Chapter 25 The construction of the idealized image of villagers in the second section
As far as literature in the new era is concerned, it is far from enough to complete the discovery of the national soul. This is only a continuation of the theme of the May Fourth Enlightenment and the theme of national character. The significance and value of literature in the new era lies in further spiritual exploration, trying to use literature Image to construct the idealized form of national spirit.
In 1942, Mao Zedong's "Speech at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" not only played a guiding role in the literature of the Liberated Areas, but also had a profound impact on contemporary Chinese literature.In the 1950s and 1960s, the early days of contemporary literature, writers responded to and even catered to the spirit of "Speech", and consciously used "Speech" as a guide to regulate their creative activities.During this period, in the collective consciousness of writers, the peasants who were oppressed and enslaved in the past have been completely liberated from body to spirit, turned into the masters of a new type of country, and participated in the new life with a brand new image and spiritual realm. nation building.Therefore, in the creation of rural literature, especially rural novels, writers are keen to create ideal and lofty images of peasant heroes, consciously concealing their backward habits and mental illnesses, and emphasizing their various advantages. Instead of exaggerating and highlighting the performance, the overall character of the characters is purified.This new type of peasant image was most praised by the critics at that time in Liu Qing's "The History of Entrepreneurship" by Liang Shengbao.
The single edition of "The History of Entrepreneurship" was published in 1961, and Liang Shengbao can be regarded as a typical representative of the brand-new image of young peasant heroes in that period.Liang Shengbao, as the leader of mutual aid and cooperation, has no distracting thoughts and wholeheartedly leads the whole village to take the road of agricultural cooperation.He is selfless, morally perfect, hard-working, and can even put aside emotional considerations for the sake of the collective cause.As the ideal peasant image in the writer's mind, Liang Shengbao completed the cultivation of his own personality in an almost "self-abuse" way.It can be seen that when shaping the character image of Liang Shengbao, the author adopted filtering and purification methods such as idealization, heroization, mythology, and idealization, so that the character has no moral flaws.This approach is also a common way for writers in the "Seventeen Years" literature to portray positive heroes.This method of shaping characters often results in the obvious lack of "richness" and "vividity" of the characters, because this method of purification removes the complex human connotations from the characters, and omits the observation and writing of the natural attributes of people. .Although there are limitations of the times here, and because of Liu Qing's outstanding literary creativity, the characters are kept from lifelessness by relying on many vivid details, wonderful psychological activities and appropriate lyric support, but when we look back many years later, To reinterpret the image of Liang Shengbao, objectively speaking, to a certain extent, "Liang Shengbao", like most of the positive heroes in the "Seventeen Years" literature, is the load of the writer's ideas, lacking authenticity and fullness. flat characters.
It is precisely because the character image is constructed with an idealized posture that Liang Shengbao can be regarded as the perfect representative of a new type of farmer in the writer's mind.Creating such an ideal image of peasants is of course related to the writer's expectation of the power of role models, and it actually contains the potential intention to transform the backwardness of the people in reality.There are both similarities and distinct differences with this. At the end of 1964 and the beginning of 1966, Haoran published the first and second parts of the long rural novel "Sunny Sky". "Sunny Sky" is a text with more essential writing than "Great Changes in Mountains and Rural Areas" and "The History of Entrepreneurship". Xiao Changchun, Secretary of the Socialist Party Branch.As a result, Sunny Sky has been hailed as an excellent literary work that "deeply reflects the sharp and fierce class struggle in my country's socialist countryside and successfully shapes the 'leader who adheres to the direction of socialism'". [11] With the evolution of history, this idealized method of shaping characters has been pushed to the extreme. During the "Cultural Revolution", the leaders of the literary and art circles at that time put forward the "three outstanding" principles of shaping positive heroes in the form of articles, requiring that all works must mainly show heroes, and the heroes portrayed must be tall and perfect, without ideological and character aspects. Weaknesses and flaws occupy an absolute dominant position in the works. [12] Echoing this literary idea, Haoran more consciously and skillfully used the creative principles of "three prominences" and the symbolic method of "typification" in the novel "The Golden Road" published later to create a perfect hero image.Apparently, although "Sunny Sky" and "Avenue of Golden Light" also created idealized heroes, because the novel puts the heroes in the vortex of fictitious sharp and fierce class struggle, it strengthens the class attributes of the characters. This has led to the lack of exploration of humanity and national character in the works.
