Chapter 2 Foreword This history can be remembered

Yang Kuanghan Seeing the title of "Sixty Years and Sixty Parts", some people may have doubts such as "appropriate to the occasion".The study of contemporary Chinese literature is often ridiculed by "current commentary".However, in a practical sense, "articles are written according to the times" has always been a long-standing tradition in Chinese literature. Contemporary literature belongs to the aesthetics in motion and is a new discipline closely related to the development of the times and the reality of literature.It needs to enter the prosperous and ever-changing research object with an attitude of "entering the world", and also needs to use the rationale of "jumping out" to stand higher than the object under consideration and avoid those "following the trend" that follow suit.

Sixty-one Jiazi, pale yellow for a moment.On the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the path of literature has been full of ups and downs; the writers' works can be described as full of stars.As far as the novels of "the first text of the era" are concerned, there are about 2,300 "modern literature" in the 30 years, and there are only more than 20 that can be recorded in history; There were more than 300 volumes, and in the ten years of the "Cultural Revolution" there were more than 120 volumes. In the past 30 years, especially in the eight years of "New Century", more than 1,000 volumes were published every year.If it is said that "modern literature" grows a clump of trees, then "contemporary literature" is a forest.This forest is now one of the microcosms of the internal spiritual strength and strength of a nation that is peacefully rising, and it is also one of the important forms of a country's cultural character and upward force.

When Liu Xie talked about Chu Ci, he had a saying that "the talented are the great masters, the ingenious are the ones who hunt their rhetoric, the satirical ones are the mountains and rivers, and the childish ones are the vanilla".Hong Cai is not easy to say, if you can "hunt", "title" and "pick up", it can be regarded as a high-level tasting.Within such a small number of "sixty years and sixty works", we only focus on historical considerations, exploration of problems, and comments on the writer's works at a distance, and we will briefly state what we have learned, chat for reference, and don't think about it. , Try to say that the sea and the sky are so big.

Beginning in the 1950s, in mainland China, the historical footsteps of creating socialist literature were jointly explored and left footprints by writers who crossed the threshold from the old China to the new China, and who grew up with the Republic. Great social changes have taken place in mainland China since the 1950s, laying the first foundation stones for socialist construction.People from other countries who don’t understand China’s national conditions don’t know it, but people including writers who have experienced China’s social changes will never forget that the first batch of cornerstones were stained with blood and fire—sacrificed during the Agrarian Revolution During the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chinese military and civilian casualties reached 35 million, and in the People's Liberation War, casualties reached more than 1.3 million... The heroic spirit of the martyrs left immortality for the birth of New China and revealed life for the survivors. The true meaning of the book raises the banner of ideals for future generations, and naturally inspires writers to dedicate their enthusiasm and talents to the new life of the country.In the face of a new era, drastic changes in social life, and the independent and hard-working people in a difficult environment that is basically blocked, the literature and art of New China will not hesitate to endow the ghosts that linger in Europa with new meanings. The image of revolution and construction.

Compared with the literature in the first half of the 20th century, the novelty of mainland literature in the early days of the Republic is that it advocates revolutionary enthusiasm and life ideals as the leading theme, and its heroic narrative is rarely seen before.After going through the vicissitudes of history from the old to the new, Zihe laments the joys and sorrows of the nation and the country, looks at the ups and downs of the rivers and mountains, and strives to resonate with the spirit of the times with boring voices, which has become a common theme for Chinese mainland writers. mission and quest.In the upsurge of capitalizing "new characters, new world", a new literary and artistic history of contemporary mainland China, with new rural themes and revolutionary historical scrolls as the two wings, unfolds artistic imagination, and builds a literary image by writing new heroes and heroines The promenade, Zhuo Zhixiong's writing, is magnificent.In the literary period of the 1950s and 1960s, when the control of the literary world was relatively strict and the art was relatively single, there were still a group of special texts and narratives, which gained historical rationality and artistic value because of their literary mission. It has become a measure of the literary life in New China, a life archive in the process of literary growth.Those "landscapes" are now framed by people, and the paper is "yellow", but still exudes a little warmth.The role of valuable works in society is to help people complete their memories.

