Xu Zhimo: Love, Freedom, and Modernity in Chinese Poetry

Introduction: Xu Zhimo and Chinese Literary Modernity

The scholar and poet Xu Zhimo developed a style that challenged the traditional poetic conventions of China but, more importantly, challenged prevailing ideas about freedom, morality, and love. Xu demonstrated a modernity that placed the self at the center of poetic works, and he wrote largely without regard for the linguistic constraints of classical Chinese poetry, in what would later become known as a free-verse style. A careful analysis of several of Xu Zhimo's selected poems will demonstrate the innovative ways in which he dealt with anxiety and solitude, hesitation and doubt, nostalgia and expectancy, exile and dreams — all constant themes in romantic minds and works.

Chance: Serendipity and the Solitude of Love

In his poem "Chance," one can see his demonstration of the ideals of love and longing — a chance meeting in the night rendered through the language of nature, two lives passing in and out of each other's with no real authority to remain:

Chance

I am a cloud in the sky, chance shadow on the wave of your heart.
Don't be surprised,
Or too elated;
In an instant I shall vanish without trace.
We meet on the sea of dark night,
You on your way, I on mine.
Remember if you will,
Or, better still, forget
The light exchanged in this encounter.

In many ways this work epitomizes Xu's style, as it details the serendipity that can dictate both the good and the bad of everyday life. Life does not seem to offer the choice of rejecting solitude with the certainty of changing one's life by connecting it, by choice, to another.

Life, Influence, and Literary Career

Xu Zhimo demonstrates a strong sense of self-determination, especially with regard to love and free political will. His works span only a very short lifetime. Despite his well-educated and well-traveled life of intellectual depth, his life ended tragically at age thirty-six — the victim of a plane crash. Xu Zhimo bared his soul through a literary career bound in modernity. He traveled the road from romantic idealism to, near the end of his life, pessimism and heartbreak. It is not known how his outlook or literary endeavors might have changed had he lived longer, but his story is often seen as one of unrequited love, repeatedly trapped by the proprieties of his age.

At the same time, there were also a few perceptive people who sympathized with his views in the belief that one must thoroughly expose the human potential for ugliness and frailty if there is to be hope for progress and improvement.

Xu Zhimo was greatly influenced by his travels and by English-language literature, having studied in both the United States and Great Britain. He also openly admired and was well versed in English Romanticism and social protest literature, such as that associated with Keats and Shelley.

Xu Zhimo challenged the old guard by writing free-verse poetry in the vernacular rather than in the classically accepted literary language. He often wrote in the first person, a concept frequently suppressed within traditional poetic styles. As Hu Shi recognized, "his poetry expresses the conflict between the ideals of love, freedom and beauty and the world," and Mao Dun wrote, "his optimistic idealism of the early period gives way to a more realistic pessimism in his later poems."

After receiving a classical Chinese education, Xu Zhimo went to the United States in 1918 to study economics and political science. Finding life there intolerable, he went to England in 1920 to study at Cambridge University, where he became fascinated with English Romantic poetry and decided upon a literary career. (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, 1995)

Missing from many brief biographical accounts is the record of the various loves and losses he experienced, including one of the first divorces on record in his social circle — the result of a loveless arranged marriage.

Returning to China in 1922, Xu Zhimo began writing poems and essays in the vernacular style. He fell under the influence of the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore while serving as his interpreter during a lecture tour of China. All the foreign literature to which Xu Zhimo had been exposed served to shape his own poetry and establish him as a leader in the modern poetry movement in China. He served as an editor of the literary supplement of the Chen bao (Morning Post) and as a professor at various universities. In 1928 he helped organize the Xinyue shudian (Crescent Moon Book Company), which published a literary journal featuring Western literature. In addition to four collections of verse, Xu Zhimo produced several volumes of translations from many languages. (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature, 1995)

"Amidst the swirling sea of humanity, I shall seek the only companion of my soul; if I find her, I am lucky; if I find her not, such is my fate, that is all." So wrote the poet Xu Zhimo in 1923 in a letter to Liang Qichao, the teacher who had been his greatest mentor. Liang knew that Xu was a faithful believer in romantic love, but he warned him: "Alas! Where is there a perfect universe?" Young people loved to talk of romantic love, but such transcendent love could never be found. Furthermore, would such love make one happy in the future? As hard to grasp as a shadow, it had already caused so many people immeasurable suffering.

Xu Zhimo decided that in freedom he wished to seek a new life, real happiness, and true love. Hence he was willing to bring down society's approbation on his head by divorcing the wife his parents had ordered him to marry and beginning a passionate romance with Lu Xiaoman.

Conclusion: A Life Embraced, A Legacy Enduring

The maiden loves freely and finds that her love has swallowed her. The sea that she loves has taken her very life and left nothing but her memory upon the shore; her voice, her dance, and even her figure have been stolen by that which she loved. This idea is analogous to Xu Zhimo's life as a whole. He embraced life, loved freely though without reward, danced with both freedom and uncertainty, and was ultimately taken away by adventure. His works express his ideals and the changes he brought to the world of Chinese — and even English — literature and poetry. He was, in the truest sense, a master of change.

Works Cited

Gunn, Edward M. Style and Innovation in Twentieth-Century Chinese Prose. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1991.

Ohio State University. "Xu Zhimo (1895–1931): Biography." Retrieved May 30, 2004, from http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/denton2/courses/c503/xzm.htm.

Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. 1995. "Xu Zhimo."

Xu Zhimo. "Chance" and "It's a Coward World." Retrieved May 30, 2004, from http://search.able2know.com/Books____Literature/Poetry/X/Xu_Zhimo/index.html.

Xu Zhimo. "Sea Rhyme." Retrieved May 30, 2004, from

Sinorama. "Classically Romantic: The Chinese View of Love." http://www.taiwaninfo.org/info/sinorama/8601/601006e1.html.