‘徵候’로서의 張承志 읽기

Abstract

In this thesis, the writer tries new comprehension of works of Zhang Chengzhi(張承志)who influenced contemporary Chines literary circles with such works as The Black Steed(‘黑駿馬'), History of the Soul(‘心靈史’). He is Hui(回) Chinese and grew up in Beijing. He went to Tsinghua university middle school and was said to coin the word ‘Red Guard'. He was sent down to Mongolia and lived as a ‘educated youth'(知靑). But after the Cultural Revolution, his behavior and writing were distinctively different from any other writer. He was a promising young writer and scholar, but after he came to contact with a muslim sect called Jahrinya(哲合忍耶), he became a muslim and left literary and academic circles and became a professional prose writer. His transformation was not just change of occupation and genre but it could be interpreted as civilizational conversion because it was related to radical questioning about history, society and civilization of China which was triggered by discovery of lowest class minority groups. One thing in his argument that merits attention is that his fierce criticism about Chinese history and intellectual community ultimately restored the status of Hui in the history of civilization of China. In today's situation where political unrest in ethnic minority regions becomes a serious issue, it is unknown what Zhang Chengzhi's fundamental questions about the nature of Chines civilization result in, but his questions deserve to be called a significant symptom that is related to the future of new China which is half a century old.