Bing Xin wrote other poems before, during and after the publication of Stars and Spring Water. In this range, she is basically the successor of Hu Shi's new poetry tradition and the creator of prose poetry. Among Bing Xin's prose poems, her Christian religious hymns occupy a prominent position. It can be said that Bing Xin is the first and possibly the only Christian hymn poet in the history of China's new poetry. Her dusk, midnight, dawn and morning, who is he, Gethsemane Garden, Golgotha, messenger, life, children, silence, how to bear it? Many poems, such as Tian Ying, Evening Prayer (1), Going Wrong and Evening Prayer (2), obviously belong to the category of Christian religious hymns, while others, such as Autumn, Nature, Personality, A White Rose, Ice God, etc. As an ideological and cultural phenomenon, Bing Xin's poetry deserves serious study, but as a modern poetry art in China, it is of little significance, because an independent new art form has not been established for China's new poetry. The reason here is obvious. At that time, in China, Christian culture could not form the basis of China vernacular, and the concept of Christian culture could not become the basic concept of social and cultural exchanges. Inspired by the Bible, Bing Xin, a young girl, takes the description of the Bible as the theme of her poems and expresses her worship and belief in God. These are just the ideological phenomena in the process of Bing Xin's accepting external influences, not her unique ideological personality, so she won't feel the need to create an independent language form to express her thoughts and feelings about life. This idea is too common among church schools and Christian believers. This theme is fully expressed in the Bible, but in China society, it cannot arouse readers' rich imagination and stimulate their artistic interest. This is the gap between cultures, and Bing Xin can't connect these two completely different cultures with her own poems. Language is powerless here, and poetic language is even more powerless. On the whole, Bing Xin's poems are vague, which can't touch the sore spot in China readers' hearts or stir our hearts, so they didn't have much influence in the history of China's poems. Bing Xin later said: "My religious thoughts in this life are completely derived from the beauty of nature." Strictly speaking, Bing Xin's confession here is not realistic. She accepted the Christian religious thought of the religious school. Pure natural beauty can't produce Christian religious thought, but from the logic of the development of Bing Xin's thought, it has inherent rationality, because it is not her Christian religious thought that forms the basis of Bing Xin's thought, but her virginity heart brewed in nature and warm family environment in her childhood. In this way, she accepted the influence of Christian culture, the May 4th New Culture and China's inherent traditions, and reorganized all the cultural traditions she faced on this basis. In Bing Xin's view, "child" is the fundamental link between family, nature, Christian God and the May 4th new culture, and the most basic cultural concept among all her cultural concepts. She worships childlike innocence, not God. "Childlike heart" is the "God" in her deep consciousness. ?
It can be said that in the grass of China's new literature in the 1920s, Bing Xin was more tender than anyone else. When she began to write this poem in The Stars, she was a young girl under the age of 20, an inexperienced young female student. She was born in a warm family. For her childhood, this home is the whole world, and she formed her first impression of the real world through her feelings for this home. This family used its warmth to protect Bing Xin's childlike innocence, and she also presented this family with her childlike innocence, taking this family as a model to show the whole world imagined by human beings. Childishness endows the language in her works with poetry, and turns the original vernacular prose into poetry.
Green Bud said to the youth, "Develop yourself!" "
Pale flowers, and the young man said, "contribute yourself!" " "
The crimson fruit said to the youth, "sacrifice yourself!" "
"The star number one? 》
From the sentence pattern, from the word order, from the meaning of the words themselves, it is extremely uncultured. On the surface, there is no obvious difference with Hu Shi's prose vernacular new poems. However, in your feelings, it is already a poem. It is based on the language of vernacular prose, but it is divorced from the language of vernacular prose and will never return to the language range of vernacular prose. Until now, when we read it repeatedly, we have accepted it in our feelings. But you still can't say it as spoken language from everyday conversation. You can only read it in poetry and accept it. In other words, it is poetry, not prose. Why did it become a poem? Obviously, it is the soul of the poet Bing Xin's childhood that organizes these words that can't be organized together in the minds of adults into an organic whole. In this whole, all discourse elements are divorced from the vernacular language system that adults are used to, thus gaining colors and meanings that were not available in the past. It must be noted that this little poem was not written with several ideological dogmas at the beginning, but first unfolded a natural world in the eyes of a pure heart and a real world in the eyes of a child. "Green shoots", "pale flowers" and "scarlet fruits" are the nature in children's eyes and the whole world in children's eyes. The world is fresh, pure and beautiful, full of light and bright colors. Although petite and immature, it is full of commercial atmosphere. In this nature and the world, there are always some mysteries and a hazy enlightenment in children's spiritual feelings.
