Deng Xiaomang: The current situation of the contemporary humanistic spirit and its way out

This article mainly starts from the discussion of the "humanistic spirit" that was once boiling in the academic circles, and specifically analyzes the current situation of the Chinese humanistic spirit—the expression of vulgarity and kitsch: ruffian and pure affection. It is pointed out that the way out of the Chinese humanistic spirit is, from a social point of view, from the "virtue of a saint" to "the virtue of a villain", and from a personal point of view, it is a self-criticism and denial of the "true heart" of intellectuals.

First of all, what is the "human spirit"? Some say it's the spirit of moral ideals, some say it's ultimate care, some say it's a sense of social mission, some say it's universal values, all of which are erratic and can hardly be seen as strict definitions. Chinese characters are very strange, such a combination is one meaning, then the combination is another meaning, but it is related to the previous meaning. For example, "humanities" can be associated with the humanists of the Renaissance, and it is a study that focuses on real (secular) life; Reversed, it is the "literati", that is, the spirit of the Chinese literati (scholars, intellectuals). Taken together, I believe that the humanistic spirit is the spirit of intellectuals who pay attention to reality. Focusing on reality is, of course, moral ideals, ultimate care, and a sense of social mission, which also shows that intellectuals transcend or "go ahead" of reality. The so-called "loss of the humanistic spirit" mainly refers to the loss of the intellectual's spirit of paying attention to reality, or the intellectual's "degeneration", he has no transcendence of reality, but has become "reality" himself.

Since the beginning of reform and opening up, the biggest change in Chinese society has been the actualization of political power, first of all, the pragmatic spirit of political policy. The implementation of the market economy and the emphasis on efficiency have brought about the economicization of political behavior, and under these conditions, certain imperfections in the system have become hotbeds of corruption. Intellectuals were initially concerned about this reality. On the one hand, people are actively making up for the lessons of the market economy, and have moved a set of Western economics to provide advice and act as a "think tank" for the first department; On the other hand, many have raised moral condemnations of corruption and proposed reforms. But in any case, it can be seen that intellectuals' concern for reality is fundamentally a kind of political concern, which is designed to care for and design as a politician, or at least as an identity identified with politicians and leaders.

This situation is reflected in the field of culture, from literature, art, film and television, and journalism, you can find a political shadow behind it. It can be said that 90 years ago, the mainstream of the Chinese humanistic spirit was political concern, and it was to care about reality from a political perspective. This is essentially consistent with the humanistic spirit of traditional knowledge elements before the reform and opening up, and even with the whole of China, what is supporting the personality of intellectuals? It is the spirit of "Shi" in Chinese cultural tradition. Even if he is exiled, imprisoned, and treated, he can always be transcendent and not change his self-confidence, because he believes that he is "political", and his "political life" is higher than his physical life.

In the 90s, with the further realization of political power, politics was no longer politics in the traditional sense, and political behavior began to distance itself from ideology, and even often "depoliticized". Faced with this situation, intellectuals are faced with two choices: 1. Either continue to adhere to politics at the ideological level, stand outside political behavior as critics, and no longer participate in politics, but write articles, run magazines, study traditional culture, and engage in some insinuating literature and film and television works, hoping to continue to have an impact on real politics. But this influence is actually getting weaker and weaker, the actualization of politics has its own laws, and the depoliticization of real life has also pushed the intellectuals aside, and they are no longer the central figures and spiritual leaders, but are replaced by singers, movie stars, and football stars.

When most intellectuals become more aware of their status as "mortals" and "ordinary people" rather than as politicians, elites and heroes, there is an alternative. 2. Give up the transcendence of reality and become one with reality. But it is not necessary to go to the sea, but to "tell the things of the people themselves", and the narrator is also an ordinary person, making money from other ordinary people by selling articles, book manuscripts or "electrocution" to "support his family". This is the "loss of the human spirit" in the 90s.

This loss is mainly manifested in vulgarity and kitsch. What is "vulgar"? Material life is vulgar, but human beings cannot be purely material life, and vulgarity also includes low-level spiritual needs. It is precisely because the high spiritual life has been politicized in the past that once people stay away from politics, they will fall into popular culture, mainly in two aspects: the culture of innocence and the culture of ruffians. Pure love is mainly love, in addition to the love of parents and children, friendship, teacher-student love, ordinary people's common feelings, in short, it is the love that can only be expressed by crying and crying. The most typical ruffian culture is martial arts, and its theme is to talk about "ruthlessness", what "the first sword in the world", "the king of southern boxing and the king of northern boxing", in order to fight for one breath to kill people like hemp, everything uses "force" to solve problems. Of course, it is also necessary to distinguish abstract good and evil, good and evil, but that is just a hat, and what people appreciate is that it is good to play and can vent the animal sexual impulses that are suppressed in people's hearts.

