Zhang Guangguang: Write a literary history for Nanjing, the capital of literature

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Writing a literary history for Nanjing is not an easy task.

Nanjing is considered to be the starting city where Chinese literature began to move toward independence and self-consciousness, and China's first poetry theory and criticism monograph "Poetry", the first literary theory and criticism monograph "Wenxin Carved Dragon", and the earliest surviving poetry collection "Zhaoming Wenxuan" were all born in Nanjing. In the 2500-year history of the founding of the city, especially since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Nanjing's literary creation has always maintained a vigorous enthusiasm, and there have always been high-volume and high-quality works.

History has not been turned over, and the ancient context has been passed down to this day. In the history of modern literature, many literary giants, including Lu Xun, Zhu Ziqing, Pearl Buck, Zhang Hexhui, Zhang Ailing, etc., have extremely close ties with Nanjing, and the famous contemporary writers Gao Xiaosheng, Lu Wenfu, Su Tong, Ye Zhaoyan, Bi Feiyu, Fan Xiaoqing, Han Dong, etc. have created many popular works in Nanjing or on the theme of Nanjing, building a highland for China's contemporary literary world.

The famous Yan collection, the tide of thought, many genres, remarkable achievements, a hundred years of Nanjing literature has become a grand view. On October 31, 2019, Nanjing was selected as the world's "Capital of Literature", becoming the first city in China to receive this award, which is inseparable from its thick and long literary accumulation, and it is inseparable from the outstanding performance of Nanjing literature in the global cultural collision and integration trend in the past hundred years.

History has been decided, and the wonderful is still being written. To display and summarize Nanjing's literary history in the past hundred years, and to give it an appropriate position in the broader scope of Chinese literary history, is a problem that contemporary literary historians in Nanjing must face. However, writing a literary history that is in sync with the present is a huge challenge. In the middle of it, you can better perceive the texture of the branches and leaves, but you also need to pull it out of the way to see its full picture. Moreover, how to define the time period, how to build the framework, how to choose the object, and even what is the basis for the ranking of the writers, are all tests of the writer's eyesight and wisdom.

This extremely challenging subject, Zhang Guangguang took it to the next.

△ Zhang Guangguang

In August 2021, the "History of Nanjing's Century of Literature", which was presided over by Zhang Guangguang, was officially published after seven years of meticulous polishing. As a leader, writer, and critic, Zhang Guangguang commented on its significance, "First of all, it should try to enrich the practice of literary history writing, secondly, try to open up a unique vision of entering the history of literature through local paths, and then such urban literary history is also an encouragement to young writers." ”

■ Dialogue

Modern Express Reading: Please talk about the origin of writing "Nanjing Century of Literature History".

Zhang Guangguang: First of all, it depends on the rich historical connotation of Nanjing's century-old literature itself, its unique aesthetic charm, its strong influence and its important position in the history of Chinese literature. The so-called centenary is counted from the founding of the Republic of China in 1912. As a great bourgeois-democratic revolution in Chinese history, the Republic of China, which ended more than two thousand years of feudal imperialism, was proclaimed in Nanjing, and its influence on the transformation and development of Nanjing literature was direct, and its influence was self-evident. Therefore, only the phrase "a century of literary history in Nanjing" can establish a historical, inevitable and unique connection with 1912. It is also for this reason that many writers gather in Nanjing for objective and subjective reasons, which greatly enhances the richness, fluidity and creative vitality of Nanjing literature.

Secondly, it is also because of my personal interest and preparation. On the one hand, as a critic, Nanjing writers, especially novel creation, have always been familiar to me and the focus of attention. 20 years ago, I began to comment on the creation of contemporary Nanjing writers one after another, participated in a large number of academic seminars on the works of Nanjing writers, and evaluated the novel creations of Writers such as Zhao Benfu, Fan Xiaoqing, Chu Fujin, and Wang Dajin in various forms. On the other hand, I also participated in the collation and research of the research materials of writers led by the Jiangsu Writers Association and other leaders; every year I also undertook the task of writing the review of the "long novels" part of the Jiangsu Literary Blue Book. My long-term attention has not only enabled me to deeply understand and familiarize myself with Nanjing's literature from the level of aesthetic thought and other aspects, but also to have a relatively deep feeling. Several members of the research group who wrote and wrote were also prepared, Daniel Zhang published academic monographs on the literary ecology of Nanjing, Zhao Lei's doctoral dissertation topic is contemporary Nanjing urban culture and literature, Chen Jinwu also studied Nanjing creation for a long time, and Yuan Wenzhuo systematically investigated and sorted out Nanjing literary historical materials.

