Ba Jin

Li Yaotang (; 25 November 1904 – 17 October 2005), better known by his pen name Ba Jin () or his courtesy name Li Feigan (), was a Chinese anarchist, translator, and writer. In addition to his impact on Chinese literature, he also wrote three original works in Esperanto,Geoffrey Sutton, Concise Encyclopedia of the Original Literature of Esperanto , p. 180, Ed. Mondial, New York, and as a political activist he wrote The Family.

Name He was born as Li Yaotang, with alternate name Li Feigan or Li Pei Kan (in Wade–Giles). The first word of his pen name may have been taken from Ba Embo, his classmate who committed suicide in Paris, which was admitted by himself, or from the first syllable of the surname of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin;Many sources claim it comes from the Chinese transliteration of Mikhail Bakunin, and he refused to admit because of communists' harsh condemnation of Bakunin, who was an open rival of Marx. See: and the last character of which is the Chinese equivalent of the last syllable of Russian anarchist Peter Kropotkin (克鲁泡特金, Ke-lu-pao-te-jin).

Biography

On November 25, 1904, Li Yaotang was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, into a wealthy Li family. The family's wealth came mainly from the land acquired by his grandfather and father when they were officials, and Li Yaotang sometimes described his family as a "typical landlord's family". In 1919, Ba read Kropotkin's An Appeal to the Young and converted to anarchism.

Ba Jin left Chengdu to attend school in eastern China in 1923, and then traveled to France to study in 1927. It was partly owing to boredom that Ba Jin began to write his first novel, Miewang ("Destruction").Jaroslav Průšek and Zbigniew Słupski, eds., Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: East Asia (Charles Tuttle, 1978): 135-136. In France, Ba Jin continued his anarchist activism, translating many anarchist works, including Kropotkin's Ethics, into Chinese, which was mailed back to Shanghai's anarchist magazines for publication.See Angel Pino, “Ba Jin as Translator,” tr. Ian MacCabe, in Peng Hsiao-yen & Isabelle Rabut (eds.), Modern China and the West: Translation and Cultural Mediation. Leiden-Boston: Brill, “East Asian Comparative Literature and Culture” (2), 2014, 28-105.

During the Cultural Revolution, Ba Jin was heavily persecuted as a counter-revolutionary. In his memoir, Ba Jin also wrote about his own participation in the persecution of friends and acquaintances. He asked that a Cultural Revolution Museum be set up in 1981. Ba Jin stated that such museums could include "concrete and real objects" and reconstruct "striking scenes" of the Cultural Revolution in order to engrave the upheaval of the period in Chinese national memory. In his view, passing on to later generations memories of this "catastrophic era" would help avoid history repeating itself. Ba Jin did not attempt to implement his proposal for a Cultural Revolution museum.

The Shantou Cultural Revolution Museum referenced the influence of Ba Jin on its establishment through displaying a depiction of his at the entrance as well as a quote of his, "Every town in China should establish a museum about the Cultural Revolution."

Some critics of Ba Jin noted that his vision of a Cultural Revolution did not deviate much from the official judgment on the period contained in the 1981 Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party since the Founding of the People's Republic of China and that he did not propose how to treat the actions and figure of Mao Zedong in such a museum. Other critics contended that Ba Jin's vision privileged the suffering of elites during the Cultural Revolution and ignored the experience of the poor, many of whom remembered the Mao era as when they first received job security and health care, or who may remember the period as a time of simple virtue and close communities.

Ba Jin contributed calligraphy to photographer Yang Kelin's 1995 two volume work, The Cultural Revolution Museum.

Ba Jin's works were heavily influenced by foreign writers, including Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Herzen, Anton Chekhov, and Emma Goldman.He described Goldman as his "spiritual mother", and dedicated The General to her. See Preface, The General, and Olga Lang, Pa Chin and His Writings: Chinese Youth Between the Wars (Harvard University Press, 1967).

His married wife since 1944, Xiao Shan, died of cancer in 1972.

Ba Jin suffered from Parkinson's disease beginning in 1983. The illness confined him to Huadong Hospital in Shanghai from 1998. He died in 2005, aged 100.

Bibliography

English translations (1954) Living Amongst Heroes. Beijing: Foreign Language Press. (1958) The Family. (trans. Sidney Shapiro) Beijing: Foreign Language Press. (1959) A battle for life: a full record of how the life of steel worker, Chiu Tsai-kang, was saved in the Shanghai Kwangrze Hospital. Beijing: Foreign Language Press. (1978) Cold Nights (trans. Nathan K. Mao and Liu Ts'un-yan) Hong Kong: Chinese University press. (1984) Random Thoughts (trans. Germie Barm&ecute). Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Company. (Partial translation of Suizianglu) (1988) Selected works of Ba Jin (trans. Sidney Shapiro and Jock Hoe) Beijing: Foreign Language Press. (Includes The Family, Autumn in Spring, Garden of Repose, Bitter Cold Nights) (1999) Ward Four: A Novel of Wartime China (trans. Haili Kong and Howard Goldblatt). San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc. (2005) "How to Build a Society of Genuine Freedom and Equality"(1921), "Patriotism and the Road to Happiness for the Chinese"(1921) and "Anarchism and the Question of Practice"(1927) in Anarchism: A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas, Volume 1: From Anarchy to Anarchism (300CE-1939), ed. Robert Graham. Montreal: Black Rose Books. (2012) Ward Four: A Novel of Wartime China (trans. Howard Goldblatt). San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc. .

Ba Jin stories in collections Arzybasheff, M. (1927). "Morning Shadows?" in Tales of the Revolution. Tr. Percy Pinkerton. New York Huebsch. (1927). "Workingman Shevyrev." in Tales of the Revolution, tr. Percy Pinkerton. New York: Huebsch.

Works

Short story collections 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

Children's literature The Immortality Pagoda 《长生塔》, 1937 The Pearl and the Jade Concubine 《明珠和玉姬》, 1957

Novels and novellas 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

Autobiography and memoirs Ba Jin: An Autobiography 《巴金自传》, 1934 I Remember 《忆》, 1936 Thinking Back on Childhood 《童年的回忆》, 1984

Non-fiction (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

Letters To Our Young Friends Looking for Aspirations 《寻找理想的少年朋友》, 1987 The Collection of the Snow and Mud – All the Remaining Letters Written by Ba Jin to Yang Yi 《雪泥集》, 1987 Collected Letters of Ba Jin 《巴金书信集》, 1991

Others A Battle For Life Partial excerpt of English translation of Ba Jin's dedication to Emma Goldman How Are We To Establish A Truly Free And Egalitarian Society?, 1921 Nationalism and the Road to Happiness for the Chinese, 1921 Letter from Ba Jin to the CRIA (International Anarchist Liaison Commission, Paris), 18 March 1949 A Museum of the "Cultural Revolution", 1986

Ba Jin

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