The Study Of Zhou Zuoren′s Literary Thought

Zhou zuoren (1885 ~ 1967), from Shaoxing , Zhejiang,is seen as Chinese modern well-known essayist, literary theorist, poet, translator, philosopher, pioneer of research on folklore and an outstanding representative of the New Culture Movement. The thesis is concerned with the systematic analysis of his ideas about literature, which will be carried out be text reading in-depth ,from the two dimensions of history and, with the integrity of internal research and external research, combined with the criticism of Western impressionism, accepting the theories of aesthetics and a variety of modern Western literary theory.Introduction section revolves around the brief information about the historical background and current status of Zhou’s research and ideas and methods of writing this article as well. What’s more, the author analyses the formation and development of Zhou’s "human science" ideology; meanwhile, focusing on his life, searching for the creation, evolution and origin of his literary thoughts.The first chapter mainly talks about the theoretical basis and source of Zhou’s literary thought, which is not a simple copy , but a unique combination of thoughts created from the hybridity of many modern and traditional cultural factors, according to his own understanding, which are greatly influenced by both Chinese and Western ideology. This thought is largely based on natural humanity theoretically, in the mean time, taking the love-based humanitarian and individualistic theory as the supporting pillars. Zhou Zuoren’s advocates of "people’s literature" stems from the Western idea of humanitarian ideas, and "literary personality" has internal logical linked to the idea of individualism. Throughout his life, all the literature related to the concept of Zhou Zuoren are rooted and developed from these two ideas, which are under the profound influence of Western culture, Japanese culture and the traditional Chinese culture.ChapterⅡis about the exploration of Zhou’s ideas on the genre of literary and variety of literary concept, followed by analysis on the nature and function of literature, prose, fiction, poetry and language, focusing on seven areas of critical analysis.As far as the nature and function of literature is concerned, Zhou’s idea of literature has experienced change, with not only the inheritance and continuation of the former writers in the mid to late time, but also some significant differences. At the beginning of "May Fourth" movement, Zhou attached great importance to the relationship between literature and social life, putting forward with "people’s literature" to promote the "common literature", stressing on the social function of literature, emphasizing the role of literary enlightenment. Then, from 1920’s, he turned to promote the idea, "Literature is the expression of personality", for which he advocated the literature without utilitarian. This reflected that his understanding of literature is gradually in-depth and his change in views on the Function of literature came along with the change of his understanding of the nature of literature. Different nature of literature brought about different view of literature functions, as it was observed in different literary point of view, some were from the audience’s point of view ,emphasizing the utilitarian nature of literary and social functions, at the same time ,some were standing from the standpoint of the creators ,in which literary self-expression was the center. Zhou was here showing his deep insight and understanding. Overall, the literature of 1930s approached nearer to the essential characteristic of literature, promoting the independent value and character of literature, which constitutes a history of modern Chinese literature and aesthetic tradition with the greater value and significance in literary knowledge areas.In the case of prose, it was he who advocate the beauty of writing , creating a new area of personalized essays in modern Chinese literature, for which he expressed his profound and constructive understanding of the classification and the style of modern prose , the construction of prose language , necessity of fun and emotional expression in a good prose .As for novel ,Zhou showed great interest in realistic novels, lyrical novel and local stories ,making it clear that the great work should have a metaphysical quality. When it comes to poetry, he reflected on the shortcomings of poetry, planed a new road for poetry and promoted little poems and symbolist poetry ,which contributed a lot to the positive development of the poetry. This paper highlights his idea, "prose should have fun, fiction should have a sense of tragedy, poetry should symbolize" . These arguments can be united in the concept----“good works should have metaphysical quality" in which a positive meaning for real literature composing is contained.This chapter also discusses the view of Zhou’s literary criticism, followed by introducing his principle of tolerance and freedom in criticism, in the mean time, he pointed out the criteria of composing and criticizing in terms of writing about ordinary humanity and critical methods of impressionism.ChapterⅢ, from the perspective of external research, illustrates Zhou’s reflection and view, ranging from literature, science, history, morality to religion.In Conclusion, from the angle of the modern theory, overall comment and elucidation has been made on the impact of Zhou’s literature ideas.In short, the paper argues that Zhou contributed a lot in the early stage of development of new poetry and new poetry theories by his composing practice and he played a significant role in establishing the communication among prose, fiction, poetry and other art forms. earlier that