Chapter 17 Article 18 Who Can Stand in Literary History

Wang Shuo: When you first think about the splendid, rich, and long history of Chinese culture, if you think about it carefully, there are everyone and no one.Let's talk about modern literature.I thought about modern literature, and those writers who have been judged in university classrooms, that is, Lu Xun, can make sense. The rest are just one article or two articles. The later Shen Congwen was okay.You said the order, Lu Guomao, Balao Cao, only Lu Xun among the first three, Cao Yu is not bad among the last three, "Thunderstorm" almost, "Peking Man" and "Wild Field" are really good. "The Wilderness" really gave me a class education.I originally thought that landlords and peasants were in opposition, maybe at that time there was no concept of class struggle that we later accepted.At that time, landlords and peasants were godfathers and godmothers. This was the real situation in the old Chinese countryside.In the 1930s and 1940s, Lao She had some good things, but in the 1950s, he wrote them in vain.They are no more than an average good writer.

If a writer wants to establish a "wrist", there must be one or two articles that are okay. In fact, it is not particularly difficult to write one or two good articles.Just rely on one or two good things to enter the history of modern literature.In fact, the history of modern literature is not a thing. It has attracted many idlers and useless people, but excluded many serious writers, including people like Eileen Chang. Old Xia: The history of modern literature can be without Mao Dun, but it cannot be without Zhang Ailing. Wang Shuo: Now everyone is writing history, trying to overthrow it and start over.But I don't trust any of these historians.I think they are all compiling history with a lot of prejudice.The professor who ranks writers ranks Jin Yong fourth, how can it be convincing?I often hear people say that he recently wrote a book on the history of literature. Although I haven't read it, I have previous experience in reading history.The current environment and atmosphere make you not believe that he can write so honestly.His personal prejudices will definitely be put in it.

Old Xia: Over the years, "history" has become a footnote of ideology, and doing history has become a routine.When I was in college, the "History of Chinese Literature" edited by Xue You Guoen and the "History of Modern Literature" edited by Wang Yao were nothing more than three major parts: the background of the times, the theme, and the characteristics of art.Re-compiling history now is nothing more than changing to an imported method, and use whatever method is fashionable, such as using the method of text analysis to do it all over again. Wang Shuo: Is it because they are embarrassed to use anyone who is progressive now?Who is behind the way to writing history?

Lao Xia: In fact, there is no satisfactory book on literature, history and philosophy in China today. We don’t have good theorists and historians.The most important aspect of Chinese education is not universities, but middle and primary schools, especially textbooks in liberal arts.The chapters selected in Chinese textbooks spoil the taste of students from an early age, and train students to not know what is good.There is also the composition method taught in China, the classification, how to write essays, how to write narrative essays, etc. Students don't know how to write things, which is no different from the stereotyped essays in the past exams.This set of things, whether ancient stereotypes, modern stereotypes, or foreign stereotypes, is fundamentally the same: to stifle children's creativity.Today's universities are a bit better, with greater freedom in lectures and more opportunities for students to choose.The college entrance examination system has forced primary and middle school students onto the only path of stereotyped thinking. You can't stand on the sidelines, let alone retreat, except to walk along this narrow road, surrounded by cliffs.It's all about the abyss.

The children of the "Cultural Revolution" generation, thanks to the suspension of classes, children's nature can still be stretched and stretched, and the educated youths who go to the countryside can still deal with hoes, dirt clods, pit heads, cows, pigs and dogs... with living things.Today's children, from the time they enter school, seem to learn things that have nothing to do with living life. They are all dead and imposed from outside. Wang Shuo: According to you, the only way out, the way out from the dead, is not to go to school. Lao Xia: I have a very strong feeling abroad that they care about living things and the pulsation of life.

He may not have read many books, but his daily unconscious audio-visual sense has subtly cultivated his sensitivity and concern for living life.This is a kind of permeation, which can be seen and heard every day, and cannot be cultivated by studying.I once accompanied a foreigner to see "Jiao Yulu", and she was interested in Chinese films.There was one scene where her reaction surprised me and was so cute.An old man was seriously ill in bed, his son discussed what to do, and finally decided to go to Secretary Jiao. The foreigner stood up when he saw the vacant space, and said loudly: People are dying of illness, what's the use of looking for Secretary Jiao, they should go to the doctor.Can the secretary of the county party committee cure the disease?How could this movie be made like this? I don't even have common sense.In another scene, Jiao's wife wants to buy some meat, but Jiao is pulled back halfway, saying that it's a difficult time, everyone can't eat enough, we can't eat meat.After returning home for dinner, Jiao's child didn't want to eat corn bread, so he cried and made noises. Jiao beat the child, and then made the whole family sit around the dining table.The foreigner looked at it and said, how could he be so cruel to his own child.You Secretary Jiao wants to serve the people, want to be a Puritan, want to be an upright official, want to become a personal god, that is your own business, you have no right to ask your wife and children to sacrifice with you.In that family dinner scene, in the end, Secretary Jiao sat upright, speaking with a serious expression, the principles of the country and the people.This is not a family eating, it is clearly in the county party committee standing committee.

