Chapter 38 Section 4 Awakening of the Young Generation: "This is Beijing at 4:08" and "Waves"

The index finger's poem "This is Beijing at 4:08"16 and Zhao Zhenkai's novel "Waves"17 are not only very different from the published literature during the "Cultural Revolution", even compared with the published works in the 1950s and 1960s. also have very different characteristics.This marks that the younger generation has not only awakened spiritually from the "Utopian myth", but also tried to express their own perceptual experience and rational thinking in their own unique way, so as to get out of the nightmare created by political power holders and return to the real experience of individuals. Therefore, they have a kind of sincerity and freshness after purging the discourse of political power.

"This is Beijing at 4:08" and the author's other poem "Believe in the Future" are widely circulated among the educated youth.As a member of the team of going to the countryside, the moment the author is about to leave his hometown of Beijing, the author's heart is suddenly deeply touched. This touch includes nostalgia for his hometown, mother, civilization, and perhaps fear of the unknown future . "This is Beijing at 4:08", in the "waves of a hand" and "a majestic whistle", the poet suddenly felt: "The tall building of Beijing Station suddenly trembled violently. My eyes Looking out of the window in surprise, I don’t know what happened. My heart suddenly felt a pain. It must be that my mother’s button-stitching needle and thread penetrated my chest. At this moment, my heart became a kite, and the string of the kite was in the mother's hands."

In the official political discourse at that time, "going up to the countryside" was interpreted as a myth of receiving re-education from the poor and lower-middle peasants, changing the world, and making great achievements, thus covering up the true feelings of the parties involved. Authentic and unique experiences manifest.He has the sensitive temperament of a natural poet, which is manifested in this poem by keenly grasping several hallucinatory images in the individual "I" mind, and combining them naturally and intensively, which is a great achievement in the mainland after 1949. It is very rare in literature.The "violently shaking" "Beijing Station" in the hallucination, as the externalization of "I"'s soul, strongly expresses the poet's emotional shock, and expresses the bewilderment and helplessness of "I don't know what happened". .Another "illusion montage" is also very brilliant, "My heart suddenly hurts, it must be/The needle and thread of my mother's button pierced my heart." This is a very important means to show their contempt and rebellion against the discourse of political power.It’s just different from Western modernism, which originated from a deep suspicion of “human beings”. The artistic exploration of the younger generation in China takes the affirmation of human beings as its purpose and starting point from the very beginning. It is precisely the nostalgia for maternal love that has a long history in literature. In the face of this ordinary and strong human nature, all the myths created by the political power fade away and appear pale and powerless, while the reality behind it is dark , Sorrow and the eternal sigh of human nature are nakedly exposed.

Zhao Zhenkai's novel "Wave" is called "Starlight Rising from the Darkness and Bloodstains", and there are similar descriptions of hallucinations in it.In the consciousness of the heroine Xiao Ling, the scene of her mother's tragic death as a "traumatic experience" constantly and strongly returns to her hallucinations: "The belt whistled, and the brass rings flashed in the air. Suddenly, my mother rushed out of the encirclement and ran to the balcony. She quickly flipped over the railing. 'Anyway, if I die, anyone who wants to come over, I will jump!' Everything was still The sky is so blue, the white clouds are motionless, and the sun caresses the wound on my mother's forehead.

' Mom—' I yelled. ' Lingling——' Mom's eyes turned to me, and her voice was so calm.Mother.I.Mother.Eye.blood beads.white clouds.Sky…… Babyface seemed to wake up. He poked the brim of his hat with his belt and took a step forward. 'Jump, jump! 'I rushed forward, knelt on the ground and hugged his legs tightly, looking at him with pleading eyes.He lowered his head and hesitated, his lips parted slightly, revealing his shiny teeth.He swallowed hard and pushed me away. "Mom—" the white clouds and the sky turned over abruptly. " It is hard to imagine how the strong emotions in Index Finger's poems and Zhao Zhenkai's novels would be expressed if it were not for this kind of montage-style hallucinatory description.In the popular art mode at that time, personal love and hatred must be judged according to class standards, and the feelings of the "small self" must obey the ideals of the "big self". Class standards are used to filter and dissolve, and any revealing of it may be considered suspicious or even reactionary if it is not ultimately attributed to the foil of revolutionary ideals. (Even in the underground literature of educated youth at that time, this kind of discourse mode was quite popular. A typical example is the long poem "Break. Forward", which also expresses the ideological conflicts among the younger generation.) In this context, look back at the work of index finger and Zhao Zhenkai. It is not difficult for us to find the synchronicity between spiritual awakening and artistic exploration.This kind of artistic exploration disenchants reality in a way of "defamiliarization". Becoming a stone”, 18 From this point of view, the expression of the subjective feelings of the index finger and Zhao Zhenkai is undoubtedly a powerful means to break through the cover of the false authoritative discourse of the Cultural Revolution on the personal real life experience. In this kind of art with strong subjective color In the novel, the splendid mythical veil covered on the surface of the times was torn to pieces, revealing the truth of "darkness and blood stains" in reality.After that, the awakening of human nature may enter people's minds and vision along with the individual's awakening.

