【Retrieve the powerful and stylish landscape description】
Landscape description in ancient Chinese literature has a long history.
"Book of Songs" and "Chu Ci" created a precedent for landscape description. Han Fu, Tang poetry, Song Ci, and Yuan songs continued the literary tradition of landscape description. There are also many chapters in ancient Chinese prose that are excellent works of landscape description.
Ancient Chinese literary theories have in-depth discussions on landscapes.
In Liu Xie's "Wen Xin Diao Long", there is a chapter on "Searching for Colors", which focuses on the relationship between landscape and creation, and the methods of landscape description.
The reason why landscape description is so important is that the landscape is the catalyst for the writer's creation.
Liu Xie said: "Years have their own things, and things have their contents; love is moved by things, and words are born with love." Liu Xie linked the origin of landscape and literary creation, and pointed out that landscape is the origin of literary creation.
Since the transformation of the modernity of Chinese literature, the landscape in the novel has become an important aesthetic field of modern literature, making up for the regret of the lack of landscape description in ancient Chinese novels.
In recent years, in literary creation, especially in the creation of novels, the description of landscapes has gradually become rare, and the limited descriptions of landscapes are not satisfactory.
This phenomenon has attracted the attention of the critics.
The reason why landscape description in literature has become a topic of discussion is that it not only depicts natural landscapes and human landscapes, but also is closely related to the writer's world outlook, aesthetic attitude, and artistic expression ability.
The more a writer is rooted in real social life, the more beautiful scenery he can write
The reasons for the absence or weakening of landscapes in literature have a lot to do with the literary turn of Chinese contemporary literature since the mid-1980s.
Shortly after the rise of "reform literature", a wave of "root-seeking literature" emerged, and the creative path of literary creation oriented to specific social life was interrupted.
That is to say, from this time on, Chinese literature was more concerned with spirit, inner universe, desire, narrative form, etc.
Under the influence of this creative trend of "turning inward", the external objective life has faded out of the field of literature, and one of the consequences is that the scenery is diluted and ignored.
The "inward turn" of literature shields the relationship between writers and real social life to a certain extent, and literary creation has become an intellectual activity that can "turn out of reality".
The absence or weakening of landscape descriptions has naturally become the rightful meaning.
In fact, the more a writer is rooted in real social life, the more beautiful scenery he can write.
The reason why the landscape descriptions of "Red Flag Spectrum", "Lin Hai Xue Yuan", "Entrepreneurship History" and "Mountain Township Changes" are classics is that the writer's deep cultivation of life is an indispensable element.
Liang Bin, the author of "Red Flag Spectrum", presents the hometown scenery and the real life of the people in his hometown, which he is very familiar with and imbued with; ;Liu Qingwei wrote "History of Entrepreneurship", rooted in Huangfu Village for 14 years, deeply participated in the rural reform, and experienced the joys, sorrows and sorrows of farmers in the period of great historical changes.
We can also find commendable descriptions of landscapes in the novel "Ordinary World", which expresses reform and opening up.
As a writer born and raised in the countryside, Lu Yao's description of the scenery of his hometown is no problem.
In order to describe the life of the coal mine, he went to the coal mine to experience the life of the miners, and went down to the mine several times to work with the miners.
The admirable landscape descriptions in these works are inseparable from the writer's practical activities of going deep into, observing and experiencing life.
They do not experience life in a flashy way, let alone imagining and imagining life in a small room, but take root for a long time.
In order to express the inherent historical logic of real life and the dramatic changes in the mountains and villages, they describe the scenery, and regard the scenery as an inseparable part of the changes in social life.
This is why the works created by writers with a deep background in life will have commendable descriptions of landscapes.
In this sense, the key reason for the lack of landscape descriptions in literary works is that writers are less likely to put themselves down and take root in their lives.
Today, how to express the "dramatic changes in the mountains and villages" in the new era has become a new topic for writers.
