How to write modern poetry?

A New Dimension of Poetry —— Transition from Tradition to Modernity

In the development of literature in the new period, this is the most worthwhile.

We are studying the future of new poetry.

-Wen Yiduo: the history of literary development

Nowadays, we don't write poems for personal happiness.

But to lay the foundation for a complete tradition.

-Wu Xinhua: "Today's New Poetry"

Fei Ming (190 1-67) captures the essence of China's modern poetry in the poem Street.

On the street, there is a car passing by.

There is loneliness in the mailbox.

Mailbox PO,

But I can't remember the car number x,

There are Arabic numerals alone,

Cars are lonely,

Lonely streets,

The loneliness of human beings. ( 1)

I believe that no one will mistake it for a traditional poem; There are several notable signs of its modern origin. First of all, as far as the tangible presentation of poetry on paper is concerned, what we see is a direct line break. China's classical poetry is not directly divorced. This was introduced from the west in the early 20th century. Punctuation marks are also borrowed from the west. Formally, the number of words varies line by line, from 10 in the first line to 4 words in the third, seventh and eighth lines (original). Indeed, some forms of classical poetry from The Book of Songs, such as Ci and Song, have also changed in the number of words, but they usually have a fixed format, but this poem does not. Second, although Guo rhymes with Loneliness, there is no overall rhyming design in reading. Similarly, in this eight-line poem, the word "loneliness" is conspicuously repeated five times. Although repetition is consciously used in classical poetry for emphasis or other effects (for example, Luo Yin [833-909]' s famous couplet "Today's wine will get drunk, tomorrow's sorrow will be sad" (2)), the frequency of use and structural position of this poem rule out the possibility of classifying it into tradition. Finally, there are some related pictures. Cars and mailboxes, Arabic numerals and Roman letters are all part of modern science and technology, commerce and multicultural society.

But what is more important than the above-mentioned form and theme factors is sensibility, which obviously makes poetry modern. The poem was carelessly written at the beginning. The poet Fei Ming was walking in the street, and there was a mailbox in the street. At this moment, he suddenly felt a sense of loneliness, because he saw a car speeding by. This poem has a spontaneous feeling, almost impromptu-simple syntax and direct statement left a deep impression on people. It seems that the poet does not start from a predetermined theme, such as the alienation of modern people, but from the formation of loneliness (marked by three "nai"), which runs through the fast-paced perceptual process: from the car to its rapid disappearance, to the silent mailbox, to the poet's inability to recall the car brand, to the car and mailbox, to the street and the car, and to the poet's lack of substantive connection. The unfolding of this instantaneous perception process gives life to poetry. Poetry conveys a direct and spontaneous feeling rather than a deliberate presentation of a theme.

Considering that this poem was written in 1937, it can be regarded as a response to the chaotic and rapidly changing China at that time. At that time, western inventions such as automobiles were relatively novel and rare. Loneliness in poetry can be explained as a derivative feeling, which comes from the poet's unspeakable alienation from modern science and technology (the car is a monster whose speed makes him feel incomprehensible); The speed of disappearing from the car and the street mailbox (poet? ) helpless static contrast; Finally, the inherent paradox of modern life comes from the sudden realization that human progress (in convenience and material comfort) and loss (in contact and communication) exist at the same time. Fei Ming's loneliness is quite different from that usually felt in China's classical poems. The loneliness in China's classical poems stems from the lack of personal communication and the poet's strong awareness of how different he is from the people around him. This separation is often attributed to mental addiction and moral creed; Therefore, loneliness in the traditional sense is the result of the poet's search for spiritual similarity (poetically speaking, "confidant" (3)). But as far as Fei Ming is concerned, loneliness stems from his confusion in some paradox under modern material conditions. The paradox is that he feels lonely and helpless only because of the crowded and noisy outside world. The self-restraint and tranquility that usually constitute the loneliness of traditional poets are extremely lacking in modern poetry.

Compare this poem with Li Shangyin (8 13? -858) in the famous sonnet Le Garden Scenic Area, we can clearly see the difference between modern poetry and traditional poetry:

I have the shadow of dusk in my heart,

I drove to the Leyou Tomb.

