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Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician

Ye Shengtao (28 October 1894 – 16 February 1988) was a Chinese writer, journalist, educator, publisher and politician. He was a founder of the Association for Literary Studies (文學研究會), the first literature association during the May Fourth Movement in China. He served as the Vice Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of China. Throughout his life, he was dedicated to publishing and language education. He subscribed to the philosophy that "Literature is for Life" (文學為人生).

Ye was born on 28 October 1894 in Wu County, Jiangsu province. His name at birth was Ye Shaojun (葉紹鈞), and his courtesy name was Bingchen (秉臣). His father worked as a bookkeeper for a landlord and they lived a very modest life. When he was six years old, he entered a mediocre school for primary study. He often followed his father to work. He travelled around the city and experienced the lives of the poor. In 1907, Ye entered Caoqiao Secondary School (草橋中學). After his graduation, he worked as a primary school teacher, before being dismissed by the school in 1914. Finding himself unemployed, he devoted himself entirely to writing classical Chinese novels, which were published in "Libailiu Magazine" (《禮拜六》 "Saturday Magazine"), until he found work as the Chinese teacher of a school set up by the Shanghai Commercial Press (商務印書館上海印刷廠). At the same time, he became the editor of primary textbooks of the Shanghai Commercial Press in 1915. Ye had been living in an era of instability, including the 1894 Sino Japanese War, the Hundred Days' Reform, and later the Sphere of Influence (列強割據). His early life experiences affected his sense of nationalism and contributed to his later career as a journalist and an educator.

Throughout his life, Ye worked a lot for literary movement. Under the influences of the May Fourth Movement in 1919 commonly known as the New Culture Movement, Ye indulged himself in his literary career. He participated in a student organization called 'Xinchao She' ("New Tide Society" 新潮社 1919 1920) of Peking University, and started publishing fictions, poems, prose, literary criticism and scripts of drama etc. Ye was also an editor in PuShe (樸社, 1923). In 1921, Ye, Mao Dun and Zheng Zhenduo founded the earliest literary society of the New Literature Movement, the "Wenxue Yanjiu Hui", (文學研究會 "Association for Literary Studies"), advocating realism art but rejecting the principle "Art is for Art's Sake". In 1936, Ye, Mao Dun and Hong Shen (洪深) established the "Chinese Literature and Art Society" (Zhongguo Wenyi jia Xiehui 中國文藝家協會). In 1941, he became an editorial committee of the "Teaching for Literature and History"" (Wenshi Jiaoxue 文史教學). Ye was one of the establishers of the "Literary Alliance for Anti Japanese Imperialism" (文藝界反帝抗日大聯盟).

Ye was responsible for a number of posts in the authority. Following the Communist Revolution, Ye served as the Vice director of General Administration of Press and Publication (出版總署副署長), the President of People Education Publication (人民教育出版社社長), and the Vice Minister of Education. He was also elected as the Committee of the Fifth Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the National Committee of The Fifth Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and the Chairman of China Association for Promoting Democracy. Ye died in Beijing on 16 February 1988 at the age of 93.

For Ye, education and journalism were inseparable.

Ye had a great impact on improving the Modern Chinese language education. He brought a new idea to the Chinese educators, i. e. students should be taught the methods of learning, instead of the long and detailed content in books. This idea was a breakthrough in traditional Chinese education, which used to rely heavily on memorization and indoctrination. Also, Ye promoted critical thinking and the importance of personal value judgment. He suggested that these learning skills should be built within the students and were the basis for students' lifelong learning.

Readability was a prominent characteristic in Ye's works. It means how efficient a reader can perceive and understand a passage. As a journalist, Ye put great emphasis on the use of language. This might be because he had been a teacher for more than 10 years before he became an editor. He thought that writings were for the reader and he considered writing as a means of communication between readers and authors. A major problem of the writers at that period was that they were not equipped with good writing skills. Their wordings were inaccurate and vague in meaning. Very often, only well educated people could appreciate their works. The writers neglected the importance of practicability. Hence, literature was not promoted to the general public. Ye thought that one could only write something artistic if one could write something practical and understandable. It would be useless if the readers could not even understand the content.

"If anybody asks about my career, I would say, my first career is editor, second is teacher," Ye said. Ye had spent much of his life on editing and publishing. The Shanghai Commercial Press was the starting point of Ye's editorship. He became the editor of the press since 1923. By the end of 1930, Ye quit the post in the Shanghai Commercial Press and became the editor of Kaiming Press (Kaiming Shu Dian 開明書店). He started to edit books on Chinese language and storybooks for children. "Editing is no easy task." To Ye, being an editor was never simply a job, but a career. "Recklessness is strictly forbidden in editing, you have to check everything in person. Editors must be earnest to their publications, their reporters, and their readers." Editor plays an important role in monitoring the final outcome. Ye suggested that "seriousness" is the key of being a successful editor. He had always upheld this attitude in his works. Ye devoted himself to editing and publishing for his whole life His enthusiasm on his "first and ultimate" career had never stopped During the Second Sino Japanese War, Ye moved to Leshan with his family and worked as a professor at the Department of Chinese at Wuhan University In 1946, he returned to Shanghai and resumed his editorship at Kaiming Press.

In his entire life, Ye was very much involved in the field of journalism. From 1925 to 1929 was Ye's new era of publications. He edited many famous magazines and newspapers, below are some of his works:

Ye's vision in modern Chinese language catalyzed the development of modern journalism in China. Ye was eager to advocate the standardization of modern Chinese language including the standardization of grammar, rhetoric, vocabulary, punctuation, simplified character, and the elimination of variant characters (異體字). He also compiled and standardized the Chinese character for publishing and formulated the Chinese Phoneticization Scheme (Hanyu Pinyin Fang'an 《漢語拼音方案》). All his efforts helped to improve the quality and organization of editorial work. Most importantly, Ye promoted vernacular Chinese in publishing. His magazines and newspapers were mostly published in vernacular style, which greatly facilitated other journalists and readers to read. All these contributed to the rapid development of modern journalism in China. Ye was an excellent educator and talent scout, too. He educated and discovered many outstanding young authors and editors like Ba Jin, Ding Ling, and Dai Wangshu.

On 30 May 1925, a bloody massacre took place in Shanghai, known as May Thirtieth Movement (五卅運動 Wǔsà yùndòng). About 2000 Shanghai workers and students ushered in a vigorous anti imperialist movement, protesting imperialist domination and demanding to abolish the unfair treaties. The demonstrators thundered "Down with the imperialists!". Workers throughout China responded with a general strike and mass demonstrations. British police then suppressed the demonstrators with violence and killed 12 Chinese in the event. Till 1 June, more than 20 Chinese were killed.

Ye Shengtao. A Portrait by Kong Kai Ming at Portrait Gallery of Chinese Writers (Hong Kong Baptist University Library).