Lou Shiyi joined the the Communist Party of China in 1926 and then took part in the literary group "Sun Society". And in the early 1930's, he joined the "Left League" and served as a propaganda committee member. And he was the prototype of the character --Bai Mang in "Impression Of Bai Mang" mentioned in Lu Xun's famous article "Remembrance of the forgotten". The news about the sacrifice of the five martyrs of the Left-wing Writers League was first publicized through Literary News edited by him. ...... Because of a large number of revolutionary literary activities, translations and editing work he did before after the Liberation of China, he was honored as a "pioneer of revolutionary literature and art, and a hero in the cultural history".
楼适夷先生1926年入党，后参加文学团体“太阳社”。上世纪30年代初，加入“左联”并任宣传委员，鲁迅名篇《为了忘却的记念》里提及写《白莽印象记》的林莽便是他，“左联”五烈士牺牲的消息，最早就是通过他编辑的《文艺新闻》公布于众的……由于解放前后，他做了大量的革命文学活动和翻译、编辑等工作，曾被誉为“革命文艺的先驱，文化史 上的功臣”。
▲李城外在医院探望楼适夷
Li Chengwai visited Lou Shiyi in the hospital.
In September 1969, Lou Shiyi, then vice president and deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Literature Publishing House, was sent down to Xiang-yang Lake on trumped-up charges, a Cadre School in Xianning, as an "object of dictatorship" under the scrutiny of the special task force.Being sixty four years old, he had to accept the "re-education" and participate in reclaiming from lakes. He carried the load of the river mud, excavated and made adobe by himself, with which he had to build his own house. But the hardest thing for him to get used to was planting seedlings in the rice paddies. He,a short old man, had to walk more than 20 miles on crutches, from his residence to the field. Sometimes he had to set off before dawn for the rush-planting. He fell down on his way from time to time because it was hard to walk in the yellow -mud road of Xianning . If walking slowly, he would be scolded by the "revolutionary mass representatives". When planting rice seedlings, the water was deeper than his knees, and even the local folks could not stand it and asked sympathetically, "We've been farming all our lives, and we don't go to the paddy fields in our sixties, so how can you allow this old man who is good at writing books to do this kind of work?" Although he was put on the blacklist, the farmers observed people with actions regardless of preach, which brought a little warmth to his misery. Therefore, he had to force himself to answer with a smile: "You have worked all your lives, and you should take a break when you are old, but we have never worked in the fields and eaten free rice over the years. Although old, I should also take extra classes for it!" In addition to working, he also accepted criticism in public. He was imprisoned by the Kuomintang in the 1930s. And Lu Xun was involved in rescuing him from prison ,as the history had demonstrated his clean identity. However, at Xiangyang Lake, the extreme leftists insisted that he was a traitor. And they did not believe him no matter how he "truthfully confessed", which was based on the reason that "Chiang Kai-shek would kill a thousand innocent people by mistake rather than release one sinful , so how could you still come out alive? And how could you not be killed? How could you not be killed if you were so good as you talked?" what else can be said to refute when "learning" this logic of pirates?
1969年９月，时任人民文学出版社副社长兼副总编辑的楼适夷，作为受专案组审查的“专政对象”，戴着莫须有的帽子，下放到咸宁干校——向阳湖。已经六十有四的他，不得不接受“再教育”，参加围湖造田，挑河泥，挖土方；并且打土坯，自己盖房自己住。但最难适应的，还是下水田学插秧。他小老头一个，得拄着拐棍走二十多里，从住地赶到田间。有时抢种，天没亮就开始赶路，咸宁的黄泥地又不好走，不时摔几个跟头，如果走慢了，还会受到监管的“革命群众代表”责骂。插秧时，水深过膝盖以上，连当地群众都看不过眼，同情地问：“我们一辈子种田，到六十多岁也不下水田了，怎么还让你们写书的老人干这种活呢？”尽管他身上被贴有“黑标签”，但农民不是听讲大道理，而是用行动来观察人，这也给苦不堪言的他带来了一点温暖，只好强打精神，笑着答：“你们干了一辈子，到了年纪也该歇歇了，我们可是一辈子没下过地， 白吃大米，虽然老了，也该补补课嘛！”除了干活，还要挨批。他30年代坐过国民党的牢，鲁迅曾参与过营救他出狱的工作，历史早有结论。可是在向阳湖，极左派硬说他是叛徒，怎么“如实交待”也不相信，推理是：“蒋介石‘宁可错杀一千，不可放过一个’，你怎么还能活着出来，像你说得那么好，怎么能不杀你？”他“领教”着这种强盗逻辑，还有什么话可以反驳的呢？
Lou Shiyi at Lu Mountain
▲楼适夷在庐山
Lou Shiyi often wrote "thought report" in his daily life. And he was forced to make up a lot of "political lessons". But the severe "life lessons" made him feel helpless. When the next winter set in, his wife Huang Wei visited him from Xi County Cadre School in Henan province to Xianning. When getting off the bus, she saw two grey-haired old men carrying a bucket of feces unsteadily on crunches with legs of their trousers being stained with fecal sewage and yellow mud. What a bleak scene! Huang Wei thought to herself, "What does Lou Shiyi look like?" She couldn't help bursting into tears. When her husband saw her in the unit, piteously he didn’t show any positive surprise. On the contrary, he looked very anxious and even kept asking: "Why do you still come here?" Because she belonged to the "counter-revolutionary family", naturally, she was not treated with courtesy, and even a place to stay was unavailable. After dinner, it would be night. Huang Wei reasoned with someone personally, after many setbacks, she was reluctantly taken to a leaky warehouse, where she made do with laying a plastic sheet on some wet straw. The next day, an acquaintance from Chinese Writers’Association secretly came to see her, and was shocked by her situation: "how do they arrange you to live in such a place?" In 1971, Huang Wei came to visit Lou Shiyi with four children for the second time. She did not dare to live in Xiangyang Lake owing to being haunted by her last experience. Instead, she took her husband to a Guest House in Xianning County . The family confided how they missed each other, and then bid farewell sentimentally.
