Explore the poetic and philosophical connotation in Cao Yu's drama creation?

China's poems, essays, operas and novels have a long history. Compared with them, China's plays are very young. Drama originated in Europe. As an "exotic product", it was introduced to China at the beginning of this century, but it has only been more than 80 years. The whole development history of China drama literature is rich and colorful, with lasting vitality. In this period of history, a large number of outstanding figures have emerged, such as Cao Yu, Tian Han, Xia Yan, Ou Yangyuqian, Xiong Foxi and Lao She. They are famous for their outstanding plays with unique styles in Chinese and foreign literary and drama circles, and have made indelible contributions to the development of China's plays from germination to maturity.

As a new art form, drama breaks through the limitation that traditional drama is far away from real life and adapts to the needs of reflecting the new era and new life. However, if this new art form wants to take root and sprout in China, it must produce weighty art products and form a fascinating drama form, so as to win a wide audience. Cao Yu's plays have played a great role in this sense. His works, especially the representative works Thunderstorm, Sunrise and Peking Man, show the deep suffering of the dark society with exquisite artistic images. They have reached the peak of dramatic art in the ingenious plot structure, the originality of characterization and the skill of stage language, and formed a delicate, rich, strong and beautiful artistic style, which has become a masterpiece of Chinese dramatic literature and has far-reaching influence. Based on his own personality, Cao Yu organically absorbed the nutrition of western drama art and national classical literature. In his works, China's dramatic art gradually matured and formed a unique national personality. Cao Yu played an important role in the nationalization of China's drama.

The process of nationalization: digging deep into the bone marrow to explore the national character

China's modern drama art grew up under the background of the collision and exchange between Chinese and western cultures. In front of it is colorful foreign humanities and arts, and behind it is the shadow of local aesthetic psychology. Therefore, how to correctly handle the relationship between assimilation, adaptation, transplantation and regeneration of Chinese and western drama aesthetics, that is, the nationalization of China's drama, is undoubtedly a big problem related to the artistic taste and trend of drama.

Whether we can create nationalized images and figures and explore the inner spirit and soul of the nation is an important yardstick to measure whether literary and artistic works have national style or not, that is, national aesthetic characteristics. When talking about the nationality of literary works, belinsky once pointed out: "In any sense, literature is the flower and fruit of national consciousness and national spiritual life." [1] Nikolai Nikolai Gogol also thinks: "The true nationality lies not in writing the sleeveless dresses of peasant women, but in people with national spirit." [2] The so-called "national consciousness" and "national spirit" are mainly manifested in the personality and spiritual world of people with unique national spiritual life style and cultural psychological structure. Let's take a look at Cao Yu's plays. Character not only reflects the refraction of the times, but also mostly reflects the unique spiritual life style and cultural psychological structure of the nation.

