1
Recently, there has been some controversy about “poetry poetry”. Many people are dissatisfied with the inclusion of these dirty things in poetry, thinking that the author’s taste is low and it has blasphemed literature, and I am sorry for the majority of readers. I think people’s reaction is justified. All normal people instinctively like true, good and beautiful things, and have an intuitive dislike and rejection of false, evil and ugly things. A certain degree of social and moral restraint is an aesthetic convention that everyone abides by. To a certain extent, it can even be said that this is people’s aesthetic instinct.
Although the formation of this aesthetic instinct has the effect of moral restraint, you cannot think that it is the result of moral restraint. In the history of human spiritual development, the formation of aesthetic instinct actually came earlier than moral consciousness. Relatively speaking, it is even older. We can even say that it originated from the most primitive human nature. In the process of evolution, human beings have become more and more distinct from animals, and gradually become perfect, no matter the body or the mind. Compared with today, the ancients wrote the “Book of Songs”, should it be less socially and morally imprisoned? Even so, can you find descriptions of dirty things like feces and urine in “Wind”, “Ya”, “Ode”? not found. On the contrary, the works appearing in the “Book of Songs” all follow the tenet that Confucius summed up as “no evil” (Confucius “The Analects of Confucius: Weizheng”: “Three hundred poems, in one word, think without evil.”) If those works do not reflect “labor and love, war and corvée, oppression and resistance, customs and marriage, ancestor worship and banquets, and even astronomical phenomena, landforms, animals, plants, etc. “It will definitely not be appreciated by future generations. Mr. Liang Qichao once thought, “The existing pre-Qin ancient books are really fake and mixed, almost no book has no problems, its real gold and jade, the words are credible, the “Book of Songs” is also the first.” If the “Book of Songs” is not such a “real gold” Beautiful jade” and “words are credible”, but sprinkled some feces and urine between the lines, making it smelly. I don’t think the old man would bother to collect them into books for people to read. We Of course, it cannot be regarded as “a mirror of the social life of the Zhou Dynasty”.
After the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, Chinese novels and essays began to bear fruitful results. At least those works that entered the history of literature all followed the tradition of “Si Wuxie” – you can learn from “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, “Journey to the West”, Have you found descriptions of pooping and peeing in “Water Margin”, “Dream of Red Mansions”, “Strange Tales from a Liaozhai”, and “Notes on Yuewei Thatched Cottage”? you can’t find it. Even in “Jin Ping Mei”, which is called a “promiscuous book”, there are many plots of prostitution and indulgence, you will never see the author follow the senior officials of Ximen into the toilet and observe how she behaves and “feels out”. What color, what shape of matter, and then write these dirty things into the novel. As for the descriptions of lustful scenes and plots, I don’t think they are dirty, although it would be better not to do so. Sex is beautiful, even great, with certain limitations; sex is no dirtier than shit.
As far as common sense is concerned, people, especially writers, understand the above principles, so the self-discipline of “not describing dirty things” has been carefully observed for a long time. Such a strong response to the poems of “feces urine body” this time just shows that “this flower does not bloom often”, and there are not many such writers and works. This is quite a gratifying thing. Chinese literature is already too weak to stand up. If it degenerates to the level of feces and urine flying all over the sky, it will really be a catastrophic event.
The vast world is full of wonders. The more you experience, the more you will know. In fact, in my long-term editing career, it is not the first time I have encountered things of the nature of “shit and urine poetry”. in front of my eyes. This kind of experience is not unique to me. If readers are not forgetful, they should remember that in the 1980s and 1990s, some works of similar style were once argued by Luoyang Zhigui, and they were the guardians and defenders of the literary soul. The so-called “literary critics” of the CCP, either for profit, or because they are idle, not only turn a blind eye to those dirty descriptions, but instead advocate for such works, which further increases the prevalence of such works. I was puzzled at the time: what happened to these people? Why do they like to describe dirty things so much? I never found the answer.
Although I haven’t found the answer, I have left a lot of memories of those people and things. Now I will “hook” some memories and see if I can find some meaningful insights in these memories!
2
Let’s talk about “interests” first, and then “hobbies”, I think there is a connection between the two, and it will be enlightening for us to answer “why do people like to write about dirty things”.
Around the mid-1980s, I met a young poet who was said to be very talented in Xi’an. I don’t know if this young poet from northern Shaanxi is really talented, because I haven’t read his works, but his appearance is definitely carefully designed by him according to the “talented” formula: less than thirty years old He has a beard that is thicker than Marx, with slightly curly long hair, and the temples are connected to the beard; brown-black sunglasses almost cover half of his face; he is taller than the average man, and his clothes are always in the extreme Between the attention to detail and the extreme carelessness, sometimes suits and shoes are romantic and suave; When I met him, he had just come from northern Shaanxi to work as editor and binding designer for the internal journal sponsored by the provincial social science research institute.
Even though I was editing a large bimonthly literary magazine at that time, I was still full of awe and even timidity towards people who were “not ordinary people”. Therefore, in the several exchanges between me and this friend after we met, there was always a vague sense of shame. I feel that I have no artistic taste and that I am not as good as others, so I don’t talk much every time I meet, I always want to hear more from him. I especially want to hear his literary insights. After all, I met this friend as editor-in-chief to discover quality and promising authors and to find good works. By the way, when I ran that publication, I always had the belief that there would be as many publication opportunities as possible for writers in the province, especially young writers who were not yet famous. As a writer myself, I know that it is very, very difficult for a person to open up a world in literature.
