Chapter 38 Part Four Gently, Go Feitian

On November 18, 1931, Xu Zhimo arrived in Nanjing from Shanghai by train; at 8 a.m. on the 19th, he flew from Nanjing to Peiping by China Airlines "Jinan" plane.Pilot Wang Guanyi and co-pilot Liang Bitang are both 36 years old.In addition to carrying more than 40 pounds of mail on the plane, the only passenger was Xu Zhimo, who was also 36 years old.The weather was very good at first, but suddenly there was heavy fog in the area of ​​Dangjiazhuang. The pilot lowered the flight altitude in order to find the route, and accidentally touched the top of Kaishan mountain by mistake. The engine oil overflowed, the fuselage caught fire, and fell to the foot of the mountain.When the villagers arrived, the two pilots had already been burnt to ashes.Xu Zhimo sat back, only his clothes were on fire, and his skin was partially injured, but a big hole was opened on his forehead, which became a fatal wound.That night, the drizzle seemed to be mourning the premature death of the talented poet.

On the afternoon of the 21st, Xu Zhimo’s coffin was suspended in Fuyuan Nunnery in Jinan. Friends Shen Congwen, Liang Sicheng, and relatives Zhang Jiazhu and others presided over the coffin. The body was transported to Shanghai, where it was buried in the Wanguo Funeral Parlor. Wanshiwo, Dongshan, Xiashi Town, Haining, Zhejiang Province, the tombstone is inscribed by calligrapher Zhang Zongxiang. A generation of poetic souls left quietly. When 60-year-old Xu Shenru heard the news, he burst into tears and sighed sadly: "It's over!"In April of this year, his wife died of illness, and in November, his son died unexpectedly.The old man was in pain.The sound of the explosion awakened Lu Xiaoman, who was in a state of luxury, and she wrote a mournful elegiac couplet:

How many past lives have turned into nightmares, five years of sorrow and joy, a hasty farewell forever, the way of heaven is ridiculed again, wanting to die is not because of the mother's old age; Don't hate to tell anyone, you are sad and sick, and your soul is indistinguishable. After a long time in the world, the posthumous text will answer your heart. After the sad news of Xu Zhimo's death came out, it caused a great shock in the literary and art circles. Even Lu Xun, who once ridiculed him with pen and ink, cut out the report about the air crash from the "Times".Xu Zhimo has always regarded Hu Shi, who is 6 years older than himself, as his elder brother.When the bad news came, Hu Shi was even more heartbroken. He wrote in his diary on the day after Xu Zhimo's death: "Among friends, Zhimo is as talented as he is and has a strong temperament. There is no second person!" and wrote " The article "Remembrance of Zhimo" expresses his condolences: "...his failure is because his belief is too simple, and this real world is too complicated. His simple belief cannot withstand the destruction of this real world." Zhou Zuoren said: " Chinese new poetry has a history of fifteen or sixteen years, but everyone does not work hard, let alone those who continue to work hard. Among them, Zhimo is the only loyal comrade." Liang Shiqiu thinks: "Zhimo is a genius. It is the clearest and most vivid expression in his prose." Shen Congwen appealed: "The only way to commemorate Zhimo should be to expand our personal personality, to be more tolerant and loving to the world."

Cai Yuanpei's elegiac couplet is the most exquisite: "Talk is poetry, action is poetry, and life's actions are poetry. The meaning of poetry permeates, and there is a paradise for whatever happens; you can die by boat, drive by car, and die in a small room. Those who happen to be on the plane don't need to be regarded as fearful of the way." After Xu Zhimo's death, literary talents wrote commemorative articles one after another, but the poet Wen Yiduo didn't respond for a long time, so his student Zang Kejia couldn't help asking, "You are generally recognized as Xu's good friend, why didn't you show anything?" Wen Yiduo Answer, "Zhimo's life is full of romantic stories, how should I do this article?"

Lin Huiyin was heartbroken when she learned that Xu Zhimo had taken a postal plane from Nanjing to Beijing in order to save some money and come to listen to her lecture in the small auditorium of Union Medical College Hospital. .In addition to Zhang Luo Xu Zhimo's funeral, he also wrote the poem "Don't Lose It" mourning Xu Zhimo's innocent friendship: "Don't lose / This past enthusiasm, /... You still have to keep that truth! / The same is the moon Brightness, /The same is the lights across the mountain, /The sky is full of stars, /It only makes people invisible..." In November 1934, Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng went to the south to investigate and passed Xiashi. Within a few minutes of parking, she got out of the car and fell into a coma. In the dark night, I stood alone outside the car door thinking. In 1935, Lin Huiyin published the article "Commemorating the Fourth Anniversary of Zhimo's Death", which contained "gazing at the dark platform, silently recalling many discontinuous fragments of the past, until the space between life and death became blurred, life and A string of questions meanders like a train running in the vastness... If my tears had overflowed my eyelashes involuntarily at that time, I know you will forgive me." She took a piece of the burnt plane fragment that Xu Zhimo was on She took it home and kept it in her living room until her death in 1955.Lin Huiyin wrote in the last paragraph of the article "Commemorating the Fourth Anniversary of Zhimo's Death", "After you left, everyone proposed to set up a 'Zhimo Prize' for you to continue your Suzhi of encouraging others to work hard on poetry, which barely symbolizes your support for literary creation. Your zeal makes young people who don’t recognize you always have affection for you.” Xu Zhimo’s friends did draw up the “Draft Regulations for Xu Zhimo’s Commemorative Prize”.The formulation of this draft entrusted Xu Zhimo's friends with deep memory for Xu Zhimo, but due to the turmoil in the current situation and the separation of the Xinyue School of literati, the plan could not be implemented, which cannot but be said to be a pity.

Xu Zhimo's plane crashed. On the evening of the 20th, with a heavy heart, Zhao Yuanren cut out the news of the plane crash published in "Ta Kung Pao", annotated it, and posted it in his diary.He wrote, "I heard that Xu Zhimo died on the plane!!! Unfortunately, Xu Zhimo did not hear the performance of "Haiyun". The song was composed by Zhao Yuanren, and it became a "swan song" for a while.