Innocence and ruffian are the two poles of traditional Chinese culture, and they are also the two major elements of Chinese popular culture. When the ruffian reaches the truth, he shows the innocence of the uneducated. But in the past, people have always strictly distinguished between the two, innocence is the patent of aristocratic ladies and weak scholars, and heroes of martial arts (such as Guan Yunchang) are always not close to women. Contemporary intellectuals and cultural people turn to the secular and combine the two: martial arts stars also have love lives, and what "joking about Qianlong", "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", "New Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" are all messed up. The most representative is, of course, Wang Shuo, Mo Yan, Jia Pingwa and others' pure praise of human ruffianism.

"Ruffian literature" is actually a kind of "innocent literature" that is different from Qiong Yao's type, and what it wants to explain is that "at the beginning of man, the nature of the ruffian". Wang Shuo publicly stated that "I am a layman", "Am I not just vulgar", and even "don't treat me as a human", but to be a pig, dog, and animal, because fundamentally there is no difference between humans and animals: what a frank confession! "Red Sorghum" is full of animalistic plots: wild cooperation, peeing in wine, and women in their backs. The "delete the word xx here" in "Waste Capital" is actually a manifestation of animal unconscious, speechless (aphasia), and what is deleted is people, which is people's self-consciousness in action.

In fact, the discussion of the contemporary humanistic spirit is triggered by this kind of reply to and idealized admiration of the world's everyday ruffians. However, when this discussion is aimed at "ruffian literature", it ignores two problems: first, ruffian literature is a more innocent and practical "pure love literature" than ordinary romance, and the latter, (such as Qiong Yao, Wang Guozhen, etc.) are often sweet and false and lose their appeal, and what they say can only be placed in the past, not in the present. Wang Shuo and others single-handedly exposed the essence of the contemporary humanistic situation: to truly return to innocence is to return to ruffianism. When people are tired of the hollow powerlessness, petty childishness and childish and ridiculous love bitterness in pop songs, they turn to the deliberate imitation of the original language and actions of the folk soil.

Thoughtlessness is a contemporary terminal disease, and the search for sensory stimulation and novelty is just a manifestation of thoughtlessness, because the "ruffian" is sensual, not ideological. The purest melody of the past is being ripped by the most ruffian today, and people over the age of forty-five will act like teenagers when they hear it, but they are actually ridiculing themselves. People don't care about the meaning at all, they change and fill in the lyrics at will, they just want the melody and the action. These actions as compensation for aphasia are mute. The mute gestures in pop singing have almost become a stereotype due to the extensive use of "Little Tigers", which shows a childlike attitude that is so simple and naïve that it does not use civilized symbols (words). People go out of their way in real life, but they demand to be back in the amateur culture, and because of this, they feel good about themselves, thinking that they are still "innocent" in nature.

Wang Shuo broke people's dreams of innocence, uncovered the mystery of the ruffian of people's hearts, and aroused the indignation and accusations of innocent people; In fact, Wang Shuo still said that this kind of ruffian is still innocent, and more innocent, so someone defended him. Obviously, this defense is more dialectical, but its footing is no different from that of those who accuser.

Therefore, returning to ruffianism is actually the contemporary embodiment of the traditional Chinese humanistic spirit, not some "loss". As the spirit of intellectuals paying attention to reality, the traditional Chinese humanistic spirit can be called a kind of "populist" spirit (meaning "popular elite"), which has always advocated that intellectuals should understand the suffering of the people and become the spokesperson and leader of the people. Just as the "populists" wore straw sandals, ate coarse grains, and did farm work, the "May Fourth" youth went to the countryside and went to the mountains and countryside in the 60s, with the result that intellectuals were not only popular and common, but also ruffians. Wasn't Wang Shuo a model of intellectuals, cultured people, and the masses of workers and peasants? Contemporary ruffian literature simply agrees with this direction. To become a popular elite, you must first put down your shelves and become an authentic populace, that is, the lowest ruffian; And to really speak for them is to speak ruffians. Now in movies and television that reflect reality, it is simply unreal if you don't talk ruffians.

