Johann Wolfgang von Goethe proposed the concept of ”world literature” in 1827, and the writing of various languages will be seen as ”world dialect writing” in the future, ultimately moving towards ”human world litera-ture” writes poet, translator and editor Cao Shui.
Modern Chinese poetry originated in 1917, marking a transformation rooted in millennia of Chinese literary tradition, comparable to the invention of writing. Traditionally, ancient Chinese poetry had strict rhythms, from the Book of Songs to the poetry of the Qing Dynasty, but now, as Hu Shi said, ”there is a great liberation of poetic style”, breaking away from the past rhythms and writing Free Verse. This was closely related to China’s end of imperial rule in 1911 and the establishment of a republic in 1912. The new country needed to produce new culture, which is why the New Culture Movement (1915-1923) broke out. The poetry revolution was a component of the New Culture Movement. The time between 1917, during the New Culture Movement, and 1927, during the Great Revolution, can be defined as a period of formation for modern Chinese poetry.
The text marking the beginning transformation towards modern poetry is Hu Shi’s The Attempting Discussion of Literary Reform, published on January 1, 2017, in the foundation magazine of the New Culture Movement, New Youth. In his article, he put forward eight propositions, ”advocating vernacular Chinese, opposing classical Chinese, advocating new literature, and opposing old literature,” which opened up China’s literary revolution. Chinese Free Poetry also began with Hu Shi’s publication of Eight Poems in Vernacular Language, in New Youth on February 1, 1917. Vernacular language poetry is modern Chinese poetry, which is contrasting to classical Chinese poetry.
In that category of poems, he wrote his first free poem Friends, which was later included in the Trial Collection, published in 1920. On January 1, 1918, the New Youth magazine published nine vernacular poems by Hu Shi, Liu Bannong, and Shen Yinmo, including Liu Bannong’s A Layer of Paper, and Shen Yinmo’s Moonlit Night. The vernacular poets developed their own distinct style and were referred to as the ”experimentalists”, who are reputed to have pioneered contemporary Chinese poetry.
Apart from Hu Shi, Guo Moruo was the culmination of this period. His publication of Goddess in 1922 was more mature than Trial Collection, by Hu Shi, and pioneered the romanticism of modern Chinese poetry. This period was the first explosive period of schools in China, with numerous schools emerging. The most influential schools are the New Moon School represented by Xu Zhimo and the New Rhythm School represented by Wen Yiduo. In fact, they both lean towards Chinese classicism and hope to explore a new form of rhythm. Wen Yiduo’s three beauties of ”music beauty, painting beauty, and architectural beauty”, are still influencing the poetry world today.
The Symbolism represented by Li Jinfa and Feng Zhi’s modernist poetry tend to lean towards Western modernist schools, ultimately leading to the emergence of contemporary mature ”Misty Poetry”. The prose poetry collection Wild Grass, published by Lu Xun in 1927, was, in my opinion, underestimated, and I think it is an exploration of surrealism. Influenced by Japanese haiku and Indian Tagore poetry, Bing Xin’s poetry collection, The Stars, can be regarded as a representative figure of the ”Little Poetry” school. The Chinese Lakeside Poetry School, which effectively imitates the British Lakeside Poetry School, includes members such as Wang Jingzhi, Feng Xuefeng, Pan Mohua, and Ying Xiuren. We can observe the diversity explored during this period.
The ”Vernacular Poetry” created by Hu Shi is the earliest form of modern Chinese poetry. He himself called it the ”Great Liberation of Poetic Style”, and he also acknowledged that it was influenced by American imagery. China had used the same ancient style of poetry for three thousand years, but now that changed, which was revolutionary.
Recently, Lamberto Garzia, an Italian poet and editor-in-chief of Selected Chinese Poetry for the 21st Century, quoted Hu Shi in a letter to me, saying, ”We Chinese must study the formation of vernacular Chinese in Italy”. He was inspired by the rebellion of Italian literature against Latin literature and advocated for vernacular Chinese. In short, modern Chinese literature was mainly influenced by Western culture, which led to its emergence from ancient poetry spanning three thousand years. Without the influence of Western literature, regulated poetry may have continued to dominate Chinese poetry.