It can talk with children and tell its meaning and implication with its own image. "Green shoots" are growing vigorously, as if telling them to "develop themselves"; "pale white flowers" are appreciated by people with their beautiful posture, which makes people feel happy, as if telling them to "contribute themselves"; "Crimson fruit", sweet and delicious, gives people enjoyment, as if telling them to "sacrifice themselves". Here, "self-development", "self-contribution" and "self-sacrifice" are no longer the teachings of the adult population, nor are they the dogmas in university handouts. First of all, they are the expression of the vitality of nature faced by poets. Even these words themselves have gained new meaning and charm in the specific context of this poem. In adult prose language, they are the result of thinking, rational conclusion, lofty morality and profound thoughts, the goal of conscious pursuit and efforts, and things that need subjective initiative. They have become relaxed, free, kind and natural children's words, and they have become flowers whispering to you. They are the original meaning of nature, the natural growth process of life, self-evident truths, and things that do not need to be deliberately carved and pursued. The words are still the same, with similar meanings, but the "taste" and "meaning" have changed. These words, which have been used to and abused by people, have been re-injected into fresh life, and vernacular Chinese has become poetry. At the same time, we can also find out how the May 4th thought of personality emancipation found its roots in children's hearts, thus becoming a naturally growing consciousness, which is no longer something in western books. In Chen Duxiu, Hu Shi, Li Dazhao and Lu Xun, "personality liberation" also appeared in China society in the form of a foreign thought, but in the eyes of those old and young, it was something like a scourge, an idea that violated the law and endangered the country and people. In Bing Xin's poems, it has completely become an inspiration from nature and an ideological sprout growing from human consciousness itself. It can be said that Bing Xin's poems show us how the May 4th cultural tradition took root in China. ?
Here we can see that Bing Xin's poem is completely independent as a "poem", although it was created under the influence of Tagore's poem. The characteristics of his poems are different from those of Tagore and Japanese haiku. In a word, Tagore's poems and Japanese haiku, as "poems", are mainly "the art of music", which are distinguished from prose by the melody of music. The poetry of Bing Xin's short poems does not come from these aspects, but from their associative language structure and from the "blank lens" between different semantics. In these blank shots, it is the author's unique and rich feelings, which constitute the language behind the language and the sensible but unspeakable connotation of poetry. "childhood! It is the truth in the dream, the dream in the real world, and the tearful smile when recalling. " (Star II) In this poem, "childhood" has no direct logical relationship with "truth in dreams", "dreams in reality" and "smiling with tears when recalling", with abrupt transition and strong jumping. In other words, there is a blank meaning in the middle, which means an empty lens. It makes readers have to find the basis of this change in their childhood life experience and spiritual experience. At this time, you sink into memory, you enter a state of fantasy, and you feel the meaning and meaning of poetry. "Reality in dream", "dream in reality" and "tearful smile in memory" are all insoluble, but they all seem to be solvable. Its poetry lies in the eternal contradiction between solvable and unsolvable, in this trance.
Bing Xin's childlike innocence is different from the "childlike innocence" advocated by Li Zhi in Ming Dynasty, and it is also different from the "childlike innocence" repeatedly praised in Feng Zikai's prose later. The former is the sincere pursuit of literary creation by ancient intellectuals in China, while the latter is the emphasis on children's love by modern intellectuals in China. They belong to the thoughts and feelings of adults in essence. Bing Xin's "childlike innocence" is her own state of mind and a natural way for her to feel the world and observe things. She created many independent images in her poems with childlike innocence, and at the same time organized these images into an independent poetic image system with childlike innocence. In this image system, there is everything in her childhood, including her father, mother, sister and brother, the sea, flowers, the moon and birds, and things she has just come into contact with in the adult world, such as human beings, truth, art, poetry, poets, life, death, light and darkness. These are all serious concepts in the adult world.
