★ Editor's ★ Note
From 1921 to 2021, the Communist Party of China has gone through a century. Time passes, and the torch is passed on. In this century-old history, Dongcheng District of Beijing is a red land containing revolutionary spirit and revolutionary culture, leaving a rich red heritage and witnessing the immortal footprints of pioneers. Here, we can stand in the Red Building of Peking University and feel the patriotic blood of the "new youth", and we can also feel the indignation of the Chinese people for signing an unequal treaty in the ruins of Zhao Jia Lou. Follow the Eastern Inspector and take you to punch in the red landmarks of Dongcheng and review the thick history of the Communist Party of China.
★ Red Map ★ of the East Side
Mao Dun's former residence
Mao Dun's former residence, located at No. 13, Houyuanensi Hutong, Jiaodaokou, Dongcheng District, Beijing, covers an area of 878 square meters, where Mr. Mao Dun lived from 1974 to 1981.
In December 1974, Mao Dun moved into the two-entry standard courtyard of Houyuan'en Temple Hutong in Beijing, where he spent six years of his later years. The shadow wall inside the door is inlaid with a gold marble horizontal plaque inscribed by Comrade Deng Yingchao with the words "Mao Dun's Former Residence". Inside the courtyard there are two flowers and a grape trellis, and a bronze statue of Mao Dun sits in the middle of the courtyard. Three exhibition halls and a reception room form the courtyard vestibule, which is a living room and a bedroom.
Here he completes his memoir, The Path I Walked. Today's former residence still maintains the original state of Mao Dun's life. In Mao Dun's living room and reception room, the simple furniture and furnishings of his lifetime, the books he often read, the stationery he used, the writing desk on which he wrote his memoirs, and the sofa he sat on when he and his friends talked on their knees were all preserved in their original appearance for people to admire, showing Mao Dun's extraordinary revolution and literary life.
On May 24, 1984, Mao Dun's former residence was announced as a cultural relics protection unit in Beijing. In March 2021, it was identified by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics as the first batch of immovable revolutionary cultural relics in Beijing. In 1983, the China Mao Dun Research Association was established, and the research association worked in the south room of Mao Dun's former residence. Ye Ziming, Zhou Yang, Feng Mu, Kong Luosun and other literary circles all gathered together in the south room to reminisce about Mao Dun.
Mao Dun (July 4, 1896 – March 27, 1981), formerly known as Shen Dehong, pen names Mao Dun, Wei Ming, Shen Zhongfang, Shen Mingfu, etc., was a native of Tongxiang City, Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province. He was a pioneer of China's modern progressive culture, a great revolutionary writer, and an outstanding cultural warrior of the property class. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, he successively served as minister of culture, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and long-term vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. His representative works include the novels "Midnight", "Spring Silkworm" and the literary review "Night Reading Doll".
Mao Dun was born in a family with quite novel ideas and received a new type of education from an early age. After being admitted to the preparatory department of Peking University, he joined the Commercial Press after graduation. After the May Fourth Movement, Shen Yanbing became acquainted with Chen Duxiu and wrote for New Youth magazine. In 1920, he joined the early organization of the Shanghai Communist Party and did a lot of work. In 1921, the Communist Party of China was formally established, and members of early party organizations in various places, including Shen Yanbing, were smoothly converted into full party members. At first, the party's work was in a state of secrecy, and Shen Yanbing used his working environment as a cover to serve as a liaison officer directly under the central government, carrying out intra-party communication and liaison work, and undertaking teaching tasks in the schools founded by the party, leading, participating in, and reporting on the Shanghai strike movement.
During the Great Revolution, according to the advancement of the situation and the needs of the party's work, Shen Yanbing accepted the dispatch of the party organization and traveled to various places. After the defeat of the Great Revolution, the revolution fell into a trough, and Shen Yanbing was forced to start a life of seclusion and exile. The tense domestic atmosphere and the complex social situation gradually made him lose contact with the Party organization. When he was depressed, Shen Yanbing was determined to pick up the pen in his hand and continue to struggle for the party's cause, thus embarking on a journey of literary creation.
During his seclusion in Shanghai, he wrote his first novel "Disillusionment" set in the period of the Great Revolution; after his exile in Japan in 1928, he created a long novel "Rainbow", which expressed his belief in the future of the revolution; after returning to Shanghai in 1930, he completed the long-form masterpiece "Midnight", which reflected the domestic social reality of the 30s; during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he continued to create a large number of revolutionary literary works that exposed the reactionary nature of the Kuomintang and praised the people's anti-Japanese struggle. From the period of the Liberation War, Shen Yanbing shifted from literary creation to foreign cultural exchanges and national cultural construction, and served as the first minister of culture after the founding of New China, devoting himself to socialist cultural undertakings.
Speaking of the origin of the pen name "Mao Dun", there is a small story. In 1927, the Great Revolution failed, Shen Yanbing was forced to live in seclusion in Shanghai, depressed and depressed, he began to use his pen to vent his emotions, so he created the novel "Disillusionment". After the novel was completed, Shen Dehong began to submit articles, but many newspapers did not dare to publish his articles. This made him very conflicted, so he signed the manuscript "Contradiction". The manuscript was finally handed over to Ye Shengtao, the editor of the Novel Monthly, who thought the novel was very good, but after reading the name, he put forward an opinion, thinking that the name was a philosophical term, not like a person's name, and "spear" was not like a surname, and it was not good to use such a sharp pen name in the environment at that time, so he took it upon himself to add a cursive prefix to the word "spear" and changed it to "Mao Dun". Shen Yanbing was also very satisfied with this change, and has been using this as a pen name ever since.
The Mao Dun Literature Prize is a literary award established according to Mao Dun's last wishes, donating his own 250,000 yuan of manuscript fees. It was organized by the Chinese Writers Association and established in 1981. Its purpose is to encourage the creation of excellent novels and promote the development of socialist literature in our country. It is one of the highest honors in China, and it is also the first literary award named after an individual in China.
As one of the earliest party members of the Communist Party of China, Mao Dun joined the party in the early difficult years of the party and survived difficulties with the party; after losing contact with the party organization, he consciously acted as a revolutionary "drummer" and "trumpet" and continued to dedicate himself to the party after the party's victory.
This is the 7th issue of the Dongcheng Red Landmark Series story, the story of Mr. Mao Dun and his former residence in this issue is told here, and the Eastern Inspector invites you to see you again in the next issue.
Produced by Dongcheng Procuratorial New Media
Text | First Procuratorial Department Dong Xuyuan
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Some of the pictures come from the web