Historical Dictionary of Modern Chinese Literature 28 presents a broad perspective on the development and history of literature in modern China. This book offers a chronology, introduction, bibliography, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on authors, literary and historical developments, trends, genres, and concepts that played a central role in the evolution of modern Chinese literature. | 242 YE SHENGTAO PEN NAME OF YE SHAOJUN one of the pioneers of the New Literature movement which advocated realism and vernacular language. In 1919 he wrote his first vernacular poem Chunyu Spring Rain and published his first vernacular story Zhe ye shi yige ren Is This a Human Being about the misfortunes of a country woman which echoes the theme of Lu Xun s Diary of a Madman published nine months earlier. Gemo Barrier published in 1922 is the second collection of short stories of the New Literature after Chenlun Sinking by Yu Dafu. Huo zai Fire his second collection of short stories was published in 1923 followed closely by four more collections of short stories and one novel. Ye is best known for his portrayals of schools and teachers in his short stories with which he expresses his views on education shaped during his many years of teaching under the influence of the May Fourth Movement with its emphasis on science and democracy. These stories expose the ills of the traditional system of education. The characters mostly teachers are ridiculed either because they muddle through life like Mr. Wu in Fan Meals or because they are cruel and abusive as the English teacher in Yi er Adopted Son and the history teacher in Fengchao Agitation . Some of his characters such as those in Yunyi Dark Clouds are empty-headed and idle away their time by filling their minds with silly love letters. Others degenerate into gamblers and engage in promiscuous activities like those in Xiaozhang The Headmaster . By attacking the old system Ye advocates a new educational philosophy that instead of cramming students heads with useless knowledge provides an environment conducive to the free development of children s intellects. To that end the subservient role the student plays in the traditional system must be replaced by an equal and fair relationship between the teacher and the student as advocated and carried out by the protagonist in Ye s novel Ni Huanzhi Ni Huanzhi the Schoolteacher .
