Ba Jin（1904-2005），whose original name is Li Raotang was born in Zhejiang Province. He was the spiritual symbol of modern Shanghai in mentality. But in 2005, he died and caused instability in people’s mental world. Suddenly, many people fell in despair and sorrow and found they lost themselves in life pursuit.

He was born in an official family and received a good family education and higher education in outside modern schools. During the May-4th movement, he was deeply influenced by the democratism and anarchism. In 1920s, he especially studied in a foreign language school in Chengdu. He participated in the anti-feudal movement.

In 1923， he studied in middle school attached to Southeast University in Nanjing. In 1925, he graduated and often published his discourse and translational articles. He publicized his viewpoint of anarchism. In 1927, he went to France, and finished his first novelette "Destruction" about a depressed young anarchist. Since 1928, he came back and lived in Shanghai. During this time, he created a lot of articles to show his attitude on society. His works at this time include: "Family", "Spring", "Autumn", "The Trilogy of Love", "A Dream of Sea" and so on.

Ba Jin was his pen name which he chose from the Chinese transliterations of two Russian anarchists’ names---the first syllable of Bakunin and the last syllable of Kropotkin. From 1935 to 1949, Ba Jin edited lots of magazines and he acted as the chief editor of Cultural Life and Pingming Publishing Houses in Shanghai. Furthermore, he also served as the chairman of Shanghai Federation of Literary and Art Circles.

His great articles have been translated into in many foreign languages. The prizes and medals from former Soviet Union and Italian government are given for his contributions in translation and introduction of Chinese works to outside world and bringing more foreign works into China. he promoted Sino-foreign cultural exchange. Besides, He was an honorary member of the American Institute of Arts and Letters as well.