Reading paves the way for the future
In the past three years, I have made a number of vernacular poems, divided into two episodes, with a total title of "Trying Collection", * The poems before I arrived in Beijing in September 6 are the first collection, and the poems after me are the second collection. **Five years ago, I deleted a number of Chinese poems I made in the United States and compiled them into "Going to the Country Collection", which was printed at the back as an appendix.
My friend Qian Xuantong once wrote a long preface to "Trial Collection", explaining the truth that we should use the vernacular to make an article ruthlessly and thoroughly. I will now write my own preface and just say why I want to write poetry in the vernacular. This story can be regarded as the history of the production of "Trial Collection", and it can be regarded as a small history of my personal advocacy of literary revolution. 
Trial Collection", first edition of Shanghai Oriental Oriental Library in 1920.
I made vernacular writing, starting from the sixth year before the ** era (Bingwu), at that time I made half of the chapter for Shanghai's "Jingye Xunbao", and some**, all in the vernacular. In the second year, (Ding Wei), I went out of school to recuperate due to beriberi. I have nothing to do in my illness, I read ancient poems every day, from Su Wu Li Ling to Yuan Haowen, only reading ancient style poems, not legal poems. That year, I also wrote a few poems, including a 56-cross "Traveling to the Treasures of the Nations" and a nearly 300-word "Abandoning the Father", and I often wrote poems in the future, and by the time I went to the United States, I had written more than 200 poems. I didn't do lyric poetry before, because I didn't learn to pair when I was young, and I always found it difficult to do lyric poetry in my heart. Later, I happened to make some lyric poems, and I felt that lyric poems were originally the easiest things to do, and they couldn't be more convenient to use as poems to entertain friends. When I first wrote poetry, people said that I was like Bai Juyi. Later, because I wanted to learn fashion, I also did some research on Du Fu. But I read Du's poems, only read poems such as "Stone Trench Officials", "From Beijing to Fengxian Yonghuai", I love to read the five laws of the poems, and I hate poems like "Qiu Xing" the most in the seven laws, and often say that these poems are not grammatical, only a little empty shelf. From six or seven years before the first six or seven years to two years before (Gengxu), it can be regarded as an era. This era is already dissatisfied with the tendency of the old literature of the time. Recently, in an old notebook (called "Essays on Self-Victory", written by Ding Weinian), I turned out these words on poetry:
Composing poetry will make the old woman understand, and it is not possible. But why should the scholars read it and not understand it? ("Lulutang Poems").
Dongpo Yun, "Poetry must be written for purpose." "Yuan Yishan Yun," there is a Lingyun pen in the vertical and horizontal, and the pitch is pitiful. (Recorded Nanhao's poems).
Both of these have secret circles, which also shows the purpose of my poetry when I was sixteen years old.
*The first two years. I went to study in the United States. The first two years. He wrote only two or three poems. **After the establishment, Ren Shuyong (Hongjun) and Yang Xingfo (Quan) came to Qisejia (Ithaca) together and had the companionship of making poetry. The collection of "Chinese" says:
Next year, Ren and Yang will come all the way to me. The mountain city is windy and snowy on a night, and it is very difficult to sit dry.
Cooking tea is more poetic, and there is an advocacy and must be harmonized. The poetry furnace has been gray and cold for a long time, and a new fire has been made since then.
It's all true. In the five years of Qisejia, although I did not specialize in literature, I also read some Western literature books, and I was always influenced a lot, so my poems in those years have become much bolder. The "Christmas Song" and "Song of the Wind After a Long Snowfall" in "Going to the Country" are both experimental. Later, when I did "Suicide", I completely used a segmented approach, and the attitude of experimentation became more obvious. The third volume of the "Notes of the Tibetan Hui Room" has a paragraph on suicide, saying:
Our country's poems do not repeat the meaning of the words, so there are very few works of reasoning.
It's hard to get a pope, not to mention Wordsworsth, Goethe and Browning. This poem is based on my optimism. The whole article is a work of reasoning, although it is not good, but the way is there. He does it more and more day by day, or he may have ears to enter the country. (*July 7 of the third year).
Youbayun: I have been writing poetry recently, and I am quite able to follow the path of others, and I do not specialize in one family. There is no way to imitate the meaning of fate, that is, the form of words and sentences is not bound by the laws of the ancients, and the cover is quite independent. (July 8).
* In August of the fourth year, I wrote an essay on "How to make our Chinese language easy to teach." The article lists several methods, but does not advocate the use of vernacular instead of literary language. But at that time, I had already made it clear that "the literary language is a half-dead language, and it should not be taught by the method of teaching living words." He also said, "Those who live in writing, the writing of daily languages, such as English and French, and the vernacular of our country." Dead writers, such as Greco-Latin, non-everyday languages, are dead. Half-dead writers, among which there are still daily users. For example, the word dog is a dead word, the dog word is a living word, riding a horse is a dead word, and riding a horse is a living word: the word is half dead. (Notes, Book 9).
On the night of September 17 of the fourth year, I went to Columbia University in New York and went to Harvard University in Kangqiao. Pretend to write a long poem and send it to the village.
There is a passage in the poem that says:
Mei Jun Mei Jun don't despise herself! Shenzhou literature has been withered for a long time, and there has not been a healthy person in a hundred years, the new trend cannot be stopped, and the literary revolution is at its time! Our generation is not allowed to sit idly by, and call on the second and third sons, the revolutionary army to walk in front of the cane, whip to drive away a car of ghosts, and then welcome the new century! In order to repay the country, Yunfei; The difference between shrinking the ground and the sky can be simulated. Mei Jun Mei Jun don't despise herself!
The original poem consists of 42 crosses, and the whole poem uses the transliteration of 11 foreign characters. Unexpectedly, these eleven foreign words caused a pen war for several years! Ren Shuyong connected these foreign words and made a game poem for me:
Newton, Eddieson, Bacon, Hakvin, Sorand and Hawthorne, "Smoker Phirichun".
Whipping a car of ghosts, for Jun Sheng Qiongying. Literature is now revolutionary, and he wrote songs to send Hu Sheng.
I received this poem, and I wrote a poem on the train according to the rhyme, and sent it to Shuyong and others:
Where did the poetry revolution begin? It is necessary to compose poems such as compositions and whitewash the vitality, which may not seem to be pure poetry.
The villain's writing is quite bold, all the princes are heroic, and I am willing to laugh at each other, and my generation will not be a corrupt Confucian.
Mei Jinzhuang misunderstood my meaning of "composing poetry is like writing", and wrote a letter to argue. He said:
The poems are diametrically separate. The text of poetry and the text of literature, since the existence of poetry, both Chinese and Western, have diverged. ......He is a revolutionary in the poetry world, and he can improve the words of poetry; If only the words of the text are transferred to the poem, it is called a revolution and an improvement, and it cannot be done. ......With its too easy to be easy.
This letter forced me to express the methods of the revolution in the world of poetry. I have not left a manuscript in my reply, and the following paragraph is in my reply to Shuyongshu:
If you want to save the shortcomings of old literature today, you should start by eliminating the disadvantages of "literary victory". Today's poetry has a sonorous rhyme, and it seems to be a word. There's nothing to say about it. The root of its disease lies in emphasizing the form and removing the spirit, and in winning the quality with the text. The revolution in the poetry world should start with three things: first, it must have something to say, second, it must pay attention to grammar, and third, when using "literary words", it should not be deliberately avoided. All three of them save the disadvantages of the text with quality. ......The distinction between "the text of poetry" and "the text of literature" discussed by the village is also inappropriate. That is, such as Baixiang Mountain, the poem "Chengyunchen according to the six books, let the soil pay tribute or not, Daozhou water and soil born of people, only dwarf people have no dwarf slaves!" "Li Yishan's poem," if the public is vigorous, it has entered the liver and spleen of the people first. ”…Is the text used in these examples the "words of poetry"? Or is it the "text of the text"? Another example is to give a poem under the foot, "State affairs are now full of sores, and it is urgent to treat the head and feet." These Chinese characters are the so-called "words" of the village. ...It can be seen that the original "text of the poem" is not different from the "text of the text": just as the grammar of the poem is not different from the grammar of the text. ......February 2 of the fifth year).