Needless to say, in the process of promoting socialist literature in mainland China, the leadership sometimes miscalculates the overall cultural situation and distrusts writers, which leads to contempt for theory, contempt for knowledge and neglect of literature when guiding literature work. Art regards literature as a "tool of class struggle" and attaches it to a political chariot, launching "climaxes" and "movements" at every turn, and successive failures.Many writers have danced on the sunny avenue in early spring. They have experienced passionate, light and smooth joy, but they also have the confusion of being sincere but misunderstood, and the pain of being insulted and tortured.In one political campaign after another, the artistic wings of a number of writers were shattered by the rigid interference of "philosophy of struggle" and "vulgar sociology" in literature.Bewildered by radical cultural thoughts, Hu Feng, Ding Ling, Feng Xuefeng, Ai Qing, etc. were judged as "counter-revolutionary" or "anti-Party."Some people in the literary world are also confused, and gradually breed and inflate "pious fanaticism" and "blind self-confidence", showing that they have a "firm stand" and "clear political direction" to all alien or mainstream "alternative" The exclusivity of literature reached its peak in the mid-1960s—the "Cultural Revolution" in the mid-1970s.It can be said that in the first 30 years of the Republic, quite a number of writers were driven by directives and current politics, and spent too much time and energy on non-literary, and their creations failed to enter a state of full aesthetic freedom. , it is difficult to consciously solve the problem of artistic creation.Cao Yu (1910-1996), who is famous for "Thunderstorm", said in his later years when he looked back on his past with guilt: "In all previous campaigns, I did not think independently, but to deny others according to a set requirement. I also deny myself. I completely lost myself spiritually. Especially the 'Cultural Revolution', its deep poison is still in my mind. Some of them are aware of me, and some of them are completely unaware of me. But It is playing a hateful role, even hindering my creation. This is a very painful and terrible tragedy."

This tragedy ended when the "Gang of Four" was crushed in October 1976.Since 1979, mainland Chinese writers have really turned a page of "New Era Literature".Politics is not the burden of literature, but the conceptual transition of literature from "serving politics" to "serving the people and serving socialism" has greatly promoted the emancipation of thought and art, and the return to literature, reality, and artistic individuality has become an emerging trend. Dynamic cultural thoughts and literature display.The no-regrets of searching up and down and the clarity of not being surprised or humiliated make the creative subject gradually become the owner of the spiritual destiny, and exhaust the artistic presentation of new ideology from it. "Imagination of the East" has been re-written by mainland Chinese writers who make people cry and be proud.The writers have gone through the "bath of fire" and melted anxiety and pain, rush and pursuit into their works, confirming the human condition of returning home after the storm, and reflecting the ancient oriental nation and its soul in the great transformation of the old and the new through Chinese thinking and art. The mental journey of regaining vitality amidst the changes, the ups and downs and the joy of creation are unimaginable to outsiders.Many works either reveal the "absurdity" and damage of people's life and spiritual world in the complex social relationship, or reflect on the contradictions and problems covered by the popular value orientation in the past, or show the "cultivator" and "knowledge". The destiny of "the author" in contemporary times, or dissecting the structure of mind and way of life of all kinds of people. In short, people began to embark on the life path of reform and opening up. As a "response", literature must also have a broader thought and art Space breeds the possibility of not being "regulated" but of various forms.

Literature has indeed entered a new period of development.What is striking is that another group of young writers has emerged in the Chinese literary world.They worked as "Red Guards" or "Red Little Soldiers" in the 1960s, and caught up with the massive movement of intellectual youths "going to the mountains and going to the countryside" after graduating from middle school or before graduating.They should have continued to receive normal education, but they were driven to those desolate and difficult and unfamiliar places such as the Great Northern Wilderness, the border of Yunnan, the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, or northern Shaanxi, where they spent their "sleeping youth" in an abandoned environment.They paid the price of their youth, but they also gained something more important than what they lost in the experience at the bottom - the deeper spiritual connection between literature and the land under their feet. After the "Cultural Revolution", this group of literary youths who came to the literary world, although not as heavy as their predecessors, have the emotions and words they have gained from getting along with their parents and fellow villagers day and night, so that they dare to love, hate, and dare to speak. Speak and write the eagerness of your heart.This work formed by the enthusiasm of youth, wandering between cheering to the past and watching the world, has a feeling of desolation and desolation of life and a reflection on fate.

