In The Root of Literature, Han Shaogong felt the "dryness" of the vast Chu culture along the Miluo River, and proposed that the "root" of literature should be deeply rooted in the national legend culture. However, Chu culture has long since disappeared from people's field of vision, and only exists in the mountainous areas where Miao, Dong, Yao and Tujia are distributed in western Hunan. Only there can we better appreciate the magnificent realm of Chu culture.
Seeking roots is a new understanding of national culture and an awakening of aesthetic consciousness based on historical culture. Han Shaogong noticed that some domestic writers have turned their attention to the foundation of national culture and have distinctive regional and national characteristics. For example, Jia Pingwa's "Shangzhou" series novels have strong Qin and Han characteristics, and Li Hangyu's "Gechuanjiang" series novels have the charm of Wu and Yue culture. Han Shaogong's series of creations also have his unique feelings and understanding of Chu culture, which are highlighted in his creations such as Return, Daddy, Daddy and Girl.
? As one of the main representative works of "root-seeking literature" in the middle and late 1980s, Han Shaogong expressed a complicated attitude towards the "root" of literature in his novella Daddy, which was generally regarded as a negative attitude by literary circles.
In the middle and late 1980s, there was a trend of pluralistic exploration in the literary world. Under the double influence of complicated domestic literature, social background and international literary trend of thought, "root-seeking literature" began to reflect on the political discourse mode expressed by mainstream literature at that time, and regarded China traditional culture as the vitality and outlet of literary development. At the same time, the success of magic realism literature in Latin America also inspired American writers to explore new ideas for their own national culture.
As the initiator of the concept of "root-seeking", Han Shaogong put forward that "the root of literature should be deeply rooted in the soil of national legendary culture" in his article "The Root of Literature", which is regarded as the theoretical declaration of "root-seeking literature", and tried to root literary creation in the long and profound soil of Chinese culture. However, the attitude of "root-seeking literature" writers to "root" is complex and vague, and the embodiment of "root" varies from writer to writer and from work to work. As one of the representative works of Han Shaogong's root-seeking literature, Dad Dad generally holds a negative attitude towards "root" or culture. However, through in-depth interpretation of the text, we can further explore the different meanings of this "negation", which is of positive significance for us to understand the concept of "cultural roots".
? "Daddy Daddy" is a story that shows the historical changes of the primitive tribe "Jitouzhai" through symbols and fables. The description of Jitou Village in this paper is deeply rooted in the primitive and mysterious Chu witch culture, which not only shows the seclusion as a primitive village, but also shows the backwardness, ignorance and barbarism of the primitive lifestyle, and reshapes a mysterious and bizarre Chu witch world for us. The description of Jitouzhai's geographical location in the novel depicts its mystery as a primitive village: it is located in the depths of a secluded mountain and among white clouds, and people can step into the clouds as soon as they go out. As long as people move, the white sea of clouds will always surround you. It is like an endless island, inhabited by aborigines in ancient times.
In addition, the novel also shows a life scene with strong characteristics of Chu, Xiang and Western Hunan through the daily life style of the characters. There are many snakes, insects and malaria in Jitouzhai. The villagers' way to resist the snake attack is to tie the grass into the shape of a woman, while the way to detoxify is to kill a cow, drink raw cow blood and learn to crow three times. People's language habits here also have regional characteristics, such as "looking" for "looking", "sleeping" for "lying" and "standing" for "leaning" ... The description of the regional characteristics of Jitouzhai is not only that, it shows us a primitive village image with strong Chu culture charm.
? However, it should be pointed out that dad and dad did not directly show that it was based on Chu culture, but gave this regional culture a symbolic meaning of the overall cultural tradition; It does not directly present the life reality of regional culture, but regards it as the whole symbol and hint of national traditional culture. This reflects Han Shaogong's practical exploration of literary root-seeking theory in Daddy Daddy, that is, literary creation is rooted in the tradition of national culture.