The text of poetry" is also a very important question, because many people only recognize the words "words of poetry" such as Fenghua Xueyue, Momei, Zhuyan, Yinhan, Yurong, etc., and the words made of poems are poems! When you analyze it carefully, it doesn't make any sense at all. Therefore, I advocate the use of simple and unpretentious white depictions, such as Bai Juyi's "Daozhou People", such as Huang Tingjian's "Title Lianhua Temple", and Du Fu's "From Beijing to Fengxian Yonghuai". This kind of poem, the poetic taste is in the bones, and the quality is not in the text! A poet without a skeleton must not write this kind of poem. So my first requirement is to "say something". Because the focus is on the "thing" in the words, it does not matter whether the words used are the words of the poem or the words of the text. The village thinks that "only the words of the text are transferred to the poem", so it is wrong.
This time the controversy was between the fourth and fifth years of the year. At that time, what influenced me the most was what I usually called the "historical concept of literary evolution", which was the basic theory of my theory of literary revolution. Book 10 of the Notes contains the following passage on the night of April 5 of the fifth year of the fifth year:
The literary revolution is not a pioneering idea in the history of our country. That is, in terms of rhyme, 300 articles have changed into riots, and a big revolution has also been. It has become five words and seven words, and the two great revolutions are also. Fu changed into a rhymeless prose, ancient poetry became a rhythmic poem, and the three revolutions also. Poetry has changed into words, and the four revolutions have also. Words become songs. For the script, the five revolutions also. Why should I doubt it only because of my theory of literary revolution? Wen was also subjected to a few revolutions. From Confucius to the Qin and Han dynasties, the Chinese style has been perfected. The text of the Six Dynasties ......There are also appreciables. However, at that time, the body of the puppet was prosperous, and the literature was known for its skillful carving, and the grammar declined. The reason why Han Hui called "the decline of the eight generations of literature" is that his merit lies in the restoration of prose and the emphasis on grammar. This revolution too. ......The Song people talked about philosophies, and they deeply understood that ancient texts were not suitable for use, so the quotations were flourishing. The quotation body is used by the Zen sect to explain the reason and the words in slang. ......It was also a great revolution. To the ** of the Yuan people, this body has been extremely prosperous. ......In short, the literary revolution flourished in the Yuan Dynasty. The words of the time, the songs, the scripts, and the ** are all first-rate literature, and they are all slang. At that time, there was really a kind of "living literature" in our country. If this revolutionary current (revolutionary current, i.e., the traces of natural evolution. In the words of those who say it, it is called revolution; From its step-by-step sign, it is called evolution. If you don't suffer from the catastrophe of the eight shares of the Ming Dynasty, and if you don't suffer from the catastrophe of the seven sons before and after, then the literature of our country has become the literature of slang, and the language of our country has long become the language of the same language. It is a pity that for more than 500 years, half-dead ancient texts and half-dead poems have regained the seat of this "living literature", and "half-dead literature" has survived to this day. ......How could the literary revolution be more slow! How can it be more slow!
A few days later, I filled in a poem called "Qinyuan Spring", titled "Oath Poem", which is actually a manifesto of literary revolution
It is not sad to spring, and it is not sad to autumn, so as to oath poetry. Let the flowers bloom or fly; The full moon is solid, and the sunset is sad! The day I heard it, "Praise from the sky, who should use it to control the sky?" "It's more secure, cry for the sky, and be a slave! What a doubt about the article revolution! And prepare to be a runner with a flag. It is necessary to go through the ages and open up a hundred generations; Take him stinky and rotten, and give me back magic! For Greater China, to create new literature, who do I want to let in this industry? Poetry material, there are clusters of new worlds, for me to drive! (April 13).
The first half of the poem attacks the bad habit of Chinese literature to "moan without disease". I am an optimistic and enterprising person, so I try my best to attack this humble root. The second half of the song is the epilogue of "Going to the Country", which is the prelude to the attempt collection.
The following is the proximate cause of the occurrence of the "Trial Collection".
On July 12, 5 years, Ren Shuyong sent me a poem "Pan Lake is the Thing". This song has caused a big ink lawsuit, so it is impossible not to mention a paragraph here:
Swinging the flat lake, rippling green waves. The right of speech is light, in order to cleanse the troubles. Prepare me, accompany my friends, accommodate in the middle stream, before and after the mountain light. ......The breeze is refreshing, and the clouds are covered; Guess the riddle and win, laugh and talk. Forget the distance and rest the cliff roots. Suddenly, the waves are angry, and the whales are running! The shore is forced to flow back, and the stone slopes and waves turn over! A fluttering leaf, Feng Yi swallowed. The boat can be discarded, and the water can be uncovered, and my clothes will be wet. Fear of being looked upon by others. ......
