Goddess

Author: Guo Moruo
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1977-12-01
Features: Guo Moruo (1892—1978), originally named Guo Kaizhen, was born in Leshan County, Sichuan Province. From a young age, he was exposed to a vast amount of classical literary works, particularly developing a strong interest in poetry. During his secondary education, he began to engage with advanced modern democratic ideas and foreign literary works from the West, gradually cultivating a rebellious and defiant personality. In 1914, he went to Japan for studies, initially enrolling in the preparatory department of Tokyo First High School and later entering the medical department of Fukuoka Imperial University. During his time abroad, Guo Moruo read extensively works by foreign thinkers and writers. Spinoza's pantheistic philosophy became his ideological weapon against conventions and a means to assert his individuality, while the romantic poetry of Tagore, Goethe, Whitman, Heine, and Shelley deeply influenced the themes, artistic style, and overall aesthetic perspective of his own poetry.
From early 1919 to mid-1920, Guo Moruo began publishing new poems in the literary supplement Xinwen Bao titled Xuedeng, showcasing his remarkable talent for romantic poetry. In 1921, he co-founded the Creative Society with Yu Dafu, Tian Han, and Zhang Ziping, publishing the poetry collection Shenü, followed by Xingkong, Qianmao, and Huifu. After 1929, he embraced Marxist thought, advocating for revolutionary literature and actively participating in and leading progressive cultural and political activities amid intense and complex struggles. In the 1940s, he wrote historical plays such as Qu Yuan, Kuihou, Hufu, Nanguangcao, and Gaojianli, which powerfully supported the Party's anti-Japanese and anti-Kuomintang struggle while achieving unprecedented artistic heights. Shenü is not only Guo Moruo's first poetry collection but also the first mature new poetry collection in modern Chinese literature. It is a compilation of his early poetic works.
Any outstanding literary work is both a product of its time and the result of the author's individual genius. The May Fourth Movement was such a great era that gave rise to many geniuses and masterpieces: the constraints of old thought and literature were broken, yet the authority of new thought and literature had not yet been fully established. Guo Moruo, a young student studying in Japan at the time, strongly felt the infinite possibilities unfolding before him in this turbulent world and the immense creative vitality surging within him. The fervent May Fourth New Culture Movement and patriotic students had transformed ancient China into a restless ocean of change. The hope for the rebirth of the Chinese nation, the confidence in one's own strength, and the yearning for a bright future resonated with one another, and the surging social (trends) strongly echoed his inner emotions and passions. Thus, "the accumulation of personal grievances and the accumulation of grievances of the times" found an outlet in new poetry, converging into Shenü, filled with passion and optimism.
Wen Yiduo reviewed Shenü by saying, "If we speak of new poetry, Guo Moruo's poetry truly deserves the title of 'new.' Not only is his work artistically far removed from classical poetry, but more importantly, his spirit is entirely the spirit of the 20th century. Some say that literary works are the children of their time. Shenü is indeed a faithful reflection of its era." Shenü fully embodies the spirit of the May Fourth Movement's radical progress, which is key to understanding it.
Throughout Shenü, there is a consistent "lyrical protagonist" image, which can be seen as the product of Guo Moruo's "self-expression." However, this "self" is integrated with his conception of the entire universe, the whole world, and human society. In his poems, the boundaries between the inner and the outer, the subject and the object, the individual and society, and between humans and nature have disappeared. The entire universe seems to shimmer and surge in the poet's emotional and emotional fluctuations, while the poet's emotions and passions surge and flow throughout the universe. Here, the unity of nature and humanity is the unity of a dynamic spirit—the vibrant nature and the vibrant human spirit. The ocean, waves, the earth, the sun, the Great Wall of China, the pyramids all form a grand and magnificent group of youthful imagery.
He praises the sun, wanting it to "turn his life into a stream of fresh red blood" (Sun Ode); he "shouts from the edge of the earth," seeing the "boundless Pacific rise with all its might to push the earth over" (Shouting from the Edge of the Earth); he faces the entire universe in prayer, praying for "the ever-moving sea," "the hazy dawn," "the vast Yangtze River in the south," "the frozen Yellow River in the north," "the pyramids by the Nile," and other things that embody the mysterious power of nature (Morning Greetings). Even in works like Drinking Songs Under the Plum Trees and Strolling Through the Ten-Mile Pine Plains, which are very close to traditional poetic themes, there flows a grand and majestic spirit. He feels that nature "is full of waves of life, / Everywhere is a fresh mood, / Everywhere is poetry, / Everywhere is laughter" (Light Sea). Nature is great, and humanity is equally great. The lyrical protagonist in Shenü reflects the poet's self-awareness in his poems of "worship"—the sun, mountains, oceans, rivers, while also "worshipping the idol-breakers, worshipping myself!" The poem that most vividly highlights the poet's self-consciousness is The Heaven Dog:
"I am a heaven dog! / I swallowed the moon, / I swallowed the sun, and I swallowed all the stars, / I swallowed the entire universe. / Then I am me. I am the light of the moon, I am the light of the sun, / I am the light of all the stars, / I am the light of X-rays, / I am the total energy of the universe!"
