Icy Heart Essays (Illustrated Treasure Edition)

Author: Bing Xin
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. Chinese prose has a long and profound history. Over thousands of years of prose creation, whether expressing emotions, stating intentions, depicting scenes, or remembering people, it has reflected the changes of the times and the thoughts and feelings of the people. The fine traditions of Chinese prose, not only inherited comprehensively in the new literature of the 20th century but also continuously innovated and developed, have been showcased. At the beginning of the new century, we edited and published the "Treasures of Chinese Prose" in thirty volumes to display the achievements of Chinese prose creation since the 20th century. Five years have passed, and on this basis, we have meticulously compiled this "Illustrated Treasures of Chinese Prose" in sixteen volumes. After further selection, this series not only adds over 50,000 new words per volume but also accompanies them with precious photographs reflecting the authors' life journeys. 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.
Bing Xin is a star that has shone in the Chinese literary world and in the hearts of readers for over seventy years. This poetically rich prose master has received praise and affirmation from many writers for her artistic achievements. Fresh and elegant, Bing Xin's prose moves readers with its emotions. She excels at weaving fragments of life into her own emotions, using keen observation and meticulous thought to blend feelings with scenes, embedding emotions in landscapes, creating a harmonious fusion that offers readers a sublime and sincere aesthetic experience.
As a witness to history, Bing Xin has left life marks on this weathered scroll of life, not in a straight line but with varying depths. She is upright and a true patriot! With her colorful brush, she recorded her growth, observations, feelings, likes and dislikes, and worries.
Bing Xin, our poet, novelist, prose writer, and translator, one of the pioneers of Chinese new literature, has sincerely presented her era in her more than seventy years of literary creation. Her brilliant works are a great contribution to the people of our motherland and a precious spiritual legacy for humanity.
Bing Xin's prose is an artistic world where truth, goodness, and beauty converge. She praises nature, celebrates it, admires the virtuous, and explores truth. Her early works, such as To Young Readers and Notes from the Mountains, are the embodiment of her true character, beautiful spirit, and wise teachings, reflecting her self-image of truth, goodness, and beauty, as well as her highest ideals of these virtues.
In the 1950s and 1960s, she devoted most of her energy to children's literature, hoping to cultivate children into more honest, brave, and noble individuals. After the 1980s, she displayed her passion and intensity closer to life, looking back at history with her sincere and true philosophy and hope, completing the heart history of Chinese intellectuals throughout the entire century.
In her later years, Bing Xin often said, "I have no official position to lose, no power to be stripped, and no salary to reduce." With such a self-sacrificing spirit like carrying a cross and a lofty ideal of love, she expressed a strong sense of national distress with a heart of love for the motherland and its people as firm as iron. With a "heart that refuses to die," she wrote numerous passionate "requests" and "appeals," advocating for education and fighting for science and democracy for the Chinese people for a century.
While filled with admiration, one can't help but sigh in awe.
The artistic style of Bing Xin's prose is mournful and clear, tender and gentle, elegant and refined, profound and tasteful, rich in philosophy and lyrical charm.
Bing Xin's prose emphasizes emotions, excelling in lyrical expression. A significant portion of her writing consists of reflections on fleeting emotions and those crystal-clear, beautiful memories. Because she once said she enjoyed "burying and uncovering." Her most brilliant, spirited, and natural prose is almost always the result of her using a brush dipped in sincere emotions to artistically "uncover" unforgettable moments from the past.
In her emotional realm, there is neither the vastness of the sea nor the rushing of the Yangtze River. It is the gentle stream flowing from the mountains, steady and smooth; it is the clear spring gushing from the earth, bubbling and murmuring. Her writing about emotions never stirs great waves but brings readers a gentle warmth like a fine spring.
In her lyrical structure, Bing Xin has her own style. She skillfully weaves scenes, character portrayals, or philosophical reflections into her dense emotions, making the prose full of twists and turns, elegant and varied. For example, in her early prose Laughter, the author sketches three scenes and three smiles, expressing her longing for a harmonious life of love through unadorned, uncarved, and subtle narration.