Huang Yaomian: From a hermitage to a poet who fights

Huang Yaomian (1903-1987), a native of Meizhou, Guangdong, was admitted to the National Guangdong Higher Normal English Department in 1921. After graduating in 1925, he became a Chinese teacher at Baihou Middle School. Influenced by progressive ideas, he returned to his alma mater in 1926 to work as a librarian at the College of Letters of Sun Yat-sen University. In August 1927, he was invited to shanghai to join the Creation Society. In June 1928, Huang Yaomian joined the Communist Party of China and organized the "Left League" with Xia Yan and others. In the autumn of 1929, with the approval of the Party Central Committee, he was transferred to the Central Committee of the League as a translator, and was immediately sent to Germany to participate in the Youth International Conference and to serve as an interpreter in the Eastern Department of the Youth Communist International in Moscow. After returning to China in 1933, he was appointed director of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, and edited "Lenin Youth". In October 1934, the Central Bureau of the Regiment was destroyed, and Huang Yaomian was arrested and imprisoned. In the autumn of 1937, he was released from prison on bail by comrades Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, Li Kenong and other comrades and went to Yan'an. After arriving in Yan'an in the spring of 1938, he worked at the Xinhua News Agency, and in early April, after applying for organizational approval, he went to Wuhan to engage in anti-enemy cultural work. Subsequently, Huang Yaomian traveled to Hankou, Changsha, and Hengyang, and then arrived in Guilin, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the International News Agency and the secretary general of the Guilin Branch of the "Literary Association". He joined the Chinese Democratic League in May 1944. In October 1946, he founded Dade College in Hong Kong and served as the head of the department of Chinese, and also served as the editor-in-chief of the Guangming Newspaper, the central organ of the NLD. In May 1949, he was invited to Beijing to participate in the "First Literary Congress" and the "First Plenary Session" of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and after the meeting, he was hired as a first-class professor of liberal arts and the head of the department of Chinese of Beijing Normal University, and devoted himself to teaching and scientific research. In 1978, he once again devoted himself to the cause of education, not only participating in the preparation of the National Higher Education Literature and Art Theory Research Association and the magazine "Literary and Art Theory Research", but also cultivating the first batch of doctors of literature and art in the new era, becoming a famous literary and art theorist, aesthetician, poet and educator in the mainland.

Influenced by the history, culture and poetry of Lingnan, Huang Yaomian has loved Chu Ci and the poetry of the Six Dynasties since childhood. In middle school, inspired by the New Culture Movement, he not only "liked poetry, loved to read poetry, and learned to write poetry" ("Self-Introduction" of "Huang Yaomian Lyric Poems", Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House, 1990 edition), but also read the new literary and artistic works of a large number of writers such as Bingxin and Tagore. During his studies in the National Guangdong Higher Normal English Department, he was more intoxicated by the romantic poetry of Pence, Wordsworth, Musai, Shelley and Byron, and was deeply immersed, and successively created a series of romantic poems such as "Late Steps in Dongshan", "Late Wind" and "Autumn Wind and Twilight Rain in Huanghuagang". Benefiting from his poetic talent, soon after graduating from university, Huang Yaomian was recommended by Cheng Fangwu and Wang Duqing, and in 1927, he moved from Guangzhou to Shanghai and officially joined the Creation Society. It is worth noting that in 1927, at the end of the Great Revolution, how did this young student in the "ivory tower" embark on the "revolutionary" road after arriving in Shanghai? How did he, who had previously been fascinated by the romantic lyrical art style, turn to the cry of revolution in his poetry? What is the rationale for this change of thought and poetic style and its roots? The investigation of the academic history of this ideological cross-section in 1927 has important historical significance and academic historical value for us to re-understand this long-suffering pioneer of literary and art theory and grasp the generation and development of Chinese literary and art theory for a hundred years.

