The acceptance of Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen is the result of the fading of revolutionary discourse from literary history, and although their works are outside the main tide of revolution, they are undoubtedly the fruits of new literature. Zhang Hateshui, on the other hand, is involved in a deeper and more basic cultural contradiction — the new and the old, the customary and the elegant.
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In 2003, the popular TV series "The Golden Powder Family" brought the name "Zhang Hate Water" back to the vision of many ordinary viewers and readers. However, compared with the situation that Zhang Hated Water Red all over the country and "known to women and children" during the Republic of China period, it is still a far cry.
Zhang Hexhui was an active popular novelist in the 1920s and 1940s, writing more than 100 novellas in the past few decades, among which several masterpieces such as "The Golden Powder Family" and "Laughing Karma" have become phenomenal works. Although most of the writing is not separated from the theme of love, Zhang Hateshui's "customary" is mainly close to the perspective of civilians and the true colors of the world, and contains the newness and compassion of the old routines.
But after all, because of this "vulgar" embryo, it is difficult to enter the eyes of the cultural elite and the pioneers of change. Thus, while he was widely loved by the civic class, he has been subjected to criticism from the new literary world. His works were labeled as a butterfly literature for money, denounced as "feudal remnants", rivals and obstacles to the development of new literature that shouted enlightenment.
Recently, the biography of Zhang Hate Water, written by cultural critic Xie Xizhang, was published. Xie Xizhang did not deny that he wrote "Zhang Hate Water Biography" himself, which contains the meaning of "fighting unevenness" for this writer. In the "Introduction" section of the book, he uses a series of "quilts" to describe Zhang Hexhui, saying that he is undoubtedly "one of the most serious and long-lasting writers in the history of modern Chinese literature who has been distorted, misunderstood, despised, snubbed, ignored, and buried."
There are emotional overtones and personal attitudes as a biographer in this commentary, but it is also true that Zhang Hateshui has a "non-intimate relationship" with modern literary history. A meaningless assumption can be made: if Zhang Hadn't been born in 20th-century China, where everything was in change, he probably had a prominent place in literary history. He went in and out of the world, created his own literary world, and pushed traditional themes and styles to the peak. But in the era of "new literature", Zhang Hexhui could not even gain a place in literary history. As a result, Zhang Hate Shui is no longer just Zhang Hate Shui, but has become a unique literary phenomenon in the turning point of Chinese novels.
Zhang hates water
（1895～1967）
Known as "Zhang Hui Novel Everyone", he was a representative figure of popular literature during the Republic of China period, and at the same time an excellent newspaperman. His major works include "The History of Chunming", "The Golden Powder Family", "Laughing Causes", "Bashan Night Rain" and so on.
Fame has been in the midst of controversy
Almost from the very beginning when Zhang's novels gained widespread fame, he was attacked by the new literary camp—although this was usually not directed at him personally, but toward all so-called "old" literature and art.
Around the 1920s, the most drastic changes were taking place in the Chinese literary scene. The voices of the advocates of new literature, represented by Hu Shi and Lu Xun, have not been spread for a long time. Their posture is radical, the power is weak, in order to compete for readers and positions, they can not accept to coexist with the huge old literary system, but actively seek the target of criticism, the "Mandarin Duck Butterfly School" and "Saturday" represented by the popular novel thus becomes an important target of their attack, denounced as "the game of pastime of moneyism", is the roadblock on the way forward of new literature.
At that time, Zhang Hateshui was far from the center of this storm of thoughts. When Hu Shi published "Discussion on Literary Reform" in "New Youth", which sounded the clarion call of literary revolution, 22-year-old Zhang Hexhui was wandering in his hometown in Qianshan, Anhui Province, worried about how to find a suitable job to help his mother support his father's family after his early death.
He received a traditional private school education from an early age, and liked to read traditional novels such as "Liaozhai" and "Water Margin", especially the criticism of Jin Shengsi; during his short study at the Suzhou Mongolian-Tibetan Reclamation School, he also submitted two short stories to the "Novel Monthly" magazine of the Commercial Press; he also read some foreign novels, most of which were translated into Lin Shu's language. At a glance, the words that the young Zhang Hateshui touched, wanted to try, and gained interest from were all more or less criticized by the new literary camp.
After a few years of wandering, the 24-year-old Zhang Hexhui came to Beijing, and he once had a dream of entering Peking University to observe, but the main task in front of him was always to earn a living and support his family, so when there was a job from newspapers and news agencies to do, the idea of studying was quickly abandoned. By 1924, Zhang Hexhui joined the World Evening News founded by Chengshe as a supplement editor, and his first masterpiece of novels, "The History of Chunming", has since been serialized in the supplement of the World Evening News. Centered on Yang Xingyuan, a reporter from central Anhui Province, this novel shows the "miasma of black smoke and darkness" in the official and social circles and society in Beijing at that time, looming the shadow of the condemnation novels and shady novels of the late Qing Dynasty.
