On the afternoon of October 1, 1949, the national anthem "March of the Volunteers" sounded in Tiananmen Square. In the stirring melody, the five-star red flag is rising in New China.
Now, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, looking back at the "March of the Volunteer Army", a piece of music that condenses the soul of the nation and symbolizes the spirit of the country, from its birth to today, it is inseparable from the original intention and mission of the party.
However, do you know that "The March of the Volunteer Army" was already a popular song in the early years of its birth; and Tian Han, as the "father of the national anthem", is also the "Tian Boss" in the cultural jianghu, the founder of modern Chinese drama, and the familiar "Bai Suzhen" and "Dou E'e", etc., have reappeared under the hands of this dramatist.
On the afternoon of July 29th, the fourth lecture of the series of lectures of Xingye Academy on "Learning Party History and Creating the Future" - "Tian Han, Singer of the Times" was held. Yu Qiduo, a veteran TV media personality and researcher of Shanghai history, as the keynote speaker, led the live and online audience to review how Tian Han used pen and paper to compose an enduring chapter of the times.
From "Shouchang" to "Han"
In Shanghai, there is a small green space in the middle of Fumin Road, Changle Road and Donghu Road, and the statue of Mr. Tian Han is located in this lush greenery, sitting on a rattan chair, and the image of Erlang's legs is extremely vivid. On the statue, there is an inscription written by Mr. Du Xuan, and between the words that should be rigorous and objective, the word "talented" rarely appears, which deeply exudes praise and nostalgia for Tian Han.
Tian Han, whose real name is Tian Shouchang, means "longevity and prosperity". In 1911, he changed his name to a "Han" character, one is "manly", and the other is to be close to the land and peasants. He is a famous playwright, opera writer, film screenwriter, novelist, lyricist, poet in China, and the founder of modern Chinese drama.
In 1916, at the age of 18, Tian Han graduated from Changsha Normal School, and the first person who changed his fate in this life was his uncle Yi Meichen, a revolutionary who followed Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was appointed as the manager of the students studying in Japan in this year, and he supported Tian Han's eastward crossing to Japan in 1919.
However, Instead of studying politics and military as his uncle had expected, Tian Han entered the Tokyo Higher Normal School and had a special love for literature and drama. Shortly after Tian Han's arrival in Japan, Yi Meichen, who was in his prime, was killed by the warlords. With the help of Tian Han, his cousin Yi Shuyu also came to Tokyo and later got married.
From a young age, Tian Han will make up his own shadow puppet plays, and the life in the play and the book will make him yearn for freedom, and he has grown into a man with an independent personality, responsibility, flesh and blood. When his father died early, his mother Yi Keqin was only 25 years old, and there were 3 children in the family, and Tian Han, as the eldest son, became the "Tian Boss" of the family; in Tokyo, he used his own theater ticket money to support his cousin in Tokyo.
"If all the heroes go back to the mountains, who will save the suffering people of the world?" In childhood, after listening to the story, little Tian Han asked like this. Perhaps this question is also the goal of his life's thinking, pursuit and action.
The circle of friends of "Tian Boss"
Lane 371, Yongjia Road, Xuhui District, is the former site of the Nanguo Art Institute. Under the dappled shadows of the trees, a trance appeared the convergence and condensation of a literary giant and his colleagues here a hundred years ago. In the spring of 1928, Tian Han independently founded and fully supported the art school.
"Tian Boss" was not only the boss of the Tian family, but also the boss of the cultural jianghu at that time. When he was in Tokyo, Tian Han was already a well-known screenwriter, after which he recruited friends and held a cold-off meeting, inviting Ouyang Yuqian, Guo Moruo, and Li Jinhui to sit down; holding a plum blossom meeting to feast on Cai Yuanpei, Hong Shen, and Xu Beihong; and carrying out a literary friends meeting, inviting Huang Yanpei, Zhang Bojun, and Fu Sinian... These visitors were all important figures in the literary circles at that time. Therefore, there is no shortage of celebrities in the teachers of the Nanguo Art College, and it can be learned from the enrollment brochure that such as Xu Beihong, Hong Shen, Ouyang Yuqian, Chen Zizhan, Xu Zhimo, etc. are all listed.
The name "Nanguo" comes from the semi-monthly literary and art magazine co-founded by Tian Han and his wife Yi Shuyu, which was founded in January 1923. In his manifesto, he wrote: "I want to stir up a fresh and fragrant artistic air in the dull new Chinese literary scene. "The work of running a publication is extremely heavy, and it is only supported by the hard work of Tian Han and his wife. Yi Shuyu became ill with overwork and became more and more serious, and after returning to his hometown changsha to recuperate within three months, he regretted that xiang had disappeared and died, and the "Southern Country Monthly" was suspended until the fourth issue.
