Bing Xin is a contemporary of the century, a veteran of the May 4th literary revolution, and the earliest and most widely read female writer in modern and contemporary China. His novels, poems and essays were all launched at the early stage of the construction of new literature, and were immediately warmly welcomed by readers and eagerly concerned by critics. For more than 70 years, she has been paying attention to social life and insisting on writing. In the 1980s, her creative life was rejuvenated, and her novel creation won the National Excellent Short Story Award, and her prose creation also showed its perfection.
The critical circle's keen attention to Bing Xin's creation began in the early stage of China's modern literature construction in 19 19. In the past 70 years, with the changes and development of modern and contemporary literary thoughts in China, the study of Bing Xin has gone through a long and tortuous road. The initial realistic criticism of "for life" during the May 4th Movement initially affirmed Bing Xin's creative motivation to answer the essence of life with "love". With the rise of the left-wing literary movement in 1930s, Mao Dun's On Bing Xin 1 affirmed Bing Xin with revolutionary realism as its value scale. This reflects Mao Dun's unique contribution to the study of Bing Xin's thought and the advocacy of proletarian revolutionary literature. However, democratic writers, who generally use the special standards of proletarian revolutionary writers to demand progress, overemphasize the function of literature to directly transform reality, which leads to the limitation of insufficient understanding of the positive significance of Bing Xin's humanitarian thought. However, other left-wing critics often completely deny the "philosophy of love", an "old concept" that is contrary to the spirit of the times, from the vulgar sociological point of view. Ba Jin and other Democrats' criticism based on the humanitarian standpoint, to some extent, made up for the lack of understanding of the positive significance of Bing Xin's humanitarian thought and affirmed the positive value of his humanistic care. Regrettably, this affirmation has not become the main theme in the study of Bing Xin's thought. For a long time, the study of Bing Xin's thought has the defect of low evaluation. On the one hand, the study of Bing Xin in the early days of the People's Republic of China made a more in-depth and comprehensive study of Bing Xin's creation; On the other hand, it developed the "Left" errors made during the advocacy period of the proletarian revolutionary literature movement, expanded into a basic denial of Bing Xin's early creative thoughts, and even was completely obliterated during the Cultural Revolution. ?
In the new era, the study of Bing Xin has changed the long-term apathy and stagnation, gradually overcome the long-term accumulated "Left" mistakes, made in-depth development from different angles and in different ways, obtained new discoveries and conclusions, and presented a new atmosphere of vigorous development. There are more than 250 research papers on Bing Xin in the new period, and Fan Boqun and Zeng Huapeng's Review of Bing Xin (III) are published in China Modern Literature History Series B, which are re-evaluated but not re-transmitted, and the literary creation path of Bing Xin from 19 19 to the downfall of the Gang of Four is investigated in detail, which clearly outlines the development course of Bing Xin's thought and explores Bing Xin's thought. Guided by dialectical materialism, we should combine Bing Xin's creation with the changes of the writer's world outlook and the environment of the times, pay attention to exploring the social, historical and artistic value of Bing Xin's creation, and affirm Bing Xin's outstanding contribution to China's modern literature. The second biography is Xiao Feng's Biography of Bing Xin 4. The feature of this work lies in the combination of criticism and biography, combining the writer's life path and creative path from birth to1early 1980 s, and striving to "write vivid characters" The third biography is Zhuo Ru's Five Biographies of Bing Xin. Re-transmit the biography of Zhuo Ru without comment. On the basis of rich and accurate historical materials and profound understanding, the author walked into Bing Xin's ideological and emotional world with great reverence, and outlined the major turning point in Bing Xin's life and his inner trembling with poetic words, which has the characteristics of beautiful writing. His excellent biography was written from Bing Xin's birth to his return from overseas in 195 1. Relevant parties have also set up the Bing Xin Research Association, founded the magazine Love, organized a seminar on Bing Xin's works, and organized the compilation of books such as Bing Xin Research Materials (19 19 to 1993) and Bing Xin Forever (memoirs). At present, Bingxin Memorial Hall. In terms of published works, Sichuan People's Publishing House, Hong Kong Sanlian Bookstore and Straits Literature and Art Publishing House have published multi-volume selections of Bing Xin's works, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House has published six volumes of Bing Xin's collected works, and 10 volume of Bing Xin's complete works will also be published by Straits Literature and Art Publishing House.
