On The Relationship Between Shen Congwen And Music From An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Music was the lifeblood of Shen Congwen. However, what he called “music” is quiteother than what we usually refer to as “music”. It not only includes the art form known as“artificial music”, but also the “sounds of nature” and the silent and phantom “music ofthe soul”. Different types of music exerted different effects on Shen Congwen, Especiallyremarkable, the latter two kinds of music experience obviously carry with them thecharacteristics of “selfless indulgence”,“power of understanding” and “ineffability”. Allthese characteristics are covertly connected with the witch music culture of Xiangxi(western Hu Nan).Music played an essential role in the formation of Shen Congwen’s ideology. And theformation of Shen Congwen’s main ideological propositions—life, divinity andabstractness—is closely connected with his experience of music. The “selfless” musicexperience let Shen Congwen transcend from secular music of lament and man-madeprejudice, helped him obtain a new recognition of the significance of life, and ushered lifein the pursuit of a still loftier goal. What he called “life” was an ultimately perfect, freeand authentic realm, felt in a clarified and purified state of being. Sharing the sameessence of “peripateticism” with Taoism, such an experience is both the supreme form ofbeing and a mysterious state of “self experience and understanding”, from which ShenCongwen grasped his concepts of “divinity” and “the nature of divinity”. In a certain sense,Shen Congwen’s ideology of “divinity” is the inheritance and sublimation of the witchculture of Xiangxi. Since in Xiangxi,“divinity” is not grasped by people in a sober state ofmind, but instead, it is a sort of “empathy”, reached in a state of obsession and crazinessthrough “music and dance ceremonies”. Permeated with subconsciousness, this state ofobsession and craziness is what Shen Congwen called “abstractness”.Shen Congwen was among the few of the twentieth-century intellectuals whosystematically “reconstructed” our national ethics and social political thoughts throughmusic. As far as he saw it, the roots of China’s problems lied in the exhaustion of emotion,the distortion of humanity and the loss of the divinity of life. Thus, he put forward theconcept of “reconstruction of divinity”, which directly originated from the intuitionalexperience of the witch ceremonies. It is the awareness of “sacredness” gained by peoplein the crazy state of “selflessness”. Since “music” is the essence of “witch ceremonies”,the further development of “reconstruction of divinity” resulted in Shen Congwen’s ideology of “reconstruction through music”: to clean up the imperfect moods shaped infeudalist consciousness such as compulsion, control, imperiousness and cattiness, and totransform them into the basis of a powerful, bright and healthy outlook on life. ShenCongwen’s ideology of “reconstruction through music” had developed a comparativelycomplete system. In this system, art education was the basis on which to prepare for thecultivation of eligible citizens and politicians; the “musicalization” design of city culturewas the key, since the emotional education of art to all citizens was a major way to formnew social political conditions and the transformation of political system through“musicalization” was the guarantee, for only under the leadership of physically andpsychologically healthy individuals could China head for a new prospect. The aboveassumptions of Shen Congwen were set up on a fundamental concept, that is, music canremold one’s mind and let a distorted and indifferent soul return to normal. Although thisconcept was later verified by some psychologists such as Maslow, for Shen Congwen, itwas not originated from an experiment result or an existing scientific discovery, but hispersonal experience.Music had profound impact on Shen Congwen’s literary creation. In the history ofmodern literature, writers who drew on music for reference and introduced it to theirliterary creation and theoretical discussion were by no means rare. However, ShenCongwen’s “reference” to music in his literary creation was clearly distinguished fromothers’. Affected by the thought of “mutual penetration” of semi-original culture inXiangxi, Shen Congwen looked on “literature” and “music” as two separate as well asidentical art forms. Therefore, his “reference” to music in literary creation was not a“mechanical copying” but a free transformation.Mood (life) is the conjunction point of the free transformation between literature andmusic. It seemed to Shen Congwen that all art forms, be they music, painting, architectureor literature, are carriers of mood and life. This point of view is reflected in the themes,contents, diction, and even the titles of Shen Congwen’s works: not only can theinspiration from life conveyed by music be transferred to literature creation, but also themethod and skills applied in music in dealing with mood (life) can inspire literary creation.In other words, music not only provided Shen Congwen with opportunities and contentsfor his literary creation, but also enlightened him in the arrangement of narrative structureand rhythm of a novel.What is of more importance is that Shen Congwen’s view on the utility function ofliterature demonstrates its uniqueness, thanks to his looking on literature works as carriers of “life”. In modern Chinese literature, average writers always try to “persuade” theirreaders by loading their works with some kink of social ideologies, such as theory ofevolution, democracy and communism, in order to achieve the purpose of reforming oursociety. Shen Congwen’s “view on the utility function of literature” comprised somethingof “sermon” to a certain extent, but it was realized by reforming one’s irrational levels(mood, life). What Shen Congwen called “reconstruction through classics” was not todesign some “dogmas” for people to follow, but to reform the spiritual foundation ofhuman, and to eliminate “the essential shade and mildew so as to make it lustrous andtransparent like pure jade and gold”. That is to say, the final result of Shen Congwen’s“reconstruction through classics” is not a “moral code”, but a cluster of “lustrous andtransparent” hearts. The traditional outlook on literature as a conveyance of truth restrainspeople’s desire by suppressing human “life” with “truth and morality”, while ShenCongwen’s “reconstruction through classics” is just the reverse. He affirmed human life,especially human nature in pursuing “beauty”. Moreover, he believed that only byreleasing human “nature”, which is repressed by political prejudice, money and morality,can the passion for higher principles be rekindled. In this way, the construction ofindividual life and national ethics are internally united. By the same token, the formationof this point of view was under the enlightenment of music.This study analyzes the relationship between Shen Congwen, his works and musicfrom an interdisciplinary perspective. Hopefully, it can both deepen the research on ShenCongwen and inspire the interdisciplinary study of comparative literature to a certaindegree.