Core reading
While giving full play to human subjectivity for active creation, listening to the voice of all things with humility and awe, and feeling the way of nature, can we gain more wisdom and build a social culture in which people and nature are harmonious and prosperous
Internet prose has changed the pattern of prose written by prose writers in the past, and its outstanding features are spontaneous writing, eclectic, more emphasis on dialogue, showing the unique literary characteristics and aesthetic characteristics of the times
In ancient times, China always used "poetry" and called it, which shows the importance of "literature". Prose has always been an important carrier for inheriting national culture, and it is needless to say that the Tang and Song Dynasties have become a well-known prose classic reading book for Chinese. Since the 20th century, prose has received more attention, and Lu Xun said that the success of essays in May Fourth is not under the novel and poetry. Since the founding of New China, famous prose artists have produced famous works and achieved remarkable achievements, and the "prose fever" set off in the 1990s has spread throughout the Entire Chinese-speaking world. In recent years, prose has undergone constant new changes and become a literary force that cannot be ignored.
Pay attention to history, pay more attention to the reality of life
Literature cannot illuminate our feet and the future without the mirror of history. Cultural prose illuminates history with modern consciousness, draws nourishment from China's excellent traditional culture, obtains wisdom and enlightenment, and becomes a major landscape of contemporary Chinese prose.
In recent years, the cultural prose has a new atmosphere, not blindly pursuing large tomes and strong knowledge, paying more attention to literature, so that prose becomes readable and cute. Li Jingze's prose collection "Hui Drinking" writes about history and culture, but does not drop the book bag, but swims deep into the sea like a swimmer, reliving the wisdom of the ancient Chinese in the waves of knowledge and the light of the sky, full of lively texture of life. Mu Tao's cultural prose has a big picture view, focusing on insight and spirituality, giving people a sense of fun and interest. There are also some essays that cannot be classified as historical and cultural essays, but the cultural connotation is rich, and the aesthetic and literary nature are highlighted, such as Hu Zhufeng's "Ink Book" that integrates images such as pine branches, smoke, ink, character posters, Yantai, and water, and presents them as a poetic philosophy of life.
Literature should not only think about history, but also face the times, help people perceive the changes of the times in time, and think about the problems raised by reality. In the field of prose creation, the awareness of "keeping up with the times", "recording the times" and "understanding the times" has been continuously strengthened, and there are more and more essays that pay attention to the development of the times and the reality of life. Nan Fan's prose is close to the times, writing about the profound impact of machines, the Internet, artificial intelligence, and digitalization on people, and "The Mysterious Machine", "The Age of Reading" and "Writers in the Media Age" all pay attention to social progress and the future and destiny of mankind with a profound forward-looking consciousness. Feng Jicai has always paid attention to folk culture and environmental protection issues, which are reflected in his prose collections such as "Folk Spirit", "Local Spirit" and "Worldly Life". Tian Xin's "Reconciliation" focuses on the spiritual life of the elderly entering the city and the way of getting along with father and son, and advocates the use of love and tolerance to skillfully resolve the knot between father and son. Mo Yan's "Please Live Well, The Second Half of Your Life", Tie Ning's "Precious Jacket", Jia Pingwa's "May Your Life Be Calm and Peaceful", Guo Wenbin's "Looking for Tranquility", etc. all contain realistic humanistic care, focusing on people's spiritual world, and related to spiritual peace and happiness.
The material world has taken on a new look, and the human spiritual world is also rapidly debugging. Prose, the closest to life and easiest to dialogue, focuses more on the rapidly changing real-world issues. In order to answer these questions, writers perceive the present and think about the future on the one hand, while observing history to obtain enlightenment, beating with the pulse of the times, and forward-looking thinking with the unique sensitivity of literature, reflecting the conscious mission of prose writers.
Focus on life, but also focus on heaven and earth and all things
Since entering the modern era, Chinese literature has entered a new stage. Literature is not only concerned with the private and the ego, but also with the human society and the vast world in which people are born. In recent years, the spiritual pattern of prose has become broad, the grand narrative has been publicized, and the great feelings have been valued.
Writing life with deep emotions, expanding and deepening, has become a highlight of recent prose. For example, writing about family affection, Yan Gang's essay collection "Prose is Talking to Relatives" writes from the love of father and daughter and mother and daughter to the warmth of others for sentient beings. Liu Qingbang's "Listening to Lin Jinlan Say Wang Zengqi" and Wang Yuepeng's "Remembering Teacher YeYuan" both write about teachers and students, highlighting the sense of knowing the voice. The latter emphasizes that it is difficult to find a voice from the acquaintance, and the former writes from the "confidant who is not a confidant", both of which reach the level of moving and thought-provoking. Peng Xueming's long essay "Mother" has opened up complex family affection and human nature, and put forward the issue of "education of love". Jiang Zilong's "Accident in the Story" is vivid in humor, novel in ease, relieved in revelation, full of highly purified understanding of the world and the wisdom of life.