Compared with the past, the ice core research in the new period has made a qualitative leap and a brand-new look has appeared. However, as far as all aspects of specific research are concerned, there is still a very unbalanced situation. The current research situation is far from commensurate with the noble personality, creative achievements and great influence of this "national treasure" literary master. Now everything is possible to enrich and deepen the study of ice cores. The purpose of writing this paper is to analyze the present situation of Bing Xin's research, affirm the achievements, point out the bias and investigate the reasons, and contribute to the new expansion of Bing Xin's research.
This paper is divided into three parts: creative thinking research, artistic achievement research and creative psychology research.
First, the study of creative thinking?
The preliminary study of Bing Xin's thought in the new period began with political rehabilitation. Bing Xin's thought has been developing and sublimating in her life, but humanitarianism is its basic core. Her "philosophy of love" was characterized as "essentially a reflection of bourgeois humanism and humanity in literary creation" and "contrary to the requirements of the times" for a long time before the new period, and was placed in the position of trial and trampling. First of all, the research in the new period began to rehabilitate the "philosophy of love" politically at a staggering pace. The premise of turning over a new leaf is the change of political concept. That is, according to historical facts, the national bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie in the new democratic period are re-listed as forces in the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal United front, so that bourgeois ideas are no longer completely dismissed as reactionary. Under this premise, critics have put forward "philosophy of love" and "maternal love literature" one after another. Although they "do not represent the mainstream of the revolution" and have an idealistic tendency, they are "the reflection of humanitarianism in the field of new literature" and "consistent with the mainstream of the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal revolution". This kind of political rehabilitation has washed away the extremely "left" sewage poured on Bing Xin's creation, which is of great significance, but its value system is still that literature is attached to politics, and the value of literature is measured by the value standard of political revolution, which inevitably cannot give a higher evaluation to Bing Xin's "philosophy of love". Because Bing Xin's "love" does not belong to the unique vanguard consciousness of the proletariat after all. In this way, in order to give a higher evaluation of the "philosophy of love" politically, some commentators have far-fetched arguments that in Bing Xin's early "fraternity system, love for the motherland is the first" 8. This is obviously not in line with the actual work. Bing Xin is undoubtedly a patriot, but in her ideology of fraternity, she regards love for nature, children and maternal love as the solution and comfort of life. Patriotism, as a character, naturally overflows from her writing, but many times it is not her deliberate advocacy and thinking. ?
After wandering in the narrow political fence for many years, literature is bound to rush out to find a broader world. In the middle and late 1980s, people gradually changed from grasping literature only socially and politically to grasping literature aesthetically and psychologically, and then re-examined the history of modern literature from a broad cultural perspective. The development of this literary concept has also brought a new turn to the study of Bing Xin. People found that:
Bing Xin's description of love and beauty played a supplementary role in the criticism of literary reality in the literary world at that time; Without the violent impact of critical reality, it is not enough to shake the sleeping people, to cause a devastating blow to the existing society, to inject a trickle of love and beauty into people's hearts, to soothe and influence the soul in the dark, and to improve the order of mankind itself. Although the latter's attack on the existing society is far less direct and powerful than exposing literature. But at the cultural level, it deeply intervened in reality. Therefore, it is untenable to deny or despise such performance themes on the grounds of their relationship with reality. nine
After decades of wind and rain, Bing Xin, the singer of Love, finally got due recognition. Examining Bing Xin's creation from a cultural perspective also makes researchers pay more attention to Bing Xin's inheritance of national excellent cultural traditions and the significance of this inheritance in the construction of the May 4th New Literature. Some commentators put forward that "learn the essence of Laozi and Zhuangzi's philosophy from China's traditional culture" and "make Bing Xin always maintain a detached and philosophical understanding in the face of fierce love-hate contradiction." 10 Part of the article focuses on demonstrating the internal relationship between the thought of "loving parents and loving others" in Bing Xin's early works and the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius. 1 1?
