Special contributor to glacier thought bank | Depressed Wind
Recently, an article entitled "Research on the Phenomenon of "Text Regeneration" in the Creation of Wooden Heart Literature" has aroused controversy among many literary enthusiasts.
The author of this article is Lu Hongbei, who graduated from Nanjing University, and this article is his master's thesis published in 2014, with a full text of tens of thousands of words and a total of more than 150 pages, comprehensively examining the phenomenon of "text regeneration" in the creation of Muxin literature.
A large amount of space is spent in the article to compare the "regenerated text" and the "original text" of The Wooden Heart, and it is found that the article paragraph of the Wooden Heart is similar to the original text.
Suddenly, it caused a hot discussion on the Internet, and even some people said: Isn't this just plagiarism?
The cultural circles' doubts and controversies about the "literary master" Mu Xin have actually not stopped. The first controversy is whether his works are really as unique and top-notch as the propaganda claims; the second is whether his people are really as well-versed in The Chinese and Western regions and proficient in the six arts as the propaganda claims.
Two years ago, musician Guo Wenjing wrote an article that used a playful way to satirize Mu Xin's understanding of music, and even questioned his experience in creating works. At that time, a round of storms and rain was set off in the literary and art circles, and in addition to Mu Xin's beloved disciple Chen Danqing angrily came forward to defend the teacher, Jiang Wen, Yi Zhongtian and other celebrities were more or less involved.
Jiang Wen borrowed Yi Zhongtian's public name to publish an oil poem saying: Chen Mu is considerable and uncarvable, and diligence can make up for the ugly and difficult to make up for the troubles. Dong Shi Dai has Dong Shi Effect, Autumn And Summer Bug Mo Number.
Words such as "Chen Mu" and "Dong Shi" are not difficult to see Jiang Wen's obvious directionality. And "Dong Shi XiaoYi" has become the storm eye of the current round of Wooden Heart controversy - does Mu Xin's work have an "plagiarism" component?
01
Writers are original. Of course, the works, writing methods, and ideas of predecessors will inevitably have an impact on future generations of writers, and some writers will also draw nourishment from folklore, songs, and anecdotes, collect and organize them, and create them to give new souls to the materials.
For example, the influence of Márquez can be seen from Mo Yan's works, but Mo Yan created his own high-density northeast world. Wu Cheng'en's "Journey to the West" is also based on the words and folklore of predecessors, but we still think that "Journey to the West" is an immortal original work.
As for Mu Xin's works, Lu Hongbei proposed the concept of so-called "text regeneration" in his master's thesis. The text explains the definition of "text regeneration": it means that the author uses the written works of others (original texts) as raw materials, and on this basis, he rewrites them to a lesser extent to form his own work (regenerated texts). There is an obvious and unavoidable direct connection between the original text and the regenerated text.
Photo/ Screenshot of Lu Hongbei's paper
In fact, to put it mildly, "text regeneration" is a certain degree of plagiarism or "washing", but perhaps considering The reputation of Mu Xin and the acceptance of the paper, Lu Hongbei creatively uses the term "text regeneration". The information about "text regeneration" that can be found on the Internet also revolves around this paper.
After reading this paper, my feeling is that Mu Xin is very strong, and Lu Hongbei is not weak. I checked out that Lu Hongbei was only 25 years old when she wrote her paper. However, the amount of reading has not only reached a level close to that of Mu Xin, but also dared to question Mu Xin on this basis, which is indeed admirable.
02
To summarize the views and arguments of Lu's papers: many of Mu Xin's works are "text regeneration", and the "regenerative poems" found by Lu at that time alone reached 198, and Mu Xin's masterpiece "Pseudo-Solomon" is likely to be all regenerated texts.
Some of Mu Xin's prose is quoted and rewritten from Zhou Zuoren's translations. Some novels are rewritten from foreign novels, or Chinese novels are changed to foreign backgrounds and personal names and published, most of which do not indicate the original source, so that readers think that it is Mu Xin's original.
Graph/Network
One might ask, if there are so many "text regenerations" in the wooden heart, why is so little discovered?
Many of the arguments listed in Lu's paper are the works of foreign minority writers in small languages, and few translations are introduced in China. The French writer Zola is relatively famous among them, but the source of Mu Xin's "original text" is "Nays Mikuran", which was only translated and published once in China in 1985, and has not been reprinted since then, nor can it be found in an electronic version.
Judging from the arguments listed by Lu, most of the texts used by Mu Xin are concentrated in translation and publication in the 1980s and 1990s, and this period was also the peak of Mu Xin's creation.
