A Dialogue between Haizis Poetry and the Gospel of Luke (Theology and Mission in World Christianity, 9) 9789004361294, 9789004363113, 9004361294

Citation preview



A Dialogue between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004363113_001

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Theology and Mission in World Christianity Editors-in-Chief Kirsteen Kim (Fuller Theological Seminary, usa) Stephen B. Bevans (Catholic Theological Union, Chicago, usa) Miikka Ruokanen (University of Helsinki, Finland/ Nanjing Union Theological Seminary, China) Editorial Board Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu (Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana) Martha T. Frederiks (Utrecht University, the Netherlands) Dana L. Robert (Boston University, usa) Elsa Tamez (Latin American Biblical University, Costa Rica) Rachel Zhu Xiaohong (Fudan University, Shanghai, China)

VOLUME 9

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/tmwc



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A Dialogue between Haizi’s Poetry and the Gospel of Luke Chinese Homecoming and the Relationship with Jesus Christ By

Xiaoli Yang

LEIDEN | BOSTON

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Cover illustration: “homecoming”. © Lynette J. Vigo. The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available online at http://catalog.loc.gov LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2018006532

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface. issn 2452-2953 isbn 978-90-04-36129-4 (paperback) isbn 978-90-04-36311-3 (e-book) Copyright 2018 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi, Brill Sense and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.

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To Haizi and his generation who are searching for a home

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Contents Contents

Contents Acknowledgments xi List of Illustrations  xiii Introduction 1 1 Haizi: The Poet Who Never ‘Dies’ 6 Introduction 6 Definitions and Limitations 6 Haizi in Contemporary China 6 The Gospel of Luke  9 The Soul and Soul-Search 12 Two Decades of Research on Haizi (1989–2016) 16 Methodology 27 Selection and Translation  27 Poetry Criticism 29 Thematic Analysis  30 Dialogical Method 31 Personal Perspectives 39 Summary 41

Roots

Part 1

2 Haizi: Beyond Homelessness 45 Introduction 45 Creation Myth 45 Return to the Eastern Yin—A Giant Bird, Water and Mother 46 The Origin of Creation and Great Poetry 50 Songs of the Homeland 58 A Child of Wheat Fields 59 The Dream Place—Dunhuang 67 The Loss of Land 73 An Unreachable Home  78 Summary 86

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3 Jesus: Quest for Home 87 Introduction 87 The Roots of Humanity 87 The Identity 92 A Home Beyond Borders 97 The Homeless Homeland 102 Summary 110

Vision

Part 2

4 Haizi: Returning Home—Chinese Huijia 113 Introduction 113 A Cultural Premise—The Etymology 113 Xiangchou 119 The Movement towards Homecoming 125 The Ethics of Home 129 Summary 136 5 Jesus: the Hospitality of God 138 Introduction 138 Casting the Vision 138 Table Fellowship 144 Social Background in the Middle East of the First-Century 146 The Great Banquet 149 Summary 164

Part 3 Journey 6 Haizi: Seeking a Home 169 Introduction 169 Poetic Adoption from the Greeks 170 In Touch with Substance and Elements 171 The Elements from the Pre-Socratics 173 The Ideal and the Substance from Plato and Aristotle 178 Learning from the Quest of Modern Movements 183 Communism and Dialecticism 183

Contents

Idols Dismantled 186 Returning Home—Hui 189 Summary 197 7 Jesus: Embodying the Kingdom 198 Introduction 198 The Movement of the Journey 199 The Way of the Cross 202 Grasping the Stability of Life 203 Creating an Alternative Reality 209 The Way of Brokenness 218 The Cost of Discipleship—A Paradox of Losing and Gaining 219 Relationships Redefined 221 Summary 225

Part 4 Arrival 8 Haizi: The Death of a Poet 229 Introduction 229 The Task of a Poet 229 Songs of Death 237 In Dialogue with the West 238 In Dialogue with the East 241 In Dialogue with Christianity 248 Self-Surrender 254 Summary 261 9 Jesus: Passion to Embrace 263 Introduction 263 The Radical Openness of God 263 Desire to Gather 264 Eagerness to Eat 267 The Radical Vulnerability of God 271 The Bitter Cup 271 The Cross 274 Summary 285 Conclusion 287

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x Afterword 292 Appendices 297 Bibliography 302 Index of Subjects and Authors 322 Index of Ancient Sources 328

Contents

Acknowledgments Acknowledgments

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Acknowledgments This monograph is a revised version of my Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Divinity, Australia in 2015. It is a part of a homecoming journey. Just as a dream is fragile, so a project such as this needs words of life and nurturing hands to bring forth the fullness of its life. Since its conception several years ago, there are a host of people who have helped in the birth and development of this work. I pray that it will not only be a work incarnated in me, but will serve and inspire many others in the years to come. I am thankful to the series editors Professors S.B. Bevans (Catholic Theo­ logical Union), M. Ruokanen (University of Helsinki/Nanjing Union Theological Seminary) and K. Kim (Fuller Theological Seminary) for their warm support of my work for publication. I am grateful to Dr. J. Zhang, Professors the late R. Langmead and F. Rees for their supervision and guidance of my dissertation. Scholarly discussions with members of the academic community, especially Pro­fessors M. Brett, K. Dyer, R. Prior and L. Nemer, are much appreciated. I am thankful to have Dr. D. Claydon (Austra­­lian College of Theology) and Professor Y. Chen (Nanjing Union Semi­nary) to examine the dissertation and give their generous comments. Valuable feedback from Dr. G.W. Doyle (Global China Centre) is also appreciated. Many thanks to the University of Divinity for research support and the provision of an Australian Postgraduate Award that funded my research; and to Whitley College, Pilgrim Theological College and the University of Melbourne for scholarly forums and the use of library facilities. I am grateful for the assistance of the librarians Mr. S. Connelly and others from the Dalton McCaughey Library; and Ms. B. Yeung from the East Asian Collection, the University of Melbourne. Without the Chinese literary and theological resources at these libraries, the State Library and the National Library, it would have been impossible to complete this interdisciplinary project. I am indebted to the many friends who have prayed and supported me over the years. Jeanette’s dedication to her marvellous and meticulous proofreading has been a tremendous support, as she ran the race alongside me. Thanks to my faith community who constantly nurture me as a worshipper and lover of God. Grateful remembrance of Chris, who passed away in 2012, for his encouragement in my love of poetry and theology ever since we met many years ago. Special thanks to Ros, Ian and Barb, Stuart and Marg for their love and support, especially during times of trial. Last, but not least, thanks to my parents for their unconditional love and care. They cooked many delicious Chinese meals after my long hours working

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in the library. Mum especially has taught me to love life and live it to the full; and also thanks to my beloved dog Bondy who sat faithfully at my feet during many isolated hours of praying, thinking and writing. Above all, I thank God for the everlasting presence, grace and embracing arms as the life-giver on the journey. My bilingual poem ‘Return’ expresses the beckoning call:1 When the running feet stop the open wings turn back again My home with golden wheat swaying in the mature season Watch for me till the day I see you again I dedicate this book to the nation of China for the glory of God. 1 Xiaoli Yang, “Return”, Studio 75, no. Winter (1999), 6-7.

List of illustrations List of Illustrations

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List of Illustrations Figures 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

The Temple of Dunhuang Mogao Cave 69 Dunhuang Mogao Cave where manuscripts and Buddhist art were stored 69 Dunhuang desert on the Silk Road 71 Haizi Lake in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan 74 Haizi Lake in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan 74 4,000 metres above sea level in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan 83 Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheels in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan  83 Different ways of thinking between the West and the East 174 The conflicting thought pattern in Haizi’s thinking 193 Jiayuguan at the western end of the Great Wall, echoing with Shanhaiguan as the tail of the sleeping giant 260

Tables 1 2

Haizi’s perspectives on poetics 48 Haizi’s creation myth 56

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List Of Illustrations

Introduction Introduction

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Introduction Background Contemporary China has been going through a renewed time of revolution since Deng Xiaoping (邓小平, 1904–1997) introduced the ‘Open Door Policy’ (Duiwai Kaifang, 对外开放) in 1978.1 Economic reform is opening China to the global market and private competition, resulting in China becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The last decade, especially, has witnessed aggressive steps by China to open up the country to greater engagement and exchange with the world. Reflection since the Cultural Revolution, to the extent that it is dominated by intellectual utterances, centres on the question of re-positioning the intellectual in the newly articulated social reality. Western thought and ideology are flooding into the mindset of Chinese people. This wave of introducing western thought to the academia is regarded by some Chinese scholars as ‘the Second Chinese Enlightenment’ since the May Fourth Movement, 1919.2 An academic movement that dialogues between Christianity, western thought and Chinese traditions is sought.3 One of the most prominent figures—a prototype of the so-called ‘cultural Christian’ (wenhua jidutu, 文化 基督徒), Liu Xiaofeng (刘小枫, 1956-), writes with eloquent and affective language in his well-known Deliverance and Dallying (拯救与逍遥).4 The book has inspired many Chinese intellectuals to move their attention to the Christian 1 The Chinese Pinyin (Romanisation Script) used in this book is in phrase form and only applies to the special Chinese terms in the first instance. Simplified Chinese characters are also adopted in this book. 2 Edmond Tang, “The Second Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and Christianity Today”, in Identity and Marginality: Rethinking Christianity in North East Asia, ed. W. Usdorf and T. Murayama, Studies in the Intercultural History of Christianity 121 (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2000), 55-70; Alexander Chow, Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment: Heaven and Humanity in Unity, First ed., (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), 21-40. 3 Huilin Yang and Daniel H.N. Yeung, eds., Sino-Christian Studies in China (Cambridge: Scholars Press, 2006). 4 The translation into English from Chinese book titles, Chinese texts including Chinese poems and articles, and any other references in Chinese books, journals and classics is by the author of this book, unless otherwise indicated. If there is already an English translation, edition has been made by the author of this book when necessary. Xiaofeng Liu, 刘小枫, Zhengjiu yu Xiaoyao: Zhongxifang Shiren Dui Shijie de Butong Taidu (Deliverance and Dallying: Different Attitudes towards the World between Chinese and Western Poets), Di 1 ban. ed., Wenhua, Zhongguo yu shijie xilie congshu, (Shanghai: Shanghai renmin chubanshe, 1988).

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004363113_002

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Introduction

God in their search for the Ultimate within their cultural disposition, as well as salvation for the torn-apart post-Mao China. For new sources to feed the spiritual vacuum (jingshen kongxu, 精神空虚) of Chinese people in the post-Mao era, people are looking to philosophy, psychology, literature and religion for new ways of orienting themselves in a world of ideological incoherence and unrelenting competition. We cannot overstate the significance of the impact of opening up to alien cultural influences and the impact upon the Chinese cultural psyche and the felt need for a stable ‘holding environment’.5 While these ideas and values signify freedom and liberty, the loss of collective coherent consciousness also spells alienation and disorientation to the Sino mind. When China entered the era of the ‘Open Door Policy’ at the end of the 1970s, this collective consciousness began to come under threat. Contemporary Chinese poetry was born out of such culture collisions where the ancient meets the modern, the traditional meets the contemporary and the East meets the West.6 These culture collisions and mergers are causing an identity crisis and a fragmentation of values that poets are discerning and expressing. Philip Wickeri rightly claims that Chinese intellectuals have developed a ‘literature of the wounded’ rather than a ‘theology of the wounded’ in the post-Mao era.7 Many contemporary Chinese poets are exploring themes relating to cultural and existential identity through their writings, and poetry is being used by contemporary Chinese to express their most significant life issues. In order to rebuild their spiritual framework and cultural disposition, poets such as Beidao (北岛, 1949-), Gucheng (顾城, 1956-1993), and Shuting (舒婷, 1952-) express the wounded social psyche through their writings after the Culture Revolution. While some poets try to absorb western thoughts and imitate many western writings, others such as Jiang He (江河, 1949-) and Yang Lian (杨炼, 1955-) attempt to search the roots (xungen, 寻根) of Chinese culture to counter such fever towards the western culture. Poetry movements 5 Donald Woods Winnicott, The Child, the Family, and the Outside World, Pelican Books A668, (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1964). 6 In order to bring out the major contrast of ‘the East’ and ‘the West’ from Chinese perspectives, this book has put aside the regional, ethnical and religious diversities and treated the two terms in a general way without making sweeping claims about the two categories. The terms ‘The West’, ‘western culture’, ‘western tradition’ and ‘western thought’ expressed in this book are mostly through the lens of Haizi and his generation. Up till today, for many Chinese, Christianity has been perceived as a part of the western product. ‘The western tradition’ for them mainly refers to the European heritage which includes philosophy, politics, economics, arts, literature, scholastic theology and so on. 7 Philip Wickeri, “Theological Reorientation in Chinese Protestantism, 1949-1984, II”. Ching Feng 28, no. 2-3 (1985): 105-29.

Introduction

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began in the expression of ‘Misty Poetry’ (menglong shi, ‘朦胧诗’) in the 1970s, and gradually developed into a variety of poetry forms, and culminated in the movement of the so-called ‘New Poetry Wave’ (xinshi chao, ‘新诗潮’) which includes ‘Post Misty Poetry’ (hou menglong shi, ‘后朦胧诗’), ‘Post Modern Poetry’ (hou xiandai shi, ‘后现代诗’) and other new forms of writings from the mid-1980s. In a very short period, thousands of poetry communities and denominations arose and spread over the country. Contemporary Chinese poetry reached its peak and the movement carried through till the early 1990s. This decade of poetry prosperity, the so-called ‘poetry fever’ (shige re, 诗歌热), is likened to the period of the Tang dynasty (618-907) when great poetry was produced and flourished. The youthful dreams, hope, pain, love and struggles were imprinted in the memories of an entire generation during these poetry movements. Through poetry and poetic expression, both the features of their worldview and the implicit spirituality of the poets may be discerned. Thus, it can be seen that poetry is a crucial and rich source of data for anyone seeking to understand the shared phenomenon of cultural dislocation and reorientation in this contemporary period. As will be explained below, a soul-search (xunhun, 寻魂) is an inner search that encompasses wisdom, the will and emotions. In order to assist in the ongoing sensitive engagement of the Christian gospel with Chinese culture, I will argue that a dialogue between the Chinese soul-search and the gospel can be created through the vehicle of poetry.

Research Questions

I have selected the work of a well-known Chinese poet, Haizi (海子, 1964-1989). Although he committed suicide in 1989 at the age of twenty-five, his influence on the Chinese people has permeated well beyond his time and his age. Over the past two decades, many representative works of Haizi continue to be the most popular poems among contemporary Chinese, are included in high school textbooks and read by educated Chinese alike. Both his popularity and uniqueness open a window for us to enter into the heartland of a Chinese soul-search. I still recall my astonishment when reading Haizi’s first published epic poetry book The Land (1990) amongst many others in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Incident. A poet friend came to my university dormitory and shared Haizi’s dramatic suicide. One of the books besides his crushed body was a Chinese Bible. The Bible had not been widely read amongst the intellectuals of the time. Like a doom bell that prophetically tolled the

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Introduction

upcoming tragedy of the ‘June-Fourth’ Incident of 1989, Haizi’s death marks the ending of a romantic movement of contemporary Chinese poetry and the beginning of a new era of market economy in the 1990s. Haizi’s suicide, as a part of the social and cultural phenomenon in the history of Chinese intellectuals, reflects a strong critique and reaction towards the social and cultural structure and national character in the post-Mao era. As a signpost between the two eras—the two literary movements (‘Misty Poetry Movement’ and ‘New Poetry Wave’), agriculture and urbanisation, and the East and the West, his writing brings focus on the collision and tension between different cultures and traditions. His unique style of poetry, in the form of ‘spiritualisation writing’ (shenxing xiezuo, 神性写作), opens the evolution of an intellectual phenomenon in the heartland of a Chinese soul-search to fulfil the collective quest for homecoming in the rapid social and cultural change. In this book, I will search for points of resonance between Haizi’s poetry and the gospel of Jesus Christ through Luke’s testimony by discerning parallel cries expressed in both and ascertaining to what extent these are essentially expressions of related phenomena. I will demonstrate that the resonance between the two can be identified, leading to an ongoing table conversation between culture and faith. In order to do this, I will ask: − What are the indications of the soul-searching and spiritual hunger of a generation of Chinese expressed in Haizi’s poetry? − What are the features, shapes and themes in relation to the soul-search and spiritual journey that are evident within Haizi’s poetry? − What are the points of resonance between the spiritual journey of a generation of Chinese through Haizi’s poetry and the yearnings expressed in the Lukan Jesus? − How does the gospel complement a generation of Chinese soul-searching expressed in Haizi’s poetry? Outline Part 1 explores the Roots of home—the origin of the cosmos and humanity. It will test if the homelessness of Haizi and his generation expressed in his poetry correlates with the place of homelessness that the Lukan Jesus willingly takes as his home. If this is true, Jesus will become the presence of God in the place of displacement and isolation by becoming homeless himself.

Introduction

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Part 2 considers the Vision of home—the picture of a future home. The next test is to see if Haizi’s vision of home—Chinese Huijia, where humanity gathers and shares at table meals resonates with the hospitality of God embodied in the Lukan Jesus. If this is true, Jesus will offer a radical inclusive model through his table fellowship. Part 3 investigates the Journey home—the path towards home. The third test is to see if the brokenness of Haizi and his contemporaries, in their struggles to reconcile the vast difference between the East and the West correlates with Jesus’ suffering in his struggle to bring a tangible present reality of the Kingdom of God to this world. If this is true, Jesus will take a journey of suffering in the way of the Cross and invite his disciples in the way of brokenness to demonstrate the Kingdom of God. Part 4 examines the Arrival home—the homecoming. The last test is to see if Haizi’s poetic act of self-surrender in the posture of the cross resonates with Jesus’ suffering and death on the Cross for the whole of humanity. If this is true, Jesus will embrace the brokenness of both the East and the West through his persistent and self-giving love that is stronger than death. The conclusion summarises the homecoming journey. Using the correlation between Haizi and Jesus as the basis of conversation, it offers further insights for an interrelationship between Chinese culture and the gospel. It ends with an open invitation of the cosmic Jesus, who has risen from the dead, to Haizi and his generation to join him on the way home. This book therefore attempts to argue that the common language of the poet Haizi and Lukan Jesus provides a crucial and rich source of data for an ongoing table conversation between culture and faith. It aims to show that homecoming is a journey, and the way home is through dialogue.

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Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Haizi: The Poet Who Never ‘Dies’ Introduction On 26th March 1989, his 25th birthday, Haizi committed suicide by laying himself on the railway tracks at Shanhaiguan (山海关). Four books were laid beside his body, the Chinese versions of these books: ‘The Old and New Testament’ (新旧约全书), ‘Walden’ (瓦尔登湖), ‘Kontiki’ (孤筏重洋), and ‘Conrad’s Fiction’ (康拉德小说选). Alongside was his last writing in a note: ‘My death has nothing to do with anyone’. Tragically, this brilliant poet, who with the instrument of his voice ‘crawled over the earth’ and sang for ‘rice and vegetables’, ended his short life with such brutality. Through his astonishing creativity and acute intuition, he created a world of poetry that has had a substantial impact on Chinese people over the last two decades. This chapter defines the scope of the book by limiting it to the dialogue between the soul-search of Haizi and his generation through Haizi’s poetry, and Jesus Christ predominantly in the Gospel of Luke. Following a literary review of the past two decades of research on Haizi, it introduces the interdisciplinary methodology that embraces literary study, intercultural dialogue and comparative theology through a contextual poetic lens. By using Haizi’s poetry as a window into contemporary Chinese soul-searching, I argue that this book offers a dialogical path between Haizi and his companions of the 1980s’ China and the gospel of Jesus of the first century Palestine in Luke. In doing so, we can appreciate the Chinese soul-search journey on one hand, and Jesus’ way of approaching life in the Gospel of Luke on the other. The two worlds are not only enlarged by the current research, but also open a possible dynamic interrelationship between the Chinese soul-search and the gospel.

