A mistress's diary

Author: Lu Yin / Fu Guangming, Editors
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Classics are the treasures left behind by time, portraits and annotations of human nature. The significance of classics lies in their enduring freshness; no matter how time changes, they remain an unchanging landscape on the bookshelves of readers. In the ever-changing flow of time and life, where nothing can be repeated, classics are the words, sounds, and expressions that have conquered time. Those sincere statements, those fearless cries, those reflections on the human spirit, awaken our past hopes, inspire our present courage, and free us from vanity, emptiness, and doubt about the future. These images of wise people and their timeless words purify our souls, shake our spirits, and teach us what can be missed but not forgotten, and what is fleeting yet invaluable. The authors included in "Glimpses of Masterpieces of Classic Fiction" are all scavengers and pioneers of modern Chinese literature, as well as experimenters and pioneers of various new artistic forms. No wonder Shi Zhecun, when speaking to me with a certain pride about the various artistic explorations of his younger contemporaries in the 1980s, especially their attempts at many "avant-garde" modernist techniques like symbolism, impressionism, and stream of consciousness, once said, "All of these, we did in the 1930s, and even better than they did. It’s nothing new."
Indeed, every era has its own literature. But classic literature does not belong solely to its own time; it also belongs to later generations of readers who can appreciate and share an artistic connection with it. In the ever-changing flow of time and life, where nothing can be repeated, classics are the words, sounds, and expressions that have conquered time. Those sincere statements, those fearless cries, those reflections on the human spirit, awaken our past hopes, inspire our present courage, and free us from vanity, emptiness, and doubt about the future.
Mao Dun once said, "Reading Lu Yin’s works is like breathing the air of the May Fourth Movement again." Sorrow is the main theme in some of Lu Yin’s most important works, and its place in her novels is akin to the role of maternal love in Bing Xin’s works. The women in Lu Yin’s novels seem to be the echoes of our past lives. In The Diary of a mistress, Lu Yin fully portrays the agony of a woman in an extramarital affair. Lu Yin truly understands the heart of women; sometimes, the hardest thing for women to overcome and face is themselves. As a mistress, she has always been condemned and rejected by society. Yet, "I" love Zhongqian more than I love myself. As long as I can love him, "all the hardships and humiliation" are worth enduring—even death would be preferable! "I"’s sorrows are no less than those of Werther the youth.