The poet feels that the vitality of the entire universe is surging around him, as if it is about to burst out of his physical body and explode:
"I am me! / My 'me' is about to explode!"
In the image of "The Heaven Dog," readers can clearly feel the immense encouragement the May Fourth Movement's individual liberation brought to young Chinese. They no longer had the weary air and forlorn appearance of the old youth, nor were they willing to be slaves to nature, society, or others. They were filled with a hunger for life, yet at the same time, they felt the surge of vitality. In the flow of their vitality, they experienced ecstasy and wonder. Nature, like human society, shows the existence of vitality through constant destruction and construction. Poems like The Phoenix Rebirth and The Birth of the Goddess are brilliant odes to the negation of the old world and the celebration of rebirth.
The Phoenix Rebirth uses the story of the phoenix "gathering fragrant wood to burn itself and rebirth from the ashes" to embody the poet's spirit of negating the old self, cursing the old world, and pursuing rebirth. In the poem, the real world has become old and corrupt, the Paulownia trees are withered, the Lixian Spring has dried up, and the surroundings are "frozen like iron," "dark as ink," and "foul as blood," becoming a "slaughterhouse stained with pus and blood," a "prison filled with sorrow," a "grave where demons howl," and a "hell where demons caper." In such a world, everything has become stale, even the phoenix has lost its youthful "freshness," "sweetness," "radiance," and "love." Yet the phoenix shows no pity for the death of the old life and burns itself with fragrant wood for rebirth. Afterward, it achieves rebirth, and the entire world gains new life. Everything becomes "fresh," "bright," "gorgeous," and "fragrant," and everything becomes "vivid," "free," "majestic," and "enduring." The Phoenix Rebirth combines the transformation of society with the self-renewal of the individual, expressing the poet's determination to pursue ideals and spiritual renewal.
In The Birth of the Goddess, the goddesses can no longer tolerate the dark and chaotic world and are unwilling to quietly enjoy the sacrifices of humanity in niches. They resolutely come into the world to refine stones to mend the sky, creating a new sun that can bring warmth to the world:
"To bear the new heat and light of you, / I will create a fresh sun!"
Other poems like Ode to Bandits, Mother Earth, and Coal in the Furnace also primarily celebrate destruction, creation, and the motherland. In summary, the excellent poems in Shenü all feature a distinct lyrical protagonist. He is a May Fourth youth full of youthful vigor, passion, confidence in his own strength, and a yearning for a bright future. He despises all stale things and a mediocre, unfulfilling life. He hates the darkness and coldness of reality, praises all fresh life, worships all great things with vigorous vitality, and at the same time feels wonder and joy in the vitality of his youth. The spirit of movement, the spirit of rebellion, and the spirit of creation form the main theme of Shenü.
The artistic features of Shenü are closely tied to its ideological characteristics. Guo Moruo, like Qu Yuan, became a poet who spoke to the entire universe, the entire human society, and all of China. This made most of his poetry grand in conception. Poems like The Phoenix Rebirth and The Birth of the Goddess depict the rebirth of the world and the rebirth of humanity, with expansive poetic landscapes and grand designs. The poet's thoughts roam freely across the universe and the world, revealing extremely rich, leaping, and magnificent imagination. Whether in Morning Greetings or I Am an Idol Worshipper, whether in The Heaven Dog or Ode to Bandits, the poet's vision is not limited to specific things, nor even to things he has personally seen or heard. The Great Wall, the pyramids, the Pacific, the sun, the universe, the earth, the Yangtze River, Tagore, Lenin, pantheism, domestic and foreign, above and below, abstract and concrete—all that humanity can imagine and accept enter the poem, forming unique imagery and organized within passionate emotions and rapid rhythms, striking the soul with intense shock and profound aesthetic pleasure. Grand design, rich imagination, passionate emotions, and rapid rhythms form the main artistic features of Shenü's poetry.
Additionally, in the language of the poetry, the influence of classical poetry on rhythm is evident. The use of parallelism, repetition, and other rhetorical devices, as well as the orderly coordination of word pairs and tonal rhymes, makes the lines both flowing and melodious. Even the roughness of some words and phrases does not diminish the poem's dynamic rhythm and the shock of rock music.