An inch of Dan's heart to serve the country - Tian Han's spiritual quest

【Everyone walking together with one heart】

Author: Song Baozhen (Director, Institute of Drama, China Academy of Arts)

Tian Han is the lyricist of the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, the founder of modern Chinese drama, he is also a great poet, and he is also quite accomplished in the fields of film, music, calligraphy and so on. Tian Han's life, constantly pursuing the light, constantly striving to create, and constantly exploring and advancing. Behind him, he left more than 60 drama operas, more than 20 operas, and more than 2,000 poems.

Tian Han (1898-1968), formerly known as Shouchang, was a native of Changsha, Hunan. Lyricist of "March of the Volunteer Army" and one of the founders of modern Chinese drama. Profile picture

The poetic heart of the teenager is the most true

In 1898, Tian Han was born in a small mountain village in Changsha, Hunan Province, and his father named him Shouchang. His family was poor and cold, less than ten years old, his father died of illness, and his industrious mother spun yarn and hemp, cut down on food and clothing, sent him to a private school, and later sent him to Changsha to study in a new-style school. The character of the young Tian Han was cultivated, deeply influenced by his mother, he was optimistic and cheerful all his life, diligent and hardworking, with ideals, responsibility, and a perseverance "Hunan cattle" spirit.

In the wave of the Xinhai Revolution, Tian Han began to accept new ideas. He wrote the little opera "The New Godson", hoping to persuade his mother to support him in the revolution. He also wanted to join the student army and go to the battlefield. He and 3 other boys agreed to change their names, using the four characters of "Hero Huaihan" and naming themselves one word each to express their desire to save the country. Tian Shouchang was the youngest, put on a "Han" character, and has since changed his name to Tian Han.

Tian Han has been intelligent since childhood, knowledgeable and knowledgeable, and is deeply loved by his uncle Yi Meichen. When Yi Meichen was studying in Japan, he had joined the League led by Sun Yat-sen, had revolutionary tendencies and restoration ideas, and gave his only daughter, Yi Shuyu, to Tian Han and funded them to study in Japan together. Yi Meichen was later killed by the Warlords of Hunan, which undoubtedly inspired Tian Han's desire to resist the darkness and find the light.

During his studies in Japan, he eagerly absorbed all kinds of new knowledge, politics, military, philosophy, culture, art, and read every book he found. He wanted to study the Sino-Japanese War and explore the reasons for the defeat of this war that made the Chinese nation bear humiliation and shame; he never lacked romantic passion and enthusiastic vision, and he also wanted to be an art critic, painter and poet. Of course, what fascinated him the most was drama, and he was determined to be a Chinese Ibsen, and the reason for this was that, as Lu Xun said in the "Morrow Poetic Theory", Ibsen was "indignant at the coma of the world, and the concealment of the truth of sorrow" and dared to "cling to the truth in order to reject mediocrity and stupidity." He longed for the "neo-romantic" artistic trend of thought at that time, believing that "neo-romanticism is directly born from the mother's womb of the old romanticism, and his 'search for truth' is not on the kingdom of heaven, but on the earth; not in dreams, but in reality; not in the utopian world, but in the ideal world."

In 1919, the May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing. Tian Han actively participated in the preparation and organization of the "Young Chinese Society", hoping to heal the society with the enthusiasm and courage of the "young poet's heart". It was on the basis of this lofty ambition that Tian Han wrote many papers in Japan, such as "The Centennial Festival of the Common poet Whitman" (1919), "The Poet and the Labor Problem" (1920), "Neo-Romanticism and Others" (1920) and many other papers.

In 1922, Tian Han and his wife Yi Shuyu returned to China. In 1924, they set up a semi-monthly literary and art journal "Nanguo" in Shanghai, with a clear purpose, that is, to "encourage a fresh and fragrant artistic atmosphere in the dull new Chinese literary scene." The journal was the sole responsibility of the couple, "printing at their own expense, proofreading themselves, folding themselves, and distributing themselves." Although due to insufficient financial resources, "Southern Kingdom" ended in a hasty ending, but Tian Han repeatedly lost battles, never discouraged, he established the Southern Film and Drama Society, took over the Shanghai University of the Arts, held the "Art Fish Dragon Society", explored small theater drama, and held high his own artistic banner with the spirit of opposition, hard work, and poor drama.