This provides a historical opportunity for literary works to once again find fascinating descriptions of landscapes.
Landscape descriptions are closely related to the nostalgia theme that the writer wants to express
When it comes to landscape description, we will think of some famous masterpieces in our minds: Lu Xun's "Hometown" and "Social Opera", Waste Name's "The Story of Bamboo Forest", Shen Congwen's "Border Town", Wang Zengqi's "Da Nao Chronicle" and so on.
Why is there a strong connection between literary creation and landscape?
From an epistemological point of view, the discovery and description of landscapes is closely related to the writer's familiarity with life.
At the same time, landscape description establishes an emotional connection between the writer and his living environment.
"Wen Xin Diao Long · Searching for Colors" has a cloud: "The Spring and Autumn dynasties, the yin and yang are miserable, and the movement of search, the heart also shakes." Liu Xie believes that the scenery moves people's hearts and can cause emotional resonance.
"One leaf may be welcoming, the sound of insects is enough to attract the heart, and the breeze and the bright moon are at the same night, and the daytime and the spring forest are in the morning!" In Liu Xie's view, the writer's emotions are closely related to "leaf", "fresh breeze" and "bright moon". Daylight" and "Spring Forest" resonate and resonate.
This is the incisive insight of landscape in the generation of literary creation.
The scenery arouses the emotional waves of the writer, and the description of the scenery is also regarded as an important way of expressing the writer's emotion, so there is a saying that "all scenery words are love words".
The most typical manifestation of the emotional relationship between the landscape and the writer is the emotional connection between the writer and the hometown where he was born and grew up.
Therefore, the landscape description carries the writer's deep emotional memory of his hometown.
This means that landscape descriptions are closely related to the nostalgia theme that the writer wants to express.
Nostalgia is an important literary motif in Chinese literature since ancient times.
Beginning with the Book of Songs, it has been a recurring theme in Chinese literature.
Landscape descriptions that express nostalgia constitute an important part of national cultural identity.
Therefore, images composed of landscapes, such as the moon, river, river, bamboo, plum, pine, etc., have gradually formed cultural symbols with national characteristics in the long history of the Chinese nation.
Today, landscape description inherits the national aesthetic consciousness in a certain sense and enhances the sense of cultural identity.
Writers should stand in the perspective of the inheritance of Chinese culture, express the nostalgia of the new era in the green mountains and green waters, and expand the field of landscape description.
Only by deeply cultivating regional culture can the landscapes in my pen come alive
Mountains and rivers are of course an important part of landscape description, but human landscape, including folk customs and customs, is also an indispensable part of landscape description.
my country has a vast territory and has formed a variety of mountains and rivers.
The change of four seasons also endows the mountains and rivers with splendid colors and images.
Not only that, my country's long history has created different cultural landscapes and customs in different places.
The combination of natural and human landscapes makes the landscapes described by the writers have a distinct regional character, forming a distinctive regional culture.
Regional culture is an inseparable part of Chinese culture, and it is also an important part of the landscape descriptions written by writers.
A Chinese modern and contemporary literary history is a literary history that presents the cultural characteristics of various places.
The Zhejiang style written by Lu Xun and Mao Dun, the scenery of eastern Hubei written by Fei Ming, the northeast scene written by Duanmu Hongliang, and the scene of Baiyang Lake written by Sun Li are all rare treasures in the description of modern literary landscapes.
The regional landscape in the history of contemporary literature is an important manifestation of the vitality of literature.
Liang Bin and Tie Ning's terrestrial charm of Yan and Zhao, and Lu Yao, Chen Zhongshi, and Jia Pingwa's charisma of Shaanxi's earth, constitute the characteristics of contemporary literary landscape descriptions.
Zhou Libo is committed to the presentation of the regional customs of Hunan, leading the style of the "Chazihua" literary genre.
Ouyang Shan's "Three Alleys" expresses the "Lingnan scenery", and Zhou Daxin's Nanyang and Henan scenery described by a group of writers in Henan are an indispensable and important part of Chinese contemporary literature.
