Quick Facts
Biography
Li Yaotang (simplified Chinese: 李尧棠; traditional Chinese: 李堯棠; pinyin: Lǐ Yáotáng; Wade–Giles: Li Yao-t'ang, November 25, 1904 – October 17, 2005), courtesy name Feigan (Chinese: 芾甘; pinyin: Fèigān; Wade–Giles: Fei-kan), is considered to be one of the most important and widely read Chinese writers of the 20th century. He wrote under the pen name of Ba Jin (Chinese: 巴金; pinyin: Bā Jīn; Wade–Giles: Pa Chin), also known as Li Pei-Kan and Pa Kin, taking his pseudonym from Russian anarchists Bakunin and Kropotkin. Ba Jin started writing his first works in the late 1920s.
Ba Jin's son Li Xiao is also a fiction writer.
Biography
Early life and anarchism
Born in Chengdu, Sichuan, Li was born into a scholarly family of officials. His paternal grandfather ruled the large, five generation-tiered household with an autocratic hand, which young Li found stifling, not unlike that depicted in his famous novel, The Family. As a child Li was taught to read and write first by his mother, and later by privately engaged house tutors. It was not until the death of this grandfather in 1917, causing a power struggle which ended with an elder uncle emerging victorious, that he was released to explore the world. As a youngster Li read widely and was deeply influenced by Piotr Kropotkin's famous pamphlet, An Appeal to the Young, which he read at age fifteen. Hugely impressed by Emma Goldman, whom he later referred to as his "spiritual mother", Li started a lifelong correspondence with her.
In 1920, Li enrolled, with an elder brother, in the Chengdu Foreign Language Specialist School to study English. It was there he first engaged in the organization of literary journal Crescent and wrote a number of vers libre. Joining an anarchist organization, the Equality Society, Li became its most prominent member, actively distributing propaganda leaflets.
Three years later, Li moved to Shanghai and subsequently to Dongnan University, Nanjing on the pretext of study, but mainly, as he put it, to escape the feudalistic (fengjian) influence of his family. There he managed to master Esperanto within one year of diligent study and took part in leftist socialist strikes, while remaining active in the anarchist movement, writing a pamphlet on the Chicago Anarchist Martyrs.
France (1927-8)
On graduation, he left on board a liner on February 15, 1927, with a friend for Paris, France, for further studies, where he lodged at the 5th arrondissement (three months at Rue Banville, then Rue Tournefort, No. 2). He described his life there as boring and monotonous, taking daily afternoon walks at the Jardin du Luxembourg and evening French lessons at Alliance Francaise. He recalled especially Rousseau's statue at the Panthéon ("I almost knelt before it...he whom Tolstoy described as the conscience of the 18th century"), the River Seine and the tollings of the Notre Dame.
It was partly owing to boredom when Li began to write his first novel, Miewang (“Destruction”) on a jotterbook. In France, Li continued his anarchist activism, translated many anarchist works, including Kropotkin's Ethics, into Chinese, which was mailed back to Shanghai anarchist magazines for publication. Alexander Berkman was one of many anarchist leaders he met there.
The trials of Italian immigrants Sacco and Vanzetti filled the fervent writer with anger and Ba Jin worked tirelessly to champion their release. Vanzetti apparently was moved enough to reply to the young man from his American prison, with a package of anarchist texts for his readings. Their short correspondence ceased when Vanzetti was executed, along with Sacco, on August 23, 1927. Li published in late 1932 the short story The Electric Chair (电椅) to protest against their execution.
Shanghai and later life
On his return to Shanghai in 1928, Ba Jin continued writing and working on translations. His first novel, Destruction, was released serially by Fiction Monthly in 1929, a foremost literary magazine, and earned him many admirers.
During the next 10 years, Li acted as editor to several important publishing firms and periodicals, as well as composing the works which he is best known for – The Family (1931), The Love Trilogy Fog (1931), Rain (1933) and Lightning (1935), the novellas Autumn in Spring and A Dream of the Sea, the short story collection Mengya (“Germination”) and prose writings in Fuchou ("Vengeance") and Shen, Gui, Ren ("Gods, Ghosts and Men").
During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ba Jin was actively involved in propaganda work against the Japanese invasion, working on the publication Nahan (“Outcries”, later renamed Fenghuo, “Beacons”) with Mao Dun. In the later stages of the war, Ba Jin completed the famous Torrents Trilogy — of which The Family (1931) was the first written — with Spring (1938) and Autumn (1940). Other works of the post-war period, like the short novels A Garden of Repose (1944), Ward Four (1946) and Cold Nights (1947), contain some of his strongest writings. He ceased fiction writing after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, choosing to concentrate on nonfiction instead.
During the Cultural Revolution, Ba Jin was heavily persecuted as a counter-revolutionary. His wife, Xiao Shan, died during the Revolution after being denied medical care, and the manner of her death traumatized Ba Jin for the rest of his life. He was rehabilitated in 1977, after which he was elected to many important national literary posts, including chairman of the Chinese Writers' Association (since 1983). The most significant work of his later years is probably the discursive writings in Suixiang Lu (translated as "Random Thoughts", five volumes, composed between 1978 and 1986), in which, among other things, he reflected on the Cultural Revolution in a painfully honest manner and asked specifically for a Cultural Revolution Museum to be set up as a deterrent for future generations.
He spoke and advocated Esperanto and in the 1980s was the vice-president of the Chinese Esperanto League.
