Chapter 15 The Times Background of the Founding of "Modern Literature"

——Written before the reissue of "Modern Literature" "Modern Literature" was founded in March 1960, and it has been 28 years since now.During the 51st issue in 1973, the publication was temporarily suspended due to financial difficulties.Three and a half years later, with the support of Yuanjing Publishing House, the publication was resumed, and another 22 issues were published. It was not until 1984 that this money-losing magazine could no longer afford it, so it finally ceased publication.When it was republished, I wrote an article: "Review and Prospect of "Modern Literature", which described the ins and outs of the founding of "Modern Literature", some of the work done by this magazine, and the writers of "Modern Literature" and their works are described in detail.Because that article was written on the eve of the resumption of publication, I was excited, and the joy of looking forward was more than the bewilderment of looking back.Doing the math now, that was eleven years ago.After a long period of grinding and washing, "Modern Literature" has gradually become history.Today's college students have read "Modern Literature" in the previous stage, and there may be only a few readers who bought "Modern Literature" in the past and have a full set of magazines.In recent years, I have become more and more aware of the irresistible power of the torrent of time. I have seen many traces of human efforts disappear in an instant, so I have a wish: I hope to republish "Modern Literature" one day, so that This magazine, which has been diligently cultivated by many literary workers, has reproduced its original appearance and preserved it as a permanent record.

I am often asked several questions: How did you manage to run Modern Literature back then? Why did so many people in your group engage in literary creation at the same time? How did you come to be influenced by Western modernism? Now that you have the time After some reflection, I may have some new views on these issues. I have come to the conclusion that the founding of "Modern Literature" and the rise of modernism in Taiwan's literary and artistic trends in the 1960s were not accidental phenomena. It was not an unconventional fashion at the time, but the inevitable result of the combination of the objective development of Taiwan's history at that time and the subjective reactions of a group of growing young writers.

At that time, we were all students of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at National Taiwan University. Although President Fu Sinian is no longer here, President Fu has brought the former liberal atmosphere of Peking University to National Taiwan University.We all know that President Fu was the student leader of the "May 4th Movement". He once ran the famous "New Trend" magazine at that time.We also know that several of our teachers in the Faculty of Arts, Mr. Tai Jingnong and Mr. Li Liewen, are closely related to some famous writers of the "May 4th" era.When Mr. Hu Shizhi returned to Taiwan to give a public speech for the first time, I deeply remembered the grand occasion of the huge crowd. The "May 4th" movement still has its great attraction for us. The skeptical spirit of "May 4th" breaking traditional taboos and the spirit of innovation and reform have always been an encouragement to us, and our logic professor Mr. Yin Haiguang himself is the concrete manifestation of this "May 4th" spirit.The Department of Foreign Languages ​​and Literatures of National Taiwan University was governed by doing nothing back then, but we had enough time to engage in literary activities.We are fortunate to have met Mr. Xia Ji'an, such a well-educated literary tutor, who gave us guidance in literary creation and laid the basic line for our future writing.The "Literary Magazine" edited by him is actually the forerunner of "Modern Literature".

The backgrounds of the founding members of "Modern Literature" are quite complex and diverse, and from the backgrounds of these members, we can also understand the motivation and style of the founding of "Modern Literature".Among us, some are children from other provinces who grew up after the government moved to Taiwan, like Wang Wenxing, Li Oufan, and myself; Like Dai Tian, ​​Ye Weilian, and Liu Shaoming, although we have different backgrounds, we have one important thing in common. We are all the generation that grew up after the war, facing a new world full of uncertainties after the chaos.The dilemma for children from other provinces is that we do not bear any responsibility for the historical merits and demerits of the mainland, because we are all still young, but we must share with our fathers and brothers the consequences of the failure of the mainland.In fact, the old world established by our father and brother on the mainland has long since disintegrated and collapsed. We can no longer identify with the old world that has long since disappeared and only exists in memories and legends. On the one hand, we have grown up under the shade of our father and brother, but on the other hand We have to get rid of the set of values ​​brought from the old world that our father and brother imposed on us in order to be independent of personality and thought.We had what Erik Erikson called an "identity crisis" at that time.The students from this province also have the same problem. The Japanese occupation era of their father and brother has long gone. The Chinese education they received is completely different from the Japanese education their father and brother received. They are also struggling to establish a political and A new identity of culture.We didn't understand it at the time, but now it seems that we are actually standing at a turning point in Taiwan's historical development, facing a crossroads of cultural transformation.The government moved to Taiwan. After ten years of dismal management, Taiwan is beginning to transform from an agricultural society to a business society, and a new post-war culture is taking shape in Taiwan. We are exploring and moving forward in this torrent of drastic changes. Scholars, farmers, commerce and industry are actually participating in the construction of a new post-war Taiwan. The "May 4th Movement" inspired us to innovate and seek change, and the special development of Taiwan's history also forced us to establish a set of new values ​​in line with Taiwan's reality.All of this is going on unconsciously, and the mental journey of our growth also has its bumpy side.

