Unconditional love.

Author: Liu Lansheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-08-01
Features: It's as if on a bright spring morning, Dad carrying the plowshare, Mom leading the water buffalo, they talked and laughed along the way, passing through golden rapeseed fields and the banks of streams where peach blossoms were crimson and plum blossoms snow-white, heading steadily into the misty mountain ridges. This is a book that touches the soul, as if it touches a hidden corner deep within my heart, shaking and then softening it. With delicate brushwork, steeped in the profound emotions accumulated over decades of life's storms, it awakens memories, experiences, and hopes that were once forgotten, ignored, or drowned in restlessness. This is the feeling that becomes clearer and deeper with each page I read of Liu Lansheng's prose collection Great Love Speaks in Silence.
Liu Lansheng first gained fame with his reportage Young People Exploring the Mysteries of the Stars, and his works have been included in various literary anthologies and middle school textbooks. Sincere emotions, beautiful prose, and delicate brushwork are his most distinctive features. The prose works in Great Love Speaks in Silence, which primarily describe family and hometown sentiments, are even more somber, rustic, and profound, yet also more subtle and moving, as they embody the author's own experiences and insights refined over years of life's trials. Gentle emotions and lingering thoughts flow like a stream, guiding readers into the artistic world constructed by the author's unforgettable experiences and exquisite language.
Memory is the bridge to the past. When reminiscing, one's heart surges and thoughts wander. Liu Lansheng lost his mother in childhood, enduring not only the hardships of poverty but also abuse from his stepmother. Only his father—a simple, kind, and resilient farmer—became his sole source of support during his formative years. The indelible memories, the melancholic reflections, the heart-wrenching scenes, and the gripping details all contribute to the work's profound emotional impact and unique artistic value.
In the essay Great Love Speaks in Silence, the father drips blood from his broken finger to show his unbreakable bond with his mother: "The father, his expression somber, slowly crouched down, pulled out a needle from his jacket, and sharply pricked his middle finger, squeezing it until crimson blood dripped onto his mother's remains." Such a scene is truly shocking. Stricken with longing for his mother, the father couldn't sleep all night, tears streaming down his face as he lit a oil lamp to "light a way for her, guide her, and keep her company for the night," because "as soon as dawn breaks, she will leave again." All his grief and regrets are reflected in the silent glow of the lamp.
In Snow Falls in the Mountain Village, when the father is on the verge of death after drinking poison, "I slept by Dad's feet, holding his legs in my arms, afraid he would leave me. The mountain village's snow night was cold and still. The dogs from the neighbor's house must have sought refuge in the straw pile, no longer barking like usual. Only the old maple tree outside the window, split in half by lightning, occasionally let out a mournful cry of a owl." Who wouldn't tremble at this scene? Who wouldn't be moved? Yet, only someone who has lived through it can truly understand and describe it decades later with a trembling hand. Such a seemingly calm yet filled with sorrow and fear scene can only be written when looking back through the veil of time.
"When there is an unexplainable emotion, then there is immortal poetry." As a genre that emphasizes expressing inner experiences and emotions, prose's soul and lifeblood lie in conveying the author's genuine feelings to move the reader. The reason Great Love Speaks in Silence touches the heart and resonates with readers lies in the rich and profound emotions it embodies, and in the author's unfeigned and sincere expression of his true feelings.
Moreover, in terms of artistic charm, Great Love Speaks in Silence has its own merits. Nature reveals itself only when emotion is present, and emotion finds its voice only when nature is present. The protagonist's emotional flow blends silently with the natural scenery, complementing each other. Not only does nature become a carrier of emotion, filled with spirit, but the emotion itself also becomes more enduring through its connection with nature. For example, when describing the father spending everything to rebuild his mother's grave, "The evening mist hung thick and dense, the fields vast and silent. A gust of wind swept past, and the dense camphor tree leaves rustled." Or when describing the night they moved the mother's grave, the father and son staredly at the small basket holding the mother's remains, "Guarding a sliver of moon, covered in frost!" Only at the peak of sorrow could words fail to express emotion; only when the language is simple and straightforward can it truly touch the heart.