The Journey of the Soul is a fulllength memoir of Liu Baiyu which records many details between the author and Ding Ling. According to the memoir, the relationship between Liu Baiyu and Ding Ling experienced three periods: friendship building,friendship destruction,and friendship recovery. In the winter of 1937, they met each other in the front of AntiJapanese War in Fenhe, Shanxi Province and established a pure revolutionary friendship. However, with the Hu Feng Event of 1955 and Antirightist Struggle of 1957, Ding Ling suffered great criticism from the Chinese Writers Association with the leading power of Liu Baiyu. From then on, their friendship was destroyed. But in the early Years” of the 1980s, also known as the Period of Setting Wrong Things Right, Liu Baiyu expressed his penitence to Ding Ling and so they got on well with each other and restored their friendship finally. The changing process of their relationship is a great representation of their time. Individual destiny is firmly associated with the epic events and the changing course of their relationship reflected the everchanging era of that time.

Liu Baiyu; Ding Ling; writers’ friendship; Antirightist Struggle; The Journey of the Soul