Chapter 10 Section 3 "Root-Seeking Literature": Exploring the National Spirit from the Cultural Level

In the mid-1980s, there was an upsurge of "cultural root-seeking" in the literary world. Writers began to devote themselves to digging traditional consciousness and national cultural psychology. Their creations were called "root-seeking literature".Cultural root-seeking is to memorize traditional culture in a critical and reflective way. It is an integration of traditional culture with modern significance, which involves the modern construction of regional culture.The emergence of root-seeking literature has its profound social and cultural background, first of all, the influence of Latin American magic realism literature. In 1982, the Colombian writer Marquez won the Nobel Prize for Literature, which was recognized by the world, stimulating and inspiring Chinese writers Many young writers have seen the hope of the literature of the third world countries to go to the world from Marquez's works full of Latin American regional colors. The unique sensibility to interpret and transform Western cultural concepts and art forms, so as to solve the problems of spiritual poverty and other problems faced by the development of contemporary Chinese literature. From 1983 to 1984, advocates and practitioners of root-seeking literature exchanged views and held symposiums on the issue of "root-seeking" in literature. At the beginning of 1984, Li Tuo first used the word "root-seeking" in "Creation Communication". In the summer of 1985, Han Shaogong, Li Tuo, Zheng Wanlong, Zheng Yi, A Cheng, Li Hangyu, etc. wrote articles advocating or promoting the idea of ​​root-seeking literature , Han Shaogong's "The "Roots" of Literature" was later regarded as the manifesto of the literary root-seeking movement. He said, "Literature has roots. The roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions. If the roots are not deep, the leaves will not grow." He believes that Literature "seeking roots" is "a new understanding of the nation" and "to reveal some roots that determine the development of the nation and the existence of human beings". (10) Secondly, because writers felt the profound restriction of "culture" on human beings, they tried to grasp it.Reflections on the "Cultural Revolution" made people generally believe that the "Cultural Revolution" was the restoration of pre-modern feudalism. Advocating scientific democracy and reflecting on tradition to move towards the future have become the main social and cultural trends after the Cultural Revolution. After literature has experienced reflection and reform trends, It also began to deepen the reflection from the social and historical level to the exploration of the national cultural psychology of the original meaning of things, and explore the internal relationship between historical mistakes and the accumulation of national cultural psychology.Zheng Wanlong believes that "seeking roots" is "strive to reveal the psychological quality of the entire nation in the deep structure accumulated in historical life, so as to find the inner power to promote historical progress and cultural renewal." (11) Li Qingxi said that literature becomes the "root" of culture , not in Confucianism, but in regional culture—the philosophy of Lao and Zhuang that originated in the Western Zhuxia, and the colorful Chu culture represented by Qu Yuan, characterized by humor, coquettishness, games with ghosts and gods, and open and frank sexual concepts Wuyue culture and so on.Zheng Yi and Acheng also criticized the sublation of traditional culture in the construction of new culture since the May 4th Movement. fracture.In short, I believe that the culture since the May Fourth Movement is a "rootless" culture, and hope to make up for this "cultural fault zone" with literature.These theories make root-seeking writers always retain a political and humanistic ideal and a deep sense of self-examination.

Secondly, in the 1980s, with the collision of Chinese and Western cultures that accompanied the wave of modernization, people had to face cultural comparisons and the evaluation of different cultural values. "spirit" in order to obtain the ability of the national spirit to save itself (12).Radar believes that "the main clue to explore the national soul is by no means the author's fantasy, but that many writers breathe and accept the thick air of the awakening of national self-consciousness, reflect on the living state and spiritual state of our nation, and anxiously seek the way to strengthen the national soul. reflection.” (13) While being warmly welcomed, this trend of thought has also been questioned and criticized. Some people worry that this trend of thought will lead to a return to traditional culture that requires critical reflection. The living and cultural forms of remote, wild, and primitive unorthodox cultural areas are far away from the problems and contradictions of real life in society, so that the trend of root-seeking thoughts is quickly diluted by new realistic novels that reflect real life, and some novels that tend to seek roots It has the characteristics of "post-root seeking", and the depth and breadth of its reflection of social history and culture have surpassed the creations of the advocates of that period.

