Chapter 87 Section 1 Literary Creation Upholding Folk Ideals

Folk idealism reflects a new narrative standpoint, which refers to the creation phenomenon of a group of writers who extolled folk ideals in the 1990s. The word "folk" has different interpretations under different historical conditions.The "folk" used in this article refers to a cultural form and value orientation in Chinese literary creation.In actual literary creation, "folk" does not specifically refer to the patriarchal society based on the traditional rural natural economy, and its significance does not lie in the specific subject matter and method of creation. "Folk" covers a much wider meaning. It refers to The cultural vision and space of an elite cultural form that is neither a form of power nor an intellectual, permeates the writer's writing stance, value orientation, aesthetic style, etc.Intellectuals hide themselves among the people, and use "telling the stories of ordinary people" as the starting point for understanding the world to express their understanding of the times that was difficult to express before.When analyzing the creations in various stages of literary history in this textbook, the use of the word "folk" has been involved many times, but the literary functions of "folk" are different in different time categories.The "folk" in the 1950s and 1960s mainly manifested itself in the infiltration of certain artistic factors in the creation, which diluted the national will and political propaganda function that interfered too much in the creation at that time; in the creation of the 1980s after the Cultural Revolution, "folk" often As a new aesthetic space, it uses "culture" as a feature to replace the overly strong political consciousness in literary creation; and since the 1990s, after writers have dissociated from the grand narrative mode of "common names", some of them have been in the 1980s. Writers with considerable achievements have turned to the folk narrative standpoint. They are deeply based on the life of folk society and confirm the ideal way of existence and value orientation from it.

Contemporary China does not lack the interpretation and propaganda of idealism, but in the 1950s and 1960s, the so-called idealism was a derivative of the will of the state. Especially during the "Cultural Revolution", idealism was emphasized by the "Gang of Four" ruling group. Suppression of human nature destroys human nature. Therefore, with the rise of market economy after the end of the "Cultural Revolution", people are generally tired of hypocritical idealism, and at the same time they also breed vulgar materialism that abandons human pursuits and exiles ideals and beliefs. .This trend became especially popular in the 1990s.Some intellectuals saw that after the rise of the market economy, economic interests stimulated general social sentiment, and the social trend of pursuing economic interests seemed to overwhelm the powerful political ideology that used to restrict society everywhere, so they blindly praised the market economy without analysis. However, it avoids various unavoidable problems that exist in the transition of the whole society to a market economy: For example, when the property of the state is redistributed, which classes get the most benefits, and which classes really suffer?In the process of chasing material wealth, how to look at intellectual wealth of mental workers?Intellectuals used to be "cadres" under the state system. Now, do they need to reaffirm their social status and labor value in the process of going to the market?Can intellectuals abandon their ideals and follow the crowd to pursue economic interests?If they still need an ideal personality to restrict themselves, where does their ideal come from?Wait, according to this, some intellectuals in the 1990s spontaneously initiated the discussion of "contemplation of the humanistic spirit" to re-call for the spiritual ideal of man, and many writers also praised the ideal of man in their creations, but they were all based on historical experience In the face of lessons, the way of seeking ideals in the 1950s and 1960s has changed. Many writers and scholars have turned to the folk standpoint, looking for and establishing life ideals in the folk land, showing rich diversity.Establishing the ideal value of life from the folk and expressing the ideal pursuit of intellectuals with a new aesthetic image of Jiangou has actually appeared in the creation of poetry and novels in the 1980s, but it has not attracted widespread attention.Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" has shown strong folk ideals. Haizi, a poet who committed suicide by lying on the rails in the late 1980s, had loudly called out folk idealism early in his short poetry career.In his poems about wheat, the wheat field has become the poet's "Utopia": brothers all over the world want to embrace the East, South, North and West in the wheat field, the four brothers in the wheat field, the good brothers look back on the past reciting their respective poems to embrace in the wheat field

