There are four verses in the poem "Tiangou". The first section takes "swallowing" as the key word, showing the life characteristics of a "Tiangou" absorbing everything in the world. This "Tiangou" devoured the sun, the moon, all the planets and even the whole universe. Swallowing all this, it finally became itself, "I am me."
This "Tiangou" is actually Guo Moruo himself. In this land of Japan, he feasted on the world's outstanding ideological and cultural treasures and swallowed Goethe, Nietzsche, Copernicus, Darwin and Spinoza. He formed a modern man with rich thoughts and strong subjective consciousness.
This "Tiangou" is not only Guo Moruo, but also all Chinese sons and daughters who seek the truth of saving the nation and modern knowledge and culture in China's modern history. He is Liang Qichao, Wang Guowei, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo and Wen Yiduo. China's modern thoughts and culture were formed with the joint efforts of these "Tiangou".
Creative background:
The poem "Tiangou" was first published in1July, 920 in Shanghai's Current Affairs News Xueguang. When this poem was published in China, Guo Moruo was still studying in Japan and was being systematically baptized and edified by modern scientific ideas and humanistic concepts: Guo Moruo's study in Japan was also the climax of his new poetry creation.
While studying western culture, the poet wrote his new understanding and sentiment about the world and himself into branches, which were sent to China and his confidant Zong Baihua.
Zong Baihua also appreciates Guo Moruo's creative talent very much. He once recalled that when editing current affairs news, the happiest thing was to read "a poem with beautiful handwriting, clean manuscript paper, neat ranks and rich content!" .
Zong Baihua not only liked Guo Moruo's ci, but also published these branches of ci in Deng Xue, a literary supplement of Current Affairs News edited by himself. Tengu is one of the songs that appear in the newspaper.