Wang Zengqi's short stories "Being Precepted" and "Da Nao Chronicles" are regarded as important works of seeking roots. Most of these works are based on the old life of the author's hometown in Gaoyou, Jiangsu, showing the unique folk customs and customs, folk survival ethics and specification. The description of the pure and beautiful love between Xiaoyingzi and the little monk Minghai in "Abstinence" shows the simple and natural human nature. The writer artificially suspends the real society, and goes deep into the truth of existence to find the value and meaning of life. He believes that "customs It is a lyric poem of life created collectively by a nation.” His novels meticulously inspected the residence, food, clothing, language, communication methods, wedding and funeral etiquette, religious beliefs, etc. in his hometown of Gaoyou, which greatly expanded the history of the Cultural Revolution. space for literary expression.His novels present the natural form of daily life. He uses simple and simple prose to describe the beauty and healthy human nature of rural folk life. He is good at discovering the unique vitality of the folk and expressing the inner joy of ordinary people. He said " What I pursue is not profundity, but harmony” (14), his artistic pursuit is intrinsically related to the artistic pursuit of Beijing school writers in the 1930s and 1940s. To some extent, Wang Zengqi’s novels continue Shen Congwen's literary selection and aesthetic pursuit.Jia Pingwa's "Shangzhou Series", Li Hangyu's "Ge Chuanjiang Novels Series", Mo Yan's Northeast Gaomi Township, Zheng Wanlong's mountain villages on the border of Heilongjiang, Ureertu's Ewenki life, etc., can all be integrated into the "root-seeking" induced In the trend of folk customs narrative.Secondly, "folk flavor novels" with a strong regional flavor, such as Beijing described by Deng Youmei, "Jinmen Series" by Feng Jicai, Suzhou alleys by Lu Wenfu, etc., have extensive and in-depth investigations on urban life and the evolution of customs. The portrayal of ordinary citizens' speech, psychology, emotion, behavior and values ​​is subtle and vivid, with obvious characteristics of seeking roots.

Root-seeking writers are much more complicated and ambiguous in terms of ideological tendency and value evaluation than scar, reflection and reform writers. After experiencing admiration for "traditional culture", they began to reflect and began to criticize "non-standard" traditions. He has a strong interest in culture, and then shows the cultural implication in wild history, legends, folk songs, and folk customs in remote areas in his creation, and excavates the cultural essence of Taoism and Zen philosophy, while the "normative" system centered on Confucian culture However, he held an attitude of criticizing and rejecting the feudal ethics, thus continuing Lu Xun's tradition of criticizing feudal ethics.

Acheng's novella was published in 1984, and it was based on the life of educated youths. However, the author deliberately downplayed the characteristics of the political era in which the story took place, dispelled social contradictions, and focused on the basic survival level (eating) and the spiritual level (playing chess). To show the life of ordinary people in the "Cultural Revolution".Wang Yisheng is an educated young man who is born weak. He has a strong interest in eating, because eating is a need for survival and a basic desire for survival, while playing chess is his spiritual need and a kind of spiritual cultivation for himself. .He is a person marginalized by politics and the times, and has a strong self-awareness in his heart. If he wants to gain a firm foothold in the political turmoil and gain the value and meaning of his own existence, he has to maintain his own spiritual balance. It is a way to maintain inner balance and adapt to various changes in the outside world, so playing chess has become the way of Wang's life.When Wang Yisheng defeated the former county champion and became the king of chess, he had already become a sculpture with a sense of immortality. "Playing chess" became a display of vitality, and he realized the value of life through "playing chess".His philosophy of life is a manifestation of the spirit of Chinese Taoist culture. The specific manifestations are: don't follow the trend, don't follow the dirt, stay firm in your determination, be consistent in integrity, detached from the world, relieve worries and worries, cultivate your feelings, cultivate your nature, concentrate on reverie, understand nature wonderfully, I forget both, leave form and go to wisdom and so on.His attitude towards life and realm of life show the full inner freedom. The novel contains the author's conscious pursuit of the realm of freedom and unfettered free personality, reflecting the spiritual dilemma faced by modern people and the goodness of people's conscious transcendence. will.The novel's vigorous exaggeration of the characters' spiritual pursuit of "transcendence" has a certain degree of realistic criticism. The seemingly pure spirit of birth contains their strong desire to realize their self-worth. Extreme characters express their attempts and explorations to find ideal spirits from traditional Chinese culture, and regard Taoism as the basis for people to transcend secular life in "troubled times".