There are two series of images in Cao Yu's plays that are very eye-catching: one is the image of "moral defenders" in the old system and old ethics, such as Jiao, Ceng Hao and Zeng Siyi; The first is the image of oppressed and injured women and working people. As far as the former is concerned, no matter how different their personalities are, in the depths of their personalities and souls, they are all saturated with deep-rooted feudal patriarchal ideas and ethical concepts, and they all exude a decadent and sad atmosphere. Consciously or unconsciously, he thinks about problems and treats people with male chauvinism, and covers up his selfish motives and dirty soul with feudal ethics. Their souls are selfish and dirty, but they often appear in a moral appearance. This is a mentality with the "guardian" of the old system and the old ethics at the end of the road. The other is the negative images of the oppressed and the injured, such as, autumn tiger, gold, etc. They all suffered cruel and brutal oppression and persecution from the old system and the old ethics, were influenced by the trend of the times, and all had anti-feudal personality consciousness and rebellious character to varying degrees; However, their thoughts and actions against feudal oppression are often influenced and restricted by their remaining feudal patriarchal ideas, showing a unique and peculiar anti-feudal mentality and way. Although Fan Yi has a strong anti-feudal rebellious character, she was born in a noble family, and the feudal traditional concept will not easily retreat and disappear from her consciousness. She dared to have an incestuous relationship with her husband's ex-wife's son, and her anti-feudal rebellious spirit was warm and brave. However, compared with Nora who ran away from home in Ibsen's novels, she showed inevitable ideological limitations: feudal patriarchal ethics bound her like an invisible rope, preventing her from rushing out of the authoritarian family and pursuing a new world of freedom and happiness in the vast society. The difference between Fan Yi and Nora is that she has a heavier and more complicated mental burden than Nora in resisting the old system and old ethics. The so-called Fan Yi is "Nora of China" because her resistance is "China's", which is determined by the unique spiritual life style and cultural mentality of the oppressed women in old China and deeply branded with the social reality and historical and cultural traditions of old China. Hu Qiu in Yuanye looks quite free and easy, and seems to have a fierce and impulsive primitive humanity that cannot be fettered; But in his rebellious character, the ideological and cultural heritage of the feudal ruling class is also permeated. When he took revenge on the bully landlord Wang's family, he exposed the feudal patriarchal ethics of "the father avenges the son, and the father pays the debt." The root cause of Qiu Hu's transformation from an avenger to an avenger, and thus falling into the abyss of unavoidable contradictions and pains, lies in this stale thought in his subconscious mind. It should be noted that in the character and thought of hating tigers, there are still strong ignorance and feudal superstitions. For example, in his subconscious activities, he is always entangled with the horror images in spiritual hallucinations such as ghosts, the underworld and Yan Luowang. This is a reflection of the unique color and mode of thinking of the ignorant and backward farmers who believed in ghosts and gods in old China. It broke away from the feudal patriarchal clan system and superstitious psychological activities and ways of thinking, weakening the national typicality of the autumn tiger as a backward farmer who has initially awakened. Is there an anti-feudal factor in Fang Lu's character in Peking Man? Our answer is yes. For example, her yearning and pursuit of love, as well as her ultimate escape from the suffocating feudal cage of the Zeng family, all reflect her anti-feudal and freedom-seeking personality consciousness awakened by the times. However, Fang Lu's anti-feudal character is permeated with a stronger and more complicated color of feudal patriarchal clan system: her thoughts and personality of "bearing the burden of humiliation" and "complaining about others", her loyalty to love, her generosity to feudal family rulers who suppressed her and even caused her love tragedy, and her ideological realm and spiritual sentiment of "being a man" and "being altruistic" are deeply branded with feudal patriarchal clan system. Therefore, she formed a unique way to resist feudal oppression: neither a tit-for-tat conflict with feudal forces nor a passive tolerance, but a tenacious sense of life to pursue the true value and significance of life. This is an introverted, circuitous but resilient way of resistance.

It can be seen that the national style of Cao Yu's plays is the most vivid and dense in a series of complex and bizarre personality excavations and in the spiritual world that stirs up the fierce struggle between the consciousness of the times and traditional ideology and culture.

Inheritance and development of national artistic expression techniques

Cao Yu not only pays attention to the in-depth exploration of national real life, but also absorbs the traditional aesthetic ideas and expression methods of national art, so that his plays have rich and perfect national style from content to form. The nationalization of Cao Yu's plays can also be summarized as follows:

First, combine psychological depiction with vivid artistic expression to show the soul world of the characters in detail.

China's classical literary tradition pays attention to character description and vivid expression. Expressing one's feelings means writing one's heart, focusing on expressing the inner world of the characters and depicting their spiritual outlook. Cao Yu said: "I have been fascinated by this role for so many years. I think writing is about writing people ... and it is important to reveal their inner world-thoughts and feelings. " [3] He is good at exploring the intense spiritual struggle of characters under the agitation of the spirit of the times, and combining with the artistic experience of vivid words in China's artistic tradition to create complex and peculiar characters. Fan Yi and Chen Bailu struggled with themselves in their souls, which fully demonstrated the development process of their tragic characters. In shaping the image of Fan Yi, the writer's aesthetic creative perspective is condensed in the violent turmoil caused by the spirit of the times to the spiritual world of the characters: inspired by the spirit of the May Fourth Movement, Fan Yi longed for individual freedom and liberation, and his heart was indeed "higher than the sky"; However, when she tried to break through the feudal cage and had an incestuous relationship with Zhou Ping, the son of Zhou Puyuan's ex-wife, she was not the ghost of traditional ideas subconsciously, which made her unconsciously troubled by sudden guilt. When his drought-striken fields wanted to "repent and turn over a new leaf" and cut off the abnormal relationship with her, Fan Yi clung to his drought-striken fields and tried again and again to destroy the relationship between his drought-striken fields and Sifeng, showing such unusual jealousy and Yin Zhi. Fan Yi's contradictory and extreme personality and mentality were obviously ignited by the personality consciousness revived by the spirit of the times. In Sunrise, the writer reveals that Chen Bailu is declining and unwilling to sink under the persecution and corrosion of the criminal society, and her soul, which yearns for freedom and light but is hard to get rid of the pain of life, is struggling violently, thus highlighting her complex inner character of contradiction, division, melancholy and pain. Cao Yu said: "Chen Bailu sometimes looks like an experienced girl, sometimes like a simple girl, sometimes cynical, sometimes full of justice;" Sometimes indulgent and willful, sometimes sentimental and world-weary. [4] The screenwriter also deliberately selected the details that can highlight the personality of the characters and repeated them. Chen Bailu's repeated narration of two details, reading poems and taking sleeping pills, shows her inner complex contradictions and tragic personality. It can be said that Cao Yu's psychological portrayal and vivid artistic expression, through the in-depth excavation of the inner world of the characters, have shaped the tragic images of Fan Yi, Chen Bailu, Qiu Tiger, etc. struggling with their souls in the China drama stage, reaching a superb height.

