Since I was a child, I like planting flowers and grass, and observing the ecology of various small animals.I often plant the leftover vegetable roots picked by my mother in the soil, cultivate them very carefully, and am very happy when I see them come back to life and take out new leaves. I also try to dig out the ant nests first to see their life, and then bring the ants into the new apartment I made in the cardboard box, hoping to create an "ant city" that belongs to me. After entering middle school, I started to take in stray kittens, often bringing home the dying cats and feeding them with eye drops.I always get up in the middle of the night to see if they are sleeping well, and give artificial respiration to the kitten when it is dying.

At that time I was living in the ruins of the fire.After the Japanese-style house collapsed, the original earthen walls for the partitions turned into piles of yellow mud.Or soak the leaves of the orange tree in alcohol to make a strange-smelling perfume.A fire burned down my home, but burned out a field. In college, I entered the Fine Arts Department of Normal University. I often stared at those flowers when I was sketching, thinking that they are beautiful in bud, beautiful in bloom, and beautiful in withering.After drawing for a long time, I am familiar with the appearance of flowers, and it is easy to see where the sickness is caused by insect bites or wind breaks.But I found that even if there is a disease, as long as it is formed in nature, there is a kind of "natural beauty" that cannot be achieved by human beings.

Although I often steal flowers for sketching, I always try my best to keep the flowers I picked back alive.Even if there is only one leaf left, I still water it and hope for a miracle. I will also try to put back broken stems, as a doctor joins broken bones.The doctor writes the medical records, and I also write down the steps of each joint, and its subsequent development. As for those withered flowers, I will cut them open with a knife, see the structure inside, and describe them faithfully.My professor once asked me: "Drawing flowers is not drawing anatomical diagrams, so why bother?" My answer was simple: "Curious! It's fun!"

To this day, I still do the same thing, my sketchbook is like a biology book.I always have a scalpel and a microscope by my hand.I will count the number of "primary flight feathers" and "secondary flight feathers" of birds, and study the relationship between their flapping speed and the shape of feathers. I also often go to museums to see the bones of birds and record them. Therefore, I wrote three books on sketching flowers and birds and landscapes.I don’t know if this method of exploring Chinese painting from a scientific point of view can resonate with Westerners. For a while, in Manhattan’s Chinatown alone, four bookstores displayed my book in their windows.

In recent years, although I haven't held a solo exhibition, I still sketch, sometimes for a kind of flower, and I can work continuously for two or three weeks.I find that the most relaxing way is to sketch flowers and birds.Faithfully write down their flowers, leaves, feathers and beaks.When we concentrate on sketching them, we can get rid of all thoughts and reach the state of ecstasy. Every time after sketching, I still do anatomy, record the flowering time, the collection process, and write in the diary.I have a section in my diary for recording the times of budding, flowering, mating and spawning of various creatures, and the ebb and flow of the tides.

Knowing the tide, I can seize the best time to go to the beach by the water and watch the ecology of various waterfowl and fish after the tide has ebbed. The bay and swamp are not far from my home. Among the tall reeds, there are endless wild animals. thing.Watching them is another way for me to meditate. "All things are self-contained." The ancients have long had this feeling, and I also deeply understand it.Sometimes picking up a small stone feels like mastering the whole world.Every stone has its own unique texture and a history of thousands of years.Every shell once lived a little life, so cleverly built its own home, and then abandoned, died, slept on the seabed for thousands of years, and was accidentally washed up on the sand.Every little bird appears early, but disappears as soon as it gets dark. They all have their own home and their own love.

Every bug is the same, some hide under leaves, some hide in flowers, some drill into fruits, and some hide in the soil.They occupy their own territory, and they seem to have shared the world tacitly. In the process of observing them, not only did I gain the benefits of nourishing my emotions, but I also learned more about nature. I also felt that every creature is so intelligent, and I respected them more, and felt that I was insignificant. In the late summer of 1995, I caught a praying mantis and recorded its "life and routine" as usual.Mantises are one of the few insects that can be kept as "pets". I look for food for it, treat diseases for it, and even "find a mate" for it. I have established a deep relationship with it, and I have learned many things from it that I never thought of s things.

In North America, most praying mantises will freeze to death in early November.My praying mantises are well pampered indoors and certainly live longer.Under the careful care of my whole family, it not only survived the New Year until 1996, but it didn't die until early February.I had a little funeral for it and called the Guinness Museum of World Records to ask if they could put this long-lived praying mantis in the record.Although they later told me no, I sparked another idea - Based on the daily diary, write a book for the mantis. Writing started in August.It can also be said that it was written half a year after its death.During this process, I hesitated for quite a long time, fearing that I would not be able to write such a book.I also hesitated whether to use this book to present my spiritual world to readers.

Although it is a record of the life of a praying mantis, this book is really my "capricious record".It can also be said that the various associations produced by observing the praying mantis are just because they are "random thoughts", so there is almost no margin for talking about the sky and the earth.I used to be in the middle of writing, wondering if readers would be impatient with this subject matter, and would they call me nonsense.But I went on to comfort myself: "No matter what, I dare to write a book for a praying mantis. This temptation can be considered a success."

In the past twenty-five years of my creative career, every once in a while, I will publish a tentative "game work".From the early "Fluorium Essays" and "True Tranquility" to the recent "Making a Flying Dream", they are all "private books" that record my soul.The starting point is "just to entertain yourself, not to entertain others". Under the idea of ​​"just entertaining myself", I completed the 180,000 words in three consecutive months.And because the theme revolves around a praying mantis devouring its own kind, it was named.

In terms of writing skills, I have adopted an ironic approach, that is, to say positive words in a negative way.I know that the vast majority of readers can see it at a glance. The reason why I put it here is because I am afraid that some younger friends will not notice for a while and mistakenly take my "negative words" as "positive points of view", and instead screwed up my meaning.In addition, in order to help readers grasp the main points, I added some "eyebrow comments" as a kind of "guide reading".Please friends with high levels, just pretend that "it doesn't exist". It can be called my "Book of Different Colors". There are many bloody shots in it, but on the back of those shots, I hope to present the real world.Since this world is so treacherous, deceitful and dangerous, why can't I tell the truth? correct!What I really talk about in this book is a "principle", which is the natural principle of mutual generation and mutual restraint, the law of superiority and inferiority, and "the helplessness of life".I think that only when a person sees through these rules and helplessness can he be calm and optimistic.On the contrary, not facing it and accepting it will only cause inner anxiety. For this reason, I put this book in my "life series".Many political and human themes that are not easy to discuss in "Looking at Life with Cold Eyes" are expressed through the praying mantis killer.Here, I must emphasize that what the book satirizes is the entire history and human nature, without any allusions to modern characters. How is the life of a praying mantis different from the life of a man?There is life and death, injury and killing, love and hatred.Originally, for all kinds of things in this world, there should be "joy and sorrow" and "no joy and no sorrow".The former can say "life is square", and once "life" is born, we have to face many difficulties with edges and corners; To become a "circle", or a "law of life" that goes round and round, is too bitter. "All things are created by nature, all things are born by nature, all things are born by all things, all things are killed by all things." This is the "circle" I express throughout the book.Also in order to draw this circle, I donated 500,000 yuan in royalties to charity before publication, hoping to bring "life" rather than "life". This book is my latest venture, and it may be a little deeper and more difficult, but I sincerely ask you: Be patient, read slowly, chew slowly, recollect slowly, sympathize slowly...