# Ding Ling

Ding Ling (Chinese: 丁玲; pinyin: Dīng Líng; October 12, 1904 – March 4, 1986), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi (simplified Chinese: 蒋冰之; traditional Chinese: 蔣冰之; pinyin: Jiǎng Bīngzhī), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), one of the most celebrated Chinese women authors of the 20th century. She is known for her feminist and socialist realist literature.
Ding was active in leftist literary circles connected to the Chinese Communist Party and was imprisoned by the Chinese Nationalist Party for her politics. She later became a leader in the literary community in the Communist base of Yan'an, and held high literature and culture positions in the early government of the People's Republic of China. She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951 for her socialist-realist work The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River. After the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1958, Ding was denounced and purged and was sent to exile in Manchuria, to be rehabilitated only in 1979. She died in Beijing in 1986.

## Early life

Ding Ling was born as Jiang Bingzhi$^{:1}$ into a gentry family in Linli, Hunan province. Her father, Jiang Baoqian, was a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty and died when Ding Ling was 3 years old.
Ding Ling's mother, Yu Manzhen, studied at the Hunan Provincial No. 1 Normal School for Girls where she was a classmate of Xiang Jingyu, an early pioneer in Chinese feminism. She later became an elementary school educator who raised her children as a single mother. Ding Ling's mother was Ding's role model, and she would later write an unfinished novel, titled Mother, describing her mother's experiences. As time passed after the death of Ding's father, Ding's mother became a revolutionary.$^{:2}$ She often told Ding stories of martyrs, particularly Qiu Jin.$^{:2}$ Following her mother's example, Ding Ling became an activist at an early age.
During the 1911 Revolution, Ding's uncle was executed by Qing soldiers because he was a revolutionary.$^{:2}$
Ding Ling had her formative education in progressive girls' schools, first in Hunan and later in Shanghai. In 1919, Ding Ling graduated from primary school and was admitted to the preparatory course at the Hunan Second Normal School for Girls in Taoyuan County, where she came in contact with the May 4th student movement. In 1920, she was transferred to Changsha Zhounan Girls High School, but the school became very conservative and Ding dropped out after one year of study. In 1921, Ding transferred to Yueyun Middle School and was a classmate with Yang Kaihui, Mao Zedong's second wife.
In the summer of 1922, Ding's friend Wang Jianhong returned home from Shanghai and took Ding to Shanghai, where she entered the CCP-run People's Girls' School. During this time she took up the pen name Ding Ling. In 1923, she and Wang Jianhong attended the Chinese Department of Shanghai University. In 1924, Wang and her teacher, famed CCP literary figure Qu Qiubai fell in love and started living together. Ding Ling went to Beijing alone in the summer to study at Peking University, but to no avail.
Through her roommate Cao Mengjun's boyfriend Zuo Gong, Ding Ling met her future husband Hu Yepin, then editor of the supplement of the Beijing News. When Ding Ling returned to her hometown during summer vacation, Hu Yepin rushed to Hunan. Ding Ling recalled, "Our thoughts, characters, and feelings are different, but his bravery, enthusiasm, stubbornness, optimism and poverty all surprised me... The smooth sintered glass beads had gone up somewhere. So we had a deep friendship right away.” In 1925, Ding Ling and Hu Yepin lived together in Beijing, but as she said, "but we had no husband and wife relationship", because "I, Ding Ling, did not want to use love or marriage to fetter me; I am a person who wants to be free".

