Alive -- A Series of Works by Yu Hua

Author: Yu Hua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: The landlord's son, Fugui, is addicted to gambling and eventually loses his entire family fortune, becoming penniless. In poverty, Fugui goes to seek medical treatment for his mother but is forcibly conscripted by the Nationalist army along the way and later captured by the People's Liberation Army. Upon returning to his hometown, he discovers his mother has already passed away. His wife, Jiazhen, endures hardships and raises their two children with great difficulty, but their daughter becomes deaf and mute. Their son is lively and spirited. Yet, the true tragedy begins to unfold gradually. With every page turned, we cannot help but tear up, for the rare warmth in life is torn apart by death again and again, leaving only the old Fugui accompanied by an old ox, reminiscing under the sun. A true writer writes only for the heart, for the heart alone can truly reveal how selfish or noble he is. The heart allows him to truly understand himself, and once he understands himself, he understands the world. Many years ago, I understood this principle, but to uphold it requires arduous labor and long-term suffering, for the heart is not always open; it is often closed. Thus, only writing, ceaseless writing, can open the heart and place oneself in the act of discovery, like the dawn's light illuminating the darkness, bringing inspiration. For a long time, my works have stemmed from the tension between reality and myself. I indulge in imagination but am tightly controlled by reality, acutely feeling my own fragmentation. I cannot become pure, and I once longed to be either a fairy tale writer or the owner of a truly substantial work. If I had become either of those, I believe my inner suffering would have been much lighter, but at the same time, my strength would have diminished greatly. In fact, I can only be the writer I am now, writing for the needs of my heart. Reason cannot replace writing. Precisely because of this, I was an angry and indifferent writer for a long time. This is not just my personal struggle; almost all great writers are in a tense relationship with reality. In their works, reality shines only when it is distant. One must recognize that the past reality, though full of charm, is now shrouded in illusion, filled with personal imagination and interpretation. The true reality, the reality of the writer's life, is incomprehensible and difficult to live with. To express the reality he lives with every day, the writer often finds it unbearable, as the overwhelming truth speaks of ugliness and cunning. The strange thing is why ugly things are always around, while beautiful things are far away. In other words, human love and compassion often arrive as emotions, while the opposite is always within reach. As a poet once expressed: "Humans cannot endure too much." There are also writers who spend their lives resolving the tension between themselves and reality. Faulkner is a successful example. He found a gentle path, depicting transitional states while embracing both beauty and ugliness. He placed the reality of the American South within the context of history and human spirit, which is a truly meaningful literary reality because it connects the past and the future. Some unsuccessful writers also depict reality, but the reality in their works is, in essence, just an environment—a fixed, dead reality. They cannot see how people have come to be or where they are going. When they write about petty characters, we feel that the writer himself is also petty. Such writers are writing about the real but not reality. As mentioned earlier, I have a tense relationship with reality, and to put it bluntly, I have always regarded reality with hostility. Over time, my inner anger gradually subsides, and I begin to realize that a true writer seeks truth—a truth that excludes moral judgment. The writer's mission is not to vent, to accuse or expose, but to show people nobility. This nobility is not mere goodness but a transcendence that arises from understanding all things, treating both good and evil with equal compassion, and viewing the world with a sympathetic gaze. It was in this state of mind that I heard an American folk song called "Old Black," about an old slave who endured a lifetime of suffering, lost his family to death, yet remained friendly to the world, without a single word of complaint. The song deeply moved me, and I decided to write a novel like this, which is "To Live," exploring human endurance of suffering and an optimistic attitude toward the world. The writing process made me understand that people live for life itself, not for anything beyond it. I felt I had written a noble work.