Today in history： essayist Yang Shuo dies.

　　On August 3rd, 1968, China modern writer, essayist and war correspondent Yang Shuo passed away. He, together with Liu Baiyu and Qin Mu, is called "the three masters of contemporary prose in China".

　　Yang Shuo's father, Yang Qingquan, was a scholar in the late Qing Dynasty. Yang Shuo, who was taught as a child, entered primary school at the age of 7, and had written a good article in the fourth and fifth grades, which was highly appreciated by teachers and students.

　　During the Anti-Japanese War, Yang Shuo participated in writers' field missions and went to various anti-Japanese base areas in North China. He published a novella "The Veins of Pamirs" reflecting the anti-Japanese struggle of the people in northern Shaanxi, and created many communication reports and short stories praising anti-Japanese heroes and reflecting the anti-Japanese struggle.

　　During the War of Liberation, Yang Shuo followed the army, served as a special correspondent of Xinhua News Agency and the leader of the political department of the division, moved to North China, participated in the battles of Qingfengdian, Shijiazhuang and Pingjin, and created many short stories and two novellas, The Northern Line and Looking at Nanshan.

　　After the founding of New China, Yang Shuo was appointed Minister of Literature and Art Department of All-China Federation of Trade Unions. In December 1950, he went to the front line of Korea as a special correspondent of People's Daily, wrote a large number of battlefield reports, and created a novel "Three Thousand Miles of Rivers and Mountains" reflecting the life of resisting US aggression and aiding Korea.

　　Yang Shuo's works are outstanding all his life, and the keynote of his works is to praise the new era, new life and ordinary workers. His prose is full of revolutionary passion, concise and implicit language and rigorous structure, which is recognized as the first-class prose works after the founding of the People's Republic of China. Bing Xin once commented: "Yang Shuo's prose can be called as clear as water, simple and concise, fresh and elegant, which makes people linger and recite, and can't be cherished."