Ba Jin's works were heavily influenced by foreign writers, including Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, Alexandr Herzen, Anton Chekhov, and Emma Goldman, and a substantial amount of his collected works are devoted to translations. His writing style, characterized by simplicity, avoids difficult, abstruse words, and making him one of the most popular of all modern Chinese writers.
Ba Jin suffered from Parkinson's Disease beginning in 1983, and the ailment almost completely debilitated him in his later years. The illness confined him to a hospital unable to speak and walk during the last few years of his life. Ba Jin died of cancer in Shanghai at the age of 100 (101 by Chinese reckoning) in 2005. His death marked the end of an era for Chinese literature, especially since he was the last major writer to live through the May Fourth Movement. He received the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize in 1990.
Asteroid 8315 Bajin is named in his honour.
Works
- Vengeance 《复仇》，1931
- Dog 《狗》，1931
- Brightness 《光明》，1932
- The Electric Chair 《电椅》, 1933
- Wiping Cloth 《抹布》，1933
- The General 《将军》，1934
- Gods, Ghosts and Men 《神·鬼·人》，1935
- Sinking 《沉落》，1936
- The Story of Hair 《发的故事》，1936
- Thunder 《雷》，1937
- Resurrection Grass 《还魂草》，1942
- Little People, Little Events 《小人小事》，1943
- Heroic Tales 《英雄的故事》，1953
- Pigs and Chickens 《猪与鸡》，1959
- Li Da-hai 《李大海》，1961
- Stories Outside the City，1992
- The Immortality Pagoda 《长生塔》，1937
- The Pearl and the Jade Concubine 《明珠和玉姬》，1957
- Destruction 《灭亡》, 1929
- The Dead Sun 《死去的太阳》, 1931
- The "Love" Trilogy 《爱情的三部曲》 (1931-5)
- Fog 《雾》, 1931
- Rain 《雨》，1933
- Lightning 《电》，1935
- New Life 《新生》，1933
- Miners 《砂丁》，1933
- Germination 《萌芽》，1933
- A Dream of the Sea 《海的梦》，1932
- Autumn in Spring 《春天里的秋天》，1932
- The "Torrents" Trilogy 《激流三部曲》
- The Family 《家》，1933
- Spring 《春》，1938
- Autumn 《秋》，1940
- Lina 《利娜》，1940
- Fires 《火》(in three volumes)，1940–1945
- Stars 《星》(English-Chinese bilingual)，1941
- A Garden of Repose 《憩园》，novella，1944
- Ward No 4 《第四病室》，1946
- Cold Nights 《寒夜》，1947
- Ba Jin: An Autobiography 《巴金自传》，1934
- I Remember 《忆》，1936
- Thinking Back on Childhood 《童年的回忆》，1984
- (coauthor)Anarchism and its Practical Problems 《无政府主义与实际问题》，1927
- From Capitalism to Anarchism 《从资本主义到安那其主义》，1930
- A Walk by the Sea 《海行》，1932
- Travel Notes 《旅途随笔》，1934
- Droplets of Life 《点滴》，1935
- Confessions of Living 《生之忏悔》，1936
- Brief Notes 《短简》，1937
- I Accuse 《控诉》，1937
- Dreaming and Drunkenness 《梦与醉》，1938
- Thoughts and Feelings 《感想》，1939
- Black Earth 《黑土》，1939
- Untitled 《无题》，1941
- Dragons, Tigers and Dogs 《龙·虎·狗》，1941
- Outside the Derelict Garden 《废园外》，1942
- Travel Notes 《旅途杂记》，1946
- Remembering 《怀念》，1947
- Tragedy of a Still Night 《静夜的悲剧》，1948
- The Nazi Massacre Factory: Auschwitz 《纳粹杀人工厂—奥斯威辛》，1951
- Warsaw Festivals: Notes in Poland 《华沙城的节日—波兰杂记》，1951
- The Consoling Letter and Others 《慰问信及其他》，1951
- Living Amongst Heroes 《生活书局在英雄们中间》，1953
- They Who Defend Peace 《保卫和平的人们》，1954
- On Chekhov 《谈契河夫》，1955
- Days of Great Joy 《大欢乐的日子》，1957
- Strong Warriors 《坚强的战士》，1957
- A Battle for Life 《—场挽救生命的战斗》，1958
- New Voices: A Collection 《新声集》，1959
- Friendship: A Collection 《友谊集》，1959
- Eulogies: A Collection 《赞歌集》，1960
- Feelings I Can't Express 《倾吐不尽的感情》，1963
- Lovely by the Bridge 《贤良桥畔》，1964
- Travels to Dazhai 《大寨行》，1965
- Ba Jin: New Writings，1978–1980
- Smorching Smoke 《烟火集》，1979
- Random Thoughts 《随想录》，1978-86
- Thinking Back on Writing 《创作回忆录》1981
- Exploration and Memories 《探索与回忆》，1982
- Afterwords: A Collection 《序跋集》，1982
- Remembrance: A Collection 《忆念集》，1982
- Ba Jin: On Writing 《巴金论创作》，1983
- Literature: Recollections (with Lao She) 《文学回忆录》1983
- To Earth to Dust 《愿化泥土》，1984
- I Accuse: A Collection 《控诉集》，1985
- In My Heart 《心里话》，1986
- Ten Years, One Dream 《十年一梦》，1986
- More Thoughts 《再思录》，1995
- To Our Young Friends Looking for Aspirations 《寻找理想的少年朋友》，1987
- Snow and Dirt 《雪泥集》，1987
- Collected Letters of Ba Jin 《巴金书信集》， 1991