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{{Short description|Chinese playwright and writer (1898–1968)}}
{{for|historical eras|Tianhan (disambiguation)}}
{{family name hatnote|[[Tian (surname)|Tian]]|lang=Chinese}}
{{Infobox writer
| image = 田汉.gif
| image_size = 250px
| caption = Tian in 1930
| name = Tian Han
| pseudonym = Tián Shòuchāng, Bóhóng, Chén Yú, Shùrén, Hànxiān, etc.
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = {{birth date|1898|03|12|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Guoyuan, Changsha County|Guoyuan]], [[Hunan]], [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1968|12|10|1898|03|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Beijing]], China
| resting_place = 
| occupation = Playwright, novelist, poet
| language = [[Chinese language|Chinese]]
| education = 
| alma_mater = Tokyo Higher Normal School
| period = 1920–1968
| genre = Novel, poem, drama
| subject = 
| movement = 
| notableworks = ''[[March of the Volunteers]]''
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Yi Shuyu|1920|1925}}
* {{marriage|Huang Dalin|1927|1929}}
* {{marriage|Lin Weizhong|1930|1946}}
* {{marriage|An E|1930|1968}}
}}
| children = [[Tian Dawei]]
| relatives = 
| awards = <!--  {{Awards|award= |year= |title= }} -->
| website = <!--  {{URL|website}} -->
| partner = 
| signature = 
}}
{{Infobox Chinese
|t=田漢
|s=田汉
|p=Tián Hàn
|w=T&lsquo;ien<sup>2</sup> Han<sup>4</sup>
|gr=Tyan Hann
|altname=Courtesy name
|t2=壽昌
|s2=寿昌
|p2=Shòuchāng
|w2=Shou<sup>4</sup>-ch&lsquo;ang<sup>1</sup>
|gr2=Showchang
}}

'''Tian Han''' ({{lang-zh|田汉}}; 12 March 1898 – 10 December 1968), [[Wade-Giles|formerly romanized]] as '''T'ien Han''', was a [[Chinese people|Chinese]] drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the [[New Culture Movement]] of the early 20th century and continued to be active until the [[Cultural Revolution]], when he was denounced and jailed for two years until his death, before being "posthumously [[Boluan Fanzheng|rehabilitated]]" by the Chinese authorities in 1979. He is considered by drama historians as one of the three founders of Chinese spoken drama, together with [[Ouyang Yuqian]] and [[Hong Shen]].{{sfn|Chen|2014|p=5}} His most famous legacy may be the lyrics he wrote for "[[March of the Volunteers]]" in 1934, which were later adopted as the [[national anthem]] of the [[People's Republic of China]].<ref name=":0">{{cite book|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/594812/Tian-Han|title=Tian Han|work=[[Encyclopædia Britannica|Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|accessdate= 16 February 2015}}</ref>

==Biography==
[[File:Tian Han and Nie Er.jpg|thumb|Tian Han ''(right)'' and [[Nie Er]] ''(left)'', respectively the lyricist and the composer of "[[March of the Volunteers]]", photographed in [[Shanghai]] in 1933]]
During the [[May Fourth Movement]] in 1919, Tian became famous for the vigorous anti-imperialist and anti-feudalist activities in the circle of left-leaning artists and intellectuals he gathered.

Tian was educated at Tokyo Higher Normal School (present-day [[University of Tsukuba]]) in Japan. Returning from Japan in 1921, Tian established the [[Creation Society]] together with [[Guo Moruo]] and [[Yu Dafu]], and other Chinese intellectuals. The Southern China Society, also headed by Tian, played a leading role in promoting dramatic performances in southern China. In 1927, Tian taught at the Department of Literature of Shanghai Art University. Later, he joined The League of Chinese Left-Wing Dramatists. In 1934, he collaborated with the activist [[Liu Liangmo]] on the patriotic anthem, [[March of the Volunteers]].

Tian used various aliases and [[pen name]]s including his [[courtesy name]] Tián Shòuchāng ({{lang|zh|田壽昌}}), Bóhóng ({{lang|zh|伯鴻}}), Chén Yú ({{lang|zh|陳瑜}}), Shùrén ({{lang|zh|漱人}}), and Hànxiān ({{lang|zh|漢仙}}).

