Xu Zechen's short and medium-length assertions - on the difficulty of "series novels" and the three questions of "Qingcheng" | Zhao Yi

"Running Through Zhongguancun"

《Qingcheng》

"If the Snow Closes the Door"

Author: Xu Zechen

New Classics produced

Publisher: Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House

Publication date: October 2021

Synopsis

"Qingcheng" includes two novellas created by the writer Xu Zechen, "Western Xia" and "Juyan", and the short story of the same name, "Qingcheng". The three works are concise and profound, and the author uses ancient place names full of historical significance as the spiritual symbols of the characters, and explores the emotional and spiritual self-consistency of modern women. Three sad and clear love stories tell the emotional encounters of three women, telling their hardships, bitterness, confusion and perseverance, and also writing about their integrity, tenacity, kindness and love.

"Running Through Zhongguancun" selects three novellas with the theme of "Beijing" in Xu Zechen's works, namely "Ah, Beijing", "Running Through Zhongguancun" and "Heaven on Earth". All three works tell the story of the living conditions of small people who are wandering in Beijing and are at the bottom of society. Under the bustling scene of Beijing, the author shows the dark, turbulent, embarrassing and not without comedy of the low-level life of the special group of "North Drift". "Running", running for survival, has a goal, has speed, and has strength; with the exuberant and upward vitality of the little people, it reflects the reality that they are struggling and unwilling to sink.

"If the Snow Closes the Door" selects seventeen short stories by Xu Zechen, and the content also covers the two major veins of the author's creation- "Beijing" and "Flower Street". With strong literary and ideological nature, the work expresses the theme of young people's struggle that the author has always explored. Most of the protagonists are well-intentioned and have the wisdom to make fun of suffering, and the author writes about the uneasiness in their lives and the turmoil of their souls. The text of the whole book is solid, sweet and warm, and the still water is deep, and there is a sense of close artistry and a sense of depth in thinking about the world, from which you can get a glimpse of Xu Zechen's growth trajectory for more than ten years.

Xu Zechen thought in a short story

——On the difficulty of "series of novels" and the three questions of "Qingcheng"

Zhao Yi

Regarding the short story "Brothers", Xu Zechen once had a creative discussion entitled "Short and Medium Assertions" ("Everyone", No. 3, 2018), outlining the different landscapes of novellas and short stories. The author borrows this important issue to explore why novels become "series": although there are many differences between works and works, the academic community is still accustomed to using "series" as a framework to make specific stylized descriptions of a writer's works, which not only identifies the uniqueness of his creation, but also implies his internal identity, and the two involve the generation and production mechanism of contemporary literature. The "series of novels" is not only a necessary feature of classic novels, indicating the origin and intention behind the writer's creative horizons, but also often appears in the publishing strategy of short and medium story collections, indicating the path of interpretation and entry. Among them, "identity" originally refers to the aspects of finiteness, wholeness, and order, while "difference" means the infinite, possible, and nascent aspects, similar to the recent cultural theory scholars citing the categories of "homogeneity" and "heterogeneity" to express the continuity and fracture of the global cultural landscape. In short, the "series of novels" constitutes, on the one hand, a certain reinforcing form, and on the other hand corresponds to the transcendent dimension, the former subordinate to deliberate and meticulous logical reason, and the latter can break the limitation and become a constantly generating dynamic, so as to claim the realization of a certain universality and particularity, individually, or jointly. This is not only a literary enlightenment concept, while the discourse of Western modernity intends to shape different degrees of cultural identity on a global scale, Chinese literature unfolds a thick, profound and different cultural space in a unique way of writing, promising the endless life of human culture in a pluralistic world. Because of the difficulty and criticality of the "series of novels", this article is in and out of Xu Zechen's latest novel collection "Qingcheng", with its vivid expression of the three topics of "series of novels", perspective on the creation of short and medium stories that are isomorphic today's global cultural process, and on the broad stage of cultural exchange in the world, the important performance and rich landscape of Chinese literature are asserted.

