Richard Bodman, "From History to Allegory to Art" 37

Once when we were at Lushan, Su Xiaokang couldn't keep from crying in talking about the Cultural Revolution..."s6

The Cultural Revolution appears to have been crucial in Conning his character, both as a rebel against the establishment, and as a self-critical thinker. At the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, he joined the Red Guards and went to Beijing to see the Chainnan in Tian'anmen Square. He ])e{:ame a member of the Red Guard 'rebel' faction fzaocan12ail and briefly held the editorship of the Henan Red Guard newspaper. He is said to have been a leader of the "February 7th Commune." Then his father was "overthrown" in the political struggle, and the whole family suffered. Towards the end of the Cultural Revolution, he was working for the ~ :Qaily. As a young reporter he evidently thought that he could now speak for the people and help individuals seek redress for grievances. He was fIred for a time as a result of an investigation of "factionalism" within the paper.

"Su Xiaokang had some friends who once committed some not particularly serious crimes during the Cultural Revolution; there are plenty of people around who didfar worse and who are now blithely getting rich in their official positions. But they went to prison and are still there. Theyare paying for the mistakes they once made... In comparison to them, Su Xiaokang was much luckier. But he is still paying back his debt. Dipping his pen into the blood squeezed out from his soul by reflecting on the past, he is recording the past and the present; he is recording the conflict of this generation between their disillusionment in the present and their searchfor faith; their agony and their struggle. Not long ago in Beijing, one day at dusk Su Xiaokang and I took a taxi together on some business, and the young cabdriver started talking about the Cultural Revolution. ' Let' s have another Great Cultural Revolution, so that I can be a rebel too.' Startled, Su Xiaokang asked him: 'You're making lots of money, and yet you still hope for a Cultural Revolution?' The young driver explained: '1 hear that there were plenty of people who got rich then, that you could even pick gold out of the garbage cans. Too bad I was born fifteen years toO late, otherwise I definitely would've rebelled.' Su Xiaokang and I were struck dumb, as if we had been slapped. The winter sunset was dull and cold. 11 hadn't been alllhat long since the Cultural Revolution, had il? Most people, whether inlen- tionally or not, choose to forget or avoid thinking about that cruel decade full of blood and tears. But the coming generation and the one following it know nothing whalsoever about it, and so anything could reoccur. After being silent for a long time, Su Xiaokang said to me that it was precisely to avoid the repetition of such a tragedy, and also to redeem his own past, that

56 Ihi!! .

38 Deathsong of the River

he took such risks, that he urgently tried to understand the people and its history, that he critiqued those distorted beliefs and -isms. ..."57

2. A writer of reportage literature, 1983-87. He was back as a reporter at the Henan ribao by 1982 when he wrote his first piece of reportage literature, "Oongfang fodiao"58 [The Buddhist Sculpture of the Orient], a piece about the Buddhist caves at Longmen and about the sufferings of a hard-working researcher and guide there named Quo Dazhong. While recent critics have not regarded it as highly as his later works, finding it to be too much in the tradition of "singing praises," this piece did win a national prize for reportage literature at the time. And, when he came to write Heshang, Su Xiaokang would draw on this piece for its description of the Vairocana Buddha.

Shortly thereafter, Su Xiaokang was admitted to the Beijing College of

Broadcasting; and after graduation, he was assigned as a reporter with Central Broadcasting in Henan, While still a student, he returned to Henan during the summer vacation to write a piece of reportage on the flooding of the Hong and Ru rivers near Zhumadian in 1984, entitled .'Honghuang qishi IU,"59 One critic wrote that in this piece he did more than just express his sympathy for the suffering of the peasants after the flood. For this flfSt time he experimented with a comprehensive reflection on a large number of atypical cases as a way of understanding both the harm caused by the extreme leftist line in contemporary history, as well as the depth of feudal thinking; from this, he proceeded to the realization that the problems caused by an unhealthy political system are harder to avoid than those caused by natural disaster. What differentiated his reporting from Liu Binyan's was that he restrained his anger and chose a deliberately sober style.oo

Subsequently, Su Xiaokang produced a whole series of investigative reports on subjects that attracted popular interest: "Ziyou beiwanglu" [The Freedom Memorandum], through a long list of incidents of infringements on civil rights, directly raised the question of the freedom of China's citizens and asked to what degree China's constitution protected her citizens.61

57 ]bid..

58 Renmin wenxue. October. 1983, pp. 81-92.

59 Published in Zhoneeuo zuojia, February. 1986; reprinted in Su Xiaokang, ~ beiwane1u, Hong Kong: San1ian shudian. 1989. pp. 1-35.

60 Xie Yong, "Kexue yu minzhu jingshen de zhangyang -cong Liu Binyan dao Su Xiaokang," in Wenxue ~inlun, May. 1988; reprinted in Zivou beiwan2 lu: Su Xiaokan2 baoeao wenxue iin2xuan, Hong Kong: Sanlian shudian. 1989, pp. 302-312.

61 Published in Tianiin wenxue. September. 1987; reprinted in Su Xiaokang, Zi.Y.2.Y beiwane lu, pp. 36-81.

Richard Bodman. "From History to Allegory to Art" 39

"Shensheng yousi lu-zhong xiaoxue jiaoyu weijing jishi" [The Teachers Lament-on the crisis in elementary and secondary education]62 reported the results of his study of middle school teachers in Beijing. that many suffered from sickness and poor housing. while fewer and fewer young people were willing to start teaching careers. Both these two reports provided material used in HeshanK. Other publications during this period included YinyanK da ~ rThe Great Male-Female Fissionl. a book-Iength report on unhappy marriages. wife abuse. etc.. which was awarded a national prize63; "Huoyu" [The Living Prison], on mental illness64; and "Zui hou de gu du" [The Last Ancient Capital]. on the housing crisis in Beijing.6S Critics have noted that one of the special features of his style is its frequent citation of scholarly resean:h.

In 1987. he was back in Beijing as an instructor in the news department of the Beijing College of Broadcasting. He was already nationally-known as a writer. While he would continue to write reportage literature. he had already developed an interest in writing for television. He had written the narration for several installments of the Yellow River documentary. and he had written "Zui hou de gu du" in the form of a film script. He was ready to undertake a new project. By October of 1987. he had already written a detailed outline for a TV series on the Yellow River entitled The Great ~. which subsequently became DeathsonK of the River. Wang Luxiang recalled his first meeting with Su Xiaokang:

"He was not tall. but hisface made a strong first impression. His eyes were deep-set, and though he wore glasses, his eyes were bright andfull of spirit. A tall. straight nose with fine nostrils-lhese were the marks of a superior intelligence. The corners of his mouth were slightly drawn down, making the line of his lips into a bow. When he spoke it was with an unusual certainty andforce-he was very self-confldent. And yet he was also extremely relaxed. When he laughed. he would laugh out loud, gesturing with hands andfeet. without restraint. And when he swore he was even less

62 Published in Renmin wenxue, September, 1987; reprinted in Su Xiaokang, ZiY.21l bciwan& lu- pp. 82-125.

63 Published in Zhon&&uo zuojia, May, 1986; reprinted in Su Xiaokan2 QuaniinJ! bao&ao wenxueii, Hong Kong: Shanghai shuju, June, 1989. pp. 140-206; and rcprinted as a separate volume under the same title by the Nanyue chubanshe, Hong Kong, in February, 1989.

64 Written in cooperation with Zhang Min, completed in late 1987. Reprinted in Su Xiaokang, Zixou bciwan21u. pp. 126-156; and in Su Xiaokan& Quaniin& bao2ao wenxueii. pp.207-241.

65 Published in Hua chen&. June, 1987, pp. 12-39. -,

40 Deathsong of the River

restrained than me-this was a person of a rare self-assurance, hard to find in academic circles, the sort of person I really like."

Filming for the series began at the end of October. Director Xia J un, Su Xiaokang, and Wang Luxiang flew fIrst to Yan'an in Shaanxi, then visited Mangshan and Kaifeng in Henan. Returning to Beijing, he started script- writing in earnest In early 1988, he left the college to work at CCTV, after which he never returned to his teaching job, despite appeals from his school.

3.1988: Attacking the dragon in the dragon year. 1988 would be an extremely busy and productive year for Su Xiaokang. Not only would he complete the script of Heshang; he would also begin work on a script for a fIlm to be called Ma~ Fourth; he would publish a book-length account of the 1959 Lushan Conference, at which Mao dismissed Peng Dehuai, entitled Sacrifice in Utooia; and he would publish an account of how Heshang came to be written and of the criticism it had received, entitled "The Distress of a Dragon Year." If for understandable reasons Su Xiaokang's indictment of China's current problems was muted in Heshang, his other publications reveal how sharp his pen could be.

In January 1988 Su Xiaokang published an essay entitled "My Views

on' A Sense of Mission,"' which may be seen as a reflection on the reportage literature he had published to date, as well as a philosophical statement of purpose:66

Some people have given this feeling a very weighty term: a " sense of sorrow and worry." [youhuanvishiJ. Actually, I've skimmed through history and discovered that Chinese have never lacked a" sense of sorrow and

66 Published in QiyJ.hi, no.2, 1988, pp. 47-48. QiyJ.hi is the successor to ~ 1&.!!. f1u], the theoretical organ of the CCP published at the Central Pany School.

Richard Bodman, ..From History to Allegory to Art" 41

In China, this "sense of sorrow and worry" is much more intense and obvious in the world of thinkers than anywhere else. From their concernfor real-Iife crises. to their critique of history, and even to their self-questioning of our entire culture, the world of thinkers has always been in the vanguard. In contrast, over the past ten years the literary world, which once had dazzled people and had a mass following, has seemed to be moving slowly with few accomplishments, to the point that at present people no longer have the patience to put up with the sort of mystification. smoothing over of problems and searching for roots that writers are pursuing .67 The reason why literature has lost its sensational effect is perhaps due to the fact that writers haven't been able to find the Chinese people's pulse.

But that is not the case with reportage literature. Not only has it not lost its sensational effect but there are also some good pieces that continue to provide food for thought after the sensation is over. making those in both high and low position uncomfortablefor a while. ...

These days reportage literature cannot do without a" sense of sorrow and worry." We have sung songs ofpraisefor so long that the older writers have lost their teeth, while our readers' ears have been filled with cocoons; moreover, if you just open your eyes and look at the real world, can China's anguished soul be calmed down by hymns of praise? Even the great task of reform, which of all things most deserves hymns of praise, is it not also full of contradictions and anguish? Readers no longer want to hear reportage literature sing hymns of praise, just as they no longer have patience for fiction's mystification and smoothing over of problems. Perhaps it is in between these two that we can find our place. ...

Naturally, I'm not trying to make reportage literature into some sort of miracle drug that will save the world. Throughout history, literature can only be seen as the externalization of the soul. Yet one cannot expect it to -

67 The Chinese tenns are kon~lin~, .I!AOhYA, and ~. Su's point would seem to be that

writers of fiction are no longer addressing the contemporary problems of society.

Richard Bodman, c'From History to Allegory to Art" 43

First of all, we must redeem ourselves. If we do have any sort of a sense of mission then we must first of all be responsible to ourselves. When our generation was growing up, life never taught us how to combine a responsibility for ourselves with one for the whole of society. We grew up in the midst of restrictions, suppressions , and inhibitions .We didn't have our own heads on our shoulders, which is why we were once so intemperate. We really were too cruelly deceived! Now that we are finally thinking for ourselves, how can we not help but feel a painful regret? ...

Of course, because umbilical cords still bind us to those past days, and because our' six senses' are still unpurified. it is hard for us to become thoroughly aroused. And so perhaps we lack a certain extremism. This is our strong point as well as our weak point. This sort of in-between life has perhaps unconsciously given us some sort of mission and has determined that having been deceived ourselves we will never again deceive others. but only tell the truth. This is how I understand "a sense ofmission."

Written at the same time as the script of Heshang, this statement is significant for emphasizing that he and his generation need to reflect on and accept responsibility for their behavior during the Cultural Revolution. While the Cultural Revolution is mentioned only elliptically in the script of Heshang, director Xia Jun makes use of scenes from the Cultural Revolution in many places, to illustrate the social turmoil that is the inevitable end of an agricultural civilization. Viewers wrote in saying that these were the scenes that affected them the most. In light of the above statement, it would seem fair to say that the makers of the series were not only critical but also self-critical. When Su Xiaokang says that Chinese must reflect on their history SO that tragedies such as Liu Shaoqi' s death can never be repeated, he is blaming his own generation as much as he is blaming China's system. He ends his article with a solemn vow not to deceive himself or others, but only to tell the truth. These two resolutions of his, to understand and accept responsibility for the tragedy of the Cultural Revolution, and to tell the truth, would be tested soon, in the spring of 1989.

42 Dealhsong of lhe River

serve pragmalic goals. While il mighl perhaps have a curalive effecl on society, lhal is slill a lalenl role. I fear Ihal wrilers would find il very difficulllO go all ouI honing ils blade as a knife for slaughlering pigs. For lhis reason I do no1 much agree wilh lhose Iheories abouI llileralure'sl " sense of mission." While perhaps from lhe poinl of view of lhe public or of pOS11acl0 hindsighl. one could apply lhis lerm 10 il, yel judging from Ihe poinl of view of an aulhor's molivesfor crealivity, il mighl make himfeel highly embarrassed.

I don'l know why, bullhal is how I feel whenever someone says lhal my molives for wriling lhose reporlage pieces on social problems is due 10 my slrong "sense of mission." ...I have oflen asked myself why I wan 110 wrile aboullhose suffering peasanls, lhose ordinary people wilh nowhere 10 lake lheir complain IS, lhose inlellecluals whose flame is aboullo burn OUI; could il really be Ihal afler hearing Ihem lell lheir biller lales I could proclaim 10 Ihem like a messiah lhal "I have come 10 save yoU" ? Even IhoUgh my conscience and my sympalhy conslanlly fill me wilh righteous anger, and I gel So mad I gril my leelh, yell clearly realize Ihallhe only lhing I can do is 10 offer a few wordS' of sympalhy and cons01alion. Can Ihe acl of wriling oullheir slories aclually change Iheir plighl? Somelimes il does exaclly lhe opposile and gels lhem in even worse trouble. ...Lileralure ullimalely can never again be lhe 100[ of politics; il cannol affecl our lives So concrelely and So complelely. Nor can society expecl wrilers 10 be like politicians in having a direcl and down-lo-earlh sense of mission.

