Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen 's acceptance is the result of the fading out of literary history of revolutionary discourse. Although their works are free from the revolutionary tide, they are undoubtedly the fruits of new literature. However, what Zhang Henshui involves deeper and more basic cultural contradictions - new and old, vulgar and elegant.
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2003's popular TV series " Golden Fen Family ", has brought the name "Zhang Henshui" back to the horizon of many ordinary audiences and readers. But compared with the situation in which Zhang Henshui became famous all over the country and was known to everyone in the Republic of China, it is still far from each other.
Zhang Henshui is a popular novelist active in the 1920s and 1940s. Over the past few decades, he has written more than a hundred medium-length novels, including several representative works such as "The Golden Fen Family" and " Laughter and Destiny ", which have become phenomenal works. Although most of the writing is not separated from the theme of love, Zhang Henshui's "vulgarity" is mainly close to the perspective of the common people and the true nature of the world, and contains a style of changing the old routine and compassion for the old routine.
But after all, because of this "vulgar" embryo, it is difficult to get into the eyes of cultural elites and pioneers of change. Therefore, while he was widely loved by the citizen class, he has been criticized from the new literary community. His works were labeled as a butterfly literature for money, and were denied as a "feudal remnant" and an opponent and obstacle on the development of a new literary world that shouted enlightenment.
Recently, the "Biography of Zhang Henshui" written by cultural critic Xie Xizhang was published. Jie Xizhang did not hide the fact that he wrote the "Biography of Zhang Henshui" himself, which included the meaning of "standing up to justice" for the writer. In the "Introduction" part of the book, he used a series of "pats" to describe Zhang Henshui, saying that he was undoubtedly "one of the most serious and longest writers in the history of modern Chinese literature."
This comment contains the emotional color and personal attitude of being a biographer, but it is indeed due to the "unintimate relationship" between Zhang Henshui and the history of modern literature. It can be made a meaningless assumption: if Zhang Henshui was not born in the 20th century China where everything was undergoing great changes, he would likely have a prominent position in literary history. He went between the vulgar and elegant, created his own literary world, pushing traditional subjects and style to the peak. But in the era when "new literature" was creating the world, Zhang Henshui even found it difficult to gain a position in literary history. Therefore, Zhang Henshui is no longer just Zhang Henshui, but has become a unique literary phenomenon in the turning point of Chinese novels.
Zhang Henshui
(1895-1967)
is known as the "Zhanghui Novel Master", a representative figure of popular literature during the Republic of China period, and is also an excellent journalist. His main works include " Spring and Ming Dynasty History ", "The Golden Fen Family", "The Killing and Laughtering Causes", "Night Rain in Bashan", etc.
has been in controversy since he became famous
Almost from the beginning when Zhang Henshui's novels became widely famous, he was criticized from the new literary camp - although it was usually not directed at him personally, but towards all the so-called "old" literature and art.
The most drastic changes were taking place in the Chinese literary world around the 1920s. The voices of new literature advocates represented by Hu Shi , Lu Xun, etc. have just spread not long ago. Their posture is radical and their power is weak. In order to compete for readers and positions, they cannot accept living with the huge old literary system, but actively seeking critical targets. The popular novels represented by " Mandarin duck butterfly school " and "Saturday" have thus become important objects of attack by them, and are denounced as "the entertainment-based monetaryism of the game" and are a roadblock on the road ahead of new literature.
At that time, Zhang Henshui was far away from the center of this ideological storm. When Hu Shi published "A Brief Proposal on Literary Reform" in " New Youth ", sounding the clarion call of the literary revolution, 22-year-old Zhang Henshui was wandering in his hometown of Qianshan in Anhui, worried about how to find a suitable job to help his mother support his father's early death.
He received traditional private school education since childhood, and liked to read traditional novels such as "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" and "Water Margin HTML ", especially liked the criticism of Jin Shengtan ; during his short career in Suzhou Mengzang Reclamation School, he also submitted two short stories to the "Novel Monthly" magazine of Commercial Press; he also read some foreign novels, most of which are classical Chinese translations of Lin Shu . At first glance, the words that young Zhang Henshui came into contact with and wanted to try, and gained interest from them, have been more or less criticized by the new literary camp.
After drifting for several years, 24-year-old Zhang Henshui came to Beijing. He once dreamed of attending Peking University, but the main task before him was always to make a living and support his family. Therefore, when there was work from newspapers and news agencies to do, the idea of studying was quickly given up. By 1924, Zhang Henshui joined the World Evening News founded by Cheng Shewo as the editor of the supplement. His first representative novel "The History of the Spring and Ming Dynasties" has since been serialized in the supplement of the World Evening News. This novel is centered on Yang Xingyuan, a reporter from Central Anhui, showing the "chaotic and chaotic" of the Beijing officialdom and society at that time, and the shadow of the condemnation of novels and shady novels in the late Qing Dynasty.
's outstanding talent appeared, and the novel was soon popular. According to colleagues at the time, many readers bought evening newspapers and read this novel first. Some often went to the newspaper office to wait for the evening newspaper to publish.
During the nearly five years of serialization of "The Foreign History of the Spring and Ming Dynasties", Zhang Henshui began the serialization of the long "The Golden Fen Family" in the supplement of the World Daily. This novel, based on the marriage tragedy of a woman from a cold family, and the son of the Prime Minister, has a grand and complete structure. It depicts the hundreds of vivid characters of the three generations of the Jin family, and also writes the ending of a wealthy family from prosperity to decline and a tree falling and a tree falling and scattering. "The Golden Fen Family" touched the hearts of many citizens and readers, especially female readers, and won Zhang Henshui a greater reputation, and made it impossible for people from any camp to ignore his existence.
▲"Golden Fen Family" (2003)
1930, "The Outer History of the Spring and Ming Dynasties" was over, and when "Golden Fen Family" was getting better, Zhang Henshui responded to the appointment of "Happy Forest" in Shanghai's Newspaper's supplement "Happy Forest" and serialized "Crying and Laughtering" in the Newspaper. This work is not as long as the previous two representative works. It ended within a year, but it became the most widely accepted and sensational novel of Zhang Henshui, making his literary name popular from Beijing to Shanghai, and to the level that women and children know from all over the country.
"The Cause of Laughter" was soon published, and it was later moved to the screen no less than twelve times and was frequently adapted on various drama and storytelling stages. As readers are still unsatisfied, a large number of fake books and sequels such as "anti-hilarious causes", "new Cause of Laughter", and "Cause of Laughter".
▲TV series "The Killing and Laughtering" (2004)
Zhang Henshui, who was born in the countryside of Anhui and came to Beijing alone to work hard, became a well-known writer. While citizens and readers are welcomed, his "importance" in the eyes of new literary critics has also been rapidly improved. In the article "Long Live the Academic Families" published in June 1931, Qu Qiubai wrote: In the second city, there are only "old people" who do not understand European and ancient Chinese, so the ones who dominate the literary world are Zhang Henshui, Yan Duhe, Tianxiao, Western God, etc., such as the dark stories, chivalrous, erotic, palace, detective... novels.
Put Zhang Henshui's name at the top of the "Mandarin Butterfly" majors. This is another recognition of its influence and a clear allocation of the school and camp to which Zhang Henshui belongs.
Although Zhang Henshui himself had no contact with the main general of "Yuanwu" and had never published works in his main publication "Saturday", he used the chapter back to , the subject matter of men and women's love and the popularity of the citizens, and he was still a representative writer who was accused of being a "Yuanwu".In 1932, in the article "Shanghai Incident and the Literature of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly School", Qian Xingle ( Aying ) pointed out that Zhang Henshui was the representative of the "Fethical Remnant Mandarin Duck Butterfly School Writer" and the "pride" among "writers generally welcomed by the feudal remnants and some small-civilians". The radical vision made left-wing critics unable to see the novelty that Zhang Henshui injected into Zhang Hui's novels, nor did they have any interest in paying attention to his unique pursuit of being elegant in the novels and being elegant in the novels.
Embarrassing status in the history of modern literature
Zhang Henshui received in the 1930s, although it did not affect his popularity and commercial success, it continued to the works of modern literature history in the following decades. As Jie Xizhang sighed in his book, "There is no position for Zhang Henshui in the curriculum of modern literature." Although in the 1940s, there were some fair and peaceful comments about Zhang Henshui, such as Mao Dun mentioned in his article, "In the past thirty years, those who can use the 'Zhanghuiti' to be good at overthrowing and continuing the 'Zhanghuiti' to continue a new life should be the first to be Mr. Zhang Henshui." However, the discovery of some "progressive" color in Zhang Henshui cannot truly solve his embarrassment in literary history.
The literary history of the 1950s and 1970s naturally would not have a place for Zhang Henshui. Since the 1980s, many buried modern writers have been re-salvage and received attention. For example, Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen have all come to the reading craze, but in contrast, Zhang Henshui is still lonely. The textbook "Thirty Years of the History of Modern Chinese Literature" compiled by Qian Liqun , Wen Rumin , and Wu Fuhui , although from the two chapters about "popular novels", you can read a fair introduction and evaluation of Zhang Henshui, for example, Zhang Henshui "developed into the culmination of social romance novels" and "realizing the literary mission of modernizing the chapter novel system." But when you look at the "curriculum learning guidance" as an auxiliary, you can see that these two chapters have never been a content that needs to be explained and mastered. Why is this happening to
? The acceptance of Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen is the result of the fading out of literary history of revolutionary discourse. Although their works are alienated from the revolutionary tide, they are undoubtedly the fruits of new literature. But what Zhang Henshui involved was a deeper and more basic cultural contradiction - new and old, vulgar and elegant.
When the history of modern literature is far more than just a period of time, it is a history of starting with the literary revolution and telling the story of "how Chinese literature is modernized", writers like Zhang Henshui who are born from traditional literature and focus on moderate innovation and transformation have nowhere to go. He is not a stubborn opposition to the new literature, but he continues to absorb the nutrients from the new literature, but he will never and will not want to catch up with the pioneers. So the more he has to treat him fairly, the more he is in the current framework of literary history.
The conflict between vulgarity and elegance is a big topic that has been passed down from ancient times to the present. In 1995, scholar Yang Yi published "Zhang Henshui: Loneliness in the Fun" said:
literary history writing seems to read more rules and regulations than ordinary people, but he just expresses silence and loneliness in lively places in the common people, so as to prove his elegant academic taste.
In fact, this is more than just a phenomenon in literary history writing? The more popular works are in the market, the more successful works they get, the harder they are to be faced with by the cultural elite.
Jie Xizhang's interest in Zhang Henshui also comes from this. He said that he began to pay attention to popular culture in the 1980s and 1990s and found that the controversy surrounding Zhang Henshui was consistent with the discussion of the value of popular popular art. His own feelings -
Sometimes elite literature is a bit of a very domineering and self-righteous thing.
So in his opinion, paying attention to Zhang Henshui, the problems that must be solved include "How should Chinese traditional culture, including values, morality, aesthetics and attitude towards life, be understood? Is it really meaningless and must be abandoned?" "Is there any need and rationality for the existence of popular literature and urban citizen literature? Do they have independent literary values and aesthetic criticism standards that apply to themselves?" These questions are not only about Zhang Henshui, but they may not be able to answer them well so far.
Where is the real Zhang Henshui?
Although it has been tangled with controversy for a long time, at that time, Zhang Henshui never publicly responded to criticism from the new literary community. After many years of becoming famous, I wrote " Writing Career Memories ", and I just said very well:
Although I have never officially written articles on Saturday, I have not caught up with that group. But later people said that I was a scholar on Saturday, which was not very unfair. Because before I started writing, I had already created such an embryo.
He is a low-key, peaceful person, hardworking, has the cultivation of a traditional literati, and also has his own soberness and principles.
Throughout his life, Zhang Henshui and the newspapers he participated in the sponsorship have truly achieved "no party, no group". He put his figure very low, wrote for the people in the market, and ran newspapers for ordinary people. He summarized his purpose of running the supplement of the World Evening News, saying that one of the creeds he held was "no high theory of humility." The three rules are: 1. Never discuss big issues; 2. Never criticize big people; 3. Never study advanced knowledge. What we pursue is to make everyone feel fun and interesting.
His writing is also about the market, "no great theory". When writing "The Golden Fen Family", although the wind of the new culture had blown everywhere, Zhang Henshui did not let Leng Qingqiu take the path of revolution, because -
is restricted by the story and I cannot write that kind of surreal thing.
It is unimaginable for those men and women, besides eating, clothing and shopping, to say that they will have the thoughts of young people today.
▲ Let the men and women in "The Golden Fen Family" have the idea of modern youth unimaginable
, which is distinctly different from the "Enlightenment" people. The latter is to express one's own "ism" through literature and to convey a specific ideology. Zhang Henshui's perception of the times and acceptance of new things are just as passive as most ordinary people, rather than leading from the perspective of enlighteners.
China in the 20th century belongs to enlightenment. The metaphor for "iron house" in Lu Xun's "Preface to the Scream" is still in my ears, but decades have passed, when we turn around, can we find something obscured? Xie Xizhang, who has also been a newspaper reporter for many years and has edited a newspaper supplement, has reflected this way: Is there any problem with this matter itself by running newspapers with the idea of enlightenment and educating the people, rather than putting himself on a relatively equal position with the people? Zhang Henshui does not use the "instrumental" idea to make novels and newspapers. Is there anything we can still learn from?
Since the 1980s and 1990s, many biographies and memoirs about Zhang Henshui have been published, and more research papers have been added. However, its main theme is still mostly close to "reversing the case" for Zhang Henshui. Although it corrected the previous bias, the real study of his literature and career in journalism is far from sufficient. Jie Xizhang lamented Zhang Henshui's lack of research and said, "Zhang Henshui has written more than 30 million words. How many have we read? Have we read 3 million words? No." In the whirlpool of literary history of criticism and reversal, how can we find and understand the real Zhang Henshui? This writer who has written one wonderful and moving story after another for ordinary readers in his writing career has left us with difficulties behind us.
Beijing News reporter Li Yan Editor Zhang Jin An'an
Duty editor Hua Munan Wu Yanzu
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