What amazes me is that such a man who looks very imposing, but his voice is very slender, almost like a woman’s voice. His small hands and body are also very out of proportion, and very pale, it is easy to remind people of the word “hands can’t hold a chicken”… It took me ten minutes to get used to his appearance contrast and his unique way of speaking, The conversation gradually entered a smooth and smooth stage.
I soon discovered that although this man aspired to literature and sounded like a small success, he was very far away from the real world of literature. I rarely listened to him talking about what books he had read recently, and rarely listening to him. Talk about the excitement you get because of what books you read. For the works of Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi, and Jia Pingwa, who were already well-received all over the country at that time, he held a noble silence. It seemed that these few people and their works could not reach his discernment. I can go further and say that literature in him does not have the sense of sanctity that is often found in the hearts of people who are addicted to literature. To a considerable extent, he regards writing poetry as a mere art and means of earning a living, and has nothing to do with spiritual life. , and the search for the soul has nothing to do with it.
well! A person has a person’s real situation, and no one lives in the illusory cloud. I understand why he is so alienated from literature: he has no formal working relationship with the affiliation of this magazine. The taste of “North Drift”. This means that he has not changed the real identity of farmers in northern Shaanxi, in this case, survival – specifically, establishing formal working relationships, migrating hukou to this ancient city, and changing from peasant status to eating public food The national staff – of course, has become far more important than literature (even a very shallow level of reading) to be the first thing to consider.
I realized reluctantly that this friend is far away from literature in terms of knowledge, ideas and thinking. I even found that his education level is not high, and I am afraid that he will not reach the level of high school graduates. That intimidating appearance is only the appearance, and has basically nothing to do with the inner spiritual quality; listening to him talk, it is easy to make people think of “chicken ribs”, the “silver-like pewter head” that Mr. Cao Xueqin teased in “A Dream of Red Mansions” …To tell the truth, I am quite disappointed, with some regrets in the disappointment, and some sympathy in the regrets… After all, he is younger than me, and young people are unlimited. Later, although our exchanges were a little less, but There was also no interruption of contact.
Once, I forgot because of something, maybe it was a special occasion, maybe it was passing by, I went to the magazine office to visit the young poet. At that time, he happened to design a magazine cover and printed out color proofs. As soon as I was seated, he proudly showed me the proofs for me to enjoy. The proof is printed with the head of a very old woman with sweaty and messy hair. I don’t see anything in this photo, I sit in a fog and stare blankly at him, which means I don’t know what he wants me to appreciate.
He probably saw my stupidity and reminded me generously: “Look again.”
So I looked again, but still couldn’t see anything, so I had to say, “It’s pretty.”
He sighed softly, probably thinking that I was hopelessly stupid, so he took the proof sheet with the head of a woman out of my hand, held it up in front of my eyes, and took a good look at the image in the way of an artist, and then, his eyes The light trembled in the room, and suddenly asked me: “Do you think this woman has just been raped?”
I was instantly shocked by his words, as if I was suddenly hit with a stick, I could neither say like nor dislike, I sat there, almost crying.
“You don’t understand,” he said with a wave of his little hand and a smile.
I smiled embarrassedly and said mockingly, “I really don’t understand…”
“It’s art,” he interrupted, adding in a raspy voice.
Art? Then why haven’t I seen “The Woman Who Just Got Xed” in ancient Greek sculptures or paintings or sculptures by the Renaissance art master Michelangelo? Then why haven’t I seen “the woman who has just been xed” from the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of Qin Shihuang or ancient Chinese paintings? To be more specific: Zhang Zeduan painted more than 800 figures in “Along the River During the Qingming Festival”. Can you find a “woman who has just been abused” among these figures? Has Leonardo da Vinci painted “The Mona Lisa Just Been Xed”? Has Repin painted “The Cossack Woman Just Been Xed”? Did Rodin sculpt “The Prostitute Just Got X”? Picasso and Dali, the most deviant in the history of art, probably never painted “The Woman Who Just Got Xed”, right? Has Xu Beihong painted “The Horse Just Been Xed”? Has Qi Baishi painted “The Cricket Just Been Xed”? Has Huang Zhou painted “The Donkey Just Been Xed”? Has Liu Wenxi painted “The Woman in Northern Shaanxi Just Been Xed”? Are those ancient, modern, and contemporary great artists as dumb and stupid as I am? Although it is said that the times are progressing and people’s aesthetic concepts are changing, it is not all “aesthetic” to consider “the woman who has just been xed” as art, right?
I looked helplessly at my friend – he still had a beard that was thicker than Marx’s, his long hair was still attached to the beard, the sunglasses on his face were still surprisingly large, and he was dressed in a suit and leather shoes, and he definitely didn’t look like He is an ordinary person, but I was thinking in the bottom of my heart: He was born in a peasant family for generations, and he encountered many trials and tribulations when he grew up. How did he develop such an appalling taste? How the fuck do I feel like I’m in a surreal world? I left him with such a dreamy feeling, and I went far away, and I still wondered if I had accidentally entered a dream.
