Chinese mainland newspapers are commemorating China's most acclaimed modern writer, Ba Jin, who died on Monday at the age of 101, with large stories.

Sichuan Daily, a newspaper published in Ba's hometown, paid a tribute to Ba, naming him "the conscience of Chinese people in 20th century."

Ba wrote not to seek fame but to scream out the inner desire of the Chinese people, the paper said, as he wrote in "A Dream of Sea": "Love those who need love and hate those destroying love. That is the doctrine I believe."

Ba died at the age of 101 at 7:06 p.m. Monday in East China Hospital in Shanghai after a six-year battle with a malignant mesothelium cell tumor and other diseases.

The Economic Daily said Ba Jin traversed an entire century with an indomitable life.

"I'm just an ordinary person," the newspaper quoted Ba as saying, "I write because I have sentiment rather than talent. I express infinite love to my country and compatriots by writing."

Born in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, Ba was widely recognized as one of the greatest masters in modern Chinese cultural history and an eminent publisher and editor.

Ba's main works, including "Family", "Spring", "Autumn", "The Trilogy of Love", "A Dream of Sea" and "Autumn in Spring", are viewed as landmarks in modern Chinese culture.

Ba's works reflected his strong belief in equality, freedom and universal love.

"This was because he grew up in the autocratic circumstances of old China full of oppression," the paper said.

In July 1999, one of the asteroids found by Chinese scientists in 1997 was named after Ba, who was also chairman of the Chinese Writers' Association. In 2003, the Chinese government awarded him the title of "People's Writer".

"His novels indicate a change of times. They give resonance to the real life of young people by the vivid description of the tragedy of numerous Chinese as well as author's personal experience," Sichuan Daily quoted Monsterleet, a French scholar, as saying.

Two other newspapers, China Youth Daily and Nanfang City News, have considered the establishment of a Cultural Revolution museum as the best commemoration of Ba Jin in their comments.

Ba Jin had two dreams, said Nanfang, a Guangzhou-bsed newspaper, of setting up a modern literature museum, which came true before his death, and setting up a Cultural Revolution museum, which was not realized.

"All Chinese have the responsibility of letting our descendants remember the lesson in the 10 years' calamity by showing what happened in China 20 years ago," Ba was quoted by the Youth Daily as saying when he was alive.

The Chinese people should have the courage to face their faults, which is the power of achieving further progress, the paper said.

Source: Xinhua