Feng Xuefeng: Rush to that tragedy without fear

He said firmly, "I must find it on the top of the mountain!" Unfortunately, he still did not find Bai Zhihua on the top of the mountain. Finally, he admitted defeat and said, "Forget it, I'm impatient!" "I went down the mountain step by step with my head down. Unexpectedly, in the grass at the foot of the mountain, he saw the white flower he was looking for. But it is a pity that this precious white zhihua has already given himself a rare step up and down the mountain every day.

——Feng Xuefeng, "A City Man Picking White Zhi Flowers"

Every poet who prides himself on being a son of the revolution expects his poetry and name to be stronger than a stone. But this ambition is often divided into two situations: either his name is immortalized by the verse, or his verse is passed on by name. Feng Xuefeng was clearly the latter. His poems are often as sharp as mountain stones. In his early work, The Conclusion, he described the "game of blood" after the Revolution. But just as there will be springs and streams in the mountains, it also gives people a sensual freshness: "While holding the flower basket, gently, while singing small songs, cold; the streets of the city lanes will have spring from now on, and your red feet will step on it." ”

Park Ye's innocent mountain songs and strange rocky poems are from the same person's pen. How do these two different emotions, romance and coldness, converge on the body? What kind of collision and agitation does his heart have? How did the waves stirred up by the tide of the times that he threw himself into the tide of the times make him make a choice and write his name with sweat and blood to achieve the immortality of words?

Written by | Xu Yuedong

Feng Xuefeng.

Lakeside: Young poet

In 1903, Feng Xuefeng was born in a poor peasant family in Shentan Village, Chi'an Township, Yiwu, Zhejiang. As Feng Men's eldest grandson, his birth brought joy and hope to the whole family, so he named it "Fuchun" ("Xuefeng" was the name he later changed to himself). At that time, the mountain villages around Yiwu were very poor, the people's customs were very fierce, and they were known as the "land of revenge and shame". The story of the Yue King's practice of "lying down and tasting the guts" is well known to women and children, and most of the literati who "produced" in that area were stubborn and straight-hearted, but they also had a bad fate.

Feng Xuefeng's father was domineering and often scolded Feng Xuefeng and his mother. As long as Feng Xuefeng returned home, he had to do farm work and did not have a moment of idleness. The one who really loved Feng Xuefeng was his mother. Feng Xiaxiong, the son of Feng Xuefeng, said that Feng Xuefeng's mother's sleeping song with tears and the love of pouring out and suffering were the true enlighteners of Feng Xuefeng's embarkation on the road of realist literature.

Because the Feng family's ancestors were illiterate, the family needed a character who could write and calculate, so they let Feng Xuefeng enter the school. When Feng Xuefeng was 15 years old, the family found a child bride for him - so as to "bind" the family with him, and Feng Xuefeng was very disgusted by this. In 1919, the then 16-year-old Feng Xuefeng's sense of independence had also sprouted, and in order to escape from his family, he secretly ran to Jinhua and was admitted to the Zhejiang Seventh Normal School with excellent results. Because the normal school had a subsidy and needed very little money, and Feng Xuefeng's grades were good, his grandfather, who was extremely angry about it, later forgave him for this move.

That year, the May Fourth Movement, which swept through China, set off a great tide of resistance among young people. This movement had a very strong motivating effect on Feng Xuefeng, and he began to read newspapers and periodicals that advocated new culture such as "New Youth". Inspired by the May Fourth New Culture Movement, Feng Xuefeng took the lead in a strike in 1921 to protest the arbitrary rule of the school's school supervisors and was expelled from the school. In the autumn of that year, Feng Xuefeng was admitted to the Zhejiang First Normal School in Hangzhou. At the school, Feng Xuefeng began to write new poems, participated in the Morning Light Society, and became poet friends with Pan Mohua and Wang Jingzhi. At that time, Zhu Ziqing and Ye Shengtao were teaching at the Zhejiang First Normal School, and they encouraged the students of the Chenguang Society to create literature.

