A poet devotee who carries a heavy load
——Impressions of Mr. Tan Wuchang
Text/Sheng Hua Hou
This is an article that has been brewing for a long time, because I have written two articles about the famous poetry critic Mr. Tan Wuchang in the past two years, and each one I will carefully expound on Mr. Tan Wuchang's contribution to poetry from different angles, but no matter from which angle I start, every time I write an article, I will feel unfinished. Mr. Tan Wuchang is like a "treasure man", as he digs deeper and deeper, writing more and more finely, he always feels that he is powerless because of his smallness. But since I have begun this work, I must continue to dig deeper, not only because of my personal respect for him after many years of close contact with him, but also because of my sincere feelings as a young poet about his selfless dedication to the poetry world, and I hope that my writing can do a basic preparatory work for those who study him.
China is a big country of poetry, from the pre-Qin Chu Ci, Tang poetry and Song Ci, all the way to modern new poetry, China's poetry and song endowment with the development of history is also advancing with the times, each era will emerge some great poets, great critics, from top to bottom, the Chinese poetry continues to move forward, becoming the poetry spokesperson and poetry devotee of its time. As a post-80s generation, I grew up in the countryside after the reform and opening up, experiencing a period of great changes in China. From the elementary school days of "geese and geese, songs to the heavens" and "hoeing day when noon", the seeds of poetry have grown in my heart and are out of control. Throughout my teenage years, nourished by poetry, I began to write poetry, and after entering college, I debuted as a campus poet and entered the poetry circle. So I often lament that poetry is a destiny, and once you have a relationship with it, it is a lifetime. If I was emotionally attached to poetry before I went to college, then I loved poetry with a little sense of mission after I went to college. Here I would like to solemnly mention three people who have had an important influence on my poetry: Mr. Nishikawa, Mr. Tan Wuchang, and Mr. Bi Jianxun. In 2005, I was admitted to the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Mr. Nishikawa became the tutor of my Chinese and foreign literature history course, and every time I left class, I helped him pack up his textbooks, and then while asking him about poetry knowledge, he walked through the CAFA campus to the parking lot, which was invisibly equivalent to giving me another half hour of poetry lessons. Since then, Mr. Nishikawa has not only taken me to poetry activities, but also sponsored me to live on living expenses (I am a poor student in undergraduate). In 2006, my classmates and I established the Blank Poetry Club at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, invited Mr. Nishikawa as a supervisor, and then led the poetry club to become active in various colleges and universities and participate in various poetry activities. In 2005, I met Mr. Tan Wuchang at a poetry activity, so after the establishment of the Blank Poetry Club, I took the members of the poetry club to participate in the poetry competition he hosted at Beijing Normal University, and won important awards, since then, with the continuous participation in various poetry academic activities he presided over, our friendship is also deepening, he for me, from the promotion of poetry to the help of life, more than ten years of time, in the middle of too much, and I am full of gratitude to Mr. Tan Wuchang. Teacher Bi Jianxun is my professional tutor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, generally speaking, the tutor of the Central Academy of Fine Arts prefers his students to spend their time and energy on painting, perhaps providence, Teacher Bi is not only a famous painter, but also a poet, he founded a poetry club from college, and Mr. Munch is a poet friend for many years, which is also an important reason for his support to write poetry, because of his support, I have come to this day in poetry creation, and in 2010, he and I co-created a poetry drama based on his art work "Hitting People". Beat People", and was prefaced by Mr. Mo Yan and published in Chinese Writers. In recent years, Teacher Bi has created a long poem "The Song of Confucius", which will be published soon. The three teachers have had different influences on my poetry creation, Mr. Nishikawa is more to teach me poetry skills, Mr. Tan Wuchang is more of a supporter and helper for me, and Mr. Bi is more of a supporter. With the blessing of three teachers, I have also achieved many achievements in poetry in addition to painting. Perhaps because Mr. Tan Wuchang and I are closer in age, or because there is enough intersection in poetry academic activities and even life, I have gradually formed a relationship with him as a teacher, a friend and a brother, so I personally feel that I should say something about his outstanding contribution to the cause of poetry, and also want poets, poetry lovers and readers at home and abroad to have more understanding of him.