In the 1980s, Ningxia writer Zhang Xianliang published a series of novels with autobiographical features:, , and so on.In these novels, while narrating his own suffering life experience, the writer writes with nostalgia the kindness, tenacity, love and righteousness, and flexible and strong vitality of the working people at the bottom.For example, in China, Xu Lingjun was mistakenly labeled as a "rightist" during the political movement. After being released from labor camp, he was left on a farm to graze horses and became a horse herder.Once, an old herdsman in his sixties asked him, "What is a rightist?" He said dully, "A rightist is someone who has made mistakes." "The herdsman named "Guo Yuzi" of the Seventh Team said, "The whole year was full of scholars." After hearing this, the old herdsman said thoughtfully: "To be honest, what do you call 'making mistakes'? To be honest, the world is in chaos.” The dialogue between the two herdsmen fully demonstrated that the people at the bottom have their own set of standards for judging people and things that are different from the official ones, that is, honesty, integrity, and kindness.Therefore, Xu Lingjun was not isolated or discriminated against by herders because he was a "rightist". On the contrary, he received their generous and sincere sympathy, love and help. "Guo Yuzi" brought him Xiuzhi, a beggar girl, and wanted to facilitate their marriage.Xiuzhi doesn't have any concept of "rightist" in her mind, she only has the simple rationality of a farmer: she can see that Xu Lingjun is a good and honest person, and that's enough.After learning the news that Xu Lingjun was going to get married, some of the herdsmen on the farm gave him a pot, some gave him a few catties of grain, and some gave him a few feet of cloth, and a young veterinarian initiated a donation of 50 cents per family. A fund was raised for him to set up a family, and even a unity that had never been seen since the Cultural Revolution appeared at the branch meeting, and a resolution was unanimously passed-giving him three days of marriage leave according to the system.After writing this, the writer couldn't help but commented: "People, after all, are beautiful, even in those dark days!" It was the unpretentious love of the working people at the bottom that gave Xu Lingjun strength and helped him through adversity .For this, Xu Lingjun was deeply grateful, so when his father who was a capitalist abroad found him after returning home and offered to help him go abroad, Xu Lingjun refused.He has been inseparable from those folks who have been with him day and night for many years. He understands that the most precious thing he has gained from his life experience over the years is the emotion of the laborers.
In the novel, Zhang Yonglin was stripped of his "rightist" hat and came to a village to become a farm worker, becoming a self-reliant laborer.Here he met the heroic, fierce and infatuated Hai Xixi, and the mischievous, cheerful, passionate and beautiful woman Lana Hua.Of these two unruly low-level laborers, one gave him chivalrous friendship and the other gave him passionate love.Zhang Yonglin "robbed" Hai Xixi's crush on Lana Hua, but on the eve before Hai Xixi was about to give up Lana Hua and go wandering, Hai Xixi found Zhang Yonglin and sincerely persuaded him to marry Lana Hua. And hid a sack of more than 100 catties of soybeans in the haystack, and gave it to Zhang Yonglin and Lana Hua to live.In Lana's poor and warm home, Zhang Yonglin's stomach, which had been hungry for a long time, finally experienced the wonderful feeling of being full.Zhang Yonglin not only got material satisfaction from Lantana, but also got tenderness, sympathy and respect from lower-level workers for scholars in spirit.However, all that Ma Yinghua did to Zhang Yonglin did not ask for anything in return. This is a completely "selfless" love with dedication.So Zhang Yonglin realized: "Selfless friendship, kindness, sympathy, pity... the beautiful feelings of people are not driven away by hunger and hard whips like I used to know, but are precisely Under such conditions, its brilliance is revealed. Destiny, fate, since it dragged me out of the ivory tower, wouldn't it do me no good? The deepest tenderness I have received, the deepest love I have ever encountered in life Isn’t it at such a moment and under such conditions that things are hard to come by?” Zhang Yonglin’s sigh is exactly what the writer wants to express about his own perception of life.In addition, the writer appreciates Hai Xixi's mighty and aggressiveness, and Lantana's unrestrained, open-minded, frank, and mischievous.It goes without saying that the writer's portrayal of the bottom laborers is not only realistic, but also contains his rational imagination of the ideal rural soul.
