Ye Shengtao (1894—1988), originally named Shaojun, was a native of Suzhou. He used a number of pseudonyms, including Ye, Shengtao and Siti. He was Ye Changzhi’s grandson. In the 33rd year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1907), Ye Shengtao was admitted to Suzhou No. 1 Middle School. He worked as a primary school teacher in counties and towns for ten years since 1911. Ye published over 10 stories written in classic Chinese, including “Down and Out” and “A Shortcut to Success” in such journals as Saturday and Fiction Repository since 1914. Influenced by the May 4th New Cultural Movement, Ye joined New Tide Society established by a group of students of Peking University in 1919. Since then, he started to publish fictional works, new poems, essays, literary criticisms and plays in a number of newspapers, namely The Renaissance (Xin Chao), The Short Story Magazine (Xiao Shuo Yue Bao), The Morning Post Supplement (Chen Bao Fu Kan), Xue Deng (the supplement of the Shanghai-based The China Times) and Consciousness (Jue Wu, the supplement of the Shanghai-based Republican Daily News), etc. In 1921, he became one of the 12 founders of the Literary Research Association along with Zhou Zuoren, Shen Yanbing and Zheng Zhenduo. They jointly advocated the type of realist literature attaching great importance to people’s well-being. The writer took up editorial and publishing work in 1923. The journals of which he served as chief editor or an editor included Literature Weekly (Wen Xue Zhou Bao), The Short Story Magazine, The Middle-School Student (Zhong Xue Sheng), Chinese Monthly (Guo Wen Yue Kan) and Art of the Pen (Bi Zhen), etc. The September 18th Incident in 1931 motivated him to take part in the anti-Japanese and national salvation movement. During the Chinese People’s War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Ye moved his whole family inland. He once worked as a professor at Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Wuhan University in Leshan, and later took charge of editorial work at Kaiming Book Company in Chengdu. After returning to Shanghai in 1946, Ye Shengtao became Minister of General Affairs for the All-China Association of Literary and Art Circles and one of the persons in charge of Kaiming Bookstore. He was very active in the patriotic democratic movement. Since 1949, Ye worked successively as deputy director of the General Administration of Publication while being director of Editorial Bureau, deputy minister of Ministry of Education while being director and editor-in-chief of People’s Education Press, curator of the Central Research Institute of Art and History and vice chairman of CPPCC National Committee, etc. He was also elected as a member of the 5th NPC Standing Committee, a member of the standing committee of the CPPCC National Committee and Chairman of China Association for Promoting Democracy. Ye’s major novels included Ge Mo (Estrangement), Xian Xia (Below the Horizon), and Ni Huanzhi. Jiao Bu Ji (Footsteps) and Essays Written at Xichuan (Xichuan Ji) were his two essay collections. Ye Shengtao also penned a few collections of fairy tales, including The Babbling Thrush, The Scarecrow, The Stone Statue of an Ancient Hero and The Emperor’s New Clothes. His educational thoughts could be found in Ye Shengtao’s Essays on Teaching Chinese and A Collection of Ye Shengtao’s Essays, etc.
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