Some people have come to the conclusion that "Mu Xin does not understand foreign languages at all, and can only read translated works", which is not necessarily true, Mu Xin has lived in the United States for many years, and the article also likes to insert foreign words, he at least knows English. But mu xin's original texts were not short of works in small languages (such as Bulgarian), which he probably did need to see translated.
03
Having seen so many domestic and foreign literary works, and having a high ability to appreciate and capture (the texts used by Mu Xin should be the best in the original works), this is of course a talent and literacy. There is no doubt that Mu Xin is an intellectual with a wide range of books.
▲Comparison of Mu Xin's works and the original text (figure / Screenshot of Lu Hongbei's paper)
But the problem is that slightly altering the works of others, hiding their provenance, and publishing them as the fruits of their own labor, from which they are richly rewarded and prestigious, is extremely exclusive among intellectuals.
In this regard, Mu Xin seems to have his own unique set of theories: "A genius is qualified to embezzle other people's things." Take your things and tell you to bow down. Only this kind of robber in the world is noble and honorable. Shakespeare is the king of bandits, and Wu Cheng'en, the robber, also has two sons. This can be referred to simply as the "robber theory."
This set of "robber theories", placed at a time when the awareness of intellectual copyright is becoming more and more stringent, obviously cannot withstand scrutiny. Although Mu Xin has published many works, in addition to having his own set of written characteristics, it is difficult to say that there is any system or genre. This may be related to the fact that his works are mixed with the essence of various countries.
04
How did Mu Xin become popular in China?
Anyone who has heard of it should know that the names of Mu Xin and Chen Danqing are inextricably tied together, and the deep love between the two masters and apprentices was once rumored to be a good story. It is Chen Danqing's active publicity, And Mu Xin has gradually become known to domestic readers, and has even been praised as "the continuation of the two-thousand-year context".
This is related to Chen Danqing's own influence and credibility, chen Danqing often spoke out on public topics in the early years, coupled with his rather windy temperament, making him once a well-known intellectual in the domestic public sphere. Until a few years ago, the WeChat public account often circulated articles signed "Chen Danqing". However, upon closer inspection, these articles and many of chen danqing's famous sayings were written by others in disguise.
Of course, Mu Xin's works, including the "regenerated text", have their own superiority, on the one hand, the original text itself is a relatively excellent work, on the other hand, Mu Xin's mixed white and elegant and refined writing style is also refreshing at the time, saying that it continues the beauty of classical Chinese literature.
▲ Mu Xin's "Leopard Change", Guangxi Normal University Press, 2017 edition (Photo/Network)
Different from the locality of classical Chinese literature, Mu Xin is keen to recommend Western cultural things, and his ideological experience is Partial Westernization and Free Romanticization. Compared with the essayists of the same period who were keen to stack flowery rhetoric and Europeanized long sentences, there was a market for this combination of Chinese and Western works.
During the same period, the introduction and promotion of foreign works, especially small language works, was greatly reduced. The shrinking literary market, the decline in the quality of translation, and the increase in the difficulty of copyright introduction are all related to it.
At this time, the "turning out" of Mu Xin's works filled this gap. For example, the relationship between Mu Xin and the original is similar to "Love Apartment" and "Friends", but in that era when American dramas were not popular, "Love Apartment" became the youth memory of many people.
05
Why is it that a 2014 master's thesis, which did not attract much attention at the time, has now been unearthed as a powerful weapon to question The Wooden Heart, whether someone has "ulterior motives"?
Photo/Weibo
In my opinion, the controversy over Mu Xin has a long history, and this time it can be described as a concentrated outbreak. Behind the outbreak is the change of public opinion and the strengthening of copyright protection awareness.
In law, Mu Xin has died, and many of the authors of the original works used have also died, and even if they are alive, they may not know that their works are translated and then "regenerated" by Mu Xin, so it is difficult to have legal copyright disputes.
However, in terms of morality, "washing drafts" and "plagiarism" are difficult to tolerate by today's mainstream public opinion, and Guo Jingming was sentenced to plagiarism by the law in his early years, but he once published books as usual, but he was forced to fade out of the public eye last year.
Previously, to some extent, out of recognition of Chen Danqing's knowledge and morality, people also projected this identity onto Mu Xin. After several controversies and changes in the overall public opinion environment, Chen Danqing was also a little tired of coping. This time in the face of reporters pressed, he simply said, "It doesn't matter, let everyone say it, I have no opinion" (according to Interface News). It is very different from its early style.
As a "great god of literature", while mu xin is worshipped, it is also bound to withstand the scrutiny and test of its contacts. If the idol is too large, it is easy to collapse, which is a truth that has never been broken.