The ecological concept in Jia Pingwa's novels mainly comes from the Buddhist concept of "animism", so he often uses karma and reincarnation to express the relationship between people and animals. Today, with the rise of modern ecological concepts, traditional ecological ethics has been accused of being unscientific, and the "life consciousness" embodied in Jia Pingwa's works has also been criticized. This paper attempts to start with the typical animal images in Jia Pingwa's novels, fill the gap between traditional ecological ethics and modern ecological view, find out the relationship between them, and explore the ecological morality in animal narrative novels.
First, the common animal images in Jia Pingwa's novels.
Jia Pingwa's novels are mostly set in the countryside, so there are often birds and animals. The ecological world in his novels mostly shows the daily life scenes of people and animals. At this time, the narrative function of animal images is single, and they mainly have four identities in the novel: first, they are tools and food for human survival; Second, as a negative image, most of them appear as cunning prey and cruel beasts; The third is the domesticated human companion; The fourth is to play the role of rendering the atmosphere as an image. These identities are reflected in Jia Pingwa's early novels, such as Shangzhou series novels. The first section of each chapter in the novel Shangzhou is an introduction to the local customs of Shangzhou, including the description of animals and the state of people getting along with animals, which truly shows the life relationship between people and animals in Shangzhou.
In Shangzhou, Jia Pingwa described the "creepy business" in Wuguan Town in A.D. 1983-snakes, pythons, minks, beekeepers and scorpions. Jia Pingwa introduced these terrible "trades" respectively, and vividly described the shapes, feeding methods and functions of these animals in detail. There is no need to delve into animal images here, they just exist as tools and food for human survival.
In addition to those animals that can be used by us, there are also creatures at the top of the food chain in the same ecosystem, just like humans. They often appear as negative images in Jia Pingwa's novels, such as "wolves". Wolves are always in opposition to people, and the relationship between hunters and wolves is also shown in Missing the Wolf. In "Ancient Furnace", Jia Pingwa also described the panic caused by wolves crossing the village many times. In the novel Shangzhou, the author also shows readers the opposition between man and wolf-"When the wolf has no food on the mountain, he comes to people's homes to pull the children, often in summer nights, when people spread reed mats in the yard or sleep in front of the door, the wolf takes the children with nipples away from people's arms."
Corresponding to the wolf is the faithful partner of human beings-the dog. In Jia Pingwa's ecological world, domesticated dogs are always synonymous with kindness and loyalty. There are many touching stories of loyal dog saviors in his novels-"A man went out hunting and cooked in a ravine, but he couldn't find water anywhere. He finally found a pool of fine water under a stone cliff, so he went to scoop water, but the dog was biting him. He was so upset that he kicked the dog away with one foot. But when he was boiling water, the dog came again and grabbed the stove with its claws. He thinks the dog is crazy. Dogs are often crazy, and mad dogs can't keep them, so they pick up sticks and fight hard until their noses and mouths bleed and scream. After the fight, the dog collapsed on the ground and could not get up. He went to fetch water from the pool again, and the dog got up again and ran wildly in the pool, pulling and urinating. The master became more and more angry and picked it up and shot it. Because the water in the pool was no longer edible, he dragged the branches to the water source at the edge of the cliff to scoop water. Suddenly, he found a poisonous snake lying in the grass nest at the source, dripping saliva into the water. He was so scared that he fell off the cliff and cried with his killed dog in his arms. As a result, he came back with the dead dog, made a coffin, arched the grave and buried it. He also told everyone that he would cry if he said it, in order to confess his sins. " Many characters even live alone with dogs.