My own feeling is lhal lhe reason for lhe serioUSness of Ihis sense of social concern in lhis generalion is perhaps due 10 a very slrange motive :

44 Deathsong of the River

, In the spring of ~~88, Su.Xiaokang had ~eft Be ijin.g.for. several weekS'~\

to work on a new wrlbng project, a book enbtled Sacrifice in Utopia. ~"\~ book was a semi-fictional recreation of a number of important characters, '~ including Mao Zedong, ~~o. had ne~er b~n writ~n a~~ut in this way ,':

before. Due to the senslbvlty of hls subject, hlS ongmal publisher Baihuazhou magazine, had their press run of two hundred thousand copies an locked up in a warehouse. But in November of 1988 the book was finally published, with a prominent quotation from Zhao Ziyang on the inside:

"In a certain sense, if the Great Cultural Revolution had not turned everything upside down, then we could not be as enlightened as we are today and reflect on the problems arising since 1957. In that case we would have to waste even more time before reaching our current level of intellectual liberation."6S

The late fall of 1988 also saw the appearance of Su Xiaokang's "The Distress of a Dragon Year," in which Su Xiaokang took the opport11Dity to strike back at his critics, including Vice President Wang Zhen. By the end of this year, his resolution to tell the truth had already had expensive consequences. Heshang had been banned, and he had become embroiled, willing or not, in political struggle at the highest level.

4. The Democracy Movement. Political events moved quickly in the Spring of 1989. In January, Chinese astrophysicist Fang Lizhi had published an open letter to Deng Xiaoping, calling for amnesty for Wei Jingsheng and other political prisoners, in order to mark the 40th anniversary of the People's Republic as well as the 70th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement. In February thirty-three other intellectuals, including Su Xiaokang, followed suit in a petition to the Standing Committee of the National Peoples' Congress [NPC] and the Central Committee of the Party .69

The death of ex-General Secretary Hu Yaobang on April 15th led quickly to student demonstrations. On April 2lst, an "Open Letter" signed by two hundred intellectuals, including Su Xiaokang, called on the Central Committee, the Standing Committee of the NPC and the State Council not to ignore the students' demands.

The April24th issue of Shanghai's World Economic Herald reported on a forum it had organized in Beijing to discuss Hu Yaobang's achievements,

68 Su Xiaokang, Luo Shixu, and Oten 1Jleng, Wutuoban~ ii: 1959 nian Lushan 711i xia, Beijing, 1Jlongguo xinwen chubanshe, Nov. 1988. 409 pp. ISBN 7-80041-190-7\g.137. 69 Chinese texts of these two letten are reproduced in Jiushi niandai March, 1989, p. 18.

English translations are provided in Han Min1llu, ed., Cries for Dernocrac~. Princeton Univenity Press, 1990, pp. 24-25.

A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Illusory Nirvana? Heshang and the Intellectual Movements of the 19808 by Pin p, Wan

Deathsong of the River is a complex work; while its overall critical tone was understood immediately by most viewers, it contains many subtleties not easy for most Chinese to comprehend, let alone the foreign reader or viewer, Two major ingredients contributing to its complexity were the high goals it set and the broad range of topics it covered. Su Xiaokang and his colleagues from the beginning had in mind a very ambitious goal, intending to make the fIlm a "IV film of political commentary" and an "all- out inquiry into our nation's history. civilization, and destiny." [94] Xia Jun, Heshang's young director, intended it as a vehicle to bring intellecb1al issues to the general public.l With this goal in mind, it set out to introduce a set of formidable historical, economic, and philosophic theories, reflecting the rather eclectic reading of reformist intellecbla1s over the decade since the end of the Cultural Revolution, To better appeal to a mass audience, the discussion of these theoretical issues was to be interwoven with topics of contemporary concern to the man in the street, including sensitive political issues2 such as inflation, rural poverty, official corruption, the treatment of intellectuals, and the crisis in China ' s education.

1 See Xia Jun,"Heshan& chuangzuo guocheng de huigu" [A Glance Back over the Process cX Creating Heshan& 1 in Cui Wenhua, ed., Heshan& lun, p. 85; and Guo Lixm, "l.mIgnian de &Ih~ xianxiang- fang Heshan& biandao Xia Jun" [The Dragon Year's Heshan& phenomenon-an interview with Heshan&'s ~ctor Xia Jun] in Thon& shi wanbao. SePtember Ilth,1988; see bibliography, items *16, *17.

2 The pointing out of 1OC-ic&l problems was adopted by Su Xiaokang as one of his strategic

aPProaches in designing Heshan&. He calls these problems "activation poinu:' naming as ex.lnlples rafting on the Yangtze and Yellow Riven, the wonhip of the dragon spirit,the plight of intellectuals, prices and the market, the student movement cX 1986, democratization, ~"Passion for studying culture," etc. See Su Xiaokang, " Arousing the Whole Nation to

~estioning," p. 96 in this volume.

, 63 ~,

64 Deathsong of the River

For the foreign reader, there are additional barriers to understanding. Perhaps the easiest pitfall for the foreign reader to fall into is to regard Heshani! purely and simply as an intellectual work, without taking into account its use of language and the special environment of discourse in which it was produced; the national mood which it reflected and its makers' motives for producing it; their concept of their social role and mission; and the positive and negative responses of its audiences.

The question of Heshang's language and its environment of discourse is treated separately by my colleague Richard Bodman in his introduction. Here I would like to lay a groundwork for the non-Chinese-speaking reader to understand the other barriers listed above. What I propose is to look at ~athsonl! of the River from the two perspectives of the author and of society. My essay is intended to be primarily informative and descriptive rather than evaluative; it is certainly not exhaustive, for the richness and complexity of Heshang will continue to inspire new interpretations and re- interpretations.

The following discussion consists of three main sections. 1. The first section introduces the psychology of Heshang , s makers: their motives, their moods and their vision of the work both before and after its broadcast. It focuses on questions such as: Why did they want to make such a film? How did they see it? And how did they approach it? 2. The second section examines the film makers' concept of the cultural crisis in contemporary China and their relation to the legacy of May Fourth, drawing on the debate over the role and values of the modern intellectual. As some scholars have pointed out, the views presented in the film are critical and iconoclastic. Hence we should ask questions such as: What concept of their roles as intellectuals led them to adopt such a cultural approach? What is their concept of China's cultural crisis? And where do their ideas derive from? 3. The third section concerns the controversy raised by the film and the reaction of conservative elements in the party and government. While the film had been praised as "a second wave of enlightenment" and as "preparatory work for the reforms," yet it still ended up being banned. Here we should ask questions such as: Are the makers of the film patriots? Is the film a work of enlightenment? Why did they choose to attack culture? Why did it become a political event, and what issues in the film particularly offended officialdom? All these are interesting sub-questions, the discussion of which may constitute an answer to the overall question, which is: what is De2thsoni! of the River, and how should one read it?

i

i I. Creating a Sensation in the Dragon Year: Motive, Mood, and Vision I

The series was first aired in June, 1988, via the nationwide television I network. After the first broadcast, Chinese Central Television (CCTV) I

I ,

..A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Illusory Nirvana?" 65

received an unprecedented number of letters. nearly a thousand in the f1fSt week. from people in all walks of life, including students, teachers, workers, scholars, party cadres and People's Liberation Army soldiers. In most of the letters, the writers praised the success of the film, asked for the script, and >leaded for a rebroadcast.3 The basic tone of these letters revealed that the film series' depiction of China's cultural crisis appealed strongly to its reviewers' patriotic sentiments. This overwhelmingly enthusiastic response, ;oupled with the Party's stated policy of non-interference with literary works, most likely made the rebroadcast in August possible.4 Although aired only twice, we may fairly assume that it was seen by at least one hundred million viewers and perhaps by as many as several hundred millions.

Consequently, the series aroused deep concern and interest on the part of intellectuals; conferences and seminars were held to discuss the various ssues raised by the film; and a host of articles appeared in the press. Journalists and intellectuals coined new terms: Heshang re [The Heshang ;raze] and Heshan~ xianxianK (The Heshan~ phenomenon]. Since the questions raised by the series were so controversial, it was not long before scholars involved in the debate split into opposing camps. The debate continued to spread and involved so many intellectuals and even some party

See Su Xiaokang, -11le Disuess of a Dragoo Year-Notel 00 Helhan&- in this volume, p. ~90; Quo lixin, -Loognian de Heshan& xianxiang-fang Heshan& biandao Xia Jun" lThe >ragoo Year'. Heshan& Phen001enoo--an interview with Heshan&'s director Xia Jun], in Ieshang taolun;; p.81.

For a fuller discuslioo of how dIe film series was initially approved, and how it ran into olitical difficulties aIMi criticism, lee '"The Disuess of a Dragoo Year," ell: 28~-~99 in this 'olume; 8lIo W.L. Choog, MSU Xiaokang 00 his Film 'River Elegy'" in China Infonnation, ~iden, vol 4, 110. 3, Winter 89/fX), pp. 44-55.

In 1987 , alina had a total of 112 mil1i00 televilioo sets aIMi an estimated televisioo audience

of 600 mil1i00 viewen. Televilioo reached 92.5% of urban residenu and 32.58% of rural elidentl, with a naliooa1average of 56.~. 17lI0022UO 2Uan2bo dianshi nianiian 1989. W. 47, 321.] What pelttl1t of this audience watched Heshan& is a more difficult queltion. as no ,udience surveys have been published. Though Heshan& was broadcast 011 the natiooa1 hannel, it woold still have had to compete for viewen, as mOlt cities provide three channels. n additioo, after the broadcast of Pan One, the remaining epilodes were broadcast after 10 om at night. In July, local stations in Shanghai and Shen7l1en rebroadcast the series, 'warently without permiSsioo. Alice de Joog cites an article by He Yulin in Wenhui bao, ~ember 14, 1988, whicll mentiooed a viewing rate of 16%, presumably for the first ~dcast, which woold yield an audience of over 90 mi1li00, far less than dIe 45% rate cited or the Olinese-made Modai huan&di series. Yet the we1l-known plblic cootroveny over the eries, plus the availability of the plblished script. Ihoold have made the secood broadcast in ~ugust 1988 far more popular. 71I(Wt&&UO ~in&nianhao 00 September 2, 1988, published a ~t8iled questiormaire including 32 questioos whicll it asked viewen to COOIplete and lend .ck; the resulu of the survey were to have been made into a book Ix1t do not aweu to have een published.

66 Deathsong of the River

and government cadres, that it made conservative elements in the leadership feel highly uneasy, to the point that they made a political issue of it, transforming it from the subject of an intellectual debate into a political football in the struggle between conservatives and refonners within the party .Vice-President Wang Zhen' s public condemnation of the series in late September 1988 signalled the end to free discussion within China. Eventually, both the published edition of the script and the video cassette of the series were banned from the market Yet the banning of Heshang did not dampen the climate of free expression in the press, and in the spring of 1989 many of Heshang's makers played active roles in the democracy movement After the events of June 4, 1989 at Tian'anmen Square, the authorities accused HeshanK of deliberately preparing public opinion for the students' democracy movement, and mobilized scholars to launch an ideological campaign to combat its pernicious influence. Some of the people involved in making HeshanK managed to flee the country , while others were arrested.6 However, long before 1989 this "craze" had already spread to Hong Kong, Taiwan and other counbies where the debate continued amongst scholars and students in the Chinese-speaking community overseas.

To understand the motives and thinking of the film-makers, much can be learned by taking a look at what they have said themselves. Su Xiaokang, one of the principal authors of the script, gave a lecture at Leiden University in the Netherlands on November 24th, 1989, in which he stated:

However, in this lecture, I want to deal with some of the social and psychological reasons for making Heshan~. Strictly speaking, it is not a theoretical or academic work. Some scholars treated it as such, and devoted much discussion and criticism to it from academic viewpoints. but they had not understood that it is a work about emotions. On the surface, it seems as if the film is about social and historical theory, but in reality. it was aimed at expressing a certain 1rWod prevalent among the Chinese today!

His statement here seems to contradict what he said in his preface to the fIrst published edition, entitled " Arousing the Whole Nation to Self- questioning." There he states that the film was designed to '.bring information about all sorts of theories and thinking to the IV screen in large volume. endowing the film with a clear, rich and meaty awareness of the philosophy of culture..." [95] and that for that purpose they had

6 Su Xia<*-ang and Yuan 1JIiming anivai in Fr111ce in the fall of 1989, then came to the U.S. in the fall of 1990. 1Jlang Gang initially ned to Taiwan, where he was detained by the authorities, after which he also anived in the U.S. Wang lI1xiang was irnprisooed for several months and subsequently released. Bao Zunxin was sentenced to five years in prison and Wang Juntao to thirteen yean.

7 Su Xiaokang's lecture was first published in English by W.L OJong in his anic1e "Su

Xia<*-ang on His Fihn River Be&): 0" ~

II A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an lllusory Nirvana?" 67

Ilinvited experts and scholars in all areas to present their views succinctly on the television screen." [96] The contradiction retween these two passages is so striking that it makes one wonder: which was Su Xiaokang's real motive? We have to assume that Su Xiaokang as a reportage writer had developed a keen sensitivity to the political implications of literature. Even as he and Xia Jun fIrst wrote down their ideas in draft and planned out their goals, his professional instincts must have alerted him to the project's JX)tential dangers. The tone of his preface reveals his pleasure and excitement about the approval of his project. He thought that they could fulfill the goals they had set, and so he used the preface to jot down his expectations. Besides, the strong support he had received from the Deputy-director of CCTV , Chen Hanyuan,8must have made him feel somewhat at ease. What he and Xia Jun could not know was how far the Party would let them go. But they decided to go ahead anyway, using the series as a touchstone to test the limits of free expression possible.

Su Xiaokang's lecture delivered at Leiden, however, is not about his expectations and intentions in 1988. By that time he was a dissident in exile in a foreign country; his heart was full of anger, distress, and despair .9 And he was speaking in a very different Ilenvironment of discourse."

'"What kind of mood is it that Heshan~ reflects? I call it a mood of anxiety fiiaolii. de 'iin~xu). In 1988-89, before the recent tempest, there was a kind of fin-de-.\"iecle feeling pervading the country, because the reforms, during the past ten years, have come into great difficulties, and the question arose whether our people would be able to find a way out. There was a strong feeling that China's ship was about to sink.

Due to corruption and profiteering byofficials, and unfair distribution, some types of jobs in the public service, like that of teachers, medical doctors, and bus drivers, had suddenly become low status. On the other hand, many traders were engaging in illegal activities, such as selling phoney cigarettes, phoney spirits. phoney medicines, and making a great deal of money. Most government officials were also greedy and corrupt, and all this gave rise to great popular resentment...'. 10

8 Su later expressed his great appreciation for Chen Hanyuan, giving him all the credit for P~ecting the series from censorship and for allowing it to be broadcast See Su, "The Distress of a Dragon Year," in this volume, p. 289. 9

He expresses similar feelings in another essay written shortly after arriving in France: "Zai Bali xiangqi Caishikou-liuwang ganhuai" [Remembering Caishikou in Paris- feelings in exileJ, Bai xin&, no.202, October 16, 1989, pp. 3-4; bibliography item *28. 10 W L Ch .

