The ups and downs of the reputation of "Literary Master" Shen Congwen
In the history of Chinese literature in the 20th century, Shen Congwen's reputation may have had the greatest ups and downs. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was the leader of the northern literary world. In the late 1940s, mainly due to the criticism of Guo Moruo as a "pink writer", Shen Congwen withdrew from the literary world and was buried in dust for a long time. Since the 1980s, Shen Congwen's reputation has skyrocketed, and he has been praised as a "master". People may have a rough idea of ??the ups and downs of Shen Congwen's reputation, but they may not know the details. The author has sorted out some important details of the changes in Shen Congwen's evaluation over the past 70 years for the benefit of readers.
1. Withdrawing from the literary world
Guo Moruo's article "Rebuking Reactionary Literature and Art", which had a huge impact on Shen Congwen's fate, was published in the first issue of the "Anti-Japanese War Literature and Art Series" published in Hong Kong in 1948 . The article denounced him as a "pink writer" who specializes in decadent pornography, with "ill-intentioned intentions to confuse readers and soften people's fighting mood." It also said that Shen Congwen was "consciously operating as a reactionary." At the same time, the "Anti-Japanese War Literature and Art Series" also published the article "A Brief Comment on Shen Congwen's "The Bear Mansion"" by Feng Naichao. Shen Congwen's "Xiong Mansion" was published in "National News Weekly". Shen Congwen and Xiong Xiling, the first prime minister of the Republic of China, were fellow townsmen and distant relatives. Feng Naichao's article said that Shen Congwen praised Xiong Xiling's former residence and his "simplicity and simplicity of personality, compassion and broadness, vision and thoughtfulness", which was a tribute to the landlord class and reflected "the tradition of Qingke and beggars in Chinese literature". The two articles, especially Guo Moruo's article, were like a bombshell on Shen Congwen's class characterization, dealing a heavy blow to Shen Congwen who was preparing a grand writing plan with great ambition. In early 1949, the slogan "Down with the Crescent School, the Modern Criticism School, and the Third Line of Shen Congwen" was displayed on the campus of Peking University. During a critical period of historical transition, Shen Congwen attempted suicide due to the awe-inspiring power of his article's slogan and worries about its background, and he withdrew from the literary world.
In fact, Guo Moruo and Feng Naichao’s crusade against Shen Congwen was only the pinnacle of left-wing criticism. Before and after, similar criticism of Shen Congwen appeared frequently in newspapers. Commentators mostly use the theory of class struggle and typification theory to understand his works, such as Han Shiheng's "The Reproduction of Stories - A Comment on Shen Congwen's "Small Scene under the Moon" (1934), He Yubo's "Criticism of Shen Congwen's Works" (1936), and "Shen Congwen's (Guisheng)" (1937), etc., criticized him for not writing about class struggle, not creating personalized characters, and lacking a clear love and hatred for characters from different classes. In the 1930s and 1940s, Shen Congwen was also criticized by left-wing critics for literary and artistic controversies such as the "dispute between the Beijing School and the Shanghai School", the "dispute over the book banning policy", and the "dispute over the 'almost' issue"; during the Southwest Associated University, Shen Congwen was New explorations in creation have also been criticized by them. After the founding of New China, New Literature gradually developed into a huge subject. Wang Yao's "Draft of the History of Chinese New Literature" (1954), Ding Yi's "A Brief History of Chinese New Literature" (1955), and Liu Shousong's "Preliminary Draft of the History of Chinese New Literature" (1956) are the foundation works of the discipline. In the film, Shen Congwen "accompanies" him with a negative image. Theorists developed and systematized the mainstream views of left-wing critics. As the political situation became increasingly severe, Shen Congwen, as a "backward" and even "reactionary" modern writer, finally disappeared from the "pure" literary history.
2. Attention again
Shen Congwen wrote a lot throughout his life. The "Complete Works of Shen Congwen" has just been published in 32 volumes with more than 10 million words. It is a miracle that such a writer was produced in China in the 20th century. His lofty status cannot be obliterated by abuse, slander or indifference.
Positive evaluation of Shen Congwen's literary status can be traced back to the 1930s, appearing at the same time as left-wing criticism. Although Lu Xun had misunderstandings about Shen Congwen in his early days, he did not include Shen Congwen's works when compiling "Chinese New Literature Series·Novel Collection". However, according to Snow's recollection, Lu Xun mentioned Shen Congwen's name when talking to him and asked him who was the best writer in China at present. This shows that Lu Xun's views on Shen Congwen changed later. Two other literary giants, Zhou Zuoren and Lao She, both mentioned Shen Congwen's "Autobiography of Congwen" when answering a journal's question in 1934 about their favorite book. These positive discussions and attitudes about Shen Congwen contain some elements of academic evaluation and have important reference value. In addition, Su Xuelin classified and compared Shen Congwen's works in his article "On Shen Congwen" (1934), and tried to establish his unique position in the literary world and summarize the cultural and ideological significance of his works. Liu Xiwei tried to refine the aesthetic characteristics of Shen Congwen's creation in "Border Town" and "Eight Horses" (1935). His discovery and appreciation of the poetry and beauty in "Border Town" and "Eight Horses" gave people a refreshing feeling. But generally speaking, positive reviews before 1949 were scattered and sentimental.
From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, at the beginning of the restoration of chaos, Shen Congwen regained attention after a long period of being buried in dust. The evaluation of Shen Congwen during this period was obviously controversial: cutting-edge researchers inspired by passion demanded a re-evaluation of Shen Congwen; conservatives refused to accept "heresies" like Shen Congwen out of the desire to safeguard tradition.
