Definition: In the mid-1980s, a wave of "cultural root-seeking" arose in the Chinese literary world. Writers began to devote themselves to exploring traditional consciousness and national cultural psychology. Their creations were called "root-seeking literature."

In 1985, Han Shaoqiang first stated 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 tradition." He proposed that "it should be based on reality

At the same time, they transcended the real world to reveal some of the mysteries that determine national development and human survival. "Writers began to create under such a theory, and the theoretical circles called them "root-seeking schools."

Background of the rise: The rise of root-seeking literature is not accidental. Its emergence has its own social background.

1.

Cultural craze With the development of economic construction, modern Western cultural ideas also entered China along with other experiences and technologies. However, how to deal with these ideas, intellectuals at the time had two main views: One believed that one should learn to imitate literature and art

Modernism in the world is also regarded as an integral part of modernization, completely ignoring the fact that modernist art in the West is a resistance to modern industrial civilization. There is also a belief that the goal of "modernization" is due to the different political environments of each country, and the cultural foundation is also different.

If they are not the same, the models they present, especially the cultural development models, should not be the same.

Therefore, when China is taking off economically, how should it use its own cultural traditions as a receiving ground to test and absorb Western modern culture in order to develop its own modernization?

This issue gradually attracted attention among the humanistic intellectuals at that time, which was specifically reflected in the diversified investigation of the value of traditional culture.

This is different from the Enlightenment discourse of the early 1980s. The anti-tradition and anti-feudalism emphasized by the Enlightenmentists can be used to criticize the rampant political despotism during the Cultural Revolution.

However, when some intellectuals study the proposition of how to build modernization in real life, they cannot help but notice that their own cultural traditions must be used to transform reality.

Therefore, it has become both an objective need and a subjective requirement to re-study, understand and evaluate Chinese traditional culture.

Around 1985, a large-scale cultural craze emerged in the cultural field.

2.

Writers In the entire root-seeking literary trend, educated youth writers play the main role.

As they mature, they need to find a cultural mark of their own.

Writers of this generation must find a world of their own to prove the significance of their existence in the literary world.

They made use of their experience of going to the countryside and being close to the daily lives of farmers, and through this life experience they further searched for the traditional cultural value 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 a people who actively accept Western modernist literature. However, when the modernist method was directly criticized from the political side, they had to

Instead, use national packaging to implicitly express the emerging modern consciousness.

Therefore, cultural root-seeking is not about returning to tradition, but about finding a more favorable acceptance site for modern Western culture: after having a better understanding of the history of modern Western literature and the situation of writers, there is an urgent need for the writer's consciousness of "going global" in literature.

We realize that following certain Western writers and schools, no matter how good the imitation is, it cannot become an original artistic creation.

In their view, looking for vital things from Chinese culture through the lens of "world literature" should be a more feasible way for Chinese literature.

Main ideological reasons: 1.

Writers feel the profound restriction of "culture" on human beings and try to grasp it.

Since the late 1970s, scar literature and reflective literature have deeply explored the consciousness of "human beings" and tried to liberate the lives and values ??of "human beings" in their works. However, some writers have found that even if they put aside temporary politics

, moral factors, it is impossible for humans to enter the absolutely free living space like animals - an invisible hand controls humans behind the scenes and restricts the psychology and behavioral patterns of "people". This is "culture".

Many writers hope to grasp the "way of understanding things" of members of their own nation from the level of "national cultural psychology", thereby answering questions about why China experienced nationwide turmoil during the "Cultural Revolution" and even why China's national power has declined since the prosperous Tang Dynasty.

2.

Some writers believe that China has experienced a long period of "traditional cultural rupture" since the "May 4th" New Cultural Revolution, so they hope to use literature to make up for this "cultural rupture zone."

Acheng believes: "The May 4th Movement has undeniable progressive significance in social change, but its nihilistic attitude of relatively comprehensive denial of national culture, coupled with the constant turmoil in Chinese society, has caused the rupture of national culture to continue to this day."

The Great Revolution was even more thorough, and it swept away national culture and handed it over to class culture, and we almost didn’t even have a fig leaf left.” Han Shaogong also believed: “After the May Fourth Movement, Chinese literature learned from foreign countries, from the West, the East, and Russia.

and the Soviet Union; they also closed their doors to foreign countries, and Yelang arrogantly banned and burned all 'foreign goods'.