-I see Yu Hua's rural life.

In the eyes of the world, cities and rural areas present two completely different pictures. Noisy and quiet, modernity and tradition, prosperity and backwardness ... and so on. Are commonly used words to compare the differences between cities and rural areas. Weber also made a famous definition of the rural characteristics of China: "The city of China is a stage without autonomous officials, while the village is an autonomous settlement without officials". Indeed, factors such as tradition and policy have caused a completely different reality of "dual structure of urban and rural areas" between rural areas and cities in China.

The Chinese nation has trudged for a century in pursuit of modernization, and the pioneers of modernization have never forgotten the countryside. Li Dazhao published an article "Youth and Rural Areas" in the February Morning Post of 19 19, with special emphasis: "China is an agricultural country, and most of the working class are farmers. If they are not liberated, it will be the disadvantage of our whole politics; Their stupidity is the stupidity of all of us; The benefits of their lives are the benefits of all our politics. " Therefore, he called on young people to go to the countryside to help farmers "get rid of ignorance", while Mao Zedong asked young people to receive "re-education for poor and middle peasants". Undoubtedly, the problem of farmers is an important proposition that puzzles the modernization process of China. Because of the importance of the countryside and farmers, naturally, there will be a lot of literature sensitive to the times. When it comes to reflecting rural local literature, we have to mention Lu Xun. In the preface written for "New Literature Series Novel II", Lu Xun said: "Anyone who writes ideas with a pen in Beijing, regardless of whether he claims to be subjective or objective, is often local literature. Like politicians such as Li Dazhao and Mao Zedong, Lu Xun saw the foundation of China's local literature. Although the writer is in a metropolis, he still can't get rid of the umbilical cord of the country, can't solve the complex of the country, and still describes the world from the country. Lu Xun was more practical, and created works describing ancient rural cultural traditions, such as Storm, Hometown, The True Story of Ah Q, etc. Influenced by this, a large number of writers with rural backgrounds gathered around Lu Xun, and they formed the first school of modern literature in China-the school of local literature, leaving behind such masterpieces as Grapefruit, The Return of the Native and Father's Garland. Later, Shen Congwen showed us the fantasy world of Xiangxi, Zhao Shuli's "Village Enlightenment". "In the fifties and sixties, the creation of rural life, whether the number of writers or the number of works, ranked first in novel creation. In 1980s, Wang Zengqi's novels about villages and towns in northern Jiangsu, Gao Xiaosheng's "Chen Huansheng Series" and Han Shaogong's and Acheng's "Cultural Root-seeking Novels" all pointed their strokes at the countryside, looking for cultural resources for the dialogue between oriental culture and the world at the time of globalization.

No matter what the feasibility of this cultural exploration is, no matter what the achievements are now and what the possible achievements will be in the future, a large number of scholars are trying to carry out their ideal cultural practice and mention folk cultural resources. Fan pointed out that "'folk culture' mainly refers to a set of knowledge system and value system about heaven and man, man and man, man and self, life and death gradually formed by the lower classes in China in the long historical process." We can say that in the long history of the Chinese nation for thousands of years, the countryside has indeed formed its own unique cultural values, aesthetics, world outlook and system. Of course, this system permeates the veins and traces of many different cultural sources, such as Confucianism and Taoism. Moreover, since modern times, cities in the modern sense have appeared in China, and they are carrying the wind of western learning spreading to the east. It is also obvious that the import of concepts such as commodities, democracy and women's rights has brought enlightenment and ideological changes to people who grew up in rural areas. Therefore, it is difficult for us to make accurate value judgments and stereotypes about folk culture. Individuals in history can only learn from individuals. It can be said that the spectacular century-old China literature is attracted by the magnetism of the countryside and has never been divorced from the deep cultural foundation of the countryside.

As a writer who is famous for his avant-garde novels, Yu Hua's early works are characterized by profiteering and killing, revealing some truth of human existence, such as 1986 and Death Narrative, all of which show a cold and broken world in a gloomy style. However, from the writing of Living, Yu Hua began to subvert and rebel against the avant-garde literature in the 1980s, and the highest evaluation of Yu Hua also began from Living. In fact, while paying attention to the national character, Yu Hua obviously can't ignore the farmers living in rural areas in China. In fact, Yu Hua's life has also forged an indissoluble bond with the countryside. "1985, it happened that the national cultural department carried out a large collection of folk literature and engaged in the" three-episode fusion "of folk literature, so Yu Hua was often sent to the countryside of the county by cultural centers to collect and sort out various folk stories of Haiyan. These materials are collected and sorted out, mimeographed, classified by style, and finally integrated into a book. Although this work is quite hard, it also provides a good opportunity for Yu Hua, who has lived in a small town since childhood, to get extensive contact with folk life and his mental state, so that he has obtained many first scenes of rural life and a lot of strange cultural materials in folklore. " In fact, we have seen his interpretation of farmers in Yu Hua's works, such as Death of a Landlord, I have no name, Ancestors, Living and Shouting in the Drizzle. It can be said that when the avant-garde writer after the transformation carefully examines and recalls this soil that makes literature grow, he pays attention to this land under his feet, and then he discovers its essence and mystery and grasps it.

It is no exaggeration to say that the history of China since modern times is a history of suffering. This word is full of confusion and fear for China people, but it is inextricably linked with it. The theme of suffering has also been deeply concerned by writers. At the turn of the century, there are also some writers who are keen to explore the theme of suffering, but it is our rural world that really shows suffering, because for the relatively developed level of urban modernization, quite a few villages in China are still in a backward and ignorant state, and the rural areas in the old society are suffering concentration camps. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, due to the dual system of urban and rural areas, rural areas are suffering relative to cities, and the suffering is manifested in the material level. From the metaphysical level, suffering is something that everyone has to endure, and no one can escape. The meaning of life is to endure suffering constantly. From this perspective, it is especially obvious for farmers!

