|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
March 8, 2014 |
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Ye Shengtao (28 October 1894?1988) was a prominent author, educator and publisher. He was one of the founders of the Association for Literary Studies (文學研究會), the first literature association during the May Fourth Movement in China. Throughout his life, he was dedicated to publishing and language education. His strongest advocation was 'Literature is for Life' (文學為人生). Image:Ye03.gif|frame|left|Young Ye Shengtao Early life Ye was born on 28 October, 1894 in Wu county (吳縣), Suzhou (蘇州市), Jiangsu Province, China. 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 (草橋中學). 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” (《禮拜六》 “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 (甲午戰爭),the Hundred Days Reform (戊戌政變 / 百日維新), and later the Sphere of Influence (列強割據). His early life experiences affected his sense of nationalism and contributed to his later career as a journalist and an educator. Career in literary movement Throughout his life, Ye worked a lot for literary movement. Under the influences of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 (Wu-si Yundong 五四運動) commonly known as the “New Culture Movement” 新文化運動), Ye indulged himself in his literary career. He participated in a student organization called 'Xinchao She' (“New Tide Society” 新潮社1919-1920) of the Beijing University (北京大學), and started publishing fictions, poems, prose, literary criticism and scripts of drama etc. Ye was also an editor in PuShe( 樸社, 1923), a bookstore held by literators at that time. In 1921, Ye, Mao Dun (茅盾, 1896-1981) and Zheng Zhenduo (鄭振鐸, 1898-1958) founded the earliest literary society of the New Literature Movement, the "Wenxue Yanjiu Hui", (文學研究會 "Association for Literary Studies"), advocating realism art but rejecting the principle “Art is for Art's Sake”. In 1936, Ye,Mao Dun and Hung Sen(洪深)established the "Chinese Literature and Art Society"(Zhongguo Wenyi jia Xiegui 中國文藝家協會).In 1941, he became a editorial committee of the "Teaching for Literature and History"?(Wenshi Jiaoxue 文史教學). Ye was one of the establishers of the "Literary Alliance for Anti-Japanese Imperialism" (文藝界反帝抗日大聯盟). Political Life Ye was responsible for a number of posts in the authority. Following the Liberation, Ye served as the Vice-director of General Administration of Press and Publication (出版總署副署長), the President of People Education Publication (人民教育出版社社長), and the Vice-minister of Ministry of Education (教育部副部長) etc. He was also elected as the Committee of the Fifth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (第五屆全國人大常委委員), the National Committee of The Fifth Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC — 第五屆全國政協常委委員), and the Chairman of China Association for Promoting Democracy (民進中央主席). Ye died in Beijing on 16 February 1988 at the age of 94.
For Ye, education and journalism were inseparable. The goal of education is not to educate."(「教是為了不教」) Ye had a great impact on improving the Modern Chinese language education.He brought a new idea to the Chinese educators, i.e. students should be taught the methods of learning, instead of the long and detailed content in books. This idea was a breakthrough in traditional Chinese education, which used to rely heavily on memorization and indoctrination. Also, Ye promoted critical thinking and the importance of personal value judgement. He suggested that these learning skills should be built within the students and were the basis for students' life-long learning. Literature is for life (文學為人生) Ye was passionate in reflecting the real life in his works:
Most of his journalistic works were inspired by people's lives. He believed that literature was not only for leisure, but also a tool to reveal life and stimulate readers to contemplate the reality. He felt obliged to let reader know what was actually happening around. This was one of the reasons why he wanted to combine literature with journalism. He thought that literary works should also be used to arouse youngsters' awareness and responsiveness towards society . This ideology resembles the journalisic principle of telling the truth. Ye was also a reporter of life. Readability(易讀性) Image:Yeandzhu.gif|frame|right|Mr. Ye(left) and Mr. Zhu Ziqing Readability was a prominent characteristic in Ye's works. It means how efficient a reader can perceive and understand a passage.As a journalist, Ye put great emphasis on the use of language. It might because of the fact that he had been a teacher for more than 10 years before he became an editor. He thought that writings were for reader and he considered writing as a means of communication between readers and authors. A major problem of the writers at that period was that they were not equipped with good writing skills.Their wordings were inaccurate and vague in meaning. Very often, only well educated people could appreciate their works. The writers neglected the importance of practicability. Hence,literature was not promoted to the general public. Ye thought that one could only write something artistic unless one could write something practical and understandable. It would be useless if the readers could not even understand the content.
