Why is Huang Zunxian called the banner of "Poetry Revolution"?

In the trend of modern progressive poetry in China, Huang Zunxian is a pioneer in theory and creative practice. He has been engaged in poetry creation all his life, advocating that poetry should express the content of the times and true thoughts and feelings, exposing and criticizing traditional "orthodoxy", "literary orthodoxy" and various archaisms, and becoming one of the important advocates of "poetry revolution". He broke through the traditional world of ancient poetry and formed a unique "new school of poetry", which was praised by Liang Qichao as "unique in the twentieth century" and became the main commander and banner of the "poetry revolution".

Huang Zunxian's poetic theory takes "there is something outside the poem, and there is someone in the poem" as the general program, and advocates that the theory, the experience and the present situation of today's people should be integrated into the poem, so as to blow some times and life into the lifeless poetic world. The poetic revolution in the early 20th century not only inherited Huang Zunxian's poetic theory, but also deepened and enriched Huang Zunxian's poetic theory. Anti-imperialism, family protection and reform are two important themes in Huang Zunxian's poems. In terms of anti-imperialism, his poems are obviously reflected from the resistance to the British and French allied forces to the Boxer Rebellion. A series of poems such as Song of General Feng's Army, Mourning for Pyongyang, Mourning for Lushun, Mourning for Weihai and Visiting Taiwan Province Province appeared in the Sino-French War. Later, he enthusiastically eulogized the reform and hoped that the Chinese nation would rise again through reform. 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.

Huang Zunxian's poetry strives for the harmony and unity of traditional poetry form and new content, solemn rhythm and prose style, new nouns and old metrical style, and advocates "I write my mouth by hand". In order to express the new content, he made many breakthroughs in the form of poetry, such as changeable structure, irregular sentence patterns, and generally long length, which made his poetry not only inherit the tradition of China's classical poetry, but also innovate, perfectly embodying Liang Qichao's idea of "old style with new artistic conception" and becoming a banner of "poetry revolution".