I. Literary Geography and the Naming of "Series"

The novel collection "Qingcheng" is composed of two novellas and a short story "Qingcheng" of "Xixia" and "Juyan", with the years of writing in 2004, 2008 and 2019 respectively, spanning fifteen years before and after, which can not be said to be a work of small seeing big for the perspective writer to create a transmutation. Looking at the history of modern and contemporary literature, literary geography and writing themes are interrelated, there are many local writing genealogies, using local knowledge to shape the literary time and space body of a place, carrying local characteristics and local life, including the action dimensions of hometown and other hometowns, going to the city and returning to the hometown, etc., constituting the humanistic expression and cultural texture of the place. The literary geography that Xu Zechen seeks is precisely to set up growth and legendary occurrence of the character's local perception, focusing on the psychological core and spirituality of the characters, generating a sufficient path from the special place to the universality of the world, and at the same time dealing with "events" through technical methods and narrative traditions such as blank space, suspension, abstraction, and lyricism, reflecting the novel's creative ideas and its poetic implications.

Nowadays, the series of novels such as "Flower Street", "Beijing Drift", "Campus" and "Canal", named after geographical spatial induction, have become Xu Zechen's literary keywords. First, geographical space forms a form of expression similar to epic character in the novel, constantly re-enchanting the real landmark, restarting a realistic lyrical aesthetic, incorporating the knowledge, experience, emotion and the changes of the times in a place, condensing the writer's rational intuition and tone. Second, around the local perception and life experience of the characters in the novel, the writer relates his own life experience and life memory in the promotion of the story, so as to reach others in a fictitious way, and then intervene in the grand background of deep culture, history, society, etc., and introduce the relevant image symbols into the text to form a certain intertextual face. Moreover, the series are linked to each other and refer to each other, and on the one hand, it is necessary to mention the "Mystery" series named after the narrative installation and the "Hometown" series naturally formed in the dynamic flow, as well as the "Women" series in the recent novel collection "Qingcheng", on the other hand, it is also necessary to refer to the geographical context of novels such as "Night Train", "Jerusalem" and "Going North".

If Xu Zechen is studied on the world, whether in terms of household registration status, family life or cultural influence, the "Beijing Drift" of that year has truly become the master of the big city and the capital Beijing, and Xu Zechen's Beijing has also carried more new aspects of the writer's thinking, reviewing and reproducing historical scenes and major events, and also presenting the spiritual symptoms in the era of globalization. At the same time, the new hometown of Beijing is juxtaposed with the old hometown of "Flower Street", and the theme of "wandering" turns to the author's precipitation and salvage of memory, gradually getting rid of the rich suffering, and choosing to present the pursuit of the theme of growth with an erratic landscape. Just like the "Western Xia" that took place near the Chengze Garden of The West Gate of Peking University, the "Juyan" around Zhongguancun Avenue and Sitongqiao, and the "Qingcheng" that returned from Beijing to Chengdu, the fictional characters all share a clear reference to "Nanjing" in their respective life choices, just like the "Flower Street" landscape frequently interspersed in the "Night Train" belonging to the "Campus" series, outlining the water and rural world and hidden entanglements - the repeated occurrence of stone docks, canals, flower streets and East-West Avenues, etc., gradually establishing Xu Zechen's "Going North" in recent years. Represented by the "Canal" series. Different from the unified humanistic landscape, the three works in the novel collection "Qingcheng", Xu Zechen has tailored the cultural industry background for it, bookstores and book publishing, language extracurricular training and real estate, calligraphy painting and art market, superimposed narrative "mystery" installations, changing cultural blocks in the social context are precisely stitched into the literary geographical space, and all this drift and aggregation also outline the specific treatment methods of "history" from "returning home" to "leaving" in works such as "Jerusalem" and "Going North". In the vast literary geographical space open to the world with a very exotic texture, Xu Zechen explores important issues such as a generation's construction of their own spiritual beliefs and the search for historical subjectivity, and the flower street in "Jerusalem" is so practical and impressive, engraving the existence of hometown and the subtle spiritual prayer. "Jerusalem", as a geographical coordinate based on the mysterious experience and private complex of Chu Pingyang, does not have to dig deep into its religious holy place meaning, it actually provides a summoning force and mysterious spiritual power that runs through the theme of growth, and similar to Chu Pingyang, the names of the characters whose original meaning is the place name - Xixia, Juyan, Qingcheng, together with Xie Pingyao in "Going North", etc., correspond to each other in the creation time and narrative mode, showing the accumulation of short and medium stories on long-form writing, the effect of training and the tendency to escape.

