Former Residence of Hu Yepin

Former Residence of Hu Yepin

The former residence of Hu Yepin is a classic site on China’s red tourism routes.

The former residence of Hu Yepin is located at No. 4–5, Dongnong, Daoshanguan Road, Wushan, Fuzhou.

Hu Yepin (1903–1931), childhood name Peiji, given name Chongxuan, was a native of Houguan (now downtown Fuzhou). In his youth, he attended Chongde Primary School and Wushan Normal School but had to drop out due to poverty and became an apprentice at Xiangshen Gold Shop.

In the 9th year of the Republic of China (1920), he was admitted to Shanghai Pudong Middle School and later went to Tianjin Dagukou Naval Preparatory School to study marine engineering. He then went to Beijing to apply for university but was not admitted. He stayed in a boarding house, where he began writing poetry and fiction.

In the 13th year of the Republic of China, he published the short story “In the Rain.” Soon after, he contributed to the “People's Literature Weekly,” a supplement of the Beijing newspaper Jing Bao. The following year, he published “The Reason for the Collapse of Leifeng Pagoda.”

In the summer of the 14th year of the Republic of China, he met Ding Ling and became her romantic partner. They lived in seclusion near Biyun Temple in the Western Hills. During this period, he wrote many melancholic poems, which were later collected in Selected Poems of Ye Pin.

In the 16th year of the Republic of China, he published the short story collection —. That winter, he met Feng Xuefeng and embraced Marxism. The following year, he returned to Shanghai and joined the “Red and Black” supplement of the Central Daily News. He published the short story collections Living Beads and Where to Go, as well as the poetry collection Manuscripts and the play collection The Happiness of Others.

In the 18th year of the Republic of China, he established the Red and Black Publishing House in Shanghai and co-edited the Red and Black Monthly with Shen Congwen. That autumn, he went to Jinan to teach at Shandong Provincial High School and organized a literary research association.

In May of the 19th year of the Republic of China, to avoid arrest by the Kuomintang authorities in Shandong, he returned to Shanghai and joined the League of Left-Wing Writers. He was elected as an executive member of the “Left League” and served as chairman of the Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers Literature Committee. In November of the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China and attended the Soviet Areas Representatives Conference held in Shanghai, where he was elected as a delegate and prepared to go to the Central Soviet Area for a meeting. During this time, he wrote the novella A Realistic Depiction of a Tragedy, the novel Going to Moscow, the full-length novel Light Is Before Us, and the short story Hometown.

On January 17, the 20th year of the Republic of China, he was arrested by the Kuomintang government while attending a preparatory meeting for the First National Congress of Workers, Peasants, and Soldiers at the Oriental Hotel. In the early hours of February 7, he was secretly executed along with fellow “Left League” members Rou Shi, Yin Fu, Li Weisen, and Feng Kang at the Longhua Garrison Command of the Shanghai Garrison, and they became known as the “Five Martyrs of the Left League.”

The former residence of Hu Yepin was originally built during the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty. It is a single-story wooden structure with a single bay, enclosed by walls, featuring a post-and-lintel wooden frame. It has four rooms across three bays, seven pillars extending into a corridor, and covers an area of 274 square meters. In April 2009, the residence underwent comprehensive renovation, which was completed in September of the same year. In June 2011, the exhibition displays in the residence were finished, with a total investment of over 2 million yuan.

The residence features seven exhibition areas: Memories of Childhood, Wandering in Youth, Pursuits of Youth, Final Struggle, Timeless Remembrance, A Glorious Life, and Legacy of Cause. It has now been officially opened to the public as a venue for commemorating martyrs and promoting revolutionary spirit, also serving as a patriotic education base and a base for Party history education.

In July 1991, it was designated as a Municipal Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Fuzhou Municipal People’s Government.

(Source: General Survey of Revolutionary Sites in Fuzhou)

Hu Yepin (1903–1931.2.7), from Fuzhou, Fujian. In his childhood, he worked as an apprentice and later studied at a naval school. He began literary creation in 1924 and worked for the “People's Literature Weekly,” a supplement of Jing Bao in Beijing. In the spring of 1928, he went to Shanghai to engage in revolutionary literary activities and started reading Marxist literary theory and social science books. In the spring of 1930, he went to Jinan to teach at the Provincial High School and carried out revolutionary propaganda, organizing students to form a “Literary Association” to study and discuss revolutionary literature. He was soon wanted by the authorities. With the protection of the Chinese Communist Party organization, together with Ding… More details about Hu Yepin ++