Examples of cultural prose on the inheritance and development of modern cultural prose

The Significance of Historical and Cultural Prose for Cultural Reconstruction in Contemporary China

Abstract: Contemporary China is facing the biggest crisis since the reform and opening-up, the cultural crisis. Over the past thirty years, China has developed rapidly under the wave of globalization while facing the social and cultural emptiness caused by the fierce collision of Chinese and Western cultures and the fault line between traditional and modern cultures, coupled with the insufficient attention to culture and education, which has resulted in the lack of the necessary conditions and impetus for the reconstruction of Chinese culture in the contemporary era and made it difficult to unfold. Under the impact of modernization centered on Western culture, the cultural fault line between tradition and modernity has been further widened. In the context of political monism in contemporary China, the monolithic conception of history and culture has a serious binding effect on the pluralism of cultural and historical conceptions on which the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture is based

. Globalization has suppressed the ethnicity and regionality of culture, and the public lacks a sense of cultural identity and self-cultural orientation under the chaotic cultural environment. The market economy has catalyzed the concept of history and culture towards entertainment. China's modernization is hampered by the persistence of traditional culture in the social mindset, and modern culture is trying to completely eliminate traditional culture. Contemporary Chinese culture is struggling to complete its reconstruction amidst this series of contradictions, and more seriously, Chinese culture may become ossified and die as a result. For this problem, which requires a long period of time and deliberation to solve, apart from education and literary reflection, all other short-term administrative measures are only treating the symptoms but not the root of the problem. In the field of literature in recent years, the rise of historical and cultural essays is precisely due to the reflection and reconstruction of contemporary culture and thus has an important significance for it.

Keywords: cultural reconstruction, tradition and modernity, cultural prose

To discuss the significance of historical and cultural prose for the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture, it is important to clarify why contemporary Chinese culture needs to be reconstructed. First of all, it must be clear why contemporary Chinese culture should be reconstructed, and to answer this question, we have to explain the various impacts on Chinese culture from the perspective of historical evolution.

Since the Opium War, the Chinese people have been facing the strong impact of modernization born from the West, and have always been looking for ways to achieve a balanced and stable transition and perfect unity between traditional China and modern China. Because modernization is a logical development trend for the West, but for China it is a choice made for survival, which has led to a cultural rupture in China at all levels of society. This has led to a cultural rupture at all levels of Chinese society, resulting in an attachment to and hatred of traditional culture, and an admiration for and rejection of modern culture. The interplay of the two has left China torn between different paths of development, and China has thus painfully pursued a century-long quest to achieve one of its goals. Politicians such as Mao Zedong sought to avoid this problem by building a socialist China that was different from the modernized West under the guidance of Marxism, a vision that was completely rejected during the decade of the Cultural Revolution and the Reform and Opening-up. With the deepening of reform and opening up, the previously avoided problems have been intensified again, with the tenacious traditional culture constantly restraining the pace of modernization, and the frenzy of modernization constantly eroding the territory of traditional culture. Since the 1990s, the degradation of national and regional culture under the wave of globalization and the cultural dumping of the West led by the United States have made the social psychology polarized, with one part of the public unable to accept the destruction of traditional culture by Western concepts and moving towards the revival of nationalism to the total rejection of the West, while the other part of the public moves towards the worship of the West and even demands for total Westernization. The mutual exclusion of the two inevitably causes people to lose their sense of cultural identity and sense of belonging, as well as their self-cultural orientation, and ultimately lead to self-absorption. The introduction of Western capitalism under the reform and opening up has weakened the traditional morality of restraining and delaying desires, and the public has avoided thinking about the current situation of Chinese culture and gone into the entertainment of history and culture. This series of negative impacts will make it impossible for China to truly abandon the outdated mode of thinking of "Chinese and Western" and "discerning between the ancient and the modern" when it enters the crucial stage of reforming and opening up its political system and ideology, and it will be impossible to discern and assimilate the cultures of the ancient and modern as well as the Chinese and Western cultures in order to complete the process of cultural discernment. It is also impossible for the ancient and modern, Chinese and Western cultures to be absorbed in order to complete a smooth transition to modernity in the field of political system and ideology, but also to transcend the shortcomings of Western modernization and traditional culture. As for the somewhat organic integration of the two and innovation, it is even more illusory. Once the above result is achieved, a large number of hidden contradictions arising from unbalanced development will be aroused, and the result will definitely be a great regression of society and a complete disintegration of culture. This is undoubtedly a cultural "disaster".

