Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No. 6, 2021

The Creation of Old-Style Shi and Ci Poetry in the Anti-Japanese Base Areas and the Shaping of China’s Image

(Abstract)

Xiao Bairong and Zhang Ning

Like that produced elsewhere at the time, the old-style shi and ci poetry of the anti-Japanese base areas has not received enough attention from researchers, and still less has it entered literary history on the basis of its modernity. In fact, it had a huge presence in the anti-Japanese base areas. In particular, it combined emotion and reason to shape the image of China in a simple and lively way, exhibiting positive, healthy, progressive, free, and robust values and aesthetics and interpreting the hopes and dreams of the nation. It was the artistic expression of the spirit of the Party leadership and the broad mass of the people, but also contributed to the shaping of a new military-civilian relationship and to the political image of Yan’an. This poetry created a new image of China that left a major historical footprint; it embodied the aspirations of the people, raised the morale of the people and the army, and demonstrated the optimistic spirit driving the Chinese nation in times of crisis, doing away with the long-standing misjudgment that contemporary old-style shi and ci poetry lacked modernity and did not qualify for a position in literary history. A reevaluation of this poetry is conducive to renewed understanding of the function and value of the old-style shi and ci poetry and its position in anti-Japanese literature and broader literary history.