This transformation has certainly brought Chinese poetry into modernization, but on the other hand, it has caused a ”rupture”. I had an interview with Xie Mian, a representative and contemporary Chinese critic, at the first Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival in 2007, titled, ”From Metrical Poetry to Free Poetry: A Difficult Transformation”. He commented on the ”rupture” from rhythmic poetry to free poetry, saying, ”Before the New Culture Movement, there was a reformist revolution in the poetry world, whose efforts were to use rhythmic poetry to express a new life, but they did not find a satisfactory way. Then came the revolutionary new poetry written by Hu Shi and his team in vernacular, so this was the inevitability of modernization, because today’s rhythmic constraints are no longer suitable for this era.” We will find that this ”rupture” will continue to have an impact on modern Chinese poetry, and when exploring multiple schools, it will revolve around the opposition between classicism and modernism.
Chinese poetry is closely related to Chinese history. With the end of the Great Revolution, just like the split between the Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, poets were also divided into two camps. On one hand, there were realistic poets such as Ai Qing, Tian Jian, and Zang Kejia, influenced by the Leftist Literary Movement, and on the other hand, there were modernist factions influenced by Western literature. This divide continued to affect the development of Chinese poetry.
In terms of exploring poetic techniques, modernist schools have made more contributions, making breakthroughs in many aspects. The Modernist School founded by Shi Zhecun deeply explored the expressive techniques of modernist poetry. The culmination of their genre was Dai Wangshu, whose Rain Alley has kept on influencing the development of Chinese poetry to this day. He was a fusionist who combined the imagery of T.S. Eliot of English literature with the obscurity of late Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin. Dai Wangshu found a magical connection between them.
During this period, there was also Bian Zhilin, a representative poet of the Post New Moon School, which inherited Xu Zhimo’s romanticism and later integrated multiple modernist styles. Bian Zhilin’s Broken Chapters can be regarded as a classic in modernist poetry, reflecting a profound concept of ”relativity” with its short lines. He was referred to by Yuan Kejia, a poet of the ”Nine Leaves School”, as a character who inherited the New Moon School, developed the Modernist School, and opened up the Nine Leaves School.
The modernist school represented by Dai Wangshu and the Post New Moon School represented by Bian Zhilin used metaphors, synesthesia, symbolism, and other techniques to open up a new generation of poetry, directly influencing the ”Nine Leaves School” of the 1940s. As Yuan Kejia commented on Bian Zhilin, ”From early Romanticism to Symbolism, they have reached Chinese style Modernism.”
With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937, China’s regions were also divided into Nationalist controlled areas, Communist controlled areas, and Japanese occupied areas. In the Communist controlled areas, the mainstream was Anti-Japanese Poetry, and Ai Qing, Tian Jian, and Zang Kejia all created a large number of realistic works.
Among them, Ai Qing was the culmination, and his Dayan River - My Nanny is still deeply moving. He was not just a simple slogan, but also integrated his own destiny with the nation, integrating the techniques of realism, romanticism, and modernism. This was also the first peak period of Ai Qing’s writing.
There are two major literary schools in the Nationalist controlled areas: the July Poetry School and the Nine Leaf Poetry School. The July Poetry School was named after the magazine July, edited by Hu Feng, who was a theorist of the July Poetry School. He advocated for realism with a ”subjective fighting spirit”, making him a realist who integrated multiple styles. Ai Qing also belongs to this school. The representative poets of this poetic school include Hu Feng, Lv Yuan, Lu Zhi, A Long, Zeng Zhuo, Ji Pang, Cao Bai, Niu Han, Tian Jian, etc.
