The Return of “Authenticity” in Literary LanguageReading Ba Jin’s Sui Xiang Lu

Literature and language are inseparable, any change in literary concept is often presented through the change in the view of literary language. In the perspective of humanitarian language, literary language is a tool for people to express emotions. Ba Jin inherited the tradition of New Literature of the May 4th period, trying to purify the literary language after the Culture Revolution through his “unskilled” literary writing practice in Sui Xiang Lu. Furthermore, in the perspective of ontological language, language is existence. Literary language is the dwelling place of human existence, while confession and true words are the way for people to know their own existence. The penitent literary language makes Sui Xiang Lu not limited to one generation, but a further exploration of the purification of literary language.