Xu Zhimo, the only son of Xu's eldest grandson, lived a comfortable and rich life since childhood. I studied at home when I was a child. At the age of eleven, I entered Shi Xia Qizhi School and studied under Zhang Shusen. I laid the foundation of ancient Chinese, and my grades have always been the first in my class.
19 10, Xu zhimo was fourteen years old and left his hometown for Hangzhou. On the recommendation of my uncle Shen Junru, I was admitted to Hangzhou High School (19 13 was renamed Zhejiang No.1 Middle School), and I was in the same class as Yu Dafu. He loves literature, and published a paper "On the Relationship between Fiction and Society" in the first issue of the school magazine "Friends", thinking that novels are beneficial to society and "should be promoted as much as possible", which is the first work in his life. At the same time, he is interested in science. And published articles such as Radium Ingot and the History of the Earth.
19 15 In the summer, Xu Zhimo graduated from Zhejiang No.1 Middle School and later entered Shanghai Baptist College and Seminary (predecessor of Hujiang University). In the same year 10, he was arranged by his family to marry Zhang Youyi, the daughter of Zhang Runzhi, a rich man in Luodian County.
Xu Zhimo, who is active by nature, did not finish the course of Baptist College with peace of mind. 19 16 autumn, left Shanghai to study law in Tianjin Beiyang University Preparatory School. The following year, the law department of Beiyang University was merged into Peking University, and Xu Zhimo was transferred to Peking University. During his two years in the north, he added new contents to his life and injected new factors into his thoughts. In this institution of higher learning, he not only studied law, but also studied Japanese, French and political science, dabbled in Chinese and foreign literature, and ignited his interest in literature. During this period, he made friends and met celebrities. Introduced by Zhang Junli and Zhang Gongquan, he took Liang Qichao as his teacher. He also took a big gift from his teacher. Liang Qichao had a great influence on Xu Zhimo's life and played an important role in Xu Zhimo's mind. Although Liang Xu is a close master-apprentice relationship, there are still ideological differences between them. Xu Zhimo, who accepted the bourgeois idea of democracy and freedom, put down his body desperately to pursue his ideal life and strive for the freedom of marriage and love.
When he was a university student in the north, he personally experienced the scene of warlord scuffle and witnessed the slaughter of innocent people. He hates this society, "smearing the purple sky at dusk in the western hills, and also smearing the shame of this man becoming a beast" (Xu Zhimo: the second battle song of "Man Becomes a Beast"). He made up his mind to study abroad, seek a prescription to change the reality of China and carry out his "ideal revolution".
Xu Zhimo left Peking University (19 14, August 2008, Xu Zhimo's "A Record of Going to America") with patriotic enthusiasm of "applying what he has learned to serve the country", and in June 2008, 19 14 left Shanghai to study in the United States. In the first year of studying abroad, I entered Hearst Clark University in the United States. He entered the history department and took sociology, economics, history and other courses in order to be a "Hamilton" in China in the future. Ten months after I entered school, I graduated with a bachelor's degree and a first-class honor award. However, he is not satisfied with this. That year, he transferred to the Graduate School of Columbia University in new york and entered the Department of Economics. Xu Zhimo has gained extensive knowledge of philosophy and politics. That year, the wave of the May 4th Revolution also spread to China students studying in the United States. Driven by patriotism, Xu Zhimo took part in patriotic activities organized by local students and often read magazines such as New Youth and Trendy. At the same time, his interest in learning gradually shifted from politics to literature, so he got a master's degree in literature.
Xu Zhimo stayed in the United States for two years, but he was tired of the madness, greed and material desire of the bourgeoisie in American capitalist society. He was attracted by the British philosopher Russell, and finally "got rid of the temptation of Columbia University's doctorate and bought a boat to cross the Atlantic. Unexpectedly, the unexpected changes in Russell's personal life prevented him from realizing his long-cherished wish to learn from Russell. As a result, he "stayed at the London School of Economics and Political Science for half a year" and was bored and wanted to change his way. Thanks to Dickinson's introduction and recommendation, Xu Zhimo entered the Royal College of Cambridge University as a special student.