After graduating from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2009, I left the campus to start a life of North Drift. In order to stay in Beijing, I constantly changed jobs and residences. At that time, Mr. Tan Wuchang was running around for my work, and for a while I lived in his house when I didn't have a place to live. In the autumn of 2010, through my own efforts and family support, I bought a house in Yanjiao, Langfang, Hebei Province, and I had a place to stay. At that time, I was teaching at the Art College of Beijing Jianzhu University, which belongs to China Agricultural University, and I was more than 60 kilometers from Yanjiao, and I stayed at Mr. Tan Wuchang's house in Yanjiao when I could not return to Yanjiao in the afternoon. Sometimes there are poetry activities in the city that are too late to live in his house, and even if they can't return home after attending individual dinners, they will live in Mr. Tan's house. After a long time, occasionally catching up with Mr. Tan's family with relatives or friends from his hometown to stay overnight, Mr. Tan Wuchang simply let me live in the same bed with him, although I usually have a close relationship, but it is still difficult to be nervous to share a room with such a well-known critic and scholar, but he always kindly told me not to worry, I know that he is taking care of the cost of saving me a few hundred yuan to live in a hotel. I think in the Chinese poetry world, I am probably the only person who "shares a bed" with Mr. Tan Wuchang. Not only that, Mr. Tan Wuchang also gave me very great financial support, I just lived in the new home in Yanjiao when the economy was relatively poor, he gave me a few thousand yuan red envelope to celebrate my housewarming, the first book of poetry in my life was also published with his personal funding, and even the cost of taking a taxi to his home would send me a red envelope, I knew that he was disguised and took care of my self-esteem. This little bit always makes me feel warm, unforgettable and grateful in Beijing. This long-term close contact made me feel the demeanor of "learning to be a teacher and behaving in the world". In order to let him devote himself to his work and reduce the excessive time and energy occupied by chores, I often offered to help him do some editing work within his ability. But he was extremely rigorous in his poetic work, and a lot of the work was still done by himself, and even if I assisted, he had to look at it again and confirm that it was correct. So he often works late into the night, or even all night, and I think this is the attitude that a professor should have. It is precisely because of this selfless dedication to the poetry cause and academic cause day and night that Mr. Tan Wuchang's fruitful academic achievements have been valued, recognized and praised by many celebrities in the poetry, literary and academic circles. As his "close contact" for many years, I would like to briefly list his contributions to the Chinese poetry scene here, in my eyes, he is a poet who carries a heavy load forward.
Mr. Tan Wuchang is well-known in the poetry circles at home and abroad, and he not only has to take on the teaching task of Beijing Normal University, but also makes his own academic achievements. This cost him most of his life's efforts, but it was with this enduring love for poetry that he supported his silent dedication to the cause of poetry for many years. Here, I would like to rely on my familiarity with Mr. Tan Wuchang's poetry work and academic achievements beyond ordinary people, and summarize from the following six aspects.
First, he has published eight works of poetry criticism so far: "The Imagination of Death in New Chinese Poetry in the Twentieth Century", "Poetic Exile and Reconstruction- On the Third Generation of Poetry", "Research on the Changzhi Poetry Group in the New Century", of which "Speaking poetry in the classroom of Beijing Normal University" (five volumes) is particularly important, this set of poetry criticism books has aroused strong repercussions in the poetry circle and academic circles after publication, Luo Fu, Xie Mian, Ji Di Majia, Zheng Zaoyu, Liang Xiaobin, Chen Xuguang, Shu Cai, Wang Jianzhao, Lu Jian, Yang Siping, Zhuang Weijie, He Yanhong, Xiao Xiao, Yu Cijiang, Wu Touwen, Wu Zilin and many other well-known poets, critics and scholars have given full affirmation and high praise. It took Mr. Tan Wuchang five or six years to sort out and publish this five or six years, five or six years, and there were several five or six years of effective working hours in life, and all the work related to poetry was extremely complicated and laborious, but Mr. Tan Wuchang spent five or six years focusing on this five-volume book that can be called a poetry criticism project, and the degree of hard work can be imagined. New Chinese poetry experienced the glory of the 1980s, and then with the development of society, a variety of fast food cultures such as film and television song and dance emerged, and the art form that strongly stimulated the senses replaced poetry to a considerable extent, and then poetry went all the way down and faded out of the public vision. After entering the new century, with the improvement of China's comprehensive national strength, we must realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, realize the Chinese dream, and begin to push traditional Chinese culture to the front to enhance the self-confidence of national culture, and the art category of poetry has gradually entered the public view in different ways. But despite this, because of the aristocratic bloodline of poetry in literature, coupled with the impact of increasingly complex forms of entertainment, poetry still belongs to a niche culture because of its high-end nature. So although there are many excellent poets, poets seem to have become a rare group, and poetry critics are even fewer. So this also determines that poetry criticism is a difficult job, and it requires a sense of mission and strong enthusiasm for the critic to focus on the task. This also shows that Mr. Tan Wuchang's original intention and preciousness in poetry and scholarship are not forgetting.