Since Chinese culture is now facing such a serious crisis, how should it be reconstructed? Is it a cultural "Great Leap Forward"? The Soviet Union, which practiced shock therapy, is a "good example", and Russia is now in a period of historical nihilism and cultural collapse, with a serious imbalance in the public's psychology leading to the frantic development of national separatism and terrorism, and the government's credibility is also declining sharply. In a big country like China, which is in the stage of reform and opening up, there are a large number of potential contradictions left over from the reform and opening up and development. We must consider whether the speed and manner of cultural reconstruction are within the tolerance of the people and society. One thing cannot be ignored: with the huge gap between history and reality and the diversity of concepts in modern society, it is difficult for China to form a dominant value system with the prestige of the whole society in a short period of time, and in the face of the challenges of tradition and modernity, it is very dangerous to make a revolutionary dash towards modernity through administrative, economic, legal and political coercive forces. The postmodernity that exists in modernity advocates deconstruction of everything and opposes construction. Jump-starting the reconstruction of contemporary culture will only lead to the proliferation of postmodernism and thus to the exacerbation of social and cultural disorders. The means mentioned above can only construct culture at the material and behavioral levels, while the core of cultural reconstruction is the reconstruction of concepts and ideas. Attaching importance only to the former will only lead to cultural emptiness and even counter-culture. Contemporary cultural reconstruction can only be carried out by administrative means as a peripheral aid to culture, with education and literary reflection as the core means, so that the public can have an objective and correct understanding of tradition and modernity through thinking about history and reality, have a clear self-cultural orientation and get out of the cultural unconsciousness, and have a rational understanding of the recreation of history and culture and the Western culture to distinguish the pros and cons of them. The advantages and disadvantages of this.

It has to be admitted that to achieve this goal, the following problems need to be solved: Firstly, how to break through the monism of historical and cultural concepts in the political context, and move towards the pluralism of historical and cultural concepts, which is the prerequisite. This is because the over-emphasis on political stability and ideological demands in the reconstruction of our contemporary culture has made it difficult to reflect on Chinese culture and history. Secondly, how to make the public see the essence and difference between tradition and modernity, as well as the integration therein, is the core. Third, the starting point is how to enable the public to have a clear understanding of culture and history and to maintain their own cultural orientation in the reality of cultural and historical entertainment. From the current situation, Chinese education, under the influence of politicization, profit-making, and test-taking, will not be able to take on the important task of reconstructing contemporary culture in the next few decades. The cultural essays that have become popular in the literary field in recent years are produced under the reflection of contemporary Chinese culturists on the status quo of culture, and are of great significance to the reconstruction of contemporary culture.