From the lyricism of "romance" to the symbol of "decadence"

As early as during his college years, Huang Yaomian was a well-known poet among young students. He was influenced by the lyrical traditions of Chinese and Western "Romanticism" literature and the "May Fourth" new literary and artistic trend, coupled with his free and uninhibited and uninhibited disposition, the description of pastoral pastoral songs, the thoughts of shallow chanting and low singing, the free and lively forms, and the dance full of life emotions were the fundamental characteristics of his early poetry. For example, the opening chapter of "Late Steps on the Eastern Mountains" has a chant: "At the end of the faint red glow, / The surrounding mountains are hazy, / I am accompanied by young children, / Walking in the vast Pinglong." In just four lines, the poet's emotions of sending love to the wilderness, unrestrained, and free and rambunctious are revealed. Immediately after, the poet wrote: "The cool breeze gently blows the sleeves, / The late autumn of the southern country is not cold, / The green grass on the long, / Slightly contains the night dew!" Looking at the barley deep yellow, / There were farmers in the field, / From the forest in front, / A team of cattle and sheep ran out. "This elegant and gorgeous but natural and fresh words show the romantic mood of a young man who is not deeply involved in the world." This not only vividly conveys Huang Yaomian's vision of literature and love for life during his college years, but also shows the pastoral pastoral of a transcendent and return-to-nature "recluse".

Of course, this "romance" is accompanied by the squeeze of the world, the passage of time, especially the emotional turmoil, and it is increasingly mixed with repeated sentimentality and melancholy. For example, in the poem "The Song Giver on the Water", the poet can't help but think: "The breeze blows the spring willows of the long causeway, / The beauty upstairs is combing her spring makeup, / The dolls by the water are greeting people with light oars, / I climb the thin branches of the willows, with spring sorrow!" Just when the poet lamented his crush for the beautiful years of the singer, he couldn't help but think of his own poverty and suddenly felt lonely: "Oh, sorry that your happy years are thrown in the wind and dust, / How can the fragile body be forbidden to be cold in the middle of the night, / In a flash, it has become a spring flower, / A cup of Chinese and American wine is also mixed with tears!" The tourists in the neighboring boat are drinking and singing, / Sometimes there are whispers and whispers, / But I, I'm just dumbfounded, / Empty to the age of the singer Yan Yan. This romantic reverie and infinite desire for youthful love is also reflected in series of poems such as "Evening Wind": "It is the midnight of the spring supper / The blue fence guards the clear window, / You carry a red light, / Secretly flick the silver kite." / Straight to the outside of the door chicken crying, / I am with you in front of the bar, / under the peach / Look at the round moon falling west! These poems are not only vivid and full of interest, but also always show the rich melancholy of the poet's desire and inability to love and love in the discourse imagery of "pillowside", "spring morning", "spring supper" and "red aya". At this time, in order to get rid of the sentimentality and melancholy of this youth, the poet either "borrowed wine to dispel sorrow" ("Small Restaurant Night Drink"), or "ascended to the heights" ("Sunrise and High Post"), or "sent love to history" ("The Autumn Wind and Twilight Rain of Huanghuagang"), but always "the sorrowful cup of Ten Thousand Buckets" was sad, and in the romantic sentimentality and melancholy, he only added a few points of worry and sorrow to the years.

It can be seen that the innocent fantasy of freedom and romance, the crystal clear rhythm of life, and the natural experience of getting rid of the shackles are the "romantic songs" that Huang Yaomian has been obsessed with and longed for since childhood. However, the beautiful and idyllic poetic ideal world in the "ivory tower" will inevitably disappear in an instant when it returns to the difficulties, sorrows and losses of real life. In particular, in the conflict of reality, the pastoral pastoral songs outside the transcendence of the "recluse" often cannot hide their inner loss and "sorrow" ("The Sorrow of the Recluse"), as the poet chanted in "The Poet's Dream", these "charming flower paths" and "the sound of the harp", are destined to be only "ethereal fairy towns". This also shows the conflict, contradiction and imbalance between young students' romantic ideals and the real world after the "May Fourth" ebb and flow.

