Verstand Seekers: Long Yingzong's Literary Thought

This thesis mainly rakes and sifts Long Ying-Zong's verstand thoughts, attempting to comprehend the complexity of his thoughts and the antinomies embodied from his literature presentation.Outwardly,(particularly from Long's literary activities and experiences),Long Ying-Zong hovered between literary and politic circle,experiencing ups and downs caused by the social upheaval in Taiwan; during the colonization period of Japan,he could join the Japanese cultural group in Taiwan;(《literature of Taiwan》leaded by Nishikawa Mitsuru,the so-called ambitious citizens under powerful government:Taiwan Literature and Art association organized by yanominehito矢野峰人);he became the singer among war drums,the torchbearer, the pioneer of nationalist after the Recovery of Taiwan;under the white terror,most intellectuals(especially those who were close to Japan) during the colonization period of Japan were subjected to harms of varied extent,while he nearly suffered no political persecution.Therefore,Long Ying-Zong's character and his viewpoint are both suspected,and in particular,his unintelligible words which are filled with"unite effort"of the Great Eastem Asia are hard to understand.However,a clear cognition of Long Ying-Zong would be formed by studying his thoughts from the verstand aspect, and touching the track of history(that is these words).Luo Cheng-chun considers Long Ying-Zong as a"humanitarian writer",scholar Lv Zheng-hui argues him as a"nationalist",scholar Lin Tui-ming believes that he is a"gentle resister",scholar Shi Yi-lin refers him as"struggling in Identify contradictions under the double Hometown"。Hereby,the author of this thesis prefers to identify him as"verstand thinker"and"explorer".Long YingoZong had spent all his life looking for"verstand".As not only his novels belong to the"verstand"novel,but also in his essays he mentioned several times building"verstand"thought.His verstand thought directly draw support from Japanese culture,while the"verstand"conception in Japanese culture makes use of Chinese traditional Confucianism mingled with western philosophy.In China, Mencius had put forward the concept of verstand long before in traditional Confucianism.Its connotation had been referred in Confucian time.In the west,"verstand"can be traced back to Socrates times.This concept is formally put forward in Kant's The Critique of Pure Reason.Long's verstand is a totally open concept.Because of its openness,it is under the suspicion of"universally applicable",however,despite of this,to a aged writer who had placed all his ideal to literature hoping to spend all his life to achieve The validity of the greatest social care by literature,the openness of verstand reflects the abundance of this thought's glory.And this abundance is hard to be uttered in words or collated.Mobility,the core of his verstand,is its most distinctive character.Every historical period is stamped with its time mark,and is filled with slogans of this time, so in other words,his verstand bears the profundity of social changes in Taiwan,and its mobility switches from sharp to ease every now and then.After the July 7 incident of 1937,in order to extend its aggression territory and make Taiwan its military,economic and political"supplying land",the Japanese imperialist carried out he Kominka Movement(Japanese assimilation),so as to strengthen their control over Taiwan's economy,culture and politics.After publishing the A Small Town with Papaya Tree in 1937,Long Ying-Zong became well known among literary circle in the mainland,and gradually became a key member of the cultural circle in Taiwan,so Long's thoughts developed and matured from the gradual fluidity and changes.However,the more and more tense situation in Taiwan, the"colonial space"under high pressure forced Long Ying-Zong keep shifting from the"outer self-awareness"to"inner self-awareness"and entering the field of"the recognition and entreaty of the integrity of culture"suffering torment and worries.The word"motherland"was a key word mentioned frequently after the war in Taiwan.Facing the entirely new political system,the intellectuals in Taiwan bestow"motherland"more inmagination,in which mix their expectation for the political ideal of the mainland and their hatred towards Japanese colonizing.Due to the 50-year's Colonial Propaganda and education,most intellectuals in Taiwan are estranged from"motherland".After being colonized forcefully by Japanese,they have eager intention to return to"motherland",not only territorially,but also in the sense of"human"and thoughts.But most people know little about the"motherland"to which they are going to return.Overviewing Long Ying-Zong's life,apart from the effort spent on creating novels and living itself,he spent most of his time pondering,constructing, propagating and transforming"verstand".Although Long Ying-Zong had not built up his own complete verstand philosophy system,he left us a space,through which we can get a glimpse of the psychological trend of Taiwan intellectuals during the colonization period of Japan.