The Southern Monthly, which has left a small ripple in the literary world, pours out Tian Han's painstaking efforts, and also writes about his beauty and love, his violin and rose (violin and rose). In 1925, the Shanghai New Youth Film Company wanted to make Tian Han's script "Fan E xuan and rose" into a movie, which sparked his interest in film.
The violin represents art, while the rose is the rose, symbolizing love. The script reflects the fate of young artists under the influence of the May Fourth Movement, which Tian Han called "the debut work of I want to be a 'young China' drama author", and then his later drama masterpieces "The Death of Famous Talents" and "Guan Hanqing", etc., the fate of artists has always been a major creative theme that Tian Han pays attention to. It was from this starting point that Tian Han ran all the way for half a century and eventually became the founder of modern Chinese drama.
Like-minded golden partner
On a quiet green area in Xujiahui, the former site of THE EMI Records Company, commonly known as the "Little Red Chamber", is quietly located here, and the magnificent chapter of the times still echoes faintly.
In China in the 1930s, since the "918" incident, the anti-Japanese salvation has become the strongest voice. In Shanghai, Tian Han, who had a wide influence, became an important artist that the Chinese Communist Party won. Advocating art, aesthetic beauty and romance, Tian Han's drama creation has also quietly changed. At this time, he met a like-minded golden partner - Nie Er, and then cooperated to create a "stunning song".
In fact, when Tian Han filmed his second left-wing film "The Light of Motherhood", Nie Er served as a music director, and the two collaborated for the first time to compose the film song "Mining Song", which began the creative process of songwriting. "Students, everyone rise up and take responsibility for the rise and fall of the world!" "Graduation Song" was born in 1934 and is an episode in the left-wing film "Peach and Plum Robbery". The year before his creation, Nie Er was introduced by Tian Han and joined the Communist Party of China.
In the autumn of 1934, Dentsu Film Company invited Tian Han to write the script of "Children of the Storm". In February of the following year, Tian Han and other left-wingers were arrested one after another, and the script was not completed in time, and the follow-up work was taken over by Xia Yan. The young Nie Er was full of anger and disregarded his personal safety and took the initiative to ask Miao to compose music for the film. In April, as the White Terror intensified in Shanghai, Nie Er embarked on a ship bound for the East Crossing japan through the arrangements of the CCP underground organization. Less than a month later, Nie Er sent the revised score back to Shanghai in Tokyo, Japan.
At that time, Sino-Japanese relations were tense, and the authorities did not allow the word "anti-Japanese" to appear, but instead allowed Tian Han and Nie Er's creations to be further abstracted and sublimated, bringing a sense of symbolic beauty. After the release of the film, "The March of the Volunteers" soon became a sonorous and powerful popular anti-war song. It expresses the indomitable fighting spirit of the Chinese nation and further inspires and inspires the confidence of the Chinese people in resisting foreign aggression.
On May 9, 1935, the first edition of the "March of the Volunteers" was produced by Shanghai EMI Records, the largest record operator and manufacturer in China at that time, with the record number 34848b. This is the last song that Nie Er and Tian Han collaborated on, and the last work in his short life.
An entire generation sang the March of the Volunteers. In the shadow of the sword and the rain of bullets, this exciting and majestic, high-pitched song aroused the enthusiasm in the hearts of one warrior after another, bringing the final victory. After the end of the war, on September 27, 1949, on the eve of the birth of the People's Republic of China, at the first plenary session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, it was finalized: "Before the national anthem of the People's Republic of China is formally formulated, the "March of the Volunteer Army" will be used as the national anthem. On December 4, 1982, the Fifth Session of the Fifth National People's Congress passed the Resolution on the National Anthem of the People's Republic of China: to restore the March of the Volunteer Army as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. On March 14, 2004, the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress officially wrote the "March of the Volunteer Army" into the Constitution as a national anthem: "The national anthem of the People's Republic of China is the March of the Volunteer Army. ”
The modern Guan Hanqing, the soul of Chinese drama. Tian Han, a pioneering playwright and the founder of the artistic tradition of poetic realism in Chinese drama, uses drama and song to sing love and hope, sing full of blood, and sing the tragic and majestic Voice of China.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Xu Ruizhe Text Editor: Huang Yangzi
Source: Author: Huang Yangzi Li Zhiyuan