Text/Fast Wind
Hu Shi was a cattle man in modern Chinese history and one of the leaders of the New Culture Movement. However, many people are not familiar with his works, how high is his literary level?
In 1917, Hu Shi published the "Discussion on Literary Improvement" in the "New Youth", advocating the use of vernacular instead of literary language. At the same time, The New Youth published eight "plain and easy-to-read" vernacular poems by Hu Shi, which was also the first batch of vernacular poems in China's history. Two excerpts.
Butterfly:
Two yellow butterflies, both flying into the sky.
For some reason, a sudden fly back.
The remaining one, lonely and pitiful.
Nor is there a heart to heaven, and heaven is too lonely.
"The Wind Is Blowing":
The wind is blowing, the snow is flying,
The old crow braved the wind and snow to return.
If you can't fly, you have to fly,
The sin of starving the mother.
These two vernacular poems, too superficial from today's point of view, are not proper oil poems? However, under the circumstances at that time, it belonged to the pioneering work of modern Chinese vernacular poetry, which was of extraordinary significance and caused a national sensation for a while. In the history of modern literature, "Butterfly" is known as the first new poem in China, and Hu Shi is also known as the first person to write a new poem in a hundred years.
One of Hu Shi's most well-known poems is "Hope", created in 1920:
I came from the mountains, took orchids and grasses, and planted them in a small garden, hoping to blossom well.
Looking three times a day, looking at the flowers, looking at the flowers in a hurry, there is not a single bud.
Seeing that autumn has arrived, the flowers are offered at home, and next year the spring breeze will return, and I wish You full of potted flowers.
Later, the poem was revised and composed by Taiwanese Chen Xiande and Zhang Bi, renamed "Orchid Grass", and was once widely sung in the mainland as a "Taiwanese campus song". This small poem, fresh and simple, is catchy, at least much better than Zhao Lihua's "pear blossom body" and Jia Qianqian's "urine body".
What is poetry? First of all, poetry should be sincere. Confucius said: "Three hundred poems, in a word, think innocently." That is to say, the content and emotion should be real and not play virtual. Second, poetry should be beautiful. For example, the beauty of sound rhyme, the beauty of rhythm, and the beauty of artistic conception are separated from these art forms and cannot be called poetry.
Hu Shi's vernacular poems can be roughly achieved in both aspects, but due to his talent and pattern, he really does not have a good work that has been handed down.
At that time, Hu Shi advocated vernacular literature, which aroused the disgust of a master of traditional Chinese studies, Huang Kan, and several interesting stories were handed down.
Huang Kan and Hu Shi were both professors at Peking University, and this Junjun was a scholar and had a big temper, and he had to scold Hu Shi before each class before giving a formal lecture. Once, in class, he gave an example that said, "If Hu Shi's wife dies, his family will send a telegram: 'Your wife is dead!'" Hurry back! It is as long as 11 words, while the text only needs four words: 'Wife dies and returns quickly', which can save more than half of the telegraph cost. The students laughed.
Huang Kan statue
After Hu Shi heard about this incident, he also fought back in class. He told the students that a friend of the Executive Yuan had invited him to become the secretary of the Executive Yuan, but he did not want to enter politics and asked them to draw up a telegram in chinese on his behalf. The students drafted one after another, and Hu Shi selected one of the most concise telegram drafts: "Only those who are shallow in learning, fear that they will be incompetent, and will not obey their orders." Then he smiled and said, "Actually, it only takes five words in the vernacular" Can't do it, thank you." The students clapped their hands in disbelief.
In order to popularize the vernacular language, Hu Shi also wrote a funny oil poem: "There is no elegance in writing, but there is a way to live or die." The ancients called it desire, and today's people called it want; the ancients called it Zhi, and today's people called it Zhi; the ancients called it Drowning, and today's people called it Urine; originally the same word, the voice changed a little, and there was no elegant custom to speak of, so why bother? As for the ancients calling the word, the present person called the trumpet; the ancients hung the beam, and the present person hanged; although the ancient name may not be good, how can the current name be less wonderful? As for the ancients riding on public opinion, the present people sit on the golden palanquin; the ancients crowned and tied the veil, but the present people know how to wear hats; if they must call the hat a scarf, and call the palanquin a public opinion, is it not Zhang Guan Li Dai, who recognizes the tiger as a leopard? ”
Hu Shi is an ideological enlightenment figure, literature is indeed not his strength, a generation of academic masters Qian Mu once commented: "Hu Shi is a social celebrity figure, in his bones is not a reader, at least not a pure reader." ”