Definitions and Limitations

Haizi in Contemporary China Haizi, originally named Zha Haisheng (查海生), is a legendary poet in the history of contemporary Chinese poetry. He was born in Zhawan village, in the town of Gaohe, Huaining County, just outside the city of Anqing, in Anhui province. He was brought up in a rural setting. At the young age of fifteen, he was admitted to one of China’s top universities, Beijing University, to study law,

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/9789004363113_003

Haizi: The Poet Who Never ‘Dies’

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and subsequently became a lecturer at the Chinese Politics and Law University. He recorded his experience on the way to Beijing in a poem ‘Night Train in Winter’ (冬天的夜行列车). Leaving behind his hometown and wheat fields, he wrote ‘the nights were like days’. He began to write poetry during this period and produced nearly three million words of poetry, novels, dramas and dissertations within seven years in lonely, simple and poor living conditions. Since his tragic death, however, Haizi has generated a wide range of opinions among literary critics. It is undeniable that Haizi has well overtaken many other famous contemporary poets such as Gu Cheng (顾城), Shuting (舒婷) and Yu Guangzhong (余光中). His poetry books have been published and sell out year after year. Poets and critics gather on university campuses to read his poems and tell his stories in meetings. His poems are both included in school curricula and read by educated Chinese alike. Even his former residence in his hometown has been repaired and classified among key cultural relics.1 Among the literate classes, he has been the subject of exhaustive scholarly analysis and research. In 2009, to commemorate Haizi’s death, the most popular Chinese central government TV station gave a lengthy reading of his poem ‘Facing the Sea, (Watching) the Flowers Bloom in the Warmth of Spring’ (面朝大海, 春暖 花开) combined with music and dance, during the New Year’s Eve Show to the entire country. His friend Luo Yihe (骆一禾) claims that Haizi is an international poet with worldwide views, a gift from the Chinese to the world literature community.2 Just over a month after Haizi’s death, Luo Yihe paralleled Haizi’s poetic success with the image of looking down on everything from a mountain peak. He quoted Chen Dongdong’s words, ‘He [Haizi] will make an impact not only on the present and the future, but also the past’.3 These prophetic words proved to be right with the following two decades of extensive research on Haizi. He also won several significant literary prizes, including a poetry prize of the prestigious ‘People’s Literature’ (Renmin Wenxue, 人民文学) in 2001, twelve years after his death. Haizi is acclaimed to have ‘poetic genius and encyclopaedic knowledge’ with ‘keen instinct and original style’ in The Encyclopaedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture.4 Xichuan (西川) thought Haizi was ‘one of the 1 “Haizi de Guju”, (Former Residence of Haizi), Zhongguo Wang, . 2 Yihe Luo, 骆一禾, “Guanyu Haizi de Shuxin Liangze” (Two Letters about Haizi), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 18. 3 Yihe Luo, 骆一禾, “Haizi Shengya” (Haizi’s Biography), in Haizi Shi Quanji, ed. Haizi, 海子 and Xichuan, 西川 (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 2009), 5. 4 Birgit Linder, “Haizi”, in Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, ed. Edward L. Davis (London: Routledge, 2005).

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pioneers of our era’ in 1990,5 but then realised that Haizi’s work is ‘timeless’ (kuashidai, 跨时代) during the editing of Haizi’s collection in 1992.6 Xie Mian (谢冕) called Haizi the ‘symbol of a poetic era’.7 Forever a twenty-five-year-old poet, Haizi has become a legendary figure in contemporary literary history. His poetry is unique because it displays a fascination with transcendental and metaphysical issues, within which his pantheistic view of the cosmos emerges. Haizi heavily employs the apocalyptic language and images from the Bible for his poetry creation and pursuit of truth, even though this does not mean that he has understood the Christian belief system. Chen Qijia (陈奇佳) and Song Hui (宋晖) claim that Haizi simply borrows Christian symbols to build his ‘cultural poetics’ (文化诗学).8 Ultimately he is worshipping the goddess of poetry. Liu Guangyao (刘光耀) however states that instead of preaching the gospel in a traditional way, Haizi ‘previews a poetry era of Christian individual faith’.9 Si Li even goes as far as claiming that Haizi’s poetic search shows he is a Christian mystic.10 Haizi is recognised as the second milestone of Christian literature following Bingxin (冰心, 1900-1999). Luo Yihe calls Haizi ‘a pure child’ (chizi, 赤子), quoting the biblical verses where Jesus praises the Father for revealing himself to ‘infants’ (Mt 11:25) and where Jesus welcomes ‘little children’ into the Kingdom of God (Lk 18:16).11 I will explore what the long-lasting ‘Haizi fever’ says about the psyche of contemporary Chinese, what effect this young poet has had on contemporary Chinese and how his poetry expresses the yearning and soul-search of contemporary Chinese people. As Qi Hongwei (齐宏伟) asserts, Haizi’s poetry has ‘thoroughly peeled off the pretending souls of contemporary Chinese literature and entered into the real 5 Haizi, 海子, Haizi Shi Quanji (The Complete Poems of Haizi). ed. Xichuan, 西川, (Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe, 2009), 9. 6 Ibid., 1168. 7 Mian Xie, 谢冕, “Xu” (Preface), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 2. 8 Qijia Chen, 陈奇佳 and Hui Song, 宋晖, Bei Weiguan de Shizijia: Jidujiao Wenhua yu Zhongguo Dangdai Dazhong Wenxue (The Cross Being Watched: Christian Culture and Chinese Contemporary Popular Literature), (Beijing: China Social Science Publisher, 2010), 53. 9 The Chinese journals quoted in the book are equivalent to western peer reviewed journals. Guangyao Liu, 刘光耀, “Jidujiao Zai Xiandangdai Zhongguo Wenxue Zhong de Xingxiang yu Qi Bianqian” (The Image and Its Change: Christianity in Contemporary Chinese Literature). Journal of Xiangfan University, no. 1 (2007), 36. 10 Li Si, Poetic Development of the Chinese Poet Haizi (1964-1989): A Case Study of Changing Aesthetic Sensibilities in Modern China, (Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 2016). 11 Yihe Luo, 骆一禾, “Wo Kaolu Zhenzheng de Shishi” (I Consider True Epic Poetry), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 13.

Haizi: The Poet Who Never ‘Dies’

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‘soul writing’ (linghunshi xiezuo, 灵魂式写作)’.12 Haizi’s poetry is not simply a symbol of the post-Mao generation; his existential quest for transcendence is germane to the contemporary Chinese mindset. Therefore, Haizi’s poems provide a rich source of insight into the yearnings of this generation of Chinese people. Haizi’s search is a journey of returning to the ontological home—the fundamental or essential reality of his being and becoming. His homecoming journey is on a ‘poetic epistemological path’ (shige renshi lujing, 诗歌认识路径) within a particular social-cultural context. It is the path on which he gains knowledge, not so much through revelation that is an outside force nor reason that is human rationalism, but predominantly intuition that resides ontologically within humanity.13 For him, poetry through intuition is a vehicle of knowledge on a journey towards home. It starts with his Chinese roots, his vision of home, then his journey to the West in order to find a new home, and ends with his final return to Chinese soil in his ultimate act of suicide—‘poetry in action’. This book is therefore divided into four main parts: roots, vision, journey and arrival, as symbolic landmarks of Haizi and his generation’s soul-search journey. The Gospel of Luke Paralleling with Haizi’s homecoming journey, Luke’s Gospel is used predominantly in this book out of the four Gospels in the New Testament, although there are also comparative references to other books in the New Testament. Luke’s portrayal of Jesus has been described as one of the most ‘beautiful’ stories ever told.14 The choice of Luke’s Gospel is due to the following reasons, namely intercultural, inclusive, dialogical, and aesthetical: Firstly, by tradition, the human author is designated as Luke, a trained physician, an early convert of the Apostle Paul and a companion in some of Paul’s

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Hongwei Qi, 齐宏伟, Wenxue, Kunan, Jingshen Ziyuan—Bainian Zhongguo Wenxue yu Jidujiao Shengcunguan (Literature, Suffering, Spiritual Resources—One Hundred Years of World­view of Chinese Literature and Christianity), (Nancang: Jiangxi renmin chubanshe, 2008), 209. In Christian theology, ‘revelation’ can refer to both God’s special revelation in Jesus Christ and God’s general revelation in creation. Jack Dean Kingsbury, Conflict in Luke: Jesus, Authorities, Disciples, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 1, 143: He explains that this was first expressed by the French scholar E. Renan, and then used frequently by other scholars especially at the beginning of the twentiethcentury.

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missionary journeys (Col 4:14; Phm 24; 2Tim 4:11).15 But there is no indication that he is the author. His familiarity with both the Hebrew scripture and Hellenistic literary style suggest that he is likely to be a Gentile God-fearer, or a Hellenised Jew.16 This cross-cultural background enables him to communicate the life and ministry of Jesus to the communities of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, living in the first-century Greco-Roman world. Luke uniquely starts with a direct explanatory declaration (1:1-4), ‘in an aesthetically pleasing style, drawing on the complexities of Greek syntax’.17 Some hold that the ‘most excellent Theophilus’ (1:3) Luke dedicates to was not a real person and Luke consciously writes to all the lovers of God (as in the meaning of the name).18 Others think that he is a real person and functions as Luke’s patron during the period of Luke’s research. He is a Latinised Greek believer, which indicates that Luke writes to the audience in the wider Hellenistic world.19 Luke’s Gospel therefore has much to offer by way of intercultural communication with a message that warms the hearts of genuine inquirers. Secondly, Luke’s Gospel is unique and distinct, with the universalistic concerns that focus on the humanity of Jesus. Luke’s focus on the humanity of Jesus becomes a good resource for Sino-theology. Luke makes a distinctive contribution by placing Jesus in a far-reaching framework and emphasises that God relates to the creation in its totality.20 As the burden carrier, Jesus is portrayed as a friend of sinners and a saviour of all who come to him. Luke, perhaps with his medical background, recognises the need for compassion and mercy for the least, the poor and the outcast. The emphasis on Jesus’ humanity shows God’s intent to bring healing, wholeness and restoration to humanity. ‘It is the “mercy gospel” … a book for everybody—for everyone needs mercy’.21 It offers ‘a distinctive vision of God’s special relationship with all humanity through Jesus’.22 Luke’s primary missionary gospel is that ‘God’s gracious salvation is for

15

The Christian Scripture in the book is taken from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise stated. 16 John T. Squires, “The Gospel According to Luke”, in The Cambridge Companion to the Gospels, ed. Stephen C. Barton (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006, 161; Joel B. Green, The Theology of the Gospel of Luke, New Testament Theology, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), chp 1. 17 Squires, “The Gospel According to Luke”, 158. 18 Brian Simmons, Luke: to the Lovers of God, (LLC: 5 Fold Media, 2012), 7. 19 Squires, “The Gospel According to Luke”, 160. 20 Ibid., 161. 21 Simmons, Luke: to the Lovers of God, 6. 22 Squires, “The Gospel According to Luke”, 161.

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all’.23 He tells the story of Jesus more gracefully and informatively than Mark.24 Jesus’ inclusive embrace of Jews and Gentiles, men and women, young and old, rich and poor, well and ill, expressed over the table fellowship throughout the entire gospel becomes a rich resource to dialogue with the concept of homecoming for Haizi and his generation. Thirdly, Luke’s Gospel lends itself to distinguishing the roots, vision, journey and arrival, corresponding to Haizi’s fourfold homecoming process. It therefore forms a dialogue counterpart for the purpose of the book. The themes addressed by Luke, compared to other Gospels, are more particular. The Greek words in 1:3 ἀκριβῶς (accurately) and καθεξῆς (consecutively) are used to show that Luke writes the Gospel carefully and in an orderly way, having traced each of Jesus’ accounts to their original source with those who had seen and heard Jesus firsthand. The segregation of roots, vision, journey and arrival is, however, not as clear-cut because the gospel story is about different perspectives of the Easter event. The Gospel writers are like landscape artists, painting a picture of Jesus. They all find good news in the depths of tragedy and make declarations as to why the story of Jesus is important. Roots, vision, journey, and arrival are intertwining stories of the gospel of Jesus. For example, Luke’s expression of the new beginning of the broken humankind through Jesus’ genealogy already contains the glimpse of an arrival home. The table fellowship of Jesus in his vision and journey already contains the Easter event. Fourthly, Luke, as both an artist and a theologian, is able to draw on tradition and craft the story of Jesus both aesthetically and persuasively. Clearly, Luke is intelligent and well educated. Luke’s Gospel employs many songs, poetry and Jesus’ parabolic language to convey the reality and principles of the Kingdom of God. He records more songs than any other books in the Bible except Psalms and Revelation. Like Haizi’s philosophical and existential search through his poetry in Chinese tradition, Luke uses his artistry as a vehicle for his theology.25 For example, the longing for the fulfilment of prophecy is expressed in the songs of Simeon (2:28-32) and Zechariah (1:67-80). The praises to God who remembers and cares for the lonely and forgotten ones are in the songs of Mary (1:46-56). Moreover, many parables and stories can only be found in Luke; for example, the Great Banquet, the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, 23

Robert J. Karris, “Invitation to Luke”, in Invitation to the Gospels, ed. Donald Senior, et al. (New York: Paulist Press, 2002), 214. 24 Christopher Bryan, The Resurrection of the Messiah, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 103. 25 Kingsbury, Conflict in Luke, 1; Anselm Grün, Jesus, the Image of Humanity: Luke’s Account, (New York: Continuum, 2003), 11-7.

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and the thief next to Jesus on the Cross. These are valuable texts to form dialogues with questions raised by Haizi and his generation. The Soul and Soul-Search The soul (‘ψυχἠ’, psychē in Greek, ‘魂’, hun in Chinese) in general signifies one’s inner-self, which includes intellect, emotions and will. A soul-search therefore is an inner search for something that feeds and satisfies the soul. Dictionaries provide some definitions of soul-search. The meaning of the word as a noun is ‘the act or process of close and penetrating analysis of oneself, to determine one’s true motives and sentiments’.26 Collins English Dictionary gives two meanings: ‘deep or critical examination of one’s motives, actions, beliefs’ as a noun; and ‘displaying the characteristics of deep or painful self-analysis’ as an adjective.27 The ancient Greek Pre-Socratic philosophers define the psychē as the part of an animate being which endows it with life—‘the source of knowledge and the source of locomotion’.28 Their accounts of the soul, according to Jonathan Barnes, are entirely materialistic. Empedocles thinks that psychē means life whereas Socrates considers it as blood.29 The harmony of the soul is also emphasised by the Pre-Socratics. ‘For harmony is a mixing and the compo­sition of opposites and the body is composed of opposites’.30 Plato (428348 BCE) takes on Socrates’ view that the soul is the ‘logos of the mixing’ and thinks that souls are ‘the mixture and harmony’ of materials. In The Republic, he emphasises the immortality of the soul that is imprisoned in a mortal body and yearns for harmony without diversion, variability and internal conflicts at death.31 Aristotle (384-322 BCE), however, considers the soul as part of nature (in modern terms, psychology and physics cannot be segregated) in his treatise On the Soul. In general, the Greek philosophers attempt to make sense of the soul in its relation to the body. Biblical anthropologist Joel B. Green considers that Aristotle has a unified view of a human being. It is René Descartes (1596-1650) who transforms Aristotle’s talk of ‘soul’ to the category of ‘mind’.32 26 27 28

“Soul-searching”, in Dictionary.com (Random House, Inc., 2012). “Soul-searching”, in Collins English Dictionary (William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 2009). Jonathan Barnes, The Presocratic Philosophers, rev. ed., (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1982), 472. 29 Ibid., 488. 30 Ibid., 489. 31 Plato, The Republic, trans. Henry Desmond Pritchard Lee, 2nd ed., Penguin Classics, (London: Penguin Books, 1987), 381. 32 Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life: the Nature of Humanity in the Bible, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008), 52, 55-7.

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Descartes’ separation of the activity of thinking from the non-thinking body reinforces the idea of individual human beings, the ‘I’ or self, identified as ‘soul’. According to him, western views of human identity have been largely influenced by Descartes rather than Hellenistic anthropology.33 Unlike the western approach of segregation and demarcation of the ‘soul/ body’ under the influence of Hellenism, the ancient Chinese medical book ‘Inner Canon of Huangdi’ or ‘The Emperor’s Inner Canon’ (Huangdi Neijing, 黄 帝内经), written between the late Warring States period (475-221 BCE) and the early Han period (206 BCE–220 CE), defines ‘soul’ in a comprehensive way. Ben Shen in Ling Shu Jing records: The heaven within me is the inner virtue, the earth within me is the potency of life (Qi). The flowing virtue and smooth Qi produce life. Therefore from life comes the essence [of Yin and Yang] (Jing); the essence of the two intersects to become divinity (Shen); what accompanies the incoming and outgoing of Shen is spirit (Hun); what accompanies the incoming and outgoing of Jing is soul (Po); so what commands all existence is heart (Xin); the memory of the heart is consciousness (Yi); what remains in the consciousness is the will (Zhi); what fluctuates depending on the will is thought (Si); what is seen from a distance due to thought is consideration (Lu); how to deal with matters due to consideration is wisdom (Zhi). So the wise cultivate the essence of life, following the four seasons and adapting hot and cold, harmonising happiness and anger and living in peace, controlling Yin and Yang (阴阳) and adjusting hardness and softness.34 In contrast to the simple notion of the soul in the Greek dualism of the ‘soul/ body’, ancient Chinese philosophy displays diverse layers of life. It describes ontological degrees of life in horizontal unfolding, rather than vertical transcendence. It is a part of the whole chain derived from inner virtue and potency of life that is from heaven and earth within a person. The ontological life (Qi) produces the essence of Yin and Yang, divinity, spirit and soul, 33 34

Ibid., 49-50. “Huangdi Neijing, Ling Shu Jing, Benshen”. (In Zhuzi Baijia), , 2-3: The Chinese version is ‘天之在我者德也，地之在我者 气也。德流气薄而生者也。故生之来谓之精；两精相搏谓之神；随神往来者 谓之魂；并精而出入者谓之魄；所以任物者谓之心；心有所忆谓之意；意之 所存谓之志；因志而存变谓之思；因思而远慕谓之虑；因虑而处物谓之智。 故智者之养生也，必顺四时而适寒暑，和喜怒而安居处，节阴阳而调 刚柔 。’.

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whereas the epistemological path in the heart (Xin) produces consciousness, will, thought, consideration, and wisdom. In Chinese classical thought, the ontological degrees of life and the epistemological path to intelligence are one and the same. In other words, life and knowledge are two sides of the same truth—an ontological epistemology (以生命为本的知识论). Intellect is placed towards the end of the chain as the result of Qi, while the essence of Yin and Yang is at the beginning. The harmony of heaven and earth within gives Qi and life, and eventually produces wisdom and balanced living. The soul, therefore, is regarded as an integral part of the Yin and Yang, harmony, health, and wellbeing. For ancient Chinese, Hun (魂) and Po (魄) are two corresponding and closely linked terms rendering the concept of ‘soul’. Like Yin and Yang, Hun points to the Yang spirit of heaven, whereas Po refers to the Yin spirit of the earth.35 The former is working endlessly, connected with Qing (情, emotion/sentiment) and the latter rests upon the human body, connected with Xing (性, nature).36 In Confucian classics, Hun is often used in conjunction with the ontological life (Qi), called Hunqi (魂气). For example, ‘Liji, Jiaotesheng’ (‘礼记, 郊特牲’) affirms that Hunqi (the intelligent spirit) returns to heaven; Xingpo (形魄, the body and the animal soul) returns to the earth’.37 Ancient Chinese recognise the notion of soul displays not only layers of life, but is also interconnected with heaven and earth. The purpose is to achieve unity of heaven and earth and Yin-Yang harmony. The Hebrew culture also believes in the integration of soul, spirit and body. The Scriptural view of the person is holistic: both Old and New Testaments present human personality in a unifying manner. God created all things including human beings in his image—both in the Genesis account and Paul’s interpretation of imago Dei. This life force fills all aspects of life: body, soul and spirit as a unified sense of a person. Luke does not make the ‘soul-search’ terminology central to the understanding of redemption, but uses the word psychē frequently (Lk 1:46; 2:35; 6:9; 9:24; 10:27; 12:19, 22; 14:26; 17:33; 21:19). Sometimes it is translated as ‘soul’, sometimes as ‘life’ in the NRSV, which is different from Paul’s use of the term in 1Cor 15:46 where he formulates a contrast 35 36

37

The meaning is taken from An Liu, 刘安 and et al., “Huainanzi, Zhushuxun”, , 2: ‘天气为魂，地气为魄’。 The meaning is taken from Bangu, 班固, “Baihu Tongde Lun, Juanba, Qingxing”, , 17: ‘魂魄者，何謂也？魂猶伝伝也，行不休於 外也。主於情。魄者，迫然著人主於性也。魂者，芸也，情以除穢；魄者， 白也，性以治內 。’. Confucius, “Liji, Jiaotesheng”, , 36: The Chinese version is ‘魂气归于天，形魄归于地’.

