A Comparative Study Of Zhang Wei And Zhang Chengzhi

Both Zhang Wei and Zhang Chengzhi are famous contemporary Chinese writers. People paid more attention to them because of the banner of faith they held in the "humanism spirit" discussion. It is said that we can search the humanism spirit from the folk, on which the works of Zhang Wei and Zhang Chengzhi are based. Zhang Wei found self-sufficiency, as well as the rich spiritual and moral strength from the "Folk", which holds a certain opposite concept of the city. That Zhang Chengzhi selects the "folk" means choosing "Jahriyya", which has a great vitality in the poor religion of the northwest China. Their choices are in line with their usual pursuit of faith. As intellectuals with the noble mission, they tried to look for the joint points between the "folk" and people.This choice is also related to their same experiences. They both went through the "Cultural Revolution", which had a profound influence on Chinese history. And it has been described to some extent in Zhang Wei’s You are in the Highland and Zhang Chengzhi’s The Golden Pasture. Recalling the past, Zhang Wei thought "Vivid yet those crowed months and years", and everything is all in silence. Zhang Wei’s attitudes to the "Cultural Revolution" is connected with the official attitudes and their requirements for intellectuals. It seems that Literature can keep its nature only by being away from politics. There are a lot of literary critics who generally think that political intervention is one of the important factors affecting the development of literature during the "humanism spirit" discussion. Zhang Wei’s silence is also the conscious choice of many writers. But Zhang Chengzhi tried his best to search for the meaning of the "Cultural Revolution". However, the value of this meaning is still to be verified. He paid more attention to the power of the people in the "Cultural Revolutio", although this power is questionable. Zhang Wei and Zhang Chengzhi show their honor to Lu Xun, from whom they gain strength. However, compared with Zhang Chengzhi and Lu Xun, Zhang Wei kept a calm mind concerning the relations between the "folk" and the masses.The introduction mainly introduces the background significance and the present research status of this topic. In chapter I, their descriptions about the "folk"are analyzed, by which we can know their different trade-offs about the "folk". Chapter Ⅱ analyzes Zhang Wei and Zhang Chengzhi’s descriptions about the "cultural revolution". The chapter III is based on their honor to Lu Xun. It analyzes the small differences in their attitudes to their spiritual idol, by which they want to keep the faith of spirit against the material in the material-focused society. Finally it comes to the conclusion that:they choose the spirit consciously, by which they want to wake up more intellectuals and more nationals. However, Zhang Wei tries to find the spirit from the traditional virtue and morality while Zhang Chengzhi tries to find the spirit from the religion. But, the economy of China is developing rapidly, and the world is also in a highly materialized stage. The wish to transcend the times is not feasible. Then how to seek a balance between the times and ideal is still a big problem to be solved.