Dogs and wolves are frequently used in animal narratives. Since ancient times, they have long-term close ties with people, so their images are often symbolized in literary works. Wolves threaten people's lives. They not only rob livestock, but also threaten people themselves. People have been fighting wolves to survive. Dogs, as people's best companions, are not only helpers in work, but also companions in life. Because they get along with people for a long time, they also have well-informed human characteristics. "The story between the wolf and the dog is destined to become an important topic in the category of animal narrative ethics. Wolf is a symbol of wild animals and primitive nature, and dog is a metaphor of human will. The struggle and struggle between them is objective in traditional culture. "
The first three animal identities often do not directly assume narrative roles, but they are mostly realistic and truly reflect the relationship between man and animals and between man and nature. But gradually, in literary works, animal images do not simply exist as objective facts, and they begin to play a direct narrative function in their works. In Jia Pingwa's early works, this narrative is single, and he is used to using common animals in rural areas to set off the atmosphere. For example, in order to show the tranquility of the country at night, the chirping of animals is used as a foil-"The louder the cricket is, the quieter his heart is at night"; "There was no sound in the room, and the chicken in the yard crowed for the first time." In order to show the ambiguous feelings between men and women, Jia Pingwa used "a cat named Chun" to render the atmosphere-"a cat named Chun is barking loudly in the distance. A meteor streaked across the sky and then disappeared silently. The two men leaned against the tree and hugged each other tightly, and the branches were shaking. "
As mentioned in the above example, Jia Pingwa did not give the animal image a special narrative identity at this time. At present, the animal narration in Jia Pingwa's novels is mostly unconscious, but we can also see his new exploration in animal narration. For example, in the novel Shangzhou, he tried to describe the dog's inner world-"The dog refused to stay at home and guard the door, so he followed him not far away ... but every time he approached, it often caused women's panic and children's stoning; He had to come back depressed, stand not far away, put one foot on the wall and show off that dirty thing to pee. " We can regard it as an exploration and attempt. Although this kind of attempt is rare in Jia Pingwa's early works, it also laid the foundation for the mature animal narration in his later novels.
Second, the "humanized" animal images in Jia Pingwa's works
In Jia Pingwa's early novels, most of them viewed the animal world from the perspective of human beings, but in his later works, especially in Missing the Wolf, Abandoned Capital and Ancient Furnace, they began to narrate from the perspective of animals. "Animal narration skillfully uses the cloak of' animals' to connect the narrative of the text with the unique tone, state and expression of animals, so that the narrator behind potential animals can often speak freely, extending and expanding the space of intention to the greatest extent." Jia Pingwa changed the narrative perspective, began to pay attention to the emotions of animals themselves, and began to criticize human civilization with animal values. "Since ordinary novels adopt the perspective of' people look at people' or' people look at people', writing animal novels should write more about' animals look at people', which is a new world." The author hiding behind the animal identity can use the characteristics of animals to speak freely. This narrative has indeed opened up a new garden for creation, and it is a fairly free soil. Who will enter the words of an animal? Let the animals speak, which has the color of comedy fable.
There is such an allegorical narrative in Jia Pingwa's novel The Waste Capital. There is a narrative clue that runs through the novel-"Niu". This cow "has a human mind and looks at the city from a philosopher's point of view". This cow can't speak human language, so ruminating becomes its thinking. But why choose the animal "cow"? The author explains in the novel, "In this world, all animals except cows are ferocious, and only God and cows are speechless. Cattle is enslaved by people, which makes it different from other wild animals and enters civilized society with people. Good, after all, the civilization of society will make people's organs count, and cleverness will be surpassed by cleverness and lead to destruction. So, who will take the place of people to dominate this society? It's a cow, only a cow! " This explanation can also be understood as a hint to the theme of the novel. The author puts on a bull's head mask, coldly watches the people in the novel step by step towards destruction, and laughs at human stupidity and self-deception with a series of bull noses. This can't help but remind people of primitive sacrificial activities and wizards who wear sheep's heads to show mystery and authority. Mr. Li Zehou once said: "The word' beauty' originally meant adults wearing sheep-shaped or sheep-headed clothes ... The word' beauty' is the literal expression of this animal play or totem witchcraft." Jia Pingwa, on the other hand, assumed such an authoritative image hidden behind the animal mask in his narrative world. The narrative of "Niu" in The Wasted Capital is extensive, philosophical and messy. It is not difficult to see that the author deliberately left himself a spillway where he could tell his story. Niu comments on human nature and discusses the spiritual desert brought by urbanization and modernization. Its words are extreme and illogical, just reasonable for a cow. The full text * * * wrote "Niu" four times, * * * about 6000 words, and the process of this cow coming from the countryside to the city and then dying in the city is also taking care of the life track of the protagonist in the novel. Animal narration also enriches readers' reading experience, broadens the dimensions of the whole novel and brings readers closer to the author's original intention in the switching of different perspectives.
