1. editor's situation
Xiaosan (1896— 1983), a famous modern poet and translator, was originally named Zijun and was born in Xiangxiang, Hunan. After 1949, he served as director of the Foreign Cultural Liaison Committee, member of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers Association and director of the International Liaison Department. He is a member of the first CPPCC National Committee, a deputy to the first and second National People's Congress, and a member of the All-China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
Xiaosan began to publish her works on 1930. The main collections of poems are Road to Peace (1952), Road to Friendship (1959), Selected Poems of Xiao San (1960) and Selected Poems of Fu (1963). His poems written and published in Russian in the Soviet Union include The Story of the Xiangdi, This is Our Destiny, Poems of Emile Shaw and Selected Poems of Xiao San. His works have been translated into many languages. His book "Youth of Comrade Mao Zedong" (195 1) and the editor-in-chief "Poems of Revolutionary Martyrs" and their sequels are widely circulated. He advocated: "Poetry is comparable to bullets and bayonets", and new poetry "should learn from folk songs and classical poetry" (Preface to Selected Poems of Little Three). His poems have strong feelings, fluent and popular language, and strive to combine revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism in his creative style. Xiao San is also one of the main Chinese translators of the lyrics of The Internationale.
2. The process of writing a book
After careful collection and arrangement by Xiaosan, the book was published by China Youth Publishing House 1959. The first edition contains only 82 poems by 39 martyrs. As soon as this book was published, it was warmly welcomed by readers. For the first time, 654.38 million copies were printed, which was sold out in less than half a month, and another 320,000 copies were printed in July and August. In order to meet the needs of readers, this book has been reprinted in Northeast and Southwest China. According to incomplete statistics, more than 600,000 copies are printed a year, but the demand is still in short supply. Will be updated and reproduced in 1962. Compared with the first edition, the newly published poetry anthology added 102 poems by 50 martyrs and included 194 poems by 89 martyrs. The revised edition also improved the version and added some illustrations in the text.
3. Historical background
Before the victory of China Revolution, many revolutionaries were not afraid of beheading or imprisonment. They leave their homes and run around, regardless of fame and fortune, unwilling to enjoy themselves. Their only concern is the survival of the country and the happiness of the people. They fought bloody battles for the victory of the revolutionary cause, sacrificed heroically, and wave upon wave. In "Fight to the Death", these revolutionaries wrote poetry vows in blood, which was inspiring and earth-shattering. After the founding of New China, in order not to forget the history and the achievements of the martyrs, Xiaosan edited the book Poetry of Revolutionary Martyrs.
4. Main contents
The Poetry Collection of Revolutionary Martyrs contains the representative works of martyrs who died in various historical periods since the founding of the Party. These include the works of China's early communist fighters Cai Hesen, He Shuheng, Luo Xuezan, Wang Ruofei and others, as well as the poems of young martyrs who were massacred in batches by US imperialists and Kuomintang reactionaries on the eve of national liberation. At the back of each revolutionary martyr's poem, there is a brief introduction to the martyrs, and some memories written by comrades-in-arms, comrades-in-arms or relatives of the martyrs and poems about these posthumous works are selected. The editor also made some comments on some historical facts and difficult words involved in the poem. Biographies of martyrs in the poem copy are very brief, and the styles of articles in the appendix are not consistent: some are only fragments of martyrs' life struggle, some are similar to poems, and only a few articles give a comprehensive introduction to martyrs. But even an incomplete exposition can make readers realize the revolutionary martyrs' dedication to the country and the people, their lofty aspirations for progress, their indomitable revolutionary will and their gratitude to those who are willing to devote themselves to the revolutionary cause.
5. Practical significance
No matter then, now or in the future, the copies of revolutionary martyrs' poems have high ideological value, literary value and historical document value.
(1) ideological value. Due to special historical reasons, these poems are magnificent, noble and elegant, and have a great impact on people's spirit. Through the poems of revolutionary martyrs, we can deeply feel the great mind of revolutionary martyrs. These poems are the great aspirations of revolutionaries. Although many martyrs' poems are only a few lines, they are more powerful, moving and inspiring than thousands of lines. After the first edition of Poems of Revolutionary Martyrs was published, many readers wrote in succession, telling their encouragement and emotion after reading this book. They believe that after reading these poems, they have received the most serious and profound class education and political and ideological education. They are willing to learn from the martyrs and strive to inherit their cause. Today, the copying of revolutionary martyrs' poems is also of great educational significance to our younger generation.
(2) Literary value. From the artistic level, "the author of martyrs' poems is rarely called a poet" (Xiao Sanyu), and his artistic skill level is unbalanced. Cai Hesen's and Luo Xuezan's old-style poems are of great literary and artistic value, because the author has a high level of classical poetry accomplishment and mastered quite skillful skills. The new style poems written by Yin Fu, Liu Shaonan, Fang Zhimin and other comrades are also full of deep poetry. There are also some martyrs who write both old-style poems and new-style poems. For example, Comrade Deng Zhongxia's Crossing Dongting Lake, New Poet's Drank and Victory. These poems are well written because of the burning feelings in my chest. There are also some poems of martyrs, which are easy to understand, vivid and poetic. Poetry of Revolutionary Martyrs shows us all kinds of creative methods and styles, including realism and romanticism, but they are all proletarian revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism, and many of them are combined.
(3) The value of historical documents. The poems in The Collection of Poems of Revolutionary Martyrs either directly express revolutionary thoughts, publicize revolutionary truth, narrate fighting life, or record people's sufferings, which shows the great feelings of the older generation of revolutionaries and has very precious historical document value.