There seems to be no doubt about Gu Cheng's position in the field of poetry-a representative poet of the "misty poetry school". Many people like his poems, probably fascinated by the purity of his words and the holiness of his artistic conception. Like this:
Birds are in the high wind
(of a road) curve sharply
Teenagers go to pick it up
A penny
Vines born of fantasy
And an extended contact line.
The waves flinched.
And humpback
As one of the representative works of the poet, this poem has always been praised by people. The poet does not write "arc" directly, but arranges things representing arc through "feeling logic". Everything has its own independent state and points to "arc" at the same time, which is a recollection and transcendence of "arc". The poet keenly found the moment when different things were connected, grasped the fleeting details and presented the "beauty" in the poet's eyes to the readers.
However, the "wife killing incident" of 1993 made people doubt Gu Cheng. Some critics say that he is a "giant baby", but they separate this poem from others, praise his poem, condemn him and sigh "Why?"
When talking about the ancient city, a critic said, "China's contemporary poetry art has returned to its essence here in the ancient city: it comes not only from life and its creation, but also from lifestyle and life itself." Surprised me. If he reads Gu Cheng's poems carefully, he will find that there is no trace of "life" in Gu Cheng's poems. Is the critic's "life" different from my understanding of "life"? In order to further talk about Gu Cheng, it is necessary to talk about "life" first.
What is life? This was originally a common sense, but with the continuous advancement of modern civilization, people gradually lost their "bodies", and their minds were filled with all kinds of information and concepts, which were covered up. Now when it comes to life, some people, especially young people, will say "poetry and distance." What is poetry and distance, no one knows, nothing. Some people may say that poetry and distance represent the unknown. Is it an unknown life? In an era when everyone is living a "life", there is no need to discuss life. It is because of the lack of life that people will ask questions and correct their names.
Life here is not a concept. Poetry and distance are concepts, petty bourgeoisie is a concept, bar is a concept, elegance is a concept, middle class is a concept, well-off society is a concept, and so on. In my opinion, "life" means existence, "daily life", existence is a state, and daily life is also "to be experienced every day". Life is related to the body, food, clothing, housing, eating and sleeping, which has nothing to do with the body? Life without body is also called life? There is such a classification that life is divided into physical and mental parts. In fact, physiology and spirit are one. Mencius said, "Enrichment is beauty." This is life, full and beautiful, beautiful and full.
Then you can talk about "Gu Cheng" and say that he has no "fate", which is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:
Gu Cheng did not become Gu Cheng for no reason, but his childhood experience had a great influence on him.
Gu Cheng was born in a scholarly family in Beijing. His father, Gu Gong, is a famous poet who writes and writes every day. Under such conditions, Gu Cheng received a good cultural influence from an early age and became interested in art. He read The Romance of the Three Kingdoms from an early age and was addicted to it.
According to his sister Gu Xiang, Gu Cheng liked a person when he was a child and didn't like to talk. When I was in kindergarten, I often squatted under the tree to see ants, and I was shocked when I saw them. Usually I don't talk much, but I like telling stories. Once I told my classmates about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and got a nickname "Story". Paradoxically, he doesn't want to be surrounded by many people, which makes him uncomfortable. So, he begged his sister to be his only audience. If she is not here, he will hide in the house alone and talk to the wall all day. Now, he will be regarded as an autistic child. Gu Cheng has no friends since then. He may not need friends. He can read, write and draw.
At the age of twelve, Gu Cheng dropped out of school. During the change, Gu Cheng's already sensitive heart became more uneasy, only accompanied by words. One child spent his childhood in words, and another child chased in the street and killed in the field. Is Gu Cheng happy? Nobody knows.
At the age of thirteen, Gu Cheng was sent to an army farm in Shandong with his father. It was five years in a flash, and the "tempering" during this period did not let him know about farming life. He hates this sloppy, muddy, filthy and messy. What he likes is his own glass world.
Eighteen years old, published works. During this period, I began to study A Dream of Red Mansions and Buddhist scriptures. He mentioned "eternal women" in an interview and said:
"I feel the glory of eternal women. I couldn't find a better word to express my feelings at that time. The brilliance of eternal women makes our life and language meaningful and energetic, just as spring revives everything. I am talking about this unprecedented glory. "
The "eternal woman" here is actually a conceptual statement. Gu Cheng fell into it, unable to extricate himself, and even summed up the "daughter nature" from A Dream of Red Mansions. When he participates in activities abroad, he often tells foreigners the concept of "putting down the butcher's knife and becoming a Buddha", which is getting farther and farther away from life. Coupled with his withdrawn personality and few friends in his life, Gu Cheng's "poverty" can be imagined.
He will always be a "child", looking at the world with children's eyes. He has the essence of a child. Song Xinyu, who met him, said that he never grew up. This naturally makes what he did get a reasonable explanation, at least in Gu Cheng's view.
It can also be said that there is no "fireworks" in Gu Cheng's poems. They are pure and flawless. As he himself said:
"I like ancient poetry, not because of the history of literature, not because people look up to it, but because of its beauty, clear and concise words, as jade is in the sky, because it shows China's philosophical thinking, and that silence is just around the corner. As Zhang Jiuling said: The bright moon is in the sky, and the horizon is at sea at this time. Poetry is like Zen, like epiphany-suddenly the wind blows away, the darkness retreats, and you see everything, beautiful and comfortable. "
Many ancient poems do not express philosophical thoughts, but convey personal feelings, such as Taibai poems, Dongpo poems and life poems. Gu Cheng prefers philosophical poems, so he confuses them. This sentence by Zhang Jiuling is by no means empty, but a natural sentence written directly after the vicissitudes of life. And look at one of his "feelings":
Orchids in spring are full of flowers, and osmanthus in autumn is bright and fresh.