It is also worth mentioning that Zhang Wei, a Shandong writer, has had a great change in his attitude towards the countryside.In works such as "Thoughts in Autumn" and "The Wrath of Autumn", Zhang Wei has a critical attitude towards the countryside, because it is full of exploitation and oppression of the common people by bullying the weak and those in power, rebellion and opposition to the countryside. The disgust of ugly national character has achieved a resonance relationship of heterogeneity and isomorphism.Taking "September Fable" as the boundary marker, Zhang Wei regards the earth as the eternal destination of human beings in the face of the hustle and bustle of industrial civilization and the impetuousness and depravity of urban people. This is due to the rural complex in his blood and the peace of the countryside , Tranquil, friendly poetic human imagination.
In addition to praising the harmonious beauty of rural life and healthy human nature, the old writer Wang Zengqi's "Being Precepted" and "Da Nao Ji Shi" also conveyed his appreciation and pursuit of an ideal attitude towards life.In "The Precepts", Ming Hai became a monk at a young age in order to make a living.The people around him are still intimate with him, and no one discriminates against him. There are no clear rules and regulations in the nunnery where Ming Hai became a monk. Monks can marry wives, find lovers, fall in love, kill pigs, eat meat, and sing songs. Some unrefined sour songs, in the local customs, monks can even elope with women.In "Da Nao Ji Shi", the tinsmiths are very loyal. They support the disease, exchange what they need, and distribute the money fairly; Come down with your legs spread wide apart.Like men, they wore straw sandals on bare feet, and like men, they were not afraid to be cold and swearing at others with the same words that men cursed.Girls are a little more elegant. Once you become a daughter-in-law, Jiang Taigong has no taboos about fishing; there are very few marriages here, and the people who play the sedan chair can't earn their money. Most of the daughter-in-laws come here by themselves. Find someone; they are more casual in the relationship between men and women.It is not uncommon for a girl to have an illegitimate child at home. It is not uncommon for a daughter-in-law to "rely on" another other than her husband.After Qiaoyun was raped by Captain Liu, she did not look for death like a mourning concubine, but still lived her life calmly and peacefully.None of the neighbors talked or pointed at her behind her back. Everyone just felt sorry for her. The little tinsmith did not dislike Qiaoyun, and frequently dated her at night, and even slept in her bed.The brothers kept the secrets for them in front of the master, and quietly reserved the door for the little tinsmith at night.All of these reveal a kind of unrestrained, unrestrained, tolerant, straightforward and natural attitude towards life and the pursuit of freedom in life.And this kind of attitude and pursuit is exactly what the writer yearns for, and it is also what the Chinese nation, deeply constrained by Confucian ethics and ethics, lacks and needs.