The art group Nanguoshe founded by Tian Han, "does not ask about academic qualifications, but takes geniuses", gathered a group of people who are "just proletarian and do not have to have class consciousness", are not afraid of falling, scolding is not afraid, poor is not afraid, with the bohemian artistic spirit, the pursuit of romantic and aesthetic artistic ideals. In the teaching team, there are Xu Beihong, Hong Shen, Ouyang Yuqian, Xu Zhimo, Tang Huaiqiu, Gao Baisheng... Among the cadets were Zheng Junli, Wu Zuoren, Zhao Mingyi, Chen Baichen, Yu Shan... From 1928 to 1929, Tian Han led the Nanguo Society to hold drama performances and other artistic activities in Shanghai, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Wuxi and other places, and created a large number of plays, which had an impact throughout the country. Xu Zhimo wrote praise: "The mood of the southern country is the mood of the poem, and the tone of the southern country is the sound of the poem." ”

From the founding of the semi-monthly magazine "Nanguo" in January 1924 to the seizure of the Nanguo Society by the Kuomintang in September 1930, the Nanguo drama activities led by Tian Han lasted more than 6 years. Throughout the 1920s, Tian Han's influence on China's modern drama scene was unmatched. People say that China has a new drama, starting from the "southern country". Cao Yu said that Tian Han "is a history of the development of Chinese drama."

Only sunflowers are tilted to the sun

In the winter of 1929, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, the Literary and Art Circles in Shanghai began to organize the "Chinese Left-Wing Writers Alliance". At the invitation of Jiang Guangci, Tian Han became one of the initiators of the "Left Alliance." In February 1930, Tian Han, Together with Lu Xun, Rou Shi, Yu Dafu and others, initiated the organization of the "Great Alliance of the Chinese Freedom Movement", and Tian Han was elected as an executive member. Later, Tian Han attended the inaugural meeting of the "Chinese Left-Wing Writers Alliance" and delivered an impromptu speech, and together with Lu Xun, Xia Yan, Feng Naichao, Qian Xing estate, Zheng Boqi, and Hong Lingfei, he was elected as a standing committee member of the "Left Alliance".

In April 1930, Tian Han published the famous Critique of Ourselves, announcing his "turn" in social thought and artistic advocacy and even his life goals. According to Tian Han, "turning" means "changing a new direction", turning to the left-wing literary and art front led by the Communist Party. He wants to liquidate the tendency of the "southern country of the past" to be "more enthusiastic than wise, and the romantic tendency to be stronger than reason", and abandon the "petty-bourgeois sentimental decadence" that "the fog is too deep".

In January 1931, the Left-Wing Dramatists Union was formed, and Tian Han was elected as an executive member, actually presiding over the work of the Left-Wing Drama Federation. In the spring of 1932, Tian Han, who insisted on joining the party, was approved to join the Communist Party of China after an inspection by the party organization, and the person who took the oath of joining the party was Qu Qiubai. After joining the party, Tian Han entered the cultural work committee of the Shanghai Central Bureau of the Communist Party of China underground, responsible for carrying out the left-wing drama movement under the leadership of the party. In accordance with the spirit of the party, Tian Han actively formed and guided professional and amateur drama groups, and the performance activities of the Avenue Drama Society, the Blue Clothed Drama Society, the Mayflower Drama Society, and the Spring and Autumn Drama Society all condensed Tian Han's painstaking efforts and sweat. In his short play "Consistency", he began to "engage in the creation and dissemination of art for a certain purpose of consciousness", showing the people's resistance to the ruler: "The world is about to turn upside down!" The tyrant is about to fall! Everybody get up! The oppressed people, gathered together, to defeat our enemies in unison, to build new ideals, new light, and light to come down from the ground! His "turn" doubled his own confidence and was also affirmed by left-wing writers and artists.

Under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, revolutionary drama and proletarian drama rose rapidly, which caused panic in the Kuomintang government, and Kuomintang agents began to suppress left-wing drama and kill progressive literary and artistic workers. One day in September 1930, the Nankoku Society was shut down, and the agents seized the prop knives and guns used in the performance of "Carmen", and some of the actors were arrested and imprisoned. Actor Zong Hui (Xie Weidi), who played a matador in "Carmen", was trapped by agents after being banned by nanguoshe, and on October 19, 1930, at the age of 16, he was brutally killed in Nanjing Yuhuatai.

