"The Flag Fluttering Amid Autumn Wind"

The formation of the group of modern poets in the Southwest United University results not only from the inherent laws of development of Chinese modern poetry but also from the exchanges between the western and Chinese cultures, from the milieu as well as from the spirits of that time. The hard and relatively stable life in remote inland during the War, the liberal modes of teaching and learning in the University, the brilliant accomplishment of the faculty on poetry, the tangible periodicals to publish new poems, and the atmosphere of advocating creating brought out the group of poets of the Southwest United University and enabled them to initiate consciously a new way of poetry creating which was anti-tradition and pro–modern in nature.The group of poets of the Southwest United University explored and modernized the motives of poetry with striking flavors of their own. First of all, the poets focused on the status quo of the helplessness of human kind in the time of war, mediating on the existence and the value of life in their poem creation. They exposed negative side of the groaning society which was on the brink of collapse. They emphasized on the existence of human beings as individuals, trying to connect the outer world with the inner minds, displaying strong eagerness for the quest for the nature of human life. They explored the inner experience of human beings by extolling love, and saw the true essence of human life from the aspect of love, and therefore, brought new conceptions and aesthetic consciousness to China's modern poetry.The persistent effort and valuable practice of the group of poets of the Southwest United University in the procession of the exploration of the form of poetry brought a strong shock on the form, the essence, the theory and strategy as well as the language of China's modern poetry. Metaphors, symbols, synaesthesias, ironies and paradoxes were used in great quantity, which sped up the spatial and temporal conversions, and strengthened the power of language and enlarged the volume to increase the artistic power of modern poetry. The combination of reason and intuition realized the balance of poetry and reality, and enabled poetry to claim the psychological truth, the truth of humanity and the truth of essence. The miscellaneous forms or modes smashed the temporal and spatial as well as the physical logic of China's traditional poetry, gave prominence to the conflicts and tensions of the poetry, strengthened the power of poetry an enlarged the volume. A great deal of poetic images wove the reality of the poets into the spiritual world, changed the images of the reality and the images of illusion into artistically poetic images to create unique aesthetical objects, and in this way, displayed the potential and charm of poetry.The attitude of the group of poets of the Southwest United University to advocate creation marks their active responses to modernism and their persistent research, which not only helped Chinese poetry connect more closely with the modernism in the world but also brought China's modern poetry up to a new era, with their success in the exploration of modern poetry.