To see the sun, although he is glorious,

Buried by the coming night. (4)

Regardless of the difference in form (5), this poem has obvious similarities with Fei Ming's poem. Both of them can be called improvisation, and both express some feelings or emotions: loneliness in Fei Ming's poems and melancholy in Shi Li's poems. Narrative factors provide the corresponding background in these two poems, but they are kept to a minimum. At the same time, like modern poetry, the melancholy in Li's poetry also presents an unfolding process, by which he expresses his sadness beyond the impermanence of beauty. However, subtle differences can still be seen from the use of images and poetic conventions. Although both of them use concrete images to express their feelings, the "sunset" in Li's poems is a common and short-lived natural symbol in China's traditional poems. When I say "nature", I mean that the inherent characteristics of the sunset-its fleeting beauty-make it a symbol. So it is not difficult to understand that it is suitable for expressing sadness, nostalgia or similar feelings. Sunset is often associated with separation (for example, it should be (? -2 17) "Go to the old mountain in Yunfu at sunset" (6), in his later years (Du Fu (72 1-770): "The heart of the setting sun is still strong, and the autumn wind sickens the Soviet Union" (7), and the rapid passage of time (Liu Kun (27 1-). In each case, the meaning of sunset has changed from nature to life. In contrast, the images in Fei Ming's poems-mailboxes, cars and Arabic numerals-have no inherent attribute of loneliness. More precisely, loneliness is the relationship between them, between them and the poet who inspired this feeling. The separation experienced by the poet at that moment led to loneliness; It is not inherent in any perceptual object.

The second difference lies in the use of poetic conventions. Like Fei Ming, Li Shangyin described a spontaneous mental illness and its manifestation. However, further research shows that Li's spontaneity is actually rooted in some recognizable traditional poetry strategies. When the poet started writing, he said that he felt "uncomfortable", although the exact reason was still hidden. The image of "going to the ancient plain" in the second line (Leyuan Scenic Area is in the southeast of Chang 'an, which is the highest place in Beijing) is a motive for China's traditional poetry to appear repeatedly from the Book of Songs to the Tang Dynasty, and it is used to express meditation or sadness (9). As early as the Western Han Dynasty, it was found in a sentence in Hanshu, that is, "climb high and be endowed" (10). As H.H. Frank explained, by the Tang Dynasty, it had become a well-known old routine associated with triggering the past (1 1). If we say that on the image level, the heights provide a panoramic view of space for the poet, then on the symbolic level, the unobstructed view puts him in an equivalent time image, which covers the past, present and future. According to Frank, this nature of watching alone is often more melancholy than happiness, and probably more mourning than praise, because now it is inevitably regarded as the decline of the past glory, while the eternity of nature is regarded as a spicy hint of the impermanence of the world.

In this way, the mountain climbing routine in Li's poems not only provides readers with the final revelation of the theme of transient beauty and human limitations, but also adds another dimension to the history of this set of roads. Due to the historical turning point of Tang poetry, we can not only read more cosmic significance of this poem, but also read a sadness about the decline of the Tang empire. The application of this poetic convention did not deny Li's originality. Li's predecessors often took the theme of climbing as the shift, and preconceived the persistence of nature (taking heights as an example-usually mountains) against the impermanence of the world; Unlike them, Li believes that nature is also full of impermanence and is equally difficult to surpass. In this case, sadness does not come from comparison, but from the connection between human beings and nature. For this reason, Li combined the two well-known motives of "climbing high and looking far" and "setting the sun", and on this basis, he expounded his deep sympathy for life, thus providing a guarantee for this poem to gain a permanent position in many China poems with the same routine.

In addition to these motives, Li Shangyin also used another poetic convention worth mentioning. Now that we have understood the meaning of the first couplet, readers expect to find the objective counterpart of the poet's emotion in the rest of the poem, an external image corresponding to his inner statement. Poets often use this technique of "blending scenes", and Wang Fuzhi (16 19-92) expresses it most incisively and vividly in Jiang Zhai Shi Hua (12). However, this concept appeared in Lu Ji's Wen Fu (26 1-303) and Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long (13) and other classic literary criticism works long before it was systematically expounded. In other words, the obvious spontaneity of Li's poems proves another level of poetic convention accepted by poets and readers with higher education.

