Bai Shu (1912-1986), formerly known as Chen Zuomei, pen names Bai Shu, Bai Wei, Liming, etc., was a modern writer and poet, born on December 4, 1912 in Haiyan, Taishan, Guangdong, and entered Mongolian school at the age of seven. In 1928, he studied at Taishan County No. 1 Middle School, where he was educated and influenced by He Yuzhi, actively participated in the progressive student movement, was influenced by the "May Fourth" new literature, and loved poetry. In 1932, he went to Shanghai to enter Jinan University, and was introduced to Shi Ling by Li Zhimin (secretary of the Communist Party of China and the National Party Branch) to join the "Left Alliance". In the autumn of the same year, he served as the head of the Jinan University group of the "Left Alliance", and when the "Left Alliance" was dissolved, Bai Shu was always the convener of this group.
▲ The members of the Shanghai Left Federation Poetry Group took a group photo, and the third person from the right was Bai Shu
At that time, the Left League had a poetry group, and the direct leader of the poetry group was Zhou Yang. In September 1932, under the leadership of the Left League, the Chinese Poetry Society was founded, and Bai Shu was one of the initiators. After the establishment of the Chinese Poetry Society, the magazine "New Poetry" was organized, and Bai Shu published poems such as "The Sky is Unknown", "Twilight Ploughing" and "What is the World" in this journal. At the same time, the Chinese Poetry Society actively carried out the poetry popularization campaign. This new poetry movement spread to the north and south, and chapters were established in various places. The novelist Ai Wu, the musician Nie Er, and many left-wing writers and woodcarvers were all supporters of this poetry movement.
In the spring and summer of 1933, Bai Shu met Mr. Lu Xun for the first time at the Neishan Bookstore. Due to the needs of his work, he often contacted Lu Xun and was deeply educated and helped by Lu Xun. In the contact, Lu Xun put forward many very incisive insights on the new poems. Bai Shu recalled the conversation with Mr. Lu Xun and said: "Our conversation focused on the issue of poetry. Mr. Lu Xun changed a cigarette and said slowly: The big problem with the new poetry at that time was that others couldn't understand it, as if doing so was the masterpiece in the world. He advised us to write poems, to absorb folk forms, to learn some folk songs, is also a way, roughly rhyme, to be popular, can sing, there is a position. ”
In July 1936, after graduating from Bai Shu University, he co-edited the monthly magazine "Realistic Literature" with Yin Geng. "Realistic Literature" aims to explore the issues of popular literature in the National Revolutionary War, and its first issue is "Special Issue on Popular Literature of the National Revolutionary War". When the publication was banned after two issues were published and Bai Shu was facing unemployment, Mr. Zheng Zhenduo said that he had an old friend Zhang Yihan (i.e., Zhang Yi'an), who wrote Zhanghui novels, who was in charge of teaching affairs at Yuedong Middle School, and was in need of someone to teach. Bai Shu went to Yuedong Middle School to become a teacher.
According to the "Resume Questionnaire of the School" of Yuedong Middle School in the Hongkou District Archives, Bai Shu arrived at the school in September 1936. During his work in Yuedong Middle School, Bai Shu wrote literary works such as "I Love the Green Plains of the Motherland", "Taierzhuang", "Roses on the Sentry Post", "Sisters to the Lonely Island", "Red Flowers" and so on. As a progressive teacher, he introduced the New Culture Movement, the founding of New Youth, and the state of modern Chinese literature.
▲On December 1, the 25th year of the Republic of China (1936), the first issue of the school magazine of Central Guangdong was published (Hongkou District Archives Collection)
From 1938 to 1939, he compiled and published the excellent literary works of various places in the early stage of the Anti-Japanese War into "The First Year" and "The Second Year", which played an excellent role in the propaganda of the Anti-Japanese War and left valuable materials for the study of Anti-Japanese War literature.
At this time, because the water circuit school building of Yuedong Middle School was located in a war zone, it had to borrow the Guangzhao No. 2 Primary School building on Seymour Road (now North Shaanxi Road) to reluctantly open the school. Therefore, from July to December 1939, every other weekend, Bai Shu invited well-known figures in culture and academic circles, professors, and writers such as Zhao Jingshen, Xu Xia (Xu Guangping), Zhang Junyi (Jin Ren), Buck, and Lin Qun (Lin Danqiu) to give lectures at the school. The topics of the speeches covered various fields such as international issues, anti-Japanese war issues, women's issues, and youth issues. At that time, although the situation was grim, the "Education Federation" still took the risk of organizing progressive students to listen.
Under Bai Shu's enlightenment education, Zheng Dafang, Lin Zhikang, Mai Rubi, and other students of Yuedong Middle School successively joined the revolution, and some sacrificed their lives.
In the spring of 1941, Bai Shu served as the editor of the Dahua Bookstore in Shanghai, where he edited the Dahua Literature and Art Series and edited the first issue of Chaohua, but was soon banned by the authorities. In October 1941, with the consent of the Standing Committee of the Education Federation, he left Shanghai for Hong Kong, where he taught and engaged in progressive cultural activities. After the fall of Hong Kong, he returned to Taishan to teach.
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Article source: Hongkou District Archives "Past Events" journal (No. 1, 2023), with deletions.
Author: Huang Ping
Narrator: Fan Jia
Source: Shanghai Hongkou