Ding Ling

Ding Ling ( ; 12 October 1904 – 4 March 1986¹), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi ( ), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), known for her feminist and socialist realist literature. Ding was active in leftist literary circles connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was imprisoned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or "KMT") for her politics. She later became a leader in the literary community in the CCP revolutionary base area of Yan'an, and held 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 The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River. Ding's political loyalties were questioned over time because of a note she had written while being held captive by the KMT and because of her relationship with Feng Da, who had betrayed her to the KMT. After the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1958, Ding was denounced, expelled from the CCP, and exiled to Manchuria. She was rehabilitated in 1979 and a 1984 CCP resolution formally affirmed that the initial 1940 investigation concluding that she had remained loyal to the party while in KMT custody was correct. Ding died in Beijing in 1986.

Ding Ling ( ; 12 October 1904 – 4 March 1986), formerly romanized as Ting Ling, was the pen name of Jiang Bingzhi ( ), also known as Bin Zhi (彬芷 Bīn Zhǐ), known for her feminist and socialist realist literature. Ding was active in leftist literary circles connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and was imprisoned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or "KMT") for her politics. She later became a leader in the literary community in the CCP revolutionary base area of Yan'an, and held 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 The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River. Ding's political loyalties were questioned over time because of a note she had written while being held captive by the KMT and because of her relationship with Feng Da, who had betrayed her to the KMT. After the Anti-Rightist Campaign in 1958, Ding was denounced, expelled from the CCP, and exiled to Manchuria. She was rehabilitated in 1979 and a 1984 CCP resolution formally affirmed that the initial 1940 investigation concluding that she had remained loyal to the party while in KMT custody was correct. Ding died in Beijing in 1986.

Early life

in 1926]] Ding Ling was born as Jiang Bingzhi 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. After the death of Ding's father, Ding's mother became a revolutionary. She often told Ding stories of martyrs, particularly Qiu Jin. 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. 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".

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. Leftist poet Ying Xiuren was also ambushed by the KMT at Ding's apartment and jumped out a window, killing himself to avoid capture. 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. A group of progressive intellectuals formed the Association for Rescuing Ding Ling and Pan Zinian. 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. Lu Xun wrote a classical Chinese poem, A Lament for Ms. Ding, to commemorate her. 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 CCP, 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. 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 with Feng Da, which also took her surname instead of Feng's. According to Ding, Yao Pengzi informed her in April 1934 that Feng had disclosed her address to the KMT, leading to her arrest. She ended her sexual relationship with Feng upon hearing this. In October 1934, Ding gave birth to a child whose father was Feng. Ding described her time in the KMT's captivity in her 1983 memoir The World of Demons and Monsters. According to her memoir, Ding attempted to kill herself by hanging during her captivity, but Feng intervened. Ding's works later in life portray Feng in a neutral light. Ding escaped with the assistance of the CCP. 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 CCP revolutionary base area of Yan'an the month after.

Later years

In 1979, Ding was politically rehabilitated. Her return to Beijing and the fact that she was no longer deemed a rightist were the subject of major news reporting. 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. On 14 July 1984, the CCP issued The Notification Regarding the Restoration of Comrade Ding Ling's Reputation. It stated that Ding had remained a loyal member of the party during her captivity by the KMT in Nanjing and affirmed that the result of the 1940 investigation had been correct. Ding authored more than three hundred works. After her political 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. On 14 July 1984, the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party issued The Notification Regarding the Restoration of Comrade Ding's Reputation. Receiving the news while she was in the hospital, Ding stated, "Now I can die." In July 1985, Ding was hospitalized in Beijing. During her hospitalization, she wrote her essay The Song of Death. 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. Ding Ling died in Beijing on March 4, 1986.

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. Ding began the fictional piece, which was based on a person Ding met in the Great Northern Wastes and chronicles her development as a communist worker, in 1965 and re-wrote it in 1977.

