The July Poetry School is an important realistic poetry school in the history of modern Chinese literature. July Poetry School rose in the bonfire of the Anti-Japanese War, spanning two historical stages: War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation. It is the literary school with the longest persistence and broad influence in this period. Who are the July poets? Let's take a look with me.
Formation
The July Poetry School, with Ai Qing and Tian Tian as pioneers, gathered a large number of "newcomers" in poetry writing under the theoretical guidance and organization of Hu Feng, and was named after July magazine. Publications such as Hope, Poetry Reclamation, Poetry Creation, Earth and Breath are also their important semi-fan magazines and publishing fields. These young poets are numerous and scattered all over the country. Their backbone members are A Long, Lv Yuan, Lu Li, Ji Lang, Lu Dian, Niu Han, Ceng Zhuo, Zou Difan, Peng Yanjiao, Sun Yue, Fang Ran, Du Gu, etc. Most of their poems have been collected in the first and second episodes of July Poems edited by Hu Feng.
attitude towards life and poetic theory
Hu Feng's attitude towards life and poetic theory have strong guidance and appeal for them, which are directly reflected in their creation. Hu Feng believes that "the first duty of a realist is to take part in the battle, use his literary and artistic activities, and also use his actions to do everything", so that poetry can "jump in the torrent of the times". He advocated the unity of being a man and writing poetry, and asked poets to rush into life as fighters, embrace the reality of blood and fire with full enthusiasm, and insist on giving full play to the subjective fighting spirit in the struggle between the creative subject and the creative object, revealing the people's "trauma of spiritual slavery" and expressing the stirring and tragic real life. Hu Feng seeks to turn historical passion into "aesthetic desire" and make the sociological content of poetry obtain "corresponding and aesthetic mechanical expression". Lv Yuan later summarized the artistic position and creative method of the poetry school as: "Try to connect poetry with people, connect the aesthetic struggle embodied in poetry with people's social responsibilities and combat tasks, and the' affirmation and inheritance' of China's tradition of free poetry.
Development
After a process of deepening development and growing, the July Poetry School can be roughly divided into three successive stages. The first stage was from September 1937 to September 1941, marked by the founding and final publication of July. In July, the poet shared the same enemy with the whole nation, and emphatically expressed his passion for fighting and his grief and indignation at witnessing the devastation of the motherland and people. The second stage was from the Southern Anhui Incident to the publication of Hope in early 1945. During this period, writers in Kuomintang-controlled areas were in a very difficult situation. In July, poets mainly published their works in publications such as Half Moon Literature and Art, Poetry Creation and Poetry Reclamation in Guilin and Chongqing, and Hu Feng also actively organized the publication of series. Under the difficult conditions, the July Poetry School made more explorations in poetic art.. In January 1945, Hope was founded, and the poetry school in July began the third stage. After Hope was closed in October 1946, Chengdu's Ant Collection, Breath and Wild Chicken Subset became important peripheral publications of the poetry school. Under the political pressure, the works of this period changed from praising and hoping to satirizing and exposing. Although the poetic style of this school has developed and changed in different periods, its basic creative tendency has always been consistent, insisting on the combination of poetry and people, and based on the reality of the times, creating works full of historical sense, sense of responsibility and beauty of power.
Features and styles
Taking the Anti-Japanese War as the background, describing the historical disasters of the nation, expressing patriotic passion and then expressing the indomitable will of the broad masses of the people have become the important contents of the creation of the July Poetry School. Hu Feng's "Song for the Motherland" was written in August 1937. The poem first depicts "In the dark/under heavy pressure/in insult/in pain/groaning/struggling/is my motherland/is my suffering motherland!" Then he said that for the sake of the motherland's tomorrow, he would not hesitate to sing with "tears" and "blood-activating", and he was deeply excited and gloomy and tragic.
Inheriting
On the one hand, July Poetry School consciously inherits the revolutionary poetry tradition of Guo Moruo, Jiang Guangci, Yin Fu and China Poetry Society, and at the same time, it intentionally reverses the poetic style of Crescent School and Modernist School. July Poetry School is unique and influential by advocating revolutionary realism and insisting on free poetry writing. Yi Men (A Long)' s "The Tracker" refines the deep disaster and struggle spirit of the people of China from the perspective of the coexistence of reality and reality. The Chinese nation in a pool of blood is like a tracker pulling an old ship, braving the snow against the wind and moving forward inch by inch: "Force forward! /This way forward,/Comrades! /it's not a mile/it's not a step by step, it's just an inch. "Even if it's so difficult, you have to make a risk. The poet understood the "creative labor force and the great willpower of that storm" from the "trackers", and the "hard", "firm" and "silent" steps of trackers just became the symbol of China people's rise in adversity. Sky Blue's "Captain Riding" wrote that a guerrilla captain who repeatedly made outstanding achievements died of the enemy's trapping and killing, and his comrades-in-arms called out with deep affection: "Captain! /Oh, come back ",which shows the cruelty of the war, the bravery of the soldiers and the heroic sacrifice.
