"Poetry Revolution" in the Late Qing Dynasty

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, poetry showed a declining trend. Therefore, the reformists, including Liang Qichao, Huang Zunxian and Tan Sitong, launched a poetry reform movement.

In the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), Huang Zunxian wrote a poem "Miscellaneous Feelings", in which he wrote: "How can I refuse to hold it?" In other words, I want to write what I want to say in my words. How do those decadent formats set by the ancients constrain me?

It was Liang Qichao who clearly put forward the slogan of "Poetry Revolution". At first, he advocated a "poetic revolution" with "new artistic conception", "new sentences" and "ancient style".

The so-called "new sentence" should not only absorb new nouns, but also introduce new sentence patterns. They tried to open up a new source of poetic language and quoted a large number of foreign words from the West. But on the one hand, they stick to the "ancient style" and are unwilling to break the traditional rhythm of poetry.

Therefore, although he later put forward new requirements: "old style and new artistic conception" and put forward the important "artistic conception theory" of poetry, he always refused to introduce "new sentences", so he could not reform traditional poetry.

Since then, the revolution in the field of poetry has come to an end in the double contradiction of innovation and conservatism. However, it is undeniable that their new poetry revolution still has some influence on later generations.

2

"May 4th" New Poetry Movement

In his article On New Poetry, Hu Shi clearly put forward that all kinds of shackles of tune and music must be overthrown on the basis of absorbing the revolution in poetry circles of Liang Qichao and others. Irregular, informal, straightforward, regardless of length, what topics are there and what topics to do; Do what you do to poetry.

Later, he simply summarized the above proposition as "writing poetry as a composition". Here, there are two requirements, one is to break the rhythm of poetry; Second, write poems in vernacular, replace classical Chinese with vernacular, and replace classical Chinese grammatical structure with vernacular grammatical structure.

(Please refer to 19 17 Hu Shi's "On Literary Improvement" to abolish classical Chinese and advocate vernacular Chinese and "eight things". )

Of course, later, many old-fashioned schools insisted on traditional poetry and strongly opposed the "New Poetry Movement", such as the "Xue Heng School" (the old-fashioned school at that time). However, under the call of the May 4th Movement and the New Culture Movement, this revolution conforms to the trend of the times and is unstoppable.

three

Early vernacular poems

1922, Ye (Ye Shengtao) and Zhu Ziqing founded the first new poetry journal in the name of "China New Poetry Society". There are many issues of poetry now. Interested parties can pay attention to the official account of WeChat WeChat.

China's first "vernacular poet" was Hu Shi, and China's first new collection of poems was Hu Shi's Trial Collection.

In fact, many friends of Hu Shi thought that poetry was poetry because of its musical beauty, that is, the traditional metrical beauty. Poetry is not poetry if it breaks the beauty of rhythm and becomes a "vernacular" poem. But in order to insist on "abolishing classical Chinese and advocating vernacular Chinese", he also regarded poetry as an experiment.

Because it was an experiment, his poems left many old traces. Many poems are half written, half white, half new and half old. We can see many ancient poems in his collection of attempts. For example:

Lepapillon

Two yellow butterflies, both flying into the sky.

For some reason, one flew back.

The remaining one is lonely and pitiful;

I have no intention of going to heaven. It's so lonely.

Although this poem is still written according to the rules, it can be seen that its language is "vernacular", which is easy to understand, unlike Tang poetry and Song poetry, which pays attention to rules and allusions.

Of course, he also has "vernacular poems", such as:

Rickshaw puller

"The car! Car! " The car came like a fly.

The guest looked at the driver and suddenly felt sad.

The guest asked the driver, "How old are you this year? How long have you been pulling the car? "

The coachman replied, "Sixteen this year. I have been driving for three years. Don't be suspicious. "

The guest said to the driver, "You are too young to drive your car. I will take your car and feel sad. "

The driver told the guest, "I have no business for a long time, and I am cold and hungry."

Your past kindness can't fill my hungry stomach,

I am too young to pull a rickshaw, and the police don't care. Who are you? "

The guest nodded, got on the bus and said, "Pull to the west of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

Reading:

Obviously, this poem mainly describes the tragic scene of a young rickshaw driver waiting for customers in the cold and hunger winter, and the poet has a feeling of pity and sadness about it and can't bear to take his car.

The work adopts popular vernacular language and successfully shapes the artistic image of a young rickshaw puller. However, because we only try to write poems in vernacular, the use of language is not refined enough and the charm of poetry is not strong enough.

four

"early vernacular poets"

Besides Hu Shi, there are Shen, Liu Bannong, Kang and Zhou Zuoren.

Let's look at some classic works:

(1). Shen's Sanxian

At noon, the sun is like fire, and it can't be stopped. Let him bask in the long street. Few people walk quietly, only the leisurely wind comes, blowing the poplars on the roadside.

Whose house is broken, and the green and fine grass in half the yard are all shining with golden light.

There is a low earth wall next to it, which blocks a man who plays Sanxian, but it can't block the sound of Sanxian.

Outside the door sat an old man in rags, holding his head in his hands. He is as quiet as a mouse.

(2) Shen's Moonlit Night

The wind is cold,

The moonlight shines brightly.

I stood side by side with a big tree,

But I didn't rely on it.

Reading:

First of all, this poem is very concise and implicit. A few strokes paint a picture of a winter night.

The north wind roared and the frost was thick; The moon is bright and the air conditioner is attractive. The environment is bleak, and the figure is shoulder to shoulder with the tree, which shows that he is lonely.

In connection with the background of the times, poetry only reflects a social aspect before the May 4th Movement-a social aspect of semi-feudal and semi-colonial China.

(3) Liu Bannong's "separated by a layer of paper".

There was a fire in the room,

The host ordered to open the window to buy fruit.

Said, "It's neither cold nor hot,

Don't let it burn me. "

There is a beggar lying outside the house.

Bite your teeth and shout "death" to the north wind!

Internal and external poverty,

There is only a layer of tissue paper in the middle.

Reading:

Obviously, there are two worlds inside and outside the house. But because the poet's title is "separated by a layer of paper", poetry is sublimated and deepened. This is his early work, and some of his later works are also quite excellent. Let's take a look at his "Teach me how not to think about her" in the next issue.

(4) Kang

grass

The grass is ahead,

The whip is in the back.

Panting bull,

Carrying a plow kite,

Roll your eyes,

Drag the mud and water,

Walking there is "one east and two winters".

"Whoo ..."

"Cow, don't sigh,

Plow quickly, plow quickly,

I will give you the grass. "

"Whoo ..."

"Cow, plow quickly.

You still have to sigh

I will whip you. "

Cow!

Cow!

The grass is ahead,

The whip is in the back.

On the one hand, these works are mainly based on documentary narration in vernacular Chinese, which everyone can understand. On the other hand, it is because the language is straightforward and lacks "poetry".

For poetry, different people have different aesthetics. Some people focus on poetry, while others focus on content. However, the early vernacular poets are still very important for the turning point of literary history. It is conducive to promoting the development of history, witnessing the traces of that era, and also has a far-reaching impact on the existence of "narrative vernacular poetry" in later generations.

(5) Zhou Zuoren's Little River

Because the poem is long, I won't discuss it in detail here. You can study it if you are interested.

There is nothing in life, and poetry sends the soul.

It is easy to write a poem, but it is difficult to write it well. Knowing the history of poetry and savoring classic poetry collections can help us write poetry better.

I am Mr. Zhou, a person who loves poetry. Writing poetry is not only a matter for one person, but also for everyone. Writing poetry needs inheritance.

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