In 1922, the poems created by the members of the Morning Light Society attracted the attention of the practitioners who were enthusiastically writing new poems at the time. At that time, Ying Xiuren was working in Shanghai, and he came to Hangzhou to visit scenic spots and monuments with Feng Xuefeng, Pan Mohua and Wang Jing, and together they compiled a collection of poems by four people, entitled "Lakeside", which had the name of "Lakeside Poetry Society". Zhu Ziqing once commented on "Lakeside": the works in "Lakeside" have a fresh and lingering style, full of youthful atmosphere and a childlike heart, "As far as art is concerned, Xuefengjun wins with nature and fluency. ”

However, in the year when Feng Xuefeng first appeared in the literary world, he had to drop out of school due to his family's financial difficulties. With the introduction and help of the poets' work, Feng Xuefeng worked intermittently. In 1925, the 22-year-old Feng Xuefeng chose "North Drift". He lives in a small apartment in Peiping and makes ends meet as a proofreader and tutor. He borrowed Pan Mohua's admission certificate to enter peking university to audit the course and studied Japanese on his own. As he became more fluent in Japanese, Feng Xuefeng read a large number of Marxist books in Japanese. At Peking University, Feng Xuefeng also met Lu Xun. His friendship with Lu Xun allowed him to end his career as a "lakeside poet" and open up another path in his life.

Lu Xun: Also a teacher and a friend

In addition to being a poet, Feng Xuefeng was also an expert in Lu Xun's research. He had a very good personal relationship with Lu Xun. After Lu Xun's death, he became the main demonstrator of Lu Xun's status and achievements in New Chinese literature. Feng Xuefeng observed Lu Xun's lectures during his lectures at Peking University. In 1926, Feng Xuefeng began translating essays, short stories, and literary theory articles from Japanese. His translated novel "Huazi" was sent to Lu Xun for correction. Lu Xun was still satisfied with his translation. That year, Feng Xuefeng visited Lu Xun for the first time, but Lu Xun was preparing to leave Beijing, and he did not bother Lu Xun much.

The following year, Li Dazhao was killed by the Fengzhi warlords at the Jingshi Detention Center in Xijiaomin Lane, Beijing. This incident had a very big shock to Feng Xuefeng. Li Dazhao was a person that Feng Xuefeng particularly respected. Stimulated by Li Dazhao's sacrifice, Feng Xuefeng joined the Chinese Communist Party in the midst of the White Terror. In order to avoid being pursued, Feng Xuefeng lived in the Unnamed Society for nearly three months. In 1928, Feng Xuefeng left Beijing and went south, during which time he has been engaged in the translation of Marxist literary and art theory.

The translation of Marxist literary and artistic theory gave Feng Xuefeng the opportunity to intersect with Lu Xun. In order to consult the translation question, in order to compile and print the "Scientific Art Theory Series", through the introduction of Rou Shi, a friend of the Chenguang Society, Feng Xuefeng and Lu Xun began to have more and more contact. For the people who met for the first time, Lu Xun's words were very few, and Feng Xuefeng was a little embarrassed at first. But as Feng Xuefeng asked for advice more and more times, Lu Xun's conversation with him became longer and longer.

After Feng Xuefeng moved to Mao Dun's home, Lu Xun became his door. After dinner every day, Feng Xue summited on the balcony to see if there were any guests in Lu Xun's home. If there were no guests, he would go over and chat, even until the second half of the night.

In May 1930, Lu Xun moved into the Hongkou Ramos apartment, and Feng Xuefeng immediately moved into the basement of the apartment, and the relationship between them slowly changed from teacher and student to close friends. According to Xu Guangping's recollection, Feng Xuefeng did not go home until ten o'clock every night, and then discussed with Lu Xun the covers and contents of publications such as "Sprouts" and "Cross Street", and their opinions were sometimes different, but Feng Xuefeng was stubborn and stubborn, and would not be discouraged by Lu Xun's disagreement, but would grind softly with Lu Xun. Lu Xun was very tolerant of this, and said: "His attitude toward me, from a political standpoint, he is right. Their discussions often lasted until two or three in the morning. After the discussion, Lu Xun began to do the work he had planned to do.