All societies have ruffians, but the characteristic of China is that ruffians have become the prevailing rule, although ruffians themselves mean irregularity, nonsense, and primitive nature. Therefore, Wang Shuo felt his true purity when he was ruffian, and he returned to his natural nature; Jia Pingwa used this to "settle" his "broken soul". Because they have integrated themselves into "Mother Earth" and touched the roots of the people's subconscious. If anyone is dissatisfied with their ruffians, it is also dissatisfied with the "big breasts and fat buttocks" of our nation. Of course, although Wang Shuo's true experience and grasp of the living conditions of the common people is profound, this grasp only brings despair, and he never wants to become their leader and elite. However, even this is the logical fate of the traditional humanistic spirit that inevitably leads to its inherent nature.

Chinese intellectuals' concern for reality is based on the starting point of "selflessness" and "selflessness", so although they want to transcend reality and guide reality at the beginning, "establish their hearts for heaven and earth, and establish their lives for the people", once they enter reality, they will inevitably not be able to transcend reality, but will assimilate into reality, which is the fate of Chinese intellectuals (such as Feng Youlan) who have tried and tested time and again. Because he has no "self" personality independent of reality, no spiritual fulcrum that can be used to distance himself from reality. He usually uses his ruffian nature to become one with reality as some kind of contingency or temporary means, in order to finally have a chance to realize the sincere wishes and aspirations of his inner purity. Wang Shuo saw through the hypocrisy of this distinction between ends and means, and pointed out that what a cultural person and even all people are is what he does, not what he says and thinks.

He didn't plan a path of hope full of ideals for the people, it's not his responsibility, who wants to be dissatisfied with this, why not try it yourself?

It was true that some people tried, but apart from the uninspired advocacy of the moral traditions of the 50s and even ancient China, what really aroused some thought was Erzhang's exemplary of the moral idealism of the aristocracy and the poor and middle peasants. Zhang Chengzhi combined the "Red Guard complex" with the primitive religious sentiments of ethnic minorities, and the so-called "clean spirit" is inseparable from the low level of spirituality, and it is a spirit of rejecting knowledge and civilization. Zhang Wei's moral ideal is nothing more than the primitive unity of heaven and man, an idealized and beautified ruffian. The loss of the contemporary humanistic spirit cannot be compensated to Erzhang, and they are essentially the same as Wang Shuo.

In the lively controversy caused by the superficial opposition between Erzhang's innocence and Wang Shuo's ruffianism, the lack of true self-awareness of this humanistic spirit is exposed. Both Erzhang and Wang Shuo wanted to integrate with the people at the lowest level completely and unreservedly, which is indeed in the same vein as the "Red Guard spirit" and the intellectual youth going to the mountains and the countryside. They have brought a totemic cult of the masses with the inherent ruffianism of the masses. When the intellectuals went to the countryside, the peasants saw that they had brought with them a group of daughters-in-law and sons-in-law from the city. However, in the end, not many of them married the countrymen and "completely combined" with the poor middle peasants, and although some of them "combined", they caused "evil debts".

If we want to say that the humanistic spirit is "lost", it began when the educated youth returned to the city, and the educated youth no longer cared about the reality of the peasants, but became the biggest practical problem themselves. After returning to the city, there is indeed an indescribable sense of loss. The ideal has long been shattered, and there is a rootless "spirit" wandering, which arouses nostalgia, and when there is an opportunity, it will be expressed in a "humanistic" or "non-humanistic" way, and this is just the external differentiation of the two links inherent in the traditional humanistic spirit (innocence and ruffian).

So, is the contemporary humanistic spirit destined to rush left and right in this strange circle and find no way out? Are we left to either indulge in fantasy or fall into vulgarity? To answer this question, we must first distinguish between the "escape" and the real "way out". Wang Shuo and Zhang Chengzhi's path is not a way out, but just an escape. People say that Wang Shuo makes people feel like animals. Is that really the case? Definitely! Wang Shuo dressed up the animalistic ruffian of human beings as another kind of innocence, and made many innocent girls fall in love with ruffians, which is tantamount to a kind of self-deception. If a person really feels that he has become an animal, he will have a kind of inner pain. Wang Shuo felt complacent, self-appreciative, and his soul was at peace, thinking that this was the true nature of people, and he had risen to the realm of Lao Zhuang and Shenyue.