While Su Xiaokang's feeling of anxiety is clear, what exactly does he mean bya '~n-de-s;ecle" f shiiimo de ~anjue 1 feeling?11 The Chinese ternt does nOt suggest anything like the artistic decadence of France at the end of the 19th century, something hardly possible under the political and economic conditions of contemporary China. Rather it indicates a deep despair and frustration, as if impending disaster threatened the downfall of the COUDb'y . This mood was particularly prevalent amongst the high culture elite.12 It was this sort of mood that impelled Su Xiaokang to make Heshang.13 Let us now compare his account with that given by Xia Jun, Heshang's twenty- five-year-old director.

Xia ]un is the one who actually initiated the project. He was an energetic and ambitious young man who had just received his M.A. from the Central Academy of Drama in 1986 and who had long dreamed of "making a big film."14 The "cultural craze" fwenhua rel of the years 1985-87 had had a tremendous influence on him, inspiring him to think about the issue of television culture and to express his own ideas about society and culture. He admitted that, under the influence of this debate, he had accepted the new interpretation that cultural symbols such as the dragon or the Great Wall were no longer glorious and worthy of respect. This change brought him closer to the group of "cultural luminaries" involved in the debate over traditional culture. Moreover, his participation in the shooting of the 30- part Yellow River series jointly produced by CCTV and NHK had inspired him to experiment with the idea of a film which could bring out the meaning of the Yellow River much more deeply. His first experience of seeing the Yellow River close up was rather emotional. Later, he would recall his impressions as follows:

"In the second half of 1986. as a member of the camera crew of the original Yellow River series. I travelled along part of the Yellow River. I ~ it.

II ]bid..

12 Su Xiaokang frequently refers to a shiiirno de &anJue. translated here as a 'fin-de-siecle feeling.'ln other passages, he uses it to express a mixture of despair, depression, fear, and uneasiness. Somet.imes he calls it a 'mentality. (as in shiiimo de xintai), while elsewhere it indicates a feeling or mood, as in shiiimo de &aniue. See "The Distress of a Dragon Year - Notes on Heshan&" in this volume, p. 213; see also his article NShijimo de huimou: guanyu Heshan& xuji de liuchan jilu" [A Glance Back at the End of the CentuIY: Notes on the Miscarriage of Heshan&'s Sequel] in Wenhui xyekan, Shanghai, May, 1989, reprinted in 1JIao Yaodong, et at. Heshan2 taolunii, pp. 195-221.

13 "It was a reflectioll of the mood of a1lXiety. of dead/ock. a/Id it was agailISt this OOckgrolUld that we coIICeived the p/all to make Heshall&." See W.L. Choog, ~ p. 46.

14 Xia Jun, NHeshan& chuangzuo guocheng de huigu" in Cui Wenhua, ed., Heshan& lun, p. 83.

II A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an illusory Nirvana?" 69

Before this I had often crossed the Yellow River on bridges as a traveller in a hurry. But I had never ~ the Yellow River. But now I had come, I had seen it and felt it. The Yellow River shocked me. But it was not its grandeur ,lyricized over a thousand years, that shocked me; rather it was its ugliness, its poverty, and the dangers hidden within it that shocked me. Near Huayuankou, I walked right out into the middle of the riverbed. At that time, the Yellow River was not the great rushing river that most people imagine-rather it was a swamp, a stretch of mud, a large, old. ever- changing monster. I believe that I have never been as moved, as worried, depressed, saddened or stimulated by it as I was at that time."IS

Xia Jun's mood was dlus in close accord widl Su Xiaokang's feelings. They immediately proceeded to work out an outline for a trilogy on dIe Yellow River, whose individual parts would be called: "Ten thousand li from East to West"; I'Four Thousand Years from Start to Finish"; and .'A Billion People on Bodl Banks."16 But dley worried that dIe fIrSt part of dIe trilogy would overlap widl dIe CCTV -NHK series. So dley changed dIe content into six parts and gave it dIe tentative title of The Great Al1«X }7

While Xia Jon and Su Xiaokang's motives for making dIe film series bodl sprang from a similar mood of frusb'ation and disquiet, this mood was heightened by dleir fears and worries about making dIe film itself. After Su Xiaokang had finished an outline of the dlematic structure and logical development of dIe film, (which would later become dIe blueprint for Heshangl8) he and Xia Jun made a formal proposal to dIe authorities at CCTV , who included a representative from dIe military .At dlis point dley had asked Wang Luxiang to come to dIe meeting as an evaluator. The result of dIe meeting was exciting, for it was I'unanimously approved with high expectations," yet it was recognized that it would I'have to face potential risks."19 Although dIe series was officially approved, there was always the

-

IS Ibjd..

16 Su Xiaokang alludes to these origjnal titles at the beginning of his p~face to the published

edition; see " Arousing the Whole Natioo to Self -Quesliooing" in this volume, p. 93. 17 The original subtitles for the six pal11 of the series we~ less ambiguous and had a stronger emotional cootent: "Clina in Search of a Dream"; "The Black Hole of Destiny"; "The Vanishing Light of the Sprit"; "The Yellow-soil Toms Blue"; "Olina's Sorrow"; and "Sunset OYer the River." Their original working title, The Great ArtelJ- was intended to suggest an artery nourishing Chinese cultu~, but they later feh that it was a little loo dull and stiff. The final decisioo 00 a title, DeathSOO& of the River meshan&1, was delegated by Xi. Jun to Wang Luxiang and Xie Xuanj1U1. Xia Jun, ~, pp. 83, 85; Wang Luxiang, "Huiyi yo sikao" [Rem~bering and Pondering), Heshw llm- p. 95.

18 Xja Jon, "Heshan& chumgmo guochmg de huigu," in HesblD& lun. pp. 83-84. 19 Wang Luxiang, "Huiyi yo sikao," iD Heshan& lun. p. 92.

70 Deathsong of the River

threat that it could be canceled at any time before broadcast. Hence they could never feel completely free and unrestrained in producing the series.

"What made us the most apprehensive was whether or not a television piece including so many controversial topics could in the end be broadcast, and whether our labor, which we felt to be of inestimable value, could ever appear before society. This sort of apprehension was a constant influence on our creative energies and on our decisions about the form of the piece. And, throughout the whole creative process. it made us constantly cast a wo"ied glance over our shoulder. In fact. we never really let ourselves go in writing Heshan~. As a television director, how much I hoped that we could create a clear and rigorous law for television! In that case, then under its clear direction, one could create boldly, and the imagination of creators would not have to be crushed and stifled under thatformless but heavy burden. Indeed, apprehension was our constant companion..."20

In fact, this sort of apprehension continued even after the fIrst broadcast in June of 1988. The fIrSt broadcast had aroused both a strongly positive reaction from the public as well as a strongly negative reaction in certain academic and political circles, thus putting the network in a difficult position. In order to facilitate a rebroadcast, the leadership of CCTV asked Su Xiaokang to revise certain passages in the script; a comparison of the original text of the narrative with the narrative as revised for the August rebroadcast gives a number of clues as to which topics were sensitive and to the limits of free expression}1

II. Intellectuals, Cultural Crisis, and the May Fourth Legacy

Yet the question still remains: Why did they dare to express despair and anger? Further, how did they conceive of their roles as intellectuals? And why did they adopt a cultural approach, choosing Chinese culture-and the traditional Confucian bureaucratic system in particular-as the target of their criticism? These questions cannot be answered by simply attributing the cause to the film makers' temporary moods. Rather, the answer is to be sought in the concepts and ideas they expressed in their own writings and in

20 See Xia Jun, "Heshang chuangzuo guocheng de huigu" in Heshan2 lun, po 85.

21 Su Xiaokang discussed the dtanges he had made in an interview with Mai Tianshu on the eve of the second broadcast; see Mai Tianshu, MPipan shi zui zhongyao de jianshe - Heshan& chongbo qianxi fang Su Xiaokang" {Criticism is the Most Important Contribution-an interview with Su Xiaokang on the eve of Heshan& 's rebroadcast]. 1JIon&&uo Qin&nianbao, August 16th, 1988, p. 1. The translation of the script in this volume presents the altered text of the second broadcast as footnotes to the original texL An integral text of the second broadcast of Parts Four and Six is also given on ppo 223-248 and 249-269 for the convenience of viewers of the videotape.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an lUusory Nirvana?" 71

the theoretical works of scholarly mentors such as ]in Guantao and Bao Zunxin.

1. First and foremost, the makers of HeshanK share a collective identity in terms of their role in society. In one way or another, they all identify themselves as "intellectuals" rzhishi fenzil and as "cultural luminaries" rwenhua jingyingl.22 This identity provides the real motive driving them to take the risk of making the series. The two roles of "intellectual" and of "cultural luminary" had been major topics in the debates on culture from 1985 to 1987. While the concept of the "intellectual" had also been a key one in the May Fourth Movement, yet it was only loosely defined then. Chinese scholars, particularly those who regard Chinese culture as a culture of the elite, think that the modem intellectual derives from the ill or scholar-official of ancient times.23 In the late 80s, the term zhishi fenzi or "intellectual" was brought under serious scrutiny and given a clear definition. One of the film's unofficial advisors, Bao Zunxin, defined the term in a modem sense:

"Modern [Chinese] intellectuals are different from the literati and scholars in the tradition. In addition to their knowledge, they should represent the conscience of society, have a lofty sense of responsibility and sense of mission. andjinally, have a highly rational and critical spirit."1A

Bao's concept of the modem intellectual is defined in contrast to the traditional literatus, who never developed a critical spirit due to the

2210 his article "Huiyi yu sikao" [Remembering and P<X1dering]. Wang Luxiang gives a list of Ihe intellectuals panicipating in Ihe project and attributes Heshan&'I success to Ihe collaboration between this group of wenhua iin&rin& and Ihe communications media. See Heshan& 11111, p. 97.

~3 ~ .~resentative and typi~ Iheory of this kind can be found in Hu Qiuyuan 'I book. ~dai LJton~~uo wenhua vu :l1I(W\&&UO 71lishi fenD fAncient Chinese Culture and China's IntellecllllW. H(W\g Kong: Ya7Jlw chuban she, secatd edition. 1957. He uses Ihree types of intellectuals in ancient China to represent Iheir spirit: Ihe Confucian scholar LmJ, who symbolired knowledge and morality; Ihe knight-errant (xiI], who stood for righteousness and justice; and the recluse lY.in], who represented Ihe moral integrity of Ihe scholar who cannot serve a conupt regime; see pp. 8-11. This C(Xlservative view has been seriously criticized by sdlolars in modem Orina; see Ihe following discussioo of Xu Jilin 'I ideas.

1A See Bao Zunxin, "lJrishi fenzi yo guan xue yiti de chuantong moshi," [futellectuals and

Ihe Traditional Pattern of Ihe 'Identity of Office Holding and Scholarship'], in Pi~an ):U cIIim.m& fCriticism and F;nliehtenmentl, Taibei: Iianjing chuban shiye gongsi, 1989, p. 161. His awareness of the crucial role of an independent personality fduli ren&el for modern Chinese intellectuals is Ihe main reason Ihat he agrees wilh Ihe New Confucianists, Panicularly wilh Du Weiming [Wei-ming Tu], in Iheir advocacy of cultivating among atjnese intellectuals a critical self-C(Xlsciousness of Iheir group identity. For more on Bao Zunxin. see p. 216, fn 47.

72 Deathsong of the River

confining influence of the Confucian tradition in which the role of the ~holar and of the bureaucrat were not distinguished.25

Xu Jilin, a ~holar who also participated in the debate on culture, points out that in its entire history China had never produced a single intellectual with an independent personality, because the literati simply could not recome independent under the prevailing Confucian <k>Ctrine and bureaucratic system. Their joint role as both officials and as members of the literati elite depended on the patronage of the emperor, and this very dependence prevented them from ever becoming critical and independent intellectuals. One could object that the recluse [or yjnshi) and the madman [or kuan~renl were two other types of traditional intellectuals that to some degree had independent personalities, and that occasionally some upright Confucian ~holars had the moral integrity to criticize the emperor. Yet even this degree of independence was one based on a traditional Confucian moral consensus; it was not one which they had arrived at by independent, critical reflection. Hence, traditional Confucian society could not create truly independent intellectuals, and even those who seemed most independent exhibited a tendency to return to the tradition.26 Echoes of this critique of the traditional intellectual are found in Heshang in several places:

"..China has never again re-enacted such a grand historical drama as the competition among the Hundred Philosophical Schools. From these large square military formations, in addition to hearing the melodies of war and dictatorship, can we not also discern the repression of individuals caused by expelling unorthodox opinions, confining people's knowledge, and forcefully unifying thought?" [141]

"A bureaucracy made up of Confucianists had an irresistible tendency to co"lqJtion, and power itself became a co"osive agent..." [196]

25 When he explained why the most important quality of an independent intellectual was his critical spirit, Bao explicitly criticired the current political culture, saying "TM facts that t~ bureaucrats despise or even deny t~ indepelldel11 va/ue of scha/ars and takl. them as a flower vase or decoration for t~ir successful po/icies and po/itica/ achievements, and that t~y refuse to /isten to scho/ars' opinions, especia//y opposing a/Id criJica/ ones, all reflect t~ p0/iJica/ superiority comp/ex of the bureaucrats. /1 is t~ manifestation of t~ tradition of 'the identity of office-ho/ding and scho/arship' in modern times They confirle, reform, and uti/ize t~ iIIte//ectua/s. ..This is worse than t~ traditional 'identiJy ofoffice-ho/ding and scholarship.'.. ~., pp. 169-170.