I replied, "....The words and phrases used in the Panhu poem to write a section of the capsized boat are all used by the predecessors to write about the wind and waves of the river and the sea. Avoid the difficulty of casting words, and tend to borrow clichés. The foot claims to be "too hard", but in fact, he does not use any strength. If it is easy to take refuge, why not use strength? ......In addition, the word "Yan" (the third sentence) and the word "Zai" used in the poem are all dead words. Another example is the two sentences of "guessing the riddle and gambling to win, laughing and talking", the last sentence is the movable word of the 20th century, and the next sentence is the dead sentence of 3,000 years ago, which is not commensurate. ......July 16).
Shu Yong replied to the book and tried his best to delete and change the original poem, which was far better than the original manuscript. Unexpectedly, my words angered a friend who was watching. At that time, Mei Jinzhuang spent the summer in Qisejia, and when he saw my words, he wrote a letter to refute me. He said:
Those who regard themselves as the true meaning of the literary revolution are nothing more than using "movable type" to enter the text; In Shuyong's poems, the slightly ancient characters are not taken, and they are not "movable words of the twentieth century". ...The reform of the husband script must wash away the old clichés, and must be fixed in the past. However, this is not the word used by the ancients, but it is replaced by the vernacular. ......The vernacular is a word that has never been used in literature, and it seems to be novel and beautiful, but in fact it has no permanent value. Because it is the mouth of those who have not been trained by artists and who have no concept of art, it has become more and more degrading through the ages, and the slang is unspeakable. The foot is to be self-satisfied, to show off for the creation, and to be different. If you say it at the foot, then the world's intelligence, choice, education, and everything is not enough, and the village peasant father is enough to be a poet and artist. Even the African black barbarians, the natives of the South Seas, whose words and words are indistinguishable, are the most qualified poets and artists.
As for the indifference to "living literature", it is also the same as the previous statement. ......Writers, the most conservative things in the world. ......Is it easy to see the text of reform as it is? ......
This letter not only completely misunderstood my claim, but also said something unreasonable, so I wrote a vernacular game poem of more than 1,000 words to answer him. Although this poem is a game poem, there are also several solemn comments. As stated in the second paragraph:
There is no elegance in writing, but there is life and death.
The ancients called it desire, and today people call it wanting;
The ancients called it to, and the people today call it to;
The ancients called it drowning, and today it is called urine;
Originally, it was the same word, but the voice changed slightly.
There is no elegance or vulgarity to speak of, so why bother messing around.
As for the ancients called the word, the present people call the number; The ancients hung the beam, and the present people hanged themselves;
Although the ancient name is not necessarily bad, why is the current name bad?
As for the ancients, people sit in sedan chairs; The ancients wore crowns and curtains, but today's people know how to wear hats: if you must call a hat as a scarf and a sedan chair as a public opinion, wouldn't it be Zhang Guan Li Dai and recognize the tiger as a leopard? …
And as the fifth paragraph says:
Now I have a bitter tongue, but what is it?
Today's literary masters are being asked to exercise and ponder those lively vernaculars; Take it to compose, speak, compose, compose and compose: ——
A few vernacular instruments, and a few vernacular Dongpo, what is not "living literature"?
What is that not "living literature"?
This passage is all about later field experiments in the vernacular.
This vernacular game poem was made on July 22 of the fifth year, half of it was a friend game, and half of it was an intentional attempt to make a vernacular poem. Unexpectedly, Mei Ren and Ren were both unimpressed. The letter from the village scolded me, and he said:
Reading masterpieces is like listening to the lotus flower fall when you were a child, and it is really the so-called person who has exhausted the lives of Chinese and foreign people in ancient and modern times. Makoto is healthy! In today's Western poetry world, it is not uncommon to see those who hold the revolutionary flag under their feet. He is the author of the so-called futurism, imagism, free verse, and various decadent movements in literature and in arts. About all of them are the same as the flow of popular poetry, and they are all proud of "no one before or after"; They all like to set up names and call on the disciples to dazzle the eyes and ears of the world, and they have already obtained the title of famous man from it. ··
At the end of the letter, there are two additional paragraphs:
The genre of the article is different. **Lyrics and songs can be in the vernacular, but poetry is not. Today's Europe and the United States are raging, and the so-called "new trend" and "new trend" are already familiar to everyone. I sincerely hope that we will not plagiarize this worthless new trend to coax the people. (July 24).
