The Story of Fool's Town

Author: (American) E. B. Singer (Singer, D.) wrote, translated by Ren Rongrong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Many years ago, at a national conference in Yantai, Shandong, I proposed a view: Children's literature writers are the shapers of future national character. A few years ago, I revised this concept and made a new definition: The mission of children's literature is to provide humanity with a good foundation of human nature. I now prefer this statement because it is broader and more in line with the spiritual world of children's literature. In other words, the purpose of children's literature is to lay a "spiritual foundation" for people. This series of "Classic Children's Books from Twin Sails," selects classics of world children's literature, which are undoubtedly a spiritual feast for young people. These books are the kind I mentioned that can provide humanity with a good foundation of human nature. These books are books within books. I once called such books "King Books." Now, let's first talk about the basic aspects of this so-called good foundation of human nature—moral sense.
Literature was chosen by humanity as a spiritual form precisely because it was discovered to be beneficial for the transformation and purification of human nature. From the beginning to the present, literature has played an immeasurable role in transforming and purifying human nature. In the spiritual world of modern humanity, many beautiful and radiant elements come from literature. In the wonderful qualities of human beings today, we can see the traces left by literature with just a little discernment. Without literature, there would be no world today, no humanity today. Without literature, humanity would still be in vast darkness and dullness, still in the turmoil of ignorance, still in a purely animalistic existence devoid of taste and interest. Literature must have a moral sense, and children's literature must have an even stronger moral sense. It must be admitted that inherent human nature is far from being so lovely and beautiful. In fact, it may be the opposite. Human nature contains a large amount of evil. These elements hinder humanity from advancing to higher levels of civilization. To maintain the existence and development of humanity, the elite among humans realized that morality must be upheld in human society. The birth of this concept made it possible for humanity to move toward civilization. Over the centuries, the meaning of morality has evolved and changed, but it has gradually settled into some fundamental and constant elements: selflessness, integrity, compassion for the weak, helping those in need, opposing tyranny, resisting bullying, pursuing equality, yearning for freedom, respecting individuality, and nurturing benevolence. These moral banners, along with other spiritual forms (such as philosophy, ethics, etc.), effectively restrain the evil in human nature and continuously improve it.
Taste. Literature seems to have more power than any other spiritual form to help humanity develop taste. "The waves rise gently, white birds descend leisurely." "Sparse shadows slant across the clear water, faint fragrance floats in the dusk." "The orioles also love the coolness of the new season, singing through the shadows of green mountains." With concise words, literature can instantly inject the elements of taste into people's blood and soul. Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Tagore, Hemingway, Turgenev, Lu Xun, Shen Congwen, and Kawabata Yasunari, one generation after another, with their noble and refined words, have transformed our lives into lives of taste. They have turned pale life and mediocre objects into things worthy of our appreciation. Taste has changed human nature, greatly elevating it in quality. And the cultivation of taste should begin with children. Taste should belong to the realm of aesthetics. My views have always been consistent—I believe that the power of beauty, the power of aesthetics, is no less than the power of thought. Even the deepest thought can become common knowledge, but only one thing never ages—beauty. However, in the current context of China, there is a very strange phenomenon: "beauty" has become a very pretentious word. This is extremely strange. No matter how I think about it, I can't understand: What is wrong with people? Why do they avoid and denigrate beauty? What kind of mindset is this? Is literature truly incapable of elevating the taste and refinement of a nation? Let's leave adult literature alone for now and let it be. But when it comes to children's literature, we still need to speak up. Without laying this foundation, it is not possible. Without this foundation, human nature will be very poor. The gap in aesthetic education is one of the great failures of Chinese education. This failure has far-reaching consequences.
When Cai Yuanpei served as Minister of Education in the Republic of China, he proposed the idea of promoting five types of education (moral education, intellectual education, physical education, worldview education, and aesthetic education) at the National Education Conference. Aesthetic education was included among these. However, it sparked fierce debate and was almost rejected. Later, it was only accepted as a principle for primary and secondary schools, not as a national education policy. Over time, the understanding of aesthetic education became increasingly narrow, until it was finally reduced to being equated with art and music. In Cai Yuanpei's view, the five types of education formed a perfect system for cultivating a superior human nature. Moral, intellectual, and physical education were the lower half, while worldview and aesthetic education were the upper half. However, this upper half was cut off in half. The Chinese education system became a flawed system.
Emotional Education. Classical literature has always entrusted itself to a core word: moving. Classical literature has spent centuries writing about moving people. But after the rise of modern literature, it no longer does this. Classical literature moves us precisely because of its spirit of compassion and its compassionate sentiment. Human society has developed to this day and has gained much, but it has also lost or damaged much—especially various emotions—passion, enthusiasm, compassion, and even children raised in this material and cultural environment (so-called "new humans") have been a source of widespread concern among anthropologists. One reason for this concern is the fading of compassion (they have not yet developed a compassionate sentiment). We have seen that today's children seem to have little impulse to perform such noble acts. Various signs indicate that the process of modernization is not perfect. The benefits that humanity enjoys today from modernization have come at a great cost. The weakening of emotions is a prominent example. We have asserted that literature lies in providing and creating a good foundation of human nature for the existence of human society. And this "foundation" must necessarily include a very important element: compassion.
Considering the three basic aspects mentioned above, the works selected in "Classic Children's Books from Twin Sails" are ideal models. They strike a balance among the three. This balance is also a balance of humanity, the balance of humankind.