Similar to Wang Zengqi's pursuit is Shaanxi writer Jia Pingwa.Since 1982, Jia Pingwa has successively published the "Shangzhou Series" of works. Among these novels and essays written for Shangzhou, especially the local chronicle-style prose such as "Shangzhou Chulu" and "Shangzhou Youlu" In the book, the author described the importance of Shangzhou's geographical location, rich products, beautiful scenery, glorious history, and the primitive and mysterious frontier culture of Shangzhou in an exaggerated tone.More importantly, the writer has captured the inherent temperament, spirit and overall cultural atmosphere of Shangzhou.This kind of temperament and atmosphere is quite in line with the spirit of Taoism: in "A Ditch in Mangling" in "The First Record of Shangzhou", the people in Mangling "grow up a little, and their minds will become wild. Catch sparrows in the trees, fish in the water, like wild kites on the cliff in front of the door, run away as soon as they come out of their shells, fly away, break into the sea of mountains, and the sea of forests. When they grow up, they will farm on the hillside during the day At night, I hugged my wife and snored on the kang.” [13] These Shangzhou mountain people living in a foreign country are the real children of nature.They keep a pure heart, play in the mountains and rivers, have no utilitarian thoughts, no scheming and tricks, and live freely and happily.They retain and develop the good factors in human nature.Everyone breaks their straw sandals on the way and puts on new ones. They put the old straw sandals on the side of the road. When the people behind come here, they may also have a broken straw sandal, so they look for it in the sandals put down by the people in front. Replace with a better one.What's even more amazing is, "In front of the house in this ditch, there are black porcelain pots and white porcelain thick bowls on the stone strips. The bamboo leaf tea in the pots can be filled without charge. This has almost become Their family rules, the thirsty and dry tongue when walking on mountain roads, seems to be related to them, and it is their duty to serve tea and water. If there is a meal, they have to knock on the edge of the bowl with chopsticks endlessly." [14] ]
Obviously, the writer has poetically described the local conditions and customs of Shangzhou, exaggerated the life attitude of Shangzhou people who are indifferent to the world, indifferent, simple, calm and peaceful, and made Shangzhou camp a dust-free paradise, which is fascinating. Fascinated by God, I yearn for it.It can be seen that Jia Pingwa was too intoxicated with this frontier culture, possessed a color of cultural idealism, and lacked historical rationality.For a writer who has received the baptism of modern civilization, it cannot but be said to be quite a serious deficiency.Judging from the author's creative intention, Jia Pingwa wants to describe a poetic utopian world for us, but the real rural world is not so pure, and Jia Pingwa is not ignorant of it.For example, in the Inscription of "Shangzhou Re-recording", which talks about the splitting of the subject's emotions, Jia Pingwa wrote with mixed feelings:
"Of course, there are other discoveries and feelings that surprised me. This trip to Shangzhou is different from Shangzhou when I was a child, and even different from going to Shangzhou the year before last. I just feel that Shangzhou is not what it used to be Shangzhou... This makes me angry. After thinking about it, I feel that with the changes of the times, these mountain people have not only preserved the ancient traditions, but also infiltrated the fashion of modern civilization. They are treating land, morality, and marriage On many issues of life, family, social life, and worldly conditions, there are traditional good things, modern beautiful things, traditional evil things, and modern ugly things." [15] It can be seen that, as early as in "Shanghai During the period of "Zhou Zai Lu", Jia Pingwa already had the problem of splitting the subject of speech.The reason why Jia Pingwa wrote about the rural world in his memory in the later "Xijing" series of urban-themed novels, such as in "Xijing" as always, is because the rural world is very easy to be indifferent to human feelings. It is in stark contrast to the city that is busy, busy, hypocritical and cunning, full of temptations and traps.Therefore, the beautification of rural life in these works is tantamount to expressing the writer's evasion and boredom of modern civilization, and his crusade and criticism of alienated human nature and lifeless urban life.This kind of critique of the degeneration of species and yearning for strong vitality is more clear in Jia Pingwa's works.In fact, what the writer misses is not limited to wolves. What he misses is vigorous and even brutal vitality, sound humanity and an unrestrained, unhindered way of life.
It is Mo Yan who pushed this way of life to the extreme. In the "Red Sorghum" series of family novels published in the 1980s, Mo Yan described the wildness of "my grandpa" and "my grandma" with hearty pen and ink. It is a legendary experience full of primitive wildness and life strength, which is flamboyant, unrestrained, unrestrained and enthusiastic, fearless and unrestrained.Such a Dionysian state of existence is obviously incompatible with the basic ethics and principles of life advocated by traditional Confucian culture, such as self-denial, courtesy, tolerance, and humility. It is the author's search and longing for the ideal state of national strength and courage.And Mo Yan’s other novels, “Write about contemporary rural life, farmers’ emotions, living conditions, and the repression and distortion of human nature, such as "The Blonde Baby". These two works seem to constitute a contrast, and It implies a critique of the cowardice and weakness of the descendants living in it." [16]
This longing for strong vitality is more complicated in the texts of Shaanxi writer Lu Yao.Lu Yao was born in Qingjian in northern Shaanxi. Northern Shaanxi is in the transition zone between nomadic culture and agricultural culture. There have been several major ethnic integration climaxes in history. Therefore, the people and culture of northern Shaanxi are deeply influenced by nomadic culture. Haru is no exception.The flamboyant and frivolous side of nomadic culture formed a complex of "hero worship" in Lu Yao's subconscious, which externalized into a series of strong, masculine, and indomitable "tough guys" images in the text.Different from Jia Pingwa and Mo Yan, the vitality of these tough guys is not manifested in a kind of almost primitive brutality, or a kind of openness and innocence of ignorance and inaction, but in their attitude of never bowing their heads in the face of suffering.
Chinese writers have had a strong sense of suffering since ancient times. Especially since the 20th century, in the process of national modernization with many disasters, anxiety and suffering awareness have become the common life experience of writers, and thus formed the Chinese literature of the 20th century. Typical aesthetic tone: "sadness" [17] Different from this, Lu Yao's narration of suffering gives people a kind of "tragic" aesthetic enjoyment: although suffering is everywhere, it does not make people lose their fighting spirit.On the contrary, it will give people an incentive to get more and more frustrated.Because the characters in Lu Yao's works never give up their beliefs despite repeated hardships, which is highly consistent with the spirit of "Heaven moves vigorously, and a gentleman strives for self-improvement" advocated by Confucian culture.This is not only the reaction of the characters to suffering, but also Lu Yao's consistent attitude towards suffering, and it also forms Lu Yao's unique style of writing suffering.
Lu Yao not only repeatedly writes about suffering in his novels, but also likes to push the suffering of the characters to the extreme.Therefore, some commentators believe that: "Lu Yao's novels belong to the typical narratives of purgatory experience in life. He is a writer who regards the suffering experience of life as the theme of his novels. But he does not complain about exaggerating suffering, and does not simply write Suffering itself, but to write about human dignity, moral passion, unyielding spiritual strength in the face of suffering, and inner enthusiasm for a better life through suffering. Always emphasize people's strong will to survive and optimistic attitude towards survival in the face of suffering, It is a feature of Lu Yao’s life experience narrative in purgatory. The epiphany, sublimation, and rescue from purgatory constitute the complete plot structure model of Lu Yao’s novels.” [18] It should be noted that Lu Yao’s suffering is too much The poetic and sublime treatment makes the characters in his works have a certain masochistic color, which is also the popular attitude towards suffering in the "Seventeen Years" literature.
In contemporary Chinese literature, there is also an overrated writer who likes to push the plight of characters to the extreme——Yu Hua, and Yu Hua's He is a typical text in this regard.But the huge difference between Yu Hua and Lu Yao lies in: Yu Hua makes the characters in his works endure and submit blindly in the face of suffering, instead of fighting against fate unrelentingly. It seems that "living" itself is the ultimate goal of these characters. People who have not yet awakened their consciousness, and what Yu Hua appreciates is nothing more than a kind of "slave philosophy"-the national inferiority that Mr. Lu Xun vigorously criticized many years ago.It is not difficult to see from this that, not to mention the insurmountable gap between Yu Hua and the literary giants, there is still a big gap between Yu Hua and Lu Yao who is not far away from him.In addition, when Lu Yao writes about suffering, he regards suffering as an aesthetic object, not to show and show off suffering, but to discover the tenacious will to life of ordinary people and the deep friendship among the people at the bottom from the suffering, and discover the Spiritual power to exalt and elevate.
