May I ask the origin of this poem?

Zhu Ziqing's poem "Light" written in 19 19 is of course naive according to today's ideological and artistic standards, but it is a work in the embryonic stage of China's new poetry and one of the better chapters. We must analyze it from a scientific and historical perspective in order to understand its ideological significance and artistic value.

The storm of the May 4th New Culture Movement stirred the hearts of young intellectuals in China and opened the dawn of a new era in the dark old China. The awakening young generation is looking forward to a bright society and seeking a new way of life. Facing the reality before dawn, China is still a stormy night, an endless desolate wasteland. At this time, Zhu Ziqing, a student of philosophy at Peking University, sang his own songs, which was also the voice of his contemporaries. This poem describes this generation's understanding of reality, its eager call for light and its initial thinking on the way forward.

The first paragraph of the poem is "a stormy night,/the front is deserted", which symbolizes the era of frequent internal and external troubles and the dark, difficult and corrupt social reality. "Walking out of the wilderness/is the only way for people", the night is heavy and the road is long. Where is the way out? This reminds us of a sentence quoted from Li Sao in Lu Xun's Wandering as an inscription: "The road is long, Xiu Yuan and Xiu Yuan are Xi,/I will go up and down." Zhu Ziqing was much younger than Lu Xun, and did not reach the deep anxiety and indignation of Lu Xun, but their depression and exploration spirit were similar, except that the images in Zhu Ziqing's poems were vague and added a layer of uncertainty, which was the same mentality of the younger generation at that time.

Zhu Ziqing was also hesitant at that time. The second paragraph reads: "There are many roads in the dark. /How can I walk well? " Before and after the May 4th Movement, various ideologies, theories and thoughts flooded the intellectual circles. The poet called them "strange roads", which showed that it was difficult to choose, so he cried out to God, "Give me some light quickly,/Let me run forward!" In the thick darkness after the ebb tide, he didn't fall down, fall behind, turn around or stand still, but he still pursued the light persistently and was ready to run forward. "God" is not an exact image here. In China's traditional concept, "God" and "Heaven" are synonyms, and they are the omnipotent masters of the universe. In western clans, it is the creator and savior. Zhu Ziqing is an atheist, so he invented this image to express his mentality, eager to find a way to the light.

The third paragraph takes' God' as an excuse to explain that light must be created by ourselves. The traditional concept of resignation, the religious piety of praying to God, and the fantasy of sages saving the world and people have all been abandoned. Relying on their own strength to create light is a new answer obtained by pursuers of that generation through profound rational thinking and countless painful practices. This is the theme of this poem. Here, we can't help but think of the lyrics of the Internationale: there is no savior, and we don't believe in the immortal emperor, and we create a new world with our own strength. Although Zhu Ziqing's thought did not reach the understanding height of the revolutionary proletariat, it was also influenced by the spread of Marxist thought, which promoted his awakening of independent consciousness. Although this poem reveals the reality, pursues a new life path and ideal, is simple and superficial, and lacks ideological depth, but it is a portrayal of the hearts of young people who are more common in that era. Today's readers can't really be moved by this poem, but in the historical sense, it still has the value of understanding.

Like many new poems in the May Fourth Movement, it also has the characteristics of the initial period of new poetry in art. He completely broke through the traditional mode of classical metrical poetry, practiced the idea of poetic style liberation put forward at that time, and made a step forward with the traces of old poetry compared with Hu Shi's Trial Collection. Zhu Ziqing completely abandoned the level-leveling, antithesis and traditional rhyme and interest, and purely used vernacular or even spoken language, only seeking the renewal of natural rhythm and image. Zhou Zuoren's River predates Zhu Ziqing's poem by less than ten months. It was once called the earliest successful work of new poetry, but it was almost all prose. This poem is not so loose, it rhymes and pays due attention to the rhythm. Its content has rational speculation, but through the hypothetical way of "God" answering questions, using symbols and contrast, it casts philosophy in the image, avoiding the sense of abstraction and obscurity, and appears cordial and vivid.