Huang Zunxian: The precursor of the "May Fourth" vernacular poetry

Huang Zunxian, zi gongdu, alias renjing lu master, has served as counselor in Japan, consul general in San Francisco, counselor in the UNITED Kingdom, consul general in Singapore and other positions. Huang's gong poems, especially like to be cast into poetry with new things, are known as "the teachers of innovation in the poetry world". Liang Qichao called him a masterpiece of the "poetic revolution" in "Poetry in the Drinking Ice Room", and Hu Shi praised him as the ancestor of vernacular literature in "Literature in China in the Past Fifty Years". Based on profound thinking and broad vision, his "poetry of innovation" reflects on the reasons for the political corruption of the Qing Dynasty and the weakness of the poor and the people, and seeks the path of China's enlightened rule of law and prosperity and prosperity. The unswerving and tortuous mental journey has brought Huang Zunxian's literary reform ideas and poetry creation to the forefront of the times, leaving behind innovative ideas and rich experience.

"For the purpose of writing"

Huang Zunxian faced the literary and political circles of the late Qing Dynasty, pinpointing the shortcomings of the times, and first pointed out the drawbacks of the separation of language and writing in the intellectual and cultural circles: "Those who speak, the place of writing comes from the source. If language and writing are combined, there are more people who understand the text; if the language and the text are separated, there are fewer people who understand the text. "The serious disconnection between language and writing has brought many inconveniences, especially in terms of communication difficulties. He realized that in the late Qing Dynasty, there were various defects in language and writing education that were not conducive to modernization, such as: dialect differentiation, pronunciation confusion, and obstruction of universal communication; the lack of unity between spoken and written languages, and the appearance of shrinking and rigid language; and the difficulty of recognizing, writing, and understanding, which was not in harmony with the cultural popularization required by the development of the times. Huang Zunxian took the origin and development of Hakka dialect as an example in the "Preface to Meishui Poetry", believing that Hakka dialect originated from the ancient rhyme of the Central Plains and was in line with the requirements of the creation of Gelug poetry styles, so in the peak period of the Jiaqing Daoguang period, people who spoke Hakka were generally able to compose poetry. Huang Zunxian believes that this is the confirmation that the combination of language and writing is conducive to popularization and promotion.

Huang Zunxian has multiple thoughts on the relationship between language and writing. The first is the relationship between the source flow between language and writing, and the question of which language and writing have the primary nature. Huang Zunxian believes: "The writer, the language comes from the place." "Language is the source of words, words and texts are consistent, and the two are integrated." The second is the reason for the separation of language and writing, language is mutated due to different regions and the migration of times, language flows flexibly, and writing is solidified and stable, and the separation of language and writing becomes inevitable within the development of language itself. The third is the practical function of language and writing, "if the language and the text are separated, there are fewer people who understand the text; if the language and the text are combined, there are more people who communicate with the text, and its potential is also." In this regard, Huang Zunxian proposed to promote universal education as a means to improve the ability to read and read, and to cultivate new citizens in a step-by-step manner, so as to "all can use the word", emphasizing that the word must return to its function as a means of information recording and dissemination.

"I write by hand"

"His narration is written in the dialect of the official book and the things that the ancients did not have, and the undefined conditions, and those who have witnessed it with my eyes and ears are all written and written. It is better to write my mouth with my hand. "Huang Zunxian likes to integrate new things and new ideas into the old style of poetry, neither simply abandoning traditional literary resources, nor abruptly asserting the self and tearing apart the historical connection between tradition and the individual, but highlighting the subjectivity, independence and autonomy of the writer as an individual, and taking this as the center to deal with the long-standing tension between the ancient and the present, the tradition and the individual, the collective and the individual, the historical language and the language of the times, and the written language and the spoken language. To implement specific literary creations, that is, not to say empty words and clichés when "narrating things", but to have facts and things to say, to emphasize the writing of the current world, to emphasize the writing of what "I" have experienced, heard, and seen, to emphasize the "extreme pursuit of change" in poetry, to oppose the "words of Chen Chen Xiangyin", to oppose the habits of the literati who are red tape, and to advocate the practical application of poetry articles through the ages. Huang's entire poetic position lies in the complete realization of the subjectivity of the writer, criticizing the mud and the ancient and being bound by the ancient.

In order to make poetry "applicable to the present and common to the customs" and practice "I write by hand and my mouth", Huang Zunxian took the lead in integrating the dialect and the slang in it into poetry. He advocated the inclusion of "vulgar sayings" into poetry, "that is, the current sayings, if I am on the compendium, five thousand years later, people will be amazed by the ancient colors." Huang profoundly realized how the universal, mass literary language has been transformed into refinement and vulgarity into elegance in the tempering of history. Therefore, he attached great importance to the dialect slang in folk songs, and he profoundly pointed out: "The fifteen national styles, wonderful ancient and modern, are being made of women and women's mouths, so that the bachelor doctor can do it, but it cannot be done." It is easy to do with people, and it is difficult to learn from nature. In his letter to Liang Qichao in his later years, Huang Zunxian proposed to create a "miscellaneous song and ballad" style that "weighed between bullet words and Cantonese praises", and tried to create many poems with new ideological content and extremely free expression, leaving a footprint in the history of Chinese literature in the transition from old style poetry to vernacular poetry.