26 See Xu Jilin, "7ltishi fenzi duli renge lun" (On the Independent Personality of Intellectuals), in Xin oirnen~: shidai vu xuan7P..INew Enli~htenment Sene. No- I: The Time and the Choicel, Wang Yuanhua, ed., Hunan: Xinhua shudian, October 1988, pp. 77- 91; also Bao Zunxin, "Wei wancheng de niepan" (An Incomplete Nirvana] in Bao Zunxin, Pi~an ~ Qimen~, Taibei, Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, August, 1989, pp. 103-139, esp. p.138.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Ulusory Nirvana?" 73

"The tragic fate of Yan Fu and indeed of many other advanced thinkers of the early modern period such as Kang Yuwei, Liang Qichao, and Zhang Taiyan would also seem to prove that even the very best Chinese, after promoting revolution and progress for a while, would ultimately be unable to avoid retreating to the haven ofConfucianism." [210]

"Chinese history did not create a bourgeoisie for the Chinese people which could hasten the victory of science and democracy,. Chinese culture did not nurture a sense of citizenship. On the contrary, it taught a subject mentality... But History did give the Chinese people an entirely unique group: its intellectuals. It is very difficult for them to have economic interests in common or an independent political stance; for thousands of years they have been hangers-on. Nor can they become a solid social entity that employs a steel-hard economic strength to carry out an armed critique of the old society. Their talents can be manipulated by others, their wills can be twisted, their souls emasculated, their backbones bent, and their flesh destroyed..." [217-218]

What, then, is the "ideal type" of the modem intellectual? Xu suggests that an intellectual should (1) take his own needs, particularly his need for knowledge and truth as his priority , and not be subservient to any external social duty; (2) unyieldingly maintain a scientific, individual rationality in his methodology of thinking; and (3) have a richly critical spirit toward society }7 He further prescribes two social roles for intellectuals: that of "cultural luminary" and that of "public conscience." As a cultural luminary , an intellectual has to pursue knowledge and truth, preserve an ultimate concern toward nature, society, and the meaning of human knowledge, and regard his pursuit of knowledge as an entirely independent and self-existing task, not subservient to any other duty. As a social conscience, an intellectual should participate in public affairs. But in addition to seeking for the interests of his social class, he should have a macroscopic vision perceiving things from the perspective of the whole society, the whole nation and the whole of mankind. In other words, an intellectual should on the one hand believe in "knowledge for knowledge's sake" in the realm of scholarship and on the other have a critical spirit which transcends all profits or interests in the realm of politics.2I In Confucian society, all intellectuals were officials, except for a few recluses and those who did not pass the examinations. This merging of scholarship and official position made intellectuals attached to political authority [for the sake of their future careers] and made them lose their social power as a clasS.29

- 27 See Xu JiIin, ihid.., p. 78. 28lhid.., p. 87.

29 Ibi.I!., pp. 78-79.

74 Deathsong of the River

While Western intellectuals since the Renaissance have maintained some critical independence from political power by associating themselves with the aristocracy or the universities, Chinese literati from the very beginning of the bureaucratic system in the Qin dynasty have had to depend on the monarch's pab'OOage. The same subservient relationship to IX>wer has also held true throughout the history of the People's Republic. During the Cultural Revolution, scholarship had to serve politics, and the position of intellectuals was often b"agic, with many suffering political persecution for being "Stinky Old Ninths." The persecution of intellectuals is symbolically represented by the "block cross" in the conclusion to Part Three of Heshang:

,. A~ng the professions of mankind, no one has a greater need for a free at~sphere and unlimited space than they do. If you affued a black cross to their spirits or weighed them down under a grey Great Wall, then the light of the spirit would never become the sun! May History never again play tricks on Chinese intellectuals. Today, this is our deepest prayerr' [156]

The concept of the independent intellectual serving as a social conscience and the need to fulfill this social responsibility would appear to have provided Su Xiaokang and his companions with the necessary motivation and courage for producing such a "television fIlm of political commentary" as Heshang.3o

2. Second, it is rather ironic that these intellectuals, who have such deep concerns over social problems and who are so eager to contribute to their country , nevertheless share a subtle yet haunting sense of not belonging. While as "cultural luminaries" they identify strongly with their role as a social conscience, they have lost a feeling of generational identity and feel alienated from the rest of society .Recently, there has appeared a very popular theory of China's "four generations" [si dai ren lilunl. Wang Luxiang described these four generations as follows:

At a gathering a young friend put forth his famous "theory of the four generations." He divided into four generations all those on the mainland who had received an education in communist ideology. The first generation covered a rather broad span of time ; all of those party members who fought to win sovereignty belong to this first generation... In sum, all those who entered the cities dancing the yan~~e belong to this generation.31...

30 See Su Xiaokang, -Shimin22an mi wo jian" [My View of a 'Sense of Mission'], in ~. no.2, 1988, W. 47-48. Here Su Xiaokang reveals his own thinking about how his cmcem for the fate of the natioo is linked to a smse of missioo (X'ICspoosilX1ity.

31 The ~ lit., -seedling soogs," is a rural folk dance of north Chin.. In 1942, in the Conununist liberated areal of the northwest, a Knew ~ II with ICvolutiooary content, was introduced.

..A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Illusory Nirvana?" 75

Those who participated in the building of socialism in the 1950s are the second generation. This generation has more education than the first, many of them being l'petit intellectuals" ; they can dance a very standard and elegant ballroom dance... Whenever they get together they cannot help but recall the comradely feelings of their youth and the warmth of their great revolutionary family and so hum together a few Soviet songs to revive for a moment those golden days now goneforever.

The third generation are rather complicated. The representatives of this generation include both the members of the l'Third National People's Congress" as well as the most fanatic and radical young generals of the Red Guards in the first period of the Cultural Revolution.32 They can dance a very sincere l'dance of loyalty." In a country such as China which lacks a religious life, they are perhaps the only group of people who in the depths of their hearts have experienced the religious emotions of worshipping a superhuman man- god and his power. Of course, they are also the generation with the strongest sense of disillusionment. In today's China, the bunch of guys making the most mischief all belong to this generation.33 It would be hard to say, though, whether they are still rebelling on behalf ofthose long- gone ideals. They are constantly made into the main characters of literary works. To that period of their lives which can best represent their existence, some of them express extreme distaste, while others are not at all contrite but are rather proud that they once believed and that on behalf of those beliefs they even made sacrifices, which, though meaningless, are still worth remembering .

Thefourlh generation are the IIanti-heroes" of the present; they can dance a very skillful "break dance" and "outer space dance" and sing 1'1 don't have nulhin"' and l'Step up bravely, baby."34 They are ashamed to speak ofideals butpay close attention to short-Iived culturalfads.

-

32 The first Red GuaM organiutions a~ generally acknowledged to have consisted largely of the sons and daughters of Pany members in power; hence they were less willing to attack the Pany itself than the sCC<XId wave of Red GuaMs, known as the zaofan ~ai. or w ~bels.

33 meten~ de Zlli huan d~ 7.hur: Here Wang Luxiang is using a Beijing dialect expression, suggesting the naughty activities of bad children.

34 The first song, Myi wu suo Y.mI" is a pop song slD1g by 0Ji Jim. The second, MMeirnei. ni

~ d~ wan&-qia~:;.ou" is the theme S(X\g fI{Xn the 1987 movie Red SoI&hum directed by 2Jlang Yirnou. In his 1ectu~ at uiden, Su Xiaokang also discussed these songs, regaMing Ihem as ~flecting a p~valent mood in the CQIntry: "Thue .rMg.r were .rJUIg in a frellZied a/Id ~bridJed -y, like rock-a/1d-roll. It ~ a reflectioll of the mood of allXiety, of deadlock, and II ~ again.rt thi.r backgroJUId that we coIICeivtd the plall to nWJkt Heshani. 01 cour.re, as alllhor.r, we were illjllle/ICed by the prevalent mood. We tVQnted to explain what ~ behind thtse /eeling.r of ala~ aNi tragedy, a/Id in a very IIDtural nWJnntr, we traced them back to Problem.r ofChintse culture." See W.L. OIong, ~ p. 46.

76 Deathsong of the River

I wonder what generation I am? I've tried very hard to think of what generation I belong to, but in the end I had to give up. ...The members of these four generations all have a sense of belonging to their own generation, and so their lives all have a home base. But asfor me? And my age-mates? We have no slot to fit into, we have lost any sense ofa "generation" to belong to, we have become drifters unable to find our fixed place in history on this continent [QQll41. And yet we are very numerous,for we all happened to be born in the first' baby boom' after the founding of the People's Republic, and of that famous group who started college in 1977 and 78 we number about hall At present, a significant number of the active young intellectuals on the mainland belong to our group of generation less "historical drifters." Perhaps it is precisely the deep-rootedfear created by this sense of the loss of a historical home to belong to that has made us so active in this critical age. To lack a sense of belonging is to lack anything to rely on or to hold on to. Perhaps we were born to be critics, because we don'tfit in, because we are transitionalfigures between generations, because History has not set aside a timefor us to be builders...35

Wang Luxiang was not alone in feeling lost. Xie Xuanjun, co-author of Part Six of Heshan~, wrote a long preface for a book entitled China's Fourth Generation. Drawing on the ilieory of alienation between generations popularized by Arnold Toynbee in his dialogue wiili Daisaku Ikeda, Xie argued that the cultural conflicts between generations in China were particularly sharp.36

Their feeling of being lost is in fact an existential concern.

Psychologically, this generation has a strong desire to seek for recognition and identity by showing their concern for ilie nation. They believe that iliey should do something promptly, because ilie older generation's ideas are bankrupt and because ilie younger generation is not yet ready to be trusted.

Thus ilieir alienation from oilier generations and their feeling of being "drifters" combine with their social conscience to generate values such as a "sense of mission" rshimin~ ~anl, "ultimate concerns" rzhongji gyanhuail,

35 See Wang Luxiang, ..Shiqu jiayuan de pia000lhe" (Drifters Who Have Lost Their H(XDe) in I LWI&nian de beichuan2, Hong K(Xlg: SanJian shudian 1.ld., 1989, pp. 178-182.

36 See 7Jlang y (Xlgjie and Cleng 7JIizb(Xlg, 7Jton&&uo di sidai. Taibei: Fengyun shidai chuban gongsi, 1989. The Toynbee-Ikeda dialogues, publilhed in English as Otoose Life: A Dialo&ue. Richard L Gage, ed., Oxford, 1976, were publilhed in Clina under the title of 7Jtanwan& enhivi shiii rI~in& Toward the Twentv-fint Cmturvl. The issue of alienation is discussed under the subheading of "The Establishment and the Generation Gap" in Part I, chapter 5.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an illusory Nirvana?" 77

and a .'sense of social concern" rxouhuan rishil.37 We may say that these three new values are actually the products of their social roles.

The fIrst two tenns are quite newly minted, while the third has a long history; yet all of them are attempts to defIne the moral quality of the intellectual's relationship to the nation. Shimin~ comes from the words for "envoy" and "order"; hence when an envoy takes an order, he is on a mission. This word has a meaning close to that of the English word "mission" without sharing its specific religious and diplomatic connotations. Zhon2ji Kllanhuai is a neologism which has ~ome popular and fashionable amongst China's modern culblralluminaries. The tenn has a weighty moral connotation. It refers to the highest ideals and goals of the intellectual as cultural luminary .His task on the one hand should be the pursuit of knowledge and truth, which transcends all political and personal interests; and on the other hand it should be the creation and passing on of culture.38

Both these terms are related in turn to xouhuan Xishi, which derives from a consideration of the moral duty of the scholar in traditional China. Throughout China's history, the ~ or "scholar-bureaucrats" have held an honored position in society, superior to all others, whether peasant, artisan, merchant or soldier. The D was a bureaucrat who had achieved his status through learoing the Confucian classics. In fact, dIe Analects specified the identity of dIe scholar and the public servant:

"Tzu-hsia said, The energy a man has left over after doing his duty to the State. he should devote to study; the energy that he has left after studying, he should devote to service of the State."39

He dIus labored widI his mind, radIer than widI his hands, as Mencius said.40 The establishment of Confucianism as an intellectual orthodoxy in

37 On dIe translalion of xouhuan yjshi, see p. 183, fnl. Su Xiaokang's views abotn ~ouhuan xiJhi (translated either as usmse of som)w and worry" or as usmse of social concern"] may be found in his essay uShimin&&an zhi wo jian" (UMy view of a 'sense of miSSioo"'], in QW JiIi. 1988.1, partially translated in this volume 00 pp. 40-43.

38 The term also appean in the alternative forms mOll&ii &yangie or moo&ii xixi (ultimate !Deaning]. Both Xu Jilin and Bao Zunxin define and use it in the same way, though their illostJalions aAleAEin slightly differmt axltext. See Bao, ~., p. 169. and Xu, ~, pp. 86-87.

39 See Arthur Waley, trans., The Analects of Confocios. New York: Macmillan Company, 1939. Book XIX, verse 13, p. 227.

40 D.C. Lao, trans., Mencios, Penguin Classics, p. 101. uThere are those who use their minds and there are those who use their mIUCtU. The former rule; lhe lauer are ruled. Those who rule are supported by those who are ruled."

78 Deathsong of the River

the Han dynasty and the commencement of the examination system under the Tang confIrmed the social position of the mi. Yet the .shi was also expected to accept Confucian ideology without question, and to be completely loyal both to his ruler and to the state. Gradually, a sense of loyal concern became deeply imprinted in their minds. The famous essay "On the Tower at Yueyang" by the Song dynasty writer Fan Zhongyan provided the classic definition for the term YQJI in ~ouhuan:

"They [the ancient sages] neither delighted in the things of the world nor were saddened on account of their own individual fate. When in high position at court, they felt concern [Y!lJiJ for the people; when in exile in the country, they felt concern for their ruler; then whether in or out of office they were equally concerned. And so when did they enjoy themselves? It must be said that 'they felt concern before the rest of the world was concerned, and enjoyed themselves only after the rest of the world had enjoyed themselves. "'41

Several centuries later, at the beginning of the Qing dynasty, the term ~ouhuan occurs in Wang Fuzhi's Du tong~iian lun in something approaching its modern sense:

"Place yourself in the situation of the past, as if you were experiencing it yourself; focus your thoughts on the concerns of the ancients, as if they were your own responsibility. When you take on the sorrow and worry [youhuanJ of the ancients for the safety and peril of the altars of the state, then the way in which you can now eliminate danger and achieve peace will appear ; when you take on the consideration of the fortune and misfortune of the people of the past, then you will have a way to ensure prosperity and eliminate harm in the present."42

The same pattern of thought certainly had its impact on Su Xiaokang also.43 If history is indeed a mirror into which we should look for present guidance, then Heshang may be seen as a case of following Wang Fuzhi's advice to look for the solution of present problems by focussing on the past. The text of Heshang shows an abiding concern for the problems faced by China in her attempts to reform and modernize, and is constantly linking the past with the present. Although the government had started the reform process in 1978 at the famous 3rd Plenum of the 11th Party Congress, by

41 See Fan 7lIongyan [989-1052], "Yueyang 1ou ji" in Gu wen 2uan mi: see also Pan Four, p. 175.

42 Wang Fu7l1i. Du ton&iian 1un rOn Readin& the <Comgrehensive Mirror for Aid in the An of Govemment>l, Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1975, vol. 2, p. 1114. Quoted by Bao Zunxin in Pigan XII qirnen&, p. 114.

43 Su Xiaokang, "Shirnin22an zhi wo jian," p. 48.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Illusory Nirvana?" 79

1988 the process had apparently stagnated, while problems such as inflation, official corruption, the economic difficulties of teachers and the continuing poverty of China's interior all pointed to a single conclusion: that the system was not working. Inlellectuals were particularly distressed by their meager rewards, as was reflected in a number of popular sayings: "Those who cut open the head are not as well off as those who shave it"44, and "Those who make atomic bombs are not as well off as those who sell tea eggs."45 Their low income in turn became the reason for many people to look down on teaching as a profession. Su Xiaokang's investigative report on the teaching profession, Shenshen~ ~ousilu rThe Teacher's Lamentl, had revealed that teachers enjoyed low pay, low status and low morale, while fewer and fewer college students had any interest in becoming teachers after graduation.46 Ironically, it was the very process of economic reform and the reintroduction of material incentives that had led to the intellectuals' decline in status.

