Shao Yanyang Volume -- Notes from the New Sanjia Village

Author: Shao Yanxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: New Sanjia Village Notes·Shao Yanxiang Volume is published by Shuhai Publishing House. Shao Yanxiang Volume is selected from New Sanjia Village Notes. Many phrases that seem ordinary to people are analyzed by the essayist and turn into unanswerable questions. For example, when people often say "everyone is equal before the law," Mr. Shao asks, "Is it necessary to face the law before the law?" Regarding education, many praise the "Project Hope," but Mr. Shao asks, "Is our hope really here?" For the life-altering issue of "killing or not killing," Mr. Shao says, "This proposition itself contains great arbitrariness. It is not based on whether a subject has committed a crime that legally warrants killing, but depends on many factors beyond the crime." On the topic of lying, Mr. Shao says, "Mao Zedong once earnestly said, 'One must never tell lies,' but later, the entire party, nation, and people were caught in a lie, and the aftereffects continue to this day." Such essays leave the reader with no sense of lightness but are hard to put down, compelling one to finish them in one go. That essay, No More Anti-Corruption Articles, I read over and over again. He says: "In 1980, I wrote an essay titled On Corruption and Anti-Corruption. It has been a full 10 years since then. If I add up all the words I wrote about anti-corruption over these 10 years, they would be enough to compile a book. But what use is it? The last sentence of the article is: 'I no longer want to say this anymore.'" Such words not only make the reader feel sorrowful but also somewhat tragic. In fact, he still wants to speak—because not speaking is not Shao Yanxiang. And so, a decade later, there is another essay titled How to Hold an Anti-Corruption Conference.