We can understand the meaning of prayer from three aspects:
First, on a basic level, this is still a patriotic poem by Wen Yiduo, and its central significance is to praise the greatness of the Chinese nation and the long and splendid Chinese culture. The poet listed countless people with lofty ideals and heroes in the history of China, including Huangdi, the ancestor of our nation, Shennong, the pioneer of agricultural civilization in China who tasted all kinds of herbs, Yao Shun, a respected and well-governed man, a bloody hero and Nie Zheng, Jing Ke who resisted violence. These are the models that China people are proud of. They always shine at the forefront of national history like lighthouses, inspiring future generations to struggle endlessly; In the long history of the development of human civilization, a number of noble and wise sages, such as Sun Zi, Zhuang Zhou, Chunyu Kun and Dong Fangshuo, have emerged. The legendary Kirin has always been regarded as a "benevolent beast" by China people. Confucius, who practiced benevolence, righteousness and morality all his life, saw the death of Kirin and was pitiful. He never wrote again. Zhuang Zhou's article is humorous and pungent, hitting the nail on the head. Chunyu Kun has served as several governors. He is funny and eloquent, and is famous for his erudition. There are countless deeds of sages, and just picking a few will make people yearn for it. Then, the poet used historical legends to express the long history and fantastic temperament of China culture. It is said that Fu teaches people to weave nets to fish, domesticate livestock, teach people to marry, and look up to astronomy, geography and gossip. The prosperity of civilization has led to "the dragon leaving the river" and "the phoenix giving songs". These legends give China culture a mysterious and vague aura. The poet also imagined the natural scenery of China, including the silent Gobi Desert, the majestic Wuyue Mountain Peak, the magnificent soup of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, which is magnificent, like a harmonious symphony, and the water flowing in the mountains of Mount Tai, which has been crying for thousands of years. What tenacious perseverance. Thus, in nature, the poet is once again infected by the spirit of the Chinese nation: it is silent and solemn, magnificent and harmonious, tenacious and long.
Wen Yiduo enthusiastically praised the glorious history and humanistic spirit of the nation, mainly for the purpose of "cultural self-defense." In the intersection and collision of two civilizations, the poet always feels the danger of "being conquered" and "being assimilated". He believes that the danger and disaster of cultural aggression is much greater than political and military aggression. "I love China because he is my motherland and Juventus is a country with a culture he loves; ..... loving the motherland is the emotional bottom, and loving culture is the rational bottom. " After rational thinking, the poet thinks that only by vigorously promoting China culture, especially by trying to arouse the self-esteem and self-improvement spirit of contemporary China people, can we resist the "cultural aggression" of western powers. The fundamental purpose of this poem is to count the history and recall the sages so excitedly.
However, just staying at this ideological level, Wen Yiduo's personality characteristics are still not prominent enough. It can be said that since the Opium War, China society and China culture have been under the deterrent of western society and culture. With the irresistible cultural exchange between the East and the West, the infiltration of foreign countries is inevitable, and the decline of national culture seems to be an inevitable process of history. Faced with this fact, it is hard for most intellectuals in modern China to accept it. From the Westernization School to Master Xue Heng, including several major "East-West Debates" and national cultural debates in modern cultural history, we can see a general choice of China intellectuals, that is, to defend themselves and oppose western culture by promoting China's traditional culture.
So, what are the characteristics of Wen Yiduo under such a big cultural trend of thought? In other words, while praising China culture enthusiastically, he still kept a clear head and a keen sense of reality. In the beating of the wave of civilization in the 20th century, he clearly realized that our ancient culture, after all, is too old and old, and all its glories have become distant history, which can never be revived. It is hard to say that the prosperity of China culture in the future will be "the gift of hippo" and the musical rhythm taught by "Nine-braced Phoenix"; Contemporary China people seem to have their own way of life and taste, and not all of them are addicted to the distant past as the poet imagined. So, what is the hope of carrying forward national culture and resisting foreign aggression? It is difficult for a poet to conceal his confusion and pain. This is the second level of the ideological connotation of prayer.
Secondly, the whole poem shows Wen Yiduo's painful realistic feelings when he calls for the revival of national culture. The words "Please tell me who is from China" echoed in the poem from beginning to end, which caught people off guard. Its vivid emotional color and its inexplicable meaning form a strong contrast effect: Who is from China? It was you, it was me, and it was the "400 million compatriots" at that time. However, Wen Yiduo's persistent questioning shows that his so-called "China people" is not a general concept of "nation", but a hero who can be called the descendants of the Chinese people in his mind. "China people" are obsessed with national culture and defend China tradition, but the "compatriots" he observed are too timid and humble to shoulder the heavy responsibility of reviving China. In the poem "Mourning beyond the Great Wall", the poet even said: "From now on, there are only half-dead prisoners, a pigeon face. /Climb up from the mine with gold,/Thank the cannibal king for his life. " "From now on, I will scan ten thousand eyes in the market. /Skull worships Skull, and Skull drives Skull away. " Since a real "China person" is hard to find, "how to hold the memory tightly" is of course a problem. And "the greatness of the nation" also needs us to wake up and tell it again. "Tell me gently, don't make any noise!" The beauty of this sentence lies in the word "tenderness". It is conceivable that in modern society, poets hate the noise and chaos everywhere. Maybe we don't lack all kinds of words of "vast territory and abundant resources", but it is mainly a "gratitude" to western masters. In order to please the master, slaves need to exaggerate their achievements and "make trouble" for a while; And "tenderness" is sincere and affectionate from the bottom of my heart. Unfortunately, nowadays, such "lightness" has to be found by poets all over the world. From here, we also find the third meaning of poetry.
Thirdly, the whole poem shows Wen Yiduo's exploration spirit of persistent pursuit and hard search in confusion and pessimism. Poetry is almost entirely composed of imperative sentences and interrogative sentences, which vividly conveys the poet's struggle to get rid of doubts and resist despair. "Prayer" was originally a religious term, which means that ordinary people pray to God and express their wishes. "Prayer" is the result of the pain of life, and "Prayer" is the result of despair of human strength; But after all, there is hope for "prayer", especially for the arrival of invisible supernatural forces to rebuild hope from this hopeless world. This may represent Wen Yiduo's helpless struggle.