Author of The Marriage of Young Blacky, a village novelist who died after struggle sessions in the Cultural Revolution
Born to a peasant family in Qinshui, Shanxi, he taught school and joined the Communist Party in 1927. Arrested in 1929 and freed the next year, he rejoined in 1937. Working on newspapers during the war against Japan, he wrote fiction in peasant speech and old storytelling forms and made his name in 1943 with The Marriage of Young Blacky. Zhou Yang praised him and in 1947 a "Zhao Shuli direction" was proclaimed. In 1959 an essay warning against exaggeration in the Great Leap Forward brought attacks on him as a right-leaner; cleared in 1962, he was attacked again in 1964 for "middle characters". Repeated struggle sessions in the Cultural Revolution broke his bones, and he collapsed at one in September 1970 and died. He was rehabilitated in 1978.
Also known as: Chao Shu-li
Activities and affiliations
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1937–1970
Political and party leadership
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1943–1970
Literature and arts
Career Timeline
- 1927Joined the Communist Party; lost contact the next year
- 1937Rejoined the Communist Party
- 1943Short story The Marriage of Young Blacky
- 1959–1962Attacked as a right-leaner; cleared at the Dalian meeting
- 1966–1970Struggle sessions in the Cultural Revolution
- 1970.09.23Died in Taiyuan