Chapter 283 Volume 11 Literary Theory

The relationship between literature and human beings and the misrecognition of the identity of literary scholars in ancient China We try to open a Twenty-Four Histories and look up its biography, what should we think—if our thinking is not bound by traditionalism?We try to open the anthologies of great writers from ancient times and look up their definition of literature (that is, what kind of thing is literature), what should we think? First, when we check the biographies of Wenyuan, we will definitely see that literary scholars—the ministers of Ci and Fu—are often regarded by the emperor as a luxury to whitewash the peace. The emperor's "jester", so Dongfang Shuo would be angry, and Yang Xiong would also say "a small skill, a strong man can't do it"; not only the emperor is like this, but even dignitaries, nobles, rich businessmen and local tyrants can use money to hire a few scholars of literature to decorate their appearance , pretending to be elegant.Lu Buwei is a Zhao Jia, and after he succeeds, he also recruits literati to write "Lu's Spring and Autumn". Huainan Wang Liangwang and others all recruit literati to support the scene and want to be famous after death; there are too many examples of this kind .However, in the period of the Han Dynasty, the literati were somewhat fickle, and the emperors, princes, dignitaries, and local tyrants also knew that they respected the literati, and this is even more embarrassing.Therefore, in the history of China, literary scholars lost their independent qualifications for a long time, and were regarded as accessories and decorations.In such an atmosphere, scholars of literature get rid of a few people with backbone who refuse to "be the zither of the king's family", and most of the rest are actually humiliated by themselves, thinking that they are appendages to whitewash the peace and decorate the facade!Not only are they willing to humiliate themselves, but they also think that "in this prosperous age", it is a great fortune!Not only are the scholars themselves rejoicing, but even the "historical ministers" who are slightly higher than the scholars of literature have to write a special book on how His Majesty the Emperor Ji Gu Youwen Chong rewards scholars!Such an attitude is our country's attitude towards literary scholars; accessories and decorations are the identity of our country's natural scholars!This kind of feeling, we often have to feel when we look at Chinese history!This is the first one.

Second, what do literati regard literature as?This is something that can be said without much thought.When we casually flip through the collections of literary scholars, we can always see words like "Writing is used to convey Tao".It is rare that there are few literatures that do not attack the novels of the barnyard official, and it is rare that there are few texts that do not take "borrowing things to make words" as their purpose.Therefore, "climbing to the heights and writing poems" must also include the idea of ​​being loyal to the emperor, patriotism and not forgetting the world; when touching the scenery, one must also put the principle of punishing the world and not forgetting the sacred words in the poems.To write a novel, you must also add the title of exhorting good and punishing evil; even if the author himself does not say this, people who read his character must give him this beautiful title.All in all, they all believe that the articles are written for the purpose, the articles are to promote the Dao for the ancient sages and sages, the articles are to sing the praises of the sages and sages, and the articles are to identify the retribution for good men and evil women.This is a view of literature scholars on literature.There is also an absolutely opposite view that is unreasonable, that is, it is only used as a pastime.When you are successful, you should use literature to express your complacency, and when you are frustrated, you should also use literature to complain; it turns out that literature does not absolutely prohibit the author from expressing his own emotions, but this emotion must not belong to the author's own temporary accident.It is true that a momentary accident belonging to the author alone can become a good and beautiful literary work, but it is only the literature of the author alone, not the literature of the times, let alone national literature.Most of our ancient literature has this shortcoming.Therefore, looking at it comprehensively, our country’s ancient literary scholars only knew the legacy of ancient sages and sages, but did not know that there was a common emotion among human beings; they only knew that there was subjectivity, but did not know that there was objectivity; Those who are separated by time do not know that there are human beings, and do not know that there is an era!This is the feeling we often feel when we open various collections to search for their literary definitions!This is the second.

These two thoughts lead to a third thought: Why has our national literature in China not been established yet, why can’t our Chinese literature be as developed as in Western countries?This is an answer that can be answered immediately without thinking deeply.This is all because we have never understood the relationship between literature and people, and we have never understood the status of literary scholars in a country's culture, so it is like this! Before we talk about the relationship between literature and human beings, let's take a look at the process of the evolution of world literature.We should know that the one or two impressions mentioned above are not limited to China, and we cannot help but have these impressions when we read the literary history of any country.Let’s take Britain for example. Britain has gone through an era when the court rewarded literature and then the aristocrats and wealthy families emphasized literature. The situation in my country is similar to that of our country.The difference is that their literary scholars' own concept of literature is quite different from that of our country.They never regarded literature as a phonograph for sages, and they did not know that "literature is used to convey the truth" and "write with action", but they discovered a thing called "personality", and then discovered society, the country, and the people. So their literature has evolved to the current stage.

The stages seen in the evolution of literature are: (Primeval) (Medieval) (Modern) They have all gone through the first two stages of the individual—the emperor and the nobles—the people. Like us, we are now in the second to the third stage. If we catch up, we will keep ourselves humble? The relationship between literature and people can also be answered straightforwardly in a few sentences.The notion that literature belongs to people (that is, writers) is now a thing of the past; literature is not something subjective to the author, not a person's, not a game when you are happy or a pastime when you are frustrated.Conversely, people belong to literature.The purpose of literature is to express human life in a comprehensive way, whether it is in a realistic way or in a symbolic way, its purpose is always to express life, to expand the joy and sympathy of mankind, and to have the characteristics of the times as its background.Literature has now become a kind of science. Its object of study is life—modern life; its tool of study is poetry.

Script (Drama) said Department (Ficton).Literary scholars can only use themselves within the scope of literature, and cannot dominate literature according to their own pleasure.The life expressed by literary scholars should be the life of all human beings, expressed through artistic means, without any selfishness or subjectivity.Naturally, people in literary works also have thoughts and emotions, but these thoughts and emotions must indeed belong to the people, to all mankind, and not to the author himself.This kind of literature, no matter whether it is romantic, realistic, or superficially mysterious; in a word, it is always human literature—real literature.

The literature of such people—the real literature—is the literature of a single national script before the world’s languages ​​and scripts were not standardized.The mission of such a writer, as far as his own country is concerned, is to develop its own national literature, the national literature; as far as the world is concerned, it is to jointly promote world literature.In our China now, the greatest responsibility of writers is to create and establish Chinese national literature.As mentioned above, it is the responsibility of literature scholars to correct the ancient people's views on the study of literature; to improve the status of literature scholars and realize their own mission, this is something we must never forget!

"I am here to serve people, not to serve people", literary scholars must think so.A writer is here to serve mankind, so he should forget himself and only know that there is literature; and literature is equal to life!This is the latest gospel.The trouble with the underdevelopment of our country's literature is that we have not heard the gospel and gone the wrong way; it is not because we writers have no creativity and have never applied creativity!Misunderstanding of the original meaning of literature by writers and the misunderstanding of the responsibility of writers in society are the root causes of the wrong path.

So our present responsibilities: on the one hand, we must recognize the relationship between literature and human beings, and strive to create them ourselves; The era of "decorations" has passed, and literary scholars are now an important part of the cultural process; literary works are no longer pastime, but the only tool to communicate human emotions and appeal to all mankind. From then on, people of different colors in the world Kinds can be melted and reconciled.As for our Chinese literature scholars, we have a major prior responsibility, which is to create our national literature!