Chapter 37 1985 "Papa"

Genre: Novella Author: Han Shaogong Original publication: "People's Daily" Published time: Issue 6, 1985 It is a famous novella published by the writer Han Shaogong in 1985. It was originally published in the sixth issue of "People's Literature" in 1985.In a symbolic and allegorical way, by describing the historical changes of a primitive tribe, Jitouzhai, it shows a closed, stagnant, ignorant and backward national cultural form. Brief introduction: This is Han Shaogong's short story and novella, and also one of the famous novels he has written for more than 30 years.

Han Shaogong's novella, in a symbolic and allegorical way, shows a closed, stagnant, ignorant and backward national cultural form by describing the historical changes of a primitive tribe, Jitouzhai. The work takes the idiot Bingzai as the main character. Through the portrayal of him, it outlines a certain deformed and morbid way of thinking about traditional culture, and expresses the author's deep reflection and criticism of traditional culture.Bing Zai is a little old man who "declines before he gets old" but never grows up. He has a strange and wretched appearance, and he can only repeat two words: "Daddy" and "Mother x".But such a irrational, slurred, and confused figure has been worshiped by all the villagers in Jitouzhai, and is regarded as the Yin and Yang digrams, respecting "Bing Xianggong", "Bing Master" and "Bing Immortal".Therefore, Bing Zai, who lacks normal thinking, is showing the morbid mental symptoms of the villagers' ignorance and lack of rationality.After the battle between Jitouzhai and Jiweizhai, most of the men died, but Bingzai still stubbornly survived.This image that never grows up symbolizes the stubborn, ugly, and irrational nature of life, and his two prophetic catchphrases not only contain the most primitive and basic form of human life creation and continuation, but also have the characteristics of individual life and The mysterious meaning of the close connection between traditional cultures also implies the eternal and unchangeable way of thinking of the absolute "dual opposition" in traditional culture that has long influenced and restricted the progress of human civilization.

By dissecting the ancient, closed and almost primitive cultural inertia, Han Shaogong clearly expressed his negative and critical attitude towards traditional culture.Han Shaogong is basically a realistic writer, but due to his admiration of Chu Wu culture and the romantic tradition of "Li Sao", while examining the inferiority of the nation with a strong sense of urgency, he revived the Chu culture with fables, symbols and other artistic means. The grotesque, mysterious and mysterious mythological meaning in the culture makes the text painted with romantic and mysterious colors, leaving people with endless aftertaste and thinking.We have said that most of the "root-seeking novels" adopt a seemingly traditional realistic narrative method, but they use an absurd "fable style", which may be an exception.

Evaluation of works: In 1985, Han Shaogong published a novella, which became a representative work of "root-seeking literature".Han Shaogong's novels present a picture scroll of human childhood life.Under the influence of the concept of gods and spirits, this work embodies the mystery, interpenetration, and symbolism of primitive thinking, and its language has the characteristics of primitive language such as simplicity, intuition, and imagery.Han Shaogong constructed this work with an original way of thinking, which has profound social and historical reasons. The most important thing is that he was influenced by Latin American magic realism creation.At the same time, the unique creative perspective of this work is of great significance to the formation of a pluralistic and open pattern of contemporary Chinese literature.

Brief introduction of the author: Han Shaogong, male, born in 1953, Han nationality, pen name Shaogong, Shaogong, etc.A native of Changsha, Hunan. After graduating from junior high school in 1968, he was transferred to a village in Miluo County, Hunan Province to jump in the queue. In 1974, he worked in the Tiaoxian Cultural Center and began to publish works.He wrote the biography "Ren Bishi" (cooperating with Gan Zhengwen) which contains a lot of historical materials. In 1978, he was admitted to the Chinese Department of Hunan Normal University. In 1979, he joined the Chinese Writers Association and published the short story "Moon Orchid" ("People's Literature" in April 1979), making his mark in the literary world. After graduating in 1982, he worked as an editor for the magazine "The Master" of the Hunan Provincial Federation of Trade Unions. In 1984, the Hunan Branch of the Writers Association engaged in professional creation. After arriving in Hainan in 1988, he began to edit the magazine "Hainan Documentary". In 1990, he served as vice chairman and chairman of Hainan Writers Association. In 1996, he planned the literati magazine "Tianya" with his colleagues and served as the president of the magazine.

Major works: short stories "Flood Peak in July", "Looking West at the Grassland", "Flying Over the Blue Sky", essays "The Roots of Literature", novellas, novels, long novels, collections of essays, etc. Author's comments: The famous writer Han Shaogong is a thinker, pioneer and challenger with the significance of the times, and a practitioner of root-seeking literature. For more than 30 years, as one of the novelists who have gone the farthest in the art of fiction since the new era, Han Shaogong may have thought deeply about it. Han Shaogong's "no" novel is a real event in novel writing since the 1990s.

