Shen Congwen and the Da Gong Bao

Author: Du Sujuan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: The Dagongbao was a renowned private newspaper in China before liberation. Its literary supplement was initially edited by the master of Chinese studies, Wu Mi; later, it was taken over by the famous writer Shen Congwen as the chief editor, and named Dagongbao·Literary Supplement. The Dagongbao·Literary Supplement became a pivotal literary hub in China during the 1930s, uniting literary and philosophical elites such as Zhu Ziqing, Lin Huiyin, Zhu Guangqian, and Jin Yulan, forming the famous "Beiping School." It also established a literary prize in the Chinese literary world. At the same time, it presented a unique landscape of literary figures, narrated many fascinating anecdotes and stories of the literary world, and sparked numerous disputes and controversies. This book vividly describes and critiques the literary world and life behind the Dagongbao·Literary Supplement with fluent prose, rich details, and images. Shen Congwen, through long-term artistic practice, developed his unique aesthetic philosophy of "beauty in life." In his writing, he used a passionate tone to affirm and praise the vitality and passion of the "Xiangxi" world, revealing the beauty of life in its original state. He set aside his deep ethnic nostalgia and exposed the inherent flaws and fatal weaknesses of the "Xiangxi" world, expressing his fear and anxiety about the stagnation and decline of life. In artistic creation, due to the lack of rational emotional control, the praise and condemnation of life created a contradiction between artistic expression and discourse reception.