In contrast, the lack of recognizable traditional poetry conventions in Fei Ming's poems seems to imply a new attitude towards poetry and a new way of writing and reading poetry. The important difference between China's classical poetry and modern poetry transcends the obvious differences in form and language, which forces people to question the premise of poetry and poetry reading. For Fei Ming, poetry is a cognitive process, a process of distinguishing the unknown relationship between man and the world, or a tool to discover himself and the world. The premise of creating new knowledge in poetry is unfamiliar to traditional thought, which emphasizes the essential unity and intuitive vibration between man and the universe (14). Secondly, if you don't understand the phonology of traditional poetry, you can't fully appreciate Li Shangyin's poems, which is unnecessary for Fei Ming's poems. In fact, Fei Ming's poems require, if not need, the participation of all kinds of readers. There is a steep change from the first line ("car passing by") to the second line ("mailbox loneliness"). The word "nai" indicates the result, and the reason is not explained by Fu Que. This creates a logical gap that must be filled by readers. For the same reason, readers must jump from the first "Nai" to the second "Nai", and then jump from the second "Nai" to the third "Nai" to get the feeling of poetry. If the experience expressed in poetry is spontaneous, the reader's experience is not. The semantic structure of poetry separation attracts readers' attention, even the reading process itself. No matter how the reader of classical poetry exerts his or her senses, he or she must rely on enough literature (including poetry customs and traditional symbols) and other cultural backgrounds; Readers of modern poetry would rather participate in creating meaning than passively accept it.

The difference in poetic premise and expression between classical poetry and modern poetry is not confined to a single poet, but may show the fundamental nature of China's modern poetry's transformation from tradition to modernity. China's modern poetry was born in the New Literature Movement of 19 17 and is classified as the May 4th Movement of 19 19. In retrospect, compared with other schools, China's modern poetry took a particularly tortuous road. For example, unlike China's modern novels, which can controversially inherit and draw lessons from traditional novels, modern poetry claims to be an anti-idolater, and has a tit-for-tat struggle with a formidable predecessor, the 3,000-year-old classical poetry tradition. The development of modern poetry has probably always been that there are more opponents than praises, and it is considered that there are more doubts than credibility, even among the poets themselves (15). In the history of world literature, there may not be a poetry period like China's modern poetry, because its birth coincided with the large-scale social, political and cultural changes seeking to replace the roots of China culture, and caused such a fierce debate on such a large scale. The May 4th Movement of 19 19 is generally regarded as the peak of such a revolutionary spirit: as happened in history, in the second half of the 19 century, it began to make a series of its own efforts to deal with foreign military invasion and economic exploitation (16). When it comes to poetry, there were calls for reform as early as 1870, when some young intellectuals such as Huang Zunxian (1848- 1905), Tan Sitong (1856-98) and Xia Cengyou (1866). This change in language means later became the cornerstone of the 19 17 new literature movement, from which China's modern poetry came into being.

191765438+10, the father of China's modern poetry, Hu Shi (189 1- 1962), in his declaratory essay "Improvement of Literature", put forward some ideas about it. At least four of them involve language problems: grammar should be paid attention to; Abandon bad words; No code; Do not avoid common sayings (18). Hu advocates easy-to-understand spoken language to distinguish it from the exquisite and elegant rhetorical style with many allusions in classical poetry; Advocate a free body instead of following the rigid rules of traditional poetry about meter and structure. In short, the new literature movement pursues free and vivid language expression to replace the rigid language bound by classical poetry and classical Chinese (such as stereotyped writing).

Naturally, these revolutionary ideas met with fierce opposition. Generally speaking, rejection comes from two aspects. One is the conservative literati represented by Lin Shu (1852- 1924, the world-famous Lin Qinnan), who regard literary reform as another excuse for conspiring to overthrow Confucianism. Secondly, Mei Guangdi 1890- 1945), Hu Xian (1894- 1968) and Wu Mi (1894-1977). Their stubborn refusal finally didn't help. Vernacular poetry (also called "new poetry" at that time, and sometimes called it now) soon became the base camp of the younger generation. After the initial development of vernacular Chinese and vernacular poetry in the late Qing Dynasty, 1920 vernacular Chinese was officially used in basic education, and by the early 1920s, vernacular Chinese had firmly established its position as a literary means.

