Chapter 61 2004 "Wolf Totem"

Genre: Novel Author: Jiang Rong First publication: Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House Published: April 2004 (Written by Li Jianjun) In the era of consumerism where literature is losing its sensational effect, it has created a miracle and achieved a double success: it has achieved both market success and the interest of the media and readers.It aroused people's curiosity about "wolf culture" and triggered the arrival of "wolf culture" publishing tide. In the more than half a year since it was published, according to my incomplete statistics, there have been at least six or seven books that promote wolfism.Some books have gone astonishing in their praise of wolves.For example, the "Inscription" of "Wolf" (Geological Publishing House, August 2004) written by Wang Yanwuji is: "A wolf with courage and ideals provides a source of support for all lives struggling for survival and development." Reference." The comments in the text are even more terrifying: "What is survival? Survival is to live by any means. You can be mean, you can be shameless, and you can be obscene. As long as you can live in this world. The ideal is What? Ideal is a desire deeper than survival”; “Those who eat grass are not necessarily benevolent, and those who eat meat are not necessarily cruel. I am a wolf, destined to be a wolf, a wolf with sharp teeth and sharp claws , blood and death are the source of my life. As long as I live, I must have something to die. When all the cattle and sheep are bathed in the sun and eat and drink freely, it means that I am dead."The "Introduction" text of Liu Ye's "The Story of the Wolf" (China Film Press, October 2004) praises wolves exaggeratedly: "This book is a wonderful book about wolves. Every chapter and every detail can feel the breath of wolf that is about to come out, let every capillary in the body expand a hundred times, let the blood rush like a tide, make every nerve ending in the body tense and stand by, and let the soul cleanse like the wind. "Cool Wolf-Legend of the American West Pioneer" compiled by Zhang Shifa (China International Broadcasting Press, October 2004) wants to declare the theme: "The creation of one civilization is usually at the cost of the destruction of another civilization. "There is also "Think Like a Wolf--The Magical Law of Business" (written by He Hua, Blue Sky Publishing House, October 2004). Just by looking at the title of the book, you can know the author's intention and position.Ruomu and Zheng Zhong's "Wolf Soul-The Business Rules of the Strong" (Current Affairs Publishing House, January 2005) is even more fueling, and it is too much: it says in the "Preface", "The masterpieces of the world and the " "The Way of the Wolf" was born and is currently selling well in the market", and then he promoted his own survival philosophy of wolf way: "The wisdom and strategy of wolves will always be an example for us to learn from. From a series of actions of wolves, we can see What we have seen is the perfect combination of the strong and the wise. Learning from these strategies of wolves can benefit us a lot in market competition”; then, can’t we not learn from wolves?no.why?Because, "In the life-and-death competition for survival, in the market competition of 'the winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit', if you have a kind heart and always treat your competitors soft-hearted, then you will be eaten by the opponent mercilessly. , which has been proved by countless facts, and will continue to be proved by new facts.”

Because it is an important cultural phenomenon, it is of great research value; because of the confusion of values ​​and the lack of literature, it must be strictly dissected.From a literary point of view, it is not so much a novel as an idealized text that illustrates concepts.The basis of writing is a simple cultural conjecture.The author believes in a naive biological determinism, and believes that wolves play a decisive role in the progress of human civilization. "The spirit of the prairie is actually concentrated on the wolf" (, p. 136, Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 2004; this book is cited below, and only the page number is indicated at the end of the article). Therefore, if anyone wants to live on the prairie, he must use The wolf is the teacher, "no matter which nation has to worship the wolf, worship the wolf as the teacher, like the Xiongnu, Wusun, Turkic, Mongolian and other grassland peoples are like this" (p. 23).Why don't the herdsmen on the prairie regard the horse as their "totem", on the contrary, they regard the "enemy of the horse" - the wolf as their totem?The author believes that "this abnormal logic contains profound grassland logic. This is because Mongolian horses are 'students' domesticated by prairie wolves and prairie people, and 'students' can become totems and masters worshiped by teachers." But the prairie wolf has never been tamed by humans. Human beings have not learned the character and skills of wolves for thousands of years. The wolf actually commands everything on the prairie, standing on the commanding heights of various intricate relationships on the prairie ..." (p. 253) "The ancient steppe cavalry did not rely on brute force to sweep advanced countries. The steppe people were indeed defenders of the steppe. They used the military talent and wisdom they learned from wolves to firmly defend the steppe. The grassland resisted the iron and fire behind the Han army, and the attack of the hoe and plow on the grassland" (p. 81).In the author's narration, an old man named Bilig exaggerated the ability and wisdom of wolves, and exaggerated the impact of wolves on people's lives: "Wars, wolves are smarter than humans. We Mongolians are hunting, besieging, and fighting. I learned from wolves. If you Han do not have a large pack of wolves, you will not be able to fight.” (p. 18) And “steppe wolves not only cultivated Mongolian warriors, but also Mongolian war horses” (p. 196).