Second, Mr. Tan Wuchang founded and presided over the annual High-end Forum for Emerging Chinese Critics, which has been successfully held for ten sessions so far. Dozens of well-known critics and scholars in China participated in this forum, which has a great influence in the academic community. In addition, he also edited the 10-volume Wencong (10 volumes) of China's emerging critics, which focused on the criticism of ten well-known domestic critics, which had a far-reaching impact on the academic community. Mr. Tan Wuchang is famous for his poetry criticism throughout the Chinese poetry scene, and although I personally consider him to be a talented poet, the brilliance of his poetry criticism is too dazzling to obscure his status as a poet. As a heavyweight critic who has always been in the scene of poetry, Mr. Tan Wuchang has to read through the works of many poets, which is undoubtedly a huge workload, but it also allows him to grasp the context and direction of the entire poetry world. Poets are inseparable from poetry critics, and poetry critics are inseparable from poets, and this interdependent relationship is made clearer through the unremitting efforts of Mr. Tan Wuchang. Presumably, many people understand that without excellent and outstanding poetry critics, it is difficult to have a definite positioning of a poet in the history of literature, and even the poet cannot enter the history of literature. This also made the poet more aware of the indispensable and irreplaceable importance of the poetry critic.
The third is to compile and select four characteristic annual poetry anthologies: "China New Poetry Ranking", "Daily Poem", "Youth Poetry Yearbook" and "Selected Chinese Children's Poems", these four highly distinctive annual poetry anthologies have been widely recognized and praised by the poetry circles at home and abroad, and have become brand poetry anthologies in the poetry industry. It is not difficult for careful readers to see that these four anthologies cover several generations of poets of the old, middle and young, covering a wide range, which can be described as a "net exhaustion" of male and female poets of all ages, which is not only a huge workload, but also of great significance. These anthologies have launched a large number of excellent poems by old, middle-aged and young poets and children's poets, giving them a platform for collective display of poetry, and also making the poetry works selected by these four anthologies enter the reader groups of all ages in an all-round way, which is widely welcomed and praised. In particular, Mr. Tan Wuchang's "Chinese New Poetry Ranking" has been published for ten consecutive years, is a shining business card in the poetry industry, the influence is huge, each of its publications is an annual event in the poetry world, it gathers the annual masterpieces of many outstanding Chinese poets, its academic and artistic editing principles are unique in many annual anthologies in the poetry world, and many poets regard the above selection as an affirmation of their own poetry creation level.
Fourth, since 2016, Mr. Tan Wuchang has initiated the Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala, and as the representative of the young poets he supports, Mr. Tan has also allowed me to actively participate in the planning of the Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala. So far, the Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala has been successfully held for six sessions, because it is a global live broadcast, which has also become a poetry event that Chinese people around the world pay attention to every year, from the initial tens of millions of plays to hundreds of millions of plays. Therefore, I wrote an article "Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala - The Spiritual Feast of Global Chinese" published on the red network, and then on Baidu News recommended hot search, the number of views in just a few days nearly 400,000, I think this is the charm of the Chinese poetry Spring Festival Gala, I also became a "net red" through the Spring Festival Gala. The Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala is very pure, pays attention to academic and artistic, and comprehensively launches the excellent poems of outstanding Chinese poets, all recited by famous performing artists and reciters, interspersed with songs and dances and other programs, making the entire Spring Festival Gala program rich and colorful, so that the audience can relax and invest in the body and mind, and enjoy the spiritual feast of poetry. However, the smooth holding of each Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala requires a lot of funds, and this burden falls on Mr. Tan Wuchang, who in addition to pulling sponsorship, also invests a considerable amount of his own salary and lecture fees on it. This is the result of Mr. Tan Wuchang and his team silently paying behind the scenes.
Fifth, Mr. Tan Wuchang studied at Peking University for a doctorate to enter Beijing Normal University, and over the years, in addition to successfully completing his teaching tasks, he was invited to dozens of universities across the country to give poetry lectures and spread the seeds of poetry. Many universities have hired him as a visiting professor and invited him to give lectures, which is a full affirmation of his critical achievements, academic achievements, and selfless dedication to the cause of poetry. As a professor and scholar, Mr. Tan Wuchang is naturally full of peach and plum, and many of these students, including the disciples who have listened to his poetry lectures, have engaged in poetry work and become outstanding young poets and young critics.
The sixth is to create a very influential poetry award. For example: Haizi Poetry Award, Changyao Poetry Award, Yang Wanli Poetry Award, Chinese Young Poets Award, Top Ten Chinese Poets Award and Top Ten Chinese Poetry Collection Award. In 2014, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the birth of the talented poet Haizi, Mr. Tan Wuchang launched the Haizi Poetry Prize, which has been successfully held for five sessions so far, which has generated good repercussions in the poetry world. In 2016, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the birth of the great poet Chang Yao, Mr. Tan Wuchang initiated the Chang Yao Poetry Award, and together with Professor Liao Yuan, an expert in chang yao poetry research, and Mr. Yang Tingcheng, vice chairman of the Qinghai Writers Association, became the co-founder of the Chang Yao Poetry Award, and the three of them co-hosted the award. Nowadays, the Changyao Poetry Prize has been successfully held for three sessions, which has a great influence on the poetry world, and poets generally have high expectations for the Changyao Poetry Prize. In addition, Mr. Tan Wuchang has also launched two Yang Wanli Poetry Awards in his hometown in Jiangxi in recent years, making his own contributions to the cultural undertakings of the people in his hometown and being widely praised by the people of his hometown. The Top Ten Chinese Poets Award and the Top Ten Chinese Poetry Collection Awards he presided over, focusing on the famous poets and poetry collections that have influence in the Chinese poetry scene, and their international vision and special value are valued and appreciated by poets at home and abroad. Here, I need to mention in particular the Chinese Young Poets Award initiated by Mr. Tan Wuchang, which was specially established to support young poets, in addition to the support of poet friends, Mr. Tan Wuchang himself also advanced funds to support this award, and I am also the recipient of this award. As far as I know, the outstanding young poets who have won the China Young Poets Award include Cao Who, Ma Huicong, Lü Da, Gao Xuan, Sheng Huahou, Ruo Li, Dai Weina, Li Hao, Liu Yage, Su Xiaoyan, Wang Yi, He Lincia, Li Dong, Zhuang Ling, Xiong Man, Lin Jianghe, Chi Moshu, Ah Fei, Chen Jufei, Cao Bo, Yin Chao, Dong Xiyang, Yuan Xiang, Xiong Yan, Ya Ya, Kong Lingjian, Gu Yu, Yue Jian, Yang Chun, etc. This award basically includes the best young poets in China's 80s, 90s and even after 00s, and this award has a huge support and motivation effect on the growth of young poets. This is also a great contribution made by Mr. Tan Wuchang to the promotion and popularization of poetry.
Mr. Tan Wuchang has been quietly dedicated to the cause of poetry for decades, and all his time and energy have been dedicated to poetry. Due to long-term staying up late and irregular life, he contracted shingles while lecturing in Zhuhai in the spring of 2021 and slowly recovered after a few months. During that time, he often couldn't lift his arm in pain, but even then he continued to teach, write articles, and write books. Over the years, we often communicate by phone until the early hours of the morning because of problems in poetry and academic work, but since he fell ill last year, I have subconsciously reminded him to rest as early as possible, and the problem is solved before eleven o'clock in the evening. I often told him that we should not violate the laws of nature, we must pay attention to health, only a healthy body can work better for poetry, and I often joke that we young poets must rely on him to enter the history of contemporary literature and poetry, and he must work healthily for another fifty years. He also laughed after listening to it, although he knew that everyone was concerned about his physical health, but he still had good scars and forgot about the pain, and his body recovered slightly and threw himself into his work. I could not persuade him, and I could only try to help him solve some chores and reduce the time and energy he occupied in the trivial matters of life. But in fact, Mr. Tan Wuchang is also a person with a sense of life ritual and special interest, and every festive season, he will take time out of his busy schedule to invite a few friends in the poetry world to his home for a small gathering. When he was happy, he would read poems and sing songs for everyone, making everyone extremely happy and laughing. He often humorously tells us the secret of beauty and keeping a young mindset: love of poetry! I also spent several New Year's Day in his house in a row, every time he personally cooked, fried a few good dishes to entertain poetry friends Wenpeng, and Mr. Tan did have first-class cooking skills, because I love to eat chili peppers, just like his Jiangxi taste, I often joke that his cooking skills are almost more than poetry reviews, saying that he is definitely the best cook in the poetry world, he often shy haha laugh. Mr. Tan Wuchang still can't drive, and I know that he is busy with his poetry career and academic career, first, he doesn't have time to learn to drive, and even if he learns, he can't concentrate on driving. So he usually goes out by taxi or subway, and I drive him to pick him up for some important activities, which is not only for his health, but also pay attention to safety. Because Mr. Tan Wuchang devotes all his time to poetry work and poetry, he has little time to fall in love, so he is still a single aristocrat, but he is very optimistic and solves all aspects of life problems with a fiery poetic heart. In my personal observation, in the current utilitarian society, most girls have a hard time understanding his poetry career, do not understand his value, I think, instead of finding a common woman to argue about trivial matters every day, it is better to live alone, at least in the poetry career can be undisciplined to devote themselves wholeheartedly. Of course, I and many disciples and poet friends who care about him still hope that a woman who understands him will appear as soon as possible. Poetry critics and scholars are also human, in my opinion, Mr. Tan Wuchang is also too hard, he rarely has time for entertainment, he is always in a busy state, sleepless and forgetful to devote himself to work, he needs to do too much for poetry, do too much work, sometimes we can't help, we need to experience it himself. Only from the bones of the love of poetry, can give up a lot of things, Mr. Tan Wuchang is such a pure, low-key person, he himself for a long time silently burned his life for poetry, no utilitarian, selfless for poetry for the academic has been working hard, hard work, become in my eyes has been carrying the weight forward of the poetry devotee, every time I think of him, my heart is full of infinite touch.
Sheng Huahou, male, from Xiajin County, Shandong, young painter and poet, graduated from the School of Chinese Painting of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and his mentor professor Bi Jianxun. Executive Director of Beijing Tandu Calligraphy and Painting Institute. Technical Director of Chinese Poetry Spring Festival Gala, Director of Beijing Miyun Artists Association, SpecialLy Appointed Painter of Li Keyan Painting Academy and Hong Kong Sar Academy of Painting, Assistant Director of Beijing Yexian Pagoda Tourism Scenic Area. He is the author of the poetry collection "Silent Reading", the poetry and painting collection "Lhasa Goddess" (Qiongji Shishenghua Hou Painting), the painting collection "Sheng Hua Hou Works Collection", which won the Peking University Unnamed Poetry Award, the Chinese Young Poet Award, and the Boao International Poetry Award. The thirteenth generation of Chen-style Taijiquan, the disciple of Mr. Qi Heping, a famous Taiji master, and the national champion of Chen-style Taijiquan. In 2014, he was named one of the 50 outstanding young people in Sino-Russian cultural exchanges, and his personal deeds were made into a movie "Because of You" and a documentary "Young Painter Sheng Huahou" which was broadcast on Russian State Radio 2 and China CCTV. He has recorded TV interview programs such as "Eight Zero Online: Shenghua Hou Plays Through with Art" and "Focus on Famous Artists: Shenghua Hou - Artists from Many Aspects". He has given many cultural lectures at the Central University of Finance and Economics and the China University of Political Science and Law. In 2018, he was awarded the "Top Ten Artists of Sino-European Cultural Exchange". In 2019, he was invited to participate in the Lermontov International Art Festival in Russia. He currently resides in Beijing.