Preface: 46 years later The publication of this book is an important event for me. —Jorge Luis Borges In 1923, the sensitive Argentine youth Jorge Luis Borges published his first collection of poems, "The Passion of Buenos Aires", at the age of 24. 46 years later, the nearly blind old man wrote in the preface to the reprint: "I found that the young man who wrote these things in 1923 is essentially the gentleman who either approves or revises these things today...for me For me, "The Passion of Buenos Aires" contains everything I wrote later..." In the tone of Borges, I vaguely saw my future.Although compared to Borges in 1923, apart from the same age, we seem to lack similarities.I have never had the desire to build life into a labyrinth controlled by the cycle of time, and I lack the strong and profound imagination of the Argentine.But I already had a hunch that the publication of this book had indeed hinted at the road I was about to embark on.

American literary critic Edmund Wilson said proudly and self-righteously at the age of 22: "I should do literature." It is a great happiness to be able to clearly realize the future at a young age.Today, I am enjoying this kind of happiness.In this book of less than 200,000 words, I have strongly and persistently expressed my inclinations.Although from 1998 to the present, the trajectory of my writing has undergone obvious changes, but a clue has become clearer. I hope to use words to express a kind of life attitude, to explain a certain truth, and even a little rough to stipulate a certain kind of the way.More specifically, I am a non-literary writer, an intellectual who likes to speak broadly about the world, and in front of me stand John Stuart Mill, Berrand Russell, Demond Wilson, Walter Lippmann, Jean-Paul Sartre...

This could be some kind of danger.As Paul Johnson almost hysterically emphasized in that popular book.But Paul Johnson confuses the boundary between the spiritual world and the real world, and humanistic intellectuals are more of the legislators of the spiritual world.Despite the distance from the legislator, I already sense a certain danger.Because whenever I seriously proclaim myself an intellectual, there is ridicule and distrust.At this time, I remembered the scene of Hemingway writing meticulously in a Parisian cafe.Being serious is respectable, but it also means you are in danger of being ridiculed.

The sharp critic Susan Sontag said that around 1870 was the year she most yearned for.Because of that time, Shakespeare's plays were being performed all over Europe.According to this critic, the most outstanding mass culture must be the combination of classical thought and reality, and the culture produced by this mixture can save our increasingly vulgar world. So, when I declared myself an intellectual without hesitation, I also made clear my mission.I must go deep into the most essential ideology and culture of human civilization and explore their secrets; I must accompany the most outstanding brains and most moving souls in human history, and strive for the slightest brilliance... Then, I am eager to share these Secrets and splendor are shared with those around them.With this explanation, you will understand why this book is full of great names and quotations, because I believe that quotations may be the easiest path to greatness.And when the people around me, perhaps through those few quotes, realize that the world is far larger and more spectacular than the ones they live in, then my job is done.

I am a popular intellectual, a person who wanders between the peak of thought and the flat land of reality. I try to establish a closer connection between the two isolated from each other.This connection is of crucial importance. My preface is almost over.It is full of hateful self-righteousness and the arrogance of a young man who doesn't know the depth.However, if you get rid of these superficial discomforts, you should be able to see that it is full of the earnestness and determination of Hemingway when he first started writing.You should also vaguely see me 46 years later. At that time, I was already old, my eyes should not be blind, and I might be on crutches. Maybe the arrogance has faded, but I must still be serious and serious, and I still firmly believe in greatness. mind and soul.At that time, I would also slowly say: "Actually, my appearance was fully revealed in 2001. That was my first book, and I was so young at that time..."

Finally, I would like to quote a sentence from Goethe: Reading is a conspiracy between the reader and the author.The book has been opened, and you have entered this conspiracy marginally. It seems that you have no choice but to take the initiative and even pretend to be happy to participate...