Despite the early PRC’s official commitment to the Guo Hua movement, a return to simplistic peasant art, many contemporary Chinese artists stuck to oil and ink rendered with Western perspective. Paradoxically, their works featured revolutionary themes, but were imbued with traditional Chinese spirit too ingrained to suppress. So pervasive and potent is classical Chinese culture that the not only old poems, but also revolutionary art, and even Chairman Mao’s verses, resonate with its timeless beauty. Fighting in Shaanxi

What shall I say of the Great Peak? --

The ancient dukedoms are everywhere green,

Inspired and stirred by the breath of creation,

With the Twin Forces balancing day and night.

...I bare my breast toward opening clouds,

I strain my sight after birds flying home.

When shall I reach the top and hold

All mountains in a single glance?

- DuFu A View of Taishan

Alone I stand in the autumn cold

On the tip of Orange Island

The Hsiang flowing northward;

I see a thousand hills crimsoned through

By their serried woods deep-dyed,

Brooding over this immensity,

I ask, on this boundless land

Who rules over man’s destiny?

- T.T. Mao, Changsha

Four Generations

When I went away, you were still unmarried;

But now these boys and girls in a row

Are very kind to their father's old friend.

They ask me where I have been on my journey;

-Du Fu To My Retired Friend Wei

Man ages all too easily, not Nature:

Year by year the Double Ninth returns.

On this Double Ninth,

The yellow blooms on the battlefield smell sweeter.

- T.T. Mao, The Double Ninth

Tears Flood the Autumnal Fields

And the farmers, returning with hoes on their shoulders,

Hail one another familiarly.

...No wonder I long for the simple life

And am sighing the old song, Oh, to go Back Again!

- Wang Wei, A Farmhouse on the Wei River

Red banners leap over the Ting River

Straight to Lungyen and Shanghang.

We have reclaimed part of the golden bowl

And land is being shared out with a will.

- T.T. Mao, The Warlords Clash

Five Heroes on Mt. Langya

The northeastern border of China was dark with smoke and dust.

To repel the savage invaders, our generals, leaving their families,

Strode forth together, looking as heroes should look;

And having received from the Emperor his most gracious favour,

They marched to the beat of gong and drum through the Elm Pass.

...When death becomes a duty, who stops to think of fame?

- Gao Shi A Song of the Yan Country

Below the hills fly our flags and banners,

Above the hilltops sound our bugles and drums.

The foe encircles us thousands strong,

Steadfastly we stand our ground.

Already our defense is iron-clad,

Now our wills unite like a fortress.

From Huangyangchieh roars the thunder of guns,

Word comes the enemy has fled into the night.

- T.T. Mao, Chingkangshan

New Doctor

...Having had from childhood no mother to guide you,

How will you honour your mother-in-law?

It's an excellent family; they will be kind to you,

They will forgive you your mistakes --

Although ours has been so pure and poor

That you can take them no great dowry.

Be gentle and respectful, as a woman should be,

Careful of word and look, observant of good example.

-Wei Yingwu To My Daughter

Young we were, schoolmates,

At life’s full flowering;

Filled with student enthusiasm

Boldly we cast all restraints aside.

Pointing to our mountains and rivers,

Setting people afire with our words,

We counted the mighty no more than muck.

- T.T. Mao, Changsha

Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland

 

Cicadas complain of thin mulberry-trees

In the Eighth-month chill at the frontier pass.

Through the gate and back again, all along the road,

There is nothing anywhere but yellow reeds and grasses

And the bones of soldiers from You and from Bing

Who have buried their lives in the dusty sand.

...Let never a cavalier stir you to envy

With boasts of his horse and his horsemanship

-Wang Changling At a Border Fortress

Soon dawn will break in the east.

Do not say “You start too early”,

Crossing these blue hills adds nothing to one’s years,

The landscape here is beyond compare.

Straight from the walls of Huichang lofty peaks,

Range after range, extend to the eastern seas.

Our soldiers point southward to Kwangtung

Looming lusher and greener in the distance.

- T.T. Mao, Huichang

Unyielding Heroism

China marches its men down Baideng Road

While Tartar troops peer across blue waters of the bay....

And since not one battle famous in history

Sent all its fighters back again,

The soldiers turn round, looking toward the border,

And think of home, with wistful eyes,

And of those tonight in the upper chambers

Who toss and sigh and cannot rest.

- Li Bai The Moon at the Fortified Pass

 

The wrath of Heaven’s armies soars to the clouds.

Mist veils Lungkang, its thousand peaks blurred.

All cry out in unison:

Our van has taken Chang Hui-tsan!

The enemy returns to Kiangsi two hundred thousand strong,

Fumes billowing in the wind in mid-sky.

Workers and peasants are wakened in their millions

To fight as one man,

Under the riot of red flags round the foot of Puchou!

- T.T. Mao, Against the First Encirclement Campaign

Four Girls

 

Lakka-trees ripen two by two

And mandarin-ducks die side by side.

If a true-hearted girl will love only her husband,

In a life as faithfully lived as theirs,

What troubling wave can arrive to vex

A spirit like water in a timeless well?

- Meng Jiao, A Song of a Pure Hearted Girl

 

Sweet and fair, she craves not Spring for herself alone,

To be the harbinger of Spring she is content.

When the mountain flowers are in full bloom

She will smile mingling in their midst.

- T.T. Mao, Ode to the Plum Blossom

Portrait of Mao Zedong

 

..Chen, my friend, you have always been a great and good man,

With your dragon's moustache, tiger's eyebrows and your massive forehead.

In your bosom you have shelved away ten thousand volumes.

You have held your head high, never bowed it in the dust.

...I have heard about the many friends around your wood land dwelling.

Yesterday you were dismissed. Are they your friends today?

- Li Qi, A Farewell to My Friend Chen Zhangfu

 

This land so rich in beauty

Has made countless heroes bow in homage.

But alas! Chin Shih-huang and Han Wu-ti

Were lacking in literary grace,

And Tang Tai-tsung and Sung Tai-tsu

Had little poetry in their souls;

And Genghis Khan,

Proud Son of Heaven for a day,

Knew only shooting eagles, bow outstretched.

All are past and gone!

For truly great men

Look to this age alone.

- T.T. Mao, Snow

Liu Shaoqi & The Anyuan Coal Miners

West of the Hill of Gold, smoke and dust gather.

O General of the Chinese troops, start your campaign!

Keep your iron armour on all night long,

Send your soldiers forward with a clattering of weapons!

...While the sharp wind's point cuts the face like a knife,

Your challenge from camp, from an inkstand of ice,

Has chilled the barbarian chieftain's heart.

You will have no more need of an actual battle! --

We await the news of victory, here at the western pass!

- Cen Cang to General Fang of the Western Expedition

Like a dim dream recalled, I curse the long-fled past

My native soil two and thirty years gone by.

The red flag roused the serf, halberd in hand,

While the despot’s black talons held his whip aloft.

Bitter sacrifice strengthens bold resolve

Which dares to make sun and moon shine in new skies.

- T.T. Mao, Shaoshan Revisited

The Torchlight Parade in Yan'an

 

On Wheel Tower parapets night-bugles are blowing,

We can see, from the look-out, the dust and black smoke

Where Chinese troops are camping, north of Wheel Tower.

...Our flags now beckon the General farther west-

With bugles in the dawn he rouses his Grand Army;

Drums like a tempest pound on four sides

And the Yin Mountains shake with the shouts of ten thousand;

...Our General endures every pain, every hardship,

Commanded to settle the dust along the border.

We have read, in the Green Books, tales of old days-

But here we behold a living man, mightier than the dead.

- Cen Can, A Song of Wheel Tower in Farewell to General Feng

So many deeds cry out to be done,

And always urgently;

The world rolls on,

Time presses.

Ten thousand years are too long,

Seize the day, seize the hour!

The Four Seas are rising, clouds and waters raging,

The Five Continents are rocking, wind and thunder roaring.

Our force is irresistible,

Away with all pests!

- T.T. Mao, Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-Jo

Eight Female Martyrs

...We have learned that to have a son is bad luck-

It is very much better to have a daughter

Who can marry and live in the house of a neighbor,

While under the sod we bury our boys.

...Go to the Blue Sea, look along the shore

At all the old white bones forsaken --

New ghosts are wailing there now with the old,

Loudest in the dark sky of a stormy day.

- Du Fu, A Song of War Chariots

 

How bright and brave they look, shouldering five-foot rifles

On the parade ground lit up by the first gleams of day.

China’s daughters have high-aspiring minds,

They love their battle array, not silks and satins.

- T.T. Mao, Militia Women