The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

The weather was good, and a shower came in the middle of the night.

The weather was cool the next morning, and I didn't feel the heat at all. The soil in the mountains was still moist.

In the bamboo forest, there are dozens of straw futons placed in an orderly manner. The servants of the Xu family, as well as the novice monks of the temple, constantly brought pens, inks, paper, inkstones and other items, built clay stoves in the bamboo forest, boiled mountain springs and prepared tea sets.

Literati walked into the bamboo forest in twos and threes and sat cross-legged on futons. Even Master Zhongyong was invited to attend the literary meeting.

Yu Peichen sat next to Zhou Hexuan with a pen and shorthand notebook. She was responsible for recording the content of today's literary meeting. Of course, reporters from Ta Kung Pao are also responsible for this work - there are too many people, and one recorder is obviously too busy.

Ruan Lingyu also came. Facing many cultural scholars, this big star deeply felt her own insignificance. She didn't even dare to sit in the circle, but sat on the outside with Zhang Zhaohe, Zhang Youyi and other family members to watch from a distance.

Among all the people, Zhou Hexuan and Hu Shi had the highest prestige, so they naturally sat at the very back. When everyone arrived, Zhou Hexuan smiled and said: "Brother Shi, you can host it."

"You are the leader of the world's literary world, and I will not overstep your bounds." Hu Shi said modestly.

Su Xuelin used to be Xu Zhimo's crush, but now she is obsessed with Zhou Hexuan. She smiled and echoed: "Mr. Zhou, you don't have to refuse. You will definitely host today's literary meeting."

Lin Huiyin also smiled and said: "Sincerely welcome everyone, please don't refuse."

Ling Shuhua and Lin Hui were in the same boat, so they went against the grain: "I think, since this literary conference started because of Zhimo, why not let Zhimo take charge..."

"Ahem," Chen Xiying quickly interrupted his wife's speech and said, "Mr. Zhou, please."

Ling Shuhua complained in a low voice: "What are you doing?"

Chen Xiying scolded: "Everyone said that Zhou Hexuan should host the cultural gathering, but you are the only one who opposes it. Do you want to make everyone unhappy?"

"Humph!" Ling Shuhua snorted coldly and stopped talking. She just couldn't stand Lin Huiyin. If Lin Huiyin agreed, she would oppose it. She had no other messy ideas.

Zhang Jiazhu said impatiently: "Brother Mingcheng, please start quickly. The sun has already risen so high. If I keep talking, it will be too hot to death."

Everyone agreed and asked Zhou Hexuan to quickly announce the start of the literary meeting.

Zhou Hexuan could only follow what was good, and he said: "Then I would rather obey orders than be respectful. All of you here are famous people in the cultural and art circles. Let's talk about literary creation first. The most eye-catching thing in China's literary world this year is With the popularity of the new literary style 'sketch style', we will start talking about 'sketch style'. Everyone can speak freely!"

(Note: Sketch style is a short, concise writing style that briefly describes meaningful things or characters in life. The difference between it and traditional literature is not in length, but in focusing on the "present" and omitting the "past". ” and “Future”, with a strong sense of impact and vividness.)

Hu Shi followed up and said: "I know a lot about 'sketch style', which appeared during the May 4th Movement. The 'sketch style' novels at that time had not yet developed as well as they are today, and most of them can only be regarded as Prose and essays are mainly written by young people who have just entered the literary world."

Su Xuelin said with a smile: "I am the young man Mr. Shi Zhi calls me. At that time, my family was very forced to marry, and I was unwilling to give in to an arranged marriage, so I left Anqing with Huang Ying (Luyin) and quietly went to Beijing Women's Normal University. Go to study. At that time, Beijing Women's Normal University was really full of great scholars, including Mr. Hu Shi, Mr. Li Dazhao, Mr. Zhou Zuoren, and Mr. Chen Hengzhe. The first short story I wrote was in "sketch style". It's really embarrassing now that I think about it. It’s not a novel at all, it’s a passable essay at most.”

Su Xuelin deliberately did not mention Lu Xun, and the hatred was profound enough.

Yu Dafu probably felt uncomfortable sitting cross-legged, so one leg continued to be crossed, and the other leg was changed to an upright position, with his arms resting on his knees. He said: "The creation of novels initially focused on dissecting personal psychology and describing personal experiences. But in the past few years, there has been a shift towards describing collectives and groups, and 'sketch style' novels are also developing in this direction. The creation of 'group', 'collectivization' and 'group portrait' has become a general trend. 'Sketch style' novels are also developing in this direction. The main reason why novels can become popular is that they can carry out this kind of creative task."

Shen Congwen added with a smile: "Although what Mr. Yu said is reasonable, from the perspective of ordinary authors, I think the rise of 'sketch style' is mainly due to its market. More and more publications need to publish For short works, as long as you create a qualified 'sketch style' novel, you will definitely be able to get royalties. This is not the case for full-length novels and traditional short stories. First, they are not easy to be published, and second, they are easy to be blocked by the authorities. In such a situation In this situation, most ordinary authors will naturally choose the form of 'sketch style' because it makes money quickly and is risk-free."

This statement was so true that it elicited tacit laughter from everyone.

Wang Wenbo asked: "What do you think, Mr. Zhou?"

"I agree with you gentlemen very much, but," Zhou Hexuan said, his tone suddenly became stronger, "I think the real reason for the popularity of 'sketch style' is that the background and purpose of literary creation have changed today."

"Please elaborate." Lin Huiyin smiled.

Zhou Hexuan elaborated: "The goal of the May Fourth New Culture Movement is to overthrow the old culture and old ideas and spread new culture and new ideas. The 'Wei Sheng Faction' represented by Mr. Lu Xun focuses on describing social reality problems and is a response to the old culture. , criticism of old ideas; while the "Wei Art School" represented by Mr. Yu Dafu yearns for self-liberation and the realization of personal value, and is the pursuit of new culture and new ideas. The two schools seem to be incompatible, but in fact the creative goal is They are the same, except that one seeks to 'obsolete' and the other seeks to 'establish new'."

Everyone nodded slightly, obviously agreeing with Zhou Hexuan's statement.

Zhou Hexuan continued: "Now, the warlord melee has basically ended, the new culture and new ideas have also taken root in the hearts of the people, and the May Fourth New Culture Movement has achieved a staged success. Therefore, after 1927, the creative goals of Chinese writers began It has changed. At first it was against dictatorship and the pursuit of democracy. But until the September 18th Incident broke out, the main contradiction in Chinese society turned from the inside out and became the contradiction between China and Japan. Therefore, our current literary creation goals are: The main focus should be on 'pursuing democracy' and 'defending the country'. With this in mind, let's look back at the popular 'sketch style' novels. Are most of them related to these two goals?"

"This statement is so profound and wonderful!" Xu Zhimo, who had been silent for the whole time, suddenly clapped his hands in admiration.

Ling Shuhua nodded subconsciously and said, "Mr. Zhou is right."

Chen Xiying smiled and said: "I like this kind of rational analysis."

Chen Mengjia is a poet of the Crescent School. He said: "Not only novels, but now poetry is also developing towards these two goals. Most of the poetry a few years ago were lyric poems, but in the past two years, a large number of narrative poems have appeared , and many of them are related to the Anti-Japanese War. 'Sketch style' novels are very suitable for describing scenes and groups under specific background situations. To put it bluntly, they are convenient for narrative and reflect the times. I believe that more narrative poems and narrative novels will appear in the future , the creation of poems and novels will tend to be in the 'sketch style'!"

Chen Mengjia's words come from his personal experience. Two years ago in Shanghai, Chinese soldiers and Japanese invaders fought in the snow at Jijiaqiao. He took the initiative to go to the front line to condolences and treat the wounded soldiers.

Chen Mengjia saw brave soldiers rushing to kill in a hail of bullets, wounded soldiers stained with blood, some soldiers still maintaining their aiming posture when they died, and fresh graves of anti-Japanese comrades everywhere in the fields. He felt greatly shocked, so he wrote the tragic poem "On the Battlefield of Zozaobang" in front of the soldiers' graves, transforming from a romantic poet to a realistic poet.

As Chen Mengjia said, in the past, poets liked to express their emotions purely and let themselves go. As the Japanese invaders approached, more and more narrative poems appeared in the past two years, expressing emotions and thoughts through descriptions of real events.