Ever since the Opium War in 1840, China gradually became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. Mao Zedong said that in this period, “the contradictions between imperialism and the Chinese nation, feudalism and the masses of the people were the main contradictions of the modern Chinese society.” Therefore, the progressive literature in modern China that reflected the social contradictions was marked with features of anti-imperialism and anti-feudalism. In the old democratic revolution period before the May 4th Movement, “The struggles on the cultural front in China were those between the bourgeois new culture and feudal old culture.” Such new culture was at the service of the Chinese bourgeois-democratic revolution. To accommodate to the historic needs of Chinese democratic revolution, some poems with anti-imperialism and patriotic contents and some democratic thinking appeared during the late Qing period. Tan Sitong (谭嗣同，1865-1898) and Xia Zengyou (夏曾佑，1863-1924) and others advocated “Revolution in the Poetry Circle”; Huang Zunxian (黄尊宪，1848-1905) claimed his poetry belonged to the “new school”, the forms he used was a bit more liberated than before. Yet, the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal thoughts expressed in the works by those listed above were not thorough, colored with reformism; artistically the attainment was not as brilliant as the classic works. But they are after all different in nature in the history of Chinese literature, they expressed to some extent the struggles and wishes of the Chinese people for national independence and democratic revolution. As the fate of failure of the democratic revolution led by Chinese bourgeoisie, the “Revolution in the Poetry Circle” and poetry of the “new school” were not able to have a normal development. However, they did play a certain progressive role at the time; judging from the context of historic development, they played a certain preceding role to the revolution in literature during the May 4th Movement.
A portrait of Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu （林则徐，1785-1850）who resisted British aggressors and burnt more than a million kilo opium during the Opium War was a famous poet at the time. He wrote “示家人，Shi Jia Ren, To Family Members” before he was sent into exile to Yili:
力微任重久神疲， Li wei ren zhong jiu shen pi,
再竭衰庸定不支； Zai jie shuai yong ding bu zhi;
苟利国家生死以， Gou li guo jia sheng si yi,
岂因祸福避趋之； Qi yin huo fu bi qu zhi;
謫居正是君恩厚， Zhe ju zheng shi jun en hou,
养拙刚于戍卒宜。 Yang zhuo gang yu shu zu yi.
戏于山妻谈故事， Xi yu shan qi tan gu shi,
试吟“断送老头皮。” Shi yin “duan song lao tou pi.”
I’ve long been tired with a heavy duty on my fragile body,
I would not stand if more is exerted from me;
I would devote my life if it were in the interests of the country,
I wouldn’t dodge it if it were a disaster to me personally;
To be relegated is a big favor from the Emperor,
To hide my clumsiness is better than the life in the army.
I tell my wife a story, which is rather funny,
A story about “giving up the old head to the excellency.”
Why did he tell a story to his wife? What was the story? In the Song Dynasty, Emperor Zhenzong once asked Yang Pu if any body wrote him a poem recently, Yang said that his younger concubine wrote him one, which went:
Don’t lose your spirit and indulge in wine,
Don’t be so crazy and wild in chanting poems.
Today you’re going to the court,
You will not be able to keep your old head.
Hearing these lines, the Song Emperor, who intended to keep Yang to work in the imperial court, was amused and laughed, he let Yang go back to his normal life. Lin was punished by the Qing Imperial court for resisting the British troops, but he didn’t regret what he did for the interests of the state regardless of his personal gains or losses, fortunes or misfortunes. Yet, he had to console his wife and family. That’s why he wrote this poem and told this story. Many of his poems expressed his warm patriotism. We now have more than 500 of his poems.
The first book introducing countries in Europe in China was “海国图志，Introduction to Countries on the Sea”. The author was Wei Yuan (魏源，1794-1857), a poet. There are now more than 900 of his poems available. His poems revealed the acute social conflicts and evils, expressed his lofty patriotism and his love of mountains and rivers. His poetry in general is of a vigorous style.
Zhang Weiping (张维屛，1780-1859) was remarkable in his poems which recorded the resistance against British aggression. His poems included new things like steam ships and the map of the world. Now, let me quote a few lines from his long poem “三元里，The San Yuan Lane”:
三元里前声若雷， San yuan li qian sheng ruo lei,
千众万众同时来。 Qian zhong wan zhong tong shi lai.
因义生愤愤生勇， Yin yi sheng fen fen sheng yong,
乡民合力强徒摧。 Xiang min he li qiang tu cui.
家室田庐须保卫， Jia shi tian lu xu bao wei,
不待鼓声众作气； Bu dai gu sheng zhong zuo qi;
妇女齐心亦健儿， Fu nu qi xin yi jian er,
犁锄在手皆兵器。 Li chu zai shou jie bing qi.
乡分远近旗斑斓， Xiang fen yuan jin qi ban lan,
什队百队沿溪山。 Shi dui bai dui yan xi shan.
众夷相视忽变色， Zhong yi xiang shi hu bian se,
黑旗死仗难生还。 Hei qi si zhang nan sheng huan.
夷兵所持惟枪炮， Yi bing suo chi wei qiang pao,
人心合处天心到， Ren xin he chu tian xin dao,
晴空骤雨忽倾盆， Qing kong zhou yu hu qing pen,
凶夷无所施其暴！ Xiong yi wu suo shi qi bao!
Description: