Chapter 22 Section 3 Late Qing Poetry
Sure enough, as Huang Jingren predicted, a huge crisis befell China. Since the Opium War, China has been caught in internal and external troubles.It was also at this time that the outstanding thinker and poet Gong Zizhen appeared.
Gong Zizhen (AD 1792-1841), courtesy name 璱〔sese〕, nickname 〔an'an〕, was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang.Before the outbreak of the Opium War, he saw clearly the corruption of bureaucratic politics, had a premonition of the coming crisis, called for social reform, and wrote many works criticizing the reality. Poetry was also his weapon for criticizing the reality.His poem "Ode to History" has always been praised:
"Long basin" is a utensil for boiling salt.Prisoners refer to salt merchants as rich people. "Tuanfan" refers to beauty.Tuanfan talented people are boring literati who specialize in reciting obscene poems and prose.Tian Heng was one of the heroes of the uprising at the end of the Qin Dynasty. After Liu Bang unified China, he refused to surrender to the Han by committing suicide, and 500 of his subordinates also committed suicide tragically along with him.This poem condemns the degradation of society with grief and indignation.People in the southeast live a life of luxury and lust all day long, and people in the upper class only know how to fight for fame and fortune.Rich people manipulate society and help idle literati to be proud.People are scared to death when they talk about "literary inquisition", and they dare not tell the truth; some people write books and articles just to support their families.In the end, the author asked angrily: Where are the brave and fierce Chinese like Tian Heng and his subordinates?Have they all climbed to the official position to enjoy the glory and wealth?The author's anxiety and indignation are hard to restrain, and the poems are sonorous and powerful.
Wei Yuan, who is as famous as Gong Zizhen, is also a thinker and poet, and his poems of worrying about the country and loving the people are similar to Gong Zizhen.Lin Zexu, the national hero in the Opium War, also has many good poems handed down.
During the Opium War, many patriotic poems appeared, such as the long poem "Sanyuanli" written by the poet Zhang Weiping, which expressed vivid love and hatred, and enthusiastically praised the people's struggle against the British:
It really vividly draws the courageous spirit and strong momentum of the villagers.Next, write about the distressed state of the British army:
God also came to help and it rained heavily. The gunpowder was soaked and the guns failed. The British army suffered heavy casualties and was about to be wiped out.However, the corrupt and incompetent Qing government prevented the Sanyuanli people from attacking, and allowed the remaining British troops to escape, which made the poet extremely indignant.Excellent poets speak for the people.
By the end of the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty was in trouble at home and abroad, and the social crisis further deepened.With the unfolding and development of the national salvation movement, Liang Qichao and others put forward the slogan of "revolution in the poetic world", requiring "the old style to contain the new artistic conception" (Liang Qichao's language), that is, to express new ideas in the old form. It should be said that this is also a kind of progress.It was at this time that the outstanding poet Huang Zunxian appeared.
Huang Zunxian (AD 1848-1905), courtesy name Gongdu, was born in Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong.He is a professional diplomat who has lived in various countries in the East and West for many years and is deeply influenced by Western culture, but he has always been a staunch patriot and was a member of the Restoration Movement in the late Qing Dynasty.He said: "I write by hand, how can the ancients hold me back?" That is to say, to write personal experience, to feel personally, to say what you want to say, and not to be a slave to the ancients.He has experienced a lot, "traveling four continents in a hundred years", has been to four continents, has profound knowledge, and emancipated his mind, so his poems are broad in content and flexible in technique, truly realizing his proposition of "I write by hand and I speak".As time goes by and the world changes, people's thinking must also progress with the changes in the world. His poem "Recollection" reflects his thinking:
Contemporary Confucian scholars are pedantic, stubborn, rigid, and ignorant. Their recitation of ancient books is just to arm their mouths and decorate their appearance.They frequently talked about how things were in ancient times, gesticulating and talking about the principles of governing the country and the world. They talked about the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, and said that under a hundred generations, they only need to follow the example of the three generations.When it comes to today's troubled times, they can only cry bitterly.Then talk about the experience of ancient chariot battles, and write long papers exhaustingly; or study the ancient well field system, and bring it into practice today.The poet said that the ancients did not intend to deceive us, but today is completely different from ancient times. How can the ancients' set of things be used today?Confucian scholars are ignorant [meng Meng] of today's world, so they are not qualified to comment on current world affairs.To understand history is to understand today, and to understand today is more important to observe the world.Outstanding talents in history can solve current practical problems, just like Jia Yi in the Han Dynasty who wrote "Public Security Policy" and Jiang Tong in the Jin Dynasty who wrote "Yi Rong Yi".These words are not uncommon today, but more than a hundred years ago, they required considerable insight.In his "Human Jinglu Poetry Grass", the poet also introduced the history and actual knowledge of many western countries, and talked about many things that Chinese people had never heard of, which broadened people's horizons at that time.
Some well-known reformers who were at the same time as Huang Zunxian, such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, and Tan Sitong, also left many good poems in the world; while the "Tongguang style" poets who tended to go back to the past at that time did not have any handed down works.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the revolutionary movement aimed at overthrowing the Qing Dynasty flourished. Many revolutionaries such as Zhang Taiyan, Qiu Jin, Zou Rong, and Chen Tianhua were talented poets. The same will always be shown to future generations.The following is Qiu Jin's "Huang Haizhou Chinese and Japanese Ask for a Word and See the Russo-Japanese War Map":
She was so worried that she ran to save the country. When this feeling was vented, it became a moving poem. After reading it, the image of a patriotic heroine stood before our eyes.
Zou Rong also wrote poems expressing his ambitions before going east to Japan in 1901:
He wrote the famous "Revolutionary Army", calling on people to participate in the revolutionary struggle, and dedicated his 19-year-old life to the revolution.
Headed by Liu Yazi and others, the "Nanshe" is a famous poetry group with members of the alliance as the main body. Its purpose is very clear, that is, to use poetry as a weapon to participate in the revolutionary struggle to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, leaving behind many excellent poems.For example, "Farewell to Tang Guodun with Poetry and Painting" by Su Manshu, an important member of Nanshe:
