Chapter 29 Section 3 The Erosion of Ideals and Spiritual Pursuits in Daily Life

Since the new era, due to the different angles of attention and emphasis on daily life by writers, the theme of daily life presented in literary works has undergone a gradual evolution process. A carrier of desires and spirits appears.Literature has indeed greatly strengthened its focus on human beings, especially on individual survival.From the 1980s to the present, the excavation and expression of the human spirit in the daily expression of literature has also experienced a trajectory of evolution with the main trend of the times. In the 1980s, people pursued self-spirituality and social value, but after the 1990s, people's ideals and spiritual pursuits were gradually eroded and diminished by the ever-enriching daily material enjoyment.

Fiction in the early 1980s was still in a period when the control of political ideology was diminishing.In the process of putting aside the control of literature by the will of political power, writers strive to restore the true face of daily life, and at the same time make people reproduce in literature.It is impossible to completely dispel the atmosphere of non-daily life from the top of daily life, or completely separate non-daily life from daily life, but people have gradually realized the weight of daily life and its own characteristics . Chen Rong's novel was published in the first issue in 1980. This novel truly portrays the protagonist's tiredness and helplessness in the face of the double-sided attack of work and life, career and family.Lu Wenting in the novel is a female doctor with a strong sense of dedication. The success on the operating table and the sense of accomplishment in her career are obviously the most important meaning of her life. The relationship between family members in the family has become an inseparable knot.From time to time, the text reveals a kind of sad emotion. When describing the party that Liu Xueyao and his wife, who are about to go abroad, invite Lu Wenting and his wife to attend, the author uses Liu Xueyao to decipher the origin of this emotion:

Liu Xueyao squinted his eyes, and said, half drunk, "Lu Fangweng's famous saying: 'You are humble, but you dare not forget to worry about the country'! I am an unknown doctor, but I dare not forget the important affairs of the country. Let me ask: Everyone says that the middle-aged is the backbone , but who knows their ups and downs? They have business burdens on the outside and housework on the inside; They endured the torments of life and made huge sacrifices, including their lovers and children who also endured the pain and made sacrifices."..."Unfortunately, their golden years, which were most fruitful, were delayed by the turmoil of Lin Biao and the 'Gang of Four' Now." Liu Xueyao said with a long sigh, "Like you, you are almost jobless. Now, this group of middle-aged people have to shoulder the heavy responsibility of 'four modernizations', and they have to feel powerless. No, this kind of overload operation is the tragedy of this generation's middle age."

The delay of a whole generation by a wrong era is the hardest pain buried deep in the novel.However, compared with the "scar novels" that pointed directly at the "Cultural Revolution"'s spiritual persecution and spiritual trampling on people at that time, the difference is that it did not completely attribute Lu Wenting's spiritual burden to the "Cultural Revolution" brought to intellectuals. Traumatically, life itself exerts no less pressure on a person than that from an ideological level.Lu Wenting did not stop working during the Cultural Revolution. On the contrary, because her husband Fu Jiajie’s laboratory was closed and scientific research projects were cancelled, “He went to work at eight o’clock every day and left work at nine o’clock; he went to work at two o’clock and left work at three o’clock. All his energy and ingenuity were devoted to housework. He provided three meals a day, and learned how to make cotton trousers and knit sweaters. This saved Lu Wenting from worries.” The division of labor in the family formed in the special era has created Lu Wenting As an ophthalmologist's success, the family will not think about anyone, but facing the family means that people have to make sacrifices. If the sacrifice is not career, it must be physical strength or even health.After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Lu Wenting, who not only shouldered the heavy trust of patients, but also shouldered the heavy burden of housework, was exhausted. "Every day at noon, regardless of the extreme heat or cold, Lu Wenting went back and forth between the hospital and her family, put down the scalpel and picked up the kitchen knife, took off her white coat and put on a blue apron. It is no exaggeration to say that this is a battle against the clock. From Turn on the stove, and the food is on the table. All of this must be completed within fifty minutes. In this way, Yuanyuan can go to school on time, Jiajie can pedal back to the research institute, and she can arrive at the hospital on time, put on a white coat and sit in the hospital. In the consulting room, welcome the first patient."

