Chapter 64 on seriousness

on seriousness At the beginning of the new literary movement, the main objects of struggle were classical Chinese, followed by novels of the Saturday School or the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School, and then old dramas and civilized dramas.They say the ancient script is dead.The old plays are old-fashioned, simple, naive, noisy, and unrealistic, and the martial arts field is just a sideshow, not a play.The novels of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School are intended to entertain people after tea and wine, and are not serious, and the civilized dramas are desperate to cater to people's vulgar tastes.The vernacular finally overthrew the ancient prose, although there is still some work to be done to clear it up; the modern drama overthrew the civilized drama, but the old drama is still standing upright, and the new opera is still in difficulty.The Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School seems to have been defeated, but there is a so-called "New Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School".The issue of seriousness and recreation is complex enough that I would like to raise it here for discussion.

According to the traditional view, writing is originally a skill and a small way, and Song Confucians even said that "composition harms Taoism".The New Literature Movement accepted the influence of the West. In addition to liberating the style of writing and replacing ancient Chinese with vernacular, what it strived for was the idea of ​​literature, that is, the status of literature.They want to overthrow the "Tao" and make literature independent.Therefore, he ruthlessly attacked the theory of "Writing to convey the Way".Although the theory of "Zai Dao" is milder than the theory of "harming Dao", Wen is still a vassal of Dao.According to this theory, those articles that do not carry the truth are "playing with things and losing one's ambition".Playing with things and losing one's mind is pastime, and carrying the Tao is seriousness.Leisurely literature is a skill and has no status; Tao-carrying literature has status, but that status belongs to Tao, not literature—if only literature is concerned, it is still just a skill and a small way.What the New Literature Movement is fighting for is that literature is literature, it is an art, not a skill, and it has its own reason for existence.

In the tradition of Chinese literature, novels and lyrics (including operas) are more of the lesser ways of the lesser, because they are recreational and not serious.Not serious is not serious; novels are often called "idle books", not serious books.The word is "Shi Yu", and the song is "Ci Yu"; of course it is not proper to call it "Yu".The novels of the Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School are intended to entertain people after tea and wine, but they are authentic Chinese novels.Chinese novels have always been dominated by "monsters" and "legends". "Strange" and "odd" are not serious things.The collection of novels compiled by people in the Ming Dynasty has the so-called "Three Words and Two Beats". "Second Pai" is the first and second moments of "Surprise", focusing on the "strange" clearly. The "three words" are,,, although they focus on "persuading the vulgar", they must first "surprise" people before they can receive the effect of "persuading the vulgar". A separate episode will be compiled, just titled, and it will still be attributed to "odd".This "odd" is just for people to entertain after tea and wine.

The novels of the Ming and Qing Dynasties originated from the "speaking" of the Song Dynasty, and "speaking" came from the folk.The lyrics and music (including opera) also originated from the folk.Folk literature is the performance of the oppressed people taking pleasure in their hardships and taking time out of their busy schedules, so they often play buffoons, laugh at themselves or exaggerate themselves, so they often have an atmosphere of humor and absurdity, which is not serious.Within the scope of the Chinese literary tradition itself, only poetry (including Fu) can be regarded as serious and serious, although it is only a small way in the orthodoxy.Ci has undergone a high degree of literatiization, especially the efforts of the Changzhou School of the Qing Dynasty, and finally brought some serious faces, while novels and operas (including operas) until the eve of the New Literature Movement, were still dressed as buffoons and stood in an unimportant position.Of course, novels have long had the topic of persuading the good and punishing the evil, and the so-called "memorizing the world" by the people of the Ming Dynasty was even more emphasized.This is also thinking about "Zai Tao", but "odd" is better than "right", and it will not work in the end.The Public Security faction of the Ming Dynasty compared "Water Margin" with "Historical Records" again, this is from the "singularity" of the article; but the article is nothing in the orthodoxy, how can "singularity" be called "serious"?However, perceptions have changed somewhat.At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Mr. Liang Qichao pointed out "the relationship between novels and group governance" and advocated the creation of his theory.This is in line with the New Literature Movement.

The New Literature Movement appeared as a struggle, and it must be serious.They wanted to give vernacular Chinese an authentic status and literature an independent status.And Mr. Lu Xun's first novel called out "the ethics of cannibalism" and "save the children", and started the anti-feudal work.His "Suiganlu" strongly satirizes various root causes of old China.On the one hand, humanitarianism is also widely expressed in literature.Literature took on a new mission; in cooperation with the May 4th Movement, it took on a leadership position, although it was not the only one.So literature has a reason for its independent existence and a new idea.In this case, lyrics and music were upgraded to poetry, and novels and operas were also upgraded to literature.This naturally accepted "foreign influence", but this is not "carrying the Tao"; but what is being carried is a new Tao, and it is integrated with this new Tao, regardless of master and slave.So from a traditional point of view, it is still in the same line.On the one hand, they attack "text is used to convey Tao", and on the other hand, they are also expressing another kind of Tao. This is exactly the opposite and complement each other, the development of the so-called contradiction.

The romantic and sentimental style of the Creation Society, which demands self-liberation under the anti-feudal work, is also a natural tendency.They emphasize "moving spirit" and "conflict between soul and body", and they are still facing life seriously.However, the ethics gradually collapsed, and the ego grew bigger and bigger in the temporary prosperity brought to China by the First World War. As a result, intellectuals paid attention to the taste of life, personal likes and dislikes, and trivial things around them. The "Yanzhi school" is actually a cynical school.Take humor a step further, humor for humor's sake, nonsense humor.Humor replaced seriousness, and there was a void in the literary world.On the one hand, pornographic works have also raised their heads. With the name of "liberation", they have crossed the boundary of "health", and naturally they have also crossed the boundary of "serious".Yet this emptiness is only temporary, just as that prosperity is temporary.The May Thirtieth Incident set off a tide of anti-imperialism, and the times have become heavy again.

Then came the National Revolution, and then tortured left and right; the era required struggle, and I had no choice but to sneak around for leisure.At this time, Mr. Lu Xun introduced the phrase "one side is seriousness and work, and the other side is licentiousness and shamelessness".This is the voice of the times.But this seriousness is even more serious; the seriousness of the attitude alone is not sufficient for the seriousness of the art, it must be matched with the work, the real work.It seems that the title of "New Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School" was born at this time, referring to those writers who are just playing with themselves.They don't feel that they are entertaining themselves, unlike the old Mandarin Duck and Butterfly School.What's more different is the era, which has shortened the "serious" scale.This scale is still in dispute, and the Anti-Japanese War began; everything is a war of resistance, and the war of resistance is naturally extremely serious.However, the eight-year war of resistance was too heavy, and it was inevitable to breathe a sigh of relief during this period. This relaxation has relaxed the scale; it seems that literature should be entertained.

Victory comes suddenly, but the times are getting heavier. The emphasis on "people's nature" re-tightened the scale of "seriousness".This "people's nature" is also a way.Up to now, if literature is required to carry this kind of Tao, it is "inevitable and logical".However, if the scale is too tight, I am afraid that I will make the mistake of Song Confucianism saying that "composition harms the Tao". The current surge of yellow and pink publications is certainly a decadent trend in turbulent times, but if serious works blindly pay attention to seriousness and only care about the people's nature, Regardless of the artistry, the rigid long face is not easy to get close to, and readers may even hide in those publications.This is worth calculating calmly when using the "serious" scale.

Made on April 23-25, 1947. (Originally published in "Chinese Writers", Volume 1, Issue 1, October 1, 1947)