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15

between natural and spiritual life. Paul, however, does not depart very far from a holistic Hebrew anthropology, since he does not sharply distinguish body and soul, as in later neo-Platonist Christianity.  He speaks about a ‘psychic body’ as opposed to a regenerated ‘spiritual body’.  Based on this exegetical point, Christian anthropology is more focused on spirit than on soul, and hence the Gospels are not really based on a ‘soul-search’. Nevertheless, by using this term, the Greek term psychē is evoked. Green also argues for the biblical understanding of the totality of human beings in terms of human capacity, and the call to be in a loving-kindness relationship with Yahweh in covenant, with others within the human family, and the whole earth. For him, humanity needs to be understood fundamentally in relational terms, ‘identifying the human family foremost as Yahweh’s partner, and then identifying the communal, intersexual character of personhood, the quality of care the human family is to exercise with regard to the earth as God’s representative, and the unassailable vocation of humans to reflect in their relationships God’s own character’.38 Unlike the Greek philosophers who are more interested in the human ‘parts’—the metaphysical essences—the biblical account focuses on the affirmation of humanity in terms of relationship. In the Old Testament, ‘soul’ (nepheš) means ‘life and vitality’—a way to be, the involvement of the entirety of a human person.39 The German theologian Jürgen Moltmann prefers the term ‘ensouled’ or ‘soulful’ life and brings out the essence of an utterly lively and living life. He says that it is a life ‘open to joy and pain, a life full of self-sacrifice and love’.40 Haizi and his generation were unaware of the hidden currents of these different cultural traditions: the Greek metaphysical body-soul division, the Chinese multi-layers of life and the Hebrew holistic relational life. But these traditions nonetheless have stirred and confused the generation of soul-searchers like Haizi. Since there are many sub-cultures in the Chinese world including the Diasporas, the Chinese soul-search (Zhongguohun de xunzhao, 中国魂的寻 找) in this book mainly refers to that of the poet Haizi and his generation in post-Mao Mainland China (1980-1989). Their soul-search journey is hybrid, moving between traditional Chinese classical understanding that is collectivistic and inclusive, and the western mindset that tends to be individualistic

38 39 40

Joel B. Green, Why Salvation?, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2013), 13-4; see also Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life, 64-5. Joel B. Green, Body, Soul, and Human Life, 64. Jürgen Moltmann, Is There Life After Death?, (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1998), 12.

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and dualistic.41 Their cultural displacement and double-consciousness in their hybridity can be likened to the ‘otherness’ highlighted by the postcolonial literary theory.42 I will engage their spiritual journey in the conversation with the gospel that is also expressed in a cross-cultural context. It is my hope not only to conduct an in-depth study on the soul-search of Haizi and his generation, but also to provide companionship and life-giving purpose through the dialogue with Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. Before we move to the methodology adopted in this book, a brief review of research on Haizi and his poems over the last two decades is conducted.

Two Decades of Research on Haizi (1989-2016)

Ever since his good friend Luo Yihe gave a high appraisal of his poetic spirit and writing style soon after his death, many were inspired to continue to explore Haizi and his poems. Two outstanding dissertations, which were subsequently published in books, have been produced during the writing of my dissertation. The first academic monograph on Haizi in English, Struggle and Symbiosis, was published by Rui Kunze in Germany in 2012.43 It examines the ongoing canonisation of Haizi in the subtle struggle and symbiosis between literature and politics. Zhao Hui (赵晖) from Beijing University produced the first doctoral level thesis in Chinese on Haizi’s poetry in 2011, focusing on how Haizi’s work became a literature mirror image of anxiety in the generation of the 1980s and 1990s.44 Both of them focus on the social-political reflection of the 1980s’ China through Haizi’s work. Chen Guoping (陈国平) from Qinghua University in his doctoral thesis (2015) argues that Haizi and Luo Yihe have constructed the aesthetic concept of ‘Poetry Synchronicity’ (Shige Gongshiti, ‘诗歌共时体’), by integrating binary opposites such as classicism and modernism, heroism and democratic awareness, native and global perspectives.45 The thesis echoes 41 42

43 44 45

Individualism is a product of modernity, whereas the dichotomy of body and soul is ancient in the West. Edward W. Said, Reflections on Exile: and Other Literary and Cultural Essays, (London: Granta, 2001), Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 25th anniversary ed., (New York: Vintage Books, 1979); Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture, (London: Routledge, 2004). Kunze Rui, Struggle and Symbiosis: The Canonization of the Poet Haizi and Cultural Discourses in Contemporary China, (Freiburg: Projekt verlag, 2011). Hui Zhao, 赵晖, Haizi, Yige ‘80 Niandai’ Wenxue Jingxiang de Shengcheng (Haizi, The Generation of A Literature Mirror Image of the 1980s), (Beijing: Beijing daxue chubanshe, 2011). Guoping Chen, 陈国平, “Shige Gongtongti de Jiangou” (Composing The Poetry Synchro­ nicity) (Qinghua University, 2015).

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17

with the analysis of Haizi’s hybrid identity and poetic pursuit presented in this book, but is limited to the realm of contemporary Chinese poetry. The most recent publication by Si Li (2016) chronologically presents Haizi’s comprehensive work from a perspective of religious and cultural evaluation. Si traces Haizi’s biographical life and reinterprets his epistemological endeavour as a Christian mystic.46 It is speculative by drawing this conclusion from the allusion of key biblical themes in Haizi’s poems, without careful consideration of Haizi’s personal faith and the historical term ‘Christian mystic’ from traditional Christian heritage. Si nevertheless brings fresh angles to reinterpret the poet in a complex cultural and social era, reaffirming Haizi’s ‘poetic epistemology’ offered in this book. There are about a dozen books written on Haizi’s work. Additionally, many journal articles have been written, conference papers presented and dissertations submitted. Kunze delineates the most detailed literary reviews on Haizi and his work in English with the vantage point of the process of the canonisation of Haizi.47 Rong Guangqi gives a list of publications on Haizi from 1985 to 2008 in Chinese, including Haizi’s own works, selected poems in school cur­ ricula, bibliographies, research works, memorial collections, dissertations, litera­ture history, poems dedicated to Haizi and even novels that have hints of Haizi’s image.48 Alongside many works in Chinese, Maghiel van Crevel and Michelle Yeh (Xi Mi) gave critiques on Haizi’s work in English as early as the 1990s.49 Jia-Yan Mi also discusses Haizi in the context of xiangtu (home) in a transnational, global context in English.50 In general, Haizi’s work is viewed positively. Haizi’s poetic ideals and original contribution towards poetic metaphors in contemporary Chinese poetry are widely praised, especially after the publication of Cui Weiping’s (崔卫平) ‘Haizi Who Never Dies’ (Busi de Haizi, 不 死的海子), a special edition to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Haizi’s 46 Si, Poetic Development of the Chinese Poet Haizi (1964-1989). 47 Rui, Struggle and Symbiosis, chp 1, 34-72. 48 Guangqi Rong, 荣光启, “Haizi Shige: Cong ‘Xiaozhan’ Chufa” (Haizi’s Poetry: Starting from ‘The Station’), Nanfang wentan, no. 4 (2009), 122-143. 49 Maghiel van Crevel, Language Shattered: Contemporary Chinese Poetry and Duoduo, (Leiden: Research School CNWS, 1996); Maghiel van Crevel, “Thanatography and the Poetic Voice: Ways of Reading Haizi”, Minima Sinica, no. 1 (2006); Maghiel van Crevel, Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money, (Boston: Brill, 2008); Michelle Yeh, 奚密, “Haizi ‘Yazhou Tong’ Tanxi” (An Analysis of Haizi’s ‘Asian Copper’), Dangdai Zuojia Pinglun, no. 6 (1993); Maghiel van Crevel, “The ‘Cult of Poetry’ in Contemporary China”, The Journal of Asian Studies 55, no. 1 (1996). 50 Jia-Yan Mi, “The Spectacle of Xiangtu: Home, Landscape and National Representation in Modern Chinese Literature, Film and Art” (University of California, 2002).

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death.51 The first academic monograph to study Haizi’s poetry and novels by Youzai (悠哉) and the first complete Haizi’s Memorial Collections in four volumes edited by Jin Taiping (金肽频) were published in 2009, twenty years after his death.52 Li Qingqiu (李清秋) published the first biography of Haizi following the traces of his poems in 2015.53 Thus both Haizi’s poetry and his position in contemporary Chinese literary history are once again affirmed. There are not many research surveys on Haizi. Zong Yonggao (宗永皋) categorises the research on Haizi into two periods: the interpretation of his tragic death and the understanding of his poetic spirit in the 1990s; and the detailed textual study of Haizi’s poems since 2000 based on the previous research.54 I find that scholarship on Haizi is arranged in four main categories, each focusing on different perspectives. They include historical studies, literary analysis, philosophical ideas and religious traditions. The categories, however, are overlapping and therefore not mutually exclusive. The study in each category is extensive, thus I will provide some representative works: 1. Historical: Haizi is placed in the framework of contemporary Chinese poetry and his significant role interpreted in literary history—how he is a signpost during a cultural transition in contemporary China. Wu Zhiqiang (武智强) and Li Xiaojun (李小軍) regard Haizi as the last romantic poet at the end of the 1980s who devoted himself to epic writing. ‘The Sun · Seven Books’ (太阳·七部书) is the largest epic collection of the 1980s and, in their opinion, no one’s influence on epic poetry has exceeded that of Haizi ever since.55 In Liu Lujia (刘鲁嘉)’s thesis, Haizi is placed in the context of the nihilistic consciousness (konghuan yishi 空幻意识) of Chinese poetry from the Cultural Revolution to 1989. There are many different forms of responses. Haizi, among other distressed poets, refused the meaninglessness of nihilism but could not find a way to fulfil his ideal. His suicide, paradoxically, is a form 51

Weiping Cui, 崔卫平, ed., Busi de Haizi (Haizi Who Never Dies) (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999). 52 Haizi, 海子 and Youzai, 悠哉, Haizi Shige Yanjiu (Research on Haizi’s Poetry), (Tianjin: Baihua wenyi chubanshe, 2009); Haizi, 海子 and Taipin Jin, 金肽频, Haizi Jinian Wenji (Haizi’s Memorial Collections), 4 vols, (Hefei: Hefei gongye daxue chubanshe, 2009). 53 Qingqiu Li, 李清秋, Meiyou Renhe Yewan Neng Rangwo Chenshui: Haizi Shizhuan (No Night Can Keep Me Asleep: A Biography of Haizi’s Poetry), (Beijing: Xiandai chubanshe, 2015). 54 Yonggao Zong, 宗永皋, “Haizi Yanjiu Shuping” (A Survey of the Studies of Haizi), Anhui Shifan Xueyuan Xuebao 25, no. 3 (2006). 55 Zhiqiang Wu, 武智强 and Xiaojun Li, 李小軍, “Haizi: ‘Shenxing’ Shishi yu Shishi Zhongjie” (Haizi: ‘Theistic’ Epic and its Endings), Jinan zhiye xueyuan xuebao 5 (2005).

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of resistance to his despair.56 He Ling (何玲) in her thesis surveys the ‘homestead consciousness’ of Haizi in the context of the age and culture, and compares his poems with ‘The Third Generation’ poetry. She thinks that the destiny of Haizi and his poetry opens ways for contemporary Chinese poetry writing in a non-poetry age.57 Li Liang analyses various reasons why the ‘Haizi myth’ is lasting and Haizi has become the most unique poet in contemporary Chinese poetry. These studies clearly demonstrate the cultural soil in which Haizi and his poetry were born. 2. Literary: The narrative approach is used to study the person of Haizi, his journey and his death; the source, the content, and certain figurative language and images of his poems are analysed; the style, form, and language of his writings are also studied. Liao Yuan (燎原), who attempts to capture Haizi’s spiritual world and creative endeavour, writes the most authoritative biography of Haizi.58 He includes his own views and those of other critics. He also affirms the originality of the image of the ‘wheat field’ created by Haizi and Luo Yihe.59 Following him, Yu Xugang (余徐刚) wrote Haizi’s biography, calling him in bold letters ‘Poetry Hero’ (Shige Yingxiong, 诗歌英雄).60 Together with Zhou Yubing (周玉 冰),61 they focus on Haizi’s life story rather than his writings. Gao Bo (高波) reinterprets Haizi’s artistry and the meaning of his poetry, unclothing the mysticism that has been placed on Haizi.62 Zhang Jiong (张炯) comments that Haizi becomes a most original and creative poet by establishing his own language and images.63 Ding Bolin (丁伯林) and Cao Wu (曹武) explore the vast 56 57 58 59 60 61

62 63

Lujia Liu, 刘鲁嘉, “Zhongguo xinshiqi shige de konghuan yishi” (China Nihilistic Consciousness of Poetry in the New Period), (Xinan daxue, 2009). Ling He, 何玲, “Lun Haizi shige zhong de jiayuan yishi jiqi fansi” (On the Homestead Consciousness of Hai Zi), (Shoudu shifan daxue, 2006). Yuan Liao, 燎原, Puxiang Taiyang Zhi Bao: Haizi Pingzhuan (A Leopard Springing on the Sun: Haizi’s Biography), (Hainan: Nanhai chubanshe, 2001). Yuan Liao, 燎原, “Luansheng de maizi zhi di” (The Twin of the Wheat Field), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999). Xugang Yu, 余徐刚, Haizi Zhuan: Shige Yingxiong (The Biography of Haizi: A Heroic Poet), (Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe, 2004). Yubing Zhou, 周玉冰, Mianchao Dahai Chunnuan Huakai: Haizi de Shiqing Rensheng (Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms: Haizi’s Life of Poetry), (Hefei: Anhei wenyi chubanshe, 2005). Bo Gao, 高波, Jiedu Haizi (Interpreting Haizi), (Kunming: Yunnan renmin chubanshe, 2003). Jiong Zhang, 张炯, Xin Zhongguo wenxue wushinian (Fifty Years of New China Literature), (Jinan: Shandong jiaoyu chubanshe, 1999).

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difference between the images used in Haizi’s early and later works.64 From Haizi’s representative work, Lian Jiaming (练家明) studies Haizi’s unique poetic style that combines romanticism and classicism, and concludes that Haizi is destined for another world/other worlds.65 In her dissertation, Li Yan (李艳) argues that Haizi’s lyricism and style are deeply influenced by the works of Hölderlin and Vincent van Gogh. She thinks that Haizi’s emphasis on the characteristics of Han Chinese language, which combines meaning and singing, is a breakthrough in traditional Chinese poetry.66 She also notices the imagery connection of ‘Sheep’ in Haizi’s poems with that of the Bible. Van Crevel argues the mythification of Haizi’s death and advocates for more attention to Haizi’s poetic voice.67 Haizi, however, is also criticised by many, especially ‘The Third Generation Poets’ (disandai shiren, 第三代诗人) who rose in the 1990s. For example, Yu Jian (于坚) states that Haizi is one of the last poets of the agricultural society, who expresses all he has in his youth but lacks the capacity to grasp concrete truth and life.68 Yisha (伊沙) despises Haizi’s writings (other than his short poems) as garbage, which have taken contemporary poetry backwards for ten years.69 The angles from which to study Haizi’s poetry are multiple and diverse. The debates, however, bring us closer to an understanding of Haizi. 3. Philosophical: Scholars articulate Haizi’s existential quest from a metaphysical point of view: what the meaning of his death is, how he pursues a utopian ideology in his poetic kingdom and how his poetry is impacted by existentialism and other religions.

64

Bolin Ding, 丁伯林 and Wu Cao, 曹武, “Haizi shige yixiang de fenliexing tezheng tanxi” (An Analysis of Characteristics of Fissility of Haizi’s Poetic Images), Chizhou xueyuan xuebao 22, no. 2 (2008). 65 Jiaming Lian, 练家明, “Biechu: Haizi Mingyun de Fuzhi—‘Mianchao Dahai, Chunnuan Huakai’ de Wenxue Xushu” (Another World: the Beginning of Haizi’s Happiness—The Literary Narration of the Poem “Facing the Ocean, Flowers Blooming in the Warm Spring”), Chongqing jiaoyu xueyuan xuebao 18, no. 4 (2005). 66 Yan Li, 李艳, “Langman de Shuqing: Lun Haizi Shifeng” (Romantic Lyric: Haizi’s Poetic Style) (Qingdao daxue, 2005). 67 van Crevel, Chinese Poetry in Times of Mind, Mayhem and Money, 91-136. 68 Jian Yu, 于坚, Zongpi shouji (Brown Cover Diary), (Shanghai: Dongfang chuban zhongxin, 1997), 267. 69 Yisha, 伊沙 and et al., Shishang Shashou: Sanjianke Tiaozhan Heshang (Assassins of Fashion: Three Musketeers Challenging Fashion), (Guangzhou: Huacheng chubanshe, 2000), 115-6.

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Hu Shuqing (胡书庆) writes the only monograph on Haizi’s epic poetry ‘The Sun · Seven Books’ and interprets this from an existential point of view.70 Wu Xiaodong (吴晓东) and Xie Linglan (谢凌岚) liken Haizi’s death to the western poets who have committed suicide since the end of the nineteenth century. They argue that Haizi’s death is an extreme response to the crisis of this age, and a wakeup call to Chinese intellectuals who have been asleep for centuries.71 Wang Dongdong (王冬冬) argues that Haizi has stubbornly chosen metaphysics as the philosophical basis for his poetic practice.72 On the contrary, Han Dong (韩东) and Zhong Ming (钟鸣) claim that rather than for metaphysical reasons, Haizi’s death is an escape from the reality of the world he lives in.73 Gu Dayong (古大勇) however brings a balance of both views and suggests that we need to interpret the reason and meaning behind Haizi’s death from multidimensional perspectives.74 Xichuan, as Haizi’s good friend, gives a realistic view of Haizi’s life and death. Considering Haizi’s background, personality, creativity and ideology, he concludes that Haizi’s death was caused by various factors including a suicidal complex, lifestyle, melancholic personality, Qigong (气功) practice, and other issues that triggered his suicidal attempt.75 He likens Haizi’s creative work with the themes of the Bible, writing from the love expressed in the New Testament to the justice found in the Old Testament. Xichuan’s view, however, fails to understand that the nature of God revealed in both Testaments is the same. From Haizi’s various poetic expressions, Youzai (悠哉) concludes that Haizi considered eight forms of suicide: axing, hanging, shooting, jumping from the top floor, jumping into a river, a lake, or the sea, and lying under an axle.76 70

Shuqing Hu, 胡书庆, Sentimentality towards the Land and Ontological Search—Interpretation of Haizi’s ‘The Sun · Seven Books’, (Zhengzhou: Renmin chubanshe, 2007). 71 Xiaodong Wu, 吴晓东 and Linglan Xie, 谢凌岚 “Shiren zhi si” (Death of Poets), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999). 72 Dongdong Wang, 王冬冬, “Qianwang yu Fanhui: Haizi yu Xingershangxue de Duanlie” (Going and Rebounding: Haizi and the Rupture of Metaphysics) (Henan daxue, 2009). 73 Dong Han, 韩东, “Haizi: Xingdong” (Haizi: Action), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999); Ming Zhong, 钟 鸣, “Zhongjian Didai” (Middle Ground), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999). 74 Dayong Gu, 古大勇, “Shiren Zisha Jiujing You Shenme Yiyi?” (What is the Meaning of a Poet’s Suicide?), Huaibei meitan shifan xueyuan 28, no. 1 (2007). 75 Xichuan, 西川, “Siwang Houji” (Postscripts of Death), Shi tansuo, no. 3 (1994), Xichuan 西川, “Huainian” (In Memoir), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999). 76 Haizi and Youzai, Haizi Shige Yanjiu, 465-499.

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Focusing on the topic of homecoming, Shi Wei (施维) analyses Haizi’s home complex in different elements of his poems such as wheat field, village and land.77 Together with the homestead theme in He Ling’s thesis, they bring forth the literary aspect of homecoming. But both of them lack in-depth study on Haizi’s cultural and historical roots. On the theme of utopia, Li Fan (李繁) shows the transition of Haizi from a ‘builder of country utopia’ to a ‘quester of life and death’.78 Wan Xiaoxian (万孝献) explores Haizi’s ontological search from his ‘land utopia’ and ‘Sun utopia’ and concludes that Haizi dies of total hopelessness towards belief.79 Li Huaiqing (李怀青) treats Haizi’s poetry ideal as a utopia of language, in which religion, love and death form the three main themes as the ‘primitive utopian impulsion’.80 4. Religious: Haizi regards books and resources such as the Egyptian pyramids, the Bible, Indian epic poems, Homeric hymns, Koran and Persian poems as ‘cosmic background for great poetry’.81 Buddha, Jesus, Yama, Immortals and many Indian gods were included in his poems. Only a few works have touched this area, with scattered understanding of different religions. Ni Xueshen (倪雪坤) in his thesis analyses the connections between the text of Haizi’s poetry and Daoist culture, and concludes that Daoism has a strong influence on the image and style of Haizi’s poems.82 Xu Daojun (许道军) argues that Haizi’s philosophy takes shape as a result of rebellion and a breakthrough within Daoism.83 In contrast, comparing the lyrical styles of both Haizi and Hölderlin, Guo Fuxiu (郭芙秀) thinks that the similarity of their writings reflects the pantheism and heroism of their worldviews.84 Wang 77

Wei Shi, 施维, “Haizi, Huijia de Lu Zai Nali?—Haizi Shige Chuangzuo de Guxiang Qingjie” (Haizi, Where is Your Way Home?—The Home Complex in Haizi’s Poetry Creation), Journal of Huaina Teachers College 12, no. 5 (2010). 78 Fan Li, 李繁, “Haizi de Si yu Haizi de Shi” (Haizi’s Death and Poetry), Journal of Inner Mongolia Radio & TV University, no. 8 (2005). 79 Xiaoxian Wan, 万孝献, “Huanxiang zhi Lu—Lun Haizi Shige de Shengming Licheng” (The Journey of Illusion—About Haizi’s Journey of Life in His Poetry), (Fujian Normal University, 2006). 80 Huaiqing Li, 李怀青, “Lun Haizi Shige Zhuti de Wutuobang Tezheng” (About the Utopian Characteristics in the themes of Haizi’s Poetry), (Chinese Diaspora University, 2008). 81 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1051-2. 82 Xueshen Ni, 倪雪坤, “Haizi shige zhong de daojia wenhua yinsu” (The Daoist Element in Haizi’s Poetry), (Nanjing shifan daxue, 2006). 83 Daojun Xu, 许道军, “‘Huanxiang de Siwang’ he ‘Zhenzheng de Siwang’: Lun Haizi de Siwang Zhexue” (‘Death in Mirage’ and ‘Death in Reality’—On Philosophy about Death of Haizi), Chaohu xueyuan xuebao 6, no. 5 (2004). 84 Fuxiu Guo, 郭芙秀, “Ren Shen Lihe de Ai yu Tong” (Love and Pain of Person and God Paradox) (Xinan daxue, 2006).

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Benchao (王本朝) affirms the influence of Christianity on Haizi but believes that Haizi wanders onto the road of pantheism and he seems open to all kinds of gods.85 Qi Hongwei (齐宏伟) explores nihilism in Haizi and his inescapable failure in attempting to imitate the crucified God.86 Zhang Min (张敏) thinks that the religious mentality in Haizi’s poetry does not point to a particular religion. Haizi’s poems are not religious, but contain religious sentimentality.87 It is clear that different conclusions arise from various understandings of religion and religiosity. There has been more research on the connection between Haizi’s work and Christianity in recent years. From the parallel themes of Haizi’s poetry with biblical tradition, many attempt to draw on the relationship between the two, although they tend to take Christianity as it derives from the western tradition rather than the Middle East where it was conceived. Amongst published books, Cui first points out Haizi is full of ‘apocalyptic emotion’ (tianqi qingxu, 天启情 绪), and his language is filled with ideas of prophecy, last day of judgment and salvation.88 Chen Chao (陈超) calls Haizi ‘a saintly poet’ (圣徒般的诗人), and thinks that Haizi lays down his life without a second thought.89 Zhu Dake (朱大可) affirms that Haizi’s death can inspire contemporary Chinese to question life values and to search for truth. He refers to Haizi as a prophet who imitated Jesus Christ and translated the written word into action. He called Haizi a ‘poetic prophet’, and ‘religious poet’.90 Clearly, Zhu recognises that Haizi’s cry in a clamouring world is prophetic for those seeking ‘ultimate concerns’ (zhongji guanhuai, 终极关怀). Zhu’s research does not recognise the difference between the death of Christ and Haizi, however; nor does he draw parallels beyond the artistic expression of both. Wang Benchao points out that Haizi uses religion and myth as his poetic spiritual resources.91 Tang Xiaolin (唐小林) thinks that Haizi’s poetry is an example of Sino-Christian Poetics. Haizi’s sacrifice to poetry is an imitation of Jesus’ crucifixion and his poetry 85

Benchao Wang, 王本朝, Ershi Shiji Zhongguo Wenxue yu Jidujiao Wenhua (Twentieth Century Chinese Literature and Christian Culture), (Hefei: Anhui jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000), 247. 86 Qi, Wenxue, Kunan, Jingshen Ziyuan. 87 Min Zhang, 张敏, “‘Dashi’ Jianzhu de Miaoyu—Haizi Shige de Zongjiao Jingshen” (The Temple Built by the ‘Great Poetry’—The Religious Spirit of Haizi’s Poetry), (South-West Transport University, 2006). 88 Cui, ed., Busi de Haizi, 106. 89 Chao Chen, 陈超, “Haizi”, in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 73. 90 Dake Zhu, 朱大可, “Xianzhi zhi Men” (The Door to Prophets), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 139-40. 91 Wang, Ershi Shiji Zhongguo Wenxue yu Jidujiao Wenhua, 247.

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writing is an imitation of the Bible.92 Cong Xinqiang (丛新强) argues convincingly that the usage of the salt image in Haizi’s poem is connected with that of the Bible, which has the connotation of salvation.93 Si Li concludes that Haizi is a Christian mystic.94 Chen and Song treat Haizi as a builder of ‘cultural poetics’. They take the view that Christianity as one of the resources in Haizi’s aesthetic imagination does not necessarily connect with Haizi’s personal faith.95 They successfully distinguish Haizi’s poetic pursuit from his personal faith. Amongst the journal articles, Nie Duyou (聂笃友) analyses the influence of the Bible on Haizi in three aspects: language, tone of voice and sacrifice.96 Lu Shan (卢山) looks at the connection between Haizi’s poetry and Christianity in terms of love language and sacrifice.97 Liu Guoya (刘国亚) points out that Haizi understands the power of salvation through Christ and therefore melts it into his poetry creation.98 Ye Rong (叶蓉) believes that both Haizi’s life and poetry are full of theological significance by providing many examples of parallel images and languages between Haizi’s poems and the Bible. She concludes that Haizi creates a god of poetry in his spiritual kingdom.99 Slovakian Sinologist Marián Gálik (马利安) thinks that Haizi’s praise to the Sun is also towards God and his creation.100 Shao Min (邵敏) explores the imagery link of

92

Xiaolin Tang, 唐小林, Kanbujian de Qianming: Xiandai Hanyu Shixue yu Jidujiao (An Unseen Signature: Modern Chinese Poetics and Christianity), (Beijing: Hualing chubanshe, 2005), 124. 93 Xinqiang Cong, 丛新强, “Jidujiao wenhua yu Zhongguo dangdai wenxue” (Christian Culture and Contemporary Chinese Culture), (2003). 94 Si, Poetic Development of the Chinese Poet Haizi (1964-1989). 95 Chen and Song, Bei Weiguan de Shizijia, 53-4. 96 Duyou Nie, 聂笃友, “‘Shengjing’ Zhuzhao xia de Haizi Shige” (Haizi’s Poetry in the Light of the Bible), Journal of Hunan University of Science and Engineering 33, no. 7 (2012). 97 Shan Lu, 卢山, “Luodi de Maizi Busi—Cong Jidujiao Wenhua Shijiao Tanjiu Haizi Shige” (A Fallen Grain of Wheat does not Die—An Analysis of Haizi’s Poetry from a Christian Cultural Perspective), Data of Culture and Education 32, no. 11 (2012). 98 Guoya Liu, 刘国亚, “Tantan Haizi yu Jidujiao Wenhua” (On Haizi and Christian Culture), Literature Education, no. 5 (2012). 99 Rong Ye, 叶蓉 and Jana Benická, “The Influence of the Bible on a Few Post-cultural Revolution Misty Poets”, Zhejiang daxue xuebao, no. 2 (2004). 80-82. 100 Marián Gálik, 马利安·高立克(斯洛伐克), trans. Zongfeng Hu, 胡宗锋, and Fuqi Ai, 艾福旗, “Yi Shengjing wei Yuanquan de Zhongguo Xiandai Shige: Cong Zhouzuoren dao Haizi” (Modern Chinese Poetry Based on the Bible: From Zhou Zuoren to Haizi), Renwen zazhi, no. 5 (2007), 118.

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Haizi’s ‘Wheat’ with that of the Bible.101 These articles mention the parallels generally but lack philosophical and theological discussions in any depth. Amongst Master’s theses, Wu Zhoumi (吴周密) analyses the reasons why Haizi’s epic poetry fails to imitate the Bible.102 Hu Naikuan (胡乃宽) researches how Haizi absorbs biblical images, cultures and characters to enrich his poetry creation.103 It is the most comprehensive paper drawing parallels between the Bible and Haizi’s Poetry. Nevertheless, it is limited to how Haizi utilises the Bible for his own poetry creation, without any philosophical and theological discussions. While each of the above arguments has some strong points, in my judgment they are also one-sided, as Haizi is influenced by both traditional Chinese culture and western tradition. Firstly, research on Haizi from the perspective of western influence such as the works of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900), Vincent van Gogh (18531890), Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) and Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) ignores the cultural imprint on Haizi as a native Chinese poet. Although there are strong overlaps with these writers’ views of poetry, ontology and homeland, Haizi is fundamentally Chinese with a Sino mindset. This research shows a disjunction between the East and the West. This book will attempt to bridge the East-West division through the journey with Haizi by investigating the cultural roots in both traditions. Secondly, research from the pure Chinese philosophical and poetic tradition also neglects the complex, entangled and fragmented worldviews of Haizi in the post-Mao era of China. This research shows disjunction between the ancient and the contemporary. This book will attempt to trace the historical roots that have impacted and confused Haizi and his generation. Thirdly, research on the influence of religious and cultural images and lan­guages on Haizi remains at a superficial level, lacking in-depth bibli­­­caltheological dialogue with Christianity. This research shows disjunction between Chinese poetry (even literature) and theological reflection amongst scholars. This book will attempt to connect the sacred and the secular, providing engagement with biblical texts in the Christian tradition. 101

102 103

Min Shao, 邵敏, “Luodi de Maizi Busi—Haizi Shige ‘Maidi’ Yixiang Zairenshi” (A Fallen Grain of Wheat does not Die—Reanalysis of Haizi’s ‘Wheatfield’ image), Journal of Language and Literature, no. 5 (2005), 51. Zhoumi Wu, 吴周密, “The Western Resources and Their Meanings in Haizi’s Poetry” (Nanjing shifan daxue, 2011), 39-46. Naikuan Hu, 胡乃宽, “Haizi Shige yu ‘Shengjing’” (Haizi’s Poetry and ‘The Bible’) (Hangzhou shifan daxue, 2012).

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Fourthly, most of the studies on Haizi tend to be broad and read by the general public. This research shows disjunction between Haizi’s deep intellectual capacity and the skin-deep desire of the popular culture. This book will attempt to speak for the voiceless through the voices of Haizi and the Lukan Jesus. Therefore, the hypotheses of the research studies thus far are incomplete. There is so far no single existing method that can overcome these four layers of hermeneutical barriers: literary history in the post-Mao era; Chinese poetic language; the irreducible difference of philosophical thinking; and religious pluralism. While utilising secondary research material, through the method of intercultural dialogue across these disjunctions, I will seek to study Haizi’s aspirations, life, and death through his poetry. Walking alongside his roots, vision, journey and arrival home, this book will journey with Haizi by going deep into the paths of his intellectual journeys to the East and the West, the contemporary and classical thoughts, the popular struggle of modern people and the existential crisis of a thinker. It will then seek to find an intercultural path through which these correlate with Jesus’ quest, life and death in the testimony of Luke’s Gospel. Through the dialogical engagement, I will demonstrate how Haizi and his generation would, as it were, meet Jesus or perhaps how Jesus would meet Haizi and his generation, so that the inter-relationship between Chinese culture and the gospel will be explored. Much research, however, has not brought together an in-depth study on Haizi’s tragic death, his era, and his writings. This book offers a unique indepth study on Haizi’s worldview and its interaction with Christianity, which is still an unexplored land in the academy. It takes account of all of these perspectives by providing a dialogical path to bridge the distance between Haizi’s generation and the gospel. The dialogue is not only enlarged by these disciplines, but also keeps the two differentiated and enclosed worlds open, so that the relationship between culture and faith can be explored. When ‘Haizi’s Poetry’ (Haizi Shige, 海子诗歌) is searched by subject through the CNKI database of China Academic Journals (Web), there are eight hundred and forty-eight journal articles in China, eighty academic works on Haizi at a master’s level, and three at a doctoral level.104 None of these has tackled the cultural collision in Haizi’s thoughts, nor has any biblical-theological dialogue with his work that may lead to missiological implications been undertaken in depth. Therefore, this book proposes a unique new angle in studying Haizi and his poetry, as well as opening a new path for Chinese soteriology and missiology in particular. 104

CNKI of China Academic Journals (Web), , 5 Sept 2017.

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Methodology In order to fully demonstrate the four-step journey of Haizi’s soul-search, this book adopts an interdisciplinary methodology to penetrate the surface of literary study, to engage a discourse of intercultural dialogue, and to discern a witness of comparative theology. Haizi’s poetry is used as a window into the Chinese soul-search or spiritual pursuit—the hunger of the soul for a place of belonging or ‘home’ within the cosmos, and the sense that is conveyed in much poetry that we are on a journey being pulled in some direction toward some destiny. This reflects a phenomenological method as it proceeds on the assumption that the soul-search for an experience of home is shared by many of Haizi’s generation, exacerbated by recent cultural dislocation, and furthermore that this is reflected in their poetry. There is no standard comparative method to apply to every dialogical discourse. Instead of assuming a universal method to be applicable to all dialogues, the methodology accepts the particular nature of each conversation—through the particular understanding that a universal quest for soul-search can be named, articulated and resonated in cross-cultural contexts. Therefore the methodology involves the selection of Haizi’s representative poems and the applied interpretative style of translation then develops into thematic analysis, and paves the path for the dialogical method to make it possible to articulate a universal quest for soul-search; and finally the dialogue becomes the medium of authentic witness. The following analytical strategies will be adopted, if not strictly sequen­­tially then iteratively as an interplay of lenses on the phenomena of home­coming and related experiences. Selection and Translation Ironically, Haizi’s poems and poetic ideology were published after his death. They include The Land (1990),105 The Works of Luo Yihe and Haizi (1991),106 The Poems of Haizi (1995),107 and The Complete Poems of Haizi (1997 & 2009).108

105 Haizi, 海子, Tudi (Land). ed. Yancai Wang, 王彦才, Shijimo Shicong, (Shenyang: Chunfeng wenyi chubanshe, 1990). 106 Haizi, 海子 and Yihe Luo, 骆一禾, Haizi, Luo Yihe Zuopin Ji (The Works of Haizi and Luo Yihe), (Nanjing: Nanjing chubanshe, 1991). 107 Haizi, 海子, Haizi de Shi (The Poems of Haizi), (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1995). 108 Haizi, 海子, Haizi Shi Quanbian (The Complete Poems of Haizi). ed. Xichuan, 西川, (Shanghai: Sanlian shudian, 1997); Haizi, 海子, Haizi Shi Quanji.

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There are several poetry collections of Haizi’s in Chinese.109 In 2009, Haizi’s earliest poetry collection ‘A Station’ written from April to June of 1983 was also published.110 There are so far three books of English translated versions of some of Haizi’s major works, two by Chinese—Hong Zeng (2005),111 and Ye Chun (2015),112 the other by a westerner Dan Murphy (2010).113 A collection of Chinese writers writing in English includes a feature of Haizi’s writings by American poet Arthur Sze.114 This is the first collection to bring together material by writers reflecting on their work, their processes, and the challenges of writing under China’s political system. In general, Dan Murphy provides a more fluent English translation due to his native language being English. Hong Zeng and Ye Chun, however, may have more insight into the Chinese poetry. I will utilise what has been translated and translate and edit from the original Chinese whenever necessary. Sinology has moved towards a more direct and ‘wooden’ method of translation. Poetic language, however, requires the rhythm of expression and creativity in a cultural context. To be a translator of a piece of creative writing means that I need to be faithful to the original text and its context, while seeking to re-create it in another language in a way that is communicative and aesthetically meaningful to another tradition. The process of tension requires me to be ‘trans-creative’. The process of the inter­ pretation of the text, however, requires me to be as objective as I can, and then engage in literary criticism and theological reflection. Transliteration may apply too. For example, Haizi’s famous poem ‘面朝大海，春暖花开’ is translated by CCTV (the Central Chinese TV) as ‘By the Sea Amid Spring Blossom’.115 109 Haizi, 海子, Haizi de Shi; Haizi, 海子 and Yi Zhou, 周易, Haizi de shi (Haizi’s Poems), (Beijing: Zhongguo shudian, 2007); Haizi, 海子 and Guangwei Cheng, 程光炜 Haizi zuopin jingxuan (Selected Poems of Haizi), (Wuhan: Changjiang wenyi chubanshe, 2006); Haizi, 海子, Wuchang Tan, 谭五昌, and Erqiao Wei, 韦尔乔, Mianchao Dahai, Chunnuan Huakai: Haizi Shige Jingpin (Facing the Sea, Spring Blossoms: Selected Poems of Haizi), (Nanjing: Jiangsu wenyi chubanshe, 2008); Haizi and Jin, Haizi Jinian Wenji; Haizi and Youzai, Haizi Shige Yanjiu. 110 Haizi, 海子and Guangqi Rong, 荣光启, Xiaozhan (A Station), Di 1 ban. ed., (Changsha: Hunan wenyi chubanshe, 2009). 111 Haizi, 海子 and Hong Zeng, An English Translation of Poems of the Contemporary Chinese Poet Hai Zi, (Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 2005). 112 Haizi, 海子, Ripened Wheat: Selected Poems of Hai Zi, trans. Chun Ye, 叶春, (Fayetteville: Bitter Oleander Press, 2015). 113 Haizi, 海子 and Dan Murphy, Over Autumn Rooftops, (Austin: Host Publications, 2010). 114 Arthur Sze, Chinese Writers on Writing, The Writer’s World, (San Antonio: Trinity University Press, 2010). 115 CCTV, “Shi langsong: mianchao dahai, chunnuan huakai” (Poetry Reading: By the Sea Amid Spring Blossom), .

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In my view, however, a more precise and communicative translation would be ‘Facing the Sea, (Watching) the Flowers Bloom in the Warmth of Spring’ (Appendix I). Therefore, my method of choice for the study of poetry is the interpreted translation. Because Haizi uses plain Chinese language, my translation into English tends to be also plain and literal. I will conduct a textual study using both the diachronic meaning, paying attention to how something develops in time (which is to see how the background of the text and passage of time affect the meaning of the text), and synchronic method (which explores what is in the text only). The synchronic perspective creates a poetic connection with the reader that the diachronic may not invoke; likewise, the diachronic creates a historical depth in the cultural soil that amplifies the poet’s intention. Poetry Criticism As a subset of literary criticism, poetry criticism is analysing and critiquing individual words and the whole text including key words, figurative language, metaphors, structures, themes, plots, endings and voices. It involves structural analysis, including content analysis and discourse analysis that seeks to situate the poem within a particular set of cultural values and agendas, spoken or unspoken presuppositions, vested interests and vantage points. Akin to narrative analysis, poetry criticism analyses the broad structures of the poetry as well as the recurring tropes, themes, interests and motifs.116 Donald E. Polkinghorne investigates how the narrative produces the particular form and meaning of human experiences, and examines the linguistic form of narrative expression.117 He states that narrative recognises the meaningfulness of individual experiences by noting how they function as parts of a whole.118 This applies at the level of a single life; in this case, Haizi’s narrative shows life as unified and whole. This poetry criticism is narrative based and leads to thematic analysis.

116

117 118

Donald E. Polkinghorne, Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences, (New York: State University of New York Press, 1988), 71-99. He states that the study of narrative by literary theorists is a cumulative discipline where new theories are added to the older ones. The approach has been to focus on its various aspects: the storyline, deep structures, the craftsmanship of the author, or the reader of the narrative. Literary theory now incorporates other disciplines such as linguistics, anthropology and cognitive science to allow a more comprehensive understanding of narrative expression. Ibid., 13-37. Ibid., 36.

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Thematic Analysis Thematic analysis draws out the essential themes in Haizi’s worldview, particularly indications of his life’s purpose, personal and cultural identity, longings and hope, and the sense of a spiritual home. If ‘all thinking is from presuppositions’,119 then it is important to find out Haizi’s presuppositions or worldviews behind his poetry, even though they may be implicit and multi-faceted. The shapes and forms of his yearnings will be articulated. I hope to discern an unresolved hunger of the Chinese soul through this poet’s tongue. This involves a process of hermeneutical analysis of poetry. Critiquing the Enlight­enment’s ‘prejudice against prejudice’ that led to modern science and scholarship, Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) argues that interpretation is always already an application, which begins with some pre-understanding. It should not preclude the potential of encountering and learning something new.120 As Haizi is deeply influenced by Martin Heidegger as shown later, Gadamer’s critique of Heidegger sheds new light on this research. Gadamer shifts Heidegger’s focus on human authenticity (‘being towards death’) to human transformation through dialogue—the ‘fusion of horizons’.  Poetry, for Gadamer, embodies what is essential to all language and therefore serves as ‘a medium where I and the world meet, or, rather, manifest their original belonging together’.121 The hermeneutic experience of language reflects both truth that changes us and beauty that captivates us. While both Heidegger and Gadamer share Haizi’s emphasis on human ontology and the importance of poetry, Haizi is more like Gadamer in his cultural hybridity.  Haizi is a paradigm example of the ‘fusion of horizons’ as he engages with the cultures and traditions of his time. I seek to look for the metaphors, grammatical constructions, figures of speech and so on that Haizi uses. Both variability and repetition are features to be highlighted. The purpose is to establish certain patterns in the way that some figures of speech, metaphors and so on recur. By collating such usage across different poems, I will identify the themes and features that form a 119

120 121

Bernard L. Ramm, The Christian College in the Twentieth Century, (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1963), 93: He states that ‘there can be no thinking without presuppositions, and therefore, all respectable thinking is from sound presuppositions …[which] admit that one thinks from presuppositions and to choose those presuppositions in a responsible manner’. Hans-Georg Gadamer, Truth and Method, trans. Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall, 2nd ed., (New York: Crossroad, 1992), 272. Ibid., 474.

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particular repertoire in the homecoming journey. The method is designed to fully display the poetic discourse: roots, vision, journey, and arrival. Dialogical Method Relationship A cross-textual reading will be adopted as Haizi’s poetry and some traditional Chinese texts are placed alongside the biblical narrative in the Gospels. Haizi’s work will be used as a departure point in my dialogue. Through the connection, disagreements and inconsistencies in the tension of their voices, I seek not to impose artificial alliances but to find a diversity of voices that enrich one another. Each has a transcendental horizon, and the movement between the two is revelatory in this book. Gadamer’s hermeneutics fits well with the purpose of the dialogue in this book. In his ‘dialogue-play’ model, the truth that emerges is in neither of the parties and hence transcends both, leading transformation into a communion in which both parties do not remain what they were. ‘To reach an understanding in a dialogue is not merely a matter of putting oneself forward and successfully asserting one’s own point of view, but being transformed into a communion in which we do not remain what we were.’122 The shared language therefore becomes the communion between the two where truth and understanding arise. As David Vessey asserts, Gadamer retained Heidegger’s emphasis on the ‘linguisticality’ or poetic understanding of human ontology, but saw the dynamic ‘fusion of horizons’ which is available through a transformative understanding of others as the most important enrichment of being.123 Amongst the models of cross-disciplinary dialogue, Paul Tillich’s basic model of ‘correlation’, which allows the arts and sciences to raise questions and theology to answer on the basis of its own normative resources, will be utilised as a starting point.124 He states that ‘the Christian message provides the answers to the questions implied in human existence’.125 For him, there is a mutual dependence between the question and the answer. The notion of ‘ultimate concern’ 122 Ibid., 379. 123 David Vessey, “Gadamer’s Critique of Heidegger’s Account of Authentic Relations to ­Others”, University of Chicago, . 124 Richard Robert Osmer, Practical Theology: An Introduction, (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 2008), 163-173: In contemporary theology, three models have emerged to picture the dialogue between theology and other fields: correlational, transformational and transversal; Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 3 vols., vol. 1, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951), 59-66. 125 Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 64; Theology of Culture, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1959). He is particularly interested in entering into a dialogue with those arts and

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demands theological answers to be in correlation with, compatible with and in response to the ontological questions that derive from human experience.126 Following this method, I will provide an ontological analysis of Haizi’s search for home through his poetry on one side and a presentation of Jesus in Luke’s eyes as a response to Haizi’s existential dilemma on the other. If a worldview is ‘a full-orbed, rationally considered, and articulated view of God, man and the cosmos’,127 I will ask the primary cosmological and anthropological questions that Haizi raises: what is the origin, nature and destiny of the cosmos and humanity? The four simple and subsidiary philosophical questions are: 1) the ontological question: Who am I? Where did I come from? 2) the epistemological question: How do we know? 3) the axiological question: What, if anything, is the ultimate value? 4) the teleological question: Where are we going?128 These are not limited to western paradigms; the Chinese tradition has these questions in other expressions: namely life (shengsheng, 生生), wisdom (xinzhi, 心智), value (jiazhi, 价值) and belonging (guishu, 归属). These questions are incorporated into the four parts of the discussion in this book: roots, vision, journey and arrival. In each section, a Christian worldview of Jesus in the Gospels that answers these questions and applies these answers to all of life generally will be introduced through Haizi’s poetic worldview. His writing clearly reveals, on one hand, a deeply-rooted universal human quest for home and an authentic community—a place of belonging and reaching oneness with God, humanity and the world; on the other hand, a unique quest of a generation in the context of the China of the 1980s. The tension between the unity of an existential quest and the plurality of cultural and linguistic beings is present in the dialogue. My analysis, however, will not be as one-sided as Tillich’s method. Since Tillich’s correlational method, intercultural studies have moved on from a Gospel–Culture debate into a paradigm of culturally embodied theology within the cultural ‘other’. David Tracy and Don S. Browning argue that the influence is more mutual as arts and sciences offer both questions and answers in the dialogue.129 Tracy also stresses the presence of the other, letting others

126 127 128 129

sciences that articulate the deepest questions with which the contemporary world is struggling. Paul Tillich, Systematic Theology, 63-4. Glenn Richards Martin, Prevailing Worldviews of Western Society Since 1500, (Marion: Triangle Pub., 2006), 30. Ibid., 17-31. David Tracy, Blessed Rage for Order: The New Pluralism in Theology, (New York: Seabury Press, 1975), 32-4: He states that ‘Contemporary Christian theology is best understood as philosophical reflection upon the meanings present in common human experience and

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be the other, not our own projection.130 Attention to the Chinese culture may add value to the Hebrew culture, and attention to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures can transform and enrich the Chinese culture. As the World Council of Churches in The Church: towards a Common Vision states: ‘Christians acknowledge religious freedom as one of the fundamental dimensions of human dignity and, in the charity called for by Christ himself, they seek to respect that dignity and to dialogue with others, not only to share the riches of Christian faith but also to appreciate whatever elements of truth and goodness are present in other religions.’131 In terms of Salvation outside Christian faith, the Second Vatican Council taught that ‘those also can attain to everlasting salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and, moved by grace, strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of their conscience’.132 Further, the Council taught that the religions of the world ‘often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all peoples.’133 Jacques Dupuis as a forerunner affirming the positivity of other traditions with strong affirmation of the uniqueness and finality of Christ argues that salvation is present ‘overtly and explicitly, in the full visibility of its complete mediation’, but in an ‘implicit, concealed manner, in virtue of an incomplete mode of mediation’ in other traditions.134 Because of human limitedness and fallibility, however, we can always listen to and learn from other traditions so that we can gain greater self-knowledge, ‘complementary values’, ‘a mutual convergence of the various traditions in full respect of their differences’, and ‘mutual enrichment and cross-fertilisation’.135 Francis X. Clooney developed this further in comparative theology. He states,

the meanings present in the Christian tradition’. It seems that Christianity for him is a form of religion, and a work of phenomenology; Don S. Browning, A Fundamental Practical Theology: Descriptive and Strategic Proposals, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 44-7. 130 David Tracy, Dialogue with the Other: the Inter-religious Dialogue, Louvain Theological & Pastoral Monographs 1, (Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 49. 131 World Council of Churches, The Church: towards a Common Vision, Faith and Order Paper No. 214, (Geneva: WCC Publications, 2013), paragraph 60, 34. 132 Vatican II, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium [LG]”, , para 16. 133 Vatican II, “Declaration on the Relationship of the Church to Non-Christian Religions, Nostra Aetate”, , para 2. 134 Jacques Dupuis, Toward a Christian Theology of Religious Pluralism, (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1997), 319. 135 Ibid., 326; 11.

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Comparative theology … marks acts of faith seeking understanding which are rooted in a particular faith tradition but which, from that foundation, venture into learning from one or more other faith traditions. This learning is sought for the sake of fresh theological insights that are indebted to the newly encountered tradition/s as well as the home tradition.136 Catherine Cornille speaks in a similar vein. She suggests the impossibility of interreligious dialogue and promotes comparative theology as the way to not only understand other traditions, but also a deeper understanding of one’s own.137 It is my hope that deeper missiological insight will be achieved in this two-way conversation, so that we are not only learning about, but also from the journey of the Chinese soul-search through Haizi’s poetry. Both Chinese culture and the Jewish and Christian traditions have positive contributions to make to each other through the creative ongoing two-way interactions flowing between them. Therefore, the theme of Luke’s Gospel will be explained, alongside the discussion on how it is seen in Haizi, how it applies to him and his generation, and how Haizi’s work further illustrates the biblical homecoming. Stephen B. Bevans’ inclusive and synthetic model,138 which emphasises both the uniqueness and complementarity of culture and the Gospel message, is utilised here to capture the complexity of Chinese Christian identity and worldview. This approach is also called the ‘dialectical model’, the ‘conversation model’, or even the ‘analogical model’,139 which involves an ongoing dynamic and creative relationship between cultural traditions and the gospel. This model uses a ‘both/and’ approach, which takes seriously the gospel 136 137

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Francis X. Clooney, Comparative Theology: Deep Learning across Religious Borders, (Malden: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 10. Catherine Cornille, The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue, (New York: Crossroad Pub. Co., 2008); “Comparative Theology and the Study of Religions at the Catholic University” (Boston College, Nov 1-4 2011), 2. Stephen B. Bevans, Models of Contextual Theology, (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2002), 81-96: He articulates five models of contextual theology, ranging from the most conservative putting more emphasis on the scripture and tradition to the most radical emphasising cultural identity and its relevance for theology. They are: translation model, synthetic model, praxis model, transcendental model, and anthropological model. Each model is distinct but not exclusive of one or more of the others, but can be used in conjunction with others. However, certain models can function more adequately within certain contexts. Ibid., 83; David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and The Culture of Pluralism, (New York: Crossroad, 1981).

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message while acknowledging the importance of culture and social change. In addition, Elaine Graham and her colleagues offer some useful theological reflection methods: ‘theology by heart’ (the living human document), ‘telling God’s story’ (canonical narrative theology), and ‘speaking of God in public’ (correlation).140 These western theologians and missiologists have developed useful tools for two-way intercultural dialogue and comparative theology. They have made positive contributions to embrace the distinctiveness of different traditions by not glossing over the differences, but rather in the spirit of humility and honesty seeking to deepen their own understanding and that of others. Their hermeneutics, however, is not sufficient for the contextual nature of this dialogue. Their methods of sharp dichotomies are limited in overcoming the four layers of hermeneutical barriers, namely, historical, literary, philosophical and religious in the current scholarship. In order to understand Haizi’s identity as a Chinese poet and speak to the audience of Haizi and his generation in searching for a home of their own belonging, a unique cultural and poetic perspective will be applied in this book, complementary to the above methods. Firstly, home (jia, 家) is not just an existential quest, historical tradition or cultural identity, but also an ontological issue of life (shengming zhiben, 生命 之本).141 To understand Haizi as a poet, it is necessary to understand that home for him denotes a broader definition than just family. It not only includes family, state and kingdom, but also, more importantly, things to do with the sincerity of the heart towards life. After a long journey of seeking a home, Haizi returns to the earth that gives him a ‘solid heart’ (hexin, 核心).142 Unlike the Enlightenment understanding of unity between the cognitive mind and the rational world, home is fundamentally about where the heart finds unity with the ontological source of the world. This ontological issue of life that correlates with the existential quest is very much like Martin Heidegger’s critique of western philosophy, which is sometimes phrased as ‘existential ontology’. This is the true home of a poet’s heart—at the centre of people, heaven and earth, so that harmony can be achieved as a whole from the origin where life begins. Speaking of true poetry, Haizi affirms that ‘In the “People’s heart” resides the 140

Elaine L. Graham, Heather Walton, and Frances Ward, Theological Reflection: Methods, (London: SCM Press, 2007). 141 From Aristotle’s Metaphysics, ‘ontology’ is often used as a synonym of ‘metaphysics’ in western philosophy. See Robert Audi, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 490. However, this book demonstrates the ontological divide between the East and the West through Haizi’s poetic lens on the topic of home. 142 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1036.

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only poet’ (‘人民的心’是唯一的诗人).143 Amos Yong categorises three interrelated modalities and rationales for interfaith interaction: orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopathy. He emphasises that the orthopathic sphere concerns the affec­tive dimension of the human constitution: the beautiful for which human beings deeply yearn. ‘This aesthetic vision, however, can be reduced neither to cognitively construed propositions (orthodoxy) nor pragmatically resolved constructions (orthopraxis); rather, it operates at the interior level of the human will, imagination, and heart’.144 Haizi’s imagination creates a kingdom of poetry that captures the beauty that Chinese people long for and love—eating and sharing under the roof by providing the hospitality found in a home. Haizi’s poetry, as the ‘heart language’, takes us to the heartland of Chinese people. It can be used as a vehicle of theological discourse and to feel the pulse of the people, on the path towards the ontological home where life and heart are in one place. Secondly, the soul-search is an epistemological issue of heart (yixin weizhi, 以心为知). To understand Haizi as a Chinese poet, it is necessary to trace back into classical Chinese hermeneutics developed long ago. Different from the western dualistic view of life in body and soul, Chinese thought unites the epistemological steps to wisdom through the heart (xin, 心) with the ontological degrees of life (sheng, 生). The cycle of the ontology of life and the cycle of the epistemology of the heart are two sides of the same reality, like Yin and Yang, with the same purpose—preserving life. The shared ontological-epistemological goal is to achieve the harmony with ‘Dao’ (‘道’), in the language of ethics—‘perpetual unity of the Self with Heaven’ (tianren heyi, 天人合一). This life-wisdom unity resonates with the biblical concept of communion with God through Christ. Similar to the Chinese Dao-person unity, the restoration of imago Dei begins with transformed life and reading the scripture through the heart. Even though Haizi and his generation’s soul-search is culturally mixed, he has not left his Chinese soul-search journey—a pursuit of life-wisdom unity. He has created a ‘poetic epistemology’ that expresses this life-wisdom unity through poetry. His ‘poetry in action’ is a modern expression of such spiritual pursuit. This book therefore provides a unique lens to penetrate the Chinese ontological and epistemological parallels in dialogue with the biblical homecoming. Thirdly, homecoming is a dialogical issue in the intercultural and interfaith context where hearts can find rest. The western hermeneutical perspectives 143 144

Ibid., 1037. Amos Yong, “Missiology and Mission Theology in an Interfaith World: A (Humble) Manifesto”, Evangelical Interfaith Dialogue, no. 5:2 (Fall 2014), 6.

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are helpful, but do not represent where hearts can truly find a resting place. To bridge the two different worlds of Haizi and Jesus separated by time and space, a relational and complementary rather than dichotomist and confrontational approach, and a synthetic rather than a dialectic process familiar to the Sino mind will be applied in the conversation. These are especially shown in the chapters of Jesus’ responses to Haizi’s quest. The language is not about reason, logic, substance or transcendence. Instead, the vocabulary of Heaven, table meals, family and community in seeking parallel yearnings will be used in order to communicate with the collective Chinese mindset of Haizi’s generation. The relational approach is therefore culturally appropriate in not pro­jecting a western way of interpreting Haizi in the contemporary Chinese context or Jesus in the first century Palestine setting, but being a bridge for non-Chinese audiences to understand modern China through Haizi on a journey with Jesus in the Gospel. This book therefore goes beyond the current western methodology of intercultural dialogue and comparative theology. Enlarged by the current four layers of hermeneutical scholarship on Haizi, the relational approach enables a unique cultural and poetic lens that exposes the poetic path to life, the Chinese ontological and epistemological parallels, and the oriental way or expression of life. Language The book requires me to translate and interpret material in English, Chinese, Hebrew and Greek. Since I will conduct a dialogue between people from contemporary Chinese culture and the ancient Hebrew-Greek culture of Jesus’ day while communicating to western readers in English, it will not be easy to move from one language world to another. Catherine Cornille proposes interreligious hermeneutics as retrieving internal resources for dialogue, recognising that dialogue requires ‘some degree of hermeneutical effort and religious creativity from every religious tradition’.145 She rightly claims that hermeneutics is ‘based on the presupposition that all understanding, whether of one’s own tradition or that of the other, is always in process and subject to development and change, depending on the personal and cultural horizon of the reader and on the particular set of questions brought to the text’.146 Dialogue, however, does not mean that one loses or relativises one’s own identity; quite the opposite. Still, it does require a certain openness in order to appreciate the ‘other’, espe145 Cornille, The Im-Possibility of Interreligious Dialogue, 215. 146 Catherine Cornille and Christopher R. Conway, eds., Interreligious Hermeneutics (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010), xi.

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cially to do with other cultures and traditions. ‘True dialogue is as far as possible from neutrality or indifference. Its basis is the shared conviction that there is truth to be known and that we must both bear witness to the truth given to us, and also listen to the witness of others.’147 Therefore, the purpose of the dialogue not only affirms the understanding of contemporary China through Haizi’s poetry or the Gospel through Luke’s record of Jesus, but also mutual enrichment and growth in the truth. Attitude The key to engaging in constructive dialogue is in attitude—humility, commitment, interconnection, empathy and hospitality.148 Werner G. Jeanrond also asserts that criteria of truth within or between traditions must be developed on the basis of both human communication and love.149 These attitudes will be my commitment as I engage with the texts in different traditions. Holding in balance a love for both Haizi’s soul-search and Luke’s witness to Jesus’ compassion towards life, this love will be the attitude used to bridge the two inde­pendent traditions. I will aim to be faithful to both Haizi’s life and poetry, and the biblical text, by utilising the approach of ‘exegetical contextualisation’, that is, to convey distinctive emphasis from a contemporary Chinese perspective without compromising the original intent of the biblical author. As Jackson Wu points out, the biblical story ‘can be told from multiple perspectives without compromising its truthfulness’.150 Following the findings of Haizi’s roots, vision, journey and arrival home in the early chapters, some relevant texts from the Gospel of Luke that are resonant to Haizi and his generation will be chosen for discussion, so that a two-way dialogue can take place to enhance intrinsic and mutual flourishing. Although the dialogue with the Gospel is conducted from the vantage point of Haizi’s worldview, like Wu, I am not writing in favour of ethnocentric, reader response eisegesis. Rather, the questions that Haizi raises and the elements of 147 Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks: the Gospel and Western Culture, (London: SPCK, 1986), 239-40. 148 Catherine Cornille, “Conditions for Inter-Religious Dialogue”, in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Inter-religious Dialogue, ed. Catherine Cornille and ebrary Inc. (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013). 149 Werner G. Jeanrond, “Toward an Interreligious Hermeneutics of Love”, in Interreligious Hermeneutics, ed. Catherine Cornille and Christopher R. Conway (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010). 150 Jackson Wu, “Biblical Theology from a Chinese Perspective: Interpreting Scripture through the Lens of Honor and Shame”, Global Missiology, 4, no. 10 (July 2013), 1.

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Chinese culture lead to a fresh look and interpretation of the biblical literature, while not compromising the biblical truth in the text. In all cross-cultural encounters, we need to discern the universal from the particular; the essential from the culturally conditioned.151 I will aim, on one hand, to read the Lukan Jesus through the lens of Haizi; on the other hand, to read Haizi through the lens of the Lukan Jesus. The dialogue in this book is not a sweeping claim that discounts contrary data and is unfavourable to scholarship that offers alternative perspectives, but offers the resources for an ongoing table conversation. It is my hope to rediscover neglected or forgotten dimensions of Haizi’s poetry through the catalyst of the Lukan Jesus, and vice versa. In doing so, the texts of one tradition can serve as a ‘mirror’ to the other, offering a new lens through which to understand one’s own tradition.152

Personal Perspectives

I am not writing out of the cultural, social and economic context that is pres­ent amongst the contemporary Chinese. I have been shaped by various cultures and sub-cultures as I have moved around in different contexts. I was born in the north and grew up in the south during the era of a huge cultural shift in Mainland China. I completed tertiary education in both oriental and western cultures, and worked as a professional for many years in the West. I have firsthand experience of how cultural changes can impact one’s understanding of identity, values and communities, which has been expressed in my published and unpublished poems. My theological training and pastoral ministry amongst the Chinese diaspora community have allowed me to journey with many migrants who have experienced the displacement of their homes. Now, my role as a pastor, mentor and lecturer gives me deeper insight into the thoughts of contemporary Chinese. At this time, however, I read these thoughts from theological, biblical and missiological perspectives. While I acknowledge that my interpretation of the worldview of the contemporary Chinese, even after detailed exploration, is incomplete and a rendering from my own perspective, I hope that, as both an ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’, I can contribute to the cultural dialogue of Chinese poetry with Christianity. As David J. Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen assert, both the decontextualisation and the contextualisation tasks are best accomplished by 151 152

Ryan Dunch, “Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Cultural Theory, Christian Missions, and Global Modernity”, History & Theory, 41, no. 3 (2002). Cornille, “Inter-Religious Dialogue”, 31.

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persons who are themselves bi-cultural.153 I need to continue to articulate, refine and rediscover my ‘home’ culture and identity, while seeking to go out of my ‘comfort home’ to unexplored land and territories. It is important not to presume that I understand the issues because of my background. I need to continue to study and read these writers as objectively as I can, in order to have fresh understandings of who they are, and what their presuppositions, worldviews and existential grounds are. I need to bring the same attitude to the biblical materials. While I am conscious that I cannot be totally free of my contemporary cultural ‘baggage’, I hope that the meaning of the text is articulated and understood in the context of the dialogue between myself and the text. A.D.H. Mayes speaks of a dialogical approach in which understanding is about bringing that life world into a relationship with the life world of the interpreter.154 I am therefore existentially grounded as a ‘bridge’ between the cultures and will use my relational capacity to interpret the texts. I will be comparing very different worldviews removed in time and space and will endeavour to be very careful to respect the historical contexts and integrity of the works while seeking to establish that which is of lasting and, in fact, eternal significance. I cannot claim to understand Haizi and the Lukan Jesus without taking the risk of improvisation. I will attempt to engage in the dialogue by risking my present understanding of both Haizi and the Gospel of Luke, and exposing myself to both of them as revealed in the texts. Through the to-and-fro movement of the question and response at issue, a genuine dialogue will take place. I have chosen to limit this study to poetry, a literary form that speaks from and to the heart in the densest and most musical way and is pervasive in the history of Chinese culture. The question of ‘homecoming’ intentionally limits the scope of the book. It is about the journey of life, not only for the contemporary Chinese but for all humanity. The meta-narrative of the Scripture is about bringing humanity back to the ultimate home, the place of which St. Augustine of Hippo (354-430) speaks at the beginning of his Confessions: ‘Our heart is restless until it finds its place of rest in You’.155 It is ultimately by God’s grace, not human work that he will bring humanity back home again. Therefore, this book, apart from making a contribution, is ultimately biographical, inviting others from both the East and the West to share the journey back home together. 153 154 155

David J. Hesselgrave and Edward Rommen, Contextualization: Meanings, Methods, and Models, (Pasadena: William Carey Library, 2000), 211. A.D.H. Mayes, “On Describing the Purpose of Deuteronomy”, JSOT 59 (1993), 19. St Augustine of Hippo, The Confessions of St. Augustine—Modern English Version (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 2005), 16.

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Summary Since Haizi’s tragic death, he has not really died in the hearts of many of his contemporaries. His poetry continues to live and express the yearnings of this generation of Chinese people. Following two decades of research on Haizi, this study uniquely offers a dialogical path to engage Haizi and his generation’s soul-search with the gospel of Jesus Christ in Luke’s testimony. Taking an interdisciplinary approach of literary study, intercultural dialogue and comparative theology, it creates a contextual poetic lens in order to draw out a generation of the Chinese homecoming journey expressed in Haizi’s poetry and some resonance in Luke’s Gospel. With the attitudes of love, humility and honesty, it is my hope to journey with Haizi in the following chapters in four parts: Roots, Vision, Journey, and Arrival, so that the two differentiated and enclosed worlds can meet, communicate, mutually enrich and grow in truth and respect.

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Haizi: The Poet Who Never ‘Dies’

Part 1 Roots

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Haizi: Beyond Homelessness

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Haizi: Beyond Homelessness Introduction This chapter examines the cultural roots of Haizi’s soul-search for home. Using the methods of literary study and poetry criticism, the study penetrates the depth of Haizi’s soul-search. Reading through his articles on poetics and poetry, the chapter firstly investigates Haizi’s creation myth, which traces back to the Chinese metaphysical Dao; and secondly appreciates Haizi’s songs of the homeland—the physical land, where the Chinese existential anchoring point rests. It argues that Haizi’s poetry not only locates the twofold Chinese roots successfully, but also incorporates the disembodied homeless souls in the present reality of modern China. His poetic pursuit exemplifies the Chinese ontological and epistemological parallels as he creates a utopian world of poetry.

Creation Myth

Haizi was born and grew up in a rural setting, as the eldest son of peasants. His worldview from early days adopted the traditional Chinese beliefs such as the Yin-Yang correlation in Daoism, and filial piety and home as the central ethic of Confucian tradition. The surrounding environment of the wheat field, the moon, and the river became the metaphorical source of his lifelong poetry writing. While being indoctrinated by Marxism and Maoism in school as were millions of Chinese children, he came to be regarded as an eccentric genius of his time. He won a recitation competition and shocked his villagers by reciting forty-eight of Chairman Mao’s quotes (Maozhuxi yulu, 毛主席语录)—the Little Red Book—in one breath at the age of five, right in the middle of the Cultural Revolution.1 Haizi entered the top university in China at the age of fifteen.2 In a culture that exalted education influenced by Confucianism, he 1 Liao, Puxiang Taiyang Zhi Bao, 32-4. 2 Haizi, 海子 and Taipin Jin, 金肽频, Haizi Jinian Wenji (Haizi’s Memorial Collections—Critics), 4 vols., vol. 3 (Hefei: Hefei gongye daxue chubanshe, 2009), 8: Jin makes a valuable point that even though Haizi was regarded as a genius and his writing is filled with mystical colours, we should never see him as God.

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would have won great favour with his family and fellow countrymen who believed that he had brought great honour to the village and their ancestors. As he engaged himself with poetry, the questions of his identity—who am I, and where do we come from?—would be in his mind in the fast changing scene of his external world. These ontological questions are reflected in his early writings. Overall, Haizi’s poetry can be divided into two main categories: expressive short poems, and long poems, including epic poems. He also left us with eight articles and his diaries concerning his perspectives on poetics. The themes of Substance (Shiti, 实体), Mothers or Mothers’ wombs, Land, Birds, Elements (Yuansu, 元素), and the Main Body (Zhuti, 主体) repeatedly appear in these articles. An overview of his works is shown in Table 2.1 (see page 48). The page reference is from the latest collection of Haizi’s poetry: Haizi, 海子, and Xichuan, 西川. Haizi Shi Quanji (The Complete Poems of Haizi) (2009).3 I have chronologically researched each of these articles so that a pattern of his changing writings and thoughts can be shown in the remainder of the book. Some of the articles especially reflect Haizi’s search for his identity—the origin of the world and humanity. Return to the Eastern Yin—A Giant Bird, Water and Mother In his article ‘Source and Bird’ (源头与鸟), Haizi asks the existential questions, ‘Where are we from? Where are we going? Who are we?’ Similar to the cries in Ecclesiastes that ‘Generations come and generations go’ (Eccl 1:3a), he sighs that ‘Many wake up and sleep, many sleep and wake up’.4 He searches through ‘Mothers’ wombs, lovers’ hair, friendship, prayers and songs’.5 Where is Haizi’s origin? He can only describe himself as a flying bird, whose ‘heart is born for flight, not for defence’.6 It resonates with the giant bird flying over the land described in the Daoist forefather Zhuangzi’s opening chapter ‘Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease’ (逍遥游).7 The first lesson of philosophy, for Zhuangzi, is to set oneself free from all assumptions, including the weight of one’s own, thus the deepest assumptions. Clearly, Haizi constantly hopes to find something in which he can be grounded, a cosmological home to which his mind can return. This is the very reason that he writes about Zhuangzi’s bird close to his 3 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji. 4 Ibid., 1019. 5 Ibid., 1020. 6 Ibid., 1020. 7 Zhuangzi, 庄子and Lier, 李耳, Laozi, Zhuangzi. ed. Haihong Du, (Beijing: Huawen chubanshe, 2009), 216-7.

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birthday.8 In Haizi’s deep subconscious, he is rooted in his Chinese philosophical origin—Daoism. Haizi integrates this philosophical tradition with the five thousand years of Chinese history. Positioning himself in the ancient land of China in the article ‘Folk Theme’ (民间主题), Haizi looks to the dim faraway place—Heaven—the source of home. Facing the thousands of years of silent sky, he thinks that Chinese people have not given any answers to the heavens, but simply lived quietly underneath. For Haizi, this is ‘an honest and prolonged living’ (老老实 实的，悠长的生活).9 The faraway place grows from the depth of a foundation which in Haizi’s term is the ‘Real Substance’ (真东西).10 He thinks that he has probably seen a part of this ‘Real Substance’ through the creation, relationships and spiritual resurrection.11 From the observations of these life cycles, he searches for something that he can grasp—the essence of being Chinese. It is, however, not in Heaven but on the earth that Haizi finds his eastern home.12 In his postscript to the poem ‘But Water, Water’ (但是水，水), called ‘Silence’ (寂静), he sees the earth as parallel to the Mother’s body. It is like water, gives birth and embraces all things. It is the Mother who gives birth to him, the feminine life, the silent, inclusive and encompassing water and earth that symbolise the eastern spirituality of indeterminateness, in contrast to the supposedly masculine and deterministic western culture. He says, ‘the East belongs to Yin’ (东方属阴).13 The earth and water embraced by Yin are total inclusiveness (包含) of endless self.14 For Haizi, this inclusiveness can be found in the famous caves in China, where the life of civilisation is recorded as it evolved through history. Yungang Cave in Datong, together with Mogao Cave in Dunhuang, Longmen Cave in Luoyang and Mai Jishan Cave in Tianshui form the famous four large caves in China. Haizi gives the example of Yungang Caves as this inclusive life, where ‘repetition, duplication, para-position, transposition, reversal and mutual decoration’ are formed to become the potency of all

8 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1020: Although Haizi quotes March 13th as his birthday, other sources indicate that his birthday was actually March 24th. Another source indicates that his birthday was March 26th. 9 Ibid., 1021. 10 Ibid., 1022. 11 Ibid., 1022. 12 ‘Earth’ can be translated as dadi (大地); ‘land’ as tudi (土地). Land is a part of earth. These words however intertwine in Haizi’s poems without differentiation. I have attempted to use the exact words Haizi uses in his work. 13 Ibid., 1025. 14 Ibid., 1025.

Original postscript of ‘But Water, Water’

08/1985, a rainy night

1

2

1021-3

1024-6

1

1019-20

Original postscript of ‘River’

‘Silence’ (寂静)

13/03/1983 Close to Haizi’s birthday

‘Source and Bird’ (源头和鸟)

14

Number of times the word ‘substance’ appears

1017-8

Reference (page no.)

Original preface of ‘River’

Original preface of ‘Legend’

1983-4

‘In Search of Contact with Substance’ (寻找对实体的接 触)

Reason

‘Folk Theme’ (民间 — 主题)

Time of writing

Title

Table 2.1 Haizi’s perspectives on poetics

4

2

1

—

The feminine Yin, represented by water, land and mother is the eastern spirit.

From folk legends he attempts to trace back the ‘real substance’ through epic poetry.

He explores the characteristics, the purpose, and the foundation of poetry, summarised in the concept of Substance. This is found in the contact with land and river—the great material substance (巨大物 质实体). Various images are introduced to describe how he searches for his source like a giant flying bird.

Focus Number of times the concept of ‘Mother’ / ‘Mother’s womb’ appears

48 Chapter 2

—

16/11/1988

‘Hölderlin — A Poet I Love’

.

Postscript of ‘The Sun Beheads’

—

—

‘Action’ (动作)

Diary entry

‘Poetics: a Compen- 30/05/1987; dium’ (诗学：一份 6-8/1987; 17/10/1987; 提纲) 10/12/1987; 04/11/1987

08/1986; 18/11/1986; 04/11/1987

‘Diary’ (日记)

1068-73

1038-67

1034-7

1027-1033

—

6

1

—

—

41

2

4

Throwing rice, water, land and love and all that youth collects to the sun. Walking between life and death, the sun and the darkness, until he burns his youth in the fire. His writing develops from ‘She’ to ‘He’, from the ‘Mother’ to the ‘Father’ and from the Land to the Sun; His quest towards Heaven is ultimately the bloody land that expresses ‘the heart of people’. This is the ‘only true poetry’ by the self-saved poet. A comprehensive explanation of his idea of the Original Force, his worldviews of creation, his concept of great poetry, and his illusions and struggles with the metaphors of sunrise and desert. Hölderlin is exalted to be Haizi’s poetic hero. In Haizi’s view he is a lover of the soul and the ‘elements’ of scenery. The meaning of poetry and how to be a poet are also explained.

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lives.15 He recognises that the caves represent the spirituality of the East—the motherly womb that gives birth and embraces all lives. While holding to the eastern Yin, he asserts that Buddhism promotes dialogue, eternal encompassing, and communication between humanity and the world instead of painful and renewed conquering. Even though the masculine spirit is a part of the silent land, the whole realm of Nature is huge and its motherly body is silent, for there is no need to speak. ‘There is the substance— the land and water that give life’.16 It is the stillness, silence and inclusiveness of Mother Nature—the feminine Yin—that gives and embraces water, land and life. Here Haizi once again affirms the motherly land, the eastern Yin as the root of his home. The Origin of Creation and Great Poetry Haizi does not stop there. He goes on to explore the origin of creation and how it relates to poetry creation. His article ‘Poetics: a Compendium’ (诗学：一份 提纲) was written in 1987, two years before his death. It gives us insight into his ideology of poetics. It is astonishing to read a 23-year-old man’s work which shows such breadth of reading in both Chinese and western writings, as well as great depth in his ability to critique. Weian comments that Haizi is both a fast and a wide reader, ‘As if all the cultures of humanity are kept in the mind of this young man in his twenties’.17 In this comprehensive article, Haizi starts with a defence as to why he writes poetry, and then explores the origin of creation and great poetry. He explains his idea of the Original Force and his worldview of creation. He has created his own meta-narrative of the creation story—a poetic drama. Using symbolic language, he rightly says that the feminine expression of being is through emotion, sentimentality and desires, whereas the masculine expression is through the grand, the concrete and action. His Daoist worldview can be revealed here, where Yin and Yang correlate and interplay. In his poetry creation, he also utilises western resources and the Bible to illustrate myth. He uses the biblical language of ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ in Genesis, but the substance of ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ really signifies the Daoist concept of ‘Yin’ and ‘Yang’ in his mindset. In the 1980s, the question of where China was heading almost became a thematic thread of contemporary Chinese literature. Writers tried to search the quality of the national psyche and create works that 15 Ibid., 1025. 16 Ibid., 1026. 17 Weian, 苇岸, “Huainian Haizi” (In Memory of Haizi), in Busi de Haizi, ed. Weiping Cui, 崔 卫平 (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 42.

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were deeply Chinese. They attempted to dig deep from ‘the basic and lasting elements of history’, and affirm ‘the simplicity and strength of livelihood of the labourers on the self-generating (shengsheng buxi, 生生不息) land’.18 Shengsheng buxi in Daoist tradition literally means that ‘life begets life with no ending’, signifying a never-ending circle of birth. Looking back with modern eyes, their goal was to restore Chinese classical aesthetics and find their new identity. Thus, the modernisation of China is characterised by ‘national culturism’ (minzu wenhua zhuyi, 民族文化主义), which selectively absorbs western cultural elements and reorganises indigenous culture.19 Haizi senses acutely what the nation of China is going through. He attempts to find this ‘original source’ in the midst of nothingness and chaos. He uses terms such as ‘loosening from the earth and nothingness … awakening from the dim light of life’s origin … empty breath of life’.20 Here he is aware that humanity needs to be awakened from ‘nothingness’ (wu, 无) and ‘emptiness’ (xuwu, 虚无). The language of civilisation and thought is pointing to the centre—‘Dao’.21 Even though Haizi is not able to articulate the three-fold meaning of Dao, he understands that Dao is the ground of all being. Clearly, Haizi is illuminated and influenced by his forefathers—Laozi (604-531 BCE) and Daoist scholars, who view Dao as a motherly creative origin and per­ sonified Dao. Laozi claims that ‘The Dao which can be uttered is not the constant or invariable Dao’.22 Dao is all-pervading, all-commanding, immutable and unalterable. It has no beginning and no end. Laozi believes that ‘The Dao gives birth to One; One gives birth to Two; Two give birth to Three; Three give birth to All things’ (道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物).23 ‘One’ means Taiji; ‘Two’ means Yin-Yang; ‘Three’ means heaven, earth and humanity. In other words, everything in the universe is born out of being and being is 18

Zicheng Hong, 洪子诚 and Denghan Liu, 刘登翰, Zhongguo Dangdai Xinshishi (The History of Contemporary Chinese New Poetry), (Beijing: Renmin wenxue chubanshe, 1993), 253. 19 Yibing Huang, 黄亦兵, “Cong Shuqing Dao Xushi—Xinshiqi Zhongguo Wenxue de Huayu Zhuanxing” (From Expression to Narratives—The Language Shift in Chinese Literature of the New Era) (Beijing University, 1993), 23. 20 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1040. 21 While the Chinese word ‘Dao’ has been interpreted differently by different religious, philosophical and cultural traditions in Chinese history, its linguistic meaning, according to Yeo, is basically: the way or the principle of the universe; or the embodied truth; or the speech. See Khiok-Khng Yeo, “Chinese Christologies: Images of Christ and Chinese Cultures”. In The Oxford Handbook of Christology, edited by Francesca Aran Murphy, Sept 2015. 22 Laozi, “Dao De Jing”, , 1. 23 Ibid., 42.

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born out of non-being. Haizi even has a poem entitled Three Give Birth to All Things.24 This is very similar to the Creation narrative in Christian tradition: ‫ֹלהים ְמ ַר ֶ ֖ח ֶפת וְ ָה ָ֗א ֶרץ‬ ִ֔ ‫ וְ ֣ר ַּוח ֱא‬.‫הּו–וְ ֖חֹ ֶשְך ַעל ־ ְפ ֵנ֣י ְת ֑הֹום‬ ֙ ֹ ‫יְתה וָ ֔בֹהּו､ ֙ת‬ ֥ ָ ‫( ָה‬Gen 1:2). In Hebrew, the word for the Spirit (‫ ֣ר ַּוח‬, rū·aḥ) is feminine in form, even though the original text does not contain any femininity reference to the Spirit. Some theologians think that it is associated with feminine attitudes or maternal functions of the part of the Godhead (cf. Gen 2:7, Deut 32:11-12, Prov 1:20, Mt 11:19, Lk 3:22, and Jn 3:5-6.).25 Not being aware of this Christian tradition, Haizi thinks that the Dao is where classical rationalism philosophy begins, although both Laozi and Socrates start from ‘logics of observation’ (直观的逻辑), which means that the logics of their belief systems were developed through their direct observation of the universe.26 In his rapid writings, he has probably not understood properly the vast philosophical difference between Laozi and Socrates. Haizi attempts to reject Chinese modernity and go back to myth and tragedy led by poetry, not logic and reason. His real focus is to exalt poetry, the highest form of language as the leading Dao of China. Haizi, a poet and a prophet of his time, starts to write his poems at the dusk of agricultural society in China. The loss of land in agricultural China has been a deep problem for the people living on the land, as the Dao in the eyes of the poet has been anchored to the physical land for centuries. It is this disappearance of the land-based home that provokes Haizi to write and gives him the inner drive to seek and claim what is disappearing. He attempts to trace back to the root of these ‘desires’, whether the source is cultural, philosophical or even ontological in the Chinese worldview of creation. He uses the term Yuanshi Liliang (原始力量),27 which means ‘Original Force’ in God’s creation. He thinks that even ‘God in his creation features anxiety, reconciliation, dialogue, commandment, rebuke and expectation with this Original Force’.28 Once again, his Daoist Yin-Yang correlation becomes the way he interprets the God-image. The creation of Adam loosens him from the earth (with the element of death) and God (with the element of slavery), which represent the ‘Motherly Power’ (Muqin Shili, 母亲势力).29 In other words, the creation of Adam is the process of the Main Body coming out of the Substance: the land and God. The land is the Mother and God is the Father. In Haizi’s poetic lan24 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 301-10. 25 Jürgen Moltmann, The Spirit of Life: A Universal Affirmation, (London: SCM Press), 1992. 26 Ibid., 1040. 27 Ibid., 1039. 28 Ibid., 1039-40. 29 Ibid., 1040.

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guage, their bindings, consciousness of death for the former and elements of slavery for the latter, are pre-existing powers producing the prince, Adam. His understanding is that humanity represented by Adam is created by the eastern Dao—the Yin-Yang communion. Here Haizi successfully articulates a Chinese worldview of creation, borrowing the biblical language. Haizi goes further to explore the ways of salvation for modern China in an era of transition. In his poetic language, the creation of Eve is to be loosened from Adam, seeking freedom of life regardless of the perfection of the main image. It is the spirit of upheaval and end times.30 This is the spirit of great poetry that gives freedom and salvation. Haizi views artists and poets as close to the creative Dao, or Original Force (Motherly Power) in his language. While most people live at some distance from the Original Force, Haizi thinks artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Percy Shelley, Arthur Rimbaud, Edgar Allan Poe, Friedrich Hölderlin, Sergei Yesenin, Stephen Crane and Christopher Marlowe all live very close to this force. Giants like Michelangelo, Dante, William Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, however, belong to Haizi’s other category. They have used the Original Force (‘Motherly Power’) within them to serve the ‘Main Body Force’ (Zhuti Liliang, 主体力量).31 This Main Body Force represents ‘Fatherly Power’ (Fuqin Shili, 父亲势力) in the form of modelling, sculpture, orders, skills, talents and systematic theology. The balance of ‘Fatherly Power’ and ‘Motherly Power’ creates personalities, churches and temples, once-off action poetry, epic works, tragedy and architecture. These are established, in Haizi’s words, as the ‘Fatherly Main Body’ (Fuqin Zhuti, 父亲主体).32 Haizi is trying to construct, as Chen and Song claim, ‘cultural poetics’, drawing from western resources and biblical symbols. His goal is to defend his dream for contemporary China using the means of great poetry, the once-off poetry-in-action. Haizi uses biblical language, imagery and narratives to convince his readers that we need once again to go back to the Original Force. Unlike the JewishChristian creation story, where Eve is created out of Adam (Gen 2:18-23), Haizi points out that the Eve of China needs to be awakened to give birth to a new Adam. This is consistent with the typical Chinese Daoist thinking: ‘All things under heaven spring from being or the nameable; All beings spring from nonbeing or the unnameable’ (天下万物生于有，有生于无).33 Eve is the mother of Adam, not the other way around as in Genesis 2:18-23. But it is consistent 30 31 32 33

Ibid., 1041. Ibid., 1042-3. Ibid., 1044. Laozi, “Dao De Jing”, 40.

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with Genesis 3:20 that Eve was ‘the mother of all living’, except for the first Adam. Although he is not a Christian, Haizi uses both western and biblical imageries to reach into the depth of Chinese consciousness. He parallels the story of creation on the sixth day with the writings and creation of artists and philosophers over the centuries. I have put his thoughts, which are not systematically expressed (understandably by a poet, not a philosopher) in Table 2.2 (see page 56). The pages are from Haizi Shi Quanji (The Complete Poems of Haizi).34 For Haizi, the left column of the table entitled ‘From Eve to Adam’ is a higher order than the right column entitled ‘From Adam to Eve’. He says, Great poetry is neither sentimental nor lyrical nor moments of flow of original materials, but momentary breaking into grandness of self—a once-off poetic action in the Original Force by humanity.35 Haizi concludes that China needs to value the transition and struggle from Eve to Adam—from feelings to will, from emotions to force, from endless human chaos to grand godly soaring and dancing.36 In the 1980s, the chaotic and myriad display of poetry is an expression of a post-traumatic reaction towards the Cultural Revolution. Haizi, at the end of the Misty Poetry Move­ment, declares that China needs to break free from chaos to soaring dance. So poetry is not simply a reaction as the Romantic poets reacted to modernisation in the West. Instead, his dream as a contemporary Chinese poet is to see the birth of a great poetic action and epic poetry in China. This is the birth of Adam from Eve and Haizi is in the forefront of this cultural transition. His epic poetry is escalated to be a poetic action, so as to clear (qingsuan, 清算) the materials left from Modernism since the time of Romanticism.37 This explains why he uses his own action of death as a declaration of his beliefs. He recognises the two failures of creative poetry in history. First, the national poets failed to use their national materials and poetry to reach the level of the whole of humanity. Second, the modern writers write from fragmentation and blindness.38 He, however, regards the work of Dante, Shakespeare and Goethe 34 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1038-67. 35 Ibid., 1048: The original text is: ‘伟大的诗歌，不是感性的诗歌，也不是抒情的诗 歌， 不是原始材料的片段流动，而是主体人类在某一瞬间突入自身的宏伟— 是主体人类在原始力量中的一次性诗歌行动’. 36 Ibid., 1042-5. 37 Ibid., 1048-9. 38 Ibid., 1049-50.

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as the kind of great poetry that should be the goal of contemporary Chinese poetry. Haizi reorganises the works of these artists in history as he tries to locate the way to reach, not only Chinese, but the whole of humanity. Haizi then turns to religion. He believes that ‘an even higher level of creative poetry’ (更高一级的创造性诗歌)—a collective poetry that expresses human spirituality (jingshen, 精神) at its peak, has already been in existence.39 As if there is an epistemological ladder for the poetic pilgrimage to this ontological home, the content of this spirituality reaches a higher level than aesthetics and creativity. In this collective ‘poetry’ he includes Egyptian pyramids, Indian epics, Homer’s epics, the Qu’oran and some Persian poetry, the Old Testament, and Dunhuang Buddhist arts.40 Contrary to the abolition of all religious beliefs during the Cultural Revolution, here Haizi is embarking on the forbidden and the mystic other after the religious nihilism. These are the birthplaces of human civilisations, in which religions are at the central discourse of the awakenings. These collective memories and modellings transcend Motherly and Fatherly Power, and provide ‘a cosmological background for great poetry’ (伟大诗歌的宇宙性背景).41 As if painting a backdrop for the universal drama yet to stage the awakening of the sleeping dragon, Haizi is illuminated by the transcendence of religions to seek a higher order. In other words, he tries to knit together, in his poetic drama, a theological framework that points to an ‘ultimate concern’. Returning to the birth of these civilisations, in the first discourse of knowledge, naming gods and the orders of the universe, Haizi hopes to create a meta-narrative—the creation of his own myth. His soul-search through poetry finally leads to religions that concern life and death, origin and destiny. This search, up till the time of Haizi, had been somewhat suppressed or forgotten in the awakening from the Cultural Revolution in the early and mid-1980s. The search of Chinese intellectuals is summarised by Tang Xiaolin: ‘From Wang Guowei (王国维) to Liu Xiaofeng, the modern history of Chinese thought has experienced the process of replacing aesthetics with religion then to replacing religion (Christianity) with aesthetics … It is in fact the process of a few generations of Chinese intellectuals seeking the modernisation of Chinese culture’.42 This is exactly what Haizi and his generation attempt to do for the nation of China—the two-way flow between aesthetics and religion. Michelle Yeh chooses the term ‘the cult of poetry’ to describe the poetry writings of the 39 Ibid., 1051. 40 Ibid., 1051. 41 Ibid., 1051-2. 42 Tang, Kanbujian de Qianming: Xiandai Hanyu Shixue yu Jidujiao, 46-7.

Motherly Power (Original Force)

Loosened from the land, awakening from ‘nothingness’ and the dim light of the origin of life (Socrates and Laozi) Concrete, Modelling, Labouring, Once-off poetic action, Combination of expressive Main and giant classic background, Creative Action Monument, Action sculpture, Church orders, Epic works, Tragedy, Architecture Church, Pantheism

Power Under

Process

Results

Expression

Form

From Eve to Adam

Creation

Table 2.2 Haizi’s creation myth

1045

1042, 1044

Land groaning, Exile and shame of civilisation, Collective crucifixion, Monotheism

1041, 1045, 1049 Theo-centric, Abstract, Elementary, Multi-possibility, Abstractionism, Cubism, Surrealism, Separation of expressive writing from creative action 1045 Religion, Plastic Arts, Dancing, Romantic poetry, Dunhuang caves and murals

1045, 1049

1045

1041

Pursuing religion of love and death, and freedom of life regardless of the perfection of the object

1040

1041, Haizi implies the term in this context

Page reference

Fatherly Power

From Adam to Eve

1039-40, 1042-43, 1048

Page reference

56 Chapter 2

Michelangelo, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Homer, and Aeschylus

Kings sitting on the throne, 1039, 1047-48, 1056-58 Kings of the Sun

Metaphors

1043-44, 1049, 1051

Action creativity, Personal- 1040-42 ity, Order, God and slave in combination, Will, Force Greek Tragedy, Renaissance 1041, 1045

Representatives

Movement

Essence

1041

1041, 1049-51

Nietzsche, Kafka, Rousseau, 1042-43, 1044, 1046 van Gogh, Dostoyevsky, Shelley, Rimbaud, Edgar Allan Poe, Hölderlin, Sergei Yesenin, Stephen Crane, and Christopher Marlowe Princes, Poetry Princes, 1040, 1042, 1048 Princes of the Sun

Romanticism

Emotion, Feeling, Sentimentality, ­Fragmentation

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1980s and 1990s, as they ‘bestow poetry with religious significance and cultivate the image of the poet as the high priest of poetry’.43 Haizi’s ‘religious’ death— ‘poetry in action’—epitomises his aesthetic and ‘spiritualisation writing’. His creation myth therefore not only locates the Dao as the origin of the universe, but also defends his hypothesis that great poetry is the right way for the modernisation of Chinese culture.

Songs of the Homeland

Apart from the search for philosophical Dao and religious transcendence, Haizi’s cultural identity is deeply rooted in the land of his birth—the Chinese soil that nurtures his being. In contrast to the western view of nature as nontranscendental, Chinese tradition holds that nature is Dao’s own accord. The land is not subject to change but eternal and ever-evolving in life. This land that encompasses five thousand years of rich history, culture and philosophy is deeply ingrained in his soul, shaping his aspirations and dream for a home. The dominant theme in Haizi’s poetry is closely linked with the land. Xichuan is not exaggerating regarding the relationship between Haizi and the land when he states that it is ‘as if the silent land, in order to speak, grabs hold of him and turns him into being the voice of the land’ (仿佛沉默的大地为了说话而一把 抓住了他, 把他变成了大地的嗓子).44 The land gives him a sense of being and grounds him in the search for a home even out of his homelessness. His homecoming journey is closely connected with the physical land and the people on the land, as well as the spiritual land of his heart. Where is his home? It appears that he is caught between the two—the homeland of the East pushes him to the land of the West and the western land calls him back to the homeland of his origin. He lives existentially in the swing and tension of the two traditions. As he dialogues with different traditions, he searches for the ontological home at various levels: Chinese traditions, Greek philosophy, Marxism, Romanticism and Christianity. The beginning of his homecoming journey is, however, rooted in the Chinese soil that is torn between the traditional and the contemporary. The recurring theme of Haizi’s homecoming forms a circle: from home to homelessness, which in turn drives him to pursue a sense of home. ‘Land reproduces land with intensity’ (土地紧张地繁殖土地).45 Its root goes back to the classical idea 43 Yeh, “The ‘Cult of Poetry’ in Contemporary China”. 44 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 11; Indeed, ‘the poet becomes the medium for the place itself.’ as stated by Geoffrey R. Lilburne, A Sense of Place: A Christian Theology of The Land, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989), 112. 45 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanbian, 202.

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of a never-ending circle of birth (生生不息) in Chinese tradition. The associated negative connotation links with life in the Buddhist culture as on a sea of suffering, tossed about, helpless and hopeless. The law of cause and effect of Karma is an unbroken timeless chain throughout the ages. This vicious cycle drives Haizi to desolation and hopelessness. The western influence on his later works shows a strong sense of violence and destruction with his images of fire, burning sun, death, corpse and action. Experiencing oneness with the physical land has undergirded his whole search. ‘The great earth has always been one body, till now is still one body’ (大地孑然一身 至今仍孑然一身).46 The poet sees the unchanging nature itself—the earth was, is, and will be. The phrase ‘one body’ in Chinese implies ‘to be alone’. He could also identify with the earth as if it is about himself. Living in the golden age of poetry of the 1980s, Haizi has picked up images from Chinese traditions, western culture and contemporary Chinese popular songs, and created something uniquely Chinese with a distinctive sentimentality. The theme of Wheat Fields under his hand is original and uniquely Chinese. Dunhuang, where the East meets the West along the Silk Road, is his dream, and now becomes his physical dream place. Behind these symbolic places or images depicted are the deep yearnings for a home due to the loss of land. A series of thematic poems are selected to address Haizi’s love and yearning for the land. A Child of Wheat Fields As a child of peasants, Haizi grew up in a rural setting. He was familiar with peasants’ lifestyle that follows the Chinese calendar, which is agriculturally based. Wheat is an autumn production along the Yellow River region, where the Chinese civilisation was born and evolved in early history. The wheat field is an organic part of the land, where generations of Chinese have lived and built communities. Wheat is a central element in the historical process of the Chinese nation and her current psychological emotion, therefore becoming the root of Chinese psyche.47 Haizi acutely captures this unique symbol of China. ‘No one in the history of Chinese poetry has ever written about wheat and the stomach as gratefully as Haizi’, claimed He Ling.48 Further, due to his reading of the Bible, Haizi’s unique use of the wheat field does not only present the root culture of the Chinese homeland, but also echoes with the idea of life and death in the Bible. Wheat under Haizi’s pen expresses the harshness of 46 47 48

Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 391. Liao, “Luansheng de maizi zhi di”, 144. He, “Lun Haizi shige zhong de jiayuan yishi jiqi fansi”, 22.

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labour, the warmth of homeland, but also the kindness, humility and paradox of life and death. As Chen and Song think, the images of ‘Wheat’ and ‘King’ have become representative cultural symbols in contemporary Chinese poetry under the influence of Haizi.49 Wheat is a repeated theme in Haizi’s poems, and he was even called the ‘Poet of Wheat Fields’ (麦地诗人). Apart from the repeated image, he writes many poems with the words ‘wheat’ or ‘wheat fields’ in the titles. For example, ‘Ripe Wheat’ (熟了麦子), ‘Wheat Fields’ (麦地), ‘Wheat Fields and Poets’ (麦地 与诗人), ‘May Wheat Fields’ (五月的麦地), ‘Wheat Fields or Faraway’ (麦地或 遥远), and ‘Of Wheat Fields …’ (麦地之 …). Youzai criticises Haizi’s lack of contextualisation. He thinks that Haizi makes a mistake by using the image of wheat or a wheat field that is familiar to westerners, instead of the rice field that is associated with the Chinese.50 I think, however, that wheat is a common ingredient for the northern Chinese and so wheat fields could be seen in many places as Haizi travelled from the south to Beijing to study. In addition, Haizi was influenced by Vincent van Gogh’s paintings of wheat fields. Wheat, therefore, is a cross-cultural symbol in Haizi’s intellectual world. No doubt Haizi is successful in connecting the simple image of wheat with contemporary Chinese spirituality, thus creating a new world of poetic language with his creative and meaning bearing metaphors. The poem ‘Wheat Fields’ was written in 1985, an early piece of Haizi’s work. It expresses Haizi’s deep attachment to and yearning for the land. The metaphor of Wheat becomes an ontological home for Haizi—a medium between nature and humanity, the life of the world and of people interplayed and mingled. It is like Qi that interflows between the external and the internal with the same purpose that life is ever-evolving and continuing. 51 52 麦地51

Wheat Fields52

1 吃麦子长大的 2 在月亮下端着大碗 3 碗内的月光 4 和麦子 5 一直没有声响

Those who were brought up beside wheat Holding large bowls under the moon The moon [reflected] in the bowl And the wheat Do not make any noise

6 和你俩不一样

Different from you two

49 Chen and Song, Bei Weiguan de Shizijia, 57. 50 Haizi and Youzai, Haizi Shige Yanjiu, 323. 51 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 116-119. 52 This is my own translation.

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7 在歌颂麦地时 8 我要歌颂月亮

When singing for the wheat field I will sing for the moon

9 月亮下 10 连夜种麦的父亲 11 身上像流动金子

Under the moon The Fathers who plant the wheat over night Their bodies are like flowing gold

12 月亮下 13 有十二只鸟 14 飞过麦田 15 有的衔起一颗麦粒 16 有的则迎风起舞，矢口否认

Under the moon There are twelve birds Flying over the wheat field Some are holding a grain of wheat Some dance against the wind, categorically  denying

17 看麦子时我睡在地里 18 月亮照我如照一口井 19 家乡的风 20 家乡的云 21 收聚翅膀 22 睡在我的双肩

Watching the wheat, I sleep in the field The moon shines over me like a well The wind of hometown The clouds of hometown Pull back the wings and sleep over my shoulders

23 麦浪—— 24 天堂的桌子 25 摆在田野上 26 一块麦地

The wheat waves The table of heaven Is set on the field A piece of wheat field

27 收割季节 28 麦浪和月光 29 洗着快镰刀

The harvest season The wheat waves and the moon Are washing the swift sickle

30 月亮知道我 31 有时比泥土还要累 32 而羞涩的情人 33 眼前晃动着 34 麦秸

The moon knows me Who is more tired than the soil But the shy lover Before our eyes the rocking wheat straw

35 我们是麦地的心上人 36 收麦这天我和仇人 37 握手言和

We are the sweethearts of the wheat field On the day of harvest, my enemy and I Hold hands and become reconciled

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38 我们一起干完活 39 合上眼睛，命中注定的一切 40 此刻我们心满意足地接受

We finish the work together Close our eyes, everything being destined At this moment, we accept them all with  contentment

41 妻子们兴奋地 42 不停用白围裙 43 擦手

Wives are excited Constantly with their white aprons Wiping their hands

44 这时正当月光普照大地 45 我们各自领着 46 尼罗河、巴比伦或黄河

49 洗了手 50 准备吃饭

At this moment, the moon shines over the earth We each lead The children from the Nile River, Babylon or the  Yellow River At the riverbanks On the islands or the plains like peaks dancing in  the air To wash their hands And get ready to eat

51 就让我这样把你们包括进来吧 52 让我这样说 53 月亮并不忧伤 54 月亮下 55 一共有两个人 56 穷人和富人 57 纽约和耶路撒冷 58 还有我 59 我们三个人 60 一同梦到了城市外面的麦地 61 白杨树围住的 62 健康的麦地 63 健康的麦子 64 养我性命的妻子！

Let me include you in this way Let me say this The moon is not sad Under the moon There are two people The poor and the rich New York and Jerusalem And me We three people Dream of the wheat field beyond the cities Surrounded by the poplar trees The healthy wheat field The healthy wheat the wife who has nurtured my life!

47 的孩子 在河流两岸 48 在群峰飞舞的岛屿或平原

Influenced by his upbringing in rural China, the ideal cross-cultural world portrayed in this poem is vividly enchanting. Coming from a peasant’s family, he writes about the simple and complete labour process of planting, watching, harvesting and eating wheat. He writes of the longing for the wheat—‘Holding

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large bowls’ (#2), held by rural children who are brought up beside the wheat and who wait eagerly with their eyes wide open. He writes of the joy and peace of the harvest: ‘On the day of harvest, my enemies and I / hold hands and become reconciled’ (#36-37). The harvest becomes a moment of birth from the land as if everything is secondary compared with this annual birth of life. ‘Everything being destined / at this moment, we accept them all with contentment’ (#39-40). The moon, the wheat field and the family are in harmony and happy contentment. In the first part of the poem, various forms and images of wheat under the moon are vividly painted: the wheat field (two expressions in Chinese: #7, 26, 35, 60, 62, Maidi, ‘麦地’; #14, Maitian, ‘麦田’), wheat grains (#15, ‘麦粒’), wheat (#1, 4, 17, 63, ‘麦子’), wheat waves (#23, 28, ‘麦浪’) and wheat straw (#34, ‘麦秸’). They do not stand alone as still metaphors, but combine with constant moving images: ‘The flowing gold’ over the body of the working father (#11), the birds that fly over the wheat field (#13-14), the wind and clouds of the hometown (#19-20), the quick sickle (#29) and the rocking wheat straw (#33-34). It paints romantic rural scenery. Haizi praises the wheat, the moon, his father’s ‘flowing gold’ under the moon, the dancing birds, the hometown wind and the clouds over his shoulder. The poet finds his contentment in this village life. The transitional paragraph from #23-26 shifts the canvas from a typical Chinese rural scene to a worldwide heavenly banquet. He turns his eyes from the earth to heaven, from the East to the whole globe. The wheat field becomes the table of heaven, where people from everywhere are gathered to enjoy the feast after the harvest. The second half of the poem describes the scene of preparing and eating the meal. The harvest of wheat takes one from China to the world. A celebration of the harvest meal has brought people from different rivers where civilisations were born. The children from the Nile River, Babylon or the Yellow River are led by their own parents to wash their hands and get ready to eat (#45-50). These rivers are the symbols of the ancient civilisations in Egypt, Babylon and China. The meal includes the poor and the rich (#55-56), people from the West represented by New York and from the Middle East represented by Jerusalem, and China represented by Haizi (#57-58). All come to enjoy this meal and dream of the wheat field beyond the confined walls of the cities (#60). This is the utopian world, the ontological home Haizi attempts to name through the metaphor of wheat. It is the ‘healthy wheat field / healthy wheat’ (#62-63). As the early Greek philosophers who believed that birth of knowledge is through creative thinking and sense perception, Haizi finds the roots of

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his home in the cross-cultural symbol of wheat and the wheat field through his imagination. Having illustrated a poetic-ontological home, we continue with Haizi’s poems using the motif of wheat. In ‘Ripe Wheat’, Haizi pictures a homecoming father having been away to earn a living for thirty years. 53 54 熟了麦子53

Ripe Wheat54

那一年 兰州一带的新麦 熟了

in that year the wheat near Lanzhou ripened anew

在水面上 混了三十多年的父亲 回家来

father who drifted on the waterways for more than thirty years returned home

坐着羊皮筏子 回家来了

riding a sheep skin raft returned home

有人背着粮食 夜里推门进来

someone shouldering grains in the night pushes the door and comes in

油灯下 认清是三叔

beneath the oil lamp I now see clearly my third uncle

老哥俩 一宵无言

two brothers one night without talk

只有水烟锅 咕噜咕噜

only the water pipe glug glug

谁的心思也是 半尺厚的黄土 熟了麦子呀！

our hearts are all half-foot thick yellow earth ripe wheat!

Homecoming is a journey, a journey of returning home where the wheat harvest is waiting. After seeing his brother beneath the oil lamp, they are silent for the night with their pipes. Everything is spoken in their silence, as they 53 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 79. 54 Haizi and Murphy, Over Autumn Rooftops, 29.

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share the same heart for the ‘yellow earth’ and ‘ripe wheat’. This is a typical picture of Chinese peasants, who live on the yellow earth and have planted wheat for five thousand years. There is a silent understanding between them in their connection with the earth. More importantly, this is an epistemological pathway through a dialogue of the heart. This was the way Haizi learned in his childhood. Unlike cognitive knowledge involving reasoning minds, this is a down-to-earth chat, like two brothers holding water pipes, and a heart-to-heart conversation that recalls the journey returning from the sea, from exploration to rest, after more than thirty years of rootlessness. Two years later, Haizi has grown to be a more mature poet. He now stands in the midst of the wheat field and dialogues with himself. 55 56 麦地与诗人55

Wheat Fields and Poets56

询问 1  在青麦地上跑着 2 雪和太阳的光芒

Question running through young wheat fields with snow and sun radiance

3 诗人，你无力偿还 4 麦地和光芒的情谊

poet, you are powerless to repay the true friendship of wheat fields and radiance

5 一种愿望 6 一种善良 7 你无力偿还

a type of desire a type of kindness you are powerless to repay

8 你无力偿还 9 一颗放射光芒的星辰 10 在你头顶寂寞燃烧

you are powerless to repay a star emitting radiance above your head burning through loneliness

答复

Answer

11 麦地 12 别人看见你 13 觉得你温暖，美丽 14 我则站在你痛苦质问的中心

wheat fields others see you and think you warm and beautiful but I stand at the centre of your painful  interrogation burned by you

15  被你灼伤

55 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 412-3. 56 Haizi and Murphy, Over Autumn Rooftops, 102-5.

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16 我站在太阳 痛苦的芒上

I stand in the Sun painful awns of wheat

17 麦地 18 神秘的质问者啊

wheat fields mysterious interrogator

19 当我痛苦地站在你的面前 20 你不能说我一无所有 21 你不能说我两手空空

I stand painfully before you you cannot say I have nothing you cannot say my hands are empty

22 麦地啊，人类的痛苦 23 是他放射的诗歌和光芒！

wheat fields, humanity’s pain is the poetry and radiance he emits!

Compared with early poems on wheat, this one involves pain. In the three paragraphs following the first paragraph of ‘Wheat Fields and Poets’,57 he repeats each time: ‘You are powerless to repay’ (#3, 7, 8). As a peasant’s son, the poet is grateful for the wheat field that brought him up. He realises that he cannot honour the wheat field enough. In the meantime, he defends himself: ‘you cannot say I have nothing … my hands are empty’ (#20, 21). He has indeed created some brilliant poems. Unlike others who experience the struggle of pain but cannot express it brilliantly through poetry, Haizi is able to articulate the deeply felt struggle and loneliness of human pain, centring on the wheat field like ‘a star emitting radiance’ (#9). Almost like carrying a cross, Haizi is standing ‘at the centre of your painful interrogation burned by you … painful awns of wheat … I stand painfully before you.’ (#14, 16, 19). The wheat field is his utopian ideal world, but warmth and beauty belong to others. It is not a perfect place but a vessel of pain and suffering that Haizi carries, a holy land he treks on, with a deep searching for the Ultimate. He regards himself as a cross-bearer, who carries the pain of humanity with his poetry. ‘Wheat fields, humanity’s pain / is the poetry and radiance he emits!’ (#22, 23). As harvest does not come without hard work and painful labour, this ontological home in the metaphor of wheat inevitably embodies the suffering of the land. While he praises the wheat for its richness and connectedness with his loved ones, he writes in ‘Wheat Fields (or Faraway)’58: 大地的裸露 在家乡多孤独 … 幸福不是灯火

the bareness of the earth it is so lonely in the hometown … happiness is not light

57 Ibid., 102-5. 58 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 410-11. This is my own translation.

Haizi: Beyond Homelessness 幸福不能照亮大地 大地遥远…

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happiness cannot light up the earth the earth is far away …

His pessimistic and negative mood is accompanied by his singing for the land, sometimes like a soul interrogator or sometimes like a pilgrim. He instinctively senses his duty as a poet: to give the world not only the gift of poetry, but also the embodiment of great poetry—himself. Throughout his journey, Haizi’s poetry has never left the land of wheat fields. Wheat, an agricultural production in northern China used as a noodle ingredient, is a symbol of humility closely connected with the land. Noodle dishes that are made out of wheat are everyday meals for Chinese, not extravagant at all. This humble expression exactly epitomises Haizi in the land of China. Wheat, although small, is filled with life and hope for multiplication and nourishment for human beings. Haizi’s usage of the image of wheat in fact shows his love towards the land of China and his praise towards life. Liao Yuan thinks highly of the image of wheat as the ‘psychological root of Chinese people’ (中国人的心理之根). It is the pursuit and entry point to consciousness, morality and loftiness, and therefore exemplifies the historical process and present psyche of the Chinese nation.59 Wheat is not only a symbol of labour and homeland, but also human purity, kindness and fragility. Going beyond van Gogh’s usage of the image, Haizi alludes to the classical aesthetics of Confucian intellectuals and hints at its integration with the images in the Bible.60 He has successfully named this poetic-ontological home as the ‘Poet of Wheat Fields’. The Dream Place—Dunhuang Apart from wheat and wheat fields, Haizi locates another ontological home— Dunhuang (敦煌). Dunhuang is an ancient historical and cultural city in the north-western part of China on the Silk Road. It is well-known for the caves and murals which have early manuscripts and Buddhist and folk art mostly dating from 400 to 1000 CE.61 Early Christian manuscripts of the 7-8th centuries were also discovered there, though Haizi would have no knowledge of their existence. Dunhuang is also called a ‘desert oasis’ or ‘western pearl’. It is a

59 60 61

Liao, “Luansheng de maizi zhi di”, 144. Hu, “Haizi Shige yu Shengjing”, 13. For historical development of Dunhuang, see Tongqing Hu, 胡同庆 and Huaqing Luo, 罗 华庆, Jiemi Dunhuang (Deciphering Dunhuang), (Lanzhou: Gansu renmin meishu chubanshe, 2009).

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stopover on the Silk Road, a hub for Buddhist pilgrimage and an ancient political and economic centre. A poem ‘Homeland’ (家园) which appeared as part of the long poem ‘Land’ (土地) was written in the same year as ‘Wheat Fields (or Faraway)’. This time, his homelessness finds a dream place within an ancient civilisation—Dun­ huang. The following are the first three paragraphs: 62 63 家园62

Homeland63

1  人们把你放在村庄 The people put you into the villages In the north autumn winds stir 2  秋风吹拂的北方 3  神祗从四方而来 往八方而去 Spirits come from all four directions and scatter ­  everywhere After passing through this village we hear no more 4  经过这座村庄后杳无音信  news of them 5  当秋天的采集者坐满天堂 6  边缘的树林散放着异香 7  提供孤独的平原 8  亲人啊 命运和水把你喂养

When the autumn reapers fill the heavens And the border forests emit their fragrances To the lonely plains O, my loved ones nurtured by our fates and water

9  人们把你放在敦煌 10  这座中国的村庄 11  水和沙漠 是幽幽的篮子 12  天堂的笑容也画在篮子上

The people put you into Dunhuang This Chinese village The water and desert like an unfathomably deep basket On which is drawn heaven’s smile

This poem beautifully portrays the place where the poet comes from that captures his identity and relationship with the land and people. He was born in a village in the north where autumn wind stirs (#1 & 2). ‘The north’ is a poetic reference, not necessarily where Haizi was born geographically. Spirits have come and gone on this land throughout the ages, whether the gods of Daoism, Buddhism, folk religions or communism (#3 & 4). While the season of autumn reaps the harvest with joy after a year’s labour with a sense of ‘heaven’ and ‘fragrances’ (#5 & 6), the land is sadly barren and lonely (#7). Then he returns to the land, his loved ones, and the source of his being. The people on this land are nurtured by ‘fates and water’ (#8). Haizi’s home and the destiny of his people are determined on one hand by fatalism, and on the other hand by water 62 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 704. 63 Haizi and Murphy, Over Autumn Rooftops, 264-5. I have made minor changes to the English translation.

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Figure 1

The Temple of Dunhuang Mogao Cave (photo taken from field trip in June 2012). © Xiaoli Yang.

Figure 2

Dunhuang Mogao Cave where manuscripts and Buddhist art were stored (photo taken from field trip in June 2012). © Xiaoli Yang.

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from the land. In the next paragraph, Haizi extends his homeland to his motherland, represented by the Dunhuang civilisation (#10). The vast desert in the region (#11), like the five thousand years of its history, expanded Haizi’s imagination during his visit to Yungang Caves in 1986. He searches for his cultural and historical roots. It is there he finds heaven’s smile (#12). Here heaven is personified, like the ‘Flying Apsaras’ (feitian, 飞天) drawn on the cave wall. He likens the lines on the wall in the cave to ‘the unfathomably deep basket’. Baskets are commonly used by Chinese peasants in their daily life. Haizi finds his home, his heaven and his cultural identity in this ancient site through the image of a simple utensil of his village. In his poem ‘Dunhuang’, he metaphorically paints the caves as ‘wooden buckets hanging beneath horses’ bellies’ (#1-2), and ‘flowers hanging from his torn-up ears’ (#6-7).64 This place once was once a fertile land where horses lived and grasses and flowers grew richly. The image of ‘the ear-splitting sound of milk dripping’ not only describes the dripping stalactites vividly, but also evokes the picture of a Buddha who has long ears and plentiful breasts. This was the nurturing and nourishing cradle of Chinese culture where Buddhism was prominent and made its journey to China historically known as the Eastward Pilgrimage (Dongli, 东礼). Today it is a mere desert after years of human destruction. Haizi sees this place as the last place where he ‘traded salt and grain’, and paints his own image before death. He sacrifices himself for the new birth of others—‘for a mother squirrel/for a queen bee/to allow them to once again conceive in spring’ (#15-17). From this line, one may see Haizi’s suicidal complex as he begins to justify his sacrifice for a greater and collective good. The poet pictures himself as a ‘saviour’ and life giver for the cultural rebirth and revival of the nation.  65 66 敦 煌65

Dunhuang66 

1  敦煌石窟像马肚子下 2  挂着一只只木桶 3  乳汁的声音滴破耳朵— 4  像远方草原上撕破耳朵的人

Dunhuang caves like wooden buckets hanging beneath horses’ bellies the ear-splitting sound of milk dripping like someone on the distant grass lands with torn up  ears coming to this last valley with flowers hanging from his torn-up ears

5 来到这最后的山谷 6 他撕破的耳朵上 7 悬挂着花朵

64 Ibid., 78-9. 65 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 202. 66 Haizi and Murphy, Over Autumn Rooftops, 79.

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Figure 3

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Dunhuang desert on the Silk Road (photo taken from field trip in June 2012). © Xiaoli Yang.

8 敦煌是千年以前 9 起了大火的森林 10 在陌生的山谷 11 是最后的桑林—我交换 12 食盐和粮食的地方 13 我筑下岩洞, 在死亡之前,   画上你 14 最后一个美男子的形象 15 为了一只母松鼠 16 为了一只母蜜蜂 17 为了让她们在春天再次怀孕

Dunhuang is a forest where there was a great fire a thousand years ago in an unfamiliar valley it’s the last mulberry forest—I traded salt and grain here I built these grottoes, before death I painted you an image of the last handsome male for a mother squirrel for a queen bee to allow them to once again conceive in spring

This poem expresses Haizi’s ontological search for home and the epistemological path the ancient civilisation has recorded. All Buddhist caves including Dunhuang have the meaning of emptiness of the tomb, where the body rests with the protection of the lords. The emptiness of the tomb and the emptiness of a mother’s womb are metaphorically comparable, the pathway where the

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child was born, and the deceased make the eternal return to the tomb or mother’s womb again. Home, therefore, is the resting place when all lives come to an end, and those caves marked a new beginning in the eternal rest with the divine beings in their fellowship and protection. Home in this sense is immortal as it is among the gods, and with loved ones. Home and death in the Buddhist world such as Dunhuang are therefore deeply connected. Unlike the Christian idea of heaven but with the phrase ‘dust to dust, ashes to ashes’ in the ritual of a funeral, the Buddhist tomb gives an expression of an unchanging home deep in the land. This was the contribution of Buddhism to Chinese civilisation by giving a richer meaning to the idea of home—even death is an inevitable part of the circle of suffering. The epistemology of this home can be found in the burial ritual, the paintings, and more importantly the texts and scriptures that have recorded and defined the birth of civilisation. History becomes the epistemological path to this ancient home, where Haizi wants to return. This is shown in Haizi’s claim that ‘the spirit of Dunhuang is to desire a greater spirit and sense of death’,67 and to pursue the freedom of a sleeping life. Clearly, Dunhuang is regarded by Haizi as the highest achievement of the great human spirit, as expressed in his ‘Poetics: a Compendium’.68 He instinctively puts his idea of great poetry in the giant context of ancient civilisation and religions. Apart from Dunhuang in China, he includes those of the Egyptians, Greeks, Indians, Persians and Hebrews. Haizi has not systematically learned about any of these civilisations and religions and put them into a context. It does not matter for him, as poetry is regarded as an act of creativity upon the cosmic canvas. This is Haizi’s search for spirituality through the means available to him in the China of the 1980s. Intellectuals in the post-Mao era were desperately seeking new spiritual sources to meet the needs of Chinese people. Their discontent finally escalated towards the authorities due to various incidents and tragedies throughout the years from 1986 to 1989. This was also the period in which Haizi produced his massive works. Dunhuang as a dream place is repeatedly mentioned in Haizi’s poems. In Chapter 7 ‘Giant Stone’ of his famous long poem ‘The Sun•The Land’,69 he writes, 敦煌在这块万物的岩石上 填满了野兽和人

67 Haizi, Haizi Shi Quanji, 1041. 68 Ibid., 1051. 69 Ibid., 697.

Dunhuang is upon the rock of all things Filled with wild beasts’ and humans’

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Sun

敦煌在我们做梦的地方 只有玉米与百合闪烁 人生在世。 玉米却归于食欲 百合虽然开放，却很短暂

Dunhuang is the place of our dreams Only cornstalks and lilies twinkle Life in the world Corn belongs to appetite Lilies blossom, but only for a short while

This dream place since ancient time has left us with the fruit born out of the land (represented by corn/cornstalks) that satisfies the body, and short-lived prosperity (represented by lilies) that brings happiness. They will eventually be gone but only Dunhuang will always be in existence, the place of our dreams. The essence of Dunhuang is that it has touched the timeless nature of a living civilisation, a home that no matter how far history has travelled over thousands of years will still be there, and history will return to it. Dunhuang has created a respite in the sea of change. The truth-bearing emptiness has given birth to this ancient civilisation. Haizi’s poetry becomes a calling to modern China, after the Cultural Revolution, to go back to its cultural mother, to make a confession under the sun—for many times the mother has been smashed by her children. The Loss of Land The reason Haizi starts to write long poems is due to the call of certain great ‘elements’ in language and poetry.70 In Greek philosophies, the elements are the ontological beings of the universe and the building blocks of all things. In Chinese philosophies, the ‘Five Phases’ (wuxing, 五行), which include Wood (mu, 木), Fire (huo, 火), Earth (tu, 土), Metal (jin, 金), and Water (shui, 水), are the names of the planets and the primary forces in the changing crucibles of nature. They are ontological too. To search for ‘elements in language and poetry’ is to look for these ontological primaries, the irreducible, which make every­thing. These elements for him are the tangible life and expression of the original creation.71 Haizi attempts to locate this ontological home within Chinese poetic language. The loss of land in contemporary China, however, pushes the poet to question the Dao of the ancient wisdom, and the substance and poetry of the blind Homer. The Chinese translation of ‘Haizi’ literally means ‘Son of the Ocean’. Many misinterpret that it signifies Haizi’s love for the sea. Does he try to 70 71

Ibid., 1038. Ibid., 1039.

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Figure 4

Haizi Lake in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan (photo taken from field Trip in Sept 2009). © Xiaoli Yang.

Figure 5

Haizi Lake in Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan (photo taken from field trip in Oct 2015). © Xiaoli Yang.

Haizi: Beyond Homelessness

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identify with the sea that is wide, open and embracive of the unknown, rather than the land that is solid but lost in the face of modernisation? It is understandable to have such speculation because Haizi is well known for his ‘Facing the Sea, (Watching) the Flowers Bloom in the Warmth of Spring’ and some other poems about the sea. This is certainly not Haizi’s intention according to Weian’s “In Memory of Haizi”.72 The name ‘Haizi’ (‘zi’ without tone), refers to the lakes in the inner mainland in the Mongolian language. Haizi could get the name from his travels to Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and the Tibetan region.73 Liao Yuan, however, argues that even before Haizi graduated from university, this name appeared in the poem ‘Asian Copper’ (亚洲铜, 1984), therefore suggesting that Haizi had started his soul-searching and poetic construction towards the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau long before his physical travel.74 The unpolluted water of the lake on the Plateau, regarded as a ‘holy place’ by the locals, may express well Haizi’s exilic sentiment. This is very helpful to untie the riddle of Haizi’s search for home as we move from a physical hometown to a metaphysical home of the origin. Haizi foresaw prophetically the spiritual crisis of contemporary Chinese at the dawn of urbanisation and industrialisation. He writes, Due to the loss of land, these contemporary wandering souls are seeking some forms of substitute—the desires, skin-deep desires. The great vitality of the land can only be replaced by desires. We can see how much we have lost.75 Since ancient times, Chinese souls have been closely connected with the land, as it was the majority’s livelihood. The soul in classical Chinese philosophy is always embodied, and includes an embodiment in the natural world such as the land. Many dynasty changes throughout Chinese history resulted from peasant uprisings when they lost their land. For example, the Yellow Turban Rebellion (or the Yellow Scarves Rebellion 黄巾之乱 184 CE) against the Han dynasty (Hanchao, 汉朝, (206 BCE–220 CE) was caused by an agrarian crisis 72 Weian, 苇岸, “Huainian Haizi” (In Memory of Haizi), in Busi de Haizi, ed. 崔卫平 Cui Weiping (Beijing: Zhongguo wenlian chubanshe, 1999), 44. 73 Ibid., 184: The poem ‘Haizi Xiaoye Qu, 海子小夜曲’ (‘Haizi Serenade’) is dedicated to a lake on the plateau. 74 Liao, Puxiang Taiyang Zhi Bao, 143-4. 75 Ibid., 1038. This is my translation from Chinese to English. The original text in Chinese is: ‘由于失去了土地，这些现代的漂泊无依的灵魂必须寻找一种代替品—那就是 欲望，肤浅的欲望。大地本身恢宏的生命力只能用欲望来代替和指称，可见 我们已经丧失了多少东西。’.

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Chapter 2

and the increasing conflict between the landlords and peasants. Their slogan was to promote equal rights of people and equal distribution of land. Prior to the advent of modernisation, when people lost their land in agricultural China they also lost their purpose in life and their identity, which was bound to the land. They would do anything to gain back their land so that their identity could be restored. In modern China, Marxism and Leninism were assumed to be the ideologies that led to the final destiny of humanity—Communism. Mao’s version of Marxism became extremely successful in convincing illiterate peasants to form a powerful revolutionary force and gain power in the country. The policy to redistribute land during the Land Revolution (Tudi Geming, 土地革命) was a simple enough concept to inspire desperate peasants to participate in the revolution. Mao intelligently put this practical benefit—the land that had been absolutely vital to the survival of Chinese people for a few thousand years—together with the religious zeal and sacrifice of Communism. This new version of Marxism in the spirit of a religion took root in China and eventually cost millions of lives. Fighting for the land was no longer for personal revenge or interest, but for the grand and higher cause of the motherland and humanity as a whole. The collectivism of the Chinese mindset in contrast to western individualism is displayed incisively in Maoism with regard to the land. Mao’s utopian experimentation of the Great Leap Forward (Dayuejin, 大跃 进) between 1958 and 1960 and ten years of the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution between 1966 and 1976 left the land of China and her people with extreme poverty, barrenness and brokenness. Within the last three decades of economic growth, contemporary Chinese people have experienced the huge urbanisation and loss of rural land, and a change in urban population from 20% to 50% of the total population, approaching 60% towards the end of the decade. 300 million people have already moved from the countryside to the cities, and 350 million more are coming.76 The landscape of China has irreversibly changed demographically, socially, geographically, and economically. While 300 million have moved out of poverty (tuopin, 脱贫) as a result, more than 82 million Chinese still live on less than $1 a day and about 200 million people or 15% of the country’s population are considered poor by international poverty measures, set at $1.25 a day.77 The achievement also comes with the 76

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Jeffrey Towson and Jonathan Woetzel, The One Hour China Book: Two Peking University Professors Explain All of China Business in Six Short Stories, (Cayman Islands: Towson Group LLC, 2013). Chunhan Wong, “More Than 82 Million Chinese Live on Less Than $1 a Day”, Dow Jones & Company, Inc, , ,