Liang Shiqiu and his wife Cheng Jishu before their marriage
Many writers of the Republican era, such as Mao Dun, Lao She, Ba Jin, Guo Moruo, Ding Ling, and Shen Congwen, chose to stay in the mainland before and after the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party, and some of them even welcomed the Chinese Communist Party in every way, such as Guo Moruo. However, almost every one of them did not escape the persecution of the Communist Party, and Lao She was so humiliated that he threw himself into a lake during the Cultural Revolution. In contrast to their unpleasant fate, the writer Liang Shiqiu was able to see through the Chinese Communist Party and chose to leave the mainland, and he was able to die a good death.
Above, Liang Shiqiu
Early Years
Born in 1903, Liang Shiqiu’s father was named Liang Xianxi, a late Qing dynasty scholar from an official family. He studied English at Tongwenkan, a school used by the Qing Dynasty to train diplomats and translators, and was so influenced by Western civilization that he sent Liang Shiqiu to the United States to study when he grew up.
However, Liang Xianxi did not neglect the education of his children in Chinese studies. When Liang Shiqiu was young, Liang Xianxi invited an old gentleman to teach several children at home, and later sent them to private noble schools. This laid a good foundation of Chinese studies.
At the age of 14, Liang Shiqiu was admitted to the Tsinghua Academy, where he was in the same class as Liang Sicheng, son of Liang Qichao. According to the article recalled by Liang Shiqiu’s daughter Liang Wenqiang, Liang’s interest in Chinese literature was encouraged by a lecture given by Liang Qichao. A year before his graduation, Liang Qichao was invited to give a lecture. When Liang Qichao took the podium that day, his opening remarks consisted of only two sentences, the first of which was: “Qichao has nothing to learn. ……” eyes rolled upward, and a slight nod of the head: “But there is a little bit of me!” The title of the speech was “The emotions expressed in Chinese rhymes”, and Liang Shiqiu recalled that Mr. Liang was rich in emotion and had a strong memory, “he could recite a large section of poetry by tapping his bald head with his hand”; when he reached the emotional point, he was so sad that he cried bitterly and could not stop himself.
In August 1923, Liang Shiqiu and more than 60 other Tsinghua graduates went to the United States by ship to study. After receiving his bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado, Liang Shiqiu entered Harvard University Graduate School. He returned to China three years later to get married, then taught in Shanghai and Qingdao, and was later invited by Hu Shih to teach at Peking University. And a year after his return to China, he published his first book, The Romantic and the Classical, and entered the stage of history as a young professor and literary critic, becoming an important member of the liberal intellectual camp.
Evaluation of Lu Xun
In his life, Liang Shiqiu did not create his own literature, but was basically known to the world as a literary critic, essayist, and translator. He is widely known for his translations of Shakespeare’s plays. After Liang Shiqiu published his first book, he disagreed with Lu Xun, a left-wing writer sympathetic to the Communist Party at the time, over his views on literature. Lu Xun believed that literature had a class, and his extreme opposition to the view that literature was an expression of human nature, believing that literature was a weapon tool for transforming the spirit to promote social change, while Liang Shiqiu did not advocate using literature as a tool for politics, opposing ideological unity and demanding freedom of thought.
The two sides engaged in a polemic, which eventually developed into a scolding, with Lu Xun even putting the label of “lapdog of capitalism” on Liang Shiqiu’s head. Because the Chinese Communist Party had always promoted Lu Xun, his abuse became a lingering label on the mainland, which obscured his side as a liberal intellectual.
In fact, Liang Shiqiu’s evaluation of Lu Xun’s essays, prose and novels was basically objective. In his essay “About Lu Xun,” Liang Shiqiu comments on Lu Xun as follows.
–Lu Xun had a difficult life and had “hit a wall” everywhere, so it was natural for him to have a sense of resentment that crossed his chest and was vented. Who was the target of his resentment? Rituals, systems, traditions, government, all became the object of his anger. He was a native of Shaoxing, so perhaps he was born with the quality of a “swordsman”, and his writing was extremely caustic. His writing, concise and biting, has its value as sporadic satire. His main work is his collection of miscellaneous feelings, one after another. But to be a literary scholar, it is not enough to have a belly of grievances and a grievance, he must have a set of positive thoughts, a set of positive views on people and things, even if they do not have to constitute any system, at least a positive proposition. Lu Xun is not enough to say this.
–It is also true that Lu Xun never criticized communism, and he left the back door open. So when the Communist Party wanted to use him to lead the Left Wing Writers’ League, it was a snap. …… It was around this time that he translated the Russian Communist Party’s “literary policy” in a raw and crude tone… …After this period, Lu Xun became deeply involved in the Communist camp.
–Lu Xun had no theory of literature and art, but first of all, he was a mass of discontent, and then he followed the literary and artistic policy of the Soviet Union, and finally, he was completely at the mercy of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party.
–Lu Xun’s works, as I have already said, are more exciting than his miscellaneous writings. But there is still a question as to how many of them can become satirical literature of permanent value.
–In terms of fiction, Lu Xun wrote only a few short stories, but no long works. His most famous work, “A Q Zhengzhuan,” is also considered a short …… story, but if we say that this novel But to say that this novel is aimed at our Chinese nationality, to say that Ah Q is a typical Chinese representative, I think that is an exaggeration, and Lu Xun himself may not have intended it.
