Shen Congwen’s Literature Watch After 1949

Shen Congwen is a master writer in the history of modern Chinese literature.But after 1949,he stopped the creation of literature,and shifted his focus to cultural relics research.Many scholars and his literary enthusiasts feel deep regret about his disappearing from the contemporary literary world.Chen Sihe points out that the special phenomenon about "potential writing" exists in the contemporary literature, and he views the diary of Shen Congwen on May 30, 1949 as "the origin of potential writing", which opens another window for understanding the rest of his life.Shen Congwen’s literature watch as a writer is hidden behind this window.The Complete Works of Shen Congwen includs his letters written after 1949,a total of about 3.5 million words. To some extent, this is another form of literary writing of Shen Congwen in a posture of withdrawal.From 1948 to early 1949,Shen Congwen was defined "heresy" and put on trial by the literati of The Left Wing Culture Camp, and in order to keep the last dignity of individual survival he chose to commit suicide.After being saved out of danger he wrote many letters and diaries which are like "the ravings of a madman".They can alleviate the his anxiety, and on the other hand they are of great literary value. This is the stage of continuing his literary dream inadvertently found after the collapse of the literary world. In the early 1950 s, living space transformation made his spirit slowly "reply".The literary writing of letters from unintentional catharsis gradually transformed into deliberately retaining.During the land reform of Sichuan, he kept a record of small daily happenings of the work and life with a childlike patriotism and a pair of eyes to find beauty, describing rural "constant" and "variable" in the new environment of the era.So,the style of letters of travels in Sichuan is similar to Sketches of Travels in Hunan.The unique "view of history" he realized in labour gives him enthusiasm for participating in the process of history and creating history, and it also makes him feel the real sense of urgency and responsibility.The far-reaching vision also brings loneliness and solitude to him. The realistic and deeply feeling, gives the letters more meaning. At the same time, he tried to create a novel called Old Comrades to show the image of the people in new era,however, it is not complete.He often wrote home about the literary status, writers and their works, policies of literature and art of the early new China, and gave his brickbats or accolades. There was a kind of tension between literary conception and literary circle.In mid and late 1950 s, the contradiction between "undertaking" requirements of politics and Congwen’s ideal of literature of "Love" became increasingly irreconcilable. As a result, he showed inconsistency and hesitation when he was close to the "group", and he was finally free from the "group". During this period,the planning to create the revolutionary history novel about Zhang Dinghe martyrs was the concrete practice of his efforts to "return", while Abstract Lyrics he created quietly was the specifications for sticking to independent literature and the subject freedom. At the beginning of the 1960 s, Shen Congwen started to create the old style poems,when he was in Jiangxi with visiting group organized by the Union of Chinese Writers.The old style poetry is the way he expresses feelings and thoughts besides letters.Among them, Collected Poems of Cultural History is a series of poems of the old style written in the May Seventh Cadre Schools during 1970-1971, which is permeated with profound historical and cultural criticism in the content, and has the features of replacing paper with poetry in the style.It’s unique.This group of unpublished poems, with imprinting of history, is an attempt in the special environment. At the end of the 1970 s, when the wave of " Shen Congwen Fever" transferred from abroad to the domestic, he relieved value regression of the individual life. At the same time, he was aware of the new Confucianism " Power is everything everything" is still in the stage, and he deeply feared the soul of invasion of feudal ideas.He has been trying to use literature to make people understand "I " and know " Human ". But this ideal was not realized.In the final stage of life, he participated in adapting his novel Border Tow for the screen.The imagination of the "lyric" film, is an extension of the ideal of literature of Shen Congwen who always persists firmly the "love".Politics is a utilitarian and periodic, while the literature is affectionate and eternal. There is criticism to the society, hope for a bright future,and serious thinking on culture and literature in the little- known potential writing of Shen Congwen after 1949. The creation is an important part of Shen Congwen’s whole literary world, and also the indispensable undercurrent of contemporary literature and spiritual phenomenon. It shows the richness and multi levels of contemporary literature and the spirit of the times from one side.