ELEGY OF BLACK STREAM

• Main Author: 楊順明
• Other Authors: 趙天儀
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/55669517544070620644

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 台灣文化暨語言文學研究所 === 95 === Yang Hua (1900-1936), a Taiwanese poet who living when the island was under Japanese rule, had written 328 pieces of Chinese new poetry (only 320 of them could be found today), two vernacular Chinese novels in addition to many Chinese traditional poetry which were carried on newspapers, periodicals and collections of poetry and thereby earned a shinning place in the island's literature history despite of his short lifespan of 36 years. This study focused on Yang's literary career in an attempt to grab the pulse of his times, and his personal feelings for life. His literary adventure started from and ended at Chinese traditional poetry. As a writer grew against the background of bitter fighting between the new and traditional Chinese poetry, and with the pride of literary figure of the second generation, Yang carefully stayed away from the bad habits considered to be traditional literary men's hallmark. Because of his refusal to pursue fashion by imitating others' verses, and his devotion to creating new literary works, Yang's traditional Chinese poets were limited in quantity, and most were composed during gatherings of poets when they competed to come up with the best verses on specific subjects in time and rhymes restricted by organizers. Nevertheless, his poems were a vivid mirror of his soul in a unique form, which are expression of his deep feelings for life. Although his Chinese new poetry bore obvious resemblances to verses of Chinese writers Bin Xin and Liang Zong-dai, they formed a unique style of his own because of his digestion of the two Chinese writers works. They also reflected a sense of his time when Taiwan was governed by Japan, his personal thinking, and the way he thought the Taiwanese of that time should respond to their situation and to tide over it. Notable among those works was "A Female Worker's Sorrow Song" which exposed the differences between social classes, and the miserable lives of laborers. This poem was brought about by the believe in popular literary, and a backlash prompted by the dissolution of Taiwan Culture Association at the time. Both "A Female Worker's Sorrow Song" and "Heart String" were written in Taiwanese dialect and were thereby considered as cornerstones of Taiwanese literature. Yang wrote two novels in vernacular Chinese with an eye to sparkle a social revolution. "A Laborer's Demise" was an accusation that Japanese rulers' bully and oppression had kept the impoverished, miserable, defenseless laborers to the bay, and capitalists' accumulation of assets by trickery or by force had led to the deceases of workers; "Ill Fate" was a vivid story about women's incapability to control their own lives in society of the time and a microcosm of the traditional Taiwanese society. Both of the two novels are remarkable works of Taiwan literature. Yang's life was a tragedy because of its shortness, but his legacy in literature is Taiwan's treasure, they are the few classic works marking Taiwan literature's progress from beginning to maturity before the World War II.