Shanghai Daily news

Ba Jin's self-appointed mission in life of searching for the truth took him all over Shanghai. Ma Dan chronicles his many addresses in the city and the books he wrote between changing houses
Ba Jin, one of the most revered Chinese writers of the 20th century - along with Lu Xun (1881-1936), Mao Dun (1896-1981) and Guo Moruo (1892-1978) - was born in Chengdu, Sichuan Province. However, he spent most of his life in Shanghai where he completed his greatest works and he always considered the city as his second hometown.
Ba (real name Li Yaotang) died on Monday night at the age of 101. The houses in which he once lived and his memory and legacy are now part of the history of Shanghai.

Nanyang Middle School
It was in the spring of 1923 that Ba first arrived in Shanghai with his brother.
They first stayed in a small hotel on Fourth Street (today's Fuzhou Road) but soon moved to the Zhongjiang Hotel with the help of a relative who worked for a newspaper.
Then they moved to a student dorm of the Nanyang Middle School on Wuchang Road and recruited for the Nanyang Middle School and Ba had begun his more-than-80-year stay in Shanghai.

Tianxiang Li
Although Ba left Shanghai and went to study in the Middle School affiliated to Southeast University in Nanjing, neighboring Jiangsu Province, he didn't go to university and was soon back in Shanghai recuperating from a bout of pneumonia.
Ba first settled down in Tianxiang Li (149 Yongnian Road today) in an old narrow alley of shikumen (stone-gated) houses in the former French Concession.
The young Ba then began to devote his life to the pursuit of truth while living on "bread and water."

Kangdi Road
Ba next moved to an attic in Kangyi Lane (today's 39 Jianguo Road E.). "When I was in the small garret on Kangdi Road, I always heard the landlord couple downstairs fighting," Ba would later recall about those days.
He put the landlord scene in his first novel "Mie Wang" ("Destruction"). At the same time, he was finishing a translation Russian writer and anarchist Peter Kropotkin's "The Conquest of Bread" and he launched a magazine "Min Zhong" with his friend Wei Huilin.
In 1926, he moved to Malang Road (today's Madang Road) before leaving for France to study economics in January 1927.

Bugao Li
After a battle in Shanghai between Chinese troops and Japanese forces on January 28, 1932 (the Battle of Songhu), Ba found both Hongxing Fang and Baoguang Li in ruins.
He then moved to 52 Bugao Li (at the intersection of Jianguo Road W. and Shaanxi Road S.) with a friend, Huang Zifang. To record the fighting, he wrote "A Dream of Sea" to express his patriotism. He said: "I have put my passion and anger into my novel to express my true feelings."

Zhifeng Li and 1 Huanlong Road
During March and August of 1932, Ba moved to 11 Zhifeng Li (136 Nanchang Road today), the house of an uncle.
One week later, he went to Quanzhou in Fujian Province to visit friends. Once back, he continued to live in his uncle's villa. There, he gave birth to "Autumn in Spring" and rewrote "Xin Sheng" ("New Life").

Ladu Road
In 1936, Ba moved to the house of Ma Zongrong at 21 Dunhe Li (today's Building 22, 306 Xiangyang Road S.) where he finished "Changsheng Ta" ("Longevity Tower").
"I seemed rather rich in those days and I once 'owned' a big house with a bedroom on the second floor, a study on the first floor and the living room on the ground floor," he said.

Xiafei Fang

Xiafei Fang on former Avenue Joffre, today’s Huaihai Fang on Huaihai Road M.,where Ba Jin finished “Spring” and “Autumn” for his “Torrent Trilogy” and “Han Ye” (“Cold Night”) in the 1940s. — Yu Le

When the Mas came back to Shanghai in July 1937, Ba moved to 59 Xiafei Fang on Avenue Joffre (today's Huaihai Fang on Huaihai Road M.).
He finished "Spring" and "Autumn" for his "Torrent Trilogy" and "Han Ye" ("Cold Night"). He also began some other books there.

Wukang Road

Ba Jin's residence on Wukang Road, his last dwelling in Shanghai.