the creation of political lyric poetry
Lvyuan devoted himself to the creation of political lyric poetry in the 194s, which was characterized by persistent pursuit of bright prospects and sharp exposure of dark forces in Kuomintang-controlled areas. "For Freedom" and "Galileo in the Face of Truth" are both famous works of the moment, while "For the Naive Optimist" is wide-ranging and in-depth, and there are many ridicules on the bizarre social reality: wholesale of Y films, buying off souls, disappearing on its own, falling into the water, etc. A pun poem like "On the street, the police are selling a country" makes a mockery of the absurdity of J Jieshi's strengthening ideological control through the book The Destiny of China. "The End, Another Starting Point" calmly reminds good people that victory is hard to come by and must be defended by fighting. The poet's political sensitivity is very high, and he is far-sighted. His works have reached a deeper ideological level and have a strong artistic appeal. Zhu Jian's Silence foretells the historical turning point of "listening to thunder in silence" with dialectical thought, while Du Gu and Lu Mei implicitly express their yearning for light.
Some poets in the July Poetry School went to Yan 'an successively or entered the base areas and liberated areas for a short time, and the new world and new life triggered fresh feelings. Hu Zheng praised Yan 'an as a "fragrant city/luminous city/red city" in The City in May. Ai Mo's "Leap Forward" describes the novelty and excitement of entering Yan 'an, which can represent the feelings of advanced youth. Zheng Si's group poem "The Advance" describes the life of the soldiers and civilians in the base areas behind enemy lines in northern Guangxi. Lu Li's "Yan 'an Sange" extracts daily fragments of Yan 'an life, praises the free, cheerful and vigorous life here, and digs out deep philosophies from ordinary people. For example, "Dirt" contains rich meanings in four lines: "Always regard yourself as a pearl/always fear the pain of being buried//treat yourself as dirt/let people trample you on a road."
The July Poetry School is a firm and successful practitioner of free verse, and they love the freedom of poetry. In the use of language, they prefer the vividness, simplicity, clarity and richness of spoken language, and pursue the prose beauty of poetic language; In terms of aesthetic style, they advocated "the beauty of strength" and showed their masculinity, which became the most realistic school with heroism, ideal spirit, romance and beauty of strength in the poetry circle in the 194s.
Representative
Influenced by Ai Qing and Tian Tian's creation, the July Poetry School, with the theorist and poet Hu Feng as the center and intellectuals as the main body, formed a group of young poets. The main representative poets are Luyuan, Ayang, Lu Chen, Sun Gu, Peng Yanjiao, Fang Ran, Ji Yun, Zhong Xuan and Zheng.
Extended reading: What schools of poets are there
Landscape pastoral schools: Tao Yuanming, four outstanding poets in the early Tang Dynasty, Meng Haoran, Wang Wei, etc.
frontier poets: Cen Can, Gao Shi, Li Qi, Wang Changling, etc.
Romantic school: Qu Yuan, Li Bai, Li He, etc.
Realistic poets: Du Fu, Zhang Ji, Du Xunhe, Yuan Zhen, Lu You, etc.
Jiangxi Poetry School: Huang Tingjian, Chen Shidao, Chen Yuyi, etc.
Han Meng School of Poetry: represented by poets Han Yu and Meng Jiao in the middle Tang Dynasty.
Huajian Poetry School: Wen Tingyun, Wei Zhuang, Mao Wenxi, Niu Xiji, Ouyang Jiong, Gu Qiong, Lu Qianyi, Yan Xuan, Yin E, He Ning, Sun Guangxian, etc.
Song Ci:
Southern Tang Ci School: Li Jing, the late master, Li Yu (early stage), and Feng Yansi, an elder.
uninhibited school: Su Shi, Xin Qiji, Chen Liang, Liu Guo, and later Liu Kezhuang, Liu Chenweng and others.
metrical school: represented by Jiang kui.
graceful and restrained schools: Li Qingzhao, Liu Yong, Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Qin Guan, etc.
Yangxian School: one of the schools of Ci in the Qing Dynasty, with Su Xin as its ancestor, bold words and rough forms. But the style of writing is superficial. The pioneer is Chen Weisong.