Chapter 3 sequence

When it comes to contemporary poetry, one topic that cannot be avoided is Mao Zedong's poetry. In the nearly half century after the founding of New China, the old-style poetry world was almost completely shrouded by the light of Mao Zedong's poems.In an era when the new poetry was triumphant and the old poetry survived marginally, this phenomenon was particularly peculiar, and even for a period of time, people believed that this was the last glory of traditional poetry. However, it was not Mao Zedong's original intention for "Chairman Mao's Poems" to monopolize the poetry world. "Qinyuanchun·Snow" is the earliest published poem of Mao Zedong.This poem was written in 1936 and published in 1945.It was not published by the CCP newspaper, but was disclosed by Xinmin Daily Evening Magazine, a private newspaper in Chongqing.The editor of the newspaper collected two texts, spelled them together, and published them on his own initiative without the authorization of Mao Zedong himself.

Mao Zedong's poems were published in batches in early 1957.First, Zang Kejia sent a letter to Mao Zedong, requesting that the old man's poems be published in the first issue of "Poetry".Mao Zedong sent the old works that he remembered, plus the eight poems sent by Zang Kejia, a total of eighteen poems, and sent them. The attached letter said: "I have never been willing to officially publish these things because they are in the old style, and I am afraid that false seeds will spread and cause delays. Young people; moreover, the poems have little taste and no special features. Since you think it can be published, and you can correct typos for the few poems that have been copied, then let’s do it according to your opinions." ("To Zang Kejia") You see, This is a completely passive tone.

Although Mao Zedong called it a "false species" and thought it "should not be advocated among young people", the publication and widespread circulation of Mao Zedong's poems is tantamount to satirizing one and persuading others. For adults in the 20th century, it is probably not a problem to memorize a dozen or so poems of Mao Zedong casually.It is also true that there are far more people who can recite thirty or so poems by Mao Zedong than those who can recite thirty or so poems by Li and Du.People in their 50s and 60s probably started their interest in poetry not from "Three Hundred Tang Poems", but from "Eighteen Poems of Chairman Mao" or "Thirty-seven Poems of Chairman Mao".Many people were more or less influenced when they first wrote poems.It is not an exaggeration to say that the old man has touched a generation of readers.

Loving classical poetry and writing old-style poetry was originally a part of Mao Zedong's spiritual life—although it was not the main part, it was a part that cannot be ignored.Guo Moruo called it "beyond the economics, the rest of the poems, Taishan Beidou" ("Man Jianghong Reading Chairman Mao's Poems").There are quite a few revolutionaries of the older generation of the CCP who can write old-style poems, but not many who have truly formed their own style and are worthy of being famous.Mao Zedong's poetry is far above his peers, and he is a well-deserved first person.

Mao Zedong's poems are based on the prosperity of the meeting, and there is no moaning about sickness, no pretense of politeness, and they are true poems. "Introduction to Six Poems of Ci" says: "These six poems were hummed on horseback from 1929 to 1931, and I have forgotten them. The comrades in the editorial department of "People's Literature" collected them and sent them to me for publication. Slight revisions are made to pay for it." The preface to the poem "Sending the Plague God" by Qilu also says: "Reading the People's Daily on June 30, Yujiang County has eliminated schistosomiasis. I can't sleep at night because of my imagination. The breeze is blowing, and the sun is rising Facing the window. Looking at the southern sky in the distance, I am happy to write my pen." - "Hum on horseback", and "Fantasy, I can't sleep at night", and "Looking at the southern sky, happy to write my pen", what a pleasure this is.After chanting, let it go, and "forget it".Those who do good things "collect them and ask for publication" before "paying for them".This kind of normal heart is admirable.Compared with those literati who write one or two antique poems, they are so narcissistic, I really don't know how smart they are.

Guo Moruo exclaimed: "Enriched and brilliant, large and transformed, unprecedented." ("Man Jianghong Reading Chairman Mao's Poems") "Big and transformed" is the predecessor's evaluation of Du's poems.Mao Zedong himself had an explanation for the word "hua", saying that it means "from the inside to the outside".Du's poems "be gentle and coquettish at the top, sink to the Song Dynasty at the bottom, be close to Su and Li, win over Cao and Liu, conceal the aloofness of the face and thank you, and mix the beauty of Xu and Yu, all of which have the style of ancient and modern, and are unique to everyone" (Yuan Zhen's "Inscription and Preface to the Inscription and Preface to the Tomb of Du Jun, Wailang, a former member of the Ministry of Industry of the Tang Dynasty"), began to be called "hua".However, Mao Zedong's poetry is not known for its variety of styles, so the word "hua" is open to discussion.

And the word "big" can really sum up the overall feeling of Mao Zedong's poems. Commentators often talk about the epic spirit of Mao Zedong's poems.The epic is associated with narrative and grand scale.The style of Ci and the seven rhythms that Mao Zedong was good at are all short works, which do not have the scale of an epic at all. Why do they give people the feeling of an epic?It turns out that Mao Zedong's poems have a very remarkable feature that can be compared with brilliant epics, that is, the theme is major. What Mao Zedong’s poems reflect and express is the greatest and most profound historical change in Chinese history, that is, the workers’ and peasants’ revolution under the leadership of the Communist Party of China—the historical process and revolutionary pride from the armed separatist regime to the liberation of the whole of China.Those written during the First Civil Revolutionary War include "Qinyuanchun·Changsha", "Bodhisattva Man·Yellow Crane Tower" and so on; those written during the period of the Agrarian Revolution include "Xijiangyue·Jinggangshan", "Qingpingle·Huichang" etc.; those reflecting the Long March include "Recalling Qin'e Loushanguan", "Qingpingle Liupan Mountain" and so on; those written when the Red Army first arrived in northern Shaanxi include "Qinyuanchun Snow" and so on; those written during the War of Liberation The moments of victory include "Seven Laws: The People's Liberation Army Occupies Nanjing" and so on.Although there is no narrative, connecting the place names in the title of his poems is a series of historical footprints: Changsha - Yellow Crane Tower - Jinggangshan - Guangchang Road - Dabaidi - Huichang - Loushanguan - —Kunlun—Liupan Mountain—Nanjing, etc., are enough to arouse profound associations, making readers review history like a leopard, as if seeing this great strategist, with the clever plan of "surrounding the city with the countryside", with a well-thought-out plan The process of leading the Communist Party of China and the Red Army, which were groping in the dark, out of the maze, developed and expanded in the War of Resistance Against Japan, and finally drove the Chiang Kai-shek clique to an island.This period of history is really fascinating.It is this great historical fact and its continuation that Mao Zedong's poems sang with gusto. "I want to be a guest of Jianghai, let alone my beloved son and daughter" ("Congratulations to the Bridegroom Farewell Friends"), "If there is love in the sky, the sky will grow old, and the right way in the world is vicissitudes" ("Seven Laws: The People's Liberation Army Occupies Nanjing")— - This is the author's confession.

Another "bigness" of Mao Zedong's poems is that the image of the lyric protagonist is tall.This image is so confident as soon as it appears on the stage-"Confidently live for two hundred years, you will be hit by water for three thousand miles" (a sentence from the missing poem).If this is still a little bit of personal heroism, it will be different in the future-"I am so lonely, ask the vast land, who is in charge of ups and downs?" ("Qinyuanchun·Changsha") people in the poem are already thinking about something more Of course, this also includes the thinking of the universe and life-"Looking at the mountains are all red, and the forests are all dyed; the rivers are clear, and a hundred boats are competing for the flow. Eagles strike the sky, fish fly shallow At the bottom, all kinds of frost compete for freedom." ("Qinyuanchun·Changsha") This is the poem "Tianyanlun", which achieves the integration of poetry, history and philosophy.From then on, the image of the lyrical protagonist gradually became a big self, which was a step further than the image of "Independent Cold Autumn" - "The enemy is besieged by thousands of people, and I am standing still" ("Xijiang Moon·Jinggang Mountain"), "The red flag jumped over the Tingjiang River and went straight down to Longyan to Shanghang. It's really busy to clean up Jinou and divide the fields" ("Qingpingle·Jianggui War"), "Where is this trip going? The Ganjiang River is full of wind and snow. The order was issued yesterday 100,000 workers and peasants went to Ji'an" ("Mulan Flower · Guangchang Road"), "Millions of workers and peasants gathered enthusiastically and swept Jiangxi to Hunan and Hubei" ("Butterfly Love Flower · From Tingzhou to Changsha"), " Arouse tens of millions of workers and peasants; work together, and avoid chaos under the red flags under the mountains" ("Yujiaao·Fan's First Great Encirclement and Suppression"), etc., the "I" in the sentence is the big self combined with millions of workers and peasants.

The years in the Jiangxi Soviet area were one of the most interesting periods in Mao Zedong's life, and also one of the most active periods in his poetry creation.The author himself said that some of his poems were originally "hummed on horseback".This is very interesting - people are on horseback, without the pain of running around on foot, but facing the vast world, all kinds of fresh impressions are overwhelming, which is the hotbed of inspiration and the cradle of poetic thinking.It is no wonder that when Zheng Wei of the Tang Dynasty was asked, "Are there any new poems in Xiangguo recently?", he replied, "The poems are on the donkey in the wind and snow at Baqiao. How can I get them here?"

In a theoretical seminar at the Central Party School, someone once pointed out that Mao Zedong’s view of the subject can be summed up as follows: as a revolutionist, a person takes class, revolutionary groups and their political parties as the main carrier; as a practitioner, he has the subjective initiative to transform the world .The tall and tall image of the lyrical protagonist in Mao Zedong's poems is actually rooted in his philosophical subject view.There is a dialogue in the film "The Founding Ceremony". In Zhongnanhai, Mao Zedong said to Cheng Qian: "'Counting the romantic figures, and looking at the present' does not refer to someone Mao." Regardless of whether Mao Zedong said it in real life or not. If so, the artistic authenticity of this detail cannot be doubted.

There is another "big" in Mao Zedong's poems, that is, the atmosphere is big.Cao Pi said that "art is the main thing in writing", Han Yu said that "expression is appropriate when the breath is strong", and Xie Zhen, a man of the Ming Dynasty, said that when discussing poems, there is a saying of words above and below the hall.The language in the hall means that the upper officials are very high-spirited to the lower officials.Meteorologists are related to personal temperament, ambition, experience, education and status, and cannot be caused by strength.Just as the majestic and heroic style and grassy spirit of the song of rising wind and clouds can only come from Liu Bang, the majestic and majestic poems of Mao Zedong can only be written by Mao Zedong himself.Tan Yuanchun, a man of the Ming Dynasty, commented on Cao Cao's poems, saying, "This old poem has a domineering spirit, but it doesn't need to be a king; it has a bodhisattva spirit, but it doesn't need to be a Buddha"; Observe it". (Volume 7 of "Gu Shi Gui") Yu said that Mao Zedong's poems are the same. Mao Zedong's poems are imaginative, and he likes to use materials from ancient myths and folklore, often with surreal and magnificent colors.Such as "Yellow Crane knows where to go, there are still tourists left", "Red orange, yellow, green, blue, blue and purple, who holds the color to practice dancing in the sky", "Looking back in shock, three feet and three feet away from the sky", "Flying three million jade dragons, stirring up Zhou Tianhan ", "With the long tassel in hand today, when will the Canglong be bound", "Ask Wu Gang what he has, Wu Gang holds out osmanthus wine. The lonely Chang'e stretches his sleeves, and dances for the loyal soul in the sky", "The cowherd wants to ask about the plague god, the same Sorrows and joys go away", "Ask where the Lord of Plague wants to go, and the paper boat burns in the sky", "The goddess should be safe, and the world should be shocked", etc., and "White clouds fly on Jiuyi Mountain" are all the same. . Mao Zedong's landscape writing is like rafters, swaying in the vast time and space, and he is good at showing the magnificent scenes from a bird's-eye view-"Northern scenery, thousands of miles of ice-covered, thousands of miles of snow. Looking inside and outside the Great Wall, there is nothing but vastness; the river goes up and down, Suddenly lost the torrent. The mountain dances silver snake, the original galloping wax figure, wants to compete with the sky, "five ridges meander and ride fine waves, Wumeng majestic walks mud balls", "mountains, overturning rivers and seas, rolling giant billows", "a song The rooster is white all over the world, and Wanfang music plays Khotan", "Heavy rain falls on the swallows, and the white waves are surging. Fishing boats outside Qinhuangdao can't see a vast ocean. Who do you know?" Sanhe Iron Arm Rocking", "The high sky is rolling with cold currents, and the earth is slightly warming."Mao Zedong's poems are good at swaying and letting go instead of pursuing and carving. Among them, the meticulous deliberations, such as "wax elephant" was changed to "wax figure", "waves hit the cliff to warm" was changed to "water beats the cloud to warm the cliff", "intent-unintentional" "" was changed to "follow one's heart——" and so on, most of which are based on other people's suggestions. He respects such a "teacher with one word" very much, and has a kind of generosity that never tires of mountains and seas. In terms of language, Mao Zedong's poems have a kind of atmosphere.Its language is based on classical poems and folk songs. On the one hand, it is "immersed in melancholy, full of beauty", and on the other hand, it is "clear water comes out of hibiscus, and it is natural to carve."He once said that Zhu Ziqing's articles are not airy, but Lu Xun's articles are airy.His own poems