The Nine Leaf Poetry School was named after the publication of the Nine Leaf Collection. They were formerly known as the ”New Modern Poetry School” and were described as ”conscious modernists” who generally pursued the techniques of Western modernism. These nine poets were Xin Di, Chen Jingrong, Du Yunxie, Hang Yuehe, Zheng Min, Tang Qi, Tang Shi, Yuan Kejia, and Mu Dan. Among them, Mu Dan was the most accomplished and the first mature poet to emerge from Chinese modernism. His works still influence Chinese modernism.
In 1949, with the victory of the Communist Party in the Chinese Mainland, the forces of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) were driven to Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong and Macao, which are still colonies, and the Chinese poetry world was divided into two camps.
In the Chinese Mainland, there were Social Realism Schools represented by Guo Moruo, Zang Kejia, Ai Qing and Tian Jian. They also gained the status of ”orthodoxy”, representing the style of Chinese poetry at home and abroad. With Hu Shi’s arrival in Taiwan, modernist poetry represented by Hu Shi, Xu Zhimo, Li Jinfa and Dai Wangshu were also rushed to Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, where modernism developed tortuously. In the 1980s, it returned to the Chinese Mainland, affecting the development of Chinese Modernism schools.
The modernist poetry schools in the Chinese Mainland were suppressed politically. Tang Qi, Tang Shi, Mu Dan, etc. of the Nine Leaves School of Poetry were all beaten as rightists in the ”Anti-Rightists Struggle” in 1957, and exiled to the countryside and border areas. The July Poetry School, although also known as the Realist Poetry School, was not the realism that the Leftist believes. It was referred to by the Minister of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, and theorist Zhou Yang, as the ”individualistic literary and artistic thought of the petty bourgeoisie”. Further, in 1955, it was labeled as the ”Hu Feng Counter-Revolutionary Group”. 78 people were arrested, which impacted more than 2000 intellectuals.
The period between the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 to the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution in 1966 is known as the ”Seventeen Year Literature”. Socialist Literature or Political Lyrical Poetry is the main theme of this period, represented by poets such as Guo Xiaochuan, He Jingzhi, Wen Jie, etc. Due to their superb language skills, despite being under the impact of political movements in various periods, they still created some good works.
China’s exploration of modernism did instead continue in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. In 1953, Ji Xian founded Modern Poetry Magazine, with important poets including Zheng Chouyu, Xin Yu proposing to ”lead the revolution of new poetry and promote the modernization of new poetry”. In 1954, the Blue Star Weekly founded by Qin Zihao and Yu Guangzhong, as well as the Genesis Magazine founded by Luo Fu and Ya Xian, promoted the modernist trend in Taiwan’s literary world.
The influential poets Yu Guangzhong, Luo Fu, Zheng Chouyu, and Yang Mu, all grew up during that period. The literary achievements of Hong Kong are mainly reflected in popular novels, while the influence of Macau literature is relatively small. Modern poetry in Hong Kong and Macau has not produced significant poets. Since the Cultural Revolution did not take place in Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan, they integrated the traditional metrical poetry with the western modernist style, which later in turn affected the development of literature in the Chinese Mainland.
With the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, the more extreme leftist, or so-called ”Gang of Four”, came to power, completely denying the main theme of literature in the ”Seventeen Year Literature”. In their view, it was also a ”Poison Grass” of capitalism or revisionism, and even the orthodox theorist Zhou Yang was overthrown. This period of history is still not well studied, and the only ones we are familiar with are the ”Eight Model Operas”. The most orthodox poetry is probably the works created by the collective authors of ”workers, peasants, and soldiers”, almost all of which are slogan style microphones. The exploration of Chinese modernism and realism completely stopped, and modern Chinese poetry entered a Dark Time.
At this moment, an undercurrent was emerging, and the ”Educated Youth” who had been sent down secretly wrote what is known as ”Underground Literature”. Later, the world-renowned ”Misty Poetry” began with ”underground poetry”. In 1968, Believe in the Future, written by Shi Zhi became the banner of that time, symbolizing a generation’s hope for future change. Mang Ke wrote City in 1972, and Shu Ting wrote Boat in the same year, both of which are precursors to ”Misty Poetry”.
