Shanghai Daily news

Renowned novelist Ba Jin's life spanned all of China's 20th-century history from the last years of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) to New China of today. Xu Wei and Zhang Yi look at his major works which were inspired by the times he lived through

"Mie Wang" ("Destruction")
Ba Jin wrote his first novel "Mie Wang" ("Destruction") - a tale of romance and revolution - in France in 1929. It is, to some extent, an autobiographical work by the young writer.
The main character, Du Daxin, is a well-educated young man who works hard but is discriminated against because of his poor family background. As a revolutionary, he devotes his life to the labor movement and sets out to help his unfortunate countrymen. He falls in love with a girl from a wealthy family who understands the mission and who supports him.
However, Du is in a dilemma. He loves the girl but, at the same time, he is prepared to sacrifice his life to the revolution. He also suffers from a serious lung disease.
One night, he witnesses the death of a fellow worker who has been arrested while pasting posters on the street. Shocked by the death of his comrade, Du tries to assassinate the government officials who have ordered the execution but fails and finally commits suicide.
Du is a typical zealous revolutionary, a committed anarchist of the times, but his illness has plunged him into depression. His physical suffering coupled with his pessimism about the state of society makes him despair about the future. He is too hasty in ending his life and his chance for love.

"The Love Trilogy: Fog, Rain, Lightning"
The three novels were written between 1931 and 1935. They display the young intellectual's understanding of and concern for idealism and reality, relationships and revolution, life and death, love and sorrow as well as the eternal longing for a brighter future.
From the weak-minded, irresolute Zhou Rushui in "Fog" to the passionate, blundering Wu Renmin in "Rain" to the decisive and loyal revolutionary Li Peizhu in "Lightning," the works show the gradual emotional and political development of young people in their pursuit of love and something to believe in.
Like all the "proletarian novels" that were coming out in the 1930s, the early works of Ba Jin concentrate on the theme of romance and revolution.

"The Torrent Trilogy: Family, Spring, Autumn"
Ba Jin is best-known for this epic trilogy penned over the period of 1933-40 and which is considered to have been inspired by his own experiences.
Ba vividly portrays the conflicts between the stifling old and the dynamic young in a big feudal family and he attacks the feudalism imposed on China for thousands of years.
Three generations of young people and their aspirations are crushed under the rule of the family patriarch, the grandfather Gao. They have to surrender and bow to the centuries-old feudal regime, even at a time when China was starting to absorb new ideas.
After its publication, the trilogy inspired many educated young people to reflect on and then rebel against the old feudal society.
In the past six decades, the trilogy has been translated into more than 20 languages and it has been published around the world.
The most popular novel of the trilogy, "Family," has also been adapted for film, TV, the stage and Huju and Yueju operas.

"Qi Yuan" ("Garden of Repose") and "Disi Bingshi" ("Ward Four")
These two novellas were written in 1944 and 1945 when China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1937-45) was nearing an end.
The works not only reveal the darkness and degradation of the former Kuomintang regime but also criticize the corruption of feudalism.
"Garden of Repose" concerns the lives of the offspring of a feudal family and is regarded as an extension of  "The Torrent Trilogy."
And "Ward Four," which describes the 18-day hospital stay of a 22-year-old former bank worker, has its genesis in the writer's actual stay in a hospital in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, in 1944.
Written in diary form, the novel dramatizes how individuals are robbed of humanity in that dark wartime period.

"Han Ye" ("Cold Nights")
Completed in 1946, "Cold Nights" is another of Ba's symbolic works. This gloomy novel revolves around the domestic conflicts between an ordinary couple during China's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression.
The war and its resulting turmoil puts a lot of economic pressure on the intellectual husband who struggles to support his family but fails to overcome the cruel reality of the time. His beloved wife leaves him and he dies of pulmonary disease just as China is celebrating its final victory in the war.
Critics also note that "Cold Nights" marks the literary maturity of Ba after "The Torrent Trilogy." He successfully depicts the complicated inside world of the country's "small potatoes" and it is this that makes his novel so impressive to readers.