On Shen Congwen’s Writing About His Military Experience

When he was a teenager,Shen Congwen joined the local army in western Hunan,which brought him a very special and profound social and cultural experience.However,the academic circles’ current research results on Shen Congwen’s military experience are relatively insufficient and show a certain tendency of immobilized.It simply emphasizes Shen Congwen’s "detachment" to the dark events in his military experience and his "sympathy" for the people of Xiangxi.On the basis of dialogue with this idea,this paper tries to start from three aspects: Shen Congwen’s recollection of his military experience,how Shen Congwen’s "soldier" identity interferes with his "countryman" identity construction and the influence of his military experience on his reality perception.Through studying Shen Congwen’s writing of his military experience,Further grasp Shen Congwen’s literary concept and the generative logic of identity.In particular,the chapters are roughly as follows:The first chapter discusses Shen Congwen’s recollections of his military experience.In the academic circle,the researchers represented by Wang Dewei generally believe that Shen Congwen can face the violent events he encountered in the army with a "detached" attitude.However,as a bystander and recorder of the "killing game" in the army,as well as an indirect or even non-indirect participant,Shen Congwen’s special identity and personal experience of pain,This makes it difficult for Shen to view the brutal killings in his military experience from any single perspective.When writing about the violence and death in the army,Shen Congwen showed a special grasp of the content and form.In this way,he tried to get rid of or even hide some of his emotional troubles,which also implies that Shen Congwen avoided the violent scene in the memory of the army.In addition,when the army abused ordinary Xiangxi people,many officers and soldiers could not escape death,including Shen’s relatives and friends.This chapter will also discuss the psychological impact of these military deaths on Shen Congwen.The second chapter discusses how Shen Congwen’s "soldier" identity is involved in his "countryman" identity construction.In his existing works published between 1924 and 1928,"countryman" was more often used to refer to ordinary Xiangxi people who were extorted and oppressed by the military than to himself,standing in opposition to "soldiers" rather than "city slickers".Due to the squeeze of urban life and his own embarrassing situation,Shen Congwen connected the military experience with the real experience.Out of a kind of aversion to "authority" and rejection of the identity of "soldier" in the past,Shen Congwen began to call himself a "countryman" and opposed him to "city people".The antithetical structure of military and civilian in Shen Congwen’s works has gradually changed into the antithetical structure of urban and rural areas.How to arrange oneself in the process of this transformation,deal with the relationship between "soldiers","countryman" and "city people",and establish the self-identity of "countryman" constitutes the internal motivation for Shen Congwen to reconstruct his own position in his works.The third chapter discusses the influence of military experience on Shen Congwen’s reality perception.After entering the city,Shen Congwen was often influenced by his military experience in the process of sorting out and integrating his urban experience.For example,he would unconsciously examine and measure everything related to intellectuals from the perspective of a soldier,or compare the cowardice of intellectuals with the courage of a soldier,or criticize and reflect on intellectuals from more aspects such as knowledge,character,emotion and thought.In the early 1930 s,the death of Zhang Caizhen,Hu Yeping and other friends and the arrest of Ding Ling revived Shen ’s memory of military service.The tragic experiences of these revolutionary intellectuals awakened the dark picture of military service deep in Shen ’s mind and further influenced his view of revolution.In addition,Shen Congwen returned to Xiangxi twice in 1934 and 1938.When he returned to Hunan in 1934,he placed an "upward ideal" on the "Hu Chu" and five young officers,which was effectively proved by the Xiangxi officers he met when he returned to Hunan in 1938.Moreover,the heroic performance of Xiangxi soldiers in the Anti-Japanese War also made Shen Congwen have a new understanding of Xiangxi Army.And made a temporary reconciliation with the reality of those dark memories of military service.