──"May's Cornfield" 1 When I stand in front of you in pain, you can't say that I have nothing, you can't say that my hands are empty. The wheat field, human suffering is the poetry and light it radiates! ── "The Cornfield and the Poet" 2 Under the poet's pen, the wheat field is not a perfect ideal paradise, but a container of pain, but the place where "brothers" all over the world embrace is the holy place that radiates human pain.Haizi, as well as his friend, the young short-lived poet Luo Yihe, when they appeared in the poetry world, the poetry field was full of hustle and bustle. Tradition-related cultural heritage..., innovations eager for quick success and instant benefits and narrow and trivial themes make poetry creation enter a state of disorder, which deeply reflects the fragility of individuality after the loss of ideals.However, Haizi Luo Yihe and other poets defended their "spiritual homeland" amidst the voice of rebellion. …The consciousness of life permeated in their works transcends the existence of life characterized by individuals, and becomes a kind of divine revelation encompassing all phenomena in the universe, created and owned by the earth, sky and poets, and perceived and listened to with the heart.Haizi left behind him a long poem and drama with the general theme of the sun, reveling in the romantic splendor of myths and legends, but from the perspective of artistic practice, his early short lyric poems more reflect the pursuit of folk ideals.

The ideals of life drawn from the people are different from the ideals advocated by the will of the state. First of all, the ideals of the people are not external to real life. They are connected with the optimism and deep understanding of suffering that ordinary people show in their daily lives. .If this ideal also has some moral component, it should be neither the hypocritical idealism of the past (such as the so-called "combination of revolutionary romanticism and revolutionary realism" idealism in the 1950s and 1960s), nor It should be the moral concepts left over from the feudal era (including contempt for women and taboos on sexual life). The real folk morality is the justice, bravery, optimism and benevolent compassion shown by the poor when they endure and resist the fate of suffering. It is the cheerfulness, vigor, enthusiasm, and strong impulsion of vitality that ordinary people show in the process of seeking and fighting for freedom. Such morality is often not compatible with social norms and orthodox moral consciousness in real life, but from art The above provides a new aesthetic space and ideal coordinates.Writer Yu Hua published novels and novels continuously in the 1990s, completely changing his writing style in the 1980s.These two works profoundly describe the daily sufferings of the middle and lower class people in China's urban society for nearly half a century. If this theme is expressed from the standpoint of traditional intellectual elites, it may become a social criticism with a certain political implication. However, Yu Hua changed this narrative method. He used this subject to explore the tolerance and attitude of Chinese people to suffering, especially the story of Xu Sanguan, and wrote the humor and optimism that the people depend on for survival under the pressure of suffering. doctrine.If viewed in isolation, these humors and optimism may be criticized by intellectuals as ridiculous ways like Ah Q, but Yu Hua put these factors in the background of long-standing folk culture to express, and the effect is obviously different. It reveals the spiritual source of the Chinese people's resistance to suffering, which has been obscured by the mainstream culture for a long time.These works are no worse than traditional realist works in revealing the seriousness of real life, but they get rid of the ideological and cheap reservation tickets for heaven, and are not like the lonely and desperate modern times expressed by some intellectuals. The fighting position, the distance between the novel and real life is drawn to the closest position, and the people struggling at the bottom of their lives show their true qualities of facing suffering independently (rather than relying on the words of intellectuals).

Secondly, folk ideals are also reflected in the logic of folk life in the process of historical integration.Contrary to the infiltration and transformation of history by the will of the state, the folk have their own historical form and life logic.Wang Anyi published a novel in the 1990s. When expressing the historical process of the city of Shanghai from the 1940s to the 1980s, she intentionally downplayed political historical events and highlighted the natural state of folk life. Through the tragicomedy of Shanghai citizen Wang Qiyao’s life, It shows rich urban folk history and cultural memory.Usually, the folk world is closely related to the land, the countryside, and folk customs, and has no direct connection with the modern city.However, in the process of the formation of modern cities, urban immigrants from all over the country unconsciously brought their own cultural backgrounds. Although these cultural backgrounds are gradually disappearing in the process of urban modernization, their virtual value still exists, and they have great influence on urban culture. Construction has a profound impact.Write a trilogy of the life of Wang Qiyao, a small citizen: when he participated in a beauty pageant in Shanghai when he was young, he became famous in one fell swoop, and then he became the outhouse of an important member of the Kuomintang, where glory and decay co-exist; The citizens of Shanghai are immersed in nostalgia all day long, and staged a love tragedy and comedy of superfluous people; the old age coincides with the reform and opening up, and the prosperous dream of old Shanghai re-emerges its intoxicating allure, and finally attracts a group of vulgar and rotten parasites , Wang Qiyao, who was a symbol of the old dream, was murdered.The novel describes the fate of Shanghai for nearly 40 years through the fate of one person, which symbolizes the vitality and charm of Shanghai's citizen culture itself, which is obviously different from the previous illustration of ideological history through an artistic model.

Third, the richness of folk culture itself determines the diversity of ideals, and each writer has a completely different understanding of ideals according to different folk life situations.For example, Zhang Chengzhi has been deeply rooted in the Islamic folk religious culture since the mid-1980s. He preached the history and teachings of the Zheherenya sect, but the majority of readers read him in his praise of the metaphysical world. The strong criticism of the worldly society that pursues carnality was shocked by this; while Zhang Wei's novel "September Fable" expresses a kind of pure beauty attitude through the heartfelt praise to the mother of the earth and wandering in the folk life. It is a cultural spirit that is connected with the blood of the living land and is therefore full of vitality.Other writers such as Mo Yan, Wang Anyi, Li Rui, Han Shaogong, Chen Zhongshi, and other writers expressed different folk ideals, but because they consciously combined their personal standpoints with the folk standpoints, they were able to demonstrate diversity from their personal perspectives. social field and value system.Their creations have reached the highest achievement of literature in the 90s.

When discussing folk ideals, it should be pointed out that folk is not a purely ideal world. Folk ideals are based on a certain real world in the process of historical and realistic development. Therefore, when emphasizing the ideality of the folk world, we must Be aware of its filthiness.In the past history, civil society has always existed in the form of the weak, and it continued and developed its own history in a way of humiliation. The strength of the ruler not only controlled The folks have also controlled the folks culturally, and the real folks are under long-term veil.Therefore, while exploring folk ideal values, writers have to realize that it is also mixed with dirt factors.But the complicated situation is that the vitality of the folk has been born with its filthiness, and it is so dim that it cannot be completely separated.Many writers have also noticed this feature while expressing folk ideals.The more typical ones are Li Rui's novels.As an educated youth writer, Li Rui has always penetrated the complex mentality of intellectuals facing the folk in the world of his novels. His sharp scalpel strikes out with two blades: on the one hand, it reveals the cultural limitations of the intellectuals themselves, and on the other hand, it also reveals the closeness of the folk. The state of fatal ignorance.The series of novels "Black and White", "There is a Golden Sun in Beijing" and "Walking Mountains" completely describe the complicated contest between the naive ideals of intellectuals and rural folk culture, and the intellectuals have to fail in the end ; the novel "The Windless Tree" sharply wrote about the opposition between the folk world of "Dwarf Flat" and the power representing the official will.Dwarf Flat is a disabled world, where poor and backward men jointly supported a woman, Nuanyu, and turned this ugly "common wife" system into a spiritual cohesion point in the folk world of Dwarf Flat, a utopia .When those in power wanted to use Nuanyu to punish people in order to fight for power, Uncle Guai of Dwarven Ping committed suicide in order to maintain this utopia.The novel vividly describes the characteristics of the people's filth and evil practices: From the perspective of the civil society relations in Dwarfing, Nuanyu's situation constitutes a serious injury to humanity, but the men in Dwarfing are guarding this shameful place. When it is secret, it just reflects the love of human nature, because compared with the "idealism" of the power holders for despicable political purposes, the folk morality of Dwarven Ping still reflects a certain degree of human strength.The civil society in Dwarven Flat is in an extremely weak and ignorant situation, and has almost no ability to resist natural and man-made disasters from the outside world. However, they maintain their special cultural form and primitive justice on the premise of accepting their fate.Especially after the rich farmer Guaishu committed suicide, the peasants of Errenping showed the moral power and cultural charm of folk freedom in the funeral.Among the idealistic creations about the folk standpoint, Chen Zhongshi's novels and Han Shaogong's novels also vividly depict the complexity of this culture when they show the form of folk culture.