## Literature and politics

In December 1927, Ding Ling wrote and published her first novel Meng Ke in Beijing, which was published in the magazine Fiction Monthly, describing the struggle of a young woman born in a declining bureaucratic family in Shanghai. The initial concern for women's issues was appreciated by editor-in-chief of Ye Shengtao.
In February 1928, Ding Ling published Miss Sophia's Diary in the Fiction Monthly. The book, in which a young woman describes her unhappiness with her life and confused romantic and sexual feelings, caused a sensation in the literary world. Miss Sophia's Diary highlights Ding Ling's close association and belief in the New Woman movement which was occurring in China during the 1920s. At this time, Ding Ling and Hu Yepin frequently traveled from Beijing to Shanghai. They lived briefly in Hangzhou from March to July of the same year, and then returned to Shanghai.
Around this time Ding Ling met the Communist Party member, writer, and activist Feng Xuefeng, who unlike Hu Yepin was active in politics. Ding Ling fell in love with Feng, and at the end of February, the three had a long talk in Hangzhou, after which Feng Xuefeng backed out and Ding Ling and Hu Yebin got married and lived in Shanghai. Ding Ling later recalled: "I had lived with Hu Yepin for two and a half years, and I'd never said that I would agree to marry them, but I also did not reject his feelings for me. He gave me many things; I did not reject them. Although the two of us had an arrangement, we could have broken it off at any time. We were not husband and wife, but other people saw us as husband and wife. When I talked about these feelings, and about reason, all I could do was lose Xuefeng.”
In the summer of 1928, Ding Ling and Hu Yepin as a couple moved from Beijing to Shanghai via Hangzhou, and lived in the Shanghai French Concession. There they founded a publishing house to publish a magazine "Red and Black" together with Shen Congwen. In early 1929, Ding Ling started editing and publishing the "Renjian (Humanity)" magazine, but both magazines ceased publication soon afterward. Ding and Hu were finally broke and lived on the rent sent by Ding Ling's mother. In the winter of 1929, Ding Ling completed the novel "Wei Hu (Protection)", which was based on the love story between Ding Ling's friend Wang Jianhong and Communist Party member Qu Qiubai.
In February 1930, Hu Yepin went to Jinan to teach at the Shandong Provincial Senior High School, and Ding Ling joined him soon after. In Jinan, Hu Yepin accepted and began to actively promote Marxism-Leninism, which attracted the attention of the Kuomintang (KMT). In May 1930, Ding and Hu joined the League of Left-Wing Writers.$^{:3–4}$ In November 1930, Ding's son with Hu Yepin born. He was named Jiang Zulin after Ding's original surname instead of Hu's surname, and was raised by his grandmother.
In 1931, Hu was arrested and executed by the KMT.$^{:4}$ In grief, Ding Ling sent her son who was less than 100 days old back to Hunan to be taken care of by her mother. In May, Ding Ling published her and Hu Yepin's joint collection "The Birth of a Man" to commemorate Hu Yepin's death. The Communist Party invited Ding to become the editor-in-chief of the Beidou, a new left-wing magazine, and she accepted.$^{:16}$ Ding moved in with translator Feng Da in November. In March 1932, Ding Ling joined the Chinese Communist Party and succeeded Qian Xingcun as the party secretary of the League of Left-Wing Writers.

## Political imprisonment in Nanjing

On 14 May 1933, Ding was kidnapped from her residence in the Shanghai international settlement along with Pan Zinian, a leftist intellectual who was visiting Ding.$^{:12–13}$ Leftist poet Ying Xiuren was also ambushed by the KMT at Ding's apartment and jumped out a window, killing himself to avoid capture.$^{:13}$
Newspapers reported on Ding's disappearance and prominent public figures including Song Qingling, Cai Yuanpei, and Yang Xingfo sought the rescue of Ding and Pan.$^{:13}$ A group of progressive intellectuals formed the Association for Rescuing Ding Ling and Pan Zinian.$^{:13}$ This group issued the "Declaration from the Cultural Community for the Rescue of Ding Ling and Pan Zinian," which called for the KMT to release the abductees.$^{:13–14}$ Lu Xun wrote a classical Chinese poem, A Lament for Ms. Ding, to commemorate her.$^{:15}$
For a long time, the Kuomintang government denied arresting Ding Ling, and many of Ding Ling's friends thought she was dead.
In September 1933, under persuasion, Ding Ling wrote the following note:
   "I was arrested because of a misunderstanding, and I received preferential treatment; I did not go through any trial and punishment. After going out, I will not be active in politics. I only wish to study at home and take care of my mother..."
Ding thought that the note would help her regain her freedom but to no avail. (Later, under political investigation by the Communist Party, this note be used to criticize Ding. Some critics would use the note to accuse her of "losing integrity" in 1945, and of "renegade behavior, lack of loyalty and honesty to the party" in 1956 to 1975. In 1979, the conclusion of 1975 was revoked, but the conclusion of 1956 was maintained. Only in 1984 was she fully rehabilitated.)
Under house arrest by the KMT, Ding lived with her then-husband Feng Da, who was suspected of betraying her to the KMT.$^{:17}$ In April 1934, Feng worked as an interpreter in the Kuomintang organization, and the Kuomintang still gave Ding Ling 100 yuan per month for living expenses, so while the two were still under house arrest, they had a little more freedom. Accepting living expenses has also become an issue for Ding Ling's political scrutiny in the future. In October 1934, Ding gave birth to her daughter Jiang Zuhui [zh] with Feng Da, which also took her surname instead of Feng's.
Ding escaped with the assistance of the Communist Party.$^{:18}$ In July 1936, arranged by Feng Xuefeng, Ding fled Nanjing on train and came to Shanghai. On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, she escaped from a hiding place at a friend's house in Shanghai and arrived in Xi'an in early October, after which she made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an the month after.

