WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.839 Usually when we look at the trajectory of a highly 00:00:02.839 --> 00:00:05.360 successful life, there's this expectation of 00:00:05.360 --> 00:00:07.860 a blueprint. It's kind of like staring at the 00:00:07.860 --> 00:00:10.300 architectural plans for a massive skyscraper. 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:12.000 Yeah, you see the foundation being laid out. 00:00:12.240 --> 00:00:14.660 Right, exactly. You see the steel girders going 00:00:14.660 --> 00:00:16.679 up and you know exactly what kind of building 00:00:16.679 --> 00:00:19.420 is going to dominate the skyline. But then you 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:22.199 stumble across a story that just completely shatters 00:00:22.199 --> 00:00:24.039 that expectation. Because they just don't stick 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:27.350 to the plan. Right. Imagine someone meticulously 00:00:27.350 --> 00:00:29.789 drawing up those blueprints for this perfectly 00:00:29.789 --> 00:00:32.570 sensible skyscraper. And then right as the steel 00:00:32.570 --> 00:00:34.369 is going up, they just, well, they set the blueprints 00:00:34.369 --> 00:00:37.210 on fire. And from those ashes, they decide to 00:00:37.210 --> 00:00:40.869 build a wildly chaotic, breathtakingly beautiful 00:00:40.869 --> 00:00:44.090 stained glass cathedral instead. Which completely 00:00:44.090 --> 00:00:48.369 upends our desire for a predictable, rational 00:00:48.369 --> 00:00:50.920 progression from plane A to point B. Welcome 00:00:50.920 --> 00:00:53.759 to the Deep Dive. Today we are looking at Xu 00:00:53.759 --> 00:00:57.060 Zimo. He was an absolute towering figure in modern 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:59.759 Chinese poetry, and he died at just 34 years 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:02.939 old. Such a short life. Yeah. And our mission 00:01:02.939 --> 00:01:06.040 today is to figure out how a young man placed 00:01:06.040 --> 00:01:08.579 on this highly prestigious traditional track 00:01:08.579 --> 00:01:11.739 of law and economics somehow transformed into 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:16.549 a literary rock star. I mean, a man who revolutionized 00:01:16.549 --> 00:01:20.129 an entire nation's poetry, lived a wildly dramatic 00:01:20.129 --> 00:01:23.150 personal life, and left a legacy so profound 00:01:23.150 --> 00:01:25.670 that his words are still inspiring modern pop 00:01:25.670 --> 00:01:29.209 songs today. It's an incredible transformation. 00:01:29.670 --> 00:01:32.030 It really is. Okay, let's unpack this. Because 00:01:32.030 --> 00:01:33.930 to really appreciate the stained glass cathedral, 00:01:33.989 --> 00:01:36.609 we have to look at those original sensible blueprints. 00:01:36.810 --> 00:01:38.469 Right. So we have to start with the sheer weight 00:01:38.469 --> 00:01:40.989 of his early academic pedigree. It was incredibly 00:01:40.989 --> 00:01:44.420 rigorous. Born in 1897 in Haining, China, Xu 00:01:44.420 --> 00:01:46.900 started out on a hyper practical path. Very practical. 00:01:47.159 --> 00:01:50.260 Yeah. By 1916, he was studying law at Pe 'an 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.439 University, which is now Tianjin University. 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:54.879 And when the law department merged into Peking 00:01:54.879 --> 00:01:57.120 University, he moved right along with it. Wow. 00:01:57.319 --> 00:01:59.620 So he was navigating the very top tier of Chinese 00:01:59.620 --> 00:02:01.920 higher education. It seems like he was, you know, 00:02:02.140 --> 00:02:04.299 collecting prestigious degrees like trading cards. 00:02:04.359 --> 00:02:08.099 He really was. Because in 1918, he crosses the 00:02:08.099 --> 00:02:10.780 globe. He travels to the United States to get 00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:13.000 his bachelor's degree at Clark University in 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:16.159 Massachusetts, majoring in political and social 00:02:16.159 --> 00:02:18.639 sciences with a minor in history. I mean, he 00:02:18.639 --> 00:02:20.919 just keeps going. Yeah. The very next year, he 00:02:20.919 --> 00:02:23.159 enrolls at Columbia University in New York for 00:02:23.159 --> 00:02:25.340 a graduate degree in economics and politics. 