Cultural celebrities around Li Shutong

Author: Chen Xing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-10-01
Features: Chen Xing, born in September 1957 in Hangzhou, is currently the Director of the Hongyi Master·Feng Zikai Research Center at Hangzhou Normal University and the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Hangzhou Normal University. He is a compiler, graduate supervisor, and holds a prominent position in academia. His major works include: A Study on Hongyi Master, The White Horse Lake Writer Group, A New Biography of Feng Zikai, Scholarly Hermit·Ma Yifu, Wild Cloud and Solitary Crane·Su Manshu, Friendship Among Gentlemen, A Biography of Li Shu Tong, Revisiting the Homeland of Prose, Midlife Memories, Cat Enthusiast, and over forty other works.
Li Shu Tong (1880–1942), also known as Li Xishuang, Li An, and Li Liang, was of Zhejiang origin but resided in Tianjin. He was one of the pioneers of Chinese theater. He possessed remarkable talents in music, calligraphy, painting, and drama. After returning from his studies in Japan, he worked as a teacher and editor before ordaining as a monk, taking the tonsure and the name Hongyi.
Li Shu Tong was born in Tianjin on the 20th day of the ninth lunar month in the sixth year of the Guangxu reign (1880), with his ancestral home in Pinghu County, Zhejiang Province. His father, Li Shizhen, was a famous scholar-official who met in the same imperial examination session as Li Hongzhang, the Viceroy of Zhili Province, and became close friends. Li Shizhen held the position of Assistant Secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, was also a major salt merchant in Tianjin, and operated silver exchange businesses, amassing great wealth. Li Shu Tong was the son of his father’s third concubine. When Li Shu Tong was five years old, his father passed away. He grew up under the guidance and care of his older brother, Wenxi, and his mother.
At the age of seven, Li Shu Tong had the ability to recite five hundred characters daily without forgetting them. At nine, he began studying seal carving, and that same year, he saw a Peking opera performance, which sparked his interest in the art. By the time Li Shu Tong matured into a young man, he had acquired extensive knowledge in poetry, prose, calligraphy, and painting.
As a pioneer of China’s New Culture Movement and a renowned monk in modern and contemporary Buddhism, Li Shu Tong was surrounded by a gathering of prominent cultural figures around him: Huang Yanpei, Ouyang Yuqian, Su Manshu, Xia Gangzun, Jing Hongyi, Ma Xulun, Wu Mengfei, Feng Zikai, Liu Zhiping, Cao Juren, Pan Tianshou, Chen Shizeng, Liu Yazi, Wu Changshuo, Xu Beihong, Liu Haisu, Roushi, Yu Dafu, Ye Shengtao, Taixu Master, and Yinguang Master, among others. Each of them was a luminary, forming a beautiful cultural landscape while also leaving behind enduring questions: Why did Ouyang Yuqian arrive five minutes late? Why did Li Shu Tong shut his windows to refuse visitors, suggesting they meet again the next day? Who among Li Shu Tong and Liu Haisu actually pioneered the use of live models for teaching first? Why did Feng Zikai, a disciple of Li Shu Tong, break off his friendship with Cao Juren? Why did Ma Yifu never write a biography of Li Shu Tong? Read Cultural Figures Around Li Shu Tong to find out!