Chapter 23 Section 1 The Prosperity of Historical Theme Creation

From the end of the 1950s to the beginning of the 1960s, there was a short period of prosperity in the creation of historical themes in the history of contemporary literature.First of all, the adjustment of literature and art policy marked by the proposal of the "Double Hundred" policy broke the invisible taboos on themes and made it possible for the creation of historical themes to flourish; while the Anti-Rightist Movement in 1957, The criticism of the literary trend of "deepening realism" and "intervention in life" in the literary and art circles has formed a new forbidden zone, which makes writers have to avoid creations that face life directly and point out current problems. They can only turn to history and use metaphors They express their multi-layered experience and feeling of reality in the way of referring to. Some active writers before 1949, such as Tian Han and Cao Yu, used to write on realistic themes. After 1949, due to unfamiliarity with the "new life", their writing became mediocre or even stagnant. Historical themes created for them. Provided a new field, these old writers also became the main supporters of the prosperity at that time.In addition, some intellectuals attempted to place their feelings in old operas during the campaign of sorting out and reforming old operas, and folk cultural forms were also parasitic on traditional types such as "upright official operas" and "ghost operas". It shows its tenacious vitality and broad tolerance.

The creation of historical themes can be separated into several levels.First of all, some writers, such as Guo Moruo, Cao Yu, etc., are themselves enthusiastic creators and concrete embodiments of the "common name" of the era, and their creations of historical themes are often works that serve the political line of the time under the principle of "serving the past for the present". Ingeniously praise the literary and martial arts of great figures in history, or use the past to illustrate the present to serve specific realistic policies.Secondly, some intellectuals use historical themes to express their own "personal discourses". Although they often encounter the fate of being suppressed, distorted, even criticized, and buried, it is these personal discourses that reflect the sincerity of some intellectuals about their own situation. His emotions and reflections, as well as his genuine care and sympathy for the plight of the people at the bottom.The third category of works has strong folk interest and folk consciousness, and they are the continuation of tenacious folk traditions in the new historical environment.

Guo Moruo's historical dramas in this period include "Cai Wenji" (1958) and (1960), both of which are reversing the verdict. In these two historical dramas, Cao Cao and Wu Zetian are different from the traditional villainous and promiscuous images. Dalu, "worry about the world, enjoy the world", help the poor and help the poor, and love the people like life, and his personal morality is also impeccable.These two scripts have an obvious color of borrowing from the past and eulogizing the present, which is an indirect eulogy to the new regime and its leaders.In "Cai Wenji", although the author also tried to pin his sense of "going to the country for ten years" and hope that the ruler will cherish talents, this kind of personal feeling is just a foil to the theme of borrowing the past to praise the present. Many Hungarian and Han family dialogues added to the theme of "National Unity" are also pure snake feet.In contrast, the first play has a rigorous structure and concentrated contradictions, which is obviously superior to the former in terms of drama art.However, these two scripts have a common color of imitating the past and the present, and their "likes and dislikes, and I can do whatever I want" to the historical materials is not enough as a lesson.Compared with Guo Moruo, Cao Yu's "Dream Sword" is much more rigorous in the use of historical materials.The script takes the battle between Wu and Yue as the background, and focuses on praising the spirit of King Goujian of Yue and the people of Yue who endured humiliation, "self-reliance and hard work" after the defeat, and finally turned defeat into victory.In terms of character creation in the play, it also strives to shape the characters according to the appearance of ancient characters, without over-exaggerating "using the present to illustrate the past".In addition, the rigorous structure of the script and the mellow and vivid dialogue are also worthy of praise.However, the play is also marked with the obvious common name of the times. For example, in order to reflect the view that the people are the heroes who create history, the play portrays the image of the indomitable people's hero Ku Cheng, and asks him to offer courage to Gou Jian to encourage others. Continuing the plot of the War of Resistance; the plot of the fictional Yue people in the play "do not eat the white rice of Wu, have no cattle to pull, and no plow to dig by hand", is also obviously in response to the slogan of "hard work and self-reliance" at that time. made.The novel "Li Zicheng" published by Yao Xueyin since 1963 is a rare masterpiece in the history of contemporary literature. It uses Li Zicheng's uprising as the theme to present an encyclopedic picture scroll of Chinese feudal society imagined by mainstream ideology.The novel is quite prominent in the creation of historical themes during this period, but it also has a clear overhanging image of the leader of the peasant uprising, which is consistent with the author's thinking that "peasant uprising" and "peasant war" are the historical development of Chinese feudal society. The true dynamics of this view of history loom under the hood.

In the early 1960s, whether the creation of historical dramas should be faithful to historical facts in theoretical circles sparked a discussion on the issue of historical dramas.This discussion involves the issue of how to adhere to the materialist view of history to shape historical themes. "Serving the past for the present" is the common premise of both parties. The question is only whether the historical facts themselves can be changed to achieve this goal.Historian Wu Han distinguishes between "story drama" and "historical drama", and believes that "historical drama must have a historical basis, characters and facts must have a basis, and fictional exaggeration is not allowed", "Yang Jiajiang" and "Baogong Opera" without historical facts It can only be regarded as a story drama 1. Li Xifan disagrees with Wu Han's point of view, and believes that historical dramas are "art rather than history", so some historical facts and historical details can be made on the premise of "being loyal to historical life and the essence of historical spirit". Exaggeration with Fiction 2. This debate led to Mao Dun’s important paper "On History and Historical Plays". He believed that "historical plays should be both fictional and respectful of history; Change casually" 3, he took the numerous dramas of "stealth and courage" at that time as an example, and criticized the far-fetched tendency to use the present as the example of the past.But on the whole, under the condition of abiding by the common premise, the debates at that time acquiesced that "the task of historical dramas is not only to reflect the objective historical reality, but more importantly, to obtain the educational and inspirational functions from the historical reality." , is beneficial to today’s socialist revolution and socialist construction” 4, and also recognizes the legitimacy and authority of reshaping historical images according to actual political needs. Therefore, diversified and individualized historical understanding and literary imagination are in fact hard to produce.Therefore, this discussion is not only difficult to prevent the creation of historical dramas from arbitrarily using the past for the present and disrespecting historical facts, but it also fails to create conditions for the emergence of true literary masterpieces.

Among the works expressing the aspirations of intellectuals, Tian Han's "Guan Hanqing" has an ideal color.The play was made to commemorate Guan Hanqing, a world cultural celebrity, and strives to create an idealized image of an intellectual hero.The script mainly highlights Guan Hanqing's characteristics of being close to the people, expressing the people's aspirations and adhering to the independent personality and spiritual integrity of intellectuals.The former is mainly manifested through Guan Hanqing witnessing the ferocity and indignation of corrupt officials, exposing the darkness, avenging justice on behalf of the people, and calling for "kill all corrupt officials". The lure refused to revise the script, and insisted on speaking on behalf of the people. "Steamed not rotten, not cooked, not smashed, not fried, resounding like a copper pea" was originally Guan Hanqing's work to express his prodigal son's feelings, Tian Han used it as Guan Hanqing's adherence to the spiritual ethics and standpoint principles of intellectuals self-expression.This spirit is the continuation of the fighting consciousness of intellectuals in the history of new literature, and it will prove to be extremely important in the later historical development, but under the norms of the common name of the era, it cannot be just an ideal sustenance.

