Chapter 48 Chapter 48: Romantic Knights, Troubadours, Free Thinkers—Mourning Wang Xiaobo

Li Yinhe Japanese like to compare life to cherry blossoms, which bloom for a short time and then wither.Xiaobo's life is like a cherry blossom, which blooms for a short time, and then withers suddenly. Yukio Mishima wrote about a reincarnated life in "Five Decays of Heaven and Man", who dies at the age of 18 and reincarnates into another life.In this way man lives forever in his best days.He didn't have to wait until his teeth fell out, his hair became white, or he became ugly, before he passed away quietly.Such was the case with Xiaobo, who died at the peak of his spiritual beauty.

I can only think this way to suppress my grief for him. In my mind, Xiaobo is a romantic knight, a troubadour, and a free thinker. Xiaobo is very romantic.When I first knew him, he liked to call himself the "Knight of the Sorrow," a nickname for Don Quixote.Xiaobo is quite depressed by nature, depression is not only his character, but also his way of life; at the same time, he is very, very romantic.I met him in early 1977.Before meeting him as a person, I saw his handwritten novel from a friend.The novel is written in a large notebook.At that time, his writing style was still immature, but an irresistible talent was already beating between the lines.As soon as I read it, I felt my heartstrings being plucked, and I thought: this person will have something to do with me sooner or later.I think this is probably what the Chinese call fate.The first time I met him alone was at Guangming Daily, when I had just graduated from university and was working as a small editor there.Not long after we chatted, he suddenly asked: Do you have any friends?I happened to have no friends at the time, so I told the truth.He asked straightforwardly: "What do you think of me?" I can imagine my shock and surprise at that time.He is just so romantic and unrestrained.Then we started to communicate and communicate.He wrote his love on the stave, and his first sentence was like this: "I never dreamed that I would write the letter on the stave. The stave came by chance, and so did you. But I gave you The letter is worth writing on the stave. I hope you and I are a song that can't be sung." I don't believe that there is any woman in the world who can resist such poetry and such pure love.Being loved is already a woman's greatest happiness, and this happiness is much inferior to being loved by a romantic knight.

Neither of us is beautiful, but there is an indescribable attraction in heart and intellect.I wondered at first, can the love between a pair of unbeautiful people be beautiful?Later things proved that two loving hearts can be beautiful together.We love so deeply.I will never forget some of the things he said.For example, he said: "You and I are like two children, sitting around a mysterious jam jar, tasting it bit by bit to see how sweet it is." The innocence and innocence shown in this picture I was moved by the poetry.Another example is that he once said: "I found that some women are priceless treasures." His priceless treasure moved me very much.This is no ordinary sweet talk.If a man really regards you as priceless, can you not love him?

Sometimes I often ask myself, what kind of virtue and ability do I have? God will give me such a wonderful gift as Xiaobo?I went to the UK on October 10th last year. When we parted at the airport, although we dared not be too presumptuous and kissed in public, he hugged my shoulders as a farewell. That kind of true love is incomparable to anything in the world. .I never thought that this farewell was actually a farewell.When he turned and walked out, I looked at his tall back and wept silently there for a while, but I didn't expect that this was the last back he left for me. Although Xiaobo doesn't write poems, he only writes novels and essays, but he likes to call himself a poet, a troubadour.In fact, he likes rhythm. Someone who has studied poetry said that if you read his novels carefully, there are many places with rhyme.The only poem in Xiaobo's novel that I remember is here: "Walk in silence, walk in the sky, and the penis hangs upside down." I think it is very well written.There were many lines in the poem, but he crossed them out, leaving only the published line.Although Xiaobo mainly writes novels and essays, in my heart he is a real poet.His body is full of poetry, and his life is a poem.

