XI Poetry of the New School at Late Qing

(晚 晚 晚 晚 晚)

Ever since the Opium War in 1840, Chinagradually became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Mao Zedong said that inthis period, “the contradictions betweenimperialism and the Chinese nation,feudalism and the masses of the people werethe main contradictions of the modernChinese society.” Therefore, theprogressive literature in modern China thatreflected the social contradictions wasmarked with features of anti-imperialismand anti-feudalism. In the old democraticrevolution period before the May 4th

Movement, “The struggles on the culturalfront in China were those between thebourgeois new culture and feudal oldculture.” Such new culture was at theservice of the Chinese bourgeois-democratic

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revolution. To accommodate to the historicneeds of Chinese democratic revolution,some poems with anti-imperialism andpatriotic contents and some democraticthinking appeared during the late Qingperiod. Tan Sitong ( 晚 晚 晚，1865-1898) and XiaZengyou ( 晚晚晚夏 ， 1863-1924) and othersadvocated “Revolution in the PoetryCircle”; Huang Zunxian ( 晚 晚 晚，1848-1905)claimed his poetry belonged to the “newschool”, the forms he used was a bit moreliberated than before. Yet, the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal thoughts expressedin the works by those listed above were notthorough, colored with reformism;artistically the attainment was not asbrilliant as the classic works. But theyare after all different in nature in thehistory of Chinese literature, theyexpressed to some extent the struggles andwishes of the Chinese people for nationalindependence and democratic revolution. As

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the fate of failure of the democraticrevolution led by Chinese bourgeoisie, the“Revolution in the Poetry Circle” andpoetry of the “new school” were not able tohave a normal development. However, theydid play a certain progressive role at thetime; judging from the context of historicdevelopment, they played a certainpreceding role to the revolution inliterature during the May 4th Movement.

A portrait of Lin Zexu

Lin Zexu 晚晚晚晚（，1785-1850）who resisted Britishaggressors and burnt more than a millionkilo opium during the Opium War was afamous poet at the time. He wrote “晚 晚晚，ShiJia Ren, To Family Members” before he wassent into exile to Yili:

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晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Li wei ren zhong jiu shen pi,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚； Zai jie shuai yong ding bu zhi;

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Gou li guo jia sheng si yi,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚； Qi yin huo fu bi qu zhi;

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Zhe ju zheng shi jun en hou,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Yang zhuo gang yu shu zu yi.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Xi yu shan qi tan gu shi,

晚晚“晚晚晚晚晚 ”。 Shi yin “duan song lao tou pi.”

I’ve long been tired with a heavy duty on my fragile body,

I would not stand if more is exerted from me;

I would devote my life if it were in the interests of the country,

I wouldn’t dodge it if it were a disaster to me personally;

To be relegated is a big favor from the Emperor,

To hide my clumsiness is better than the life in the army.

I tell my wife a story, which is rather funny,

A story about “giving up the old head to the excellency.”

Why did he tell a story to his wife? Whatwas the story? In the Song Dynasty, EmperorZhenzong once asked Yang Pu if any bodywrote him a poem recently, Yang said that

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his younger concubine wrote him one, whichwent:

Don’t lose your spirit and indulge in wine,

Don’t be so crazy and wild in chanting poems.

Today you’re going to the court,

You will not be able to keep your old head.

Hearing these lines, the Song Emperor, whointended to keep Yang to work in theimperial court, was amused and laughed, helet Yang go back to his normal life. Linwas punished by the Qing Imperial court forresisting the British troops, but he didn’tregret what he did for the interests of thestate regardless of his personal gains orlosses, fortunes or misfortunes. Yet, hehad to console his wife and family. That’swhy he wrote this poem and told this story.Many of his poems expressed his warmpatriotism. We now have more than 500 ofhis poems.

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The first book introducing countries inEurope in China was “ 晚 晚 晚 晚，Introduction toCountries on the Sea”. The author was WeiYuan (晚晚，1794-1857), a poet. There are nowmore than 900 of his poems available. Hispoems revealed the acute social conflictsand evils, expressed his lofty patriotismand his love of mountains and rivers. Hispoetry in general is of a vigorous style.

