380 chapter eleven
haps even wants to give expression to unconstrained abnormalities and
demands to be circulated and spread around, this will of course lead to
commotion... Unconventional avant-garde literature’s conflict with
politics is a totally normal thing... Under these special political circum-
stances, those who insist on their individual artistic pursuits will in fact
run into problems... The obstacles and the pressure can be formidable,
even deadly.In “The Life and Times of Them” (ljҪӀNJ, Ҏџ, 1992), which first
appeared in the post-1989 revival of Today outside China and was later
excerpted for domestic publication in Poetry Exploration (1994), Han as-
serts again that the poet has absolutely no “non-poetic”—political,
social, moral—responsibilities, and that writing “to establish poetry
in its own right” is by no means a form of escapism. In one of the
most solemn, moralizing parts of a poetics that regularly bespeaks the
romanticist, tragic heroism Han has a reputation for condemning in
others, he writes:^35
In an era full of temptations, it is all the more important that the poet
adopt a stance of rejection and a lonely countenance. He must return
to writing by himself. Any act or thought inspired by his judging the
hour and sizing up the situation or being zealous for the common weal
will damage his character as a poet. He is out of keeping with the times,
he has no foundation to fall back on, and what’s more, he will never
adapt. His cause is God’s cause, the creation of being from nothingness
but without any practical use. He has no support and no one responds
to him. And if these things do happen, they have nothing to do with
him. He must understand all this. His writing is for the soul, it is art,
it is absolute, and that’s all there is to it. He must treasure and respect
himself.Yet, typically, Han warns against self-importance on the poet’s part:
The relation of the poet and the reader should really be that of the poem
and the reader. There’s no need for the poet to appear. To read your
poetry the reader need not know about your life, about what you are
and do outside your poetry. If a poet actively seeks a part in poet-reader
relations I feel that he’s after a kind of stardom that is way beyond his
reach.Yu Jian, too, habitually remarks on the poet’s roles and characteristics
throughout his poetics. In “The Poet and His Fate” (䆫Ҏঞ݊ੑ䖤,
1999), he decries the fact that starting in the Song dynasty, the poet
(^35) Han 1992b: 199-200. Cf Han & Zhu 1993: 71-72.