Chapter 43 Section 1 Historical Reflection on "Returners"

In the initial formation of literature after the "Cultural Revolution", in addition to the revival of the spiritual traditions of intellectuals by the old writers of the "May 4th" generation, another important force is the "reflection of the returnees". The "returnees" discussed in this chapter are It refers specifically to a group of writers who began to enter the literary world in the 1950s. They had almost similar experiences: they were generally born in the 1930s, and they had been influenced by the Communist Party of China since their youth, and some even directly participated in it. Having participated in the Communist Party's struggle to seize national power, they have certain "revolutionary qualifications", which makes their young resumes very dazzling. They were once a generation of promising literary newcomers.Since they did not have the historical burden that the older generation of intellectuals had borne, the frequent ideological struggles in the literary and art circles in the early 1950s did not cast much shadow on their spirits. The identities and enthusiasm of the new generation of masters in the literary world have entered the literary world with their debut works that actively intervene in reality, including Liu Binyan, Wang Meng, Gong Liu, Liushahe, Shao Yanxiang, Bai Hua, Zhang Xianliang, Gao Xiaosheng, Fang Zhi, Lu Wenfu, Li Guowen, Cong Weixi and so on.However, in the "anti-rightist struggle" storm that began in the summer of 1957, their enthusiasm and ideological sharpness were brutally destroyed, their works were severely criticized, and the authors themselves were pushed into the bottom of society. Imprisoned, some were dispatched to impoverished and remote areas, and some were engaged in hard or even inhuman physical labor and ideological remolding in workshops and mines. They experienced more than 20 years of hardships, including the "Cultural Revolution" period. On November 16, 1978, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China officially rehabilitated the "rightists" wrongly designated in 1957, so that these authors finally recovered their political rights, and the works criticized in the 1950s were reaffirmed. At the beginning of 1979, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House edited and published the anthology of these writers' works "Flowers Replayed", which became a symbol of their return to the literary world, and "Flowers Replayed" became the common symbol of this generation of writers in the literary world .

Relying on their unique group advantages, these writers who regained their creative opportunities naturally became the main force of literary creation from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.Compared with the previous generation and the younger generation of writers, they have unique advantages: the life at the bottom of more than two decades is not only a personal nightmare that cannot be escaped, but also, this experience not only enables them to have a personal understanding of the reality of China At the same time, it also enriches the experience and experience of personal life; compared with those old writers of the previous generation, they are generally around fifty years old after their comeback, and this is the golden age of their life's creative experience; Compared with the generation of educated youth, although their creative experience in the 1950s was not rich, it was enough to stand out in the wasteland and ruins of literature after the "Cultural Revolution", at least avoiding the initial exploration process of writers of the generation of educated youth; Years of emotions and thoughts finally have the opportunity to display; more importantly: their personal fate and life experience itself provides a unique idea of ​​this generation for understanding reality and reflecting on history. The personal and social ideals corresponding to the national ideology, although the experience of more than 20 years later made them doubt and disillusion this ideal, but the rehabilitation after hard work has deepened this belief and ideal, and strengthened them. Their rationalistic attitude towards history and reality.This rationalistic attitude had a great influence on their creation.

In a sense, this group of "returned" writers revived the realistic fighting spirit of the intellectuals of the "May Fourth" generation under the historical conditions of socialism. Most of them were the same as the mainstream intellectuals during the "May Fourth" period. Concerned about the future of the country and the nation, they consciously act as the spokespersons of the people. They dare to plead for the people as friends of the rulers, expose social ills, and link this fighting spirit with the "May 4th" intellectual tradition.They consciously believe that there is a "May 4th" tradition and Lu Xun's road that Chinese literature can be proud of, that is, being closely connected with the hardworking masses, listening to the voices of the masses, walking in the forefront of the times and keenly feeling the needs of life, Seek out the truth and throw yourself into the heat of battle with great revolutionary zeal.This is the tradition of realistic fighting spirit created by the intellectuals of the May Fourth generation.When explaining his literary concepts, Gao Xiaosheng once said vividly: "If you fall, you stand up, if you get scattered, you gather together, if you are injured, you don't care about the pain, if you die, your soul doesn't disperse, life and death, you have to do something for the people. The beliefs of the writers.” 1 Judging from the language and spirit of these declarations, this group of “returned” writers combined the revolutionary passion in the 1950s with the fighting tradition of the “May Fourth” new literature to form their own specific practical concerns.They watch nervously the choices and changes in national policies, unreservedly believe in and support the policy of reform and opening up, oppose the opponents of this policy from top to bottom, and openly criticize those opponents and the corrupt and unhealthy atmosphere in society. A tense critique struggle.

It should be said that at the time when the "returned" writers came back, the objective environment of Chinese political culture was extremely conducive to the promotion of the realistic fighting spirit of modern intellectuals.The ideological emancipation line established by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the Communist Party of China ended the ultra-left political line and its ideological rule in the CCP since the "Cultural Revolution", and established the Marxist exploration line of "ideological emancipation". Correspondingly, the political culture has formed a reform and exploration period of "crossing the river by feeling the stones". At the same time, the political enthusiasm of the general public is unprecedentedly high.This kind of voice eagerly pleading for the people, under the dual effects of the support, sympathy and acquiescence of the country's new political ideology, and the political enthusiasm of the people, soon became the mainstream of literature in this period.Not only the voice of the "returners", but also a whole generation of middle-aged intellectuals who have a clear understanding of history have participated in this reflection.

In 1979, the second issue of "People's Literature" published Ru Zhijuan's short story "A Wrongly Edited Story". The writer no longer directly expressed painful history and personal emotions like the writers of "Scar Literature", but showed a kind of Through the painstaking efforts, the understanding of the historical disaster of the "Cultural Revolution" has obviously deepened.Through the narration of her works, she excavated the root cause of the disaster that occurred in the "Great Leap Forward" movement in the countryside in the 1950s, reviewed the evolution of the relationship between the ruling party and the people in the past forty years, and even wrote a dreamlike A heart-wrenching warning: If there is another war, will the common people support the anti-Japanese army as they did during the Anti-Japanese War?This question is quite serious, but the author's intention is to safeguard the fundamental interests of the ruling party, hoping that the ruling party can learn from history and take it as a warning.Marked by this work, from 1979 to 1981, a trend of "reflective literature" with novels as the main body formed in the field of Chinese literature, and the creations of "returners" were the most important and most eye-catching among them.

Compared with "scar literature", "reflective literature" has a deeper sense of historical depth and a larger ideological capacity. It exposes and criticizes the ultra-left line, opposes bureaucracy, reveals social and historical tragedies, and presents and analyzes the fate of tragic characters. However, depicting the characters of tragic characters is their common distinctive feature, and this revealing content and ideological features have also become the most important factors for reflecting works to attract readers.But also because of the rationalism of this group of writers, they correspondingly lost the unforgettable confession and despair of "scar literature", and to some extent avoided exposing the disastrous essence of the "Cultural Revolution". The scope of history is also limited under certain policies, and most of them end with a "happy reunion" after hardships and rewards.Therefore, from "scars" to "reflection", it reflects the first conflict and random transformation between literature and the real environment after the "Cultural Revolution".

A common artistic feature of the "reflection" works is to highlight the political background and storyline of the story. "Reflective literature" revealed decades of historical truth to people, integrated a history of political campaigns persecuting intellectuals, conveyed unprecedented complex information about socialist society, and strengthened the sharp critical significance of history and reality.A large number of works depict a picture of the world where good people are in trouble, bad people are in power, gentlemen never meet, and villains are successful. They also highlight how the ultra-left political line and traditional feudal thought combine to create social peace and prosperity. The profound alienation of people praises the indomitable strength of human nature and the persistent belief of intellectuals.There have been so many tragedies for decades, but now the darkness has finally dissipated, and the suffering has finally come to an end. It is reflected in the works, no matter how depressing the previous narration of historical disasters is.

Due to the need to condense decades of stories in each work, most of the "reflection" novels tend to be lengthy, the conventional capacity of short stories cannot expand the plot, and the structural novels do not have enough time and mentality, so Writers have all adopted the form of the novella. This is not so much a conscious stylistic choice as it is a common trend formed unintentionally out of the need for expression, but objectively it is a novella. The main cause of the unprecedented prosperity of the novel, therefore, the "novella craze" in the early 1980s became a symbiotic phenomenon of "reflective literature".On the other hand, it echoes the exploration of novel artistic techniques at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s. Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of Misediting" and Zong Pu's "Head in the Mud", especially Wang Meng's The five novelettes and short stories called "Cluster Grenade" all began to try to use the structure and expression of the characters' conscious activities as the narrative clue, which brought a refreshing change to the narrative tradition of Chinese contemporary novels, and The book "Preliminary Exploration of Modern Fiction Techniques" written by young writer Gao Xingjian briefly introduces the western modernist literary techniques and greatly inspires writers in terms of novel theory.

There are two different narrative positions in the reflection on the catastrophe.It is more common to link personal suffering with that of the nation, so that personal suffering has a universal enlightenment significance beyond the individual.Such as Wang Meng's, Zhang Xianliang's "Love in the Dungeon", Lu Yanzhou's "Legend of Tianyun Mountain", Zhang Yigong's "The Story of the Prisoner Li Tongzhong", etc. The protagonists of these works are either intellectuals or cadres. They are not only victims, but also heroes who care about the world or plead for the people, and most of them are intellectuals.In this way, writers have a universal connection between their personal experience of suffering and national disasters. This connection, on the one hand, satisfies the desire of the writers to vent and express their personal emotions, and on the other hand, it also serves as a way for them to express their love for the temple. Thinking about the history of the times has found a practical way, but at the same time, it often stains the images of the victims of intellectuals with a layer of fiction, which reflects their efforts to construct intellectual myths between folk and temples. In these suffering heroes, the fascination of this group of intellectuals for their own experience is more or less revealed.Another way of narrative is to consciously or unconsciously reflect on the paradoxes and tragedies that existed in the Chinese democratic revolution and previous political movements from the perspective and standpoint of the people.Such as Ru Zhijuan's "The Story of Wrong Editing", Gao Xiaosheng's "Li Shunda Building a House", Fang Zhi's "Internal Traitor" and Gu Hua's, etc., although the themes of reflection embodied in these works are not fundamentally different from the previous one. , and it is difficult to say that the choice of a narrative position is completely conscious, but after all, they provide another way of thinking and position for "reflection on literature", and also herald a new possible space for post-Cultural Revolution literature. .