A broad classification of culture:
One is the external material level, the other is the intermediate social and political system level, and the third is the deep social morality, habits, values and cultural psychology level.
2. The deep characteristics of Japanese culture and its reasons:
The deep characteristics of Japanese culture;
1. Social structure and psychological model of group culture
Reasons for formation:
1) rice culture circle
Rice cultivation makes the nation necessarily homogeneous, and * * * co-production and * * * symbiosis are the basic principles of * * * isomorphism. Between individuals and collective members, individuals must obey the interests and will of the group and cannot do whatever they want; Members are interdependent, * * * impairs * * honorary relations, agrees with a moral concept, legal provisions, aesthetic concepts and customs, and forms an unbreakable group structure.
2) The homogeneous culture formed by island countries as a single nation.
Living on an isolated island, geographically and psychologically closed, and rarely communicating with ethnic groups, it strengthens the joint relationship between ethnic members.
2. Epistemology focusing on sensory experience
Different from China Confucianism, Japanese Confucianism mostly does not neglect sensory experience, nor does it despise "the study of statecraft" and science and technology, but directly participates in the research of natural science. It is believed that "learning" means familiarity and practice. This makes it easier for them to accept natural science than China scholars, and it is also easier for them to embark on the road of modern scientific understanding. This epistemology had a far-reaching impact on modern Japan's active introduction of western science and technology.
3. Pay attention to the fact correspondence of objective reality changes, and pay attention to the existence and integration of foreign culture and Japanese inherent culture.
Reflections on the categories of "Jing" and "Quan". The focus of China's Confucianism is "Jing". On the contrary, Japanese Confucianism attaches importance to how to flexibly adapt to the changes of the times. The absorption and reference of China's Confucianism: diluting the "virtue" thought in China's Confucianism. The idea of "taking morality as king" gradually faded in Japan, and gradually became unconditional loyalty to the monarch and then to the emperor, which also provided ideological weapons for people with lofty ideals to oppose tokugawa era in the late shogunate. This shows that one of the selection criteria of Japanese culture for foreign cultures is practicality, that is, use it if it is useful, change it if it is useless, and discard it if it is useless. In modern times, China's culture, which has always been regarded as a model, was abandoned and turned to the West for advice.
3. The influence of the deep characteristics of Japanese culture on Japanese modern literature and its literary reflection.
1. Characteristics of Japanese traditional literature
In its long development process, Japanese literature has formed its own aesthetic tastes: mourning for things, elegance and mystery, as well as its related views on nature and life and death, and penetrated into the deep cultural layer of the Japanese nation, cultivating the special psychological quality of the Japanese people, with considerable continuity, inheritance and relative stability. Especially in the extremely complicated modern society, its aesthetic ideal is not single, but compound.
2. Modern Japanese literature inherits and criticizes the deep features of Japanese culture.
1) Modern reflection on Confucianism or Confucianism, which was the dominant society at that time.
The awakening of modern consciousness in China and Japan began with the suspicion, reflection and criticism of Confucianism, which was dominant in the society at that time. China's awakening of modern consciousness was initiated by the May 4th Movement's fierce criticism of traditional culture, mainly Confucianism, that is, from feudal autocracy to scientific democracy. Modern enlightenment thought, which is closely related to Meiji Restoration, also criticized Confucianism as the opposite. This modern cultural movement has shaken Japan's traditional values, and Japanese Sinology and Sinology have long relied on Confucianism.
2) Modern Japanese literature criticizes the combination of traditional literature and western literature.
(1) Natsume Soseki's Modern View
Civilization Thought and Social Contradictions —— Money worship and egoism (I am a cat)
(2) Akutagawa Ryunosuke's historical novels.
Pessimistic thoughts (in the jungle)
(3) Junichiro Tanizaki's aestheticism literary works.
Exaggerate the optimistic and decadent ideas of aestheticism to express disappointment and dissatisfaction with imitating western "civilization" since the Meiji Restoration, vent disappointment and anger at the development of modern capitalist industrial society, and criticize the utilitarian thoughts popular in Japanese society at that time and the blind pursuit of western civilization (tattoo)
3. Modern and contemporary Japanese literature inherits and criticizes the deep features of Japanese culture.
1) Japanese modern literature absorbs and criticizes traditional literature and western modern literature.
On the one hand, living on an isolated island is geographically and psychologically closed, forming a closed view. On the other hand, the traditional values of Japanese culture have formed the characteristics of Japanese cultural acceptance and accumulation, and formed the behavioral aesthetic consciousness of "being right and accepting better" in Japanese modern and contemporary literature.
2) Kawabata Yasunari's creative path and intermediate novels.
(1) Kawabata Yasunari's creative path
Kawabata Yasunari explored various artistic paths in his creative career. In the period of neo-sensualism, he denied and ruled out the Japanese literary tradition, and was addicted to learning western modernism purely in skills, that is, pure horizontal transplantation. After the disintegration of Neo-sensationalism, he completely denied the influence of western literature, dumped Japanese traditionalism, and inherited Japanese traditional culture with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism as a whole without analysis, that is, pure vertical inheritance. Finally, he thought in these two extreme opposites, which led to the reflection of domestic literary tradition and western literature, and gained a new understanding of the relationship between inheriting tradition and absorbing western literature. He believed that Japanese literature was both Japanese, oriental and western. Specifically, he absorbed more skills from western literature than spirit, and inherited more skills from Japanese tradition. He embraced Japanese traditional spirit with western modern consciousness, so as to find a "bridge" for the integration of eastern and western literature more consciously, find the root of Japanese national culture through the comparison of eastern and western literature, explore ideas and methods for recreating traditional culture, and establish his historical position. Because of this, Kawabata Yasunari's artistic creation has influenced outside Japan, not just Japan.
(2) Kawabata Yasunari's intermediate novels
Pay attention to the world, pay attention to the richness of social content, face the post-war reality directly, describe the contradictions, sins and sorrows brought by reality in detail, describe the wounds and shadows brought by war to people's lives and love, the family defects and people's misfortunes brought by war, the psychological abnormality brought by war, the painful process of Japan's reconstruction from the ruins after war and the chaotic state of affairs at that time, as well as its attachment to life and yearning for a better life (Shanyin)
3) Haruki Murakami's modern fable and his criticism of traditional literature and absorption of western literature.
(1) The Modern Fable of Haruki Murakami
Haruki Murakami's thoughts on "to be or not to be": Everyone has been looking for a precious thing all his life, but few people can find it. Even if he is lucky enough to find it, what he found has been fatally damaged in many cases. Even so, we still keep looking, because if we don't do this, the meaning of life itself will cease to exist.
(2) the concept of "mind" death
The way of "soul" death: first, satisfy the existence of self and lose self. The second is to completely close yourself and protect yourself. (Norwegian forest) Third, in reality, various extreme cultural forces have torn themselves apart (dance dance).
(3) Haruki Murakami criticizes traditional literature and absorbs western literature.
Influenced by American culture, Haruki Murakami's creation deviated from the traditional beauty of Japanese literature pursued by Yasunari Kawabata, and turned to thinking about the survival dilemma of modern society as an individual in industrial society, trying to explore the survival mode of modern society from the perspective of independent, free and ordinary individuals and get out of the strange circle of "spiritual death"