Huo Songlin, a professor of the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Shaanxi Normal University

The Tang poet Bai Juyi is called the “king of poetry” and has left a legacy of poems to later generations. But Huo Songlin’s research findings of Bai’s allegorical poems indicate that “using one or two sentences at the end of the poem to bring out the theme and main topic” was not a successful writing method but a faulty aspect.

 

Huo Songlin (1921- ) is a professor of the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Shaanxi Normal University. He is a noted classical litterateur, theorist of literature and art, poet, and calligrapher. He has served as the director of the Institute of Ancient Book Collation, director of the Institute of Literature and honorary dean of the School of Chinese Language and Literature at Shaanxi Normal University. His research interests include theories of literature and art and studies on classical Chinese literature. His representative works include Introduction to Theory of Literature and Art, Poetic Imagery and Others and A Brief Story of Romance of the Western Chamber.

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Huo Songlin is just as well known as a paragon of virtue as he is for the articles he has written. His academic achievements and research are manifested in a ceaseless search for truth, the preservation of academic integrity, and the twin pursuits of academic research and literary creation. Recently, a CSST reporter stopped by Huo’s study and had a conversation on his life and research on theories of literature and art.

CSST: What do you think of the lack of humanities education among people?

 

Huo: Why can’t our universities cultivate outstanding talent? Now I’m often thinking about this question. I think the fundamental problem is people’s mental state. Many ancient Chinese literary classics taught people how to behave, learn and work. Maybe we can realize something and learn something from these classical works.

For a person to be exemplary, his thought and vision must be “progressive,” which in return affects his action. The I Ching reflects a simple principle—respecting objective laws and controlling propriety—and The Analects of Confucius prescribes the appropriate attitude for acquiring knowledge, which is “diligently striving, and we don’t know that we don’t know.” All these qualities make a person excellent.

When a person’s thought reaches a certain level, he will subjectively pursue constant progress and strive for changes with the right attitude and pure purpose. Then his career has a great chance of success. Attaching importance to Guoxue (the academic study of Chinese traditional cultures) and pursuing self-cultivation by reading Chinese classics are the keys to answering Qian Xuesen’s (1911-2009, the founder of China’s space science) question: “Why do our universities always fail to produce excellent talent?”
 

CSST: Reading wisely is what we should learn. So how do we read actively? 

 

Huo: My father was my first teacher. He was a Xiucai (one who passed the imperial examination at the county level) in the late Qing Dynasty. When I was a child, I remember that father had a book on academic methods called Xianzheng’s Reading Secrets, which was a gift from the Shanzhang (a title for scholars in the academy of classical learning since the Five Dynasties [907-960]) Ren Shiyan. Father treated this book as a treasure.

When I was in junior high school, father gave me the book and summarized its essence so I could better understand its meaning: the first significant thing is reading intensively and extensively; the second is to combine reading, seeing the world and writing articles together; the last is to read progressively and persistently. I think there is some universal applicability in these tips, and we cannot ignore them.
 

CSST: How do you conclude your research fields? 

 

Huo: My academic studies can be divided into two stages. Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, my studies focused on ancient literature, and after that, I became involved in theories of literature and art. The literature of the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, especially Tang poetry, is what I have been most devoted to in the past few decades. My research on Du Fu (712-770, the “saint of poetry” in the Tang Dynasty) and Bai Juyi (772-846, the “king of poetry” in the Tang Dynasty) has generated a series of encouraging results.
 

CSST: As a theorist of literature and art, you initiated the indigenization of literary theory, and edited and published the first textbook of theories of literature and art Introduction to Theory of Literature and Art. You continue to innovate literary theory, and have achieved a lot. What do you think about your writing career and what academic quality do you pursue? 

 

Huo:  Literary writing is hard work. An author should have creative consciousness, finding and describing subjects on the basis of social life and working practice. Every little makes a mickle. As a practitioner of literary writing, I consistently advocate that writers should pay attention to both major social events and particular events.
 

At the beginning of the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the discipline of Chinese language and literature had an opportunity for rebirth because a new era needs new literature and literary theories. At the beginning of 1951, I taught at the Normal College of Northwest University and took responsibility for teaching theories of literature and art, modern poetry and modern literature history. Working with limited references, I tried my best to learn while teaching and preparing outlines for lecture notes.
 

I’ve always thought that literature and art has its objective laws. Although content can have a class nature, arguments should be independent. Intellectuals and scholars should have their own independent character for exploring knowledge. For academic studies and literary writing, I believe in inheritance and improvement. In my 70-year career writing and conducting research, I realized that seeking the truth in academic studies needs both a spirit of hard work and willingness to take risks. Moreover, the premise of innovation is the pursuit of truth, new opinions should be far-sighted, and authors should be inspired by the moment. Whether one is writing a poem, article or academic works, all are based on the pursuit of truth and an attempt to find a new path.
 

The academic qualities I pursue are the search for truth and rigorous scholarship. Do not follow others blindly, and never deviate from academic orientation in research and writings.
 

CSST: “Pursuing scholarship should serve the people.” In today’s society, scholars who conduct research behind closed doors are not popular among the masses anymore. Concerning society, engaging in field investigations and offering advice for dealing with practical issues have become inescapable social responsibilities for intellectuals. So what do you think of this? 

 

Huo: Reading, seeing the world and writing are complementary to each other. From my perspective, seeing the world is much more important. In fact, my lifelong literary writing has never been divorced from society and the times. I think that the pulse of poets should always beat with that of the times. The times create poets, and poets write poems to celebrate the progress of the times, prosperity of the country and national rejuvenation. Scholars or writers should have a sense of time mission and national responsibility, an indomitable spirit and bold will. This kind of worldview has helped me to overcome so many difficulties and become my vigorous resource for poetic creations.
 

In my boyhood, I once published many emotional poems on current affairs in newspapers. For academic studies, I also feel an urge to express my opinions and advocate for truth and new changes. In 1954, I published an article “Review of ‘On Bai Juyi’s Writing Method,’” which analyzed Bai Juyi’s creative characteristics, disadvantages and his position in the history of Chinese poetry. I pinpointed that “using one or two sentences at the end of the poem to bring out the theme and main topic” was not a successful writing method of Bai Juyi but actually a faulty aspect of some allegorical poems.
 

At that time, my opinion seemed to be divergent from others who had wholeheartedly endorsed Bai Juyi’s allegorical poems. But we study and conduct research in order to do something beneficial for society and academics. We cannot follow the herd. Every person should take responsibility for society where they live, especially for intellectuals, because intellectuals are representatives of their national spirit.

 

Geng Xianjia is a reporter at the Chinese Social Sciences Today.