展览的灵感来自前段时间著名作家王安忆的一场讲座。

今年5月，在一场题为“中国当代小说中的文明史——谈阿城的‘三王’”的在线讲座中，王安忆透过阿城的《树王》《孩子王》《棋王》三部小说分别提及的三种工具——亦是文明的三个象征——“刀”“文字”“艺术——数学”，探讨了作为寻根文学运动的代表，“三王”的历史意涵以及作者阿城的真正意图。“三王”讲述的是两位作家都曾经历过的知青下乡的岁月，可是，阿城为什么在书中会如此执着于描写这三种工具呢？王安忆的回答是，诚如《汉书·艺文志》所云：“礼失而求诸野”，乱世之时，人们只好到乡野去寻找文明的踪迹。

这个小展览并非是王安忆讲座的简单转译，而是以此为视角，探讨“数术”“文辞”和“匕”这三种工具是如何被滥用，以及作为文明象征的它们是如何成为暴力工具的。因此，“诸野”中的“野”既是“乡野”，也是“暴力”；这里的“诸”，既是“众多”，亦是“之于”。而无论在何种意义上，“诸野”所指的都是一个深陷危机的“例外时刻”，在这个时刻，暴力与文明往往只有一线之隔。

The exhibition took author Wang Anyi’s lecture as a point of departure.

Wang Anyi spoke about the three tools in Ah Cheng’s novels at the online lecture “The History of Civilization in Contemporary Chinese Fiction – on Ah Cheng’s Three Kings” this May. The three tools in Ah Cheng’s novels – namely, The King of Trees, The King of Children and The King of Chess – refer to knife, literature, and art-mathematics respectively. While Wang considered each tool a symbol of civilization, he also examined the true rationale behind Ah Cheng’s creation of the works and the self-positioning within an author who led the marching of the Xúngēn, or root-searching movement. Ah Cheng’s writings is a witness of the “sent-down” which was also part of Wang’s bodily memories of Down to the Countryside Movement. Yet what could explain Ah Cheng’s obsession over the three tools in his books? Wang found his answer in “Yìwénzhì”, or the Treatise on Art and Letters, “lost etiquette may be found in the wilderness.” In times of undue chaos, the wilderness and wilderness alone electrifies the homo sapiens out of the centre,returning to the uncharted territories and hoping to encounter civilization again.

The exhibition, instead of merely recycling Wang Anyi’s thoughts, is an extension of his perspective, calling upon an inquiry into the proliferation, if not contamination, of the tools’ presence. While math, diction and knife are manifested as symbols of civilization, they also became instruments of violence. Zhūyě is an assemblage of such seemingly conflicting yet parallel conditions. Zhū not only stands for variety and togetherness, but also a state of in-betweeness and in-betwixtness. Yě also transcends its original meaning, beholding both the traces of civilization and the quality of violence. Therefore, zhūyě has been translated as violence at the exceptional moment, for the fine line between salvation and its opposite is another fragile earthly frame.