| While most of the previous researches about Shen Congwen are focused on his texts, this paper puts particular emphasis on researching what he did not express or what is unspeakable. Shen Congwen declared many times that text words were just the remains of fantasy, life and dreams. If the declaration is more than a momentary feeling, then it means there exists a larger unspeakable speech under the surface of his text.Through the studies of Shen Congwen's philosophical and intelligent proses, novels and poems in the 1940s, it is easy to discover that his unspeakable speech is often related to the crazy experience of "beauty" In other words, his literary works are descriptions of the crazy experience of "beauty". In general, these experiences have the following features:1, unspeakable sense; 2, hyperspace sense; 3, ultimacy; 4, mysterious recognition (sense of inspiration); 5, perfection of life; 6, a strong emotional experience. Essentially, these experiences are what Maslow calls "Peak experience".The previous researches on Shen Congwen often neglected a basic fact, that was, Shen Congwen's propositions about "god", "abstract", "life noumenon" and "the most complete form of life" did not come from logical analysis and reasoning, but from the inspiration of the unity of man and nature, from which the subject gets the crazy experience during the process of subject and object blending. These propositions concern the problem of supreme noumenon of the universe and the ultimate value of life; also, they are the highest level of Shen Congwen's thoughts. They cannot be analyzed and expressed, but only be grasped through mysterious intuition.1. Life. Life is the perfect state of the subject's spirit he achieves during his crazy experience. Maslow thinks that peak experience is the most harmonious, freest and most beautiful ultimate state, a kind of ultimate and objective experience. Shen Congwen also regards the craze to beauty as the supreme meaning of life. The supreme life form is realized through the subject's crazy experience of "beauty". Shen's thoughts are in conformity with Fen Youlan's, who regards "The Universal Realm Theory" as the summit of philosophy and the supreme state of life.2. God. The word "God" has multiple meanings in Shen Congwen's text. As part of his ideology, "God" refers to the noumenon of universe and life. As to the highest existence of the universe, the "positive method" (logical reasoning, logical analysis) is invalid. At best, rational knowledge provides some concepts about the noumernon of universe and tells a truth that in the world there is one field human intellect cannot achieve. The highest noumenon of the universe can only be grasped in the "negative method", which is intuition and mysterious experience, etc. Only entering into the mysterious "The Universal Realm Theory" by relying on the "negative method" can the subject perceive the highest existence of universe."God" in Shen Congwen's ideology is also grasped like this. Through a survey of all his statement about god, it can be found that whenever Shen Congwen "saw" "god", it was accompanied by a crazy, "subject and object blending" experience. Maslow believes that people's cognition in peak experience will change thoroughly, and emerge the cognition of being, depending on which the subject can get a deep insight into the value of existence and the essence of the universe. In Shen Congwen's eyes, "god" is the appreciation of a subject to the highest existence of universe and life with a special cognition in the crazy experience of "beauty".To some extent, Shen Congwen's "god" is the inheritance and promotion of WuShen culture in Xiangxi. In WuShen culture, "God" cannot be seen in a conscious state. "God-Man Dialogue "can only be achieved when the wizard comes into a madness state. In order to step into a frenzy state, the role of wizard is usually assumed by people with some mental illness. Besides, the wizard still needs certain ceremonies to assist, such as crazily dancing, singing, drinking, medication and so on. However, Shen Congwen realizes the unity of life and god through the admiration and craziness to "beauty", rather than through external ceremony.3. Abstract. In Shen Congwen's ideology, abstract is not in the ordinary tense. General abstract, referred as the simplification, extraction and schematic of things, often associates with logical thinking. Therefore, the more abstract it is, the easier it is to describe. Besides, the texts produced from general abstract are theoretical instead of poetic.Abstraction in Shen Congwen's ideology is the world seen in the experience of selflessness and ecstasy (or about the features of the world). It is a product in which the subconscious plays a dominant role.The same as the "dream" (dominated by the subconscious in a dream), it is an absurd world. This world can't be transmitted by the language in conscious level. Even the crazy poetic language can only partly describe and convey the "world". Thus, Shen Congwen borrowed the word "Abstract" to refer.It is obvious that in Shen Congwen's ideology, life, god and abstract are a trinity. They are the portrayal of the peak experience in different levels and from different angles:"Life" emphasized the perfect spirit state of the subject achieves during his crazy experience. "God" is the grasp of the noumenon of universe and ultimate value of life through existence cognition when "life" is under ultimate state. While "Abstract" is the description about the features of crazy experience, sometimes refers to the experience itself.In addition to those thoughts about "god", "life noumenon", Shen Congwen still has formed a set of thoughts about the rebuilding of the external world such as people, classic, social and politic etc. Based on the thoughts like "god" and "the most complete form of life", these thoughts are mostly formed through logical analysis and logical reasoning. The two levels of thought constitute an interactive relationship through the intermediary of human nature or psychology. On the one hand, Shen congwen's abstract principles about social reality reconstruction are from (at least in part from) the "wordless lesson", which comprehended by subjects in the aesthetic ecstasy experience. On the other hand, the defects and ugly of reality of life forms is also the important reasons to promote Shen Congwen's seeking new laws by "gazing to the void". On the other hand, ecstasy of "beauty" can renew the twisted humanity and recover the elasticity of emotion which lost long ago, to rebuild reality via "love" and "corporation" rather than destroy reality via war and fight. In addition, the existence cognition of crazy experience can also help people grasp the essence of universe, the truth of life and the strategically statecraft. Thus "rebuilding thought" can be viewed as his highest level thought (e.g. life concept and theological thought) in the stretching and practice of the real level.In order to highlight the unique aspect of Shen Congwen's recreating thought, This article spent a lot of lengths in discussing the mysterious characteristics of Shen Congwen's recreating thought. In general, his recreating thought is to recreate humanity and human will which can further reform the world through the experience of "beauty". Seen from the outside, Shen Congwen's remaking thought is built step by step on the basis of logical analysis and logical reasoning, which seems on good grounds. In fact, his thought about recreating the world is based on the personal experience of selflessness and ecstasy.The appreciation of the beauty said by Shen Congwen is not the appreciation in a general sense. Because the effect of general sense of appreciation for people is slow, gentle and even weak, it requires a long-term nurturing process. So it can only exist as an adjunct to social and political reform. It is not the case for Shen Congwen. According to him, the experience of beauty is a primary means of social and political recreating. In contrast, conventional political means becomes a supplementary tool. The reason is that the aesthetic appreciation referred by Shen Congwen is not the appreciation in general sense, but for the ecstasy of beauty, that is, the peak aesthetic experience. Maslow said that peak experience would influent drastically in human nature and psychology, or even completely change a person's view on people and the world. This influence has a long-term characteristic. Shen Congwen had gone through this experience. He firmly believes the recreating effect of this experience for people. Consequently, it is natural for him to put this experience as an idea resources applied to rebuild the external world.However, for those who have never experienced peak aesthetic experience, it is ridiculous and naive to use art to recreate the world. They think that Shen Congwen exaggerates the role of the beauty to absurdity. They highly doubt the effect of his recreating thought. This is the key reason why Shen Congwen's recreating thought hasn't been properly evaluated. |
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