Zhang Weiping (晚晚晚，1780-1859) was remarkablein his poems which recorded the resistanceagainst British aggression. His poemsincluded new things like steam ships andthe map of the world. Now, let me quote afew lines from his long poem “ 晚 晚 晚，The SanYuan Lane”:

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， San yuan li qian sheng ruo lei,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Qian zhong wan zhong tong shi lai.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Yin yi sheng fen fen sheng yong,

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晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Xiang min he li qiang tu cui.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Jia shi tian lu xu bao wei,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚； Bu dai gu sheng zhong zuo qi;

晚 晚晚晚晚晚女 ， Fu nu qi xin yi jian er,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Li chu zai shou jie bing qi.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Xiang fen yuan jin qi ban lan,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Shi dui bai dui yan xi shan.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Zhong yi xiang shi hu bian se,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Hei qi si zhang nan sheng huan.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Yi bing suo chi wei qiang pao,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Ren xin he chu tian xin dao,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Qing kong zhou yu hu qing pen,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚！ Xiong yi wu suo shi qi bao!

Picture books describing the San Yuanli Struggle

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Before the Sanyuan Lane shouting was like a thunder,

Thousand and ten thousand people came together.

Sense of justice made them indignant and courageous,

Villagers joined their efforts to destroy the powerful ruffians.

Houses and fields had to be safeguarded,

No need to beat drums they all pressed on;

When women were of one mind they were vigorous,

Plough and hoe were their weapons.

Banners from various villages were multicolored,

Team upon team came along the mountain foot.

Seeing this the faces of British soldiers changed color,

They knew they couldn’t return alive.

What they relied on were guns and cannons,

When people were of one heart the will of heaven arrived,

On that clear day a downpour suddenly came,

Foreign soldiers were not able to act atrociously!

This poem authentically expressed theindignation against British invasion andthe patriotic spirit of the people of theSanyuan Lane. Their anti-imperialiststruggle should always be remembered.

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The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement brokeout in 1850, it was what Marx called theprelude to the Chinese democraticrevolution on the eve of social reform.Being the largest farmers’ uprising inChina, the movement spread to and occupiedlarge areas for more than 10 years. Eventhough it ended in failure, the influenceit left behind was most extensive. Theleaders of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom didwrite some poetry, yet regretfully, most ofthem were lost. The following “晚晚晚晚晚晚，Bai LongDong Ti Bi Shi, A Poem Inscribed on theWall of the White Dragon Cave” was writtenby one of the leader of the uprising ShiDakai (晚晚晚)：

晚晚晚晚晚， Ting shen deng jun ling,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Ju mu zhao yao kong.

晚晚晚晚晚， Hui fo chong tian di,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Yi min fu gu feng.

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晚晚晚晚晚， Lin jun cheng jiang yong,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Wan dong xian shi xiong.

晚晚晚晚晚， Jian qi chong xing dou,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Wen guang she ri hong.

I straightened up my back to climb the high mountain,

And look far into the limitless sky.

To worship the Heavenly Emperor Buddha images were destroyed,

People would be resettled and old customs would apply.

In commanding the army I praise courageous generals,

In appreciating caves the giants of poetry were those I admire.

The brilliance of my writing could brighten up the rainbow,

The ray of my sword could dash into the star-studded sky.

This poem was carved on the stone wall atYishan County, Guangxi Province. It isstill there today. One could feel thecourageous and fearless feelings of arevolutionary.

Since the 60s of the 19th century, Chinesecapitalism developed in a gradual manner;

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it couldn’t grow at a faster pace owing tothe oppression of foreign capitalism andfeudalism. Intensely unsatisfied with thereality as the newly rising industrialists,merchants and intellectuals with democraticthinking were, limited by social conditionsand their class background, they could onlyput forward some weak reformistpropositions. However, they did criticizethe old society with bourgeois democraticthinking and demanded changes in bothpolitics and society. Democratic thinkingwas strongly voiced especially after theSino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. This wasreflected in the creation of poetry aswell. The leaders of the Reform Movement of1898 Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao and TanSitong wrote many poems. Tan Sitong and XiaZengyou advocated the “Revolution in thePoetry Circle”. Their poetry was clearlycolored with literature reformism. Let usnow read Kang Youwei’s “Qi Lu”—“Reading the

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Newspaper”:

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Mi tu da mo wo xin you,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Hu bao jiao heng ruo rou qiu,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Wu he wu yi he zu sui,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Jiang feng jiang yu zhi bei qiu.

