Fear of writing

Author: Huang Ziping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The legend goes that on the day Cangjie invented characters, "rain fell in grains of grain, and ghosts wept at night." The ancient Chinese had such a profound fear of the calamities and auspiciousness that writing might bring, and I only gradually came to understand this as I grew older in writing. You can call it ancient China's "sound-centricism," or you can say it reflects the deep reverence the ancients had for the power dynamics inherent in "textual culture." However, don't be afraid of your fear. Fear allows you to experience the weakness and strength, loneliness and decisiveness, emptiness and fullness of writing, while also bringing clarity and humility. Writing is overcoming fear. I fear writing, yet I wrote Fear of Writing.—Huang Ziping
The title of this book is Fear of Writing, but when you flip through it, you find an article titled Love of Reading—truly a striking contrast. Between love and fear, we glimpse the unspeakable anguish the author feels caught between reading and writing. For Huang Ziping, "fear of writing" is a cautious attitude toward writing, as well as a responsible attitude toward the text and the public. In fact, once a text enters the public domain, it participates in the construction or struggle of discourse power—how can one not be afraid? (Si Yu)—China Reading News
This collection gathers over twenty articles written by Professor Huang Ziping in recent years. Divided into four sections, they all reflect his genuine insights into literary research and writing. Writing is overcoming fear. Compared to the verbose rhetoric of the critical establishment, the author upholds the tradition of careful thought and measured speech, and it is precisely in this cautious approach that the brilliance of wisdom and the dignity of knowledge are preserved.