3. Third, the makers of Heshang had a shared sense that it was their generation's duty to take up the legacy of the May Fourth movement of 1919 and to complete its unfinished work. Most of this generation of "cultural luminaries" are ardent champions of the May Fourth legacy. Su Xiaokang, under the influence of historians Jin Guantao and Liu Dong had in fact decided to make a sequel to Heshang which would be called ~ rMav Fourth 1 and which would be produced in time for the seventieth anniversary of the May Fourth movement in 1989.47 In September 1988, he and Xia J un had already received funding; by year's end, they had worked out a detailed script outline and had shot three thousand hours of footage in the field.48 The project was to be far bolder in concept than Heshang but could

-

44 Kai naolu de hu m ti tnulu de: see Part Four, p. 175. 45 Zao vuann dan de hu m mai cha~e dan de.

46 See Su Xiaokang, Shenshen& ~ousi lu; also Part Three, p. 156.

47 In two of his articles Su Xiaokang mentions that the idea of making a sequel to Heshan&

originated with ]in Guantao. Iin felt Heshan& 's treatment of certain issues was flawed by factual enors and a lack of clarity, and that there should be a sequel to discuss those problems in depth. See W.L. Chong, ~, p. 47. See also Su Xiaokang's article, "Shijimo huimou: guanyu Heshan& xuji de liuchan jilu" [A Glance Back at the End of the Century: Notes on the Miscarriage of Heshan&'s SequelJ, in Heshan2 taolunii, Zhao ':aodong et ai., Taibei: Fengyun shidai chuban she, 1990, pp. 195-227. Here Su described his acquaintance with Liu Dong, who wrote the outline of the script for the sequel, and their fOrty-day trip to do outdoor shooting at the home towns of the eminent intellectuals of the May Fourth movement, including Chairman Mao.

48 See Su Xiaokang, ipi4.. p. 226, and Guo Lixin, "Longnian de Heshang xianxiang - fang He-sh.AU biandao Xia ]un" [The Heshan& Phenomenon of the Dragon Year: An

80 Deathsong of the River

not be completed, in pan because of Su Xiaokang's signing of a petition calling for an amnesty for Wei Jingshen and other political prisoners.49 He later described the proposed fIlm' s point of view as follows:

"Wefelt that the reasonfor China's backwardness was not the traditional culture, but on the contrary, the fact that by 1840 traditional culture had been destroyed, by manyfactors, one of which was the impact of the West. The new culture which arose after the destruction of the old was a disastrous combination of Oriental despotism and Stalinism. What we have now in China is Communist culture, not traditional Chinese culture. Our second film was about how such a disastrous system could have arisen in China. Thus we had movedfrom the cultural approach of Heshan~ to a criticism of the Communist system. ..So

The sequel was to have been a reflection on the May Fourth movement, revolving around three major themes: First, the cyclical character of refonDs in China, the fact that the refonD movement since 1978 had essentially followed the same progression from the economic and technological level, to the institutional level and finally to the cultural level that had occurred between the Opium War and the May Fourth movement. Second, the lack of a new culture of science and democracy to replace the old, resulting in a cultural desert which penDitted the rise of the strong man politics of Mao and Deng. And third, the problem of Chinese intellectuals, who, like the traditional mi who preceded them, had not succeeded in becoming an independent political fon;e.Sl

Let us briefly review two major aspects of the May Fourth movement, as a national salvation movement and as a new culture movement, in order to better see how Su Xiaokang and others have interpreted its legacy. The movement got its name from a demonstration at Ttan'anmen in Beijing on May 4th, 1919, when several thousand college students protested the tenDS of the Versailles Peace Treaty, which had assigned former German territories in Shandong to Japan. The authorities brought in police to quell the demonstration, but demonstrations soon spread to other cities with popular support from merchants and workers. A patriotic movement to "save the country" rjiu gUQ 1 from the encroochments of imperialism had erupted.

Interview with Heshanl's Direa« Xia Junl in 7lIOO2 shi wanbao. September 11th, 1988; reprinted in Heshan2 taolunii- Taibei: Fengyun shidai chuban she, 1m, p. 82.

49 See Su Xidang, "Shijimo huimou." po 226. SOW.L Oloog, ~, p. 47.

SI Ibid... pp. 47-48. In his interview wid! Guo Lixin, Xia Jun said that d!e title had not been

decided and that the ~ themes were science, democracy, and dIe closed-door policy.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an illusory Nirvana?" 81

The outbreak of this IX>litical movement had been preceded, however, by a movement to change Chinese culture. Around 1917, a new generation of intellectuals b"dined abroad such as Hu Shih and Chen Duxiu had attacked tmditional Chinese culture and Confucianism in particular, charging it with the reslX>nsibility for China's weakness. They saw their task as that of spreading a new "enlightenment" rgimenKl, and in order to do so they felt they had to completely transform the consciousness of the Chinese ~ple.52 While Hu Shih and other liberal intellectuals called for "wholesale Westemization," they essentially stayed removed from IX>litics and advocated education as the way to make changes. More radical intellectuals, such as Chen Duxiu, came under the influence of Marxism and Leninism and proceeded to found a IX>litical party .

The potential conflict between the IX>litical and the cultural themes of May Fourth is mentioned in Part Two of HeshanK:

To save our nationfrom danger and destruction, we should try to keep the foreign pirates at bay beyond our country' s gates; and yet to save our civilizationjrom decline, we should also throw open our country's gates, open up to the outside, and receive the new light of science and democracy. These extremely contradictory antiphonal themes of national salvation and modernization have taken turns over the past century in writing China' s abnormally-shaped history... [134]

The perception of May Fourth as a time of cultural crisis, a crisis in which traditional culture was the principal villain, helps to explain both the cultural approach of HeshanK and its decision to attack the principal symbols of tmdition, such as the Great Wall, the Yellow River, and the dragon. HeshanK deliberately chose to adopt the iconoclastic approach to traditional culture of the May Fourth movement Lin Yusheng has described the cultural agenda of the May Fourth movement as follows:

...the most crucial factor of the May Fourth iconoclasm is what I have called, for want of a more adequate term, the cultural-intellectualistic approach. The intelligentsia believed in the necessary priority of cultural and intellectual change over social, political, and economic changes and not vice-versa. The word "intellectualistic" is needed here because the iconoclastic intellectuals either implicitly or explicitly assumed that a

52

Some scl1o1an have a smnewhat broader date for the May Fourth movement. For example. Yu-shmg Un places it widrin the time span from 1915 to 1927. See his The Cri.;. of OIinese Con.ci~mes.: Radical AnritBditimalism in !h.. May Fourth Er.:, Wisconsin: The Univenity of Wiscalsin Press, 1979. p. 3.

82 Deathsong of the River

change of basic ideas 4MQ. ideas was the most fundamental change in the sense that this change was the source of other changes.53

Yet while it is easy to see similarities between the iconoclasm of May Fourth and the thinking of Su Xiaokang and his colleagues, they still needed a theoretical basis from which to critique traditional culture. If the traditional culture represented by Confucianism was indeed so flawed, how had it managed to endure f(W' so many thousands of years?

The answer to this question was provided by Jin Guantao and Liu Qingfeng and their theory that China's society possessed a "super-stable structure."54 Their theory had caused a small sensation when it first appeared, for it attempted to explain the long persistence of China's feudal society in new terms inspired by control theory and cybernetics, and not in traditional Marxist terms. Briefly, they see society as an organic system made up of three principal subsysterns--the political, the economic, and the ideological or cultural-which provide mutual feedbock and balance to each other. The principal agent of this mutual feedback between the various subsystems was the W or scholar-official of traditional times, whose command of culture [knowledge, values, communications skills] provided the glue that would normally hold society together. Whenever one of the three systems went out of alignrnent-as, for example, when the increasing accumulation of landed p"operty in the hands of a privileged class threatened the state's tax revenues--then the equilibrium of the whole system was IOSL This breakdown could have two possible outcomes: either the total destruction of the old society, such that a qualitative change in the system occurred, as happened during the Industrial Revolution in the West; or the canceling out of those elements causing disruption, leading to a resumption of equilibrium and the restitution of the old system, as typically happened in China. China was thus an example of a "super-stable system" which required periodic instances of disorder and disintegration in order to maintain its long-term balance. One reason why the traditional social order could be restored after the collapse of a dynasty was because of the "isomorphic unity" of its political and cultural sub-systems. That is to say, the cultural

53 Yu-sheng Un, "Radical lcoooclasm in the May Founh Period and the Future of Olinese Ubera1ism," in Reflectioos CXl the Mav Founh Movemeni: A Sxm~.ium. edited and with an introduction by Benjamin L Schwanz, Cambridge: Harvard Univenity Press, 1972, pp.23-58; see esp. p.29.

54 Their tlx:ory that Chinese society was a society of "great unificatioo" and thai the reason it failed to moderniu wu due to iu "Iuper-ltable structure" is clearly spelled out in their book Xine.hene Xi weiii- IAsc:endancv and Crioi.l, Hunan renmin chuban she, 1984. An article by Daniel Kane entitled, "Jin Guantao. Liu Qingfeng and their Historical Systems EvolutiCXl Theory" in Pa~rs CXl Far Eadem Hi.iOa, vol. 39, 1989, pp. 45-73, does an excellent job of summarinng and introducing their ideas, and provides good translatiCXls of the many new tenns they have adopted.

II A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an illusory Nirvana?" 83

sub-system consisting of patriarchal clans and a system of familial ethics would survive the disintegration of a dynasty and provide the template from which a new political sub-system, i.e., a Confucian bureaucracy made up of sbi or scholar-officials, could be formed. Jin and Liu's theory, while posed in a new way, thus answers the question that has long puzzled historians of culture: why did traditional Chinese civilization, once so brilliant, stagnate for so long? Why did it not evolve into industrial civilization?

But there was a price to pay for this kind of super-stability. The periodic breakdown of the political unit was due to the accumulation of what Jin and Liu call 'asystemic forces' fwuzuzhi liliangJ, which cause enormous destruction of life and property when they burst out of control. In his role as advisor to HeshanK, Jin Guantao suggested a useful comparison between the ~riodic outbreak of turmoil in Chinese society and the periodic destructive floods of the Yellow River .

Jin Guantao's theory of an historical pattern of repeated cycles would seem to have had some influence on Su Xiaokang and Liu Dong's interpretation of China's attempts at modernization over the last century .Su Xiaokang summed up Liu Dong's views as follows:

"He regarded China's pre-modern history [iindai -\,hij as a process in which modernization repeatedly advanced and suffered repeated setbacks. The evolutionary changes in Chinese civilization under the challenge of the West followed a necessary logic, advancing in turn from the material, to the institutional, to the cultural level, and finally pressing on to the fundamental change of values. In this sort of theoretical framework, not only must we liffirm the changes made by the ' self-strengthening' faction at the material level, but we should also not be surprised at the failure of the 1898 reforms and the 1911 revolution at the institutional level. While the May F ourth movement finally grasped the main theme of modernization- i.e., to combine scientific rationality and humanistic rationality with the

Chinese tradition-yet, just like the ...new culture movement, it took a wrong turning on May the Fourth..."SS

What was this wrong turning? Bao Zunxin proposes the view that the May Fourth movement was an "incomplete nirvana" fwei wanchenK de ~ in that its intellectual leaders soon lost sight of the goal of liberating the individual in face of the need to mobilize the people to resist Japanese aggression. Hence the two goals of saving the nation and of establishing a new culture came into opposition. The goal of national salvation overwhelmed that of individual liberties, leading to the modern -

ss See Su Xiaokang, UShijimo hui moo -guanyu Heshan& xuji liuchan de jilu" [A Glance

Back at the End of the Century: Notes 011 the Miscanlage of Heshan&'s ScquelJ. ~. p. 198.

84 Dealhsong of the River

situation in which the state was freed from the tyranny of imperialism while dI~ individual was still subject to dIe tyranny of dIe state.56 Perhaps it is for this reason that in Part Six of Heshang the camera pauses thoughtfully on the sculpted scene of May Fourth demonstrators outside of Mao Zedong's Memorial Hall while dIe narrator comments: "Many things in China, it would seem, should all start over again from May Fourth." [216] The need to reflect critically on dIe failure of the May Fourth movement is hence one of dIe principal reasons for making Heshani.

But dIe question remains: Why did Heshang choose to attack Chinese culture? And why did it choose as its targets dIe three cultural symbols of dIe dragon, dIe Yellow River, and dIe Great Wall? From dIe artistic and dIe practical point of view, television' s strong point is its ability to create vivid images, and dIese images serve to relate dIe varied dIematic content of dIe series. On a deeper level, however, we may identify three reasons: The fIrst is dIe idee fixe shared by China's modern intellectuals that culture is ultimately to blame for all of modern China's social problems. Chinese have called this a wenhua fuzui ~an or "feeling that culture is at faulL "57 The second is the anti-b'aditional bias and cultural iconoclasm inherited from the May Fourth movement. In this sense, Heshan~'s attack on the Great Wall can b'aCe its origin to Lu Xun's curse on the Great Wall.S8 Lu Xun's interpretation of dIe Great Wall as symbolizing dIe confinement of the spirit is quite similar to the point made in Part Two of Heshang. Third, dIe at~k on culture is a way of giving vent to dIe strong emotions of anger and despair which the authors shared widI the general public. Su Xiaokang admits that because they could not confront dIe party and the government directly, they attacked China's ancestors instead as a form of indirect critique.S9 Later Su Xiaokang himself came to recognize and acknowledge

56 See Bao Zunxin, "Wei wancheng de niepan -dui wusi de fansi" [An Incomplete Nirvana -a Meditation IXI May Fourth], in Pi~n xu Qimen&, Taibei, Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, August, 1989, pp. 103-139. S7 W .1- ChOIIg, ~ p. 46.

S8 Lu Xun interpreted the Great Wall as not merely a physical barrier but also a

psychological barrier hemming in the Olinese people: "1 am always COI11CioIIS of beillg slUrou1!ded by a Great Wall. The stollework cOfISists of old bricks reillforced at later times by MW bricks. They have combilled to make a wall hemmillg lIS ill. Whell will we stop reillforcillg the Great Wall with MW bricks? A clUse 011 this Wollderfid Great Wallr' in Lu Xun, Selected Works. vol. 2, p. 167. For more 011 the Chinese Great wan psychology and the problems of enlightenment, see Vera Schwartz, "A Curse on the Great Wall: The Problem of Enlightenment in Modem China," Theol): and Societx,May, 1984.

