运演未来主义科幻小说及其与神话和科学的关系.pdf

30 This paper is a preliminary result of Imagination and Futurist Sci-Fi in the Age of Science and Technology Research 科技时代的想象力与科幻未来主义研究,a project supported by the Research Center for GBA Science and Technology,Humanities,and Innovation Culture at Southern University of Science and Technology,one of the key social sciences research facilities in Shenzhen.Wu Yan is professor of the Humanities Center and researcher in Research Center for GBA Science and Technology,Humanities,and Innovation Culture at Southern University of Science and Technology.E-mail:The Relationship between Mythology and Science in Operational Futurist Sci-Fi NovelsWu YanAbstract:Futurism is a highly creative and cohesive area of sci-fi literature in China,which emerged at an early stage.Futurist sci-fi writers describe the process of humanity growing in wisdom as they move ahead,with an innovative view of the future.There are four schools within futurist sci-fi writing in China,namely:blueprint futurism,operational futurism,experiential futurism,and eclectic futurism.This paper will focus on the unique school of operational futurism in particular,and will attempt to provide an overview of how writers of this school were first discovered,their literary characteristics,and how their works advance human cognition.This paper will also examine the similarities and differences between this form of literary creation and mythology.Keywords:sci-fi,operational futurism,narrative involution,narrative sprawl,mythology,scienceThe Fossilized Egg Debate and the Discovery of Operational Futurism Refer to page 27 for Chinese.Similarly hereinafterIt was forty years ago that the present author discovered operational futurist sci-fi novels.On July 19,1979,China Youth Daily 中国青年报 published Zhen Shuonans 甄朔南(19252012)essay“Scientificity Is the Root of Thoughtfulness”科学性是思想性的本源 in their“Scientific Discussions”科普小议 column.His essay was a critique of the picture-story book“The Mysterious Fossil Egg”奇异的化石蛋 which was based on Ye Yonglies 叶永烈(19402020)novel The Mystery on the Highest Peak 世界最高峰上的奇迹.In his essay,Zhen Shuonan strongly criticized this picture-story book as being unscientific,as inciting intellectual confusion,and as an example of pseudoscience.Ye Yonglie defended his work in the same column on August 2 with an essay titled“Science,Fantasy,Reason”31科学幻想合理.The debate that occurred between these two essays was intensified when Zhen Shuonan published the essay,“Where Does Scientific Fantasy Come From?In Answer to Comrade Ye Yonglie”科学幻想从何而来？兼答叶永烈同志 on August 14.Ye Yonglies rebuttal was never published,deemed by the editing body as too specialized for the papers readership.This unfinished debate on the fossilized egg would become an important milestone in the history of Chinese sci-fi.The new wave of sci-fi that had undergone mixed fortunes in China since the beginning of the reform and opening-up period experienced a total breakdown of trust following this debate,and several writers left writing altogether as Chinese sci-fi novels entered into a new low point.For many years the fossilized egg debate was an unavoidable topic for anyone conducting research on the history of sci-fi writing.Zhen Shuonan adamantly maintained that he was motivated by a desire to protect the authority of science in scientific discussions,whilst sci-fi writers held that the debate originated in scientific critics fundamentally misunderstanding the genre of the novel.This debate on who had the right to comment led to a more profound question on where sci-fi writing belongedin the realm of science or literature?Moreover,who was qualified to make this decision?Over time,people no longer applied themselves to reading the essays where this debate arose,thus missing out on the opportunity to discover a new sub-category of sci-fi writing.Looking back to the fossilized egg debate in the current cultural milieu has much to teach us.Zhen Shuonans essay leaned on his contemporary scientific knowledge to authoritatively point out three errors in Ye Yonglies work.First,that the leading character of the book finds the fossilized egg by tracing dinosaur footprints goes against the principles of fossil formation.For a dinosaur footprint to be preserved,the ground must be damp,whereas dinosaurs preferred to lay eggs in a dry environment.The discrepancy in the two kinds of environments where these could be expected to appear meant that they would be unlikely to be found in close proximity to each other.The second“error”that Zhen Shuonan referred to was that to infer from the rejuvenation of ancient lotus seeds that a dinosaur egg could be preserved for seventy million years goes against basic scientific knowledge.Finally,the book referred to aquatic dinosaurs,which have never been discovered.Based on these findings,Zhen Shuonan concluded that such unscientific writing would confuse readers.As an assistant researcher at the Beijing Natural History Museum,and a published