Wang Tongzhao

Wang Tongzhao (1897-1957) was born in a feudal landlord`s family in Xiangzhou Village No. 1 of Xiangzhou Town, Zhucheng. He was styled Jiansan and once had the pseudo-name Wang Xunru. As a modern writer and poet, he had quite a few pennames like Jianxian, Ronglu, Tixi, Hongmeng, Xilu, Mojian, Aiqian, etc. He went to home school at 5. And after his father`s death when he was 7, he was educated by his devoted mother, absorbed in reading The Four Books and Five Classics. At the age of eleven or twelve, he began to learn such new textbooks as New Geography, A Course of History and Mathematics about Written Calculation. During this period, he passed the examinations for entering the higher primary school in the county seat and graduated in 1913. Then he was enrolled by No.1 Provincial Middle School in Jinan. He returned home for summer from July to August and tried his hand in Traces of Sword and Flower, a novel with a caption for each chapter. In 1916, in order to observe the anniversary of fighting against monarchy and recreating the republicanism, he composed the stage play Rebellion in Yunnan, and played the part of Cai E himself. The year 1918 witnessed his being admitted to the Department of English Literature in China University, which was located in Beijing, and was elected as an editor of the college journal. In the same year, he published his first novel in modern Chinese, Commemoration. In the next year`s May 4th Movement, he took part in the demonstration of burning the Zhao`s Mansions. In the winter of 1920, he, together with 12 others including Guo Shaoyu, Zheng Henduo and Geng Jizhi, started to organize a research institute of literature. In the next January the institute was formally founded and he had always been working hard for it.

Wang graduated in July 1922, after which he remained in the university as a teacher. In October, he published his first long novel One Leaf, which was listed in the series of books studied by the research institute. The year 1925 saw the publication of his first collection of poems Childlike Innocence. In the spring of 1925, all his family moved to Qingdao, where he first taught in Qingdao Railway and then in the Municipal Middle School. In March 1927, he accepted the invitation of his intimate friend Song Jiezhi and went to the Northeast, where he explored the social conditions of various ranks in town and country and then wrote a collection of prose entitled Spring of the North, which truly reflects people`s miserable life in the Northeast. In September 1933, his novel Rain in the Mountains came out. The novel, which vividly describes the northern countryside suffering from both constant fights among warlords and natural disasters, caused quite a stir in the field of literature. After publication, it was forbidden by the Kuomintang government and its author was persecuted. He was forced to leave Qingdao for his hometown in early 1934 and then sold all the family`s estates to raise money for going to Europe. He set out in March and returned the next spring. Back in Qingdao, he first issued the weekly Talks While Avoiding Summer Heat; at the end of this year, he took part in the Union of Fighting against Japan and Saving the Country in the culture field in Shanghai. In 1936, he became editor-in-chief of the weekly Literature and published, jointly with 21 writers including Luxun, Maodun and Bajin, the Declaration by Colleagues in Literature and Art for Uniting Against Invasion and Freedom of Speech. After that, he published the prose collection The Green Curtain of Rampant Crops, the poetry anthology Stories of Night Traveling, the long novel Spring Flowers, and so on. In the autumn of 1937, his whole family moved to Shanghai, which was like an isolated island at that time, and there he still spiritedly participated in literary activities. From 1938 on, he had been employed to teach in Jinan University until Dec. 12, 1941, when some Japanese soldiers rushed into the foreign settlement in Shanghai. There he insisted on finishing the class for students and the university had to close down. The next year, he became an editor in Kaiming Bookstore under the pseudo-name Wang Xunru. During that period, although living in rather straitened circumstances, he told his family not to lose aspirations and yield to the enemy. In the summer of 1945, the whole family moved back to Qingdao, where he edited one of the supplements, Sound of the Tide, for the Paper Speaking for the People. In August 1946, he was employed as professor in the Chinese Department of Shandong University. The next summer, he was dismissed because he had supported the patriotic movement of anti-starvation lead by the students of the university.

In July 1949, Wang went to Beiping (Beijing) to take part in the All-China Congress for Literary and Art Workers. Form 1950 on, he successively assumed the roles of committeeman of the people`s government of Shandong Province, second head of the province`s Culture and Education Department, chairman of the province`s Literary Union, and head of the province`s Culture Bureau. He had also been elected as representative of the first and second National People`s Congress, committeeman of the All-China Literary Union, director of the All-China Writers`Union. During this period, he accomplished such works as A Minor Collection of Que (lark) and Hua (flower) Hills and a collection of critical essays called Literary Talks by the Stove.

On Nov. 29, 1957, Wang died of an illness in Jinan, to which Shandong Committee sent an elegiac couplet which said, ``An experienced warrior in literature and a good friend of the Party`s.``