The wolf is not only the teacher of human beings and the "Mongolian war horse", but also the chief designer of the "family planning" on the grassland and the hero in controlling population growth: "People walk by day, wolves fight at night; The prairie people are in the morning and evening, sleepless and restless, dragging down family after family, generation after generation of women. Therefore, most of the housewives in yurts are sick and short-lived, but they have also developed some strong and durable, with a good A woman with bones. Prairie wolves breed too densely, and the grassland population is difficult to increase significantly year by year. However, the ancient Mongolian grassland has never had a large-scale land reclamation for food due to overpopulation. It is the prairie wolf that controls the grassland The population grows comfortably." (p. 73).

Because of the lack of basic sense of common sense, it is difficult for the author to maintain the logical consistency and relevance of the theme and events in the process of unfolding the narrative.His judgments and opinions often fight with the plot inside the text.Not only that, but in fact, many times the author's own arguments are also contradicting each other and dismantling themselves.For example, the author said in the narration that "fairy tales" and "books" about wolves were "misleading", and Chen Zhen "didn't realize until he arrived in the grasslands that nature was no more advanced and advanced than the 'big bad wolf'." The perfect creature", however, we found from his subsequent narration that the coyote is really not a "higher" or "more perfect" thing.The author told us that a group of hungry wolves entered China from abroad. "This round of wolves entering China has particularly red eyes, a particularly big appetite, extremely cruel methods, and particularly reckless behavior. The rush of desperate ambition of food” (p. 41).This group of wolves brought great disasters to humans and horses in the desperate "fighting": "The horses neighed shrilly, and one horse after another was bitten through the side ribs and chest, and blood spattered. , Flesh and flesh flew everywhere. The blood of the massacre made the crazy wolves extremely excited. They didn't care about swallowing the fresh flesh and blood that had already reached their mouths, but bit and slaughtered recklessly. More and more horses were injured, and the wolves But they rushed forward wave after wave, and continued to attack and kill the horses frantically. Every time the wolf king who took the lead and a few ferocious alpha wolves were even more frenzied and brutal. Then he bent down cross-legged, with the soles of his feet pressed firmly against the horse's body, and suddenly exerted force from his whole body, like a tight hard steel spring, shooting obliquely in the air, and a piece of flesh with horse hair was torn off by the wolf. The wolf spat out his mouth The meat rolled over on the spot, got up, ran a few steps, and jumped on another horse. The pack of wolves following the leader wolf scrambled to follow suit, and each wolf culled the blood left by its predecessors in its veins. Instinct, played vividly, ferociously and joyfully”; “The horses were scarred and dripping with blood, the gushing horse blood sprayed on the snow, and the icy snow covered the horse blood again. The cruel grassland repeats the cruelty of thousands of years. The wolves are On the thin turf of the Mongolian plateau, countless living creatures were cruelly devoured, and the cruel blood marks of generations were engraved” (p. 46).

