Literature, Art, and Ultimate Concern (Reading Classics from the Perspective of Human Nature)

Author: Hu Shanlin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Literary Masterpieces" and "Life" are two eternal and immortal interests in the hearts of literary enthusiasts, especially young people. This book closely combines the two, selecting over twenty deeply loved and profoundly influential literary masterpieces. It extracts life issues from them to see how predecessors thought about and addressed these problems. This is the most valuable element in literary art and the ever-living soul of classics. This book is a marginal literary commentary, with fluent and lively writing, strong readability, and great infectivity. The construction of socialist spiritual civilization is a comprehensive and integrated spiritual and cultural project that requires coordinated efforts from all cultural fields, especially the social sciences and humanities. As an important part of the humanities, literary studies should also actively and consciously shoulder a glorious mission. Currently, there is a particular need for more thought and research on human spiritual life, more care for the emotional world of the human heart, and more exploration and discussion of the spirit of ultimate concern. The ultimate value of human life existence is a spiritual question that only humans relentlessly pursue among all things in the world. It is an inherent need in human spiritual life. Ultimate concern points to fundamental issues of human existence, such as self-awareness: Who am I? Where do I come from, and where am I going? The issue of human circumstances: the relationships between people, between people and nature, between people and society, as well as life value, life meaning, and the fundamental predicaments of humanity. All these issues are not only subjects of philosophical and religious discussion but also of literary and artistic reflection. Since the birth of literary and artistic creation, writers and artists have been contemplating these innate and inherent ultimate questions through their works. From Homer's epics to the Gesar, from Cao Xueqin to Tolstoy, a history of literary and artistic works fully proves that while being concerned with reality, ultimate concern holds a very important spiritual value for literary and artistic works. The development of the times has put forward new and higher requirements for literary studies, demanding that it pay attention to the deep spiritual life embedded in literary phenomena since ancient times, focus on the deep spiritual calls in the human soul and respond appropriately, and advocate more ultimate spiritual care for people. First, the proposal of the value of ultimate concern issues a call for the elevation of people's spiritual life under the conditions of a market economy. In modern society, survival competition is fierce, and people, especially young people, often face conflicts between spiritual pursuits and survival competition. This leads to two characteristics of the spiritual situation of modern people: one is nihilism, manifested as the loss of faith and emptiness of the heart; the other is materialism, indulging in material desires and pursuing enjoyment. Against this backdrop, the proposal and emphasis on ultimate concern issues can provide people with a broader perspective, preventing them from sinking into the vortex of modern labor and consumption, and giving their spiritual life a higher direction and orientation. In other words, at the social level, it helps to restrain the prevalence of nihilism and pragmatism. The deep-rooted causes of negative social trends such as nihilism, pragmatism, consumerism, and hedonism are the lack of spiritual belief, the lack of inner spiritual support, and the lack of soul cohesion. The construction of socialist spiritual civilization is a comprehensive project that requires multifaceted efforts, but undoubtedly, emphasizing the role of deep spiritual meaning, primarily the ultimate concern, is an important aspect of this effort. Second, the proposal of ultimate concern issues serves as a necessary counterbalance to the Confucian cultural tendency to prioritize practicality over the spiritual. A clear feature of Confucian culture is its emphasis on practical value, even its philosophy of life primarily discusses how to conduct oneself, how to handle interpersonal relationships. It must be admitted that this theory has its merits and aspects worthing. However, its drawback is that it tends to focus solely on the present, lacking self-discipline in the sense of an absolute command. The proposal of ultimate concern issues helps the Chinese people recognize the importance of spiritual value and deepen the depth of their spiritual life. Third, the proposal of ultimate concern issues is beneficial in reminding writers and artists to pay more attention to ultimate concern awareness. Influenced by the above traditional cultural tendencies, the attention of Chinese writers is generally concentrated on the level of realistic concern, emphasizing the social, political, ideological, ethical, and moral role of their works. This should be fully affirmed and can be said to be an excellent tradition. However, it should not be taken to an extreme, otherwise it will lead to vulgar sociology and replace literature with political. This lesson must be taken to heart seriously. The proposal of ultimate concern issues will make up for the shortcomings of the above tendencies, remind writers to pay more attention to ultimate concern awareness, and focus more on people's inner spiritual life. At the same time, it can also enhance the ultimate concern awareness of readers, reminding them to delve deeper into the deeper spiritual meaning of the works. "Ultimate" always exists above or ahead in the realm of human spirit, always playing a role in elevating or drawing people, preventing them from sinking or retreating. "Ultimate" and "reality" form two tension fields of up and down, front and back in the spiritual space of humans, and humans carry out fully and grand social practice in these two tension fields. Without either of these fulcrums, human life would lose balance. The spiritual homeland that humans pursue actually lies in the harmony and balance between the two. Modern life makes people more immersed in material and desires, neglecting or losing the end of ultimate concern, which has led to some distortions, alienations, and disasters in modern life. Against this cultural background, the proposal of ultimate concern issues is essentially a call to re-establish the "ultimate" end, allowing words like "spirit" and "soul" to regain their sanctity and holiness, and attempting to re-establish a tension field through its existence, giving people's spiritual life a noble goal and adding an important element to the composition of spiritual civilization.