## Early life in Yan'an

Ding Ling became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles. Within days of arriving, she had a major role in establishing the Chinese Literature and Arts Association, which was the first literary organization in the Yan'an base area.$^{:18}$ As arguably the most famous writer who came to Yan'an area from the KMT-controlled areas, she initially enjoyed close relations with many top Communist leaders. At the end of 1936, Mao Zedong wrote and dedicated the poem The Immortals at the River: To Ding Ling.$^{:18}$ In it, he compared, Ding Ling's literary prowess to military prowess.$^{:18–19}$ It is the only one of Mao's poems that he ever dedicated to a writer.$^{:18}$
After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ding served as the director of the "Northwest Field Service Corps", and led wartime anti-Japanese theatre performance tours to the front line from Yan'an from September 1937 to July 1938. After that, Ding settled in Yan'an and wrote literary works. At the end of 1939, Ding worked in the Cultural Association of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia Border Region
Speculation began in 1940 that Ding had collaborated with the KMT while being held captive.$^{:20}$ Ding volunteered to be investigated by the Communist Party and Ren Bishi was designated as the investigator.$^{:20}$ During the investigation, Ding did not mention the "note" she wrote. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence that she cooperated with the KMT, that her relationship with Feng Da was involuntary, and that she remained committed to the Communist Party.$^{:20}$ This conclusion was endorsed by Chen Yun and Li Fuchun.$^{:20}$ On October 4, the "Conclusion of the Central Organization Department's Review of Comrade Ding Ling's Arrest and Ban" stated, "According to the existing materials, there is no concrete proof that Comrade Ding Ling had surrendered himself. Therefore, the legend of surrender cannot be trusted. But Comrade Ding Ling Not taking advantage of the possibility (although there are also concerns) to leave Nanjing early (it should be estimated that living in Nanjing is not good for foreign influence). This kind of disposal is inappropriate. ... Comrade Ding Ling should be considered to be still a loyal party to the revolution. Communist Party". The last sentence was added by Mao Zedong himself.$^{:20}$ In May 1941, Ding served as the editor-in-chief of the literary column of "Liberation Daily", an organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.
During this time, Ding wrote the following three well known works:
* The short story "When I Was in Xia Village", published in "Chinese Culture" in June 1941, was adapted from a true story. The story is about a woman forced into prostitution by the Japanese who later joins the Chinese Communist Party as a spy. It criticized the treatment of women within the party and challenged the supposed 'equality' between men and women that it failed to uphold. Ding Ling said that the heroine Zhenzhen "entrusted her own feelings" because she was "lonely", "proud" and "tough".
* The short story "In the Hospital", published in the "Gu Yu" magazine on November 15, 1941 and was also adapted from a true story. The short story criticized the hardships of a Yan'an hospital from the perspective of a new nurse. Ding was later criticized for this story for "having the standpoint of a petty-bourgeois intellectual".
* The essay "Thoughts on March 8", published in Communist Party newspaper "Liberation Daily" on March 9, 1942, questioning the party's commitment to change popular attitudes towards women. Here, Ding satirized male double standards concerning women, saying they were ridiculed if they focused on household duties, but also became the target of gossip and rumors if they remained unmarried and worked in the public sphere. She also criticized male cadres use of divorce provisions to rid themselves of unwanted wives.