Faced with such basic facts and truths, the author is not blind.Chen Zhen was "shocked" when he saw the "massacre" of horses being "collectively slaughtered" by wolves. He also expressed his confusion: "Wolves are the most threatening, most frequent, and most dangerous beasts in history. , the wolf is simply the greatest natural enemy of humans, horses, cattle and sheep. But why do the grassland peoples still want to use wolves as their national totem? Chen Zhen retreated from the new position he just took. Bloody scenes. He saw fascists and Japanese devils in his wolf nature. Strong physiological reactions surged in Chen Zhen's body: nausea, anger, vomiting, wanting to scold, and wanting to kill wolves. He once again faced the old man Bilig He blurted out from his face: The death of these horses is really terrible, the wolf is too hateful, too hateful! Worse and hateful than fascists and Japanese devils. He really deserves to be hacked into pieces!" But he was so angry that he "faced pale" The old man Bilig corrected his point of view "with full confidence": wolves are not the same as Japanese devils.Uliji excused the wolves in this way: the wolves cannot be blamed for this catastrophe...if it is to blame, we can only blame ourselves for not being optimistic about the horses. (p. 56) In the end, Chen Zhen was not only persuaded by the two Mongols, but also immediately and absurdly equated the wolf with the Yellow River, and came to the conclusion: "The wolf totem of the grassland people should also be like the Chinese nation's wolf totem." The mother river is respected." (p. 57) Not only that, but the wolf has almost become a symbol of all good virtues and great spirits.Seeing the wolf, "Chen Zhen seems to have seen the character and quality of the fighters imprisoned in the slag cave. But they are only the gold in the sand of the nation, and this kind of character is common to wolves. , inborn, passed down from generation to generation, without exception." (p. 139) Seeing the scene of a wolf jumping off a cliff to his death, Yang Ke "stands silently with his head bowed. He remembered the movie "Langya Mountain" he watched in middle school Five Heroes." (p. 184) In short, in this amazing novel, people can see this kind of rambling comparison and praise to wolves at any time.

In order to use facts to change people's prejudice and hostility towards wolves, in order to fully prove the rationality of grassland peoples using wolves as totems, and finally turn "wolf totems" into spiritual resources with universal significance for human life, the author makes the characters in the novel Chen Zhen captured a wolf cub and raised it.Not only can Chen Zhen "feel and touch the gentle and kind side of the wolf nature with his own hands,... Slowly savoring this pure friendship, he feels that his life extends far and far into the ancient times. At one moment he suddenly felt that I seem to be very old, but I still maintain the savage childlike innocence of human childhood" (p. 170), and the spiritual life changed immediately: "Chen Zhen felt that since he became obsessed with the prairie wolf, he The sluggish, weak and boring blood in his body seemed to be weakening, and the strange wolf-like blood began to flow in his veins. His life became stronger, and his pale and boring life before became full and full. He felt that he had re-understood life and life, began to cherish and love life and life” (p. 171).In the end, "Chen Zhen's thoughts gradually drifted away. He suddenly felt that the true meaning of life lies not in sports but in fighting. The life of mammals begins with hundreds of millions of sperm besieging a Eggs were killed so that they could go forward (servants) one after another, and the corpses were all over the palace. Those sperm that only moved but did not fight, and swam but did not fight were all ruthlessly eliminated, and were excreted with urine. Only the most tenacious sperm, stepped on billions of The corpse of the Wan compatriot brother fought hard to break into the egg and combine with it to form a new human embryo. During this period, the egg continuously secretes the killing fluid to destroy all weak and ineffective sperm. Life comes from fighting, and fighting is The essence of life. There have been many great civilizations of farming peoples in the world that have been wiped out because agriculture is basically peaceful labor; In the competitive battles of war, sea, and commerce." (p. 171)

