Research On Ma Junwu’s Poetry

As a famous historical figure in modern China,Ma Junwu has attracted many scholars to study him since his death.However,most of the previous studies focused on Ma Junwu’s revolutionary thoughts,educational ideas and translation contributions,but little on his literature.Although there are a few single papers that take Ma Junwu’s poems as the research object,they fail to conduct systematic and overall research on them due to their short length and few words,which is very inconsistent with Ma Junwu’s identity as a poet.Although Ma Junwu’s poetry cannot be called a superior work,his poetry theory and poetry works conform to the development trends of modern literature,and still have a certain status and influence during the transition period of modern Chinese culture.The evolution and development of Ma Junwu’s poetry can be divided into four periods.In the period of domestic study,Ma Junwu’s poems were mainly based on strict rules and expressed his dissatisfaction with the government’s policies and the status of national ruin.In the period of overseas study,Ma Junwu affected by the western culture and the domestic poetic revolution,his poetry reflects the acceptance of foreign culture,show enthusiasm for Chinese classical poetry innovation.He not only add western scientific and cultural knowledge into the poem,and also use novel language and free form to write poems.His poems show the ideological tendency of transformation from reform to revolution.At the beginning of his study abroad,Ma Junwu was influenced by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.His poems not only advocated Weixin reform,but also showed the limitation of royalism.Later,due to his communication with Sun yat-sen,he began to embark on the path of radical democratic revolution.At this time,his poems were mainly aimed at anti-imperialism,anti-feudalism and advocating democratic revolution.When Ma Junwu returned home from abroad,he took an active part in the domestic revolution.At this time,most of his poems were related to the revolutionary movement.During his retirement from politics,Ma Junwu no longer had the heroic spirit to go to the battlefield,but his patriotic heart to save the nation remained unchanged.At this time,his poems were all traditional styles,which not only showed his yearning for his hometown and rural life,but also showed his dissatisfaction with the ineffective combat of the national army against Japan,and the officials’enjoyment and corruption.Ma Junwu opposed imitating the traditional style of poetry and demanded to innovate the poetry.While breaking through the old rules,he also demanded the poets to reflect their own uniqueness.In addition,Ma Junwu also emphasized the practical significance and social function of poetry.He required poetry to keep pace with the times,not only to promote patriotism and encourage the people,but also to spread science and oppose superstition.Ma Junwu’s poetics concept closely associated with poetic revolution.He has both claim to poetic revolution in poetry innovation of inheritance,also have a reflection on the innovation in the poetic revolution.His later poetry in the form of Retro tendency is affected by the“Guocuipai”of Nanshe,also symbolizes a repeatability in the process of classical Chinese poetry transforming to modern.Ma Junwu’s poems are neatly collected,and there are about 140 original works（excluding missing parts）.In terms of content,Ma Junwu’s poems can be roughly divided into five categories:advocating new knowledge poems,patriotic salvation poems,homesick poems,travel poems and revolutionary chronicle poems.In terms of theme,his poems mainly maintain new academic trends,express patriotic thoughts,insist on military resistance,publicize democracy and freedom,and advocate feminism.Ma Junwu’s poems not only incorporate a lot of scientific knowledge,but also reflect strict logicality and scientific rationality.His poems are often written in plain style,without heavy decoration or carving,thus giving people a sense of simplicity.Because he is influenced by Western culturet and frequently translate of western literary works,his poems not only introduce a large number of new words from overseas and make good use of foreign allusions,but also have various forms and freedom,giving people a sense of refreshing.Ma Junwu’s poems mostly express patriotism and revolutionary passion,so their tone is generous and passionate,and their style is broad and bold.For the translation of foreign poems,Ma Junwu mostly adopts the body style of Chinese classical poems.Moreover,he is good at quoting Chinese allusions and integrating into Chinese culture,so he is easy to be accepted by Chinese people.Ma Junwu had obvious political tendency in translating poems,and sometimes he deliberately“mistranslated”the original poems in order to publicize the revolution.As the first group of translators in modern China,Ma Junwu’s translated poems have many“first version”status in China and play a leading role in the development of Chinese classical poetry to modern one.The colloquial language,novel vocabulary and free style of his translated poems opened the door for the modernization of Chinese classical poetry,and his translated poems laid a foundation for the liberalization and popularization of“May 4^th”poetry.Ma Junwu’s poetry is an important part of China’s modern patriotic poetry,and its content just happens to be the best witness of China’s modern revolutionary history.Ma Junwu’s poetry has been recorded from Weixin Reform,democratic revolution,Anti-Yuan revolution,protecing Law movement,to the war of resistance against Japan.The change and development of Ma Junwu’s poetry from Xinxue poetry to Xinpai poetry and then to Geti poetry runs through every stage of the transition from Chinese classical poetry to modern poetry,and it is a typical representative of the transition from Chinese classical poetry to modern poetry.Although Ma Junwu’s poems can not be called first-class works,they have a certain status and influence in modern Chinese poetry.His poems are the result of the“west wind spreading to the east”in the late Qing dynasty and the Republic of China.He was one of the first poets to introduce western learning civilization and advanced thoughts into his poems.His poems advocated scientific knowledge,democratic revolution and feminism,which was of distinctive progressive significance in China,which was in urgent need of“opening people’s wisdom”and“fighting for freedom”at that time.However,Ma Junwu is not only a poet,but also a revolutionary and educator who unconsciously values the fighting and educational significance of poetry.It is precisely because he pays too much attention to the social function of poetry that his poetry itself is deficient in literary aesthetics and poetic taste.However,Ma Junwu opposes the poetic imitation of antiquity and emphasizes self-innovation.His poetic creation of Geti poems with simple language,free form and intense emotion represents the efforts and exploration of poets since Huang Zunxian to accept new knowledge and explore the poetic realm,which is advanced.