Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1043-W681

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1043-W681

Release Date: September 4, 2017

发布日：2017年9月4日

Topic: Introduction about "Wandering and Singing For Freedom - Chinese Literature and Art from Exile and in Prisons Series" Published by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation (Ciping HUANG)

标题：关于魏京生基金会出版“为自由而浪迹天涯 -- 中国流亡与狱中文学及艺术系列”的说明（黄慈萍）

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

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Introduction about "Wandering and Singing For Freedom - Chinese Literature and Art from Exile and in Prisons Series" Published by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation

-- Ciping HUANG

September 4, 2017

Earlier this year, Mr. Wei Jingsheng brought back for me a big gift that really surprised me, from Dr. Jonathan Xingyu Chen, a board director of the Wei Jingsheng Foundation. It is a beautiful calligraphy panel by Dr. Chen, recording the poem "Quatrains in the Summer" by Li Qingzhao, a well-known poet of the Song Dynasty:

To be heroes as we live,

To be heroes as we die;

To this day I am thinking of Xiang Yu,

Who refused to cross the river to the east [for safety].

Dr. Xingyu Chen is also an alumnus of the University of Science and Technology of China, where I studied as a teenager nearly 40 years ago. He was also the President of IFCSS (Independent Federation of the Chinese Students and Scholars, USA) during its 2nd term in 1990. He has all sorts of artistic and intellectual capacities and I consider him as the top intellectual of IFCSS. I still remember when I was young, I would make a stop over in Washington DC to meet with him and other IFCSS friends during my business trips to the Eastern USA. More than a dozen of us gathered at his home and we would talk all night long. He was capable of talking about every subject of astronomy and physics, geography, history, literature and art, etc. These were really fun times. However, now we are separated so far away and hardly can see each other. But I do know that usually when friends gather in his place, they would drink and read, then find someway to lure him to write his unique and beautiful calligraphy. Those who got his calligraphy would treat it as the highest achievement of the gathering. Yet I receive one without even able to be there and to ask for one. My grateful heart is self-evident.

Moreover, this poem by Li Qingzhao is my favorite ancient poetry. The whole poem is short and pithy, catchy and easy to understand, full of righteousness, courage, and the spirit of braveness. How can I not be touched by such an encouragement from Dr. Xingyu Chen? I can only sigh: "The one who knows me, Xingyu!" To have a true friend like Xingyu, is the biggest fortune of my life!

Li Qingzhao (1084-1155), pen named as YiAn JuShi, was a poet born in Shandong during the Song Dynasty. She is my favorite female Chinese poet. Her life during her younger years was easy and in prosperity. However, after the soldiers of the Jin Dynasty invaded the Central Plains of China, she became an expatriate in Southern China and lived in loneliness. Her Chinese lyrical poems during the earlier part of her life described the leisure life she had, while the lyrical poems during the later part of her life were full of sentimental sighs, as well as her remembrance of the Central Plains. Her poems touched politics and history, with a sense of braveness in high spirit. I like Li Qingzhao, not only because of my sympathy for her life, admiration for her talent, but also because of her brave and strong integrity, which is still unforgettable until now.

Her sentences "To be heroes as we live, to be heroes as we die; To this day I am thinking of Xiang Yu, who refused to cross the river to the east" was her refusal to take the lure of a high official position (of her husband) for the invaders, as well as her spirit and determination to rather spend the rest of her life in poverty never to compromise and surrender herself to those in power. In the end, Li Qingzhao achieved her life with the principles she pursued. Even as the life in her final years was poor, her spirit was rich, which is still admired and commemorated by the people.

The General Xiang Yu in Li Qingzhao's poem was the most courageous general in the thousands of years of Chinese history. Even when he was eventually trapped in Gaixia, he never surrendered to the enemy. The last song of his life is well known to many:

"My strength plucked up the hills, My might shadowed the world;

But the times were against me, And my horse Zhui runs no more;

When Zhui runs no more, What then can I do?

Ah, Yu, my love Yu, What will your fate to be?"