Xu Zhimo also lived in England for two years. His life in England, especially in Cambridge, had an important influence on his life's thought and was a turning point in the development of his thought. In Cambridge, he deeply felt that "the beauty and tranquility of nature, harmony unexpectedly drowned your soul in the tacit understanding of starlight and waves" (Xu Zhimo: Cambridge as I know it). Xu Zhimo is obsessed with Cambridge and nature because he thinks that the real society is ugly, life is painful and only nature is pure and beautiful. The best way to cure this society and people, as well as the embarrassment of current life, is to leave the degraded civilization and return to the simplicity of nature. Only by approaching nature can we restore human childlike innocence and alleviate social symptoms. He received a bourgeois aristocratic education and a "smoking culture" in Cambridge. He worships England very much and likes Oxford and Cambridge very much. He likes to associate with British celebrities. He has extensively dabbled in all kinds of world famous works, and has also been exposed to various schools of thought. During this period, his political ideas and social ideals were cultivated, and his self-consciousness-idealism was born. He wants to be an "uneducated individualist" himself. The environment in Cambridge not only contributed to and formed his social outlook and outlook on life, but also aroused his thirst for knowledge and triggered his creative ideas. He began to translate literary works. He translated several short stories by British writer Mansfield, the novel The Swirl Boy by German Fogo, the stories of Wu Jiarang and Ni Alan in medieval France, the Dead City by Italian writer Danon Wu Xue, and the Gandhi by Voltaire. At the same time, he was full of poetry and wrote many poems. His "The fury of spiritual revolution washes on both sides of your charming river" and "Xu Zhimo: Goodbye to Cambridge"). His idols are no longer Hamilton in America, but Shelley and Byron in England. He changed his face and joined the ranks of poets. )
Second, the literary career
Cambridge moonlight
Originally, Xu Zhimo had nothing to do with poetry and had no personal hobbies. However, while studying at Cambridge University in England, he was uncharacteristically writing more than once, which led to the outbreak of his poetry creation. Although he wrote so many poems during this period, only twenty or thirty poems are scattered in some newspapers and magazines, and most of them have been lost. However, from the limited poems we can still see, we can also get a glimpse of Xu Zhimo's early poems and his thoughts.
At this time, why did Xu Zhimo write poems like he was possessed, and how did he write poems in generate?
First of all, it has something to do with his living environment at that time. It was the Cambridge environment in which he lived that aroused his interest in poetry and ignited his desire for creation. He said: "I am really happy in Cambridge, and I am afraid that I will never get such a sweet baptism in my life" (smoking and culture). So during this period, he created such works as Summer and Summer Field. At this time, his personal life "shines with strange moonlight." In the autumn of 192 1, he met the forest of "beautiful women" and "talented women". Xu Zhimo had a close relationship with her, and then talked about love and marriage. Therefore, Xu Zhimo filed for divorce with Zhang Youyi in March 1922, arguing that the two should not continue their married life without love and freedom. Free divorce, stopping suffering and foretelling happiness is Xu Zhimo's simple idealism. He is pursuing an ideal life. He feels that life seems to be "shaken by great power", he wants to express, he wants to sing. So it's like Love to Death, Listening to the Piano on a Moonlit Night, Ode to Youth and Spring Breeze Breaking the Dream of Spring. In addition, he tends to write in different languages, because he is exposed to a lot of English literature and art, and the works of Byron, Shelley, Keats and Hardy fascinate him. He blew this "strange wind"-the European wind, and he followed their path, so with the help of poetry, his thoughts and feelings were "strange".
Therefore, Xu Zhimo especially misses this period of life in Cambridge, England. He is full of excitement and excitement. He wrote many poems, and his poetic situation is reflected in his long poem Dew on the Grass. This is his earliest poem that we have seen so far. This poem not only expresses his ambition and interest at that time, but also vividly conveys the turbulent state of his poetry. He opened the fountain of creation and sang with his throat. Therefore, he will become a poet. On the whole, these early poems are fresh in tone and lofty in artistic conception, which embodies "the call of youth and the bright hope" (Xu Zhimo: spring). At the same time, we began to explore the form of new poetry from many aspects. Poetry has various forms, but it has not yet been finalized. There are free poems, new metrical poems, western poems and even poems without punctuation. However, they emphasize the symmetry and neatness of rhyme, rhythm and format, and demand "smooth and pleasant tone and light and soft form", which is the consistent pursuit of Xu Zhimo's poems.
Although he was fascinated by life in Cambridge, England, his homesickness and homesickness haunted him, so he left Europe on August 1922 and set off for home. On the way home, I stopped in Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan for two months, and arrived in Shanghai on June 65438+1October 65438+May.
After returning to China, Xu Zhimo started another life. The disturbance of the real society disturbs his inner balance, and sometimes he feels mentally bored and anxious. So he told his feelings and experiences and started his literary career.