time in "May Fourth", he created the poetry "river" as his masterpiece by which he made the attempt to promote the abandonment of old-style of poetry, instead add the element of prose to the new poetry, in this case, he became the pioneer who had laid the foundation for prose poetry. His contribution to poetry also involved writing the new poetry to explore his own path of modern poetry, alternatively, his translations of Japanese writer haiku’s poetry has initiated the exploration of the form and atmosphere of poetry. His attempt to explore the way to new poetry spontaneously showed keen modern consciousness .It was of great value to the reflection on the new poetry that he encouraged to borrow from foreign literary practice combined with spirit of national traditions, Zhou not only pursued the art in practice, but summarized the origin of artistic life in the prose of new China -----a kind of essay originated from the combination of tradition and foreign literary influence. He extracted the two different artistic styles of prose from the practice, "elegant and profound." He explored and guided development of modern Chinese prose .by both theory and practice and guide since "May Fourth" movement.Zhou’s contributions to modern Chinese fiction mainly concentrated on the construction of the theory: the promotion of realistic fiction with the purpose of the birth of new ideas and novels; translations of Western fiction so as to explore new ways of development of modern fiction, interpretation of modern fiction by the latest theories; stress on local flavor by urging people to write in depth the stories of ordinary people and ordinary life. The most significant theoretical achievement of Zhou lies in his theory of "lyrical novel". He argued for the practice of undermining fiction plot to create lyrical works, viewing it as the successful unity of foreign novels writing and traditional Chinese lyric poetry writing, which revealed his modern vision. In a review of Feiming who was the most passionate practitioner of Zhou’s theory, lyrical novel was greatly encouraged, the following proponents ,such as Shen Congwen, Ai Wu, Xiao Hong, Shi Tuo, Sun Li and Wang Zengqi ,with their artistic achievements ,greatly enriched the modern novel, and it was sure to have something to do with the advocates of Zhou.This paper in particular argues that: as far as the maturity of literary thought is concerned, Zhou Zuoren’s "the origins of China’s new literature," though it is devoted to the essays, it still represents the most complete and innovative value of literary thought. It summarizes the idea of "Yan Dao" and "Yan Zhi," advocating literary independence and freedom to express personal feelings. "Yan Zhi," can be taken as abandonment of the essence of ancient Chinese literary tradition. The idea is to respect the laws of literature itself, focusing on the pursuit of the aesthetic features of literature itself and expressing techniques of literature. While on the status of literary history or the social impact it has created, "origins of China’s new literature" can not be paralleled to "people’s literature". "People’s literature" is to follow the trend of enlightenment modernity, marking the modern Chinese literary dimension of thinking, in particular, establishing a humanitarian spirit of modern Chinese literature core. This Enlightenment modernity is a breakthrough for the Chinese literature at that time, so how this valuable tradition has been developed will accordingly determines the height and standards of contemporary Chinese literature.But obviously, the "people’s literature" does not have advanced the theory and great discovery, it’s hybridity of Western philosophy and one-sided transplantation of some biological principles to literature has shown the immaturity and lack of creativity in certain aspects. In essence, the "people’s literature" is still a literature loaded with theory, which is more involving Western humanitarian. In this case, Zhou finally realized the nature of utility, attaching greater emphasis on "Literature is the expression of personality".Actually, from the standpoint of law of literary development ,the thoughts of "literature with personality " is more meaningful. For a long time, Chinese literature has put too much emphasis on the moral enlightenment function, ignoring the independent status of literature and aesthetic value. "Self-expression" of literary thought, from the perspective of creation, is Zhou‘s attempt to accept the ideas of Western literature in order to make literature ,with a modern aesthetic, independent from politics and morality.. Therefore, as to the literature field itself, it has more theoretical value than his earlier idea of "people’s literature," .Zhou Zuoren, at the early stages of "May Fourth", with a series of well-known literary theory and unprecedented sense of foreseeing, opened up many areas of modern Chinese literature, establishing his historical status of literary critic in new China. He not only became the most outstanding designers of blueprint for the new literature, but devoted himself to new literature review on composing practice; The concept of freedom and tolerance of criticism he advocated focused on the real thought and literature, promoting literature with regional style and national traditions, and it had still strong practical significance. He advocated that criticism is an art, not only drawing on the essence of impressionist criticism but also fused his personal understanding of literary criticism, which formed its own unique style of criticism. His specific criticisms may have limitations, but a series of indelible literary thought of his, a valuable legacy we should inherit and carry forward, does have great value and far-reaching impact.