Life in the world is full of vitality, which naturally conforms to the beautiful season.
Who wants to live in seclusion in the mountains and smell the fragrance, so full of joy.
The fragrance of vegetation comes from nature, how to ask the viewer to decompose it!
Although it is written about vegetation, it is actually your own situation. You can't write without a rich life.
Gu Cheng also wants to go this way. He hopes he can write Philosophical Thinking. The Arc mentioned above is one of the attempts to write the arc clearly and furtively. The arc is only visible, but what is invisible is "epiphany" or "that silence is just around the corner"
Let's look at the famous "generation":
The night gave me black eyes.
I use it to find the light.
It is no longer a poem, but more like a motto spoken in a philosopher's tone. If this is a poem, then many philosophers are great poets. Its significance is highlighted by the background of the times. "Night" and "light" in the poem are metaphors. It is not difficult to understand that Gu Cheng's original intention may not be here, but he is trying to reveal the philosophy of life, about people's own light and darkness, and about "understanding". But this "philosophical thinking" is flawed, because the eyes are not completely black, and night is another form of existence of dawn. How can there be dawn without night? Of course, if you interpret it as a poem, you can cut into it from any angle.
There is also a poem "Far and Near", which is also a model of philosophical poetry:
you
Look back at me.
Look back at the clouds.
I think
You looked at me from a distance.
You observe the clouds up close.
This poem is about relationship. The relationship between you and me and the cloud refers to each other. You are the same kind, I am the subject, your opposite, the cloud is the other, the world and nature. Therefore, the problem of distance is the problem of closeness. Why alienate me but get close to the cloud? Or the subjective feeling of "I"? This poem should make Gu Cheng quite complacent, because his "philosophical thinking" has been exported and connected with the tradition of ancient poetry.
However, Gu Cheng neglected that the reason why ancient poetry is "like Zen, like epiphany" is not from fantasy, but has its own life foundation. So "the moon is now full of the sea, and the end of the world is at this time" is actually realized, although it is boundless. The whole poem is:
The moon, at this time is at sea, over the end of the world.
People who love hate long nights and sleepless nights and miss their loved ones.
Put out the candle to love this moonlit room, and I wander in the deep night dew in my clothes.
You can't have beautiful moonlight, just want to meet you in your dreams.
I wrote my own feelings, such as "although I blew out the candle, it was not dark;" Although I put on my coat, it is not warm. " Gu Cheng just lacks this kind of precipitation. His poems are too light and floating, and the wind blows them away. "Everything is illusory, like lightning." Is it ironic?
Gu Cheng doesn't have his own life, but fatally, he doesn't care about other people's lives, which can be seen from his love life.
His love life is not complicated. Like normal people, it is divided into three parts: affection, friendship and love.
Let's talk about family first. Gu Cheng's family of four lived in harmony in their early years. His parents and sisters take good care of him. He wants to read and buy it for him. He wants to tell a story, and his sister is an audience. It was not until Gu Cheng began to write and became obsessed with words that everything quietly changed. His relationship with his parents and sister is gradually alienated, and he wants to find his own utopia. Riptide Island is his temporary "utopia".
In his suicide note to his parents, he wrote:
In a suicide note to his son, he wrote:
He only has himself, and he is still explaining here.
Speaking of friendship, how much has he experienced in his life? Song Xinyu mentioned above never claimed to be a friend of Gu Cheng when talking about Gu Cheng. He only said that he knew each other, had a good relationship and talked a lot. One of the few details he can remember is Gu Cheng's frugality and generosity to his friends-he invited Song to eat pig's ears and drink. They are talking about creation, publishing and what they have seen abroad. Gu Cheng never seems to care about Song Xinyu. He may not know Song Xinyu's life experience, Song Xinyu's character and so on. He's just one of Gu Cheng's confidants.
Finally, talk about his love. He and his wife, Xie Ye, fell in love at first sight, and their perfect appearance once became a much-told story in the literary world at that time. However, after marriage, problems gradually emerged. Xie Ye found that he was a man who ignored life and spent most of his time meditating, writing or painting every day, but Xie Ye loved him and accepted him.
The biggest hidden danger is rapids island. Gu Cheng's ideal is that his wife and lover get along well with him, and he is the only one in his heart, which is impossible. Xie Ye once mentioned to a friend that living with the "ancient city" is too unreal, just like living in a novel. Xie Ye is right. The concept of "ancient city" is really novel. Is he so "alive" because he wants to write novels? The novel has indeed been written, and its name is Ying Er. In this novel, Ray is Xie Ye. She told Gu Cheng more than once that Gu Cheng didn't care about her life or death.
At the end of the story, Yinger left her hometown, Xie Ye was beheaded by an axe from Gu Cheng, and Gu Cheng committed suicide. Who would have thought that a successful poet would end his brilliant life in this way? However, judging from his people, reading his poems, everything can be traced. A lifeless city is like a bird that can't land. It can only keep flying. Flying all the time, and finally exhausted. His poems make people feel the beauty of the world, but he himself is extremely painful. What would it be like if he knew life?
His poems occupy a certain position in the whole history of poetry development, and their value needs to be further explored by future generations, but his people are obviously failures. What is needed are living poets and poems. Good poetry will stimulate people's desire for life. Even a good poet. Contact with him, talk to him and live with him, and you will feel a kind of beauty. A practical and intimate beauty.