On Yu Guangzhong's Prose-A Discussion Of His Sentiment To Chinese Culture

Among contemporary writers, Yu Guangzhong was famous for his success in poetry writing first and that settled his outstanding status in the circle of Taiwan literature. Back in the early 1960s, when Bai Xianyong and his associates founded "Contemporary Literature", Yu had already built up his great reputation in Taiwan BlueStar poets' club. However, just as his poems' reputation in Taiwan was like the sun at high noon—at the apex of his career, this diligent writer started pursuing prose writing untiringly—he cried out the slogan of "prose revolution", and made a great contribution towards its by his own writings. Commented by the famous literature writer, Liang Shiqiu, "Yu Guangzhong uses his right hand to write poems, while using his left hand to write prose; his great achievements cannot be matched up by others in his time". This is just the exact portrait of the hardworking in poem and prose fields and the great harvests in both of this poet and prose writer. However, in a long time, people pay a lot of attention to him, as a poet, and the grandiose poet building he had constructed, but pay little to him, as a prose writer, and the beautiful prose world he had fabricated. This results in the public unilateral and deviated understanding and it is not fair to this great writer. His prose, indeed, is just like his poems, possessing distinctive aesthetic pursuing and high aesthetic value. For instance, a suite of his prose on a topic of his unrestrained love towards Chinese culture shows completely a self-image of a "root finder". Further, his untiring and affectionate pursuing of the root of Chinese culture and his sentiment towards Chinese culture which could not be given up leave great impact on readers. Even more, some people in Taiwan try to put Yu Guangzhong at the same level in the development of contemporary Chinese prose as Han Yu in the development in ancient Chinese prose. Although it is still hard to comment this saying's appropriateness, the great concerns to Yu from Taiwan and oversea Chinese can be seen through it. Compared to this, the researches on Yu's prose from the circle of mainland literature are relatively scarce and the concern is not enough either. Because of this situation, the author would like to make an initiatory approach on reviewing Yu's prose.