Chapter 62 Big loss for Chinese academia

Big loss for Chinese academia —— Mourning Mr. Wen Yiduo one Mr. Wen Yiduo was brutally assassinated in Kunming, which aroused the grief and indignation of the whole country.This is a great loss for the democracy movement, and it is also a great loss for Chinese academics.Regarding the latter aspect, the author knows a lot, so let’s talk about it now, to pay tribute to this old friend who has been admired for many years. Everyone knows that Mr. Wen is a poet.Many people have read his "Red Candle", especially his "Dead Water".One of the characteristics of these collections are those patriotic poems.Before the Anti-Japanese War, he was perhaps the only new patriotic poet.Here we can see his attitude towards literature.Since the New Literature Movement, many authors have recognized the political and social nature of literature and expressed it, but Mr. Wen has a particularly intimate understanding and emphatically expressed it.Among the poets in the past, he respected and loved Du Fu the most, because Du Fu's poems were the most political and social.Later he went a step further and paid attention to the singing and dancing of primitive people: this is the art of the group, and it is also the art of blending with life.What he wants is enthusiasm, strength, and life like fire.

However, he did not ignore language skills. Everyone remembers him as the person who advocated and created new poetic rhythms.He creates his own language of poetry, and he creates his own language of prose.Everyone knows poetry, so there is no need to go into details; prose, such as "Tang Poetry Miscellaneous", unfortunately there are only five pieces. The economical words and sentences, the compact and short length, are simply poetry.I have listened to his recent speeches, and there have been two or three times that he is also so concise, every word seems to be weighed out, but it is so natural and smooth.He was thus especially able to appreciate the twists and turns of ancient languages.Of course, all of the above depends on academic ability, but even more on talent, that is, imagination.As far as reading ancient books is concerned, it is true that you must first master the study of the sound and rhyme of the characters; but it is not enough. If you don't have a lively imagination, you can only do a little bit of work, and you will never be able to master it.This requires carefulness, but also boldness.Mr. Wen can understand the way of expressing ancient languages. His collation of ancient books, some parts are bold and frightening, but he has to read them carefully;School books can be divided into dead schools and live schools; he is naturally a living school, and because of the general progress of knowledge and technology, his achievements surpass those of Gaoyou Wang and his son who drove the living school.

He studies ancient China, but he wants to revive the partially fossilized ancient times in the minds of modern people.Because the ancient and modern times belong to one society, one country, and history is coherent.We need to know the ancient times objectively; however, it is "we" who know the ancient times objectively. We who are modern must be able to imagine the ancient life in our minds and share the ancient life in our minds in order to know the living ancient times. Maybe That is the real ancient times—this is also the objective understanding of ancient times.Mr. Wen's study of Fuxi's stories or myths is to integrate the myths with people's lives; myths are not fantasy or entertainment, but the expression of people's desire for life and vitality.This is the news of life and death, and it is a record of the struggle between man and nature.He also had the same attitude when studying the mythology of "Chu Ci".When he looked at Qu Yuan, he also looked at him in the whole society of the whole era.He admitted that Qu Yuan is a great genius; but a genius is a living person, not an idol. Only by looking at it in this way can Qu Yuan's true face be reappeared in our hearts.When he studied the stories in "Book of Changes", he first had an image of the whole society in his heart.The same is true for research, he found that there are many sentences about sex life in those love poems; he often jokes that his research has become more and more "physical"-in fact, this is showing the power of life.

He is a man with a sense of humor; his understanding of antiquity sometimes depends on this sense of humor.Reading the "Wolf's Postscript" in "Kuang Zhai Chido", you know that he can appreciate the sense of humor of the ancients that others have never experienced.And the so-called "Kuang Zhai" is based on Kuang Heng's saying that poetry explains people's sympathy, which is exactly the meaning of humor."Mr. Wen Yiduo's Desk" in his "Dead Water" is also a rare humorous poem.He had a strong vitality, and he often told us that he would live to be eighty years old, but now he is not yet forty-eight years old, but he died tragically under that despicable and vicious gun!A student once visited his body and saw him "stained with blood, with his head in his hands, and convulsions all over his body."well!He is not reconciled, and neither are we!

(Originally published in "The Renaissance" in 1946) two The tragic death of Mr. Wen is a loss that cannot be easily compensated for, especially in Chinese literature. Mr. Wen's special research is "Book of Changes", "Chu Songs", and Tang poetry, which many people know.He has been researching for at least twenty years, and although he has not published too many texts, he has accumulated a lot of manuscripts.These are not fragmented manuscripts, but most of them are complete chapters, and he copied them very neatly by himself.It's just that he always feels that it's not complete enough, and he needs to work harder before he is willing to compile it into a book.This shows his loyal and cautious attitude towards academics.

At first, he used more strength in Tang poems.At that time, it was seen that he was a textual researcher, and his ability to textual research was seen.He pays attention to the age of poets and the age of poems.Many wrong interpretations and wrong criticisms about Tang poetry are due to the wrong age.He once made a chart of the birth and death dates of some poets in the Tang Dynasty, which can be seen at a glance by anyone who reads them.He had learned pattern painting, which helped him discover a new technique in textual research; this technique is worth developing.But as is generally known, he is also a poet, and a new poet in a leading position. He has personally experienced the joys and sorrows of creation, so he can appreciate poets and poems even more.Although there are only five articles in his "Miscellaneous Poetry of Tang Dynasty", they are all wonderful and compelling works.These not only melt appreciation and textual research just right, but also create a poetic and refined style, which is intriguing to read.

Later, he used more strength on "Chu Ci".We know that to understand ancient literature, we must start with the language, that is, the sound and rhyme of the words.But you must be able to make full use of the various regulations of the sound and rhyme of the text in order to achieve something.Mr. Wen admires Wang Niansun and his son the most, and often reads "Book Magazine" and "Jingyi Shuwen" as leisure books.He has many amazing and precise inventions in ancient books.For oracle bone inscriptions and bronze inscriptions, there are often unique opinions.He researched and paid attention to the customs and beliefs of that era; in recent years, he has used Freud and anthropological theories to get some in-depth explanations.He seems to be more interested in "Songs of Chu", especially the mythology in it.His research myth has really opened up a new road for our academic circles.Regarding the story of Fuxi, he once synthesized many myths, and he was clear and straightforward, with the most original ideas and great relationships.I have heard him talk about it, but it is a pity that only a small part of it has been written.When he studies "Book of Changes", he loves the fragmented stories in it, and pays attention to the performance of social life and economic life.In the past three or four years, he devoted himself to research, explored the face of primitive Taoism, and discovered the politically uncooperative attitude of Zhuangzi's school.All of the above are different from traditional research: the vision has been expanded and deepened, and the technology has been more advanced and more thorough.So the contribution is very large, very large.In recent years, he paid attention to the entire history of Chinese literature, and planned to study it from the perspective of economic history, but unfortunately he was martyred before he started.

This is really a loss that we cannot easily compensate for! Made on July 20, 1946. (Originally published in Issue 46 of "Guowen Monthly" on August 30, 1946)