Patriotic Passion and Fighting Spirit in the Literature of the New Fourth Army

As one of the forms of the New Fourth Army’s literary and artistic activities, the literature of the New Fourth Army was closely linked to the War of Resistance against Japan and was continuously influenced by multiple factors such as the political situation and shifts in local spatial locations. It constitutes an inseparable part of the literature of the War of Resistance. From the establishment of the New Fourth Army in October 1937, its headquarters underwent numerous relocations due to the volatile domestic and international situation. Taking the Wannan Incident of 1941 and the victory in the War of Resistance against Japan in 1945 as key temporal nodes, the locations of the New Fourth Army headquarters spanned Wuhan in Hubei Province, Nanchang in Jiangxi Province, and several counties in Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces. Through the writing of geographical landscapes, the literature of the New Fourth Army depicts emotional experiences and promotes patriotism.

新四军文学作为新四军文艺活动的形式之一，与抗战紧密联结，不断受到政治局势、地方空间迁移变化等多种因素的影响，是抗战文学不可分割的一部分。自1937年10月新四军建立以来，军部因国内国际形势多变而历经多次迁移，以1941年皖南事变、1945年抗日战争胜利等为重要时间节点，新四军军部活动地点遍布湖北武汉、江西南昌以及安徽省和江苏省多县，新四军文学通过地理景观书写描摹情感体验，弘扬爱国主义。

The Definition and Content of New Fourth Army Literature and Art

新四军文艺的界定与内容

Regarding the literature and art of the New Fourth Army, some researchers hold that the National Revolutionary Army’s Newly Organized Fourth Army (abbreviated as the New Fourth Army) was an important anti-Japanese armed force under the direct leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in the Central China region during the War of Resistance against Japan. Amidst the arduous war of resistance, it carried out a series of anti-Japanese literary and artistic activities, writing a new chapter in China’s wartime literature and art. (Cao Jinjie, *The New Fourth Army and Anti-Japanese Literature and Art in Central China*) The naming of the New Fourth Army’s literature and art and its relationship with the literature of the War of Resistance have received broad recognition in academic circles.

关于新四军文艺，有研究者认为，国民革命军新编第四军（简称新四军）是抗日战争时期中国共产党直接领导下华中地区一支重要的抗日武装力量，在艰苦的抗战中，开展了一系列的抗日文艺活动，谱写了中国抗战文艺的新篇章。（曹晋杰《新四军与华中抗日文艺》）新四军文艺的命名及其与抗战文艺的关系，得到学界的广泛认可。

The literary and artistic activities of the New Fourth Army included literary, musical, and fine arts creation, as well as theatrical performances and choral singing. The literature of the New Fourth Army is one of the outcomes of its literary and artistic activities, primarily derived from three sources: first, literary works created by writers who participated in the New Fourth Army during the War of Resistance—writers who were both soldiers and creators, such as Qiu Dongping, Wu Qiang, Li Zengyuan, Peng Baishan, Lu Mang, Nie Gannu, Chen Yi, Chen Xinren, Xia Zhengnong, Xu Pingyu, Wang Shuming, and Xin Lao. Their works mainly depict the anti-Japanese activities of the New Fourth Army’s soldiers and civilians, presenting aspects of their wartime life, psychological experiences, and combat experiences, in forms including fiction, poetry, prose, reportage, correspondence, and dramatic scripts. Second, during the New Fourth Army period (1937–1947), literary works from other regions—such as the occupied areas, the Kuomintang-controlled areas, and the isolated island [of Shanghai]—that included depictions of the New Fourth Army’s soldiers and civilians, for example, Yu Ling’s play *Night in Shanghai*, which contains a subplot involving the New Fourth Army. Third, after 1947, when the designation of the New Fourth Army was abolished, various works concerning the New Fourth Army’s soldiers and civilians, among which memoirs occupy a significant proportion, such as the oral accounts or recollections of Chen Yi, Song Weishi, Nie Gannu, Wu Qiang, Shen Rujian, Huang Yuan, and others.