晚晚晚晚晚晚女， Gao qiu hui ma ai wu nu,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Cang hai heng liu tan fa zhou.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Tian di wu qing ke zhong gu,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Guo jia duo nan du deng lou.

A Portrait of Kang You wei

Getting lost in the desert weighed me down in the sorrow,

Tigers and leopards applied the law of the jungle,

How could a year be spent without any clothing?

Wind and rain could only add to the fall bewail.

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Gaoqiu was sad when looked back and found no girls follow,

Before the surging blue sea I sighed for lack of boats.

Though the sky and earth had no feelings they are still eternal,

I could only climb up the building when the country was in deep trouble.

This poem certainly expressed hispatriotism and his worries about the state.The “Gaoqiu” line was borrowed from 《 TheSongs of Chu》. This line and the next saythat there was no capable man and way tosave the country. I would like to quote oneof Liang Qichao’s poems “晚晚晚晚晚， Du Lu Fang WengJi, Reading Loose Man Lu”:

A photo of Liang Qichao

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晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Gu fu xiong zhong shi wan bing,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Bai wu liao lai yi shi ming.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Shui lian ai guo qian hang lei,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Shuo dao hu chen yi bu ping.

Your superb military skills had no chance to be applied,

To overcome with boredom poetry became your outcry.

Who felt pity for your thousand lines of patriotic tears?

Whenever invaders were mentioned you felt unjustified.

“Loose Man” was a nick name of Lu You.Among ancient poets, Liang admired Lu Youmost. In one of his poems he said, “fromtime immemorial to the present, the LooseMan is really a man.” Liang wrote a book,entitled “晚晚晚晚晚，Yin Bing Shi Shi Hua, Talks onPoetry in the Room of Cold Drinks”, tocomment on the poets of late Qing. Liangsaid in the book, “Some people in our partyrecently were interested in the revolutionin the poetry circle. But if one regardspiling up of new terms as revolution, such

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a revolution would be identical to thereform of the Manchuria Qing government.But if new conception could be contained inold styles, that would be something trulyrevolutionary.” The author was mainlycommenting on Xia Zengyou and Tan Sitong(1865-1898). We can virtually find no poemswritten by Xia. But Tan left some 200 poemsto us. Tan did use some new terms in hispoetry, for instance “ 晚 晚 晚 ” in Chinese forthe word “caste”, “晚晚晚” in Chinese for theword “parliament”. But his artisticattainment in poetry was much higher. Hewas more radical in thinking, his book“Studies of Benevolence” warmlydisseminated democracy and science andfiercely castigated the feudal monarchysystem. Tan was a courageous man and tookpart in the Reform Movement, yet theEmpress Dowager Ci Xi staged a coup and theEmperor was put into house arrest, and theReform failed. Tan refused to run away, he

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said, “In the reform for the people in thelast 200 years, no body has shed blood.Please begin with Tan Sitong in sheddingblood!” He was then arrested and beheadedby the Qing rulers. Let us now read his “QiLu”—“晚晚晚晚，Chu Xi Gan Huai, Feeling Excited onthe Eve of the Spring Festival”:

A photo of Tan Sitong

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Nian hua shi shi liang mi li,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚！ Gan dao zhong yuan lu si shui!

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Zi xiang bing tian lian qi gu,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Zan jiao jia ju shu tong mei.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， Wu duan ge ku yin chang ye,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚。 Lan wei yin yang sheng ci shi.

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚， You yue wen ji tong qi wu,

晚晚晚晚晚晚晚！ Deng qian zhuan hen luo sheng chi!

