotes; "Chicken and duck famous" about how to kill chickens and slaughter ducks in the description. In other novels, such as "different", "three friends", "the old man's past", "bridge novels," etc. are inserted into some of the customs and anecdotes of the fragments.

Wang Zengqi, through the description of his hometown's commonplace customs, shows the simple and beautiful emotions between people. So how to categorize Wang Zengqi's works?

In Mr. Qian Liqun's Thirty Years of Chinese Modern and Contemporary Literature, he defines vernacular novels: "The so-called "vernacular novels" are novels that rely on reminiscence and reorganization to depict the life in the rural areas of the hometowns (including the townships), with a strong vernacular flavor and local colors. "

Lu Xun on the vernacular novel had this definition "...... where in Beijing with a pen to write out his chest people, whether he claims to use subjective or objective, in fact, often is the vernacular literature, from Beijing in this regard, it is the author of the overseas Chinese literature."

In addition, in Chapter 10, Section 2 of Studies in Contemporary Chinese Literature, edited by Yang Yi, the study of vernacular fiction categorizes Liu Shaotang, Deng Youmei, and Wang Zengqi as the most influential writers.

From the above specific analysis of Wang Zengqi's novels and critics' definition of "vernacular novel", it is not unreasonable to position Wang Zengqi as a vernacular novelist.

Wang Zengqi's Inheritance of Vernacular Novels

Lu Xun is the master of modern vernacular novels, and his works such as Kong Yi Ji, The Storm, and The Hometown established the norms for later writers of vernacular novels. His works such as Kong Yi Ji and The Storm and The Hometown established the norms for later writers of vernacular novels. The vernacular novelists who appeared during the war period included Zuo Shi, Jiang Muliang and Xiao Hong, etc. The vernacular novels of this period were linked with the war. There is also a Beijing school of novels that should not be ignored. This school includes Shen Congwen's world of western Hunan, Abolitionist's world of Huangmei's hometown and the suburbs of western Beijing, Lu Jinyuan's world of Henan's Orchard City, and Xiao Qian's world of the hedgerows at the root of Beijing. Among the vernacular novels of the seventeen years, there is the "Yam and Egg School" represented by Zhao Shuli's "Marriage of Xiao Erhei" and "Li Youcai's Plank Words", the "Shaanxi School" represented by Liu Qing's "The History of Entrepreneurship", the "Shaanxi School" represented by Sun Li's "The History of the Business" and the "Shaanxi School" represented by Sun Li's "The History of the Business". "Shaanxi School" represented by Liu Qing's "History of Entrepreneurship", "Lotus Dian School" represented by Sun Li's "Lotus Dian", and other schools of fiction. In the new period, there were "anti-traditional" vernacular novelists, with Liu Shaotang, Wang Zengqi, and Deng Youmei being the most influential.

These many and varied vernacular novels can be roughly divided into two categories. One type is to expose the poverty of the countryside and the ignorance of the peasants, and to narrate the works with sharp, cold and sharp artistic techniques, representing writers such as Lu Xun, Wang Luyan, Peng Jiahuang, Tai Jingnong, Zuoshi, Xiao Hong, etc. The other type is to reflect the countryside as a calm idyllic world, and to narrate the works with honesty, calmness, generosity and poetic artistic techniques, representing writers such as Shen Congwen, Abolitionist, Sun Li and Wang Zengqi.

These two types of works look, but in the process of narration has **** the same emotional home and consistency of artistic conception. One is to consciously emotionally invest in the way to express the faint nostalgia. Secondly, it has distinctive regional characteristics and expresses the strong color of local folk customs.

Wang Zengqi believes that: "Customs are the lyrical poems of life created collectively by a nation." He incorporated the aesthetic attitude of the national tradition into the depiction of customs, and the natural and simple depiction of folk customs and worldly sentiments filled his novels with poetic flavor. This is not only the inheritance of modern vernacular novels, but also the inheritance of traditional culture and folklore. The poetic and picturesque novels make Wang Zengqi's works inherit more of the tradition of poetic depiction in vernacular novels.

Third, Wang Zengqi's Transcendence of Vernacular Novels

First of all, there is a difference in the perspective of narration. Most of the vernacular novels are concerned with the reality and depict the reality, and emphasize the human nature through the fierce realistic conflicts. Wang Zengqi's novel avoids the fierce reality conflict, alienates from the mainstream consciousness, and chooses the marginalized narrative perspective, which is the dashing beauty of frankness and naturalness and ultra-utilitarianism. His focus on the commonplace life of small children and mortals, filled with the smell of human fireworks, is a reflection of his pursuit of independent literary character. Wang Zengqi said that his novel is "the old dream of forty-three years ago", is the passing of the "old society is not without joy".

Second, the narrative discourse is clear and free. In the eyes of most readers and writers, novels are a kind of more rigorous structure and more serious language style. Wang Zengqi's novels, contrary to tradition, adopt a natural style of gossip, creating a fictional world of novels in a casual and rambling manner. This is something beyond the usual vernacular novels. Although his simple and condensed language is similar to Shen Congwen's poetic language, what is embedded in his plain language is strange. Wang Zengqi combines blandness and strangeness in pursuit of a harmonious realm. "I hope to dissolve the strange in the bland, the foreign in the traditional, the vulgar for elegant, the old for new, can knead them together", which is where he surpassed Shen Congwen.

Again, the depth of philosophical meaning. Concerned about the reality of the vernacular novels often focus only on the ugly side of human nature, read to make people produce a noble sense of historical mission, the heart is passionate. Shen Congwen and other Beijing School novels are full of contradictory oppositions, filled with painful tension, making people feel a lingering beautiful sadness. Although these works will give people a sense of pleasure and enjoyment, they will always have hidden worries in their hearts and will not be able to enjoy the full pleasure. Wang Zengqi's novel world is a pure paradise of warmth and harmony, bringing people a simple and free spirit. His works are joyful, infectious and saturating the soul, "The inner mood of my works is joyful, we have had all kinds of traumas, but we should be happy today". His works are beautiful, pure and unadorned beauty, healthy humanity, "I write about beauty, healthy humanity. I write about beauty, healthy humanity. Beauty, humanity, is needed at all times". Furthermore, his works are beneficial to the human heart, "I want my works to be beneficial to the human heart, I want to nourish people's feelings, to make people feel that life is good, people are beautiful, poetic. You're working hard, you're tired, so sit down, take a break, have a cup of tea that's not too cold or too hot - read a little bit of my work". These Confucian and Taoist ideas constitute a kind of philosophical beauty in the mundane out of the world.

The feeling and deep affection for his hometown inevitably produces a strong poetic feeling, and the flow of poetic feeling is inevitably with the help of highly emotional objects, the poetic and picturesque realm is thus formed, which is why Wang Zengqi's local novels have a unique radiance in the 1980s.