However, I am more touched by the last song of his beautiful lover, Consort Yu, in response to his song:

"The Han army has conquered our land;

Surrounded with the singing of the Chu Country;

My lord's spirits are low;

Why then should I live?"

This beautiful Consort Yu committed suicide with his sword after her singing. There are some similarities between this Chinese poem and the poem by Sandor Petofi, a Hungarian national poet and a key figure in the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 who died in the battlefield for Hungary's independence yet left his poem that is eternal:

"Liberty and love,

These two I must have.

For my love I'll sacrifice

My life.

For Liberty I'll sacrifice

My love."

Two thousand years later, history is still evolving in spiral curves while different characters on the historic stage leave their own roles and marks. Do we want to be the heroes of our times, or a coward bear? This remains to be the choice we select for ourselves. Under the strong suppression of the Chinese Communist regime, it has become very difficult to choose. However, in the land of China, we never lack of heroes. We have these heroes as examples. We should carry on this heroic spirit.

This spirit is also one of the reasons the Wei Jingsheng Foundation began to publish its "Wandering and Singing For Freedom - Chinese Literature and Art from Exile and Prisons" series. Not only do we want the world to understand and to support our goals and responsibilities, we also want to show the world both our life and feelings. We are in exile and in prisons for refusing to surrender our principles to our enemies. We are separated from our homeland and our homes in order to be persons of honesty and integrity. But even in a foreign country far away from our homeland, even in a prison surrounded by cold walls, our lives are of multiple dimensions and multiple colors, our sense of justice and responsibility deep. Our humanity can still be demonstrated through our literature and art, to be spread in the world and continued on into future generations.

The Wei Jingsheng Foundation wants to express its gratitude to the suggestions and contributions made by Dr. Yuejun Qian in Germany, thus being able to initiate this "Wandering and Singing For Freedom - Chinese Literature and Art from Exile and Prisons" series. We will start this series from our Foundation's existing and related literatures and art collection, and accept the contributions and suggestions of other comrades and friends. We also welcome volunteers to translate Chinese into English for our English readers. We will credit your translation if you like. This Foundation is unable to pay the copyright and royalties of any relevant publication, and the original authors and the collectors will maintain their own corresponding copyrights after publication unless specified differently.

-- Ciping HUANG

Executive Director

the Wei Jingsheng Foundation

related photo:

http://www.weijingsheng.org/pic/newsletters/newsletters2017/newsletters2017-3/ChenXYcalligraphyLiQZ1701toHuangCP-4.jpg

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中文版

Wei Jingsheng Foundation News and Article Release Issue: A1043-W681

魏京生基金会新闻与文章发布号：A1043-W681

Release Date: September 4, 2017

发布日：2017年9月4日

Topic: Introduction about "Wandering and Singing For Freedom - Chinese Literature and Art from Exile and in Prisons Series" Published by the Wei Jingsheng Foundation (Ciping HUANG)

标题：关于魏京生基金会出版“为自由而浪迹天涯 -- 中国流亡与狱中文学及艺术系列”的说明（黄慈萍）

Original Language Version: Chinese (Chinese version at the end)

此号以中文为准（英文在前，中文在后）

如有中文乱码问题，请与我们联系或访问：

http://www.weijingsheng.org/report/report2017/report2017-09/HuangCPintroduction170904onLiterature&ArtSeriesA1043-W681.htm

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关于魏京生基金会出版“为自由而浪迹天涯 -- 中国流亡与狱中文学及艺术系列”的说明

-- 黄慈萍

今年年初，魏京生先生给我带回一件魏京生基金会董事陈兴宇博士送我的意外重礼。那是兴宇兄亲笔写的书法，录的是宋代文学家李清照的《夏日绝句》：

　　生当作人杰，死亦为鬼雄。

　　至今思项羽，不肯过江东。

兴宇兄是我近40年前的少女时代在中国科学技术大学的校友，曾于1990年任全美学自联（全美学生学者自治联合会）的第二届主席。他能书会写，我视他为全美学自联的第一才子。记得年轻时我乘工作出差之际绕道华盛顿与朋友们见面，我们十多人聚在他家，通宵长谈，听他就天文、地理、历史、文学、艺术等各方面，娓娓道来，何其乐也！如今却天各一方，难能一见。但我知道，平时朋友聚会，喝酒吟诗，都会想方设法引诱他展示他那独特而优美的书法，并把从他那里讨得一两字视为最高成就。我不费吹灰之力，坐享其成，感激之心不言而喻。