楼适夷平日里时常写“思想汇报”，被强制性地补了不少“政治课”，而严峻的“生活课”却让他感到无可奈何。一年后的冬天，他的夫人黄炜从河南息县干校来到咸宁探亲。在向阳湖刚下车，便看见两个白发老头拄着拐棍，摇摇晃晃地抬着一个粪桶，裤腿上沾满粪水和黄泥，凄凄惨惨的。黄炜心想，“楼适夷不知什么样子？”不由得掉下泪来。到了连里，可怜丈夫见了她的面，不仅没有惊喜，反倒显得十分着急，竟连声问道：“你怎么还来？”因为她属“反革命家属”，自然得不到礼遇，连住的地方都不安排。吃过晚饭，眼看天黑了，黄炜自己找人论理，几经周折，才勉强带她去一间漏雨的仓库，抱了些湿稻草，铺上塑料布，凑合住了下来。次日作协的熟人偷偷来看她，见状后大为惊讶：“就让你住这里呀！”由于心有余悸，1971年，黄炜带着四个孩子第二次前来探亲时，再没敢在向阳湖住，而是把丈夫接到咸宁县招待所。一家人互诉相思，然后又依依惜别。
The manuscript of Lou Shiyi
▲楼适夷手迹
At this time, Lou Shiyi not only thought more, but also wrote a lot of classical Chinese poetry during the “extra classes”with the poetic heart which had never faded away . In January 1972 , he heard the news of the death of Marshal Chen Yi in grief. He couldn’t help but sign deeply by recalling a letter Comrade Chen Yi wrote him about poetry in January 1959 and the collection of his poetry which had been collected and collated but not yet been published in time. He was often concerned about other people and seldom thought about himself in distress. Although Lin Biao and the Gang of Four were ready to turn the "May 7 Cadre School" into an "indefinite cadre school", he was always confident about the future and sure that the tragedy would eventually have a curtain call. In May 1973 , he and ten other comrades from the school went to visit Jiangxi Province. And he made a poetry "Ten Chinese Quatrains of Mount Lushan tour ", one of which was "Yellow Dragon Lake" saying : "After leaving Black Dragon Lake, we climbed in a roundabout route. When arriving at Yellow Dragon Lake, we saw a stupendous waterfall plummeting from the blue sky , and the depression in my heart seemed to be wept away. Just like this lake of clean water, my mind was also washed clear." Such bold verses demonstrated his state of mind at that time. Although he had not been "liberated" when the Cadre School was dissolved. And he endured five full years of "standing aside"( means leaving an important decision-making or executive position) and "hanging up" (means no work available) after returning to Beijing.He was finally vindicated and served a consultant of People's Literature Publishing House in 1978 when Comrade Hu Yaobang became Head of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee. He died in April 2001 at the age of 97.
而此时的楼适夷，不仅思考更多，而且诗心不泯，“补课”写了不少旧体诗词。1972年1月，他听到陈毅元帅逝世的消息，悲痛不已，想起1959年１月陈毅同志写给他谈诗的一封信，想到已经收集整理、尚未来得及出版的陈老总诗集，他禁不住深深叹惜。他常常挂念的是别人，很少考虑困窘中的自己，虽然林彪，“四人帮”一伙准备把“五七干校”办成“无期干校”，他对前途却一直充满信心，断定悲剧总有谢幕的一天。1973年５月，他与干校的十位同志集体去江西游览，作了《庐山纪游十绝句》，其中《黄龙潭》有云：“乌龙迂徐登黄龙，飞瀑浩荡泻碧空，洗净胸中块垒气，心清正与潭清同。”如此豪放的诗句，淋漓尽致地展示了他当时的心境。尽管干校解散时他还未得到“解放”，回京后又忍受了整整五年的“靠边”和“挂起”，到了1978年，胡耀邦同志当中央组织部长时，他的问题终于得到平反，担任了人民文学出版社顾问，直至2001年4月病逝，享年97岁。