In fact, Index Finger's poems and Zhao Zhenkai's novels are full of personal symbols and images.The hallucinatory image mentioned above is a typical example.However, the personal symbols and personal images in "Wave" are even richer. "The city in the book is full of pure illusions, bad idols, evil, violence, all kinds of absurdity and loneliness." As Yang Xun described when he appeared on the stage : "There is a sweet and greasy musty smell floating in the small square of the station. ... Along the way, there is no moon, no lights, but on the narrow leaves of the grass by the road ditch, reflecting little by little. The glimmer of light." This imagery, full of personal emotions, sets a depressing tone for the whole book, and has an overall effect.Another example is Xiao Ling's consciousness activities, some of which are particularly sharp and stimulating:

"I am face to face with the night. Empty, ethereal, aimless, is this the feeling that I add to the night, or the feeling that the night adds to me?I really can't tell the difference, where is me and where is the night, it seems that these are all integrated. ""The sky became so dark and narrow, like a dirty rag carried high by seabirds. " Similar examples abound.After getting used to the false, boring, dry and stylized common symbols that filled the published literature at that time, looking at these personal symbols and images, although they convey a depressive emotion, they still make people People feel the fresh breath of strangers.

After the recovery of individual subjectivity, the authoritative interpretation mode of political power discourse on reality will inevitably be shaken, replaced by unique individual thinking about reality and the future based on the life experience related to his flesh and blood.These personal thoughts will inevitably arouse more sharp contradictions and conflicts, thus forming a world of "multiple voices resounding together".In this regard, "Wave" is undoubtedly the first.The novel adopts a polyphonic narrative method. The main narrators are not only the protagonists Yang Xun and Xiao Ling, but also the local leader Lin Dongping and his daughter who are full of contradictions. Hua and so on.The different perspectives of these narrators show all aspects of reality in that particular era, as well as the conflicting and contradictory inner worlds of people with different experiences and status, thus showing a multi-angle and multi-faceted picture of the times.For the protagonists Yang Xun and Xiao Ling who are in love, they are both rebels of the times, but there are great differences and conflicts in their inner worlds.The performance of this point is the most successful part of the novel, because the two protagonists represent two typical mentalities of the awakening educated youth generation, and their personalities conflict and complement each other.Xiao Ling has almost experienced the most tragic suffering in the world. The tragic death of her parents and the traumatic experience of being abandoned by her ex-boyfriend made her withdrawn and closed, tending to extreme skepticism. She did not believe in any "ultimate meaning" and believed that It's just "a cheap means of conscience to achieve a cheap balance". What she sees in her eyes is the darkness and blood stains of reality, as she said: "The dream of this generation is too bitter and too long. , always can’t wake up, even if you wake up, you will find that there must be another nightmare waiting for you.” On the contrary, Yang Xun is willing to imagine “a better ending”. The experience of leading the opposition to the payment of public rations and being arrested for it did not shake him off his idealism.However, relatively speaking, due to his background in a high-ranking family, he did not face the bloody cruelty of reality more directly, and his idealism seemed a bit shallow, just as Xiao Ling pointed out sharply: "...you always believe in the ending ..., because at every intersection there are protectors of one kind or another, ""After all, you don't have to give everything, you don't have to starve and suffer from cold, you don't have to be discriminated against and insulted, you don't have to give up your life just for a few words... ..." Because of this superficiality, when he learned that Xiao Ling had an illegitimate daughter, he couldn't understand her unspeakable pain and broke up with her cruelly.But on the other hand, these two characters can come together because they have something in common, which is the attachment to human nature.Although they tend to each other, they complement each other.Even Xiao Ling, who is extremely desperate, tries to keep a bit of "elegance" and "poetry" in human nature in an environment full of "roughness", "wildness" and "cruelty", but will never be able to coordinate with the cruel and rough reality.This bit of "elegance" and "poetry" is a bit of "starlight" of humanity in the darkness of the times. The image of "starlight" appears many times in the novel. As Yang Jian pointed out, "starlight is the only light in this dark night. When there is no warm sunlight, this cold light is extremely precious. This starlight is The undestroyed human conscience hidden deep in the hearts of Xiao Ling and others. This starlight is a little bit of attachment to human nature that should not be turned into a beast or beast." 19 It can be said that this bit of attachment to human nature is the The opportunity for the spiritual awakening of the younger generation and the impetus for artistic exploration, it also foretells the recovery of Chinese literature after the Cultural Revolution.