In 1931, the five martyrs of the "Left League" were secretly killed by the Kuomintang regime, and the activities of the "Left League" were temporarily terminated. The Kuomintang government also promulgated the "Emergency Punishment Law for Endangering the Republic of China," which further created the White Terror. Under these circumstances, Feng Xuefeng was transferred to the secretary of the "Left League" party group, led the "Left League," and edited and published "Outpost" with Lu Xun to commemorate the five martyrs of the "Left League" and risk exposing the crimes of the Kuomintang. He also introduced Qu Qiubai to Lu Xun, prompting Lu Xun and Qu Qiubai to jointly lead the left-wing cultural movement.

Prison: Through hardships

In January 1941, Chiang Kai-shek created the "Anhui Southern Incident" and imprisoned progressives in Shangrao concentration camps. In February, Feng Xuefeng was arrested at his home in Yiwu. Because Feng Xuefeng assumed the pseudonym Feng Fuchun at home, the Kuomintang never understood his true face, and he only said that he was the history editor of the Commercial Press.

During the interrogation, the agents asked him to publish a notice in the newspaper to prove that he had no relationship with the Communist Party and the New Fourth Army. This request was rejected by Feng Xuefeng. A few days later, Feng Xuefeng was imprisoned in the Maojialing detention center in the Shangrao concentration camp, a secret prison where Kuomintang military command agents imprisoned "political prisoners."

At that time, Shangrao was the base camp of agents in the southeastern provinces of the Kuomintang, and the Maojialing detention center was a dark prison. Diseases are rampant in prisons, and people die every day. Soon after Feng Xuefeng arrived in Maojialing, he contracted regression fever, and the continuous high fever destroyed his health. The director of Maojialing's secret service, fearing that Feng Xuefeng's death in Maojialing would be detrimental to him, moved him to the Zhoutian Village concentration camp a few miles away. Feng Xuefeng was assigned to one of the "special training classes". The "special training courses" mainly accepted people with higher levels of education, and the Kuomintang wanted to train prisoners as their own agents.

In order to examine the thinking of these political prisoners, the head of the secret service designated Feng Xuefeng and others to edit the poster. Feng Xuefeng and others took the opportunity to publish many poems and pictures of implicit resistance and satire in a very obscure way in the posters, which were finally detected by the agents and ordered to be suspended.

In prison, Feng Xuefeng began to write new poems. When he wrote poetry, he smoked fiercely, and smoking seemed to inspire him to write. He smoked a locally produced, inferior cigarette, so much so that both fingers were smoked yellow. He wrote more than 50 new poems in prison. Among them, the "Lingshan Song" composed in prison has become his masterpiece.

"We can see the Spirit Mountain,

Oh, what a strange mountain...

From this mountain, I learned that the tragedy of history is inevitable,

From this mountain, I learned why we rushed to that tragedy without fear,

And never back down! ”

Resources:

"Xuefeng Annals", Bao Ziyan, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, July 1985

"Looking Back at the Snow Peak", edited by Shanghai Lu Xun Memorial Hall, Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House, March 2005

Commentary on Feng Xuefeng, by Chen Zhaochun and Wan Jiaji, People's Literature Publishing House, June 2003

"Feng Xuefeng Memorial Collection", Bao Ziyan et al., People's Literature Publishing House, June 2003 edition

"Memories of Xuefeng", Bao Ziyan and Yuan Shaofa, China Literature and History Publishing House, July 1986

Written by Xu Yuedong

Editor| Li Yang, Li Yongbo

Proofreading | Xue Jingning