In 1935, he published "Fresh Flowers in May", which was widely popularized in the "12 September Movement" after being set to music by Yan Shushi, and joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1937.
He was inspired to write the Yellow River Cantata as an "anti-Japanese propaganda" technique when Japan invaded China in 1939.
[2] It was said that while leading his troops into battle, he fell off his horse and broke his left arm which gave him time to write the poem.
[6] After 1949, he lived in Beijing, where he served as editor-in-chief of People's Literature and Wenyi Bao, and secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Writers' Association.
[7][8] He died in Beijing on January 28, 2002, and his ashes were scattered into the Yellow River on July 25, 2003, in Jishi Town, Haidong District, Qinghai Province.