Icy Heart Essays - Masterpieces Reading Journey (Student Edition)

Author: Gao Changchun
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-06-01
Features: A person's growth is inseparable from the family and social environment, and Bing Xin is no exception. Bing Xin's great-grandfather was a farmer from Fujian who, due to natural disasters, moved to the city to become a tailor. After a year of hard work, when the year-end accounts came due, he was cheated because he could not read or write. In the biting cold, the couple swore to heaven: "If we have a son, we will do everything we can to educate him." The purpose of Bing Xin's great-grandfather in educating his son was merely to keep accounts and collect debts, but this boy with the given name "Dade" ultimately became a great scholar in Fuzhou and became close friends with the renowned modern Chinese litterateur and translator Lin Qinnan. When Bing Xin was 11 years old and returned to Fuzhou, her grandfather's study became her paradise. The room was filled with shelves of books, including ancient notes and novels, as well as foreign literary masterpieces translated by Lin Qinnan. These works led 11-year-old Bing Xin into the realm of literature and influenced her throughout her life.
Bing Xin's father was a naval officer. During the First Sino-Japanese War, the ship on which her father served was sunk by Japanese forces, and he barely survived by swimming to Liu Island. The First Sino-Japanese War became a deep humiliation in modern Chinese history. During Bing Xin's childhood, the patriotic atmosphere of "driving out the Tartars and restoring China" was quite strong in her family. At that time, Bing Xin lived with her father in the naval camp in Yantai, Shandong, and her only playmate was the vast sea. Bing Xin regarded the utterly silent sea as a stage, where she was both the actor and the director. Dressed in men's clothing, she followed her father to shoot guns, ride horses, and row boats, appearing as a small soldier on the ship. This childhood experience shaped Bing Xin's character for life—becoming a youth who embraced the sea, with a heart as broad as the ocean. Whenever she faced hardships, thinking of the sea would open her mind and bring her peace.
Bing Xin was frail and often ill in her childhood, but she survived thanks to her mother's meticulous care. Her mother was an extremely gentle and quiet woman. When Bing Xin was four or five years old, her mother began teaching her to read and write. Her mother was also a highly progressive thinker. All of Bing Xin's uncles joined the Tongmenghui, passing messages and exchanging letters, which were all handled by Bing Xin's mother. After Bing Xin became a writer, she would always present her finished works to her mother first. Her mother was her most loyal and enthusiastic critic. Bing Xin was grateful to her mother, and after her mother's death, she wrote many articles in memory of her. In Reminiscences (I), she wrote: "Mother! You are the lotus leaf, and I am the lotus flower. When the rain of the heart comes, who is the shade I can find under the open sky but you?"
In her childhood, Bing Xin grew up in the care of her family. She recalled: "My childhood life was happy, bright, and first and foremost, healthy. The love I deserved, I received. The people I should have loved, I loved. My mother, father, grandfather, uncles, teachers, and everyone around me helped my emotions grow into normalcy and health."
Early in the 20th century, China was suffering under the iron hooves of imperialist powers. Bing Xin was born in the turbulent times of the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of Beijing. During her upbringing, she witnessed the atrocities of imperialist powers in China and deeply resented their aggression against the country.
Initially, Bing Xin studied medicine, and her father strongly supported her choice. He once said to her, "The ancients said, 'If one cannot become a capable minister, one must become a good doctor.' China, the sick man of East Asia, needs good doctors. You should study medicine!" After studying for only half a year in the science department of Peking Union University, the May Fourth Movement broke out in 1919. At the age of 19, Bing Xin joined the Beijing Women's Literary Association as a secretary in the publicity department, writing many articles to inspire and mobilize the public. Influenced by the May Fourth Movement, she transferred from the science department to the humanities after two years of study. The two years after the May Fourth Movement were a period of intense emotional turmoil for the young Bing Xin, a time of extraordinary intellectual activity. At that time, new types of newspapers and magazines sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain. Bing Xin greedily read these books and newspapers outside of class, often hiding them under her textbooks to "steal a look." Whenever she encountered sentences she particularly liked, she would hastily jot them down in the margins of her notebooks. Over time, she began to write down her thoughts and memories in the same disorganized, uneven style.
Bing Xin often said, "The thunder of the May Fourth Movement shook me onto the path of writing." In addition to the influence of the social reality at the time, reading also had a profound impact on her growth. At the age of four, Bing Xin began learning to read and write with her mother. When she was five, her uncle would read The Uncle Tom's Cabin to her every night. The tragic fate of the slaves moved Bing Xin so much that she tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, her tears soaking through handkerchiefs. Since her uncle did not have time to read to her often, impatient Bing Xin began reading classical novels like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio at the age of seven. When she returned to her hometown in Fuzhou at the age of 11, the classical literary masterpieces and foreign translated novels in her grandfather's study captivated her. She would spend every free moment in her grandfather's study flipping through books, and reading became a lifelong obsession for her.
