Research On Life Consciousness In Shi Tiesheng’s Creations

Life consciousness is the core of Shi Tiesheng’s creation and the key to his literary world.From the lamentation of fate and infinity in The Fate of Love to the philosophical thinking of life’s dilemma in The Dream Movie,Shi Tiesheng always regards life as the core element and fundamental spirit of his creation.This thesis takes Shi Tiesheng’s novels and essays as the main research object and attempts to discuss Shi Tiesheng’s exploration and transcendence of life dilemma and presents a typical writing form of life consciousness in a historical view.The main part of the paper is divided into four chapters:The first chapter presents the background of Shi Tiesheng’s life consciousness from three dimensions:time background and cultural context,Chinese and Western philosophical resources and religious culture,special life experience.Shi Tiesheng was born in the 1950s and experienced the turbulent years after the founding of new China.The special political situation gave him a profound understanding of the original dilemma of life,such as difference and loneliness,and the collapse of the utopian experiment at this time made him realize the impossibility of ideal.These feelings and thoughts later became the important content of his life expression.The ideological liberation movement in the 1980s provided the time conditions for Shi Tiesheng’s life writing,while the crisis of spiritual belief and the upsurge of national spirit reconstruction in the 1990s increased the "transitivity" of Shi Tiesheng’s life consciousness.The philosophical and cultural resources in China and the West are the important background for the formation of Shi Tiesheng’s life consciousness.These resources deepen Shi Tiesheng’s understanding of life dilemma and perfect his life philosophy system of "dilemma--transcendence".The influence of religious culture on Shi Tiesheng is latent.Shi Tiesheng’s understanding of religion was very rational,but the religious view of life and death and fate also inspired him to think about life.The experience of educated youth made Shi Tiesheng see another form of life,and endowed him with the spirit of active struggle in the face of difficulties.Disease and disability were the real-life problems that troubled Shi Tiesheng,which prompted him to think about the origin of life and encouraged him to move forward to the realm of life existence with transcendental spirit.The second chapter mainly presents Shi Tiesheng’s exploration of life dilemma.Shi Tiesheng looked from the physical disability to the spiritual disability,and explored the dilemma of life from the three dimensions of man and the world,man and others,and man himself.Firstly,the infinite of the objective world and the unknowable fate determine the cognitive dilemma of the individual with finite life.Secondly,the eternal difference of values,the individual who is destined to be only oneself,the eyes of others,the rules of the human world and the masks established by conventions all doomed the absolute loneliness and freedom to be impossible.Thirdly,for individuals themselves,eternal desire,the sin in the depths of human nature,and the fear of death are inextricable dilemmas.The third chapter focuses on Shi Tiesheng’s transcendence of life predicament and his pursuit of life meaning.Facing the unsolved dilemma of life,Shi Tiesheng did not fall into a pessimistic tone,but began to explore the meaning of life,and thus started his journey of transcendence of dilemma."Trouble is bodhi" became Shi Tiesheng’s basic mentality in the face of life predicament.The death dilemma made Shi Tiesheng turn his eyes from the empty"purpose" to the wonderful "process",singing and dancing in the "process" of life with the attitude of fighting,and performing comedy in the background of tragedy.However,purpose,though empty,must be set,otherwise the process can only walk into nothingness.In the paradox of purpose,Shi Tiesheng tied his mind to the infinite and constructed a "God"symbolized broad mercy and absolute perfection.When man confess to "God" and moves forward to the perfect realm with religious spirit,life moves toward the aesthetic realm and the meaning of life is established.When the death dilemma is placed in the soul dimension,the soul tied to the "infinite and absolute" will transcend time and space to attain eternity.In addition to spiritual transcendence,Shi Tiesheng also cared about the transitive dimension of dilemma transcendence.He sought for the transcendence of individual life in the process of"asking" and "searching" and advocated "love" in the face of "others" and "the world",hoping for the love of people,the reconstruction of national spirit and the harmony of all things.The fourth chapter mainly explores the significance of literature history and the value of times expressed by Shi Tiesheng’s life consciousness.In the literary context of 1980s and 1990s,Shi Tiesheng’s expression of life consciousness has heterogeneity and transcendence.Different from Mo Yan’s external resistance,Yu Hua’s life anatomy and Bei Cun’s God rescue,Shi Tiesheng adopted an introverted,active,proactive life strategy.Shi Tiesheng’s expression of life consciousness provided beneficial experience for contemporary literature and contained the power of ultimate spiritual reconstruction.