Chapter 11 Appear in due time" Bo Yang

Zhu Honghai The 1980s in mainland China is often synonymous with idealism. A series of changes that occurred and ran through this era made people shocked, excited and eager. Today, the 1980s is often associated with nostalgia. Beginning in 1977, the mainland resumed the college entrance examination system. By the end of the 1980s, about six million young students entered the campus one after another.They were generally born in the 1950s and 1960s. When they met the 1980s, it was the growth period of their life consciousness. Therefore, on the one hand, they continued to pass on the spirit of the "May 4th" spirit, and at the same time, they had the spirit of the "Cultural Revolution". Painful reflection.Therefore, the depth of their thinking is far beyond that of their teachers, and it is far from comparable to those who came later.For this generation, the concept of "people born in the 1980s" in this article is not the popular "people born in the 1980s".

The reason why I chose "people in the 1980s" to study the meaning of Bo Yang is because the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement" in the 1980s showed a certain lack in the great reflection on tradition, and it still remained in the "science" and "democracy" "In terms of identification, they did not pay enough attention to the improvement of the real life and the way of life, and did not put forward a practical and specific plan.It is precisely Mr. Bo Yang's sharp criticism of reality that provides a complete and important supplement to the humanistic enlightenment of "people in the 1980s".

1. Bo Yang who appeared at the right time Almost everything that can continue to grow must have its fate.Zheng He's voyages were several years before Columbus discovered the Cape of Good Hope, but he had no fate, so China missed the opportunity to let the world know China by relying on the ocean.The later Qianjia prosperity was nothing but the last prosperity of historical China, and the "Nanjing Treaty" became inevitable. During the "Cultural Revolution" era in mainland China, a handwritten novel "Return" ("The Second Handshake") was extremely popular in the underground, but it was a pity that Zhang Yang had no fate.His "mistake" was that the novel was created too early, so at that time he had to become a "counter-revolutionary", spent four years in prison, and was almost shot.But Zhang Yang later still had no fate.A few years later, the total printing volume of this novel reached 4.3 million copies, but Zhang Yang received only 2,500 yuan for the manuscript fee.In the early 1980s in mainland China, there was no relatively complete system of remuneration for manuscripts, and Zhang Yang's fate was extremely bad.

Fate sometimes seems to be only related to a certain person, but this person often means an era. When Bo Yang came to the mainland, it happened just when he was supposed to come, and it was also when the mainland needed him to come. In recent years, there have been some concluding articles about the research on mainland China in the 1980s, and the content mostly involves politics, economy, culture and many other aspects.However, it is obvious that these articles basically stay on the basis of summaries, and we seem to be unclear about how important this era has been to our future. We didn't give it its due place in the eighties.

The 1980s was the place where we started. In today's China, those things that can inspire us almost all took off from there; the driving force behind our departure, in the final analysis, comes from the cultural brewing of the 1980s.This is what the 80s meant to us: the beginning of a new era. This kind of cultural brewing in the 1980s came from the well-known cultural reflections, starting from a poem, a novel, and a movie, starting from reflecting on literature, and the waves of reflection converged into a river and finally spread to the ideological world.Internal alienation also provided a good soil for external voices. Since the early 1980s, various theories, schools and ideas have come forth, and the ideological world in the 1980s is like an open garden.In this bustling crowd, there should be four people, which we must not forget.

When Nietzsche and Sartre came to China in the early 1980s, their influence on the Chinese cultural circle was almost astonishing; followed by Freud, "people in the 1980s" cannot forget him, is Because for the first time, he gave Chinese people a complete concept of sex. The fourth person to come was Bo Yang. When the "sauce jar culture" came to the mainland, it was the mid-1980s, a time when the ice-breaking journey of the mainland's intellectual circles was in full swing.In 1984, Bo Yang delivered his famous speech at the University of Iowa in the United States. The sensational effect was so strong that it immediately spread to the mainland. The basic spirit of "sauce jar culture" "criticism of national character" just echoes the cultural reflection movement that is pushing to a climax in mainland China. Therefore, almost no one among the nearly six million students in the 1980s, that is, "people of the 1980s" did not discuss it. Over Bo Yanghe, the immediate reaction is Bo Yang fever!

At that time, Bo Yang was one of several core words in the cultural class in mainland China.In the second year after the speech in Iowa, it was introduced to mainland readers by mainland publishing houses. Some people estimated that the circulation at that time was as high as several million copies. Mr. Bo Yang's shocking voice made students rush to read it.Almost all the influential cultural core media at that time focused on discussing Bo Yang. So far, most of Mr. Bo Yang's 20 million-word literary and historical works have been published in the mainland, and some have even been published successively by multiple publishing houses. However, the core influence Bo Yang brought to the mainland is the "sauce jar culture". The arrival of the "sauce jar culture" has accelerated the process of the ice-breaking journey.