The new literature movement in a country is often stimulated by foreign cultures, and there are many precedents in history.During the Tang Dynasty, China imported a large number of Buddhist scriptures from India, and the translation of Buddhist scriptures basically changed Chinese literature and art.Wang Wei's poems, Tang Xianzu's operas, and Cao Xueqin's novels are all brilliant flowers blooming under the influence of Buddhist culture.What we Chinese are most proud of is actually nothing more than a Buddhist fable about a stubborn stone going through calamities. The new literature of the "May 4th Movement" was basically born under the stimulation of Western culture.None of Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Cao Yu, Lao She, Xu Zhimo and others has not been influenced by foreign literature.In the early 1960s, we studied in the Department of Foreign Languages, came into contact with Western literature, and were inspired by it, which was natural.But among the many schools of western literature, the works of modernism have indeed had the greatest impact on us.For nearly half a century since the end of the nineteenth century, modernism has been magnificent and has become mainstream, affecting various Western art forms.In short, modernism is a great reaction against the industrial civilization of the nineteenth century in the West and the vulgar values ​​of the rising middle class, so it is extremely rebellious, and because Europe has gone through two major wars, the wars have disintegrated the traditional values ​​of Western society , Shake Westerners' belief and confidence in human beings and life, so Western modernist works always hold a pessimistic and skeptical attitude towards human civilization.In fact, the destruction of wars and revolutions experienced by Chinese people in the twentieth century is even worse than that of Westerners, and our traditional society and traditional values ​​have been destroyed unprecedentedly.In this sense, our cultural crisis is comparable to that of Westerners.The rebellious voice and sad tone in Western modernist works are very able to impress our group of young students who grew up after the war and are looking for new ideas and changes.Kafka's, Joyce's "Dubliners", Eliot's, Thomas Mann's "Death in Venice", Lawrence's "Sons and Lovers", and Camus's which everyone was vying to read at the time, We can feel, understand, identify with these classic works of modernism, and receive considerable inspiration.More than two decades later, when the influence of Western "modernism" gradually faded in Taiwan, on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, the flames of "modernism" were unexpectedly ignited in the academic and literary circles of mainland China. The philosophies of Nietzsche and Sartre , Freud's psychology, and Kafka's novels have become bestsellers among young intellectuals. Mainland playwright Gao Xingjian's "Absurd Play" was staged in Beijing. .After the "Cultural Revolution", the young intellectuals in the mainland also began to reflect and ponder, groping and searching for new cultural values.It is understandable that Kafka can arouse the recognition of mainland readers. It can be said to be an allegory of the "Cultural Revolution", and the "Cultural Revolution" itself is the biggest "absurd drama". "Modernism" is the product of the crisis of Western culture, the voice of the so-called troubled times.And this generation of mainland young intellectuals grew up amidst many crises, so it is only natural that they can resonate with them.

While we were studying Western literature in the Department of Foreign Languages, we also often went to the Department of Chinese to attend lectures.I remember that we often went to listen to teacher Zheng Qian's speeches, teacher Ye Jiaying's poetry lectures, and teacher Wang Shumin's lectures.In fact, unconsciously, we also began to look for Chinese traditions at the same time.This makes us completely different from the "May 4th" generation. We did not have the enthusiasm for "May 4th" to overthrow tradition, because the resistance of traditional Chinese culture has long since disappeared in our era.Many of us have walked the same rugged road, first baptized by the European style, then impacted by "modernism", and finally returned to tradition after a long detour.Although we have come a long way, the self-training and reflection on this wrong path are of great help to us. Looking back at our own traditions, we have a new vision and new sensibility. You can compare the trade-offs, and your eyes have been trained to be much sharper. You will no longer blindly obey the tradition, but adopt a critical acceptance.After all, our treatment of traditional Chinese culture is much calmer and more rational than that of the "May 4th" era. We integrate tradition into modernity and examine tradition with modernity. In the process of integrating tradition and modernity, we have all gone through hard struggles. In fact, This has also been a major problem in the reconstruction of Chinese culture since the 19th century. For more than a century, generations of Chinese intellectuals seem destined to be involved in this war of cultural conflict between China and the West.

