Definition:

In the mid-198s, there was an upsurge of "cultural root-seeking" in China's literary world. Writers began to explore traditional consciousness and national cultural psychology, and their creation was called "root-seeking literature".

In p>1985, Han Shaogong took the lead in declaring in a programmatic paper "The Roots of Literature": "Literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions." He proposed that we should "base ourselves on reality and transcend the real world at the same time to reveal some mysteries that determine national development and human survival." Under this theory, writers began to create, and the theoretical circle called them "root-seeking school".

Rising background:

The rise of root-seeking literature is not accidental, but it has its own social background.

1. Cultural fever

With the development of economic construction, western modern cultural thoughts have also entered China together with other experiences and technologies. However, there were two main views on how to deal with these thoughts at that time: one thought that we should learn to imitate Lian Wenxue's artistic modernism, and it was also regarded as an integral part of modernization. Regardless of the fact that modernist art is the resistance to modern industrial civilization in the west, there is also a view that the goal of "modernization" should not be the same because of the different political environments and cultural foundations of different countries. Therefore, how should China take its own cultural tradition as an acceptance field when its economy takes off, so as to test and absorb western modern culture and develop its own modernization? This problem gradually attracted the attention of humanistic intellectuals at that time, which was embodied in the diversified investigation of the value of traditional culture. This is different from the enlightenment discourse in the early 198 s, and the anti-tradition and anti-feudalism emphasized by the enlighteners can be used to criticize the rampant political absolutism during the Cultural Revolution. However, when some intellectuals study the proposition of how to build modernization in real life, they can't help but notice that they must make good use of their own cultural traditions to transform reality. Therefore, it is both an objective need and a subjective requirement to re-study and evaluate China's traditional culture. Around 1985, a large-scale cultural craze arose in the cultural field.

2. In the whole ideological trend of root-seeking literature, educated youth writers play the main role. When they are mature, they need to find a cultural symbol of their own. This generation of writers must find their own world to prove the significance of their existence in the literary world.

They make use of their experience of going to the countryside and getting close to farmers' daily life, and through this life experience, they further look for the traditional cultural values lost among the people. It should be noted that:

They are not indigenous people living in traditional folk customs. On the contrary, most of them are people who actively accept western modernist literature. However, when the modernist method is directly criticized by political aspects, they have to use national packaging to implicitly express the emerging modern consciousness. Therefore, the root of culture is not to return to tradition, but to find a more favorable acceptance field for modern western culture: after having a better understanding of the history of modern western literature and the situation of writers, writers who are eager to "go global" in literature are required to realize that following some western writers and schools, even if they imitate it well, cannot be an original artistic creation. In their view, it should be a more feasible way for China literature to look for something vital from China culture through the mirror of "world literature".

Main ideological reasons: 1. Writers feel the profound restriction of "culture" on human beings and try to grasp it.

Since the late 197s, scar literature and reflective literature have deeply explored the conscious consciousness of "human" and tried to liberate the life and value of "human" in their works. However, some writers have found that even if temporary political and moral factors are put aside, it is impossible for human beings to enter an absolutely free living space like animals-an invisible hand manipulates human beings behind the scenes and restricts their psychological and behavioral patterns.

Many writers hope to grasp the "way of understanding things" of their own ethnic members from the perspective of "national cultural psychology", so as to answer the question of why China experienced the "Cultural Revolution" and even why China's national power declined since the Tang Dynasty. 2. Some writers think that there has been a long period of "traditional cultural fracture" in China since the May 4th New Cultural Revolution, so they hope to make up for this "cultural fracture" with literature. Acheng thinks: "The May 4th Movement has undeniable progressive significance in social change, but it completely negates the nihilistic attitude of national culture. In addition, China society has been in turmoil, which has continued the fracture of national culture to this day. The' Cultural Revolution' was even more thorough, and the national culture was awarded to the class culture, and we almost lost the fig leaf." Han Shaogong also thinks: "After the May 4th Movement, China literature learned from foreign countries, from the West, the East, Russia and the Soviet Union; He also closed his doors to foreign countries, and Yelang arrogantly banned and burned all' foreign goods'. As a result, the national culture is destroyed and the national self-confidence is low. " 3. At that time, China's literary world was greatly influenced by the trend of "seeking roots" in the world: represented by Latin American "magic realism" on the development of ancient Indian culture, as well as the descriptions of exotic folk customs by some ethnic writers in the Soviet Union and the modern novels with oriental flavor written by Yasunari Kawabata. Many young writers see the hope that the literature of the third world countries will go to the world from Marquez's works full of Latin American regional colors, so they show a strong sense of "cultural roots" in their creation. These writers firmly believe that the more national they are, the more cosmopolitan they are. Their "root-seeking" is to have a dialogue with the world. They believe that only when the "root-seeking" is truly completed can we find the unique literary style and style of our country, so as to gain a foothold in the world literary world.

