Icy Heart Essays (Illustrated Treasure Edition of Chinese Prose)

Author: Bing Xin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: The beauty of literature and the elegance of art complement each other, making it both a masterpiece for appreciation and a fine choice for collection and gifting. Chinese prose has a long and profound history. Over thousands of years of prose creation, whether expressing emotions, stating intentions, depicting scenes, or remembering people, it has reflected the changes of the times and the thoughts and feelings of the people. In the new literature of the 20th century, these fine traditions of Chinese prose were not only fully inherited but also continuously innovated and developed. To showcase the achievements of Chinese prose creation since the 20th century, we edited and published the "Treasures of Chinese Prose" in the early days of the new century, totaling thirty volumes. Five years have passed, and we have now refined this into the "Illustrated Treasures of Chinese Prose," sixteen volumes in total. After further selection, this series not only adds over 50,000 new words per volume but also includes several precious photographs reflecting the author's life journey. Truly, the beauty of literature and the elegance of art complement each other, making it both a masterpiece for appreciation and a fine choice for collection and gifting.
Bing Xin is a star who has shone in the Chinese literary world and in the hearts of readers for over seventy years. This highly poetic prose master has been praised and affirmed by many writers for her artistic achievements. Her prose is fresh, graceful, and emotionally moving, with a unique style. She excels at weaving fragments of life into her emotions, using keen observation and meticulous thought to blend feelings with scenes, embedding emotions in landscapes, creating a harmonious fusion that offers readers a profound and sincere aesthetic experience.
As a witness to history, Bing Xin has left life marks on this timeline of human experience, not in a straight line but with varying depths. She is upright and a true patriot! With her colorful pen, she recorded her growth, observations, feelings, likes and dislikes, and concerns.
Bing Xin, our poet, novelist, prose writer, and translator, one of the pioneers of new Chinese literature, sincerely presented her era through her literary works over more than seventy years. Her brilliant works are a great contribution to the people of her country and a precious spiritual legacy for humanity.
Bing Xin's prose is an artistic world where truth, goodness, and beauty unite. She praises nature, celebrates it, admires the virtuous, and explores truth. Her early works, such as Letters to Little Friends and Notes from the Mountains, are the embodiment of her true character, beautiful spirit, and moral teachings, reflecting her self-portrait of truth, goodness, and beauty, as well as her highest ideals of these virtues.
In the 1950s and 1960s, she devoted most of her energy to children's literature, hoping to raise children to be more honest, courageous, and noble. After the 1980s, she showed a deeper connection to life, looking back at history with her sincere and genuine philosophy and hope, completing the heart history of Chinese intellectuals throughout the entire century.
In her later years, Bing Xin often said, "I have no official position to lose, no power to be taken away, and no salary to be reduced." With such a selfless and pious spirit and a lofty ideal of love, she expressed a strong sense of national distress with a heart of love for the country and its people as firm as stone. With a "heart that never dies," she wrote countless passionate "requests" and "calls," pleading for education and advocating science and democracy for the Chinese people for a century.
With admiration, one cannot help but feel deeply moved.
The artistic style of Bing Xin's prose is poignant, tender, elegant, profound, and rich in philosophy and lyrical charm. Her prose is primarily emotional, excelling in lyrical expression. A significant portion of her writing consists of reflections on fleeting emotions and those sparkling, beautiful memories. Because she once said she enjoyed "burying and uncovering," her most brilliant, spirited, and natural prose often came from her artistic "uncovering" of unforgettable past experiences with a brush dipped in sincere emotion.
In her emotional world, there is neither the vastness of the sea nor the rushing of the Yangtze River. It is the gentle stream flowing from the mountains, steady and smooth: it is the clear spring gushing from the earth, murmuring and babbling. Her writing about emotions never creates great waves but brings readers a gentle warmth like a steady stream.
In her lyrical structure, Bing Xin has her own style. She skillfully weaves scenes, character portrayals, or philosophical reflections into her dense emotions, making the prose rich and varied. For example, in her early prose Laughter, she sketches three scenes and three smiles, expressing her longing for a harmonious life of love through unadorned, unrefined, and subtle narration.