S9W.L. ChOIIg, ~ p.46.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an lllusory Nirvana?" 85

the sb"Ong element of emotion in Heshan~, one which other scholars had IX>inted out earlier .60

III. Controversy: Enlightenment, Pabiotism, and Politics

As mentioned before, after the fIrst broadcast in June, 1988, the fIrst wave of reslX>nse from Heshan~'s viewers and critics was overwhelmingly IX>sitive. One critic writing in Jiefan~ ribao went so far as to call it the new enlightenment movement for the IX>st-1949 period, for having once again raised the banners of "democracy" and "science."6l Later,as the "Heshan~ fever" began to cool down, some more balanced critical assessments began 10 appear, IX>inting out some of its shortcomings. Yet it is probably fair to say that the overall reaction was stilllX>sitive.

Hence we must ask: How did Heshan~ become a IX>litical issue? What conb"Oversial or sensitive issues caused it the most problems? Were its makers patriots, or rebels? Did they overstep the limits of acceptable criticism?

Most critics outside the mainland have attributed the banning of Heshan~ to China's vice-president Wang Zhen. The Hong Kong press reponed extensively on the trials and tribulations of Heshan~, revealing Wang Zhen's personal critique of the film as well as his attempts to influence the leadership 10 ban it. He is reported to have contacted President Yang Shangkun, ex-president Li Xiannian, and Deng Xiaoping. But each of them made excuses to turn down Wang Zhen's request.62 Hu Qili, head of the Central Propaganda Department, continued 10 make public statements upholding the party's IX>licy of non-interference in questions of literature and an,63 while Tan Wenrui, editor-in-chief of Renmin ribao, diplomatically refused 10 print an article condemning Heshan~.64

-

60 For example, Professor Li Zehou at Beijing University said. MThis reflects a kind of emotioll, all emotioll to search for challge. It is IUIderstandable, worthy of .ry'"INIthy and respect. Ar a work of art and literature it reflects the needs of the audience; illets people elljoy watching it; its cIISsillg makes them feel happy. But ill t~rm.r of scholarship, one cal1110t depend merely 011 emotiolIS." See Li Yi, MTing Li Zehou Liu Shuxian tan Heshan&" (Listening to Li Zehou and Liu Shuxian Talking about Heshan& 1, Jiushi niandai. Decernlx:r, 1988, p. 90.

6} Yi Ren in Jiefang ribao lLilx:ration DailX1, July 30, 1988, p. 7.

62 Wang Zhen first talked to President Yang Shangkun, but Yang replied that the Party had a new policy that leaders were not allowed to interfere with literary and artistic works. Wang then asked Li Xiannian, who simply turned down Wang saying that his eye-sight was not good. See Liu Yanying's article in ~ Novernlx:r, 1988, ~. 44-45.

63 Hu made these remarks in a talk at the Fifth Literature Conference held in Beijing in Novernlx:r 1988 under the auspices of the Chinese Writers' Association. See He Shaorning,

86 Deathsong of the River

While Vice-President Wang Zhen's ultimate motives for opposing HeshanK are unclear, it is undoubtedly true that he would have been offended

by Heshang's porttayal of the poverty of Yan'an. Mter 1949, Yan'an was held up as a glorious symbol of revolution and of the Chinese people's resistance to foreign aggression, yet Heshang deliberately chose to focus on Yan'an's economic backwardness. Wang Zhen, who holds the rank of general, is a member of the generation of leaders who lived in the Yan'an base area during the anti-Japanese war. He was in personal charge of a project to transform the Nanniwan district outside of Yan'an into a productive agricultural area, and at the time there was a song praising Nanniwan for having become as fertile as the Yangtze valley. Whatever his reasons may have been, Wang Zhen went public with his criticism in the September 28th issue of Nin!!:xia rihao. At a round-table discussion concluding Wang's visit to Ningxia to celebrate the autonomous region's thirtieth birthday, Wang described the many accomplishments ofNingxia in economic development over the past decades, after which he commented:

"But there is a IV series named Heshan~ which describes the great Chinese nation and our Yellow River as not having a single good quality. As I see it, this film curses the Yellow River and the Great Wall; it defames our great people and the descendants of the Yellow Emperor and Fire Emperor ."

As China's Vice-President, his words carried special weight and signalled the fIrst truly public criticism from a political official. While his talk was not reprinted elsewhere, his remarks spelled the end to public debate in the press over Heshang. Subsequently, in late 1988, Hu Qili announced that the film would not be rebroadcast and that the published script would not be

reissued. 6S

However, many have suspected that Wang Zhen's opposition to Heshang may have been due to Zhao Ziyang's attempts to protect it Zhao Ziyang is reported to have praised Heshang during a conversation with Singapore's visiting Premier Lee Kuan Yew in the late summer of 1988. He is also reported to have obtained Deng Xiaoping's consent to convene a special meeting of the Politburo and the Central Party Secretariat to reiterate the Party's policy of non-interference in literature and art and to prevent the debate over Heshang from becoming a Cultural Revolution-style witch- hunt. Zhao Ziyang's involvement in the Heshang incident thus on the one

ihid... p. 12; Zhon~vanp rihan November 2. 1988; and Xu Jingcn in Jiefan~ rihao November 10, 1988, p. 8.

64 He Shaoming in Zhen~rnin&, November, 1988, W. 12-13.

65 This repon appeared in Zhon~van~ ribao, November 26, 1988 and in the Far Eastern Economic Review, December, 8, 1988, p. II, respectively.

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an illusory Nirvana?" 87

hand saved the film from being banned too soon and gave it the opportunity to be rebroadcast66; but on the other hand, it also caused the leadership to take sides and created a means by which the conservatives could attack Zhoo Ziyang and his reform program. In this whole process, Heshang was a convenient scapegoat of the political struggle, while the political struggle over HeshanK can also be seen as a precursor of the factional struggle that would erupt between Zhao and the conservatives in the following spring.

Yet Wang Zhen could not have launched his attack without some ammunition, and this ammunition could be garnered from a variety of sources: from conservative Marxist scholars who willingly pointed out Heshan&'s heresies; from nit-picking scholars who delighted in pointing out its errors of fact; and from overseas Chinese scholars who got passionately involved in defending the value of traditional Chinese culture against the claims of superiority for Western culture. What, then, were the objections raised against HeshanK by the criticS?67

One of the frequent themes of HeshanK's academic critics was its use of an oversimplified, black-and-white dichotomy retween Chinese and Western culture. Hence Chinese civilization was a "yellow" civilization, tied to the land, isolationist and conservative, while Western civilization was a "blue" civilization, liberated by sea-power, open, expansionist, and progressive. Some criticized the oversimplification inherent in such statements,68 while others found them proof of "ethnic nihilism" rminzu xuwu zhu~il, i.e., the proposition that nothing is right about Chinese culture. A corollary of "ethnic nihilism" was the charge that Heshan& was Eurocentric or that it expressed an uncritical admiration of the West. A second kind of criticism was to detect different kinds of determinism in the script thus, HeshanK's description of China's geographical environment was interpreted as geographical determinism, while its use of Jin Guantao's "super-stability theory" left it open to charges of historical fatalism. A third kind of critique, though not one employed by the conservatives, was to question HeshanK's cultural approach. Hence some criticized Heshan& for "whipping our ancestors" when they really should have been directly criticizing the

-

66 See He Sha<Xning, ihid.., p. 12; and Jiang Cong, in Zhonl!vanl! rihao December 9, 1988, p. 4.

67 For a more detailed account of the criticism, see Su Xiaokang, "The Distress of a Dragon Year" in this volume, esp. pp. 291-299 and "Historians in the Capital Criticize Heshan&:

A Summary" also in this volume, pp. 311-327.

68 Professor Liu Shuxian of Hong Kong, in a joint discussion with mainland philosopher U Zehou, pointed out that Heshan& oversimplifies problems that are extremely complex. See Li Yi, "Ting Li Zehou Liu Shuxian tan Heshan&" [Listening to Li Zehou and Liu Shuxian Talk about Heshan&l in Jiushi niandai, December, 1988, p. 89.

88 Deathsong of the River

problems of the present69; others criticized Heshang for still being stuck in the May Fourth mindset which saw the transformation of the Chinese people's consciousness as the most important task. Yet another kind of criticism was to fault the historical methodology and accuracy of the script Hence Heshang was berated for its "pragmatic" quotations from authorities such as Hegel, Marx, and Toynbee; for casually taking systems theory and cybernetics out of their original context and applying them in the field of history; and for making hundreds of factual errors}O In general, we may see the academic critiques of Heshang, especially those published in mainland China from the summer of 1989 onwards, as attempts to discredit Heshang's credibility while maintaining the fiction of an objective, academic discussion.

Yet the academic issues raised above were not Heshang's real threat to the regime; the real threat was its advocacy of ideas that challenged the ideological foundations of the system. Let us take three examples. (1) As mentioned above, Part Five of Heshang states that the peasant rebellions of Chinese history had no revolutionary significance but only displayed a startling destruction and cruelty. This is a denial of Mao Zedong , s theory of history as well as a critique of the current regime, itself brought into existence by a peasant army. lin's "super-stability theory" would also suggest that the China of today is just as feudal as it was in the past From the point of view of the leadership, however, the past forty years of revolution have freed China from the "three huge mountains" of feudalism, imperialism, and Kuomintang bureaucratism. Hence the China of today cannot be a repeat of the past. (2) Heshang frequently criticizes the "spectre of great unity" that still haunts China, implying that throughout its long history and even today China is a kind of "oriental despotism." Yet if Heshang criticizes "unity," it must be advocating its opposite, either disunity or diversity. Yet for the current leadership, the territorial integrity of China is fundamental, while the importance of "stability and unity" randing tuanjiel far outweighs any putative benefits of diversity of opinion. (3) Heshang champions the process of economic reform and throws its weight behind a change in the form of ownership; Heshang's advisor on economic matters, Li Yining, is a proponent of transforming moribund state-owned industries into joint stock companies in which the government

69 See for example Wang Xiaodong and Qiu Tiancao, MJiqing de yin ying" [The Other Side of Fervor] in Cui Wenhua, ed., Heshan& lun p. 192-195; see also Su Xiaokang, .'The Distress of a Dragon Year" in this volume, p. 294.

70 From August 9th to November 19th, 1989 Beiiin~ wanbao printed a series of short articles attacking factual errors in Heshan&; these articles were subsequently reprinted in Heshan& pi12an [bibliography item #34] and in Li Fengxiang, ed., Heshan& baimiu [bibliography item #33].

i i

" A Second Wave of Enlightenment? Or an Dlusory Nirvana?" 89

would be a paI1ner with private shareholders}l Yet this challenges the basic premise that socialism is founded on collective ownership and hints of the restoration of capitalism.

N. Concluding Remarks

Judging from the sources available to us, the makers of Heshang never had any ambition other than facilitating a broad debate in society on China's future course. They presented themselves as patriotic intellectuals on the model of the 1898 reformers, as Jx:Ople driven by a concern for the nation's problems, and by their social conscience. Profoundly affected by the prevailing mood of disquiet throughout the country, they hoped to repeat the "enlightenment" movement of the May Fourth period and awaken the masses. They deny that they had political ambitions or were covertly linked with a faction in the leadership. Hence it is a tragedy for the prospect of reforms in China that Heshan~ was banned and her makers were branded with the stigma of treason.

Despite its faults and shortcomings, Heshan~ achieved a remarkable success in that, using the powerful tool of television, it presented its point to a broad cross-section of China's population: that China faces a crisis, and that refonn is the only way out It probably did not reach the vast majority of peasants, but it did create a new form for television. Like the May Fourth movement seventy years previous, it was only partially successful in its task of enlightenment. If Bao Zunxin is right in calling the May Fourth movement an "incomplete Nirvana," then Heshan~ is also an incomplete Nirvana. But it is not an illusory one, and the Chinese people will continue in future to take up the questions it has raised.

Su Xiaokang and his colleagues deserve praise for the intellectual vision and the moral courage it took to make Heshan~. They only made one

mistake. They forgot that "if the intellectuals. as in the past, go beyond the limits of independence that the party has granted them. this relative

liberalization could be rescinded as quickly as it has been released."72

71 Li Yining was one of Heshan&'s two main academic advisors as well as being a member of 7Jlao Ziyang's brain trust See also Pan Four, "The New Era:' footnotes 51, 52, and 53. 72 Merle Goldman, Chinese Intellectuals: Advise and J)issent, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981, p. 240.

Opposite: Title page of the first edition of Heshan& rDeathson~ of the ~ in book form, published by Xiandai chubanshe, Beijing, June 1988. The birds are in blue over a yellow background, surrounding an open white space, suggesting either a b'ee or an empty space into which blue water is flowing. Hence the design symbolizes the merging of traditional Chinese culture (yellow) with the modern world (blue). The cover bears the following four statements:

A reflection on the destiny of China's ancient culture An exposition of our tragic national psychology

The "blueprint" which the newspapers have competed to print A cooperative venture among famous scholalS and writers

"

90

Arousing the Whole Nation to Self-Questioning-A Few Words on the Design of the Television Series Deathsong of the River by Su Xiaokang

The Yellow River is a broad theme, spanning ten thousand ti from east to west, four thousand years from start to finish, and concerning a billion people on both its banks.2 The Yellow River has a strong connection with the origins, history , culture and development of the Chinese people, as well as with East Asian civilization and even world civilization. We believe that bringing the Yellow River to the television screen is quite different from treating the Yangtze River, the Grand Canal or other themes. Its uniquely deep and rich connotations3 cannot be matched by those of the Silk Road or the Yangtze River.4 If we presented the Yellow River according to the old

1 This article is not part of the fl1mscript but occurs in the first published edition by the Xiandai chubanshe, June. 1988.

2Director Xia Jun revealed in an interview that Heshan& was originally to have been a

trilogy, with parts titled: MTen Thousand Li fltXn East to West" fdon2 xi vi wan lil, MFour Thousand Years from Start to Finish" rshan2 xia sigisn nianl, and MA Billion people on Both Banks" rlian2 an vi wan renl. See Guo Lixin, MLongnian de Heshan& xianxiang-fang Heshan& biandao Xia Jun" in Heshan2 taolunii- pp. 75-83.

3 Connotations translates Chinese ~. Throughout the six-part series, the Yellow River acquires enonnous and varied metaphorical significance: the Yellow River valley is the cradle of ancient Olinese civilization; its heavy burden of yellow silt suggests the heavy burden of past culture on the present; its periodic floods suggest the periodic upheavals in OIinese society; the direction of its flow from west to east suggests the author's contention that China must move from being an isolationist, land-based civilization to being a progressive, sea-faring civilization.

4 Here Su Xiaokang refers to a whde series of television travelogues that had been made in recent years, with titles such as MHua shuo chang jiang" [The Story of the Yangtze], MHua shuo yunhe" [The Story of the Grand Canal], etc. For a brief history of television documentaries preceding Heshan&- see Cui Wenhua, MHeshan& dui Zhongguo dianshi de qishi he zai?" [What is the Lesson of Heshan& fcx Chinese Television], in Cui Wenhua, ed., Heshan& lu~, pp. 123-142, esp. W. 123-127. Chen Hanyuan who as assistant chief of ccrv gave great support and encouragement to Heshan& had been involved in many of these earlier docwnentJlries.