The third aspect is the active promotion and strong support of the Nanjing Municipal Federation of Literature and Literature, and also has a special relationship with the successful application for the title of "World Literary Capital" in Nanjing.

Modern Express Reading: Why focus only on the last hundred years, is the time span too short?

Zhang Guangguang: Actually, the centenary of this book is from 1912 to 2017. On the one hand, this century-old history of Nanjing literature has a relatively independent and complete literary history development context and evolutionary law; on the other hand, the reason why the name of this book is not called "Nanjing Modern and Contemporary Literature History" is precisely to highlight the uniqueness of Nanjing literature. The concepts of "ancient literary history", "modern literary history" and "modern literary history" are all based on the concept of literary history in the research community. Under these broad horizons, 1912 is not a historical node that the research community attaches particular importance to. Therefore, in the narrative of Nanjing's century-old literary history, through the unique historical turning point of 1912, it breaks the ancient, modern and modern theory, highlights the particularity of Nanjing's regional literary history, and also highlights the inherent characteristics and laws of Nanjing's urban literary history.

Modern Express Reading: How is the structure of the framework arranged, and why is it arranged like this?

Zhang Guangguang: This arrangement is first of all to show the system of vertical and horizontal crossing and front-and-back hooking as a whole. Vertically, the History of Nanjing's Century of Literature is divided into six chapters according to the six stages of the development of Nanjing literature over the past hundred years, including: the collision of tradition and modernity (1912-1927), the variation of aesthetics and revolution (1927-1937), the confrontation between darkness and light (1937-1949), the rise and exploration of socialist literature (1949-1976), from recovery to new wave (1976-1992), and the vibrant pluralistic pattern (1992-2017). This historical narrative structure not only reflects the special law of the development of Nanjing's regional literary history itself, but also is basically consistent with the periodization of Nanjing's local history. Horizontally, that is, within each chapter, it is divided into five sections according to overview, novel, poetry, prose, and drama (film and television).

Secondly, in the overview section of the first section of each chapter of the book, the development and local characteristics of Nanjing literature are introduced in combination with social reality and historical background, and in this part, the development of Nanjing literary theory and literary criticism is written into the overview, which not only highlights the unique Characteristics of Nanjing Elements, but also reflects the internal logic of regional literary history and strengthens the theoretical nature.

Modern Express Reading: "A Century of Literary History of Nanjing" is almost synchronized with the development of contemporary Nanjing literature, which involves many famous and non-famous writers in today's literary circles, how to determine the scope of choice when writing?

Zhang Guangguang: The main strategy is to highly respect classic writers, pay full attention to excellent writers, and vigorously excavate young writers. It is necessary to fully respect the literary history status of classic writers, but also to take into account the regional characteristics of non-famous writers, and more importantly, to explore the potential of literary novices and reserves in literary history writing and enhance literary vitality. In order to omit as few Nanjing writers as possible, many new lists were provided through the Literary Association, the Writers' Association, and the old gentlemen in the literary world. For example, the writers who have received full attention are: the internet writer Chen Bin, that is, the very famous dancer. Post-80s writers include Sun Pin and Zhu Jing, and post-90s writers include Pang Yu and so on.

Modern Express Reading: How is the concept of "Nanjing writer" defined in the book, and will the fluidity of writers and the complexity of creation cause confusion in connotation and extension of the concepts of "Nanjing literature" and "Nanjing writer"?

Zhang Guangguang: On this issue of benevolence and wisdom, we have adopted the following line of thought. We first divide the relevant writers into four types, and then adopt corresponding narrative strategies for the literary creation of each type of writer.

The first is a typical Nanjing writer. This is divided into two situations, one is a writer who was born in Nanjing and has lived and written in Nanjing for a long time. Such as Hu Xiaoshi and Ye Zhaoyan, typical local writers, Cao Kou, who was born in Qixia Baguazhou and has lived in Nanjing for a long time. The second is that although he was not born in Nanjing, he has a long-term experience of living and writing in Nanjing. Such as Zhao Benfu, Bi Feiyu, Fan Xiaoqing and so on. This kind of typical Nanjing writer is a core part of Nanjing's literary history, and all their creations must be included in the narrative of Nanjing's literary history.