In the last year of the Cultural Revolution, the ”Tiananmen Square Poetry” movement emerged, and almost everyone wrote poetry to commemorate the death of Premier Zhou Enlai. This was a traditional way of negating this era in China. This appeared like the energy of winter was accumulating, awaiting the blooming of spring.
The 1976 Tiananmen Square Poetry Movement marked the end of the Cultural Revolution, and when the so-called ”Gang of Four” were arrested, this decade-long movement came to an end. The exiled old poets were rehabilitated, including the July Poetry School and the Nine Leaf Poetry School poets, who were labeled as Rightist or Members of the “Hu Feng Counter Revolutionary Group”. They were called the ”Returning Poets Group”. They have all experienced physical and mental exile, creating a large number of profound poems, but there has been no breakthrough in their creative techniques. Among these returning poets, the old poet Ai Qing had the greatest influence. He created poetry collections such as ”The Song of Returning”, which was also his second peak period of writing. Ai Qing is also known as the face of Chinese poetry in international socialist countries, and he often represents China in international activities.
The true breakthrough in creative techniques was the ”Misty Poetry School”, most of whom were ”Educated Youth” who had gone to the countryside and miraculously kept the broken spirit of modernism alive. The representative poets of the Misty Poetry School included Shi Zhi, Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Yang Lian, Mang Ke, Jiang He, Shu Ting, Duo Duo, Liang Xiaobin, etc. They called for the freedom of human nature in content, and pursued ”imagery”, ”symbolization”, and the ”three-dimensional” in artistic skills, which made it difficult for old poets to understand when these poems were said to be misty and have critical connotations.
At this point, new critics stepped forward. Xie Mian commented that ”a group of new poets are on the rise”, and Sun Shaozhen said, ”the rise of a new aesthetic principle”, and Xu Jingya wrote ”The Rising Poetry Group”. They systematized the artistic proposition of Misty Poetry from form to content, making it a representative of Chinese avant-garde poetry. The three of them are known as the ”Three Rises” in Chinese poetry history. Misty Poetry appears a symbol of the maturity of modern Chinese poetry, which has not only become a domestic trend but also widely recognized internationally.
During the intense debate over Misty Poetry, there was still a group of poets exploring in western China. Most of them were young poets who had migrated to the western region after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Here, they found a combination of traditional Chinese Frontier Poetry and modern poetry, creating magnificent poetry. They were known as the ”New Frontier Poetry School”. These poets include Zhou Tao, Yang Mu, Chang Yao, Zhang Deyi, and others.
Misty poetry was mainly popular in the first half of the 1980s, and as these Misty Poets became mainstream, a group of poets who rebelled against the aesthetic of Misty Poetry emerged in the second half of the 1980s. These schools of poetry were concentrated in the ”Modernist Poetry Exhibition” jointly organized by Poetry Daily and Shenzhen Youth Daily in 1986. The ”Modernist Poetry Exhibition” introduced more than 60 schools of over 100 poets, including Their Poetry Group, Maritime Poetry Group, Boorism, Non-Nonism, Holism, and so on. They are known as the ”Third Generation Poets” or ”New Generation Poets” or ”Post New Poetry Trends”. The Third Generation of Poets is relative to the First Generation of Poets during the ”Seventeen Year Literature” period, and the Second Generation of Poets during the ”Misty Poetry” period. They are characterized by anti-heroism, anti-nobility, and anti-populism, advocating anti-imagery, anti-rhetoric, and colloquialism. Representative poets include Han Dong, Yu Jian, Yi Sha, and others. Their writing later developed into Folk School or ”Oral Writing”.