Notes: 1 Quoted from "The Minutes of the Symposium on Literary and Art Work in the Army Entrusted by Comrade Lin Biao to Comrade Jiang Qing", included in "Selected Historical Materials of Contemporary Chinese Literature" edited by Xie Mian and Hong Zicheng, Peking University Press, 1995.Page 632. 2 The earliest re-publishing of literary (art) magazines in the late period of the Cultural Revolution was "Beijing New Literature and Art" (1971.12), which may have been the first message sent.However, from a national perspective, there is generally a process of "from the periphery to the center". In January 1972, "Guangxi Literature and Art", "Guangdong Literature and Art" and "Revolutionary Literature and Art" (Inner Mongolia) were republished first, followed by Kyrgyzstan, Shandong Literary and artistic publications in provinces and cities such as Guizhou, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Hunan also resumed publication one after another. By the summer of the following year, all the country except Shanghai (the influential literary and artistic series "Zhaoxia" was also launched in Shanghai in May of this year, but it was directly controlled by the "Gang of Four") ), Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces and cities have re-(created) publications sponsored by the local Federation of Literary and Art Circles or Writers Association, while Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places also have prefecture-level Publication of literary and artistic journals.See "New Chinese Literary Dictionary".appendix.A List of Title Changes of Literary Journals", pp. 1310-1330, edited by Pan Xulan, Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, 1993 edition.

3 The Cotai Strip consists of four volumes.The first and second volumes were published by People's Literature Publishing House in August 1972 and May 1974 respectively. In the summer of 1994, it was republished by Jinghua Publishing House in four volumes at a time. 4 "History of Hongnan Operations", published by Shanghai People's Publishing House in 1972. 5 On July 28, 1973, when Jiang Qing, Zhang Chunqiao, and Yao Wenyuan were reviewing the Hunan opera stage art film "The Gardener's Song", they criticized the film for "denying the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution" and "calling for the soul of the counter-revolutionary revisionist education line". A year later, the film was criticized nationwide.

6 The fundamental task theory was formally put forward in 1966 at the "Army Forum on Literature and Art Entrusted by Lin Biao to Jiang Qing", which stipulated that shaping the heroes of workers, peasants and soldiers was the "fundamental task of socialist literature and art". Minutes of the Forum on Literature and Art of the Army", included in Selected Historical Materials of Contemporary Chinese Literature edited by Xie Mian and Hong Zicheng, Peking University Press, 1995 edition, p. 635. 7 In May 1968, Yu Huiyong published the article "Let the Literary Stage Always Become a Position to Propagate Mao Zedong Thought" in "Wen Wei Po". According to Jiang Qing's instructions, he concluded that "the positive characters should be highlighted among all the positive characters; the main heroes should be highlighted among the positive characters." ; Highlight the central character among the main heroes". Later, Yao Wenyuan changed it to "emphasize the positive character among all the characters; highlight the hero among the positive characters; highlight the central character among the heroes". This principle is widely used in The use of film lenses, stage scheduling, and plot arrangements are both creative principles and critical standards.This principle also deduces a series of "Three Character Classics" creative modes such as three foils, multiple sides, multiple waves, multiple rounds, multiple waves, multiple layers and a high starting point, simplifying the characters and plots into fixed formulas. 8 Yang Jian, "Underground Literature in the Cultural Revolution", Zhaohua Publishing House, 1993 edition, p. 271. 9 Ibid., p. 87. 10 Zhang Tsinghua's "On Chinese Contemporary Avant-Garde Literary Trends of Thought", Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, 1997 edition, p. 46. 11 "Yuanyuantang Continuation" is based on "Feng Zikai's Complete Prose Compilation", Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 1992 edition. 12 "Complete Collection of Feng Zikai's Prose", p. 662.The words of Feng Zikai quoted in this textbook are all based on this version and will not be noted one by one. 13 "Half Tree" was first published in the February 1982 issue of "Poetry". 14 The quotations in this section are all quoted from "A Little Review and Final Thoughts on Life and Poetry", see Niu Han's "Notes on Poetry Learning", Joint Publishing, 1986 edition. The 15 poems were first published in "The Complete Works of Mu Dan's Poems" edited by Li Fang, China Literature Publishing House, 1996 edition, and this section is based on this edition. 16 "This is Beijing at 4:08" was originally an underground handwritten work first published in the fourth issue of the "Today" literature bimonthly, and later compiled into various anthologies. This textbook is based on "Poetry" edited by Lin Mang and Liu Fuchun. Explore the vault.Index Finger Volume", Writer's Press, 1998 edition. 17 "Wave" was originally an underground handwritten work. It was published serially in the fourth, fifth, and sixth issues of the "Today" bimonthly literature, under the pseudonym "Aishan". It was first published in the first issue of "Yangtze River" in 1981.This textbook is based on the novel collection "The Returned Stranger", Huacheng Publishing House, 1986 edition. 18 "Selected Literary Theories of Russian and Soviet Formalism", China Social Sciences Press, 1989 edition, p. 65. 19 Quoted from the same note 8, p. 168.