As an advocate of root-seeking literature, Han Shaogong practiced his theoretical propositions in his novels such as "Going Back" and "Nv Nv Nv". He is good at discovering human nature with a strong sense of "seeking roots" and a sense of form Inertia and stubborn national inferiority.In the novel, he created the cultural image of Bingzai. Bingzai is an idiot and dwarf who will never grow up and die. The static, closed, ignorant and dirty Jitou Village is a remote, backward, almost primitive and barbaric village full of mystery and witchcraft. The author presents to readers a production mode and lifestyle with ancient consciousness and primitive people's thinking. In front of it, it is intended to criticize and magnify the ignorant, wild, and stubborn "collective unconsciousness".This kind of primitive consciousness is mainly manifested in: people in Jitouzhai believe that all things have spirits, and Bingzai Niang once burned a big green-eyed naked spider to death, which offended the gods, so she gave birth to a son with a disabled heart; When the rotten seedlings are rotten, they take the cubs to sacrifice to the God of Valley. When they hear thunder, they think that the gods are dissatisfied with the thin sacrifices; the villagers also believe in all kinds of superstitions, omens, and taboos. Sexual prostitution, teasing women when they see them; people who eat fish and chickens will live with fish and chickens; sticking red paper can ward off evil spirits, pouring manure can cure madness, etc.; Take one hair of the woman they love and tie it to the tree in front of the door, and recite the "flower curse" 72 times, and they will be able to charm the woman; Victory and defeat; they stick to the primitive and blind ancestor worship and the authority of the elders. They set up ancestral halls, repair genealogy, and sing ancient songs during the New Year and festivals and weddings and weddings. The poisonous water, let the old and the weak follow the precedent of the ancestors to take the poison and die, and everyone obediently drinks it; not only that, the youth and children in the village also regard the insult to the dwarf Bingzai as everyone's pleasure, Inflicting brutal brutality on him at will, "fighting wrongs" between villages has become a traditional custom, men are brave and ruthless, and group vendettas happen from time to time.All of these have lasted for thousands of years before the cultural image of Bing Zai came into being. Han Shaogong concentrated all the problems existing in traditional culture on Bing Zai. The emergence of Bing Zai is the result of the loss of the "root" of Chinese culture. This character image conveys the author's dilemma of being nostalgic and hating for traditional culture. Bingzai not only does not grow up, but also becomes stiff. Our culture lacks the ability to criticize and innovate.The author regards Bingzai as a symbol of life, and regards the atmosphere and environment in which he lives as a solidified social space. The life form revealed in the novel has become the nation that is still preserved in our remote and backward areas. At the same time, it has become a steady state consciousness structure that penetrates into the "collective unconsciousness" of our nation. Han Shaogong exaggerates and magnifies it in order to attract the attention of treatment.However, the author's exploration is still at the level of criticism, and fails to provide more ideological and cultural content and methodological enlightenment for the creation and construction of future culture. His criticism of national character has not surpassed Lu Xun.In addition, the stylistic experiment of the novel is also a beneficial attempt. The author adopts artistic techniques such as breaking the boundaries between life and death, human and ghosts, time and space, and absorbing European and American modernist time sequence reversal, multi-angle narration, and interlacing of illusion and reality. The novel is permeated with an erratic and confusing sense of mystery, the author's sluggish narrative tone, the gloomy and depressing emotional atmosphere of the whole work, and the symbolic meaning revealed in the mysterious narrative, show the author's love for such a story. The pessimism and helplessness of the decaying, moldy "race" prompts readers to think about deeper cultural implications.The novel's description of mountain customs and natural landscapes, as well as the blended mythology also add pleasing color effects to the content and form of the novel.