The generation we grew up after the war is at a turning point in Taiwan's history. Due to the stimulation of various social and cultural factors, we feel internally and naturally want to express externally. Therefore, everyone started to engage in literary creation by coincidence.At that time, we were just a group of unknown students. At that time, the style of newspapers and magazines in Taiwan was relatively conservative, and our immature and deliberately innovative works were naturally difficult to accept. So we founded a magazine to publish ourselves and other like-minded literary friends. Their works are a matter of course.In fact, this urge to create new Taiwanese literature was not limited to the students of the Department of Foreign Languages ​​at National Taiwan University.In the late 1950s, several modern poetry magazines such as "Modern Poetry", "Blue Star", and "Genesis" had already taken the lead and acted as our pioneers. published slightly earlier than ours.It can be seen that the New Literature Movement in Taiwan in the 1960s was not an isolated and accidental phenomenon, but that everyone had the same aspirations at that time and believed that Taiwanese literature needed a new start.

"Modern Literature" is a so-called "small magazine" founded by colleagues. At that time, we didn't consider sales at all, and we didn't want to please ordinary readers, so this magazine has always followed the line of serious literature.Because of the high performance and few, the sales are not good, and we have always suffered a lot of losses, but we have maintained our consistent style.Although we were not knowledgeable enough at that time, and our life experience was very naive, our attitude towards literature was absolutely pious.When we wrote at that time, we couldn’t talk about fame and wealth at all, because the sales volume of "Modern Literature" was always around a thousand copies, which could not attract the attention of the society, and the funds were insufficient to pay the manuscript fee.At that time, our efforts to create may also have a young ideal and a sense of mission, to create a new style for Taiwanese literature.Looking back now, we spent ten years on the wall of the cold magazine "Modern Literature", which was very beneficial to our future writing career.But it has no worries about fame and wealth, and when writing, you can boldly innovate. Anyway, if you are a newborn calf, it is nothing to worry about if you make mistakes.The tempering during that period really laid the foundation for us.Now there are many newspapers and magazines in Taiwan, with high manuscript fees and bonuses. Young writers become famous too quickly, which may not necessarily help their creation.Literary creation is indeed a arduous and lonely self-struggle, self-transcendence, and it should not be encouraged by seedlings.The serious and simple style of writing in the 1960s can't help but make people miss it.

The founding of "Modern Literature", for me personally, is the most meaningful thing is that I have met a large group of like-minded literary friends. Everyone works on the same magazine at the same time, and there is a kind of mutual encouragement invisibly. This is probably the so-called It is indeed a pleasure to "meet friends through literature".The most commendable thing is that the writers who contributed to "Modern Literature" have different writing styles and literary views, and they live in peace with each other.I can’t think of any disputes between us over differences in literary views. Xining, Cai Wenfu, Wang Zhenhe, Chen Yingzhen, Huang Chunming, Shi Shuqing, Li Ang, Lin Huaimin, Qi Dengsheng, etc., as well as several basic writers of "Xianwen", Ouyangzi, Chen Ruoxi, Wang Wenxing, myself, and a large group of poets, all kinds of people, Gathering together, we were able to "harmonize but differ", I think it was because everyone had a consensus on literature at that time: articles are eternal things and immortal achievements.Under this major premise, the differences between individuals appear insignificant.Everyone said their own things without interfering with each other, and for a while there was a situation where a hundred flowers bloomed. Although "Modern Literature" is named "Modern", it is not defined in one respect. Although the term "local literature" did not exist at that time, some representative writers who were later considered to be "local literature" and their works have long been in the literature. It has appeared in "Modern Literature". "Modern" and "native land" have never been opposed in this magazine, and often in a work, these two elements go hand in hand, and literature has infinite possibilities It is also one of them to express local feelings with modern techniques.For example, Wang Zhenhe's first novel "Ghost? North Wind? Man" published in "Modern Literature" is a truly rural yet completely modern masterpiece.