Mom!
The wind and rain in the sky are coming,
The bird hides in its nest;
The storm in my heart is coming,
I only hide in your arms.
Star 159
For children, the outside world is mysterious and terrible. It attracts and threatens them. Only in their mother's arms can they feel warm and safe, and can they eliminate their fear of the outside world. In this poem, the world is the world in children's eyes, and the mother is also the mother in children's emotions. The children's hearts and eyes organize the artistic world and all the poetic images in this little poem. Childlike heart makes everything in it in a specific coordinated state. "O sea, which star has no light?" ? What kind of flower has no fragrance? When did my thoughts lose your sound? (Star 13 1) This is the sea in Bing Xin's childhood memory, and it is also the echo of her childhood impression in her mind. You can feel the clear and vivid image of the tidal sound of the sea in your child's hearing. It is not the masculine and affectionate sea of young men in Guo Moruo's works, but the clear and beautiful sea of childhood women in Bing Xin's works. Even though all the abstract ideas that young Bing Xin came into contact with were melted by her childlike innocence, they were also saturated with her pure and gentle love. What is a "person"? In her eyes, "human beings" are just a group of children, some babies raised by nature: "We are all natural babies, lying in the cradle of the universe. "What is' truth'?" Truth lies in the silence of babies, not in the debate of wise men. "What is the best poem and the best poet?" Babies are great poets who spit out the most complete poems with incomplete words. "Even Darkness has a mysterious and profound aesthetic feeling. How to describe "darkness"? "The depths of the soul, the depths of the universe, rest in the brilliant light. "(five stars) ... The symbol of a poet's independent style is not whether a poet has written two good poems, but whether he has established his own independent image system. Hu Shizhi can't be regarded as a modern poet with an independent style, because although he wrote many poems and described many things in them, all these things are still arranged in disorder in his works, which can't form a unified system and a complete artistic world. In Bing Xin's poems, many images have their own systematic and relatively unified artistic world. This system is connected by Bing Xin's childlike eyes and childlike hearts, and it is connected in a different way from the previous generation. This is an independent art world.
However, in the whole process of writing her own poems, Bing Xin is not in a simple childhood mentality, but in the contradiction between childhood consciousness and youth consciousness. On the one hand, she is more like a child than any writer at that time, and has the characteristics of innocence in childhood. On the other hand, she appeared in front of readers as a writer, as a mature youth, a new woman with adult reason, adult ideal and adult talent. The former is her inner spiritual quality, her basic way of feeling the world and life, her aesthetic consciousness and attitude, and the latter is her clear consciousness of her social identity, social value and social role. The former makes her more inclined to the childlike self-expression, while the latter makes her take this kind of expression as the ideological guide of China youth. In other words, she regards the poet (ego) as a person with childlike innocence and an ideological model of China youth. This confuses two different consciousness. The young people in China have come out of childlike innocence and gained richer and deeper social feelings and life insights, so they should not stay at the stage of pure childlike innocence. Childlike heart is a more precious feature of every young person than middle-aged and elderly members of society, rather than a new ideological height of self-development. What can enlighten China youth rationally is not pure childlike innocence, but a deeper and more detailed understanding of social life. Bing Xin's short poems are a more ethereal and pure artistic world summoned by childlike innocence, which has the beauty of childlike innocence, the fragility of childlike innocence and the heaviness that cannot overcome reason.
We can see that even in Bing Xin's excellent poetry creation, she often takes her childhood feelings as an inspiration to young people, which has a bad influence on her poetry. For example, the "Stars One" quoted earlier? A short poem, in terms of its true meaning and poetic interest, is a natural expression of childlike innocence. "Bright green bud", "pale white flower" and "crimson fruit" all give people hints of childhood, and all have the characteristics of innocence in childhood. They can only talk to innocent children and give them mysterious enlightenment. But Bing Xin used "talking to young people" and grafted it on the teaching of young people, thus making this exquisite poem a little more heavy and less lovely. For this little poem, even the word "youth" itself seems too stiff and heavy. In Spring Waters, this kind of teaching consciousness has been obviously strengthened. Among them, there are far fewer artistically perfect poems than in Stars, and the dry and tasteless poems are far more concentrated than in Stars. In the usual comments, people regard philosophy as the main ideological value and artistic value of Bing Xin's poetry, but philosophy itself cannot constitute the characteristics of poetry, let alone the philosophical connotation expressed by the unique language structure. In fact, it is the biggest burden in poetry, and it can not bring the charm and artistic conception of poetry itself. As mentioned above, what really brings poetic features to Bing Xin's short poems is her childlike innocence, which is the unique connection that her childlike innocence brings to the world and language, which is beyond the reach of the adult world and its language. Only this unique language connection contains the vivid feelings of the world and life in childhood. China's modern short poems are closely linked with childlike innocence, which is a new poetic expression of childlike innocence. When you lose your childlike innocence, you lose your little poem, and you lose the exquisite, simple, crystal clear and slightly mysterious aesthetic characteristics of your little poem. " The bigger the flower of speech, the smaller the fruit of behavior. "(April 5th of the Stars) Why does this little poem look dry and without any poetry? Because it's not a childlike performance anymore. This is an idea that only adults can have, and it is also a life lesson that can be learned. In children's world, big flowers and big fruits are naturally linked; You can't separate words from actions. The innocence and childlike innocence of childhood make them naturally in a state of indifference. This poem can't enter the heart and world of childhood, but for adults, it is a simple and boring lesson, an old idea that has been repeated thousands of times in different language forms, and a proposition that has truth only in a very limited scope. It is no longer a poem, but a moral motto and a self-cultivation quotation. "Stars can only make young people's hair turn white, but they can't make young people's hearts turn gray. "Star" occupies an important position in the childhood world and is also one of the important images in Bing Xin's poems. However, the "star" in this poem cannot form an independent image whole. In the consciousness of childhood, there is no "frustrated" idea, and there will be no "white-haired" distress. "The Star won't give them any relevant enlightenment. The Star has almost no important life significance in the world of young people, and young people don't want to learn life lessons from the Star. "The flower of cultivation has passed away in silence, and the fruit of success will blossom and bear fruit in the light. "Although' flowers' and' fruits' are full of childlike freshness,' cultivation' and' success' are things in the value system of adults and are heavy and serious in people's feelings. These two groups of images can't get along harmoniously in the readers' feelings, and can't form a unified image structure. ..... In short, when Bing Xin became more and more aware of herself by the standard of a mature youth in the process of creation, and could no longer arouse her innocent childhood feelings, her short poems developed in the direction of rationalization and retired in the direction of non-poetic prose.
Bing Xin's poems declined because of rationalization and quotation, but also developed in the direction of symbolization and emotion, opening up a new road for himself. ?
On the fingertips,
Standing alone,
How can you watch the sunset against the roots?
It's almost dusk,
Count the distance!
The clothes are thin and cold,
Why don't you have a rest?
(Spring Water 166)
This poem shows not the world of childhood, but the thoughts and feelings of a lonely intellectual, but at the same time, it is no longer a typical Bing Xin poem, but more like a symbolic poem written by Bian He Fei Ming. "My friend sat down and took a photo in the water, which made him start swimming." ("Spring Water" 165) "Under the hazy moon-in the quiet courtyard of the promenade. I can hear the sound of flowers falling, if the Qing dynasty breaks the silence. " (Spring Water 168) Although Bing Xin didn't continue along this road, this inner loneliness was enough to destroy the simplicity and transparency of her poems and forced her to leave the aesthetic category of her poems.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Bing Xin wrote several excellent lyric poems in succession. I think it is excellent even in the whole history of China's new poetry. However, these poems did not affect the development of China's new poetry in an independent style. After 1949, in terms of quantity, Bing Xin's poems are still few. However, these poems are only created as a literary activity, and their significance does not seem to lie in the art of poetry itself, so this paper will not discuss them.