00:02:25.629 --> 00:02:28.150 Right, so if you are looking at this resume on 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:32.849 paper, you are looking at a future titan of industry, 00:02:33.770 --> 00:02:35.889 or a major political figure, or maybe a brilliant 00:02:35.889 --> 00:02:38.750 economist. He had reached the absolute pinnacle 00:02:38.750 --> 00:02:42.110 of Western pragmatic education. Which makes his 00:02:42.110 --> 00:02:46.069 sudden pivot in 1920 so incredibly jarring. He 00:02:46.069 --> 00:02:47.990 basically pulls the ripcord on the whole thing. 00:02:48.090 --> 00:02:49.990 Just completely abandoned. Yeah, he abandons 00:02:49.990 --> 00:02:52.129 New York and leaves for England. Initially, it 00:02:52.129 --> 00:02:53.949 was to study at the London School of Economics. 00:02:54.389 --> 00:02:56.289 But historical accounts note that he actually 00:02:56.289 --> 00:02:59.150 found the United States, quote, intolerable. 00:02:59.509 --> 00:03:01.629 That word intolerable is really key here. You 00:03:01.629 --> 00:03:04.129 have to consider what America was in 1920. Right. 00:03:04.229 --> 00:03:07.129 The roaring 20s. Exactly. It was the dawn of 00:03:07.129 --> 00:03:10.250 the roaring 20s. It was hyper capitalist, pragmatic. 00:03:10.509 --> 00:03:13.050 just totally driven by industry and financial 00:03:13.050 --> 00:03:15.530 hustle. Yeah, a lot of focus on making money. 00:03:16.210 --> 00:03:18.210 And for a young man who is beginning to crave 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:21.430 deep aesthetic and emotional meaning, that environment 00:03:21.430 --> 00:03:25.030 felt completely soulless. It clashed violently 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:27.430 with his internal disposition. So he leaves for 00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:30.650 London. But even London doesn't stick. No, even 00:03:30.650 --> 00:03:32.229 London School of Economics doesn't hold him. 00:03:32.530 --> 00:03:35.610 By 1921, he transfers to King's College, Cambridge, 00:03:35.830 --> 00:03:38.620 as a special student. And that geographical shift 00:03:38.620 --> 00:03:41.039 to Cambridge, that is the catalyst for everything. 00:03:41.139 --> 00:03:43.500 He doesn't fall in love with a new economic theory 00:03:43.500 --> 00:03:46.340 there. He falls head over heels for English romantic 00:03:46.340 --> 00:03:48.819 poetry. He begins consuming the works of John 00:03:48.819 --> 00:03:52.099 Keats and Percy Bishus Shelley, and he's also 00:03:52.099 --> 00:03:55.319 heavily influenced by French romanticism and, 00:03:55.319 --> 00:03:58.650 uh... the symbolist poets. Symbolism being the 00:03:58.650 --> 00:04:01.710 movement that focuses on using words to evoke 00:04:01.710 --> 00:04:04.509 moods and abstract ideas, right? Like, rather 00:04:04.509 --> 00:04:06.849 than just telling a literal story. Precisely. 00:04:06.949 --> 00:04:09.289 Yeah, symbolism isn't about, say, describing 00:04:09.289 --> 00:04:11.990 a flower. It's about using the flower to evoke 00:04:11.990 --> 00:04:14.810 a fleeting, melancholic state of mind. Ah, I 00:04:14.810 --> 00:04:17.860 see. By immersing himself in all of this, Yu 00:04:17.860 --> 00:04:21.180 was absorbing a completely different lens through 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:24.279 which to view the world. The romantics prioritized 00:04:24.279 --> 00:04:28.060 intense emotion, the beauty of nature, and just 00:04:28.060 --> 00:04:31.120 the supreme value of individual expression. To 00:04:31.120 --> 00:04:33.680 put this in modern terms for you listening, compare 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:37.589 Yu's pivot to, like, A modern -day Ivy League 00:04:37.589 --> 00:04:40.490 economics grad or a high -power corporate lawyer 00:04:40.490 --> 00:04:42.769 suddenly dropping everything. Just moving to 00:04:42.769 --> 00:04:44.949 Europe and becoming an avant -garde spoken word 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.329 artist. That is a perfect comparison. It's not 00:04:47.329 --> 00:04:49.850 just a change in major, you know, it's moving 00:04:49.850 --> 00:04:52.470 to an entirely different universe of human experience. 00:04:52.689 --> 00:04:54.879 If we connect this to the bigger picture. This 00:04:54.879 --> 00:04:57.680 was a profound ideological awakening. He wasn't 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:00.079 just learning how to rhyme. He was adopting a 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.639 philosophy of unbridled individualism. And that 00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:04.699 philosophy is about to cause some friction. Oh, 00:05:04.699 --> 00:05:07.019 definitely. That Western Romantic philosophy 00:05:07.019 --> 00:05:09.500 was about to collide forcefully with the deeply 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:11.699 collective traditional culture of his homeland. 00:05:11.939 --> 00:05:14.000 Right, because taking that radical new worldview 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.740 and dropping it into 1920s China, that was like 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:19.019 throwing a match into dry brush. It really was 00:05:19.019 --> 00:05:23.819 an explosion. Yeah. In 1922, Zhu returns to China. 00:05:24.009 --> 00:05:26.810 bringing this fiery western romanticism with 00:05:26.810 --> 00:05:29.649 him. And he doesn't just write a few poems in 00:05:29.649 --> 00:05:32.750 his diary, he sparks a massive sweeping cultural 00:05:32.750 --> 00:05:35.189 shift. He essentially kicks off a literary revolution. 00:05:35.509 --> 00:05:37.750 Exactly. He becomes the leading figure of the 00:05:37.750 --> 00:05:40.970 modern poetry movement. And he executes this 00:05:40.970 --> 00:05:45.009 revolution through two major mechanisms. First, 00:05:45.490 --> 00:05:48.379 he aggressively breaks away from the strict highly 00:05:48.379 --> 00:05:51.839 structured classical Chinese poetic forms. Forms 00:05:51.839 --> 00:05:53.579 that had been around for centuries. Right, they 00:05:53.579 --> 00:05:55.459 had been the absolute standard for centuries. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:58.500 Those forms dictated rigid tonal patterns and 00:05:58.500 --> 00:06:01.860 syllable counts and Zhu just shattered those 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:05.480 molds. And second, he starts writing in vernacular 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:07.779 Chinese. That's the everyday language that people 00:06:07.779 --> 00:06:09.540 actually spoke on the street rather than the 00:06:09.540 --> 00:06:11.879 formal, highly stylized classical language of 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:14.000 the educated elite. Which was a huge deal. Yeah, 00:06:14.100 --> 00:06:16.060 writing poetry in classical Chinese back then 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:17.959 was a bit like writing modern laws in Latin. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:20.439 So by switching to the vernacular, Zhu didn't 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.079 just change the style, he effectively unlocked 00:06:23.079 --> 00:06:25.199 the gates and let the general public into the 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.810 library. It was a massive democratizing force. 00:06:28.709 --> 00:06:30.850 Suddenly, literature was accessible to an audience 00:06:30.850 --> 00:06:33.509 far beyond the ivory tower. But he didn't stop 00:06:33.509 --> 00:06:35.550 at just using everyday words. What else did you 00:06:35.550 --> 00:06:38.850 do? Well, Zhu actively translated Western Romantic 00:06:38.850 --> 00:06:42.149 forms into modern Chinese poetry. But wait, how 00:06:42.149 --> 00:06:44.689 does that actually work mechanically? I mean... 00:06:44.439 --> 00:06:46.379 English and Chinese are fundamentally different 00:06:46.379 --> 00:06:49.379 languages. You can't just copy and paste a Shakespearean 00:06:49.379 --> 00:06:51.300 sonnet structure over Chinese characters, can 00:06:51.300 --> 00:06:53.240 you? No, it's an incredibly difficult technical 00:06:53.240 --> 00:06:56.740 challenge. English coterie relies on meter patterns 00:06:56.740 --> 00:06:59.160 of stressed and unstressed syllables, like the 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.180 famous iambic pentameter. Right, da -dum, da 00:07:01.180 --> 00:07:03.579 -dum, da -da -da. Exactly. Chinese, however, 00:07:04.079 --> 00:07:06.420 is a tonal language where every character is 00:07:06.420 --> 00:07:09.180 a single syllable. You cannot recreate English 00:07:09.180 --> 00:07:11.740 stress patterns. So what did he do? Zhu had to 00:07:11.740 --> 00:07:14.579 invent entirely new rhythmic structures in the 00:07:14.579 --> 00:07:17.839 Chinese vernacular to mimic that flowing musical 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:20.959 