The introspection that started from the cultural circle has triggered a full-scale collision in the whole society. People feel that the society is changing, but the change is difficult. The obvious feature is two steps forward and one step back. The seeds of reform in the new era are struggling to grow amidst serious disputes. . The introspection in the early 1980s was obviously not thorough enough, because the starting point of the introspection was always on the basis of tradition.For tradition, the Chinese hold the attitude of "removing the dross and taking the essence", but the question is what is the essence?How do you know that the essence you hold on to is not actually dross because of bad eyesight and dull brain?And due to the change of time and different places, the dross and the essence will also change each other.

The limitation of the "people of the 1980s" at this time is that they have not yet been able to recognize this. Therefore, when the "sauce jar culture" came with the "criticism of national character", even the young students who had always been radical changed their faces in amazement, and Mr. Bo Yang uprooted the tradition. Needless to say, the controversy is so great that even in Chinese circles outside the mainland, the word Bo Yang can become the start of a debate.In the student dormitory on the mainland campus, almost every room held a special "sleeping meeting" for Bo Yang.

In the second half of the 1980s, the mainland's cultural circles began to think about: What is our tradition? In the 1980s, starting from the shattering of traditional culture, it also shattered the value system in people's hearts. Mr. Bo Yang helped in the process of shattering. The reason why it is said that Bo Yang's arrival "appeared at the right time" is because he participated in and accelerated the process of shattering.And if Bo Yang is late, I believe that for each other, such a miss cannot be expressed with the word "regret". The old things have been smashed, and the new culture and value system have not yet been established. They are suddenly in a floating state, facing the suddenly open world, and entered the 1990s. Thinking about paying the price, I don't know where to go.