At the end of the 1950s, many historical dramas began to appear in the field of literary and artistic creation, and the discussion on historical dramas was also very lively. "In contrast, historical novels have become 'unpopular'". Until 1961, Chen Xianghe published "Tao Yuanming Wrote <Elegy>" , Huang Qiuyun wrote an article called it "empty valley foot sound", "make people happy to hear it" 5, and then triggered a small historical novel climax.Chen Xianghe published it in the following year, and Huang Qiuyun also wrote novels such as "Du Zimei Returns Home", "Mother Gu's Hunger Strike", "Lu Liangju's Excerpt from India" (1962), in addition to Feng Zhi's "White Hair Black Silk", Yao Xueyin's "Caotang Chunqiu" and so on.Compared with dramas and movies, which are widely watched and also serve as an important propaganda tool, novels are subject to less censorship and restrictions, so from time to time a real personal thing is shown from the cracks .Therefore, compared with Tian Han, the novels by Chen Xianghe and others that express the mentality of intellectuals have more private discourse elements, which represent a plain expression of the mentality of some intellectuals, and are more real and painful.In such works as Huang Qiuyun's novels, there is still a sense of remonstrance, trying to "put forward major issues in reality through historical stories" and "express the voice of the people in an obscure and tortuous way". For example, his "Du Zimei Returns Home" attempts to use Historical stories are used to satirize the reality of China after the Great Leap Forward6, but Chen Xianghe's novels are more of a fusion of historical feelings and personal feelings, although they also have a sense of responding to the times.What Chen Xianghe portrays are some intellectuals who are unwilling to cooperate with the torrential flow and helpless.Taking Ji Kang's death as an example, it describes the situation of intellectuals without land and freedom in the vortex of political struggle.Ji Kang in the book is an image who has a sense of justice, wants to "pursue freedom" and "be good at himself" but cannot. Ji Kang's situation is similar to that of intellectuals in the 1950s and 1960s.According to Huang Qiuyun's recollection, Chen Xianghe wrote this novel with emotion. He said: "I also sympathize with Ji Kang. Ji Kang said it well: "There are few things to blame, and things are boiling. Sex does not hurt things, but frequent resentment" , isn’t this the tragedy of many people? You didn’t want to get involved in the political vortex, you didn’t want to interfere in any major national affairs, you just wanted to live your life in peace with others and the world, seek a knowledge or work hard on literature and art, but this It’s impossible, and the result is still ‘discussions are boiling, causing resentment frequently’.” 7 Chen Xianghe’s historical novels were originally just a kind of personal discourse of intellectuals, but in an era of common names, the voices of heretics are always distorted, and they are In addition, he was severely criticized for the crimes of "conducting anti-Party and anti-socialist propaganda through historical themes", "claiming grievances and accusations on behalf of counter-revolutionary and right-wing writers", and "alluding to the struggle between the two lines". The writer was also persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution , a tragedy that seems to be repeated over and over again.

The folk consciousness in the creation of historical themes in this period is mainly manifested in individual drama works, the reorganization and adaptation of old dramas and some new historical dramas (dramas).The focus of the national opera reform is to transform the old operas based on the principle of "use the past for the present and bring forth the new through the old", and to clean up the folk consciousness embodied in the old operas under the guidance of the national ideology.Folk has never been pure, it has a certain "dirty" characteristics, including the ideology of the old feudal ruling class, old ethics, or religious superstition, and also contains the pursuit of folk freedom free expression.From July 1950 to March 1952, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Ministry of Culture banned the performance of 24 plays with "bad influence", and many related plays were also in a state of "cannot help themselves". There are very few traditional plays. In 1956, in order to implement the "Double Hundred" policy, the Ministry of Culture held the first national opera repertoire work conference, proposing to "break the rules and regulations, expand and enrich the repertoire of traditional opera performances". At the work conference, a total of 51,867 repertoires have been excavated across the country, 14,632 have been recorded, and 10,000 repertoires have been staged, and banned plays such as "Exploring the Yin Mountain" have been opened. It is denied, but it fully proves: as a kind of folk art, the folk consciousness and folk taste in opera still tenaciously exist.On the other hand, the results of weeding out the old and bringing forth the new also give operas the opportunity to express themselves and renew themselves in the new era, and their fields of expression have also been expanded (such as the emergence of modern operas).In the field of old operas at that time, the "upright official opera" attracted widespread attention. In 1956, the Kunqu opera "Fifteen Guan" adapted by the Zhejiang Kunqu Opera Troupe went to Beijing to perform and achieved great success.Leaders such as Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai watched the performance, and praised "one drama has revived a genre of drama" and "historical drama can play a very good role in educating reality". The Peking opera script "Xie Yaohuan" adapted from the opera "The Female Patrol", and the Peking opera script "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office" created by Wu Han under the background of Mao Zedong's advocacy of "Hai Rui Spirit" and "Wei Zheng Spirit". The image of "upright officials" later aroused controversy. Supporters believed that the spirit of "upright officials" defying the powerful and pleading for orders for the people was worthy of respect and could be regarded as an excellent element that could be inherited by the ethics and morals of the new society; From the perspective of class analysis, it is pointed out that "honest officials" still belong to the landlord class, and they have the idea of ​​loyalty and slavery.Those who provoked this debate had ulterior motives. In November 1965, Yao Wenyuan revealed his true colors when he published "Comment on the New Historical Drama "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office"". The prelude to the "Cultural Revolution" that brought a lot of disasters.

From the above brief description, we can see that in the field of historical theme creation, the will of the state, various discourses of intellectuals and folks have been expressed, but the will of the state is in an authoritative position. The intensification of the struggle naturally led to the end of the short-lived prosperity of historical theme creation.