Mao Dun
6 min readMao Dun（July 4，1896~March 27，1981）was the pen name of Shen Dehong，a 20th century Chinese novelist，cultural critic，and journalist.He was also the Minister of Culture of China.He is currently renowned for being one of the best modern novelists in China.His most famous work is Midnight，a grand novel depicting life in Shanghai，and Spring Silk Worms and Other Stories.He adopted“Mao Dun”，meaning“contradiction”，as his pen name to express his sigh for the contradicting revolutionary ideology in China in the unstable 1920s.His friend Ye Shengtao changed the first word from mao to mao，which literally means“thatch”，to prevent him from political persecution.
Early Life
Mao Dun was born in Tongxiang County，Zhejiang Province，China.His father taught and designed the curriculum for his son，but he died when Mao Dun was ten.
Mao Dun’s mother then became his teacher.He mentioned in his memoirs that“my first instructor is my mother”.Through learning from his parents，Mao Dun developed great interest in writing during his childhood.
Mao Dun had already started to develop his writing skills when he was still in primary school.While Mao Dun was studying in secondary school in Hangzhou，extensive reading and strict writing skills training filled his life.Mao Dun entered the three-year foundation school offered by Peking University in 1913，inwhich he studied Chinese and Western literature.Due to financial difficulties，he had to quit in the summer of 1916，before his graduation.
The trainings in Chinese and English as well as knowledge of Chinese and Westernliterature provided by the fifteen years’education Mao Dun received had prepared him to show up in the limelight of the Chinese journalistic and literary arena.
Journalistic Career
After graduation，Mao Dun soon got his first job in the English editing and translation sections of the Commercial Press，Shanghai branch.At the age of 21，he was invitied to be the assistant editor of Students’Magazine under the CommercialPress，which had published many articles about the new ideologies that had emerged in China at that time.
Apart from editing，Mao Dun also started to write about his social thoughts and criticisms.To some extent，he was inspired by the famous magazine New Youths.Like in 1917 and 1918，he wrote two editorials for Students and Society and The Students of 1918，those were significant in stimulating political consciousness among the young educated Chinese.
At 24 years of age，Mao Dun was already renowned as a novelist by the community in general，and in 1920，he and a group of young writers took over the magazine Xiaoshuo Yuebao to publish literature by western authors，such as Tolstoy，Chekhov，Balzac，Flaubert，Zola，Byron，Keats，Shaw，etc.，and make new theories of literature more well known.Despite the fact that he was a naturalistic novelist，he admired writers like Leo Tolstoy，for their great artistic style.
In 1920，he was invited to edit a new column:Xiaoshuo Xinchao （The Fiction-New-Waves）in Xiaoshuo Yuebao.He even took up the post of Chief Editor of the Monthly in the same year and was obliged to reform it thoroughly，in response to the New Cultural Movement.His young writer friends in Beijing supported him by submitting their creative writings，translating Western literature and their views on new literature theories and techniques to the magazines.
Literature Study Group was formed partly because of this.The reformed Monthly was proved to be a success.It had facilitated the continuation of the New Cultural Movement by selling ten thousand copies a month and more importantly by introducing literature for life，a brand new realistic approach to Chinese literature.In this period，Mao Dun had become a leading figure of the movement in the southern part of China.
On the notion of content reformation，both the innovative and conservative parties in the Commercial Press could not make a compromise.Mao Dun resigned from the Chief Editor of Fiction Monthly in 1923，but in 1927 he became the chief columnist of the Minguo yuebao.He wrote more than 30 editorials for this newspaper to criticize Chiang Kai-shek，and to support revolutions.
Political Life
Inspired by the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia，Mao Dun took part in the May Fourth Movement in China.In 1920，he joined the Shanghai Communist Team，and helped to establish the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.At first，he worked as a liaison for the party.He also wrote for the party magazine“The Communist Party”.
At the same time，Mao Dun participated in Chiang Kai-shek’s Northern Expedition（1926-1928），the main purpose was to unite the country.He quit，however，when Chiang’s Kuomintang broke with the Communists.In July 1928，he went to Japan in order to take refuge.As he returned to China in 1930，he joined the League of the Left-Wing Writers.Later，China went to war with Japan and he actively engaged in resisting the Japanese attack in 1937.In 1949，the communist government took over and he was responsible for working as Mao Zedong’s secretary and Culture Minister until1964.
As a Literary Man Xiaoshuo Yuebao Reform was Mao Dun’s first contribution to Chinese literature.
The magazine then became a place where”New Literature”circulated.Many famous writers like Lu Xun，Xu Dishan，Bing Xin，Ye Shengtao，had their works published through it.Mao Dun supported movements such as“New Literature”and“New Thinking”.He believed that Chinese literature should have a place in the world.
The experience of political conflict broadened his horizon in literature，therefore the theme of his later writing was mostly based on this.He then helped to found the League of Left-Wing Writers in 1930.After that，he worked together with Lu Xun to fight for the right of the society and the revolutionary movement in literature.The harvest period of Mao Dun’s writing is considered to have been from 1927 to 1937.
Shi，the first actual novel written by Mao Dun，was composed of three volumes，Huanmie（1927），Dongyao（1928），and Zhuiqiu（1928）.It is the story of a generati of young intellectuals，who are caught up in the world of revolutionary fervor without a true understanding of the nature of social change.In 1933 came his next grand work，Midnight，which gained great popularity，to a point that it was also published in French and English，and it allowed to develop a sense of revolutionary realism.He left a work unfinished，the trilogy Shuangye Hongsi Eryuehua（1942）After the initiation of the Sino-Japanese War War in 1937，Mao traveled to many places and started a literary magazine in Wuhan.He edited the periodical Literary Front and the literary page of the newspaper Libao in Hong Kong and worked as ateacher.After 1943 Mao Dun did not produce any major works，but still wrote some articles and essays.In 1946 he visited the Soviet Union.
When the people’s Republic of china was established by the communist Party of China in 1949，he started the monthly literary journal Chinese Literature，which became the most popular for western readers.He was dismissed from his position as minister in 1964 due to the ideological upheavals.Despite this fact，Mao Dun survived the Cultural Revolution and was afterwards rehabilitated.In the 1970s he became an editor of a children’s magazine，and began working on his memoirs，which were serialized in the Party publication，the quarterly Xinwenxue Shiliao，but he died in March 27，1981 before he could finish it.His influence on Chinese literature continues to the present day because he used his savings to set up a fund called the Mao Dun Literature Scholarship to promote an atmosphere for writing fiction.
Mao Dun’s influence and achievements in the literary field were witnessed.On the other hand，he was twice elected as the chairman and then once elected as the vice-chairman of the China Literary Arts Representative Assembly.His status in the literary field has been highly recognized.Although he suffered great pain from illness in his old age，he still kept writing his memories，called The Road I Walked.
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