In the autumn of 1927, Huang Yaomian officially joined the Creation Society. As usual, with his talent, coupled with the poetic style that coincides with the "romantic" mood of the Creation Society, he will do a lot. As Wang Duqing added in the "Evening Wind" poem "Evening Wind" in "Flood" (July 1927, Vol. 3, No. 3): "His bottom poems should be counted as the most promising of the Guangzhou Youth Bottom works that I know." The paradox is that after Huang Yaomian joined the society, the creation society has long transitioned from the "creation era" that emphasized romance, sentimentality and melancholy in the early stage to the decadent, soft and even desperate "flood era". Therefore, although these "romantic songs" composed before and after Huang Yaomian's graduation from university were later published with the help of the creation society's publishing department for "Huanghuagangshang", the poetic style of this "romantic" mood has been incompatible with the decadent "symbolism" development direction of the creation society. In this rather "dislocated" situation, with the dissatisfaction with social reality outside the "ivory tower" and the loneliness and depression of powerlessness to transform, Huang Yaomian's thoughts and poetic style changed with it.

On the banks of the Huangpu River, the first Mid-Autumn Festival in Shanghai, Huang Yao, who gradually became integrated into the Creation Society, slept at the "Literary and Art Tea Party" and read his latest poem "Mid-Autumn Festival on the Huangpu Beach", which chanted: "Ah, all the remnants of the phantom will be involved in the cold waves on your river, / But my heart will be deep with the autumn, / Until the dead ash-like winter night, / Suffocate the mourning in my sad dreams..." At the end of the poem, the poet lamented again: "Ah, the dead yellow leaves are waiting for me to throw you into the heart of the sea, / This undulating wave is in the grave of the wreckage of your youth, / I also want to give you all the kindness of my past, / You bury me for me in the depths of this dark wave where the moonlight does not shine! From "remnant phantom" to "remnant winter night", from "dead yellow leaves" to "remnants of youth", from "mourning in dreams" to "the depths of black waves", the beautiful imagery of natural freshness, crystal clearness and liveliness in Huang Yaomian's early poetry has disappeared at this time, replaced by tones full of sadness, decadence, sentimentality and even despair. This kind of wandering coldness is even more vividly expressed in the poem "The Night of My Death", which was subsequently created: "I am afraid that this is the night of my death, / My heart is full of terrible sorrow, / God of Death, can you let my soul / Return to my hometown before death?" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The hardships and bitterness of reality, the bitterness and wandering of individuals, the turmoil and peril of the country, the poets all turn them into poetry at this moment, and with the help of a series of dark and gray symbolist images such as "crow", "soul", "death" and "shouyi", convey the loneliness and sadness and sadness in the heart of a wandering wanderer who lives alone in a foreign city.

Obviously, from the lyricism of "romance" to the symbol of "decadence", this change in Huang Yaomian's poetry and poetic style not only actively adapted to the overall decadent atmosphere at the end of the "Flood Era" of the Creation Society, but also the obscure embodiment of the wind direction of the times and the poetic style of thought after the failure of the Great Revolution in 1927.

The "Left" of theory turns to the cry of revolution

Just when Huang Yaomian and some of his colleagues in the Creation Society fell into a decadent and sentimental mood, coupled with the failure of the Nanchang Uprising in August 1927, Guo Moruo and Cheng Fangwu immediately actively contacted progressive writers in Shanghai, and invited Feng Naichao, Li Chuli and other groups of students studying in Japan to join the Creation Society around November, thus opening the literary prelude to the "revolutionary era" of the later Creation Society. The "Left" turn of proletarian revolutionary literature not only made the Creation Society gradually transition from the "literary creation" of the past to the "cultural criticism", but also transformed the "pure" literary society of the past into an organized and led "fighting fortress" in an instant.

