Appreciation of He Qifang's "Autumn"

Autumn" is selected from "Prophecy" (1931-1933), a collection of poems written by He Qifang in his early years. It is not like the poets of that period who liked to use symbolic techniques to write mysteriously, or to explore philosophy and show the depth of their thoughts; nor is it like him who sticks to his own narrow world and lingers on the private affairs of men and women. In addition to resentment, hard thinking and expectation, he rarely casts his sights on the countryside and the activities of ordinary people. As a viewer, he talks about the affairs of others outside himself, expressing a clear and pure poetic style. The poem is written in a straightforward way. On the surface it seems simple and straightforward, lacking symbolic meaning, but in fact it has deep and long meaning. There is such an atmosphere and charm in the poem, which is the thing that can capture the reader's soul the most.

The so-called atmosphere, in literary works, especially lyrical works, usually refers to the overall scene, style, and charm in the work. It is similar to, but also different from, Yan Yu's "the weather is chaotic and difficult to put into words". The weather refers to a broader scope, including all aspects of content and form; atmosphere seems to be mainly related to content, involving image, artistic conception, Emotions etc. The atmosphere can be felt but cannot be described, just as Sikong Tu said: "God does not know, knowing but difficult to describe." Or as a Tang Dynasty person said: "The sun in Lantian is warm, and the good jade produces smoke. It can be expected but not placed in front of the eyebrows." But if you feel it after reading it and understand it in your heart, you should also be able to express your thoughts and express them in writing.

In "Autumn", the poet uses the most essential language to describe farm life. Each line of the poem is a picture, and the three verses form three composite pictures. The combination of images creates a special atmosphere that is both fluid and integrated.

The first picture is "Farmer's Harvest Picture". This is not about a particular farmer, but about general farm activities. I wrote two scenes, one is logging in a valley, and the other is carrying melons and fruits between hedges. The logging in the valley is placed at the beginning of the chapter, and the sound of tinkling floats far away, appealing to hearing; the cool dew drops fall, appealing to sight and touch. It is truly an out-of-this-world scenery that inspires people to recall that distant impression. In the Book of Songs, Isn’t there a saying that goes, “The trees are tinkling, and the birds are chirping. They come from the deep valley and move to the trees.” "Gone with the Wind" and "Gone with the Wind" often appeared in He Qifang's early poems, but they were all written fictitiously, using metaphorical and extended meanings. When used here, they are realistic and have a special charm. The mood and expression associated with carrying melons and fruits are not specified in the poem, but readers can imagine that they are joyful and smiling. "Perch" was originally used to describe living things, but now it is used at the end of this poem to summarize the situation of autumn in farmers' homes, visualizing the nothingness (autumn) and creating a sense of relaxation and leisure. Quiet atmosphere.

The second picture is "Returning to Fishing in the Frost Morning". Among them, words such as "fog" and "frost" that express the environmental atmosphere (as well as "dew" in the previous section) often appeared in He Qifang's early poems, conveying a cool, lonely and hazy atmosphere. The scene also includes a series of activities: casting a net, collecting fish, and rocking an oar. These pictures of ordinary activities here contain a charm of lightness, distance, purity and tranquility. The word "gently" often appears in He's poems, and here it seems to be "at your fingertips", showing the fisherman's leisurely and contented mood. Perhaps in He Qifang's mind in his early years, autumn was really so peaceful and distant.