## The Yan'an Rectification Movement

In February 1942, the Yan'an Rectification Movement started and intellectuals were attacked. The literary and art circles responded immediately. At that time, Ding Ling was the editor of the literature and art column of "Liberation Daily". This column published a series of defensive articles around March, arguing that there were hierarchical systems and suppression of speech in Yan'an at that time. These included "The March 8th Festival" (March 9), Ai Qing's "Understanding Writers, Respecting Writers" (March 11), Luo Feng's "The Age of Essays" (March 12), Wang Shiwei's "Age" Wild Lily " (March 13, 23), and Xiao Jun's "On the "Love" and "Endurance" of Comrades (April 8). These articles were later criticized, and although Ding Ling resigned had resigned by March 12, she was also implicated.
On April 25, Ding Ling wrote "Memories of Xiao Hong in the Wind and Rain", which was published in June, and which subtly criticized the political climate at Yan'an.
   "What is the most terrifying thing in the world? It is by no means difficult and dangerous, it is by no means floods and beasts, and it is by no means desolation and loneliness. What is hard to endure is the gloom and humiliation; the greatness of man is not the ability to ride the wind and the sky to rise, not only to be able to resist the overthrow, but to open up the situation and indicate the light under the pressure of the haze."
On May 2, Mao Zedong criticized Ding Ling at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art: "What problems should be solved in literature and art work? For the Communist Party members, it means to stand on the side of the Party, on the side of the Party's nature and the Party's policies... One of the basic viewpoints of Marxism is that existence determines consciousness, which is class struggle. The objective reality of national struggle determines our thoughts and feelings. But some of our comrades have turned this question upside down, saying that everything should start from 'love'." Since then, a large number of critical articles against Ding Ling and others appeared in the newspapers.
On June 11, under political pressure, Ding Ling criticized fellow writer Wang Shiwei who was purged from the Party. “(Wang Shiwei's problem) is no longer a question of ideological methods, but a question of motivation, anti-party ideology and Behavior is a political issue." Wang would be subject to a struggle session and imprisoned and later executed five years later.
In February 1942, Ding Ling married Chen Ming, the president of Yan'an Fenghuo Opera Club. Ding Ling was 13 years older than Chen Ming, and the relationship was the source of much discussion.
In 1943, the rectification movement intensified and many more Communist Party members were purged. Ding Ling came under great pressure and was subject to disciplinary review.
While Ding was criticized during the Yan'an Rectification Movement, Mao endorsed her writing.$^{:20}$ He stated that Thoughts on March 8 was a valuable critique of the Communist Party and offered good suggestions for cadres.$^{:20}$ Mao contrasted Ding's work with Wang Shiwei's stating that Ding was a comrade while Wang was a Trotskyist.$^{:20}$ Mao also wrote Ding a letter praising her 1944 article Tian Baolin, which discussed the titular labor hero.$^{:20}$
Following the Yan'an Rectification Movement, Ding adjusted her writing style and increased focus on workers, peasants, and soldiers are the subjects of her work.$^{:20}$
In 1945, the "Review Team's Preliminary Conclusions on Ding Ling's Historical Issues" stated: "There are materials to prove that there is no suspicion of Ding being dispatched by the Kuomintang. But whether the serious ideological problems during this period were affected by the softening of the Kuomintang after the arrest, Comrade Ding Ling deeply reflected on himself. After the rectification, there has been progress.” Thus she was spared.

