Root-seeking literature is a literary form with the theme of "cultural root-seeking".

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 this theory, and the theoretical circles called them "root-seeking schools."

The awareness of cultural roots includes three aspects: first, re-understanding and interpretation of national cultural materials in a literary and aesthetic sense, and discovering its positive cultural core.

Second, appreciate ancient cultural heritage in the way modern people experience the world and find the source of life energy.

Third, continue to criticize the ugly cultural factors existing in contemporary social life, such as in-depth exploration of the deep structure of national cultural psychology.

But these aspects are not absolutely separated. Many works comprehensively express the meaning of "root seeking".

Taken together, the literary proposition of the "root-seeking school" hopes to be based on our country's own national soil, excavate and analyze the inferior qualities of the people, carry forward the outstanding elements of cultural traditions, and grasp our nation's way of thinking and ideals from the cultural background.

Value standards, and strive to create literature with a true national style and style.

First of all, root-seeking literature is a trend of literature searching for itself. Its characteristics are firstly the search for the self of national culture and national literature, and secondly the search for the writer's personal self.

Root-seeking literature completely abandons the creative method of analyzing life and history at a purely political level, and instead extends the exploration into the psychological structure of national history and culture, transcending the level of political criticism and reaching the level of historical and cultural reflection.

From a macro perspective, it manifests itself as an inevitable deepening of the literary process in the realist period, as a deep criticism of traditional culture, and as a yearning for the sky of human rationality.

What is particularly important is that although root-seeking literature also writes about folk customs, it does not stop at the struggle between old and new folk customs; although it also writes about villagers in the mountains, it does not generally praise their simplicity and innocence; although it also describes the bad nature of the people, it does not focus on it.

Criticism of feudal ethics is the focus.

The superiority of root-seeking writers over their predecessors is concentrated in their pursuit of the roots of traditional Chinese culture, which is mainly their identification with Confucian culture and Taoist culture, such as Jia Ping's Shangzhou series, Highlighting the Magnificence of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and Wang Anyi's "Little Baozhuang"

The interpretation of benevolence thought, Acheng's "The King of Chess" radiates the romantic charm of Taoist culture, Li Hangyu's "Gechuanjiang Series" Wuyue culture, Han Shaogong's Chu culture Confucianism? Root-seeking literature is the first conscious romanticism

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Nature is one of the three major issues (nature, life, tradition) of romantic literature.

"Return to nature" became a slogan and symbol of romantic literature.

Many writers of root-seeking literature keep returning to search for their individual selves, inject spirituality into nature, "see God in nature, and see nature in God", completing their romantic inquiry.

For example, rural-urban writers returned to their hometowns, such as Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, Chen Zhongshi, Mo Yan, etc.

Another example is non-mainstream writers returning to tradition, such as Wang Zengqi, Acheng, and He Liwei.

Wang returned to the Confucian tradition, nourishing the mind and character; He and A returned to the Taoist culture, pursuing governance by doing nothing and being indifferent to life.

In short, "root-seeking literature" has undoubtedly played a certain role in promoting the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture. At the same time, many root-seeking literature writers have also absorbed modernist and even postmodernist expression methods in their creations, which has promoted the development of Chinese literature itself.

Indispensable contribution to development.

However, root-seeking literature also has a "retro" tendency, and is obviously complex and ambiguous in its ideological tendencies and value assessments.

Most writers tend to grasp certain folk customs and habits and deliberately exaggerate them, but ignore the true anatomy of "national character".

Sneaking into remoteness, primitiveness, and wilderness, it lacks any guiding significance for contemporary life.

Ignoring the revelation of life problems and contradictions in real society has led to the alienation of works from contemporary reality, resulting in the decline of "root-seeking literature" a few years later.

Although root-seeking literature was only a "flash in the pan" in the history of Chinese literature, it gradually declined in 1987.

But after all, it is like a meteor that once cut through the vast night sky of literature in the middle tenth century, completing a romantic inquiry into the vast universe of literature.

Although they have adopted the banner of "cultural root-seeking", these root-seeking writers can't agree on what "culture" is.

Most writers choose a region they are most familiar with as the starting point to enter the cultural level. From this perspective, "root-seeking literature" can be divided into two broad areas: "root-seeking in urban culture" and "root-seeking in rural culture."

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Below, we introduce these two types of "root-seeking literature" that represent different regions.

There are many writers who have explored the roots of urban culture. For example, Liu Xinwu described the ordinary but colorful urban sentiments of contemporary Beijing in "The Bell and Drum Towers"; Feng Jicai reproduced the discrimination against women by Chinese men in "Three Inches of Golden Lotus"

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Among this type of writers, Deng Youmei and Lu Wenfu are outstanding, and can be called the "two great writers from the north and the south".