The Rise of ＂Obscure Poetry＂

The rise of "obscure poetry" was one of the most important events in the poetry movement of the new period. At the end of the 1970s, China ended the turmoil of the "Cultural Revolution" and began to implement the policy of reform and opening up. Social opening up also brought about freedom of literary creation. Following the emerging trend of freedom, Bei Dao and Mang Ke founded and published the private magazine Today in 1978. Many young poets began to publish poems with special images, abundant meanings and obscure connotations in Today, breaking with the unified artistic criteria since the 1950s and extensively absorbing nutrition from Western modern poetry. These poems also manifest anti-authority and political consciousness and embody serious reflection on and criticism of the social disaster, consciously shouldering the historical task of rebuilding poets' egos, returning to human nature in poetry and reshaping artistic aesthetics. The development of these poems aroused extensive attention from researchers at that time. In 1980, these poems were called "obscure poetry" for the first time.

"Obscure poetry" originated earlier from "underground poetry" during the "Cultural Revolution." Famous"underground poets" such as Shi Zhi laid a spiritual foundation for later creation of "obscure poetry." Shi Zhi, with the original name of Guo Lusheng, adopted the form of free-style new poetry and summarized the mental pain felt by idealistic young people in their fall into the abyss. He had a clear understanding of the Cultural Revolution, and expressed thorough disappointment about and sharp criticism of the Cultural Revolution. This was quite commendable and precious at that time. Hand-written copies of Si Zhi's poems such as Fish Trilogy, This is Beijing at 4:08 and Believe in the Future were circulated by numerous young people and struck a responsive chord with people in the period of explosion of Cultural Revolution slogans.

This is Beijing at 4:08 is a poem embodying the spirit of the times. In the poem, the author fully expressed his helplessness and sadness in the face of departure and his bewilderment and unexplainable pain in the face of future uncertainties.

Beijing station s towering edifice

Convulses without warning

Shaken, I look out the windows

Not knowing what s going on

My heart shudders in pain; it must be

My mother s sewing needle runs me through

At this moment my heart transforms into a kite

Tethered to her hands

Beijing still underfoot

Slowly begins to drift away

Once more I wave to Beijing

And I want to grab her by the collar

And shout to her

Remember me, Mother Beijing!

Shi Zhi compared Beijing to his mother. Leaving Beijing is like a helpless and fearful child's departure from his mother, and the train is like a stranger's hand taking away the child from his mother by force. The poem describes the complex feeling that the generation of educated youth had

before going to the mountains and the countryside. It was not only individuals' pain in life, but also the great pain of the times. However, when ideals were disillusioned and the future was extremely misty, the poet proved the value of this generation's existence with the poem. Such spirit of still cherishing ideals resolutely in despair also became the most precious spiritual treasure for "obscure poetry" that emerged later.

After the Cultural Revolution ended, "underground poetry" began to float to the historical surface, and the "obscure poetry" movement also began. Representative poets included Bei Dao, Gu Cheng, Mang Ke, Duo Duo, Shu Ting, Jiang He, Yang Lian, Hai Zi, etc. Mang Ke was one of the founders of the magazine Today. He made prominent contributions both in the period of underground "obscure poetry" and after "obscure poetry" was officially recognized following the founding of Today. Mang Ke's poems are refreshing, natural, unrestrained and free like his behavior. When reading Mang Ke's poem, one seems to feel the fragrance of soil and feel very warm. The images full of vitality selected by him made people who suffered great oppression during the Cultural Revolution feel great strength. Mang Ke's representative poetry collections include Selected Poems of Mang Ke, Sunflowers in the Sun, etc.

Shu Ting, a representative of female poets in the "obscure poetry" movement, wrote poetry collections such as The Two-Mast Ship and The Singing Flower. She actively joined the Today poetry group, and became known for creating To The Oak:

If I love you

I won % wind upon you like a trumpet creeper

upvalue myself by your height

I will never follow a spoony bird

repeating the monotune song for the green shade

not only like a springhead

brings you clean coolness whole year long

I must be a ceiba by your side

as a tree standing together with you

we partake cold tide, thunder storm firebolt

This is a bold declaration of love and the poet's pursuit of lofty character and women's value. Shu Ting's poems do not directly face the gloomy times but call for recovery of compassion and love from a woman's standpoint and protest against the times through eulogizing the dignity and rights of "people." Her romantic and elegant poems combining classical sentiments and modern thoughts and thoroughly expressing modern Chinese people's painful disillusionment brought about a refreshing trend in the heavily suppressed poetry circles then.

Though the "obscure poetry" movement did not last long, it occupies an important place in the history of Chinese modern poetry. "Obscure poems" inheriting the literary traditions of the "May 4th Movement" give emphasis to poetry's artistic value and attention to individuals' existence; they express discontent with politics, violently accuse the times of destruction of human nature, and pursue man's spiritual freedom and value of existence; they are deeply influenced by Western modernism and draw on the techniques of the modern school, bringing Chinese new poetry into line with the world.