Violence and Violations Revealed Through Illusions - A Study on Yan Lianke's Novel 『日光流年』

The theme that penetrates the “『日光流年』” is 'death'. To avoid 'death' is to protect 'life' or face 'death' proudly. As such, the topic of ‘三姓村’ is 'life and death', one big 'conflict' penetrating the entire novel. Compared to other people, it has a limited lifespan of 40 years, and no one exceeded this. Delaying the time of 'death', in other words, and increasing the time of 'life', is a task to be solved by ‘三姓村’ and the driving force of the novel. Conflict can be said to reveal the character's character and values and to grasp the subject of the novel through confrontation and conflict between characters and characters, or characters and groups and classes. In this article, I would like to focus on the conflict in the novel. First, in “『日光流年』”, conflict is 'life and death', that is, increasing the lifespan of the villagers. It is the village's 'village chief' who leads the business of increasing life expectancy. In an environment of life and death, the authority of the 'village chief' is absolute. For the villagers, his attitude appears as a sacrificial spirit and extreme violence. The spirit of sacrifice is the distribution of grains to famine. Violence is more powerful in the common goal of living over the age of 40. Especially in the value of the group, individual sacrifice is taken for granted and expressed violently. However, on the one hand, the constant challenge of the death of the villagers is the struggle for life and consideration of human development. It tries to explore human desire through the 'village chief'. Second, through conflict analysis in the novel, it was revealed that it criticized the barbaric political violence in modern Chinese history. And it was revealed that the 'village chief' and modern Chinese history in the novel are metaphors for the political disaster and those in power that occurred in modern China. Third, we explored the violent, anti-human, and anti-ethics actions of the 'village chief' to prevent disasters. In addition, it was revealed that the project to live a long life is a utopian fantasy that cannot be realized. Fourth, in the novel, the life of the protagonist '司马蓝' unfolds in reverse. I would like to analyze why I chose this narrative structure, focusing on the love of '司马蓝'. The desire for '司马蓝' to become a 'village chief' conflicts with the ethical norms of the villagers, and at the same time, love with '蓝四十' has not been achieved. I want to explore the restoration of humanity through the love of the two through the novel.