Selected Prose Works of Ling Shuhua

Author: Ling Shuhua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: Ling Shuhua, originally named Ling Ruitan, pen names include Shuhua, Ruitang, Ruitan, SUHOA, and Suixin, was born in Panyu County, Guangdong Province. She was born on March 25, 1900, in Beijing, a cultural and historical city, into a family of officials and calligraphers and painters. She was the fourth child of her father and had four sisters, ranking third in the family and tenth among all children. The splendid culture and environment of the ancient city inspired her talent and influenced her interests and life.
Ling Shuhua's father, Ling Fupeng, styled Runtai, came from a scholarly background. He passed the imperial examination in 1893 (the 19th year of the Guangxu reign) and was a fellow examinee with Kang Youwei. He held various positions, including Assistant Censor of the Ministry of Revenue, Military Affairs Censor, Magistrate of Tianjin, Supervisor of the Tianjin Industrial Bureau and Vocational School, Magistrate of Baoding, Chief of the Tianjin Circuit, Acting Vice Governor of Shuntianfu, and Vice Governor of Zhili. After 1911, he served as a member of the North China Constitutional Convention and a Censor. He was skilled in poetry and painting, and he was closely associated with renowned painters such as Qi Baishi, Yao Mangfu, Wang Yun, Xiao Lixuan, Zhou Qixiang, Jin Cheng, Wang Mengbo, Chen Banding, and Chen Yinque. He organized the "Beijing Painting Association," and his home was often filled with scholars and literary figures. This family and living environment allowed her to be nurtured by literature and art from a young age and to develop a love for painting first.
At the age of six, she drew many landscapes, flowers, and figures with charcoal on a white wall in the garden. One of her father's friends, seeing her paintings, said to her, "Your paintings have a unique style. You have talent, and you will become a great painter. I will talk to your father and ask him to find you a teacher." As a result, she became a student of the famous female artist and favorite painter of Empress Dowager Cixi, Miao Sujuan, and also received education from Gu Hongming, who was then known as a genius of the cultural and artistic circles, which laid a foundation for her in classical Chinese poetry and English.
At the age of seven or eight, she also studied under the renowned landscape and orchid painter Wang Zhulin and later learned painting from the female painter Hao Shuyu, which solidified her foundation in painting techniques. When she studied at the Tianjin Zhili Women's Normal School, her writing talent shone like a lotus emerging from water, with outstanding literary skills that attracted attention, and her essays were often published in the school magazine.
In 1919, the May Fourth Movement broke out, and the "Tianjin Patriot Association" was established in Tianjin, publishing the weekly magazine "Xingshi" edited by Xu Guangping and Jiang Yun. She was also influenced by the movement.