Can you quiet your mind?If your mind isn't quiet, I say, you might as well get your mind quiet before you open this book, or you might not be able to read it, thinking it's too condensed, hard to read, difficult , and even feel that it is inexplicable and incomprehensible. The first edition of this Chinese translation was published in Shanghai in 1949.At that time, the whole country happened to be full of heat.The great war to liberate all of China was brilliantly won, so few people paid attention to this book. But in the 1950s, there was a pirated version in Hong Kong with a slightly revised translation, signed by Wu Mingshi (anonymous), and it was reprinted again and again, with as many as six editions.

This Chinese translation was republished in China in 1982, thirty-two years after the first edition, and it was still in Shanghai. After careful revision by the translator, the second edition was published by Translation Publishing House.Thirteen thousand copies were printed this time.A few years ago, the editorial board of "Foreign Classical Literature Series" decided to include it in this series and asked me to write a new preface.I happened to be going to the United States at that time, to participate in an "international writing project", and it was possible to visit Concord, Mass., and Walden Pond.When I was in the United States, I had conversations about this book with Chinese and foreign professors in several universities, and they gave me a lot of help.Looking back now, I am very grateful to them.

I have made some improvements to the translation of this second edition, and corrected one or two mistranslations, but I can't always write this new preface. I wrote a draft in 1985, but because of dissatisfaction, I took it back and rewrote it.However, for several years in a row, personnel affairs were awkward, and the new preface was never written.why?I found out the reason recently, but my heart still hasn't calmed down.This is the reason for the country, and this time the reason can be found, so it will be easy to handle.The mind is truly quiet, which can always be done.It depends on how you arrange it.Why do you have to do this?Because this is a quiet book, a very quiet book, not a lively book.It is a lonely book, a lonely book.It's just a book for one person.If your heart is not quiet, I am afraid it will be difficult for you to enter this book.What I want to tell you is that after your mind calms down, you will think about something.When you think about some problems, you can think about yourself and higher principles together with Henry, Mr. David Thoreau.

This Mr. Thoreau is associated with solitude.He is often just one person.He thinks there is no better companion than solitude.His life was very simple, very quiet. Thoreau was born in Concord on July 12, 1817; studied and graduated from Harvard University (1833-1837); returned to his hometown and taught for two years (1838-1840).Then he lived in the home of the great writer and thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson (1841-1843), served as a disciple and assistant, and began to try writing.By 1845, he was alone, took an axe, and ran into the uninhabited forest beside Walden Lake, and lived alone until 1847 before returning to Cannes. In 1848 he lived again at the Emersons; in 1849 he completed a book called A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers.At about the same time, he published a very famous and influential essay called "On Civil Disobedience", which can also be translated literally "On the Right of Civil Disobedience".We will talk about it later.Then, in 1854, our literary masterpiece was published.The book has had some buzz, but not much at first.Its influence has grown over time. In 1859, he supported the movement against American slavery; when the leader of this movement, John Brown, was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging, he delivered a speech defending and calling for Brown, and went to the church to ring the bell. The bell rang and a memorial service was held.After that, he suffered from lung disease, and the treatment was ineffective. He died in Cannes in 1862 at the age of 44.He left behind 39 volumes, which were sorted out for him and published one after another. There have been many editions and selections published.

His life is so simple and rich, but also so lonely and fragrant.It can also be said that his life was not simple, nor was he lonely.His readers will find that his spiritual life is very rich and exquisite, which is rare in the world, and there are not many people who associate with him, but many people who are in love with him are much more. He is very proud of his birthplace, Cannes, MA.Cannes is the first city where the American Revolutionary War broke out.He said that it never ceased to amaze him that he was "born in one of the most venerable places in the world" and "at just the right time," during the most active years of American intellectual life.On the American continent, the six "New England" states where the earliest European immigrants lived were the birthplaces of American culture.And it was in Cannes, Massachusetts, that the glorious torch of American spiritual life was ignited.Small Cannes, picturesque scenery.All of a sudden there were four great writers there: Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott, and him, Thoreau. In 1834, Emerson settled in Cannes and gave a lecture on "American Scholar" at Harvard University.Emerson gave speeches, wrote articles, published books, and promoted outstanding people with typical foresight. He published "Excellent People", which is his masterpiece.The call he made as a pioneer deeply influenced Thoreau.