The import of foreign poetry, mainly western poetry, has intensified the debate between classical poetry and vernacular poetry. Because almost all the pioneers of China's modern poetry were educated abroad (Japanese, American and European), it is natural for them to turn to other literary traditions in order to choose examples. Subsequently, some major western thoughts, such as romanticism, symbolism, realism, imagism and surrealism, were introduced into China, which often aroused the enthusiasm for rewriting and imitation (20). The external factors evolved from the syntax, metaphor and symbol of western poetry also appeared in China's modern poetry. For China's modern poetry, the west has been synonymous with advanced poetry for a long time, and it has always been the main mode, initially in the 1920s and 1930s, followed by Taiwan Province Province (265,438+0) in the 1960s and early 1970s. It is certainly worthwhile to trace back to the root of its influence and the ins and outs of its acceptance; However, we should also pay attention to the local traditional factors that enable modern poets in China to accept external influences. In other words, we must ask: What are the internal conditions of China's literary situation that are conducive to the input and acceptance of foreign models? What kind of power does China hide, allowing and indeed creating the external choice and vision it needs?

When we try to understand the fundamental changes in China's poetry from the inside of China culture, it becomes simple and suspicious to completely separate the native and foreign countries. The modernity of China's poetry since 19 17 should be regarded as the result of poets exploring various forms and styles in diversified choices to express complex modern society; Although some of these factors may be inspired by foreign literature, even from the latter, some of them come from the internal requirements and local experience similar to foreign literature. Although Fei Ming studied English literature in college, his expression is similar to that of Cervantes, Shakespeare and Hardy, except that he absorbed the views of China's classical poetry in his views on modern poetry. His critical articles show that he has little interest in foreign literature and limited knowledge in this field. His own poetry and poetry criticism are strongly influenced by Taoism and Buddhism. For those who know him, he is a practitioner of Zen (22). But there is no doubt that his poems are modern.

In order to understand the breadth and depth of this fundamental new beginning of China's poetry, we need to go beyond the superficial influence and investigate the main premise and overall views on poetry since 19 17. China's modern poetry rejected most (if not all) traditional poetic norms, naturally and almost inevitably redefined poetry by reflecting on its basic propositions, and tried to establish a new poetic norm. Fei Ming pointed out: "Every new literary form must have an internal and uncontrollable force, which requires or even forces a change-it doesn't matter whether this force is conscious or opposite ... This uncontrollable force is nothing more than the essence of new literature that writers must master. This new essence often takes the most appropriate form, so a new literary society is bound to prosper "(23).

I will try to describe the "uncontrollable force" behind this change in poetic norms, which led to the fundamental changes in China's poetry in the 20th century. First of all, there is an external factor, which can be discussed from the perspectives of social politics and education. With the fundamental change of political structure from monarchy to harmony in 19 12, and the gradual evolution from an agricultural society to an urbanized, industrialized and commercialized society, the role of poetry is also changing. In the traditional sense, for China scholars, poetry is always the most important. In a society based on Confucius' ethics and pragmatism, poetry is suitable for several goals, the highest of which is as the cornerstone of moral and cultural cultivation. This intention was sanctified in Confucius' Analects of Confucius; In the Analects of Confucius, poetry, as the primary factor, is listed as the "three basic courses" leading to moral perfection, together with ceremony and music (24). In the political field, poetry has practical significance. Because all kinds of literary talents are usually the basic skills of passing the imperial examination; Since the beginning of the seventh century, these two forms of poetry-giving poetry-have been in the form of propositions (25). Talented poets regularly accept the positions of senior officials and even the emperor himself (26). Finally, on a more prosaic level, poetry, as a universal form, is used to contact family, friends and colleagues, as demonstrated by countless classical poems written for every imaginable occasion.

