After January 25, 1957, Chairman Mao officially ascended to the poetry scene of socialist New China as a poet. Chairman Mao's poems have since spread all over the world and become household names. Do you know who contributed to the publication of Chairman Mao's poems?
This man's name is Xu Chi.
1. Xu Chi's relationship with Chairman Mao
Xu Chi, born in 1914, a native of Wuxing County, Zhejiang Province, is a famous modern poet and reportage writer.
Since entering the literary world in 1933, he has written a large number of poetry, prose and reportage works. He was also a translator and translated many foreign literary works.
In September 1945, Xu Chi met Chairman Mao twice in Chongqing.
The first time was on September 1st. At 6 p.m. on this day, Xu was late to the Sino-Soviet Cultural Association in Huangjiayakou to visit the exhibition with the poet Yuan Shuipai. Hearing that a cocktail party to celebrate the Sino-Soviet treaty was going to be held here, and Chairman Mao was coming, the two were very excited, and they waited here.
When Chairman Mao came, Xu Chi followed Chairman Mao and watched Chairman Mao sign the red silk and touch the cups with people one by one, but they did not speak.
The second time was on September 16. On this day, Xu Chi attended a doctor's wedding, and Qiao Guanhua came to tell him that at three o'clock in the afternoon, he and Ma Sicong could go to see Chairman Mao. Therefore, Xu Chi and Ma Sicong drove to Hongyan Village. I met Chairman Mao in the small living room of Hongyan. They talked a lot, and Xu Chi also asked Chairman Mao many questions, and Chairman Mao answered them one by one.
Xu Chi had a rather exquisite album, and he found Qiao Guanhua with the album and asked him to write a few words for himself and the poets in the rear when he saw Chairman Mao again, and Qiao Guanhua agreed.
About a week later, Qiao Guanhua gave this album to Xu Chi, who opened it and saw that it read: "Poetry and Yanzhi", and signed "Mao Zedong" below, Xu Chi was so happy that he could not find the north.
Xu Chi
"Poetry and Speech" was first seen in the Shang Shu · Yao Dian(尧典): "Poetry and Poetry, Song Yong yan, sheng yi yong, law harmony". This is a classic summary of the characteristics of poetry by Chinese poetic theory. Zhu Ziqing once called "Poetry and Speech" the "program of opening the mountain" of traditional Chinese poetics.
2. Xu Chi "devised a clever plan" so that Chairman Mao had to agree to publish his own poems
Xu Chi also said that "poetry reveres Chairman Mao, and literature worships Marx", so privately, Xu Chi collected the circulating poems of the chairman, and by 1956, Xu Chi had collected 8 poems of Chairman Mao.
In the autumn of 1956, the Chinese Writers Association decided to establish the Poetry Journal, with Zang Kejia as the editor-in-chief and Xu Chi as the deputy editor-in-chief. One day in November, the editorial board of the Journal of Poetry met to discuss the editorial plan for the Journal of Poetry, which would be launched in January of the following year. Xu Chi made a bold suggestion: write a letter to Chairman Mao, collect 8 poems and attach them, ask him to look at them, correct them, and then agree to publish them in the inaugural issue of our "Poetry Journal".
When others heard it, they thought it was a good idea, but they were worried that the chairman would disagree. Because Chairman Mao's poems were already widely circulated at that time, such as "The Seven Laws, Long March" and "Qinyuan Spring and Snow", Chairman Mao never officially published his own poems.
Xu Chi thought that at least we could try, and everyone said, WELL, then try it. This involves how to write this letter, so everyone believes that this letter must be written very well, and there must be some ingenuity, so that Chairman Mao will agree to it as soon as he sees it.
This is a very difficult thing, everyone began to think, think, think, think for a long time can not think of a good idea, it can be said that a sentence is difficult to be a talent. Xu Chi found many poets to discuss this issue and did not make up his mind.
One day, Xu Chi drove to Yannan Garden of Peking University to find the poet and translator Feng Zhi.
Xu Chi said: "Chairman Mao's poems, such as 'Qinyuan Chun And Changsha', which we copied from a book by Comrade Xiao San, have such verses: 'Zhang Yuge, ask the vast earth, who is the lord who is the master of the ups and downs?' This 'Zhang Yu Ge' is really puzzling. It is likely that the copy was wrong, but it could not be corrected for the typo. ”
Feng Zhi said: "Chairman Mao's poems have long been widely circulated, and even foreign countries have translated them into many languages, but it is a pity that there are such obvious transmission errors!" In fact, instead of allowing typos to circulate, it is better to ask the chairman to publish a final version that can correct the typos for the few songs that have been copied. ”
Xu Chi listened, oh great! Hurry home and draft a letter to Chairman Mao. After returning home, he wrote a letter to Chairman Mao, and Zang Kejia and other people expressed their satisfaction after reading it.
