How Has the Literature of the Wang, Feng, and Mo 

“Trio” “Soared Against the Wind”

Big Brother Head · January 27, 2026 · Wenjiao Ronghe

We must both uphold the people's standpoint, root ourselves in the lives of the masses, break free from the shackles of niche, self-centered writing, and abandon the unhealthy tendencies of huddling together for warmth and固ifying deviations; we must also uphold value orientation, promote noble spirits, clearly distinguish good from evil and right from wrong, and reject the pitfalls of dissolving values and Blurring human nature, allowing literature and art to return to positive guidance; furthermore, we must root ourselves in the realities of the era, balancing historical reflection with guidance for the present, and transmit positive spiritual strength. How Has the Literature of the Wang, Feng, and Mo “Trio” “Soared Against the Wind”?Those concerned with contemporary literature will notice that, over the decades, the three literary giants Wang Meng, Feng Jicai, and Mo Yan have gradually formed a closely echoing “trio” through their shared political stances, aesthetic views, and literary pursuits. Relying on their cultural discourse power and frequent mutual endorsements and support, they carry enormous cultural influence, creating a unique spectacle in the Chinese literary world, like a mysterious carriage that can summon wind and rain, thundering across the fields of literary creation, continuously generating significant industry noise and profoundly shaping the literary ecology and development direction. However, setting aside the various halos surrounding them and examining their literature from the perspective of Marxist-Leninist literary theory, one finds much that is worth pondering and alerting.Mao Zedong's "Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art" established the fundamental direction for literature and art to serve the masses of the people and to combine with workers, peasants, and soldiers, anchoring the core mission of literature originating from life, serving reality, and guiding the spirit. Xi Jinping's "Talks at the Forum on Literature and Art Work" continues this core, emphasizing a people-centered creative orientation, requiring literature and art to root in Chinese soil, manifest the spirit of the era, transmit positive values, and reject creative pitfalls such as detachment from reality, dissolution of the sublime, and虚化 of human nature. Viewed within this core context, the literary pursuits and creative practices of Wang Meng, Feng Jicai, and Mo Yan show deviations to varying degrees in stance and expression. Moreover, their group-style mutual endorsements have continuously amplified these deviations, creating a significant gap with the core requirement of literature and art serving the people and echoing the era, which warrants vigilance and deep reflection.In the early 1990s, Wang Meng constructed a literary path with "evading the sublime" and "turning inward," denying the historical merits and commendable social responsibilities of literature in participating in social change since the May Fourth Movement. In essence, this weakened and deviated from the core mission of literature and art, contradicting the spiritual core emphasized in both forums. The active endorsements by Feng Jicai and Mo Yan further granted this deviated path undue recognition in the literary world. After Wang Meng proposed the proposition of "evading the sublime," it sparked much controversy in literary circles, with accusations that it dissolved literature's spiritual responsibility. At that time, Feng Jicai publicly endorsed its deconstructive value against "pseudo-sublime," calling it "a sober breakthrough in the rigid literary ecology." Mo Yan also stated in interviews that "Wang Meng's exploration has given literature more possibilities," endorsing his linguistic experiments of "turning inward." Wang Meng personally inscribed the name for Mo Yan's Literature and Art Museum, and Feng Jicai, despite his advanced age and scorching heat, traveled far to Gaomi to support and boost the museum; the two backed Mo Yan with concrete actions. The three frequently appeared together on stage at various university literary creation activities, encouraging and praising each other, forming a clear group dynamic. Their mutual echoes provided important support for Wang Meng's creative path that deviated from the core mission of literature and art. In essence, although "evading the sublime" began with deconstructing pseudo-sublime, it evolved into a deliberate alienation from sublime spirit, leading literature toward a weightless void. It affirmed the cheerleading and playful "playing at literature" of Wang Shuo's style, degrading literature into a tool for verbal amusement and satisfaction, completely betraying the militant requirement in the Yan'an Talks that literature serve as a revolutionary trumpet and consolidating spiritual strength, and also violating the orientation of new-era literature to transmit positive values and promote the Chinese spirit.Wang Meng's advocacy for literature that "does not carry weighty things" strips away the social responsibility and spiritual accountability that literature should have. While dissolving pseudo-sublime, it also discards the core of true sublime, turning literature into word games detached from the weight of the era. The exploration of "turning inward" in literature, while expanding linguistic expression dimensions, fell into the shackles of self-enclosure: excessive indulgence in language games and personal emotional flows, detached from the life practices of workers, peasants, and soldiers and the real demands of the masses, betraying the fundamental