In 1930s, Yu Dafu had noticed the female characteristics of Bing Xin's creation. In the mid-1980s, feminism, a worldwide progressive trend of thought, flooded into China. It also aroused people's concentrated attention to the female characteristics in Bing Xin's creation and her views on women and family. In the article Bing Xin: The Truth of Puzzling Oriental Women, Liu thinks:
The family concept about family problems in Bing Xin's novels, the deep psychology is a sound female role psychology centered on this unbroken maternal love bond. The obvious level of his concept, … is traditionally male-centered, while the internal and psychological levels are natural and female. 12?
As a gender, women are not only natural, but also historical and social. Therefore, feminist studies are often combined with cultural studies. In the comparative study of Bing Xin and other modern female writers, many theorists have investigated the * * * nature of female writers' creation and the characteristics of Bing Xin's creation. The exploration of Bing Xin's female characteristics, family views and women's views has expanded the depth and breadth of the research on Bing Xin's thought. However, China's feminist research is still in its infancy, and there is still a process of digesting and absorbing western theories, and the similarities and differences between eastern and western cultural concepts should also be considered. Some critics inevitably confuse oriental and feminine characteristics with feudal servility, and attribute the female image in Bing Xin's works to "a beautiful woman who likes to attach her soul to foreign objects or others". There is obviously a misunderstanding about Bing Xin's early novels, but I don't see the May 4th spirit in Bing Xin's novels. On the contrary, the positive images of women in Bing Xin's novels are all modern women who consciously and actively undertake social and family responsibilities. In modern society, Bing Xin made a pioneering exploration on how to deal with the equal relationship between men and women and how to shape the image of modern women. The research in this field is obviously not enough and needs to be further expanded. ?
The concept of "philosophy of love" was put forward by A Ying in the early 1930s. He defined its content from three aspects: maternal love, the sea and childhood memories. After 13, the formulation of "philosophy of love" was affirmed by Bing Xin himself and the academic circles. The specific connotation of "philosophy of love" is generally understood as "maternal love", "natural love" and "children's love". The focus of research has always been on the evaluation of its ideological value, but less attention has been paid to the internal composition of "philosophy of love", and less detailed analysis of the rich connotations of "maternal love", "natural love" and "children's love". This is obviously a way of putting the cart before the horse. Giving up in-depth thinking on the connotation of the Philosophy of Love has actually fundamentally blurred our understanding of some important issues such as the oriental characteristics and May 4th characteristics of Bing Xin's Philosophy of Love, the relationship between Bing Xin's humanitarian thought and western humanitarian thought, and the position of Bing Xin's humanitarian thought in China's modern literary humanitarian thought. In the new era, there is still no fundamental change in this regard. In fact, Bing Xin's "maternal love", "natural love" and "children's love" all have emotional and philosophical meanings. Bing Xin was tired in reality and hid in her mother's arms for relief. At first, her "maternal love" was a secular human affection, which came from Bing Xin's own emotional experience. She further sublimated this emotional experience to the philosophical level, thinking that it constitutes the essence of world harmony and friendship, and used it to confront the disappointing reality. His "be immersed in love with children" also has two meanings. On the perceptual level, we can appreciate the beauty of human nature from the innocence of children and the affection between children. Philosophical significance is its main connotation, which praises the connotation of "nothing" or "being" by comparing the pure state of children's ignorance with the boring adult world with lingering knowledge. Understanding it as the highest realm of philosophy, the aesthetic interest and philosophical thinking associated with it is a poetic celebration of "silence", "tranquility" and "death". Bing Xin's love for nature comes more from her love for beauty and her poetic perception of "universe" and "life". On the one hand, people worship the mysterious beauty of nature, on the other hand, they are in harmony, induction and isomorphism with nature into great harmony of the universe. Here, nature is not directly opposed to the real society like the mother's arms and the children's world, but the harmony between man and nature and the sense of peace people get in the arms of nature, which indirectly contrasts with the sense of disappointment in reality and gives people comfort and solace. Bing Xin praises the harmony between maternal love, children, nature and the universe in her creation, so as to resist the nothingness of reality. Her "philosophy of love" is obviously different from the logical philosophy system constructed by philosophers. Liu Si modestly called it "the religion of art", and she said:
Unlike some philosophers, she does not attribute her experience to an abstract essence, but always insists on her vivid experience and rises to a universal belief about the human universe through logical refutation, thus safeguarding the value of love in a universal philosophical sense. 14?