Of course, there were also Hai Zi, Xi Chuan, and Luo Yihe who continued to explore the aesthetics of Misty poetry, sometimes referred to as ”Post Misty Poetry”. The outstanding representative among them was Hai Zi (1964-1989), who later became an idol of the popular reading industry and a symbol of that era. In Poetics, An Outline, Hai Zi proposed the creation of ”Great Poetry that integrates nation and humanity, poetry and ideals”, and the concept of ”Great Poetry” emerged. Hai Zi, with his outstanding creations and tragic life, later became the most influential poet in China. This is related to his close friend Xi Chuan who edited and published the Complete Collection of Hai Zi’s Poems. The author began writing in the 21st century, and the young poet at that time was said to possess a hand to write the Bible. Hai Zi’s Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms has become a well-known classic, although his greatest pursuit of the seven books of the long poem The Sun is not yet understood. Their writing later developed into Academic School or ”Intellectual Writing”.
In the 1990s, with the influence of commercial popular culture, the boundary between Folk School and Intellectual Writing became increasingly strained. So in 1999, at the turn of the century, the ”Panfeng Controversy” broke out. Panfeng was the name of a hotel in the suburbs of Beijing. This was a big debate between Folk School and Intellectual School. The poets and critics who participated in this debate each had their own descriptions, and could only be summarized in general. Folk poets advocated for folk, oral, and life writing, while intellectuals advocated elite, metaphorical, and knowledge-based writing. The attendees of the meeting include Xie Mian, Wu Sijing, Ren Hongyuan, Tang Xiaodu, Chen Zhongyi, Cheng Guangwei, Chen Chao, Lin Mang, Liu Fuchun, Zhang Qinghua, Wang Jiaxin, Xi Chuan, Sun Wenbo, Zang Di, Xi Du, Yang Ke, Yu Jian, Yi Sha, Xu Jiang, Xiao Hai, Hou Ma, etc. For the important poets of the ”third generation poets”, both schools of thought take their own positions in their descriptions. Han Dong, a representative poet of the Folk school, discussed Yu Jian, Lv De’an, Zhai Yongming, Zhang Zao, Xiao Hai, Yang Li, and others in The Second Betrayal - A Discourse on the Third Generation Poets. Commentator Cheng Guangwei, who supports Intellectual School, discussed Ouyang Jianghe, Zhang Shuguang, Wang Jiaxin, Chen Dongdong, Bai Hua, Xichuan, Zhang Zao, Zang Di, and others in his book Endless Journey - A Comprehensive Review of Poetry in the 1990s. Of course, a few people, such as Xichuan, Zhang Zao, and Wang Jiaxin, were accepted by both sides. They were now mostly the backbone of the Chinese poetry scene, and the influence of this debate continued to spread.
During the great debate in the poetry world, there were always some late maturing poets who were categorized as ”Middle Generation Poets”, referring to a group of poets born in the 1960s who did not have the opportunity to become members of the ”Third Generation Poetry Group” or participate in the early online poetry movement. They wrote in a relatively independent way. In the Complete Collection of Middle Generation Poetry, edited by An Qi, Yuan Cun, and Huang Lihao, An Qi, Zang Di, Yi Sha, Hou Ma, Xu Jiang, Shu Cai, Ye Kuangzheng, Chen Xianfa, Zhao Lihua, Pan Wei, Xidu, Sangke, Zhu Ling, Wang Jianzhao, Zhao Siyun, Huang Fan, and others were selected.
