Indirect Writing: Another Expression Of Anti-Japanese War Literature

The War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression is a special stage of modern Chinese literature history. The war is working as an external way to change the path of the modern Chinese literature’s development. The theme of enlightenment and revolution since the May Fourth Movement was replaced by the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in Chinese modern literature. Chinese modern literature’s mass reference to Modern Western Literary Trends was suspended. In 1938, the All-China’s Writers Association for the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression was established in Wuhan, which includes a large number of writers that belong to different genres. Chinese literary circles achieved the unity. But there were still some writers who had not joined the national organization of literature and art. They engaged in a personal style of writing. Regarding how to present the Anti-Japanese War, Chinese literary circles was divided into two tendencies: one is direct writing and the other is indirect writing.Due to some political factors, indirect expression of the war had been subjected to criticism in a period of time after the Liberation. In these indirect expression writers, the most representative writer is Liang Shiqiu. Liang Shiqiu’s literary views after the War witnessed some differences and he created A Cottager’s Sketchbook, which had a unique aesthetic style during the War. In the text, Liang Shiqiu expressed his deep thinking about human nature and society in the War with concise, vivid and humorous language, showing an elegant taste of life. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression which full of people’s confusion and social unrest, Liang Shiqiu and A Cottager’s Sketchbook went with the flow to seek the taste of life in a harsh environment and expressed his deep thinking about life and society. This is Liang Shiqiu’s personal writing about the Anti-Japanese War. A Cottager’s Sketchbook has ideological and artistic features and plays a positive role in the adjustment and reconstruction of the social ethical relations. From this perspective, Liang Shiqiu’s literary views and literary practice during the War is both an indirect expression of the theme of the times and another form of Anti-Japanese War Literature.