Jia Pingwa summed up this narrative way in the novel The Ancient Furnace. He even gave every animal in the work the right to speak, and all this was achieved through a little boy who was familiar with animal language. The ancient furnace shows the great changes suffered by the simple and backward ancient furnace village during the Cultural Revolution. This great change implicated everyone in Gulu Village. In such an epic novel, almost everyone's fate is contained in the village, so it needs to be narrated from multiple angles to enhance the integrity and authenticity of the story. The novel is based on the boy's "dog peeing platform", but the boy's strength is too thin, so the author gives him extraordinary ability to let birds and animals speak for him. Birds and beasts tell him what he can't hear or see. Even those things that have nothing to do with him, birds and animals will guide him to discover. It is not difficult to see that animals began to appear as a very important narrative tool in Jia Pingwa's later novels. It seems that the author described "animals" as "animals themselves", and did not regard animals as mirror images of adults like animal narratives in children's literature, but there was a projection of characters in animal narratives.
Although the "humanized" animal image is more vivid and interesting, the "correctness" of this treatment is also debatable. Mr. Lu Xun once expressed a view that human morality and human values should not be imposed on animals. This practice goes against objective rationality. He cited an example of a "humanized" animal in a scientific article to make the story lively and interesting-"In the animal kingdom, many people want to eat their husbands, but the most famous ones are even the spider mentioned earlier and the mantis to be talked about today." Lu Xun thought that Animal Instinct was written as a murderer who murdered his own life and a poisonous woman who murdered her husband, but they were all wrong. In my opinion, this view of Mr. Lu Xun is very enlightening and can remind the author to respect the facts and pay attention to the inner world of animals. But at the same time, we must realize that this cannot be generalized. Novel is an independent space to structure the story. The author has the right to use various means to make the novel appear fuller and more true. The author also has the right to set scenes and characters according to the needs of the plot. Of course, he can also choose a narrative method that is suitable for promoting the development of the story. So it's up to the author to decide whether to let animals talk or not. All the scenes and characters in the novel are intended to convey the author's writing intention and are tools to construct the text world. Therefore, as long as the animal image successfully completes its narrative mission, it is qualified and commendable.
Third, the traditional ecological ethics and modern ecological view in the novel reach the same goal by different routes.
The rich animal images in Jia Pingwa's novels constitute an ecological world in his literary world. In this ecological world, on the one hand, it reflects the real ecological relationship between man and nature, and between man and animals, on the other hand, the author has formulated rules for this world with his own ecological concept. "Contemporary animal narratives spare no effort to explore the inner complex emotional logical relationship between man and animals and between man and nature, which naturally attracts people's attention most easily, and it is also easier to stand at the forefront of the times to stimulate the general awareness of the public and society." However, Jia Pingwa's ecological view does not seem to be respected by animal narrative researchers. Some scholars believe that it was from the short story Dove that Jia Pingwa began to have a real ecological consciousness, and animals entered his ethical field of vision as the theme of life. However, "Jia Pingwa's life consciousness is more a copy of the concept of reincarnation and karma in China's traditional Buddhist thought, rather than a' life concept' that pays attention to the feeling, intrinsic value or physiological characteristics of animals on the basis of modern science. This mysterious perspective keeps him away from the life consciousness under the care of modern ethics characterized by' disenchantment'. " They believe that it is precisely because of the Buddhist concept and various magical colors in the novel that the ecological texts with warning functions such as Tumen and Missing the Wolf are eclipsed.
It is true that Jia Pingwa's novels are mostly influenced by traditional Buddhism and Taoism, and there are indeed many mysterious descriptions. In "The Ancient Furnace", the author wrote a story about the karma between man and beast: a patient drank the blood of a weasel to treat a disease, but ended up with an abscess the size of a weasel's head on his back and finally died. There are also some superstitious customs and sayings in the novel. For example, seeing spiders in the morning means that something big will happen that day, owls represent death, and wolves crossing villages represent rising water. In the ancient furnace, the old man buried the leftover cow head out of a simple primitive worship. Although some animal narratives in the novel are unscientific, they do reflect rural life, so it is understandable to understand those "superstitions" from this point.
But is the traditional ecological ethics completely incompatible with the modern ecological concept? In fact, the traditional ecological ethics embodied in Jia Pingwa's novels is not unrelated to his own life experience. "I even want to know why I was born alone. If it is something else, such as a stone or a tree, that would be great. This kind of consciousness used to be very strong. I feel that stones and trees seem to have been changed by people. If you treat everything you have experienced as the same, there is no difference between high and low. " His novels also fully embody the life consciousness of "animism". The bald man in the novel Shangzhou once had the experience and feeling of Zhuang. The juvenile "dog urine platform" interacting with animals in Ancient Furnace is enough to personally experience the inner feelings of various animals, plants and even a stinky stone.