2. In the 1980s, the recovery and continuation of the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement" I still want to emphasize this sentence. So far, we have not realized how important this decade is to China now and in the future. For the Chinese people, this decade has highly condensed the pain and struggle of the soul, which is both unprecedented and possibly unprecedented. The Chinese value system has never faced such violent tearing and labor pains. It is very necessary and necessary to include Mr. Bo Yang in the 1980s to study the meaning of Bo Yang. Without this era, Bo Yang will no longer be Bo Yang in mainland China. Because the essence of the 1980s is the inheritance and continuation of the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement". Scholars who pay attention to China's issues have noticed that the tasks set forth by the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement" were not only not completed in the 1980s, but we have not yet completed them; China in the 21st century will still shoulder this heavy mission. And it seems, there is still a long way to go, but continuing.This continuation actually began in the late 1930s and was interrupted for a long time. It was in the 1980s that the "May Fourth Spirit" was able to be regained, and it reached its climax. It is a pity that such an important academic proposition has been neglected by the academic circle for so long. Compared with the "May 4th" era, what the 1980s have in common is that they gradually began to uphold the basic spirit of science and democracy; the difference is that there were no leaders like Lu Xun in the 1980s, only Bo Yang is one of the trumpet-like characters. However, Bo Yang was the only figure in the 1980s who could stand far away from Lu Xun in the "May 4th" era.Compared with Lu Xun, following his "dye vat culture", Bo Yang put forward the "sauce vat culture"; Lu Xun "sorrows his misfortune, angers him not to fight", while Bo Yang's point of view is more straightforward: Ugly Chinese! In different eras, two masters of the humanities are thinking about the same question: Chinese, what's wrong with you? "People in the 1980s" had no difficulty in accepting Lu Xun's thoughts. They believed that the Chinese people described by Lu Xun had nothing to do with them, they were the old Chinese people.Those who had just come from the desert of the "Cultural Revolution" did not have the ability to understand the cultural connotation of Lu Xun's works on a deeper level. However, Bo Yang's arrival caused huge waves among the "people of the 1980s".Bo Yang's accusations are not only directly directed at contemporary Chinese, but also obviously directed at them.Bo Yang is the first person to be so sharp, direct, comprehensive, and break through the inferiority of traditional Chinese culture. "People in the 1980s" ranged in age from their teens to their thirties, and generally received three to four years of higher education.Entering university was the only bright road for young people at that time, so the best young people at that time were concentrated among them.They all came from the desert of culture, and they showed their hunger and thirst for culture.They love everything new and are very receptive.Under the influence of a comprehensive reflection on the social environment, they reversed their blind obedience in the past and gradually began to think independently. They will fully accept Nietzsche, and then look at Nietzsche analytically.After such a few years of university education, they begin to differ significantly from the previous generation and, at the same time, from their uneducated contemporaries. To be precise, what higher education gives them is not just the skills of a subject, or they are not mainly here to learn skills. Their biggest gain is to get literacy, which is not something that can be obtained from books, but the result of campus culture. endowed.This is why people can easily separate a highly educated person from a group of young people. When Bo Yang arrived, only a small part of them had just left the campus, but they still maintained the keenness and desire of the campus days! The arrival of Bo Yang really shocked them. What they used to talk about, what they used to be proud of, and what they used to be steadfast, in Bo Yang's place, just because of a thin book, everything is shaken up. Indeed, a handful of firewood has been added to this important era of regaining the spirit of the "May 4th Movement". "People in the 1980s" are all sad and angry when they study modern history, and they also think about the reasons why modern Chinese people were humiliated.Based on their cognitive abilities at the time, they could relate the decline of a nation to the inadequacy of ships and guns, and to the incompetence of a government, but they couldn't believe it anyway: the cultural level of a nation will also be related to that of a nation. Rise and fall matter. Similarly, it is also difficult for them to understand what Lu Xun meant by "dye vat culture". For example, when Lu Xun said that the Japanese were beheading Chinese people, the Chinese spectators around them were laughing and watching. When "people in the 1980s" were thinking about the "dye vat culture", they were also laughing, because they didn't think that this dye vat had anything to do with them, it was someone else's business. Unknowingly, they also became those spectators. However, the "sauce jar culture" made them unable to laugh. Bo Yang pointedly pointed out their national inferiority.For example, mistakes and accusations are given to others, and I am always right. I simply tell them that the ugliness of Chinese people exists in them. This time, they couldn't laugh anymore. Bo Yang gave the younger generation a new perspective of thinking, and they began to think more thoroughly about Chinese people and Chinese culture. In this way, during their most important growing years, they encountered Bo Yang and remembered his warning.From the bottom of their hearts, they thank Bo Yang! Throughout the 1980s, this generation had no right to speak, and it was always the footsteps of the times that affected them. They just left the campus in batches and went to every corner of the world.However, they announced their existence through changes, and one day, their changes will in turn affect the pace of the times. Their greatest luck is that they grew up in the 1980s, an era full of passion and ideals!An era full of the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement"! 