更何况，兴宇兄所录的李清照的这首诗，是我最喜欢的古诗词。全诗短小精悍，通俗易懂，朗朗上口，充满正气、勇气，与大丈夫之气概。我能得到兴宇兄如此鼓励，岂能不感动？我不能不感慨，知我者，兴宇也！此生能得一知己如兴宇，何其幸也！！

李清照（1084－1155），号易安居士，山东籍宋朝诗人，是我最喜欢的中国女诗人。她早期生活优裕，后金兵入据中原，流寓南方，境遇孤苦。所作词，前期多写其悠闲生活，后期多悲叹身世，情调感伤，也流露出对中原的怀念。她的诗则感时咏史，情辞慷慨。我喜欢李清照，不仅仅是对她身世的同情，对她才情的欣赏，更是因为她勇敢坚强的正直品行，至今依然为人难以忘怀。

她的

“生当作人杰，死亦为鬼雄。

至今思项羽，不肯过江东。”

既是她当年即使流落异地，也依然拒绝（她丈夫可得到的）入侵者高官厚禄的引诱的表述；也表达了她宁愿清苦余生，也绝不向强权妥协投降的气概与决心。最终，李清照以她的生命说到并做到了她所奉行的原则。即便她最终生活清贫，但其思想却是富有的，至今依然为人们所敬仰与怀念。

李清照所吟诵的西楚霸王项羽是被誉为数千年来中国历史上最为勇猛的将领。即使他最终被困垓下，也绝不向敌人投降。他生前最后的一首歌：

“力拔山兮气盖世。时不利兮骓不逝。

骓不逝兮可奈何！虞兮虞兮奈若何！”

为世人所传颂。然而，更使我感动的则是项羽身边的美女虞姬的唱和：

“汉兵已略地，四方楚歌声。

大王意气尽，贱妾何聊生。”

这与为了匈牙利的独立而献身的山多尔·裴多菲的不朽之歌：

“生命诚可贵，爱情价更高，

若为自由故，两者皆可抛。”

有异曲同工之处。

两千多年后，历史依然在螺旋线地演进，历史舞台上的人物也有红有黑。我们是做时代的英雄，还是做个狗熊？这是我们的选择。在中共的强力镇压下，这个选择变得更为艰难不易。但中华大地，从来就不乏英雄。我们有这些英雄为榜样，我们必须把这种英雄气概延续下去。

这也是魏京生基金会开始出版其“流亡与狱中文学及艺术系列”的原因之一。我们不仅仅要让世界理解和支持我们的目标和责任，我们也想既此向世界展示我们的人生与情怀。我们因为拒绝向我们的敌人投降而流亡，为了做一个堂堂正正的完整的人而远离故乡，而被囚。但即使在异国他乡，我们多维且多彩的生活，我们的正义与责任，我们的人道主义与人文主义依然能通过我们的文字和艺术展现出来，传播并感染世人与后人。

魏京生基金会感谢德国的钱跃君博士的相关建议与贡献。我们将在今后发布相关的“为自由而浪迹天涯 -- 中国流亡与狱中文学及艺术系列”文学作品与艺术品介绍。目前，我们将从本基金会已有的和相关的文学作品与艺术品来展开这个系列。我们也欢迎其他同道和朋友们的建议与贡献。我们更欢迎有兴趣为我们义务翻译文艺作品者的参与，我们可以在发表时注明译者。本基金会无力支付任何相关出版物的版权及稿费，除非另有法律文书，出版后原作者及收藏者保持相应版权。

魏京生基金会执行主任

黄慈萍

2017年9月4日