But generally speaking, in the research of the new period, people still pay attention to the right and wrong evaluation of the "philosophy of love", while ignoring the exploration of the specific connotation of the "philosophy of love". This is obviously a waste of time.
In the study of Bing Xin's creative thought in the new period, there is obviously an important problem that has been neglected, that is, the ideological study of Bing Xin's creation itself in the new period. So far, the academic circles only pay attention to Bing Xin's early creative thoughts. In the new era, Bing Xin, like many outstanding intellectuals with conscience, experienced the torment of the Cultural Revolution. She didn't indulge in personal gains and losses, decadent and disappointed. On the contrary, she strengthened her sense of anxiety about the fate of the motherland and the people. Starting from a deep patriotic heart, she reflected on history with a clear and rational mind. On the one hand, she believes in the leadership of the party and that the country will have a bright future. On the other hand, we have a clearer and more real understanding of many ugly phenomena that still exist in the primary stage of socialism in China. In this way, her love for the motherland and people is often manifested in her deep hatred of social ugliness and strong anxiety about the fate of the country. This is especially reflected in her ardent concern for intellectuals and education, as well as in hit the floor's essays such as My Request, What If There Are No Scholars, and I cried after watching the national mourning. Bing Xin's "love thought" in the new period has obviously developed compared with previous issues, casting more realistic content and strength, which Fan Boqun and Zeng Huapeng called "rebirth from the fire" 15. However, on the whole, the study of Bing Xin's creative thought in the new period has never formed a situation of in-depth discussion. ?
Second, research on artistic achievements?
The research on Bing Xin's creative method is a new topic in the new period. Although the previous comments did not directly discuss Bing Xin's creative methods, the academic circles have always measured Bing Xin's works by realistic literary standards. Putting colorful literary creation into the framework of a creative method will inevitably cut the foot and take the romanticism of Bing Xin's creation as a short board. In the new period, researchers pay attention to the analysis of Bing Xin's creative methods from the reality of Bing Xin's works, and pay attention to the mutual penetration of literary research society and creative society writers' creation. Liu Anting's On the Romantic Tendency of Bing Xin's Early Creation 16, based on the romantic artistic standard, demonstrates the romantic tendency of Bing Xin's early creation from three aspects: the theme and theme of praising nature, the subjective color of artistic expression and the aesthetic style of nature, and compares Bing Xin's creative style with that of modern writers such as Lu Xun, Guo Moruo and Yu Dafu, pointing out that Bing Xin's early creative method belongs to "Oriental classical self-romanticism"
In the study of artistic style, the comments in the 1920s and 1930s have emphasized the "gentleness" and "elegance" of Bing Xin's creation. In 1960s, Fan Boqun and Zeng Huapeng made a comprehensive and detailed investigation on it. Taking the image of the goddess in Bing Xin's poems as words, they summarized the characteristics of her writing style before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and pointed out its gradually clear changes after the founding of the People's Republic of China. This generalization not only contains the emotional characteristics of Bing Xin's creation, but also contains the artistic pursuit, which is recognized by later researchers. While inheriting these achievements, the research in the new period embodies the characteristics of multi-angle and in-depth research. Some articles emphasize that "Bing Xin's early writing style is not single" and think that "it has both graceful, subtle and elegant side and passionate and angry side". The former is mainly reflected in Stars, Spring Water and For Some Readers, while the latter is mainly reflected in Problem Novel 18. ?