quality of poets like Keats or Shelley. He was 00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:23.360 pioneering a completely new sonic landscape for 00:07:23.360 --> 00:07:26.839 the language itself. That is just wild. And he 00:07:26.839 --> 00:07:29.040 builds an institution to push this forward. In 00:07:29.040 --> 00:07:32.939 1923, he founds the Crescent Moon Society. Yes, 00:07:33.100 --> 00:07:35.240 the Crescent Moon Society. This was a literary 00:07:35.240 --> 00:07:37.959 group that became a major pillar of the broader 00:07:37.959 --> 00:07:39.920 new culture movement that was happening in China 00:07:39.920 --> 00:07:42.980 at the time. And the cultural landscape in 1920s 00:07:42.980 --> 00:07:46.000 China was highly, highly polarized. The country 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:49.199 was undergoing massive political upheaval, trying 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:51.920 to modernize and redefine itself after the fall 00:07:51.920 --> 00:07:54.040 of the last imperial dynasty. Right, the Qing 00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:57.000 dynasty. Yeah. And in this environment, literature 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:00.319 was viewed by many as a weapon for social change. 00:08:00.620 --> 00:08:02.860 And this is where we see a fascinating clash 00:08:02.860 --> 00:08:05.439 of ideologies. And, you know, we can just lay 00:08:05.439 --> 00:08:07.439 out the facts of the debate as they existed back 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:10.019 then. The Crescent Moon Society, led by Zhu, 00:08:10.439 --> 00:08:13.259 firmly championed the concept of art for art's 00:08:13.259 --> 00:08:15.839 sake. They believed poetry had intrinsic value. 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:18.939 Right. They argued it existed to express beauty, 00:08:19.360 --> 00:08:22.160 human emotion, and the individual soul without 00:08:22.160 --> 00:08:24.560 needing to serve a practical political purpose. 00:08:25.040 --> 00:08:27.040 But... On the other side of the intellectual 00:08:27.040 --> 00:08:29.319 battlefield, you had the League of Left Wing 00:08:29.319 --> 00:08:31.800 Writers, which was driven by the Chinese Communist 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:35.779 Party. Their rallying cry was art for politics 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:38.320 sake. So a very different approach. Entirely 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:41.059 different. They argued fiercely that in a time 00:08:41.059 --> 00:08:43.899 of national crisis, literature had to serve a 00:08:43.899 --> 00:08:46.820 societal purpose. It had to be a tool for political 00:08:46.820 --> 00:08:49.519 progress, class consciousness and collective 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:52.320 change. And so the Crescent Moon Society. and 00:08:52.320 --> 00:08:54.419 the League of Left -Wing Writers just engaged 00:08:54.419 --> 00:08:57.620 in constant running debates over this philosophical 00:08:57.620 --> 00:09:00.080 divide. Yes, they frequently clashed. And when 00:09:00.080 --> 00:09:01.840 you understand the context of the era, you get 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.480 this massive aha moment about Yu's work. His 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:08.500 belief in art for art's sake wasn't just a peaceful, 00:09:08.500 --> 00:09:11.879 passive, artistic choice. Not at all. In a country 00:09:11.879 --> 00:09:14.200 violently trying to unify and modernize through 00:09:14.200 --> 00:09:17.039 political revolution, choosing to write a delicate 00:09:17.039 --> 00:09:19.340 poem about a willow tree instead of an anthem 00:09:19.340 --> 00:09:21.679 for the working class was viewed by his rivals 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:25.440 as a dangerous, radical act of defiance. Choosing 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:27.720 the individual over the collective was the ultimate 00:09:27.720 --> 00:09:31.320 disruption. And Xu was so respected for his mastery 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:34.139 of this new form that when the globally renowned 00:09:34.139 --> 00:09:37.480 Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore visited China, 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.100 Xu Zimo served as one of his oral interpreters. 