In his novels, there are vivid characters, fantastic plots, revealing of historical truth, and questioning directly to people's hearts.A variety of elements constitute the sharp and gentle style of his works. With a strong sense of urgency, Han Shaogong revived the mysterious and magnificent Chu culture with artistic means such as fables and symbols, painted the text with romantic and strange colors, and re-opened the dialogue between the gods and the world. Han Shaogong's "Looking West at the Thatched Grass" and "Flying Over the Blue Sky" won the National Excellent Short Story Award in 1980 and 1981 respectively.He was the leading figure in advocating "root-seeking literature" in 1985. His works, such as "Nv Nv Nv", show the tendency to draw strength from the deep layer of national history and culture, are full of profound philosophical connotations, and have exerted great influence in the literary world.

Appreciation of works: This is a work that consciously hides the theme, or its theme is relatively obscure.What it presents to the readers is first of all its unique aesthetic style: mysterious, tragic, but with a touch of comedy.This aesthetic style endows the novel with infinite charm.The formation of mystery is due to a variety of artistic means. First of all, the author deliberately downplays the background of the story, placing Jitou Village in the deep mountains surrounded by white clouds.Judging from the cars and newspapers mentioned in the novel, the story happened not long ago, and judging from the primitive and ignorant way of life of the characters, the story seems to have happened a long time ago.So the space coordinates and time coordinates of the story are somewhat erratic.

The second is to write about the weirdness of characters and things.The most representative one is of course the protagonist of the novel, the little old man Bingzai who will never grow up.His two sentences with unclear meanings, his strange appearance, and even the ending of his death after drinking the poisonous juice are hard to understand.The woman who dries all kinds of poisonous insects into powder with rooster blood, hides them in her fingernails and pops them into other people's teacups to kill people, and the poisonous weeds in the mountains that kill birds when they touch them, and stiffen animals when they encounter them, all have magical colors.

The third is to consciously write out the uncertainty of character activities.For example, there are several theories about the whereabouts of Bingzi's father Delong, so the character Delong has become erratic and elusive. Fourth, the introduction of myths and legends directly creates mystery in the works.For example, the legend about Xing Tian, ​​and the legend about the five milks and the six ancestors who followed the Phoenix to the west.The mysterious color caused by the above-mentioned means is the basic aesthetic style of this novella. The tragic beauty of the novel mainly comes from the description of the tragic death and fierce "wrestling" of people in Jitouzhai.In the consciousness of Jitouzhai people, sitting on a sharpened tree stump to die is the most generous and tragic, and it is the appearance of a gentleman's death, so the arbitrator must sit on the stake.They think that it is natural to die for the survival of the clan, so the old, the young, the weak, and the disabled drink the poisonous juice seriously, calmly, and proudly, so that young and middle-aged men and women can find new worlds and create new lives without any worries. The beheading of a cow's head for divination, killing a man and cooking it with a cow and sharing it with everyone in "Fighting Injustice" is not only tragic, but even exudes a primitive and barbaric atmosphere.

The comic color of the novel mainly comes from the character Renbao, the son of the arbitration seam.His mystifying, outdated language and behavior are ridiculous because they are not in harmony with the environment in which he lives.When he was preparing to "fight wrong", he solemnly bid farewell to many people, as if he was about to go through fire and water, but after he said goodbye, he did nothing, still dangling around in the stockade wearing a big leather shoe shell.This comic character alleviates the depressive feeling of the novel's mysterious atmosphere and tragic color. How can Han Shaogong's research materials grasp the connotation of his thoughts through the unique aesthetic style of the novel?It should be noted that the symbolic world of the novel provides possibilities for multiple interpretations, so the novel's ideological connotation must be rich.But on the whole, it shows the difficult journey of a life group (people in Jitouzhai) from ignorance, decline to new life.In this sense, Bingzai and the people in Jitouzhai have a certain consistency. Although the people in Jitouzhai hate and humiliate Bingzai, there is no difference between them and Bingzai in terms of ignorance.In their eyes, Bing Zai was an idiot who could be humiliated at will.After a while, he became a great immortal who was worshiped.They don't understand Bing Zai because they don't understand themselves.Bingzai never grows up, implying the stagnation of life and time.The people in Jitouzhai are also stuck in this kind of stagnation.Their ancestors have repeated the same way of life for generations, just like Bing Zai will always have the same face.The description in the novel of burning houses and poisoning the old, the young, the weak and the disabled during the great relocation of Jitouzhai can be understood as a metaphor: new life can only be born in the baptism of fire and the transformation of removing decay and regenerating muscles.However, for such a highly symbolic work, different readers can read different tastes from different angles.