Chapter 64 Section 2 The North-South Echo of Root-seeking Literature: "The King of Chess" and "Papa"

Among the "cultural root-seeking school" writers, Acheng from Beijing and Han Shaogong from Hunan are two very representative ones.Their novels 2 and 3 respectively reflect different types of cultural root-seeking consciousness: the former presents a cultural personality charm based on the conscious identification with traditional cultural spirit, while the latter presents a cultural personality charm from the perspective of modern consciousness. It expresses a rational critique and explores the consciousness of life ontology under this cultural form. Acheng was originally a painter. He published his first literary work in 1984. His first novel was a novella known as the masterpiece of "root-seeking literature".This work and Acheng's later writings are based on the life of the educated youth that he personally experienced, but they are very different from the usual educated youth novels in terms of theme and expression.Acheng has no intention of depicting a tragic historical encounter and personal experience, and also avoided the romantic and idealistic styles that were popular at the time. In his daily peaceful narrative, he conveyed his recognition of the spirit of traditional Chinese culture. .

The main charm of the book comes from the protagonist Wang Yisheng.This is a figure with an independent way of life and vitality in the vortex of history. His whole personality projects a long-standing cultural spirit full of infinite vitality, which makes him appear invincible despite his own thin existence Compared with the tenacious spirit and cultural charm.In the novel, it is written that Wang Yisheng is weak by nature. In a catastrophe such as the "Cultural Revolution", a small person like him is like a grain of sand in a strong wind. To gain meaning and value in an involuntary fate, the only strength can only come from the heart , to seek the balance and enrichment of one's own spirit.The novel begins with the farewell of the educated youth leaving the city, and first uses the sentence "the station is too chaotic" to reflect Wang Yisheng's inner peace sitting alone, and then by writing that he attaches great importance to "eating", it hints at the importance of "eating". The respect for the value of life, in his calm and contented character portrayal, has quietly opened the distance between this character and the image of educated youth under the norms of the times, and has become a unique artistic model in educated youth literature.

The most exciting part of the novel lies in the depiction of his obsession with chess.Wang has been obsessed with playing chess since he was a child, but the connection between chess and traditional culture came from a mysterious old man who picked up garbage and taught him the essence of Taoist culture. This is the yin and yang. You need to soften it. But at the same time of softening, create restraint. Softness is not weakness, it is tolerance, acceptance, and containment. Containment is used to let the opponent enter your momentum. This momentum requires you to create, and you need to do nothing And doing nothing. Doing nothing is the way..." Here are all the essentials of playing chess, but at the same time, it is also about the way of creation of all things. Wang Yisheng comprehended these principles with the instinct of life, and integrated the way of chess with personality Since then, his life has become a manifestation of "doing nothing but doing everything".He is not limited by the control of external objects, but he can constantly improve his life realm in the daily life of inaction with the attitude of "absorbing all rivers".The description of Wang Yisheng's unique personality in the novel focuses on this aspect: he looks feminine and weak, but in fact he has quietly accumulated inner strength in his inaction. , he burst out a powerful life energy.This is still reflected in his chess skills. The most prominent performance is that in the "Wheel War" between Wang Yisheng and nine masters, he brought out his full potential and won a big victory. is very touching:

Wang Yiyi sat alone in the middle of the big room, staring at us, with his hands on his knees, a thin iron stump, seemingly seeing nothing and hearing nothing.A tall electric light dimly shone on his face, his eyes were sunken deep in, as if looking down on the vast world, the vast universe.The life seemed to gather in a head of messy hair, lingering for a long time, and then slowly diffused, scorching people's faces. In this series of nine rounds, the light of Wang Yisheng's life was fully revealed, connected with the breath of the vast universe, realizing the full display of personality strength, and also completing the reconstruction and resurrection of traditional cultural spirit on individuals.

A Cheng tried to express the ancient Taoist cultural thought when shaping the character image of Wang Yiyi and writing about his inaction life attitude and promising creativity.What runs through the novel is the mutual transformation of active and inactive, feminine and masculine, the so-called "reason" that life returns to nature, and the universe is infinitely free, and this traditional cultural spirit is connected with contemporary life. Give it an aggressive modern meaning.But the writer did not tell these "truths" directly, but concealed them in interesting stories and vivid artistic descriptions.This is the unique value orientation of "root-seeking literature" works.

Han Shaogong's novella uses an imaginative magical realism technique to describe the historical changes of a primitive tribe between Xiangshan, Hubei and rivers, combining sacrifices and retribution, superstition and anecdotes, and local dialects to portray He produced a folk painting with a symbolic color, which is a metaphor for the closed, stagnant, ignorant and backward national cultural form.The novel embodies a strong critical spirit of subjective rationality, and deeply exposes various inferior contents of this cultural state. The cultural critical spirit in Dad is especially reflected in the novel's terrible revelation of the rational loss in the national cultural form.Starting from the perspective of modern consciousness, the writer discovered a huge defect in the cultural composition of Jitouzhai in the inspection of the original way of life, which is the lack of rational self-awareness in its "cultural root", and this defect extended to the realities of life today.The theme of this cultural critique is accomplished through the portrayal of the image of "Bing Zai", an idiot Xiao Fu who can only mutter "Daddy" and "Mom X". His existence is undoubtedly a symbol of It reveals the ugly, stubborn and unexamined side of human existence.But it is such a disgusting figure who has been worshiped by all the villagers in Jitouzhai, respectfully calling him "Uncle B", and becoming a god who guides the maze.Here, Bing Zai, who lacks normal rationality, should also reveal the psychopathy of other people: the ignorance and cruelty after the loss of rationality.This is no wonder why the villagers prayed to the gods to kill people, and fought a life-and-death battle with Jiwei Village, doing all kinds of things that are inhumane from the perspective of modern civilization.What is surprising is that after a life-and-death catastrophe in the tribe, Dudu Bingzi survived, still shouting "Daddy, Daddy" and stubbornly surviving.Bingzai, as a symbolic image, obviously also means a certain connection between tradition and contemporary reality. Bingzai cannot die, which also shows that the ugliness of those ancient cultures is difficult to eradicate.

Beyond the content of cultural critique, there is something very fascinating about it.In the novel, the writer explores the ontological existence of life, exploring the origin of life, the difficulty of survival, and the way and meaning of life.For example, the two prophetic mantras of Bingzai include the most primitive and basic form of creation and continuation of human life, which is why he is worshiped by the villagers; The scissors used to cut pickles, sauerkraut, and nails went to deliver babies, and cut out a whole generation of people in the cottage. This is undoubtedly a metaphor for the tenacity and irrationality of life continuation; Feeling ashamed of their ancestors, they boiled poison and sat and drank with the villagers facing the east. Where did their ancestors come from? In the eyes of today's readers, it seems to contain a mysterious meaning of the close connection between individual life and racial life.This kind of description breaks the causal relationship on which the plot of the novel depends, and a new aesthetic thinking form with imagery as the main body and induction as the link appears.

Due to the use of magic realism, the connotation of this novel cannot be constrained by the meaning of specific time and space, but can produce all kinds of magical associations: from concrete to abstract, from experience to transcendence, in the dense fog, occlusion and darkness In the mysterious atmosphere where animals, mountains, rivers, animals, and beasts all have auras, behind Bingzai and his mother, ancestral hall, Renbao and his father Zhongman, Gushen, Jiang Liang and Xingtian and other strange characters, think of the long history and the relationship between today. The relationship between them will leave people with endless aftertaste and thinking.