新四军文艺活动包含文学、音乐、美术创作和戏剧演出、歌咏等。新四军文学是新四军文艺活动的成果之一，主要有以下三个来源：一是抗战时期参加新四军的作家们创作的文学作品，这些作家既是战士又是创作者，如丘东平、吴强、李增援、彭柏山、芦芒、聂绀弩、陈毅、陈辛人、夏征农、徐平羽、王淑明、辛劳等，作品主要表现新四军军民抗战活动，呈现当时的军民生活状态、心理体验、战斗经验等方面内容，形式包括小说、诗歌、散文、报告文学、通讯、戏剧文本等；二是新四军时期（1937—1947）其他地区如沦陷区、国统区、孤岛等文学作品中包含新四军军民活动的描写，如于伶的戏剧《夜上海》中就有关于新四军的一条暗线的剧情；三是1947年以后，即新四军取消番号后，各类有关新四军军民的作品，其中回忆录占据较大的比重，如陈毅、宋维栻、聂绀弩、吴强、沈柔坚、黄源等人的口述或回忆等。

Wartime Experience and Geographical Perception

战时体验与地理感知

The literature of the New Fourth Army is replete with descriptions of geographical environments, topographical features, and local climates. Through geographical perception, geographical investigation, or geographical imagination, writers combine the characteristics of the geographical environment and the highly representative local climatic features with the soldiers’ psychology and wartime experiences, presenting the correlation between subjective experience and the geographical environment.

新四军文学作品中不乏对于地理环境、地形特点和当地气候的描写，作家通过地理感知、地理考察或地理想象，将地理环境的特质和当地极具代表性的气候特征与战士们的心理和战争经验相结合，呈现出主体经验与地理环境的关联性。

From the perspective of the natural geographical environment, the main areas of New Fourth Army activity were in Anhui, Jiangsu, and other places. Among these, the plum rain season in the Maoshan area of Jiangsu brought continuous overcast and rainy weather; the oppressive and gloomy climatic conditions were largely consistent with the tense atmosphere of the New Fourth Army’s War of Resistance. Chen Yi’s reportage *Spring in the War of Resistance in Jiangnan*, written in April 1939, is an outstanding work from the early period of the establishment of the Maoshan anti-Japanese base area. The opening of this reportage mentions that when the soldiers first arrived in Jiangnan, they encountered the plum rain weather, and many comrades were unaccustomed to it, “almost everyone was complaining and cursing, cursing this weather of continuous overcast rain.” One year later, due to a change in mood, the spring scenery of Jiangnan as seen by Chen Yi had transformed: “The yellow of the rape flowers, the green of the wheat, the blue of the willows, the red of the peaches, the white of the walls—everywhere forms a vividly colored picture. Distant mountains seem to float in the mist; every household is often surrounded by winding streams and drooping willows, and facing it is a pond as bright as a mirror—it seems like a garden arranged by human hands. Especially in the lake regions, under the moonlight, the lake waters are vast and the scenery even more beautiful. Even Maoshan, which our army comrades once considered to have no tactical value, is now full of vitality!” (*Spring in the War of Resistance in Jiangnan*) This change in geographical perception runs parallel to and merges with the changes in the political situation presented in the work. In this reportage by Chen Yi, the creator’s subjective perception is projected onto the geographical perception, thereby forming a memory field unique to the literature of the New Fourth Army. Moreover, the mutual trust and harmonious relations between the New Fourth Army and the common people, and their joint military-civilian operations, embody the deep bond of fish-and-water affection and the spirit of revolutionary optimism.

从自然地理环境来看，新四军活动的主要区域在安徽、江苏等地，其中，江苏茅山地区的梅雨季阴雨连绵，压抑、沉闷的气候环境与新四军抗战时期的紧张氛围大体一致。陈毅写于1939年4月的《江南抗战之春》是茅山抗日根据地创建初期的优秀报告文学。这篇报告文学开篇提到战士们刚到江南便遇上梅雨天气，很多同志不适应，“几乎每人都在嗟怨诅咒，诅咒这阴雨连绵的天气”。一年后，陈毅眼中的江南春景由于心境的改变便发生了变化：“菜黄、麦秀、柳青、桃红、墙白，到处组成一幅色彩鲜明的图画。远山似在雾中飘浮着，每一人家常常是流水萦回和垂柳环绕，当面又是一块明镜似的池塘，这仿佛是经过人工安排的花园；尤其在湖泊地区，月光之下湖水盈盈，景物更为秀丽。就连我们部队同志过去认为毫无战术价值的茅山，现在也富有生气了！”（《江南抗战之春》）这种地理感知的变化与作品中呈现的时局变化并行不悖且相互融合。在陈毅的这篇报告文学中，创作者的主体感知投射到地理感知中，从而形成了独属于新四军文学的记忆场域，而且新四军与老百姓相互信任，相处融洽，军民联合作战，体现出鱼水情深和革命乐观主义精神。

