The Theme of Han Niu's South China Tiger

The author of South China Tiger, formerly known as Shi, was born in Dingxiang, Shanxi, 1923. He began to write poetry in the 1940s and was an important member of the July Poetry School. He has published poems such as Colorful Life, Motherland, Love and Song, Hot Springs and Butterflies on the Sea, and selected works such as Earthworms and Feathers. During the Cultural Revolution, Han Niu's poems suddenly rose from grief and indignation, and he wrote many poems. These works "left us with a painful and lofty mental outlook of an era". Although Han Niu's poems are few in number, they can "write a little about life", and the conception is very clever. The poem "South China Tiger" was written in June 1973, showing the specific time and space of "ten years of turmoil". This is an era of imprisoning life and killing creatures. With a sensitive heart, the poet strongly felt this kind of sadness and suffering, and at the same time felt the unyielding soul and tenacious struggle spirit of every warm-blooded China people to break away from imprisonment and yearn for freedom. In his poems, the poet gave this kind of pain and blood to a South China tiger that was alive but imprisoned. Han Niu is good at writing unyielding soul in a twisted life. South China Tiger is made for South China Tiger, and it is also a distorted living environment. It belongs to the mountains and the natural sons of liberty, but it is imprisoned in an iron cage for people to watch, scold and play tricks on. This is both a realistic description and a surreal metaphor. Poets typify the environment and turn tigers into people in order to write unyielding lives and express persistent souls. The tiger has become a symbol of life and soul here, and the iron cage is just a symbol of evil and distress, distorting the life that originally belonged to the wilderness, Shan Ye and the wild; It is also in this distortion that this life generate has greater energy, showing stronger will and higher soul. The fire of life shows more brilliant brilliance in the dark night; The light of the soul has been surprisingly sublimated in suffering. With philosophical thinking and passionate imagination, the poet copied his life experience to the South China Tiger in distress, accused the vigorous movement that achieved the history of suffering for ten years, mocked the indifferent "bystander", praised his tenacious life, and at the same time poured out his passionate feelings.

This poem was written in June of 1973, which coincided with "ten years of turmoil". The poet works in the cadre school of the Ministry of Culture in Xianning, Hubei. Once, when he went to Guilin, he saw a imprisoned tiger in the zoo with a broken toe and bloody paws. The image of the tiger strongly touched the poet's feelings. After returning to the cadre school, he wrote this song "South China Tiger". The poet takes the South China Tiger as a symbol, which shows his unyielding personality and his desire for freedom in a difficult situation. 1. The image of the South China tiger and its symbolic significance The South China tiger is the main image expressed in this poem. It has a "gorgeous face/fiery eyes", a beautiful appearance and a strong body, but it is imprisoned in a human cage, far away from the vast mountains-its spiritual home. It "turns its back on the timid and desperate audience,/peacefully lies in a corner", but the majesty surging in its bones oppresses and threatens the people trapped in it. Lying peacefully reveals the South China tiger's contempt for the audience and the living form represented by the audience. Whether it is "stoning to death", "yelling sharply" or "hard persuasion", "it doesn't care about anything" How can a proud soul bow to the world? -The magnificent and broad "vast mountain forest" is the destination of its soul and strength. "Those poor and ridiculous spectators" have trapped his body in prison, but how can they make him give in mentally? The reason why the "soul" of the South China Tiger feels "humiliated" is not that the audience bullied it, but that it left the free land forever and disappeared into the dirty world. It deeply tasted the suffering, desolation and hopelessness of this world, and felt endless loneliness and anger inside. People can torture it physically, imprison it with its "strong legs" galloping around, wring its "toes and claws" full of fighting power, and cut off its strong "teeth" with a hacksaw, but the brutality of fascism can't imprison its "unruly soul" after all. "There are bloody gullies on the gray concrete wall", suggesting that it fought bravely for freedom but in vain. However, the South China Tiger will continue to fight indomitable and unrepentant, because fighting is all the sustenance and practical significance of its survival, and it is a powerful presentation of its noble soul. This kind of struggle makes me feel "dazzling and harsh", "ashamed" and feel the pain of my soul as a member of the audience. Then I heard a "rock-breaking roar" and "an unruly soul/flying over my head/flying away" in a trance. This is not only my worship of the unyielding soul of the South China Tiger, but also my awakening to the humiliating soul. The nobility of spirit will eventually overcome the meanness of the world. From that lost figure, we seem to vaguely see the hope of mankind. 2. The audience, Cage and I, the audience, chattering, timid and desperate, sad and ridiculous-this is a group without independent personality and self-awareness. In poetry, they are just a group of pale and conceptual symbols. They don't know their own shamelessness, but they treat the noble South China tiger in a way of "smashing", "scolding" and "persuading". They are very humble, even in the face of the majestic back of the South China Tiger, they feel "timid". They are bored and "desperate" because they can't find "talking about money" and "good play" in their lives. In their view, the tiger's "grief and indignation" struggle seems so ridiculous and stupid. Eating and drinking is much better than sleeping in the wind? They are self-righteous, but they don't know their own "sadness". The "audience" in this poem is a true portrayal of the indifferent, philistine and sometimes abusive group. As tools of the dictatorship of the South China Tiger, iron fences, iron cages and gray concrete walls are prisoners made by human beings with dark colors (relative to the colorful faces of the South China Tiger) and ruthlessness (relative to the blood of the South China Tiger). Ignorant people despise the "wild mountains and forests" that tigers yearn for. Not only do they not know their prison-like living conditions, but they also want to imprison all living things in the same prison. Spiritual independence is often regarded as a scourge by all beings, and the "two iron fences" vividly show their cowardice. "I", like others, "see" the South China Tiger through the iron fence. However, my conscience is still alive after all. From the "blood" and "grief" of the tiger's "dazzling like lightning", "I" felt the spiritual power of silence in my heart and the degradation of the personality of all beings in this world. I finally understand. I'm ashamed. I left. I heard a roar in my trance. This voice comes from my soul and represents the awakening of the soul of a man with conscience and thought. This poem has a strong symbolic color. Symbol is to indirectly express similar or similar concepts, thoughts and feelings through a concrete image. The South China Tiger in the cage represents unyielding life and persistent soul. In contrast, it is an iron cage that imprisons freedom and represents evil. The fierce conflict between them shows the poet's extreme desire for spiritual freedom and personality independence.