Divine Nature of Novels by Shen Congwen

Shen Congwen captured divine nature in ancient history and paid attention to the adverse social effect that destroys human nature. Therefore, he established a strong position of the national culture by returning to primitive barbarism, further attempting to rescue the old ethnic group and culture which were declined and corrupted. Starting out from the cultural lineage of primitive barbarism, Shen Congwen regarded that all problems are caused by loss of human nature and loss of healthy primitive vitality. Based on this perception, Shen Congwen believed that the root of social reconstruction lies in ‘human reconstruction.’ Furthermore, he thought that social reconstruction must start from reconstruction of literature because only literature can revive feelings that were suppressed and withered by power and human nature distorted by the desire for wealth.BR From the perspective of beauty of life, Shen Congwen clarified the purpose of his creative works. His ideal was to pursue truth, goodness and beauty of human nature and to liberate human nature suppressed and distorted by irrational social systems. Shen Congwen considered the divinity was a natural, beautiful and noble symbol of truth, goodness, beauty and love. He did not found a supernatural and supersocial religion. He neither discussed the divinity and nature in abstract terms nor isolated various properties of the divinity from nature and life. His motto was to reconstruct human beings and national spirit. Shen Congwen’s mission was to explore life and present a way out for the survival of the Chinese ethnicity. He regarded reconstruction of ‘beauty’ and ‘love’ as the purpose of recreating the divinity. The concepts of ‘beauty’ and ‘love’ were not defined in passive terms of appreciating and feeling. They were used as active subjects to construct a new ‘divinity’ by mixing emotional elements of the divinity, beauty and love. He sublimated the idea of pantheism based on the fact that he is a ‘rural person,’ which allowed him to maintain mental equilibrium and adhere to his ideals and pursuits.