Chinese Poetry: Wild Grass
Lu Hsun's Collection of 20 Prose Poems Written in the 1920s
Father of modern Chinese Literature weaves brilliant imagery with modern anecdotes in his portrayal of early twentieth century China.
Lu Hsun (1881-1936) is a thoughtful, imaginative writer who wrote essays, short stories, and poems. A Chinese writer known as the “father of modern Chinese literature“ he might be comparable in the west to Charles Baudelaire. Lu Hsun adopted the vernacular as his writing voice when many Chinese writers were still using a feudally informed classical style similar to Confucius‘ style. Lu Hsun became a part of the League of Left Wing Writers in 1930 and was an important figure in China’s cultural revolution. His prose poems present dark imagery yet reflect a playful attitude throughout.
Prose Poems: Visions and Dreams
His only collection of prose poems, Wild Grass, was written between 1924 and 1926. It was first published by the Peihsin Bookstore, Peking.
Many websites say how difficult his books are to obtain, but as of this writing Wild Grass was available on Amazon.com.
In a preface to an English translation written in 1931, Hsun writes:
“So it may be said that these were mostly small pale flowers on the edges of the neglected hell, which could not of course be beautiful. But the hell was bound to be lost. This was brought home to me by the expression and tones of a handful of eloquent and ruthless ‘heroes’ who had not at that time realized their ambitions.” Such thoughts led to making of one of the poems in the collection, “The Good Hell that was Lost.”
The Good Hell that was Lost
In this poem, Hsun tells the story of how humans take over the reins of hell from the devil. The humans rule even more tightly than the devil over hell but are not as decadent. Put in charge of the operation is the Ox-headed Demon. The humans rule hell until “none of them had the time to regret the good hell that was lost.”
Dead Fire: The Emptiness Inside
His poem Dead Fire presents images of fundamental elements: it starts with a dream of an ice mountain. It is inside it that he finds a piece of dead fire. He puts it in his pocket. Later the fire comes back to life from the warmth inside his pocket. The fire eventually flies off to burn out. As the voice of the poem disappears into the valley of ice after being run down with a stone cart, he exclaims: “Aha! You will never meet the dead fire again.” The poem presents a multiplicity of meanings as is often found in dreams.
His Short Stories are on a Lighter Note
On a par with some of the greatest Haiku writing, Lu Hsun’s poems reflect moments of great perceptiveness about nature. In contrast with the poems his short stories, especially in “Dawn Blossoms Plucked at Dusk,” present a jovial quality. The maid who brought him up, Mama Chang, is good for a number of laughs. The descriptions of the gods at temple fairs - particularly the rascally Wu Chang - also give a flavor for life in China in another era. The short stories present similar themes as the poems such as the inevitability of fate and transience.
Lu Hsun gave up becoming a doctor to become a writer because he thought he could change the world more that way. He has been associated with the Chinese revolution and he was prized by Mao Tse Dung, but Lu Hsun never actually joined the communist party. Although his poems in Wild Grass reflect his desire that they will eventually be consumed by forces inside the earth (by lava, as he says in his preface), we can enjoy them now, at least for the time being.
