On August 23, 1966, Ai Qing’s old friend, the author Lao She, and a number of other writers were taken by Red Guards to Beijing’s old Temple of Confucius. There they were harangued and beaten viciously. The following morning, Lao She’s body was found floating in a lake not far away. On that same day, Li Da, president of Wuhan University, was tortured to death; ten days later, Fu Lei, celebrated translator of Voltaire and Balzac, and his wife, Zhu Meifu, hanged themselves in their house in Shanghai. The red terror had begun.