Tian, then Chairman of the Union of Chinese Drama Workers and Vice-Chairman of the [[China Federation of Literary and Art Circles|All China's Federation of Literary and Art Circles]], was targeted by the [[Gang of Four]] and attacked during the [[Cultural Revolution]] in 1966 for his historical play ''Xie Yaohuan'' (1961), which was regarded as an attack on [[Mao Zedong|Chairman Mao]]'s policies and the CCP leadership. Criticism of this play, along with two other historical plays (''[[Hai Rui Dismissed from Office]]'' by [[Wu Han (historian)|Wu Han]] and ''[[Li Huiniang]]'' by [[Meng Chao]]), were the opening salvos of the Cultural Revolution.{{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=80}}  Tian was denounced in a 1 February 1966 ''[[People's Daily]]'' article entitled "Xie Yaohuan is a Big Poisonous Weed" (田汉的《谢瑶环》是一棵大毒草 ''Tián Hàn de Xiè Yáohuán Shì yī kē Dà Dúcǎo'').<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Current Background|publisher=American Consulate General|place=Hong Kong|date=30 March 1966|issue=784|title=T'ien Han and his Play Hsieh Yao-huan|page=1}}</ref> The ''[[Jiefang Daily]]'' called ''Xie Yaohuan'' a "political manifesto". The play was condemned for, among other things, of "being a wholesale inheritance of China's theatrical legacy and promoting traditional plays", "disparaging revolutionary modern plays" and "promoting bourgeois class liberalism and obfuscating the direction for the workers, peasants and soldiers". Tian was subsequently persecuted by the [[Gang of Four]] and incarcerated as a "counterrevolutionary" in a prison which was run personally by [[Kang Sheng]], and died there in 1968.<ref name=":0" />{{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=137}} After the end of the Cultural Revolution, he and ''Xie Yaohuan'' were “rehabilitated posthumously” (considered to be rehabilitated after death) in 1979.{{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=137}}

==Works==
Although a proponent of western style theater (''[[huaju]]'') in China, Tian also produced a number of works with historical themes.{{sfn|Wagner|1990|pp=82-83}}

===Major plays===
*''Kafeidian Yi Ye'' (A Night in the Coffee Shop) 1922
*''Wufan Zhiqian'' (Before Lunch) 1922
*''Huo Hu Zhi Ye'' (A Night of Capturing the Tiger) 1924
*''Suzhou Ye Hua'' (Night Talk of [[Suzhou]]) 1928
*''Hu Shang de Beiju'' (A Tragedy of the Lake) 1928
*''Ming You Zhi Si'' (Death of a Noted Actor) 1929
*''Nan Gui'' 1929
*''Mei Yu'' (Plum Rains) 1932
*''Yueguang Qu'' (Moonlight Melody) 1932
*''Luan Zhong'' 1932
*''Yangzi Jiang de Bao Feng Yu'' (Storm on the [[Yangtze]]) 1935
*''Hui Chun Zhi Qu'' (Spring Melody) 1935
*''Hong Shui'' (Flood) 1935
*''Lugou Qiao'' ([[Marco Polo Bridge Incident|Lugou Bridge]]) 1937
*''Han Jiang Yu Ge'' (Fisherman's Song of the [[Han River (Yangtze River tributary)|Han River]]) 1939
*''Qiu Sheng Fu'' 1942
*''Liren Xing'' (Women Side by Side)
*''Guan Hanqing'' 1958{{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=82}}
*''Xiè Yáohuán'' ({{lang|zh|謝瑤環}}) 1961{{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=80}}

===Librettos===
*''Baishe Zhuan'' (The White Snake) (1958)

===Film scripts===
* ''Spring Dream by the Lake'' (湖邊春夢) (1927) {{sfn|Zhen|2005|p=256}}
* ''Go to the People'' 到民间去 (''Dao minjian qu'') (1927) (unfinished) <ref>"''Go to the People'' (1927): Tian Han and the Southern Film Society," {{cite web |url=http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2009/04/1927-tian-han-and-southern-film-society.html |title=《Go to the People》(1927): Tian Han and the Southern Film Society - the Chinese Mirror |access-date=2015-02-17 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150217094349/http://www.chinesemirror.com/index/2009/04/1927-tian-han-and-southern-film-society.html |archive-date=2015-02-17 }} ''The Chinese Mirror'' (accessed February 16, 2015).</ref>
*''[[Three Modern Women]]'' (1932)
*''[[Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm]]'' (1935)
*''[[Women Side by Side]]'' (1949)
*''[[A Test of Love (1958 film)|A Test of Love]]'' (1958)

