Chapter 5 "Literary tune" can't predict the social reality of contemporary China

There are two aspects to "Literary Tune": one is a problematic way of thinking, and the other is that "culture" and "soft power" are placed in an overly high position. Lack of logical "literary accent" thinking, first of all, let's talk about this way of thinking.This way of thinking is illogical and lacks in-depth analysis of things. It only talks about rhetoric and emotional excitement, and only appeals to people's senses and superficial cognition.Why is this way of thinking called "literary cavity"?Frankly, it probably has something to do with the basic training a person has.People who have received relatively strict training in science and engineering are less prone to this kind of thinking problem; but it is by no means to say that all people with a background in science and engineering do not have this problem, let alone that people in science and engineering do not have this problem on all issues— —People with science and engineering majors are often misled by "literary and artistic accents" due to lack of self-confidence in social sciences and humanities issues.People who have been trained in liberal arts are more likely to make this mistake, but some people with liberal arts background are also very logical.Ordinarily, the difference in thinking between liberal arts students and science students should not be so large, which reflects our mistakes in education.Therefore, we cannot simply equate "literary and artistic accent" with liberal arts students, and science and engineering thinking with science students.

Here I can mention some problems of some "literary tunes".For example, there is such a post on the Internet, which says it is satirizing the "little right", and some of it just hit the "literary and artistic style" thinking of the "little right". Here are a few quotes: He said: "China's Song Dynasty was defeated by Mongolia, so there is a cultural problem." You ask him: "West Rome and Byzantium were conquered by barbarians. Is it a cultural problem?" He said he didn't know! He said: "There were eunuchs in ancient China." Then he laughed loudly.You ask him: "What about European eunuchs, castrated entertainers, and self-destructive believers?" He said he didn't know!

He said, "The Chinese bind their feet." Then he laughed loudly.You ask him: "What about the breast augmentation now?" He pretends not to hear! He said: "Confucius wandering around the world is no different from dogs and chickens." You ask him: "Where are the Twelve Apostles?" He dare not fart! He said: "Confucianism is dark, stereotyped, feudal patriarchal!" You ask him: "Where is the European Inquisition?" He is at a loss! He said: "Confucianism kills too many people, so it should be abolished!" You ask him: "European Catholicism kills more people, why not abolish it?" He plays Tai Chi.

He said: "Confucius said that women are difficult to support, and Confucius oppressed women." You tell him: "Women are called whores in the Bible!" He still went to Christmas with his girlfriend! He said: "There are so many tortures in China, it's barbaric!" You tell him: "In the Middle Ages in Europe, gouging flesh, hooking tongues, sprinkling lime, and pouring lead water!" He has never heard of it! He said: "I curse the ancients? I call it courageous and shameful!" You ask him: "Being brave and knowing shame is to reflect on yourself. Why don't you reflect on yourself? Why do you confuse slandering the ancients with self-examination?" He is confused .

He said: "Our ancestors are sorry for us, and our ancestors have harmed us." You ask him: "China was ahead in ancient times, but modern times are backward. Why don't you ask your ancestors for your sins?" He said he was right. He said: "Tang Xuanzong accepted his daughter-in-law, that is called incest." You ask him: "Is it incest that Charles II betrothed his daughter to his uncle?" He is dumb! He said: "Why do we still keep the ancient buildings in China?" You asked him: "Foreigners protect ancient buildings." He said that is called love!

He said: "Xiang Yu destroys culture, barbaric!" You ask him: "Alaric (the more official translation is Alaric) burned Rome, barbaric?" He doesn't know which country Alaric is from! He said: "People in Xinjiang and Mongolia eat undercooked meat, and there are bacteria." You ask him: "The meat in Western food is also undercooked. How do you say that?" He said that is called preserving nutrition. He said for a while: "Chinese people spit everywhere, make loud noises, have no manners, and don't know shame!" After a while, he cursed Chinese culture: "Propriety, integrity, shame, benevolence, righteousness and morality are hypocrisy!" He slapped himself without knowing it!

Don't think that it's just some "little right" netizens who think this way. The countless big "enlightenment thinkers" in contemporary China are not much higher than this level.A typical example: They often ridicule the military cowardice and incompetence of traditional China endlessly, but as soon as you say "martial spirit" and "strengthen national defense construction", they will immediately jump out and call you "fascist".So, what should we do?They will never think about this problem, anyway, you can't do left or right, so they just scold you happily.Also, when you talk about "a strong country", he will say, "The Yangtze River is about to become the second Yellow River, so what kind of country do you need!" If there is no problem, a strong country is even more needed.What I want to emphasize here is that "literary tune" has no direct relationship with a person's ideology: many leftists and nationalists also have "literary tune" thinking, and they lack logic in understanding problems, let alone deep thinking.When some people on the left said that it was perfect before the reform and opening up, he forgot. If it was really so perfect then, how do you explain how we got on the road we are today?On the one hand, some leftists and nationalists criticize the reality very fiercely, saying that the reality is useless, and on the other hand, they oppose other people's proposals for political system reform, checks and balances on power, and so on.