author on dinosaur research,Zhen Shuonans critique carried considerable weight.In his published rebuttal,Ye Yonglie argued that sci-fi writing offers reasonable ideas about the future based on current scientific findings,and therefore should not be judged strictly by contemporary knowledge.His responses to the three problems raised by Zhen Shuonan were that,first,although the fossils would each appear under different circumstances,one event might link them,for example,a dinosaur might leave behind a trail of footprints on a rainy day on her way to the sunny side of a mountain where she laid her eggs.In such a case both conditions would be present,and,therefore,the storyline of the book did not run against scientific knowledge.In the second case,the extension of time that the egg was preserved was not as unreasonable as it may seem,however the editing body had abridged large sections accounting for the process,so the published book lacked consistency.Finally,he argued that it was not impossible that there were aquatic dinosaurs,as even Zhen Shuonan himself had published scientific essays on the subject.For the most part,Ye Yonglie argued his point with case studies and examples,a means of argumentation that was unacceptable to a scientist,although it was his more narrative answers that really got under the skin of the scientific community.Generalized conclusions based on universal truths and case studies of specific events are on very different levels of argumentation,and Relationship between Mythology and Science in Operational Futurist Sci-Fi Novels32any appeal to a narrative approach was even less likely to find acceptance.The literary writer was doomed to failure by the tools he chose to use.Should we be accepting of Zhen Shuonans approach?Quite apart from the fact that both The Mystery on the Highest Peak and“The Mysterious Fossil Egg”are literary or artistic works,and as such are entirely different in nature to an academic scientific paper,even if Zhen Shuonans reasoning is correct,should we believe him?Just two months later,the journal Vertebrata and Palasiatica 古脊椎动物与古人类(published by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)published a paper written by researcher Zhao Zikui 赵资奎,which explained in detail an example of the overlap of a dinosaur footprint with a dinosaur egg.1 This paper overturns the first accusation that Zhen Shuonan leveled at Ye Yonglie.Zhen Shuonan offered a follow-up in the debate on the fossilized egg in his essay“We Ought to Show Respect to the Sciences:More on The Mystery on the Highest Peak”还是应当尊重科学补谈世界最高峰上的奇迹 on March 26,1983.He did not,however,offer any new evidence on the matter of the two fossils themselves.Looking back to the fossilized egg debate of 1979,the present author is more inclined to analyze it in terms of differences between the minds of scientists and writers,and between scientific commentary and sci-fi commentary,as well as philosophical discrepancies in the means by which each expresses their world view.Generalized scientific conclusions and specific scientific realities already belong to two completely different categories in science,not to mention applying them in the entirely different realm of literary criticism.Ye Yonglie employed a story-telling approach in framing his response to Zhen Shuonans criticism,and this is beyond reproach as a writers mode of thinking or as his own methodology.A work of literature,regardless if its theme is sci-fi or any other genre for that matter,is narrative in nature,a unique representation of multi-layered elements of time and process,in service of a narrative,rather than of generalized principles.There is some debate as to whether or not sci-fi novels aim to explain scientific principles,but the way in which Zhen Shuonan raised his points of contention demonstrates a certain lack of adaptability.Ye Yonglies narrative participation in this debate leaves us with an intriguing question,namely whether or not a sci-fi novel,particularly one where narrative operation is at the heart of the novel,is at all closely related to narratives in and of themselves.Does narrative operation constitute a unique means of expression that is inherently opposed to the generalized conclusive nature of the sciences?Can literary works mainly employing this technique constitute a unique sub-category of the sci-fi novel?Operational futurism was discovered under precisely this type of consideration and semantic environment,creating a whole new,meaningful framework for research into futurism in the Chinese sci-fi novel.The Development of the Operational Futurist Sci-Fi Novel in China 29As a cultural import,the sci-fi novel may include special characteristics that are difficult to translate into a new linguistic field.The present author would like to borrow the term“operation”from psychologist Jean Piaget(18961980)to encapsulate the key idea of futurist novels of this type.What operational means in this context is the literary result 1 Zhao Zikui 赵资奎,“The Significance and Meaning of a Dinosaur Footprint and a New Type of Egg Fossils Discovered in Neixiang County,Henan”河南内乡新的恐龙蛋类型和恐龙脚印化石的发现及其意义,Vertebrata and Palasiatica 古脊椎动物与古人类,no.4(1979):304310.Confucian Academy Vol.9,No.4(2022)33of the writers narrative operation.The resulting narrative allows the plot of the novel to unfold and develop over a relatively long period of time.“Operational futurism is when a novel allows interweaving narrative threads to develop over a long period of history or across a wide range of locations,and onward into the future.”2Operational futurist novels can further be divided into the sub-categories of procedural,experiential,and psychological operations.Among these,procedural operation pushes the narrative forward by changing time and place;many time-travel novels belong to this type of writing.Experiential operation develops a narrative based around the interactions of humans and non-humans;adventure and detective novels usually belong to this type of writing.Psychological operation tells a story through a series of psychological processes;coming of age sci-fi stories and psychological-themed novels belong to this type.Naturally,in the course of writing an author does not necessarily adhere strictly to one type or the other,therefore many operational futurist novels demonstrate features of each type,and what we see is that some works prioritize changes in time period,whilst others prioritize changes in events,and others psychological or spiritual development.Operational futurism along with the other sub-categories of futurism are all sub-categories that emerged immediately after the emergence of the Chinese sci-fi novel.If we trace their historical development,it is possible to identify works that are key milestones.The late Qing dynasty(16441911)was the first period of science fiction in China.New Century 新纪元 was published by Xiaoshuolin Press under the pen name of“Master of Bihe Hall”(碧荷馆主人)in 1908 and is a classic example of operational futurism,as well as a work full of surprisingly accurate predictions.The novel describes the events of the year 1999,when the Chinese government is preparing to replace the Gregorian calendar with one that begins with the birth of the legendary Yellow Emperor of China.The government fails to foresee that such a seemingly small act as changing their calendar will create a powerful global reaction.Many countries refuse to accept the Chinese calendar,and are fierce in their rejection.At this point in history,Hungary elects a prime minister of Chinese heritage,who adopts friendly policies toward China,and opts to accept and even adopt the Chinese calendar.This leads to several European countries uniting in their dissension.Hungarys new president has no choice but to seek the support of China.China decides to support Hungarys sovereign right to vote independently on a matter of national importance and judges that the intervention of other countries is unjust.European countries take military action,deploying naval forces and newly developed hot air balloon forces.From beginning to end the novel describes Chinese efforts to de-escalate tensions,develop various political alliances,and engage in daring struggles in military affairs.From its origins in the South China Sea,the conflict spreads to encompass the South-East Asian and Indian Oceans,the Red Sea,and the Mediterranean Sea.As both sides engage in battle it is difficult to predict who will come out on top.The novel aims to promote at least two primary concerns regarding the matter of war,namely that being on the side of justice and choosing advanced weaponry are essential for victory.The plot line of New Century employs a mix of procedural and experiential operations along a single narrative thread.Key moments in the plot revolve around the change in calendrical systems and the introduction of new weapons,which are familiar as key starting points for any narrative sprawl in operational futurism.Operational futurism continued to develop after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China in 1949.In the year 1960,Tong Enzhengs 童恩正(19351997)novel Mists of 2 Wu Yan 吴岩,“Sci-Fi Futurism in China:Representations of Time,Types,and Characteristics”中国科幻未来主义：时代表现、类型与特征,Chinese Literary Criticism 中国文学批评,no.3(2022):6269,190.Relationship between Mythology and Science in Operational Futurist Sci-Fi Novels34the Ancient Valley 古峡迷雾 was published by Youth Publishing House.It tells the story of how the head of Archeology Studies at Southwest University,Yang Chuande 杨传德,finds signs of a lost ancient ethnic group in the SichuanChongqing region of China via the numbering on vessels left behind by the Hu(虎)people.There had always been contention around the possible existence of this lost group.Yang Chuande follows the traces on these vessels all the way to the Qutang Gorge where he further discovers a unique language belonging to the group along with signs of bronze smelting techno