She later became a leader in the literary community in the Communist base of Yan'an, and held high literature and culture positions in the early government of the People's Republic of China.

She was awarded the Soviet Union's Stalin second prize for Literature in 1951 for her socialist-realist work The Sun Shines Over Sanggan River.

In 1924, Wang and her teacher, famed CCP literary figure Qu Qiubai fell in love and started living together.

Through her roommate Cao Mengjun's boyfriend Zuo Gong, Ding Ling met her future husband Hu Yepin, then editor of the supplement of the Beijing News.

The book, in which a young woman describes her unhappiness with her life and confused romantic and sexual feelings, caused a sensation in the literary world.

Miss Sophia's Diary highlights Ding Ling's close association and belief in the New Woman movement which was occurring in China during the 1920s.

Around this time Ding Ling met the Communist Party member, writer, and activist Feng Xuefeng, who unlike Hu Yepin was active in politics.

Ding Ling later recalled: "I had lived with Hu Yepin for two and a half years, and I'd never said that I would agree to marry them, but I also did not reject his feelings for me.

[6] In February 1930, Hu Yepin went to Jinan to teach at the Shandong Provincial Senior High School, and Ding Ling joined him soon after.

On January 17, 1931, Hu Yepin was arrested by the Kuomintang government for his association with the Communists and was shot to death near the Longhua temple in Shanghai on February 7.

In September 1933, under persuasion, Ding Ling wrote the following note: "I was arrested because of a misunderstanding, and I received preferential treatment; I did not go through any trial and punishment.

I only wish to study at home and take care of my mother..."[8]Ding thought that the note would help her regain her freedom but to no avail.

On the night of the Mid-Autumn Festival, she escaped from a hiding place at a friend's house in Shanghai and arrived in Xi'an in early October, after which she made her way to the Communist base of Yan'an the month after.

Ding Ling became one of the most influential figures in Yan'an cultural circles, serving as director of the Chinese Literature and Arts Association and editing a newspaper literary supplement.

New men and women suddenly arrive, and a banquet is held in the yaodong caves to receive our released prisoner (Ding Ling).

Note: In 1922 Sun Yat-Sen made the statement that "A single brush is stronger than three thousand Mauser rifles".After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, Ding served as the director of the "Northwest Field Service Corps", and led wartime anti-Japanese theatre performance tours to the front line from Yan'an from September 1937 to July 1938.

[8] In May 1941, Ding served as the editor-in-chief of the literary column of "Liberation Daily", an organ of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

This column published a series of defensive articles around March, arguing that there were hierarchical systems and suppression of speech in Yan'an at that time.

On April 25, Ding Ling wrote "Memories of Xiao Hong in the Wind and Rain", which was published in June, and which subtly criticized the political climate at Yan'an.

What is hard to endure is the gloom and humiliation; the greatness of man is not the ability to ride the wind and the sky to rise, not only to be able to resist the overthrow, but to open up the situation and indicate the light under the pressure of the haze.

On June 11, under political pressure, Ding Ling criticized fellow writer Wang Shiwei who was purged from the Party.

But whether the serious ideological problems during this period were affected by the softening of the Kuomintang after the arrest, Comrade Ding Ling deeply reflected on himself.

[13] After 1942, Ding Ling entered a low period, and it was not until she wrote "Tian Baolin" in 1944, which was praised by Mao Zedong, that she began to actively create again.

In early October 1945, Ding and other Yan'an writers marched more than 2,000 miles on foot to Zhangjiakou, the then-capital of the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Area.

During the land reform, the Chinese Civil War had broken out and Ding had to retreat back to Zhangjiakou and later to Red Earth Mountain in Fuping County.

[15]: 226–227  She called for the rejection of "the vulgar and outmoded butterfly literature style," but also emphasized that it was necessary to "do research on the interests of readers" in order to "keep[] the masses in mind.

Because Ding authorized the publication of Wang Shiwei's "Wild Lily Flower" in Yan'an, she was designated as a rightist, and was disqualified from the National People's Congress in February 1958.

On January 26, 1958, Ding Ling was denounced in a special edition of "Re-Criticism" published by the government "Literature and Art Newspaper".

A few years before her death, Ding was allowed to travel to the United States where she was a guest at the University of Iowa's International Writing Program.

After her "rehabilitation" many of her previously banned books such as her novel The Sun Shines Over The Sanggan River were republished and translated into numerous languages.