Second, the organic unity of strong lyricism and profound philosophy of life.

China's literature is full of lyrical tradition, emphasizing the combination of emotion and reason. Cao Yu's aesthetic pursuit is not the reappearance of the real life in the general sense, but the writer's unique feelings and profound thoughts on life are cast in his plays, thus showing a poetic realm of "blending sense with reason". Cao Yu has said many times: "Real life and the truth of life are not the same thing. I thought writing about' real life' was not the hardest thing. If you are familiar with it, you can write a little about real life, but to write' the truth of life', you must understand the overall situation and write about the essence of society, so that people can fully understand life and society. " [5] His works are the inevitable crystallization of the writer's in-depth exploration of the inner world of the characters, which embodies rich life connotations and pulsates the melody of the times. It is the product of the creative subject embracing and deeply creating the object on the basis of strong feelings and deep thinking about life, so that the two are highly integrated. This writer is very familiar with the ghostly social life he described in old China, especially the oppressed and injured women and working people. He deeply sympathized with their tragic experience and praised their unyielding personality. In creation, writers always put the anti-feudal character and rich human beauty of oppressed and damaged women and working people at the center of artistic expression. Cao Yu is good at exploring the anti-feudal personality consciousness of human nature and its unique charm from the extreme, abnormal character, contradiction and abnormal spiritual world of the oppressed and the injured. This writer's exploration of Fan Yi and Chen Bailu's human beauty is extremely exciting. According to the secular view, Fan Yi and Chen Bailu seem to be immoral and guilty; However, writers have found their tenacious vitality and anti-feudal rebellious spirit in the depths of their souls from behind the "incest" and from the inner contradictions that have fallen and are unwilling to sink. Starting from life, according to their own environment and experience, through exaggeration, emphasis and even deformation, they are endowed with distinctive and unique personalities and actions. Fan Yi's so-called "loveliness" lies not in her lovelessness, but in her lack of love. Her special charm of "not easy to understand" lies in her touching human beauty, which is presented in the deformed form of anti-feudal "female power". Chen Bailu's indomitable beauty of human nature is presented through her contradictory and painful psychological activities, which are increasingly degenerating and unwilling to sink. It is in the fierce, intense and deepening self-struggle of the soul that her struggling personality consciousness overcomes degeneration and sublimates to a poetic realm: it is better to die for the peace of the soul than to be humiliated and miserable in a haunted world. Chen Bailu is a depraved person who can't extricate herself. The reason why her suicide became a shocking tragedy is that the writer excavated the light of human nature longing for "the sun", "spring day" and "a better life" from the depths of her contradictory and painful soul in an exaggerated and distorted way. "The sun rises and the darkness stays behind. But the sun is not ours, and we are going to sleep. " Through this sorrowful and moving soul Rondo, in which hope and despair are violently engaged, we vaguely hear the lingering call of human nature who is about to die for the "sun" and "light". In addition, the fierce and rude hatred for tigers aroused the complex character of primitive life, and Fang Lu's sad and sweet abnormal mentality was the most poetic expression of their awakening anti-feudal personality consciousness. All these descriptions are obviously the condensation of the writer's strong feeling and passion for the dark reality, and have always been the most unique, effective and impressive artistic expression way to eulogize the human beauty of trampled women and working people, expose the darkness and evil of the old society and the old system, and express the author's repressed and stirring poetic passion.

It can be seen that Cao Yu's plays not only cast the writer's sincere and passionate subjective feelings, but also condensed his in-depth exploration and philosophical thinking on real life issues, thus forming a poetic realm of blending reason and reason. The writer himself once said, "The best scripts always combine reason with reason". This is Cao Yu's personal experience of climbing the peak of nationalization of drama art.

Thirdly, the artistic expression of local folk customs is intertwined with the artistic conception creation of poetry.

The May 4th writers, mainly Lu Xun, attach great importance to the local characteristics of their works, and often depict the folk customs of different local colors in their works, so as to set off the ideological character of the main characters, criticize the dark social life and strengthen the anti-feudal significance.

Cao Yu's plays also pay attention to putting characters in the folk environment of cities or towns with local characteristics. In most folk wedding and funeral scenes, they depict the characters' personalities and reflect their cultural mentality in many ways. The unique national atmosphere of Cao Yu's plays is a blend of scenes. The layout of Zhou Mansion in Thunderstorm and luxury hotels in big cities in Sunrise, as well as the dialogue between the characters, are full of strong local characteristics and flavor of the times. The first scene of Peking Man, with nearly 2,000 words, is surrounded by Zeng Siyi's bedroom, bedroom, great grandfather's bedroom, study and living room: ancient Su Zhong, Yu Ruyi, bonsai orchids, ruby vases, glass fish tanks, Dong Qichang running script banners and lyre with yellow silk ears. The Zeng family's style and eventful autumn are vivid, but the cold and dreary room, the intermittent whistle in the sky, the monotonous sound of the car "Niu Niu" from the alley, and the roar of the old horn "Uwahaha" from the sharpening scissors are all in sharp contrast with the Zeng family's "style", which indicates the decline of the Zeng family. This passage is like a profound prose poem, but it is actually written in words. Throughout the play, there are always the voices of hawkers selling, the bronze pheasants of blind fortune tellers, the sound of wheelbarrow axles and the sound of gongs and drums. In this living environment full of Beijing breath, the drama unfolds, the characters' souls collide and groan, and the inner meaning of the whole drama gradually emerges.

It is the tradition of China literature and art to pay attention to the artistic conception creation of poetry. No matter in novels, poems or opera art, excellent writers always attach importance to creating an artistic conception of blending scenes. Used to set off the characters' hearts and highlight their ideological character. Cao Yu's plays focus on setting poetic scenes for characters in ordinary daily life, so that characters can show their beautiful hearts in lyrical monologues or implicit dialogues. In Peking Man, when Su Fang confides in Ruizhen, the geese and intermittent trumpets in late autumn keep ringing, and the atmosphere is sad and quiet, which sets off Su Fang's noble mentality of self-sacrifice. In the first act of Home, after the noise of the new house, the moonlight is bright, the plum blossoms are white, the lake waves are bright, and the cuckoo is singing, which opens the inner monologue of Chueh-hsin and Ruiyu from the heart. It is simple and sincere, deep and sad, full of poetry and painting. At the end of Home, Ruiyu died in the heavy snow and Du Juan's mourning. The white and quiet snow scene reflects the purity and nobility of the characters' hearts, suggesting that the earth will warm up after the snow and ice melt, and the spring is beautiful and profound.

Attention should be paid to the interweaving of the description of local customs and the artistic conception of poetry, which makes the play full of life and poetic meaning, and greatly strengthens the unity of typical characters and typical environments. This is Cao Yu's unique artistic creation for the nationalization of modern drama.

Standing in the forest of world drama, it is a patient and obedient tragic figure.

From the perspective of world tragedy, Cao Yu's contribution lies in his achievements in all drama creation, which makes tragedy, a western variety, China, and adds "forbearance", a tragic type with national characteristics, to the forest of world tragedies.

Tragedy originated from Dionysus's drama in ancient Greece, and the spiritual life of secular life in Dionysus's spirit is the connotation of tragedy. No matter Hamlet or King Oedipus, heroes and great men are the main characters, and passionate long lyric confessions are used to express magnificent tragedies and emotional grief, and fierce conflicts are used to achieve shocking results. Cao Yu, on the other hand, abstracted the tragic conflict from real life and described the tragic characters who were oppressed, destroyed, suppressed and distorted in ordinary life, which reflected the profound and rich social significance of tragedy. When describing the tragedies of gray characters and small people, writers always devote themselves to reflecting the profound pain of the characters' spiritual pursuit and exploring the inner world of tragic characters in depth. Use artistic means to convey the depth of this mental pain to the fullest. His tragedy is mainly not tragic and lofty, but a kind of deep grief, anger and lingering beauty, which embodies the unique aesthetic personality of the Chinese nation. In this way, Cao Yu's tragic art makes drama, a new foreign art style, mature and take root in the art field of the Chinese nation and become an original national art paradigm.