Since historical and cultural prose is important to the reconstruction of Chinese culture, its own characteristics must have a role in solving the problems faced by the construction of contemporary culture. First of all, historical and cultural prose shows a unique and profound concept of history and culture that is different from the concept of history and culture in the political context. This is the premise that historical and cultural prose is of great significance to the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture. China is the only ancient country with an unbroken history. The development and accumulation of thousands of years of history books have made Chinese culture form a complete and complex system, and the kernel of Chinese culture is refined and accumulated in the historical evolution. In order to realize the organic integration of tradition and modernity, and thus complete the smooth transition from tradition to modernity, the only way is to get rid of the one-dimensional interpretation of Chinese history, and to reinterpret the history on which Chinese traditional culture depends. Historical and cultural essays happen to be a kind of wildly consistent and independent folk historical insights than the official and pedantic, he is less stereotyped and formalized, and less pretentious. More than that, it is a frank and righteous. Therefore, it is more able to penetrate into the essence of history and ask questions about culture. The sad winds of the East Forest" complained so sorrowfully: "They are the devotees of moral idealism, and the failures of reforming the social practice of the construction of the poor, they are the heroic man, and the foolish and loyal to the courtesy of the scholars, they are the world's reputation of the learned, and belong to the power of the political child. In their body Chen showed a rather complex history and moral judgment of the duet, the social environment of the seventeenth century is that they went to the highest peak of the feudal era can be reached, but they finally failed to cross the half-steps, but only to the tragic Hunde unjust prison drink family and death tragedy shocking, to inspire the next generation out of the fence to usher in the dawn of the new century. This is undoubtedly the most vivid portrait of the Donglin people, this plain as words for us to show the inner contradictions and struggles of those who are humane and aspiring, their insistence on their own beliefs and unyielding penetration of helplessness and humility. There is no high and mighty comment here, and even less classism and other upper line, but his literary aesthetic perspective takes us to the East Liners and the times they lived in a calm and pertinent analysis. When the author writes that the Donglin scholars were not as resolute as the general public in resisting the persecution of the powers that be, but instead talked about "death in the king's house is a common thing for men", he commented; "This was a stage where the business style was growing greatly and the citizen class began to make its presence felt, but the budding commodity economy was buried deep in the soil of the feudal economy, and the citizen class had to be protected from the feudalism. However, the budding commodity economy was y buried in the soil of the feudal economy, and the heel of the civic class was quite weak, so they could only vaguely shout out their own music in the midst of others". This text is devoid of clichés such as "economic base", "superstructure" and "so-and-soism", but it points directly to the truth behind history, leaving behind the ideological claims of the The pursuit of ideological claims and utilitarianism are put aside. The original face of history is returned. It is this unique and objective flash of thought that makes readers blind to the official history and produce their own independent understanding of history, the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture only in the context of the pluralism of the concept of history and literature of a variety of concepts free expression, in the mutual debate gradually laid the foundation.

