The literary era since 1979

Chapter 68 Famous in Yanyuan
Yenching University, Art Society.

Chen Jun (Xichuan) stood at the table, facing a blank sheet of paper, thinking about how to complete the assignment assigned by his instructor.

I didn't dare to be careless at all, after all, my teacher was Wu Guanzhong.

"Chen Jun! Chen Jun!"

At this moment, Wang Wei and Yu Minhong, who were both from the Spanish Department, rushed in rashly with a booklet in their hands.

"Take a look at this poem!"

Wang Qi unfolded the manuscript, and the handwriting was a little sloppy.

"Another obscure poem? I don't understand it and don't want to read it."

Chen Jun waved his hands without interest.

“It’s not obscure poetry!”

Yu Minhong adjusted his glasses.

"It's not obscure poetry? It's those poems that are forced to express sadness just to create new words, right?"

Chen Jun was not interested. "These poems are worse than obscure poems. They exaggerate their despair all day long. It is obviously a difficult thing that everyone encounters, but they insist on saying it is a big thing that only they encounter."

"It's not these depressing poems either. It's a new kind of poetry."

Wang Qi said excitedly: "A completely new style of poetry!"

“A brand new style, is this true or not?”

Chen Jun took the manuscript with doubt: "Who wrote it?"

Yu Minhong said excitedly: "A poet named 'Yan Zi'."

"Let me see."

Chen Jun found it curious and looked at the manuscript.

"Take a good look at it, and then we can discuss it. This poem is going viral in school right now. Every day people are reciting it, copying it, and studying it. They've all left the Misty Poetry aside."

Wang Qi said: "Yanzi found a new way for us new poets. How to describe this poem..."

"It's no longer a question of whether he is good or not. He is really a very rare type!" Yu Minhong looked at Chen Jun with a smile.

His eyes widened, and he repeated in a trance:
“I don’t think about whether I will succeed or not. Since I have chosen poetry and distant places, I will just keep going regardless of wind and rain.”

"........."

“I don’t think about whether the future will be smooth or muddy.”

"As long as you love life, everything is as expected."

Cha Haisheng (Haizi) held the newly published "Wenming Lake" and immersed himself in the poem for a long time, unable to extricate himself.

Although he has listened to the poem "Love Life" countless times these days, he can hear people humming a few words in the library, playground, classroom, dormitory, cafeteria, and even in the toilet, but he never gets tired of listening to it.

"You understand poetry better than we do, what do you think?"

The students in the law department all looked at him.

Cha Haisheng said: "Great! Every time I read this poem, I feel warm in my heart, with a fiery power."

“But can this be called poetry?”

"Yes, we discussed this several times in class, and many people felt that this was not a poem at all. It was a fake poem that looked like a poem but was not a poem!"

"........."

Seeing them sneering, Cha Haisheng asked in confusion: "Why do you say that this poem "Love Life" is a fake poem?"

“Because it’s too colloquial and lacks depth and thickness.”

“How can poetry without technique be called art?”

"It's not as complex and profound as Misty Poetry at all."

Everyone was talking and talking.

"But there is one thing that Misty Poetry cannot give me, but this poem can give me, and that is a clear direction."

Cha Haisheng smiled brightly, "When reading obscure poetry, we always have to break through the fog and find the direction ourselves. Sometimes, we can't see clearly and can't touch, so we are confused. But "Love Life" is different. In terms of ideals, career, love, and life, it directly gives us visible directions and the strength to move forward."

"Now that you put it that way, it's true!"

"Do you know what I think of when I read this poem now? The poem is about the sea in the distance. When the storm stops, the sun rises. Life is as brilliant as poetry."

Cha Haisheng raised his hands high and grinned.

Since his name is "Yan Zi", why don't I just call him "Hai Zi"?
…………

These days, the poetry craze is high in the whole society and has also spread to the campus of Yanda University, with many student publications emerging.

For example, there is "Morning Star" from the Chinese Department, "Muse" from the Spanish Department, "Morning Bell" from the Law Department, and even the Department of Computer Science and Technology has published "West Wind, Recitation, and Sun Festival".

However, these publications, which seemed to have no overlap in daily life, all published "Yan Zi's" "Love Life" at the same time.

On the entire Yanda campus, Misty Poetry is no longer the only genre that dominates. There is also a group of people who talk about "poetry and distant places" and "love of life", and some even imitate others and write a lot of poems.

Gradually, two directions of poetry evolved: colloquialism and obscure poetry, and many people in the obscure poetry camp switched to the enemy camp.

Regarding the colloquial new poetry style of "Love Life", some people like it and some people hate it, some people support it and some people oppose it.

The polarization is quite serious.

"It is the most un-poetic thing, and it is written by an outsider like Yanzi who does not understand poetry. This is completely poisonous to poetry." "This is a humiliation to the intellectual level of poetry as a whole."

Faced with all kinds of doubts and criticisms, Su Yala brought together Luo Yihe and other members of "Weiming Lake" and fought back with all their might.

As the dispute continued, both sides sent people to the Institute of Contemporary Literature, which is also the editorial department of Poetry Exploration, to seek advice from Xie Mian.

"What do you think?"

Xie Mian looked around the editorial department, most of whom were teachers and students from Yanda University. "Ruoxue, tell me what you think."