The conflict between the two tendencies led to many incidents. For example, in 1980, Ding Ling wrote "Ye Pin and Revolution", and in 1983, Zhu Guangqian wrote "The Historical Status of Comrade Shen Congwen's Literary Achievements Will Be Re-evaluated", both of which triggered discussions. As a result of the debate, the understanding of Shen Congwen gradually returned to the level of common sense and rationality. As Shen Congwen's reputation rose, he was known for his rigorous and conclusive literary history writings, such as "A Brief History of Modern Chinese Literature" (1984) edited by Tang? Also included Shen Congwen in the "May Fourth Literary Tradition" Gave him a place. Since then, Shen Congwen is no longer a restricted area for research.
In the 1960s and 1970s, when the mainland academic field was silent, the study of Shen Congwen in Hong Kong and overseas was kept alive thanks to the hard work of scholars such as Wang Runhua, Sima Changfeng, and Xia Zhiqing. In the 1980s, another group of overseas scholars, such as Nie Hualing and Jin Jiefu, conducted more in-depth, creative and imaginative research on Shen Congwen. As their writings spread in the mainland, their research on regional culture and history in Shen Congwen's works, as well as their research on the modernity of character connotations and stylistic forms, greatly inspired mainland scholars. In addition, the research on Shen Congwen in Japan has also been fruitful in terms of collection of background materials and physical research. Since the mid-1980s, domestic research on Shen Congwen has developed in depth and breadth, and has achieved outstanding results. These studies mainly include Shen Congwen's relationship with traditional Chinese culture and Western culture, and the complex connection with regional culture in western Hunan; Shen Congwen's status in the May Fourth New Literary Tradition, his status in Beijing School literature, and his status in local literature; Shen Congwen's thoughts , research on the modernity of characters and narrative methods; research on the fictionality, self-sufficiency, purposefulness, and interdependence of the Xiangxi world and the urban world in the text, research on the style and language of novels, research on the gains and losses of Shen Congwen's later artistic experiments, and creation Psychological research and more. The rich research results of domestic and foreign scholars have made necessary academic preparations for Shen Congwen's rapid rise in literary history in the late 1990s.
3. New Seats
Due to the wave of re-evaluation of modern writers in the late 1980s and the special historical moment of the end of the century, the two combined forces to give birth to a A unique academic phenomenon: Author ranking.
In the sequence of literary history, Jin Jiefu was the first to give Shen Congwen a clear and noble status. He wrote in the introduction to "The Biography of Shen Congwen" (Chinese edition of Current Affairs Press, July 1991): "In the West, most of Shen Congwen's most loyal readers are academics. They all believe that Shen is a rare figure in the history of modern Chinese literature. One of several great writers, some people also say that if Lu Xun is considered a general, then Shen Congwen can be ranked below. "Jin Jiefu reflects the common opinion of Western sinologists, including himself. In this passage, the terms "few", "great", and being juxtaposed with Lu Xun are all extremely high praises.
In 1994, the "20th Century Chinese Literary Masters Library" (divided into 4 volumes of novels, poems, essays, and dramas) edited by Wang Yichuan was published by Hainan Publishing House. This library was titled "Literary Masters" and included The novel volume includes the works of nine novelists including Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, Ba Jin, Jin Yong, and Lao She, but excludes Mao Dun and others, which caused a strong response. In Wenku's ranking of novelists, Shen Congwen ranks second. The editor provides a convincing reason for Shen Congwen to obtain such a status: "He used the customs of western Hunan to recreate the Chinese classical poetry." In addition, the title of "master" frequently used for Shen Congwen in recent years originated from this.
In 1995, Qian Liqun and Wu Xiaodong released a list of the top seven modern writers. They wrote in the article ""Separation" and "Return" - The Writing Concept of the Illustrated Book "History of Chinese Literature" (20th Century)" (published in "Research on Literary Theory", Issue 1, 1995): "Under Lu Xun, We give the following six writers higher evaluation and more important status in literary history, namely Lao She, Shen Congwen, Cao Yu, Zhang Ailing, Feng Zhi, and Mu Dan. "Shen Congwen ranks third among all modern writers.
In June 1999, "Asia Weekly" launched the "Top 100 Chinese Novels of the 20th Century" to rank novels written in Chinese around the world in the 20th century and select the top 100 works. Participating in voting for this ranking are well-known scholars and writers at home and abroad, such as Yu Qiuyu, Wang Meng, Wang Xiaoming, Xie Mian, Wang Dewei, etc. In this ranking, Lu Xun ranked first with his novel collection "The Scream", and Shen Congwen's novel "Border Town" ranked second. But if counted as a single novel, "Border Town" ranks first.
These rankings, which were produced at the end of the 20th century, some are for the writer Shen Congwen, some are for the novelist Shen Congwen, and some are for Shen Congwen's individual novels. Although the ranges vary, they are all between the second and third places. . At the turning point of the century, some writers were either forgotten by readers or abandoned by historians, but Shen Congwen was among the most outstanding writers of the 1930s and ranked among the best. Witnessing this change, one can't help but sigh.
As early as the mid-1930s, Shen Congwen wrote quite confidently: "...To be fair, I am really better than some of the so-called writers nowadays. My work is about to surpass everything. . My works will be spread longer and farther than these people's works. I have no way to refuse.
"("Congwen Family Letter·Xiangxing Slips") Sure enough, Shen Congwen's works have withstood the test of the times and time, becoming classics, and Shen Congwen's prediction has become a reality.
Selection: Zhao Xiaolei Source: China Reading News Author: Liu Hongtao