This letter was quite unconvincing to me, because the literary revolution I advocated was only an argument about the current state of Chinese literature today. It has nothing to do with the new literary trends in Europe and the United States; Sometimes borrowing from the history of Western literature, it is only to cite the history of the "literature of the Chinese language" produced in European countries three or four hundred years ago, because the needs of China's Chinese literature today are as fierce as the situation in Europe today, and our study of their achievements may make us a little less conservative and add a little courage. How can I be convinced of the charge of "plagiarizing this worthless new trend to coax the people"?
Shu Yong wrote and said:
The result of this experiment is a complete failure. ......Essentially, the vernacular has its own vernacular use, (such as ** speech, etc.) but cannot be used in poetry. If all vernacular can be poetry, then the capital of our country is not poetry? ......It's not suitable! The revolution in today's literature is a sincere view of the fact that there is something indispensable for reform in today's literature, and it is not just a dispute between the vernacular of special literature. I try to tacitly reflect on the literary circles of our country today, that is, to talk about poetry, its old people, such as Zheng Subox, Chen Boyan, whose minds are dead, can only be made to decay with the ancients. Its youngsters, such as the first-class people of the Southern Society, are promiscuous and trivial, and they also go to literature thousands of miles away. Looking at the country, if we want to pretend to be literature, we will advocate a kind of noble and beautiful literature, and there is no place for us to go to the toilet. With the high foot to do, what is the way to give up, but will be oblique out, planting beauty in the thorns? ......Spread this (vernacular) to compose poems. then the servant period is not possible. ......Now, if the literary revolution under our feet succeeds, the poets of our country will all be high-voiced, and the likes of Tao Xie Li Du will never be seen again in China, then what is the work of the feet? ......Seven twenty-four nights).
The pilgrimage said, "* Words and songs can be used in the vernacular, but poetry and writing are not." Shuyong said, "The vernacular has its own vernacular use, (such as making a speech, etc.), but it cannot be used in poetry", which is the last thing I admit.
I replied to Uncle Yongxin and said:
The vernacular was used in poetry, and the ancients used it a lot. (Here are some examples.) In short, whether the vernacular can compose poetry or not, this question is all up to our generation to solve. The solution is not to beg the ancients, it is said that what was not available in the ancients must not be available today, but it is tested in the field of our generation. Once a "complete failure", why not come again? If there is a failure, then "the period is impossible", is this scientific spirit allowed?
This passage is my "literary experimentalism". The literary undertaking I have been doing for three years has been nothing more than the practice of this doctrine.
Answer: Uncle Yongshu is ruthless, and I will pay another paragraph:
Now I will use the words and sentences to describe the literary revolution of my dreams
1) The means of literary revolution: to make the Tao Xie Li Du of the country dare to compose poems in a high-pitched tone in the vernacular; It is necessary to make Tao Xie and Li Du in the country all be able to compose poems in a high-pitched tone in the vernacular.
2) The purpose of the literary revolution: to make the vernacular Beijing tone more high-pitched to produce a little Tao Xie Li Du.
3) There is no need for "Tao Xie Li Du's" Tao Xie Li Du today. If Tao Xie Li Du was born today and still writes Tao Xie Li Du's poems of that day, it must not have more value and influence of the day. Why? The times are different too?
4) My generation was born today, and instead of writing the "Five Classics" that cannot be popularized, it is better to write the well-known "Water Margin" and "Journey to the West" texts. Instead of writing poems that resemble Tao Xie and Li Du, it is better to write vernacular poems that do not resemble Tao Xie and Li Du. Instead of being a Zheng Suxu and Chen Boyan who learn this and that, it is better to do a field experiment, Hu Shizhi who "leans out of the side" and "gives up the avenue and is from".
I am determined, and since then, I will not write more words and poems. ......July 26).
