It seems that there are several signs to find a key starting point for the historical changes of contemporary poetry. At first, some people started with the "Tiananmen Poetry Movement" of 1976, and later gradually realized that the starting point of this time should be in the 1960s. But 1978 may also be a key node, because in this year, marked by the appearance of a mimeographed poetry magazine "Today", a "new poetry tide" that has existed underground for more than ten years in the form of "undercurrent" surfaced.
We can see further. From 19 17 or 19 18, new poetry has just experienced 90 years. However, due to the changes in social history and poetry itself, there happened to be three "30 years" in these 90 years: from 19 18 to 1949, the first 30 years. Although this period experienced turmoil and war, new poetry developed from embryonic form to initial maturity along its own path and will, and a number of outstanding poets and classic poems emerged, which also reached the formal level. The second 30 years are from 1949 to 1978. During this period, due to the strong intervention of political ideology, new poetry has been closed in form and narrow in technique. Except some poets who insist on modernity turn to underground and "undercurrent" writing, most mainstream poets' writing is stuck in the barrier of conceptualization and slogan. The third 30 years is 1978. Since then, the concept of poetry has gradually returned to the track of modernity in constant adjustment and confrontation, showing unprecedented richness and variability, and showing openness and pluralism in form and direction.
Obviously, poetry in the past 30 years seems to be a dating proposition, because generally speaking, 30 years can also be an "inflection point" of social change, a logical stage of artistic change and growth. Whether it should be in line with the political changes in contemporary China or not, from 1978 to the present, it is indeed a dominant historical period of the "historic" changes in contemporary poetry.
But regarding the starting point, we still need to clarify a puzzling question-who is the symbol of the emergence of the "new poetry tide" as the real historical source? Is it a "misty poem" that began to surface around 1978? This is a problem. In fact, misty poetry is just the tip of the iceberg-just the tip of the iceberg above the water. Its origin is more than ten years earlier than 1978. Poetry with independent thoughts, rebellious temperament and defamiliarization artistic pursuit appeared as early as the 1960s. 1968, forefinger wrote Beijing at 4.08 and believed in the future. Earlier, he wrote the fish trilogy. Before 1968, there were poets in Guizhou who wrote solos and beasts; Before 1969, they wrote the torch song in the series of Vulcan symphonic poems; Before 1968, Dumbo wrote about seagulls and pigeons. 197 1 year, Yue Zhong, an educated youth at the age of 19 in Baiyangdian, wrote a long poem "March and Doomsday" that is shocking even today, not to mention a large number of poetry writers in underground "literary salons" in Beijing and other cities at that time. These works are not inferior to the "misty poetry" which was born after 10 years in terms of writing level, ideological height and content.
That's why we can start with 1978. Although it is necessary to avoid taking social and political changes as the fundamental measure to examine literature, it is really difficult to avoid it at this time. In fact, not only the political climate has promoted the changes of poetry, but also poetry and its ideological demands have subtly influenced and promoted politics itself. The political changes in China from 65438 to 0978 were closely related to the active ideological circles at that time, including literature and poetry, and they were also mutually causal. Therefore, in the discussion of poetry in the 1980s, people regarded the birth of "misty poetry" as a sign of the beginning of the new poetry tide. Although there is "historical shortsightedness" in this understanding, 1978 is of irreplaceable significance to contemporary poetry in widely spreading, influencing and promoting people's concept liberation and social progress. Only at this moment, we need to remember those people who have made long-term efforts and explorations for this moment, those pioneers of thought and spirit, and the "reform and opening up" they promoted in the poetic art and ideological circles was earlier than the "reform and opening up" in China's real political life 10 years ago. When people enjoy the freedom of writing today, they should think of them and reward them.
Obviously, a proposition of "poetry in the last thirty years" is actually a proposition of "historical changes of contemporary poetry". At this point, it is consistent with the concept of "new poetry tide" in connotation, and the selection scale and vision must have such a sense of history and value bias, and must become the carrier to show the "historical reform achievements" of contemporary poetry. Therefore, it should not be a hodgepodge and eclectic anthology, but a balanced anthology that takes into account all aspects and "sprinkles pepper noodles".