As early as 1982, Jia Pingwa thought in his writing "Crouching Tiger Theory" that "China's traditional beauty expression method should be used to truly express the life and emotions of China people." In this article, the trend of "cultural root-seeking" has begun to emerge.

In addition, the works of these foreign writers not only show strong national characteristics and national aesthetic style, but also clearly penetrate the spirit of modern consciousness, which is rich in national cultural uniqueness and combines the creative tendency of modernity, providing ready-made experience and effective encouragement for China writers who advocate "cultural roots". Therefore, the "root-seeking literature" has shown the desire of the integration of modern consciousness and national culture from the very beginning, which, in a sense, is the continuation of the modernist literary spirit since the early 198s.

The awareness of cultural root-seeking includes three aspects: First, the re-understanding and interpretation of national cultural materials in the sense of literature aesthetics, and the exploration of its positive cultural core. Second, to appreciate the legacy of ancient culture in the way that modern people feel the world, and to find the source of life energy. Third, continue to criticize the ugly cultural factors in contemporary social life, such as the deep excavation of the deep structure of national cultural psychology.

But these aspects are not absolutely separated, and many works comprehensively express the meaning of "seeking roots". On the whole, the literary proposition of the "root-seeking school" is that it hopes to base itself on China's own national soil, excavate and analyze the inferior quality of the people, carry forward the excellent elements in the cultural tradition, grasp our nation's way of thinking, ideals and value standards from the cultural background, and strive to create literature with real national style and national style.

major events: the consciousness of cultural root-seeking in contemporary literary creation was first embodied in the poems composed by Yang Lian, an obscure poet, including Banpo, Nuorilang, Tibet and Dunhuang, which he wrote around 1982, and the large-scale poems written later by imitating the thinking structure of the Book of Changes, such as Saying of the Free. In the field of novels, it started with Wang Meng's series of novels in Yili published between 1982 and 1983. After 1983, with the publication and sensation of Jia Pingwa's First Record of Shangzhou, Zhang Chengzhi's River in the North, King Chess of Acheng, Little Baozhuang of Wang Anyi and The Last Fisherman of Li Hangyu, many educated youth writers joined the writing of "Cultural Roots" and became the main body of this literary trend. In December, 1984, at the symposium held in Hangzhou by Shanghai Literature magazine and Hangzhou West Lake magazine and other cultural units, many young writers and critics raised the issue of cultural roots when discussing the recent creative phenomena. It was in 1985 that the banner of "cultural root-seeking" was really launched on a large scale.

1985 was a very important year in the literary history after the Cultural Revolution. Prior to this, the writers' main work focused on the reflection of history and the criticism of reality. Too strong political pressure made the literary experiment unable to develop healthily and normally. The rise of cultural root-seeking consciousness in 1985 directly led to literary experiments under the multiple relations of politics and culture, and aroused writers and artists' conscious concern for artistic noumenon. At that time, a group of young writers published their own declarations, including Acheng, Zheng Yi, Han Shaogong and Zheng Wanlong. Han Shaogong took the lead in clearly expounding the position of "root-seeking literature" in a programmatic paper "The Root of Literature", arguing that the root of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of national culture. This cultural root-seeking is the awakening of potential historical factors in aesthetic consciousness and an effort to release the energy of modern concepts to recast and polish the national self-image. He declared that "literature has roots, and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the cultural soil of national traditions", and he proposed that we should "base ourselves on reality and transcend the real world at the same time to reveal some mysteries that determine national development and human survival. Zheng Yi also believes that only by "crossing the cultural fault zone" can we "go global". Other articles include: Zheng Wanlong's My Roots, Li Hangyu's Managing Our Roots, Acheng's Culture Restrains Human Beings and so on. There is an important similarity in their narration, that is, China literature should be based on extensive and profound "cultural excavation" before it can have a dialogue with "world literature". These writers began to create under this theory, and the theoretical circle called them "root-seeking".

Han Shaogong's "Roots of Literature" starts with Chu culture: Where has the splendid Chu culture gone? Literature has "roots", and the roots of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of national traditional culture. If the roots are not deep, the leaves will be hard to flourish. Two examples: one south and one north:

Guangdong (and Hong Kong): A simple copy of western culture can only lead to cultural hemorrhage.

Xinjiang: If there is to be a real western literature, there must be no bones and blood of traditional culture (referring to the culture with its own characteristics in Xinjiang). If we only "traverse" some themes and techniques from mainland literature, it is difficult to have new vitality and vitality. The inexplicable "sensation" of the introduction of overseas culture. However, some people are already looking for their roots: re-examining the land under their feet and reviewing the nation's yesterday. Re-understanding of the nation, the awakening of potential historical factors in aesthetic consciousness, and the pursuit and grasp of the objective expression of infinite and eternal understanding. Dana's Philosophy of Art: People are multi-layered-helping us understand the so-called cultural level. The writer began to cast his eyes on a deeper level, hoping to transcend reality and reveal some mysteries that determine national development and human survival: first, pay attention to the countryside. The local culture has preserved some traditional cultures: not the earth's crust but underground magma, which deserves the writer's attention. This is not to close the door to the outside world or oppose cultural opening. Only by finding a frame of reference for dissidents can we recognize and enrich ourselves-and eventually fall on ourselves. The complex relationship between outstanding foreign writers and the traditional culture of a certain nation: foreign modern culture also has a vein to inherit.

American humorous tradition and cowboy taste-Chaplin, Mark? Twain, Europe? Henry;

Latin American myths, fables, legends and divination superstitions-Latin American magic realism;

The speculative tradition in continental Europe and the old scholasticism-the existentialism of Sartre and Camus;

Zen culture of Buddhism and the tradition of leisure and quietness of oriental scholars-Yasunari Kawabata, Japan's "New Sensation School";

Greek myths and legends-Greek poet Eglitis.

...

The Moon and Sixpence: The Story of Gauguin. Many western scholars have great interest and hope in oriental culture. China in reality: reform and construction, "bringing in" science and technology. China is still China, and we have a national self. We should release the heat energy of modern ideas, recast and brighten this self. A Cheng: "A nation's own past is easy to forget, and it is not so easy to forget."

genre division:

Although the banner of "cultural root-seeking" has been played, these root-seeking writers are unable to agree on what "culture" is. Most writers choose a region that they are most familiar with as the basic point of cutting into the cultural level. From this perspective, we can divide "root-seeking literature" into two broad areas: "urban culture root-seeking" and "rural culture root-seeking".

Next, we will introduce these two kinds of "root-seeking literature" which represent different regions.

(a) the roots of urban culture:

There are not a few writers who explore urban culture. For example, Liu Xinwu described the ordinary but colorful people's feelings in contemporary Beijing in Bell and Drum Tower; In Three-Inch Golden Lotus, Feng Jicai reproduces the discrimination and playfulness of men against women in China. Among these writers, Deng Youmei and Lu Wenfu are outstanding, and they can be called "two masters of North and South".

Deng Youmei became famous in 1956 with his short story On the Cliff. After entering the new era, he first launched several military works, and then focused on the life in Beijing, and wrote a series of "Jingweier" novels, among which Nawu and Yanhu, the representative works, won the second and third novella awards respectively, and the rest were "Looking for Painting Han", "Two Cats" and "Living in the Four Seas". These street novels with strong folk flavor mostly set the story background in the past old times, sketching all kinds of characters from the nobles of the princes and grandchildren, the children of the Eight Banners to the bottom of society, with unique aesthetic charm.

Nawu is based on the commercial society of old China and Beijing in 193s and 194s, which depicts the embarrassing situation of a former Qing dynasty boy who wants to survive in society. "Smoke Bottle" shows the rebirth of the children of the Eight Banners from another angle, and describes the process of how Wu Shibao, a ruined aristocrat, learned the stunt of painting inside a snuff bottle and embarked on the road of self-reliance. Deng Youmei's works use the authentic Beijing dialect, and carefully describe all kinds of traditional manners and customs. Even from the perspective of folklore, his works are rare.

Lu Wenfu was born and raised in the south of the Yangtze River. Most of his novels are based on trivial matters in Suzhou alleys, such as eating and drinking, weddings and funerals. His language is humorous and gentle, which reflects from the overall atmosphere.