Liang Shiqiu, a brilliant Chinese academic and patriot, had early premonitions and deep insights into the true nature and machinations of the Chinese Communist Party. For voicing these insights and concerns, he was targeted and severely criticized by the Chinese Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong.
As soon as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) seized power in 1949, Liang Shiqiu could see it for the pall of darkness that it truly is, and he remained a considerable thorn in the side of the Party.
Biographical background; and his fateful, life-saving decision
Liang Shiqiu, born in Beijing in 1903, was a Chinese essayist, literary critic, translator, and now renowned as the first Chinese linguist to translate the complete works of William Shakespeare into Chinese in the Chinese world.
In the summer of 1915, Liang Shiqiu was admitted to the preparatory class of Tsinghua School to study in the United States (the predecessor of today’s Tsinghua University). In August 1923, he went to the United States to study, first at the University of Colorado and then at Harvard University Graduate School, where he received a doctorate in philosophy.
After returning to China in 1926, he taught at various prestigious universities, such as Jinan University, Fudan University, Peking University, and others. In May of 1949, when the CCP was about to overthrow the Republic of China on the mainland, the Republic of China escaped to Taiwan and set up its new government there.
At this time, Liang Shiqiu made the momentous decision that rescued him from the appalling fate that befell the vast majority of the scholars, academics, and artists that lived in communist China — he moved to Taiwan. There, he and his family were safe and flourished.
Among his many roles, he successively served as the director of the National Collection Museum, the head of the English Department of the Taiwan Provincial Teachers College, and the dean of literature of the National Taiwan Normal University.
Literary titan
Liang Shiqiu left more than 20 million words of works to the Chinese literary world in his lifetime. For over 37 years, he single-handedly translated the Complete Works of Shakespeare into Chinese, 37 plays, and three poetry collections. The Far East English-Chinese Dictionary he edited may be the most complete English-Chinese dictionary so far.
On November 3, 1987, Liang Shiqiu died of illness in Taipei. During his lifetime, Liang Shiqiu published articles such as Why I Do Not Agree with the Communist Party in the New Moon magazine and periodicals such as Freedom Review, founded in the mid-1930s, and bluntly talked about his views on the Communist Party.
He made it clear: “I have always disagreed with the Communist Party and Communism” for the following six reasons:
1. The Communist Party believes in class struggle
“What I am most dissatisfied with the Communist Party is its contempt for the national spirit. The theory of the Communist Party attaches importance to class over nationality.”
2. The Communist Party hates private property
“What I dislike about the Communist Party is its hatred of private property. I am not a capitalist, I do not depend on capitalists for subsistence, and I deeply despise the exploitation of the people by ordinary capitalists and landlords. However, I still support the system of private property. I think that the private asset system should not be abolished. I agree that assets should be restricted and the poor should be relieved. What we want is fairness, not average. The Communist Party is retaliating and trying to create fear, which I cannot agree with.”
3. The Communist Party opposes democratic means
“What I am dissatisfied with about the Communist Party is their anti-democratic methods. Politically, they want one-party rule. In terms of thought, they exclude dissidents and fixate on one dictator. Such intolerance contradicts democratic ideals.” “Only in a democratic country can there be individual freedom. The spirit of democracy is a bit of wisdom humanity has acquired over thousands of years at great cost, and any anti-democratic move is a reversal.”
4. The Communist Party suppresses freedom of thought
“The oppressive ideology of the communists is harsher than in any capitalist country.”
5. The Communist Party uses literature as a ‘weapon’
“The Communist Party uses literature as a ‘weapon.’ The meaning of this is obvious: to treat literature as propaganda material and a tool of class struggle. We have no objection to anyone using literature for other purposes, which is harmless to literature itself, but we cannot accept that propaganda words are literature.”
6. The Communist Party’s ‘literary and artistic policy’ is degrading
“They use political means to exploit the author’s freedom of thought and to seek the unity of literature and art. Regardless of what the communists think, they cannot forget about ‘class.’ So how can the communists impose this theoretical formula on literature and art without it being distorted? ”
Liang Shiqiu’s views mentioned above on the Communist Party have been proven correct by history, showing his foresight.
Origins of his liberal ideals and his anti-communism
Why did Liang Shiqiu have insight into the Communist Party? This is directly related to his experience.
Liang Shiqiu had received a high-quality, traditional Chinese cultural education since he was a child and a man with a deep Chinese cultural complex. When he returned from studying in the United States, he immediately began writing with a brush pen and only used a fountain pen when writing in English.
At home, he and his family and children did not speak English, but he spoke authentic Beijing dialect. His dress code was also very Chinese, always wearing handmade cotton shoes. In class, he spoke English, but he was dressed in long robes and jackets.
He often confesses that he is a product of Chinese culture: ”A pure Chinese.”
Liang Shiqiu’s father, Liang Xianxi, was a student of the first batch of English classes held in Tongwen Hall of the Beijing Normal University. Liang Shiqiu was exposed to Western culture when he was a child. At 14, he was admitted to Tsinghua Academy and received eight years of Western-style education. After that, he studied in the United States for three years and was deeply influenced by Western liberal ideas.
He reasoned: ” Thought is independent. There are minds responsible only for their reason, in other words, only for the truth. So, a force can kill, criminal law can punish, and money can tempt, but it cannot rob a person’s mind. The forces of evil can take away other kinds of freedom, but freedom of thought is eternally radiant.
“A tyrant can use force and money to prevent thinking people from publishing their thoughts, to seal bookshops, to close newspapers, to check letters, and even to charge him with being a ‘reactionary,’ shoot, kill, behead, and eliminate the whole household! But one’s thoughts cannot be extinguished, and the more they are suppressed, the faster and further those thoughts would spread into the future.”
Liang Shiqiu’s education, the mentors he contacted, and the hardships he experienced all prompted him to prefer order, steadiness, and rationality, and oppose ”extremism, impulsiveness, and irrationality.”
Epilogue: Escaped the perils
Liang Shiqiu deeply understood the Communist Party at an early age. At that critical turning point in his life and history in 1949, he was not fooled into staying back in mainland China when the CCP was about to seize power, but he chose to go to Taiwan instead.
This choice enabled him to escape the persecution and the deadly perils of the CCP’s prior political movements. He achieved significant academic achievements and had a happy family and life.
