With Chen Yi.
Marshal Chen Yi, on the battlefield of China revolution, became a generation of superstars, commanding thousands of troops. In the field of poetry, he leans on the horse to write vertically, writes freely, expresses his feelings, and opens up another realm. "General is born a poet", and Chen Yi deserves it. After the national liberation, Marshal Chen Yi, though busy with his work, never put down his pen and made a wonderful contribution to China's poetry circle. At the same time, he also cared about the development of poetry and devoted great efforts to the most important poetry publication at that time, Poetry Magazine. This is unforgettable.
1957 65438+ 10, the first national poetry magazine after liberation was born. Marshal Chen Yi, who loves poetry, is also very happy for this. On many occasions, even during the intermission of foreign affairs activities, Chen Yi always asks questions whenever he meets people from Poetry Magazine. Directly express your views on the content, artistic form, even format and font size of Poetry Magazine. More importantly, he supported Poetry magazine with many of his works. The publication of Marshal Chen Yi's works in Poetry Journal not only produced considerable repercussions, but also triggered some special opportunities. Some of them are worth remembering.
Elegance and harmony
When Poetry Magazine was born, Marshal Chen Yi published many poems on it. Among them, a new poem by Guo Moruo to Comrade Guo Moruo and a seven-tone poem to Comrade Chen Yi were published in the ninth issue of Poetry magazine. Aroused the reader's strong interest. 1In July, 952, Marshal Chen Yi visited his patients in Moganshan, northwest of Deqing County, northern Zhejiang Province. On 10, "I like the beauty of its scenery and write seven poems of Moganshan." This group of poems vividly depicts the beautiful scenery of Mogan Mountain, and also shows Chen Yi's pure and broad mind. This group of exquisite poems was seen by Guo Moruo in May 1955. After reading it, I couldn't help being overjoyed. He immediately wrote a seven-rhythm poem to express his appreciation of Marshal Chen Yi's poems. After the poem was written, Guo Moruo wrote it directly to Chen Yi as a gift to Comrade Chen Yi. It has always been considered an elegant thing for poets to answer and sing to each other. But Chen Yi "wanted to answer for a long time, but often stopped because he couldn't write an article". Until two years later,1May, 957, Guo Moruo wrote The Night of Tiananmen Square on May 1, describing the magnificent scenery at that time. Chen Yi read this poem after it was published. When reading for the first time, it triggered poetry. In the collision between poetry and emotion, Chen Yi abandoned the skillful metrical form and "deliberately imitated the goddess' body in return". He wrote a new poem, Dedicated to Comrade Guo Moruo, and submitted Guo Moruo's poems and his own poems to Poetry Magazine for publication. As a result, people not only saw Marshal Chen Yi's versatile poetic talent, but also got the praise of Guo Moruo, a great poet, which became the best symbol for people to understand Chen Yi's spirit and feelings.
Poetry with Wang Tongzhao.
10, Wang Tongzhao, a famous modern writer in China, died of illness. Wang Tongzhao and the poet Cang Kejia are fellow villagers and have a deep friendship. Wang Tongzhao's family presented several relics to Cang Kejia as a permanent memorial. Among these relics, there is a four poems written on colored stationery in neat print, which attracted Cang Kejia's special attention. Title of the poem: Dedicated to Comrade Chen Yi.
Cang Kejia is the editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine. In memory of the famous writer Wang Tongzhao, he published this article "Dedicated to Comrade Chen Yi" in the February issue of Poetry Journal of 1958. Wang Tongzhao and Chen Yi have a long history of friendship. That's true. 1In the winter of 923, Chen Yi went to Beijing Sino-French University to study. At this time, Wang Tongzhao was editing in Beijing. They began to get to know each other.
Shortly after the meeting, Wang Tongzhao wrote four poems for Comrade Chen Yi to commemorate the friendship. But he didn't really "give" his poems to Chen Yi, but copied them on colored stationery in neat print, probably to give them to Chen Yi personally at a suitable opportunity.
Unexpectedly, but two or three years later, Wang Tongzhao died. He can no longer personally give this poem full of friendship to his friends. Cang Kejia published these poems in Poetry magazine. Chen Yi was very excited when he saw it: "I read the February issue of Poetry Magazine, which contained poems that Kenzo gave me, but I didn't send them to me before I died. After reading it, I added my condolences. " Although he had heard of Wang Tongzhao's death before, he was "deeply saddened".