On the other hand, these tough guys, such as Sun Shaoan in "The Ordinary World", are brave enough to take responsibility in a big family, willing to sacrifice their own future, respect their parents, and love their siblings. No self", "benevolence and righteousness", "filial piety" and other demeanors are the portrayal of Lu Yao's ideal national image.Not only these tough guys, in Lu Yao's works, whether it is Master Deshun and Liu Qiaozhen in "The Ordinary World", or Sun Yuhou, Shao'an's mother, and Tian Xiaoxia in "Ordinary World", they are all so kind and generous, always thinking of others and their loved ones. With the one you love, you can sacrifice everything about yourself, never think about yourself, and the brilliance of beautiful humanity shines on your body, cultivating and improving readers' taste and life realm, and warming and nourishing readers' hearts.Obviously, Lu Yao's novel narrative has a strong moral tendency.The author believes that it is not appropriate to make a simple moral evaluation of literary phenomena.The problem is that although excellent literary works have multiple spatial expressions, once literature loses the dimension of morality, it ridicules goodness and purity, is indifferent to evil, appreciates and agrees with depravity, and is indifferent to the misfortunes of the people at the bottom. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to enter the ranks of great works.When we read Lu Yao's works, we are still moved and weep to this day, and deeply appreciate the dignity of being a human being and the beauty of living a noble life.That sublime aesthetic experience strongly pushes us away from material desires and trivialities, and moves us toward the self-improvement of human nature.This profound human power and beautiful poetic quality endow Lu Yao's works with the peace and warmth of a spiritual hometown. In a modern society where material things squeeze and alienate people, it also has the ability to relieve the spiritual anxiety of modern people. , To avoid the "treatment" effect of the loss of humanity.
In addition to the repeated writing of suffering and the tendency to moralize, Lu Yao's novel narrative style is also worthy of recognition—a passionate narrative style.In the process of reading Lu Yao's works, we always feel that Lu Yao and his characters share the same fate. He is sad, sad, even weeping and regretful for them, and sometimes cheers for them, but he is not attached to their feelings. Vision, able to jump out of their world and comment on what they are doing from time to time.In short, the writer's subjectivity is particularly prominent.With limited reading experience, we know that an excellent literary work is not only a mirror, but also a lamp, which not only needs to be displayed, but also needs to illuminate the darkness.In such works, the main body of the author will always stand up at the right time, lighten the readers' hearts with arguments, and integrate the whole book. This is Lu Yao's most unique rhetorical posture.
The strong awareness of subject intervention in Lu Yao's "rhetorical posture" is due to Lu Yao's highly conscious sense of social responsibility and his "feelings for helping the world" in the hope of promoting social progress through literature: "People should have a sense of responsibility in life, and There should be a sense of mission. We came to this world not just to eat some food and put on some clothes before we leave.” [19] As for repeatedly writing about the goodness and kindness of the working people, it is also because people’s moral standards continue to decline in their lives. The real situation has seriously stimulated Lu Yao, making him anxious and indignant. He wants to make people in his own era better self-awareness through comparison and ideal calling, so as to correct this perverted world style: "In contemporary real life, In the past, we often see such a phenomenon: the increase of material wealth, but the decline of people's spiritual realm and moral standards: money worship and indifference among people, there are a lot of existence in our lives... If If we cannot overcome this unfortunate phenomenon within the whole society, then it will be difficult for us to complete all missions with lofty significance.” [20] This kind of compassion for the world has been realized through writing: Lu Yao’s works purify and comfort people’s It is regarded as the "Bible" by those who are at the bottom and are not satisfied with the status quo, inspiring them to change their destiny through personal struggle.Even today, when people are overwhelmed by popular cultural concepts such as cynicism, dispelling the sublime, identifying with ruins, and escaping from ideals, rereading Lu Yao's works will also help to reconstruct these values and cares and redeem people's souls.These forces make it easier for Lu Yao's works to achieve the effect of "creating a human being" as Mr. Lu Xun called it. This is the underlying reason why Lu Yao's works are still popular until now, and it is also a force that is generally lacking in current popular narratives.