There are factors of ignorance and pretending to be stupid, but whether it is the people who created these self-slapped "enlightenment ideas" or the people who believe in these views, a large part of them are not pretending to be stupid, but really believe it, and at the same time It's not entirely because of lack of information, but because they don't have the ability to process complex information.Therefore, Xiaojun's comparison of "Literary Tune" to "286" is actually very appropriate. The "286" central processing unit, no matter how good the memory and hard disk you equip it with, it just can't process the information.

On the one hand, the "literary and artistic cavity" are as strong as bulls, and they dismiss the thinking of science and engineering.For example, more than 20 years ago, when I debated with the "He Shang" faction, they said that I was born in science and engineering, so I was not eligible to participate in the debate.I once met a very famous scholar who said: It is impossible for people in science and engineering to have "ultimate care".I smiled and replied: Please tell me, when did "Ultimate Care" become a profession?I also met an entrepreneur who originally had a science and engineering background, claiming that people with a science and engineering background have no humanistic spirit.On the other hand, "literary tunes" often have low self-esteem in their hearts.Here I can give the example of Wang Xiaobo's mythology.A very important aspect of Wang Xiaobo's myth is that he has the so-called "science thinking" and "European and American rationality".For example, there is a blog post on "Science Student Wang Xiaobo" on the Sina blog, which says: He is a writer who changed his career after studying science and engineering, and his science thinking characteristics are strongly reflected in his works, which have obvious logical colors.There are also countless articles boasting of his "European and American rationality" or "British and American rationality".I estimate that the authors of these articles are all liberal arts students, at least they have not really developed a science and engineering thinking, and they are very ignorant of Wang Xiaobo's history.Because they don't know that Wang Xiaobo is not a science student at all, he has never taken any real science courses (at most, he has taken a few computer courses, and he has not yet obtained a degree). Frankly speaking, his thinking In the eyes of those who have really received strict science training, on the contrary, it is very illogical and very "artistic".This is not only my own opinion. A netizen who likes and sympathizes with Wang Xiaobo also said it very well: "I study computer. In my opinion, the logic of Xiaobo's article is indeed weak as you said. One On the one hand, his imagination is too rich; on the other hand, his science knowledge is probably all self-taught, which is fragmented and harmful to writing certain articles.” However, Wang Xiaobo only relied on his so-called “science thinking” " posture, blinded countless "literary and artistic accents"-including many relatively young science and engineering students who have not really formed a science and engineering thinking.This fully shows that the "literary tune" thinks in their hearts that their "literary tune" thinking is far inferior to that of science and engineering.

Another big problem with "Literary Tune" is that they put "culture" (which seems to be a little broader than "literary art") and "soft power" in an overly high position.Over the years, we have seen the ideological circles, academic circles, mainstream media, and even the political and business circles who have followed suit, endlessly emphasizing the importance of "culture", emphasizing the importance of "soft power", and even emphasizing the importance of The so-called "traditional Chinese culture" can influence Westerners and "create peace for all generations."However, it has been emphasized for a long time that China's "soft power" is still weak to almost a negative number (of course, this is not only a problem of "literary tune", but also other weaknesses of China's "soft power", such as democracy, etc., due to deviation from I won’t say much here, and interested readers can read the relevant discussion in my "The Destiny Belongs to a Great Country"), the resources invested in it have solved the personal pockets that are responsible for this area, and have not given China adds the slightest strength.

