Zhou Tao's Prose (Illustrated Treasures of Chinese Prose)

Author: Zhou Tao
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 superior 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 reflecting on people, it has inevitably reflected the changes of the times and the thoughts and feelings of the people. These fine traditions of Chinese prose, in the new literature of the 20th century and beyond, not only received comprehensive inheritance but also continued to innovate and develop. To showcase the achievements of Chinese prose 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 on this basis, we have meticulously compiled this "Illustrated Treasures of Chinese Prose," with sixteen volumes. Through careful selection again, this series not only adds over 50,000 new words to each volume but also accompanies them with 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 superior choice for collection and gifting.
Zhou Tao, once famous for writing frontier poems, has now become a true prose master, with his prose achievements surpassing those of his poetry. To Byron, writing prose was a form of decline for a poet. However, Zhou Tao, who achieved success as a prose writer, did not succumb to this decline. Writing prose allowed him to find a field that better expressed his talent and a convenient form to convey his life insights. His unique style has had an extremely profound influence on contemporary prose. Looking back, Zhou Tao abandoned poetry for prose, but his background as a poet inevitably influenced his prose, or to say, his prose writing made him a singer of the western wilderness, and the limitations of his prose themes were inevitably linked to poetry. This paper delves into the poetic phenomenon in Zhou Tao's prose.
### I. His Prose Is Highly Poetic in Its Jumps
If the "poetic" articles of scholars since the Tang and Song dynasties were entirely due to their inability to surpass the peak of Tang poetry, then Zhou Tao's "writing prose with the spirit of poetry" stemmed from his poet's unique way of thinking and his innovative consciousness that transcended existing prose norms. In most of his prose, we can see a clear tendency toward "poeticization":,,,，. For example, in the prose "The Crawling Roof" (《》), where the author travels to the Karakoram Mountains, Zhou Tao does not, like many works of this genre, record the hardships of the journey along the axis of moving time and space, nor does he depict the enthusiasm of the soldiers at the frontier posts or the noble sentiments of the border guards on the snow-capped Kunlun Mountains. Instead, he writes a spiritual journey—recording his insights into the "thief of time" hidden in nature along the way. The article presents to the readers the depiction of the highland natural landscape, broad associations, and the author's multi-angle reflections on society and life. There is no narrative thread running through the entire piece; the content flows naturally with the author's thoughts and emotions, highly poetic in its jumps. From this representative prose, we can see that although Zhou Tao writes prose, his way of perceiving the world is poetic—that is, replacing the examination of the passage of life with insights, which is fundamentally consistent with poetry.
### II. His Prose Reflects the Spirit of Poetry: Freedom, Lyrical Expression, and Imagination
Zhou Tao's pursuit of "poeticization" in his prose differs from the approach of the prose master Yang Shuo, who discovered beauty and sublimity in the subtle details of nature and society and completed his works through the fusion of scenery and emotion. Overall, Yang Shuo's "poeticization" of prose is a concrete practice of classical Chinese aesthetic tastes in contemporary prose. However, in terms of content and technique, his prose still remains at the level of poetic and picturesque scenes intertwined with realistic settings. This determines that his prose is still stuck at a superficial level. In contrast, Zhou Tao's "writing prose with the spirit of poetry" is deep and profound. This is not only because Zhou Tao's way of perceiving the world is poetic but also because his prose reflects the spirit of poetry: freedom, lyrical expression, and imagination. Zhou Tao once said, "The 'scattered' () in prose means freedom; prose is free writing, and freedom is the lifeblood of prose." In his writing, Zhou Tao fully embodies this concept. His prose is like the "" (wild grass) in calligraphy, with free and unrestrained expression. Reading his prose is like embarking on a spiritual journey with the author, soaring freely. For example, in the collection "Nomadic Great Wall" (《》), the author sometimes takes you through the tunnel of time to verify history, comment on facts and legends, and sometimes discusses the cultural essence of the ancient Great Wall. The main body of each piece consists of the author's rich associations and omnipresent discussions on history and reality. There is rarely a continuous narrative; the jumps in content and thought are remarkable. In Zhou Tao's hands, prose becomes a way for the writer to express his thoughts freely. Out of artistic interest, Zhou Tao has little interest in realistic writing, such as recording life experiences or objectively describing scenes, preferring instead to express imaginative content. Thus, he is fond of touching the "wall of time" ("The Wall of Time" - Part Two of "Notes on Time"), capturing the "time thief" ("The Time Thief" - Part One of "Notes on Time"), and depicting the impression of the eagle in his heart ("Migratory Bird"). Even when describing concrete things, he blends a considerable amount of magnificent and expansive imagination. For instance, in "Jimsar Chronicle"