Besides the unique conception of history and culture, historical and cultural prose also has a kind of big historical character. He puts all discussions into the coordinates of world history to view, leading readers to shuttle between the past and reality, the East and the West. This character transcends the political, economic, cultural, and cultural divides and allows the reader to see the coexistence of the great differences between tradition and modernity and the inextricable links between them. It also lets the retrofuturists see the darkness of history and the reforeigners see the hypocrisy of modern times. When we follow Xia Jianyong's "Into the Backyard", we witnessed a generation of great scholars, Wang Niansun, in the forty years of the Qianlong era, which was characterized by clouds and darkness, and saw that the Holy Lord played the word games such as "clear wind and bright moon" and "the first time to become a head", and so on, to kill the literati in the south of the country with the red willow and green apricot blossoms and rain. Rain, after begging leave to return to the classics to make notes for a lifetime of effort and achievement of a generation of the great Confucian scholar, but also saw the French L'Ouillé and the British Adams predicted the existence and location of Neptune based on celestial mechanics. Mr. Xia exclaimed, ": Their scientific discoveries objectively seem to lack comparability, but in terms of the heights they reached in their respective fields, and in terms of the sophistication and rigor of their treatments, they are equally breathtaking." But at the same time, he also pointed out the key point: "On the macro level, their colors are too monochromatic, because they lived in the 18th and 19th centuries, which were quite colorful and brilliant. Of course, they cannot be held responsible for this monotony, not to mention the fact that some of them are already chanting: "The nine states are angry with the wind and thunder, and the ten thousand horses are all mute, but they are saddened. I urge the God of Heaven to be vigorous, and not to confine himself to one style of talent." This passage is really the spring and autumn penmanship micro speech, pinpointed that era of traditional China to bear the inhuman ideological persecution and Chinese people in the nature of the old-fashioned mentality is difficult to remove to the destiny of China in the great changes in how much impact, the East and the West in the one or two hundred years to embark on a decidedly different path. Was it by necessity or by chance? Is it possible that the soil of tradition can never produce the fruits of modernity? When will China move toward an era of freedom of thought? When will the Chinese people boldly step out of the shadow of their ancestors and look into their own world? This simple text is filled with countless thoughts of the author on a multitude of issues, and it also plunges the reader into the contemplation of Chinese tradition and the West. If "Into the Backyard" lets us learn to torture the Chinese and the West, "The Hero's Fugue" is a contemplation of modern society, where the author unveils the veil of modern society under the packaging of science and technology and democracy: "This is the era of the common man, the era of everybody doing the same thing to each other, the era of neither miracles nor authority nor great joys and great sorrows, the era of a lot of people who are busy making money during the day and sitting on the TV at night to get high. People's lives: "Too much attention to taste has led to the degradation of the senses of taste, and a cloud of chaos and ambiguity pervades everywhere". People's emotions: "I have a lot of bad feelings but never anger, because the way we express our anger also depends on other people's you dark color, but also other people to draw a circle to agree". This word for word is undoubtedly the floating world of modern society, modern society is not steel and information welded into a monster? People created him, but willing to become its slaves, will be handed over everything to its master. In the modernization of the armed and seemingly great human beings are actually so powerless and humble, even laughter and bitterness can not be controlled. Is this not a time when people cannot decide for themselves? In addition to seeing the respective differences between modernity and tradition, we should also find that both ancient and modern times are times created by man, and no matter how great the gulf is, the two are still inextricably linked. Or "Donglin sad wind" in the author saw a Republic of China thirty-six years of fund-raising to rebuild the Dongling Academy of the record monument, above the fund-raisers to Yang, Rong, Xue, three surnames mostly, and most of their experience to read into the service, and then the official businessmen to become a Confucian businessman, to the beginning of the century night began to abandon the officialdom of the industrial sector to become a giant of China's national industry, the authors sighed profoundly, "the general thesis that the late Ming Dynasty was the most important period in the history of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming dynasty is the most important period in the history of the Ming dynasty, the Ming dynasty is the most important period of the Ming dynasty. General commentators believe that the rise of the late Ming Donglin Party marked the end of the old era. This is certainly good, but I think this is not the starting point of the new era. The focus and the starting point are one step away, but not something that can be accomplished in one or two generations. Today, as I stood in the corridor of the Donglin Academy, I suddenly had a strange thought: Why did China's national industrial giants start in Jiangnan in the first place? China's modern industrial giants why in Wuxi, is not in front of this academy has some kind of inseparable origin? Or this fund-raising monument on the Yang, Rong, Xue three surnames can be regarded as the Eastwood school". This passage undoubtedly points out the far-reaching influence of the spirit of the Donglin Academy on modern times. "For a person or a group of people, the historical evaluation is always time-bound but the moral evaluation has a long time beyond the transcendence, it leaves the descendants of the local not at the time of the right and wrong but for the country for the people of the morality and conscience, is the kind of Chinese intellectuals to enter the world positively, the high standard of independence of the personality force, this personality force of the whipping thunder and lightning, the pulling of the mountain through the sun. " This commentary shows the importance of the traditional spirit of inheritance for Chinese people to go into modernization. The traditional culture represented by the Donglin Academy has already died from the material level, but the spirit that embodies the greatness of mankind should be inherited by us, and it is the spiritual support for the development of our modern civilization. Modernity and tradition have their own disadvantages and differences, but they are always connected. The reconstruction of culture should bring the two together, accommodating them with the breadth of history and humanity.

