Ye Dehui (; 186411 April 1927) was a Chinese writer and editor active during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

and the

Republican Era Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

. Vacillating between academia, business, and civil service in his early life, Ye eventually established himself as a leading bibliophile and literatus. He was executed by the local government for his alleged counter-revolutionism.

Early life

Ye was born in 1864 in

Changsha Changsha is the capital of Hunan, China. It is the 15th most populous city in China with a population of 10,513,100, the Central China#Cities with urban area over one million in population, third-most populous city in Central China, and the ...

, Hunan. He was the son of a government official in Hebei. After passing his entry-level

imperial examinations The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early i ...

, Ye briefly pursued a career in business, becoming a successful trader with interests in rice, salt, and textiles. In 1892, he obtained the ''

jinshi ''Jinshi'' () was the highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China. The examination was usually taken in the imperial capital in the palace, and was also called the Metropolitan Exam. Recipients are sometimes referre ...

'' degree. The same year, he became a secretary at the Board of Civil Office but found the job unsatisfying and quit after a few months.

Career

As an editor and publisher, Ye is known for his '' Shuangmei jing’an congshu'' (; literally ''Shadow of the Double Plum Tree Anthology''), which collects four Chinese medical classics on sexual cultivation that had been partially preserved in the Ishinpō: the '' Sunü jing''; '' Yufang mijue''; '' Yufang zhiyao''; and '' Dongxuan zi''. First published in 1907, Ye's anthology "outraged" the Chinese public, although it was later described in the 1950s by

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, initia ...

as "the greatest Chinese sexological collection". Ye was one of the most prolific collectors of rare books and manuscripts in China. In 1910, he published a guide to book-collecting and in 1915, he released a catalogue of the 350,000-odd volumes in his personal collection. Ye also occasionally tried his hand at prose and poetry.

Views

Unlike his contemporaries

Kang Youwei Kang Youwei (; Cantonese: ''Hōng Yáuh-wàih''; 19March 185831March 1927) was a political thinker and reformer in China of the late Qing dynasty. His increasing closeness to and influence over the young Guangxu Emperor sparked confli ...

and

Liang Qichao Liang Qichao (Chinese: 梁啓超; Wade–Giles: ''Liang2 Chʻi3-chʻao1''; Yale romanization of Cantonese, Yale: ''Lèuhng Kái-chīu''; ) (February 23, 1873 – January 19, 1929) was a Chinese politician, social and political activist, jour ...

, Ye was vehemently opposed to Western intellectualism and opined that the decline of modern China was due to the people's "deviation from tradition". Ye also found

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

to be inferior to

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

; he believed that there was "much absurdity" in the

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

and that "the religion of Jesus ... cowed people into submission." In 1900, Ye was arrested and briefly imprisoned for his suspected involvement in the anti-foreign and anti-Christian

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, was an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, and anti-Christian uprising in North China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by the Society of Righteous and Harmonious F ...

Death

Ye was a staunch

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...

. Upon the arrival of the Chinese Communist Party in Changsha in 1927, Ye composed a derogatory couplet that referred to the communists as "beasts" and "half-breeds". He was brought to trial by the Chinese Communist Party on 1 April 1927. Ten days later, on 11 April 1927, Ye and several other alleged counter-revolutionaries were executed by shooting. A "definitive" collection of his works was posthumously published by his son in 1935.

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{authority control 1864 births 1927 deaths People from Changsha 20th-century Chinese writers People executed by China by firing squad Chinese anti-communists