Another memoir

Author: Ji Xianlin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-10-01
Features: Now, my life journey is nearing its end. I often recall my nearly ninety-year journey, filled with deep emotions. I have asked myself a question: If there truly is a Creator, more merciful to me, allowing me to be reborn as a human in the next life, would I still walk the same path as I did in this life? Throughout my nearly ninety years of life, there have been ups and downs, a combination of good fortune and misfortune, smooth roads and, times of falling and times of rising. Reaching the stage I am at today, I have truly come to understand the complexities of the world and tasted the bitterness of life. This book, published by the People's Literature Publishing House, explores four aspects of Ji Xianlin's life: childhood mischievousness, academic travels, later life, and reflections on scholarship. It recalls a rich life experience, revealing the mixed emotions of life, with a writing style that blends documentation and lyricism, effectively integrating historical changes with personal experiences. Unlike traditional memoirs, this book does not adopt a completely linear, chronological approach. Instead, it organizes essays around themes, with corresponding and supporting pieces within each theme, gradually peeling back the author's memories and feelings about several key aspects of life. Readers can glimpse the difficulties faced by intellectuals of that generation in their pursuit of knowledge and scholarship through these scattered fragments of text, and through deeper thematic exploration, they can sense Ji Xianlin's profound and open-minded understanding of life.
Professor Ji Xianlin is a renowned Sinologist and Vedic scholar, and the founder of Chinese Sinology. He has dedicated over half a century to the study of Eastern and Indian cultures. He has achieved deep expertise in ancient Indian languages, the history of Buddhist interactions between China and India, the translation and interpretation of Tocharian, and the history of cultural exchanges between China and India. His breadth of research, the magnitude of his achievements, and the profound influence he has had both in China and internationally are exceptionally outstanding, earning him high acclaim both domestically and abroad. This book is currently the only illustrated volume by Ji Xianlin that summarizes his life and scholarship. It allows readers to gain insight into the spirit and strength of the older generation of intellectuals through his writings. The book features nearly one hundred representative photographs from different periods of Ji Xianlin's life, complementing the text.