Later he sent me a few poems to be published in a journal. The poem is very difficult and profound, and I can’t understand it, and I don’t think the ghost can understand it, so I let the editor in charge reject it, and we have cut off communication since then. Although I can still hear his news intermittently, those news are not literature, let alone art, but only short-sighted parents. For example, he left the magazine not long after (there is a saying that he was fired by the unit because he took a rebate from the printing factory in the publication printing process, but I don’t want to believe this is true), went to Xi’an Gardens A subordinate unit of the bureau went, and it is said that the unit promised to solve the work relationship and household registration problems for him. At the same time, he still roams and busts the city with the title of “talented young poet”. It is said that there are many girls who admire him, and some are even fascinated by him. It seems that he lives a very beautiful and lively life.
In a few more years, the person completely disappeared from my sight. That is to say, he has neither truly entered the ranks of poets and writers through the so-called “talent”, nor has he become an artistic talent in certain aspects because of his unique artistic taste. Go, just like I came gently, waved my hand, and didn’t take away a cloud…” When I left the city to transfer to Beijing to work, he had become a baby boy and merged into the huge mediocre crowd. Yes – I hope all this happened after he resolved the work relationship and hukou issues.
According to his age, he should be entering the twilight of his life now. It is not easy to live a lifetime. According to my limited understanding, this is even more so for my friend. As a descendant of an ordinary farmer without power and power, it can be said that he has walked very hard all the way. After his hormonal passion shattered into powder, I thought, he must have changed, and now he still thinks “the woman who has just been raped” is art? Does he still have the leisure to appreciate the photo of the sweaty woman?
I remember this so clearly because for the first time it made me realize that man’s tastes can be so different in opinions of literary or artistic questions; that man’s tastes can differ from his own. The family background and life experience are so different. I’m not saying this to emphasize that I have a higher taste than that friend, it’s not like that. High or low interest is relative, how do you know your exact place and weight in this world? You may be huge or you may be tiny, depending on how you look at it. Following the Buddhist point of view, the number of sands in the Ganges is just a speck of dust in thousands of worlds. Even if there is a difference between them, the difference is not big. Now that the society is diverse, you really can’t just accuse others of having high or low tastes for things you don’t like. At best, I can only say that I don’t have the conditions to resonate with his tastes, that’s all.
So what does this mean in the context of the topic identified in the title of this article? I think it reminds us to at least pay attention to a situation that often occurs in human life: if a person has low self-esteem due to lack of spiritual quality or low social situation, it often manifests itself in the opposite way, that is, extreme narcissism . This kind of narcissism is often very distorted and exaggerated, just like animals always arch their backs in the face of danger, deliberately make themselves huge in appearance, baring their teeth, making low purrs, making themselves look Going up is more dangerous than the other party. This is a means for them to maintain themselves, and it belongs to the category of instinct. Imagining a picture of a sweaty woman as she “just got slapped by someone”, and writing the verse so that even ghosts can’t understand it is actually a bluff that stems from weakness and inferiority – please remember this paragraph If so, I will explain the hidden connection between it and things like “shit and urine poetry” later on.
Now let’s cut off the conversation here, and continue my “hook and sink” about memory.
3
One of the great things about doing editing is that you can read a lot of work, a lot of good and bad. I worked as an editor in Xi’an for 12 years. At the beginning, I found that few people like to write dirty things into their works. No matter good works or bad works, they seem to be restrained in this matter.
“Few discoveries” does not mean absolutely nothing. In fact, it was during those years that I saw someone describe dirty things in their works for the first time. I was extremely surprised at the time, because the author was a close friend A literary friend, his ancestral home is Guanzhong, and he was also born in a peasant family. He is older than me, and we usually get along very well. He has published many novels and prose works, and in my opinion he still has a high literary taste.
I didn’t pay much attention to it at first – people always have to poop and pee, and the characters in the novel poop and pee a few times in various positions, maybe because the plot needs it, and it’s not worth making a fuss. However, when I read the novels that this friend often sent me “corrections”, scenes that should not be shown (such as describing boys’ wet dreams, how women deal with menstruation, etc.) appear one after another in the novel’s plot. , and in my opinion, these descriptions are not necessary for the development of the plot, and are completely unnecessary. Could it be that the description of these things has become something that the author relishes, indulges, and enjoys? I can’t figure it out a bit, and I don’t dare to think about it any more.
If you don’t understand and don’t dare to think about things, of course, you can’t do conceptual analysis and induction, so I try to save trouble and simply attribute this phenomenon to the reasons of regional culture: as we all know, the Northwest region’s economy is backward, Culture is also backward, and it is completely understandable that there is a certain distance or even disconnection from social development in aesthetic issues – maybe people in this place don’t think those dirty things are dirty things? But the problem is, as I said before, in the works I have read, whether it is bad or good, there are very few people in this area who are eager to describe these things, so my friend does this. There must be a purely personal reason for him. “Personal reasons” involve privacy and are not so easy to figure out. Of course, I can’t ask my friends directly: “What’s the matter with your hobby?” So I can only say that this is the style of his work, or that I I don’t like the style of his works. As for the underlying reasons, they are still vague and unclear.