"If you don't know life, how can you know death?" The obsession with life and the confusion about death have been carefully explored by philosophers since ancient times. Yu Hua has always pursued "zero emotional narrative". In his view, it is harmful for the subject to infringe on the work at will. He tried to make his works objective and keep the original appearance of the narrative object as a whole. Yu Hua carefully controlled his imagination and emotions and told them as honestly as possible. What he calmly conveys to readers is only the picture itself, not the emotion, so he pays more attention to objectivity and abandons subjectivity.

Yu Hua's objectivity lies in the incomparable kindness and meanness in his works. These villagers represent the lowest ordinary people in every era. They humbly endure suffering and humbly squeeze out a little living space for creatures. Their highest and lowest goals are "alive". Primary school teachers who shout in the drizzle will use genius to find ways to torture their students. Apart from their own survival, another important purpose of little people's survival is to reproduce, and they are also deeply branded with China's traditional way of thinking and existence. As the ancients said, there are three kinds of unfilial, and no one is great. Therefore, their humble struggle for future generations is also to have a "root." They are by no means great enough to contribute to the continuation of human civilization. The greatest thing is that they can't "die", so that they can live up to their ancestors. So the fate of women here is still the same as that that cannot be changed for thousands of years. They act as tools for male sexuality and reproduction. Since the May 4th Movement, enlightenment has been the lifelong goal of advanced intellectuals. A generation of scholars devoted themselves to this enlightenment movement with the decisive mentality that "the road is long and Xiu Yuan is Xi, and Xiu Yuan is Xi, and I will go up and down", and devoted countless efforts. However, we found that the Enlightenment was confined to some central cities, and urban and rural areas were in a state of fracture. When young modern women in the city are fighting for their own rights and interests, stubbornly fighting against feudal forces and even achieving certain results, we are surprised to find that the traditional countryside is still in its original state of existence. Therefore, as some scholars have pointed out: "Enlighteners are actions taken for specific social and cultural goals, and they must pay great energy to maintain their aggressive posture. Enlightened people are completely indifferent to all this, even unaware of it. They only need to follow their own inherent ideas and orbital movements, and they will work hard in a tightly closed life mode and concept mode, and they often don't even need to pay the energy of resistance. They just need to refuse, just need to be indifferent, just need to stop, and they can win the game. " This is an embarrassment that intellectuals can't face, and it is also a historical tragedy that enlighteners have no choice but to face the rural areas of China.

However, the ultimate evil result is not to punish the elite group of enlightenment intellectuals. The failure of enlightenment will ultimately be borne by farmers who grew up in this land. What about their carefully cultivated offspring? The answer is that these "descendants" don't seem to respect their ancestors, and they don't even want to give food. Shouting in the drizzle, my father tried his best to make grandpa die early when he was too old to eat. First, grandpa Sun Youyuan is too scared to eat every day. Later, I thought he ate too much and took his job. Later, he simply gave a small bowl. When Sun Youyuan was dying, his father suddenly showed unprecedented tenderness, and he happily publicized that his father was finally going to die. It was the same father who spent the rest of his energy sleeping with the old widow when his family might not be able to fill their stomachs but would not starve to death, and gradually moved his family's things to the widow's house as "whoring money". Farmers tell the same story from generation to generation. Although they are also working hard on this land, they are still struggling helplessly. The meaning of "living" is just to live, but living is so difficult and difficult that they can't find a way to go beyond suffering. There are two strong contrasts in the text of Alive: First, Fu Gui changed from a rich young master to a tenant farmer, and later his family fell again and again. Just like his father's metaphor: Xu Jia changed from cow to sheep, from sheep to goose, from goose to chicken, and finally there was no chicken. This is a process from scratch and from rich to poor. Personally, I think the contrast between the first half and the second half is quite huge. Secondly, relatives and friends around Fu Gui died one after another, but he was still alive. For ordinary people like Fu Gui, life is like this: there is no great pursuit of life, and the bottom line of survival has never escaped; Although they have no metaphysical support such as religion and belief, they have "initial nostalgia and persistence in life" in the depths of their spirit. What they have to do all their lives is not to fight and shout against fate and suffering, let alone to prove the greatness of their lives with death; On the contrary, they silently obeyed and endured, challenged death with "live-live" and made a great mockery of death. I'm afraid the contrast between death and life is too strong! The final choice, as mentioned in the article, is that Fu Gui and an old cow live together happily, which seems to be a kind of tranquility and peace, but what I should see through this surface is the lack of pursuit and despair of life. Fu Gui is a member of hundreds of millions of farmers in China, and it can also be said that he is synonymous with farmers in an era in China. It is a living fossil accumulated by national culture for thousands of years and a standard text of suffering!

With deep concern and persistent exploration on the living conditions of China citizens, Yu Hua once again showed us the living conditions and value orientation of farmers in traditional villages. Of course, from Yu Hua's text, it is also found that Yu Hua's understanding and familiarity with rural life is limited. His life is trivial and ordinary, and his life state is also ordinary. Yu Hua mentioned that his creation "made me no longer loyal to the form of things depicted, but began to use a hypocritical form." This form deviates from the order and logic provided by the real world, but it allows me to approach the truth freely. "His understanding of the rural lifestyle and inner spirit is also limited, as well as his pioneering ideas. Therefore, we can see that his portrayal of characters is more based on the overall understanding of human beings, but this does not affect his works to present us with thoughts from this land that raised us and made us grow up.