Perhaps the reason why it is warmly welcomed by readers is that it is the first time that it truly expresses the wear and tear of daily life on people. The conflicts between marriage, children, family and career are its core themes, unlike previous novels. , unable to distinguish the line between everyday life and the revolutionary cause to which great significance is attached.The protagonist no longer appears in the image of a hero, superman, or omnipotent. Even though Lu Wenting has superb medical skills and noble medical ethics, she cannot withstand the excessive fatigue brought about by both work and family, so Lu Wenting, who is physically and mentally exhausted, issued the following The exclamation: "Ah! Life, how hard you are!"

Nevertheless, the writer seems to leave some hope for the reader.Some knots in life were untied in the end, and the old man Zhang regained his light after her operation; Qin Bo, the minister's wife who once displeased her and was full of doubts about her medical skills, also admitted her "bureaucracy" She expressed her sincere concern; her colleague Jiang Yafen, who went abroad, opened her heart to express her regret that she could not serve the motherland; Lu Wenting herself finally survived and recovered and was discharged from the hospital.A mentally strong person cannot withstand the torment of life to her body, and this kind of life is not only Lu Wenting's alone, but also the life of most Chinese intellectuals.We feel the weight of life from the article, and understand her strength and dedication from Lu Wenting's illness. Pei Duofei's poem "I Wish I Was a Torrent" appeared many times in the article, not only Lu Wenting's memories of the love era, It is also the passion of life and the ideal of serving the motherland that she cannot bear to discard, but this passion and ideal are in conflict with the tedious daily affairs in reality.The admirable spiritual gains achieved in a life of striving for a career are useless in front of family trivialities. Over time, in such a tug-of-war, personal ideals will appear weak and illusory.

Ideals can also be divided into big and small. Compared with Lu Wenting's desire to dedicate all her energy to the ophthalmology of the motherland, Zhang Xinxin's "Dreams at Our Age" in "Dreams of Our Age" only harbors dreams of love fairy tales.This novel was published in the fourth issue of 1982. The protagonist "she" in the novel is the editor of the publishing house, and a family of three lives in a house of eight square meters.A hazy relationship in her teenage years became a fairy-tale love dream in "her" life.Her love, hate, regret, and helplessness in life, and the adjustment of several emotions all depend on this so-called "childhood sweetheart" emotional fantasy.However, life is unpredictable. When she seeks strength from her endless love dreams to comfort and motivate herself, she finally finds that the dream lover of her "childhood sweetheart" is actually a colleague she doesn't usually like. And neighbor.The unpredictable real life completely shattered the protagonist’s dream, and she immediately compromised with the reality. At the end of the novel, she writes: “So, she went to wash rice, wash vegetables, light gas, and do the most important thing among the three meals a day. dinner".The whole novel is basically written in a stream-of-consciousness technique, delicately portraying the psychological state of an ordinary woman struggling between reality and dreams. Although her ideals are not earth-shattering, they are, after all, a person’s innermost feelings. The hope of life.The novel is scattered with the writer's profound insights on daily interpersonal communication: "The relationship between neighbors who share a unit is more important than the relationship between two neighboring countries"; The world, the scope of your own life does not seem to expand, but shrinks"; "People and people are the most troublesome thing".The novel expresses a sober but also helpless sigh for a person who has never been able to control his own life: "It seems that everything that is real is not on the same path as the route drawn by the wings of fantasy. There is nothing to complain about, just understand Regrets, and get used to regrets unconsciously..."

In this kind of works, there are neither major events nor particularly sharp conflicts. The level of life affairs that is closest to the basic survival needs of people often forces out the blind, selfish, indifferent, and compromising nature deep in human nature. , and "nothing" has become an extremely important feature of ordinary, ordinary people's daily life, just like "Dreams of our age" said: "You can hardly notice it, for the capture of one, one thing, Thinking about these endlessly, every day, every day, you have a constant slight tension. Only when the husband and wife quarrel about something, these trifles that are connected in a line turn up and roll up into a big ball of reasoning. Indistinct turmoil, sometimes grievances to the point of tears. But when it comes time to open my mouth to count, alas, there is hardly a single thing that can be brought up as a serious tragedy material!"

When the novels in the early 1980s restored real life and the images of ordinary people, they still more or less retained the standardized "ideals" in traditional literature that pursued "noble" life values.When someone criticized "Dreams of Our Age" as empty and meaningless, the writer specifically made a statement: "My original intention is to remind my friends of the same generation to face up to the difference between the external world and the internal world in which we live." Real status quo, constantly get rid of our sense of confusion, face the advancing life, and re-discover more realistic and constructive ideals.” (28) This passage reveals the creative mentality of this generation of writers and their values. Faced with the wear and tear of hard life and the gradual nihilization of ideals, they can't take it easy, and at the same time feel at a loss and regret .In the words of the author himself in his works: "Perhaps, this is the ideal education instilled since childhood, the fighting instinct in youth, and the whole situation of insisting that people stay half-dead, and a long-term abnormal psychology. Really. Living in a trivial and busy life, there is always something left in my heart that has not been realized, and may never have a chance to be realized. In the most secret corner, I struggle with the present self in vain, disturbing people in a full and full life. Feeling lost at times.” (29)

Since the mid-1980s, daily life has been stripped of the little bit of idealism and romance left on it.Liu Suola, Xu Xing, Chen Cun and other writers have further put their feet on the ground of real life, and used everyday language as much as possible to eliminate some false and pretentious "sublime" and "romantic". The author pointed out: "We often feel the protagonist's frank and innocent character and the desire to get rid of any falsehood and return to their original life. Rather than rebelling against society-they don't think they can save others-it is better It is said to be a rebellion against oneself, a rebellion against the hypocrisy of being noble, pretending to be gentle, pretending to be erudite, and trying to be deep.” (30) In their works, “Classical philosophy endows history with The rationality of human beings must be replaced by super-rational process randomness and possibility, and the ideal autonomy endowed by the "sublime" is also replaced by the passivity of human beings in secular life. In short, man is no longer an abstract ideal of man, no longer Look for your own hypothetical existence outside the body; there is no separate opposition between the world on the other side and the world on the other side, so there is no need to set up a purposeful dedication mission called superman and hero for yourself—human beings become themselves, become Just be what you are, a 'layman'". (31) Including when scholars commented on Wang Anyi, they also thought that this work was "rich and broad" because "the complexity of secular life itself and the diversity entered her creation for the first time". (32)

From the mid-to-late 1980s to the early 1990s, a group of novel writers who described secular life emerged: Chi Li, Fang Fang, Liu Zhenyun, Yu Hua, etc. These standard-bearers who described daily life led a group of so-called "new realistic "The works, with the purpose of being close to the daily living conditions of ordinary people, are reloaded for readers.So far, Chinese literature has officially included the relatively pure daily life of ordinary people into its focus. "The innovative significance of new realistic novels lies first in making the phenomenon of life itself the object of writing. The works no longer deliberately ask what the meaning of life is, but focus on people's living conditions and ways of living, as well as the emotional and physiological levels of life. From the production of representative novels of this group of writers, we can see that the theme of human daily life has a strong influence on the literature of this period. Importance: In August 1987, Chi Li's novel was published in the eighth issue of "Shanghai Literature"; in 1989, Fang Fang's "Landscape" was published in the third issue of "Contemporary Writers"; in 1989, the first issue of "Shanghai Literature" was published Chi Li's; Chi Li's other article "The Sun Is Birth" won the 4th Hundred Flowers Award of "Novel Monthly" from 1989 to 1990; in January 1991, Liu Zhenyun's novella was published in the first issue of "Fiction World", this article The novel and Chi Li's short story "Whether it's cold or hot or alive" both won the Fifth Hundred Flowers Award of "Fiction Monthly"; Yu Hua's novella was published in November 1992 and won the Sixth Hundred Flowers Award; December 1995 In November, Yu Hua's novel was published in the sixth issue. On the whole, we can summarize the common features of the above-mentioned novels into the following points: 1. The characters come from an ordinary background, and they are either trapped in a mediocre and trivial family life, or trapped in a lack of vitality and interpersonal relationships in a work unit.From Yin Jiahou, Xiaolin, Zhuang Jianfei, Zhao Shengtian to Xu Sanguan, these characters have no lofty ideals, but work hard and worry about livelihood and family harmony and peace. 2. The relationship between characters is mainly based on the relationship between husband and wife, and radiates outward from family members: parents-in-law, in-laws, neighbors, and the farthest is only colleagues and leaders; in such daily interpersonal interactions, conflicts often stay in daily trivial matters In fact, even conflicts are not beyond the scope of quarreling between husband and wife and awkwardness between colleagues. 3. The endings of the novels are all uniformly flat. Although the protagonists of the novels have more or less made sacrifices or compromises in order to achieve a certain balance in life, their mental state eventually returns to the plain and simple life. , stepping towards the depths of the journey of life at a steady pace, the conclusion drawn from this is: the conflicts between people originate from life, and will eventually be resolved in life. Ordinary people can only get out of it if they follow its laws and mediate strategically. 4. There are very few major events in the novel, and even if there are, their seriousness is resolved by the hand of life.Chi Li, Fang Fang, and Liu Zhenyun's writings are nothing more than couples quarreling, worrying about their children, and having conflicts with their parents, siblings, and neighbors. "Struggle" in these novels seems to be an exaggerated expression of family conflicts, and has absolutely nothing to do with conflicts between the enemy and ourselves. 5. All the characters are in the state of "passive life". People are not creating life, but people are being dragged forward by life.Popular lifestyles and thinking concepts are established before a person is born.Going to school, working, falling in love, getting married, having children, no money, no relationship, no flexible character.This passive state of survival directly leads to mediocrity, weakness, emptiness and humbleness in the spiritual world of the characters. The Ah Q-style spiritual victory method still has great achievements in real life. In order to enjoy worldly happiness.For Xiao Lin: "If his wife can bake some chicken for him in the microwave oven and let him drink a bottle of beer after finishing the Chinese cabbage, he will have nothing to be dissatisfied with"; Braised tofu and boiled yuan soup; there is also a plate of green cabbage and a plate of orange-red and transparent five-spice radish sticks. My son eats a bowl of steamed lean meat with eggs alone. All this is enough!". Ideal has become a very unrealistic word for middle-aged people in China, because the world they have to deal with every day has exhausted people physically and mentally.Shanghai poet Wang Xiaolong wrote in his poem "Remembrance" in 1982: "If I want to be a good student from the next day/The alarm clock will stop beating in the middle of the night/I will honestly go to work as a worker/Who knows One day I was called to conduct singing/I want to be a good husband/but the red sausages are always sold out.” Coincidentally, Liu Zhenyun’s opening chapter begins with buying tofu.As an individual's wish or life choice intention, it will always appear small and insignificant in the face of real life. "Xiaolin's world is a house, children, briquettes and nanny, and people from his hometown. So he turns a deaf ear to the lively world." Ideal career, bullshit, that’s what happened when you were young, and everyone is so messed up, so you’ve lived your whole life?” So Xiao Lin’s wife, Xiao Li, who was originally quite poetic, became a woman who stole water after marrying a man. Giving up "backbone" about the commute to work and child care.The writer Fang Fang once summed up the ideals of most modern people in an essay: "The word ideal was radiant and sacred in the past, but it seems to be ridiculous today. In the past, we talked about ideals in vain. How far away is my life, as far away as a vague cloud in the sky, no one knows whether this ideal of theirs is possible to realize. Until one day, people suddenly discovered that the ideal space is too big, and there is no ideal The same. So, people gradually retracted their eyes from the horizon, and put them under their own noses. The ideal gradually shrunk to the eyes. The pursuit of money and fame and the desire to satisfy one's own self-interest are very difficult. It has easily become the lifelong pursuit of many people, that is, the ideal. What I want to say is that the ideal is too small, and it is actually the same as having no ideal.” The mediocrity and triviality of daily life can completely shatter people's ideals, or because of its randomness and unpredictability, it may make people feel that life is difficult and fate is ill-fated. In 2001, Chen Wu’s novel "Daily Life of Cart Puller and Che Xiaomin" ended the life of the protagonist who had a meager desire for happiness in life with a cruel car accident. Che