In the 1960s, there were not many magazines that took a serious literary line and advocated experimental innovation. During that period, "Modern Literature" provided a literary garden, allowing a large group of talented and ideal young writers to sow seeds, cultivate them, blossom and bear fruit, and most of them will be successful in the future. , became the backbone of Taiwanese literature.This, I am afraid, is the greatest contribution of "Modern Literature".Later, the "Literary Quarterly" was founded, which also trained many outstanding writers and created a new creative direction.To this day, I still remember the surprise I felt when the first articles of several writers were published in "Modern Literature".One day in the hallway of the College of Liberal Arts at National Taiwan University, three students from a class lower than ours came to me and wanted to contribute to "Xianwen", namely Du Guoqing, Zheng Hengxiong (Qianshi) and Wang Zhenhe.When I got Wang Zhenhe's debut work, I immediately circulated it to Wang Wenxing and several people for appreciation. Everyone was amazed. I seemed to have seen Wang Zhenhe's future at that time.My painter friend Gu Fusheng gave me a novel "Confusion", which was written by his female student. The girl was only sixteen or seventeen years old. I was quite surprised. I said that the novel was very strange. That girl If there is a geek, I took it to "Xianwen" and published it.That girl's name is Chen Ping, who will be Sanmao in the future.Many years later, Sanmao revealed that it was because of the publication of "Confusion" that she decided to abandon painting and start her writing career.In the past, I only knew that Xi Song was a talented young painter, but I didn't know that he was also talented in literature.Once he told me very calmly that he had written a novel and asked me to read it.When I saw it, I was taken aback. "Nezha in the Conferred Gods List" is like a radiant night pearl, which dazzles the eyes.It was an allegorical novel that I wanted to write myself but failed to write.I received twenty-three issues of "Modern Literature" in the United States, and there was a novel "Gecko" that caught my attention. Shi Shuqing was actually a girl studying in middle school.These discoveries have brought me great joy.Those writers were all so young at the time, and they had extraordinary bearing when they shot. "Modern Literature" has indeed published many excellent short stories, and some of those works can still stand the test of time today.

With the transformation of Taiwanese society and the boom of commerce and industry in the 1980s, the living space of literary magazines run by colleagues in Taiwan was almost zero.The diversified industrial and commercial society is full of vigor and courage, but it also has its side of being impetuous and eager for quick success.The development of Taiwanese literature has always been one of the things I am most concerned about. I always hope that Taiwanese literature will be strong and prosperous, with deep love and deep responsibility, so there are inevitably many worries.So I thought that if "Modern Literature" could be republished, and the spirit of pioneering wasteland that the writers of "Xianwen" used to reappear to young readers in Taiwan, it might have a kind of inspiration for some young people who are interested in literary creation. Encouragement, because after all, their current objective conditions are much superior to ours. If they are willing to overcome difficulties and work hard, their achievements will definitely far exceed ours.This ambition has finally come true.Last summer in Taipei, I met Mr. Wu Dongsheng and Lin Bofeng, the directors of Yunchen Publishing House. They were full of enthusiasm for the promotion of cultural undertakings. They agreed with my idea and agreed to republish the first to fifty-first issues of "Modern Literature".They respect the consistent spirit of "Modern Literature". This republishing is not for profit. If there is a surplus, a literature fund may be established to reward young writers for writing and publishing.Most importantly, the republished "Modern Literature" will have a popular edition at a low price, so that young students can also afford to buy it.For this reprint, issues 1 to 51 will be published first, because the previous "Modern Literature" has not been stored for a long time, and the historical value may be greater. If there is an opportunity in the future, the 22 issues of the later period will be supplemented.Of course, there are also many important writers and their works in the second twenty-two issues: Ma Sen, Huang Fan, Chen Yuhang, Wu Nianzhen, Song Zelai, Jiang Chong, etc., and several albums "Cultural Revolution Literature" and "Anti-Japanese War Literature" also have its special significance. This time "Modern Literature" was able to republish, Qiu Yanming contributed the most. The famous editor of "United Daily News Supplement" and "United Literature" volunteered to plan the reissue of "Xianwen" without hesitation.She spent a lot of time and energy compiling biographical indexes of writers and works, a chronology of major events, etc., and also strongly invited the writers and editor-in-chief of "Modern Literature" to write "Modern Literature" and Me, recalling the time when she was in "Modern Literature" The situation of contributing to and editing this magazine, these articles will become important historical materials of Taiwanese literature in the future. The growth of "Modern Literature" is closely related to my own writing career. For this magazine, I have exhausted my heart and soul.For it, I have a deep love and no regrets.