Ye Shengtao (28 October 1894 â 16 February 1988) also known as Ye Shaojun, was a Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician. He was a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (), the first literature association during the May Fourth Movement in China. He served as the Vice-Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of China.
Ye was born on 28 October 1894 in Wu County, Jiangsu province. His name at birth was Ye Shaojun (), and his courtesy name was Bingchen (). His father worked as a bookkeeper for a landlord and they lived a very modest life. When he was six years old, he entered a mediocre school for primary study. He often followed his father to work. He travelled around the city and experienced the lives of the poor.
In 1907, Ye entered Caoqiao Secondary School (). After his graduation, he worked as a primary school teacher, before being dismissed by the school in 1914. Finding himself unemployed, he devoted himself entirely to writing classical Chinese novels, which were published in "Libailiu Magazine" (ãÂÂ禮æÂÂå Âã "Saturday Magazine"), until he found work as the Chinese teacher of a school set up by the Shanghai Commercial Press (). At the same time, he became the editor of primary textbooks of the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1915.
Ye had been living in an era of instability, including the 1894 Sino-Japanese War, the Hundred Days' Reform, and later the Sphere of Influence (). His early life experiences affected his sense of nationalism and contributed to his later career as a journalist and an educator.
Under the influences of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 commonly known as the New Culture Movement, Ye indulged himself in his literary career. He participated in a student organization called 'Xinchao She' ("New Tide Society" æ°潮社 1919-1920) of Peking University, and started publishing fictions, poems, prose, literary criticism and scripts of drama etc. Ye was also an editor in PuShe (樸社, 1923). In 1921, Ye, Mao Dun and Zheng Zhenduo founded the earliest literary society of the New Literature Movement, the "Wenxue Yanjiu Hui", (æÂÂå¸ç Â究æ "Association for Literary Studies"), advocating realism art but rejecting the principle "Art is for Art's Sake".
Ye had spent much of his life on editing and publishing. The Shanghai Commercial Press was the starting point of Ye's editorship. He became the editor of the press since 1923.
By the end of 1930, Ye quit the post in the Shanghai Commercial Press and became the editor of Kaiming Press (Kaiming Shu Dian éÂÂæÂÂæ¸åºÂ). He started to edit books on Chinese language and storybooks for children.
In 1936, Ye, Mao Dun and Hong Shen () established the "Chinese Literature and Art Society" (Zhongguo Wenyi jia Xiehui ä¸ÂÃ¥ÂÂæÂÂèÂÂ家åÂÂæÂÂ). In 1941, he became an editorial committee of the "Teaching for Literature and History"" (Wenshi Jiaoxue æÂÂå²æÂÂå¸). Ye was one of the establishers of the "Literary Alliance for Anti-Japanese Imperialism" ().
Ye devoted himself to editing and publishing for his whole life . During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ye moved to Leshan with his family and worked as a professor at the Department of Chinese at Wuhan University . In 1946, he returned to Shanghai and resumed his editorship at Kaiming Press.
On 30 May 1925, a bloody massacre took place in Shanghai, known as May Thirtieth Movement (äºÂå éÂÂå WÃÂsà- yùndòng). About 2000 Shanghai workers and students protested against it. British police then suppressed the demonstrators with violence and killed 12 Chinese in the event. Till 1 June, more than 20 Chinese were killed.
None of the Shanghai newspapers reported this incident. Ye denounced their silence and founded Gà ÂnglàRìbào (The Truth Daily ãÂÂå ¬çÂÂæ¥報ãÂÂ) with Zheng Zhenduo and Hu Yuzhi (è¡æÂÂä¹Â1896ï¼Â1986) in response.
In addition to reporting the truth, The Truth Daily ãÂÂå ¬çÂÂæÂ¥æÂ¥ãÂÂprovided a forum for public discussion, called "Shèhuì CáipànsuÃÂ" ("Tribunal of the Society"ãÂÂ社æÂÂè£Âå¤æÂÂãÂÂ), which encouraged reader to express their viewpoints towards the society. Ye and other editors of The Truth Daily severely criticized the unfairness of the society.
Due to financial difficulties and disagreement among the editors, The Truth Daily finally terminated after running for 22 days.
Ye advocated the standardization of modern Chinese language including the standardization of grammar, rhetoric, vocabulary, punctuation, simplified character, and the elimination of variant characters (). He also compiled and standardized the Chinese character for publishing and formulated the Chinese Phoneticization Scheme (Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an ãÂÂæ¼¢èªÂæ¼é³æ¹æ¡ÂãÂÂ).
Ye also promoted vernacular Chinese in publishing. His magazines and newspapers were mostly published in vernacular style, which greatly facilitated other journalists and readers to read.
Ye was also an educator who educated many outstanding young authors and editors like Ba Jin, Ding Ling, and Dai Wangshu.
Realism became the most sustainable hallmark of Ye Shengtao. Many of the protagonists in Ye's works were the exploited, the disabled and the prosecuted who were in lower social class. He expressed his democratic and socialist ideas through his novel series such as "The Fire" (Huozai ãÂÂç«ç½ãÂÂ), "Under the Horizon"(Xiàn xiàãÂÂç·Âä¸ÂãÂÂ) and "A scarecrow" (Dào cao rén ãÂÂ稻èÂÂ人ãÂÂ. These pieces focused on the suffocation of the lower-class people. His highly praised fiction "Ni Huanzhi" ãÂÂåª砥习ã revealed the pathetic life of an intellectual called "Ni Huanzhi".
Ye's first academic essay was about children's literature, called Children's Concept (), criticizing how feudalism affected children's lives in China.
His writing The Scarecrow (Dào cÃÂo rén ãÂÂ稻èÂÂ人ãÂÂ) was published in 1923. This children's reading was very popular among numerous youngsters. Another 'fairy tale was "A Stone Figure of an Ancient Hero". (GÃÂdÃÂi yëngxióng de shÃÂxiàng ãÂÂå¤代è±éÂÂçÂÂç³åÂÂãÂÂ) This story was about a stone which had been sculpted into a hero statue.
Ye's student, Ding Ling, once praised that his fairy tales were able to induce readers to think more about the society.
The popular writer Zhao Jingshen () held that Ye was a special figure in the field of literature, describing him transcendent and extraordinary.
Ye was responsible for a number of posts in the authority. Following the Communist Revolution, Ye served as the Vice-director of General Administration of Press and Publication (), the President of People Education Publication (), and the Vice-Minister of Education. He was also elected as the Committee of the Fifth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the National Committee of The Fifth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the Chairman of China Association for Promoting Democracy.
Ye died in Beijing on 16 February 1988 at the age of 93.
Ye Shengtao Memorial Hall is located at the former site of The 5th High School where Ye Shengtao taught from 1917 to 1922. It is located beside the Baosheng Temple in Luzhi township, Wuzhong district of Suzhou city.