principle that "literature and art originate from the people's lives." Its excavation of the inner universe of human spirit, detached from specific historical contexts and the foundational practices of the people, degenerated into niche self-expression, neither aligning with mass aesthetics nor responding to era concerns, forming a stark tension with the requirements emphasized in both forums that literature and art should be close to the masses and serve reality. In essence, this is a self-narrowing of literary creation, and the endorsements and support from Feng and Mo undoubtedly provided a living space for it.Feng Jicai's writing on suffering, though initially aimed at historical reflection, fell into one-sided and extreme pitfalls, deviating from the core mission of literature and art to reflect history and enlighten the present. The strong endorsements from Wang Meng and Mo Yan trapped him in the "suffering for suffering's sake" narrative, making the deviation from the forum spirit increasingly evident. As history's wheel rolls forward, he remained immersed in narratives of suffering and stagnated, and his environment of high official positions and generous benefit further distanced him from this great era of transforming heaven and earth. After his scar literature and cultural reflection works were published, they were questioned for their narrow vision and excessive indulgence in pain. Wang Meng repeatedly praised his "perseverance and courage toward history" in public, calling his works "precious records of the era's scars." Mo Yan even said outright that "Feng Jicai's writing contains the nation's memory, irreplaceable." Their endorsements made Feng Jicai's creative path increasingly firm, yet also harder for him to break out of his fixed narrative framework. Feng Jicai, despite his advanced age, braved the scorching summer heat and traveled hundreds of kilometers to Gaomi for the opening of Mo Yan's Literature and Art Museum, praising Mo Yan's literary achievements and ties to his homeland in his speech, saying "Mo Yan's weight is the weight of this Literature and Art Museum," actively supporting his close friend. Wang Meng also personally inscribed calligraphy to add prestige to the museum. In literary creation exchange activities at universities such as Tianjin University, the three often appeared together on stage: Feng Jicai sharing insights on cultural preservation, Wang Meng discussing literary innovation, Mo Yan exchanging creative experiences, mutually affirming creative values and encouraging perseverance in creative directions, forming a tight supportive momentum. As a representative of scar literature, Feng Jicai's early works focused on the suffering of intellectuals during the Cultural Revolution, which had some historical value but remained confined to the pain narratives of specific groups, neglecting the main experiences of workers, peasants, and soldiers in the era's calamities, contrary to the direction of "serving workers, peasants, and soldiers" in the Yan'an Talks. His creative core always revolved around the pain and helplessness of intellectuals, lacking attention to the overall fate of the broad masses, turning suffering writing into emotional venting for niche groups and failing to truly record the full picture of the era from the people's standpoint. Although "Ten Years of One Hundred People" claims to be a "history of ordinary people's souls," it still fails to escape the accumulation of individual pains, lacking profound analysis of historical essence and positive guidance for era progress, falling into the narrative trap of "suffering for suffering's sake." More crucially, his creative transformation did not achieve a breakthrough; even when shifting to cultural reflection, he clung to the narrative framework of historical pain, lacking concern for new-era realities and positive promotion of national spirit. Feng Jicai adheres to the creative logic that "suffering enriches writers," turning national pain into creative material, excessively rendering tragic atmospheres, yet failing to extract positive value from historical reflection or transmit the spiritual strength of national striving, violating President Xi Jinping's requirement that "literature and art should manifest the spirit of the era and conce Chinese strength." This kind of creation immersed in historical pain and neglecting current development can neither enlighten the present nor lead the future; it is essentially a one-sided understanding of literature's historical mission. The continuous endorsements from Wang Meng and Mo Yan allowed this one-sided perception to gain more recognition in literary circles, further widening the distance from the core mission of literature and art.Mo Yan's artistic dialectic of "write good people as bad people, bad people as good people," seemingly pursuing the complexity of human nature, actually falls into the pitfalls of dissolving good and evil and虚化 human nature, betraying the core duty of literature and art to distinguish right from wrong and guide social trends. The high-profile endorsements from Wang Meng and Feng Jicai granted support to his creative path that deviated from the national and people's character of literature and art, far from the spirit of the two forums. Mo Yan's creations, due to blurring good-evil boundaries and magical techniques, sparked widespread controversy, yet Wang Meng highly praised the "depth of his human nature depiction," saying it "broke the shackles of traditional character shaping, extremely groundbreaking." Feng Jicai also repeatedly affirmed the "folk quality and vitality" of his works, providing key support for his firm footing in literary circles. Especially at the important moment of the completion and handover of Mo Yan's Literature and Art Museum, Wang Meng personally inscribed the museum name, and Feng Jicai braved advanced age and scorching heat to rush to the site to assist, fully displaying their deep friendship and supportive posture. In university literary creation activities, the three routinely appeared together on stage, mutually affirming creative perseverance and encouraging breakthroughs in expression before young students: Wang Meng praising Mo Yan as "writing well and eloquent too," Mo Yan expressing gratitude for Wang Meng's guidance and recognizing Feng Jicai's cultural responsibility, Feng Jicai affirming the unique contributions of the two to literature. Their group-echoing posture greatly enhanced the dissemination of each other's creative ideas and further solidified Mo Yan's creative concepts. From the essence of creation, Mo Yan's breaking of black-and-white character shaping is not objectionable in itself, but it swung to another extreme: blurring good-evil boundaries, diluting value judgments, infinitely amplifying heroes' flaws, and deliberately beautifying villains' evil thoughts, essentially dissolving mainstream values. In "Red Sorghum Family," the dual portrayal of Yu Zhan'ao as both "hero and bastard" weakened the spiritual guiding role of heroic figures. Excessive empathy for negative characters in "The Republic of Wine" [wait, actually "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "Sandalwood Death"] blurred the fundamental boundaries of good and evil, violating the value orientation in the Yan'an Talks that literature should "praise the bright and criticize the dark." His creative turn to "write oneself as a sinner," though showing self-reflective awareness, fell into criminated nihilism, holding the view that "others are sinful, I am sinful too," dissolving the boundaries of individual responsibility and historical justice, lacking rational examination of history and reality. Mo Yan claims to "write people as people," but it is actually a one-sided interpretation of human nature—detached from specific social contexts and value orientations, merely depicting desires and limitations of human nature, neglecting the brilliance and perseverance in humanity, filling works with crude desire venting and dark human exposure, lacking positive spiritual guidance. More importantly, his creation excessively relies on magical realism techniques, distorting and grafting folk stories with historical reality, detached from the true context of Chinese soil. Though gaining Western recognition, it fails to truly transmit the core values of Chinese culture and the spiritual features of the Chinese people, betraying President Xi Jinping's requirement to "uphold the Chinese cultural standpoint and root creation in Chinese soil," essentially a deviation from the national and people's character of literature and art. The endorsements from Wang and Feng prevented this deviation from being corrected in time, instead forming a示范 effect in literary circles.Looking back from the core context of the spirit of the two literature and art forums, the literary stances and creative practices of Wang Meng, Feng Jicai, and Mo Yan all show deviations to varying degrees: Wang Meng dissolves the sublime and self-encloses, deviating from the mission of literature serving reality and concentrating spirit; Feng Jicai indulges in pain with narrow vision, betraying the duty of recording the era and enlightening the present; Mo Yan blurs good and evil, beautifies the ugly, treating bourgeois human nature theory—already discarded into the dustbin of history—as the guiding principle, violating the socialist literary purpose of distinguishing right from wrong and guiding trends. Their group endorsements have become routine: Wang Meng inscribing calligraphy to bolster Mo Yan's Literature and Art Museum, Feng Jicai traveling to Gaomi in advanced age and scorching heat to support it, and frequent co-appearances and mutual encouragement at universities such as Tianjin University and Beijing Normal University, amplifying their creative influence through tight echoes while covering up deviations in creative ideas. This all-round group support not only backs their controversial creative paths but also固ifies creative orientations deviating from the core mission of literature and art, making the problem of deviating from "people-centered" creation increasingly prominent—they either detach from mass practice, limit to niche perspectives, or dissolve core values,固ifying erroneous creative orientations through mutual echoes, failing to fully practice the core mission of literature originating from, serving, and guiding the people. The "trio" they formed stirs waves in literary circles but grows increasingly distant from the proper direction of literature and art.New-era literary creation must still take the spirit of the two forums as the fundamental guide and calibrate the creative direction: both uphold the people's standpoint, root in mass life, break free from niche and self-centered creative shackles, and abandon the unhealthy tendencies of huddling for warmth and固ifying deviations; also uphold value orientation, promote noble spirits, clearly distinguish good from evil and right from wrong, reject the pitfalls of dissolving values and虚化 human nature, allowing literature and art to return to positive guidance; furthermore, root in era realities, balancing historical reflection with present guidance, transmitting positive spiritual strength. Only in this way can literature and art truly be worthy of the era and the people, fulfilling their core mission of consolidating national strength and guiding social trends.