The road of differentiation and diversification
At the turn of 1970s and 1980s in China, similar to the early spring, the pace of political change showed unpredictable hesitation and change, and there was a tense confrontation between radical forces and conservative ideas in culture. The environment and function of poetry in this period are quite sensitive, which is the fundamental reason why misty poetry has been in the forefront from the beginning. On the surface, in the discussion of misty poetry, the "Rise Theory" did not prevail. The discussion of misty poetry around 1979 to 198 1, and the "cleaning up spiritual pollution" from 1983 to 1984 were all based on the theory of rising or "silence". But among the vast number of young readers, the new ideas and new forms of poetry have spread widely in just a few years and become valuable knowledge. By 1985, with the acceleration of political reform and opening up, the original serious poetic confrontation was suddenly put on hold, the authoritative position of conservative ideological spokesmen suddenly failed, and the new poetic concept carried by misty poetry quietly became the de facto winner-it seemed to win without a fight. This is a dramatic result, and this seemingly tense and depressing, tortuous and thrilling debate on poetry reform ended easily. However, "drama" itself is not over yet, and history shows its strange logic: as a de facto winner, the aura of misty poetry under tension and pressure also disappears at the same time, and its meaning suddenly becomes thin and nihilistic, and the image of hazy poet and self-expectation that used to be close to "cultural hero" suddenly fails. Borrowing a metaphor from the critic Zhu at that time, that is "from gallows to swings". The change of environment makes the "hero on the gallows" become a "player on the swing", and its significance quickly disappears with the change of this identity.
The "China Modernist Poetry Group Exhibition" planned by Xu Jingya and others in 1986 has the same cultural significance as the overall cultural situation of China in this era, which can be described as vague and ambiguous, and it is difficult to explain clearly. Of course, there is the pioneering spirit as an individual awakening-there are the shadows of "modernist" movements such as futurism and surrealism in the early 20th century in the West (such as "stupidity" and "college students' poetry school"), and there are also the newly budding new citizen thoughts of consumerism, popular culture and anti-elitism (such as "them"). There are youth subculture elements (such as "life poems" popular in this period) that collude with the mainstream culture of this period and agree with the legitimacy of the new life, a few subtle comparisons and simulations of new trends of thought such as western structuralism and philosophy of language (such as right and wrong and new traditionalism), and "root-seeking" groups associated with the new nationalist cultural trend of thought (such as "in short"), which very sensitively predict China. The information of this historical turning point also distinguishes and highlights the aesthetic and technical elements in his poems. However, under the original tense relationship with the times, these internal problems are difficult to rise to the obvious level, which is its positive significance. However, in an era when the independent cultural power of the masses is still very weak, this hasty "premature" poetry movement only assumed the role of a ceremony and did not leave too many valuable texts.
However, the development of poetry in the 1990s is related to the rise of the "third generation". From this perspective, they belong to the lucky generation of "becoming famous first and then growing up". In the 1980s, the infatuation with the status of mainstream culture and the strong impulse to "participate" in social development or change turned into a deep suspicion of public value and a deep understanding of self-worth in the 1990s. At this time, the adversity and tragic role caused by the reappearance of external pressure once again helped these young poets and prompted them to establish their own "intellectual identity" soon. It can be said that before this turning point, they were still a group of rebels with acne in adolescence (Ouyang Hejiang), but at this time they accelerated their maturity. Secondly, the "Broken Temple" has also brought a long-lost "Jianghu World" (see Zhou Lunyou: the third generation poet) to the surface, which is an important change in contemporary poetry and even contemporary China culture. A folk Jianghu world similar to China's ancient society only provided a shelter for the intellectuals who lost their temples, and it was in this world that the ancient intellectuals established another set of their own value system. China poets in 1990s not only simulated this way, but also appreciated the value standpoint of western-style liberal intellectuals and undertook the work of contemporary thinking, criticism and construction. In addition, the role of "professional" writing was also confirmed because of the establishment of the above-mentioned identity, which greatly changed the technical consciousness of contemporary poets' writing and made unexpected progress in the text construction of poetry in the 1990 s.