I am by no means saying here that "culture" and "soft power" are not important. "Soft power" is indeed important.Taking myself as an example, I used to study "hard power", but now I am doing "soft power", which already shows the importance of "soft power".Looking back at those years, my undergraduate studies were related to high-end technology and the defense industry. Many of my classmates who did not change their careers are still working in these fields.Why should I change my career?Because I realized back then that the general direction of the country's development had changed during the few years I was studying, and our future would be greatly reduced.To move in this direction, what is needed is "soft power" in the cloak of "literary tune" (although there was no such vocabulary back then), so I abandoned theory and followed literature, quite like Mr. Lu Xun who abandoned medicine for literature. idea.I remember one time at a meeting in Utopia, Xiaojun said something to the effect that debates in the ideological field were not important, but the defense industry.At that time, Yang Fan disagreed. He said: If the ideological field cannot win, the defense industry will not be able to get money to develop.At this time, an audience member stood up, claiming to belong to the defense industry, and said that Yang Fan's point of view was too correct.Still using the computer as an example, "literary tune" is a friendly interface, and for the vast majority of people, a friendly interface is also essential.The problem now is that there is nothing behind this friendly interface. However, first of all, although "soft power" can help improve "hard power", it still has to be based on "hard power".These days, "Mei Lanfang" is popular, and some literati came out to write blogs lamenting, saying that there is no market for Peking opera in the West, and the so-called "Mei Lanfang's popularity in the United States in the 1930s" is also exaggerated. So I felt very humbled again.A lot of followers complained about themselves, but one of them expressed unreasonable opinions. It said: "There is only one way for Peking opera to occupy the American market, and that is for the Chinese military to set up military bases in the United States. No?" I am quoting this sentence here, of course, not to advocate that we should find a way to set up a military base in the United States now, but to say that it really clearly and simply clarifies the relationship between "soft power" and "hard power".To be honest, if it weren't for the strong ships and guns of the West that defeated China, how many Chinese would like Western operas?Even today, I fundamentally doubt that those petty bourgeoisie who pay a lot of money to listen to Western opera really like it.I'm afraid many of them don't like it at all, but they don't dare to say it like Westerners comment on Chinese Peking Opera. They have to pretend to like it very much, otherwise they will be considered "uncivilized" by the people around them. Secondly, in today's China, "soft power" should be used to serve the promotion of "hard power", as I said earlier, instead of expanding themselves and engaging in Enrich.The relationship here can be compared with the financial market and the real economy: the financial market originally served the real economy, but in the end it was completely divorced from the real economy and self-inflated, and finally the soap bubble burst. the real economy. Even if we are engaged in "soft power" today, even if it is "literary and artistic" on the surface, the thinking behind it should be science and engineering, and its purpose should also serve "hard power".Only when our power is unparalleled and we can enjoy it with peace of mind, and only on that day, can we use soft power for soft power and purely engage in "literary tune".Of course, I don't completely rule out pure entertainment, which is also needed, otherwise their "fascist" hat will immediately come over.But the problem today is that we let the "literary tune" occupy almost everyone's thinking space and dominate the general direction of China, which is not enough. "Wenyiqiang" is indeed a Chinese cultural tradition, but we can no longer afford this extravagant tradition.Ancient China paid special attention to poems and songs, but did not pay much attention to logical thinking.In fact, in the pre-Qin period, the Chinese were still quite "science and engineering" thinking.Although China did not develop a clear formal logic like ancient Greece, the spirit of rationality and pragmatism was still quite common at that time.Let's look at the standardized production of the Qin State at that time, the performance of the various princes in the war, and the thoughts of some thinkers, in fact, they are not very "literary". The beginning of "Literary Tune" should be in the Han Dynasty. Since then, the Chinese have placed too much emphasis on flowery rhetoric.But the ancients also reflected on and were vigilant about the "literary tune".Such as Xining's reform, Wang Anshi wanted to cancel the poetry and prose examination in the imperial examination, so that the examination could select more practical talents.We all know that Wang Anshi himself has a very high level of poetry and prose, but he also realized the harm of "literary tune", so he wanted to take action to correct it.Unfortunately, he failed. Why is the "Literary Tune" so harmful, yet it occupies an undeservedly important position in China's 2,000-year-long history, and people with insight can't change it even if they want to?I am afraid that this can also be explained by the concept of "selective pressure" that I often use: in the Han Dynasty, the most intense war in China was over.There is no pressure, it is so comfortable, and of course I can play "literary tune".However, we have eaten the legacy left by the Qin and Han Dynasties for more than two thousand years, and it is gone.In modern times, China's top priority is to solve the two major problems of beatings and starvation. In fact, it can't afford the luxury of "literary tune" in traditional culture.However, the inertia of ancient civilizations like China is quite huge. Even today, the "literary tune" is still blocking our pace of modernization. Even if he is as great as Mao Zedong, I think there is a problem of being too "literary and artistic".Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, "Wu Xun Biography" and "Secret History of the Qing Palace" have been tossed about. The Cultural Revolution started with "Hai Rui Dismissed from Office".In fact, the so-called "Cultural Revolution" itself shows that Mao Zedong paid too much attention to the problem of "literary tune".In my opinion, if Mao Zedong did not toss about these "literary and artistic accents" all day long, and did not take these things too seriously, but insisted on focusing on economic development and national defense construction, China's rise could be advanced 30 years. I have mentioned my observations on the quality of the Japanese people on many occasions.When it comes to science and engineering graduates from the best universities, Japan may not be able to find as many geniuses as China's first-class universities, so I thought China could catch up quickly.At that time, I also had a "theory" that was later proved to be incorrect, that is, science and technology do not need to consider the quality of each person, and things invented by a genius can be used by everyone.Later, when I returned to China and entered the society, I realized that my original thinking was too naive.Although China has top-notch geniuses in science and engineering, Chinese college students, especially liberal arts college students, are far inferior to Japanese college students in terms of natural science, mathematics, and logic.That is to say, more than 100 years after the defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, compared with Japan, the scientific and technological quality of today's Chinese college students and Chinese intellectuals is still far behind, and they are still too "literary".However, the progress of a country cannot rely solely on a few science and engineering geniuses. The progress of a country must focus on the quality of each person.If the scientific and technological literacy in a society is so low, even among intellectuals, then the correct opinions will be buried, and the ideological achievements of a few outstanding people will not be accepted by the society, so they will not be able to be used by the society. wealth.Just like the example of Wang Xiaobo I mentioned earlier, a half-assed self-proclaimed "science student" can blind so many people casually, and can easily become a god with "science and engineering thinking" in the minds of these people. China's progress cannot be imagined too fast.Therefore, I believe that the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation depends on the general improvement of the scientific and technological literacy of Chinese intellectuals. That is to say, Chinese civilization must abandon the "literary and artistic style", so that the Chinese nation can complete modernization and become a world leader.