Huang Zunxian's poems are based on realistic creative methods and full of romanticism, which laid an important foundation for bourgeois reformist poetry revolution. With the goal of "the old style contains new artistic conception", he tried to unify the old tradition and style of China's classical poetry with the new artistic conception and style required by the new era and new content. It reflects the major events in modern history, especially the principal contradictions in modern China society, with the method of realism, so it is called "the history of poetry". His poems show strong patriotism and criticism of feudal absolutism, feudal academic culture and old ethics. He also used poetry to directly serve the reformist movement, publicize reformist ideas and promote foreign scientific civilization. His creation has basically put the theory into practice and achieved success, and he shines brilliantly in modern poetry circles with his unique art. Huang Zunxian experienced turbulence in his early years, cared about reality and advocated "preserving the disadvantages of the present" (The First Part of Feeling). From 1877 (the third year of Guangxu) to 1894 (the twentieth year of Guangxu), he has been to Japan, Britain, the United States, Singapore and other places as a diplomat. After personal contact with bourgeois civilization and investigation of the successful experience of Meiji Restoration in Japan, the idea that "China will be reformed from the west" was clearly established (the 47th self-note in Ji Hai Za Shi), and under the agitation of new cultural thoughts, a new exploration of poetry creation began. He deeply felt that classical poetry "changed from ancient times to the extreme" was difficult again. However, he firmly believes that "there is no ancient or modern poetry". "If you can meet it, see it with your eyes, hear it with your ears, and write it to poetry, why should the ancients? I have my own poet "(On Poetry with Wolf Mountain). His creative practice along this road broke through the traditional world of ancient poetry, formed a self-reliant and unique "new poetry school" and became the epitome and banner of "poetry revolution".
Huang Zunxian's poem "There are things outside the poem, but there are people in the poem" ("Preface to Poems in Solitude") widely reflects the times experienced by the poet and has profound historical content. It is a milestone in the development of China's classical poetry from the final stage to the innovative stage. Anti-imperialism, family protection and reform are two important themes in his poems. In terms of anti-imperialism, from the resistance to the British and French allied forces to the Boxer Rebellion, his poems have a clear reflection. Especially about the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, he wrote a series of poems, such as Sadness for Pyongyang, Sadness for Lushun, Weeping for Weihai, A Trip to Taiwan Province Province, Military Songs of General Crossing Liao, etc., and his anti-imperialist and patriotic thoughts were particularly prominent. Poets praise the Anti-Japanese War and attack surrender in such works, full of patriotic passion and deep concern for the country. Many of these chapters are large in scale and vivid in image, showing the poet's boldness and skill. For example, in the "Feng Jiangjun Song", it was written: "The general was furious, so 5,000 people went. Five thousand troops marched in and continued to kill each other. The thunder cannon wants to make a sound, and the halberd and chest knife are in the neck. The enemy beat the drums and died, and ten thousand snakes walked like ants. Ten swings without water, three hundred miles a day. " In the Sino-French War, the heroic image of patriotic general Feng Zicai and the unstoppable momentum of Feng Jun were vividly displayed.
Huang Zunxian criticized the stale things in the works such as Feeling, Miscellaneous Feeling and Japanese Miscellaneous Poems, and praised the new things such as overseas students and Meiji Restoration in Japan. Later, he enthusiastically eulogized the reform and hoped that the Chinese nation would rise again through reform: "Yellow people hold the sun to support the sky and shine brightly." (As a gift to Ren Liang's father in the same year)1When the coup took place in 898, he wrote poems such as Feeling and Looking Up at the Sky. Sighing the death of the New Deal and worrying about the future of the country, there are mixed feelings: "It is more difficult for yellow people to hold on to the Japanese when they talk about the disaster in Chixian County" (feeling 8). But he didn't shake his faith. The 47th poem of Ji Hai's Miscellaneous Poems says:
The raging sea is flowing eastward, and all laws will be unified again. After 20 years, the calligraphy is written in my heart. This irresistible spirit of believing in the historical trend of getting old and getting new runs through his poems.
It is worth noting that Huang Zunxian's poems at the turn of the old and the new describe the overseas world and new things that appeared earlier with modern science, broaden the subject matter and reflect the field of life, and write new contents that classical poems do not have. His four poems "Farewell to Today" respectively sang the new situation of parting when ships, trains, telegrams, photos and known things are relative day and night, which is unique and refreshing. Poets integrate new theories into the connotation of poetry, express the ideal of life and the theory of change and transformation of things, thus creating a new realm of poetry. In this poem, the poet said that "there are many different ideas in the world". He stepped into the capitalist world from a feudal country, and everything touched his poetic mood, reflecting the overseas world untouched by the ancients into China's poems. "On August 15th, the Moon on the Pacific Ocean" outlines the unique situation of the night flight in the Pacific Ocean with beautiful strokes. The exotic scenery of various countries, such as the cherry blossoms in Japan (the song of cherry blossoms), the fog in London (the fog in London), the Eiffel Tower in Paris (climbing the Paris Tower) and the sleeping Buddha in Ceylon Island (the sleeping Buddha in Ceylon Island), have all been captured by poets. Overseas poetry also involves foreign folk customs and current affairs politics. Japanese miscellaneous poems reflect Japan's history and social life in many ways. The poem "Chronicle" humorously describes the situation in which * * * and the Democratic Party tried their best to promote themselves and competed fiercely for voters in the US presidential election. Miscellaneous Records of Japan, Volume 2.
Forty volumes of Japanese History were published by Shanghai Book Integration Publishing House 1898 and reprinted by Zhejiang Bookstore.
Eleven volumes of Poetry in Man's Land (finalized by 1902) were published in Japan in 19 1 1.
Collected Works of Huang Zunxian, edited by Wu Zhenqing, Tianjin People's Publishing House.
Poems include: Miscellaneous Feeling, Today's Parting, Japanese Miscellaneous Poems, Ren Liang's Father's Topic in the Same Year, Going to Yueyang Tower, etc.