Although this wolf has never changed its ungrateful nature, "it doesn't thank Chen Zhen for nurturing it at all, and it doesn't think that this box of food is given to it by people, but it is its own. What you have won and won by yourself", but in the view of the author and the characters in the novel, Chen Zhen, this is exactly a kind of virtue.In their view, a wolf that is ungrateful is more noble than a dog that repays its kindness: a dog "shakes its head and wags its tail in gratitude" when it sees its master bringing a bowl of food, which is really despicable, while a wolf's care for people "doesn't appreciate it at all." ", is the expression of "noble nature".Although the wolf's "independence and rebelliousness" made Chen Zhen "feel a chill down his spine", he still had to praise it puzzlingly, and even took it as a teacher: Chen Zhen "watched quietly from the sidelines." The little wolf eats, and religiously accepts the instruction of wolf nature" (p. 169).Through extremely false imagination and description, the author endows the wolf with poetic sentiment and perfect virtue.In Chen Zhen's eyes, the ugly and creepy howls of wolves are beautiful music: "The little wolf howls joyfully in a 'crying tone', happily 'crying wolf howl' to the wolves, Passionately showing its beautiful singing voice to the grassland. The sound quality of the little wolf is extremely tender, moist, and pure, like a baby like a child, melodious and crisp. In the melodiousness, it also randomly changes the tone on its own initiative, adding a lot of vibrato and turns impromptu . . . The two listened intoxicated, and Yang Ke couldn't help lowering his voice to imitate the little wolf's wolf song." (p. 258) However, the final ending negates all the praises and fantasies of the author.In the end, the little wolf died after being tortured by the Chen formations, and did not bring any satisfactory research results and major discoveries to the crazy wolf totem worshipers.Cassirer says: "In no sphere of human culture can an attitude of 'subservience' be conceived to be a real and decisive driving force. It is impossible to develop any creative vitality from an attitude of complete passivity. Come." (Ernst Cassirer: "On Man", p. 118, Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1985) Cassirer's point of view is suitable for criticizing all those who are crazy about chaos and contempt for common sense. literary and cultural phenomena.

However, the author thinks that he has found another completely different answer to the problem, and believes that he has penetrated the mystery behind history.He said in the boring and lengthy "rational exploration" at the end of the novel: "I finally used the comb of the wolf totem of the nomads to reorganize the history that Chinese historians deliberately messed up with the spirit of Confucianism" (p. 396). ) He simplified the complex factors affecting the development of history into a simple opposition between "wolf totem" and "sheep totem".Through assumptions and guesses, he deified the wolf as the spiritual totem of the grassland nation, and then regarded it as a spiritual totem that all human beings should worship: "China's civilization has never been interrupted for thousands of years, and this has become a world-recognized history of world civilization. However, the miracle behind the miracle is the wolf totem culture that has a longer history and has never been interrupted. The reason why the wolf totem has become the national totem of countless nomads on the northwest and Mongolian grasslands lies in the kind of prairie wolf that makes people People have to worship, irresistible charm and strong and intelligent spiritual conquest power. This great and powerful spirit of wolf totem is the essence of Chinese nomadic spirit. The nation and Chinese civilization have also profoundly influenced the whole world.” (p. 377)

The author of the book completes his illusory cultural utopia construction by endowing wolves with great spirit and noble qualities.This is an aggressive cultural sentiment and value proposition: learn from wolves, lead beasts to eat people, and only seek success without morality.It regards power and bravery as the driving force for the progress of civilization, but it forgets that the progress of human civilization in the true sense must conform to the principles of humanity, and have reliable value orientation and sound moral standards.Just as Tang Junyi said: "Human beings certainly demand progress, but the pursuit of progress depends only on our perception that an ideal is truly valuable, so we use it to change reality. Progress is not rooted in ideals, but only seeks change and novelty. , Losing the root, leaving the old, this is not real progress, so it does not show the true value, but only frivolity. The biggest problem of people in the modern free world is frivolity." (Tang Junyi: "Exploration of the Universe of Cultural Consciousness", Page 444, China Radio and Television Press, 1993) However, it is this vulgar survival philosophy and "frivolous" pseudo-values ​​that are praised.It regards barbarism as civilization, and praises those bandits who kill, steal, and commit all kinds of crimes: "The prairie cavalry who charge under the flag of the wolf must have the blood of the prairie wolf galloping all over their bodies, and fight the world with the bravery, ferocity and wisdom learned from wolves. In the history of the world, the Turkic soldiers were fierce and intelligent. After the Western Turks were driven out of China by the army of the Tang Dynasty, they quickly established a new territory and slowly gained a foothold. Hundreds of years later, they suddenly rose again. Constantinople, the capital of Eastern Rome, and ancient Egypt, which were not captured by the Mongols, unified Central Asia and West Asia, established an Ottoman Empire across Eurasia, cut off the trade channels between the East and the West, and monopolized the East and West The exchange of commodities in the West has been suppressed by a strong state and force for a hundred years. All advanced civilizations were forced out. The Western Timberwolves were forced out of the inland sea by the Eastern Prairie Wolf, forced into the deep sea, and forced into the ocean. It became a more powerful wave. They drove the ancient Western trade ships and wave ships to the open ocean to find a new trade channel to the East. As a result, they accidentally discovered the New World of America and snatched a land that was several times larger than Western Europe. The rich land, as well as the silver mines and gold mines of the Incas and Indians, grabbed the first ship of primitive accumulation for the development of Western capitalism. As a result, the Western sea wolf grew into the world's biggest wolf, the wolf of capital, the wolf of industry, Technological wolves, cultural wolves, are counterattacking the East, destroying the Ottoman Empire, and finally defeating the Eastern steppe wolf, not to mention those Eastern farming sheep..." (p. 135) The author discusses the development history and history of world history The description of the progress of human civilization is not only simple, but also cruel, lacking the most basic right and wrong judgments and moral considerations.It seems that no innocent person bleeds and died under the knife of the "fierce and wise" Turkic soldiers, and it seems that the "timberwolves" in the West have never brought suffering to the local indigenous people in the process of "grabbing" the "silver mine and gold mountain" And blood and tears, it seems that the "farming sheep" in the East deserve to be ravaged and killed by "sea wolves in the West".The author's view of history and philosophy of survival is the naked "jungle principle": the strong are swordsmen, the weak are fish, and the law of the jungle is the eternal principle of human society.