## Land reform and The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River

In early October 1945, Ding and other Yan'an writers marched more than 2,000 miles on foot to Zhangjiakou, the then-capital of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Area. During this time she lived in the office of the "Jin-Cha-Ji Daily" and devoted herself to writing. On March 12, 1946, she became the editor of the bimonthly magazine "Northern Culture", and took up various other literary roles.
In the summer of 1946, land reform came underway in CCP-controlled regions of China, and Ding Ling joined the land reform team organized by the Jin-Cha-Ji Central Bureau which traveled around various towns in the region to implement land reform in the region. During the land reform, the Chinese Civil War had broken out and Ding had to retreat back to Zhangjiakou and later to Red Earth Mountain in Fuping County.
This experience was the inspiration for Ding's primary work during these years, the novel The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River, which was completed in 1948. The book was awarded the Stalin prize for Literature in 1951, and is considered one of the best examples of socialist-realist fiction. When recalling the motivation for the creation of this novel, Ding wrote: "Because I have lived with these people and fought together, I love this group of people and this life, and I want to keep them in real life, on paper."
Unlike the fictionalized village depicted in The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River which enjoys its liberation, the village on which Ding based her novel was captured by the Nationalists shortly after Ding's land reform work team left. According to Ding, her beloved peasants "suffer[ed] reprisals from despotic landlords" after the village's capture.

## Life in the early People's Republic of China

After 1949, Ding took up several important cultural and literary posts in the new Chinese government. These posts included editor-in-chief of "Literature and Art Newspaper", the director of the Central Literature Research Institute, the director of the Literature and Art Department of the CCP Propaganda Bureau, the party secretary and vice chairman of the Chinese Writers' Association, the editor-in-chief of "People's Literature", and the deputy secretary of the party group of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles.
In 1949 and 1950, Ding criticized the base tastes of much popular literature, but also recognized that revolutionary literature was not yet well-developed.$^{:226–227}$ She called for the rejection of "the vulgar and outmoded butterfly literature style," but also emphasized that it was necessary to "do research on the interests of readers" in order to "keep the masses in mind."$^{:226–227}$ Ding favored worker-peasant-soldier literature and art but recognized that this form was "not yet very mature."$^{:227}$
In 1954, Ding was awarded the second prize of the Soviet State Prize for Literature for "The Sun Shines on the Sanggan River", and in 1954, Ding was elected to the PRC's first National People's Congress.

## Purge and exile

In 1955, Ding's former League of Left-Wing Writers colleague Hu Feng, who helped her escape from Nanjing to Shanghai in 1936, underwent a massive purge, with claims that he was leading a "Hu Feng Counter-Revolutionary Clique". Under the political climate, Ding criticized Hu in a critical article "Where Do Enemies Come From", which was published in the People's Daily on May 23, 1955, No. 3. Hu was later sentenced to prison for 14 years and would not be rehabilitated until 1979.
Soon, Ding Ling herself was criticized. In July 1955, Lu Dingyi wrote an article accusing Ding of "liberalism and individualism", and in August, she was designated as the leader member of the "Ding Ling and Chen Qixia Anti-Party Small Group". Ding was expelled from the Communist Party on December 6.
In 1957 the Anti-Rightist Campaign started. Because Ding authorized the publication of Wang Shiwei's "Wild Lily Flower" in Yan'an, she was designated as a rightist, and was disqualified from the National People's Congress in February 1958.
On January 26, 1958, Ding Ling was denounced in a special edition of "Re-Criticism" published by the government "Literature and Art Newspaper". Mao Zedong personally edited the note and criticized Ding Ling and other writers by name many times, calling to mind the note she wrote while in Nanjing:
   "What are you to criticize again? Wang Shiwei's "Criticism" Wild Lily, Ding Ling's "Feelings of the March 8th Festival", Xiao Jun's "On the "Love" and "Endurance" of Comrades, Luo Feng's "The Age of Essays", Ai Qing's "Understanding Writers and Respecting Writers" , and several others. The above-mentioned articles were all published in the literary and artistic supplement of the "Liberation Daily" in Yan'an. Ding Ling and Chen Qixia presided over this supplement. Ding Ling's novel "When in the Hospital" was published in 1941 in The Yan'an literary publication "Gu Yu" was renamed "In the Hospital" the following year and republished in Chongqing's "Literary and Art Front". The articles by Wang Shiwei, Ding Ling, and Xiao Jun were used by the Kuomintang spy agency as anti-communist propaganda at that time.... Ding Ling wrote a letter of surrender in Nanjing and betrayed the proletariat and the Communist Party to Chiang Kai-shek. She concealed it and deceived the trust of the party.... The articles of Ding Ling, Wang Shiwei and others helped the Japanese imperialists and the Chiang Kai-shek reactionaries..."
In June 1958, Ding Ling and her husband Chen Ming were sent to exile in the Great Northern Wasteland in Manchuria. She spent five years in jail during the Cultural Revolution and was sentenced to do manual labor on a farm for twelve years before being "rehabilitated" in 1978.