Extending the vision from life to all things in nature, prose is free of hands and feet, more grounded, more and more material. Zhang Wei's "Reading the Book of Poetry" is full of verdant greenery, and writes the richness and softness of the earth moving; the Alai prose collection "The Language of the Earth" writes sounds, trees, grass roots, conch sounds, starlight, and the sea, and there is an effort to speak with heaven and earth; Balji Yuanye's "Needle" lets a needle travel from between his mother's fingers, carrying the thoughts of thread through thick quilts and long lonely days; Wang Jianbing's "Time of Grass and Trees" sinks into the countryside and the glory of grass and trees, and also describes the change and eternity of the night... These works are often from near and far, small to large, often in the middle of the strange, shallow and deep, with broad feelings and philosophical thoughts.
Some young writers have made extraordinary moves, dwelling in the way of nature in things and materialities, and entering the writing of wisdom. Du Huaichao said in the essay collection "The Disappearance or Reappearance of the Cang Ear": "Every plant is a lamp, and each of us lives in its light. "North Joe's "Softness in Hardness" writes about the stage, snow, rivers, and water, breaking through the stereotypes in the constant transformation of the pen. Green Window "Kik Song" writes about farming and feels that "the root is the soul of the earth". Wu Jiajun's "This Shore and the Other Shore" not only writes "things" from the perspective of "people", nor is it simply anthropomorphic to look at "things", but starts from "things" and makes people feel the enlightenment of nature. The outstanding feature of these works is that they emphasize the importance of natural ecology in human society, and convey this experience of the unity of nature and man through the texture and transparent language, which is refreshing.
Paying attention to life is an important tradition of prose since modern times, in addition, with the progress of economic and social development, the entire society's emphasis on natural ecology has been raised to a new level, and prose has also kept pace with the times. While giving full play to human subjectivity for active creation, listening to the voice of all things with humility and awe, and feeling the way of nature, can we gain more wisdom and build a social culture in which people and nature are harmonious and prosperous. The new achievements of prose in this regard in recent years are not only a natural product of the nurturing growth of this social culture, but also a spring breeze that promotes the ecological concept to penetrate the hearts of the people.
Expanding boundaries, but also expanding aesthetic experience
Since the 1990s, the Internet has gradually become popular, which has greatly reduced the threshold for writing and publication. This has brought unprecedented changes to prose: first, people have entered an era of "writing for all", and the amount of published text is far beyond the range of human reading ability; secondly, the boundaries of prose have begun to blur, and words with different origins and renovations have made the container of "prose" difficult to accommodate for a while.
For literary and artistic cultural creations such as prose, the broader the tower base, the more likely it is to appear fine works. However, the huge variable of the Internet does have an impact on the connotation and extension of "prose", making it more difficult to identify and select prose. In this regard, we must also adhere to the characteristics of prose, that is, the content of the article is real, different from the practical style, and has the aesthetic function of "emotional truth".
Internet prose has changed the pattern of prose written by prose writers in the past, and its outstanding features are spontaneous writing, eclectic, more emphasis on dialogue, showing the unique literary characteristics and aesthetic characteristics of the times. For example, Huang Jiwei's online prose combines knowledge, humor, and wisdom, allowing people to find a moment of grace and ease in the rush of urban life. Xiaoyue's micro-blue network prose has been loved by many people, and there is joy in the text, leisurely, and full of "network feeling". Wu Yiying's "Short 50 Meters is the Longest Road in Life" integrates text, images and sounds, and is full of expressiveness. This essay reveals the thinking of life in simple nature, and also illuminates the world life with the beauty of magnolia, showing the unique charm of online prose.
Compared with novels, poems, and dramas, prose is more "everyday", closer to reality, and with the help of the Internet, it is easier to popularize and circulate. At the same time, this also means that its threshold is lower, more extensive, and aspiring prose creators need more sense of quality and "make a statement" with quality. Using aesthetics to melt everything in the world and the world, casting a key to insight into the life of the times and opening a wise life, prose has great considerability and great potential.
(The writer is Deputy Editor-in-Chief of China Social Sciences Magazine)
Draft: Wang Zheping
People's Daily ( 2020-03-13 20th edition)