Zang Kejia
The letter reads:
We hope to publish these eight poems of yours in the inaugural issue. Most of those eight poems have been translated into various foreign languages and printed at the beginning of their Selected Chinese Poems. Those eight songs, in China, are widely circulated. However, because they had not been published publicly, the masses copied each other, so that there were quite differences in the text. Some comrades suggested that in order to circulate these poems, it would be better to ask the author's permission to publish a final draft.
We have attached a copy of the eight poems, please revise them, and send them back to us. If you can write a poem by hand and publish it for us to print, it's even better.
Secondly, we hope that you will send us old works or new poems that have not yet been circulated outside, which will be a great event for the poetry scene of our country; it will be a great encouragement to our poets. ”
The editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief, and editorial board all signed it after reading it, and the time was November 21, 1956. After the letter was written, it was immediately sent to Tian Jiaying, Chairman Mao's secretary in Zhongnanhai.
Well, the letter was sent, and the people in the newsroom began to wait slowly.
On January 2, 1957, Xu Chi received a call from Tian Jiaying.
Xu Chi took the phone and said, "Hello, I am Xu Chi, who are you?" ”
The other party said that I was Tian Jiaying, and Xu Chi was excited at that time, because he knew that Tian Jiaying was Chairman Mao's secretary!
Tian Jiaying asked, "The Chairman asked you when the Poetry Journal will be published?" ”
Xu Chi immediately said, "We are waiting for the chairman's poem. ”
Then he asked, "When will the Chairman's poem be given to us?" ”
Tian Jiaying said, "I don't know," and put the phone down.
Ten days later, on January 12, 1957, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China asked the editorial department to pick up the urgent mail, and took a large brown paper envelope, and the three words "Poetry Journal" in cursive with a brush in the upper center of the envelope were Chairman Mao's handwriting. These three words are still used in this "Poetry Journal", which are photocopied from this envelope.
Slowly opening the envelope, inside were the 8 poems that Chairman Mao had changed with a pencil, and when he turned them down, he gave 10 more poems, as well as a letter to Zang Kejia and other comrades. The people in the editorial department were very happy, especially Zang Kejia took the letter from the chairman to him, read it over and over again, and said that this was the chairman's support for a literary journal, and this was the chairman's support and concern for the poets.
On January 25, 1957, the inaugural issue of the Poetry Journal was published as scheduled, Chairman Mao's "Eighteen Poems in the Old Style" was listed at the top of the list, and Chairman Mao's letter to Zang Kejia, the editorial board of the Poetry Journal, was printed in red as an insert. Major newspapers also competed to reprint, foreign telecommunications also made reports, on the same day, Xinhua bookstores around the world, readers lined up in a long line to buy "Poetry Journal", for a time Luoyang paper is expensive. The editorial board received many letters and remittances asking for the purchase of the Poetry Journal.
3. What inspires us that Chairman Mao's "Eighteen Poems of the Old Style" can be published publicly?
Chairman Mao's "Eighteen Poems of the Old Style" was first published in the inaugural issue of the "Poetry Journal", which can be said to be a great story in the Chinese press circles, so what inspiration did the publication of Mao Zedong's "Eighteen Poems of the Old Style" inspire us?
First, we do what to dare to think dare to say dare to do, you must not say to yourself to set a lot of impossibilities, that is, when encountering problems, two words to try;
Second, two words: trying is very simple, but it has prerequisites. For example, if Xu Chi did not collect these 8 poems in advance, he directly asked the chairman for the poems to be published, it is definitely not possible; if Xu Chi did not propose to write a letter to the chairman during the meeting, then his 8 poems would be used as a permanent collection;
Third, when we have set a goal, we must do it wholeheartedly. Xu Chi has already decided to write a letter, so how to write a letter, you can't write casually, you said to find a sentence to impress the chairman, let the chairman allow the publication of his poems. Just for this sentence, he visited so many poets, and finally got inspiration from Feng Zhi. Therefore, we say that we must concentrate on what we do, and we must never look back if we do not achieve our goals wholeheartedly.
Fourth, don't underestimate the energy of the "little people." Chairman Mao said: The people, and only the people, are the driving force behind the creation of history!
Without the public publication of Chairman Mao's "Eighteen Poems of the Old Style," Li Shuyi would not have written a letter to the chairman; if Li Shuyi had not written a letter to the chairman, there would have been no birth of "Butterfly Love Flower and Answer to Li Shuyi.", and the public publication of this poem was promoted by a letter written to the chairman by Zhang Mingxia, a third-year student of the Chinese Department of Hunan Normal College. Therefore, history is moving forward in this way, link by link, and it is impossible to do without any link. History cannot be assumed, but we can draw experiences and lessons from history, so that we can take fewer detours and meet less. Because, "History is the best textbook and the best sobering agent!" ”