## Later years

A few years before her death, Ding was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program. Ding Ling and her husband Chen Ming visited Canada in 1981 for 10 days, meeting with Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Adele Wiseman, and Geoff Hancock; and even Canada's first female Lieutenant Governor, Pearl McGonigal for the province of Manitoba. Ding Ling died in Beijing on March 4, 1986.
Ding authored more than three hundred works. After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River were republished and translated into numerous languages. Some of her short works, spanning a fifty-year period, are collected in I Myself Am A Woman: Selected Writings Of Ding Ling.
In her introduction to Miss Sophie's Diary And Other Stories, Ding Ling explains her indebtedness to the writers of other cultures:
   I can say that if I had not been influenced by Western literature I would probably not have been able to write fiction, or at any rate not the kind of fiction in this collection. It is obvious that my earliest stories followed the path of Western realism... A little later, as the Chinese revolution developed, my fiction changed with the needs of the age and of the Chinese people... Literature ought to join minds together... turning ignorance into mutual understanding. Time, place and institutions cannot separate it from the friends it wins... And in 1957, a time of spiritual suffering for me, I found consolation in reading much Latin American and African literature.
Ding's 1983 memoir The World of Demons and Monsters describes her days as an abductee of the KMT.$^{:4}$
In July 1985, Ding was hospitalized in Beijing.$^{:1}$ During her hospitalization, she wrote her essay The Song of Death.$^{:1}$ Ding recounts in the essay the deaths that affected her life, both those of relatives and of revolutionary martyrs, and explains why she sought to live a full life rather than die in martyrdom.$^{:1}$

## Death

Ding died on 4 March 1986.$^{:11}$ Chen sought approval from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party for Ding's body to be covered with the CCP flag but was denied.$^{:11}$ Her body was instead covered with a red flag gifted by friends from the Great Northern Wasteland, bearing the words "Ding Ling is immortal".$^{:11}$

## In popular culture

In 2014, Hao Lei played Ding Ling in Ann Hui's biopic of Xiao Hong's life, The Golden Era.

## Works
### Collections

* Zai hei’an zhong [In the Darkness]. 1928.
* Zisha riji [Diary of a Suicide]. 1928.
* Yige nüren [A Woman]. 1928.
* Shujia zhong [During the Summer Holidays]. 1928.
* Awei guniang [The Girl Awei]. 1928.
* Shui [Water]. 1930.
* Yehui [Night Meeting]. 1930.
* Zai yiyuan zhong [In the Hospital]. 1941.
* Ding Ling wenji [Works of Ding Ling], Hunan Renmin Chubanshe. 6 vols. 1982.
* Ding Ling xuanji [Selected Works of Ding Ling], Sichuan Renmin Chubanshe. 3 vols. 1984.

### Fiction

* Meng Ke. 1927.
* Shafei nüshi riji. February 1928, Xiaoshuo yuebao (short story magazine); as Miss Sophia's Diary, translated by Gary Bjorge, 1981.
* Weihu. 1930.
* Muqin. 1930; as Mother, translated by Tani Barlow, 1989.
* 1930 Chun Shanghai. 1930; as Shanghai, Spring, 1930, translated by Tani Barlow, 1989.
* Zai yiyuan zhong. 1941; as In the Hospital, translated by Gary Bjorge, 1981.
* Wo zai Xia cun de shihou. 1941; as When I Was in Xia Village, translated by Gary Bjorge, 1981.
* Taiyang zhao zai Sanggan he shang. Guanghua shudian. September 1948; as The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River, translated by Gladys Yang and Yang Xianyi, Panda Books, 1984.
* Du Wanxiang. 1978; as Du Wanxiang, translated by Tani Barlow, 1989.