00:09:41.100 --> 00:09:43.639 Wow. Yeah, he was standing squarely at the intersection 00:09:43.639 --> 00:09:47.259 of global literary giants. But holding this standard 00:09:47.259 --> 00:09:51.419 of absolute uncompromising ideal beauty? That 00:09:51.419 --> 00:09:53.940 is a dangerous game when you apply it to real 00:09:53.940 --> 00:09:57.120 flawed human beings. It really is. Hugh's fierce 00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.580 dedication to personal freedom wasn't confined 00:09:59.580 --> 00:10:02.700 to his poetry. It totally flooded his personal 00:10:02.700 --> 00:10:04.799 life, creating an immense amount of collateral 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:07.500 damage. We see the first cracks in his philosophy 00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:10.440 back in 1915, before his Western exposure, when 00:10:10.440 --> 00:10:12.100 he entered into an arranged marriage with a woman 00:10:12.100 --> 00:10:14.139 named Zhang Yue. Right. Even though they had 00:10:14.139 --> 00:10:16.860 two sons together, Zhu fundamentally could not 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:19.799 accept the marriage. It violated his deep -seated 00:10:19.799 --> 00:10:22.399 belief in free and simple love. And while he's 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:25.120 having his grand awakening in London in 1921, 00:10:25.279 --> 00:10:27.899 he meets and falls deeply in love with Lin Weiyun. 00:10:28.179 --> 00:10:31.240 This surge of emotion actually inspires a massive 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:34.990 outpouring of his poetry. But there is a glaring 00:10:34.990 --> 00:10:38.129 complication here. A major one. Yeah. Lin Huiyin 00:10:38.129 --> 00:10:41.169 is already betrothed to another man, Liang Zicheng, 00:10:41.450 --> 00:10:43.590 through an arrangement made by his father. And 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:46.789 driven entirely by his romantic ideals, Su makes 00:10:46.789 --> 00:10:51.110 a highly controversial move. In March 1922, he 00:10:51.110 --> 00:10:54.600 officially divorces his wife, Zeng Yui. He essentially 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:58.500 blows up his family structure to pursue a pure 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:01.360 romantic connection. Exactly. And yet Lin and 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:03.879 Zhu ultimately just remain friends. His pursuit 00:11:03.879 --> 00:11:06.740 of her didn't result in marriage, but the chaotic 00:11:06.740 --> 00:11:09.460 romantic journey was far from over. Not even 00:11:09.460 --> 00:11:12.080 close. His final and most scandalous love affair 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:14.620 was with Lu Xiaoman. Lu was married to a man 00:11:14.620 --> 00:11:16.980 named Wang Gang, and Wang Gang was actually a 00:11:16.980 --> 00:11:19.379 friend of Yu's. It was a very messy situation. 00:11:19.860 --> 00:11:22.000 Lu's marriage had also been arranged by her parents, 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:24.250 and she felt completely trapped in a loveless 00:11:24.250 --> 00:11:26.490 situation. So they had that in common. Right. 00:11:27.009 --> 00:11:29.990 When Zhu and Liu met, they bonded intensely over 00:11:29.990 --> 00:11:32.610 their shared trauma regarding these restrictive 00:11:32.610 --> 00:11:35.070 traditional marriages. They found in each other 00:11:35.070 --> 00:11:38.490 a shared desire to break free from societal expectations. 00:11:38.710 --> 00:11:41.070 But when their relationship became public, the 00:11:41.070 --> 00:11:44.289 backlash was severe. Both of them were scorned 00:11:44.289 --> 00:11:46.470 by their parents and their social circles. But 00:11:46.470 --> 00:11:48.789 they pushed forward anyway, basically burning 00:11:48.789 --> 00:11:51.429 the bridges behind them. Liu divorced her husband 00:11:51.429 --> 00:11:54.690 in 1925 and she and Zhu married the very next 00:11:54.690 --> 00:11:57.830 year in 1926. But the reality of their life together, 00:11:57.830 --> 00:12:00.889 it quickly failed to live up to the lofty romantic 00:12:00.889 --> 00:12:04.009 ideal Zhu had constructed in his mind. It did. 00:12:04.629 --> 00:12:06.370 Historical accounts note that their honeymoon 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:09.750 period evaporated rapidly. Liu gradually