The second is the quasi-Nanjing writer. This type refers to the fact that the writer, regardless of whether he was born in Nanjing or not, but has lived in Nanjing for a period of time, and his creation uses Nanjing as the object of writing, or has a more distinct Nanjing temperament, or is more influenced by Nanjing culture to a large extent. Writers such as Pearl Buck, Li Longyun, and Zhang Hexhui can fall into this category. They are also an important part of Nanjing's literary history and are an inseparable part. However, for their creations, it is not appropriate to include them all within the framework of Nanjing's literary history. All the parts of their literary creation that are closely related to Nanjing, such as writing in Nanjing, or the subject matter and aesthetic style of their creations that are related to Nanjing, are all due meanings in the narrative of Nanjing's literary history.

The third is a Writer from Nanjing. This type of writer, whose ancestral home is not necessarily Nanjing, but was born in Nanjing, or had the experience of growing up in Nanjing, only to leave Nanjing for various reasons. His literary creation is only partially related to Nanjing. For example, Zhang Xianliang, Wang Shuo and so on. Of course, modern and contemporary regional literary history writing inevitably has to face the intersection of writers' narratives and the "sharing" of writers' resources, and obviously they cannot be excluded from "Nanjing writers". They belong to the Nanjing writers in a broad category. For the creation of this group of writers, we will introduce and comment on them in a small amount of space, and will not discuss too much.

The fourth type is Nanjing writing by non-Nanjing writers. There are also some writers who were not born in Nanjing, nor lived or worked in Nanjing for a certain period of time, but only briefly visited, lectured or traveled to Nanjing, so naturally it is not appropriate to call them "Nanjing writers". However, some of their creations are set in Nanjing, or they are like geese leaving traces in Nanjing. For example, Hu Shi lectured at the Summer School of Nanjing Higher Normal School in the summer of 1920, and visited Friends in Nanjing many times in the 1920s and 1930s, attending government conferences and academic conferences, so some of his creations have left a figure in Nanjing. For example, Zhang Ailing visited Nanjing several times in the 1940s, and the story of the novel "Half Life" has an important Nanjing background. These creations can be called "Nanjing writing", and we have good reason to include them in the field of vision.

Modern Express Reading: When introducing writers, it is inevitable to involve the ordering of chapters, how to determine the ranking order?

Zhang Guangguang: The question you raised is very interesting, and this is also an issue that we have to consider and properly solve. The main principle is: take the creative achievement as the main criterion, take into account the order of time and age, and combine the relationship between the writer and "Nanjing". Overall considerations can be complex, but with such a principle, it is relatively feasible.

For example, Fan Xiaoqing only appears in the sixth chapter, while Su Tong, Huang Beijia, etc. appear in the fifth chapter, which is because of Fan Xiaoqing's relationship with Nanjing. Writers like Lu Xun, Zhang Ailing, Zhang Hexhui, etc. are all master writers and cannot but be mentioned, but they are discussed less in this book and the length is very small, which is also based on this consideration.

Modern Express Readings: As a writer and leader, how do you evaluate this book? As a critic, what do you think it means?

Zhang Guangguang: This book should be said to be the first attempt to systematically sort out the literary history of Nanjing's century-old literary development process, and it is a regional literary history that takes into account academic, regional and informative aspects. For example, the book pays attention to the integration of classical and modern, the coexistence of new and old, and the unusually developed civic culture, and notes that Nanjing writers wander in temples and folk, and enter and exit elegant and slang customs, which constitute the aesthetic outlook of Nanjing literature and customs, and these basic views and ideas should be said to have a certain rationality.

Its significance should first be to try to enrich the practice of literary history writing, secondly, to try to open up a unique vision of entering the great literary history through local paths, and then to such an urban literary history is also an encouragement to young writers. After the publication of this book, some young writers found themselves discussed in the book, showing great excitement and enhancing their self-confidence, and some authors worried that they were not included in the vision of the book. It is also a reminder that information can be strengthened in the future, and we have begun to gather repercussions and prepare for the revision of this book. From this point of view, this book is mainly of experimental value and exploratory significance.

Zhang Guangguang

Professor of the School of Literature of Nanjing University, doctoral supervisor, engaged in the study of modern and contemporary Chinese literature, the main research directions are Chinese modern and contemporary literary trends, contemporary novel research, etc. He has published academic works such as "The Theory of Enlightenment", "Chaotic Modernity", "Theory of Literary Trends of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Enlightenment", "Theory of Contemporary Chinese Enlightenment Literary Trends", "Moral Transmutation and Literary Transformation", "Between Sensibility and Reason", "After Literature Returns to Man himself", etc.

Modern Express + ZAKER / Nanjing Reporter Bai Yan / Wen Niu Huaxin Su Rui / Photo

(Edited by Li Weiwei)