93

94 Deathsong of the River

way of thinking, with old techniques and in the old style, I'm afraid we would only be able to give a mediocre view of its scenery but would be unable to bring out its broad connotations and deep significance. Moreover, in presenting the Yellow River in the present context of reform and of opening up to the outside world, we must endow this topic with clear and strong contemporary characteristics, for to make an issue of the Yellow River under the great rubric of reform will be to make the broadcast of this TV film into an all-out inquiry into our nation's history, civilization and destiny. Only in this way can we do justice to the significance of the Yellow River and accord with the demands of the times.

Based on these considerations and at the same time for the purpose of distinguishing ourselves in point of view and content from the previously broadcast thirty-part series on the Yellow River,s we have tentatively proposed the experiment of a TV film of political commentary ,6 dealing with the Yellow River from the angle of the philosophy of culture} Based on the successful experience of past television films, we felt that this sort of film, in the design of its form, should break new ground in the following aspects:

First, it should break with the tradition by which a travel film is organized by movement through space, especially the old-fashioned design by which a river film follows the current downstream from the source;

s This was a joint production by CCTV and NHK. Xia Jun, wbo would later direct Heshan~, was a member of its film crew; Su Xiaokang, ooe of Hesban&'s cbief writers, wrote the narration for several of the episodes.

6 dianshi men~lun pian: This is a newly-coined term, without a precise accepted definitioo, but one wbich suggests the discussioo of controvenial political topics. Su Xiaokang is attempting here 10 suggest the definiti<Xl of a new genre.

7 wenhua mexue vi.hi. This is a new term, evidently based 00 the underlying theme of the ~osophy of Culture book series, edited by Meng Weizai and Bao Zunxm, which attempts 10 grasp the essence of a culture by looking at key philosophical and cultural C<Xlcepts and observing bow they contrast with those of other cultures. Meng Weizai's introduction to the series says in part: III my v~w, all ofthe .Mr~re' al8d 'stiftlooare' created by mallkind up to /lOW, his .rystemr al8d polit~s... Call all be s-d up as cultllral phelWmella, al8d thus call all be analysed al8d discussed from hUtorical and philosophical viewpoillts. Bao Zunxin's introductioo states: Right IWW in China's intellectual al8d cw!tllral circles there is a tide of interest ill discussillg cw!tllre. Participatillg ill this disclUsioll are the older gelleratioll of scholars as well as middle-aged upert.r. What is especially stinudating is that mally promising yoWIg scholars have entered the discus.rioll. They are all panderillg the problemr raised by moderllizatioll. Their tholtghts all concentrate 011 OM point, namely: call Chilla's ancient cw!tllre ill moderll times brillg forth a MW spring? Do we dare to respol8d 10 the challellge offered us by moderll Weslerll cw/lllre? Cw/tllre calls oltt to philosophy, al8d philosophy has fallell ill love with cw!lllre. The philosophy of cw!tllre is becoming afield that attracls peop/e's allelllioll. See the prefatory material 10 Xie Xuanjun, Sbenhua vu min7l1 !in~.hen. Wenhua ?bexue coogsbu, Sbandong wenyi chubansbe, 1986.

II Arousing the Whole Nation to Self -Questioning" 95

rather, it should attempt to select several large themes from the rich connotations of the Yellow River, building a fnunework based on individual special topics. These various themes [should] all arise from the Yellow River and moreover be thought-provoking issues in social thought with contemporary relevance; and the whole film [should] have its own internal logic. Thus, on the one hand, one can avoid the unstructured form of speaking a word here and then a line there, and on the other hand avoid cutting the Yellow River into so many fragments that none of the questions to be addressed could be discugred fully or in depth.

Second, it should abandon the inflexible fnunework of time and space, and organize the content of each episode along the logical thread of a meditation on a particular topic, so that the fnune fhuamian 1 becomes the re- creation and expression of thought and no longer, as formerly, the passive form in which the narration explains the frame, thus assisting in thoroughly displaying and bringing out the deep connotations of the Yellow River. In terms of technique, it could thus also break out of the restrictions of the rivercourse (space) and of history (time), shooting a scene by freely striding and leaping from one end of the river to the other and from past to present, editing a version that is many-layered and pluralistic both in perspective and in direction fduo fangweil, thus enabling the language of thought to be transformed into the language of the screen and giving viewers an artistic experience that is lively, vivid, rich and inspiring.

Third, it should break away from the old concepts and patterns of the worship of our land, history and ancestors, so long taken for granted in travel documentaries, and experiment with revealing the ancient Yellow River civilization of the Chinese people as well as its modern fate from a point of view of self-conscious reflection8; it should propose to bring infonnation about all sorts of theories and thinking to the TV screen in large volume, endowing the fIlm with a clear, rich and meaty awareness of the philosophy of culture, enabling it to offer people all sorts of ideas and to create the effect of a two-way dialogue with the audience and society , in the expectation that the broadcast of Deathsong of the River will elicit broad-

ba5ed concern and discussion.

This sort of design will make what used to be the most important elements in a television film-frame, music and language, etc.-retreat to a position of secondary importance, placing the element of thought in first place. Thus from the very beginning Deathsong of the River deliberately

8 Here 'self-conscious ~eclioo' is an attempt to translate the alinese tenn 1In1i, itself a translatioo fr<xn Western philosophy. Originally, it translated the nachdenken of Hegel, by which Hegel meant 'thinking about the process of thinking.' Contemporary Orinese writers have taken up this coocept to mean self-(:ooscious reflection on the past, particularly on traditiooal culture, in order to find a solutioo for alina's present ills.

96 Deathsong of the River

selected as script-writers several young and middle-aged scholars known for their scholarly attainments and in its design opened up special "studio" segments, inviting experts and scholars in all areas to present their views succinctly on the television screen. One could call this an instance of cooperation between television and the world of thought, an experiment in which the finest minds of contemporary China convey theory and infor- mation through the great medium of television. And only such a vast theme as the Yellow River could provide the op}X)rtunity for such cooperation.

The participation of the world of thought has greatly raised the quality of television, enabling us to command the strategic high ground of theory in the design of particular topics. For example, Part Five, "Sorrow and Worry," from the point of view of the Yellow River can only express the problems of flood and disaster; but from the }X)int of view of history and culture this periodic flooding is exU'emely similar to the periodic upheavals in Chinese society. That two such completely unrelated phenomena could overlap here in a mutually-reinforcing way has rather surprisingly achieved a sU'ong artistic effect.

In the six-part series Deathsong of the River, each part is an exU'emely large and complex theoretical problem; if we let the scholars write them up, then each question could become a very large volume. A television film is unable to conduct detailed and painstaking proof and must in addition overcome the dryness and lengthiness of theory .How, then, to solve this problem? Our method has been, in each part, to latch onto the most representative and most vivid symbol in order to advance our ex}X)sition. For example, Part One "Searching for a Dream" selects the "dragon," this modem totem of the Chinese people in order to dissect the ancient cultural mind-set of the people of a great river valley. Part Two "Destiny" is tightly linked with the Great Wall, this object colored by its accretion of a thick layer of the ideological dregs of an inward-looking, defensive civilization, in order to reveal this continental people's unavoidable destiny and the historical future in which it must overcome the limits of the soil. Part Three "The Light of the Spirit," by means of a seemingly flimsy or intangible light of civilization, makes clear that only a nation which opens up to the outside and which absorbs the nourishment of foreign cultures can continue to produce creative talents. Thus, television's strong point, of creating vivid images, is given free rein.

Although there is no subject more ancient than the Yellow River, yet any telling of the Yellow River legend must adhere closely to the present age, must face the perplexities, contradictions and difficulties of today, and must be closely tied to the real problems about which the people are concerned. Perhaps while experimenting with a TV film of political commentary , which could so easily be dull and dogmatic, we should especially seek out "activation" }X)ints rji huo dianl. For no other method

" Arousing the Whole Nation to Self -Questioning" 97

could be more stimulating than directly touching on the problems that people are concerned about. Thus at the same time that we discuss some ancient and difficult-to-understand subjects, we have also introduced lots of contemporary and influential incidents and socially sensitive questions that everyone knows about and debates constantly, such as: rafting on the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers; the worship of the dragon spirit; the plight of intellectuals; prices and the market; student movements; democratization; the "passion for studying culture"9; and so forth. Basically speaking, all these very real questions can find answers in the deepest "cultural roots" of our nation.

Deathsong of the River is very serious. In allowing television to take up the burden of so serious an inquiry , we may not have succeeded. And yet, even if all our various experiments should fail, the serious questioning that we have proposed here is crucial. Even if we are unable to find answers, China must still find them.

Yellow soil, yellow water, a yellow-skinned people.-<:ould all these be no more than mere coincidences? This ancient oriental skin color once terrified the Occident ("The Yellow Peril"). Napoleon long ago said: "Don't awaken the sleeping giant." And yet, when the Orient awakened, it had already lost to the West

From the skullbone of Laotian Man10 down to Confucius, it seems as if we can ask another question: Why of all things did the Chinese people happen to choose such a cultural pattern as Confucianism?

This sort of culture is undoubtedly a rich legacy for the entirety of world civilization, having not only produced countless geniuses and heroes while at the same time having raised the yellow race of Chinese people to become the largest space-time entity in all humanity, having forged for them a psychological structure that sought harmony and peace, that meticulously observed reason and order, that valued traditional human relationships, while yet being closed and conservative. And yet today it has already succumbed to an irreversible decline and has collapsed. In the final analysis, is this a gO<xl or a bad thing for the Chinese people?

9 NThe passion for sUldying culture" or wenhua re principally indicates the debate over traditional Chinese culUlre and whether or not it can be blamed for the backwardness of Olina today.

10 Lantian Man is perhaps the earliest fonll of homo erectus yet found in China, named after fmds in Lantian, Shanxi Province, dating fran ca. 700,IXXJ years ago.

98 Deathsong of the River

Some say that we must shatter Confucian ideas and undertake a "wholesale Westernization"ll; there are others who say that China's only way out is to adopt "Western learning for the essential principles, with Chinese learning for practical applications"12; and yet others say that we must reconstruct a "third flowering of Confucian civilization."13 In recent years, no matter whether it is the Chinese intelligentsia reflecting [fBnSi] on the fate of Confucianism and discussing the question of a cultural strategy, or whether it is the grand ceremonies in honor of Confucius at QufU,14 all of these demonstrate that the self-questioninglS of the Chinese people has already touched on the very cutting issue of the choice of a national culture.

We cannot change the color of our skins, just as we cannot change the color of the Yellow River, And yet we must rebuild the culture of Chinese people-the structure of their minds. This will be an extremely difficult and complex piece of culturo-philosophical systems engineering.16

II guan~ xihua. 11ris was the view otthe famous sdlolar Hu Shih writing in 1929, as wen as more recently that of the famous astrophysicist and dissident Fang 11mi. See Pan Six.

12 xiti zhon&Xon&- 11ris is a revenal of the slogan of the Westemizati~ movement in the latter half of the 19th century whidl advocated "Chinese learning for the essential principles, Western learning for practical applications." The 19th century retormen thought that China could become strong and powerful by adopting Western science and technology but without significant changes in China's traditional moral values, political system, etc. The principal advocate of "Western leaming for the essential principles..." is philosopher 11 Zehou whose anicle entitled "Man shoo xiti 7Jlongyong" may be found in Li Zehou ji published by the Heilongjiang jiaoyu dlubanshe in 1988 as part of their Kaitang cong shu, pp. 331-361.

13 The advocacy of Confucian civilization is associated with the name of Prof. Du Weiming [Weiming Tu], who holds joint appointments at Harvard and at the East-West Center, Hawaii. See Pan Six.

14 Qufu in Shandong Province is the site where Confucius' lineal descendants, the Kong clan, have their family mansion and tombs.

IS fAn3in&. or 'self-questioning' is closely parallel in meaning with fimi. 'self-conscious reflection' defined above.

16 Speaking in 1934 at a Congress of Soviet Writers, Maxim Gorky declared to Stalin that the proletarian state must bring up thousands of excellent mechanics of culture, engineers of the soul. While ironic in tone, this statement underlines a basic theme of Heshan&. that reform of the economic and political systems cannot be divorced fltXn Changes in people's psychology and cultural concepts, which are frequently quite stubborn. The discussion of 1Illobi in Pan Four is a case in poinL

II Arousing the Whole Nation to Self-Questioning" 99

The Yellow River rushes ten thousand!i and finally flows into the sea.

In this twentieth century, what kind of courage, insight, and self- questioning shall we muster in the face of the great risks of reform?

This then is our original intention in making Deathsonl! of the River.

Part One "Searching for a Dream"

[Music, Tenor Solo]

Tell me-

How many bends <k>es the Yellow River make? On those bends

How many ~ are there? On those boa~,

How many poles?

and on those beIK1s

How many boabnen Pole those boa~?

On June 13, 1987, the rafting expedition on the Yellow River that had atb'acted the interest of hundreds and thousands of Chinese people sent back bad news.l Members of tWo rafting teams from Luoyang and Beijing were killed when the raf~ overturned at the lower part of Lajia Gorge.2 Our heroes Lang Baoluo and Lei Jiansheng, who had previously rafted through Tiger's Leap Gorge3 on the Yangtze River, were also swallowed up by the swift waters of the Yellow River. For a while, the entire nation was engaged in heated debate.

1 The screen shows the ph010S of two young men and has a short note saying, Lang Baoluo. a cadre of all athletic shoe factory at Luoyallg city. died ill JIUle. 1987 while raftillg at Lajia Gorge OIl the YeUow River. Lei Jianshellg. a hi.rtory teacher at the Twe1lly-first Middle School at Luoyallg city. died ill JIUle. 1987 while raftillg at Lajia Gorge. Part One of Heshan2 was tx-oadcast June 11, 1988 almost exactly ooe year afterwards.

2 This gorge is near Lajia Temple in Qinghai province, about two hlDIdred kilometers south

of Qinghai Lake. On the south river bank there is a sma1l town called JlDIgong. 3 Tiger's Leap Gorge fHu tiao xial isllx:8ted in the northwest regioo of Yunnan province. in the Yuloog shan (Jade Dragoo Mountains) range, 5936 meten above sea level.

101

According to the news, these young men took this great risk because they would not let the AmeriCan rafter Ken Warren4 take away their right to be the first to raft down China's rivers. Ken Warren was very puzzled by this. He said that no one would object if Chinese came to America to raft down the Mississippi River. Of course Mr. Warren could never associate today's rafting with the history of a hundred years ago when the gunboats of the Western powers sailed China's rivers in disregard of China's rights. Yet the youth of China cannot forget.s

Now that these rafters have tossed their lives away in the Yellow River, should we praise them for their patriotism or should we criticize them for their blind love for their country?