With the abolition of 1905 imperial examination system, writing poems is no longer a pleasant thing in politics, and those gentry who regard the imperial examination system as the entrance to the civil service class have also lost their elite status to a great extent. Subsequently, Confucian classics, once the core of traditional knowledge and the program of governing the country, also lost their sacredness. Furthermore, just as China's modernization was (and still is) equivalent to learning western science and technology, modern life is becoming more and more fragmented and urbanized, and poetry inevitably becomes a narrower and more private landscape different from other fields in life. Perhaps for the first time in the history of China, poetry writing must be justified, because its function and value are no longer universally recognized. Periodically, the debate between art for art's sake and art for life runs through the 70-year history of modern poetry in China: from the early debate between 1920 Crescent Society and Literature Research Association, to the debate between the advocates of modernism and local literature movement in Taiwan Province Province in the middle and late 1970s, and then to the "misty poetry" in mainland China in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Early modern intellectuals in China generally felt lost and alienated. They "find that they don't belong to any social stratum ... because of the lack of * * * status, many of them tend to turn to themselves or only contact people with similar experiences" (28). However, compared with those who wrote novels at the same time, China modern poets may have experienced a more serious identity crisis and a greater degree of alienation. Since the late Qing Dynasty, novels have been regarded as useful "tools for national improvement" and "exerting extremely important power" (29), but poetry has to show its social relevance in modern times. Although Liang Qichao, Xia Cengyou, Tan Sitong and others advocated both new poetry and new novels, and they all played a prominent role, they all identified novels as "a powerful means of social and political innovation", but their enthusiasm for poetry was low and their expression was not clear enough (30). The "Poetry Revolution" in the late Qing Dynasty promoted the use of vernacular Chinese as the first choice of poetry, which contributed to the birth of modern poetry in China. However, it did not restore the lofty position enjoyed by poetry in the tradition, nor did it provide an alternative method for poetry reading and writing. The early writers of modern novels have some kind of "self-styled spokesmen of the times" (3 1), seeking to change people's consciousness so that they can build a better China; Poets of the same period lacked a clear sense of mission and direction.

Early modern poetry also found a purgatory in itself, that is, it had to endure a strange reader to a great extent. The authors and readers of China's traditional poems are mostly elites with higher education. They are knowledgeable and well-rested, and devote themselves to exploring the intricate art of poetry. There is a subtle agreement between the creative group and the explanatory group-or, in short, between the poet and the reader. As Wu Xinhua (192 1-66) pointed out briefly, classical poetry

Have a large number of readers with the same background. Even if their attitudes are different, how to explain one?

A poem usually holds the same view. They know what metaphors can and can't be used in poetry. They are ten years old.

The difficulty of distinguishing form, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. In other words, in traditional poetry, readers

The relationship with the poet is very close, and there is a little connection between them. Poets need not worry.

Will readers understand his poems? On the other hand, readers can easily put themselves in the poet's situation and learn from it.

Get the greatest pleasure in poetry (32).

However, for modern poetry, the premise of mutual empathy between poets and readers is no longer effective. /kloc-the educational reform that began at the end of 0/9 led to the establishment of many western-style schools and the introduction of modern training methods. As a result, the more people who have access to education, the more diversified their education (the lower the importance of China classics), and the more inconsistent their education level. For modern poets, answering the question "Who is my reader" has become a highly personal thing. They may be the public (at least in theory, their oral language is poetry), a few discerning intellectuals, or a small group of other poets.

Modern poets have diversified attitudes towards readers. At one end of the spectrum, some people insist that poetry usually serves the society, which can be seen as an attempt to overcome the split between practicality and privacy in modern life. In order to try to rebuild the social value of poetry, this group emphasizes the relevance of the theme, and often adopts a rather narrow literary definition, rejecting pure aesthetic considerations. This attitude can be seen in the resistance poems from the late 1930s to the late 40s and the * * * production poems in the Maoist period (1942-76). The former has a clear goal, that is, to arouse the people of China to fight against the Japanese aggressors and defend the country; In the latter case, the government claims that poets should write for the public and instill correct political views into the public by shaping typical characters. Chen commented on the poet's situation in Maoist China: "His source is obviously the masses, and his imagination and intention absolutely follow the officially recognized morality and aesthetics ... His self-denial is definitely a complete recognition of extremely powerful collectivism ... His metaphor always expresses an additional national goal, which makes his poetry full of shadowless public consciousness and lacks hints from deeper spiritual fields" (33).

Ironically, compared with any other modern literary theory in China, Mao Zedong's famous saying "Literature must serve the working class" echoes the traditional Confucian preaching and pragmatism in the names of "Literature is the carrier of morality" and "Literature is the expression of morality". As Charles Hartman pointed out, although the overall concepts of "Wen" and "Tao" of Han Yu (768-824) are far more complicated and refined than those of his followers in the Song Dynasty, Han and subsequent Confucian scholars know very well that the value of literature depends not only on the degree it reflects morality, but also on the morality it reflects (34). Therefore, Maoism makes literature subject to political standards. Because the state that art obeys political and social standards under modern conditions tends to prohibit experiments in poetry and aesthetic theory, I will not discuss this kind of poetry in this book.