Outstanding talent was revealed, and the novel was quickly welcomed, according to colleagues at the time, recalling:
Many readers buy evening newspapers and read the novel first, and some often go to the newspaper office to wait for the evening newspaper to be published.
During the nearly five-year serialization of "The Foreign History of Chunming", Zhang Hexhui began a long series of "Golden Powder Family" in the supplement of the World Journal, a novel based on the marriage tragedy of Leng Qingqiu, a woman from the Qing han family, and Jin Yanxi, the son of the premier of the state, with a grand and complete structure, depicting one hundred and ten vivid characters of the three generations of the Jin family, and also writing an ending in which the giants went from prosperity to decline and the trees fell down. "The Golden Powder Family" has touched the hearts of many public readers, especially female readers, winning Zhang Hexhui greater fame and making it impossible for people from any camp to ignore his existence.
▲ "The Golden Powder Family" (2003)
In 1930, when the "History of Chunming Waishi" had come to an end and "The Golden Powder Family" was gradually entering a good state, Zhang Hexhui was invited by Yan Duhe, editor-in-chief of the Shanghai "News Daily" supplement "Happy Forest", to serialize "Laughing Karma" in the "News Daily", which was not as long as the previous two masterpieces, and ended in one year, but became the most wide-ranging and sensational novel of Zhang Hexhuishui's audience, making his literary name red from Beijing to Shanghai, to the extent that women and children in the north and south of the river were well known.
"Laughter Karma" was quickly published as a single book, and then it was put on the silver screen no less than twelve times, and was frequently adapted on various dramas and storytelling stages, because readers were still unsatisfied, there were also a large number of pseudo-books and sequels on the market such as "Anti-Laughter Cause", "New Laughter Cause", "Laughter Cause Supplement".
▲ TV series "Laughter Karma" (2004)
Born in the countryside of Anhui And coming to Beijing alone to work hard, Zhang Hexhui became a well-known writer. While the public readership was welcomed, his "importance" in the eyes of the new literary critics also rose rapidly. Qu Qiubai wrote in the article "Long Live the Scholar Valve" published in June 1931:
In the second city, there are only 'old people' who do not understand The European and Ancient Texts, so the kings and overlords of their literary circles are Zhang Hateshui, Yan Duhe, Tianxiao, Xi shen, etc., what shady scenes, chivalry, eroticism, palaces, detectives... novel.
Placing Zhang Hexhui's name at the top of the "Mandarin Butterfly" is another recognition of his influence and a clear division of the genre and camp to which Zhang Hateshui belongs.
Although Zhang Hexhui himself had no contact with the main general of the "Mandarin Butterfly" and never published works in his main journal "Saturday", he was still accused of being the representative writer of the "Mandarin Butterfly" because of the chapter style he adopted, the theme of male and female love, and the popularity of the citizen class. In 1932, Qian Xing Estate (Ah Ying), in his article "The Shanghai Incident and the Literature and Art of the Mandarin Duck Butterfly Sect", pointed out that Zhang Hexhui was the representative of the "Mandarin Duck Butterfly Sect Writer of the Feudal Remnant" and the "proud son" in "the writers generally welcomed by the feudal remnants and some small citizens". The radical vision makes left-wing critics unable to see the novelty that Zhang Hexhui injected into Zhang Hui's novel, nor is they interested in paying attention to the unique pursuit of elegance in his novels.
An awkward position in the history of modern literature
The criticism and criticism that Zhang received in the 1930s, although it did not affect his popularity and commercial success, continued into the modern literary history of the following decades. As Xie Xizhang lamented in the book, "there is no place for Zhang Hexhui in the curriculum of modern literature." Although in the 1940s, there were some more fair and peaceful comments on Zhang Huishui, such as Mao Dun mentioned in the article, "In the past thirty years, the use of 'Zhang Hui Body' and the ability to do good and abandon, so that the 'Chapter Hui Body' has continued a new life, Mr. Zhang Hate Shui should be the first to be recommended." But finding a little "progressive" in Zhang Hexhui does not really solve his embarrassment in literary history.
In the literary history of the 1950s and 1970s, there will naturally be no place for Zhang Hateshui. Since the 1980s, many buried modern writers have been re-"salvaged" and valued, such as Zhang Ailing, Shen Congwen and other reading booms, but in contrast, Zhang Hateshui is still lonely. The textbook "Thirty Years of The History of Modern Chinese Literature", edited by Qian Liqun, Wen Rumin, and Wu Fuhui, although from the two chapters on "popular novels", can read a fair introduction and evaluation of Zhang Hexhui, such as Zhang Hexhui's "development into a collection of social romance novels" and "the realization of the literary mission of modernizing the Zhanghui novel system". However, turning to the "course study guide" as an auxiliary, it can be seen that these two chapters are never the content that needs to be explained and mastered.