Further reading

Chinese Writers on Writing featuring Ding Ling. Ed. Arthur Sze. (Trinity University Press, 2010). Alber, Charles J. Embracing the Lie: Ding Ling and the Politics of Literature in the PRC. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004. 1 copy. Barlow, Tani, "Gender and Identity in Ding Ling's 'Mother.'" Modern Chinese Literature 2, 2 (1986): 123–42. Barlow, Tani, The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism. Durham, Duke University Press, 2004. 1 copy. (contains material on Ding Ling). Bjorge, Gary J. "'Sophia's Diary': An Introduction." Tamkang Review 5, 1 (1974): 97–110. Chang, Jun-mei. Ting Ling, Her Life and Her Work. Taipei: Institute of International Relations, 1978. Dien, Dora Shu-fang. "Ding Ling and 'Miss Sophie's Diary': A Psychobiographical Study of Adolescent Identity Formation." Making Meaning of Narratives: The Narrative Study of Lives 6 Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications, 221–237. Ding Ling and Her Mother: A Cultural Psychological Study. Huntington, NY: Nova Science, 2001. Feng, Jin. "The 'Bold Modern Girl': Ding Ling's Early Fiction." In *Feng, The New Woman in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2001, 149–70. "The Revolutionary Age: Ding Ling's Fiction of the Early 1930s." In Feng, The New Woman in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2001, 171–88. "Ding Ling in Yan'an: A New Woman within the Part Structure?" In Feng, The New Woman in Early Twentieth-Century Chinese Fiction. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2001, 189–96 Feuerwerker, Yi-tsi Mei. Ding Ling's Fiction: Ideology and Narrative in Modern Chinese Literature. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1982. "The Changing Relationship between Literature and Life: Aspects of the Writer's Role in Ding Ling [Ting Ling]." In Merle Goldman, ed. Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1977, 281–307. "Ting Ling's 'When I was in Sha Chuan (Cloud Village)'." Signs, Journal of Women in Culture and Society 2, 1 (1976): 255–79. "The Uses of Literature: Ding Ling in Yan'an." In W. Kubin and R. Wagner, eds., Essays in Contemporary Chinese Literature and Literary Criticism. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1981. Huang, Xincun. “Politics, Gender and Literary Writings: A Study of Ding Ling in the Early 1940s.” Journal of Asian Culture 14 (1990): 33–54. Kubin, Wolfgang. "Sexuality and Literature in the People's Republic of China, Problems of the Chinese woman before and after 1949 as seen in Ding Ling's 'Diary of Sophia' (1928) and Xi Rong's story 'An Unexceptional Post' (1962)." In Wolfgang Kubin and Rudolf G. Wagner, eds., Essays in Modern Chinese Literature and Literary Criticism. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1982, 168–91. Lai, Amy Tak-yee. "Liberation, Confusion, Imprisonment: The Female Self in Ding Ling's 'Diary of Miss Sophie' and Zhang Jie's 'Love Must Not Be Forgotten.'" Comparative Literature and Culture 3 (Sept. 1998): 88–103. Tang, Xiaobing. "Shanghai Spring 1930: Engendering the Revolutionary Body." In Chinese Modernism: The Heroic and the Quotidian. Durham: Duke UP, 2000, 97–130. Wang, Shunzhu. "The Double-Voiced Feminine Discouses in Ding Ling's 'Miss Sophie's Diary' and Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God." Tamkang Review 27, 1 (1997): 133–158. Zhang, Jingyuan. "Feminism and Revolution: The Work and Life of Ding Ling." In Joshua Mostow, ed, and Kirk A. Denton, China section, ed., Columbia Companion to Modern East Asian Literatures. NY: Columbia UP, 2003, 395–400. Zhou Liangpei. Ding Ling zhuan (Biography of Ding Ling). Beijing: Beijing shiyue wenyi, 1993.

See also

Thoughts on March 8 When I was in Xia Village Sanggan River

References

Footnotes

Ebrey, Patricia. Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge University Press, June 13, 1996. Solomon, Barbara H., "Other Voices, Other Vistas", A Mentor Book, March 1992 Ding Ling. A Portrait by Kong Kai Ming at Hong Kong Baptist University Library

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