This is just a self-made escape, and his lack of way out lies in the absence of a sense of alienation, an inner impulse to get rid of the inhuman state. It is also said that Zhang Chengzhi pursues a "clean spirit". Is that really the case? Definitely! Zhang Chengzhi confined the spirit of cleanliness to the civilized society, bounded between humans and animals, rejected and feared the development and maturity of all cultures, and escaped from the world of human life. This is a kind of stagnant, retrogressive, jealous and resentful spirit, as his personal character and temper is not harmful, as a kind of "humanistic spirit" once it becomes a climate, it will inevitably endanger the entire humanities and literati, leading to the "life of revolutionary culture". His no-go lies in the anti-humanity and self-destructiveness of this mental dice.

The way out of the contemporary humanistic spirit lies in getting out of the naivety of contemporary culture represented by Wang Shuo and Zhang Chengzhi: nature worship, child worship and mass worship, and striving to explore and establish a mature and independent individual personality. Don't believe people's cheap flaunting of innocence, sincerity, and childlike innocence (which is the main topic of the essay or "little woman" essay that is currently in vogue); Don't think that people's hearts are so easy to communicate, as long as they "let", the world will be "full of love", and don't think that they can grasp their own nature and true self in the moment with childlike sincerity.

People often feel that as long as they are out of a good "heart" and "start with me", they have the right to impose their own standards on others, teach others, be the engineers and designers of other people's souls, and even do whatever they want without guilt. This is a bit like the mentality of Du Runqiong, a Guangdong housewife, who poisoned and killed 18 people for no reason, but said in court that she was not for herself, but to reduce the population pressure of the country. Today, we should really see the hypocrisy and wickedness of the human heart, acknowledge and bear this evil, and then seek salvation.

As far as society is concerned, the current moral decline cannot be changed by a few people advocating any moral ideals and humanistic spirit, but depends on the formation of legal norms in the real life of society, especially in economic activities, and this kind of norm is based on the principle of assuming that human nature is bad, otherwise there is no need for the legal system, as long as there is morality. This kind of legal norm itself is opposed to the traditional humanistic spirit of China. Only by self-denying the traditional moral idealism (the so-called "virtue of the sage") can it become a new type of truth ("the virtue of the villain") and open the way, and it is possible to establish a new humanistic spirit in modern society. In 1995, "Bright**" discussed "civic consciousness" for a while, but what exactly is "civic consciousness"? Not only is it not clear to the public, but even to the initiators and participants themselves. It is simply absurd that they have turned civic consciousness into a sense of moral responsibility, and some of them have even demanded that it be written into middle school textbooks as another part of ideological and moral education.

The foreign concept of "citizenship consciousness" should first of all be the consciousness of rights, and only with rights can there be obligations, and rights come before obligations; And rights are first and foremost personal interests, so citizenship is premised on the pursuit of one's own legitimate and private interests, and has nothing to do with morality. In the West, the absence of citizenship does not indicate a high moral quality, but rather that you will make yourself miserable. Of course, we can also give the word "Chinese characteristics", but then it is a dispensable phrase, without which we have never felt inconvenient for thousands of years. It is no wonder that people have lost interest in this kind of rhetoric, because they feel that they do not suffer because they do not understand "civic consciousness". This only shows that we are not a civil society or a society with a legal system in the strict sense of the word, that is, a society composed of the principles of human nature and human selfishness.

Our society depends on the moral cultivation of leading cadres, and whether or not we suffer losses has nothing to do with violating civic norms, but has to do with a certain person's low moral level. In fact, Wang Hai's buying and fighting counterfeits is the embodiment of true civic consciousness. Although the discussion about Wang Hai and the discussion of citizenship went on almost simultaneously, it is strange that no one has linked the two events. On the contrary, there are those who denounce Wang Hai's impure motives, and these condemners are clearly devoid of civic consciousness. I think Wang Hai will suffer a big loss if he doesn't do well, he has violated the taboo of traditional Chinese humanistic spirit.

Personally, the way out of the contemporary humanistic spirit is no longer embodied in intellectuals taking the world as their own responsibility and providing a set of standard behavioral norms for the society with a sincere heart (this kind of work only has the meaning of political operation, no longer has the meaning of humanistic spirit), but is embodied in the in-depth reflection of one's own "true heart". This kind of original heart has always been unthinkingly regarded as the "heart of heaven and earth" and the "public heart", that is, the "big heart" of the nation-state, so this kind of reflection is also the self-reflection on behalf of the whole nation, and it is a self-criticism of the traditional cultural value system in which we can produce and live. This is an unprecedented reflection and criticism in Chinese history, even if it is the anti-tradition of the "May Fourth", it has never been a self-criticism of one's own heart, sincerity and innocence (with the exception of Lu Xun), but each round of rebellion against tradition has brought about a more fanatical return to tradition, because the foundation of the individual's heart under this cycle has never been shaken, but has always been strengthened and consolidated.