became 00:12:09.750 --> 00:12:11.789 increasingly depressed. And then the financial 00:12:11.789 --> 00:12:14.490 ruin sets in. Liu had incredibly high spending 00:12:14.490 --> 00:12:17.190 habits. She was accustomed to a lavish Shanghai 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:20.789 lifestyle. And remember, Liu's parents were utterly 00:12:20.789 --> 00:12:23.250 furious about the scandalous marriage. So they 00:12:23.250 --> 00:12:25.490 cut them off. Completely. They refused to fund 00:12:25.490 --> 00:12:28.889 them. Which creates this stark, greedy contrast 00:12:28.889 --> 00:12:31.590 to the image of the lofty head -in -the -clouds 00:12:31.590 --> 00:12:35.330 poet. Zhu, the man who championed art for art's 00:12:35.330 --> 00:12:37.909 sake, was suddenly forced into the ultimate pragmatic 00:12:37.909 --> 00:12:40.909 hustle. He had to take on multiple exhausting 00:12:40.909 --> 00:12:43.629 teaching jobs across different cities just to 00:12:43.629 --> 00:12:46.269 keep up with the lifestyle Liu demanded. The 00:12:46.269 --> 00:12:49.179 pressure on him was immense. And amidst all this, 00:12:49.299 --> 00:12:51.580 he was also romantically linked to the American 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:54.240 author Pearl S. Buck and the American journalist 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:57.649 Agnes Smedley. Yeah, his romantic life was incredibly 00:12:57.649 --> 00:12:59.730 complicated. Which is why I have to push back 00:12:59.730 --> 00:13:02.269 a little on the tortured artist trope here, because 00:13:02.269 --> 00:13:04.730 it's so easy to romanticize this kind of behavior. 00:13:04.850 --> 00:13:06.350 That's a fair point. I want you to think about 00:13:06.350 --> 00:13:10.490 this. Was Jusimo a brave pioneer of true love, 00:13:10.710 --> 00:13:12.730 fighting against genuinely oppressive traditions 00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:15.830 like forced marriages, or was he incredibly selfish? 00:13:16.029 --> 00:13:18.169 Just leading a trail of destruction. Yeah, a 00:13:18.169 --> 00:13:20.509 divorced wife, broken friendships, neglected 00:13:20.509 --> 00:13:23.350 responsibilities, all just to chase his own fleeting 00:13:23.350 --> 00:13:26.940 feelings. That tension is exactly how his contemporaries 00:13:26.940 --> 00:13:30.320 viewed him. In an obituary for Shu, the writer 00:13:30.320 --> 00:13:33.419 Wen Yuanning made a very sharp observation. He 00:13:33.419 --> 00:13:35.480 commented that Yu's relations with women were 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:38.220 exactly like the English poet Shelley's. How 00:13:38.220 --> 00:13:41.340 so? Well, Wen wrote that, quote, Let no woman 00:13:41.340 --> 00:13:43.360 flatter herself that C .M .O. has ever loved 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:45.799 her. He has only loved his own inner version 00:13:45.799 --> 00:13:48.960 of ideal beauty. He has only loved his own inner 00:13:48.960 --> 00:13:51.379 version of ideal beauty. That is a devastating 00:13:51.379 --> 00:13:53.379 critique. What's fascinating here is that we 00:13:53.379 --> 00:13:55.620 see a perfect mirror between his art and his 00:13:55.620 --> 00:13:58.700 life. His greatest strength as a poet, his ability 00:13:58.700 --> 00:14:01.440 to conjure an intense almost supernatural romantic 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:04.419 idealism, was his greatest flaw as a human partner. 00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:06.179 Because nobody could live up to it. Right. He 00:14:06.179 --> 00:14:08.240 was constantly chasing an aesthetic perfection 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:10.860 that a real complicated human being could never 00:14:10.860 --> 00:14:12.919 actually provide. And the crushing financial 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:15.440 realities of his messy choices, along with his 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:18.360 enduring ties to his romantic past ultimately 00:14:18.360 --> 00:14:20.940 converge to set the stage for the final tragic 00:14:20.940 --> 00:14:25.240 act of his life. We are at November 19th, 1931. 00:14:25.559 --> 00:14:28.299 Xu is just 34 years old. He's preparing to fly 00:14:28.299 --> 00:14:30.600 from Nanking to Peking. And the reason for this 00:14:30.600 --> 00:14:33.419 specific flight is deeply tied to his history. 