The wives and children do not listen to the love of their husbands and fathers, but to the lectures of the county party secretary. Wang Shuo: When we were young, we didn't have any real fatherly love, motherly love and family warmth. The older we got, the more we felt that when we were young, adults were busy with revolution, and we had no father or mother. Old Xia: We grew up in a very harsh environment. There was no salt, and we poured water on you, and then suddenly threw you into materialistic desires. Who can resist this kind of temptation? ! Wang Shuo: People who grew up in the red desert are more greedy and vicious than hungry wolves.

Old Xia: Let’s go back to modern literature.Those masters affirmed in the history of literature, such as Mao Dun, Ba Jin, Guo Moruo, Bing Xin, Ding Ling, etc., are far less authentic than Xiao Hong, Zhang Ailing, and Shen Congwen from the perspective of language. Especially Bing Xin and Ding Ling among the female writers, they all imitated the West at first, from writing to emotion, and later this kind of imitation was found in urban novels in Shanghai in the 1940s, Liu Suola, Xu Xing, Ma Yuan, and others in the 1980s. It is repeated again and again in Yu Huamen's novels. Wang Shuo: At that time, Bing Xin's novels were read by everyone, were they also young people?

Old Xia: Bing Xin first appeared as a social "problem novel".Later, under the influence of Tagore, she turned to "To Young Readers". Wang Shuo: Who among the group of modern literature do you think can stand up? Old Xia: Apart from Lu Xun, there is no other master in the history of modern literature.Some people have a little stuff now and then, but really nothing overall. Wang Shuo: What do you think is the reason why Chinese literature has become stagnant? Old Xia: Language problem. The "May 4th" period was the pioneering period of vernacular writing. No matter what people wrote at that time, as long as they used vernacular Chinese, they were creating a new way of language.They are lucky to create without any scruples, and every experiment is meaningful, even the experiment like Qian Xuantong and others who advocate the Latinization of Chinese is also meaningful.

After the initial creation, several language models were formed. Hu Shi represented the plain and calm road. His language style is not good for writing literary works, like doggerel, but it is indispensable for the popularization of new ideas.There is also the aggressive language style of Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao and others. The later "Sun Society" all used this type of language, such as Guo Moruo's literature is the most typical.This hoarse and desperate language was later grafted onto the language of revolutionary slogans, forming the lyrical language of Liu Baiyu, Yang Shuo, and Wei Wei. This kind of exaggerated lyricism was the main theme of the new era of literature.Then there are Zhou Zuoren and others who inherited the Ming and Qing essays, ancient landscape travel notes, landscape poems, the beautiful language of the Song Ci, Zhu Ziqing's prose, Lin Yutang's essays, "Crescent School" things, and Shen Congwen's novels are all of this kind This language, which was almost extinct in the second half of this century, has re-emerged in the literature of the new era.There are also people whose language is translation style, such as Bing Xin, Ding Ling, Shi Cunzhe and Mu Shiying in Shanghai in the 1940s, and a large number of writers.Masters such as Ba Jin and Mao Dun have no language at all. From the perspective of language, they have made very little contribution to literature, and their books can only be used as materials for sociological research on the history of thought.The two female writers, Xiao Hong and Zhang Ailing, are rare in the history of modern literature with literary language talents. They write entirely with women's own things, using the language in the womb.What kind of people they are, they have their own kind of language.Zhang Ailing still has traces of family inheritance, while Xiao Hong writes with no one to rely on, relying entirely on her own genius, and her language is somewhat beautiful.

These language styles have left traces in the later literati, especially the ostentatious language.American language.The language of the translated style.The only thing that cannot be imitated is Lu Xun's language, which is dark, cold, deep, hot, sharp and humorous. Lu Xun's uniqueness is not only in the depth of thought, in the posture of a fighter, but also in language.His language has the gloomy and ghostly spirit of Tang Dynasty poet Li He.Li He died too early, and his poems have neither the moral face of writing, nor the graceful tone of "poems expressing emotions". They are completely different from other poets, and they are not similar to the ghost stories in "Liao Zhai".Li He's poems remind people of the poems of the American poet Dickinson, and feel the black poison in hell. Wang Shuo: His type seems to be rare among Chinese poets. Veteran: Yes.There are too few such poets.Modern Chinese literati are somewhat overwhelmed by traditional American literature. Have you seen anything by Lin Yutang? "My Country, My People"? Wang Shuo: I haven't seen it.I have only read two collections of his essays, all of which are essays. Old Xia: How do you feel about his stuff? Wang Shuo: Originally, I thought Lu Xun was quite unique. After reading it, I found that they had some accents in common.Lin Yutang seems to be a bit more "oily" than Lu Xun, but he is also quite sharp in some things.Their negative attitude towards traditional culture is quite consistent.They all felt that traditional culture was nothing, he was not as intense as Lu Xun, and Lin Yutang spoke in a roundabout way.