It was another person I met, another work, that prompted me to take this issue seriously and resolve to give a theoretical explanation.
I forgot which year it was, but it wouldn’t be before 1993, because I was transferred back to Beijing at the end of the year. Not long after I arrived in Beijing, I heard that there was a book that became famous for a while. The author was also from Shaanxi and was currently living in hibernation in Beijing. For the convenience of description, we will call it “A”!
The most important duty of an editor is to discover good writers and works. Unfortunately, I have neither read this book nor know the author of this book, so I called the author, who was also from Shaanxi, who was already in the national literary critic circle at that time. A friend who has become a leading figure asks for advice: “How about that book? Is it really good? Do you know the author?” The critic friend said: “The book is good, I also know the author, when will you meet?”
I have always trusted this critic friend very much, so I met A in a restaurant under the guidance of the critic. We originally planned to chat with the critic. Unexpectedly, something happened to the critic’s friend’s house and we couldn’t come. This friend and I had to meet alone.
A doesn’t look like a person who dances and writes, but looks like a guy who walks in the streets and can easily arouse people’s suspicion of doing something bad. The only difference is that he has the style of a man who had his braids cut in the early years of the Republic of China. Long hair, although it looks a little greasy – in fact this person gives a feeling of uncleanness all over, exudes an unpleasant smell, as if the clothes have not been changed for a long time – but due to the sudden increase of a certain amount of hair. This level of artist temperament took him out of the bad guys.
He is not tall, and his complexion is dark, as if he has lived an abnormal life for a long time; he has two locks of beard that hang down from the sides of his lips, and a deep forehead engraved on his forehead… I don’t know why, Since the moment I met him, I’ve disrespectfully thought of some kind of animal from his beard and face, but couldn’t tell exactly what it was. A’s face looks quite kind, but his small eyes are dark and bright, like awls, looking at people, it is easy to make people feel that they are blocked by gangsters in the alley and forced to take out their wallets. Moreover, A seems to be very concerned about the fact that he is now “famous”, and he still has a slightly contrived sense of identity, or, in other words, some prudence and some “holding”, although I quickly feel that he is stronger than me Want to get to know each other – this may be the reason why he chose to use this “holding” method to increase his weight?
At that time, life had already warned me that people should not be judged by their appearance, and the sea could not be measured. Never judge people by their appearance, so as soon as I met, I humbly said to the short man: “I’m sorry, I haven’t had time to read you. That masterpiece.”
“It’s alright,” A said magnanimously, and then arrogantly took out a book from a large black leather satchel, handed it to me, and said, “I brought you a copy.”
A’s tone was confident, like Leo Tolstoy suddenly jumped out of the sky and told me to bring me a copy of War and Peace.
I repeatedly expressed my thanks, opened the title page, and A had already written words like “Respectfully please Yazheng”. I deliberately put my hand on the book whose binding, design, and printing were very poor and did not look like an official publication, to express my appreciation and gratitude for the gift he gave me–of course, there are also things I don’t want to destroy. In the atmosphere of the conversation, he said to him that “I have no objection to your confidence and value in your work”.
4
We eat and talk.
I quickly learned that this book was run by booksellers who bought book numbers from publishers, and they made a lot of gimmicks to whet the appetite of readers. It should be said that it was a successful business operation. Although I am a little skeptical about whether this book is really “a cultural epic of traditional Chinese rural areas” as advertised, I still express my appreciation for this unread book according to the tone that the public opinion has formed. He readily accepted my flattery and talked about his writing experience and experience for a while. “Writing experience and experience” did not impress me, but when he commented on Shaanxi writers eloquently as a Shaanxi writer, he inadvertently said, “I didn’t put Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, and Chen Zhongshi in my eyes at all.” When I said this, I immediately began to doubt whether this person’s nerves were normal. I am not a person who easily doubts others. The problem is that in my long-term editing and publishing work, I have come into contact with too many people who think highly of themselves, and even regard themselves as contemporary Lu Xun, contemporary Ba Jin, and contemporary Mao Dun.
Let me add one more thing here.
When I edited and published The Selected Works of Chen Zhongshi’s Novels, I once invited Chen Zhongshi to come to Beijing to rest for a few days. One day, Chen Zhongshi and I went to visit the Yuanmingyuan. Although it was only in April, we didn’t know why the weather was very hot that day. We were sweating after walking for a while, so we found a shady place to sit and rest while chatting.
In Chen Zhongshi’s mind, I’m probably also a “Shaanxi writer”. After all, I worked in Shaanxi for so long, and we established contacts in Xi’an. We are also familiar with Shaanxi writers who are currently active in the literary world, so He also talked about writers from Shaanxi. I vividly remember that he joked with me about this: a famous writer who was not well-known was talking about his creative experience, and he said poetically: “After I have read all the books in the world, I think the best books are still If it wasn’t written, it’s up to me to do it.” The apparently neurotic, unknown writer recalled the writing process of one of his works deafeningly: “I realized that if I give up halfway, and if I don’t write this work, it will be a loss for all mankind.” Chen Zhongshi ended this hilarious story with a sigh of “Ah-ah-“. I also know the person he mentioned, and can probably be classified as a “friend”, so I know him a little bit, and I’m not surprised at all about his bizarre remarks, “Lin Zi is old. , all birds fly.” There are too many such wonderful characters in the literary world, even if you suddenly see a pig flying melodiously into the sky one day, you don’t need to make a fuss. Therefore, Chen Zhongshi said that day, and I just listened to it, and we didn’t say anything more.