When he was in love, he told me that when he was 16 years old in Yunnan, he often got up at night and wrote on a mirror with a blue ink pen by moonlight until the whole mirror turned blue .Since then, that poetic boy, the bright moonlight in the Yunnan cottage and the mirror painted blue have been deeply imprinted in my mind. From my taste, Xiaobo's novels are of high literary value.His works won the "United Daily News" literary award twice, and his only film script "East Palace? West Palace" won the Best Screenplay Award at the Argentina International Film Festival, and became a shortlisted work at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival. Becoming the first person to win the best screenplay award for China at an international film festival, these can be regarded as an objective evaluation of his literary value.After his book was published in mainland China, many people liked it very much.Some people even said: Wang Xiaobo is the number one novelist in China today, and if a Chinese can win the Nobel Prize for Literature in the future, Xiaobo is a person with such potential.I don't think it's a compliment.Although maybe there is an ingredient in it that I particularly prefer.

Xiaobo has a very high literary vision, and he rarely praises other people's things.The people I heard him praise include Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw.Both are known for their wit and humor.His favorite writers include the French New Novel School, Duras, Tournier, Yourcenar, Calvino and Burr.He particularly disliked Tolstoy, probably finding his classical realism too dull, especially his religious preaching.Bo is a complete pagan, he likes all things funny and flying, and his literature is to transcend the prosaic real life.He is particularly opposed to Chernyshevsky's "truth is beauty" literary theory, and holds completely opposite views.He believes that the real cannot be beautiful, only the created things and the imaginative world can be beautiful.So he dislikes realism the most, whether it is so-called socialist realism or classical realism.Many of his literary theories are so incisive that when he said them in ordinary chats, I always had to answer: No, I have to write down your literary theories.But because of laziness, I never really wrote it down, which will be my lifelong regret.

Xiaobo's text is very distinctive.Just like when Pavarotti opens his mouth, you don’t need to sign up, you know it’s Pavarotti, and when Julio sings, you know it’s Julio, the same is true for Xiaobo’s words, you can tell it’s from him at a glance handwriting.Taiwan's Li Ao said that he is the number one leader in Chinese vernacular writing. I don't know if he would still say that after reading Wang Xiaobo's writing.Really, that's what I thought. Some people say that in a society like ours, there are only theorists, interpreters of authoritative theories and ideology experts, but not thinkers. In my opinion, Xiao Bo is an exception, he is a free thinker.The position of liberal humanism runs through his whole personality and thought.Those who have read his articles may find that he especially likes to quote Russell, which is the so-called congeniality.He particularly advocates tolerance, rationality and human conscience, and opposes all domineering, unreasonable and dogmatic things.I always have a special feeling of surprise to his thinking.That's because we've grown up with clichés and stupid nonsense, but Bo's mind is always so fresh.This is one of his most mysterious places.I analyzed that this had something to do with his family being wronged.This encounter made him learn to use his own judgment to find the truth from an early age. He found liberal humanism and maintained his belief in freedom and reason throughout his life.Many people may have read his writing, which said that one of the two sides in the Cultural Revolution bit off the ear of the other, but he did not swallow the ear in the end, but spit it out.The conclusion Xiaobo draws from this is extremely profound: there are some basic principles that are difficult to violate even in such a crazy age, such as not cannibalism.This is where human hope lies.Xiao Bo got this conclusion from his standpoint of liberal humanism.

Xiao Bo said in a novel: People are like a book, you have to pick a good book to read.I think the greatest achievement and luck in my life is that I picked Xiaobo's book to read.From the time I met him in 1977 to my farewell to him in 1997, I have read one of the most beautiful, interesting and beautiful books during these 20 years.As his wife, I was the happiest man in the world; without him, I am now the happiest man in the world.Xiaobo, you are too cruel, you left unrestrainedly, leaving endless pain to those of us who are alive.Although I will never see the following chapters again, I will read these 20 years again and again.These 20 years will always live in my heart.I think Xiaobo will live in the hearts of many people through his works.Although the cherry blossom has withered, it has been in full bloom after all.

I want to write Stendhal's epitaph on Bo's tombstone (which is also Bo's favorite): lived, wrote, loved.Maybe add another line: knight, poet, free thinker. My dearest Xiaobo, goodbye, we will see you in the next life.At that time, we can be together for a hundred years, a thousand years, ten thousand years, and never be separated again! April 1997