432 chapter twelve
to Popular invective was a waste of words.^18 As such, the Intellectual
role after the outbreak of the Polemic was predominantly defensive.
Then again, in the Popular view—according to Yu Jian (#63), for
example—an Intellectual offensive and its sidelining of the Popular
cause had been quietly operational since the late 1980s, propelled by
authors such as Xi Chuan, Tang Xiaodu, Wang Jiaxin, Chen Chao,
Ouyang Jianghe, Zang Di and Cheng Guangwei. We will now review
some of the said Intellectual rejoinders before discussing a remarkable
essay by Popular author Han Dong, and outlining how the Polemic
more or less came to an end in mid-2000.
Wang Jiaxin’s Staunch Defense: “A Poet Is Always an Intellectual”Measured by hostile and partisan comments alike and by the quality
and quantity of his critical output during the Polemic, the most promi-
nent of the Intellectuals was Wang Jiaxin. Of his several contributions,
the most substantial are “Intellectual Writing, or ‘In Dedication to
a Limitless Minority’” (ݭᄤߚⶹ䆚, ᳄ “⤂㒭᮴䰤ⱘᇥ᭄Ҏ”,
#23) and “Start from a Misty Drizzle” (Ңϔ辵㩭㩭㒚䲼ᓔྟ, #86).
“Intellectual Writing” is the written version of Wang’s address at the
Panfeng conference. With some modifications, the article appeared
in the June issue of Poetry Exploration and the August issue of Grand
Master. It was also included in Wang Jiaxin and Sun Wenbo’s Chinese
Poetry: Memorandum for the Nineties (Ё䆫℠: бकᑈҷᖬᔩ, 2000)
(#85), another controversial anthology, to which we will turn in the
final paragraphs of this section. “Start from a Misty Drizzle” is the
introduction to this anthology, but the December 1999 issue of Poetry
Exploration published the essay as a stand-alone article one month prior
to the book’s actual release. In dedication to a limitless minority is a phrase
taken from the work of Zhai Yongming, implicitly claiming the al-
legiance of contemporary China’s most famous woman poet, whereas
Zhai herself had given no sign of taking sides. Start from a misty drizzle
comes from an early poem by Xi Chuan, whose mobilization in sup-
port of the Intellectual cause entails no such problems. Both pieces are
well written and forceful, and contain cogently argued passages with
critical distance from the battlefield. In light of the attacks Wang had
endured since 1998, this is no small feat.
(^18) E.g. Cheng Guangwei (#27).