In the late 1920s and 1930s, the center of literature moved south to Shanghai, and remained as a free group of writers in the Beijing and Tianjin areas or other northern cities. At that time, it was also called the "Northern Writers" group. . The "Beijing Sect" does not have a formal organization, it is just a name that continues to be used. The novels written by "Beijing School" writers are called "Beijing School Novels". Beijing-style novels have a simple style of writing and are close to the lives of the people at the bottom. They incorporate romanticism and various artistic techniques to express subjective personality into realistic creations. The main representative writers include Shen Congwen, Fei Ming, Lu Fen, etc. Shen Congwen's novels "Border Town", "Xiao Xiao", "Long River", etc. are among the more outstanding works.
Dream countryside.
The dreamlike description of the countryside is a major feature of Beijing-style novels. Beijing-style writers regard art as dream and emotion as reality, that is, they construct their local dreams based on Zhu Guangqian's dualistic concept of "ideal world" and "real world". Based on this, they adopt a peaceful attitude towards the patriarchal rural customs and folk customs, and strive to discover the simple human beauty, moral beauty, unique customs beauty, and quiet natural beauty. Shen Congwen's world in western Hunan, Fei Ming's mountains and plains in eastern Hubei, Lu Fen's Orchard City in Henan, Lao Xiang's rural areas in Hebei, Wang Zengqi's towns in northern Jiangsu, and Xiao Qian's slums in Beijing all express this feature. The two "New Editions" also inherited this style, such as the description of Tanzhe Temple and Jietai Temple; the description of the return of the female Dwarf Tiger to her hometown; the description of Baoding Prefecture; the description of the inn; the description of the brothel; and the description of Pi Ba Zi. , the description of the female Dwarf tiger getting married, the description of bumping the sedan chair, etc. In short, whether it is the description of strong vitality, the gentleness and beauty of women, or the purity and immaturity of children, they all prominently affect the author's dreamy mood. In Shen Congwen's words in "Selected Old Works: Preface" Fascination for "a beautiful, healthy, natural, and not contrary to human nature" form of life.
Compassion for life.
Beijing-style novels mostly show compassion for human beings. In their observation of history and culture, Beijing-style writers not only sincerely praised the simplicity and simplicity of the unenlightened primitive civilization, but also saw the barbarism of etiquette and patriarchal systems and the unfortunate side of life. At the same time, the strong academic background of the Beijing School gave the writers a tragic awareness of society and human beings in theory. Both Shen Congwen and Fei Ming very solemnly pointed out the aesthetic qualities of tragedy in their works. In their view, there is an inevitable connection between human divine existence and tragic existence, which determines the tragic nature of Beijing-style novels. It is a tragedy of human nature; on the other hand, the Beijing-style writers' simple belief in human nature makes their tragedies "bright" and with a "smile of compassion". In this way, their way of expression is to not lose their brightness due to the humble people in the story, and to always maintain the calmness of a writer. There is often a sympathetic smile in the light satire. In Shen Congwen's "Small Scene under the Moon", the boy and girl go to a beautiful death in the moonlight, thereby sublimating love to a sublime realm. These works, in their helpless sighs and pity for the destruction of love and beauty, show the efforts of Beijing-style writers to "have a deeper understanding of life or life." There is also a type of life tragedy in Beijing-style novels that expresses beauty and ugliness, the opposition between good and evil, a strong social criticism tendency, and a clear choice between love and hate, such as Shen Congwen's "The Vegetable Garden" and "The Husband"; this feature is more obvious in Xiao Qian's works. , he advocates the struggle between defeated people and fate. Therefore, his tragedies contain some elements of heroism, which can be seen in "Deng Shandong", "Xiao Jiang", and "The Destiny of Yinzi Che" arrive.
Poetic expression.
The styles of Beijing-style writers all have a lyrical quality. The stylistic form of their novels exists in conjunction with their narrative attitudes, value choices, and cultural sentiments. Integrating poetic pursuit into the narrative and permeating the romantic atmosphere with realism are the outstanding features of the Beijing style novel style. Shen Congwen likes to write novels using the "poetic lyricism" method. For example, "Border Town" has realistic sadness, peach orchard-like romance, and the tranquility of water, with a clear and meaningful poetic flavor. Feiming is good at using the "method of writing quatrains" to write novels, and often uses poetic symbolism in his novels. Beijing-style writers often have the consciousness of creating artistic conception. Their novels either use scenes to express feelings, or use images to imply meaning. They use blank space and emptiness to form a three-dimensional artistic space, giving readers a huge space for imagination. The two "New Editions" use poetry, songs, prose, and dance in many places. Among them, "The love and marriage between the female bantam tiger and the old horse Liaozhai" can be regarded as a representative in this aspect. This plot depicts the story from multiple perspectives. The natural scenery and human beauty of Xibaipo set up an "appropriate" and "harmonious" life background for the protagonists "the female dwarf tiger and the old horse", so the simple and peaceful nature detached the optimism of the Xibaipo people. The female Dwarf Tiger has become the core of the whole novel due to her concept of living without fighting against the world. The author also introduced Zen contemplation and enlightenment into the novel, further promoting the artistic conception of the novel. The sexual artistic conception comes from the sparse structure and prose tendency of the works of the Beijing School. The novels of the Beijing School often adopt a structure of scattered form and concentrated spirit, and this is the typical prose structure. People call the writers of the Beijing School all portrait stylists. , mainly refers to this aspect.