The life consciousness of animism can be traced back to ancient times. For a long time, humans regarded animals as gods, sacrificed for them and portrayed them as totems. The appearance of totems means that people in this family regard animals in totems as ancestors. "The kinship between humans and animals is actually one of the simplest and simplest elements in the bud of primitive art." Modern science has proved that the kinship between humans and animals is not nonsense. Since Darwin's theory of evolution came into being, "primitive people don't think they are in a unique privileged position in the natural hierarchy." All life forms have kinship, which seems to be a universal premise of mythical thinking ... naturally it becomes a huge society-a society of life. People have not been given a prominent position in this society. He is a part of this society, but he has the same religious dignity in all aspects. People and animals and plants are at the same level. " From this perspective, traditional ecological ethics and modern ecological concepts are not contradictory. Modern ecological view requires people to explore the inner world of animals from a scientific point of view and understand their true feelings, and requires people to stop speculating about animals from the perspective of "people" and stand on the standpoint of animals. But this statement itself is unrealistic. Because no matter how we understand animals scientifically and objectively, we can't get rid of human subjective consciousness.
It is undeniable that giving animals moral identity stems from the improvement and perfection of human moral sense. To some extent, we don't regard "animals" as "animals" in modern ecological theory, but "animals" as "people" and as equal living beings with us. In a sense, we can't get rid of anthropocentrism because we can't get rid of the identity of "human". But it is precisely because of this that we will pay attention to those animal partners who are also members of nature, understand the emotions of animals with our own inner feelings and give them respect. This kind of subjective behavior should not be criticized, but advocated.
Although traditional ecological ethics and modern ecological theory have different ways of practice, their goals are the same, and they are both seeking ecological harmony. How can people and animals, and nature live in peace and freedom? Both views are calculating this problem in their own way. Jia Pingwa once outlined a beautiful picture of people and animals living in harmony in his novel-"He can't forget that he accidentally violated a nest of wasps on the mountain, turned around and ran, but the wasps came in droves. With a loud cry, he rolled off the cliff and fell into a coma. When he woke up, he found a deer covered in patterns licking his forehead with his tongue, and he woke up under this itchy and cold licking. He held out his hand, but the deer shrank back, looked at him fixedly, and then disappeared into the Woods with a loud cry. On another occasion, he was suddenly besieged by the overwhelming Shan Yu under a concave cliff. He clearly saw a stone mouth in a river ditch, but it was a refuge for many wild animals, including wolves, goats, frogs and poisonous snakes. Evil and goodness exist in one place, but he is so peaceful and quiet on the' island' surrounded by floods. He was stunned! He saw with his own eyes that an eagle caught a poisonous snake in the grass, circled for a while, fell straight like a stone and died. He took a closer look and verified that the snake was scratched by the eagle, but the eagle was bitten by snake venom, and all the eagle snakes fell on the rocks and were killed. " However, this harmonious picture does not show the normal state of people getting along with animals, because the relationship between animals and people is more like "I raised them with years, and it raised me with flesh and blood".
This leads us to another discussion about animal narration. When we pursue the equality between human and animal life and strive for moral rights for animals, we push mankind to a dead end. Because the relationship between people and animals has never been equal and will not be equal. And this kind of inequality is endowed by nature, and this kind of inequality is to maintain the balance of the whole ecological circle. "The balanced evolution of natural ecology determines that all living things must constantly contribute to individual life. It is inevitable and reasonable for carnivores to kill herbivores, and so is it for omnivorous humans to eat other animals. The key is to have a degree, and a degree is ecological. " Therefore, when we look at the relationship between humans and animals, we should not blindly rise to the level of "ecological morality". While respecting and protecting animals, we should also recognize and respect human nature. Similarly, animal narrative novels should not be too demanding. Literature has its special context, and its development cannot be rigidly bound by moral rules and regulations. I quite agree with Zeng Daorong's point of view: "Of course, we can't judge the ethical value of nature completely out of the real world, otherwise, our literary criticism may fall into the danger of a preset aesthetic virtual trap. Therefore, we must have a clear understanding of the' pan-moralization' phenomenon of the animal world in the text, and we must strictly limit the writer's rational cognition in the special context of ecological aesthetics. " It is easy for animal narrative research to fall into such a misunderstanding. It is neither professional nor reasonable to measure the quality of animal narrative works only by a single ecological standard. Animal narration not only shows the ecological world, but also plays the role of "narration", which determines that researchers should not only analyze the text scientifically from the ecological point of view, but also interpret it from the literary and cultural levels, so as to give the work a fair evaluation.