What is the purpose of Wen Yiduo's study of Tang poetry and Song poetry?

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Wen Yiduo, after publishing his poetry anthologies "Red Candle" and "Dead Water", realized that the pure aestheticism model could only go to a decadent dead end, and it was difficult to express his deep patriotic passion.

At the same time, he clearly realized that China's classical poetry is full of aesthetic connotation (he studied fine arts when studying in the United States), so he tried to find a breakthrough by studying ancient books such as Tang poetry, Song poetry and Chu poetry, organically linking patriotic passion with formal beauty, and creating a poetic style more suitable for his own expression.

This is the purpose of Wen Yiduo's study of Tang poetry and Song poetry.

Extended data:

Wen Yiduo published the first book of poetry "Red Candle" on 1923, which combined the theme of anti-imperialist patriotism with the form of aestheticism.

1925 After returning to China in May, he successively served as a professor at National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University (1928 was renamed as Central University), Wuhan University (the first dean of the Faculty of Arts and designed the school logo), National Shandong University, Tsinghua University and Southwest Associated University. He was the provost of Beijing Art Institute, director of the Foreign Languages Department of Nanjing Fourth Sun Yat-sen University, dean of the Faculty of Arts of Wuhan University and dean of the Faculty of Arts of Shandong University. Published the complete works of Wen Yiduo.

The second book of poetry, Dead Water, was published in 1928, showing deep patriotic passion in decadence. Since then, he has devoted himself to the study of classical literature. Four ancient books, The Book of Changes, The Book of Songs, Zhuangzi and The Songs of the South, were sorted out and studied, and then sorted into Classical New Meaning, which was called "unprecedented" by Guo Moruo.

1937 at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, he taught at the National Southwest United University. During the eight-year anti-Japanese war, he grew a beard and vowed never to shave it off until the victory of the anti-Japanese war, expressing his determination to fight the war to the end. 1943, witnessed the corruption of the national government, rose up and actively participated in the struggle against dictatorship and for democracy.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-Wen Yiduo's masterpiece