◆ Dave
Reading Guo Jinghui's new book is a pleasant reading experience for me, and it is no exaggeration to say that it is more rewarding than reading the works of some famous artists. Her writing is free of pretentiousness and exaggeration, and the words are as quiet as a clear spring, without the "unbearable cold in the heights" of "being at the top", nor the grand narrative of "the city is full of golden armor". It is more of a kind of "fireworks in the world", like the afternoon sun, showing the layered overlapping and colorful light and shadow of the author's inner world. This kind of peace of mind, once externalized into elegant words, will allow the reader's soul to be washed while reading.
"The First Half of Guo Moruo's Years: The Thoughts and Actions of Cultural Giants" is a good book with both a passion for history and a metaphysical examination. In this book, she takes the role of an observer and shape-bearer, watching coldly and impartially evaluating the first half of Guo Moruo's life. With a pragmatic and humble attitude of learning, in the land where Guo Moruo lives, he deeply cultivates field research and excavates new historical materials. The tenacious search between history and the future, calmness and enthusiasm constitute the foundation of Guo Jinghui's writing.
Guo Jinghui, whom I know, is the first meritorious person in the Chinese circle to advocate Guo Moruo's research, and she has done a lot of homework and efforts for Guo Moruo's research. To be honest, after living overseas, the first time I became interested in Guo Moruo was because of Guo Jinghui's efforts. During the rainy season that year, Mr. Guo invited me to Ichikawa City to mourn Mr. Guo Moruo. Later, I learned that this kind of activity is held every year by Mr. Guo, and this kind of perseverance has to be admired.
Mourn the 45th anniversary of Guo Moruo's death
Under the influence of Mr. Guo, I went to the National Diet Library to review many of Guo Moruo's life writings and research results. At first, it was only roughly flipped, it doesn't matter, it is like finding an "entrance" to the "Peach Blossom Spring", it seems simple at first, and after entering it, you will be shocked by the magnificent hall, and I have to admit that this Guo Moruo is the crystallization of modern Chinese literature.
Guo Moruo's early poems have a distinct avant-garde nature, which comes not only from Guo Moruo's accumulated classical reading, but also from the call of the times and the future. These are destined for Guo Moruo to become a trendsetter of new culture, and also determine the great significance of Guo Moruo's research. The study of modern Chinese literature has long bid farewell to the prosperity of the 80s of the last century, and has become an academic self-reserve that is not shocked and is getting farther and farther away from reality, and Guo Moruo's research is definitely the most likely to become a "golden rod" to break this "noisy dead silence" and once again set off a new round of Chinese literature.
Guo Moruo's former residence
As a heavyweight cultural figure in modern history, Guo Moruo has participated in many major historical events from the New Literature Movement to the founding and construction of New China. By reading Guo Jinghui's new book "The First Half of Guo Moruo's Years - The Thinking and Acting of Cultural Giants", we can generally have a general understanding of Guo Moruo's early life trajectory, this book is not a biography of Guo Moruo, but it provides a new perspective for understanding Guo Moruo.
Guo Moruo's education as a teenager is an old school, "Although I haven't done eight strands, I have done a decent trial poem, as well as the basic step of this kind of poem - from two characters to more than seven characters." Guo Moruo is a representative of new poetry, and the poetry collection "Goddess" has created an era, which is recognized as China's "first great new poetry collection" and "the foundation work of modern new poetry", but throughout Guo's life, the number of old style poems and the interest in writing old style poems are really much higher than new poems.
The young Guo Moruo translated Nietzsche's "Zarathustra Banknote", immersed himself in it, and confessed to his friends, "I am very withdrawn, and most of my poems are anti-character poems, similar to Nietzsche in Germany." In 1924, Guo Moruo translated the Japanese scholar Hajime Kawagami's "Social Organization and Social Revolution", and since then he has believed in Marxism and made major changes in his life. He also planned to translate Das Kapital and set a five-year plan.
Mr. Guo Moruo's authentic handiwork
Guo Moruo's life is multi-dimensional, he is a romantic poet who advocates freedom of individuality, but he defies human ethics and "throws away her young children", throws himself into the rolling torrent of the Anti-Japanese War, and turns himself into a left-wing writer who asks for the lives of the toiling masses. As the line in Guo Moruo's work "Cai Wenji": "How many people were displaced a few years ago, their wives were separated, you never grieved for them, and now you only miss your pair of safe and sound children." Why are you so narrow-minded? "Please take the sorrow of the world as your sorrow, and the happiness of the world as your happiness, won't that dilute your personal feelings?"
Saying that he is great, Guo Moruo is indeed great, during his ten years in exile in Japan, he wrote autobiographies, wrote academic articles, researched oracle bone inscriptions, and published books, each of which was an earth-shattering achievement in the academic world. But to say that he is worldly, Guo Moruo does have his worldly place, as he wrote to Keitaro Tanaka, the owner of Wenqiutang, he wanted to write a history of Chinese literature, "If this book is completed, it will be needed." It's a pity that I don't have a plan, and I don't know if there is any good way to see it? But returning to the origin of human nature, people are not sages, and this desire to survive is understandable.
By reading Guo Jinghui's new book "The First Half of Guo Moruo's Years - The Thoughts and Actions of Cultural Giants", we can perceive a new Guo Moruo and new culture from the author's narration. (This book is published by Tokyo Shobo Press, available on Amazon)