Ba Jin

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ba Jin
The Family, Spring, and Autumn
Love Trilogy: Fog, Rain, and Lightning
Notable awards1983: Legion of Honour
1990: Fukuoka Prize (special prize)
Spouse
Xiao Shan
(m. 1936; died 1972)
Hanyu Pinyin
Lǐ Yáotáng
Wade–GilesLi3 Yao2-t'ang2
IPA[lì jǎʊ tʰǎŋ]

Li Yaotang (

The Family
.

Name

He was born as Li Yaotang,[1] with alternate name Li Feigan or Li Pei Kan (in Wade–Giles).[2][4] The first word of his pen name may have been taken from Ba Enbo, his classmate who committed suicide in Paris, which was admitted by himself,[5][6] or from the first syllable of the surname of the Russian anarchist Mikhail Bakunin;[7][1] 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).[8][9][10]

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".[11][12] In 1919, Ba read Kropotkin's An Appeal to the Young and converted to anarchism.[13]

It was partly owing to boredom that Ba Jin began to write his first novel, Miewang 灭亡 (“Destruction”).[14] 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.[15]

During the Cultural Revolution, Ba Jin was heavily persecuted as a counter-revolutionary.[1] His wife since 1944, Xiao Shan, died of cancer in 1972.[1] He asked that a Cultural Revolution Museum be set up in 1981.[16] The Shantou Cultural Revolution Museum referenced the influence of Ba Jin on its establishment through displaying a depiction of his at the entrance[17] as well as a quote of his, "Every town in China should establish a museum about the Cultural Revolution."[18]

Ba Jin's works were heavily influenced by foreign writers, including Émile Zola, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Herzen, Anton Chekhov, and Emma Goldman.[19]

Ba Jin suffered from Parkinson's disease beginning in 1983. The illness confined him to Huadong Hospital in Shanghai from 1998.[2]

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
    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
    Robert Graham
    . Montreal: Black Rose Books.
  • (2012) Ward Four: A Novel of Wartime China (trans. Howard Goldblatt). San Francisco: .

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
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

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f "Obituary: Ba Jin, Chinese novelist and anarchist". The New York Times. 17 October 2005. Archived from the original on 23 August 2021. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Gittings, John (18 October 2005). "Ba Jin (Obituary)". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 July 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  3. .
  4. ^ Gandini, Jean-Jacques (1995). "Ba Jin revisité [Destruction et A la mémoire de Ba Jin traduits et présentés par Angel Pino et Isabelle Rabut]". Perspectives Chinoises (in French). 31 (1): 69–71. Archived from the original on 25 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021. que Ba était un hommage à un camarade de classe, Ba Enbo, rencontré lors de son séjour en France en 1927 et dont il apprit......
  5. ^ "Pa Kin, grande figure de la littérature chinoise du XXe siècle". Le Monde (in French). 2005-10-18. Archived from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 17 June 2021. le "Pa" n'a rien à voir avec Bakounine (prononcé en chinois Pa-ku-ning), mais s'inspire d'un certain Pa Enbo, un ami chinois de Château-Thierry qui s'était suicidé en se jetant dans une rivière.
  6. from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  7. from the original on 2021-06-24. Retrieved 17 June 2021. ......from the name for Peter Kropotkin (Ke-lu-pao-te-jin).
  8. from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  9. ^ "Obituary: Ba Jin". the Guardian. 2005-10-18. Archived from the original on 2016-07-30. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  10. .
  11. . Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  12. . Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  13. ^ Jaroslav Průšek and Zbigniew Słupski, eds., Dictionary of Oriental Literatures: East Asia (Charles Tuttle, 1978): 135-136.
  14. ^ 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.
  15. ^ Sippel, Nana (18 May 2017). ""Mystifizierung der Kulturrevolution" (Interview with Nora Sausmikat)" (in German). de:Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Archived from the original on 14 August 2020. Retrieved 28 August 2021.
  16. .
  17. ^ Coonan, Clifford (27 June 2005). "Shining a light on Mao's dark era". The Irish Times. Archived from the original on 9 April 2022. Retrieved 23 August 2021.
  18. ^ 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).

Further reading

Films

  • Return from Silence: Five prominent and controversial Chinese writers speak on their roles in the modernization of China. (1 hour video cassette available) — The life and work of five esteemed Chinese writers whose modern classics shaped China's past: Ba Jin, Mao Dun, Ding Ling, Cao Yu, and Ai Qing. Produced by Chung-wen Shih, George Washington University, 1982.

External links

Cultural offices
Preceded by Chairman of China Writers Association
1984–2005
Succeeded by
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