Xiaomin, who made a living by pulling carts for others For a migrant farmer, his happiness is nothing more than being able to have some spare money to buy a packet of oil candy for his children and sick wife.Life is harsh, even, nothing is tougher than life.This grimness not only makes us sympathize with the fate of those living at the bottom of society, but also makes us reflect on what we have lost spiritually in our lives.The writer keenly discovered this problem, and pointed out seriously: "When we stand on the street and see the flow of bicycle people who don't see the front, the back, the expressionless, the same, and the same, we seem to see that life is like a The huge tiger's mouth is devouring us", "Life is serious, and that seriousness does not mean that you have to go up the mountain of swords and go down into the sea of ​​fire... What is serious is the trivial things of daily life day after day, year after year", and "everything Every difficulty that things face is more frightening than mountains of swords and seas of fire. Because everything has to be dealt with by people. Mountains of swords and seas of fire are not terrible. We have the ability to remove them like Yugong moved mountains, and fill them up like Jingwei reclamation It. But we are afraid of people". (34) The severity of life is inescapable for everyone.In the process of completing his own life course, man must face the world he lives in, because "man is born into a world that exists independently of him. This world appears to him as a fait accompli; but it is In this world he must sustain himself, test his survivability.... As he lives in the fluid relationships demanded by a constantly changing society, he must develop the ability to 'shift' where necessary to adapt to a Any change in the series of social frameworks. His life's daily existence is a struggle against the sharp 'edges' of the world." (35) Even Yu Hua, who is quite different from his creations that reflect urban daily life, uses a sense of distance to dispel the historical importance of practice in the process of changing times when shaping the image of ordinary people in the countryside.The creation of this sense of distance not only comes from the writer's language, which uses objectiveness, flatness and even ridicule to reduce the sorrow caused by suffering, but also from the contrast between the relatively stable and firm way of daily life and the drastic changes of the times, and the writer's understanding of A deep understanding of life.After Fugui in the movie has experienced many hardships brought about by the changes of the times, he is still just a farmer standing in the field. The war of liberation and the Cultural Revolution have only become the twists and turns in a person's life. It seems that there is no greater significance outside. He has to experience the many influences of the non-daily life of that era on his daily life. philosopher.The various beatings and tempering from the ideological and spiritual levels in the novel do not appear as some kind of potential motivation for "Heaven will send a great task to people", but just to make people understand: how difficult it is to live. "Alive", the word itself, is enough to dispel the so-called nobility and seriousness of all other events. A large part of the penetration and influence of non-daily life on daily life is accomplished through the work that individuals do.According to the critical theory of everyday life, work has a double meaning: on the one hand, it is itself a specific type of everyday activity, and on the other hand, the process of work is a social and species-essential activity that transcends everyday life.In the interpenetrating system of daily life and non-daily life, the work and unit to which an individual is engaged becomes the main connection and transitional level between the two types of life, and is the core intermediary for the mutual influence of the two.Not only that, but for the individual, the work itself also brings great consumption, "'consumption' also plays a role in the daily work situation: work is not only something that must be done, not only something we do to survive, it It must also be carried out regularly, hour by day, within a given period, which has a corrosive and depleting effect on our strength and capacity."