In Shaanxi literary circles, Chen Zhongshi is a writer who shares three parts of the world with Lu Yao and Jia Pingwa. In 1993, Chen Zhongshi published a novel with a sensational effect. This novel achieved great success against the backdrop of the overall decline of contemporary rural narratives, and also established Chen Zhongshi’s status in literary history, not only because it is rare in historical narratives The authenticity and "polyphonic" style of the novel also lie in the creation of a series of lifelike, rich and full characters, such as Bai Xiaowen, Heiwa, Tian Xiaoe, etc., among which Mr. Zhu and Bai Jiaxuan are ideal characters favored by the writer.Mr. Zhu studied hard since he was a child, chanting day and night, painstakingly studying Cheng Zhu's opinions, and finally became a master of Bailu Academy with profound knowledge, astronomy and geography. He can be called a model, he lived a frugal life, treated his neighbors kindly, defied power, was humble and sincere, and was known as the saint of Bailuyuan.In Mr. Zhu, Chen Zhongshi embodies his ideals.Bai Jiaxuan's personality is richer than Mr. Zhu's: he is capable and shrewd when he is working on the crops; We know the depth, meticulousness, and cunning of his city; the persecution of Tian Xiaoe and the suppression of Tian Xiaoe by building towers after his death exposed his cruelty and hypocrisy; Bai Xiaowen's change of tough attitude after he became an official made us realize the snobbery meaning.All of these are naturally gathered in Bai Jiaxuan's body. The image of Bai Jiaxuan as a landlord is indeed unique, full of flesh and blood, and ready to emerge.Nevertheless, Bai Jiaxuan's weaknesses are not concealed, and they are organically imposed on the character by the writer in order to make the character more plump and real.After all, on the whole, his hardworking, simple, benevolent and upright character makes the writer even more admirable.In him, it obviously embodies the writer's long-term thinking on how to be a human being and how to "learn to be a good person".Therefore, Bai Jiaxuan is still a figure whom writers admire wholeheartedly.It can be seen that these local works contain the will and efforts of the writers on the self-help of the national spirit and the renewal of the national soul.Lu Yao's works have the strongest participation in reality because of their subjectivity, and the social role of literature is also the most powerful.Chen Zhongshi, who also belongs to Shaanxi writer, is relatively weaker than Lu Yao in terms of saving the souls of modern people.Because the lifestyle and ideal personality it appreciates, such as Mr. Zhu and Bai Jiaxuan, have escaped into the dark night of history, are too far away from the life philosophy of modern people, and do not conform to the general trend of civilization development.As for Jia Pingwa, the negative symptoms such as morbid psychology, vulgar taste, vulgarity, and game-like brush and ink in his later works are quite serious.He wrote these not to use secularism to achieve idealism, but to enjoy and enjoy talking about it. He is really terminally ill. Let alone redeeming other people’s souls, Jia Pingwa’s own soul still needs to be redeemed.However, from Jia Pingwa's soul's irremediable slippage, the author clearly feels the difficulty of soul salvation.The complexity of the soul world lies in that it is difficult for a person to become the master of his own soul.Therefore, the author sometimes thinks in confusion: how to keep watch and redeem our souls? Is it possible to "talk to the soul"?Looking at the history of Chinese and foreign literature, sometimes the space for literature seems to be here.Although the issue of soul salvation is too complicated and difficult, this is the only way to see how valuable Lu Yao is.Of course, there is no need to deny that Lu Yao’s understanding of moral issues is often too much at the pre-modern level, with a clear cultural conservatism, and he has not consciously used modern consciousness to illuminate people’s moral concepts and codes of conduct. This is something we should pay more attention to, and it is also a common problem for Chen Zhongshi and Jia Pingwa.
