Chapter 45 postscript

There are many characters inside and outside the three families who wrote this novel.It was originally going to be written in three novels, but I didn't dare to take up too much time for the readers, trying to find a more "economical" structure to accommodate the three families in one novel without having to weave all kinds of novels. The interrelationships between the characters have been carefully thought out.I was inspired by the "structure" method of "Candied Haws" and "Lamb Skewers", and used the experience and perspective of the first person "I" to connect various characters inside and outside the three families. The position of "I" in it seems to be just the stick in "candied haws" and "mutton skewers".But I pay great attention to the quality of "Shanlihong" and "Mutton" connected by "I", and I hope readers can enjoy a good taste.

Such a structure has brought me a kind of freedom, that is, there is no need to weave a complete story on the overall structure, but each family and each character has its own story, just "I" By playing the role of "connection", characters can appear or disappear at any time.But I must be careful. When I gain the freedom of narrative in a large prose-like structure, I never dare to neglect the readers' interest in reading novels. I must remind myself at any time that what "I" connects is not in the general sense Narrative "prose" is not a character with aesthetic value in the sense of "literature is anthropology". "I" must also follow the "character".They all have their own social contradictions and living "difficulties" to form a "plot", and their fate should attract the attention of the readers to create "suspense". Moreover, they must be my discoveries.

When I finished this novel, I was delighted to see that I sent readers more than forty characters, and sent their different documentary legends and their "secret history of the soul", among which Most of them are men and women in the three generations of urban and rural intellectuals that are rarely involved in my past works.They are a group of people who were brought up by traditional Chinese culture and who accepted foreign culture earlier. There were Juren in the late Qing Dynasty and gentlemen who accepted "Western learning", early professional revolutionaries and their fellow travelers, professors, "foreigners", etc. Doctor" and the not-so-conformist Mr. Private School.There is also the "romantic Aunt Xue", the mournful and sentimental Aunt Wan'er and her "almond-shaped eyes" that flicker from time to time.History is not willing to fulfill them. Even for the victors, they still want to leave their unexpected tragedy and the great pain and confusion they caused in their hearts on the faraway station.It is inevitable for human beings to contemplate and trudge through dramas, tragedies, and even outright farces to reach new stations.

Corresponding to the family of "uncle" and "uncle" with knowledge, property and power, this book also describes the impoverished and closed peasant family from which "father" broke out.Contrary to the above two families, this is a family that does not produce "theory", "ism" and people with lofty ideals.They are living and dying in the real and illusory world composed of rough material life, magnificent or strange myths and historical legends, and being close to and contradicting each other with the natural world.Even people like "grandpa" and "grandma" who created miracles of life with amazing life force could not escape the tragic ending in the end.The pastoral pastoral has disappeared in the distant clouds, and what is left to this family is the elegy hanging on the branches of the mulberry tree.

When I present the father, uncle, uncle and other characters in the work as the main characters in the three families, I dare not despise other characters at all.They have no priority in their respective positions.Even if it only appears in one chapter or some fragments, the Juren or Liude doctor in the late Qing Dynasty, the secretary of the provincial party committee or the enlightened gentry, the military officer or the geisha, the private school teacher or the blind artist, the grandpa or grandma, the rich man or the long-term worker, Britain in the Gospel Church Priests or orphans in refugee homes, etc., I have devoted the same effort, hoping to show readers a flowing gallery of characters on the life stations that "I" have experienced.The figures in this gallery are sketches and sketches drawn with fine brushwork, freehand brushwork, thick ink and color, or just a single line. They should all be works of art that can exist independently. 

I also tried to describe the regional and cultural differences of the three families, and also expressed purely personal love, hate, affection, and enmity.However, even in the field of purely personal emotions, no one can get rid of the social contradictions surrounding them, and there may be contradictions between human nature and social attributes, such as the inseparable family ties within the family and the irreconcilable contradictions in political concepts.Every family and every character has its own "difficult scriptures".  It would be foolish for the author to explain to the reader what he is trying to convey.This is not only because he often has "writing impulses" that he can't explain in the process of writing, but also because readers don't care what the author is trying to express, but only pay attention to what they feel in the works.Therefore, this "postscript" can only be said to be a heart-to-heart talk between the author and the reader when he is stupid.he sincerely hopes

It will be a tribute to the many sleepless nights he has spent in his sixtieth year if the book wins the reader's love.  As this book is about to be printed for the second time, I would also like to thank Changjiang Literature and Art Publishing House for adding beautiful illustrations to this book and for supporting me in making some revisions to this book.This will undoubtedly increase the cost of publishing without raising the price of books.There is only one purpose in doing this, which is to win the favor of readers. Let me motivate myself with a sentence from the "Postscript" of Ba Jin's "The Collection of Truths":

"My life is not over, I have to move on."  2002 Lantern Festival first draft, revised in August