The "neoconservatism" that has emerged in recent years should be said to be a paradoxical concept, and conservatism is only an old concept in China, and the repetition of the old words is not enough to make it "new". The so-called "farewell to the revolution", the craze for Chinese studies, and the investment of a large amount of money at home and abroad to revive traditional culture, which itself reflects the inertia of traditional Chinese culture and orthodox culture. I believe that the revolution in reality is not at the disposal of anyone, and there is no need for us to "regret it", but the revolution in the mind must not "say goodbye". On the contrary, in an era of great socio-cultural transitions, ideological (not political) conservatism is precisely an obstacle to the progress of history. While people envy the steady progress of the British "Glorious Revolution", they fail to see the edifying effect of Locke's ideas on the spirit of British liberalism (and the continental Enlightenment). What can the current "new" conservatives do to educate their countrymen? Except for tradition and tradition.

This is just a cultural "mother-love complex", always wanting to get the basic "food" of life from the mother, and unwilling to wean or eat anything else. The mother's milk is getting thinner and thinner, and the child is becoming more and more malnourished, never growing up. On the other hand, it also leads to hatred of "male culture" (Western culture) and the emotional inability to accept male desecration of mothers. One of the inevitable consequences of motherhood is "narcissism" (because it sees "me" as merely the result of the mother's asexual reproduction), i.e. megalomania and daydreaming. We see that those who advocate Chinese culture to save the world are always flaunting themselves and never criticizing themselves; When I talk about the way of Confucius and Mencius and the conscience of heaven and earth, I always have a sense of self-purity, and I feel that I am in a spotless world ("realm").

On the contrary, I advocate "new criticism", which is truly "new", which is manifested in the fact that it is conscious, not forced, and not the "great criticism" of the Cultural Revolution. The criticism of the Cultural Revolution was completely artificial, and everyone who did not criticize others could be criticized by others. Therefore, it is not a criticism of someone else, but self-reflection and self-criticism, but it is not the "ideological transformation" or "selfish criticism" advocated in the past in order to conform to an external standard, but to seek a standard of one's own, to find oneself and deepen oneself.

Therefore, it is also a criticism of the entire traditional culture, because it regards itself as the son of the traditional culture, and this criticism is actually the self-denial and self-criticism of this traditional culture, rather than simply using the coordinates of foreign values to make an angry criticism of China's affairs like the "May Fourth", but the starting point (original intention) of this criticism has not actually been touched (except for Lu Xun). In other words, the New Critique is not purely political, it does not take politics as its ultimate goal, but is first and foremost personal, it is to absorb external nutrients through weaning oneself in order to establish one's own real "human" life, so it is also a critique of human nature and even a critique of national character.

Of course, criticism is not abandonment, but abandonment. Sinology should be studied, but it must be studied critically, or finally studied for the sake of criticism, and valuable things can only be excavated through criticism, which is not an emotional matter, but a rational matter. "With what" to criticize? With reality, practice. It also includes the reality of Western culture, which is a new reality that is extremely important at present, but it is a pity that the Chinese people have always been unwilling to face it, rarely study it in depth, and more people are only willing to enjoy its fruits, which is the real "foreign slave". Because the slave does not pay attention to the master's thoughts, but only knows how to accept.

In short, the contemporary Chinese humanistic spirit should still be the spirit of intellectuals paying attention to reality, but first of all, it is no longer about the reality of others, but about the reality of one's own inner and spiritual reality. It is no longer wishful thinking to take the world as its own responsibility, but to take oneself as one's own responsibility first; It is no longer about being above the world and pointing fingers at daily life, but first transcending oneself and seeking oneself, and only on this basis can there be a real transcendence of the external reality. Only by transcending reality from real life is the self-transcendence of reality itself, and this transcendence has "sympathetic understanding"; It is not to stand aside to criticize and criticize, or to borrow political means to correct the evils of the times, but to base on the duties of cultural people and intellectuals, and use reason to stimulate the inherent rationality in everyone's heart; It is not a helpless and false "tolerance", but an active affirmation of new things and the discovery of signs of hope for the future, the germination of a new morality, and the clear consciousness of the spirit of the times. Perhaps this is the way out for the contemporary humanistic spirit.

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