Ye Shengtao

Ye Shengtao
Traditional Chinese	葉聖陶
Simplified Chinese	叶圣陶
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yè Shèngtáo Wade–Giles Yeh Sheng-t'ao

In this Chinese name, the family name is Ye.

Ye Shengtao (28 October 1894 – 16 February 1988) was a Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician. He was a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (文學研究會), 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.

Throughout his life, he was dedicated to publishing and language education. He subscribed to the philosophy that "Literature is for Life" (文學為人生).

Educational and journalistic ideologies

Literature is for life (文學為人生)

Ye was passionate in reflecting the real life in his works:

In retrospect, I seem never to have written about anything of which I had only vague or hazy knowledge. In other words, I cannot write anything by merely imagining it, though I do not banish the element of fancy. I lived in cities, towns and villages, and I wrote what I had observed there. As a teacher, I knew something about life in educational circles and I wrote about that. In a rather elementary and superficial way I watched the gradual development of the Chinese Revolution and I wrote about that too.

— Hsia, C.T., A History of Modern Chinese Fiction, op. cit., p.59.

Contribution to literature

Ye discovered that many people in the New China were selfish, apathetic, hypocritic 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 observant 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's 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 feudalism affected children's lives in China.

In fact, Ye was the first writer who created fairy tales in the 1920s. His writing "A Scarecrow"(Dào cǎo rén 《稻草人》) 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". (Gǔdāi yīngxióng de shíxiàng 《古代英雄的石像》) This story was about a stone which had been sculpted 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 works

Literature

• "The Snowing Morning" Xuě zhāo 《雪朝》 (co-written with Zhu Ziqing etc.) (Poems) 1922
• "A scarecrow" Dào cǎo rén 《稻草人》 (Novel) 1923
• "Under the horizon" Xiàn xià 《線下》 (Short stories) 1925
• "Ní Huànzhī (the name of the character)" 《倪煥之 》 (Novel) 1929
• "A Stone Figure of an Ancient Hero" Gǔ dài yīng xióng de shí xiàng. 《古代英雄的石像》 (Fairy-tales) 1931 .
• "The Heart of Literature" Wén xīn 《文心》 (Educational) 1934 (co-written with Xia Mianzun 夏丏尊)
• An Exercise in Weiyanju" Wèi yàn jū xí zuò 《未厭居習作》 ( Prose) 1935
• "The Collections of Ye Shengtao's Short Stories" Shèngtáo duǎn piān xiǎo shuō jí 《聖陶短篇小說集》 (Short Stories collections)) 1936
• "Selected Collections of Ye Shengtao" Yè Shàojūn xuǎn jí 《葉紹鈞選集》 (Collectanea) 1936
• "A Guide to Skimming" Luè dú zhǐ dǎo jǔ yù 《略讀指導舉隅》1946, (co-written with Zhu Ziqing)
• "The Study of Fairy Tales" értóng Wénxué Yánjiū 《兒童文學研究》1947
• "A Guide to Intensive Reading" Jīng dú zhǐ dǎo jǔ yù 《精讀指導舉隅》 1948
• "Recordings of Writing" Xiě zuò zá tán 《寫作雜談》 1951
• "Selected fairy-tales of Ye" Yè Shèngtáo tónghuà xuǎn 《葉聖陶童話選》 (Fairy-Tale) 1956
• "Ye Shengtao's Collectanea" Yè Shèngtáo chūbǎn wénjí.《葉聖陶出版文集》1958
• "Resistance" Kàng zhēng 《抗爭》 (Short stories) 1959
• "The Night" Yè 《 夜》 1959
• "An ordinary story"《Píng cháng de gù shì 《平常的故事》 1959
• "Light wave" Wēi bō 《微波》 1959
• "The Collection of Poems" Qiè cún jí 《篋存集 》 (Poems) 1960
• "Mr Pan Weathered the Storm" Pān xiān shēng zài nàn zhōng 《潘先生在難中》 (Short Stories) 1964
• "Ye Shengtao's Proses" Yè Shèngtáo Sǎnwén 《葉聖陶散文》 (Proses) 1983
• "I & Sichuan" Wǒ yǔ Sìchuān 《我與四川》 (proses & poems) 1984
• "The Speaking of Literary works" Wén zhāng jiǎnghuà 《文章講話》 (co-written with Xia Mianzun 夏丏尊) (Educational) 1997
• "72 Topics about Literature" Wén huà qī shí èr jiǎng 《文話七十二講》 (Educational) 1999, (co-written with Xia Mianzun 夏丏尊)