00:14:34.179 --> 00:14:36.919 He is traveling specifically to attend a university 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:40.100 lecture being given by Lin Huyen. The woman he 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:42.759 had fallen for in London, the one who inspired 00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.330 his divorce nearly a decade earlier. Right. And 00:14:46.330 --> 00:14:50.110 to make the trip, he boards a China Airways Federal 00:14:50.110 --> 00:14:53.269 Stinson Detroiter. Now, this wasn't some comfortable 00:14:53.269 --> 00:14:55.929 passenger flight. It was an aircraft primarily 00:14:55.929 --> 00:14:58.789 contracted by the Postal Service to deliver airmail 00:14:58.789 --> 00:15:01.049 along that route. And as the flight approaches 00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:04.409 the Jnan area in Shandong province, they encounter 00:15:04.409 --> 00:15:08.029 severe blinding fog. The pilot completely loses 00:15:08.029 --> 00:15:09.789 visibility of the ground. You have to remember 00:15:09.789 --> 00:15:12.830 aviation technology in 1931 was rudimentary. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.820 Pilots relied heavily on visual landmarks to 00:15:15.820 --> 00:15:18.399 navigate. So the plane descends into a mountainous 00:15:18.399 --> 00:15:21.220 area unnoticed. Both pilots are distracted, looking 00:15:21.220 --> 00:15:23.440 down at their maps, desperately trying to figure 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.120 out their course in the whiteout conditions. 00:15:25.259 --> 00:15:27.340 By the time they look up, realize their altitude 00:15:27.340 --> 00:15:30.019 is fatally wrong, and attempt a sharp left turn 00:15:30.019 --> 00:15:33.059 to correct it, it is simply too late. The aircraft 00:15:33.059 --> 00:15:35.460 slams into the peak of a mountain. The right 00:15:35.460 --> 00:15:38.639 wing tears off. The plane spins completely out 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:41.279 of control and crashes into the mountains near 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:45.259 Jinan and Taiyan. The crash kills Yuzumo instantly, 00:15:45.620 --> 00:15:47.879 leaving him with fatal cerebral trauma. He was 00:15:47.879 --> 00:15:52.120 34. One of the pilots also died on impact. The 00:15:52.120 --> 00:15:54.340 first officer survived the initial crash but 00:15:54.340 --> 00:15:56.480 tragically perished while waiting for a rescue 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.279 team that was delayed by the same terrible weather. 00:15:59.480 --> 00:16:01.940 The suddenness of it sent shockwaves through 00:16:01.940 --> 00:16:04.399 the country. Because of his immense fame and 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:07.039 the constant drama surrounding his life, rumors 00:16:07.039 --> 00:16:09.299 immediately started swirling that the crash was 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:12.440 sabotage. That he was murdered. Yeah. But historical 00:16:12.440 --> 00:16:15.480 records confirm those rumors were entirely untrue. 00:16:15.620 --> 00:16:17.799 It was just a tragic accident caused by severe 00:16:17.799 --> 00:16:20.059 weather and pilot misjudgment. He was gone in 00:16:20.059 --> 00:16:23.480 an instant. But what he left behind was monumental. 00:16:23.740 --> 00:16:26.919 He left four collections of verse, multiple volumes 00:16:26.919 --> 00:16:29.639 of translations, and one specific masterpiece 00:16:29.639 --> 00:16:32.419 that would cement his legacy forever. His most 00:16:32.419 --> 00:16:35.679 famous poem, written a few years earlier in 1928, 00:16:35.799 --> 00:16:38.059 is called Taking Leave of Cambridge Again, or 00:16:38.059 --> 00:16:40.120 sometimes translated as Saying Goodbye to Cambridge 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:42.860 Again. It is a love letter not to a person, but 00:16:42.860 --> 00:16:45.100 to the place where his mind was originally blown 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:48.659 wide open. The imagery is breathtaking. He writes, 00:16:49.139 --> 00:16:51.759 softly I am leaving, just as softly as I can. 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:54.870 He describes the golden willows by the riverside 00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:57.429 as young brides in the setting sun. He talks 00:16:57.429 --> 00:16:59.750 about the green tape grass rooted in the soft 00:16:59.750 --> 00:17:02.549 mud and says, I am willing to be such a water 00:17:02.549 --> 00:17:05.049 weed in the gentle flow of the river cam. It 00:17:05.049 --> 00:17:07.609 is so peaceful, so deeply observant of nature. 