Huang Zun-xian And Hakka's Folk Culture

Here I will discuss the relationship between Huang Zun-xian and Hakka's folk culture. This paper consists of three sections.The first section is to discuss what Huang Zun-xian absorbed in the folk song and proverb of Hakka. Hakka's folk culture, especially Hakka's folk song influenced Huang Zun-xian's poems deeply. He flexibly practised upon the form of the Hakka's folk song, and skillfully utilized the rhetorical instrumentality such as Fu,Bi,Xing and Shuanguan. His poems broke through the mode of the classical poems. As for the language, he was a masterly user of Hakka's dialect for the purpose of visualization and affection. Hakka's balladry offered Huang Zun-xian's nursery rhyme the elemental form which he often used to describe the current war and to satirize corrupt politics. Huang Zun-xian's poems combined the classical poetic form with the excellent folk art to create new poetic style.The second section is to deal with the topic of Huang Zun-xian's poems. Hakka's culture, formed in the course of thousand years of migration, has been sticking to ancient customs and its cultural identity and refusing to be assimilated. Meanwhile, the new cultural characteristics formed in the arduous emigrant road and the awkward mountain Jiving. The cultural structure of the mountain living characterized economic conditions, family structure and sex division of labor. On the other hand, the emigrant living formed Hakka's inhomogeneous attribute such as open, mobility and inventiveness. Huang Zun-xian's long-term diplomatic career drove him to compare Hakka's customs with foreign ones, and discerned them intellectually. He distinguished between merits and shortcomings of Hakka's customs, so as to effectuate democratization and reformation in China.The third section is to detail spiritual linkage between Huang Zun-xian's poetic theory and Hakka's culture. The significant viewpoints of Huang Zun-xian's poetic theory are colloquilism, emotionalism, utilitarianism which originated from Hakka's folk culture. Heactively wrote the pomes in colloquial language, but he hesitated between the ancient language and the oral language. He attached importance to the utterable function of the oral language and neglected its aesthetic function. Huang Zun-xian realized that only by sincere sentiment can the literary work have a great influence on people, so he advocated that a poet should express his truthful sentiment. Hakka'culture gave Huang Zun-xian the utilitarianism which inspired him to devote himself to his country.