Chapter 4 Preface to "Rain"

It can be said to be the sequel of "The Fog", although it is twice as large as "The Fog" in terms of volume.After finishing writing, I have completed two of my "Trilogy of Love". The last one has not yet been written.In it, Li Peizhu will appear in a new female form. From Zhou Rushui (the protagonist of "The Fog") to Wu Renmin (the protagonist), and then to Li Peizhu (the protagonist), there is a development path, and Wu Renmin will appear in another form, which can help readers understand this person.In fact, like "The Fog", and like the future, it is not an ordinary romance novel.

After the first three chapters of your novel were published, a friend wrote to me and said, "I read the first three chapters of your novel a few days ago...it's so gloomy, and I feel very uneasy about you. Why do you keep thinking about that terrible shadow? ... If you develop according to this tendency, although the article will be written more powerfully, it may have a bad influence on the continuation of your literary life.Of course, I can understand your sorrowful mood in the dead of night under the dim light.But I always want you to work on the other side. " He asked me to "pursue more in the bright side".

Friends are right.But he misunderstood me somewhat.I seem to have been born with a melancholy which has almost ruined my happiness in life.But I have not stopped for a moment in my pursuit of light.My short past years have been a record of struggle.The beginning of my literary life was also when I was struggling the most.In "Death", the heads of Du Daxin and Zhang Weiqun rotted, but Li Jingshu did not die.In Zhong Gao Juehui broke away from the old family that was about to collapse.In "Revenge" I cried out the suffering of human beings, and in "Brightness" I cursed and destroyed the power of love, but in these two episodes I never stopped shouting "the light is coming".In "The Fog", the clouds of despair do not drown out hope.Finally, in "New Life", I said more clearly: "Connecting individual life to the life of the group, then when human beings prosper, we only see the continuous extension of life, and where is the demise of the individual?" , even if the gloom of my novels is too heavy, this gloom has never obscured the bright hope that runs through my entire work... My love for mankind inspires me and gives me courage and strength to struggle.So what inspires me to write in the dead of night under the dim light is not the sadness, but the love for human beings.My love for humanity is undying.In fact, as long as human beings do not perish, the love for human beings will not disappear, so my literary life will not be cut off either.

I write articles as I live.I am constantly struggling in life, and I am also constantly struggling in creating.The result of struggling will definitely open a way for myself.Whether this path will lead me to the light, I cannot yet say.But I believe that I will finally get the light. Now it is placed before the readers, please criticize it as you wish. Ba Jin November 1932