Journalism

• "Saturday Magazine" Lǐbàiliù Magazine《禮拜六》
• "Shanghai News of Current Affairs" Shànghǎi Shíshì　Xīnbào《上海時事新報》
• "Shanghai Nationalists' Daily" Shànghǎi Mínguó Rìbào 《上海民國日報》
• "The Literature Weekly" Wénxué Zhōubào 《文學周報》
• "The Truth Daily" Gōnglǐ Rìbào 《公理日報》
• "The Chinese Language and Literature Monthly" Guówén Yuèkān《國文月刊》
• "Suzhou Commentary" Sūzhōu Pínglùn 《蘇州評論》
• "Women's Magazine" Fùnǚ Zázhì 《婦女雜誌》
• "Novel Monthly" Xiǎoshuō Yuèbào 《小說月報》
• "High School Students" Zhōngxuéshēng 《中學生》
• "Enlightened Youth" Kāimíng Shàonián 《開明少年》
• "Chinese Authors" Zhōngguó Zuòjiā 《中國作家》
• "People's Education" Rénmín Jiàoyù 《人民教育》
• "Chinese Language" Zhōngguó Yǚwén 《中國語文》
• "Poems" Shī 《詩》
• "The Light" Guangming 《光明》
• "Chinese Language Magazine" Guowen Zazhi (《國文雜誌》)
• "Magazine for High School Students in the War". Zhongxuesheng Zhanshi Banyue kan (《中學生戰時半月刊》)

Ye Shengtao Memorial Hall

Ye Shengtao Memorial Park in Luzhi town

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.

Further reading

• Chen Liao. Ye Shengtao ping zhuan (Biography of Ye Shengtao). Tianjin: Bai hua Press,1981 陳遼: 《葉聖陶評傳》，天津: 百花出版社，1981
• Chen, Lian. Ye Shengtao zhuan ji (A biography of Ye Shengtao) Nanjing: Jiangsu jiaoyu chu ban she, 1986. 陳遼《葉聖陶傳記》南京︰江蘇教育出版社，1986
• Gu, Yeping; Chen, jie. Ye Shengtao Taipei: Hai feng, Min 80 [1991]. 辜也平 陳捷 《葉聖陶》台北:海風 民80 [1991]。 [1991]。 ISBN 957-553-014-4
• Liu Zengren, Feng Guanglian. Ye Shengtao yan jiu zi liao (The Study of Ye Shengtao). Beijing : Beijing Shiyue Wenyi Press, 1988 劉增人 馮光廉: 《葉聖陶研究資料》，北京: 北京:十月文藝出版社， 1988. ISBN 7-5302-0077-1
• Liu, Zengren. Shan gao shui chang: Ye Shengtao zhuan (A biography of Ye Shengtao) Taipei: Ye qiang chu ban she, 1994. 劉增人 《山高水長:葉聖陶傳》台北:業強出版社，1994。 ISBN 957-683-229-2
• PangYang. Ye Shengtao he ta de jia ren (Ye Shengtao and his family). Shenyang : Chun Feng Wenyi Press, 1983. 龐暘:《葉聖陶和他的家人》瀋陽:春風文藝出版社， 2001 ISBN 7-5313-2293-5
• Selis, David Joel. Yeh Shao-chün : a critical study of his fiction, Ann Arbor, Mich. : University of Microfilms International, 1981.
• Ye, Shengtao. Ye Shengtao Hong Kong: San lian shu dian xianggang fen dian, 1983. 《葉聖陶》葉聖陶 香港:三聯書店香港分店1983。 ISBN 962-04-0217-0

Portrait

• Ye Shengtao. A Portrait by Kong Kai Ming at Portrait Gallery of Chinese Writers (Hong Kong Baptist University Library).

External links

• Ye Shengtao Research Association of China (Chinese) (葉聖陶研究會)
• Ye Shengtao's Publication (Chinese)
• Ye Shengtao and Ni Huanzhi (Chinese) (葉聖陶與《倪煥之》)
• The Celebrities and Commercial Press
• In Memory of Mr.Ye Shengtao (Chinese) (紀念葉聖陶先生逝世十六周年)
• Ye Shengtao and the People's Education Press
• Ye Shengtao: Chairman of Central Committee of China Association for Promoting Democracy