Influenced by Confucianism for a long time, China people have formed a golden mean outlook on life, demanding the golden mean, the golden mean, the golden mean and not going to extremes. However, the requirement of the doctrine of the mean adds a touch of resignation to the lifestyle of China people. In the face of the oppression of dark reality, it is often easy to become self-destructive, self-ashamed, self-conscious, pretending to be free and clear, and doing more negative struggles to alleviate the sharp conflict between survival and the environment. "Harmony without difference" constitutes the core of China's classical aesthetics. "The Beauty of Neutrality" has been the benchmark of aesthetic education in China for thousands of years. Under the ideal requirement of "the beauty of neutralization", China's classical tragic art persisted in grasping and successfully created the style keynote of "complaining without anger" and "mourning without injury".

Cao Yu created tragic female images such as Jui-chueh, Cui, Su Fang, etc. They were always kind and loyal in their miserable lives, unknown, and tried to exhaust themselves for others. Their sentiment of "thinking without two", their disposition of "being diligent but not complaining", their behavior of "being unyielding" and their demeanor of "being beautiful but not pitying" naturally formed the style keynote of "complaining without anger" and "being sad without hurting". What is more valuable is that the cultural connotation of "self-discipline" with great national personality is further enriched through the shaping of "soul body" represented by Zeng, Jue Xin and so on. Take Zeng as an example. He is the second generation "Beijinger" of the Zeng family in the play. He is smart and handsome, kind and gentle, and there is no lack of elegance appreciated by the literati. His tragedy is that in his long life, the feudal Confucian cultural thoughts and upbringing influenced by him for many years have corroded his soul. Long-term forbearance made him lose the belief of struggle. Exquisite and delicate life has worn away Zhanfei's healthy feathers. In him, the real human factor worthy of healthy development, the human spirit, is consumed and swallowed up. Tired and disappointed with life, he is too lazy to vent his pain, too lazy to feel that he still has feelings, and anyone with eyes can see through "this is just an empty shell of life." Although he fell in love with an empty orchid, he only dared to stay in relative silence to get comfort. Love can't love, hate can't hate. After he left, he would return in frustration and even commit suicide by swallowing opium. Zeng's tragedy has his personal unshirkable responsibility and profound social reasons. China's thousands of years of ethical code and patriarchal clan system make the tragic figures in these ancient families have no freedom and can't breathe, and their lives are gradually exhausted in painful and deep depression. This is a human tragedy, a tragedy of the soul. Zeng, who doesn't like to talk, seems to be silent in the play, but it makes people feel sad and depressed from the inside out. It is a heart-dead tragedy. China tragedy. Silent but thrilling. History will prove that Cao Yu's tragic image of "forbearance" has a lasting influence and value on the development of the tragic spirit of the Chinese nation.

The causes of nationalization style

Why does Cao Yu have such stage vitality in China's star-studded dramas? Why did Cao Yu, like a morning star, just rise in the dark and despotic night sky of China society in the mid-1930s? Before him, many outstanding great pioneers did their best, but they were not so lucky. ...

Masterpieces of art and masterpieces do not exist in any era, but are the inevitable products of historical development to a specific stage. First of all, we have to talk about Cao Yu's subjective conditions, that is, his creative personality. Creative personality is the main feature of a writer in his creation, and it is a bridge connecting life and art. Through this only way, a writer can integrate his true self with the artistic experience of his predecessors and the expectation vision of the recipients, and construct a unique artistic self.

The basis of Cao Yu's creative personality is undoubtedly his special life experience. Cao Yu, 19 10, from Tianjin. Apart from Tianjin, Cao Yu once lived, studied or worked in Xuanhua, Beijing, Nanjing, Jiang 'an and Chongqing, and never left this city in his life. His social contact and life vision are also roughly limited in this range. Although Cao Yu once participated in the patriotic movement of students when he was studying in Tsinghua University, he did not have the experience of professional revolutionaries like Xia Yan and Feng Xuefeng, and even rarely devoted himself to political activities like writers of the Left Alliance. In that stormy era, the change of family and the impact of the trend of the times made Cao Yu change from a bureaucrat's son to a city civilian. Since leaving home and wandering the society alone, Cao Yu has lived as a citizen for at least ten years. In short, like ordinary people, they are experiencing the turmoil of the times and feeling the joys and sorrows of ordinary people. In Cao Yu's life experience, what impressed him most was the feudal bureaucrats in the upper class of the city and their descendants, various bourgeoisie, foreign slaves and comprador, and the lower class civilians struggling in dire straits. His understanding of the spirit of the times, revolution and historical heroes is indirectly felt mainly through the changes in family life, the division and reorganization of ordinary personnel relations or personal friendship. Cao Yu's life experience is not very broad, but it is very special and profound. There are more old people than new people, family is more important than society, and women are better than men.