At the other extreme is "a poet who hates understanding", which is a prejudice obviously influenced by French symbolism. Wang (1898- 1940) declared as early as 1926: "Not only poetry is the most taboo to explain, but poets are also the most taboo to ask people to understand! A poet who asks people to understand is just a singer who caters to women and children, not a pure poet! " (35) Ji Xian (19 13-), a poet, expressed the same view in the poem The Wolf Walks Alone (1964) with his typical golden mean style:

I am a lone wolf in the wilderness.

Not a prophet, not a sigh.

And the constant number of screams is extremely long.

Shake his empty world,

Let heaven and earth tremble like malaria;

A cool breeze blowing, rustling:

This is an addiction. (36)

The poet found himself in a wasteland and fell into complete loneliness. The second line denies that when a prophet sounds like a statement against the poet's symbolism, he actually flatly refuses to communicate with the world (even at a higher level). In this sense, there is a kind of self-feeling more isolated than the symbolist's situation between the lines of the poem; Contrary to the symbolist's fantastic wisdom words to a few readers and his secular misunderstanding through ordinary people, the poet has no chance to be misunderstood here, and he has completely given up his efforts to seek dialogue. In the loneliness of being chosen, he enjoys some kind of pain and feels almost sadistic joy for the weak and timid response of the world-this is the only way for him to assert his independent existence.

In my opinion, behind the theory of "pure poetry" first put forward by Wang and other poets influenced by French symbolism in the 1920s and reiterated by Ji Xianlin and his Taiwan Province modernist poetry partners in the 1960s, the gap between poets and readers is a major fact. In order to justify the existence of poetry that alienates readers, many modern poets have always expressed the belief that poetry exists for themselves. Liang's student (1903-83) once said in the following representative passage: "The so-called pure poetry is to get rid of the writing, narration, reasoning and even sentimental mood of all objective scenery, and only rely on the elements that make up its underlying form-music and color to produce a magic-like suggestion, thus arousing our senses. (37)

The whole modern critics and poets-not only those who are influenced by western symbolism-believe that poetry should be understood and judged according to its own conditions. This view can be traced back to the early modern theorist Wang Guowei (1877- 1927). Because of its famous "realm"-the unified world created by aesthetic significance-the theory obviously absorbed earlier critics, such as Wang Fuzhi, Yan Yu (about 1 180- 1235), and even Si Kongtu (837-908), it is generally considered that he belongs to the classical tradition. However, Wang's aversion to literature as a tool for moral preaching and his basic assumptions about the autonomy, universality and eternity of literature made him a pioneer of modern poetry in China. When talking about the internal blood relationship between literature (art) and philosophy, Wang thinks: "The most sacred, precious and useless things in this world are philosophy and art ... The goal of philosophy and art is the truth of the universe, not the truth of the times" (38). Obviously influenced by Kant, Wang advocated that "the basic feature of beauty ... is that it can only be appreciated but not used ... Although we occasionally use the same beautiful thing, when a person is immersed in aesthetic meditation on it, he will never consider its usefulness" (39).

In the same way, Zhu Guangqian (1897- 1986), the most important theorist since the May 4th Movement, defined "aesthetic attitude" as "playing with a rope idly" (40) and regarded it as an existence independent of practicality and science. Although Zhu Shou agreed that art is related to life, he emphasized the "aesthetic distance", which is the basis of artistic creation and artistic appreciation. The poet and theorist Zong Baihua (1897- 1986) expressed his view almost at the same time: "The formal composition of beauty makes its object (nature and life) an independent organic form, which urges us to concentrate on exploration. The first step to concentrate on exploration is distance. Distance creates a beautiful world; It promises people to achieve intellectual and spiritual clarity and thus enter the realm of beauty and inner kingdom. " (4 1) Lu Xun (188 1- 1936) emphasized the inseparable connection between literature and art and social and historical reality, but admitted that beauty is independent of politics, as his famous assertion said: "All literature and art are propaganda, and all propaganda is not literature and art; ..... The reason why the revolution relies on slogans, slogans, notices, telegrams and textbooks is that it uses writers and artists because it is literature and art "(42). Cheng (1897- 1984), a poet and critic who worked closely with the Creation Society, defended himself by saying that the challenge of literature is no less than that of science or philosophy. He tried to give literature a broader goal than the present era of serving the society and our lives: "The beauty and goodness of literature can't be calculated by all utilitarians, and it has the potential value that we pursue all our lives. Even if it's except for one.