Ba Jin | |
|---|---|
 Ba Jin in 1938 | |
| Born | Li Yaotang[1] / Li Feigan[2] 25 November 1904 Chengdu, Sichuan, Qing dynasty, China |
| Died | 17 October 2005 (aged 100) Shanghai, People's Republic of China |
| Pen name | Ba Jin |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Notable works | Turbulent Stream: The Family, Spring, and Autumn Love Trilogy: Fog, Rain, and Lightning |
| Notable awards | 1983: Legion of Honour 1990: Fukuoka Prize (special prize) |
| Spouse |
Xiao Shan
(m. 1936; died 1972) |
| Children | Li Xiaolin Li Xiao |
| Ba Jin | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 巴金 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 李堯棠 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 李尧棠 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Li Yaotang (simplified Chinese: 李尧棠; traditional Chinese: 李堯棠; pinyin: Lǐ Yáotáng; 25 November 1904 – 17 October 2005), better known by his pen name Ba Jin (Chinese: 巴金; pinyin: Bā Jīn) or his courtesy name Li Feigan (Chinese: 李芾甘; pinyin: Lǐ Fèigān), was a Chinese anarchist, translator, and writer. In addition to his impact on Chinese literature, he also wrote three original works in Esperanto,[3] and as a political activist he wrote The Family.
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]
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]