Why? The acceptance of Zhang Ailing and Shen Congwen is the result of the fading of revolutionary discourse from literary history, and although their works are outside the main tide of revolution, they are undoubtedly the fruits of new literature. Zhang Hateshui, on the other hand, is involved in a deeper and more basic cultural contradiction — the new and the old, the customary and the elegant.
When the history of modern literature is far from just a time period, but a history that begins with a literary revolution and tells the story of "how Chinese literature modernized", writers like Zhang Hexhui, who were born out of traditional literature and focused on moderate innovation and transformation, there is really no place to stay. He is not a stubborn opponent of new literature, but constantly absorbs the nutrients of new literature, but never and does not want to catch up with the pioneers. The more fairly he is treated, the more detached his place in the current framework of literary history becomes.
The conflict between custom and elegance is a big topic that runs through the past and the present. Scholar Yang Yi's 1995 book Zhang Hates Water: Loneliness in the Hustle and Bustle said:
Literary history writing seems to read more rules and precepts than the general public, and expresses silence and loneliness in the lively places of the common people, so as to prove their elegant academic taste.
In fact, how is this more than a phenomenon in the writing of literary history? The more popular the works are in the city, the more they are commercially successful, and the more difficult it is to be faced by the cultural elite.
Xie Xizhang's interest in Zhang Hexhui also comes from this, he said that he began to pay attention to mass culture in the 1980s and 1990s, and found that the controversy surrounding Zhang Hexhui and the discussion of the value of popular art are similar, and his own feelings -
Sometimes elite literature is a bit of a domineering, self-righteous thing.
Therefore, in his view, paying attention to Zhang Hexhui, the problems that must be solved include "how to understand traditional Chinese culture, including its values, morals, aesthetics and attitude towards life?" Is it really meaningless and must be discarded? "Is the existence of popular literature and urban citizen literature unnecessary and reasonable?" Do they have independent literary value and aesthetic criticism standards that apply to them? These questions are not only about Zhang Hexhui, but they may not be able to answer them well so far.
Where is the real Zhang Hate Water?
Despite the controversy for a long time, at that time, Zhang Never publicly responded to criticism from the new literary world. To write "Memories of Writing Career" many years after becoming famous, it is only very accessible to say:
Although I did not officially write a Saturday article, I did not catch up with that group. However, later people said that I was a Saturday school of letters, and I was not very wronged. Because I hadn't started writing before, I had created such an embryo.
He was low-key, peaceful, hard-working, with the cultivation of traditional literati, but also his own sobriety and principles.
Throughout his life, Zhang Hexhui and the newspapers he participated in sponsoring truly achieved "no party, no group". He lowered his stature, wrote for the people in the city, ran a newspaper for ordinary people, and summed up his purpose of running a supplement to the World Evening News, saying that one of the creeds he held was "inferior and not very high." The three chapters of its law are: First, we absolutely do not talk about major issues; second, we absolutely do not criticize big figures; and third, we do not study advanced learning. The pursuit is to make everyone feel fun and interesting.
His writing is also attached to the market well, "not very high". When writing "The Golden Powder Family", although the wind of new culture has blown everywhere, Zhang Hateshui did not let Leng Qingqiu embark on the road of revolution, because—
Limited by the story, I couldn't write about that kind of surreal thing.
Those men and women, in addition to eating and dressing, you say that he will have the mind of the youth of the present, which is unimaginable.
▲ Let the men and women in "The Golden Powder Family" have the ideas of modern youth unimaginable
This concept of creation and newspaper operation is distinctly different from that of the "enlightenment". The latter is precisely to convey a specific ideology through literature, through which to express its own "ism". Zhang Hexhui's perception of the times and his acceptance of new things are just as passive as most ordinary people, rather than leading from the perspective of the enlighteners.
In 20th-century China, it belonged to the Enlightenment, and the metaphor of the "iron house" in Lu Xun's "Scream" Self-Introduction is still in the ears, but decades later, when we turn around, can we find something that has been obscured? Xie Xizhang, who has also been a newspaperman for many years and has edited a newspaper supplement, has such a reflection: Is there a problem with running a newspaper with the idea of enlightenment and educating the people, rather than putting himself on a more equal footing with the people and thinking about problems? Zhang Hexhui does not make novels and newspapers with the idea of "instrumentalization", is there anything that can still be learned from now?
Since the 1980s and 1990s, many biographies and memoirs about Zhang Hexhui have been published, and there have been many research papers. However, its main thrust is still close to "overturning the case" for Zhang Hexhui, and although it has corrected the past bias, the real study of his literature and newspaper career is far from sufficient. Xie Xizhang lamented the lack of Zhang Hexhui's research and said: "Zhang Hexhui wrote more than 30 million words of things, how many have we read? Have we read 3 million words? No. "In the whirlpool of literary history of criticism and reversal, how to find and understand the real Zhang Hate water? The writer who has written one wonderful and moving story after another for ordinary readers in his writing career has left us with problems behind us.
Beijing News reporter Li Yan Editor Zhang Jin An An
Duty Editor Hanagi Minami Gohizu