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Neither my life nor social affairs take a clear shape,

We don’t know in whose hands the deer would die!

I should fortify my bones in the icy coldness,

Let beautiful lines belong to Tongmei temporarily.

I wept when singing because the night is too long,

At the end of the year only so little time is left.

We agreed to rise and dance at the cock’s crow,

Yet when stepping into the stirrups we regret the slowness of the hourglass!

“In whose hands the deer would die?” wasasking who was going to control the statepolitical power. Tongmei is the Tang poetLi He. Tan was saying he would give upcomposing poems for the time being. GeneralZudi of Jin Dynasty used to rise and dance(doing exercise) at cock’s crow. This poemspeaks in a deep tone his patriotism andideal. The style is vigorous and powerful.

Liang Qichao said in “Talks on Poetry inthe Room of Cold Drinks”: “ Huang Gongdu isthe one among contemporary poets who could

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cast new ideas in old styles.” The highestpossible achievement the new school poetrycould obtain before the forms of old poetrywere thoroughly broken, was to contain somedemocratic thinking without destroying theexpression and the artistic appeal of oldpoetry. In this sense, Huang Zunxian is arepresentative poet of the period ofChinese old democratic revolution. Hispoetry is rich in patriotic and anti-imperialist spirit and very high inartistic attainment. His poetry had a greatinfluence at the time. His brother said,“Many people wanted to obtain his poems,they thought their life would be spent invain without reading his poems and knowingthe person.”

Huang Zunxian ( 晚晚 晚) was born into a richmerchant’s family in Guangdong, Gongdu washis another name. He was the earliest whoacquired some democratic thinking. He

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strongly opposed the imperial examinationsystem when he was young, he said in hispoem “A Random Thought”:

晚晚晚晚晚， Xu jue zhi yi xing,

晚晚晚晚晚， Jin yi wu bai zai,

晚晚晚晚晚， Shi ru xi qi ran,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Lao si bu zhi hui.

… …

晚晚晚晚晚， Ying xiong jin ru gou,

晚晚晚晚晚。 Di wang xin shi kuai.

Ever since the way of writing an 8-part essay started,

It has been five hundred years.

All scholars in the society have so accustomed to it,

They don’t regret doing it till their death.

…

When all the heroes have fallen into the trap,

The emperor would then be happy.

To enter into the imperial civil service,one had to pass the examination of writing

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the eight-part essay. Such way of literarycomposition was rigid in form and oftenpoor in ideas. Some scholars tried a dozentimes and failed; yet they still wanted totry. Huang thought this was a way of theimperial rulers to confine the thinking ofscholars, so he castigated on that system.In a poem he wrote in 1875, he observedthat the imperialists “asked where thetripod of Zhou was this year; next year,they would ask for the Jade of Zhao. Theyhave been exerting themselves to threatenand bluff.” During the Spring and Autumnperiod, the Kingdom of Chu asked the ZhouDynasty where its nine tripods, symbols oftheir state power, were. To ask where thetripod is, in the context of Chineseculture, means aggression; during theWarring States Period, the King of Qin toldZhao Kingdom if Zhao agreed to cedeterritory he would return the piece of jadeintact to Zhao, so, to “ask Zhao for a

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piece of jade” means asking forconcessions. Huang was indignant, he saidhe would like to be a soldier to wipe outforeign bandits. He went to Japan inOctober 1877 and took the post of Counselorin the Chinese Embassy there. In Japan hewas exposed to western bourgeois thinking,he said, “After reading the theory ofRousseau and Montesquieu, my mind waschanged. I realized that a peaceful worldlies in democracy.” Huang was warmlywelcome by Sinologists in Japan. His “Poemson Straying Thoughts in Japan” wasappraised by the Sinologists; one of themburied the original manuscripts at hishome. Five years later, Huang was appointedConsul General in San Francisco where heactively protected the just rights andinterests of overseas Chinese when the U.S.was repelling Chinese workers. He wrote inhis long poem “晚晚晚，Zhu Ke Pian, Ordering forGuests to Leave”:

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晚晚晚晚晚， Dan shi huang mian ren,

晚晚晚晚晚！ Wu zui yi peng lue!

