| In my thesis, I regarded the core character of Zhou Zuoren’s thoughts from his period of studying in Japan until the end of the Anti-Japanese War as a literary-political practice aimed at the realization of "human", on the base of which I tried to clear the clue and the sequence of the form with some continuity of Zhou’s thought.Zhou regarded the innate character of "human" was ought to be self-consciousness out of control of the animal instinct and capacity of will out of control of external authority. As a result of that, he emphasized the individual independence for the realization of "human". However, on the other hand,"the individual" defined by Zhou was an ethical subject at the same time, which made the thought of the realization of "human" considered under the background of an ethical relationship between humans. Centering on this goal of "human", culture and politics became a core contradiction in Zhou’s thought. At the same time, being consistent with the goal, Zhou’s thought gained a kind of form sense. That Zhou’s involving in the political event of cooperation with Japanese invaders in1940s made his thought interrupted in its content (the relationship between culture and politics was converted). Despite of that, Zhou’s thought was still kept unified in its form because of the form sense, which in my thesis was named "Literary-Political Practice". Correspondingly, I tried to argue the reason, the way and the result of the change in the content of Zhou’s thought in my thesis under the consistency of the form and the relationship between the content and the form of the thought.The so-called "Literary Political Practice" meant the political practice with the way of literature. The first, the ability of the thought was expected by Zhou to be exercised to change the reality, so that his thought had a practical character, and accorded with the national politics in the aspect of the political ideal about "human". The second, Zhou didn’t mean to rely on the reasonable argument or moralization to inculcate the thought into others, but hoped to transfer the thought by emotional appeal. So he chose literature to be the carrier for employing the ability of the thought. Even though such expectation for literature didn’t be kept any longer after1930s, the literary character was still be retained in "the writing"(文章)which had displaced "literature", in the meaning of that the writing was required to have individual emotion and the beauty. Hence, Zhou’s thought practice was able to be developed with the way of literature all along. As far as the content in Zhou’s thought to be concerned, just as what Zhou called himself "generalist"(杂家), his thought resources came from kinds of knowledge system and cultural tradition. On the guide of his political consciousness in various periods, those factors in his thought resources were interpreted, deformed, and remade, as well as recombined, harmonized, and further configured, and finally represented his own thought with his own problem consciousness. The problem about "human" dealt in Zhou’s problem consciousness was where culture and politics intersected whose final goal both was "human". But the different ways for the same goal that culture relied on thought and politics relied on action made culture and politics being the main threads of the content of his thought, and formed a kind of contradiction relationship of the unity of the opposites at the same time.Based on the above understanding about the content and the form of Zhou’s thought, my thesis would be constructed as follows:to divide by four periods (period of studying in Japan and staying in Shaoxing,1920s,1930s, and1940s), that what political consciousness had been formed through Zhou’s reflection on political reality in various periods, what cultural resources Zhou had applied for the formation of his thoughts, how he considered and presented the relationship between culture and politics, and what literature style were chosen to realize his thought, would be specifically argued. The chapters contained as follows:In the introduction, firstly, I advanced that my problem consciousness focused on combining the research perspective of cultural politics and national politics to set up a research perspective with entirety, so that the consistency as well as the variation, and the complexity as well as the unification of Zhou’s thought could be presented. Secondly, I explained why the character of the form of Zhou’s thought was be expressed as "Literary Political Practice", and then according to Zhou’s thought about the relationship between culture and politics, and accordingly his selection for the literature style, summarized the train of thought in my thesis. And then, I tried to show that the cultural consciousness in Zhou’s thought always appeared in the structural relationship between culture and politics on the one hand which made it equipped with political dimension, and on the other hand that it contained "the consciousness of beauty" made it equipped with independent dimension transcending the politics at the same time.Chapter one,"’the free spirit’ and its realization", contained three sections. It argued that in their period of studying in Japan, Brother Zhou constructed the literary-political theory in which literature was dominant. On the premise of acceptation of political consciousness of racial revolution advocated by Zhang Taiyan, Brother Zhou took the realization of humans’"free spirit" as the common goal of constructing human and nation (“立人”'“立国”).Accordingly, the foreign literature style close to their respective nature was chosen and introduced to China. After returning to China, their idea of literature enlightenment was further expanded to their respective engagement in the field of culture and education. Being in accord with the republic political idea, they brought their respective "consciousness of beauty" gaining from Japanese artistic thought into the construction of the republic "new culture". The "sorrowful literature" Zhou chose and that his national cultural construction was stressed on the inheritance of the traditional national culture showed vivid characters of Orient culture.Chapter two,"the establishment of individual literature", contained three sections. It argued that because the republic politics of China then was actually controlled by feudal warlords, on the premise of the opposing relationship between the individual and the society, Zhou established the individualistic literary thought. Zhou’s concept of "individual" first represented the structural relationship between the two poles of "individual and mankind", which was influenced by the cosmopolitan trend of thought. Then it represented the structural relationship between the two poles of "individual and human sensibility(人情)”,which was inspired by the thought and art from Oriental literature. Consequently, humanitarian literary works, classical literary works and verselet from Greek and Japan, literary fairy tales, and Greek mythology were in turn introduced by Zhou in his literary political practice. As the political suppression got intensified, his expectation for the strength of thought of the individualistic literature came to nothing. So he turned to advocate that "Thought is free" by taking part in social criticism and civilized criticism, which in fact struggled for the right of independent individual thought to be allowed to exist.Chapter three,"the individual autonomy and the construction of a’Modern China’", contained three sections. It argued that faced with the new political reality that as politics of parties in China were formed after the middle of the1920s, the idea of the people’s politics became the spirit of the time, Zhou began to regulate his individualism in the May4th age. Zhou drew the thought of "altruism" from Bodhisattva’s benevolence in Mahayana Buddhism, and made the opposing relationship between the individual and the society resolved by making the individual comply with the rationalized and socialized "nature". Hence, in a new sense that the individual was expected to surpass the personal desire and reveal the truth of "nature", the individual subjectivity was uplifted again. This new form of Zhou’s thought, with the help of resources from Japanese classical literature and Western modern scientific knowledge, was expressed by the concept "Human’s Sensibility and Things’ Innate Laws(人情物理)", which was applied to reinterpret Chinese traditional Confucianism. From then on, Zhou began to completely clear up Chinese cultural tradition, which opened the process to construct a "Modern China", with Oriental culture being the subjective culture. At the same time, faced with the topic of the times of joining literature with politics, Zhou sought thought resources from European Enlightenment Movement. Finally literature and politics were unified in the political ideal of rationalizing life and the world. Correspondingly, the literary idea of "Express as Free Will(言志)”was suggested, and "The literature of power" was replaced by "the literature of knowledge". With the thought of’‘人情物理’’joining in the literary idea of’‘言志”literature was not expected to develop the strength of thought any more, while the word(文字)was expected to function as rational cognition. and literature was replaced by writing(文章),which refreshed the documenting function of Chinese traditional writing and the beauty of the writing, and thus combined the individual and the society again from the aspect of "knowledge". Correspondingly, with the aid of Yanagita Kunio’s folklore research, Zhou found "Common People’s History" in the rural daily life world in Chinese traditional agricultural society.Chapter four,"expression of thought in the political dilemma", contained two sectors. It argued that Zhou who in the1940s became a bureaucratic intellectual tried to sustain the autonomy of culture when he was in a dilemma without political autonomy, in which the deformation and deterioration of his thought arose because of politics overrode culture. As a result of Zhou’s individual identity being divided into the political role and the cultural role, his expression was also divided into the expression of the political pose, and that of thought for carrying forward his literary political practice. The former was represented by the theory of "the Confucianism being the central thought", and the latter by the exploration for the objective culture which could be used to define the Oriental moderation under the background of the contrast of Western civilization and Oriental civilization. The change that the thought resource was gained from the positive "Beauty of Humanity" to the relatively passive "Sorrow of the Oriental" showed that along with the increasingly deteriorating political relationship between China and Japan, Zhou’s problem consciousness that sought the oriental cultural subjectivity from Japanese culture, had to be transferred to the seeking for rational explanation of the political reality from culture. The cultural explanation for the act of force exerted by Japan was found by Zhou finally to be in "religion", which was thought to be absent in China. His thinking about "religion" was interrupted by the Anti-Japanese War. However, in the occupied Peking during the1940s, this thinking paradoxically obtained a new form and became the problem consciousness from the reality then. The question was:Could folk belief be the fountainhead of forming a meaning system that included value, idea, ethics, and moral? In reality, this question became the projection of the status and the mental experience of Zhou himself (and of the people in the occupied areas) whose identity in fact was a slave.The conclusion generally referred to the meaning of Zhou’s thought to the reality and its paradox in itself from the complex entanglement between Zhou and Japanese culture which was most significant for his thought construction. |
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