what is a "confession"? People who have lost their freedom state their words and deeds and explain their motives and intentions to criminal proceedings. This is the so-called "confession". Because of this, "confession" has a double meaning: it has to be "confessed" and "confessed" honestly.
Then, why did Wen Yiduo have to "confess"? This is related to his ideological changes at that time. During the May 4th Movement, Wen Yiduo once showed such youthful enthusiasm and magnificent life fantasy in generate. Although he endured the stimulation of dirty reality all the time, he never gave up the pursuit of adolescence and the self-confidence of young people. In his passionate pursuit of aestheticism and the goal of "art for art's sake", we can clearly see that Wen Yiduo firmly believed that there were some great, glorious and holy things in this world, which were worth our going. And the poet himself, of course, is a noble character and super-spirited person with lofty ideals. He is willing to pour his "cream" into the world,/cultivate the flowers of comfort,/form the fruits of happiness! " Break the prison of the world and save those trapped souls, (preface to "Red Candle") "Ah! Do your best and die:'/What an artistic martyr! /the spirit of loyalty! " However, all these things have the unique purity and immaturity of young people who are new to life, because they are, after all, the wishful thinking of a scholar who is closed in school. At this moment, he has no conditions to experience and understand the reality of China society more truly, and at the same time, he still lacks serious introspection and analysis of himself. In China, the success of a great thinker must be based on these two aspects. After graduating from Tsinghua, Wen Yiduo immediately went to study in the United States. In this industrialized western land, he showed an unusually strong national sentiment and national self-defense psychology, so that he always took a "out of place" attitude of alienation from American society. This special state of mind also makes him particularly defend his "pure white" and "noble", comparing himself with "Tao Yuanliang, the soul of oriental poetry" (see Yi Ju), so it is impossible to make a profound "confession" to himself. Fortunately, Wen Yiduo is not the kind of stagnant artist, and his thoughts can continue to develop and deepen with the progress of the times and the increase of life experience. The period from 1926 to 1928, when he wrote Dead Water, was the time for the poet to get in touch with real life and rethink himself. Years ago, Wen Yiduo, introduced by Xu Zhimo, ended his "semi-seclusion" life in the countryside and went to Beijing Art College as the provost. At the beginning of the year, he went back to Xishui to take his family to Beijing, which was really his own independent "home". At this point, the real life in China society has been thoroughly developed. Similar to the thinking habits shown in The Red Candle, all the poet's life experiences begin with his own experience. (This may be a remarkable feature of intellectuals in modern China.) In the actual life experience, the poet obstinately haunts his soul with his subtle observation of his inner world, which makes him surprised and sigh, and the poet does not spit! This is the origin of "confession". As for "honesty", this is naturally Wen Yiduo's consistent position in dealing with people.
what did Wen Yiduo "offer"?
straight to the point, it's a big surprise: "I'm not lying to you, I'm not a poet". Where do you start? Ming Ming is a famous poet, who once shocked the modern poetry circles in China with his Red Candle. Yao Ming is also an artist who loves this line. He can even give his life for poetry and art; Besides, it was before and after the "confession" that he devoted himself wholeheartedly to the editing and organization of poetry publications such as Shi Engraving and New Moon. On the one hand, it is extraordinary love and persistence, on the other hand, it is a resolute confession. What is going on? Is it a gentleman's humility? No, in China, modesty and deference often contain some disgusting psychological consciousness. Wen Yiduo does not belong to such a person. The "poet" here has its special meaning and requirements. Wen Yiduo believes that he has not met such requirements and does not have such connotation, so he is "not a poet".
The word "even if" leads to a series of interests, ideals and sentiments, and all seem to be the characteristics of so-called poets. To sum up, there are five characteristics:
First, the ambition is pure and elegant, which is the so-called "faithfulness of white stone" in the poem.
Secondly, he has rich imagination and is good at creating a beautiful artistic realm. The poem describes this realm: "The pine and the sea, the crow carries the sunset on its back, and the wings of bats are woven in the dusk".
the third is the heroic personality ideal. I love heroes and I love mountains.
The fourth is nationalism: "I love a national flag fluttering in the wind,/from goose yellow to bronze chrysanthemum". Wen Yiduo always loved chrysanthemums. He once regarded the blooming of chrysanthemums as a symbol of the prosperity of the motherland ("Remembering Chrysanthemums"), and the "chrysanthemums" here were also taken as this understanding.
The fifth is the attitude of being lonely, "My food is a pot of bitter tea".
These five spiritual characteristics are all "poets" because they are so elegant, noble and even somewhat "sacred". As Wen Yiduo said in The Red Candle Poet, the poet has a super-utilitarian "super-secular" spiritual value, and his ideal goes straight to the kingdom of heaven in the depths of white clouds. At that time, his understanding of "poet" was generally consistent with these five characteristics. However, today, apart from continuing to be infiltrated by these spirits, poets are aware of the other side of their inner world. The poet started another paragraph, which showed a terrible "I" in a shocking way: "thoughts like flies crawl in the trash can." Some critics think that this is a description of reality, writing "Old China is dark and disgusting, and describing it as a' garbage can' is a kind of painful curse, just like saying' a ditch of desperate stagnant water'." I think this still fails to fully realize Wen Yiduo's intention of self-reflection and self-dissection in this poem. Since it is a "confession", it is closely related to personal thoughts and behaviors at first. The poet not only highlights his own "poet" side, but also depicts the "dark" corner in his heart. Don't blame it for its ugliness, and don't laugh at the poet's filth, because it really represents the essence of all human nature: the wonderful combination of greatness and smallness, beauty and filth, but others dare not face it and refuse to admit it, while Wen Yiduo has this amazing courage!
I'm afraid that only a thinker who dares to face up to his own weaknesses is a truly great thinker, and only a poet who dares to show his own weaknesses is a great poet. Wen Yiduo's self-dissection as the prelude to Dead Water is meaningful.
In the prosodic form of poetry, Confession has also opened up a new path for Still Water. The sentence pattern of this poem is generally neat, and the two sentences are rhymed. Although it is still flexible, it is harmonious and catchy on the whole, which is quite different from most free-style poems in Red Candle.