This is the first time that the declaration is not written in Chinese poetry. After a few days, I will answer Uncle Yongdao:
The ancients said, "If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools." The writer is also the instrument of literature. I selfishly believe that literary language is by no means enough to be a sharp weapon for the future literature of our country. Shi Nai'an, Cao Xueqin, and others have proved that the weapon of being the best lies in the vernacular. Today, it is still necessary to test whether the vernacular can be a powerful tool for rhyme. ......I am confident that I can write prose in the vernacular, but I am not yet able to use it in rhyme. Selfishness is quite eager to practice it in the field for several years. If, after a few years, you can write poems in the vernacular of Chinese and do whatever you want, wouldn't it be a great pleasure? I was practicing vernacular rhyme at this time, which was quite like a new literary colony. It's a pity that I have to go alone, and I can't get more comrades and go together. However, I have made up my mind. The period of public leave for several years. If this new country is a barren land of sand moraines, then I may eventually grow old in the "country of literature and poetry". If you are fortunate and successful, after removing the thorns, when the door is opened, welcome the public and come to stop the ear! "Kyogen is humane, and the ministers should cook. I don't spit out my unhappiness, and people's words are not enough. "Laugh at me for a long time. ......August 4).
By this time I had begun to compose vernacular poetry. At that time, I remembered that Lu You had a poem: "Trying to succeed has never been done since ancient times", I think this meaning is exactly against my experimentalism, so I use the word "try" as the name of my vernacular poetry collection, depending on whether the "attempt" can be successful. At that time I had already made up my mind to try to experiment with vernacular poetry; There was only a little pain in my heart, that is, there were too few comrades, and "I had to go alone", and my most beloved friends refused to go on adventures with me. But if I hadn't had this group of friends to fight a lawsuit with me, I would never have made such a decision. Zhuangzi said it well: "He is because of yes, and he is because of him." "I still think back to the fun of having a postcard a day and a long letter every three days with that group of friends, and I think it was really the most difficult happiness in life. All my views on the literary revolution have been crystallized into a systematic proposition, and they are all the result of discussions with this group of friends. On August 19, 5 years, I wrote a letter to Zhu Jingnong (Jing), and there was a paragraph that said:
The main points of the new literature are about eight things:
1) No dictionaries, 2) no clichés, 3) no confrontation, 4) no vulgar words, 5) grammar. The above is one aspect of the form.
6) Do not moan without disease, 7) Do not imitate the ancients, there must be a I in the language, 8) There is something in the word. The above is one aspect of the spirit.
These eight articles later became a "Discussion on Literary Reform" (New Youth, Vol. 2, No. 5, published on January 1, 6 years). At this end, you can see the benefits of friends discussion.
My "Attempt Collection" began in July of **5, and by the time I arrived in Beijing in September of **6, it had become a booklet. During the year, I was the only one in the laboratory of vernacular poetry. Because there is no active help, this year's poems, no matter how bold, can never jump out of the scope of the old poems.
When I first returned to China, my friend Qian Xuantong said that my poems "failed to get rid of the literary language" and that "they were too literary". Friends in the Americas think "too vulgar" poems, and friends in Beijing think "too literary"! When I first heard this, I thought it was strange. Later, in all fairness, this was a good statement. The "Experiments" I did in the Americas were really only able to barely implement the eight conditions in the "Proposal for the Improvement of Literature"; It's just some old poems that have been brushed up! The big drawback of these poems is that they still use the syntax of five words and seven words. If the syntax is too neat, it is not in line with the nature of the language, and there can be no problem of truncating the strengths and complementing the weaknesses, and we cannot sacrifice the vernacular words and vernacular grammar from time to time to get the syntax of five or seven words. The first layer of syllables is also heavily affected: first, the neat syllables have not changed, which is really tasteless; Second, there are no natural syllables, and they cannot change with the poem. Therefore, the poems I have written since I arrived in Beijing have one doctrine: if you want to make real vernacular poetry, if you want to make full use of vernacular characters, vernacular grammar, and natural syllables of vernacular, you must make vernacular poems of different lengths. This kind of proposition can be called "the great liberation of poetry". The great emancipation of poetry is to break all the shackles that previously bound freedom: what is said, what is said; Say whatever you want. Only in this way can there be real vernacular poetry, and only then can the literary possibilities of the vernacular be expressed. Although the poems in the second episode of "Try" cannot achieve this ideal goal everywhere, they generally want to do it towards this purpose. This is the difference between the second episode and the first episode.
