On Ai Qing’s Poem Creation In Yan An

Being one of the most important free verse poets in Chinese poetic circle, Ai Qing was also a poet who possessed a very complicated experience in his poetic career. As the key personnel of the July poems, Ai Qing, who formed a very unique aesthetic artistic personality represented by the works such as Facing the Sun, Trumpeter and Torches, arrived at his first peak time in the poems in the Kuomintang-ruled areas in the late30s. In the beginning of the40s, baptiesed by the Speech of Mao Zedong, Ai Qing changed his works hardly and conscientiously from the enlightment into the the worker-peasant-soldier literature after he went to Yan an, the liberated area. But, because of the pressure from both the society and himself, the transformation in his thoughts and emotions happened before the changes in his creation of the works. Talking about the works, Ai Qing’s poems created during the period in north China still belonged to the practice guided by Yan an literary and artistic ideas of workers, peasants and soldiers, which were the integration of literature and art of workers, peasants and soldiers. After a series of important affairs such the foundation of the PPC, the anti-rightist movement and the cultural revolution, Ai Qing created the Song of the Light immediately after he was set free from the prison, in which his artistic personality presented during his first peak time was shown again. From this, he reached a new peak time of creation in his later times.Analyzing his lifetime and his poem creation process, it is not difficult to find that there is a very big time distance between his first poetic peak and the later one. However, the poems in these peaks, which are all the description of the poet himself, have a very long lasting charm as they accord with his own artistic personality. In order to have an understanding on the relation between Ai Qing and Yan an literature, it is important to know the following questions:what a adaptive process Ai Qing and his poems have during the time in Yan an, what the differences are in his literary and artistic thoughts and practical poem creation before and after the publish of The Speech by Mao Zedong.This thesis includes three parts:The introduction mainly talks about the research situation of the study circle on Ai Qing’s poem in the period in Yan an so far, and points out the shortcomings of these researches, which offers a good angle for the author to form her own ideas after getting some lessons from these research.The first chapter maily relates to some historical background when Ai Qing went to Yan an. After the Southern Anhui incident, the economic poverty in Yan an contrasted obviously with the richness in literature. Being a member of the literary resistance movement, he continued his artistic personality when he had belonged to the July poem. In1941, his poem creation was in a situation of the transition from the melancholy to sonorousness. However, in the spring of1942, the poet found a new emotion, leading to his free and independent advanvce in works. Ai Qing’s artistic thought in the former time in Yan an was fully embodied in his participation in the debate among Xiao Jun, Luo Feng, Bai Lang and Shu Qun as a group with Zhou Yang’s Meandering between Literature and Life, in his chief edition of Poetry Journal, in his literary theory Walking on the Grass, Understanding Writers, Respecting Writers, My Opinions on Current Literature and so on, which inherit the thoughts of personal enlightment literature since the May4th movement.The second chapter explores the influence of The Speech to the literary circle at that time, its attitude to the enlightment thought launched by the literary resistance movement, and explicitly stipulates the aesthetic standard to the literature and art of workers, peasants and soldiers. Affected by The Speech and the thought of the literature and art of workers, peasants and soldiers, Ai Qing wrotes the book Reality does not allow to Be Distorted and edited The Poems On the Street when he debated with Wang Shiwei, which works could be seen that his thought in the poetic art were changed greatly. In the later half part of1942, He made a hard transition in poetic creation. In1943, his book Wu Manyou, though were not welcomed by the public, rep(?)rented his smooth integration into the literature and art of workers, peasants and soldiers. During the time in Northern China, his poems had already formed into a style which were the same with The Speech. In the later time in Yan an, his literary theory were as follows: The Form of Yangko Opera, The Creation and Performance of Yangko Opera, Paper Cutting, Wang Tingyou and His Songs, The Interpretation of the New Democratic Literature and so on, which all embodied his thoughts that the literature serves for the politics.The third chapter mainly analyzes the changes in Ai Qing’s poetic thoughts and his creation before and after the publish of The speech from two aspect:the first one discusses the degradation of the artistic style in his poems from the creation psychology, style of the subject, technique of expression, lyrical method and the form language. The second one is the ideologicalization in the aesthetics which changes from paying attention to the social aesthetic value of the literature to identifying with the social and political function of literature and art.