Let’s go back to my meeting with A.
The writer in front of me who claimed that “Lu Yao, Jia Pingwa, and Chen Zhongshi were not in his eyes at all” was still talking eloquently, but my mind went off the rails, and a lot of thoughts swirled around. I think people like this are more or less paranoid. This kind of paranoia is often not produced from inner spiritual quality, excellent creative achievement, and public praise, but from poor creation, difficulty in publishing, and difficulty in publishing. Getting praise from others, the desire to be famous is too strong, and it is born out of continuous frustration. I think A belongs to the latter, so he did not dignified and submerged because of “success”, on the contrary, he was superficial and superficial because of successive setbacks and failures. All his rude remarks were born out of this.
At a certain moment, I suddenly felt that it is a very ridiculous thing to spend time here, so I quickly said goodbye. When we broke up, I said politely: “I will read your masterpieces seriously, and I hope to read your new works often.” In A’s opinion, this sentence is almost equal to asking him for drafts, so he Very happy, held my hand tightly with extraordinary enthusiasm, and drove me into the car all the way, and the car drove a long way, and I saw him clenching his fists to greet me.
5
Come back and read that book quickly, how do you feel? The feeling is – to paraphrase Mr. Lu Xun’s words: I am outraged!
The work uses semen as an image to construct a world driven by the instinct of life. It is a spiritual wilderness, and all people have become animals. I’m not saying that it’s not good to describe the “spiritual wilderness” and “people have all become animals”. In fact, it is possible for such artistic generalizations to be wedged into the spiritual picture of human beings. Such works are popular all over the world. , especially in Western modernist literature has been common. What I can’t stand is that the works are full of descriptions of human body fluids, excrement and other dirty things: stool, urine, semen, menarche, menstrual blood… Even animals are not spared, the common farm cattle, horses, donkeys in rural areas , Ah Mao, and Ah Gou have all gone crazy, and they have all become completely indecent things driven by sex! That’s not an accidental mention, but a meticulous depiction of ejaculating semen into the soil, which completely changed the existence and operation of the village, and even became the fulcrum of the entire work. In other words, no matter what the author’s subjective intention is, objectively he is showing the reader a world that exudes a very disgusting smell of human bodily fluids, which can only trigger the reader’s superficial biological response in the world. , and cannot enter into the infinitely rich inner spiritual world of human beings, just like the feeling caused by unintentionally stepping into a simple toilet and seeing the human excrement that cannot be put down. More than that, I have almost confirmed between the lines that the author has an irrepressible obsession with what he describes, the so-called “hobby”. From this description, he must obtain a huge biological pleasure, just like that. It’s like completing a physical catharsis again and again. Do readers remember my friend’s “interesting” story I told you earlier? Are these two people similar in this regard? Is there a biological connection hidden between “interest” and “hobby”?
Having said that, I have no dislike for this friend in front of me, I just feel that the smell is not right. I respect anyone who is engaged in the creation of words, and respect the unimaginable hard work this friend has put into writing this work. No matter who it is, it takes a lot of effort to code hundreds of thousands of words. Deng, the person who sits on the table and writes quietly, should undoubtedly be classified as a “good citizen”. As for whether you like what he wrote or not, it should be another question, so I never despise A at all, but I just don’t want to contact him anymore.
I can’t deny that I have a great dislike of his work, I can even say that it is the most filthy work I have ever read. Maybe this work is really as epic as some critics think it is, but just based on these unrestrained descriptions of dirty things, I can conclude that it does not carry the weight of “epic”. There can be tragedy, comedy, conspiracy, bloodshed, blood, killing, death, love, and despair in an “epic”, but there should never be stool, urine, semen, menarche, and menstrual blood;” The epic” should be as quiet and serene as a beast, as Flaubert said, and never so frivolous, so depraved, so nasty and dirty.
Since A gave me this shocking masterpiece, it is obviously looking forward to my praise, just like some netizens sent me the manuscript through email, I know they don’t really want to hear my so-called “advice”, And just wanted to hear the same. So when A called me for the first time and asked me about my reading, I shied away and said “I haven’t read it yet.” There was no way to avoid it the second time, so I had to say perfunctory: “It’s very good, old A, a very good work.” He was obviously a little sad on the phone, and in the silence I could feel that he didn’t show it. The loss and resentment, but there is no way, I can’t make any compliments on what I dislike, if I do such compliments against my will, I think it will be unforgivable, I will think I am dirty.
Later, my critic friend told me that A seemed to have some bad words towards me and asked me “Did he offend him in something?”
I smiled and said, “No, they probably don’t belong to the same kind of people!”