(36) "All other modes of daily activity are precisely work-centered and Center of gravity. . . . Most of the routines are necessarily related to the work in which and by which most human relationships are fixed; marriage is formed with regard to the work and children are brought up to continue it; morality is based on the work center, even most holidays are connected with work in some way” (37) In the novels about ordinary people’s life from the late 1980s to the 1990s, the relationship between Chinese-style “work” and personal daily life, especially It is during the transition from the collective ownership system and the distribution system under the planned economy to the market economy since liberation, the legacy of the old system and the impact of the new system on the daily life of the Chinese people are vividly displayed."Unit" by Liu Zhenyun is the most typical work among them. It is not difficult to see in the works that the hierarchical system and distribution principles faced at work directly affect a person's life emotions. Because of such a seemingly inconspicuous matter as pear sharing in the work unit, Xiaolin almost made him so different from his surroundings. The co-worker relationship between several people is messed up.The novel deeply reflects the embarrassing situation of ordinary employees without background and authority in the work they depend on through the trivial things that happen in the daily work of the unit, such as pear sharing, dinner parties, cleaning, quarrels, and revelations.Kobayashi's desire to "join the party" and "promote" obviously has nothing to do with loftiness. He just wants to improve his personal housing and salary. Under this realistic goal, he focuses on small things, tries to improve his relationship with colleagues, votes for the leaders, and wins support. Tickets matter.In public institutions in the planned economic system, because of the lack of democracy and fair competition, the evaluation of a person in the name of the public often does not follow the principle of fair and reasonable evaluation, but is confused with the rules of human interaction in traditional Chinese culture: regardless of level, seniority ; Regardless of talent, on background; Regardless of ability, on interpersonal relationships.Personal will and ability are useless in such a network of relationships. The so-called elite intellectuals are eventually transformed into ordinary citizens by reality, and they have to learn to calculate and exploit.The details of buying stored winter Chinese cabbage in the middle of the article deeply reflect the restrictions on people’s daily life choices caused by the rationing system under the planned economy system. The piles of Chinese cabbage at home often rot before they can be eaten. However, for the sake of cheapness and reimbursement, Xiao Lin, who had already decided not to sell Chinese cabbage, finally bought back 500 catties of "patriotic vegetables".Not to mention that before "individual and private economy, as a non-public economy, is an important part of the socialist market economy" officially became the content of the constitution, even after that, the social status of the self-employed in China is still far from that of Xiaolin who can't starve to death and can't get rich Gao, an employee of the state unit, and Xiaolin's classmate "Little Li Bai" used to be a talented and arrogant person in colleges and universities. Being looked down upon by others, when Xiao Lin took his face off to help sell ducks to earn "foreign exchange", he felt that he was like a "prostitute" by making money in such a public manner.Although Xiaolin lost some of his "shyness" because of the money he earned, he still lied to the leader, and he was unwilling to lose his "iron rice bowl". In the novel, Liu Zhenyun also digs deeply into the absolute dominance of power hidden in the Chinese social structure over personal life.This kind of power is not only manifested in the relationship between colleagues in the unit, but has deeply penetrated into various corners of life.The old man who reads the water meter in the house has the right to put on airs in front of Xiao Lin; the kindergarten teacher has the right to decide whether the child can enter the nursery and whether he can have fun; the power of the leader naturally determines the transfer of Xiao Lin's wife, and the leader My sister-in-law moved and it was inconvenient to go to work, so the work unit opened a commuter bus; even the nannies of Xiaolin's family were of higher status than Xiaolin, and the nannies could not eat leftovers, but Xiaolin and his wife had to eat.The mutual restraint of power relations also allowed Xiaolin to find a psychological balance. After he took out his shelf to help the lame old man who read the water meter solve an approval document, he accepted the "bribe" of a microwave oven with peace of mind. The novel wrote: "Xiaolin eats I was also very happy eating sweet potatoes. At this time, I also got a revelation, it seems that it is not impossible to change my life, just join in." The operation of worldly power is irresistible to everyone, because it is in every day of life. All of these points may happen, "Individuals are subject to the complex constraints of this power network, and it is impossible to have real initiative or autonomy" (38). When the system of fairness, democracy, and the rule of law is imperfect , Such a network of power relations will inevitably lead to the breeding and spread of corruption. From Yin Jiahou's unwillingness to realize the "elite dream" to Kobayashi's willingness to be an ordinary citizen, every character has a sense of humbleness that is difficult to eliminate. The difference is that the little people in the 1980s are still trying to eliminate The humbleness is the last