"Then I will express my own opinion first, just to stimulate discussion."

Bai Ruoxue stood up and said, "In fact, I was also at Weiming Lake that day, and I had some contact and communication with dialects. I think the highly colloquial poetic style of "Love Life" can be called 'colloquial'."

"Colloquial!"

In an instant, there was an uproar and everyone was talking about it.

"Tell me what you communicated with Fangyan specifically?"

Xie Mian raised the question that everyone wanted to ask.

Bai Ruoxue briefly explained the whole story, "He felt that the development of poetry should be diversified, just like Tang poetry, Li Bai's poetry was bold and unrestrained, Du Fu's poetry was simple and profound, Du Mu's poetry was graceful and elegant, and Li He's poetry was gorgeous and elegant. But there are also poems like Bai Juyi's that are easy to understand, which can be understood by old ladies who don't know a single word, and they can hear the good in them."

“This concept is absolutely right!”

Xie Mian nodded. "If there are only classical poetry, modern poetry, or only obscure poetry, how can we call it a hundred flowers blooming?"

"The name 'colloquial', like the style of poetry, makes it easy to understand."

"I support this 'colloquialism'! Colloquialism is not something that has only just emerged. Isn't "Ode to the Goose" colloquialism? But everyone dislikes it. Isn't Li Bai's "Quiet Night Thoughts", 'The moon shines brightly before my bed, I wonder if it is frost on the ground. I look up at the bright moon, I look down and think of my hometown' colloquialism?"

"Combining the rhythmic beauty of traditional Chinese poetry with the colloquialism of modern poetry may be a direction for Chinese modern poetry."

"That's right. Since we can support the controversial Misty Poetry, why should we oppose colloquialism?"

Amid the voices supporting oral poetry, there are also dissenting voices, and the opinions are surprisingly unanimous.

Can this kind of colloquial poetry really be called poetry?

“There is nothing wrong with colloquial poetry. The emphasis is not on ‘colloquialism’ but on ‘poetry’.”

Xie Mian pondered for a while: "Poetry is first and foremost about expressing emotions, not complicated techniques. Appropriate colloquialism is just to simplify, discard techniques, and be full of emotions. This is very suitable for newcomers who love poetry and want to get started, and can greatly promote the popularization and dissemination of poetry throughout the country."

Bai Ruoxue said firmly, "I completely agree with Mr. Xie's opinion. I don't think literature and poetry are as far away as a holy temple, nor do I want a person to be qualified to enter literary history and become a literary saint before he can write poetry."

"It seems that Fangyan's song "Love Life" touched Ruoxue's heart."

The teachers, including Xie Mian, started joking.

“Teacher, I agree with the dialect’s concept of poetry!”

Bai Ruoxue smiled and said, "The 'Misty Poetry Selection' topic I mentioned earlier was actually what he told me about on the way."

"Really!"

The people in the editorial department looked at each other in bewilderment. When they heard Bai Ruoxue's suggestion, they were so excited.

I never expected that it was Fangyan who came up with the idea!

This young man is amazing!

"This dialect knows both novels and poetry. Yenching Literature has hired a genius."

Xie Mian couldn't help but sigh, and the others agreed with him.

“No wonder he was able to write so positively in The Horse Herder and use Ai Lao’s poems so appropriately.”

"And the style of the poetry is very similar to Mr. Ai's."

"Yes, Mr. Ai also supports the colloquialization of poetry."

"Speaking of Mr. Ai, I remember that when I participated in the Guixi Discussion Meeting, I often heard Mr. Ai mention this 'dialect'. I never thought that a poem I wrote in the 30s could burst into life again now, thanks to The Shepherd."

"Yes, I've heard that too. There's also a saying that when the Literature Institute was looking for a teacher for Fang Yan, if the direction of the teacher was not novels but poetry, I guess Mr. Ai would have accepted him as a student."

"........."

Listening to the teachers' gossip, Bai Ruoxue widened her eyes and said, "You dialect, where did you promise to be honest?"
"Okay, let's stop chatting here for now. We need to quickly formulate an editing plan."

Xie Mian slapped the table and said, "After this issue of 'Selected Misty Poems' is published, the theme of the next issue will be to dissect the dialect and explore the new poetry style of colloquialism."

Then he looked at Bai Ruoxue, "You have met Fang Yan. If you have the chance to run into him again, have a good chat with him about this colloquialism."

"Don't worry, I think I'm sure I'll see him again."

There was a sense of confidence in Bai Ruoxue's tone.

After all, Su Ya and Fang Yan from the May Fourth Literary Society are childhood friends.

A few days later, with the popularity of "Love Life" in Yanda and the spread of poetry magazines such as "Wenming Lake" and "Morning Star", Fangyan's poem finally spread from Yanda to the outside world and made a big splash in universities such as Shuimu University and Renmin University.

The power of positivity and progress resonated with students, and its catchy readability was also sought after by the public.

With Yenching University and Shuimu University as the center, "Love Life" gushed out from major universities to the society. The fire gradually spread and gradually formed a new poetry trend.

In the poetry world in the early 80s, Misty Poetry was perhaps no longer the only genre that stood out.

　The first outbreak and popularity of spoken poetry lasted from 1982 to 1985. In addition, Wang Guozhen's poems can only be considered colloquial, not spoken poetry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)