3. With dignity as the core, the establishment of Chinese humanistic spirit How should "ugly Chinese" get out of their own limitations? In the 1980s, even Bo Yang himself could not give an answer.On this point, Mr. Bo Yang himself admitted.At that time, some readers asked, since Chinese people are ugly, what should we do? Bo Yang didn't know either. Bo Yang got this answer almost twenty years later, and this is his new work "We Want to Live with Dignity"!In mainland China in 2003, this book was called the companion volume of the book. After experiencing the bewilderment of the 1990s, after ten years of labor pains and twenty years after being "shattered", dignity has gradually become one of the most frequently reported words in the media. An interesting proposition is, if Bo Yang could give the answer back then, what would happen? Another very real fact is that in the 1980s, mainland China did not know what dignity was. At that time, I heard that Americans must call to make an appointment before visiting other people's homes. Most people could not understand.At that time, there was no awareness of privacy, and it was very common to openly ask each other about their income, and it was abnormal not to tell. On the soil of such a cultural level, if Mr. Bo Yang came with his dignity in the 1980s, he would probably be regarded as a monster. In traditional Chinese culture, man is regarded as the spirit of all things, but in real life, individual spiritual freedom and independent pursuit are often suppressed by group spirit.Because the core of Chinese culture is not the individual, but the group.The space for individual rights is limited only to being alone. However, the enlightenment thoughts of the 1980s left an indelible imprint on the "people of the 1980s". After the old value system was shattered, they began to seek the liberation of individuality and independence of personality. Incapable of giving an answer.After entering the 1990s, facing the booming economic tide, the self-confidence and passion of this generation in the 1980s were completely blocked by the material desire in the 1990s, and they generally felt at a loss and lost. Chinese culture in the 1990s was rather confused, and this process lasted for more than ten years. "Material desire" seems to be the core vocabulary of this era. Influenced by the Western "post-modernization" trend of thought, the "materialization" or "alienation" of Western modern civilization, the consideration of Chinese humanistic spirit has gone to another extreme: money worship is prevalent!Regarding this consideration, we see Shakespeare's curse on gold in Timon of Athens. Thinking about Chinese culture became serious at this time, and all questions focused on one focus: What kind of spiritual home can Chinese culture provide modern people? This is a complex and difficult issue, which is directly related to the reconstruction of the value of contemporary Chinese people.The values ​​of the Chinese people cannot walk in the air for too long after the "shattering" in the 1980s. At this time, the "people of the 1980s" began to emerge at various levels one after another.Compared with the 1980s, they are gradually able to make their own voices. Although they are somewhat weak, they exist widely, and the voices thus gathered gradually show new strength and a class that has never existed before: " Elite level". Bo Yang's name gradually faded out of their field of vision due to special reasons during this period, but Bo Yang's thinking about national character still left a profound impact on the "elite class" at that time. Gradually rose to the mainstream, and reached a consensus voice: the fundamental problem of culture lies in the problem of people! Similar to the soft landing of the Chinese economy at that time, the Chinese humanistic spirit was also trying its own soft landing during the same period.What is different from the 1980s is that this time there seems to be no trumpet-like figures, but the entire "elite class" is promoting this change. The consensus of the "elite class" is that the subject of culture is human beings, who are both social subjects and value subjects of their own existence.Different subject categories directly lead to different roles played by people at the same time. On the one hand, people want to realize their self-worth, and on the other hand, people are social roles.Neglect of people's own problems will lead to the materialization of people, thus forming the material desire of the whole society, and the existence, value and dignity of people will also be forgotten. As a result, the word "dignity", which has always been kept in the dictionary by Chinese people, began to surface and appeared in the newspapers frequently.If there hadn't been the great discussion about Chinese people caused by Bo Yang in the 1980s, it would be hard to imagine that such a wide group of people would have participated in the process of value reconstruction in the 1990s. The new value system began to take shape at the beginning of the new century. This is the establishment of the humanistic spirit with dignity as the core, the establishment of individual dignity of personality, dignity of life, and moral dignity, so as to be a modern person under the conditions of a market economy.This requires respecting the dignity of others while paying attention to one's own dignity. This kind of respect is essentially a recognition of the value of others. "Integrity" has also begun to become a new buzzword. From the 1980s to the beginning of the new century, from smashing to rebuilding, looking back over the past two decades, we can clearly feel the continuation of the spirit of the "May Fourth Movement". The ability to complete such a phased task can be attributed to several factors, namely, the influence of the outside world, integration with the world, the gradual improvement of the national literacy through self-reflection, and the experience gained after paying the price in the face of growing pains. "People in the 1980s" and the "elite class" who are now in their thirties to fifties have shown a force that cannot be ignored on this road of continuation, and have become the backbone of today's contemporary China. . The way they walked was always filled with the sounds of the 1980s.In that voice, there are passions and ideals of the 1980s, as well as Nietzsche, Sartre, Freud and Bo Yang of the 1980s. 4. The New China and the New Chinese Interestingly, when the core of dignity was gradually established in mainland China, Bo Yang once again brought his new work "We Want to Live with Dignity" to the mainland, and it once became a popular book for the public to interpret dignity in 2003. . Starting from the "ugly Chinese", Bo Yang and his "people of the 1980s", twenty years later, the two sides met at the coordinate point of dignity almost at the same time. When we look back, we will find some amazing coincidences between the mainland and Bo Yang, or between the two sides of the strait: in the 1980s, when the mainland, which had come out of the shadow of the "Cultural Revolution", was reflecting in pain, the same happened in Taiwan. Bo Yang, who was thinking about it, not only shocked Taiwan, but also became popular in the mainland. Later, the phenomenon that "the moon in foreign countries is rounder than China" appeared in the mainland. At the same time, in Bo Yang's works, this phenomenon also appeared. A phenomenon that excavates the inferiority of the people: When the mainland began to advocate dignity at the beginning of the new century, Bo Yang's dignity also just came to the mainland. As Chinese, the two sides of the strait have great differences in economic development and even certain ideologies. However, at the same stage, the two sides often reflect on and face common propositions.We cannot see and touch the power of the same culture of the same language, but it is so powerful! Dignity is not just a buzzword in today's continent, change around which is almost as palpable.The "elite class" that emerged from the 1980s has become the dominant force in contemporary society, and they are also demonstrating this power in a positive manner. A very well-known case is the case where a Guangzhou shelter mistakenly accommodated and illegally caused the death of a college student, Sun Zhigang, which triggered a national discussion on citizens' right to life.The direct result of the great discussion was that the 21-year-old shelter and repatriation method was abolished, and the shelter was transformed into a rescue station.Such a result greatly exceeded the expectations of the initiators and participants of the big discussion. It is worth noting that this is also the first time that mainland China has relied on the power of online speech to influence the development of a case. As a result, eleven people were sentenced, and one was sentenced to death. Another more famous example is that due to the outbreak and spread of SARS, "the public's right to know" has become one of the most popular words this year.Almost all the media in the country have participated in this discussion. Today, if you use Google to search "SARS Right to Know", you will find more than 16,000 pieces of information. The latest change is the implementation of the new "Regulations on the Administration of Marriage Registration". The biggest change in the regulations is that the original letter of introduction required to be issued by the unit of both the man and the woman is canceled when registering, and at the same time, they can voluntarily participate in physical health checks. The above-mentioned cases and the above-mentioned changes can convey the message that contemporary Chinese people have already understood the connotation of dignity, and have begun to live with self-confidence in survival. When Mr. Bo Yang went to Hong Kong in 1999, a reporter asked him that he once criticized the Chinese people as ugly. Now, after a long time, have the Chinese people improved?Bo Yang said with a smile: "It is difficult to make progress, which is caused by culture. However, if we advocate a culture of honesty, use honesty as the foundation, advocate dignity, respect, tolerance, and rationality, and stay away from the traditional 'culture of lies' is the beginning of progress. .” It was this beginning that allowed us to feel the new atmosphere of the Chinese people, see the shadow of the "elite class", and hear the lingering echoes of the 1980s. After ten years of shattering and ten years of hesitation, the Chinese humanistic spirit may go through another ten years of construction from now on. Perhaps the point of view in this article will be considered too optimistic, because Mr. Bo Yang's illnesses of the Chinese people mentioned in his pen have not disappeared, and even exist like chronic diseases, and new illnesses may even burst out. The death of Sun Zhigang happened only half a year ago. From the disclosure of the media, we can see that similar cases are still happening; more of the right to know is still verbal; Come to a conclusion, is it as simple as addition and subtraction? In fact, the above-mentioned changes and the changes in the past two decades make us feel the embryonic form of a re-established humanistic spirit, which is the result of continuous efforts and efforts since the "May 4th Movement".The humanistic spirit of a nation is based on the national spirit, which is the national character that runs through from Lu Xun to Bo Yang's works. The late Qing government attributed its repeated defeats to the fact that the ships were not strong and the guns were unfavorable, and thus started the Westernization Movement. However, even after the ships were strong and the guns were strong, they still could not escape the failure. In fact, the national spirit of the late Qing Dynasty had completely rotted. .Mainland China in the 1990s was once caught in the middle of materialistic desires, but the relative wealth of the material also could not save the lack of humanistic spirit.On the contrary, it is precisely because of this absence that we are dumbfounded to see more ugliness of ugliness. But today, what we see is the dawn of the humanistic spirit and the dawn of the Chinese people's progress. This is the result of the hard work of the Chinese people in the past 20 years since the 1980s and the "May 4th Movement" for nearly a hundred years. .What we need now is the continuation of the "May 4th" spirit, and our task has not been completed.As Bo Yang said with a smile: "It is difficult to make progress, it is caused by culture!" We still have to go back to the 1980s, to the "people of the 1980s", to Bo Yang. For the "people of the 1980s", Bo Yang is a mentor.When the "people of the 1980s" became the "elite class", today's Bo Yang has no influence on them. The students and mentors of the past have found the dignity together through different paths in the past two decades. coordinates.But this does not detract from Bo Yang's charm at all, because the students start from the shock of the instructor. An adult who has not experienced any education, if he is allowed to start academic education with a group of children, then this person may always be at the top of the primary school.But in the end he must lose the game, because this kind of intellectual development comes too late for him, after he has missed the stage when he should receive intellectual education, he has lost this opportunity forever. This is the significance of Bo Yang to "people in the 1980s". Against the background of national reflection, Bo Yang met a group of eager and passionate young people who had just walked out of the desert, so they regarded him as their own. tutor.The reason why they accept Bo Yang is that Bo Yang's criticism of national character is so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. For Bo Yang, most "people in the 1980s" have a feeling of gratitude. The significance of Bo Yang to the "elite class" lies in the fact that he successfully rooted the criticism of national character in their hearts and brought it to today. When there is a sound, Bo Yang's voice can always be heard there. With the help of six million elites, Bo Yang promotes the progress of the Chinese people! This is the value of Bo Yang! (The author is the responsible editor of the 2003 mainland edition of "We Want to Live with Dignity". This article is the author's speech at the 2003 Bo Yang International Symposium on Literary Historiography.)