In the Chinese literary world, it is true that talented people come out from generation to generation.A group of young writers who were born in the 1960s and 1970s and grew up in the climate of reform and opening up are active in today's literary world in a heroic manner.These late-generation writers generally received systematic higher education.When they began to join the tide of literature, the "Cultural Revolution"-style movement was just like a legend, and the unified way of thinking left only an empty echo.They share a new time and space of economic globalization and cultural diversity, and their creative freedom and imagination have been more fully released.Among them, some have interpreted the Chinese people's unique awareness of survival in an artistic way; some have integrated the power of human nature into the reflection and examination of the scene of life; The sunshine of the past in the homeland; some ridicule the entanglement and right and wrong of shopping malls, love affairs, and officialdom in economic activities; some deconstruct various "utopias" in the present world; The reality of life is placed in metaphysical thinking and combined with the narrative structure of postmodernism; some of them reproduce the national characteristics, characteristics and growth process through the in-depth grasp of national historical changes and folk life.It can be said that in today's Chinese literary world, with diversified cultural mechanisms, relaxed cultural environment, diversified literary concepts, and individualized literary writing, these young and vigorous writers have become a new force in promoting the overall revival of Chinese literature.

In China, the realization of the possibility of various forms of literature is an important symbol after the 1990s.If we say that the long days before that were a period of "education" and "domination of life and literature by ideas", the tone of literature is high-spirited, striving, linear, and evolutionary historical views dominate ideas status, people at least believe that there is a unified value (just different interpretations and descriptions) and continue to be exclusive; then, after the mid-1990s, affected by "economic globalization-cultural diversity", the planned economy transformed into Influenced by the three objective factors of market economy, cross-strait culture, and all-round convergence of literature, the "influence and effect" of Chinese literature's own concepts has become a more core thing, and "difference, differentiation, and choice" have become more obvious features.Literature is no longer dominated by concepts but "choosing concepts with life", no longer the huge and overall "machine" of the past, but has become one after another "parts", Huang Gang is disentangled by desire and information, thus entering A period of personalization and marketization that is both prosperous and embarrassing, superficial and profound.