。。。。。。 …

晚晚晚晚晚， Dao qing si hai shui,

晚晚晚晚晚！ Ci chi nan xi zhuo!

A photo of Huang Zunxian

Anyone with a yellow face,

Was caned even if the person is not guilty!

…

To pour out all the water from four seas,

Such shame could not be washed away!

Huang was appointed a counselor at theEmbassy in UK in 1884. From 1895-1898, he

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took an active part in the reform movement.When the movement failed, Huang was aboutto be arrested, because of the interventionof the British Consul-General in Shanghaiand the Japanese Minister in China, Huangwas allowed by the Qing government toresign his post and return to his hometown.

There are almost 1,000 of Huang’s poemsavailable. The first important content ofhis poetry is anti-imperialist aggression.He praised patriotic generals, forinstance, “Song of General Feng” singspraises of the 70 year old General FengZicai who won the battle at Liangshanagainst French troops. In “晚晚晚，Crying for theLoss of Wei Hai”, the poet was both furiousand grieved. He used only three charactersin each line; the short syllables make youfeel that the poet is choking with sobs:

晚晚晚！ 晚晚晚！ Yi xu xi! Hai lu jun!

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晚晚晚， 晚晚晚。 Ren li he, wo li fen.

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚。 Ru huo qu, bu de shen.

。。。。。。 …

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚； Si yuan jue, mo neng jiu;

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚？ Ji neng jiu, shui si shou?

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚。 Pao wei hui, ren zhi jiu.

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚？ Chuan xing cun, fu shui mou?

晚晚晚， 晚晚晚？ Shi chong jia, yan he hou?

Yi xu xi! Navy and army!

Others joined efforts, Our efforts were divided.

Like an inchworm, couldn’t straighten itself up.

…

No hope of reinforcement, the forces couldn’t be saved;

Even if they were saved, who was going to fight to the last ditch?

The cannons were intact; this was the army’s fault.

The ships were spared, to whom should they be given?

There were ten decks, were their faces so thick?

His “晚晚晚，Song of Taiwan”, which sings praisesof the people in Taiwan in their resistanceagainst Japanese, is very famous. He wrote

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24 poems under the title “ 晚 晚 晚，Song of theArmy”. If you put together the lastcharacter of every poem, they read, “晚晚晚晚， 晚晚晚晚 晚晚晚晚晚 晚晚晚晚，，，

晚晚晚晚 晚晚晚晚， .” In English it means, “March onencouraged by drums, dare to fight and win,forge on and fight to the last ditch, sweepthrough the length and breadth of the lostland and no one can resist. When returntriumphantly an agreement can be signed tosafeguard our sovereignty.” When LiangQichao commented on these poems, he said,“Anyone who does not rise and dance afterreading these poems is not a man.” Anotherimportant content of Huang’s poems is hiscriticism on feudal diehards, feudalculture and his wishes of reforming anddeveloping China. Because of his experiencein the diplomatic service, some of hispoems also wrote about foreign countries.Huang was good at describing scenes andcreating vivid images. He applied someprose writing skills in composing poetry.

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His styles vary; there are storms as wellas pleasant breezes in his poems. Some ofhis poems are heavy and some are humorous.He was bold in blazing new trails. Heinsisted that a poet should “晚晚晚晚晚—my handwrites about what my mouth hums”. He spent40 years in practicing his propositions onpoetry of the “new school”.After Huang, there were poets like Lin Shu,Ma Junwu, Liu Yazi (who organized aSouthern Poetry Society) and Su Manshu (whotranslated the poems of George Byron andPercy Shelley into old Chinese forms) werequite active in the “new school”. But noneof them was very influential. Around thetime of the 1911 Revolution, the“Revolution in the Poetry Circle” wasdefeated by the feudal culture. But fromreading the poetry of the new school, wecould still feel a profound patrioticsentiment, the struggle of the Chinesepeople for China’s progress and resisting

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foreign aggression.

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