Wen Yiduo (November 24, 1899 - July 15, 1946), whose real name was Wen Jiahua (huá), and whose nickname was Yousan, was a famous poet, scholar, and patriotic democratic fighter. Born in Xishui County, Huanggang City, Hubei Province. He has a family background and has been interested in classical poetry and fine arts since childhood.
He was admitted to Tsinghua School in Beijing in 1912 and loved to read ancient Chinese poetry collections, poetry talks, history books, notes, etc. In 1916, he began to publish a series of reading notes in "Tsinghua Weekly", collectively called "February Lu Comics". At the same time, he wrote old style poems. During the May 4th Movement in 1919, he actively participated in the student movement and represented the school at the National Student Federation Conference (Shanghai).
In April 1920, he published his first vernacular article "The Passenger-Style Student". In September of the same year, he published his first new poem "West Bank".
In November 1921, he and Liang Shiqiu and others initiated the establishment of the Tsinghua Literature Society. In March of the following year, he wrote "Research on the Basics of Rhythmic Poetry" and began to systematically study the metrical theory of new poetry.
In July 1922, he went to study at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in the United States. At the end of the year, "Winter Night Cao'er Commentary" co-authored with Liang Shiqiu was published, which represented Wen Yiduo's early views on new poetry. In 1923, he published his first collection of poems, "Red Candle," which exemplarily combined anti-imperialist and patriotic themes with the form of aestheticism. After returning to China in May 1925, he successively served as the fourth National Sun Yat-sen University (renamed Central University in 1928 and Nanjing University in 1949), Wuhan University (he served as the first dean of the School of Liberal Arts and designed the school emblem), Qingdao University, and Beijing Art College. He is a professor at the National Chengchi University, Tsinghua University, and Southwest Associated University. He once served as the dean of the Beijing Art College, the director of the Foreign Languages ??Department of the Fourth Sun Yat-sen University in Nanjing, the dean of literature at Wuhan University, and the dean of literature at Qingdao University.
In 1928, he published his second collection of poems, "Dead Water," which showed his deep patriotic passion amid decadence. Since then, he has devoted himself to the study of classical literature. Guo Moruo called the compilation and research of the four major ancient books "Zhouyi", "Book of Songs", "Zhuangzi" and "Chuci" "unprecedented and unprecedented".
In 1937, when the Anti-Japanese War began, he taught at the Southwest Associated University in Kunming. During the eight years of the Anti-Japanese War, he grew a beard and vowed not to shave it off until he won the Anti-Japanese War, expressing his determination to fight to the end.
During the Southwest United Congress, especially after 1943, Wen Yiduo, under the influence and leadership of the Communist Party of China, actively participated in the struggle against the dictatorship of the Kuomintang regime and the struggle for people's democracy. of torrent. In 1944, he participated in the Southwest Cultural Research Association and later joined the China Democratic League. Since then, he has actively participated in social and political activities as a professor of democracy and leader of the Yunnan Branch of the Democratic League, and has become a mentor and friend who is loved and respected by the revolutionary youth.
During the "December 1" student patriotic movement, Wen Yiduo always stood by the majority of patriotic students, guiding and encouraging them to dare to fight and be good at fighting, and to strive for the victory of the "December 1" movement. made important contributions.
In 1945, Wen Yiduo was a member of the China Democratic League, head of Yunnan Province, and president of Kunming's "Democracy Weekly". On July 15, 1946, at a meeting to commemorate Mr. Li Gongpu, he delivered the famous "The Last Speech" and was killed by Kuomintang agents that afternoon.
On the 21st, the Southwest Associated University Alumni Association held a memorial service for Mr. Yiduo. Zhu Ziqing attended and spoke. He said angrily at the beginning: Mr. Wen Yiduo was brutally assassinated in Kunming, which aroused grief and indignation across the country. This is a great loss for the democratic movement and a great loss for Chinese academics.
Then he described in detail Wen Yiduo’s great academic contribution. First of all, tell people that Wen Yiduo was "the only new patriotic poet" in China before the Anti-Japanese War. "He was also the one who created a new rhythm for poetry." "He created his own poetic language and created his own prose language." He also introduced in detail Wen Yiduo's achievements in research on mythology, "Chu Ci", "Zhouyi", "Book of Songs" and other aspects. He highlighted Wen Yiduo's great academic achievements, and his purpose was to tell people what a valuable scholar the Kuomintang reactionaries had killed and what a rare talent in the Chinese academic community! It aroused greater resentment against the enemy.
Finally, he said sadly and angrily: He had a strong vitality. He often told us that he would live to be 80 years old, but now he is not yet 48 years old, and he died tragically under that despicable and vicious gun! A student once paid homage to his body and saw that he was "covered with blood, holding his head in his hands, and convulsing all over his body." well! He is not willing to give in, and neither are we!
He secretly made up his mind to organize and publish all Wen Yiduo's works. This was a way to fight against the enemy. He wrote to his student Wang Yao: Mr. Yiduo’s death is sad and infuriating. His posthumous manuscript is planned to be compiled by colleagues from the institute and try to be printed. Later, it was compiled into four volumes of "The Complete Works of Wen Yiduo".
Zhu Ziqing once wrote a poem praising Wen Yiduo:
You are a ball of fire, shining through the abyss; instructing young people to grasp themselves in despair. You are a fire that illuminates the ancient times; you are as powerful as a tiger in singing, dancing and competing. You are a fire that lights up the devil; burns yourself! A new China bursts out of the ashes!
Wen Yiduo’s two turns:
1. From wildness to tranquility
In 1912, Wen Yiduo, who was only 13 years old, came from the countryside of Hubei. A wealthy family came to Tsinghua University in Beijing and began to be exposed to Western culture. In 1922, he went to the United States to study and specialize in fine arts. In the more than ten years from being admitted to Tsinghua University to returning from studying in the United States in 1925, Wen Yiduo was basically immersed in art and literature, and was only occasionally involved in politics.
In the past two years since returning to China, Wen Yiduo has heard and witnessed conspiracies, wars, and massacres. Facing the huge national disaster, he could no longer suppress his grief and indignation, and published "Contribution", "Guilty", "Reclaim", "You Swear by the Sun", "Heartbeat", "One Word" and other poems are full of patriotic passion and painful criticism of social reality. But after the volcano erupted, he felt helpless, and finally took the traditional path of a literati, hiding in his study and digging into the pile of old papers, and became a calm scholar who didn't care much about the world and just wanted to be alone.
2. From "free scholar" to fighter
The outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War fundamentally changed the situation of academic intellectuals such as Wen Yiduo. During the big transfer from Beijing to Kunming, Wen Yiduo participated in a walking group that lasted more than two months and traveled more than 3,000 miles across the three provinces of Hunan, Guizhou and Yunnan. A true understanding of the life of the lower class of society provided an opportunity for him to change his thoughts. At the same time, his own living standards dropped sharply and he became impoverished rapidly, which caused an extremely important change in his perspective on the problem.
The changes in Wen Yiduo began in the spring of 1943 when Chiang Kai-shek's "The Destiny of China" was released in Kunming. In this book, Chiang Kai-shek openly advocated the authoritarianism of one party, one doctrine, and one leader. He not only opposed communism, but also could not tolerate liberalism, believing that both were "the biggest crisis of cultural invasion and the biggest hidden danger to the national spirit." This is unacceptable to people who have always believed in democracy and freedom. Wen Yiduo wrote: "The publication of the book "The Destiny of China" is a very important key for me personally. I was simply shocked by the Boxer spirit in it. Our wise leader originally thought this way. The May Fourth Movement had such a profound impact on me that "The Destiny of China" openly challenged the May Fourth Movement, and I couldn't stand it."
Not long after, Wen Yiduo accidentally read the poem "The Destiny of China" by the poet Tian Jian. After several poems, I was deeply shocked by the fighting spirit in them. I immediately wrote the article "The Drummer of the Times - Reading Poems in the Fields" and published it publicly, which caused a wave of fluctuations in the rear area. Then he wrote a series of essays focusing on reality and began to cry out. At the same time, he eagerly read various left-leaning books to learn more about various situations of the Communist Party. The description in Zhao Chaogou's "One Month in Yan'an" that there were only "four policemen" in Yan'an deeply impressed him. He believed that "only under such a new social order can young people receive democratic education without any hindrance."
Wen Yiduo, who has the romantic temperament of a poet, has undergone a rapid and complete transformation. In the summer of 1944, he secretly joined the Democratic League under the introduction of Luo Longji and Wu Han, and said that he "will definitely ask to join the Communist Party in the future." From then on, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the movement for democracy under the secret leadership of the Communist Party.
Of course, deep down in his heart, he could not completely forget about academics. He told people many times that he felt a little empty and hoped that after realizing political democracy, he would return to his study and study hard for ten or twenty years. But this was no longer possible. On July 15, 1946, after he bravely delivered his "Last Speech", he was assassinated on the streets of Kunming.