The third picture is the "Picture of a Girl in Love". This poem begins with weeds, crickets and streams, which is equivalent to what the ancients called "sensing" writing, that is, talking about other things first, feeling from excitement, and entering emotion from the scenery. There are few wild grasses and clear streams. This is not a human activity. There must be a continuation later, that is, the girl is in love. The noisy summer of nature has passed, but it has become quieter with the arrival of autumn. In the silence, most people reflect on themselves and listen to the voice of their souls. The shepherdess listened to "the sound of the flute on the back of the cow" for a whole summer, and suddenly she could no longer hear it. A corner of her soul began to stir. It was really "like the roots of trees shaking the soil on a hot summer night" (He Qifang's poem "Summer Night" 》). Writing about love, especially first love, was what He Shi was good at in his early years. This time he wrote more implicitly and brilliantly. This section only has five lines, but it describes the transition from the exterior scene to the interior scene, and the transition of first love from scratch. The poet chose the specific angle of "the eyes of the shepherdess". Although the eyes are not explicitly written, readers can see the purity and clarity in them. It is the special eyes of a girl in first love when she seems to be in love but not in love. And comparing these three stanzas, we can see that the first two stanzas mainly write about external scenery and people, while the third stanza really writes deep into the soul, writing subtle feelings, which makes the whole poem converge on the emotional reality. If you don't write like this, it will be difficult to get into the mood and be absorbed in the poem, and the poem will "float".

In short, the poem "Autumn" creates an atmosphere that is both from the world and far away from the world by describing different scenes and pictures. This atmosphere is characterized by quietness, distance, sweetness and softness. It writes about the farm leisure scene after a busy summer, so it has a quiet atmosphere; it writes about a life like a paradise in the world, without the slight hardship and hatred of the farm family, so it has a distant atmosphere; it writes about boys and girls who are hazy and innocent. Pure love, so it has a sweet atmosphere; like He Qifang's other poems, it uses soft words to write beautiful images, avoiding noisy scenes and clumsy words, so it has a soft atmosphere. Each picture in the poem, as well as each image in the picture, are all harmoniously unified; therefore, the many characteristics such as tranquility, remoteness, sweetness, softness, etc., on which this atmosphere is formed, are all reached to the extreme. This level of skill is beyond the reach of non-experts.

But He Qifang was a college student around 20 years old when he wrote this poem!

He Qifang (1912-1977), a modern essayist, poet, and literary critic. Her original name was He Yongfang, and she was born into a conservative family in Wanzhou, Sichuan. He loved ancient Chinese poetry and novels when he was young. In 1929, he went to Shanghai to study at the preparatory course of China Public School and read a lot of new poetry. From 1931 to 1935, he studied in the Philosophy Department of Peking University. During college, he published poems and essays in magazines such as "Modern". In 1936, his poetry collection "Hanyuan Collection" with Bian Zhilin and Li Guangtian was published. His collection of essays "Painting Dreams" was published in 1937 and won the Ta Kung Pao Literary Gold Medal. After graduating from university, He Qifang taught at Tianjin Nankai Middle School and Shandong Laiyang Rural Normal School.

After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, He Qifang returned to his hometown in Sichuan to teach, while continuing to write poetry, prose, and essays. In 1938, he went north to Yan'an and taught at Lu Xun Art Institute, and later served as director of the Literature Department of Lu Xun Art.

After the founding of New China, he was mainly engaged in literary research and criticism, and participated in leadership work in the literary and art circles for a long time. He once served as a member of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association, and director of the Institute of Literature.

Poetry was the literary form that He Qifang first loved and used. He claimed that when he began to create, he "dreamed about some beautiful and gentle things all day long." His early works clearly showed the thoughts, feelings and personality of a petty bourgeois intellectual youth. He is dissatisfied with the ugly reality and does not know where the way out is; he eagerly yearns for the beautiful things in life, but lacks passionate pursuit. So I wander more in nostalgia, longing and dreams, leaving only loneliness and melancholy.

He Qifang shows a persistent pursuit of the perfection of artistic form. In terms of poetry, he paid great attention to complete form, strict rhyme, and harmonious rhythm from the beginning of his creation, and paid attention to expressing the image and artistic conception of the poem. Therefore, his poetry is obviously characterized by delicacy and gorgeousness. In terms of prose creation, he claimed that "my job is to discover a new realm for lyrical prose." He is good at integrating the characteristics of poetry, writing rich and lingering words, borrowing novel metaphors and allusions, and rendering fantasy and beautiful colors and Patterns give his prose a unique style.

The changes in thought and artistic style were truly evident at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, especially after arriving in Yan'an. At this time, he gradually left his dream and faced reality, and his poetry style became simple and clear.