"Jingwei Infinite Reclamation Heart"

Huang Zunxian's life was in the period when Chinese society was transformed from a feudal society into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, and major historical events and political changes such as the Opium War, the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, and the Eight-Power Alliance's war of aggression against China caused an uproar in his heart. In the face of the dangerous situation in which the imperialist powers divided up China, Huang Zunxian inscribed a poem: "Everyone swears to die and refuses, and everyone who dares to insult with one heart." With a sharp and vigorous pen, he profoundly exposed the greedy ambitions and despicable means of the imperialist powers in invading China and awakened the masses; in the face of the great rivers and mountains of the motherland trampled by the enemy, watching the foreigners "take my money and go, a hundred sails and a thousand boxes", the mountains and rivers of the motherland are broken, the people are not happy, the foreigners are rampant, and the silver is outflowing, Huang Zunxian lamented in "Book Indignation" that "the north and south seas have not been heard, and the throat is strangled everywhere"; in the face of the unprecedented national crisis brought to the Chinese nation by the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War, his patriotic thinking has become more and more fierce. A number of poems created during this period, such as "Sorrowful Pyongyang" and "Donggou Xing" and other poems, have depictions of three points into the wood, fierce and ruthless lashing, angry exposés and accusations, and deep love and hatred, embodying the will of the Chinese people, and the sound of cracking the heartstrings of the reader is shaken.

Changing the law and trying to be strong is an important theme of his poetry. In the late Qing Dynasty, when the national crisis intensified, Huang Zunxian sobered up and profoundly realized that only by changing the law could he change the fate of China's internal and external troubles. To this end, he worked hard to explore the road to salvation, put forward a clear proposition for changing the law, and promoted the rise of the new reform trend of the Penghu Restoration. He also founded the "Shi Ji Bao" with Liang Qichao and others, participated in the implementation of the New Deal in Hunan, publicized "local autonomy", and participated in the establishment of the Shiwu School and the Southern Society for publicizing the Restoration, making Hunan a model for the restoration of the New Deal in the whole country. Huang Zunxian's poems faithfully expressed the patriotic enthusiasm, painful contradictions, and ideal pursuits of the advanced intellectuals of that era, and faithfully recorded many shocking events in China at that historical stage. It shows the life of the new era, the requirements of the new era, the cultural style and political situation of the new era, reflects the main contradictions of Chinese society in the past hundred years, permeates the spirit of realism, and runs through the spirit of anti-imperialist patriotism.

"Yin to the Heavens Outside of China"

Huang Zunxian, as a diplomatic activist, galloped between the continents of Asia, Europe and the United States, calling himself "a hundred years of traveling more than half a continent to travel four", his poetry creation, with a broad vision of both China and foreign countries, not limited to traditional styles, but paying attention to innovation, criticizing the retro school for "tracing step by step, and finally can not become a family", emphasizing the inheritance of realist fighting traditions in artistic methods, and in terms of expression methods, "using the method of stretching and contracting of ancient writers to enter poetry", not being bound by the frame of fixed words and sentences, having the courage to innovate, and "old style contains new artistic conceptions" In order to pursue the goal, we should strive to harmoniously unify the old traditions and old styles of classical poetry in our country with the new artistic conceptions and new styles required by the new era and new content. Huang Zunxian's poems often appear in the steam, electric light, photography and other epochal things, and the novelty and complexity of his artistic conception are the epitome of the rapidly changing era and the contradiction-ridden society.

Huang Zunxian's poetry can examine life and history from the perspective of the world, and cast the spirit of "poetic history" into poetry. On the one hand, he attacked the colonial and racial policies that imperialism frantically pursued around the world, and brought justice to the oppressed and enslaved peoples of the world. On the other hand, it places deep sympathy and concern for all oppressed and enslaved people, including the vast number of overseas Chinese, and shows a broad mind for the destiny of mankind. In "Eviction", Huang Zunxian wrote: "Five continents are called, and there are different races. Rebuke Yi Rong and make a vicious rebuke to the island. "Expresses strong dissatisfaction with the disintegration of small and weak states as a result of the racist policies of the imperialist powers, and expresses deep sympathy for the suffering of the peoples of divided countries.

Huang Zunxian's literary reform ideas and poetry creation had a profound impact on Liang Qichao and other representatives of the Reform School, and Liang Qichao was known as "the poetry of publicity, which opens up the realm, stands on its own in the twentieth century poetry circle, and is recommended by everyone." After the failure of the Penghu Reform Law, Liang Qichao not only sang the "Poetry Revolution," but also raised the banner of the "Literary Revolution," vigorously advocated "colloquial literature," linked the "Literary Revolution" with ideological enlightenment, and regarded it as the starting point for the dissemination of civilized ideas, which was the starting point of the people, and had a potential and consistent relationship with the later May Fourth New Culture and Literary Thought, opening up a new stage in the development of China's new culture. It cannot be said that Huang Zunxian's poetry is one of the earliest practices of this theoretical program of literary change.