Wang Bing, who has an attitude |: The sense of the times is what is missing in the current prose writing

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Under the current liveliness and exuberance of literature, does open controversy and sincere criticism still have a place? Although the literary life of an era appeals to vitality and prosperity, the appearance of bustle and the pursuit of popularity should never be the only measure of literary quality. Attitude is related to the heart, attitude calls for perseverance, we look forward to a direct and sincere discussion, face the literary scene, directly hit the literary topic. To this end, the China Writers Network has set up a column of "There is an Attitude", hoping to build a healthier literary ecology and lead a more ideal literary life.

The first issue of the column starts from the "overall vision", looks at the style, and invites writers and critics to talk about "Literary Writing in Our Time: Pain Points and Expectations".

- Editor

Phase 1 | The Literary Writing of Our Time: Pain Points and Expectations

Wang Bing is the deputy editor-in-chief of Poetry Magazine and the president of Zhonghua Cifu Magazine. From 2009 to 2015, he served as a member of the editorial board and a member of the research group of the Blue Book of Literature: Report on Chinese Literature of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for seven consecutive years. He has published essay theory monographs "Prose: The Climbing and Expression of the Subject", "The Light of the Collective and the Namelessness of the Individual- Atlas of Chinese Prose Creation in the Past Ten Years in the Depth of Field of "Modernity", "The Tradition of Prose", the poetry collection "The Flowing Water of the Shule River Overflows on the Crowded Paths on the Shore", and the prose collection "Walking Behind People".

The sense of the times is what is missing from current prose writing

China Writers Network: What is your ideal prose?

Wang Bing: My ideal prose is basically two types, one is prose that can drill into China's excellent traditional culture, thus reflecting the essence of Chinese culture, this type is prose that has the ability to look backwards; the other is prose that can reflect the modernity of people and reflect the modernity of literary writing, and this type is prose that has the wisdom and ability to look forward.

The former is either the Tao, or the Yanzhi, which is derived from the two main veins of Chinese prose, and their writing is different, but there is a similar thing in the roots, that is, the "Tao" spoken of by the ancient sages, "Dao" is the Heavenly Dao, is the Dao; as far as the Zhi is concerned, the speech is also the heart, and it is the aspiration of the Dao, so the two are the same thing.

The modernity mentioned in the latter can be an intellectual system and knowledge system that represents the trend of social development, which requires and reflects more of the individual's self-choice, so as to realize the freedom of subject value, which requires an essayist to have a high degree of sensitivity and rational judgment to the development of the times, so that he can pay more attention to the process of China's modernization and can use the experience of literary modernity to write.

China Writers Network: What problems do you think exist in the current prose creation?

Wang Bing: How many achievements there are, and how many problems there are along with this. The main problem is that the writing tradition of Chinese prose has been interrupted, and the second is that the perception of the times and rational judgment are still lacking.

If we look at the "Ancient Literature And View", we will know what the excellent prose of the past generations has looked like. For most literati in ancient times, the most painful thing is not the suffering experienced by the individual flesh, but more the inner pain of "not cultivating virtue and not learning", the pain from the failure to realize their social ideals, the pain of "suffering in the failure of virtue and karma", and the articles written in such a realm are comparable to those of current writers.

The same is true about the lack of a sense of the times, the current era is a new era of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, and the earth-shaking changes that have taken place in this era have taken place, and how many of our writers have really paid attention to and written, this is a problem. I remember that the ancients said that there were two sentences, the first sentence is emotional in the middle and shaped in words, the love mentioned here is definitely not a small love of flowers and grasses, but a big feeling related to the country and the nation. So we naturally think of another sentence, that is, what is said in the "Treatise on Classics", "Covering articles, the great cause of the country, and the grand event of immortality", these two points are vague in the current prose writing.

China Writers Network: In view of the problems existing in the current prose creation and criticism, what do you think is the possible solution?

Wang Bing: The main problem is the lack of talents, there is no institutional mechanism to ensure the development and growth of the two teams of prose creation and prose criticism, these people, are because of love and write, so how long can this love last, and through what channels to improve their writing ability, this is also a problem. Therefore, we must have a slightly higher design, more support, more care, protect their enthusiasm for writing, first improve their technical writing ability, and then improve their overall literature-related qualities. It is reasonable to truly form an echelon of old, middle and young people, with commitment, continuation, and level of prose teams and prose critics.

China Writers Network: Talk about your observations and findings on "youth writing" and "youth criticism" in prose writing.

Wang Bing: There are many young talents in prose creation, they have talent, enthusiasm, and hard work, but it is still a problem of passing on the help, many excellent essayists in those years, in the blink of an eye, are no longer young, younger prose writers, exchange and promotion of places and platforms are very few, pay attention to their own few, they are more for their own battles, writing is easy to slack, or sink in their own writing quagmire, can not pull out, which is not conducive to the growth of young essayists.

Regarding youth criticism, I think the main thing is to increase the attention and training of young critics, form a good circulation system, whether it is prose writing or prose commentary, if it is a pool of stagnant water, it cannot flow, nor can it be communicated, and finally at most there is a backwater.

China Writers Network: Talk about your observations and findings on "How Literature Participates in Social Life". What does the current complex Chinese experience mean for writers?

Wang Bing: In fact, literature is on the scene, and one person does not want to participate, especially the writing of writers. Even if you don't write about your life in the moment directly, you must start from the experience of the moment and then write, which is a person's destiny, and no one can change it. If someone ignores, panics, avoids, or even hates all aspects of social and political life, they will make themselves at a loss in writing and lose the basis and foundation of writing.

Regarding the relationship between literature and the times and society, there has been too much talk in ancient literary theory, such as Liu Xun said in "Wenxin Carved Dragon", "the fortunes of the times have changed, the quality of the text has changed", "the song and the literary theory, with the passage of the world", "the change of literature is stained with the world, the rise and fall of the world is the chronological order, the original is the end, although the hundred generations can know it", etc., all talk about this truth.

In fact, I talked a lot about the above problems and some problems other than these in previous years, and today we are still discussing these here, indicating that these problems have not been solved until today.

(Moderator of this issue: Du Jia, Li Yingjun)