No matter what, what they did happened on the mother river of our nation. It was both stirring and sad in the exb'eme.

This sort of thing is not restricted to river rafting. Just see how wildly excited Chinese people get at sports meets!

Whenever the five-star red flag is raised, everybody jumps up and cries. But how about when they lose? They swear, throw things, and riot. A nation which in its heart can no longer afford to lose.6

China's women's volleyball team has won the championship for five

years in a row. Yet, pressing down on their shoulders is a heavy responsibility to the nation and to history .7

4 Ken Warren is a while water rafter from Tualatin, Oregon. In lhe Spring of 1986, he paid Orina Sports Services over $325,000 for the righl to be the first to raft down the Yangtze River. His proposal was perceived as a threat to natiooal pride, and several Chinese teams were quickly formed to challenge Warren's team. The contest ended tragically, with the deaths of four Olinese and one American. [See Richard Bangs and Olristian Kallen, Ridin£ the Dra&on's Back, New York, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1989; also Liu Kasu, "Piao,» Bao&ao wenxue. 1987.7, pp. 2-16.1 The following year witnessed a similar tragic contest on the Yellow River-

s The TV screen here establishes a contrast between: (1) color footage of the American flag being raised, and of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor; and (2) black-and-white documentary footage of foreign warships and bombers in action, no doubt intended to remind the Chinese audience of the past history of Western and Japanese aggression against China, and to elicit a nationalistic response.

6 The screen shows the Olina-Hong Kong men's soccer match held in Beijing on May 19th, 1985, which Olina lost; then scenes of distressed fans crying; then of the crowd overturning a car. Liu Xinwu described this event in his "5-19 chang jingtou.'! This reference is pointed out by Tsuji Kogo, the translator of the Japanese edilion of Heshan&, plblished by Kobundo, p. 19.

7 The screen shows the China-U.S. women's volleyball match from the 1988 LDs Angeles Olympics.

Of course, there are quite a few people who no longer worry about these things. They have been in a hurry to leave their homeland to see what's up in the outside world. At the same time, a great number of lost sheep scattered overseas have come back to their homeland to see what's happening. What is the meaning of these two tides going in opposite directions?

Has our current state of mind been created by our past century of history , in which we were always the helpless victim? Or has it been created by the poverty and backwardness of the past few decades?

Perhaps so, but not entirely. What is hidden behind these phenomena is the soul of a people in pain. Its entire pain lies in the fact that our civilization has declined.8

In the beginning of this century, there was a young Chinese named Chen Tianhua,9 who, when faced with the fact that his motherland was in a dark age, committed suicide in Japan by jumping into the ocean. At that time how many Chinese could understand him?

Even today when we recall this young man Chen Tianhua, it seems as if we can infer that his deep despair was perhaps a weak sigh over the decline of our civilization. ...

8 The TV screen shows Red Guards in Tian'anmen Square attending a mass audience with OIairman Mao; they shout, shed tears, and wave Mao's Quotations. A horizontal banner urges everyone to "celebrate the success of the Cultural Revolution." Coupled with the notions of "pain" and "decline" in the accompanying narration, the effect is highly ironic. In an interview with a Taiwanese reporter, director Xia Jun described his various ideas for fmding the image that would best convey the notion of decline; here, he ended up using a montage in which scenes from the Cultural Revolution are superimposed over an ox plowing the field, thus tying together the two ideas of a small-holding peasant economy and a political structure that goes awry. See Heshan& taolun ji, Taibei: Fengyun shidai chubanshe, 1990, p. 81.

9 Oten Tianhua [1875-1905] was a young man from Xinhua district in Hunan province. While stUdying in Japan, he threw himself into the sea in December, 1905. His suicide, according to some Otinese scholars, was not due to despair over the decline of China's civilization, but because of his patriotic motives. At that time, the Japanese government proclaimed laws to punish some of the Otinese students. Since the content of the laws was insulting, Chinese students boycotted classes in protest. Japanese newspapers in turn mocked the Chinese students. As Chen mentioned in his suicide note, his death was a symbolic protest to the Japanese government, and he encouraged his peers to work hard to repay their debt to their country. Chen wrote two books, entitled Men& hui tou IAwakenin&l and Jin& shi mon& fA Bell Wamin& the Worldl. See Jiang Liangfu, LiJ!1i

Rnwu nianli beizhuan 7nn&biao, Hong Kong: Zhonghua shuju, 1976, p. 748; also see Heshanp baimiu [Heshan&'s Hundred Errorsl, Li Fengxiang, ed., Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chuban gongsi, 1990, p. 155.

" 1;0 "'all JJU IUJJl)1;01 ayulu ll;0l1~UJJl) UJJ LJJI;0 laLI;0 UI '-'JJJJa ~ WIl,;lCnl civilization!

(fitles: Part One. Searching for a Drearn)10

In the present world. whenever a people with an ancient civilization comes face to face with the challenge of western industrial civilization and with the general tendency for the merging of cultures in this world, it encounters a serious crisis, both in terms of its present situation and its tradition. The more ancient the tradition, the more serious the crisis; the more serious the crisis, the more enthusiastic the search for roots.11

Where are the roots of the Chinese people?12

For every yellow-skinned Chinese it is probably common knowledge that the Yellow River conceived and gave birth to the Chinese people.

Then, how did this great river shape the character of our people? How did it determine the fate of our civilization in history? This is probably not a question that each of us has thought about seriously.

This is truly a rather unique river in the world. Arising from the snow- covered peaks on the north slope of the Bayan Kara Mountains. after passing the yellow soil plateau on its way eastward. it becomes a river of yellow mud. It just so happened that this yellow river bred a yellow-skinned people; and this people just happened to call their first ancestor the Yellow Emperor. On the earth today one out of every five people is a descendant of the Yellow Emperor.13

Yellow water. yellow soil. yellow people: what a mysterious yet natural connection this is. It would appear as if the skin of this yellow people were dyed by the Yellow River.

Indeed, in the whole world there is no other natural force like the Yellow River, which played such an incalculable role in the creation of

10 The image used to accompany the title uScarching for a Dream" is adopted from the U.S. television series on O1ina entitled The Heart of the Dra&on. A red dot emerges from the u~r screen, gradually enlarging to form a coiled dragon whose head, with blood-red mouth wide open, fills the screen.

II uScarching for roots,'. 3Yn..&m in OIinese, alludes to a popular trend in the literature of the 1980'5 in both mainland China and Taiwan. The search for cultural roots led many mainland writers and later ftlm-maken to examine O1ina's impoverished rural areas.

12 The TV screen reveals a mountain lop, with an inscribed stone tablet and the homed skull of a yak. The inscription, in both Chinese and Tibetan, reads, The sollrce of lhe Yellow River.

13 Here the screen shows the inauguration of Corazon Aquino, the female president of the Republic of the Philippines, whose ethnic heritage is also Chinese.

piUJI:)WArng an;naOOJogICaJ proof. we can get our proof by simply looking at an idol that in China is both most visible and highly-respected.

This idol can almost be considered as the symbol of our people. Yet, have people ever wondered why the Chinese people would worship such a cruel and violent-looking monster? This year happens to be a dragon year again and research on dragon worship has become a hot topiC.14 This is doubtless an example of searching for cultural roots.

It is said that our ancestors saw in the rainbow connecting heaven and earth the magnificent image of a huge two-headed serpent sucking water from the earth. Other people said that our ancestors saw in the lightning that split the clouds a golden serpent dancing wildly in the storm.

And so they created the image of the dragon. This is a typical dream of a river people.

(fhe television studio. Scholars discussing the culture of the dragon spirit.) Cai Dacheng (a scholar of mythology): "From our point of view. the

dragon is an assemblage that primitive people put together according to certain concepts. What are its component parts? It has the head of a horse, the horns of a deer. the body of a snake, and the claws of a rooster. Its snake body embodied the concept of life of primitive people. Primitive people rarely saw a dead snake; they thought that when snakes grew old, they would grow young again after casting off their skins. A chicken claw also is a symbol of life. When an old lady goes to the market to buy chicken. she always looks first at the chicken's rear claw. If the rear claw is short, the chicken is tender. It is the same thing with horse teeth. People used to ask. 'How old is it according to its teeth?' Deer shed their antlers once a year , and ~

14 Mao Zedong died in 1976, and Heshan~ was produced in 1988; t.lOth years are dragon years. In the traditional Chinese calendar, twelve years form a cycle in which each year is represented by an animal. In his article "Longnian de beichuang," Su Xiaokang points out this coincidence, concluding that the dragon year is inauspicious. His interpretation is the ~site of the traditional Chinese view, in which most people believe that the dragon year is the most auspicious and wanl to have a "dragon son" or a "dragon daughter" born in that year. See I.nn& nian de beichuan2, lThe Distress of a Dra2on Yearl, Hong Kong; Joint Publishing Co., Ltd., pp. 1-3. The dragon has been criticized by some younger Chinese scholars as a symbol representing feudal oppression, one which can no longer represent the image of a new and progressive China. See "Zhongguo bu zai shi long," [Otina Is No Longer a Dragon], in Shi-iie jin~ji daobao rWorld Economic Heraldl, March 21, 1988, which is an interview with Yan Jiaqi by reporter Dai Qing. An abridged version of this article was published in Renmin ribao, May 23, 1988, and has been translated by David Bachman and Dali Yang in Van Jia~i and Otina's Stru2Pje for Democracy, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1991, pp. 77-82. Another critical reinterpretation of the dragon may be found in Xie Xuanjun's article, "Zhongguoren de Huanghe xinli" (The Yellow River mindset of the Chinese people] in Lon~nian de beichuan2, pp. 183-191.

once a year they grow new antlers. Each year they grow a new branch; as soon as deer hunters see how many branches there are, they know how old a deer is. The shedding of antlers symbolizes death; their growing back symbolizes life and rebirth. Therefore the dragon in its cultural connotation is a symbol of life, representing the hope of people in ancient times for rebirth in the cycle of life and death." 15

Xie Xuanjun16 (Vice-editor of the Philoso~hy of Culture series): "The worship of the dragon spirit means that people worship something inhuman-the dragon. China's rulers appointed themselves the noblest beings in the human world-even the natural world. They thought they were the embodiment of the dragon. Looking at it in this way, we can find a connection between the two: the dragon is the tyrant of the natural world, while the emperor is the tyrant of the human world. Emperors wanted to disguise themselves as something inhuman."17

In short, the reason why dragon worship could originate in the Yellow River basin was exactly due to the fear and res~t of this river people for its river of life. For without doubt, the Yellow River is the most brutal and most unrestrained river in the world.

Some people say that there are elements in Chinese culture that tolerate the existence of evil forcesl8; while others say that in the Chinese national character there are the fatal shortcomings of being sly and slippery , fatalistic, and submissive to oppression. If so, this is by no means accidental. For a big agricultural country with a long history , water is the lifeblood of agriculture. But water is under the charge of the dragon king. Therefore, this people love the dragon yet hate it, praise it yet also curse iL What a complex emotion this is, as complex as the image of the dragon itself.

15 In the broadcast version, this paragraph is much more colloquial and the last sentence is eliminated-

16 Xie Xuanjun has published three books: (I) Shenhua vu minzu iin~shen: ii &e wenhua quan de bijiao rM)1h and National Spirit- A Comparison of Several Cultural Gmupsl, Shandong wenhua chubanshe, 1981; (2) Huan&mo &anquan rA Sweet Sprin~ in the Barren ~ Shandong wenhua chubanshe, 1981; Kon~ii de shendian: Zhon~~uo wenhua 7.hi XilIn rThe EmptY Temple: The Sources of Chinese Culrnre], Sichuan renmin chubanshe, 1981. He has also published an anicle entitled "Zhongguo ren de Huanghe xin1i" (The Yellow River Mindset of the Chinese People] in Lon~ nian de beichuan&. pp. 183-191.

17 The term bu shi ren is a pun in Chinese, meaning literally "not a human being" and figuratively "inhuman." It is a very serious insult. Therefore, Xie's comments contain a very strong condemnation of China's rulers.

18 See for example Xie Xuanjun's anicle cited above, ":lJ1ongguoren de Huanghe xin1i," p. 181.

As a result, Chinese people have also become complex. On the one hand, they offer sacrifices to the dragon to make it completely satisfied and raise it to the summit of power. On the other hand, when they beat drums and gongs to celebrate the harvest. they really make fun of this old critter in order to vent their anger for having kowtowed and worshipped it in fear and trepidation throughout the previous year. (Scene of dragon dance). This truly is a marvelous sort of Chinese-style wisdom and humor. By balancing fear and mocking, people achieve a subtle psychological equilibrium.

Just as the building of the pyramids resulted in the founding of the Egyptian state, so too the struggle with the Yellow River also made China coalesce. The history of our civilization begins with Yu the Great.19 Over the past several thousand years, the thirst for water has given the Chinese people the strength to survive. To this day, this mysterious fate still hangs over drought-stricken north China.20

(Scenes from the movie "Old Well."21 The battle. Sun Wangquan jumps into the well. The well collapses.)

The story that happened in Old Well Village in the Taihang Mountains

profoundly reveals both the life force and the tragic fate of the Chinese people. In a sense it can almost symbolize the entire history of our people. For this reason this film has succeeded in conducting a dialogue with the whole world. It was from the Yellow River itself that the author Zheng Yi got his inspiration.

(The television studio. An author discusses the Yellow River.)

19 Yu the Great was the virtuous founding king of the legendary Xia dynasty (ca. 2205- 1800 BC). His father Gun had been appointed by King Shun to control the floodwaters. Gun was executed for not fulfilling his task. His son, Yu the Great, was born from his father's stomach; he carried on his father's task and brought the flood waters under control. The Chinese flood myth is discussed in Derk Bodde, "Myths of Ancient China," in Noah Kramer, M~tholol!ies of the Ancient World, pp. 399-400.

20 Here the screen shows the "praying for ram" scene from the fIlm Huan~ tudi fThe Yellow F.&nhJ, directed by Chen Kaige. The scene depicts a crowd of peasants kneeling down before an image of the rain dragon, their heads bound with green foliage.

21 The film script was written by Zheng Yi himself based on his novel, and the fIlm was directed by the well-known director Wu Tianming. It won the Best Feature Film award at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1987. LAQjin£ fOld Welll is a tragic story about the struggles of the people in Old Well Village to fight to obtain scarce water. The village is located in the Taihang Mountains in Shanxi province. The villagers tried for three generations to find their own well and lost many lives in digging wells that collapsed. FinaIly in 1983 they succeeded in digging a well which provided fifty tons of water a day. The interesting thing is that in the movie the hero, Sun Wangquan, did not jump into the well; rather, he was pushed into the well in the midst of a fight between two villages over water rights.