Looking at the world from Ningxia

◎ Suning

Ningxia, as one of the important nodes on the northern road in the eastern section of the ancient Silk Road, was once an important hub of transportation and trade between the east and the west in history. Ningxia has diverse cultures and rich literary traditions. Like Sichuan, Ningxia is also a place where many ethnic groups live together. People in Ningxia, who live in the Loess Plateau, always pursue moral and inner cleanliness. Ningxia has a long national history and a long history of literature. Shuidonggou ancient human cultural site, the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, shows that there were traces of ancient humans thriving here as early as 3 thousand years ago. There is still the oldest site of Qin Changcheng in Ningxia. After the first emperor of Qin Dynasty unified the Central Plains, he sent troops to extend and build the Qin Changcheng and the Qinqu in Ningxia, thus creating the history of irrigating fertile fields in Wan Li with water from the Yellow River. When the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Li Heng, Prince of the Tang Dynasty, became emperor in Lingwu, Ningxia, which was called Tang Suzong in history. In the first year of Baoyuan in the Northern Song Dynasty, Li Yuanhao, the leader of dangxiang, established the Daxia Kingdom, known as Xixia in history, with Xingqing House as its capital, forming a unique Xixia culture with far-reaching influence. Historically, Ningxia literature has a multi-dimensional interpretation of reality, including religion and rich resources from folk literature, oral literature, legends and flowers. The rock paintings of Helan Mountain make us feel compelled to look back and trace back. Ancient culture and tradition are the foundation of spiritual writing. Among Ningxia folk literature, there are many kinds of myths, legends, stories and ballads, which makes us full of imagination about the literary soil of this desert. Mountain flowers in Ningxia once took the soul of Wang Luobin, the "king of western songs". In 1936, Wang Luobin, Xiao Jun and Luoshan went to the northwest to participate in the field service corps. They passed through the Liupan Mountain. Because they were infatuated with the flower singer's five-plum mountain flowers, they gave up the opportunity to go to Europe for further study and plunged into the northwest to collect folk songs. Most of the works of mountain flowers that he collected and sorted out in those years have been lost, leaving only a typical mountain flower, "Tears Blossomed My Heart".

The local customs and customs of Ningxia's humanities and natural areas are not only specific subject categories, but also the mirror images of Ningxia's unique ethnography and spiritual history. Ningxia, with its colorful natural and cultural landscape, forms a unique vein in China literature. From Zhang Xianliang to some young and middle-aged writers, the group of "Xihaigu" writers, such as Guo Wenbin, Shi Shuqing, Li Jinxiang, Ma Jinlian, Cha Shun, Shan Yongzhen, Cao Haiying, Liao Yirong, Ashe, Ma Zhanxiang, Lang Wei, Jin Ou and other contemporary Ningxia writers, are a vibrant new force in the China writers' team. At the same time, they are also representative figures of Ningxia regional literature at present, with specific national identity (. Some writers and works won the Lu Xun Literature Award and the "Horse Award" for minority literature creation. Some young writers' works entered the "21st Century Literature Star Series", and the works of a new generation of writers in Ningxia began to be published in important national literary journals, which received wide attention and welcome, and were frequently selected by various selected journals and annual selected books.

The works of these writers reflect the special living landscape and spiritual world of Ningxia people. Their works are permeated with the firm and persistent spiritual pursuit of Ningxia people. Many works that pay attention to the fate of our nation also turn their attention to the fate of mankind, with bold and desolate style, imaginative and distinctive artistic style. Overall, it has the following characteristics.

First, gradually "give up" the tired follow-up to the modern discourse and return to the national culture with a "retreat" attitude. Under the complicated secular realistic situation of modernization and marketization, a narrative ethics with the color of "cultural conservatism" is constructed, which is "speaking with soul, speaking with life, facing the world with conscience and surpassing secular moral judgment". Strive to find a position between "modernization evolution" and "national self-defense" For example, Cha Shun's Children of Muslims, Ma Jinlian's Long River, Li Jinxiang's Daughter's River, and Shi Shuqing's novels, such as Knife in Clear Water, Orchard and Dusk, carefully explore their unique spiritual world in vivid descriptions of the ordinary life of local people, and try to be impetuous to society with firm, persistent and pure faith. Judging from the development trend, the literature in the western region developed after Ningxia and other countries will have a strange relationship with the modernist consciousness: it will not only maintain the ancient and simple creation in the western region, but also objectively connect with the forefront of modernist literature creation. Sichuan writer Alai is a successful case.