===Song lyrics===
*"[[March of the Volunteers]]" (1935)
*"[[The Wandering Songstress]]" (1937)

===Translations===
*''[[Salome (play)|Salomé]]'' ([[Oscar Wilde]]) (1921){{sfn|Wagner|1990|p=87}}

==In popular culture==
Tian Han was the prototype for the figure of "Kuang Wentao" (played by Bo Gao) in the 1959 [[biopic]] ''[[Nie Er (film)|Nie Er]]'',<ref>Wang Zhuoyi. [https://books.google.com/books?id=udNCBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT140 ''Revolutionary Cycles in Chinese Cinema, 1951–1979'', pp.&nbsp;140&nbsp;f.] St Martin's Press (New York), 2014.</ref> which retold the story of the composition of the [[Chinese National Anthem]] on the 10th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. For the 50th anniversary in 1999, he was represented directly in the film ''[[The National Anthem (film)|The National Anthem]]'', played by [[He Zhengjun]]. His story was also told in ''[[The National Anthem (series)|The National Anthem]]'', a 27-episode television series, and in the play ''[[Torrent (play)|Torrent]]'' ({{lang|zh|狂流}}, ''Kuángliú''), produced in [[Beijing]] in the year 2000.

In the 2009 film ''[[The Founding of a Republic]]'', he was portrayed by [[Donnie Yen]].

==References==
{{reflist}}

==References and further reading ==
* {{cite book |last = Chen |first = Xiaomei |year = 2014 |title = The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Drama |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ywsZBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA5 |publisher = Columbia University Press| location = New York |isbn = 9780231165020 }} Includes translations of plays, background on Tian and modern drama.
* {{cite book |last = Huang |first = Xuelei |year = 2014 |title = Shanghai Filmmaking: Crossing Borders, Connecting to the Globe, 1922-1938 |publisher = Brill| location = Leiden |isbn = 9789004279339 |ref = none}}, esp. [https://books.google.com/books?id=-g6JBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA121 pp. 91-92, 115-127].
* {{cite book |last = Luo |first = Liang |year = 2014 |title = The Avant-Garde and the Popular in Modern China: Tian Han and the Intersection of Performance and Politics |publisher = University of Michigan Press |isbn = 9780472072170 |ref = none}}
* {{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Rudolf G. |author-link=Rudolf G. Wagner |title=The Contemporary Chinese Historical Drama: Four Studies |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7zFiHwkpo88C |page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_7zFiHwkpo88C/page/n149 137] |year=1990 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-05954-2}}
* {{cite book | last=Zhen | first=Zhang | title=An Amorous History of the Silver Screen | publisher=University of Chicago Press | publication-place=Chicago, Ill. | date=2005 | isbn=978-0-226-98237-3}}

{{portal|China|biography}}

==External links==
*{{commons category-inline}}
*Liang Luo, "[http://thechinabeat.blogspot.com/2008/07/from-lovers-to-volunteers-tian-han-and.html From Lovers to Volunteers: Tian Han and the National Anthem]," ''China Beat'' (July 16, 2008).

{{s-start}}
{{s-culture}}
{{s-before|before= New office }}
{{s-title|title= Chairman of [[China Theatre Association]]
|years= July 1949 – December 1968}}
{{s-after|after= [[Cao Yu (playwright)|Cao Yu]] }}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tian, Han}}
[[Category:1898 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:National anthem writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Changsha]]
[[Category:Chinese lyricists]]
[[Category:Musicians from Changsha]]
[[Category:People persecuted to death during the Cultural Revolution]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese poets]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese translators]]
[[Category:Poets from Hunan]]
[[Category:20th-century Chinese dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:University of Tsukuba alumni]]
[[Category:Chinese silent film directors]]
[[Category:Chinese expatriates in Japan]]