Guo Xiaochuan's Creative Experience

When Guo Xiaochuan was a teenager, he was "burdened with great worries when he was with our motherland too early" (March on Difficulties). After the "December 9" Movement, he took an active part in the student movement to resist Japan and save the nation. He was an active member of the Literary Youth Federation, the vanguard of national liberation under the leadership of the Party, and began to use poetry as a weapon to participate in the struggle for national liberation.

When War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression broke out in 1936, Guo Xiaochuan joined the Eighth Route Army on his way to Yan 'an, and worked as a propaganda, education and confidential worker in the 359th Brigade of the 12 Division. At the beginning of 1941, he went to Yan 'an Marxist-Leninist College and other units to study and work for four and a half years, mainly engaged in the study of Marxist-Leninist political theory and literary theory. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, he returned to his hometown as the county magistrate, and took part in and led the movement of clearing bandits, opposing hegemony and land reform. In the summer of 1948, he turned to the news front, and successively served as deputy editor-in-chief and head of the People's Daily, editorial board and editorial director of Tianjin Daily. In May 1949, he went south with the army. After the liberation of Wuhan, he engaged in the Party's theory and propaganda work in Central and South China, cooperated with Chen Xiaoyu and Zhang Tiefu, and wrote a lot of "thoughts" under the pseudonym of "Ma Tieding", which had a great influence among the masses. In the spring of 1953, he was transferred to the Central Propaganda Department.

As a poet, Guo Xiaochuan's poems such as Children's League Members on the Hutuo River, We Sing the Yellow River, Straw Shoes and Old Hire Workers written in the early stage of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, although immature, have traces of trying and groping, but they express the poet's sincere feelings of loving revolutionary life. It also shows his artistic talent of capturing the moving scenes in the revolutionary struggle life. For more than ten years after 1943, the poet devoted all his energy to the actual revolutionary work and hardly picked up a pen to write poetry. However, the arduous and rich revolutionary work practice and the Party's theoretical propaganda work have brought the poet a higher ideological and theoretical accomplishment, but they have laid a solid foundation for his future creation in life and thought. This decade is an important preparatory stage on the poet's creative road.

in the autumn of 1955, Guo Xiaochuan was transferred from the Central Propaganda Department to the position of Deputy Secretary of the Party Group, Secretary and Secretary-General of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association and Editorial Board of Poetry Magazine. Immediately after turning to the front of literature and art, the poet sang carols and battle songs for the new socialist cause in China with a strong sense of revolutionary responsibility and fiery fighting passion. His first political lyric poem was dedicated to the National Youth Socialist Construction Activists' Conference "Into the Fierce Struggle". This poem sings the strong voice of our times with the majestic momentum that his past poems did not have: < P > Citizens!

this is our great motherland.

Every second of it is extremely restless.

Every sand and stone on its land is jumping.

It calls you all the time.

Throw yourself into a fiery struggle.

Fight!

This is life,

This is a rich life.

Subsequently, the poet's fervent poetic sentiment broke out, and in 1955 and 1956, he wrote a series of poems with the general theme of "To Young Citizens", such as Marching into Difficulties, In the High Tide of Socialism, Shine, the Light of Youth, etc., and his poems entered an explosive period. When recalling the creation of this period, the poet said: "When I started to write again because I took up a literary post ... the great call for socialist construction and socialist revolution has resounded through the sky. I can't help writing lines of political sentences with a propaganda drum mobilization gesture, just like writing mobilization slogans on the wall in the countryside during War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression's period ... I am willing to let this pen be filled with the enthusiasm for fighting and help our readers, first of all, the young readers grow the will of revolution. The poet achieved his goal. His political commentator's mind, entrepreneur's mind, warrior's hatred of evil, and his voice of shouting for new things make his poems like drums and horns to urge people to move forward, which has aroused enthusiastic response among young readers.