Among the writers Bing Xin admired, the renowned Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore cannot be mentioned enough. When Bing Xin was 19, on a desolate autumn night with a bright moon, she read Tagore's works for the first time and was deeply moved. Especially Stray Birds, she could not put down. Bing Xin poured her concern for society and life into her writing, producing thought-provoking and philosophical short poems like Starry Sky and Spring Water, as well as a large number of influential essays in the "Bing Xin style." The famous writer Yu Dafu once praised Bing Xin's essays: "The clarity of Bing Xin's essays, the elegance of her language, and the purity of her thoughts are unmatched in modern Chinese literature. I believe that reading Bing Xin's works allows one to understand the hearts of all the talented women in Chinese history. Her writing is subtle yet authentic, sorrowful yet uplifting, and always in harmony with propriety. Her life and her writing are the epitome of perfection." This shows the immense impact Bing Xin's essays had on readers at the time.
Bing Xin's writing began in 1919, when she debuted in the literary world with "problem novels," producing many works that explored life's questions. Going Abroad, included in this book, is a representative work of the "problem novels." In 1921, after joining the Literary Research Association, the May Fourth Movement had entered a low point after its peak. Nihilism and melancholy were consuming the consciences of patriotic youth. Hoping to inspire "new vitality" in young people, Bing Xin published the novel The Superhuman, a masterpiece among the association's works on the theme of "life." Some considered The Superhuman an inevitable extension of Bing Xin's "problem novels" under new social conditions. This work played a heartening role at the time. I believe that The Superhuman is a clever fusion of Bing Xin's "problem novels" and her "philosophy of love," though it is somewhat detached from reality. She hoped to heal society and young people with the magical remedies of "motherly love" and "childhood innocence," guiding them toward happiness and hope.
Bing Xin's works are filled with a strong "philosophy of love." This philosophy stemmed not only from her gratitude to her mother but also from the influence of Christianity during her time at Baimen Middle School. Baimen Middle School was a missionary school, and although Bing Xin's family did not practice religion, the universal love of Christianity, the philosophical thoughts of Tagore, and her childhood reflections on the sea formed the core of Bing Xin's life philosophy. The themes of her "philosophy of love" include three aspects: praising motherly love, celebrating innocence, and admiring nature. Return to the South is an elegy for her mother's soul, filled with sincere filial love. Even today, more than 60 years later, reading it still evokes Bing Xin's genuine praise for motherly love. This sentiment moves generations of readers.
Celebrating innocence is another key component of Bing Xin's "philosophy of love." In post-May Fourth Movement China, like a newborn baby, full of vitality. Many writers depicted the naive and innocent world of childhood in their works. Bing Xin was a representative of this trend. She believed that the hearts of children hold the primal state of human thought, unscathed by the world's refinements, revealing the genuine and natural essence of humanity, embodying the original goodness and beauty of human nature. This was the life philosophy Bing Xin pursued.
Bing Xin lived to the age of 99, maintaining a childlike heart throughout nearly a century. In Mingzi and Mizi, the innocent, simple, and endearing childlike spirit shines through, making it hard to believe it was written by an 84-year-old. To Young Readers and To Young Readers Again are not only dialogues between Bing Xin and her young readers but also dialogues between Bing Xin and her own childhood. I believe Little Orange Lamp left a deeper impression on readers. This work has been included in high school textbooks for many years, and the brave, optimistic little girl in it is a true reflection of Bing Xin's childlike heart!
Praising nature was always another important theme in Bing Xin's works. In 1904, when Bing Xin was four, her father Xie Baozhang became the president of the naval academy, and the family moved from Fujian to Yantai. Until she was 11, Bing Xin lived with her father in the naval camp, leaving many traces of her play in Yantai's coastal areas. Bing Xin loved the sea and often walked alone to the mountains to reach the shore. She wrote in her works: "Walking alone on the sandy shore, as the tide comes in, it seems as if heaven and earth are floating, and as the tides, it seems as if the coast and I are being swept away!" Bing Xin spent her carefree childhood in nature. Therefore, she loved nature deeply, and whenever she was outdoors, it felt like she had returned to her homeland. The sea, the stars, and the clouds became the companions of Bing Xin's pen. Even while studying in the United States, the whispers of Bing Xin and nature could be heard by the shores of Lake Waijing.
In Bing Xin's works, nature is a spirit, the spirit of children, full of vitality, and the best friend of children. In Notes from the Mountains, Bing Xin vividly described the process of a bird breaking out of its shell. The small, honey-colored butterflies, snails with round shells, buzzing bees, and frogs that sang at night, as well as the fireflies twinkling among the flowers—all were extremely gentle and childlike. The female writer Bing Xin, with a heart as broad as the sea, will forever shine on the Chinese literary stage with dazzling brilliance.
A single drop of clear water can reflect the dazzling brilliance of the sun. A good book can nourish countless beautiful souls. This series of books collects the classic works of over 20 contemporary and modern literary masters, covering topics such as life, family, friendship, gratitude, aesthetics, motivation, growth, and success, along with insightful critiques by renowned scholars. Savor these works to ignite the pure light of wisdom in your heart; read slowly to embark on a fragrant journey of life.