With the arrival of the new century, despite the influence of commercialization and networking, poets are no longer fixated on the divide between folk and intellectual writing. Qiao Damo even proposed the ”Third Road”. The twenty avant-garde poetry schools and representative figures listed in He Sanpo’s History of Online Poetry, do to some extent reflect the state of the poetry world. These poetic schools include ”Rubber” by Yang Li and Wu Qing; “Their” by Han Dong, Yang Jian, and Jin Haishu; ”The Third Road” by Qiao Damo, Zhang Yanwen, and Mo Fei; ”Pistons” by Xu Man, Ding Cheng; ”Materialism” by Su Feishu, Chu Jiu; ”Lower Body” by Shen Haobo, Yin Lichuan, Wu Ang; ”Incomprehension” by Yu Nu, Pan Mozi, Motou Beibei; ”Garbage Movement” by Fan Si and Pi Dan; ”Low Poetry” by Long Jun and Guan Shang; ”Possible Front” by Bai Ya, Zhang Jun and Jian Yi; ”Cultur ism” by Zhou Sese, Zhu Ying, and Li Cheng’en; ”The Third Pole Literary Movement” by Nan Ou, Shi Pin; “Southern Poetry Salon” by Xiao Shui, Zhu Yu, and Yu Xiaoxuan; The ”Coquettish Faction” by Jing Bute, Mo Mo, and Meng Lang; ”Frontline” Xue Yao and En Ci; ”Working Poets” by Zheng Xiaoqiong, Xu Qiang, and Chen Zhongcun; ”Middle Class Writing” by Bei Wei, Lv Yue, and Yang Siping; ”Divine Writing” by Lu Zhong, Chen Xiao, and Lei Yan; ”Great Poetism” by Cao Shui, Xi Yuan, and Xi Di; and ”New Tradition” by Wang Meihong. From this list, it can be seen that the later influential great poeticism has already taken a place.
During the period of 2011-2019, the Chinese Poetry School Network founded by Xu Jingya and Han Qingcheng gave birth to many later schools to some extent, including the ”Cao Shui-Yi Sha Controversy”, which also became a hot topic on the website. Yi Sha always believed that behind Cao Shui was Xu Jingya, one of the “Three Rises” of ”Misty Poetry” at that time.
In addition to traditional Folk School and Intellectual School, China has also formed a group of ”New Returning Poets”, who once wrote poetry in the 1980s, but left the poetry circles in the 1990s due to livelihood reasons. In the new century, they returned to the poetry circles, which is related to the ”Returning Poets” group after the Cultural Revolution. The important poets listed in Sha Ke’s ”Chinese New Returning Poets” include: Qiu Huadong, Li Shaojun, Sha Ke, Hong Zhu, Che Qianzi, Xu Demin, Mo Mo, Xiao Hai, Xue Di, Shang Zhongmin, Zhou Qingrong, Bing Feng, Lin Xue, Zhang Deming, Jiang Nian Guang, Zhou Se Se, Zhou Zhanlin, etc.
From the epic era to the rhythmic era, and then to the free verse era, the spirit of poetry has altered into various cultural forms. With the diversification of entertainment, the readership of poetry is decreasing, which is a common problem worldwide. Of course, to some extent, this has also led poetry onto a more pure path, inevitably becoming a peripheral existence in Chinese poetry. Occasionally, there are poetic genres known as internet celebrities in the form of poetic events, including Zhao Lihua’s ”Pear Blossom Style”, Che Yangao’s ”Lamb Style”, Wu Qing’s ”Wu Qing Style”, He Dian’s ”Peace style”, Jia Qianqian’s ”Shallow Style”, Tie Wu’s ”Spring Style”, and so on. They are mostly ridiculed by society and attract people in a non poetic manner.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese new poetry, the ”Cao Shui-Yi Sha Controversy” that erupted between 2018 and 2020 became a new major debate in the poetry world. The two sides forming their own camps included the advocate of ”Great Poeticism”, Cao Shui, and the advocate of ”Post Oral Poetry”, Yi Sha. This is the Internet era, which also started with Cao Shui criticizing “Oral Poetry” as “Drooling Poetry” through the short video ”Tiktok”, which quickly caused a great controversy in the poetry world. The articles of the debate spread rapidly through Weibo, WeChat, Tiktok