However, the poet was not intoxicated by his success. He said: "The literature I yearn for is the literature of struggle ... However, I understand more and more that just having this starting point is still far from enough. Literature is literature after all. There are many new and unique things here. Its source is the ocean of people's lives, but it should be an extraordinary and shining crystal extracted from the ocean. " Guo Xiaochuan is a revolutionary soldier in politics and a poet who dares to explore and practice in art. From 1957 to 1959, he tried to overcome the shortcomings of more discussion than description in his own creation, and made fruitful explorations in the development of the theme village, the deepening of ideological content and the creation of artistic forms. Among his poems at this stage, the most striking ones are three narrative poems in 1957, Praise of Snow White, Deep Valley, One and Eight, and the long narrative poem General Trilogy, the narrative poem Strict Love and the lyric poem Staring at the Starry Sky in 1959. These poems show that the poet is not satisfied with exciting readers with encouraging political language, but tries to explore the spiritual beauty of our great people and revolutionary soldiers, extract that "extraordinary and radiant crystal" from people's lives, and show it through clever and strange ideas, which makes readers not only excited for a short time, but also cause long-term thinking. The exploration spirit and practice of the poet should be fully affirmed. However, in the late 195s, when the left-leaning ideological trend was rampant, the poet was criticized for no reason. Ode to Snow White, Deep Valley and Starry Sky, as well as One and Eight and Severe Love, which were not published at that time, were all criticized as "unhealthy thoughts and feelings". History is the fairest. With the passage of time, people will see more and more clearly that these poems are an important promotion not only to the poet's own creation but also to the development of contemporary poetry in China.

in the 196s, Guo Xiaochuan's poetry became more mature in both thought and art. From 196 to 1962, China's socialist construction encountered serious difficulties. Under the leadership of the Party, the people were United as one, and faced with the complicated international environment, they fought hard to build and defend the motherland. The poet tried his best to reflect this grim and prosperous era, and wrote "Xiamen Charm", "Country Avenue", "Sugarcane Forest-Green Yarn Account" and "Qiu Ge". In October 1962, the poet was transferred to the People's Daily as a special correspondent until the beginning of the "Cultural Revolution". For more than three years, he went out of Yangguan in the west, flooded the sea in the east, drilled forests and stepped on deserts, and traveled all over the country. Based on his own observation and experience of the fiery struggle life of the Chinese people who fought in different posts, the poet wrote many well-known poems, such as Three Singing in the Forest Region, Going Out to Yangguan in the West, Traveling to Kunlun and Haruka. In the late 195s, the poet talked about the writer's unique style. He said, "A writer must be in a very noble state of mind. He is always associated with life, and he observes and understands everything with the sharp eyes of * * *. However, he has his own unique views. Such a writer's works must serve the people and be faithful to the principles of socialist realism; However, he has his own style and characteristics. Even if his works are not signed, you can roughly guess that they are his. " In the 196s, his creation reached this state, and he became an excellent poet with a unique style. "At the same time, he is also a well-deserved person who can have both titles of warrior and poet!"

During the ten years of turmoil, Guo Xiaochuan stood the severe test of class struggle. Lin Biao and the Gang of Four repeatedly besieged, framed and persecuted him, but he never gave in and was restless. While his voice was being gripped tightly, he still held his pen, expressing the revolutionary soldier's faith and oath that he was not afraid of power and violence with a resolute spirit:

As a soldier, he must never lay down his weapon, even for a minute;

if you want a revolution, you must never stand still, even if you are facing the knife cluster.

-Qiu Ge

After the downfall of the Gang of Four in p>1976, he was extremely happy, but unfortunately he was killed by an accident.

Guo Xiaochuan is not a true soldier loyal to the proletarian revolutionary cause. Unfortunately, due to the long-term destruction of Lin Biao and the Gang of Four, the poet who was in his prime just saw the victory in October 1976 and died suddenly. His tall image as a poet and soldier will be among the outstanding poets and shine brilliantly in the history of contemporary Chinese literature!

His poems are full of passion, rich imagination and profound philosophy. In the form of poetry, it draws lessons from the advantages of ancient poetry and folk songs, and the language rhythm is distinct and smooth.

Guo Xiaochuan, whose original name was Guo Enda and pen name was Ma Tienails, always called himself a country poet and a working people, so he was called a poet of working soldiers.