"My first career, I would say, is editor." ?If anybody asks about my career, I would say, my first career is editor, second is teacher,? Ye said. 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 quited the post in the Shanghai Commercial Press and became the editor of Kaiming Press(Kaiming Shu Dian 開明書店). He started to edit books on Chinese language and storybooks for children. ?Editing is no easy task.? To Ye, being an editor was never simply a job, but a career.?Recklessness is strictly forbidden in editing, you have to check everything in person. Editors must be earnest to their publications, their reporters, and their readers.? Editor plays an important role in monitoring the final outcome. Ye suggested that ?seriousness? is the key of being a successful editor. He had always upheld this attitude in his works. Ye devoted himself to editing and publishing for his whole life . His enthusiasm on his ?first and ultimate? career had never stopped . 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. Ye's Publications In his entire life, Ye was very much involved in the field of journalism. From 1925 to 1929 was Ye's new era of publications.He edited many famous magazines and newspapers, below are some of his works: New Era for Modern Publishing Ye's vision in modern Chinese language catalyzed the development of modern journalism in China. Ye was eager to advocate the standardization of modern Chinese language including the standardization of grammar, rhetoric, vocabulary, punctuation, simplified character, and the elimination of variant characters (異體字). He also compiled and standardized the Chinese character for publishing and formulated the Chinese Phoneticization Scheme (Hanyu Pinyin Fang?an 《漢語拼音方案》). All his efforts helped to improve the quality and organization of editorial work. Most importantly, Ye promoted the vernacular Chinese (白話文) in publishing. His magazines and newspapers were mostly published in vernacular style, which greatly facilitated other journalists and readers to read. All these contributed to the rapid development of modern journalism in China. Ye was an excellent educator and talent scout, too. He educated and discovered many outstanding young authors and editors like Ba Jin (巴金 1904-), Ding Ling (丁玲 1904-1986), and Dai Wangshu (戴望舒 1905-1950).
The establishment of ?The Truth Daily" ---- Background of The May Thirtieth Movement On the 30th of May, 1925, a bloody massacre took place in Shanghai, known as May Thirtieth Movement(五卅運動 Wǔs?- y?nd?ng). About 2000 Shanghai workers and students ushered in a vigorous anti-imperialist movement, protesting imperialist domination and demanding to abolish the unfair treaties. The demonstrators thundered "Down with the imperialists!". Workers throughout China responded with a general strike and mass demonstrations. British police then suppressed the demonstrators with violence and killed 12 Chinese in the event. Till the 1st of June, more than 20 Chinese were killed. “Who will tell the truth?” None of the Shanghai newspapers reported this tragedy .The front-page news were mainly the gossip of the players of Chinese opera. The Shanghai newspapers refused to mention this incident because of political pressure. As a journalist, Ye denounced “Why are the journalists so hardhearted to ignore this shocking massacre? Why are they so afraid of the fact? It’s ridiculous that nobody would tell the truth.” Ye thus founded “Gōnglǐ R?b?o” (“The Truth Daily”《公理日報》) with Zheng Zhenduo and Hu yuzhi (胡愈之1896－1986),aimed to reveal the whole picture of this tragedy regardless of the imperialist power,in order to arouse the awareness and nationalism of the general public and also to promote "the spirit of May 30th movement" across China. A New Way to Journalism In addition to reporting the truth, “The Truth Daily” provided a forum for public discussion, called “Sh?hu? C?ip?nsuǒ” (“Tribunal of the Society”〈社會裁判所〉), 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. This newspaper served as a watchdog over the despotic power, and initiated the concept of “freedom of press” in the early modern Chinese society. Image:Gonglinews.jpg|frame|right|Copies of "The Truth Daily" (http://www.library.sh.cn/dzyd/gcjx/list.asp?id=147from Shanghai Library) Due to financial difficulties and disagreement among the editors,"The Truth Daily" finally terminated after running for 22 days. Yet Ye has never stopped pursuing the truth. After the Second Sino-Japanese War (K?ngr? Zh?nzhēng 抗日戰爭,1937-1945), he participated in the struggle against Nationalist government, striving for democracy and the freedom of press.