00:17:07.750 --> 00:17:10.750 Yeah. And it ends with a profound sense of quiet 00:17:10.750 --> 00:17:14.980 acceptance. Quietly I am leaving. Just as quietly 00:17:14.980 --> 00:17:18.339 as I came, gently waving my sleeve, I am not 00:17:18.339 --> 00:17:21.059 taking away a single cloud. I am not taking away 00:17:21.059 --> 00:17:23.180 a single cloud. Here's where it gets really interesting. 00:17:23.319 --> 00:17:25.519 This isn't just a poem gathering dust in an academic 00:17:25.519 --> 00:17:28.019 archive. To this day, it is a living piece of 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:31.000 culture. It really is. In 2008, King's College 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:33.480 at Cambridge installed a white Beijing marble 00:17:33.480 --> 00:17:36.259 memorial stone featuring the first and last lines 00:17:36.259 --> 00:17:38.420 of that exact poem, placed right by the river 00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:42.279 camp. And its reach extends far beyond academia 00:17:42.279 --> 00:17:45.180 into mainstream pop culture. I mean, between 00:17:45.180 --> 00:17:49.980 1980 and 2023, this 1920s poem has been set to 00:17:49.980 --> 00:17:53.339 music multiple times. Imagine a modern pop artist 00:17:53.339 --> 00:17:55.880 reaching back a century for their lyrics. In 00:17:55.880 --> 00:17:58.799 1989, Taiwanese singer Stella Chang turned it 00:17:58.799 --> 00:18:02.390 into a song. In 2008, it was featured on the 00:18:02.390 --> 00:18:05.869 debut album of Taiwanese pop star Yoga Lin. And 00:18:05.869 --> 00:18:09.130 in 2018, the renowned English composer John Rutter 00:18:09.130 --> 00:18:11.349 composed a choral version of it. Think about 00:18:11.349 --> 00:18:13.890 that kind of cultural fingerprint. He changed 00:18:13.890 --> 00:18:17.190 the way an entire nation spoke and wrote. And 00:18:17.190 --> 00:18:19.029 a hundred years later, people are still singing 00:18:19.029 --> 00:18:21.769 his words. It is the ultimate testament to his 00:18:21.769 --> 00:18:24.589 impact. He tore down centuries of rigid, elite 00:18:24.589 --> 00:18:26.890 literary tradition and replaced it with something 00:18:26.890 --> 00:18:30.289 deeply human, emotional and intensely personal. 00:18:30.470 --> 00:18:32.869 He really did. Xu Zimo lived a lightning fast 00:18:32.869 --> 00:18:35.009 life. He built a bridge between the East and 00:18:35.009 --> 00:18:37.910 the West, absorbing the romantic ideals of Europe 00:18:37.910 --> 00:18:40.089 and using them to shatter the classical molds 00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:42.410 of Chinese poetry. And he brought it all back 00:18:42.410 --> 00:18:45.089 home. But he also lived with a fiery, chaotic 00:18:45.089 --> 00:18:47.549 passion that upended the lives of the people 00:18:47.549 --> 00:18:50.809 around him. A flame that burned incredibly bright 00:18:50.809 --> 00:18:54.170 and was extinguished far, far too soon. Which 00:18:54.170 --> 00:18:56.789 leaves us with a final thought to mull over. 00:18:57.329 --> 00:18:59.069 Consider those sensible blueprints we talked 00:18:59.069 --> 00:19:01.450 about at the beginning. If Shusimo had stayed 00:19:01.450 --> 00:19:03.430 in the United States, finished his economics 00:19:03.430 --> 00:19:06.329 degree at Columbia, and lived a quiet, stable, 00:19:06.470 --> 00:19:09.549 highly rational life, would his poetry have possessed 00:19:09.549 --> 00:19:13.650 the same revolutionary power? Or does true artistic 00:19:13.650 --> 00:19:16.329 disruption, the kind that shifts the entire culture 00:19:16.329 --> 00:19:19.190 of a nation, require a life lived on the absolute 00:19:19.190 --> 00:19:21.950 edge of chaos? Can you build that breathtaking 00:19:21.950 --> 00:19:23.869 stained glass cathedral without first setting 00:19:23.869 --> 00:19:26.049 fire to the blueprints? Thank you for joining 00:19:26.049 --> 00:19:28.589 us on this deep dive into the extraordinary messy 00:19:28.589 --> 00:19:31.170 and beautiful life of Shuzimo. We hope this sparked 00:19:31.170 --> 00:19:33.369 your curiosity and we warmly invite you to keep 00:19:33.369 --> 00:19:34.910 seeking out these incredible stories.