are also magnificent, so he has a strong reading pleasure, such as "International Elegy Song, Hurricane Falls from the Sky for Me", "After the rain, the sun sets, Guanshan is bursting with green", "The East is about to dawn, Mo Dao You travel early", "If you don't reach the Great Wall, you are not a hero, and you can travel 20,000 miles", "I lose my pride, Yang Jun loses willows, Yang Liu lightly feeds, and goes straight to the sky", etc., how easy it is! Mao Zedong's most talked about poems are "Qinyuanchun·Snow" in 1936, which is a work of watching snow in northern Shaanxi.This poem first describes the snowy scenery of the northern country in a panoramic manner, and the three sentences "It must be sunny" in the filming of the first film came out of nowhere, comparing the mountains and rivers to beauties.The author abandons the existing metaphor of "competing for the Central Plains" and compares the change of regime to a competition in a love field. The "seeking a daughter" in "Li Sao" is the basis for it.After the film, the five emperors were ticked off in one stroke, but they were not clamoring—only understated in figurative language such as "slightly less literary", "a little less coquettish", "only know how to bend bows and shoot big eagles".This is a bold and unrestrained poem. People like it for its majesty, and also for its charming posture in its grandeur.There are so many poems for this poem, some praise it, and some criticize it, but none of them can rival it in art. Even Liu Yazi and Guo Moruo's poems are comparable to the original poems. See.People say that Li Bai's poems cannot be learned, because they can't be learned, and this poem is also the same. Mao Zedong and Chen Yi commented on poetry: "Poetry must use images to think, and cannot be spoken directly like prose." It was the first victory in the Communist Party of China, which freed the Red Army from the long-term depression of dark clouds. However, there were still many difficulties ahead, and the final victory of the revolution was still far away.There is no actual record of the battle process in the poem, nor is there a single conceptual discussion. It is purely based on Xinghui, and uses two sets of scenery and two lyrical sentences to vividly summarize the state of mind of the Red Army at that time. "The Cangshan Mountain is like the sea, and the setting sun is like blood", according to the author himself, this is the scene observation accumulated for many years during the war.This poem is very powerful and sad, and it is a model of image thinking. In short, the content of Mao Zedong's poems is generous, the style is vigorous, and the aesthetic feeling is lofty, but it is not "the first poem is Qiongju".Some people say that Mao Zedong's poems are hostile and even vulgar, and this is true.It is also true that some works are rough and bold.Mao Zedong himself made it clear that a certain song was not good, or dissatisfied, or unwilling to publish. This was not entirely out of modesty.However, a poet's achievement is measured by how well he can write.There is a Russian proverb: "The eagle sometimes flies lower than the chicken, but the chicken can never fly as high as the eagle." This is the truth. The creative method prevailing in Mao Zedong's era was "combination of revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism", or "combination of the two" for short, which is rarely mentioned now.In the "Red Flag Ballad" era, Peng Dehuai couldn't help writing a ballad poem: "The grain is scattered on the ground, and the potato leaves are withered. The young and strong go to smelt iron, and harvest the children and aunts. How will I live in the coming year? I will cheer for the people." Huh." ("Hometown Journey") Almost at the same time, Mao Zedong wrote "I like to watch rice beans and thousands of waves, and heroes are everywhere in the evening smoke" ("To Shaoshan"), "Tao Ling doesn't know where to go, in Peach Blossom Land Can cultivate the fields" ("Shanglushan") and other verses, what a contrast this is.Reading Mao Zedong's poems during this period should not forget this period of history.Due to well-known reasons, Mao Zedong felt sad in his later years, but he didn't have a single poem.According to the "oral history" of the staff around me, the old man once cried bitterly in his study, and a book of Song Ci was spread out on the table. Looking back, I sigh for this meaning, how many people in the past and present have met it before!" The philosopher is gone.As a precious cultural heritage, Mao Zedong's poems will be handed down for a long time.People would recite and talk about his poems from time to time, just like Mao Zedong recited and talked about famous poems of Tang and Song Dynasties from time to time during his lifetime.When later generations read Mao Zedong's majestic and majestic works, they will inevitably have endless emotions and nostalgia-"Born out of the sky, reckless Kunlun, and reading the spring scenery of the world. Flying three million jade dragons, stirring Zhou Tianhan. Xia The sun melts, the rivers overflow, people may be fish and turtles. Who has commented on the merits and crimes of thousands of years?" .A generation of geniuses, Genghis Khan, who only knows how to bend a bow and shoot big eagles. It's all gone, counting the romantic figures, let's look at the present."