I can also say that people who do not belong to the same category as A include Lu Yao in Shaanxi alone. Lu Yao, the son of a poor peasant, despite suffering unimaginable sufferings, has a very rare noble heart. He endows literature with a sense of sanctity and sublime like the Virgin of Literature. I can learn from us for more than 20 years. The relationship between brothers and sisters proves that this great writer, who also came from the rural areas of northern Shaanxi, does not allow anyone to have any form of frivolity and negligence towards literature itself and literary labor, not to mention such unscrupulous abuse and blasphemy. . Among contemporary Chinese writers, Lu Yao can be said to be unique. All his works, whether “Ordinary World” or other short stories and novels, have an inner sense of solemnity, and there will never be any pickle. thing. I remember that I once made a brief description in the article “Remembering a Person Who Disappeared” (2021-5-10), and I also wrote “Rereading Lu Yao”, “Lu Yao: A Person Who Lights the Fire of Spirit”, ” Special comments have been made in articles such as “The Eighteenth Anniversary of Lu Yao’s Death”. I deduced that if Lu Yao read this book, the reaction could only be three words that were inconvenient to write here, which stemmed from his temperament, and it was impossible for him not to react like this.
After Lu Yao’s unfortunate death on November 17, 1992, as the editor-in-chief of “Lu Yao’s Collected Works”—the sad thing is that Lu Yao did not see the publication of this five-volume anthology before his death—I once represented the people of Shaanxi. The publishing house entrusted Mr. Li Xing, a critic friend of the Shaanxi Writers Association, to edit Lu Yao’s anthology (later this anthology was published, titled “The Fall of the Star”, Shaanxi People’s Publishing House, 1992).一摞文稿送给我的时候，我吃惊地发现有那么几个被路遥深恶痛绝的人竟然也以“路遥的朋友”的身份写来了回忆文章，“回忆”一些子虚乌有的与路遥所谓“交往”的故事，信誓旦旦展示着和路遥的所谓“友谊”。我愤怒地把这些文章全部都抽掉了。通过这件事，我经常感叹，人性之幽暗、龌龊和卑劣，永远超乎你的想象。
路遥对某些在文学行当里钻来钻去，使用非文学手段攫取文学利益的人同样嫉恶如仇，而现在，在他离开这个世界三十年之后，我们看到，被他深恶痛绝的人又都纷纷以“路遥的朋友”自居，大量写作和出版回忆与路遥的所谓“友谊”的文字了。就像所有亡者一样，路遥身后无力，很多人趁机就像苍蝇一样“踪”在“路遥”两个字后面，嗡嗡着，飞舞着，这在当下已经成了让人莫可奈何的一景。
文坛，真是一个让人眼花缭乱的世界啊！
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文学是一个生态系统，所有文学现象的后面，都是各式各样的人的活动，从这个角度说，我通过上面的几个例子已经粗略地指出了，某些写脏东西的作品之所以能够进入人们的视野，与创作者的趣味、爱好乃至于生活处境、灵魂质地、病态癖好息息相关。这就是说，我主要强调了人性的因素。