and other online media. Yi Sha’s Car Passing the Yellow River, and Cao Shui’s Great Dance of Sorrow, were widely spread in the debate. The ”Post Oral Poetry School” is related to the ”Pre-Oral Poetry” of Han Dong, Yu Jian, and others. Its theory is mainly elaborated by Han Jingyuan, a disciple of Yi Sha, and summarized into three principles: ”oral writing”, ”physical presence”, and ”factual poetry”. Cao Shui responded with the four principles of ”integration of sacred and secular cultures, integration of ancient and modern cultures, integration of West and East culture, [and] assign poetic form based on content”. The concept of ”Great Poetry” originated from epics and was first proposed by Hai Zi in the Chinese literary and poetic world, back in the 1980s. In 2007, Cao Shui wrote the Manifesto of of Great Poeticism and began to promote the ”Great Poetry Movement” with a large number of practitioners among the younger generation of poets. 136 poets participated in the debate, including A Fei, Chun Shu, Han Dong, Han Qingcheng, Huang Tudi, Huo Junming, Jian Ming, Lv Benhuai, Ma Zhiyao, Meng Yifei, Ning Wang, Pang Hua, Qiao Damo, Shen Haobo, Tan Kexiu, Tang Xin, Tu Ya, Tie Wu, Wu Huantang, Xi Chuan, Xiang Yixian, Xie Mian, Xu Jingya, Xu Jiang, Yang Li, Ying Zhi, Zhang Deming, Zhongdao, Zhou Lunyou, and others. Both sides of Yi Sha and Cao Shui immediately got supporters, with ”18 Oral General” supporting Yi Sha: Han Jingyuan, Liu Aofu, Zuo You, Jun Er, Nan Ren, Xidu Heshang, Huaxia Yunke, Ai Hao, Gui Shi, Li Yi, Xiang Chen, Wang Youwei, Zhou Yu, Zhao Zhuangzhi, Liu Tianyu, Li Xunyang, Lv Yao, Xiao Longnv, etc. The young poets who supported Cao Shui formed the ”Poetry War 18 Army”, being: Ying Zi, Bei Shan, Long Yin, Hong Liang, Dapeng Kanhai, Beike Hangmu, Xing Shun, Xu Yanmu, Ye Mo, Lei Ming, Dong Xie, Mei Puliu, Luo Yishen, Lei Xiaoming, Li Xi, Yuejian, Peng Shujin, Zhang Housheng, etc.
The first issue of Literary Freedom Talk magazine, which had a huge impact on the Chinese critical world, published a summary article titled The Cao-Yi Controversy and the Ten Major Drawbacks in the Chinese Literary World, in the form of a cover character in 2023. Cao Shui systematically summarized the causes, process, results, and impact of the Cao-Yi Controversy in the article. Summary of the article: The ”Cao-Yi Controversy” erupted one hundred years after Hu Shi wrote the Trial Collection, probably due to a series of factors. At that time, many people interpreted it as the ”Hundred Year Road Controversy of Chinese Modern Poetry”, believing it to be the largest debate in the Chinese poetry world since the ”Panfeng Controversy” and the ”most modern debate in the 21st century”. The core of this debate is the question concerning the future direction of Chinese Modern Poetry, whether it is the ”Post Oral Poetry” advocated by Yi Sha, or the ”Great Poeticism” advocated by Cao Shui, or other writing methods.
At the end of the article, the ten major ”drawbacks” of the Chinese literary world are listed, calling for the continuation of Hu Shi’s literary revolution goals in The Attempting Discussion of Literary Reform: the New Culture Movement. Hu Shi’s The Attempting Discussion of Literary Reform, is followed by Chen Duxiu’s Literary Revolution Theory, which proposed the three major ideologies of building national literature, realistic literature, and social literature. Cao Shui believes that today’s China, facing five thousand years of great changes, is facing the overall situation of the world. It’s time for a new literary revolution. This reform can start from the poetry world. Hai Zi said in Poetics, An Outline: ”My poetic ideal is to achieve a great collective poetry in China... I only want to integrate China’s actions to achieve a great poetry that combines nation and humanity, poetry and ideals.”