"Kenzo" is Wang Tongzhao's word. Matching words mean respect and intimacy. With this in mind, Chen Yi wrote "Where is Kenzo today? Psalm 5 expresses mourning. After Chen Yi's poems were sent to Poetry Magazine, he felt the friendship between Wang and Chen, so he gave a colorful poem from his family to Comrade Chen Yi to Chen Yi. The friendship between Wang Tongzhao and Chen Yi goes back to ancient times and has a sincere and delicate display.
Talking about poetry
1959 in April, China People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress held a meeting. Taking the opportunity of holding a meeting of literary and art comrades in Beijing, Poetry Publishing House held a poetry symposium attended by dozens of poets and literary and art leaders at Nanheyan Cultural Club. Marshal Chen Yi heard about it and said that he must attend.
On the day of the meeting, Marshal Chen Yi arrived early. When he met the poet, he shook hands warmly and smiled. At the beginning of the meeting, he repeatedly asked others to speak first. Everyone wanted to hear Chen Yi's views on literature and art, especially poetry, so they unanimously urged him to speak first. As an ordinary member of the literary and art circles, Chen Yi also talked about many important views.
He also quoted Mao Zedong's poems and talked about the characteristics of poetry: "Art is art, and writing poetry is writing poetry. Some people in Shanghai look for strategic ideas in Chairman Mao's poems, and others attach them to them. Chairman Mao's poems have great political significance, but they are still poems. Someone asked Chairman Mao:' Counting romantic figures depends on the present', is it more than all the people in the past? Chairman Mao replied: Poetry is poetry. Don't explain it like this. The phrase' I like the snow in the mountains, and I will make a face after the three armies' completely means that this army has been saved and will arrive in northern Shaanxi smoothly. " "I said: poetry or poetry."
Because this symposium was sponsored by the Poetry Publishing Society, Marshal Chen Yi finally turned the topic to poetry publishing. He said: "I support poetry magazines. It is not good for Poetry Magazine to become a popular poetry magazine. It is not good to despise workers and peasants in the past and turn them upside down in the future. Good poetry is published and the choice is strict. I agree. Editors should have a little authority and the right to choose. This is true for the public and should be true for poets. It is also good to give some opinions to the masses. " Poetry Magazine is beautifully printed, too dense and unreasonable. "
Marshal Chen Yi is really interested in poetry. I can't put it down when I talk about it. This poetry symposium has almost become his "one word". 1962, in order to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the publication of Mao Zedong's Speech at Yan 'an Forum on Literature and Art, the poet held a large-scale and enthusiastic poetry forum in Fujian Hall of the Great Hall of the People. Besides poets, Zhu De, Guo Moruo, Zhou Yang and others also attended. Marshal Chen Yi certainly took an active part. After Zhu De and Guo Moruo spoke, Chen Yi expressed his opinion: "Writing poetry should make people easy to understand, thoughtful and emotional, and reading it makes people happy." Contacting himself, he said modestly, "I write poems because I want to learn from China's old-style poems and new poems, discard their shortcomings and make my poems progress."
Many of Chen Yi's speeches at these poetry symposiums come from a poet's understanding and sentiment, which are both incisive and practical. Ten years later, Cang Kejia, the old editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine, still thinks: "His incisive opinions and straightforward sentences about poetry are not only correct at that time, but also correct today even more than ten years later, and some of them are just after one's own heart, thought-provoking, alarming and admirable!"
Close contact
It is precisely because Marshal Chen Yi's enthusiasm for poetry is very high and his insights are incisive that he has high requirements for his own poetry. He always takes his poems seriously when he publishes them in Poetry magazine, and repeatedly hopes that Poetry magazine can treat him as an ordinary poet. 1February, 959, Rola Chen received a dunning letter from Poetry Magazine. Although he was very busy, he handed over some poems he had just written to Poetry magazine. In the attached letter, he said: "I will fly to North Korea immediately, and I will rush to finalize the three poems I wrote recently and send them to Poetry magazine for recreation. If published, the requirements are in the middle. I want to be a middle school student. If I am among the best, I will feel very uncomfortable. Because this poem can rank third, I wish it was enough. " At the end of the letter, Chen Yi leans on clothes.