Patriotism in Poetry

诗词中的爱国主义

Patriotism is closely related to people’s attachment to their birthplace and homeland. The literature of the New Fourth Army contains a large number of descriptions of the unity of soldiers and civilians in fighting to protect the land and their homes. This patriotic passion and revolutionary fighting spirit can be attributed to the people’s deep attachment to the land; it is the “topophilia” that aroused the nation’s revolutionary fighting spirit and patriotic enthusiasm, enabling them to persist in the War of Resistance against Japan under extremely arduous conditions. The classical-style poems composed by Comrade Chen Yi, such as *Meeting the Southward-Marching Troops of the Eighth Route Army, Including Comrades Not Seen for Ten Years* and *Reflections on the Fifth Anniversary of July 7th*, and many poems by the poet Lu Mang, such as *Song of the East China Sea*, *The Boatman’s Song of the East China Sea*, and *Cavalry March*, all reflect the difficulty of the War of Resistance against Japan and the indomitable will of the New Fourth Army’s soldiers and civilians, who never gave up. In the seven-character quatrain *Meeting the Southward-Marching Troops of the Eighth Route Army, Including Comrades Not Seen for Ten Years*, Chen Yi wrote:

爱国主义与人们对出生地、对家乡的热爱密切相关。新四军文学中有大量对军民团结为保护土地、家园进行抗争的描述。这种爱国热情和革命斗志可以归因为人民对土地的深深眷恋，是“恋地情结”唤起了国民的革命斗志和爱国热情，使他们在艰苦卓绝的环境中坚持抗日。陈毅同志所作旧体诗，如《与八路军南下部队会师，同志中有十年不见者》《“七七”五周年感怀》等，诗人芦芒所作的许多诗歌，如《东海之歌》《东海船夫曲》《骑兵行》等，都体现了抗日战争的艰难和新四军军民永不放弃的顽强意志。在七绝诗《与八路军南下部队会师，同志中有十年不见者》中，陈毅写道：

Ten years of war, how many have returned?

十年征战几人回，

Again I see comrades riding back side by side.

又见同侪并马归，

To whom do the rivers and lakes now belong?

江淮河汉今谁属？

Red flags fill the sky in the tenth month.

红旗十月满天飞。

This poem was written by Comrade Chen Yi in 1940 after the victory in the decisive battle of Huangqiao, upon meeting with the troops of the Eighth Route Army. After a long period of arduous and bitter warfare, many comrades had sacrificed; those who survived were the fortunate ones. When they met again after a long separation amid victory, they were both immensely excited and passionately heroic. The final line of the poem, “Red flags fill the sky in the tenth month,” vividly recreates the situation of the great development of the War of Resistance in Central China at that time. His regulated verse *Reflections on the Fifth Anniversary of July 7th*, written in July 1942, uses concise language to extol the spirit of the people under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party in persisting in the War of Resistance in the five years since the July 7th Incident, vehemently denounces the base acts of surrender and treason by the Wang Jingwei puppet regime and its traitors, exposes the conspiracy of the Kuomintang diehards to passively resist Japan and actively oppose the Communist Party, and thereby expresses the will of hundreds of millions of people to unite in common hatred against the enemy and strive for the complete victory of the War of Resistance against Japan.

这首诗是陈毅同志在1940年黄桥决战取得胜利后，与八路军部队会师时所写下的。经历了长期艰苦卓绝的战争，许多同志牺牲了，活着的战友都是幸存者，当他们在胜利中久别重逢时，既无比激动，又激情豪迈，诗的末句“红旗十月满天飞”，再现了当时华中抗战大发展的局势。而他1942年7月所作的格律诗《“七七”五周年感怀》则以凝练的语言歌颂了中国共产党领导下的人民在七七事变发生五年来坚持抗战的精神，痛斥了汪伪汉奸卖国投降的卑劣行径，揭露国民党顽固派消极抗日、积极反共的阴谋，进而表达出亿万人民同仇敌忾、为争取抗日战争的彻底胜利而努力奋斗的意志。