Mo Yan's "Red Sorghum" series penetrates deep into the depths of "history". In "Northeast Gaomi Township" - the life scene full of wild vitality and primitive vitality, "my grandpa" and "my grandma" In the unrestrained and unrestrained passion of life, we search for the brave and powerful blood of the Chinese nation. Their wild and vigorous vitality turns into the red sorghum field. However, their primitive and wild vitality can bring prosperity, glory and prosperity to this land. Is it modern? Regarding root-seeking, writers either use their own theories or their own creations to express their thinking about history and culture. The real purpose of exploration is for the development and perfection of human beings. In this upsurge of root-seeking, I respect more And I admire Shi Tiesheng's cultural exploration and its significance. His novel "My Remote Qingping Bay" and his essays all show the personal experience and thinking of a physically disabled person on social life and secular life. In his opinion, all People are all disabled and flawed. His continuous attention to the fate and pain of the disabled has already surpassed the experience of individual life, and has risen to humanistic care for universal survival, especially for the phenomenon of "disabled" human spirit. His novels also describe the difficult life and spiritual difficulties of the disabled, but he does not complain about himself. He regards writing as a personal spiritual exploration, which makes his novels have a strong philosophical meaning. He uses warmth and sentimentality. The tone of the book tells about the absurd and ruthless fate and the fateful struggle of human beings.His interpretation of "root-seeking" is the best summary of the meaning of root-seeking literature. He said: "'Root' and 'root-seeking' are two completely different things. One is just, where we come from and why we come here. ... and another one: where are we going, and how are we going".He believes that root-seeking "is seeing the absurdity of life and finding a reliable basis for the spirit." (15) Root-seeking is the eternal destiny of human beings. Root-seeking literature as a trend of thought will become a thing of the past, but root-seeking as a cultural impulse will never disappear.As long as there is still the impulse and desire to seek roots, human beings have the hope of reaching the other side of the world.

Scar literature, reflective literature, reform literature, and root-seeking literature are regarded as diachronic and evolutionary development logics in the history of literature. It seems that the change of time heralds the completion of the literary stage. In fact, the writing of scars and the reflection on history and culture, The search for the roots of human civilization has never stopped, and they have always been an important content of literature in the new era.Although scar literature has raised a series of important social issues after breaking through the various restricted areas of the ultra-left literary and artistic line, it still focuses on "the superficial description of social and life scars", reflecting literature beyond "superficial accusations" and turning to " More inclusive and aesthetically significant works of tragedy appeared in the fields of "more profound historical content" and "summary of historical experience", but the outstanding feature of both is the recollection and caress of the "past", while ignoring the past. In the real life that is happening, reform literature is warmly welcomed by mainstream culture and readers because of its "presentness", because people cannot stay forever in the painful memories and reflections of the "past", and the inferiority of human "forgetfulness" , the natural nature of pursuing the principle of "present" happiness makes people pay more attention to the improvement of the current living conditions, and the transfer of the economic center in the 1980s, the proposal of the "four modernizations", and the gradual advancement of "reform and opening up" have all portrayed a picture for the Chinese people. A beautiful picture of life, blindly grasping the "past" is obviously not in line with the requirements of mainstream culture and economic development, and is also contrary to the natural development of human nature. In addition, the social contradictions that will inevitably arise during the transition from the old system to the new in the early stages of reform and opening up are also urgently needed. Solved, the reform and the Cultural Revolution came into being, and it has become a trend of thought in novels that "combine utilitarian discourse and aesthetic discourse more perfectly" since the new era.However, the reflection on scars was completely terminated by the spring breeze of reform literature, which also caused some humanistic intellectuals to worry. The advocacy of root-seeking literature is a kind of conscious anyway. The discovery of the novel is undoubtedly the fundamental theme of this series of literary thoughts.