2. Literary motifs and "series" narratives

"Three women, three kinds of love"; "Every time the wind comes, they have to shake, dreams, dignity, the stability and happiness of this world, can't stand the shake a few times and fall apart" (cover story of the novel collection "Qingcheng"). Obviously, "Xixia", "Juyan" and "Qingcheng" are all photographed in many literary motifs, and they are close to the consistency of artistic structure in narrative, which is another joint of the reason why the short and medium stories have become a "series". Arriving at a new opening or spiritual redemption with blank, suspended emotional savings and ending methods, Xu Zechen has no shortage of experimental afterglows of avant-garde writing: either mixing "virtual" and "real" as a mysterious character, or revealing a poorly understood psychological situation in another undercurrent, or introverted, full, thick and difficult to understand, the puzzle is like a direct imitation of the real world, and the complex fate and the return of people activate a deep sense of human nature because it is unpredictable. Whether it is looking for themes or growth narratives, whether it is gender issues or disease aesthetics, Xu Zechen invokes the effect of defamiliarization, so that the narratives related to suffering and the "bottom" return to the category of literary and artistic aesthetics, and iron out the realistic theme creation and modernist techniques with "endless words and infinite meaning", pointing to the complex interweaving of reality and history such as human civilization and social development and the distant places they show.

"Searching" is always juxtaposed with "lost", the lost homeland, the sinking humanity, the lost classics, in the "Western Xia", "Juyan", "Qingcheng" have their own reflections, the human spirit of pursuit through literature to translate a variety of aesthetic forms. "Western Xia" has an obvious expression pattern of the tramp novel, the surface structure of the unknown Xixia corresponding to the reality of survival, the first-person "I" narrative unfolded from the perspective of Wang Yiding, and the "fear" and "love" of "I" for the Western Xia are interspersed through multiple rounds of expulsion and search, which not only retains the traditional adventure main line of the tramp novel, but also forms a round-based structural paradigm, returning the real big daily life through the gradual formation of a small family, which means the spiritual destination of Xixia and "I". In "Juyan", women who hold a set life orientation and a clear life goal are forced to rebuild their personal ideals and spiritual homes, rise and fall in the midst of encounters, and also realize the truth of life and people, and are given a metaphysical or philosophical dimension to find people, not only to find the old people to dispel the vanishing fog, but also to regain themselves and discover the growth path of their true self, just as the new years and old years revealed by the seasonal background of "Nian Guan", the long journey has always hooked up with wandering nostalgia. And women who have finally mastered the dominance of life face the multiple possibilities and expectations of life. The pursuit motif in literature is closely related to the individual value choice, spiritual pursuit, cultural concept, emotional context, etc. - in the pursuit of giving up the pursuit, in the attachment to abandon attachment, the soul has a landing and home, and the growth motif looks at each other. Therefore, Wang Yiding in "Western Xia" abandons the mystery of Xixia's identity and reconnects the phone to make inner choices; "Juyan" juxtaposes the homeland narrative in the process of searching for people, and the self-confirmation of individual existence is more thorough in the holiday baptism of resignation and newness. The belief, perseverance and ability to act in the pursuit and exploration become feats, beyond the purpose of the pursuit itself, and become the immortal value of literary expression.

The short story "Qingcheng" implies the philosophy of life and its poetic summary, and cultural symbols such as eagles, books, and paintings convey the deep structure of the pursuit of the motif. Different from the "dumb" of the Western Xia, who did not know the reason for the day after tomorrow, "I" witnessed Qingcheng's daily cooking of lao tie, and the increasingly serious "cough" of lao tie also supported the logical starting point of the whole novel. The "cough" under the metaphor of illness has the characteristics of romantic associations, which is elegant, sensitive, sad, weak, and slender counterparts, and also marks the artistic heritage of elegance and talent, and at the same time symbolizes the attitude of the story characters towards "self". Therefore, instead of increasing the mystery of the narrative as the "dumb" of the Western Xia, the core of the suspension in "Qingcheng" does not push how the story develops and whether the characters are solved, but in the mythologized disease narrative of literature, the psychological emotions of "I" and Qingcheng always change around the changes in the old iron disease, even if the feelings are pushed to the surface and are out of control, the characters' spiritual choices are also left blank in time according to the realm of calligraphy and painting, although there are hidden great changes or tragic experiences hidden in the Western Xia, as well as being extended, Qingcheng shelved the new feelings and escape possibilities, Xu Zechen wanted to achieve a more plain and timeless comfort and compassion and compassion.

