ABSTRACT
Among the literary works written by twentieth century Chinese authors dealing with Christianity and, in particular, with the personality of Jesus Christ, this chapter focuses on four works of a high literary level, written by non-Christian authors, on the theme of the Passion. The poem “Yige Nasaleiren de si” was written in June 1933 by Ai Qing under unusually dramatic conditions. Ai Qing's precision in dating the poem “written while being ill” is meaningful. Reminiscences of Xu Zhimo's “Ka'erfoli” can be traced in Ai Qing's poem: the glare of the torches in the darkness at the moment of the arrest, the comments of the crowd attending the crucifixion, the tears of the women following Jesus on the way of Calvary. In the 1958 postscript Mao Dun explains that, in the difficult climate of those years, he chose the biblical subjects as a vehicle for political allegory.
