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Shen Yanbing (1896-1981)， better known by the penname Mao Dun， was a Chinese novelist， cultural critic and journalist. Still in his 20s， he became the chief editor of Short Story Monthly， a major literary magazine that carried forward the New Literature Movement that had started in the 1919 New Culture Movement. The year 1921 marked a great point in the younger writer’s life. It was in 1921 that Mao Dun helped establish the Communist Party of China. It was also in 1921 that his daughter Shen Xia was born in Shanghai. The CPC grew strong and founded New China in 1949. His daughter died in 1945 in Yan’an， the then-powerhouse of the Chinese revolution.

Shen Xia spent her girlhood years in Shanghai and grew up as a scholar with a writing aptitude. When the War of Resistance against Japanese Invasion broke out， she followed her parents to Xinjiang and later came to Yan’an in May， 1940. Revolutionary leaders in Yan’an such as Mao Zedong， Zhang Wentian and Chen Yun had been friends of Mao Dun in their younger years. Mao Dun and his wife found themselves warmly welcomed in the headquarters of the revolution. Mao Dun and his wife later joined Zhou Enlai in Chongqing， the war-time capital of China. Before the couple left for Chongqing， they entrusted their daughter Shen Xia and their son Shen Shuang to the care of Zhang Qinqiu， Mao Dun’s sister-in-law.

Zhang Qinqiu was the wife of Shen Zemin， Mao Dun’s brother. He passed away in 1934 in a revolutionary base area.In Yan’an， Zhang was one of the leaders of Yan’an-based China Women University， a school where female revolutionary leaders received training. Shen Xia enrolled into the university. In 1941 when the Women University merged with other schools into Yan’an University， Shen Xia began to study Russian in her new school. In the Spring Festival 1945， she and her classmate Xiao Yi got married in Yan’an. She soon became pregnant. As Japan surrendered and the Communists were sending troops to Northeast China， Shen Xia decided to have abortion so that she could go to the northeastern China with the troops. The abortion was a failure and she died of infection on August 20， 1945 at 24.

Decades later Mao Dun wrote in his memoir on the moment he learned of the death of his daughter. It was around September 20， 1945 in Chongqing. Liu Xian and his wife had just arrived in Chongqing from Yan’an and came to see Mao Dun. Liu had known Mao Dun in Japan in the 1930s and created woodprints for Mao’s novel Midnight. Mao Dun chatted with Liu about their mutual friends in Yan’an. Without knowing that Mao Dun did not know about the death of his daughter， Liu blurted out he was terribly sorry that Shen Xia had died. Mao Dun was struck dumb by the blow out of blue.

Although Mao Dun is known for his role in the literature of 20th century China， his daughter is little known. She was just one of the countless youths who died in the war years that ravaged China in the first part of 20th century， but for Mao Dun and his wife， their daughter’s death was a huge loss. Her mother wrote a long article of condolence， expressing her inconsolable grief over her daughter’s aborted life. The daughter once brought happiness and joy to Mao Dun’s life and her death brought endless grief to him and affected his career as a creative writer.

Her letters and some papers written in her middle school days and diaries were kept by her husband Xiao Yi until he died in battle in 1949. These files were later collected by a friend and delivered to Mao Dun in Beijing. Today， these documents are in possession of Shen Shuang. These documents paint a vivid picture of a young revolutionary with a youthful passion for revolution and a new future of China.#8194;□