Third, character shaping and "series" image

There is no doubt that the novel collection "Qingcheng" has been the signpost of Xu Zechen's "Women" series, and the three female protagonists named after place names not only allude to Xu Zechen's understanding of women at different stages of life, but also make the beauty of women heartbreaking. In Zhang Li's "Survey of the Gender Outlook of Sixty Contemporary Emerging Male Writers" (Modern Chinese Literature Research Series, No. 2, 2019), Xu Zechen admitted that "the most important thing is not gender consciousness, but the appropriate characters' hearts and unique words and deeds", "When writing about characters, plots and details with unique female characteristics... Based on a broad understanding of human nature and gender, and a basic respect for the equality of all beings".

This profound reflection on the debate between special and universal corresponds to Xu Zechen's provable triple fiction world: "Jerusalem" style "Flower Street, Canal - Jerusalem - World", "Wangcheng Ruhai" style "World - China - Beijing", "Northbound" style "World and Historical China - Realistic China in the World - Canal and World Cultural Heritage", that is, dealing with the changing world existence through the interweaving of history, modernity, and the present and future time and space. Previously, in the face of a difficult China, writers chose smaller units of geographical space and wrote deep into parts of China with local writing, sublimating it into an irreplaceable symbol of the totality of China, while Xu Zechen's focus of creation in recent years has been to establish a pathway from the local to the world, telling Chinese stories in the world orientation of China, and forming a new context for Xu Zechen's novels.

This is also the cultural context in which "women" are included in a variety of complex discussions that form a "series" of thesis. Since the 1960s, the West has entered the so-called post-industrial society, and critical theory has paid more attention to social and cultural reality, expanding social texts into objects of criticism for analysis; with the development of globalization, the inherent role of capital or the operation of the market economy and the operation of capital have affected the order and cultural composition of the world economy, so critical theory has adopted a more critical posture in the face of this situation, and the analysis of texts has also focused on many non-aesthetic factors, including gender issues. The three women of Xixia, Juyan and Qingcheng portrayed by Xu Zechen have an old order of repression that is either implicit or explicit in their respective stories, suggesting that the "other" that was once imposed on women either left their homes to find a new self and daily life, or broke free from some kind of limitation, comforted themselves with a deep understanding of the self, and achieved a certain transcendence and calm self-awareness.

Obviously, the pain of metamorphosis gives birth to the typical growth of women, Xu Zechen focuses on shaping psychological characters, using psychological potential energy to express the stage of life as he says, and even implicitly conforms to the subconscious female understanding, but he has no intention of seeking the authority of some critical theory or discourse. Only in this way, we read more about the maternal image and cultural lyricism in the Chinese literary tradition, the former is the archetypal expression, and the latter borrows the ideographic function of symbols. One of the memories of Xixia, Juyan and Qingcheng to readers is that they are all capable women who can take care of housework, providing a warm and appropriate daily life for men such as Wang Yiding, Tang Tu, and Lao Tie. Motherhood is like a utopia, providing rest and stable perception, on the one hand, prompting the reader that the three women are not rebellious images, on the other hand, once again pointing to the trend of female image writing and its judgment, the cultural and ideological meaning of the female image has always been related to the fatherhood and the value world of the male image. Another point of memory is at the level of the writer's education, especially the symbolic metaphors that connect the cultural, historical, and social backgrounds, such as the eagle in the dream, whether it flaps its wings or coughs, such as the Zhao character copy, whether it is true or false, whether it is true or false, people always live in a world intertwined like a river, whether ideal or not, they can always find a kind of spiritual refuge - this is Xu Zechen's dedication to the cultural attachment of the novel text and character image. Moreover, in the span of fifteen years, there are changes in the language of writers, in addition to the calm and elegant, accurate and practiced exercises, it is also pleasing to the Sichuan dialect used by the characters in "Qingcheng", which is just right. A particular favorite sentence in "Juyan":

Standing alone on the wind outlet, the wind coming from all directions, she stood up. It was a good feeling to hold up. ”

- Counted as a prayer for "women" and "series".

Editor: Liu Ya

Second instance: Wang Yang

Third instance: Chen Tao