In 1935, Tian Han was also arrested and imprisoned. The cruel blows and bloody rain and wind made Tian Han even more righteous and devoted himself to the revolution.

Generous ode to the soul of the nation

After the September 18 Incident in 1931, the national crisis intensified. After that, Tian Han created plays such as "Plum Rain" (1931), "Chaos Bell" (1932), "Seven Women in the Storm" (1932), "The Storm of yangtze River" (1934), "Children of the Wind and Clouds" (1934), "Song of Rejuvenation" (1935) and other plays, and the national consciousness and resistance in the theme of the play were significantly enhanced.

In the one-act play "Plum Rain", Tian Han shows the process of workers gradually awakening in pain under the cruel oppression of factory owners. Another one-act drama, "Chaos Bell", shows the heroic action of a group of northeastern college students who urgently rang the bell and threw their pens and pens in the 918 Incident, and at the same time lashed out at the Capitulation of the Kuomintang government's "non-resistanceism".

"The Song of Rejuvenation" describes a patriotic young man in Nanyang, Gao Weihan, who is in Nanyang but has a heart for China. After the September 18 Incident, he bid farewell to his beloved girl Mei Niang and returned to China to participate in the War of Resistance. In the battle, he was heroically wounded, swore to die against the enemy, once lost his memory, under the careful care of his lover Mei Niang, he woke up and found that the chinese people under the iron hooves were stubborn and secretly alive, and Gao Weihan shouted angrily: "We can't let the blood of Chinese soldiers flow in vain!" "Resisting the enemy and saving the country has always been Tian Han's will to live.

In 1934, Tian Han was particularly angry when he saw Japanese goods on the Shanghai docks, knowing that they contained tools for the slaughter of Chinese people. To this end, he wrote the opera "The Storm of the Yangtze River", in which Nie Er composed many songs such as "Road Song", "Dock Worker Song", "Selling Newspaper Song" and so on, and also played the dock worker in the play. There are such words in the play: "This is the time when the Chinese people still wear huge chains around their necks; this is the time when imperialist bandits are still running rampant on the surface of the Yangtze River", "We are not slaves to the country, we must be the masters of China!" Let us form a great wall of iron and drive out all the robbers! Let us form an iron great wall and move forward towards the road of freedom! Its ideological connotations and vivid imagery are already similar to those of the March of the Volunteer Army. In the same year, Tian Han wrote the lyrics of the theme song "Graduation Song" for the movie "Peach and Plum Robbery": "Students, everyone rise up and take responsibility for the rise and fall of the world!" Listen! The ears are full of public belchings. Look! Year after year the fall of the land... We have to be masters to fight to the death on the battlefield..."

At the end of 1934, Tian Han began to write the script "Children of the Storm". In the play, the patriotic poet Xin Baihua and his friend Liang Zhifu came to Shanghai from the occupied areas of the northeast, and met their neighbor Ah Feng's mother and daughter in the pavilion, after they experienced a life drift and emotional entanglement, Ah Feng became a singer, and Liang Zhifu died on the battlefield. Xin Baihua, a poet who once wanted to create a long poem "The Great Wall", finally got rid of the shackles of love and resolutely went to the battlefield. Tian Han prepared to compose a theme song with the Great Wall as the background. Later, Tian Han was arrested, and the script remained in Xia Yan's hands. Nie Er, who had worked with Tian Han many times before, approached Xia Yan and asked to compose music for the theme song of "Children of the Wind and Clouds", "March of the Volunteer Army". Xia Yan saw that Nie Er was resolute, so he handed Tian Han's poems to him. A great song was born, and this was also the last collaboration between Tian Han and Nie Er.

In December 1938, Tian Han wrote an inscription for the Xiang opera anti-enemy propaganda team: "400 million actors, 10,000 miles on the front." The world is the audience, watch my big historical drama. "Invincible courage, optimistic arrogance, and extraordinary ambition are not only the embodiment of Tian Han's exuberant vitality, but also the embodiment of the indomitable and invincible grandeur of our Chinese nation."

In 1948, Tian Han was entrusted by the party organization to sneak back to Beiping to do the work of retaining cultural people, and he once told a friend, "The sky is about to light, and 'we' are coming back." ”

In September 1949, at the first session of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, the March of the Volunteer Army was designated as the national anthem. Since then, the melody of national endeavor has resounded throughout the land of China for a long time.

Guangming Daily (2021.05.31. 11th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily