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
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."丁玲：《一个真实人的一生-记胡也频》，1950年11月，《丁玲全集》第9卷。 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".丁玲致白浜裕美的信，1985年3月1日，记载于李向东、王增如著《丁玲传》6节。
Literature and politics In December 1927, Ding Ling wrote and published her first novel Meng Ke in Beijing, which was published in the magazine Fiction Monthly, describing the struggle of a young woman born in a declining bureaucratic family in Shanghai. The initial concern for women's issues was appreciated by editor-in-chief of Ye Shengtao.
In February 1928, Ding Ling published Miss Sophia's Diary in the Fiction Monthly. The book, in which a young woman describes her unhappiness with her life and confused romantic and sexual feelings, caused a sensation in the literary world. Miss Sophia's Diary highlights Ding Ling's close association and belief in the New Woman movement which was occurring in China during the 1920s. At this time, Ding Ling and Hu Yepin frequently traveled from Beijing to Shanghai. They lived briefly in Hangzhou from March to July of the same year, and then returned to Shanghai.
Around this time Ding Ling met the CCP member, writer, and activist Feng Xuefeng, who unlike Hu Yepin was active in politics. Ding Ling fell in love with Feng, and at the end of February, the three had a long talk in Hangzhou, after which Feng Xuefeng backed out and Ding Ling and Hu Yebin got married and lived in Shanghai. Ding Ling later recalled: "I had lived with Hu Yepin for two and a half years, and I'd never said that I would agree to marry them, but I also did not reject his feelings for me. He gave me many things; I did not reject them. Although the two of us had an arrangement, we could have broken it off at any time. We were not husband and wife, but other people saw us as husband and wife. When I talked about these feelings, and about reason, all I could do was lose Xuefeng."丁玲1983年12月19日与骆宾基谈话，据录音记录稿。记载于李向东、王增如著《丁玲传》。
In 1927, the Kuomintang began a purge of Communists and their supporters, which was known as the White Terror. The KMT executed Xiang Jingyu during the White Terror. Xiang's execution deeply affected Ding and increased her political leanings toward Communism.
In the summer of 1928, Ding Ling and Hu Yepin as a couple moved from Beijing to Shanghai via Hangzhou, and lived in the Shanghai French Concession. There they founded a publishing house to publish a magazine "Red and Black" together with Shen Congwen. In early 1929, Ding Ling started editing and publishing the "Renjian (Humanity)" magazine, but both magazines ceased publication soon afterward. Ding and Hu were finally broke and lived on the rent sent by Ding Ling's mother. In the winter of 1929, Ding Ling completed the novel "Wei Hu (Protection)", which was based on the love story between Ding Ling's friend Wang Jianhong and CCP member Qu Qiubai.丁玲：《我是人民的女儿》，1982年10月，《丁玲全集》第8卷
In February 1930, Hu Yepin went to Jinan to teach at the Shandong Provincial Senior High School, and Ding Ling joined him soon after. In Jinan, Hu Yepin accepted and began to actively promote Marxism–Leninism, which attracted the attention of the Kuomintang (KMT). In May 1930, Ding and Hu joined the League of Left-Wing Writers. In November 1930, Ding's and Hu Yepin's son Jiang Zulin born. In March 1931, Ding placed her son in the care of her mother and returned to Hunan, accompanied by Shen Congwen.
In 1931, Hu was arrested and executed by the KMT. In grief, Ding Ling sent her son who was less than 100 days old back to Hunan to be taken care of by her mother. In May, Ding Ling published her and Hu Yepin's joint collection "The Birth of a Man" to commemorate Hu Yepin's death. The CCP invited Ding to become the editor-in-chief of the Beidou, a new left-wing magazine, and she accepted.
Ding lived alone in Shanghai after Hu's death. She wrote love letters to Feng Xuefeng, who was married. Feng Xuefang responded with friendship. He introduced Ding to Feng Da, who was working as the secretary to Agnes Smedley. Ding moved in with Feng Da in late 1931.
In March 1932, Ding joined the CCP and succeeded Qian Xingcun as the party committee secretary of the League of Left-Wing Writers.
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..."李美皆：《丁玲的历史问题》，《作家》2013年第5期。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.)中共中央组织部《关于为丁玲同志恢复名誉的通知》，1984年8月。
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.
Early life in Yan'an Ding Ling became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles. Within days of arriving, she had a major role in establishing the Chinese Literature and Arts Association, which was the first literary organization in the Yan'an base area. As arguably the most famous writer who came to Yan'an area from the KMT-controlled areas, she initially enjoyed close relations with many top CCP leaders. At the end of 1936, Mao Zedong wrote and dedicated the poem The Immortals at the River: To Ding Ling. In it, he compared, Ding Ling's literary prowess to military prowess. It is the only one of Mao's poems that he ever dedicated to a writer.
In April 1937, Ding wrote the first of the works she authored in Yan'an, An Unfired Bullet. The story advocates for a united front against the Empire of Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
Following the Marco Polo Bridge Incident and the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ding organised a group primarily of students from the Anti-Japanese Military and Political University which headed towards the front lines. As they traveled, the group disseminated patriotic and anti-Japanese messages through newsletters and artistic performances. On 12 August 1937, the group was officially titled the Northwest Front Service Corps and Ding served as its director. Among the works Ding created as the director of the group was Reunion, a play in which a female revolutionary is arrested and imprisoned by Japanese special agents.