Poet-Turned Soldier in North Expedition

Editor’s Note: Sun Xizhen (1906-1984) was a prominent man of letters in the history of modern Chinese literature. Born in a relatively rich family in a village in Shaoxing， he grew up to be a wizard boy in literature in the 1920s and 1930s. He was an influential poet in the 1930s. Lu Xun， also from Shaoxing， had close ties with the young writer. The two authors have produced a critical biography of Sun Xizhen， a prominent man in the history of Zhejiang’s literature and culture. Cultural Dialogue published an excerpt from the critical biography in the May issue. The following is another excerpt.

After the March 18 incident in 1926， Sun Xizhen dropped out of Peking University and left for Guangzhou. He was instructed to attend the Huangpu Military Academy. At that time Guangzhou was the revolutionary hotbed. Revolutionary leaders and students gathered there to get ready for another revolution. After his arrival in Guangzhou， however， Sun Xizhen did not have time for military training at the academy. He joined the Communist Party of China and was instructed to join the troops under the command of Lin Boqu， for the North Expedition was about to start.

Sun Xizhen was immediately appointed a political instructor at a company. On June 20， 1926， the Sixth Army set out on the northward march. In the first two months， the expedition army conquered Hunan and Hubei provinces. Sun Xizhen was promoted rapidly during this period.

One Day in November 1926， Sun Xizhen was strolling in downtown Nanchang looking around and enjoying the victorious atmosphere when he suddenly spotted Guo Moruo， a poet whose “Goddess” made him his great national renown. Guo at that time was the deputy director of the general political department of the North Expedition. Sun Xizhen found himself short of breath and his heart pounding. He rushed to Guo Moruo and saluted.

Surprised， Guo looked over the 20-year-old young officer and asked who he was. Sun Xizhen said he was Sun Xizhen with the political department of the Sixth Army. Guo Moruo immediately recognized the name and said， “Aren’t you the teenage poet?” Sun Xizhen was surprised that Guo Moruo immediately recognized who he was after hearing the name and that Guo was a man with no pompous airs.

More surprisingly， Sun Xizhen was transferred the next day to the general political department of the North Expedition to work as a secretary and editing director in charge of chief-editing the Revolutionary Army Daily. And it was here that Sun met other Communists. A few months later， Guo Moruo quit his job and went into hiding. On March 31， 1927， his sharp criticism of Chiang Kai-shek was published in Central Daily in Wuhan. After Guo left， Sun Xizhen was transferred to the Third Army and later to the Eighth Army. On July 15， Wang Jingwei publicly announced the break with the Communists. This day marked the breakdown of the CPC-KMT coalition. Sun Xizhen was instructed by the CPC to leave Wuhan.

In the later July， 1927， Sun Xizhen came back secretly to Nanchang， getting ready for Nanchang Uprising. He was arranged to live at the residence of Zhu De. On July 27， Zhou Enlai arrived and stayed at the residence of Zhu De， too.

Nanchang Uprising took place at one o’clock on the morning of August 1. After fierce battles for five hours， the uprising was declared a success. Sun took part in the fighting. This day marks the starting of the armed struggle against KMT under the leadership of the Chinese communists and the birthday of the People’s Liberation Army.

Sun Xizhen and Li Guisheng were instructed to travel to Shanghai as husband and wife. They had met before. They were comrades in the incident of Beijing Normal University. While Sun worked as a secretary to Guo Moruo， Li Guisheng was director of the department of women’s affairs in the Jiangxi Provincial Government. Now they left together for Shanghai. Unexpectedly Sun Xizhen went down with malaria. Li Guisheng immediately took him to her home. Upon seeing them arrival， Li Guisheng’s mother got them disguised and sent them to the home of Li Guohua， a cousin of Li Guisheng and a revolutionary. Thus they went into hiding in the village of Meichen in Xinjian County， Nanchang.

The small village was far from anywhere. Near the village was a big tomb of a Hanlin of ancient time. A neighbor called deaf grandmother often came to see the two young people and chatted with them. They spent six months at the village. It was during this time that the fake husband and wife became real husband and wife. While Sun slowly recovered， the two lost contact with the Communist Party. So in the summer of 1928， they went to Shanghai. Sun Xizhen dreamed of getting into contact with the Communist Party and working for it again.

They were unable to get into contact with anyone. So Sun Xizhen went to Japan. He planned to study Japanese and get proficiency with the language and then study international politics at Waseda University. He stayed in Japan only for two months before he came back to China as he had financial problems and was unable to go on with the study.

He decided to make a living by writing and translating. In the early 1930s， he published “On the Battleground”， “In the War” and “After the War”， three novels set against the North Expedition and on the basis of his experience. He also wrote three short stories about the great expedition. His war stories caused a sensation among progressive writers. When Short Stories Monthly published some chapters of “On the Battleground”， Zhen Zhenduo， the chief editor of the influential literary publication， wrote a foreword for the excerpt. When the book came out， four other well known novelists wrote serious reviews on the novel. The novel was also translated into foreign languages and published in France， Denmark and Japan. The translated excerpts were anthologized in A Collection of Modern Chinese Short Stories， published in Paris. “On the Battleground” was praised as the first war novel in modern China and Sun Xizhen was described as a war novelist.□