struggle, and the little people in the early 1990s have admitted to being humble and have adapted to being humble. Not only that, but the little people should try their best to remain optimistic, and they must find and taste the little bit of happiness in the ordinary life .The emergence of this kind of "happiness" not only proves the innate life force of all living beings, but also proves the endurance and perseverance contained in the survival of the most simple low-level people. At the same time, this "happiness" also includes the helplessness and bitterness of the little people.It's not that ideals are unimportant, but that there are too many inclinations in the survival mechanism provided by the whole society, and it is difficult for most people to get a more fair and just opportunity to realize their ideals.Therefore, the "ideal" has been devalued and downgraded, and it has become that as long as it can "live", it proves the existence of the individual.Although all the above-mentioned novels based on real daily life are always full of "comedy" factors in their narrative attitude or language style, the writer's critical attitude can still be seen, and Liu Zhenyun's novels are very prominent in this respect. The writer said, "We have the world, but this world turns out to be the daily trivial things that are so complicated that thousands of words can't explain it clearly. It has become the standard by which we judge the world, and it has also become the symbol we live by and prove our existence. These The trivial matters of daily life exercise our perseverance, patience and hard-working spirit. I remember that some literati love to say: Thank you for life. This makes us feel heavier in life. We have to find a way to be grateful after living a life. Although life makes us mature day by day, but It also makes us grow old and fake day by day, and distance ourselves from 'us' day by day. Maturity certainly means gain, but for ordinary people like us, doesn't maturity also mean forgetting and loss?" (39) In contrast, Chi Li's novels show more optimism.From the beginning in 1987 to the end of the 1980s, "It's Good to Be Cold or Hot or Alive", the restlessness of "wear and loss" has gradually shifted to the spiritual relaxation of "feeling oppressed by humbleness". In the late 1990s, "Guess what the recipe and arsenic are used for" had an almost absurd ending. People found two unbelievable things in the relics of Guo Wei, who died in a diving rescue: the recipe and the arsenic. Arsenic, the former conveys the love of life; the latter is something that is close to death.The novel writes: "Guo Wei just doesn't want everyone's understanding. He refused to be mediocre until his death. With recipes and arsenic to block the public's access to his personal world, the martyr Guo Wei must be able to rest in peace." Guo Wei, a pharmacist who prepares Qingfei cough syrup and Banlangen in the pharmacy, yearns for love, pursues and rejects mediocre life.Chi Li's works since 2000, such as, etc., make it easy for us to see that the writer has written from the bus driver Yanhua in "Cold" to Lai Shuangyang in "Cold", and from the mediocrity of a small employee immersed in the "stable" system. Life is written about using personal talents to counter social interpersonal changes and the complexity of the formation of a new economic order. The ordinary citizens of Wuhan in Chi Li's works have gradually learned how to use their wisdom and diligence to realize their social value in the initial stage of the market economy.Some scholars commented on her works: "It is precisely by affirming the life pursuits of these characters and their success in career and love that Chi Li fully affirms the secular life of our age full of material desires and people's respect for the secular world. The active pursuit of happiness in life. Because of this, the characters in Chi Li's works are always full of vitality, and the life in Chi Li's works is always full of seductive brilliance." (40) Another writer who praises the fighting spirit of the little people is Liu Heng.His novel was published in the 10th issue of "Beijing Literature" in 1997. When the 1990s were drawing to a close, Liu Heng contained many sighs of "it's not easy for ordinary people to live" and his appreciation of integrity in this seemingly urban comedy work. Tribute to good ordinary people!Unforgettable words written at the end of the novel: "Zhang Damin saw his father and four people looming in the shadow of the clouds in a trance, the old one asked how his life was, and the young one asked the child if the lovely child is happy? Waiting to look at it but he is floating It’s gone. Life is so good! The child is so happy! With me and Zhang Damin who stands up to the sky, how can life not be happy!” Zhang Damin’s character of hard work, wisdom, humor, diligence and kindness is concentrated Combining the essence of traditional Chinese culture and the courage and spirit of modern people, this is the gold that the writer has picked up from the forging of people in daily life.