Shen Congwen's Collected Works (Complete 20 Volumes, Boxed Set)

Author: Shen Congwen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1992-12-01
Features: Autobiography of Shen Congwen recounts Shen Congwen's life before the age of 20. A mischievous primary school student, a true nobody, who later squeezed into the 20th-century Chinese literary scene and became a shining name in literary history—this is simply a mystery. By carefully reading this brilliantly written autobiography, one can glimpse some clues to solving this mystery. As for Shen's life after the age of 20, we have selected three of his rare speeches from the past four decades, along with several other writings, to give readers a glimpse of the difficult trajectory of his life. Presented before the readers are both the purity and simplicity of rural women and the emptiness and intricacy of urban women. Their destinies differ due to their environments—former ones tend to follow nature, while the latter often go astray. They seem vulgar yet elegant, and elegant yet vulgar. A comparison reveals the author's slightly biased yet benevolent "preference" in judging beauty and ugliness. The question of life is dazzlingly colorful, bewildering, ancient yet ever-new. Seeking enlightenment is indeed not easy. Shen Congwen's Seven-Color "Nightmares" and fragments of The Candlelight draw directly from nature and contemporary life, extracting philosophy with a devoted heart and a tranquil, Zhuangzi-like style. The essays and a collection of classical poems belong to the height of "life's solemnity," expressing historical reflections on different aspects of the present world through various genres.