The "secularization" of literature followed.There are at least four prominent social, ideological and cultural "dissolution" phenomena: the status of "cultural elites" and "intellectual heroes" who once supported literary history have been dispelled, and the cultural identity of writers has been rewritten and reshaped by business and the market. It can be said that the "people" have gone further than the "elite" in terms of "secular liberalism"; the visual culture/popular literature created by the media revolution has dispelled "big handwriting", "big narrative" collapsed, and traditional Literature, as a spiritual character and pursuit, has been deprecated and replaced by the "show" of entertainment and entertainment channels that the public "loves to hear and see", and the writers are fragmented and even "collected" by video, media, and the Internet; From social life to literature and art, the relativization of "morality" and the individualization of "belief" have dispelled the unified "moral standards" in the past, and moral discourse has become something related to specific interest groups or classes, while "citizens" Consciousness" has become prominent and provides the basic consensus to maintain the existence and development of contemporary society. Literature has become more and more alienated from "morality" and is closer to the emotional desires of "ordinary people". The "service" and "endorsement" of "traditional" and "modern" have also been dispelled, and the boundaries have been blurred. In the cultural context of China since the 1990s, literary criticism and debate no longer occur in the "traditional" " and "Modern", and precisely between "Modern" and "Modern", everyone says they are "Modern", but they have different ways of expressing and discussing. However, people know what they need, The lack of interest in the "doctrine dispute" is concerned with discussing and researching specific issues pragmatically. The separation of "ism" and "problem" has resulted in "thoughts" without "culture" or "culture" without "culture". The universal phenomenon of "thought"—this may be the outstanding sign of why "modern" is "modern" and why "secular" is "secular".The above-mentioned four kinds of "dissolution" continued until the beginning of the new century, making the huge Chinese literary world with an average of more than 1,000 novels, more than 400 collections of prose, 70,000 poems, and tens of thousands of episodes of film and television literature appear as a multi-voice Noisy and restless, mixed state of various problems.A huge amount of literary information is filling the minds of the public, and it is also devouring the little time people have left for reading. Secularized cultural and literary trends have failed to truly stimulate people's potential for contemplation and awareness of life and survival. The "physical" literary trend makes some writers' works come and go in a hurry, and they fend for themselves.However, in the Chinese literary world, since the 1990s, there are still a group of staunch "late-night gatekeepers" who watch over the spiritual highlands of literature. It is difficult to search for time, and there is Fu Shichuan between the "main theme" and "diversification".There are still a number of works that shine like morning stars, which surpass the standards of most works in the first forty years of the Republic in terms of vicissitudes of memory, life experience, thought refinement, and narrative advancement. Sixty years of vicissitudes of life and warm sun in mulberry fields have made contemporary Chinese writers experience so much sorrow, indignation and generosity, how many experiences and lessons they have accumulated, and how many heart fragrances that are not lacking in blood and tears.They have devoted endless love to this homeland. The smoke and clouds on the paper, every word and every line are shallow and deep traces of sadness and joy.We will not forget and will cherish everything we have gained. Sixty years of reality and life, the world is full of twists and turns.As several generations of writers in New China, some use poems to show their brocade hearts and sing satires; Ups and downs of legend, or Zhuang or harmonious.Sixty years of literary production has both flowers and wastes, but with a vast number of works, especially in the past 30 years of reform and opening up, the number of works is ten times that of modern literature in 30 years, creating a literary river of sweat, tears and blood.In any sense, material poverty exposes the backwardness of a society, and spiritual poverty indicates the aging of a nation.Today, as a reflection of a society and a projection of a nation's spirit, our literature is still in a rising period of progress and rebirth. At such a time of confusion, facing such a wealth of works, it is naturally no easy task to choose "sixty years and sixty works".People have reason to ask: What criteria do you use to choose?Are these sixty works all "classics"?What reading experiences, value scales and academic ideas do you rely on when interpreting?Frankly speaking, the editor has asked himself this question many times when he selects topics and writes articles. The original intention of the book "Sixty Years and Sixty Books" is to try to find the combination of the perspectives of literary history, intellectual history, and cultural history on the road of sixty years of literature, and take "problem awareness" as the entry point , observe social changes, touch mainstream emotions, and rediscover the significance of literary history.in particular: 1. The selected works have attracted widespread attention or controversy in the literary world and even in society; 2. The listed works reflect the mainstream emotions and spiritual phenomena of the society at that time to varying degrees; 3. The works read still have the value of intellectual history and literary history when looking back at the past and looking at the present; 4. The works discussed are those that both creation and criticism can show and influence the changes of contemporary spiritual life. Whether it is creation or criticism, when considering literary history, its dialectical starting point is due to the discovery and presentation of problems; its significance and value are tied to the exploration and development of problems. Sixty years of literary experience tells us that the problem is often not the simple externalization of consciousness and subjective a priori identification.The root of the problem is a contradiction in reality.Judging a literary phenomenon, a literary era or even a literary work cannot be based entirely on its superficial consciousness. On the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions and conflicts in real life.As long as things are understood according to their true colors and their origins, any esoteric knowledge proposition will return to its original nature.Therefore, without the practical foundation of the problem, without the historical scene and literary appeal of a specific era, "problem" tends to become an empty concept. In general, humans always only propose tasks that they can solve.But from the point of view of historical fact, the task itself only occurs when the conditions for solving it already exist or are at least in the process of becoming.The demands and contradictions of reality are strongly expressed in the problems people face.For literature, the main difficulty is not the existing answers, but the revelation of the problem.Therefore, the real judgment needs to be researched and analyzed, not the answer, but the question, which is to think deeply about the complicated problems in life and art—especially the poems and essays that are full of contradictions in the stormy mileage of new Chinese literature.Perhaps, this is just a way to understand some regular phenomena in the history of contemporary literature development. Just like A． J．Toynbee said: "We should be ready to reconsider the problem at any time, ready to write off the most cherished system, selected facts or so-called attitudes of facts, if further research requires such a change. This is not only due to the discovery or formation of New facts, and it is also the result of further thinking about the existence of so-called facts." In this way, re-reading the works, re-examining the text, re-examining the problem, and re-exploring the meaning, naturally become the necessary homework for "Sixty Years and Sixty Parts" .Taking contemporary poetry as an example, from the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China to the 1960s, its evolution and variation can be said to have formed a system of "songs → battle songs", but the facts of its composition need to be selected and discovered, and it is necessary to carefully study and "explore" amidst the contradictions. A new way out".In terms of novels, Mao Dun criticized many works in the early 1960s: "Politics is in command, art is out of class, stories are formulaic, characters are conceptualized, and language is dry." However, we have never heard of some novels without controversy. In the book, what I read is not a simple explanation of policies, but the urban and rural ecology familiar to the writer, the fragrance of life and the charm of spirit, and the pen and ink of epic poetry with time and space shortened.Naturally, when "reconsidering the problem", it is not difficult for us to read the limitations brought by the times to writers. All of this gives us a revelation: "The changes in literature affect the conditions of the world." Whether you like it or not, literature cannot avoid the trend of thought of the times and the evolution of art, and cannot avoid the problems faced by reality, life, and aesthetics.For the author, "problem" means originality; for readers, "problem" means understanding and thoughts; "Problem awareness" can breed high-quality works.Therefore, when we compiled "Sixty Years and Sixty Parts", we must take "problem" as the key word.As the two supporting points of this keyword, one is a cultural and academic standpoint; the other is a professional and aesthetic perspective. Here, we need to make some explanations about the "classic".In the current popular literary history writing or current literary criticism, the word "classic" has been widely quoted and even abused.In fact, "classic" is a work with many readers, a work that is not limited by time and space and has historical and cultural value, a work that has passed the test of time, and a work that can connect "Chinese experience" and "worldwide". , is also a work that needs us to benefit endlessly from the continuous interpretation of the benevolent and the wise.Furthermore, in the history of literature, what is enough to constitute a "classic" needs to have considerable aesthetic character, it must be able to "share time and space" (more people accept it in a longer and wider time and space), and it must have "typical common names". " (such as "Bao Dai", "Ah Q" and "Kong Yiji" have become symbols of many people), there must be "artistic resonance" (which can touch and shock people's hearts), and "multiple symbiosis" (as long as it is an excellent work , regardless of doctrine or genre).The singing of birds in the center or downtown is not necessarily more beautiful and pleasant than the singing of birds in remote mountains and forests. In the face of aesthetics and art, all writers' works are equal. We have no intention of naming all the "Sixty Books" with "classics". The history is still short, and it still needs to be judged by the readers and the old man.Some works should not be ashamed to be included in the "classics" of the sixty years, because they have touched the nerves of the times in the sense of spiritual history, intellectual history and literary history, and they have also projected in the vicissitudes of history.More works are once controversial but have had an important impact on the literary process, are easily overlooked but have a certain cultural value in social changes, and are repeatedly commented on in the trend and are expected to reach a stable state of the matrix.Here, "problems" and "values" still dominate our choices, narratives and evaluations.There is no need to demand perfection, and there is no need to talk nonsense because of people.Whether it can be called a "classic" or enough to be a "documentary", the works of "Sixty" are a dialectic of consciousness and art on the road of wind and rain, a literature full of contradictions between inner reality and outer reality. imprint. The 60-year journey of new Chinese literature has left people with a memory that is still too much to talk about.We have been barren and fanatical. However, looking back, we have always been bleak, and at a glance, the glaciers in our hearts have built up a rich spiritual museum.All the heaviness borne can be turned into a smile, into the power to turn a rough stone into a diamond.We also see the hope of literature in the new century with a smile. Ji Chou Xiaoshu Ji at the Institute of Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences