五四時期粤港新詩與基督教———李聖華之《和諧集》初探

Modern Poetry in the Guangzhou Area During the May-Fourth Era and Its Relation with Christianity: On Li Shenghua’s Harmony Collection

Abstract

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.

李聖華所著《和諧集》是目前所見最早在廣東出版的新詩集。該書最早一篇作品完成於1922年，距離白話詩首次出現只相隔六年。作者李聖華（1903—1986），一般五四文學史料缺載，可查證的資料尚待鈎沉，目前只能在香港基督教文獻中得知其人其事。本論文分爲兩部分：第一部分考證作者生平及著作出版時地；第二部部分采取文學與基督教跨際研究的方法，分析書中新詩作品，并比較同期以北京、上海、杭州爲陣地的詩群。旨在通過《和諧集》的研究，印證二三十年代廣東省粤港區新詩已取得實質發展，打破二十年代現代詩在廣東省缺席的定論；并探討該書如何受《聖經》的意象和書寫風格影響，從而折射基督教及《聖經》文本如何通過新詩書寫進入五四文學，延展衍生現代漢詩的特質。詩作論述部分將從以下兩方向展開：（一）基督教意象與五四時期的祈禱詩；（二）擬《雅歌》詩體及其愛情意象與宗教神秘色彩的關係。

Li Shenghua’s Harmony Collection (Hexie ji) is the earliest extant collection of modern (vernacular) poetry published in Guangdong province. Recently it was rediscovered and republished by Hong Kong poets, and has attracted considerable attention. The earliest piece in it was completed in 1922, only six years after the first poetry in the vernacular. There is little information about the author Li Shenghua (1902-1986), in May Fourth documents, and the materials for his biography still need to be compiled and examined. For now, though, sources for the history of Christianity in Hong Kong do provide some information on his life and career.

This article contains two sections. The first section of the article uses primary sources to examine the author’s life and determine the dating of his writings and publications. The second section examines the nexus of literature and Christianity, comparing the modern poems in the collection with contemporary works composed in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou. This article uses the Harmony Collection to demonstrate that modern poetry in Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao had already made substantial progress in the 20s and 30s, and overturns the common view that modern poetry had not yet appeared in Guangdong in the 20s. This article further explores how this collection was influenced by the imagery and styles of the Bible, thereby showing how Christianity and Biblical culture entered May Fourth literature via modern poetry, broadening the very nature of modern Chinese poetry. The discussion of the poems addresses two main issues: (1) Christian imagery and the prayer-like poems of the May Fourth era; and (2) poems imitating the style and romantic imagery of the Song of Songs, and their religious mysticism.