In the spring of 2022, the dance "Only This Green", the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics and the opening drama "The World of Man" were amazing, and several artistic feasts made people have a long time to return. If "Only This Green" and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics are more of a wonderful interpretation of traditional culture, then "The World of Man", which people are scrambling to watch, has achieved the "victory of realism" with a length of 58 episodes, which is a successful model for combining the Marxist concept of literature and art with China's excellent traditional culture.
"The World"
Realism is a hot word in the literary and art circles in recent years, but how to achieve ardent observation, rational thinking and humanistic care for real life at the creative level has always plagued creators. In the artistic practice of taking realism as both a concept and a method, the Marxist concept of literature and art is organically combined with China's excellent traditional concept of literature and art, and the flash expression in it provides a "two combination" path for literary and artistic creation. The unexpected "breaking of the circle" of "In the World" is more confirmed, when the National Opera persists in solving the "mystery of history" with poetic art, and sublimates the theme and philosophical height in the story, it can truly understand history and reality.
In his voluminous works, Marx and Engels have discussed art, talked about realism, discussed Goethe, commented on the tragedy of Lassalle, commented on "The City Girl" and "The Secret of Paris", and mentioned Shakespeare, Balzac, Schiller, Dickens, Georgessan, etc., with the intention of emphasizing the relationship between literature and art and social reality. In Marx's view, the perfect stage of communism lies in the real settlement of contradictions between man and nature and between people. In the previous stage, art, as a representation of social life, must consciously and have the ability to artistically write and express social life and social contradictions, and solve the historical mystery of its own social stage.
In the view of Marxist classic writers, art is a reflection of real life, and writers should understand the profound relationship between art and the life of the whole society. The greatness of Shakespeare, Balzac, and Tolstoy lies in the fact that they are "a mirror" of the social life of their own countries and revolutions. As a counterpart to the "mirror theory", traditional Chinese literature proposes "sensibility". "Sensibility" also emphasizes the depiction and performance of objects, the difference is that "mirror theory" emphasizes the faithful representation of the mirror reflection of external objects, while "sensibility" is more concerned with the emotional rhythm and excitement caused by objects. In the author's opinion, the "out of the circle" national drama, which has been popular and praised in recent years, truly expresses its deep love for a broad life on the basis of combining the creative concept of "mirror" and "sensibility".
Balzac once said, "I am only a clerk in French history", and the current popular national drama also reflects the depth of creation of "a deep understanding of the relationship between reality". For example, "The World of Man" focuses on the shantytown of a provincial capital city in the northeast, which is very meaningful in the narrative space. Different from the glamorous and luxurious urban life drama, the intriguing taste of "light character film" is reflected in the fact that, as a spatial geography, it is a nostalgia, a deep affection, a grand writing of the creators' memories of a group and a class, and it is to tell people that the Zhou family brothers and their children and grandchildren and friends who bear the burden for the rejuvenation and rejuvenation of the country and the nation should not be forgotten. As a geographical division, Northeast Writing has been strong, fresh and thriving from the period of new China's construction, such as "The Driving Force", "Riding the Wind and Waves", "Boiling Mountains", etc., there are secular after the market-oriented reform, such as the successful spread of sketch culture, and the traumatic memory writing of new writers in the new century, such as the writing of the New Northeast Writers Group defined by critics. The feeling of large factories pervading the old industrial zone and the dedication of the elderly workers seem to have been forgotten by artistic creation. Through the 50 years of historical changes of the "Light Character Film", "The World of Man" pays tribute to the times and the people of the times with a broad vision and compassion. In this condensed social environment, the Zhou family members more deeply reflect the close relationship between people and society between each other, with their neighbors, colleagues, partners and friends.
《Mountains and Seas》
Similarly, without experiencing the yellow sand in the sky, it is impossible to understand the Xihaigu people who "eat the soil" and live a life. The generous and tragic song staged by the TV series "Mountains and Seas" in the Gobi Desert is a struggle against nature, but also a rebellion against habits. Chinese bones have serious thick soil relocation, and Chinese farmers especially believe that land is the foundation on which they depend for their survival, the basis for inheritance, and the guarantee for the continuation of life. The plot of "Mountains and Seas" begins with the migrants of Hanging Village, and its difficulty is not difficult to imagine. Earthen houses, earthen kang, and earthen courtyards are all over the place, and the life of the hangzhuang people is struggling in the soil, but they are extremely reluctant to leave this land. Only by truly expressing the feelings and complexes for the "soil" can we profoundly reflect the people of this land, their deep connection with each other and with the land, which is thicker than water, and the difficulty of migration.
The Age of Awakening
The story of the TV series "The Age of Awakening" began in Shanghai, but it was ups and downs on the campus of Peking University. At that time, although the Peking University campus was in turmoil, there were many talents and masters: in the snow, Chen Duxiu, Qian Xuantong and Liu Bannong met for the first time in the Taoran Pavilion, and they talked happily at first sight, which had a wonderful artistic mood of the meandering water flowing during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Cai Yuanpei asked Chen Duxiu to "go out of the mountains" as the dean of liberal arts at Peking University, braving the snow and looking at Maolu, just like Liu Bei's style. On the campus of Peking University, at the council chaired by Cai Gong, the New Culture Movement and the conservative Confucius and Mencius faction confronted each other tit-for-tat and argued according to reason, just like the hundred schools of thought in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. However, this drama wants to show that in the era of deep national crisis and political corruption, the choice and struggle of the masters and students of the North. The work uses full-textured images to truly shape an era and a group of foresighters, or thus summon the audience to have a soul dialogue with the sage masters.