Contrary to this kind of narrative lacking a sense of history and ethics, facing the same narrative content, those excellent writers have provided us with more reliable narrative texts.In the novel by Japanese writer Yasushi Inoue, Genghis Khan and Gazaer shot and killed his brother Beketir together.When his mother Hoelun learned about it, she "rebuked" and said: "You have killed, killed an irreplaceable family member. You are like hungry wolves riding the wind, you are like mandarin ducks chasing their young, you Like wolves and jackals attacking their dens, you are like fierce tigers that prey on prey without hesitation, and you are like reckless spirit mastiffs.” (Yasuke Inoue: Selected Novels of Yasushi Inoue from the Western Regions, p. 309, Xinjiang People’s Publishing House, 1984) When Genghis Khan said that his name would "be immortal in history", Yelu Chucai, a knowledgeable and upright foreign youth, answered him "without fear": "It's a pity, I believe Khan's name can be immortalized in history." It was preserved because the Khan allowed his subordinates to kill with impunity." (Ibid., p. 521) René Grousse pointed out sharply in the famous "Prairie Empire": "Genghis Khan was seen He is one of the scourges of mankind. He typifies the invasion of ancient settled civilizations by steppe nomads for twelve centuries. Indeed, no one in his ancestors left such a terrible reputation. He made terror a regime, made Massacres become a deliberate and methodical institution." (Rene Grousse, "Prairie Empire", p. 317, Commercial Press, 1998) Faced with such basic facts, how can we indifferently promote the "wolf totem"? "?How can one enthusiastically praise the maker of the disaster?

