Ode to the Yellow River information

About the author

Guang Weiran

Modern poet and literary critic. His original name was Zhang Guangnian. A native of Guanghua County, Hubei Province. Born on November 1, 1913.

Chronology of Guang Weiran

In 1927, he participated in the first civil revolutionary war in his hometown and joined the Communist Youth League of China in the same year. After the failure of the revolution, he worked as a shop apprentice, bookstore clerk and primary school teacher.

Joined the Communist Party of China in 1929. Later, due to the destruction of the Northern Hubei organization, he lost his organizational affiliation with the party.

Since the 1930s, he has been engaged in progressive drama and literary activities.

In 1936, the lyrics "Flowers of May", which praised the anti-Japanese comrades and opposed traitorous surrender, were published in Wuhan. After Yan Shushi composed the music, it was widely sung during the anti-Japanese and national salvation activities.

Rejoined the Communist Party of China in 1937.

In 1938, his "Street Drama Collection" was published.

In January 1939, he led the third anti-enemy drama team from the anti-Japanese guerrilla zone in western Shanxi to Yan'an.

In March of the same year, he composed the poem "Yellow River Cantata". After being composed by people's musician Xian Xinghai, it was performed for the first time in Yan'an in April. Since then, it has been widely sung across the country and has been warmly welcomed by the anti-Japanese soldiers and civilians. This group of poems is powerful, majestic, profound and profound. It is a heroic poem for the Chinese nation to resist foreign aggression, and it is also a tragic picture of reality during the Anti-Japanese War. It reflects the unprecedented awakening of the people and shows strong national integrity and unyielding fighting spirit.

In terms of art, the whole poem has a complete conception and exquisite layout. The Yellow River, a symbol of the Chinese nation, is used as the running image, which creates surging passion and makes the whole poem appear powerful. At the same time, because the poet drew lessons from the expression techniques of traditional Chinese poetry, the poems are composed in a lively rhythm and the language is concise.

In 1940, he engaged in literary and artistic activities in Chongqing and wrote a long narrative poem "Qu Yuan". Under the white terror, he used the form of poetry to express the strong demands of the people to persist in the war of resistance, to oppose surrender, to oppose separatism, and to oppose regression. . After the "Southern Anhui Incident", he was forced to leave Myanmar and unite the overseas Chinese cultural circles and overseas Chinese youth to engage in anti-fascist cultural activities.

Rejoined the Communist Party of China in 1937.

In 1938, his "Street Drama Collection" was published.

In January 1939, he led the third anti-enemy drama team from the anti-Japanese guerrilla zone in western Shanxi to Yan'an.

He returned to Yunnan in 1942. From March 1943 to September 1944, he wrote a long narrative poem "The Song of the Axi People" based on popular folk songs, and also created a long lyric poem "Green Ila". Wadi".

In 1944, Guang Weiran was engaged in democratic movements and poetry recitals in Yunnan with Li Gongpu and Wen Yiduo.

In October 1945, he was persecuted by the Kuomintang government and left Kunming.

The following year, he entered the North China Liberated Area from Peiping and successively took charge of teaching at the School of Art of Northern University and the School of Literature and Art of North China University. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guang Weiran has been engaged in literary and artistic activities in Beijing. He successively served as the editor-in-chief of "Script", "Literary News", and "People's Literature", and wrote a large number of literary and art reviews under Zhang Guangnian's signature. These articles are rigorous in their arguments and free in style, and they have the courage to express their opinions in the face of major literary and artistic phenomena. They have written articles on the anti-historicist tendencies in historical dramas and mythological dramas, the issues of realism in the heritage of opera, and socialist realism. At the same time, he actively discussed the creation of new poetry and promoted the prosperity of Chinese new poetry creation with his own creative practice and theoretical research. On December 30, 1984, he gave a keynote report entitled "Socialist Literature is Making Great Strides" at the fourth general meeting of the Chinese Writers Association. He is the author of essay collections "Problems of Realism in Drama" (1957), "Literary Debates" (1958), and "Wind and Rain Literary Talks" (1982). Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, Guang Weiran has published a collection of poems such as "May Flowers" (1960), which contains more than 30 representative works of the author before and after liberation, including the long poem "Qu Yuan" and the poem "Yellow River". Cantata", "Sanmenxia Cantata" and other famous works. Works not included in the collection include the political lyric poems "The Grand Festival of the Revolutionary People", "Thrilling Years of 1976", and the long narrative poem "Heroic Drilling Team". Guang Weiran's poems are passionate and majestic, and are good at using gorgeous images to contain the rapids of the difficult and advancing era.

Guang Weiran served as Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association and Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of the Chinese Writers Association. And was elected as a representative of the third and fifth National People's Congress. He is currently a member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Communist Party of China and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association.

Died at 16:15 on January 28, 2002.

Background information

A few years after the piano concerto "Yellow River" came out in 1969, Hong Guangwen, the art editor of "Liberation Daily", needed to borrow people to paint promotional paintings. In 1972, Chen Yifei, who was only 26 years old, was the head of the oil painting group of the Shanghai Oil Painting and Sculpture Studio. He was then transferred to participate in the design of the Shanghai "Yellow River" oil painting group along with Xia Baoyuan, Wang Yongqiang, Zhang Dingzhao, Qin Dahu, and Yan Guoji. The creative studio is located on the third floor of the old Shenbao Building at No. 309 Hankou Road.

The piano concerto is divided into 4 parts, and this set of paintings is also divided into 4 pieces. Yan Guoji painted the first movement "Yellow River Boatmen", Chen Yifei painted the second movement "Ode to the Yellow River", Xia Baoyuan and Wang Yongqiang painted the third movement "Yellow River Anger"; Qin Dahu and Zhang Dingzhao painted the fourth movement "Defending the Yellow River", including "Defending the Yellow River" "Originally, Mao Zedong and Lin Biao were pictured together. Later, Lin Biao betrayed and it needed to be repainted.

Among the four works, Chen Yifei's "Ode to the Yellow River" is the most familiar to the outside world. The first draft was a gouache draft. In addition to drawing a Red Army soldier, there was also a farmer wearing sheepskin beside him. However, Chen Yifei believed that a person standing on the mountain would make the picture more concise and powerful, so he eliminated the farmer character in the second draft. This approach aroused controversy at the time in the art circles, who believed that this approach could not represent the masses, and at least a militia had to be added. In order to draw the painting according to his own ideas, Chen Yifei had to greet and establish relationships with various leaders.

In order to paint a picture of soldiers holding rifles, Chen Yifei also found a print of a Soviet oil painting. The content is Lenin reviewing the army. Rows of soldiers holding rifles. In order to study this blurred picture, Chen Yifei prints and spent the whole morning looking at the works.

It was not until five years later that the work was exhibited for the first time at the All-Army Art Exhibition held in 1977. Its appeal and painting skills attracted the attention of the art world and established Chen Yifei's position in the history of Chinese art.

In the 1980s, Chen Yifei decided to go abroad. The night before boarding the plane, he suddenly decided to move several paintings, especially "Ode to the Yellow River". Since "Ode to the Yellow River" is 297 centimeters long and 143.5 centimeters wide, Chen Yifei had to ask a group of brothers to help carry it. However, the painting was so big that he had to use two bicycles, one in tandem, to carry it away. Unexpectedly, when turning a corner, "Ode to the Yellow River" The canvas of "Ode" is cracked.

It is said that the subsequent restoration work was carried out by Chen Yifei's younger brother Chen Yiming.

On New Year's Day in 1997, Chen Yifei wrote an article "Heroic and Romantic" in "Xinmin Evening News" and said: "The original idea of ??"Ode to the Yellow River" was to draw a sheepherder, wearing a turban on the belly of a sheep, carrying his head. , looking up to the sky and singing Xin Tianyou. After thinking about it repeatedly, I found that this way of expression was almost an interpretation of the lyrics of "Yellow River Cantata", so I decided to abandon it and changed it to a Red Army soldier, standing on the top of the mountain, smiling proudly over the mountains and rivers. , I restored the bright and blazing light on the top of the mountain to the canvas, rendering it into a dazzling white light; I painted a small ball of red cloth in the hole of the rifle of the Red Army soldier, like a bright flower in bloom. At his feet, a line of wild geese flying diagonally to the south was painted. In 1996, the painting was auctioned by Sotheby's in Hong Kong and sold for HK$1.285 million, making it the most expensive oil painting in China at that time. one. The painting will be auctioned again at the Guardian Company's auction on May 13, 2007. Guardian Company estimates it at 20 million yuan.

Full poem

Ode to the Yellow River

(recitation)

Ah, friend!

With its heroic spirit, the Yellow River appears in the wilderness of Asia;

It shows the spirit of our nation:

Greatness And strong!

Here, we sing our hymn to the Yellow River.

(Lyrics)

I stand on the top of the mountain and watch the Yellow River roll towards the southeast.

The turbulent waves are surging, setting off tens of thousands of waves;

The turbid currents twist and turn, forming a series of nine twists and turns;