secondly, there are local cultural genes in the west. This makes Ningxia's novel creation dare to explore, and also makes Ningxia's literary creation have its own unique field of material selection and regional style. No matter how special the folk customs are, they must go through a full literary process. Ningxia's literature accurately expresses the spiritual value accumulated by regional culture. It is composed of ethics, beliefs, ideals, the ecological relationship between man and nature, and the emotional communication between people. Ningxia literature is not a style. Every writer's temperament and personality are different, and their narrative methods are different, but they all show their deep attachment to this land and their persistence in the spiritual temperament of the Loess Plateau. For example, Zhang Chengzhi, who is inextricably linked with Ningxia, is tragically and resolutely following his idealistic road. But in the end, he "gradually felt a strange feeling, a soldier or man's desire to convert, to be conquered, and to have a great reception." He has a strong feeling of returning home, and in the loess plateau and religious beliefs, he returned home with a sense of responsibility and religious mission as a son of the yellow land. In his series of works, such as The Yellow Mud House, he explored the metaphysical philosophical proposition of suffering, which began and ended in the process of returning home. Another example is Ji Dongliang's novel "Sacrifice to the Army Horse", and Shi Shuqing's short story "Borrowing a Head".

thirdly, the sense of sacredness. Writers in Ningxia have more or less a religious feeling. They treat their writing with a pious attitude, and they are full of sacred feelings about their writing objects. Nature, people, land and life-these awesome contents naturally become the main objects of their description. Religious feelings make their hearts pure and clear. They often face the world with a kind heart. Their styles are often related to this, such as the crystal clear of Yirong's novels and the unpolished poetry of Mo Yue's novels. Ningxia writers mostly construct their literary world with an atmosphere and an emotional appeal. Some critics say that writers in Ningxia are not very keen on writing long stories, or they are not very good at writing long stories, especially those popular today. They put all their energy into short stories. There seems to be a view that since Zhang Xianliang, writers in Ningxia have written too much about suffering and the countryside, so they should get out of suffering and pay attention to the cities. This suggestion is obviously in line with the requirements of modernization, but writers in Ningxia should not lose suffering and rural writing. Writers in Ningxia write about sufferings differently. They write about sufferings not from the social level, but from the philosophical level and the sacred level, such as Guo Wenbin's Scissors. They went beyond the secular appearance and entered the soul of their own people, constantly digging up the religious believers' pursuit of religious spirit and understanding of religious beliefs, and transforming it into literary narrative, which made it a realm promotion and leap. The clean rural world is the destination of their wandering hearts, and the clean state of mind is the spiritual comfort to treat the wounds of wanderers. Shi Shuqing, Li Jinxiang and others also integrated the "clean spirit" into the narrative ethics of the text, condensed into the vision of observing the society and feeling the psychology of life. In the series of "Qingshuihe" novels, the "cleanliness" of human nature has become its theme, especially in the face of the dilemma of urban and rural choice, the protagonists are often called by the "cleanliness spirit" to bid farewell to the noise without hesitation, and collectively show their perseverance in local life and their conversion to poetic hearts. Keeping a peaceful mind is a moral and spiritual choice gesture made by Ningxia writers based on local cultural resources.

Many writers in Ningxia collectively turned their attention to the long history and profound culture of their own nation, trying to reflect on national survival, realize national rejuvenation and recast national spirit from the in-depth exploration of national spirit. They look at the world from Ningxia-they are promoted by the collision and integration of ancient eastern civilization and western civilization. Based on the spiritual culture and psychological consciousness of ethnic groups, they tell stories and plots of folk customs, reveal the pain that this kind of collision and integration will inevitably experience, and explore the cultural psychology of characters. This kind of struggle, mutual integration and mutual infiltration glow with a vigorous sense of life and an ordinary and great personality, which shows the special quality of Ningxia literature. For Ningxia writers, it is the only way to explore the excellent quality of their national culture, activate the contemporary vitality of regional cultural accumulation, carry out creative transformation and promotion, and locate the narrative balance between "modernization evolution" and "national self-preservation" based on local resources and move towards aesthetic modernity.

Suning, a Beijinger, is a doctor of philosophy, an expert in aesthetic research and a literary critic. Researcher and former director of the Institute of Literature, Sichuan Academy of Social Sciences, an expert enjoying special allowance from the State Council. Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, academic leader of literary aesthetics. He has published more than 1 papers in core journals such as Literature Review, undertaken 2 planning projects of the National Social Science Fund, and won 1 second prize, 3 third prize and 1 provincial "Five One Project Award" for outstanding achievements in philosophy and social sciences in Sichuan Province. There are 16 monographs including Aesthetic Interpretation of Sanxingdui. He presided over 12 provincial and ministerial-level topics such as General History of Bashu Culture and Art Volume, Investigation of Cultural Resources in Tibetan, Qiang and Yi Corridor and Literature Volume, Taoist Spirit and Leisure Culture in Chengdu, and concurrently served as the vice chairman of Sichuan Literature and Art Critics Association and Chengdu Literature and Art Critics Association.