196 1 year, due to economic difficulties and insufficient paper supply, Poetry Journal had to be changed to bimonthly. Marshal Chen Yi was very anxious after learning this situation. At a rally, he met Cang Kejia, the editor-in-chief of Poetry magazine, and called him to his side: "The bimonthly magazine of Poetry has a bad influence in the world. There is only one poetry publication in the country, so we must change it back quickly. " Following Chen Yi's advice and with great efforts, Poetry Magazine immediately resumed its monthly publication when the national economic situation improved slightly. But that was July 1963.
19601February, in the winter night, I felt the change of my home country, and Marshal Chen Yi was full of energy and poetry. In a short time, he wrote a set of 12 19 winter night hymns. This group of poems is free and clear, rich in content, vivid and heroic. However, Chen Yi did not produce a group of poems for nearly a year. 196 1 At the end, the manuscript of Poetry Journal was urged, and Chen Yi copied it out and sent it to the editorial department. Colleagues in the editorial department look at it and cherish it. Many of them were told within a period of time after publication. Such as: Song Qing, A Xian and so on.
This group of poems truly shows all the expressive ability of Marshal Chen Yi's ancient and modern poems, including thousands of worlds. However, in the letter attached to the editorial department of Poetry Magazine, he said kindly and humorously: "For the pleasure of Poetry Magazine, you will copy the old work" Ode to a Winter Night "to fill the vacancy. Please put it in the middle or at the end as usual. This poem is messy, though miscellaneous, but it is not ... "This group of Miscellaneous Poems on Winter Nights was published in the first 1962 issue of Poetry Journal. Widely loved by readers. Many people extract and recite. Today, some elderly people can still blurt out a few of them, which shows their influence in that year. On the other hand, the words in Marshal Chen Yi's letter show his modest and sincere character.
Marshal Chen Yi is quick in poetry and has written many poems. However, he is very cautious about publishing. He will never take it out until it reaches a certain standard. When the editor of Poetry Magazine was familiar with Marshal Chen Yi, he wrote many letters urging him to write a manuscript, but Chen Yi didn't send it every time. As an answer, he often refuses. For example, in his reply to Poetry magazine, there is such a passage: "I want to write a few poems recently, but if I don't write them well, I will give up temporarily and teach them when I write them well." I haven't finished my old work yet. The more I sort it out, the more difficult I find poetry, and the more I want to put it down. This can only be said to the future. "
Another letter replying to Poetry magazine still refused: "I have to give up writing poetry because I am busy, and I haven't finalized too much. There's nothing to do. We both have this experience and should not use it as an excuse. "
Marshal Chen Yi cherishes poetry very much, but at the same time he is very modest. Here is a typical example. After the publication of Poetry magazine, many of his works were deeply loved by readers. In order to meet the needs of readers, People's Literature Publishing House has collected these poems, and copied Chen Yi's works during the revolutionary war from various places, such as meiling three chapters and Guerrilla Talk in Gannan, etc., and intends to publish them in a centralized way. Before publication, the publishing house submitted these poems to Marshal Chen Yi for approval, hoping to obtain publishing authorization. Unexpectedly, Chen Yi declined the request of poetry collection.
Marshal heroic spirit
Honest and frank, an aboveboard marshal Chen Yi was greatly impacted during the Cultural Revolution. 197 1 underwent colorectal cancer resection. But with his optimistic temperament and strong physique, he recovered from this mental and disease blow. After that, he still devoted himself to his work with full enthusiasm as usual. But soon, the disease attacked him again. 1972 1 6, a generation of talents passed away.
A large number of excellent poems written by Marshal Chen Yi during his lifetime were not collected because of their declining status during his lifetime. In order to prevent these poems with rich connotations from being lost, Jess Zhang, the wife of Marshal, arranged them in spite of illness and compiled the later Selected Poems of Chen Yi. However, this book had no chance to meet the world at that time.
1976 10 smashed the gang of four. The human spirit has gone from a state of severe alienation and depression. At this time, the fastest and most adequate art form to express this mental state is undoubtedly poetry. The editorial department of Poetry Magazine complied with people's wishes. They immediately selected 20 poems of different periods from a large number of poems by Chen Yi and published them in the first 12 issue of Poetry magazine as quickly as possible. Marshal Chen Yi has been dead for almost five years. These poems systematically show his poetic style, and the commemorative significance is self-evident. At the same time, the positive enterprising spirit in Marshal Chen Yi's poems inspires Chinese people to have confidence in the future when the national economy is on the verge of collapse. The distinct attitude of love and hate in poetry is also a sharp weapon for people to understand the extreme left in the Cultural Revolution and criticize the Gang of Four.
