[1] Executed on either 7 or 8 February 1931[2] by the Kuomintang government in Shanghai for his pro-Communist activities, he is considered one of the Five Martyrs of the League of Left-Wing Writers.

[4] In 1925 Rou Shi studied briefly at Peking University, but returned to Zhejiang in the spring of 1926, teaching in Hangzhou and Zhenhai.

After the failed Communist rebellion in May 1928, he took refuge in Shanghai, where he was introduced to the leading leftist writer Lu Xun, who lived nearby.

[2][5] Lu Xun stated that the purpose of the Society was to "introduce literature from Eastern and Northern Europe and import foreign woodcuts.

[5] Rou Shi attended its inaugural meeting, and became an executive and standing committee member in charge of the League publication Meng Ya (萌芽).

[5] In the essay "Remembrance for the Sake of Forgetting" (为了忘却的纪念), Lu Xun states that Rou Shi was shot ten times.