Finally, historical and cultural prose must have a "historical sense", that is, a spirit of reflection and criticism of history and culture. Since the beginning of Chinese civilization, Chinese people have been living in cultural unconsciousness, which is closely related to the practical rationality and empiricism formed by Chinese people in the long-term small peasant production, and this is the reason why Chinese people seldom reflect on their own culture and do not care about it. This is in great conflict with the construction of contemporary Chinese culture, which must be based on the critique and inheritance of past cultures and historical traditions as well as present cultures, and which requires the people to reflect on their own cultural and historical backgrounds. The expansion of the role of the market economy at the present stage has led to people's excessive pressure of survival and over-exertion of their energy, and their indifference to culture and history and even the demand for increased entertainment to relieve the pressure of modern society. Cultural and historical essays stimulate people's thinking through the writers' examination and pursuit of their own culture and history

When people come out from the impatience of entertainment and the emptiness of cultural unconsciousness and truly understand their own culture's flux and essence, the reconstruction of culture will have a landing point and an entry point. The author of "The Grand Canal Biography" has made a unique insight into the Great Wall and the canals which have been facing each other for hundreds of years: "The ancient canals and the equally ancient Great Wall have been facing each other silently for many springs and autumns. This is the majestic and tough stare, is the lofty and deep stare, is the cold and charming stare, is the masculine and feminine stare, is the iron horse autumn wind and apricot blossom spring rain of the stare, is the rock-breaking greatness and the world's normal life of the stare". This series of prose is the sharpest judgment on the two great projects in Chinese history, this judgment throws off the over-embellished surface description and directly hit its deep cultural connotation, so that the reader is from another angle to see the cultural essence of the two. The author reveals the reason for the Bao Gong complex, which has long been hidden in the heart of the nation, in The Record of Stones: "A Western philosopher once said, 'It is unfortunate for a nation to produce heroes. I think the people who worship the Qing officials are probably even more unfortunate, because this worship will probably not be a dance of happiness, but a prayer in pain. In China, anti-corruption is always an old and realistic topic, at least in the space of the people, its weight is more important than those reform programs to help the country, but also more important than those no matter how much "sensational effect" poetry and rhetoric. The people are only concerned about their own food and clothing and food and clothing, their flag with black blood written in big words: survival. Therefore, the cleanliness and cruelty of the officials often become their most simple judgment of politics. As for this "ism" and that "ism", it is probably only a matter of concern for the elite and the great". This is an in-depth analysis of the cultural psychology of the Chinese people for thousands of years, that is, the Chinese people have never been submissive, they have never asked for democracy and autonomy, but only prayed that the rulers can be a little bit more benevolent, a little bit less exploitative of them, and then shouted "Long live! It is this kind of text that is enough to make the readers like a stick in the head, open the cultural unconsciousness that blinds the people's psychology, and also let the people no longer just hold the attitude of entertainment to culture and history but are willing to go into the depths of culture and history, and constantly reflect on it so as to have more humanistic worries and a sense of responsibility for history and culture. This undoubtedly provides a foothold for the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture.

Synthesizing the above discussion, we can see that the historical and cultural prose with its unique historical and cultural concepts for the construction of contemporary culture provides the premise of multicultural historical concepts. Similarly, its profound reflection and critical consciousness also provides a breakthrough and entry point for the construction of contemporary culture. More importantly, its historical character enables the public to have a sober and objective understanding of tradition and modernity, so that they can integrate the two into their own consciousness, and the reconstruction of contemporary culture can be truly realized. Although historical and cultural prose still has this or that drawback, this is only a new literary subject in the process of continuous improvement of the inevitable interlude, as long as a good grasp of it, it will certainly have a significant significance for the reconstruction of contemporary Chinese culture.

Bibliography: Author: Xia Jianyong Works: The Long River is Like Smoke (Contemporary World Publishing House),, The Winds of the World (China Publishing Group Oriental Publishing Center)