In order to make readers better understand these poems, the editorial department of Poetry magazine specially invited Mr. Zhao Puchu, a scholar who participated in the compilation of Chen Yi's poems and deeply understood the samadhi in his poems, to give an incisive explanation of the emergence, characteristics and significance of Marshal Chen Yi's poems with the title of Reading Comrade Chen Yi's Poems. This article was published in Poetry Journal of 1976 and 12 together with the works of Marshal Chen Yi.
Once published, Poetry Magazine, which contains many poems by Chen Yi, aroused strong repercussions in the society. At that time, a large number of young people who were still receiving "re-education" in factories and rural areas were almost proud of reciting Chen Yi's poems. Poetry is no good, so people will copy it. Some of these transcripts were carved into wax paper mimeographed copies, forming various printed materials.
Marshal Chen Yi's poems made another brilliant appearance in Poetry Magazine in 1978 65438+ 10. After the downfall of the Gang of Four, the literary and art circles in the disaster areas, which were most affected by the "Left" wind, could not adjust their thinking for a while. Only the creation of artistic works, whether it is "rational thinking" or "image thinking", or even whether there is "image thinking", became a problem at that time, which triggered a big debate in the literary world. Although these arguments are fierce, they cannot be attributed to a correct and appropriate conclusion because of people's worries. According to the thinking mode at that time, authoritative speech can cut off the crowd and play a rapid and consistent role. Therefore, 1978 1 issue of Poetry magazine published Mao Zedong's "A Letter to Comrade Chen Yi about Poetry", which had a far-reaching influence later.
In this letter written in July 1965, Mao Zedong revised a five-character poem "Westbound" for Chen Yi. In addition, many of Mao Zedong's poetic views had an important influence on the literary and art circles at that time. For example, "Poetry should think in images, not as straightforward as prose, so comparison and promotion are indispensable." "Most Song people don't understand poetry because they want to think in images, which is contrary to the laws of the Tang Dynasty, so the taste is the same as chewing wax." "If you want to write this poem, you should think in images ... there are some good folk songs. The future trend is likely to absorb nutrients and forms from folk songs and develop into a set of new style poems that attract readers. " (The last four words were emphasized by Mao Zedong. Although these were casual conversations between friends' letters, the debate about whether there was "thinking in images" at that time was put to rest. These viewpoints, whether worth discussing today or systematic, have played an important role in returning literature and art to literature and getting rid of old ideas.
The letter quoted five laws amended by Mao Zedong for Chen Yi, which also made this poem a household name. Westbound:
Wan Li is in a hurry to the west, conquering space by the wind.
Because of Peng's wingspan, there is no way to cross it.
The sea brewed 1000 bottles of wine, and the mountains cut Wan Ren onions.
Wind and thunder open the earth, and there are relatives and friends everywhere.
This poem was written by Marshal Chen Yi when he led a government delegation to visit many countries in 1964. A group of Six Kingdoms consists of seven songs, of which Mao Zedong revised the first one. 1in the spring of 965, Chen Yi sent this group of poems to Mao Zedong for revision. After changing the first song, Mao Zedong replied to Chen Yi's letter. Of course, we can see the friendship between Mao Zedong and Chen Yi as comrades-in-arms and poets. But after the death of the two leaders, this letter played such an important role in the literary and art circles, which was probably unexpected at that time!
"The general is born a poet". From the above brief introduction of the relationship between Chen Yi and Poetry Magazine, we can fully perceive this praise from Guo Moruo. Through Marshal Chen Yi's support and care for Poetry Magazine, we can see Marshal Chen Yi's unique poet style. Today, poetry is still an influential style in the field of literature and art. In retrospect, a general who once galloped across the battlefield immediately became a poet all day, which really made people sincerely admire. This precedent should give us today's enlightenment: loving life, enriching spirit, pursuing ideals and loving art are indispensable for the full expression and cognition of human values. In life, it is a person who wants to make life develop in an all-round way to pursue and maintain this mental state. Marshal Chen Yi's lifelong love and pursuit of poetry has maintained his childlike innocence and enthusiasm for life, which we latecomers should always learn and yearn for.