We three

Author: Yang Jiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: A long journey of searching and longing, a simple and warm scholar family, supporting and caring for each other, gathering and parting. "I alone miss our trio," she writes after the pain fades, leaving behind nothing but a profound understanding of life and death in the words of the Qian couple, who were highly respected in academia. Their best-selling novels Fortress Besieged and The Washing further spread their fame. However, little is known about their family life. In 1998, the passing of Mr. Qian left the cultural world in deep sorrow. But little-known is that their only daughter, Qian Yuan, had passed away before them (1997). The loss of both their lifelong companion and their only daughter left Yang Jiang with a late-life sorrow that few could comprehend. Four years after her husband's passing, at the age of 92, Yang Jiang meticulously recorded the 63 years of joys and sorrows of their special family, compiling the memoir We Three.
This book is divided into two parts. In the first part, Yang Jiang, with her usual wisdom and unique style, narrates the emotional experiences of her family of three relying on each other in the last few years through the form of dreams. The second part, written in simple yet touching prose, records the little-known hardships of their family from 1935, when the couple went to study in the UK and gave birth to their beloved daughter at Oxford, until 1998, the passing of Mr. Qian. Their journey spanned half the globe and crossed half a century of turbulent changes: war, illness, political storms, and the inevitable separations. Yet, no matter how fierce the storms, they supported each other, and their beautiful family became a safe haven for Yang Jiang and her loved ones.
Heaven and earth, yin and yang—though separated, their bond could never be broken. Yang Jiang, alone by the dim lamp, silently pours out her heart to her loved ones across the river. As a traditional intellectual, her words are restrained yet full of emotion, with the unspoken affection and sorrow lingering between the lines, moving every reader. The meaning of life does not change with the rise and fall of the body. The warm family bond, stable above the uncertainties of the world, has forever united them as one. The significance of home is fully explored in her book.