Realism: the mirror of life Realism became the most sustainable hallmark of Ye Shengtao. Ye was one of the Pioneers in realistic writing. His writing was like a mirror, reflecting the rotten side of society and human traits. Being an educationalist, Ye had many narrations on intellectuals in his works. Many of the potagonists in Ye's works were the exploited, the disabled and the prosecuted who were in lower social class.Ye had worked consistently on reflecting the truth and reality in his works. He expressed his democratic and socialist ideas through his novel series such as "The Fire"(Huozai 《火災》),"Under the Horizon"(Xi?n xi? 《線下》)and ."A scarecrow" (D?o cao r?n 《稻草人》.These pieces focused on the suffocation of the lower class people.His highly praised fiction "Ni Huanzhi" 《倪煥之 》 revealed the pathetic life of an intellectual called "Ni Huanzhi". Ye discovered that many people in the New China were selfish, apathetic, hypocratic and conservative.People gave up their values in exchange for a stable life. Ye's works shared a sense of irony. He expressed his discontent in a bid to arouse the awareness of the public towards these social weaknesses.Ye was not only writing stories, but also reporting the fallacies in society.His writings were not only for leisure but feeding the rest by knowing and reflecting the reality, ”?the basic requirement for writing fiction is a pair of penetrating and observat eyes and my eyes are not penetrating enough?Of course, it is not necessary to train one?s eyes just for the sake of writing but trained eyes do, in reality, nourish life. ” (Ye Shengtao, 'Guoqu Suitan', op. cit., p. 46.) Children Literature: A mind training for the young Ye's first academic essay was about children literature, called Children's Concept(兒童之觀念), criticizing how fedualism affected children's lives in China. In fact, Ye was the first writer who created fairy tales in the 1920's. His writing "A Scarecrow"(D?o cǎo r?n 《稻草人》) was published in 1923. This childern?s reading was very popular among numerous youngsters. Another 'fairy tale was "A Stone Figure of an Anient Hero".(Gǔdāi yīngxi?ng de sh?xi?ng 《古代英雄的石像》)This story was about a stone which had been sculptured into a hero statue.The message behind this easy-to-read story was to ridicule the authorities who were arrogant and insensitive to his people. Ye's student Ding Ling once praised that his fairy tales were able to induce readers to think more about the society. Ye's fairy tales were simple, yet, with deep meaning inside it. He believed that children should have an understanding of their surrounding so as to enhance their criticial power. Through Ye's stories, children could gradually acquire a clearer picture of society and their relationships with it. Image:Ye's_memorial_hall.jpg|frame|right|Memorial Hall of Ye in BaoSheng Temple Language and Rhetoric Ye's language was refined and eloquent, and was known for his ability to choose just the right words to express himself. Ye emphasized the importance of feeling and emotion throughout his journals. Characters in Ye?s work were vivid and he deeply penetrated into and shared their inner feelings. The popular writer Zhao Jing Shen (趙景深) held that Ye was a special figure in the field of literature, describing him transcendent and extraordinary. The beauty of his works lasted despite any conditions. The expression of emotions and feelings were built on the basis of truth and reality that made his stories full of power. "Emotion seems like the shinning light, while description and assessment are spotted by this light," Ye said. This speech somehow showed that Ye was not only a story teller, but a great artist. Influx of Foreign Elements Ye's realistic writing style became the role model for many other writers. He also admitted that reading different western pieces did help him a lot on his writing,“If I hadn't read English, if I had not got in touch with literature in English, I wouldn't have written novels. ” His works were retrospective, thoughtful and critical. They were not only based on feeling, but on actual and objective observations.Ye was not only a writer, but also a reporter.These insights became the rich ingredients in his works.He shaped a new dimension to Chinese modern literature. Image:Weyechu.jpg|frame|left|Weiyanju Xizuo "An Exercise in Weiyanju" 《未厭居習作》(1935) Image:Yeshengtaobook.jpg|frame|left|Ye Shengtao Sanwen "Ye Shengtao's Proses"《葉聖陶散文》(1983) Literature
Journalism
External links
Category:Chinese writers|Ye Shengtao Category:1894 births|Ye Shengtao Category:1988 deaths|Ye Shengtao This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Ye Shengtao".
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![[F]](/images/site.gif){kind=small}
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|||
|
All informatin on the site is © FamousChinese.com 2002-2005. Last revised: January 2, 2004 Are you interested in our site or/and want to use our information? please read how to contact us and our copyrights. To post your business in our web site? please click here. To send any comments to us, please use the Feedback. To let us provide you with high quality information, you can help us by making a more or less donation: |