然而人性因素是从哪里来的呢？如果说“屎尿诗”反映了文学的轻飘、浅薄和堕落，反映了创作者情趣低下，暴露出他们灵魂深处的人性残缺，那么，这些残缺又来源何处呢？我认为是社会，是历史。我从来都认为，任何样态的人性表现，都是社会历史演化和一定的政治、经济、文化形态的产物，它绝不是孤零零高悬在“社会”之外的东西。如果看不到社会对人性的形塑作用，而只盯着作为“结果”的人性，那就一定是“只见树木，不见森林”了。
自从1949年以来，中国社会发生了天翻地覆的改变，传统农业社会被解构，传统的社会道德与伦理（体现在诸如《三字经》、《弟子规》、《女儿经》、《颜氏家训》、《菜根谭》、《朱伯庐治家格言》等蒙学书籍中）迅速被剧烈的革命机器碾碎，人性的传统表现被遮蔽被压抑被禁锢，让位给了“大公无私”、“毫不利己专门利人”、“阶级友爱”、“与人奋斗其乐无穷”、“革命理想大于天”……一句话，旧道德让位给了新道德，“天地翻覆”，一切的一切都不一样了。
但这是不是就意味着人性的消失呢？不是，人性永远不会消失，它还在，就含括在高亢的政治口号里，就氤氲在红旗猎猎的广场上，就潜沉在纯粹到不容一丝杂质的乌托邦幻想当中……如果我们尊重历史，尊重中共中央一九八一年六月二十七日在中国共产党第十一届中央委员会第六次全体会议上一致通过的《关于建国以来党的若干历史问题的决议》中的有关结论，我们一定能够认识到，在某些历史阶段，由于特殊的历史、现实以及文化的原因，我们不仅大面积酿就了社会灾难（“国民经济到了崩溃的边缘”），更在极深的层面上酿就了人性的灾难，人们很久没有像“人”那样彼此相处，很久没有像“人”那样活着了。
这一切都在1978年得到了改变。
改革开放空前地解放了社会，而社会得到解放的结果，必然导致人性的解放，以前不敢想的事情敢想了，以前不敢做的事情敢做了，于是整个社会都沸腾了起来，历史前进的车轮从未像今天这样强劲。凡是亲身经历过上世纪八十年代的人，都无法忘记那催动整个社会探索和创造的动能，无法忘记那冲破藩篱、顽强表达自我的激情。我曾经亲身参加了那场不期然出现在眼前的历史运动，我清晰地记得，在文学界、出版界，作家们都试图在作品中真实地表达社会、表达人；做编辑工作的，都会以高亢的热情去寻找和发现好作者、好作品，刊物编辑部、出版社都会秉持崇高的品性，去做时代要求他们做的事情；人们会为一篇好小说的出现而奔走相告；各种各样的思想探索，对各种敏感社会政治问题的讨论，不仅仅在知识分子群体当中，就是在市井小民的街谈巷议里，也是滔滔不绝。
那是一个火热的年代，那是一个交织着热情与诗情的年代，那是一个人性得到空前解放的年代。没有这一切，也就不可能有今天展现在全世界面前的所谓“中国崛起”、“中国奇迹”。
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然而，这就好比一条江河，当你看到它向前奔涌的时候，你也必须看到它裹挟着泡沫和渣滓，所谓“鱼龙混杂”、“泥沙俱下”，描述的就是这种情景。人性是无所谓善恶的，或者说，人性是一个善恶综合体，当善被释放的时候，除非被某些条件（比如强固稳定的社会道德意识）所禁忌，恶同时也必将得到释放，这种释放势必进一步对既有的社会道德意识构成侵蚀与破坏，从而形成恶性循环。
八十年代末期以后，由某些历史事件在社会人群中造成的幻灭感蔓延，虽然经济仍旧在高速增长，国力越来越强盛，然而社会道德却开始出现骤然的崩解，“人欲”开始横流，官员们的贪污腐败，权钱交易、权力寻租日渐猖獗；缺德到让八辈儿祖宗蒙羞的掺杂使假以劣充好在部分商人群体中越来越没有底线；各种“要钱不要脸”、“要钱不要命”的社会丑行在城市和乡村里呈几何倍数增加；以对社会攫取社会财富为目的的权力谋求者，将中国政治文化中腐朽的官场经念到极致，使尽种种无法想象的卑劣手段狼奔豕突于大大小小的权力场……社会的政治生态、经济生态和文化生态都出现了不同程度的恶化。学者们开始忧心“中国的道德前景”，开始痛心疾首呼唤重建道德意识，国家领导人也提出了“建设社会主义精神文明”、“八荣八耻”、“以德治国”的口号，但这并没有阻止住历史的脚步出现踉跄和颠踬。
更值得强调的是，自由绝不是绝对的，从实践角度说，某些自由是有限量的，某些自由却又是无限量的。而无限量的自由往往又有自己不可撼动的前提和条件……表现在精神产品领域，就意味着某些品类的作品容易获得较大的生存空间，某些品类的作品则不能。我们当然不能说这样不好，事实上在世界上任何类型的国家和社会，包括所谓的“自由民主国家”，对所谓的“自由”都不是没有限制的，这与我们印象中的自由民主理论有极大的差异，甚至可以说两者是风马牛不相及的。必须认识到，这是国家政治的常态，它已经横亘日久，贯穿整个人类历史。没有迈出过国门的朋友，很难想象美国以至于整个西方社会对所谓的“第四权力”即“新闻自由”、“言论出版自由”的管制与控制，是远远超乎我们想象的。如果你触犯了“政治正确”，比如目前的歇斯底里反华，他们会毫不犹疑地在媒体上遮蔽你的声音，在网络空间封掉你的账户，即便是总统说了不合适的话也不例外，特朗普、拜登不是都曾经被媒体拒绝过么？他们（据说是隐藏在美国政府后面的“深层政府”，即美国军工金融资本集团）管控“自由”的严厉程度往往会令善良天真的我们瞠目结舌，以为撞见了鬼。其实鬼早就站在那里了，只不过你以前没有看到它而已。
我们在我们的现实处境中又如何呢？人是极为灵动的生物，尤其是识文断字、想通过文字求发展的人，马上就可以意识到哪些事可为，哪些事不可为，他们清晰地看到真正的红线在哪里。他们开始知道，说假话比说真话更有利于得到，浅薄比深刻更有利于存活，描写肮脏低下比描写纯净高尚更容易规避风险，于是，在不知不觉之间，他们的价值观和道德意识就被重塑了，而这一切都是在潜移默化中发生并完成的。