The Chinese poetry scene in the 21st century is still developing vividly, evaluating the value of poetry created by poets. With different perspectives, there are different evaluations, and even completely different evaluations. Even I find it difficult to be completely objective, and can only offer my own opinion. If I were to list the top ten poets who made the greatest contributions before the “Cao Shui-Yi Sha Controversy”, they would be Hu Shi, Guo Moruo, Ai Qing, Xu Zhimo, Mu Dan, Ji Xian, Hu Feng, Bei Dao, Han Dong, and Hai Zi. I also provide several observations here. The poets selected in the Blue Star Poetry Library, edited by Wang Qingping from the People’s Literature Publishing House, have had a significant impact on readers and the literary world. Currently, twelve poets have been selected: Hai Zi, Zhang Zao, Shu Ting, Gu Cheng, Gome, Luo Yihe, Duo Duo, Sun Wenbo, Chang Yao, Xiao Kaiyu, Mang Ke, and Jidi Majia. In 2024, the Selected Chinese Poetry of the 21st Century edited by Italian poet Lamberto Garzia and New Zealand Chinese poet Pei Ying, will be published in Italy, selecting seven internationally active poets: Cao Shui, Chen Christine Peiying, Anna Keiko Anna, Mirzaeva Eva, Ouyang Jianghe, Tang Yingxia, and Ye Rick Rugang. Among them, Pei Ying is a Chinese New Zealander, Eva is a Chinese Russian, Yingxia is a Chinese Australian, and Ye Rugang is a Chinese American, which shows that Chinese writing has become international.
At the turn of 2023 and 2024, the 6th Boao International Poetry Festival took place. The Poetry Festival held a seminar called: Luoluo ”The World See Me”, at Kaiyuan Villa, chaired by Han Qingcheng. During the seminar, Xu Jingya put forward the judgment of ”great change”, Du Juexiang also called for ”great turn”, and Cao Shui also called for ”great integration”. During the new year, everything foreshadowed the beginning of a great transformation in modern Chinese poetry. The famous poet Urukbeg Yesdaulet from Kazakhstan and more than 60 domestic and foreign poets witnessed this poetry festival together. In the future, this event might be called ”Kaiyuan Controversy” like the ”Panfeng Controversy”.
The Chinese poetry world has always been filled with debates, which have also driven its development, from the opposition between the earliest neoclassical poetry and modernism, to multiple subsequent debates: realism and modernism, folk writing and intellectual writing, post oral poetry and great poetry, etc. There is now a new classification: internalization and externalization. This comes from the interpretation of English involution and evolution. Involution mainly refers to the folk poetry schools in China, as Han Dong said, ”Chinese poetry will always be among the folk people”. Although he has also won the official Lu Xun Literature Award, there are many schools, each with their own artistic ideas, and unlimited internal friction. In fact, Chinese poetry is in an era of unprecedented competition. It is said that there are one million members of the Chinese Poetry Society, and the internet provides unlimited space for folk writers. This not only promotes the development of poetry, but also causes widespread ”drooling poetry” (bad oral poetry).
There is now a trend called ”externalization”, which has led to a series of international poetry festivals in China, including Qinghai Lake International Poetry Festival, Boao International Poetry Festival, Silk Road International Poetry Festival, etc. The Great Poetry Movement also spread over the world during the Cao-Yi Controversy, and many international critics are paying attention to its development. Chinese poetry has never been so integrated into the world. Today, there are also the World Poetry Movement initiated by Fernando Rendon through the Medellin International Poetry Festival, and the Poets of Planet initiated by Francis Combes in Europe, which have had a huge impact on the world poetry scene. Many Chinese poets have also participated in this movement.
Western civilization developed in a spiral outward direction, while Chinese civilization developed in a circular inward direction. Chinese poets nowadays gradually realize that China is only one of the ”Seven Great Civilizations”, including Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Canaan, Egypt, and Greece. They are actively integrating into world poetry through changes in content and form. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe proposed the concept of ”world literature” in 1827, and the writing of various languages will be seen as ”world dialect writing” in the future, ultimately moving towards ”human world literature”.
Cao Shui, also Shawn Cao (1982), is a Chinese poet, novelist, screenwriter, and translator. He is a representative figure of Chinese Contemporary Literature. He leads “the Great Poeticism” movement.