The concept of "Bing Xin Ti" is put forward and developed, which embodies the research results of Bing Xin's artistic achievements. A Ying put forward the concept of "ice core" in the early 1930s. This paper briefly explains the characteristics and syntactic features of prose poems created by Bing Xin from two aspects: "poetic prose writing" and "Chinese syntax derived from old-style writing", thus affirming Bing Xin's unique contribution to the construction of modern literature and style in China. Since then, the research community has been using the name "Bingxin body". In 1980s, Fang Xide took the two aspects put forward by A Ying one step further, and made a detailed and practical inquiry from three angles: genre, vocabulary and text structure, which enriched the connotation of "Bing Xin Ti". In his view, "Bing Xin changed the narrative function of the traditional novel style in the description content, structure and implication core of the novel, and introduced a lot of lyric freehand brushwork functions to the novel, thus creating a new style of' lyric novel'. This is mainly the result of Bing Xin's brave exploration and practice under the strong lyric literature tradition. Bing Xin's prose "has the characteristics of prose poetry" because of its lyrical way of subjective feelings, the integration of poetry and philosophy, the natural aesthetic view of mountains and rivers and the use of colors. His conclusion is that "Bing Xin is an excellent modern lyricist" 20, and Fang Xide obviously promoted the rough generalization of A Ying's "Bing Xin Ti". Although this kind of exploration is extremely valuable, it does not fully reveal the rich connotation of the charm of "Bingxin Body". The "style" in "Bing Xin style" refers to the writer's creative style, that is, the uniqueness shown by the writer in the content and form of his series of works. In his creative career of more than 70 years, Bing Xin has created a large number of well-known excellent works. His creative style has both fixed characteristics and continuous development characteristics, and he has his own unique pursuit in the theme, theme, genre, structure, language and expression techniques of his works. Thirty Years of Modern Literature in China, co-authored by Qian Liqun and others, not only contains the poetic beauty of Bing Xin's prose, but also expands and contains the ideological content of "the philosophy of love". However, due to the limitation of the history of literature, it is impossible to make a detailed and in-depth discussion. 2 1。 Compare the actual situation of Bing Xin's creation. The current research reveals the connotation of "ice core body" relatively roughly. As a unique style, "Bing Xin Ti" has made great contributions to the stylistic construction of China's modern prose, but it also has certain limitations and its due position, which are worth discussing. ?
At present, the exploration of Bing Xin's artistic achievement and artistic style is mainly limited to his creation before the new period, and correspondingly, the study of Bing Xin's creative thought in the new period is neglected. In the new period, Bing Xin's creative style has also changed obviously with the change and sublimation of his thoughts. Her thinking about "love" is often manifested in her strong hatred of social ugliness and deep anxiety about the fate of the country, and she has a broader and thorough understanding of the realm of life. In this way, her lyric style of singing love and beauty will inevitably be gradually infiltrated or replaced by essays characterized by social criticism and civilization criticism, and her pen and ink will inevitably become tough from the initial gentle tone, and tend to be concise and refined from the initial repeated singing. This artistic transformation is of universal significance to the old writers. The works of Ba Jin, Sun Li and Guo Feng all show the same characteristics, but the research in the new period lacks due attention to it.
Third, creative psychology research?
The concern about Bing Xin's creative psychology mainly revolves around two related issues: whether Bing Xin's thinking is suitable for poetry creation, and how to explain the poetic characteristics of Bing Xin's prose and novels. In the 1920s, Liang Shiqiu thought that "Ms. Bing Xin was an essayist and novelist, and was not suitable for poetry". He analyzed the psychological reasons of his creation as "strong expressive force, weak imagination" and "rich rationality and weak emotional components". During this period, the researchers had a heated discussion about whether Bing Xin's emotional characteristics were cold or hot. Although there is no clear comment, it has deepened understanding and opened up ideas. Later, Bing Xin also said that she had "no overflow emotions". In 1960s, Fan Boqun and Zeng Huapeng classified Bing Xin's emotional characteristics as "undercurrent surging". In 1980s, Ge Sun brought up this topic again. She analyzed that the basic emotion of Bing Xin's short poems is "silence mixed with sadness", and analyzed the specific characteristics of "silence" and "sadness" from two aspects of personal temperament and the relationship with reality. Combining with the artistic norms of poetry, Ge Sun thinks that "Bing Xin's weakness lies in her lack of imagination and expressive force of poetry, not in her lack of emotion". Because "silence is not equal to indifference". "Bing Xin lacks the ability of deformation", "but she can tame irreconcilable emotions" and "her poems are too harmonious to tolerate any extreme emotions", so "the irreplaceable uniqueness of Bing Xin's short poems lies in that they imply another level besides the humanistic spirit in the May Fourth Movement, that is, her attachment to traditional culture while criticizing the feudal system." "Bing Xin is poetic, but he can't easily control the poetry." 25
Fang Xide also combined the psychological and emotional characteristics of Bing Xin's creative impulse with her poetic concept to examine why the lyrical way of Bing Xin's prose is "the embodiment of subjective emotion". He believes that "the opportunity of Bing Xin's prose creation is often the trigger of poetry", and Bing Xin insists on integrating the inspiration of this kind of poetry into the artistic form of prose, mainly because she thinks that poetry always has rules. "The poet's talent determines that Bing Xin's poetry can only be written freely and naturally, but she is often worried that her fluent poetry will be doubted by the rules", so she "turned to prose creation that can be written more freely". "Therefore, Bing Xin's prose is essentially a poetic prose." 26 The main feature of these comments is to combine Bing Xin's psychological characteristics such as thinking and emotion with the norms of different art forms, thus deepening the research on these two aspects. ?
In the study of Bing Xin's cultural psychology and artistic temperament, Mr. Mao Dun put forward the viewpoint of "extremism" in the 1930s, which she didn't like. In the new era, Liu further affirmed that her cultural attitude is "steady" and her artistic temperament is "classicism that absorbs the humanistic spirit of the East and the West" .28
The research on other aspects of Bing Xin's creative psychology needs to be carried out. Bing Xin herself once said that the reason why she focused on singing "love" and "beauty" in her early days was not that she didn't realize the dark side of society, but that society gave people too many disappointments and blows. She wants to explore the beautiful things in life and give people encouragement and comfort. This conscious choice is out of the desire to help the world, whether it is to praise the good or expose the darkness, it is beneficial to the world. The conscious choice of singing "love" and "beauty" is inevitably induced by the writer's own psychological factors. This may be explained by the writer's childhood family life experience and later life experience. Bing Xin once said:
I think my childhood life is happy, pleasant and, most importantly, healthy. I get all the love I deserve, and I love all the people I love. 29 ?
Summary?
Bing Xin's research in the new era has made great progress in creative thinking, artistic achievements and creative psychology from the perspective of political chaos. Ideological research turned from political rehabilitation to cultural value discussion, which opened up new research fields such as female consciousness, female view and family view in Bing Xin's creation, and formed a three-dimensional research pattern with multi-dimensional vision. In the research of artistic achievements, I noticed the characteristics of Bing Xin's creative method and artistic style, and discussed the connotation of "Bing Xin's style" in detail. In the research of creative psychology, along the tradition of combining Bing Xin's psychological characteristics such as thinking and emotion with different artistic forms and norms, he made further detailed analysis and reached new conclusions. At the same time, there are still many neglected places and many problems to be solved urgently in all aspects of research. As far as the whole situation is concerned, Bing Xin's early creation, that is, the creation in the 1920 s, is still fully concerned by the critics, and the research on his creation in the later period is much colder. As far as specific research is concerned, there are some shortcomings in the study of creative thinking, such as the lack of in-depth analysis of the connotation of "philosophy of love" and the application of new research methods. In the study of artistic achievements, the rich connotation of Bing Xin Style and its position in the development of China's modern prose need to be further revealed. In psychology of creation's research, there is a problem that the scope is too narrow. Bing Xin focuses on the psychological basis of singing "love" and "beauty". Bing Xin's psychological changes in various creative periods are all topics to be discussed. Bing Xin's literary theory, literary criticism activities and the influence of Bing Xin's creation in new literature have not received due attention in the new period. ?