He was unknown during his lifetime, but he has many fans after his death. His nearly 10 million words of ideological expositions have inspired and nurtured countless Hunan and Xiang students, and influenced the history of Chinese thought and politics for nearly 300 years. He is Wang Fuzhi, also known by his courtesy name Ernong and his pseudonym Jiangzhai. People call him "Mr. Chuanshan".
From May 12th to 15th at 19:30 every day, the documentary "Mr. Chuanshan" will be launched on Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV, focusing on this legendary figure and exploring the roots of the evolution of China's modern thought over the past century.
Mr. Chuanshan poster
The production team of "Mr. Chuanshan" specially invited a group of "Chuanshan Studies" experts and scholars to serve as academic consultants, and assembled the original production team of the documentary "China". Through movie-level scene reconstruction combined with historical research, they used four episodes to trace the legendary life of this "great scholar of heaven and earth" from "Wang Fuzhi" to "Wang Chuanshan".
Stills from Mr. Chuanshan
As the spiritual source of Hunan culture, Wang Fuzhi lived in seclusion in Shichuanshan, Hengyang, and wrote countless works throughout his life. His thoughts profoundly shaped the character of Hunanese people who "dare to be the first in the world". He proposed "knowledge and action complement each other for use", and led academic research from the study to social change. This spirit was inherited by a group of Hunanese children such as Wei Yuan, Zeng Guofan, Guo Songtao, Zhang Taiyan, and Tan Sitong. Whether it was the traditional Jingshi School, the Westernization School that kept pace with the times, the Reformists who practiced constitutional monarchy, or even the revolutionaries who aimed to overthrow the Qing Dynasty... all showed the imprint of Chuanshan's thoughts. The modern Hunan patriots devoted themselves to saving the nation with the heroic spirit of "If the Chinese nation is to perish, all Hunanese people must die", which was the externalization of Chuanshan's spirit.
"Poetic commentary, picturesque presentation", the program continues the "Chinese aesthetics", and on the basis of the previous "real and imaginary coexistence", it upgrades the hypothetical and symbolic techniques of the drama stage, making history contemplable, tangible, lamentable and understandable. The ideological dialogues across time and space that took place more than a hundred years ago will once again, through this documentary, stir up ripples of inheritance in the contemporary era.
"Mr. Chuanshan" is jointly produced by the Publicity Department of the CPC Hengyang Municipal Committee, Hunan Satellite TV, Mango TV, and Hengyang Radio and Television Station, and co-produced by Mango Bojing Studio and Bojing Culture.
