He was an authority in the field of Chinese history, more than a novelist and a writer.

A warrior armed only with his pen, Ba Jin, who passed away in Beijing on Monday at the age of 101, built a museum of Chinese literature and knowledge with a clear conscience.

Chronicling China's struggles during the past century, Ba's novels and essays show us his love, optimism and belief in the future of this country.

Confined to a sickbed by Parkinson's disease since 1999, Ba remained a literary heavyweight in China.

The godfather of China's men and women of letters, Ba depicted the harsh realities of China's feudal society in his classics such as "Family," "Spring" and "Autumn."

When the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949, his pen, which had been used to write about darkness and misery, started to examine new people and new deeds - to celebrate the people's victory and consequent joy.

He was noble and courageous as he upheld moral righteousness. Ba's pen wrote about nothing more than the truth, often setting up a confrontation with lies.

What kept his pen sweeping over manuscripts for so long was love, passion, hope and a positive energy. These qualities were the blood coursing through his body.

He cared little about writing technique or ways of expression, focussing instead on how to help people lead a better, more worthy life.

He was always brave enough to stand up to his enemies. They were, in his words, "every outdated traditional notion, every irrational system that stands in the way of social progress and human development, and every instance of cruelty in the face of love."

Ba stressed the compelling necessity of recalling and telling the truth.

He chose to use his memoirs to confess to sins of omission and commission. The pages turned out to be a place for him to tell the truth as he perceived it and to take responsibility for his actions and words.

His decision to lay bare the truth commands the respect not just of the literary world but of people everywhere.

At the end of Ba's autobiographical novel "Family," the ardent young hero, fed up with his repressive, backward-looking life-sapping family, boards a boat and heads downstream to the coast, where he hopes a new, healthy, progressive culture is taking shape.

In real life, Ba Jin himself did the same, leaving Chengdu in the early 1920s and settling in Shanghai.

The May Fourth Movement - a political and cultural movement against imperialism and feudalism that broke out in Beijing in 1919 - imbued him with both anarchic and democratic ideas.

He had an aura of humility and the inner strength that comes from unshakable convictions.

Ba had never yielded to hatred despite all the ordeals he suffered during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), which took away his wife. Ba Jin was beaten and persecuted, labelled "a great poisonous weed." His pen, the very life of a writer, was taken from him because his writings were condemned as harmful and seditious.

Still, he buried that discontent and anger in his heart. Adversity throughout his life never stopped him from reading and writing, which helped him weather troubles for a life that spanned a century.

His passion for writing and working went beyond material desires. He headed the Culture and Life publishing house for 14 years, taking not a single penny in payment.

A man always ready to give, Ba would donate money and books to libraries and charitable foundations.

Surveying the ruins of this country, Ba pledged to write about the cultural revolution in the hope that such a tragedy is never repeated - leaving a record for generations to come.

He had resolved not to die until this goal had been accomplished.

"My pen is alight and my body aflame. Until both burn down to ash, my love and my hate will remain here in the world," Ba Jin said in 1986.

His flame and love can still be felt though his body and pen are gone. They are a torch that will light the way through darkness for future generations.