In the change and adjustment of the direction of the Creation Society, Huang Yaomian eagerly read "The Development of Socialism from Utopia to Science", "Introduction to the Critique of Political Economy", and "Feuerbach" and other marxist classic theoretical books. Being on the beach in Shanghai, witnessing the bullying and aggression of imperialism, coupled with the continuous baptism of theory and thought, not only enabled Huang Yaomian to sweep away the past melancholy, lamentation, wandering, and bitter thoughts and poetic styles, but also gradually opened up a new style of poetry creation that was strong, tragic and simple in the transformation of the revolutionary position of individualism to the proletariat. As the poet called for in The Literature of Impersonalism (Quicksand, March 1928, No. 1): "This kind of literature is imbued with the human spirit: it does not particularly attack the modern social system, but also strives to point out the direction in which we should go, it does not criticize life but shows the possibility of life." The "possibility of life" and its "consciousness of life" full of "human spirit" are precisely the new realms and new heights that Huang Yaomian reached after accepting Marxist thought in the revolutionary literary turn. This also allowed his thinking and poetic style to change again.

From the pastoral songs of the early "recluses" to the decadent whispers of the first creation society, the poet Huang Yaomian, who had undergone the baptism of Marxist thought, began to use poetry as a tool of struggle in the pursuit of "the possibility of life", and resolutely played the revolutionary battle song of writers and artists. In the "Pulling The Car", the poet chants with firm conviction: "One step, one step, one step, / We step forward steadily, / We have a healthy body and spirit, / Wait, wait for our light!" Friends, their death is near, / They are digging their own graves, / Waiting for them to finish singing the night song of their deaths, / We raise our hands, and they all turn to scorched earth. This poem not only profoundly exposes the decay and incompetence of the rulers, but also uses the metaphor of "pulling a cart" to express the poet's yearning for light and the unstoppable belief in victory by stepping forward. In addition, the poet also expresses the grand ambitions of the working class in "Winter Morning": "Ah, you see, this winter morning has long been completely owned by the factory, / The fate of the capitalists will be depressed with the night of the cruel winter, / Only the spirit of the proletarian can best withstand hard work and hardship, / Ah, rise up and sing, rise up and sing, rise up to praise this great hour." This high-pitched "cry" of revolutionary passion and the search and desire for "consciousness of life" are even more intense in the poem "You Listen": "You get up—/ Friend, don't snooze anymore, / Listen!" You listen! / The whining horn is still blowing far away, / I don't know who is preparing to kill, / Ah, friend, don't snooze anymore. /You get up—/You listen! You listen! These two poems, whether it's "Get up and sing, get up and sing, get up, sing," a celebration of the working class's change of status quo and create a new world, or "Listen! The attempt to completely awaken the urgent cry of the Chinese people ideologically reflects the patriotic and progressive ideal of the poet trying to awaken the people's consciousness and invigorate the national spirit at the difficult moment when the national fortune is fluctuating. This generous tone of the "revolutionary" cry with poetry as a weapon is not only imbued with the poet Huang Yaomian's strong nationalist spirit and strong patriotic feelings, but also highlights the distinct revolutionary color and militancy of his poetry. This style of creation also continues in the series of poems such as "Song of May" in this period, showing the revolutionary heroism of a young poet in the journey of seeking the peaceful liberation and beautiful life of mankind after fading from bitterness and wandering in the late period of the Revolution.

From the symbol of decadence to the cry of revolution, the poet Huang Yaomian not only gradually shifted from the sorrow and sorrow of individualism to the anxiety of the nation and the country and the desire for revolutionary action, but also gradually transitioned from the psychological emotions of grief, bitterness, withering, and decadence in the past to the ideological path of revolution, resistance and struggle of "non-individualism", realizing the awakening and transformation from the "small self" to the "big me", and conveying the progress of ideological understanding. This change of thought and poetic style not only reflects the historical choice of the poet Huang Yaomian in the sense of life path and value, but also fully demonstrates the beauty of his ideals and beliefs in the switching of style themes, and then bursts out a new high-pitched and agitated revolutionary endeavor in poetry.

