Dao Zu: "Angle" 02

Author: Zhou Shi / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: The preface to Ming is the most special in the series, and can be seen as an auto-portrait of The Knife Block. Otherwise, I cannot understand why the author chose to include the legendary figure of Tang Sai'er—not famous, unimportant, and perhaps even historically unverified—among the nineteen other famous victims. Reflecting the ugly reality of history through the beautiful form of art is almost impossible to achieve. However, the tattoo artist in Ming turns the ugly words "Murderer" tattooed on Tang Sai'er's forehead into a beautiful lotus flower, just like Zhou Shi, the author of The Knife Block, transforms cruel torture into compassionate art. The beautiful yet poisonous lotus is a flower of evil in historical reality: the cruel yet compassionate The Knife Block is a flower that reflects the evil of historical reality. On one hand, Zhou Shi uses the art of thought to reinforce the techniques of torture, and on the other hand, he uses the beauty of art to purify the evil of tyranny. The Knife Block is a brutal and horrifying history of Chinese torture, a chronicle of the suffering of the Chinese people under the merciless tyranny of autocratic emperors. Readers of The Knife Block need strong psychological resilience, because "every word is blood, every sound is a tear." I often cannot bear to finish reading it, sighing to the heavens in agony: Alas! Who are they? Who are they? The author, Zhou Shi, needs even stronger psychological resilience—especially physical resilience—to write down every word, sentence, and paragraph, and to write twenty such pieces in total. Using his "extraordinary cruelty and extraordinary compassion" (as Lu Xun once described him), Zhou Shi allows readers to experience the suffering of torture again and again through delicate descriptions, realistic reconstructions, and empathetic imagination. He confesses for our ancestors, atones for them, and liberates them. I am full of gratitude and admiration for the author.
Those who challenge unjust laws, the victims, undoubtedly need even stronger psychological and especially physical resilience. The purpose of tyranny is to make the people fear, tremble, and shudder, yet the Chinese people have never been intimidated by tyranny since ancient times. Countless heroes have launched relentless challenges against autocratic rule time and again. I am filled with reverence and compassion for these challengers.
Those who need the most superhuman psychological resilience, and are far crueler than the exceptionally cruel author without any compassion—none other than the lawmakers and torturers, the autocratic demons and collaborators who abet tyranny. How can one bear to call them human when they inflict such inhuman torture on their own kind, their own? I am filled with contempt and hatred for the autocrats.
The history of Chinese autocracy is a lingering banquet that feasts on human flesh. The Knife Block is a bloody and detailed menu of this banquet. Only when most Chinese people dare to confront this menu and never forget it can the lingering banquet of tyranny truly end, and never be repeated again. My contempt for the hosts of this historical banquet stems from a wise ancient saying: "When the people fear death, how can you frighten them with death?" My confidence in the future of China, however, comes from another ancient saying, soaked in blood: "No banquet lasts forever."