If the nomads and the Western "big wolves" succeeded because they were ferocious and cruel, then the Chinese farming civilization fell behind precisely because they were not ferocious and cruel enough, or, to put it figuratively, because they had too much "sheep nature".Both the author and the characters in the work believe that "the fatal flaw of Chinese civilization is that there is no cruel and fierce competition for survival that is deeper and broader than class struggle within this civilization" (p. 365).This fierce competition for survival is the wolfish way of survival.Sima Guang said that Qin "regards greed for wolves as vulgar", which was not a compliment.But in the author's opinion, this is simply a compliment that cannot be added.Although Qin Shihuang was a "wolf tyrant", it was not a good thing at first.Why do you say that?Because this can cause "cruel and fierce competition for survival".Look, although the Qin Dynasty died in the second generation, "the Qin Dynasty had a profound impact on Chinese history, and the wolf character of the nomadic people played a key role in it. If there were no factors of the wolf character of Qin's monarchs and people, Chinese history would never be The glorious rising period of the Han and Tang Dynasties after the emergence" (p. 379).This is really a false judgment that lacks a basic sense of history and facts.The prosperity of the Han and Tang Dynasties was precisely the result of the rulers' reflection on "passing the Qin Dynasty", practicing benevolent governance, ignoring taxes and minor incidents, making laws and saving punishment, restraining invasion of mausoleums, and resting with the people.And the reason why Tyranny died was because there were too many "wolf natures" and too few human natures.Jia Yi summed up the reason for Qin's defeat in "On the Passing of Qin" as: "benevolence and righteousness are not applied".In the great "Historical Records", Sima Qian expressed his critical attitude towards the Tyranny of the Qin Dynasty by borrowing the arguments of Hou Sheng and Lu Sheng: "Shihuang was a man, and his nature was violent for his own use... He took punishment and killing as his prestige, and the world feared crime and held Lu, don’t dare to be loyal. If you don’t hear about it, you will be arrogant, and you will be bullied and bullied by you.” He also used Fan Kuai’s mouth to express the barbaric nature of King Qin and the reason for his death: “My husband, King Qin, has the heart of a tiger and a wolf. If killing people is impossible, and punishing people is like being fearful, the whole world will rebel." The Qin Dynasty ended because of excessive violence, and Xiang Yu was defeated because he "wanted to rule the world with his strength".In Sima Qian's view, being tyrannical, ungrateful, and aggressive has always been a negative morality and an ugly passion.Are these common senses that have been widely recognized and accepted by people for thousands of years also unreliable?Is it also going to be structured and subverted, so as to replace it with a completely opposite conclusion? In fact, the simple and extreme values ​​and survival philosophy proclaimed are not new at all.It is essentially connected with Nietzsche's "will to power" philosophy.Nietzsche contrasts the "superman" with the "philistine": "The will to power recognizes no 'permissible' limits: for it everything that springs from and enhances power is good, everything that springs from weakness and weakening Everything that powers is evil." (Wendelband, "A Course in the History of Philosophy", Volume 2, p. 924, Commercial Press, 1997) However, as Russell pointed out, Nietzsche and his philosophy are disgusting "Because he elevated conceit to a duty, and because some of the men he admired most were conquerors, whose glory was to have the intelligence to kill. . . . It's the driving force behind everything I've ever wanted in this world." (Russell, Volume 2, p. 326, The Commercial Press, 1976) In a special period of social transformation where utilitarian values ​​are extremely popular, we should emphasize "universal love" and see and emphasize the way people live Otherwise, our society will fall into great chaos, and everyone will fall into a kind of survival fear of insecurity. The situation and consequences are just as Holbach said "Nearly all members of society will be enemies of each other. Each lives only for himself, with little regard for others. Each is governed only by his own desires, and considers only private interests that run counter to those of society. It is at that When man is a jackal to man, the man who is a member of that society is sometimes less fortunate than the savage who lives in the mountains and forests." (Holbach's "Natural Politics", p. 10, Commercial Press, 1994) Therefore, although it caters to the values ​​of this utilitarian era, it provides spiritual support for people to satisfy their desire to grab money and power, and releases themselves. The original impulse provides a moral basis, but it cannot become a reliable "resource" of belief for the transformation of the "character" of the Chinese nation and the realization of "rejuvenation", because it is essentially an anti-humanity and anti-civilization morality. Creating "big chaos" can't bring us anything positive and beautiful except to plunge people into a kind of insecure existential fear. Lin Xi: ""Wolf Culture" and Philosophy of the Philistine", commentary, Guangming Daily, April 15, 2005 Ye Shuxian: "Wolf Totem, or Bear Totem?" ——Discrimination and Reflection on Totems of Chinese Ancestors”, commentary, Journal of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, June 15, 2006 Long Xingjian: Criticism of the Wolf Totem, Review, Xuelin Publishing House, April 2007 Edition Kipling: "The Jungle Story", a collection of short stories, March 2004 edition of People's Literature Publishing House Yasushi Inoue: Selected Novels of Yasushi Inoue from the Western Regions, Collection of Novels, Xinjiang People's Publishing House, 1984 Edition René Grousse: "Prairie Empire", Historical Works, Commercial Press, 1998 Edition Holbach: "Natural Politics", Political Science Works, Commercial Press, 1994 Edition "Selection of Russian Populist Novels", Volume 1, Collection of Works, People's Literature Publishing House, 1987 Edition