Before and after the transformation of ideas and poetic styles, and the gains and losses

With the "left" turn of the Creation Society, Huang Yaomian not only underwent another change in ideological understanding, poetry creation, and formal style, but also formally joined the Communist Party of China in the summer of 1928, embarked on the revolutionary road of pursuing truth, and successively used his pen as a pen in the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the War of Liberation, exerted literary and artistic strength in the propaganda of anti-enemy literature and art, cleared away obstacles, and made his own contributions to the founding of New China in the field of ideological and cultural front. As far as Huang Yaomian's poetry creation before and after the defeat of the Great Revolution in 1927 is concerned, especially the "revolutionary" cry issued after the "revolutionary literature" of the late Creation Society turned, compared with the "romantic" poetry of its early natural nature, freedom and liveliness, although in the cry of the revolution and the roar of national awakening, it shows the sword-guts and poetic heart of a young man who pursues truth and progress and is extremely inspiring, but this change in aesthetic form cannot but be said to be the "loss" of the poetry art level from the level of art ontology.

The "romantic" lyricism of Huang Yaomian's early poetry was deeply influenced by the theory of European romantic thought, and also had the poetic characteristics of Lao Zhuang and Qu Yuan, so in the late "May Fourth" period, it sometimes showed a kind of idyllic and long-distance, transcendent, returning to nature, pure and fresh aestheticist style in poems such as "Small Restaurant Night Drink", "Evening Wind", "Midnight Return", "Mountain Monk" and so on, and sometimes in "Nunnery", "Spring Heart", "Pillow", "Broken", "Autumn Wind and Twilight Rain of Huanghuagang" In the poems, he shows the restlessness of youth and the mood of loneliness and self-congratulation, secret sadness, and even depression after the loss of realistic ideals. These poems have reached a very high artistic value in language, form, technique and rhythm, and are not only praised by Guo Moruo as "both free and romantic modern feelings and the afterglow of chu ci's ancient style", but also by virtue of the appreciation of Cheng Fangwu and Wang Duqing and so on, they were able to join the creation society, which shows the artistic standard of his poetry. These early poems were compiled by Huang Yaomian and collected in 1928 as "Huanghuagangshang", although they were not in harmony with the artistic trend of the revolutionary literature of the Creation Society and were quite out of place, they still caused a sensation in "Shanghai Beach", shocking the entire poetry world, and thus laying the historical status of its "Romantic" poets.

However, as the other side of "romance" and "lyricism", Huang Yaomian's poetry creation after the "left" turn of revolutionary literature of the Creation Society, because its focus was on "revolution" and "politics", also turned to the cry of revolution in the atmosphere of the history of the times, and changed from the pastoral pastoral of the "recluse" in the early years to the poet of the "fighter", who undertook the poet mission of the revolutionary era. Of course, this change of role also caused his poetry to fall into an artistic struggle between revolution and literature and art. As Huang Yaomian said in the "Self-Introduction" of huang Yaomian's Lyric Poems: "Although these works are ideologically high, due to their lack of life experience, their creation cannot be immediately improved." Thus, "ideological" and "artistic" did not unify well in these poems with revolutionary themes. The call of the "big me" of the times, on the one hand, makes it surpass the "small self" to stand at the head of the tide of the times, and drums and shouts for national liberation through poetry; on the other hand, because of the call of "revolution", not only is the poetic language and artistic image simple and direct, but the theme and content of poetry are also relatively single. The free expression of abundant emotions in the earlier poems, the fluency of imagery techniques, the ups and downs of the rhythm of rhyme, and the beauty of the passages of words and phrases are also gradually lost in the "slogans", resulting in a slight imbalance in the tension between ideology and artistry in his poetry, and the increasing loss of poetic feelings and poetic beauty. After the Great Revolution, such poetry creations, represented by the poet Huang Yaomian, continued and influenced the poetry creation of the Anti-Japanese War period in the 1930s to a certain extent, thus forming a revolutionary literary and artistic creation tendency of "concept + slogan". It is commendable that Huang Yaomian is, after all, a "Romantic" poet who was deeply influenced by the "May Fourth" and has long been bathed in the "lyrical tradition" of Chinese and Western Romantic literature. It is precisely these romantic characters and spiritual temperaments that make Huang Yaomian aware of the shortcomings in the creation of poetry art in the context of the subsequent War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, and theoretically criticize and correct artistic deviations in the adjustment of self-"reflection" and "poetic art" against the creative tendencies of slogan shouting and formalistic simulation since the war, emphasizing the importance of "artistry" in addition to the "political nature" of literature and art. Huang Yaomian profoundly pointed out in the article "Literature and Art and Politics" ("On Poetry", Yuanfang Bookstore, 1944 edition): "Although literature and art cooperate with the entire political trend, it has relative independence, and its development also has its own special internal regularity, if we use extreme utilitarianism to measure literature and art, then we often limit literature and art to an extremely narrow scope, and at the same time, out of political interference in literature and art, the result is to ignore the special internal regularity of literature and art. and a lack of understanding of the creative process, so much so that what was ordered to be created replaced by real art. It can be seen that even at the critical moment of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and Salvation, Huang Yaomian, as a revolutionary literary and art activist, still soberly realized the importance of the laws of poetry and art in the revolutionary context, emphasized the dialectical relationship between the "political" and "artistic" nature of literature and art, and then fully demonstrated the poet's dialectical position on politics and art in the literary and artistic observance and theoretical propositions of the laws of aesthetic art, and better realized the tension between the ideological and artistic nature of revolutionary literature and art. In the context of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Huang Yaomian's unique understanding of poetry and his ideological propositions are closely integrated with his rich creative practice and life experience, especially the feelings and emotional accumulation of romanticism in his early years, which not only enables his poetry creation to present a "lyrical" appearance in the "revolutionary" flames, but also shows the poet's spiritual temperament and philosophical depth in theoretical criticism.

