As a poet and scholar, Lin Geng's research on the history of China literature is unique, among which the study of Chu Ci and Tang Poetry is his "double gem". He made a classic summary of Tang poetry, such as Meteorology in the Prosperous Tang Dynasty and Youth Spirit, which was widely accepted by academic circles. He's famous poem "Yong Liu" was selected into the primary school textbook because of his excavation, and finally became a household name. "When the Tang poetry reached its climax, everything was cheerful and liberated, and the life of the Tang people was really based on the mood of young people." Lin Geng said, "Don't teenagers feel depressed? Is there no sadness in spring? However, it is youth and spring. "
Since the 1940s, he has written three History of China Literature, among which A Brief History of China Literature has been circulated in universities as a teaching material. In his research, he pays great attention to creativity and tries to find information that can explain creativity. He said, "if literature is not creative, strictly speaking, it is not literature and has no value." "Speak more in creative places and speak less in non-creative places. Only in this way can we see the ups and downs of China's literary history and its development. "
He said that he was "teaching for his career and creating with his heart", first a poet and then a professor. He has been teaching in the Chinese Department of Peking University since the adjustment of departments in the early 1950s. For students, he is the pioneer of excellent poetry and the guide of literature. He often sings poems in the pulpit and writes beautiful calligraphy on the blackboard. Scholars such as Ren, Fu Xuancong, Yuan Xingpei and others all benefited from his example.
In the study of Tang poetry, its achievements are included in the Comprehensive Theory of Tang Poetry. A Study of Poet Qu Yuan and His Works is an anthology of his years' research on Chu Ci, which mainly studies Qu Yuan's life and works from the aspects of characters and geography, and some articles also discuss Qu Yuan's personality, artistic achievements and characteristics of his works. Professor Lin Geng also paid close attention to novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties and put forward many incisive opinions. Mr. Lin Geng has been a professor of Chinese Department in Xiamen University, yenching university and Peking University successively, and has published six new poetry collections such as Springfield, Window and Asking the Way, and classical literature monographs such as Poet Li Bai and A Brief History of China Literature. The history of literature is a recognized masterpiece. Attachment: Modern Poetry of Lin Geng and China-Wang Guangming
Since Hu Shi "tried" vernacular poetry, China's modern poetry has been looking for new languages and forms to accept and integrate the complicated and changeable modern experience. This is a difficult exploration that has not been completed so far and has been carried out in many contradictions. It has always been practical and experimental. Reflected in many poets, but with different concerns. Facing the contradiction between experience and language, content and form, mainstream poetry pays attention to the innovation of content, strives to keep pace with the times in theme and theme, or changes the blood of China's poetry in poetic interest. They have made great efforts, and their achievements are obvious to all: both the persistent attention of realistic poetry to the reality of China and the repeated exploration of modern poetry by modernist poets have written touching chapters in the history of poetry in the 20th century.
However, if we only emphasize the content and ignore the form, only value the "poem" and ignore the cohesion, and only consider the novelty without considering the law, it will also have a negative impact on the development of poetry. Since 1930, the exploration of the formal order of poetry has been marginalized. Now it seems that it did not strengthen the freedom and liberation of poetry, but increased the poet's pain. Instead of making poetry close to readers, it alienates readers; Instead of becoming more awake, I look a little blind.
Only a few poets are highly aware of the same requirements in content and form of poetry, and Lin Geng is one of the most worthy poets.
Like many poets in the 20th century, Lin Geng embarked on the road of poetry creation from writing free poems. In the early 1930s, he published a collection of free poems, Springfield and the Window, among which "Dawn" and other poems can be regarded as excellent texts of China's poems in the 20th century. These poems were well received because they brought "a kind of beauty in the late Tang Dynasty" to the poetry circle. Fei Ming (Feng Wenbing) even thought in "Talking about New Poetry": "In new poetry, Lin Geng may weigh more than anyone else." However, the difference between Lin Geng and many new poets is that although he also cherishes free verse "pursuing some feelings and sentiments that were difficult to grasp in the past", he also thinks it is a sharp and extreme way. "If you keep going, you will fall into a narrow trend" (the rhythm of poetry). Therefore, he raised the question of "re-liberation" of new poetry: "Since the language of new poetry has gained freedom in the wave of prose liberation, does it need to be re-liberated? Poetry is different from prose, it always has different forms from prose, and free verse should also be divided, at least different from prose; But even this would not be enough In order to make poetic language help to get rid of the inherent logical habits in prose, we need to find a more perfect form. "
Lin Geng is a scholar-like poet who combines knowledge with practice. After realizing the problem of free verse, he began to experiment with the rhythm and form of poetry from 1934. His Love Song of Beiping was published in 1936 and received rave reviews. Some people think: "This is the return to nature after thousands of miles. Here, for the first time, the melody of new poetry broke away from the law of leveling and leveling, surrendered to the phrase method, and made it a maid of melody; The latter point, I personally think, is not only the victory of the rhythm of new poetry, but also the victory of poetry. " (Zhou: "The New Situation of the Rhythm of New Poetry") More importantly, from his observation and experiment of rhythm and form, he found two rules of poetry construction: one is the "five-character group" ("All catchy poems contain rhythm units based on five words." ); The second is the "half-teasing law" ("the middle waist of each line has the function of being close to' teasing', so let's call it the' half-teasing law', which naturally divides each line into nearly uniform two halves; No matter how long the pipeline is, there is no difference between the upper half and the lower half, or it is completely equal. " Lin Geng was the most conscious poet in China in the 20th century, both in creation and theory. His unique reference significance to China's poetry lies in the following: First, he always insists that poetry is the basic premise of poetry (he thinks that "poetry is just a special language, and if it has no form, it is prose, philosophy, argumentative or anything else, but it is not poetry". ), and clearly distinguish between poetry and poetry ("poetry" represents all "artistic conception", not poetry). Secondly, his theory of new poetry comes from his profound understanding of the media of expression, and puts forward the famous view that the form is determined not by the "content" but by the language, thus enlightening people: on the one hand, Chinese poetry must construct its own poetic form according to the characteristics of Chinese; On the other hand, language is developing and changing, so we must face this change and explore the law of new form construction.
We have reason to believe that time will highlight Lin Geng's special contribution to China's modern poetry.