"Big Rivers"
The factories and villages in the TV series "Big Rivers" are typical environments and historical situations. "Big rivers and big rivers", "my country and my people", in the years when it was difficult to go to school, get rich, and grow up, Song Yunhui, Lei Dongbao, and Yang Tour were in enterprises, villages, and business fields, fulfilling their vows to the times, "When a small boat walks on the Yangtze River, you are about to enter the mouth of the Yangtze River, you must change ships." When you get on this big ship and go forward, look back and see that all the people are heroes." For today's young people, they are already fathers in "Great Rivers and Great Rivers", they wear liver and guts, cut through thorns, and send a home and a country to this giant ship, while their youth is riding on a flat boat, walking through the terrifying waves.
The core of narrative art is to embody the concept through "man", to write a heroic and natural person, who must face all suffering. In capitalist society, the struggle of the working class for its own liberation is a capitalized history, and the core idea of the people's nature of Marxist literature and art is that literature needs to write this capitalized history. In the traditional Chinese view of literature and art, the literary and artistic concepts of Confucian philosophy are permeated, and they also show affection and concern for "people". Confucius said that "the benevolent love others" and "the benevolent are self-conscious", which not only reflects the high degree of consciousness of human nature, but also reflects the organic unity of the theory of benevolence in handling social relations and even the relationship between heaven and man, and the relationship between man and all things. When the traditional Chinese philosophy of "benevolence by oneself" was combined with the salvation of the country in Anbang, it especially created a lofty and sacred sense of mission for the literati of later generations. With this lofty sense of mission, successive generations of literati and scholars have observed reality with an ideal society and an ideal personality, and "for benevolence and self" have thus "acquired the profundity of life power". In the "Out of the Circle" national drama, the creators capture heroes and civilians with sincere shots, and their personalities shine in the spotlight.
"People create the environment, and just as the environment creates people." Various characters are created in "The World of Man", and it is commendable that each person reflects the essential attributes of being an individual person. Zhou Bingyi is an image of intellectuals and party cadres who is deliberately shaped, and he pins his creative ideas on Liang Xiaosheng's "heroism" and "romanticism". Some scholars call Zhou Bingyi "the bound Prometheus", which is intended to show that he will bring the spark of a better life to the world throughout his life. He is the eldest son and the eldest brother, but he is also a civilian hero with Sisyphus-style heroic feelings, and occasionally falls into the contradiction between emotion and reason; Zhou Bingkun and Zheng Juan, a couple who treat life and misfortune with infinite kindness, eventually move towards the future with the attitude of "thinking about all beauty"; the old generation of "light character films" is a person who is paid tribute to, and the lens is full of love for them. In 2021, "The Age of Awakening" has been brushed again and again by many young people, and the creation of this drama relies on literature and Fang Zhi, but it has arrived at real life due to many fictional plots. Every character in the history textbook we know is resurrected in the story, and the most moving ideas they carry are spiritual beliefs and path quests. Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao on the road of arduous exploration, their spiritual world continues to grow and plump, with the bitterness and pain of constant trial and error before, will make their lives burst with extraordinary strength, and reach a climax in the plot of the final meeting to build the party. In "The Age of Awakening", Chen Duxiu is full of enthusiasm and evil, but his freedom is also accompanied by loneliness and pain. Although there are no shortage of comrades-in-arms around him, he also experiences father-son confrontations from time to time, colleagues write, and Chen Duxiu, who flashes sharp edges, finally impresses his son with his tenacious quest for the fate of the country. "The Age of Awakening" also vividly shapes the portrait of the intellectual group on the eve of the founding of the party, and the speech and demeanor of the characters in the play have a deep imprint of the ancient civilization of 5,000 years. Wei Jinfeng bone and Corporal Li Xian, both to help the world and to be alone, inclusive and harmonious but different, each character is loaded with the essence of Chinese culture, together constitute a colorful epic picture. "Mountains and Seas" sculpts a group of characters in the desert smoke, and Ma Defu and Teacher Bai among the villagers are ordinary people in the mountains, but they are also heroes that are difficult for ordinary people to reach. Madford, who attended the Agricultural School, is the future star of Yongquan Village, and is an out-and-out idealist, in the barren land, he planted his own dreams and that of his fellow villagers. It is not difficult to emigrate, seek water, ask for electricity, get rich, and move to the village, ma Defu used his firm persistence to persuade the villagers in the township and led the villagers of Minning to embark on the road to prosperity. Bai Chongli, a rural teacher, has cultivated a batch of children, planted the seeds of knowledge in their hearts, fought for their lives only to let the children learn more knowledge, and sacrificed the future only to ignite the children's dreams; questioned by Defu, Mai Miao and the new volunteer teachers, but insisted on firmly choosing the canoe bridge between "canoe bridge and highway". In the play, the children sing "Where is the spring", in fact, spring is in the land that Teacher Bai has cultivated all his life, in his and the children's hearts. At the end of the plot, Shui Hua returns to Yongquan Village Primary School and sincerely says that the time she gave Teacher Bai as a student was the best time in her life.
The "Out of the Circle" national drama is a monument to heroes and ordinary people with full affection for life, and uses the lens to carve the annual rings of the times, which is long and long. They confirm with a full narrative that the flower of art can only be particularly beautiful and fragrant if it blooms in the wilderness of life. An excellent realistic drama that combines the Marxist concept of literature and art with the essence of traditional Chinese art, because it expresses the thinking of both "intervention" and transcendence of the times, and the essential inquiry of the existence of life, and can bring the audience the possibility of new discoveries, new examinations and new struggles for life, destiny, and the future.
(The author is the vice chairman of the Liaoning Provincial Literary and Art Critics Association, and this article is from the Chairman Forum of "The Path of Literature and Art Combining Marxism and China's Excellent Traditional Culture" sponsored by the China Critics Association and the Literary and Art Criticism Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.) ）