Author: Ma Wen Wei Jian (Doctoral Student, College of Literature, Shandong Normal University, Professor of College of Literature)
In the history of Chinese poetry in the 20th century, Feng Zhi's creation and contribution are obvious. How to restore Feng Zhi's poetic life, grasp the connection between the poet Feng Zhi and the scholar Feng Zhi, the thinker Feng Zhi and other multiple roles, and comprehensively consider Feng Zhi's literary trajectory and fate are issues that Cannot be ignored in Feng Zhi's biography. Wang Shaojun's "Thoughts and Poems of Life- Feng Zhi's Life and Creation" (published by the People's Publishing House in December 2020) immerses himself in the original form of Feng Zhi's life and the authentic trajectory of his thoughts, and recites a gripping epic of life.
Feng Zhi advocated grasping the life of the poet through his works, and his book "Du Fu Biography" is famous for "Du Xie Du", with the help of Du Fu's poems, as far as possible to restore Du Fu's era picture, literary scene and life course. In How I Want to Write a Biography, he said: "Study a poet's work as a whole organism, and give a detailed account of the poet's life." Wang Shaojun either intentionally or unintentionally taught Feng Zhi, adhering to the methodology of "using Feng to solve Feng" in the creative process, focusing on Feng Zhi's creation, stripping away the cocoon, and exploring Feng Zhi's life experience and spiritual trajectory. He meticulously extracted the key events of the important period of Feng Zhi's life, outlined the general direction of his life, and at the same time worked hard to restore his real life state and spiritual world.
Wang Shaojun actively draws on the theories, perspectives and methods of literary geography, and tries to return to the "scenes" such as geographical environment, family and family environment, and social circle in the unique historical context in which Feng Zhi is located, and explores vivid and accurate life scenes and ideological and spiritual trajectories.
In 1930, Feng Zhi (left) poses with the essayist Liang Yuchun.
Feng Zhi's first collection of poems, published in 1927.
Poetry is a great creation of mankind, which can hide infinite emotions and thoughts in limited words and sentences, and is the code for the poet's spiritual world. Wang Shaojun observes and interprets Feng Zhi's life and creation with a rational vision, "using Feng to solve Feng", and at the same time actively draws on the theories, perspectives and methods of literary geography, returning to the life scene of Feng Zhi's experience and creation to explore the truth, not only without losing the style of the poet's biography, but also with the style of academic works.
For biographical literature, the controversy between "poetry" and "truth" has always been an inescapable topic. Biographies of people, especially poets, seem to be innate in their literary nature. Under the premise of advocating both biographical historiography and literature, it is particularly important to strictly control the degree of "poetry" and "truth". "Thoughts and Poems of Life" attempts to return to Feng Zhi itself, reshaping Feng Zhi from the perspective of the ups and downs of individual life and spiritual exploration, and providing some inspiration for balancing the "poetry" and "truth" of biography.
In "Thoughts and Poems of Life", Wang Shaojun adheres to the position of objective and truth-seeking historical biography, emphasizes the "distance" between himself and the master, adopts a narrative strategy of near-zero degrees, tries to "describe" the important periods of Feng Zhi's life by "seriously writing trivialities", and explores the source of his literary creation and spiritual exploration. The "zero degree" mentioned here is not a blanket of the writer's subjectivity in the full sense, but points to an objective and cold academic attitude and creative stance. In the article "How Mr. Feng Zhi Treats the Biography of Feng Zhi", Zhou Mian briefly summarized Mr. Feng Zhi's opinion on his biography: avoid the positive evaluation or honorary narrative of him, "the tone should be lowered"; respect the objective truth, "do not avoid the criticism of others, do not hide his shortcomings and regrets caused by various reasons". To a certain extent, "Thoughts and Poems of Life" meets Feng Zhi's requirements for biography, insisting on objective facts and rational judgments.
Literature pursues the temperature of emotion. Biography is not a simple accumulation of historical materials, and the creator sinks into the long river of the life of the master, putting himself in the shoes of the master and observing his life and thoughts from a first-person perspective. In other words, biographies of people, especially literati, require the creator to empathize with the owner, that is, "sympathy for understanding." Wang Shaojun is committed to exploring Feng Zhi's inner world, and he clearly sees Feng Zhi's loneliness, melancholy, loneliness, and silent and deep perseverance, which is precisely the reason why Feng Zhi has become Feng Zhi's dependence.
Feng Zhi's daughter, Feng Yaoping, has said that her father "lived a low-key, ordinary, and legendless life, filling his life with reading, thinking, teaching, and writing," and said that he "did not seem to have any dramatic plot." The Tang people often compare the "mirror" to the "waves" of the lake, looking back at Feng Zhi's life, it is just like a quiet lake, the lake flows back and forth, "it is the depth of the lake that makes the lake as silent as a mirror." In the vicissitudes of the 20th century, Feng Zhi never stopped thinking. From the early days of loneliness, to the overcoming of loneliness, to the forbearance, perseverance, transformation, and then to the "people's nature", Feng has been thinking and exploring all his life.
Wang Shaojun keenly grasps the benign interactive relationship between Feng Zhi's creation and life experience and metaphysical thinking, and successfully constructs an image of Feng Zhi as a spiritual explorer through in-depth study and in-depth interpretation of representative works. In the face of Goethe, Du Fu and other research objects, Feng Zhi had a rare patience, deep thinking, meticulous understanding, and built a corresponding spiritual space from different angles. It can be said that Feng Zhi's spiritual exploration path closely intertwines life and creation, so that the poet Feng Zhi and the scholar Feng Zhi, the translator Feng Zhi, the thinker Feng Zhi and other aspects are organically integrated.
"Thoughts and Poems of Life" shows all aspects of Feng Zhi as much as possible, with his spiritual exploration as the main line, opening up the interaction and connection between various identities. Feng Zhi's life is low-key and introverted, not noisy, silently holding, tasting the deep meaning of ordinary life in contemplation, exploring the inner philosophy of real life, and consciously rising to the level of life philosophy, just like a small river, flowing through forests and flowers, through the strong winds and waves on the sea, and finally condensing into a deep and quiet lake.
Guangming Daily (2021-06-09 16 edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily