The five short sentences in the first section belong to vernacular Chinese and lack poetry according to the present aesthetic standards. The only bright spot is the behavior of "spitting". A poet can never really spit his heart out of his throat. "Tucao" is just an unreasonable abnormal request, pouring out a sincere love for the country and the times.
The second and third sections are unfolded by fastening "light" and "burning". "Light" is the fruit of "burning" and "burning" is the cause of "light". When the poet wrote The Light of the Red Candle, he first used three questions to arouse readers' thinking: "Who made the wax-gave it to your body?" Who lit the fire-lit the soul? Why do you have to burn wax to ashes to make it glow? "Then use" contradiction! Conflict! ""yes, yes! " Answer with three exclamatory sentences, and finally end with "This is the way of nature" to strengthen the inevitability and rationality of glowing due to combustion. In these two poems, "Who ignited the soul" is the focus of the poem. The ambiguous "who" can of course be the poet himself, or the times and society. Judging from the implied meaning of this poem itself, it should be a combination of the trend of new culture and the awakening youth life.
Although the fourth section continued to write "burn", the perspective turned to the object and result of "burn". "Burn the dream of the world, burn the blood of the world-save their souls and smash their prisons!" Among the four poems, the first two sentences describe reality, describe the irrational cognition of the world to society with the illusion of "dream", and present the universal cold blood of the world with the expectation of "boiling"; The last two sentences describe the ideal, the value and power of burning and light are described by "saving" and "crushing", and the bondage of human nature and the imprisonment of soul brought about by the closure of thought, culture and spirit are revealed by "prison". This paragraph of "Red Candle" obviously has the vanguard characteristics of being completely dim and awakening numbness. Such pioneers willingly cut off their ribs as torches for the redemption of the "soul".
Verses 5-7 belong to the first turning point of poetry, from the romance and heroism of sacrifice to the ultimate memory of behavior value. Among the three short sentences in Section 5, the first two sentences are "from the top" and the last one is "from the bottom". In the contradiction between "my heart glows" and "tears begin", I complain about the universal value of "thinking about pain". The sixth section "Artisans made you for burning" not only endowed Red Candle with lofty and tragic sacrifice spirit, but also strengthened its inherent tragic role orientation. And "it is the residual wind that invades your light. Cry if you burn unsteadily! " Then "tears" will be changed into new ones, highlighting the thorough dedication of the red candle eager to burn more perfectly. The seventh section replaces "tears" with "paste", which directly points out the nutritional value of candle tears to human beings, declares its great function of "cultivating flowers of comfort and forming fruits of happiness", and makes the original abstract dedication and sacrifice have tangible results. These three poems want to be promoted first and then suppressed, so that the tears of "candle tears drain the wick every night" will no longer have any sadness and desolation, and will be completely transformed into a desire to pay for integrity, into a complete sacrifice spirit that is willing to pay everything for ideals, into rich material nutrients and spiritual nutrients that can nourish future generations, and into comfort and happiness that can be expected and actually possessed.
Verses 8-9 are the second turning point of poetry, and the key to this turning point lies in "discouragement". From the subjective will of Red Candle, all its efforts do not want to bring any return to itself, but are eager to enrich the land of China with its own blood. For this desire, it tries its best to burn and emit the greatest light. However, the darkness of reality always exceeds the ideal light. In the dark, all the sacrifices of the red candle did not give birth to brilliant light, so the red candle can only have a sad ending of "a drop of tears, a distraction". Such an ending belongs to an unchangeable fate tragedy under the background of a specific era. When there is no fairness and justice in society, the beautiful motive of "creating light" is doomed to fail to bear the fruit of happiness, and only the desolation of "losing heart and crying" can be exchanged.
If the poem stops here, the red candle will become the representative of disillusionment, which is certainly not the poet's true will, nor does it conform to the cultural appearance of China in the early 1920s. Although the climax of the new culture has surged, the spirit of struggle and innovation still exists in the soul of a new generation of literati full of youthful passion. Under this specific background, Wen Yiduo's "red candle" image conveys not the helplessness in the face of heavy reality, but the courage in the face of bleak life and bloodshed, and the perseverance of "not doing it". As a result, poetry once again went to cheer up. With the action declaration of "Mo Wen harvests, but strives for cultivation", all kinds of "discouragement" in real life are resolutely left behind, leaving only a persistent heart to cultivate in the land where ideals and disillusionment coexist without regrets.
1. What should I learn from Red Candle?
"Red Candle" is the second required poem selected from the second lesson of Unit 1 of the compulsory Chinese volume for senior high school. Its course orientation is basically consistent with Standing on the Edge of the Earth, and it still focuses on four aspects: appreciation of poetry content, exploration of poetry implication, exploration of poetry lyric skills and attempt of poetry writing.
In the "learning tips" after class, the theme of Red Candle was established as "changing the classical image of' candlelight' and giving it new meaning, and praising the dedication of Red Candle to illuminate the world with' candlelight turned to ashes'". It is required to "pay attention to how the poet expresses the confusion and hope of youth with the help of' dialogue' with Red Candle, and his persistent pursuit of ideals", and to "pay attention to the fantasy and emotional rendering permeated in the poem, the use of exclamations in circles, and the rhythm formed by the length of the poem".
2. Cognitive conflict and reconciliation in The Red Candle
The red candle was born in 1923. When writing Red Candle, Wen Yiduo had lived in America for a year. The ubiquitous strong self-awareness of western culture is bound to shake China's Confucian cultural thought that Wen Yiduo accepted from the beginning of enlightenment to a certain extent, making him have to examine the existence value of individual life under the background of the integration of eastern and western cultures. However, it is always the traditional literati's feelings of home and country that stirs Wen Yiduo's deep life. This kind of metacognition implanted in his life from an early age determines that even though he has been baptized by new education for more than ten years, the enlightenment of new culture thoughts for nearly eight years has only stripped the career consciousness inherited from his ancestors from the dominant ideology, and has not reduced his social responsibility of "taking the world as his own responsibility". Therefore, when Wen Yiduo compiled poems for many years, his emotions still tended to classicism, and he devoted himself to praising the thorough dedication of "Mo Wen reaped, but sought hard work".
However, Wen Yiduo did not live in a cultural and ideological vacuum after all. The May 4th spirit completely destroyed the old culture and morality, the western culture highly praised the value of individual life, and the heavy reality of China society in the early 1920s forced Wen Yiduo to think about the value of dedication and sacrifice in a specific time and space. Projected on the red candle, this kind of thinking is reflected in that on the one hand, the poet enthusiastically praises the spontaneous combustion and ignition of the red candle, on the other hand, he repeatedly laments the boundless darkness and difficulty in changing the whole society. Wen Yiduo, like Lu Xun, clearly realized the indifference and self-deception of the "world" and dreamed of "burning the dream of the world, boiling the blood of the world-saving their souls and smashing their prisons" through his own efforts. However, the reality of "a drop of tears, a piece of ashes" reminds him at any time and has to reflect on the true meaning of this burning. Reality and ideal, in a specific era and a specific soul, condense into a knot of causality. The soul yearns to create light, but reality can only harvest setbacks and tears.
Is there any way to reconcile reality and ideal? Lu Xun placed his hopes on "real soldiers", while Wen Yiduo appealed to the value choice of "Mo Wen reaped, but asked for cultivation". Wen Yiduo does not deny the darkness of society and the ignorance of the people, nor does he hide his disappointment or even despair in society, but he never gives up his efforts. Wen Yiduo at this time may be a social reformer, who just wants to do his best to shine the strongest light and gain peace of mind in layers of darkness.
3. Emotional differences between Red Candle and Standing on the Edge of the Earth.
In terms of poetic style, Red Candle faces the heavy reality and expresses the spirit of sacrificing one's life for righteousness, which belongs to typical realism. Playing with numbers on the edge of the earth is a typical romanticism, which dilutes the social environment and blindly magnifies individual creativity. In terms of poetic feelings, The Red Candle is sad but not hurt. It tries to use its own passion as a signpost in the "mountains and rivers are suspicious and there is no way out", and expresses the not colorful picture with great sacrifice; Standing on the edge of the earth to release numbers is full of propaganda but not heavy enough. It magnifies the power of young people infinitely. Since God has given talents, let it play its role! Extreme self-confidence masks the pain of reality with strong romance. If these two poems are compared to two historical figures, the red candle can only be Du Fu, and the one standing on the edge of the earth can only be Li Bai.
4. The Red Candle is a poem about objects. Chant things, or hold things to express your feelings, or borrow things to express your feelings. Wen Yiduo used the image of "red candle" to express his ambition and his feelings.
It is suggested that red candle burn wax into ashes and completely sacrifice itself to create light; Red candle is sad and tears, and creates light with pain; Red Candle pursues the value of "Mo Wen reaps, but strives for hard work" and the determination to selflessly dedicate himself to an era that is not beautiful ... These characteristics of Red Candle represent the values in the poet's heart. In the great social changes in the early 1920s, with sincere patriotism and love for the people, the poet may awaken the sleeping soul of the world through his own dedication and bring "flowers of comfort" and "fruits of happiness" to the world. It can be said that The Red Candle is a portrayal of the poet's glorious personality.