Essentials of Chinese Prose

Author: Zhao Yanping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: The essay is an exaggerated or meticulously edited life. The artistic life of the essayist lies in this exaggerated or edited life. The essay is a lantern drifting on the vast surface of a river at night, with the author's thoughts and personality as the true source of light. The essay is a tangible statue of the invisible soul. When a writer writes, it is to project their soul onto the curtain of life. As a Western sculptor would say, it is to chisel away the excess from the stone, leaving only "the person." Emotional experience is the "undispersing spirit," while people and events are the "dispersing forms" that are dispensable, either more or less. Emotional experience is the intrinsic structure of the essay. With it, one can freely draft.