Cao Yu grew up in a suffocating family. The trauma of losing his mother at birth made young Cao Yu feel invisible mental pressure, which shaped his melancholy temperament and compassion. So, thunderstorm? At the beginning of the preface, there is a soliloquy of husband and son: I don't know how to express myself, and I have been a little depressed; Even though I sometimes show pleasure in front of people, when I am lonely, like many people who are always unwilling to solidify their spirits, I constantly worry about myself. This clearly shows that Cao Yu's psychological type is introverted, while introversion and implication are the traditional psychological qualities of orientals. This unique personality makes him have some tragic feelings for family, society and life, and also makes his works present a unique and lingering national aesthetic style.

Cao Yu has always been interested in China's traditional drama. His childhood was spent under the influence of traditional Chinese opera. Cao Yu once said: "I have been interested in drama since I was a child. I have had many opportunities to see it since I was a child, which has had a great influence on me. " [7] This aesthetic interest, which was influenced by traditional opera culture since childhood, has a subtle influence on his later creation.

Cao Yu believes that all great dramatists in China and the West regard meeting the artistic expectations of ordinary audiences as the primary prerequisite for their success. The basis of script creation is the national aesthetic expectation of a specific era. If the work wants to gain the audience-"the life of the theater", it must be ignored. He clearly realized that the pattern of "students must have a happy reunion on the spot" in China traditional opera came from the sense of justice and idealism of the Chinese nation. Although there are few stereotypes of happy reunion in his early works, the aesthetic judgment of praise and criticism is strong and emotional, which constitutes an important aspect of his national character.

In terms of artistic treatment, Cao Opera also strives to adapt to the appreciation habits and aesthetic tastes of new and old citizens. Its trunk is prominent, background scenes and transition scenes are pushed behind the scenes, and key lines are often played repeatedly in various tone sandhi forms, such as those famous monologues by Fan Yi and Chen Bailu. Key details are repeatedly emphasized at the risk of "repainting", such as the vine walking in the middle line in Thunderstorm, Bill in Sunrise and the coffin in Peking Man, which are repeatedly mentioned and rendered. Some are due to the requirements of ideological content, and some are due to the limitations of the audience. "The reason is that our audience's habit of eating melon seeds, drinking Longjing and chatting in the noisy old theater has not changed much, and their attention is too distracted and forgetful, so they have to say it over and over again." [8]

In addition, the appreciation habit of China audience likes stories to be fascinating. The plot is tortuous and moving. Legend is one of the characteristics of China's traditional drama aesthetics. The audience likes Cao Yu's plays and thinks his plays are really "plays". He is fascinating and gripping with tortuous storylines, fierce dramatic conflicts and tense dramatic scenes. Cao Yu's works conform to the traditional aesthetic habits of China audience, thus winning the audience.

In a word, the rich national style of Cao Yu's drama is not only formed by his conscious inheritance and development of the excellent tradition of China's national drama, but also by his unique aesthetic personality rooted in the soil of China's national real life.

Cao Yu rose in the drama world in 1930s, held high the banner of nationalization of drama, and pushed China's drama art to the peak. However, among the famous writers in the 1920s, none reached such a high level as Tian Han and Xia Yan. Why? If we carefully compare the artistic pursuits of Cao Yu and Xia Yan, it is not difficult to find that although both of them are based on the analysis of citizens' mentality, Cao Yu pays more attention to "the interests of ordinary audiences", while Xia Yan pays more attention to the political solution of social problems. Xia Yan's plays are called "political lyrics" (in Tang Tao's language). Most of the characters' actions ended in "from dry to Jianghu" and devoted themselves to the struggle of national liberation. Due to the lack of stage practical experience like Cao Yu's, and the neglect of the artistic taste and professional political thinking habits of the public audience, Xia Yan's plays have not been fully integrated into the traditional aesthetic pursuit of Chinese drama art. China citizens are more fascinated by a kind of Chinese drama art that makes the audience "fondle admiringly". Therefore, compared with Tian Han's poems, Xia Yan's plays have clear political goals and are unwilling to cater to the secular world. Cao Yu's works are based on the aesthetic taste of modern citizens and belong to the nation and the broad masses.