It is not only the diversity of rural scenery that constitutes a colorful picture of literature, but also different cultural personalities in cities around the world.
For example, Beijing written by Lao She, Tianjin in Feng Jicai's novels, Wuhan written by Liu Xinglong and Chi Li, and Shanghai written by Wang Anyi are all urban landscape paintings.
Even in different parts of the same province, the scenery is very different.
As a writer, only by deeply cultivating regional culture can we make the landscapes we write come alive and write refreshing landscapes.
Landscape description is an indispensable part of shaping three-dimensional characters
The lack of landscape description in current novels is not only because the novelist does not understand the value and significance of landscape description, but also lacks the consciousness of landscape description.
How to write landscape?
Liu Xie gave the answer: "It is based on "Poetry" that people feel people and things, and there are many types of connections; when lingering in all things, I ponder the audio-visual area. When writing pictures of qi, it not only revolves around things; And wandering." He added: "Looking above the scenery, digging into the grass and trees. The chanting is sent, and the aspiration is far-reaching; the body is wonderful, and the work is in the close attachment." Set out, and gave the answer of "painting and describing sound" on how to write landscape.
With the development of times and literature, landscape descriptions have also changed.
In particular, the changes in the description of landscapes in the novel are the most obvious.
Different from poetry and prose, Chinese classical novels are not good at writing scenery, and their descriptions of scenery are mostly empty and rigid.
This is determined by the characteristics of Chinese classical novels. Most of them are out of the need to tell, and the description of the scenery has relegated to the description of the action and the language.
Modern novels have integrated the characteristics of landscape description in poetry and prose, and began to absorb landscape description.
This is the difference between modern novels and classical novels.
Lao She is very creative in the description of landscapes. He puts forward the independent value and significance of landscape descriptions, and separates landscape descriptions from the background to make them have independent aesthetic significance.
Lao She believes that landscape description can make the story clearer and clearer. At the same time, landscape description and the story itself grow together naturally and cannot be separated.
Lao She's discussion on the integration of landscape description and novel narrative is a major breakthrough in landscape description.
For Chinese modern and contemporary novels, writing landscapes is not about taking pictures of natural and human landscapes in a photographic way, but should be like Liu Xie said, "Writing pictures and appearances, not only follows the objects, but also resonates with the sound. Wandering in the heart".
Taking the emotions of the characters as the starting point of landscape painting, the landscape description is an important method of character modeling.
Therefore, when writing scenery in Chinese classical novels, we pay attention to starting from "seeing".
Mao Dun believes that if a piece of landscape description is only appreciated and described from the author's point of view, then the landscape will become a meaningless embellishment.
And if the characters' feelings about the scenery are written through the eyes of the characters in the works and the thoughts and emotions of the characters at that time, then the value and significance of the scenery description will be highlighted.
This is the most nationally characteristic part of landscape descriptions in Chinese novels, and it is fundamentally different from landscape descriptions in Western novels, which tend to be more photographic.
In addition to the integration of landscape description and narration, and writing the landscape from the "eyes" of the characters in the novel, the landscape description should also be conducive to the shaping of the characters' images.
One side of the water and soil support the other side.
Landscape description provides an important expressive force for the character and fate of the characters in the writer's pen. It is precisely because of the description of the scenery that the characters and the environment in various places can form a harmonious unity.
Landscape description is not only the natural and human landscape displayed in literature, but also closely related to the values of the creative subject.
The emphasis and presentation of landscapes in today's literary creation not only tests the writer's subject spirit and consciousness, but also tests the relationship between them and reality, and is also an important window for examining their artistic abilities.
(Author: Zhou Xinmin, professor of the Chinese Department of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and a researcher of the Huazhong University of Science and Technology Branch Center of Hubei Provincial Research Center for Socialist Theoretical System with Chinese Characteristics)