In the discovery and recasting of the rural soul, the rural writers also have the same flaw: the vacancy of modern consciousness and critical stance revealed by the attitude of cultural conservatism.Let us still take Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi, and Jia Pingwa as examples.Lu Yao can understand the weaknesses of traditional peasants, but he can't analyze the national inferiority mercilessly like Lu Xun, or think twice about the peasants' soul more objectively. Therefore, the rural characters in his works, including "Ordinary World" The brothers Sun Shaoan and Sun Shaoping are relatively flat, lacking the complexity and tension of human nature.The images of women in his works, such as Tian Runye and Tian Xiaoxia in "The Ordinary World", are not fleshy enough, and many behaviors do not conform to the logic of his personality and human nature. His works have a strong sense of morality and feudalism; Chen Zhongshi admires and misses the feudal clan culture that is about to decline and the ideal personality under the influence of this culture. This kind of nostalgia often breaks through the inherent development track of history, showing a certain degree of subjectivity and elegy.Throughout the 1980s, the common name of literature was New Enlightenment, which emphasized the liberation of individuality and thought, advocated humanitarianism, and opposed feudal consciousness.If it is said that some of Lu Yao's works that are not in tune with the times stem from his love for the countryside and the villagers, then Chen Zhongshi's works are undoubtedly influenced by the cultural conservatism of the 1990s.
Jia Pingwa's situation is more complicated.Like Lu Yao and Chen Zhongshi, he has a similar life experience from the countryside to the city, has received the baptism of modern civilization, and has also been educated in institutions of higher learning like Lu Yao. Logically, he should be able to surpass the limitations of peasant culture, but but not.The three writers all lack the self-awareness to criticize the peasants' mental illness, even if they have, they have not reached the depth and strength they should.There is a view that this is the result of their deep influence from senior Shaanxi writers such as Liu Qing.This kind of statement fails to see the essence of the problem, because "it cannot be denied that Shaanxi writers have in some respects broken away from the literary influence of those predecessors who have fulfilled the mission entrusted by history and the times in Shaanxi, and are solemnly completing new works. History and the times have entrusted them with the mission, but because they have not come out from the background of peasant culture consistent with the previous writers, they have formed conservative aesthetic emotions and artistic methods, which have affected the creation of new art.” [21] Indeed, at the deep level of cultural psychology, due to the innate blood relationship with peasant culture, they cannot eliminate the peasant characteristics of thinking mode and aesthetic taste, so they inevitably think about problems from the internal perspective of peasant culture, while It is impossible to question and criticize peasant culture from a more transcendent and overlooked external perspective.Of course, cultural psychology and the inertia of artistic thinking determined by it can be completely changed. If they don’t change, it can only show that the subjective mind of these writers is too passive and conservative, and they have not given full play to their subjective creativity.
Although the reasons why the three writers are called cultural conservatives are different, their modern awareness and critical stance are the same. Therefore, Shaanxi literature is called nostalgic literature, which faces history, faces the future, and has the breath of the times. weak.But this is not just a limitation of Shaanxi writers, but a common problem of almost all rural writers.
Because rural writers generally lack the self-awareness to deeply criticize the peasants' spiritual illness, they cannot think about the duality of rural souls, and they often adopt a conservative attitude in terms of cultural inheritance.的理想国民形象大打折扣：要么过于完美，不够饱满；要么缺乏时代气息，陈腐守旧，这是当下及以后的乡土作家们应该倍加注意的。由此我们又接触到一个延伸的话题：何谓理想的国民性？鲁迅先生曾经反对过“伪”和“诈”，其他作家对于这个问题的正面论述很少。笔者以为，在商业经济蓬勃发展的今天，“诚”和“信”是必不可少的。此外，追求人格的独立，摆脱奴隶根性，富于韧性的生存态度，对完全“物化”的警觉，对“异化”的抗拒，有敬业精神，自强不息，开放的世界眼光和强健的体魄，在巨大压力面前良好的心理素质等，恐怕都是理想国民性的题中应有之义。