The above is the history of the occurrence of the "Trial Collection". Now let's talk about why I hastened to print this collection of vernacular poetry. My first reason is because although vernacular prose has spread rapidly and far in the past year, most people are still skeptical of vernacular poetry; There are many others who are not only skeptical, but simply opposed. Therefore, I think that at this time there are one or two collections of vernacular rhymes, which may attract the attention of the general public, and may serve as a kind of reference material for those who are in favor and against. Second, I have been experimenting with vernacular poetry for three years, and I would like to present the results of these three years to the literati in China as my test report. I earnestly hope that someone will carefully study the results of my experiments, and add calm criticism, so that I can also know whether there are any results in this kind of experiment, and whether there are any errors in the test methods. Third, regardless of the results of the experiment, I feel that there is at least one thing that my "Experiment Collection" has to offer you. This one thing to offer is the "spirit of experimentation" that this poem represents. The theory of literary revolution of our group is different from others, and it is all in this experimental attitude. Recently, people who have a little understanding of things feel that there is a need for reform in Chinese literature. Even like my friend Ren Shuyong, he also said: "Wuhu! Appropriate! The revolution in today's literature is a sincere view of the fact that there is something indispensable for reform in today's literature, and it is not just a dispute between the vernacular of special literature. "Even Liu Yazi of the Southern Society wants to talk about the literary revolution. However, their theory of literary revolution only puts forward an empty purpose, and cannot have a concrete plan. They all said that the literary revolution was by no means a formal revolution, and it was by no means a matter of literary vernacular. When people ask them what exactly they advocate for the "great road" of revolution, they will not be able to answer. This kind of revolution without a concrete plan, whether political or literary, can never have any effect. We believe that the written word is the foundation of literature, so the first step of the literary revolution is the solution of the literary problem. We believe that "dead words can never produce living literature", so we advocate that if we want to create a living literature, we must use the vernacular as a literary tool. We also know that the vernacular alone does not necessarily create a new literature; We also know that new literature must have new ideas as its lining. However, we believe that the literary revolution must have a sequential process: first, the great emancipation of the written genre must be achieved, and then it can be used as a transport product for new ideas and new spirits. We believe that the vernacular really has the possibility of literature, and it is really the only weapon of new literature, but most people in China refuse to admit it, and the last thing they refuse to admit is that the vernacular is the only weapon that can be used as a rhyme. We have no other way to deal with this kind of skepticism and this kind of opposition, and there is only one way, and that is the experimental method of scientists. When a scientist encounters a theory that has not been proven in the field, he can only assume that he is a hypothesis; It is necessary to wait until after field tests before using the results of the tests to criticize the value of the hypothesis. We argue that the vernacular can be used as poetry, because it is only a hypothetical theory without being recognized by everyone. In the past three years, we just want to use this hypothesis for all kinds of field experiments, one is to make five-character poems, seven-character poems, strict words, and extremely untidy long and short sentences; To make rhyming poems, to do non-rhyming poems, to do all kinds of syllable experiments, one is to see whether the vernacular can be a good poem, to see whether the vernacular poetry is a little better than the classical Chinese poem. This is the "spirit of experimentation" of our class of vernacular poets. The poems in my collection, regardless of their value, can always represent the spirit of this experiment. In the past two years, my friends Shen Yinmo, Liu Bannong, Zhou Yucai, Zhou Qiming, Fu Sinian, Yu Pingbo, and Kang Baiqing in Beijing, and Ms. Chen Hengzhe in the United States, have all worked hard to write vernacular poems. The number of experimenters in the laboratory of vernacular poetry gradually increased. But most literati still don't dare to "try" easily. They never come to try, how can they judge the problem of vernacular poetry? Jesus said it well: "The harvest is great, but unfortunately there are too few workers." Therefore, I boldly engraved this "Collection of Experiments", and if I want to contribute the "spirit of experimentation" represented by this collection to the literati of the whole country, I invite all of them to try it.
I would like to quote my "Attempt" as the conclusion of this long preface:
There has been no success in trying to succeed since ancient times", this may not be the case. I'm going to say the next thing, "Success has been trying since ancient times!" ”…Don't try it and succeed, it's so easy! Sometimes I try thousands of times, only to know that all the previous achievements have been abandoned. Even so, it is well deserved, that is, this failure is enough to remember. Telling people that "this road is not passable" can make the foot strength not be wasted. I have been studying for 20 years, and now I have to "try". Writing poetry and doing things should be like this, although I can't get to the ambition. Make a "try" to sing the praises of my teacher, and wish my teacher a long life!