In fact, the concept of "intellectual writing" mentioned by Chen Dongdong, Ouyang He Jiang and Nishikawa should be understood and established in the above sense, instead of referring to the writer's "professional identity"-he works in a college or research institution, and it should be a combination of "spiritual belonging", "critical role" and "professional ability". Whether rhetoric is more like "spoken language" or "written language" is not the fundamental difference. The difference only shows the diversity of poetry creation styles and forms in the 1990s.
1999' s "Pan Feng Poetry Club" is a concentrated outbreak of the above differences. At this meeting, poets in Beijing and other provinces had a heated debate on the role of poets, the relationship with the power of the real cultural center (including the relationship with the power of western culture and the concept of poetry), and the dimension of language rhetoric. It is generally believed that this debate is, to a great extent, a dispute over the degree of classicalization within the third generation, in addition to conceptual differences. Poets living in Beijing are in a leading position in international communication. In the late 1990s, they became famous by introducing international sinologists, but compared with poets from other provinces, they seemed to gain little. But this is still just a phenomenon. Now it seems that apart from some specific interest factors, the director's struggle is actually rooted in the magic wand function of "globalization" on the macro level. In the relatively closed state of China in the early 1990s, the meaning of poets and texts is based on a single coordinate and scale, and the pressure is far greater than the interests, so there can be no big differences. Even the "discussion on humanistic spirit" around 1995 is strangely not involved in the poetry circle, which is already an obvious value split-in the face of the value transformation brought by the market economy and its natural split relationship with humanistic spirit, the poetry circle seems to have not shown its due sensitivity. However, in the late 1990s, with the economic development and increasing cultural exchanges in China, the pace of "globalization" suddenly became so close. The country actively promotes this process in the economic field, and of course it also affects the cultural field. The relationship between poets and the cultural trend and value scale of globalization suddenly becomes complicated. Whether to fully integrate into the spiritual trend of western intellectuals or to focus on preserving China's local cultural values has once again become a difficult question to answer and identify.
With the emergence of such differences, the post-1970s and post-1980s poets, who represent the younger generation's aesthetic orientation and cultural concept, also quickly stepped onto the historical stage. Since the 1960s, the "third way of writing" has been divided among poets. Especially with the rapid expansion of new network media, poetry has rapidly formed a complicated, clear-cut, central and noisy situation with the help of the new ethical and aesthetic situation brought by the network environment and carnival atmosphere at the end of last century and the beginning of this century. A "new Jianghu world" in the dual sense of reality and virtuality has once again become a broad background and stage for today's poetry writing. If viewed from its historical significance, this change is no less than the sudden change of new poetry from old poetry before 1990, because the network communication environment has completely changed the subject and object situation of poetry writing, changed the communication mode, modified the poet's subjective identity and self-imagination, and changed the ethics and rhetoric mode of writing, so many original value rules will face invalidation and adjustment. However, this change is by no means the logic of "evolution". In the spiritual sense, poetry faces as many challenges and opportunities, while in the textual sense, the positive significance of this change is far from being fully confirmed.
What do we get from poetry?
What have we gained in the past 30 years? Readers will ask such particularly direct questions. This question is easy to say, because after all, we have gained a lot, but it seems difficult to make it clear.
We have found and confirmed the "spirit of poetry"-I think this is the greatest achievement of "thirty years of poetry". What is the spirit of poetry? Of course, there are many elements, but the most important one should be the spirit of freedom, independence, humanities and art, and the poet should directly face history, society, times and reality and all spiritual fields with his own will. This is of course the basic essence of poetry, but it has been suppressed or even lost for a long time for various external reasons. In the 1960s and 1970s, it existed among a few poets, but it did not have legitimacy. After 1980s, it still went through a long process of seeking its legitimacy. Today, we can say that poetry has acquired such rights and abilities, and its scope and depth-from the unconscious world, human instinct to the spirit of humanism, to all cultural traditions, to all fields of grasping reality-have gained unprecedented autonomy and freedom. The poet used his own efforts to expand the boundaries of poetry and extended his spiritual tentacles to all areas that should be reached. This is the realization of the spirit and will of poetry freedom. It is easy for people who have no sense of history to disagree with this point, but for all those who have not lost their memories, they will be full of emotions about the setbacks and dangers, success and joy involved.
Therefore, poetry responds to its times. The text in this process records its spiritual track and outlines the spiritual history of contemporary China: in the extraordinary stormy course of 30 years of social and political reform, in the early 1980s, in the gray memory of the early 1990s, in the squeeze and temptation of the market and materialization era, in the individual sink and the bottom dilemma under this environment ... contemporary poetry writers.
Another point is the "experience width" of poetry, which can be said to be a sign of the maturity and prosperity of poetry in an era. What is the width of the experience? It refers to the spiritual interface that poets of an era perceive the world and grasp the richness of the materialized world and the subject world. It must be broad enough and diverse enough, and it should be pervasive and ubiquitous. In other words, if poetry is to be transformed into everything, anything is possible. Obviously, this is a sign and condition of the "modernity" of poetry. Because "aesthetics" in the pure classical sense must be transformed into "expression of deep experience" in modern poetry, in order to support the meaning depth and literary value of poetry itself. At this point, I feel that contemporary poetry has gained enough space. Some people lament that today's poetry is "out of standard", but don't forget that its other side is the pluralistic ethical scale and infinite possible space. Once upon a time, people regarded describing individual psychological activities and showing tiny "spiritual curves" (in Xu Jingya's words) as obscure and unhealthy emotions. Nowadays, even the subtle and sensitive tremor of the instinctive and unconscious world, even the less noble and healthy tremor, can become the connotation of a good poem or a meaningful poem. Nowadays, many post-70s poets almost build the meaning of their poetry writing on the level of unconscious and subconscious activities. Such writing has also become an effective way to support its aesthetic value and spiritual depth in poetry. Moreover, once upon a time, "form" was only understood as the rhythm and language style of "classical" or "folk songs". Now, even a pure rhetorical impulse and an experimental interest in form can independently support and establish a text. Works like Chen Dongdong's Horse in the Rain and The Realist Loves the Flute are almost just rhetorical shells after hollowing out concrete experience, but they can still sensitively connect people's subtle unconscious activities, become a vivid and sensible medium of meaning, and are the perfect combination of form and experience-of course, this also depends on the understanding of high-level readers as support.
The third is "complex and complete skills". This is particularly difficult to explain, but it is also the most obvious. Today, a slightly trained writer, in terms of the technical content of his works, far exceeds the famous poets in the early 1980s. Of course, this is not a simple "evolution" proposition, but as a skill, contemporary writers realize its professionalism and complexity and can enter poetry with the mentality of "professional writing", not just as "cultural heroes" or other roles. This kind of consciousness originated in the 1990s, which was clearly explained by Ouyang He Jiang in "Poetry Creation in China after 1989". Although I personally don't agree that "skill" will be meaningful without the poet's spiritual temperament and life personality practice, I also think that skill is the "only" factor that ultimately determines the quality of the text. I don't want to analyze the specific technical elements here, because if it is not based on individuals, this analysis is very difficult. Moreover, I don't need to talk about "narrative", "rhetoric" or "formal experiment" that many people have talked about. I just want to say that from the point of view of the elements that modern poetry should have, today's poetry writing can be said to be extremely diverse and complete, whether it is the establishment of meaning, images, rhetoric, details, structure, rhythm, color, paradoxical relationship, dramatic elements, jumping or continuity. Everyone can give examples of exquisite craftsmanship. Compared with the way that obscure poets use "warning quatrains" or "image center" to present meaning, today's poets can be said to be "armed to the teeth".
What have we gained in the past 30 years? I have no intention to defend contemporary poetry or the whole new poetry here, but I firmly believe that these texts can stand the test-whether in terms of their ideological value, significance of the times, the growth of form, or their touching degree and spiritual content. Contemporary poets are not absent from major historical joints and many places that need to leave traces. I believe that in a few years, people will see this kind of problem more clearly. Although they will not be the best in history, they must have seriously thought about and responded to the poets of their own time.
The crisis lies in the weakness of personality.
At that time, I often heard people express disappointment or pessimism about poetry, so I couldn't help thinking about the reasons. As a thoughtful reader, I certainly disagree with their similar conclusions, but we must think about the reasons. Why has our poetry made such great progress, but it is increasingly questioned or even derogated? Obviously, either their "old taste" can't keep up with the ever-changing rhythm of poetry, or good poetry works can't enter their reading field of vision. The former seems to be an explanation, but fundamentally, we can't "ask" readers to keep up with the rhythm of "progress" in poetry-no one has the right to stipulate the interests of readers unless you attract people with your works. Readers of classical poetry are always willing. Why does modern poetry require readers to "renew their ideas" or "increase their cultivation"? From the latter point of view, perhaps the "classicalization degree" of poetry since the 1990 s is not enough. There are also two reasons for this, either the works themselves do not have the conditions to quote classics, or the professional introduction and comments are not done enough, but these are actually very few. Because for many people who love poetry, they do not have the problem of "refusing to read", but why do they also express dissatisfaction with poetry?
The real reason, in my opinion, is that the poet has a problem. Although the growth of skills and texts is becoming more and more complicated, the poet's personality spirit and strength are shrinking. This is the fundamental reason why poetry falls instead of rising in readers' minds and social image. Quite simply, among all genres, only poetry is the most special. It requires that the poet's personality strength and the text strength of poetry must be unified through mutual witness-just like Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Du Fu, Xin Qiji, Su Shi and Cao Xueqin. Their life and poetry writing are mutually witnessed and completed. Their life practice and personality strength are an epic legend, and their poems themselves record their extraordinary or immortal life course. They wrote immortal poems with extraordinary or touching, admirable or pitiful lives. They are not only outstanding poets, but also models of personality ... The charm, texture and realm of such poems must be established by the power of personality, and readers naturally cannot refuse. The fundamental reason why contemporary poetry is devalued and questioned by various public opinions lies in the separation of personality and writing. Their professional or professional writing has reached a high level, but the "writer subject" has not been effectively established.
This problem is almost fatal, and its complexity cannot be explained in a few words. But I must say that the growth of a nation and the establishment of a culture are the same as the establishment of its poetic image. The birth of great personality and spiritual image is not only a result, but also a sign and a prerequisite. Obviously, there is an asymmetric or even contradictory relationship between the growth of contemporary poetry texts and the growth of poets' personality. Of course, there have been poets such as Haizi who used life to bear poetry, and there are also poets such as forefinger who used poetry to witness their fate. But on the whole, they still seem to be too helpless to support the huge volume and pulse of contemporary poetry. A tragic poet like Gu Cheng even damaged the moral image of struggle and commitment that the hazy poet once established in people's hearts, and made the poet ashamed to be synonymous with criminals. The new generation of poets in the 1990s seemed to have a good opportunity, but the rapid disintegration of environmental pressure also disintegrated their original weak personality image. In the end, like Russia and the Soviet Union, we did not produce poets with excellent writing and naive expression of national spirit. With the intervention of materialized forces in the market era, the establishment of personality in the traditional sense has become the object of banter and ridicule. This is the real reason why skills and texts have been expanding and spiritual strength and image have been weakening since the 1990s. This is something we should all think about and be alert to. In a sense, it also presents a spiritual and cultural crisis of a nation as a whole, which is the most important problem to ponder when reviewing 30 years of poetry today.