The Rise of the Writers of the Republic of China

Peking, in a simple Peking University dormitory.

Since it was during the summer vacation, the entire dormitory building was very deserted, and there were not even a few ghosts to be seen.

"Snapped!"

Sun Zuoyun swatted a mosquito to death and turned his attention back to the manuscript paper. His upper body was exposed, and he was wearing a pair of shorts and a pair of low-quality slippers. He looked like he was wearing as many laces as he wanted. However, the article he is writing is destined to be recorded in the history of modern Chinese literature.

Sun Zuoyun was born in Liaoning, Northeast China, which means that he is now an exiled student.

His college career was very bumpy. He graduated from the High School Affiliated to Northeastern University at the age of 19. He could have been recommended to Northeastern University without taking the exam. But he went to Shanghai alone and was admitted to Fudan University based on his ability.

Sun Zuoyun had been studying at Fudan for less than a year when the "December 128 Incident" suddenly broke out and the Japanese invaded Shanghai brazenly. Fudan students initiated the organization of a volunteer army, and Sun Zuoyun decided to join the army. He dropped out of school and joined the 19th Route Army that actively resisted Japan. He was responsible for delivering ammunition to the soldiers fighting the enemy on the front line.

This battle was fought in a confused manner, but China and Japan actually reached a peaceful truce, and the Fudan student army was also disbanded.

Students like Sun Zuoyun were in embarrassment. They couldn't become soldiers and they couldn't go to school. In anger, Sun Zuoyun simply ran north and was successfully admitted to Peking University that year.

Sun Zuoyun will soon be in his third year of college. He saw Zhou Hexuan's new poem "Praise" a few days ago, so he decided to write something.

Just think of it as writing your graduation thesis in advance.

There were more than a dozen reference books on the desk, plus a thick stack of magazines. Sun Zuoyun was writing with great energy, and soon lines of pen words appeared on the manuscript paper——

"On 'Modern' Poetry"

(1) Three stages of evolution of new Chinese poetry

Counting from Mr. Hu Shi's "Anthology", new poetry has a history of more than ten years... Now new poetry has reached the most confusing path. New writers are all new and different, and the unfixed form of new poetry has also caused One of the causes of confusion…

I divide the development of new poetry into three stages: ① Guo Moruo's era, ② Wen Yiduo's era, and ③ Zhou Hexuan's era.

Issue 1: There were many writers in Guo Moruo's era, and they were also very complex. However, although the artistic conception and content of the poems of this era were different from each other, their common characteristics were that the form was not fixed and they did not pay attention to rhyme...

The second issue: represented by Mr. Wen Yiduo and Xu Zhimo. The characteristics of Mr. Xu's poetry are fluent, clear and gorgeous... The poet of the same school as Mr. Wen is Mr. Chen Mengjia. Mr. Chen's poems have both artistic conception and form, and are not restricted by others. He is a poet who can best express himself... The characteristics of this school of poetry are the evenness of form, the adjustment of syllables, and the use of materials is also higher than others.

The third period: Mr. Zhou Hexuan is the representative, and Mr. Zhou is also represented by Mr. Dai Wangshu, Shi Zhecun, Li Jinfa and others. The beginning of this school of poetry is Mr. Zhou's "Answer", "Despicableness is the passport of the despicable, and nobility is the epitaph of the noble." These two simple sentences describe all the ugliness in the world. This poem's novel and magnificent imagery brought many influences to subsequent poets. This school of poetry is now the most popular style in the domestic poetry circle. Especially since 1932, most new poets belong to this school, which has become a temporary trend. Because this school of poetry is still growing and has only a common tendency without an obvious banner, it can only be called "modern poetry" because most of this type of poetry is published in "Modern" magazine.

(2) Characteristics of modern poetry

The characteristic of modern poetry is that poets want to abandon the beauty of the words of the poem, or ignore the beauty of the words, and seek the beauty of the image of the poem. Their poems do not rely on rhythm, so they do not emphasize rhyme and rhyme, and their form is uneven.

From this aspect, modern poetry is a reaction to Crescent Poetry. They advocate using new vocabulary and abandoning the old vocabulary that has been used by people, but those who can have new suggestive power should also use the old vocabulary... Take Mr. Zhou's new work "Praise" as an example. The first section has a total of 19 Of the lines of poetry, only three lines fit the rhyme... Mr. Dai Wangshu's "Wangshucao" is also a typical work of this school of poetry. I have seen countless young poets imitating it..."

Sun Zuoyun's paper has a total of 10,000 words. He listed Hu Shi as the forerunner of Chinese new poetry, and then divided the development of new poetry into three stages. The leading figures in the first stage are Guo Moruo, the leading figures in the second stage are Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo, and the leading figures in the third stage are Zhou Hexuan and Dai Wangshu.

Well, by accident, Zhou Hexuan became the originator of Chinese "modernist" poetry.

In the article, Sun Zuoyun also discussed the current situation of poetry creation. He said:

"After 1931, Chinese politics became more and more repressive. Poets were born with no flattery, no ability to flatter others, and they were not satisfied with the current society. Every writer fell into a quagmire of despair... and because of the Northeast Incident, the tragic ancient country , one-fifth of the country's land was lost in less than a year... What can we do if we are not pessimistic?

Modernist poetry often expresses pessimistic thoughts of nothingness. Therefore, in the past three years, modernist poets have become more numerous and flourished, forming a large faction. However, there are many shortcomings in their creations, such as unnecessary complaints, scattered structure, art for art's sake, and tending to morbid themes.

Mr. Zhou Hexuan's "Praise" provides an example for the creation of modern poetry. Its intention is healthy and progressive; its structure seems loose, but in fact it is perfect and self-contained; its rhymes are irregular, but smooth and smooth, making it catchy to read; its use of imagery is at its peak, and is There is no unwarranted and deliberate accumulation... Today's young poets should really read more of Mr. Zhou's poems and not let their own creations go into dead ends..."

Sun Zuoyun's "On Modern Poetry" was published more than half a year earlier than in history. It aroused great discussion in the poetry world as soon as it came out.

"Modernist" poetry finally has its own name.

In this poetic school, Zhou Hexuan is the founder and leader, Dai Wangshu is equivalent to the deputy leader and chief protector, and Shi Zhecun, Bian Zhilin, Li Jinfa and others are the elders in the sect. As for the "Misty Poetry School" that emerged a few decades later, it was just a branch of the "Modern Poetry School". Bei Dao and Gu Cheng's status was probably equivalent to that of the outer sect leaders.

Young poets all over the country went crazy. They imitated Zhou Hexuan's "Reply" and "Praise" and even directly disassembled and reorganized the original sentences and put them into their own poems.

If Guo Moruo was the poetry idol 15 years ago and Xu Zhimo was the poetry idol 10 years ago, then Zhou Hexuan is the poetry idol now.

Whether they are girls in the boudoir or patriotic young people, they all hold Zhou Hexuan's new poems as if they are treasures.

It is a pity that Zhou Hexuan's poetry output is too few, no more than ten poems so far, which makes his admirers feel very regretful.

After more than ten years of development, Chinese vernacular poetry has finally matured. Zhou Hexuan unintentionally added fuel to its fire and left an unshakable historical status.