How Revolutionaries Are Forged
- Approaching It from an Existentialist Perspective
By Xiao Bi, May 9, 2025, 04:48 AM
To sing and weep for the people, to bear witness to the era. This is why "Black & White" is called a red literary classic: because it firmly stands on the side of the working people, because it upholds the dignity of real people, and because it exposes the distorted, one-sided, corrupt darkness of the ruling class. From this perspective, "Black & White" is rooted in the joys and sorrows of real people and provides an honest record for the Chinese people. As a realist work written for the working people, "Black & White" is a profound summary of the historical encounters of the working people since the reform and opening-up, and even more, it is a testimony for future generations of history.
The historical span of "Black & White" is considerably large, stretching from the New Democratic Revolution down to the 21st century, with its脉络 (main thread) tightly revolving around the issue of proletarian revolution versus bourgeois restoration in New China. By grasping "Black & White" macroscopically through this lens, we arrive at a set of binary oppositions: the revolutionary versus the restorer. Revolutionaries are represented by characters such as Wang Sheng, Gu Zheng, Luo Zheng, the Old Principal, and Cheng Guojun, while restorers are represented by figures like Master Wu, Du Wei, Song Qiankun, Lang Tao, and Hong Taihang.
However, merely mechanically delving into this binary opposition prevents the discovery of the classic's intrinsic ideological essence. One must approach it from an existentialist perspective to truly uncover the ideological value of "Black & White." What is a revolutionary? A revolutionary is not someone whose essence is inherent at birth; a revolutionary becomes a revolutionary through revolutionary struggle. This understanding—that existence precedes essence—is precisely what the resolute revolutionaries in "Black & White" put into practice through their courageous struggles.
II.
Wang Sheng should arguably be a character many can relate to. Wang Sheng's father, Wang Shengli, was a steadfast revolutionary soldier who followed Chairman Mao. He named his son "Wang Cheng," after a volunteer soldier in the film "Heroic Sons and Daughters." Wang Cheng (Wang Sheng) was born with the external symbolic imprint of the revolutionary era placed upon him by his father. For Wang Cheng (Wang Sheng) at this time, this revolutionary symbol was not his inherent essence but an external imposition. This external imposition was not something Wang Cheng identified with from the heart; instead, it troubled him and made him feel isolated. This distress ultimately prompted Wang Cheng to change his name.
No one is born a revolutionary; even if both parents are revolutionaries, this revolutionary spirit does not pass on to the next generation through genes. Wang Sheng's name change exemplifies this. The name "Wang Cheng," as an external symbol, did not truly transform Wang Cheng into a revolutionary, but rather planted a seed of revolution deep within Wang Sheng's heart. This seed finally broke through the soil after Wang Sheng experienced real-world changes, including being betrayed by Du Wei, joining the Mass Art and Media Group, and receiving a letter from Zong Tianyi. This is about confronting reality: Should he help Zong Tianyi expose the darkness, or should he let his friend die in injustice for the sake of immediate glory and wealth?
When Wang Sheng resolutely broke away from the immediate glory and wealth, from the isolation and cold stares of his colleagues, and from Du Wei's threats and temptations, Wang Sheng won his revolutionary existence. Wang Sheng did not become a revolutionary because of his birth name "Wang Cheng" or his father's tireless indoctrination; rather, Wang Sheng actively chose to become a revolutionary who broke with the dark reality. Sartre emphasized: "Man is free, man is freedom." Wang Sheng is also free; Wang Sheng is free enough to choose a complete break, to not yield to any threats from Du Wei and the corrupt officials colluding with him. He is even freer in that he could have completely chosen to turn a blind eye to the truth and preserve his own glory and wealth. In this freedom, Wang Sheng chose the most resolute break. This break symbolizes that Wang Sheng has internalized the revolutionary spirit as his very purpose. At this point, Wang Sheng truly understood his father and truly became the "Wang Cheng" his father had hoped for.
Existentialism has a classic proposition: existence precedes essence. Wang Sheng's courageous existence created his revolutionary essence. This realization of revolutionary form and revolutionary symbol within Wang Sheng truly shaped the image of Wang Sheng as a revolutionary who has been thoroughly tested and ultimately courageously taken up the revolutionary banner. Wang Sheng's experience is the victory of dialectics won by real people.
Wang Sheng is a microcosm of the Chinese people. From the beginning, Wang Sheng was externally defined by a revolutionary symbol. Wang Sheng was dissatisfied with this and longed to break free from this external definition. However, after experiencing real-world struggles, Wang Sheng finally decided to exist as a revolutionary, a breaker. And this existence ultimately led Wang Sheng to internalize the once external and resisted revolutionary symbol into his own practice. This is a microcosm of a potential revolutionary's journey in real life, stepping onto the revolutionary path step by step, and finally growing into a true revolutionary.
If the trials of Wang Sheng ultimately forged him into a true revolutionary, then this forging is also reflected in the female protagonist, Gu Zheng. At the lowest point of "Black & White," Gu Zheng bravely stood up and broke with the entire legal system, including her teachers, seniors, and various resources. This break also symbolizes Gu Zheng winning her own revolutionary existence.
How exactly does an ordinary person become a revolutionary? Becoming a revolutionary is not something that happens in an instant burst of passion. Through his profound insight into the dialectical relationship between social change and individual self-development, Elder Liu in "Black & White" offers his perspective: People are not born revolutionaries; they become revolutionaries through the tempering of real-world struggle, by the courage of a leap of faith and an uncompromising break.
III.
Besides characters like Wang Sheng and Gu Zheng, who gradually grew into revolutionaries, another group of equally revolutionary figures also deeply moved us. These are the "old revolutionaries" represented by the Old Principal, Luo Zheng, and Wang Shengli.
If Wang Sheng represents the confused young people who gradually grow into revolutionaries, then the Old Principal demonstrates how truly steadfast revolutionaries adhere to their revolutionary existence under repeated suppression from restorers and counter-revolutionaries.
The Old Principal was a firsthand participant in China's New Democratic Revolution; his entire family died under the guns of the "returning landlords' corps." Unlike Wang Sheng, who was born in an era of ideological confusion and a lack of socialist education, the Old Principal grew up in the socialist New China led by Chairman Mao. The nurture of the people's government and socialist education ensured that the Old Principal was a resolute communist from his first appearance in "Black & White." And this communist belief supported the Old Principal in his resolute struggle against various restorers and restoration forces after the reform and opening up.
The Old Principal was the headmaster of the only elementary school on Phoenix Island. Nie Changhai, the island's Party Secretary, was the Old Principal's most cherished student. However, after Nie Changhai degenerated and betrayed socialist ideals, the Old Principal slowly broke with him. As Phoenix Island was gradually developed into a tourist island, the Old Principal continuously led villagers in resisting corrupt officials. And after the Phoenix Islanders were finally relocated, the Old Principal resolutely stayed on the island to guard the Martyrs' Cemetery: the Old Principal practiced his communist beliefs through his idealistic resistance.
But "Black & White" is not a feel-good novel; it is a profound realist work. The Old Principal's desperate struggle only more heavily portrays the cold reality of revolutionaries being cruelly suppressed by reactionaries—the Old Principal's idealism was crushed under the most realistic wheels of counter-revolution. In the dual material and spiritual counter-attack of the restoration forces, the Old Principal died alone in his old house on Phoenix Island. At the time of his death, an open copy of "The Communist Manifesto" lay on his desk...
This is not a romantic end for a hero; this is a living, most real, cruel reality. This is the reality of a true communist maintaining his revolutionary existence with unwavering faith. For the steadfast ideal in his heart, he would not hesitate to give his life. This is our Old Principal. In the arduous struggle against restorers and capitalist-roaders, the Old Principal burned out the last flame of his life. When I read about the death of the dearest Old Principal, I buried my head and wept bitterly. Now, as I write this, tears are already streaming down my face.
"With stern brows, I face a thousand pointing fingers; bowing my head, I am willing to be an ox for the children." This is a true portrayal of the Old Principal's life. The Old Principal is a source of profound emotion belonging solely to the working people. Such emotion is similarly demonstrated in Wang Shengli, the old director of the brick and tile factory, who repented for not fulfilling Chairman Mao's task, and in Luo Zheng, the old underground revolutionary who persisted in reporting the powerful revolutionary traitor and capitalist-roader, Song Qiankun. When the overwhelming pressure from the capitalist-roaders' demons and monsters descended, it was they who straightened their communist spines; it was they who upheld the heroic true colors of the revolutionary martyrs.
IV.
While Wang Sheng was transformed into a revolutionary through real-world struggles, Du Wei and Ba Dong, who were the same age as Wang Sheng, were carried along by historical currents and degenerated into vanguards of bourgeois restoration. While revolutionaries like the Old Principal, Luo Zheng, and Cheng Guojun suffered real persecution and oppression but still adhered to the glory of communism, old revolutionaries like Song Qiankun and Hong Hu slowly relaxed and eventually moved to the opposite side of the revolution. This shows that human beings have no fixed essence; everything about a person is a free choice. This is precisely the maxim of the Marxist existentialist Sartre: "Man is the result of his own actions, and nothing else."
Revolutionaries are not born revolutionaries; they realize themselves as revolutionaries through revolutionary struggle. The same applies to capitalist-roaders and restorers. In "Black & White," Wang Sheng, Gu Zheng, the Old Principal, Wang Shengli, Luo Zheng... these admirable revolutionary characters truly practiced themselves into steadfast revolutionaries through the mediating process of dialectical human development. This is not a simple, formal logical "feel-good" text, but a profound understanding of the dialectical laws of human development.
"Black & White" is precisely built on the essence of this dialectical method. "Black & White" thus sublates the long-standing dominance of formal logic that permeated the realm of Chinese "scar literature," genuinely achieving a return to the essence of humanity and to the Marxist view of people's literature in the book. "Black & White" truly stands on the historical height commanded by dialectics. Its inherent reflections on the changes in social structure (see the author's article "Class Restoration in Black & White") and the return to human essence ensure that "Black & White" realizes a brilliant practical understanding of human wisdom and human essence. From this perspective, "Black & White" is truly worthy of the honor of being a "red literary classic."