The Research On The Beijing Style Literature And The "Root-seeking" Trend In The 20th Century Chinese Literature

Since modern times, the writers pursuing the main sense of freedom contact their individual life experience with the future of the national culture in the intense collision between Chinese and the Western culture. They attributable their wandering spirit of sustenance to the description of their homelands. Simultaneously, they seek for the root of the national culture in local writing to deal with the impact of the western civilization. Many of them were on the issues of nationality and the human spirit prevailing home of lost and found. The 20th Century Chinese Literature appeared repeatedly the phenomenon of searching for the root of the national culture. The "root-seeking" phenomenon is the mental phenomena that the author's personal experiences and social future both fall into the double predicament. And it is a motif that the writers have thought for a long-term."The Beijing style" Scholars' characters are consistent with their academic status in 1930's.They value both the aesthetics of literature and the sublimation of individual emotional experience in their literary productions, and shoulder the responsibility that the history to leave the intellectuals. Therefore they entrusted the mission of molding the national character to the reconstruction of the cultural value system that bearing in the literature esthetic indication. "The Beijing style" Scholars realize the course which the nationality helps oneself by the moral influence and esthetics strength. They always practice with the literary productions to restructure the blueprint of the national culture.Not come singly but in pairs. In the mid 1980s, the "root-seeking literature" take to seek for the root of the national culture as the creation aim similarly. Under the dramatic social and cultural transformation, Chinese intellectuals who were concerned about country and people had a profound "anxiety" on the situation of ancient cultures. Therefore, it is said that the rise of the "root-seeking literature" is not only the consciously esthetic pursue of Chinese intellectuals, but also the demonstration of the obsession feelings."The Beijing style literature" in 1930's and the "root-seeking" literature in 1980's are the two important literary genres which produced by the "root-seeking" trend of the 20th century in the different time.Both of them have the astonishing consistency in the local experience and the cultural restructuring. However, they have the various artistic styles because of the difference of the cultural mentality and the esthetic value orientation. These are the basic reasons that the influence of two literary genres in the history of literature presents a huge contrast.In the 1980s, the "root-seeking literature" soon disappeared after learning with the edification, but we found that although the " root-seeking literature" as a literary genre have become history, as a literary trend " root-seeking " still exist in the turn of the century Chinese literary field. Except that Zhang Cheng-zhi, Han Shao-gong, Jia Ping-wa and Mo Yan all continue their cultural roots, other writers also take part and together explore the ancient but not outdated topic of "root-seeking". Zhang Wei, Shi Tie-sheng, Chen Zhong-shi, Hong Ke and Bei Cun, etc, influenced by the trend of roots of culture, use various forms to explore consciously the traditional culture and the national spirit.In the process of national modernization in China, traditional culture as the reference of modern civilization, seeking traditional ethnic roots in the era of globalization and promoting the national culture, have become the Chinese important cultural phenomenon in the 20th century. When a writer regards the " root-seeking " as the spiritual home of the inner turmoil at the period of social culture revolution, the literature " root-seeking " will give it characteristic-"on the road". Actually, in China and Foreign literary history, every starting and upsurge of the trend of "root-seeking" means that all people in anxiety and confusion try to find a way out of trouble and also shows that they as intellectuals take consciously the responsibilities of exploring human survival and development of human future, and prepares for the next travel of seeking spirit for human future.