Chinese editor and author, communist ideologue, one of the greatest modern novelists in China. Mao Dun is best known for the novel Tzu-Yeh (1933, Midnight), a massive tale about life in the metropolitan Shanghai, and the trilogy Shih (1933). Mao Dun also published over one hundred translations of fiction, drama, and poetry.
Education
Extensive reading and strict writing skills training filled his life.
He he studied Chinese and Western literature. The trainings in Chinese and English as well as knowledge of Chinese and Western literature provided by the fifteen years' education Mao Dun received had prepared him to show up in the limelight of the Chinese journalistic and literary arena.
Career
Apart from editing, Mao Dun also writed about his social thoughts and criticisms. When he took up the post of Chief Editor of the Monthly he was obliged to reform it thoroughly, in response to the New Cultural Movement. His young writer friends in Beijing supported him by submitting their creative writings, translating Western literature and their views on new literature theories and techniques to the magazines. It had facilitated the continuation of the New Cultural Movement by selling ten thousand copies a month and more importantly by introducing Literature for life, a brand new realistic approach to Chinese literature. In this period, Mao Dun had become a leading figure of the movement in the southern part of China. When he became the chief columnist of the Minguo yuebao, he wrote more than 30 editorials for this newspaper to criticize Chiang Kai-shek, and to support revolutions.
Politics
Inspired by the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, Mao Dun took part in the May Fourth Movement in China. In 1920, he joined the Shanghai Communist Team, and helped to establish the Chinese Communist Party in 1921.
At the same time, Mao Dun participated in Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition (1926–1928), the main purpose was to unite the country. He quit, however, when Chiang's Kuomintang broke with the Communists. Mao Dun participated in Chiang Kai-shek's Northern Expedition (1926–28) in an attempt to unite China, but this failed and he fled to Kuling, when the Kuomingtang dissolved relations with the Chinese Communist Party. In the 1930s he was one of the key founders of the League of Left-Wing Writers, which was dissolved in a quarrel in 1936.
In July 1928, he went to Japan in order to take refuge. As he returned to China in 1930, he joined the League of the Left-Wing Writers. Later, China went to war with Japan and he actively engaged in resisting the Japanese attack in 1937. In 1949, the communist government took over and he was responsible for working as Mao Zedong's secretary and Culture Minister until 1964.