这就是说，我那位留着马克思式胡须的朋友之所以敢于也乐于把有“被人刚刚×过”效果的女人头像印制到刊物封面上；我那位写作过很多作品的朋友之所以敢于也乐于在作品中描写拉屎撒尿、描写女人处理例假；我那位评论家朋友推崇的作家之所以敢于也乐于在行销于市的长篇小说里描写精液、描写经血；“屎尿诗”的作者之所以敢于也乐于将屎尿入诗……全都是在我们上面说到的原因中发生并完成的，因为这一切虽然丑陋，却比较不容易带来危险，这是以最小代价获取最大程度哗众取宠效果的行为。这里没有善恶美丑，更与高尚的观念思索和精神活动无关，它仅仅源自于生存技艺的一种简单算式，如此而已。
当然，这里也有中国当代文学在某些局部出现媚俗、粗俗、滥俗之类的病变与溃疡有关——自上世纪八十年代以来，很多所谓的著名作家的著名作品，都在不经意间留下了这种病变和溃疡的印记。但这已经是另外一个更大范围的话题了，这是一篇短文，我就不在这里多说什么了吧！
我想强调的是，这种极不健康、甚至可以说很堕落的文学，虽然是社会发展主流之外的疥癣之疾，但是它对社会精神肌体的健康损害却是长久的，不那么好治愈的。
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中国改革开放的历史已经雄辩地证明，无论政治、经济、文化，没有一项会因过度控制而繁荣。改革开放以来我们取得的每一项政治进步、经济进步和文化进步，都是解放思想、冲破藩篱与禁锢的结果，也正因为这样，1992年春天，已经88岁高龄的邓小平南巡讲话时，为了让改革延续下去，才一次次语重心长地谆谆告诫各级官员：“改革开放胆子要大一些，敢于试验，不能像小脚女人一样。看准了的，就大胆地试，大胆地闯。深圳的重要经验就是敢闯。没有一点闯的精神，没有一点’冒’的精神，没有一股气呀、劲呀，就走不出一条好路，走不出一条新路，就干不出新的事业。”有人评价邓小平这段话“是他历史性的政治遗嘱”，我认为是切中肯綮的。邓小平还在很多场合强调政治体制改革的必要性，并且亲手推进了很多基础性的政治改革措施——请原谅，我在这里就不一一列举了——被认为是这位将自己光辉一生都献给了祖国和人民的老人家留给后人的另一份政治遗产。他是一位具有深远历史眼光和深邃思想洞穿力的伟大战略家。某种意义上，说“我们目前之所得，全部拜邓小平所赐”并不为过；邓小平之于中国的意义，怎么评价都不过分。斯人已去，我们对邓小平的怀念，发自肺腑，永志难忘。
我们还是回到话题当中来。
当社会处在巨大变动之中时，人性无遮无拦地冲入被强力控制的自由当中，在可供人奔行的狭窄通道里，人性顽强并扭曲地表现着自己，这时候，是任何穿越人类道德与良知底线的事情都可能发生的。人还从来没有像今天这样“不干净”，人也从来没有像今天这样不受除了权力之外的任何约制，中国传统文化中的社会伦理道德观念、人之所以为人的标准和条件都受到了前所未有的冲击，某些局部甚至已经七零八落，坍塌成了一堆残砖烂瓦，这种不令人满意的状况，也许要经过很长很长的时间才能够有所改变。
具体到“屎尿体”诗歌的出现，我更认为与很不靓丽的文学景况密切相关，甚至可以说，“写脏”之所以能够形成为现象，被如此多的人奉为赢取文学地位与名声的手段，不健康的文学风气难脱干系。我这里说的“文学风气”不是指文学风格或者质地，而是指在这个行当里所氤氲的某种气味不正的氛围，这里指：被铜臭熏染了的文学批评、沉迷于利益勾连的发表和出版环节的不健康操作、作协官僚体制对文学创作所发生的消极影响……都助长了几乎不具备最基本文学品格的所谓的“文学作品”堂而皇之登堂入室并获得廉价吹捧。文学，这个曾经极为高尚的字眼，正在空前地变得干瘪，变得琐碎，变得宵小，变得猥琐。
在这种情况下，你要硬是梗着脖子说中国文学如何繁荣，达到了怎样高的境界，出了多少能够载入史册的杰作，说句不客气的话，是不是有几分“扯”了？必须正视到，相较于我们取得的经济成就，作为精神产品的文学，很显然是远远地落后于时代了，它已经病很久了，出现了严重的精神贫血的症状，它已经完全无力承担历史赋予它的光荣责任了。“屎尿体”诗歌的出现，仅仅是浅显的文学表象之一，它们所折射的东西是非常耐人寻味的。如何从制度上、体制上消除掉限制和阻碍文学健康发展的东西，让文学创作拥有更广阔、更自由的空间，成为了中国文学目前最紧迫的任务，而要完成这个任务，只能从文化领域的进一步改革开放中去寻找方法和路径。我之所以在此文中特意表达对邓小平的怀念，也正是基于这种愿望。
最后我想从同情的角度说一说被我在前面责备过的人。
在一个拥有十四亿人口的大国，要想出名实在是太难了，而“出名”又是人性中最原始也最强劲的生命动力，不说别的，单只是看一下目前壅塞在网络的上的短视频制作者、歌者、以发表各种奇怪言论招揽目光的人所携带着的强大冲力，我们也就可以理解，文坛上有人把纯属于个人爱好的所谓“审美”纳入到出版物当中，有人在作品中描写不应当描写的脏东西，其实是有可同情、可理解之处的。人生是一个竞技场，并且是一个没有规则的竞技场。即使在写作本文的时候，我也时常在想，相较于含着金钥匙出生的官二代、权二代，相较于攫取天量民脂民膏的贪官污吏，相较于铤而走险杀人越货的惯犯凶徒，相较于官场上为了竞逐官位而竞相“比烂”，相较于更大范围、更大程度的权力罪恶和社会罪恶，文人们的这小小的堕落——不管我们多么厌恶它——又算得了什么呢？
唉！就像我前面说过的，在广袤无垠的历史时空之中，我们每个人都不过是一小粒微不足道的尘埃啊！
2022-9-9
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