As a romantic poet and revolutionary literary and art activist, Huang Yaomian's emotional characteristics and dialectical positions in literary criticism also continued into subsequent literary and aesthetic studies, and reflected the consciousness of establishing a Sinicized Marxist theoretical discourse. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in addition to the criticism of "slogan-oriented" poetry, Huang Yaomian also actively intervened in discourse controversies such as "popularization of literature and art," "exposure and satire," "national forms of literature and art," and "subjectivity of literature and art," giving full play to the guiding role of literature and art in national liberation, and making important contributions to promoting the sinification of Marxist literary and art theory. After the founding of New China, as one of the authorities in the field of literature and art, Huang Yaomian not only established the country's first literary and art theory teaching and research department at Beijing Normal University, compiled and printed the first "Introduction to Literature" syllabus, opened the first postgraduate class in literature and art, but also organized and launched criticism of Zhu Guangqian's "idealistic aesthetics", and fully absorbed the rich and diverse ideological nourishment of Marxism in the "Aesthetic Discussion", and put forward the "aesthetic evaluation theory", thus changing the aesthetic discussion from "various factions" The epistemological aesthetic model shifts to the level of axiology, reflecting a unique academic characteristic. Huang Yaomian's breakthrough in the "modeling" of literary aesthetics is inseparable from the rich creative experience and its romantic ideological background, which is also reflected in the discussion of topics such as "obscure poetry", "image thinking", "literary reflection theory" and "formal content relationship" in the 1980s. In these discussions, Huang Yaomian consistently emphasized the importance of "lyricism" in addition to literary reflection, advocated the dialectical relationship between literature and art and politics, and reiterated the unique laws of literature in artistic thinking such as association and imagination.

In short, 1927, as an important page in Huang Yaomian's scholarship, thought and life, not only lasted a lifetime of "lyrical" background outside the "revolution", but also saw its rich and extensive spiritual heritage in the "cross-section of thought". As a "revolutionary" romantic poet and literary and art activist, Huang Yaomian's life not only clearly reflects the grandeur of the century-old party, but also reflects the great personality and lofty spirit of working hard and dedicating his life to the national liberation and the motherland's cultural and educational undertakings.

(Author Affilications:College of Literature, Capital Normal University)

Editor: Liu Yan