Wisdom in Criticism of the Communist Party
After his return to China, Liang Shiqiu often published articles criticizing the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the New Moon at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s and in his own Free Review in Beiping in the mid-1930s. The articles on the Kuomintang’s one-party dictatorship and suppression of freedom of thought reveal his conscience and courage as a human being, while his perception of the Communist Party reveals his wisdom and perspective.
In his article “Why I Disapprove of the Communist Party,” Liang Shiqiu clearly stated, “I have always disapproved of the Communist Party and Communism. He presented his views from three aspects.
“What I resent most about the Communist Party is its contempt for the national spirit. The theory of the Communist Party values class over nationality. The strategy of their revolution is that the proletariat of the world unite to overthrow the bourgeoisie. The Chinese Communist Party is not a mere revolutionary party within China; it is at the command of the Third International; it is a part of the world revolution; it fights for the class.”
“The second point that I resent about the Communist Party is its hatred of private assets. I am not a capitalist myself, I do not depend on capitalists for my livelihood, and I abhor the exploitation of the people by capitalists and landowners in general, but I still support the system of private property. I still think that the system of private property should not be abolished, and I fully agree that the property should be restricted and the poor should be given relief. What we want is fairness, not equality. What the Communists are taking is vengeance, to cause fear, and that is something I cannot approve of.”
“The third point that I resent about the Communists is their anti-democratic tactics. In politics, they are for one-party dictatorship; in ideology, they are also for the exclusion of dissent and fixation on one. Such an intolerant attitude runs counter to the ideal of democracy. Therefore, from the standpoint of democracy, I think that the dictatorship of the Fascists, the dictatorship of the Communists, and the dictatorship of the Kuomintang are all equally inappropriate. The parliamentary system may not be the most efficient political system, but the spirit of democracy, i.e., obedience to the majority opinion, respect for minority rights, the greatest amount of individual freedom, and the culture of open discussion, are indispensable in any country. Only in a democratic country can individual freedom be found. The spirit of democracy is a bit of wisdom that mankind has paid a great price for thousands of years to acquire. Any anti-democratic posture is a retrograde step.”
In addition, Liang Shiqiu also abhorred the Communist Party’s class-oriented “literary policy”.
Leaving the Mainland
After the outbreak of the war, Liang Shiqiu moved to Chongqing and did not return to Beijing until after the war. At the end of 1948, after the outbreak of the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party, the defeat of the Kuomintang was already apparent, and people from all sides were faced with the choice of whether to leave the mainland. Although Liang Shiqiu was very dissatisfied with the Kuomintang, he believed that there was no freedom under the Communist Party, so he and other intellectuals such as Hu Shi and Fu Sian made the choice to leave the mainland, while Luo Longji and Chu Anping, who had also criticized the Communist Party, and a large number of writers chose to stay. Their different choices before 1949 sealed their respective fates.
Sadly, only Liang Shiqiu and his wife and his youngest daughter Liang Wenqiang went to Taiwan, while his eldest daughter Wen Xi, who had graduated from Peking University, stayed on the mainland because she was married and married, and his son Wen Ti, who was studying at Peking University, did not go. This farewell not only separated the family from life and death for dozens of years, but also the family members who stayed on the mainland did not escape the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party.
Life in Taiwan and family suffering on the mainland
According to Liang Wenqiang’s recollection, when the family first arrived in Taiwan, it could be said that they had “no place to stand”. Liang Shiqiu made a living by teaching and writing articles. After their life was settled, they continued to translate Shakespeare’s works. His wife, Cheng Jishu, also gave her full support and did not force him to go out to earn money. It can be said that besides teaching, Liang devoted most of his energy to translating The Complete Plays of Shakespeare, which consisted of forty-one volumes. In addition, in his later years, he edited the Far Eastern English-Chinese Dictionary with more than 80,000 words.
In April 1974, Cheng Jishu died, and Liang Shiqiu, who was very close to his wife, was very sad. It was not until a month after his wife’s death that Liang Shiqiu learned that his eldest daughter and son were still alive in China.
Liang Shiqiu’s son, Liang Wenqi, taught mathematics at Anhui University of Science and Technology after graduating from Peking University, and then moved to Guangzhou to teach at Jinan University in the 1960s. He came to the United States as a visiting scholar for two years in the early 1980s, and later applied to join Liang Shiqiu in Taiwan as a researcher at the Institute of Statistics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
As Mao Zedong had called Liang Shiqiu a reactionary writer by name, he was also implicated during his time in China. During the Cultural Revolution, he was branded as a member of the Black Five and sent to labor camps for 10 years.
Liang Shiqiu’s eldest daughter, Liang Wenxi, worked in the court and later became a lawyer by profession. Because of her father’s relationship, she was branded as a rightist during the “Anti-Rightist” period and was sent to the countryside for reform, and was assigned to a housing management office to collect rent upon her return. After the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, she was again sent down to the countryside for reform. During this period, her husband died of torture.
Conclusion
In November 1987, Liang Shiqiu died of a heart attack at the age of 84, and in 2007, at the age of 79, Liang Wenqi also passed away. It is certain that if Liang Shiqiu had chosen to stay in China, he would not have completed the translation of Shakespeare’s complete plays, let alone taught and expressed his views freely, as evidenced by his son Liang Wenqi and daughter Liang Wenxi. As history goes by, who could not say that Liang Shiqiu had a pair of wise eyes?
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