In Wu Qiang’s *Recollections of the Literary and Artistic Activities of the New Fourth Army*, a scene is described: to smash the Kuomintang’s encirclement plan, the drama team of the army service corps, which remained at the front, was still led by its head, Zhu Kejing, to follow the army in its operations. “During the northward crossing of the river, they were attacked by the Japanese invaders. In the battle, Comrade Li Ming, a female actor in the drama team, was unfortunately hit by a bullet and sacrificed on the banks of the Yangtze River. When she was seriously wounded and her comrades gathered around her, weeping in grief, she was resolute and calm, saying to them: ‘Revolution calls for blood, not tears!’” Moved by this incident, Comrade Chen Yi composed a seven-character quatrain, *Recording the Last Words*, in October 1940:

吴强在《新四军文艺活动回忆》中写到一个场景，为粉碎国民党的包围计划，留在前方工作的军服务团戏剧队仍旧由团长朱克靖率领随军行动。“在移军北渡时，遭遇日寇袭击，在战斗中，戏剧队的女演员李明同志不幸中弹，牺牲在长江边上。当她身负重伤，同志们围着悲伤痛哭时，她坚忍镇定，对同志们说：‘革命流血不流泪！’”陈毅同志感怀此事，曾在1940年10月赋《记遗言》七绝一首：

Revolution calls for blood, not tears; life and death are ordinary, with no resentment or complaint.

革命流血不流泪，生死寻常无怨尤。

The blue blood of the Yangtze flows endlessly; a single word is weightier than nine tripods, enduring for a thousand autumns.

碧血长江流不尽，一言九鼎重千秋。

Here, the theme of why one makes revolution and why one fights is elevated. The female revolutionary soldier sacrificed by the river, but her heroic words, “Revolution calls for blood, not tears,” have been preserved, becoming a red symbol. The War of Resistance against Japan concerned the very survival of the Chinese nation. The soldiers fought for their country and their homes, displaying a great spirit and tenacious will to fight for the nation and the country, even to the point of sacrifice, without regret. Under the strong leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, all Chinese sons and daughters rose up to resist the enemy, and the spirit of struggle that achieved final victory is one of the essences of red culture. As a powerful anti-Japanese force on the Central China battlefield, the New Fourth Army made tremendous sacrifices and great contributions to the War of Resistance against Japan. The literature of the New Fourth Army not only contains feelings of longing for one’s hometown and defending one’s native soil but also forges a spirit of courageous combat and strong patriotic emotions, merging into the culture of the War of Resistance and becoming an outstanding representative of red culture.

在此，为什么而革命、为什么而战斗的主题得到升华，革命女战士牺牲在江边，但女战士“革命流血不流泪”的豪言壮语留下来了，成为一个红色符号。抗日战争关系到中华民族的生死存亡，战士们为国为家而奋斗，展现了为民族、为国家战斗至牺牲也不后悔的伟大精神和坚强斗志。在中国共产党的坚强领导下，全体中华儿女奋起抗战，并取得最终胜利的抗争精神是红色文化的精髓之一。作为华中抗日战场强有力的抗日力量，新四军付出了巨大的牺牲，为抗日战争作出巨大贡献，新四军文学不仅蕴含着思念故乡、保卫故土之情，还熔铸有奋勇战斗的精神和强烈的爱国主义情感，并汇入抗战文化中，成为红色文化的优秀代表。

Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, the soldiers and people of the New Fourth Army displayed a spirit of heroic sacrifice and never giving up for national independence. The spirit of fighting unswervingly to the end for national independence is an important connotation of the literature of the New Fourth Army and a vital component of revolutionary culture and red culture.

新四军战士和民众在中国共产党的领导下，展现出了为民族独立而英勇献身、永不放弃的精神。义无反顾为民族独立战斗到底的精神是新四军文学蕴含的重要内涵，也是革命文化与红色文化的重要组成部分。

(This article is a phased result of the National Social Science Fund major project “Research on the Inheritance of Red Culture in the Classics of Ethnic Literature” [23&ZD291])

（本文系国家社科基金重大项目“民族文学经典中的红色文化传承研究”（23&ZD291）阶段性成果）

(The author is Vice President and Professor of Guangxi Normal University)

（作者系广西师范大学副校长、教授）

Online editor: Tongxin

网络编辑：同心